itch.io

I took a quick try. The basic idea is great. Instantly when I saw that this game was not about managing a whole football team, but managing a single player, you yourself, I instantly wanted to give this a try, and did too!

I like the idea very much, and I can see a lot of potential in this, exactly because it is taking a different angle to otherwise familiar gametype.

However, main problem I had playing this was, that I didnt understand much anything.

I can see that my decisions affected my skills etc. but when there were choices to make, I had no clue what difference those decisions would make. Part of the reason could be since I dont know a thing about foorball, so maybe for someone more familiar with the football, it might be clear that picking team A will be like A team, while picking team B is more of a B team etc. and it all makes sense. But for me, I had no clue about any of those teams, and I had no clue what would the possible difference be, hence to me this was pretty much complete random choise game.

Only exceptions were that couple of times there came an option which described "this might end up one way, or the other", those I understood that they were a gamble (lost the gamble both times), which I liked, however, once again I had no clue on how much benefit, if any, I was gambling for versus the possibly safe other choice.

I also liked very much that towards the end of the career, my player started losing his stats. That at beginning I would try to maximize the stats, and then I would concentrate on trying to keep them from getting down as much as possible.

I dont know if it was so or not, but I would have enjoyed if part of the games idea had been to try to quit the career at the point when player is most valuable at. As in, you continue your career with the risk that your value might start going down, but you might be able to do something legendary.

Love the games idea, but right now I have no clue how I should actually be making the choices.

Ah, didnt realise the Arrow key option. That is  a good option when playing with computer. Would solve the problem of not reacting to mouse movement (which I assume probably had to do with my computer somehow, rather than problem with the code)

I thing I have actually never player 2048 before. I have heard about it, but not played, until now.

I got to 512 with the first and only try. 

I can see why people like this game, although didnt see it that interesting to myself.

So, now comes the question of what is your aim for this game?

If it was just to make a simple game to see if you are able to do it. Then yes, you did it, and it is a fine product.

If aim is to make commercial game, then comes the question of, does this offer something worthy, compared to other similar ones? And right now, except for the possibility that you can change the size of the grid (which is an idea I like very much) it doesnt.

But, this is a simple game and there is only so much you can do for something like this.

If planning to just keep it as it is, and wanting to make it better.

First thing that comes to my mind is that somehow that movement didnt work very well. I often times had to try to do the movement several times before pieces actually moved. Not sure if problem was with your interface, or on my machine somehow.

But how I want the movement to work, is to simply click mouse button down on any location on the board, and pull it to the direction I want pieces to move. It shouldnt matter if is is edge piece, or middle piece, or whatever, as long as I push the mouse down, and move my mouse to certain direction, I expect pieces to move.

As long as that works smoothly, if I am looking for a game of 2048 to play, that will already take you a long way.

After that it is to give just all kind of animation. Like make pieces shine when they are waiting for something to happen. give them some animation when they move, other than just actually moving. When they merge, make some animation and fire crackers for that etc.

That is basically the way to make this kind of game better, unless you are going for something more special, like different kind of levels, as in, you could have some sort of story, or challenge mode, where yo are not aiming at 2048 directly, but first level just 16, next level 32, then 64, and add some permanent blocks to the board etc. to make different kind of challenges. That could bring something more to a game like this.

But, once again, what is your aim? If it is simply to have some exercive in making a simple game, then in that you succeeded already, and with the additional grid sizing, you could even say that you overdid it a bit.

I made recording of my playtesting this: 

As said, I dont know if this games core is bad or not, but I was starting to think that what would make this game good for me. Right now I feel this is too much in middle of idle and actual action game. If this would be much more idle kind game, I could see myself enjoy this a bit, although, I am not really much fan of idle games, but I could see this could hit some spot to some extent that way.

To really make me like this game, would be to make this more tight action game, with not too many moving parts.

Like when the pirate ship comes, what terrifies me most, is the thought if I really have to start moving all those ships out of its way, since that seems like a tedious task. As you can see from the video, I simply didnt do that at all, since I felt so disgusted just from the thought of having to do so.

