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A jam submission

Gribble Copperless: ShovelbrokeView game page

Submitted by PxlDev, Kaparoinen — 14 hours, 16 minutes before the deadline
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Gribble Copperless: Shovelbroke's itch.io page

Results

CriteriaRankScore*Raw Score
Soundtrack/SFX#304.1254.125
Quirkiness#384.0834.083
Overall#643.8193.819
Graphics#674.2504.250
Gameplay#1143.6253.625
Secondary Theme Interpretation#1423.4173.417
Gameboy Soul#2613.4173.417

Ranked from 24 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
You are digging around to find old things of value in the ground, to get back your pickaxe. In a way, this can be interpreted as old gold. In addition, the pickaxe could also be interpreted as old gold, due to its importance to Gribble.

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Comments

Submitted(+2)

Definitely a steep learning curve, but I'm really glad I stuck with it and learned the mechanics! Still not an expert by any means but I do think that struggling, dying, and figuring out certain rules of the game through gameplay was a meaningful process that provided me a lot of enjoyment. 

Aside from that, the tiles and environments felt very rich and detailed for the 4-tile palette, and the presentation and overall effort really showed, especially in the opening cutscene. This game has so much charm, and I had a great time playing it. Really good entry!

Submitted(+2)

The visuals are beautiful and the gameplay is really interesting. I really enjoyed it!

Submitted(+2)

Gotta join the disclaimer being true group, the game is not easy for sure. overall I like the ideas and the execution here, the 2 biggest “problems” are the wobbly screen effect, which is the lesser evil, and whatever makes my screen flash cymk twice second. That should not be part of any game, nor should miss a “warning flashling lights” from your gamepage with it inside the game.

Graphics wise the game looks neat, has a dirty grungy look, which I enjoyed. Sfx were neat and while music was also great, I’m pretty sure it is beyond conventional gameboy music.

Gameplay wise the only thing that I’d wish for a small tutorial/writeup is maybe the support system, which is quite hard to figure out during gameplay but is vital to it.

Overall, a good game, needs some tuneback on visual effects though.

Developer

Thank you for playing our game!
I will fix the "time about to end" effect which was the flash cymk effect you were talking about, as soon as the uploads get unlocked. 

Submitted(+2)

Man "Warning: this game is hard" wasn't lying xD

Really enjoyed the experience, I didn't got so far but it's fun! The pixel art is pretty neat too!

Nice game! Congrats!!!

Developer(+1)

Thank you for playing!

Submitted(+2)

Each move you make - you die and i love it.  Its pure trial and error and i kept laughing my ass off as the cave collapsed from a random ass move. Graphics are great here and i like the lore, poor gribble. Great job!

Submitted(+2)

Each death teaching you how the world works and with each attempt I got more and more knowledge, I really like this game! from gameplay to visuals it's an amazing trip!
Loved how by paying attention you could notice when the ground were going to crumble, how you could preplan placements of support beams to prevent certain deaths.  Good joj!

Developer (1 edit) (+1)

Thank you for playing our game! 
You are actually the first one aside from me to actually beat the game! 

Submitted(+1)

I came in with the mindset of, oh great a game about digging around for big numbers. Looked at the control schemes, hooray for controller support, but didn't feel like parsing it without any actual game context, so off to start 'er up we went. I crushed myself and exploded myself a number of times testing out the controls. Input immediately on restart and exited through the door we start directly on top of, to then select continue which makes sense as a try again option, to then be told hey buddy $0 isn't enough money, you suck, you lose. Back to title screen. We gotta sit through the intro cutscene again... Hilariously I did that like two more times I think. Finally we are back in the game and we can move before we accidentally exit again like an idiot. Digging horizontally leads to a death I don't fully understand yet, so down we go. Okay, so we can dig down and a tiny bit to the side to find some worthless garbage. Oh hey this worthless garbage is taking up a lot of space in my newly found grid-based inventory. I believe I got crushed to death with ~$30 worth of trash in my pockets. I opened up the ratings page and started thinking about how I might approach rating each category. Somewhere a second wind came about to try playing again. Peeking at the controls more I noticed, mapped to a button that doesn't even exist on a Game Boy, is an action so darn important to the gameplay. Finally I had completed the tutorial.

I like the short timer. It gives a nice sense of urgency and tension to digging around. The cheap junk that lures the player to dig around at shallow depths seems like a despicable distraction, but maybe I noticed some of the smaller stuff can stack? I suppose that can add up and become significant. Some of the items having visual effects was a bit jarring at first, but seem like an interesting trade-off for expensive finds. Being able to pickup beams at first seems like a generous design, but presents such a high tension decision.

I think I got to $80 at most. Had fun during and after play. Great work, keep it up!

Developer

Thank you for playing! 
I wish I could have included a tutorial of some kind for the controls and just how everything works, but sadly there wasn't enough time. 
The buttons you mentioned, "mapped to a button that doesn't even exist on a Game Boy", are just mirrorings of the controllers select and start button, so they are easier to reach. My mindset was the same on those mirrored buttons, as I had about having 2 different keyboard layouts. 

Thank you for this feedback!

(And the cheap junk is able to get you to the finish line, even without the more expensive things, though looking at my friends play the game, the difficult part isnt getting to the $100, its getting back up with it.)

Submitted(+1)

This is very well done! And difficult 💀

Submitted(+1)

Really cool looking.  I keep dying from, I guess, cave-ins, but I'm not sure why, maybe some mechanics explanation on the game page would help.  Nice sound and music, they really tie it together nicely.

Developer (1 edit)

Thank you! Yes, the explanation is a bit lacking, I wished I could have included hints, and I will include some form a tutorial or hints in an after jam version. 

I did also want to keep a lot of the logic "secret", as I feel like discovering the logic is a lot of the fun in the game, but honestly it might be a bit too hard for new players.

Thank you for your feedback!

Submitted(+2)

Amazing atmosphere and pixel art!

Developer

Thank you!

Submitted(+2)

You're right - this game is hard. I love visuals and idea!

Submitted(+2)

Didn't end up beating the game, but had lots of fun playing it and getting used to how the material falling worked! I really liked the story and the music to. 

Developer

Thank you for playing!

Developer (3 edits) (+1)

This game is very much beatable!!

Take that you whom said this was unbeatable!

Submitted(+2)

really cool idea! Gribble's design is very cute so i felt bad getting him squished so many times... he did get squished a bit less once i started to get the hang of the block behaviour though :D

Developer(+1)

I'm really saddened about his story during development :( His beloved pickaxe being taken away, which was gifted to him by his mom. 

Submitted(+2)

i am the stupid man who makes stupid decisions at the stupid factory, tons of fun tho. I could spend all day playing this and punching holes in my monitor with how dumb I am

Developer

Just as a note to players: This game is difficult on purpose. The fun is in figuring out the rules of how things collapse.

Submitted(+1)

Nice death line, next time dont dig that one told me the whole rule in six words. and the cutscene panels are bold, the shouting close up with the lines radiating off him sets the tone before you touch anything. nice job