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Apocalypse of the Old Ones's itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Quirkiness | #63 | 3.905 | 3.905 |
| Graphics | #88 | 4.143 | 4.143 |
| Secondary Theme Interpretation | #89 | 3.571 | 3.571 |
| Soundtrack/SFX | #89 | 3.762 | 3.762 |
| Overall | #99 | 3.706 | 3.706 |
| Gameplay | #165 | 3.381 | 3.381 |
| Gameboy Soul | #243 | 3.476 | 3.476 |
Ranked from 21 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
How does your game meet GBJam's theme
Digging up and using ancient golden relics form a large part of the gameplay loop.
Funnier answer: I don't take Ls so the theme became "Old God" instead.
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Comments
This is very cool! First RTS I've come across in the jam.
The color palettes and visual art are very nice, the Bayer dithering works pretty well for your style. Music and SFX are great and use of noise channel really helps sell the Game Boy aesthetic. UI is well made and the pagination indicators worked very well.
I played and lost a couple rounds just seeing how it worked. I'm definitely bookmarking this to try later!
It can be a fun RTS game, spreading the faith to other cities. I was sometimes confused about which city I owned at the start. The game info gives some help on how to play, but sometimes I felt like I wasn't doing a good job of playing it.
The graphics are good, as is the music. The RTS aspect is unique because I don't see that very often in Game Boy games.
Wow, I absolutely love everything about this. I also suck at it. But the themes, the art, the vaguely surreal apocalyptic mood reminiscent of Lovecraft's Dream Cycle, the backstories that remind me of Hollow Press' works and how you vie for influence and control are all absolutely fantastic. If back in the day there had been a GB cart that's tailor made for me and my tastes this would be that.
I'm just sometimes at a loss what to do so I end up spreading my influence everywhere to not that much avail. And when I look at my opponent they have influence over various towns and/or has destroyed the map, and are dominating me while my capital isn't even very established at all. Then again, I can tell I'm learning to manage my influence, and the more the gameplay clicks the more fun it gets. Somewhat fast-paced, and I wish that owned towns were more clearly indicated due to how hectic it can get but the gameplay is so awesome I kept coming back.
All in all, a brilliant entry, just one that takes a little time to understand.
It's a gem! A little hard to understand firstly, but gameplay is addictive. Great entry
Your game is awesome. The art, the story, and the way it ties into the theme all work really well.
I loved the suspenseful music in the opening cinematic. The soundtrack does a great job setting the mood from scene to scene. The industrial-sounding track on the level select especially made me feel like an old god menacingly planning world domination lol.
I’m also surprised I haven’t seen more games lean into the Cthulhu/Old God angle, but I’m glad you did. Being able to change the palette was a nice touch too.
Very ambitious game, and really impressive for a solo jam entry. Amazing art.
I had fun messing around in this game and exploring the mechanics! I needed to do a close reading of the instructions to try and figure it out and I still didn't quite get it, but I've never been too good at these types of games. I really liked how satisfying the cursor visuals and sound effects were, and I also liked the different color palettes for different gods (purple was my favorite). I agree with what one person said about including an "instruction manual", I think it would go a long way for this game. Good job!
There is probably a good game under all this, I personally could not find it. Relic actibation gave no real feedback, spreads felt over time (?) but I could also lose my own cities (?). Search also bugged out one of my taskbars on a city so nothing really was happening here. I kinda agree with the tutorial ones, even if you don’t fully explain every small thing basic functions and moves could have some description to them. I had a trumpet which hardly did anything over any kind of settlement, except mine, even though it said “any”, so not sure if I misunderstood something there as well.
Graphically the game has a lovely style to it, music and sfx were bit loud though.
Ambitious entry which could use some clearing out of rules to be more accessible.
I'd definitely like to see this search bug, or at least get a more detailed description if possible, since it's not one I've seen myself.
I had hoped that the fact relics needed to be used by a town (which you select after choosing a relic to use) would be intuitive, and it didn't get mentioned in the info page, since you're the second person to complain about it it would seem I was very wrong.
I would have to ask if you read the info screen, (there are multiple pages to it.) the lack of pointers to it is definitely my fault, but if you're looking for the basic info, it's there if you're interested. If the music or sfx are a problem you can turn them down in the settings.
Thanks for your feedback, and for taking the time to play the game at all!
Oh wow, this one is in a league of its own. Marvellous entry.
I don't wan't to fall into sycophancy but I love everything about it. The interpetation of the theme, the visuals, the description of each eldritch abomination, the surprisingly deep gameplay.
I'm not sure I agree with the other commenters that the game need a tutorial. Most gameboy game never got one and were expected to be played alongside their instruction manual : I think that's what the game lacks. A detailed explanation of relics, prayer, and influence spread on your itch page would do wonder for your onboarding and would preserve the "gameboy soul" a lot better.
After trying things for a while everything comes together tho. You spread to get more towns which in turn give you more actions. You pray to charge your power, you search to get more relics. Pretty nice variety of relics by the way, I was impressed to see that they were not merely simple bonuses and that each had its unique sprite.
A thing that would have probably helped with your visibility problem would have been to add unique rune to each god and display it above their controlled towns.
Amazing job anyways, always a joy to see a fellow Gamemaker user.
Update after realising that the "info" tab had several page : forget what I said about needing to had a manual. Just make it clearer that you have several pages worth of info !
It cleared some misunderstanding I had and, ironically, made the game look even deeper.
Thanks for your all too kind words! Something along the lines of your rune idea for showing control is probably the best way to go about it! I definitely think I should have pushed players to read the info page (fully) I have a suspicion some of the people asking for a tutorial never found it. (I still do think the game needs one though.)
You should really do a tutorial or at least write it on the game page. I also struggled to figure out what to do, but amazing art! Also, the SFX and music are really good and harmonize very well with the game. Good job!
A full in depth tutorial would have been good yeah. I don't think I'd write anything on the page itself that I didn't already write in the in game info screen though (since it's meant to be the the tutorial as of now), so not sure it would be any help.
I really like it! But... I couldn't figure out how to play it 🫣 It might need more of a tutorial for small brain gamers 🫠
The art style is gorgeous and the whole Old God aesthetic feels powerful. The gameplay takes a bit to understand and the town ownership is hard to read, but the idea has real depth and the world looks great. (pls play my game)
This was really cool! I loved the Old God art style and overall aesthetic. The gameplay idea is really cool but it did take a lot of time to figure out what was going on, and I wasn't sure why the relics I found weren't being used when I selected them in the menu.
I love this genre and it looks like some really cool stuff is going on in the game logic, I'd be interested in playing an updated version if you plan on continuing work!
This game is absolutely gorgeous, I really like your pixel art style!
I struggled a bit with figuring out the gameplay. Trying to understand what the opponents were doing/how many of them there were was rough, but I also lost some time cause I didn't know which locations were mine to start with. I still thought it was super interesting though, and it feels like there's a lot of depth to dig into it.
Hey! Thanks so much for giving it a chance!
As you say, differentiating the player and enemy towns was the part I struggled with the most, and I never ended up coming up with a solution I liked within the time limit... Welp that's a game jam for ya!
I like this a lot, really impressive for a solo developer, good job!