Another things is, when there starts being so many ships, it starts feeling too micromanagement. Like the idea that sometimes those harbors can fill up with too much cargo waiting to be picked (eventually resulting in game over) is basically a good idea, but if the solution is to move several ships to that place, then that becomes annoying again.

I want it so that I can solve it with moving only one ship. Or clicking a button that prioritizese that harbor some way, as in, clicking that button makes boats go there automaticlly.

I dont want to keep repeatedly moving ships from one route to another, since that is annoying, and annoyance is added by the fact that these boats are moving fast, making it very annoying chasing them with my mouse pointer to drag them.

That Basically I like the ideas you have, but i dont like the current solution of having to mve several ships, because moving several ships is annoying. So either another way to solve the problem, or moving boats needs to become nicer.

Some questions that remained unaswered to me after this playtest:

1. Is there actually a point in making more than one line?

I didnt actually try making more than one lihe, since I couldnt quite see a point in doing so, but there was one open question regarding this.

2. Suppose I have line 1 from town A to B, then I have line 2 from B to C.
If there now comes package from town A that is to be delivered to Town C, will this package be ever delivered then?
My initial thought was that it isnt, and therefore I came to conclusion I need to simply make one line, which goes through every town, and then just keep adding boats there.

3. How do I get more boats? Do they just randomly pop up more, or did something affect them? Like I tried at one point to not put the boat to the sea very fast, in hopes it would be like bunnies, more bunnies you have, faster they increase.

4. When Pirate ships sunk your ship, did you lose the boat, or did it simply appear back to stock? For seemed to me that when that pirate ship was shooting the first time, those boats just appearedback to stock, unless I just happened to build them more at that moment.

This is also part of the reason I didnt start avoiding at later point, since I figured, even if ship is sunk, so what, even better, I got the cargo deliever faster then, since what ever way those cargo disappear, dont seem to matter, as long as they do disappear from the harbor.

5. What did that blue pirate boat lookalike do?

6. Some levels had for example diamonds, and some town demanded them. But didnt really notice any harm from not delivering them.

7. Tutorial mentiones those floating cargo stuff would be bonuses to your boats. Didnt notice anything happening to them when I delivered them.

Additional notice.

When new town pops up to the map, Make there some sort of sound or other highlight. You can see from the video, that my first game ends due to noticing there is new town too late.

My last game ended, because I didnt notice the route wasnt connected to one of the existing towns, until too late.

Game is slightly zoomed in, making you need to scroll a bit sometimes. Even my first thought is that I want to unzoom and see the whole screen at once, I think this little zoom in is a right choice, it makes it more fun having to scroll a bit, and makes it once again having bit more good moving in it. However, that scrolling is too slow. It is annoying to push the middle button, and then having to move the mouse and possibly more than once to see what I want. So make scrolling much faster, and I think it is good to keep it as it is.

And regarding levels. I am not sure was there any goal on them. I expected there to be some goal, like get certain amount of points to pass it, and then you would get to next one, but didnt seem like there were any currently.

Here is a video of me playing this: 

First of, this game has several, basically small problems, which make this actually a bit boring game in the end.

I am saying this, because I actually think this game is not far from being commercial game.

Take a look at Adams Venture: https://store.steampowered.com/app/400360/Adams_Venture_Origins/

It looks very much like your game, and while it is definitely not a masterpiece, could be much better, and has some shortcomings, I still keep fondly thinking of how I bought and played that game on my Switch. I might rate it only 3 stars, but it is one of the best buys in sense, that I really felt like it was worth it, since I really liked it, despite it not being the most thrilling game.

And I believe you could do something similar with Earthfarer.

The difference between this and Adams Venture are however couple.

First of all, if you look at Adams Venture vs this. This one tries to be a platformer. Adams venture leans much more towards Walking Simulator genre. I actually think Adams Venture leans bit too much towards Walking Simulator, would have liked it to have bit more of platforming or something.

