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PRODIGAL's itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Audio | #1 | 4.333 | 4.333 |
| Innovation | #1 | 4.222 | 4.222 |
| Aesthetics | #2 | 4.333 | 4.333 |
| Horror/Spookiness | #2 | 4.111 | 4.111 |
| Stakes | #4 | 3.333 | 3.333 |
| Theme | #5 | 4.000 | 4.000 |
Ranked from 9 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
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Comments
Couldn't leave a review when I played it cause I wanted to play it more. It's a fun experimental game, and I'm a sucker for those kind of games (my favorite one being Who's Lila?). While it gets very restrictive as you advance, I get that the idea is that the protagonist is turning into a monster, and as time goes, it's harder to resist those harmful urges and to control themselves. It literally takes the control out of you for that. Interesting concept, though I think the gameplay is a bit longer that it should be, which makes it feel repetitive. Maybe it'd improve if it was shorter, or if there were more available actions before starting to transform, so the impact of being denied to do them because of the vampiric urges hits harder. And also more events in general, maybe more dramatic actions when you're transforming, or single-time impactful events with words you wouldn't think are valid.
Oh my, this one is very creative, very original and kinda hard to get into at first.
Gave it as much time as I could, but I still feel like I only scratched surface of what it is. Very innovative. Also very hard to rate, I would appreciate a little bit more literal action on the screen itself, although maybe the action is in the words being thrown at you here.
The game is nicely polished, beautiful and moody, and definitely has an audience for it, which would absolutely adore it. Hard to rate, but an impressive experience 🫀
thanks so much, for the kind words and also for doing this jam! it was really fun and i love a good specific oldschool theme. i def wanted to do something more experimental than the natural path of shooters, tho i love all the entries that did, and pushing the hybrid 2D/pixel elements through the 3D perspective lens was a fun challenge, especially with a first person POV.
there is def a lot of depth to the choice system, but i don't think i actually fleshed out the choice/consequence/result-options branching tree enough and it hurt the core a bit. for the on-screen action i def fell short on showing in place of telling, which might be fine for pure text adventures but the tense feeling i wanted to embed in the actions and "overtaking" function needed a little more. sound design and ambience can't pull all the weight.
and i don't care if the ratings were the worst i could've gotten, that closing sentiment is worth all the points in the world imho. i will be expanding on this in the future, both in a second pass for PRODIGAL and taking the core and iterating on it with future games
Positives:
A very atmospheric game.
The sound design really added to the atmosphere.
It's great that the game has multiple endings.
Negatives:
The screen was a bit too pixelated. It created a great atmosphere, but I would have liked to see a little more. (Then again, I could also say: The oldest and strongest emotion of mankind is fear, and the oldest and strongest kind of fear is fear of the unknown.)
The gameplay was a bit too repetitive.
thank you! the loop was def too repetitive for sure, i want to make more actions with branching consequences/events but i was def rushed.
for the pixelation, do you know if you had the screen effects turned on? i always put in an option for at least toggling things on/off but i think it might've messed with the "forced" perspective element and didn't have time/presence of mind to check it.
Liked the style and tone, but would have loved the road to have have turns and branches as they could have added to the adventure style and instead of typing walk all the time it could have been N S E W in classic text adventures. And does it need 108 steps for 9 miles and all of the text/backstory?
thank you! i absolutely agree with the directional stuff, i wanted to do way more with other movements, actions etc. but i didn't leave myself enough time so i went with the straight shot. when i do eventually return to it i will be sure to add the compass directions, and some other movement things like dig, bury, and so on. there are ~40 different words the game will accept but admittedly i don't think i fleshed out the tree choice system enough so it probably wasn't obvious enough. the actual text lore is pretty important since that's what drives the engine of the story itself but i will def be fleshing that out more so it makes easier sense in-world.
A fantastic game! It’s very polished and the mix between a dungeon crawler and a text adventure is incredibly creative. I love the art and game’s atmosphere, although I’ve only managed to get three of the 4 (or 5?) endings. Awesome job, congrats!
thanks so much! that means a lot, especially since your game was also such an interesting approach to a blend of styles (i loved the hybrid 2/3D and pixel also). there were 4 total endings, i did have a 5th one but i removed it because it didn't really work with the current state of the rushed closeout before the jam ended - did you actually see something that said 5? wondering if i accidentally left a piece of it somewhere.
I wanted to WRITE a review but my hand writes RUN jajaja just joking.... I had a good time playing and trying to unlock the endings; I managed to get 3 out of 4. Great Job :D good game
thanks! lol i am glad the hand wasn't too disruptive and you were able to get so far. i hope if you ever return to it, you get that last one and the secret prize!
Awesome and really interesting game
The run can be a bit - wild - and one have to really be in the mode and headspace for it
Your mind will totally go whack at one point - but the aesthetics of this really punches its weight in terms of immersion with both the SFX and the visuals bringing it together
Really loving what I am seeing here - this feels pretty complete, and can definitely show a more elaborate gameplay mechanic that can evolve into many more types of games.
Love to see what this will bring.
thanks so much! it was definitely a wild swing for a typing based game, with the "forced hand" element i wanted to make it feel creepy and interruptive without actually hurting the gameplay and immersion, and with some more time and probably some other ideas to stretch the concept into i think it can be iterated upon to some great effect
Prodigal is a really interesting game, well polished (even the menus were carefully crafted), with an amazing artistic direction. The musics and SFX are creepy and well integrated. The aesthetics are simply beautiful, and the choice that has been made for the dithering filter works perfectly here. The gameplay itself is quite simple, even though I had troubles sometimes with some sentences (but that’s because I’m not a native english speaker, and the vocabulary used here is fairly advanced). I was not always sure of what I could or should do, but I think it’s part of the experience. I played 3 runs and was pleasantly surprised to see it had several endings. It’s impressive to know it was made in barely a month, congrats!
thanks so much for the kind words! i am glad the aesthetics ended up landing for so many people, i was a little worried i went overboard with the dithering but it's kinda become my thing at this point.
i had so little time for this project that i didn't even consider other languages! i tend to try to make as many accessibility functions as i can, and alternate langs is definitely a component of that. i would love to have native speakers translate into some common language at some point, that's pretty important for puzzle and especially word based games. this was actually the result of barely a week, i didn't leave myself enough time and i mixed up the deadline with another jam so it was a little rushed at the end, but i will def be returning to finish at some point!