Play game
Second Story's itch.io pageRate this game
In order to rate this submission you must be logged into itch.io and have submitted your own entry. Anyone with an account can leave a comment.
How does your game meet GBJam's theme
The protagonist is "old gold", retired, but still very skilled. He also targets old gold along the way.
Leave a comment
Log in with itch.io to leave a comment.
Comments
Very nice entry all around and a pretty original take on the theme.
I really like what you did with the different districts and how they're used both to farm coins and to advance the main plot. The lockpicking system seems like it would be a bit lacking at first but you've done a great job expending on it. Love how you've incentivized the usage of avanced picks.
Your dialogues are funny and do a lot for the tone of the game. You've also used your palette to great effects with them but they're having some word wrapping problems (I know the pain though, the same is true with my entry).
I love the procedural generation but the level themselves feels barren which in turn also makes the game too easy. I feel like having people inhabiting the levels alongside the guards would do a lot to make them both harder and more fun to navigate.
Finally, your spritework is neat but I especially adore what you've done with lighting and with the transition when entering and exiting houses. Your main character is a bit unevocative, but maybe that come with the bagage of being an old thief.
I love you base concept, solid entry. I only wish you had the time to polish it a bit.
Thanks for playing and the detailed feedback! I definitely have a tendency to fail to go back and polish up my first draft sprite-work and it shows here, I think - too easy to get lost in working on the gameplay instead ^_^.
The lockpicking mechanic is really well done and genuinely fun to play.
I also liked the idea of having different districts. I would have loved to see a bit more variety between them beyond just the difficulty, but the overall structure works really well.
I think simplifying the rest of the gameplay to give more space to the main mechanic was absolutely the right choice. If I had to nitpick, I think even a few simple sprite animations would add a lot, since right now the characters mostly move around as static sprites.
Really nice work overall!
Thanks for playing, and glad you enjoyed it!
Yeah, some animation would have gone a long way, I really need to make that trivial to do in my engine :D. But, even with requiring a few minutes coding to hook each one up, I wish I'd spent the time to animate a bit.
Great great game! Amazing how much you got done in such a small amount of time!
This is an incredible game! Great use of palette swapping. Every feature felt very polished and intentional. The guards marching to the beat of the music, the advanced lockpick technique, and the writing was genuinely hilarious.
Thanks, glad you enjoyed it! And, I'm glad someone enjoyed the writing and didn't just skip past it all :D
There's much praise to be had — gorgeous nu-retro lighting, grim and roguish soundtrack, and fantastic premise — but I'm particularly enamored with the lock picking and its layers of spatial reasoning. Between keeping both positive and negative space in mind, cross-referencing where the desired pick even is, flipping, and correctly adjusting for the difference in rotation between the pick and the lock, there is a lot of brain-work going on in such a short time frame, and it's immensely satisfying to perform successfully or quickly. It's nice when games can challenge the more abstract cognitive functions!
Fantastic! 💚 Great work!
Thanks for playing and the praise! Yeah, I'm really happy with how the lockpicking turned out, and how much good mastery feel there was. Normally during development I'd add a button to skip minigames with a success, but I found myself playing the lockpicking basically all week and enjoying getting better at it. Glad that the came through even in a shorter jam experience =).
I love the lock picking mechanic. It feels just perfect. The different tools functioning as puzzle blocks is a very genius design move, and honestly, it feels better than what I've seen many AAA studios do with their lock picking mechanics.
I just rarely find games with stealth and steal mechanics I like, but this one is feels satisfying. Amazing job!
Thanks for playing and glad you liked it! It's my first attempt at a stealth game, and I'm pretty happy with how it turned out. The lockpicking is inspired in style/shape from an old game Hillsfar, which also had visible tumbler matching, though I think feels pretty different in practice - Hillsfar was like 20 simple picks and time-constraint on finding the right match, none of the double-pick puzzle-y feel I went for.
Love the gameplay mechanic, very unique and it's so satisfying to unlock the chests!
I really had fun playing this game. It was so unique with the lockpicks and good difficulty curve. I could play this for hours for sure!!
I loved the art and music. Even the fun event in jail is such a nice touch. Well done!!
Sorry to hear you ended up in jail. Thanks for playing, and glad you enjoyed it!
This could be on for a winner! The core lockpicking mechanic is genius and the progression system is perfect, being able to buy more advanced lockpicks. There's a real sense of mastery to the gameplay. I love that when you get caught, you have to lockpick your way out of jail. Nice touch! Also, each area has a distinct feeling with it's own look and music. Overall, fantastic entry, well done! :)
Thanks for playing, and glad you enjoyed it! With my limited playtesting with other people I was worried the advanced picks were too hard, so I'm really glad to hear you engaged with them =).
My initial punishment for failing was just a bit of dialog saying they took your loot, but once I had a town level, it seemed breaking your way out of jail was too good to pass up :D
cool interpretation of the theme, and the core lock picking mechanic is an awesome idea! Meets puzzles with “timed” mini games due to the guards, so it still has some tention even when you are inside the small pick window, adding cool tension to the game itself!
Graphics wise the game has a lovely artwork to it, the transition is smoooooth, would love a smidge of animations added, but nothing deal breaking here.
Music and sfx are cool, we have a volume slider/setting, what is not to like here!
Superb job, well done!
Thanks for playing, and playing on stream! Glad you liked it.
How are there so little rates? This is a great game! I like how much depth lockpicking mechanic has, also the art is dope! Btw i have seen you in DC2026 jam
The jam just ended and people are just getting started, hopefully more ratings will come later =). Glad you enjoyed it, and got into the lockpicking! Glad to see some familiar faces around here too =).