Therefore you have too much platforming. You have constructed the platformin sequences in right way in sense that first there is simple hopping, and then it gets more complex along the way.

However, each of these sequences is simply too long. It becomes too repetitive. If they had been shorter bursts, they had been much more enjoyable.

For me there was also a double trouble with this hopping, as I have this Kinetic Advantabe 2 keyboard, so "Space" is not where it usually is, and in practice you can see in the video how I always aim with mouse towards where I am going to jump, and then take hand off from the mouse, and move my mouse hand to push that Space, since I cant reach it with my left hand.
Hence this created annoyance to the jumping, but that was my keyboard issue, not your fault.

Also, one thing with Adams Venture was that I was usually looking forward to what is coming ahead, and was rewarded that they did put something bit new there.

You did have some new stuff, but would have needed more variety, and more of a feeling of coming from one place to another, instead of feeling like a lonk tunnel with plaform breaks.

Also, in Adams Venture they gave you some story right from beginning. In this one I was mainly wondering what is the plot of the game, is it just to turn these light on, or is this possibly just the beginning. So instead of looking forward to what was coming, I just kept wondering what is the plot, is this the game or not...

One thing that I noticed in Adams Venture, and this is a tip to you if you start creating something from this is, that I actually enjoyed specifically walking in that game. I most of time skipped using the run-option, but instead just walked. I felt that slow pace really worked well for the Adams Venture, since it felt bit like reading a book, as story unfolds slowly.

Therefore my point being, that think it more like a visual novel or something, as in, you are experiencing a book, and I think that kind of game you could make commercial already, and it wouldnt necessarily need that much work either, as long as there is good story and you are able to design the levels interesting.

For I really liked how this looked. And actually, one thing to notice is that I didnt realise the music was missing, until I checked the video I recorded. Point being, that just the sounds and looks had enough feel to suck me inside the game enough, that I didnt even notice music missing. So there definetily is potential there.

And it seems to me that basically you only need to fix little things to make this already a good niche (commercial)  game. Similar to Adams Venture, as in someone appreciating smaller and slower paced game.

Oh yeah, also that Queue of humans was annoying. I mean, I assume you had to jump in middle of those gaps, but there should have been more gaps there, since it was very annoying waiting for the gap to appear.

If I had to jump only once to a gap, then it had been okay to wait a bit longer, bit like being a puzzle to figure out, but now that I had to jump, was it three times? After the first time it was annoying having to wait for the gap, when I had already figured out how to do it.

And about the christian message, it was quite okay. It was implemented to the game mechanics, and basically somewhat nicely.

On Best Overall I would have given you 3, which might have lifted your placing, with both increasing the average score, as well as givng you less point adjustment (which is always downwards)

Here is the GameJam in question, since another one suggested me to add it: /jam/cgdc-speedgame-classic-2026/results

See specifically the 4th spot "Ambervale" and 10th Spot "Lumea".

In both cases those ahead of them have 12 votes, and get no score adjustment, while those two games have only 11 votes, and get score adjusted.

If they hadnt got the score adjustment, Ambervale would be 3rd (almost is, even with adjustment) and Lumea would rise from 10th to 6th.

This suggestion is based upon what happened in one GameJam that just recently ended.

Itch.io Scoring system is based upon idea that if some entry gets too few votes, then its score is adjusted automatically down.

Although could argue why automatically down, this does, however, make sense.

But, there is one flaw that should be corrected in my opinion. For while it makes sense to adjust points down for lower voted entries, when looking them against the MOST voted ones, it doesnt necessarily make sense to use the adjusted scoring, when looking at NEXT places.

For in this Specific GmaeJam, situation was that MOST voted game got 20 votes.

Then roughly half, or even over half of the games received 11 or 12 votes.

What happened was that Games that got 12 votes, received their points without adjustment, and then games that got 11 votes, got their points adjusted down.

This also resulted that some of those 11 voted games got much lower placement, than they should.

For example, Number 3 and 4 switched places thanks to that. And a game that became number 10, would have become number 6 without point adjustment.

My point here is, that if maximum amount of votes, that any game had received, had been 12, then those games with 11 votes wouldn't have got downadjusted score.

Therefore, when comparing 11 votes games placements, against 12 vote games placements, the adjusted score shouldnt be taken into consideration.

As in this case since 3rd and 4th place were going to 11 and 12 voted games, then when deciding which one of these two become the third game, 11 votes game shouldnt have got downadjusted score, since if 12 votes had been the maximum votes, then there hadnt been any point adjusting, and therefore when deciding 3rd and 4th place between these two, there shouldnt be any point adjusting done either.

might be that it is simply not accessible. Would have liked to know especially the breakdown of funness, since I am wondering how much did it affect that people didnt seem to understand the defensive towers. That if there is clear breakdown of 2-3 and then 5s, then that would probably mean the not inderstanding these tiwers was critical.

i am wondering if there is a possibility to see the given ratings for a single game. As in, I would be interested in seeing how people rated my game in sense of did they all rate simply 3 on some category, getting the average of 3,  or how much variability there was, like did some rate 1, some 5. That would be interesting knowledge.

oh, and one more thing.

Does the player turn change after 1 card is played (unless some effect makes more cards played)?

and do players play against the board, or against each other?

as in, it tells other player to move the henchmen and foxes, making it seem other player is playing agaibst you, but if turns change, then it sounds strange.

also, it tells game is won by placing all 16 seeds, if players are not playing together, then how do you know who won?

having read instructions and cards again, checking couple of clarifications.

Draw three more cards and add to movement. Do these work as separate movements, as in, I pick 1-2-3, i can move 1 down 2 left 3 down? Or does it mean i have to use them as total of 6 movement to single direction?

Did I understand right that normally movement is to single direction? As in, 3 mp means i need to move, for example right-right-right, cant be right-down-right?

and for three turns draw 2 cards, i guess that means i will play both thise cards, as in, get two separate movements, and also play both cards effects?

thanks for clarifying. Unfortunately I didnt read the rules until we were about to start to play, and hence niw got this reply too late. I wont be able to test this before end of rating time, but I try to playtest and give you feedback at some point anyway.

Although it happened to be a bad thing now, it was actually one of the good things that instructions were so short, since I figured I can just print and start playing withiut reading instructions in advance. Had I read in advance, I would have probably realised something was missing and could have asked earlier.

I did figure out that players probably start from the home-corner, and figured either circle number or rectangle number has to do with movement, but I was thrown off by move 1, card, as it showed only 1 rectangle and 2 curcle, and then said to give 1 extra move point, which seemed like a good thing, yet, all the other cards seemed to have hugher numbers. Didnt realise until now that idea is that piece moves certain amount of spaces, to certain direction, and then with 1 extra mp, you can move to some other direction with that extra move, making it much more powerful then.

well, actually there was only very little balancing done unfortunately. Started playtesting only on last two days, and was more of focused making sure it is completeable rather than actually trying to properly balance it.

basically i just made it so that the last level is at least a bit challenging and completeable, and then i made other levels easier, figuring out that there is anyway bit of challenge in them in figuring out how things work. Meant to balance them more carefully, but I think it about worked anyway.

am I not seeing, or is this missing something?

It talks of moving foces and henchmen, but I dont see any of those in pdfs.

similarly, we started playing, i picked 1 card, which was ”move 1”. I can have one extra mp (I assume, Movement Point), but how many movement points do I have, and where am I? Or what am I moving?

thanks for reply. Meant to go today to test the board games, but got postponed to tomorrow. I will consider whether i print this out or not. Main point hete being that being pretty much game of chance, it doesnt interest me much, and bigger problem being that im not using my own orinter, and paper is low, making me hesist printing this out. I am however thinking of maybe printing 4 pages on one paper to save paper and make less printing.

The discussion point I ubderstood and thiught that was a good idea basically. Changes from thoical board game to discussion cards type game, in which case random chance might be valid option, as point is not so much in having a game, than having a fun way to discuss. However, I wonder if current rules are too complex for that purpose, but I anyway liked the idea of having bit different approach to discussion cards, and I think this might work even quite well, since with discussion cards you just pick a card abd start discussing, but in this one you sort of first fall to that temptation, before you stsrt talking about it, making it much more real, and everyone getting to thecright mood, plus having this abstract layer of through game which to think of that temptation through.

thanks for playing. Realised while playtesting tgat you probably can beat the game just by repairing, but decided to leave it that way, since was worried someone might not figure out how defensive pillars work, as I didnt have time to implement any system to hint about how to use them (mainly the point that it had two different hotspots).

It does become mechanical then, and you do miss the main game loop basically then (which is about balancing between towers and building the beacon), but at least you can complete it.

can you either tell the endscene, or even record a youtube video about it? There is difference between not existing at all, and bug preventing it from being seen.

Point here being that it could affect my rating of ”best christian teaching”-part into, perhaps one more star, based upon that sounded like you werent yourself very satisfied for it, and hence it probably wont lift it much more than 1 higher.

that to give bit jarsher example. Assume you had your game done to the point you did, but you accidentally did something that when starting the game it crashes and shows ”syntax error in line 10”.

Should I then rate your game full of 1 stars? No, since that was just one bug in your gane, although it happened to be, both, a critical bug, and at wrong spot, but it is still just a one bug.

therefore similarly, yes, I dodnt get to see the end, but it is just a obe bug, although critical, and at a critical spot, but that end does exist, I just now need an alternative way to see it.

As a first thing a question. Was this game endless, or was it supposed to end somewhere? For I think it mentioned at beginning to save at least 8 people, and I did, actually I had 5 people following me, since I couldnt find the church, and found more people along the way, and when I got there, 4 of them disappeared, making rescued amount be 8/6 or something else similarly confusin like that, and I couldnt get that last one to stay at church, even I tried to go back.

Hence I was wondering if there was a bug which prevented me from seeing the ending, and which could have changed my view on the "Best Christian Teaching"-category, as now you had a very nicely implemented game based upon the verse, but not much of actual teaching. I liked the parable of showing light to people to save them and taking them to church to save them, and fighting against the demons and basically praying to charge your light etc. Great parallelism there, which also taught a christian stuff a bit, but was expecting there to be some end which would have given the final "teaching" that this was still missing for this jams purpose.

I mean, for a regular game this had been a 5 start christianity already in all the parallelism, and church being there etc. but for a christian game jam, I would expect a bit more still.

But so the game otherwise. I liked it very much. It was very very buggy, but not in a critical way, stayed playable and occasionally confused a bit, but it worked well enough and was fun enough to play, despite all the bugs.

Basically only twice I had potentially a bad bug, as in, had they happened at wrong timing, could have ruined the experience.

One was a house that didnt disappear. As in, normally when you went behing the house, the house became transparent, there were couple of houses in which this  didnt happen, and one time I had several enemies on me, I went down towards the house, and suddenly couldnt see myself, nor the enemies, that could have resulted in game over with bad luck.

Similarly, there were couple houses that didnt seem to really be there at all. You could get through their walls just like that, and they never changed transparent. At first I thought that was how they were supposed to be, as one enemy happened to come from side opening out, and then I followed it there and went through the whole house. Only at later point I realised it was not supposed to be so, and also, that there actually was no house at all there, and that again, had enemies attacked inside that blind space, could have killed me.

Couple of times trees also didnt go transparent properly,

Rest of the bugs werent that critical, well, except for the possibly not triggering game end one, if game was supposed to end after 8 people were rescued. I think it said so when I played the first time, but when I played the second time, it didnt show the tutorial anymore.

It took me quite long time to find the first people to rescue, didnt find until I realised to go behind a house for house to turn transparent, and human becoming visible, as quite many were that way.

As others said too, map, or any other indicator had been nice. There could have been a picture of the town, which had showed how many people in which areas there are supposed to be.

And on top of that, signs pointing back to church, since most annoying part of the game, was looking for church.

I would also more clearly make the edges of the game. For one thing that was confusing was that forest seemed to continue for ever, making me wonder if I should continue there or not, even worse, 1 or 2 people actually were in those forest, adding to the confusion even more.

I was also wondering if I continue long enough up or down, will I eventually go around the map or not.

Lots of confusion about the edges of the map, if there were any, seemed like at least to the right there was more clear edge finally, although behind trees.

Upgrades made game so much more fun, and especially the movement upgrade was something I started appreciating quite soon, since it was really annoying looking for church at slow speed.

Good thing was that houses were unique, so you could have figured out where you were all the time, but I didnt. Need to have more landmarks more clearly there.

I liked how enemies started fleeing when they got low health, that made them seem much more alive. And also there were areas where more enemies would attack etc. which kept the game varied, despite there being just one type of enemy.

Mood worked well, it was scary but not scary. Similar to Luigis Mansion, or that Mario Party or Nintendoland, or where ever it was level where one or more players are chacing ghosts with flashlights, this reminded them in a positive way.

When considering how buggy this was, it really shows how strong this game was in that despite such bad bugs still existing, it was very much a joy playing it.

That basically my main complain is that end was missing. And basically if there was an end after rescuing 8 people, then perhaps the upgrades would have needed to be rethought to having only 3 upgrade levels for example, to keep the upgrades more varied, for I started by maxing the extra XP as a first thing, then damage and speed, and didnt get elsewhere yet at all.

Edit: almost forgot to mention properly. what was it with that Rescued people amount keeping changing. like 0/5, 1/9, 2/8. 4/14? That second number seemed to keep changing randomly, while the first number was constantly based upon how many people had actually been rescued.

First of all, this was pretty great entry for something done in just a one week.

But, on the other hand, I think the rushing might be showing. As in, this is a very complete game, especially for something done in a week. It has several towers, several enemies, it has a story shown, and end, even fully fleshed tutorial. But at same time it does feel bit soulless in sense that it feels like everything was done to the professional minimum standard. Felt like you had came to conclusion that minimum amount needed to make towers feel like having variety, is to have three different ones, and then you did so. Similarly felt like you thought, minimum amount to make enemies feel varied, is to have 3 different, plus big bosses, and so you did again.

It feels same time very professional, and I also like to say that your hunch is right, it indeed feels like exactly the minimum amount to make the game feel varied, instead of not varied. But at same time it becoems slightly soulless in that it feels things are too calculated.

But when putting the calculated feeling, I had fun playing this, and if I wouldnt be such overly tower defence veteran, I would have probably enjoyed this quite much. Due to having lot of experience on Tower Defence games, it was bit easy for me, but then again, I wouldnt have liked a hard one on a game jam necessarily either.

And, as I have played so many tower defence games, it is rare to see anything new anymore, and that was one of the great positivesw to me, that there sort of was something new. The Grapes that had to be collected. Although you could say that Plants vs Zombies for example has the same system already, it is not exactly the same system, since you had to plant the flowers, and then there was this sun or something that kept dropping on regular intervals.

That the bushes were there already, and grapes appeared on random bushes, and you then had to pick them. I would count that as something new, even there is similarity to something pre-existing, and that made me very happy, seeing something new in tower defence genre.

While I did like the simple story, it however didnt deepend much the understanding of bible verses. However, while there might not have been much to learn there, game however implemented the verse into a game very nicely.

I think that all in all, this was pretty impressive game for a game done in such a short time, and cant help but wonder what you could have achieved, had you used another week for it. But very professional seeming this one already.

Oh yeah, one thing that made me a bit of confusion was that since I first choces to look the tutorial, and it had text, then when I started the game, and cutscene had no text at all, that felt bit odd at first. My first thought was that some bug happened actually. But it was actually quite nice to make the cutscene not need any text, but it was for any language.

I checked through the PDF, and rules, but I might be missing something there. For when checking through the rules, it looked to me like it was purely a game of chance.

Also, it tells to mark to your stat sheet, like move stat from 8 to 7, but what is the point? Did I simply miss the part where it told why losing stats is a bad thing? For seemed to me like stat moves down, but it actually doesnt do anything, nor is it needed anywhere.

Similarly seemed like I pick a card and those cards do some certain things, but I dont get to make any meaningful choices regarding them.

I assume I missed something. let me know what I missed, since I am considering whether to print this out and try it, probably tomorrow as I am visiting one board gaming friend, so I am hoping to get a three player game going on, but if this really is just a pure luck based game, then I think I will skip it.

Replying here too so that those who dont see the other reply would get this information too.

Yes, you can complete the game without towers, I realised while playtesting that it is probably doable, and considered preventing it, but came to conclusion that since those defensive towers are a bit hard to figure out, due to no good hints existing yet, it would be better to let player be able to get through the game, although the alternative way is the boring way, and missing half the fun of the game, since main fun was supposed to be in balancing the power between different colored defensive towers and balancing between whether to use them to passively damage enemies, or use shooting.

Forgot to still comment about the Cathedral disappearing. I was thinking of rumbling etc. at beginning, but those would have needed some more work to get done. I went with transparency disappearance, since I was already using that all around there, therefore it was quick to implement and a cheap effect from making point of view. 

It also worked thematically, since idea is that, while you might not really notice it, due to the coloring of the cathedrals, they are actually all in full color and full light. I think I told AI to do it that way, so the player wouldnt necessarily notice that they are in full color and light. For idea is that these cathedrals are not from this world, but they are heavenly things. Therefore they are not affected by the loss of color or light, since they themselves are it. 

Also, one of the things is that places of all these cathedrals are known to people of the world, and therefore they could see there are colors and light there, but they have chocen to ignore it. Similarly as we have bible which tells how to live and have a good life, but most people ignore it. They know where to find it, from the bible, but they dont read it. Therefore, similarly even these cathedrals are, and have always been in full color and light, people are ignoring them, and therefore not seeing their colors.

And therefore this transparency fading was suitable way to tell the damage, as enemy cant hurt them, but they can hurt you, the player, to not see them anymore.

Thanks a lot from a long reply.

First, regarding the final cutscene. Run the game again, and Continue the game, and you will now see the cutscene.

I noticed just today myself that there is a bug there, that if after playing the game through, trying to continue journey (meaning, trying to check the final scene again), it will stay on black. I instantly realised where the problem is. I didnt reset my storycrawler after the final cutscene, and therefore, instead of continuing from the save point, it tries to continue after the cutscene, and as there is nothing more there, it just stays black, as it just look that there are no more lines to crawl through, and as nothing was initialized anywhere, it remains a black screen.

But, QUIT the game, and restart the program, and StoryCrawler is not initialized, and therefore correctly continues crawling from the savepoint.

This bug is problem only with the cutscene, elsewhere in the game this bug doesnt happen.

End Cutscene is roughly 4 minutes long. Although, roughly 3 minutes of it are credits, but those credits can be slightly interesting in sense that you get to see those places where you played in full color and full light now, figured that would be somewhat satisfying for the player to get to see the world the player restored.

And yes, regarding the defensive towers, there were two problems with them. First one was AI not doing what I told it to, which was that I told it to make similar looking gem places as that main building had, but even I tried to do it twice, it kept doing it the way it did, hence making it difficult for player to figure out that there are two different hotspots on those deefnsive pillars. That could have eventually been fixed, but as I was using free version of ChatGPT and Grok, I was limited in image generations I could do in a day, which prevented me from trying too much. However, when time extension came, I could have used Grok to fix that actually, but probably forgot about it, concentrating on more essential things, like making the game actually playable and completeable.

Second was that I intended to have some sort of indication about it, light one possibility I was thinking was that there could have been this blinking effect on those hotspots when you build them, this way highlighting that these spots have some meaning, but I didnt have time to implement it. Therefore those defensive towers remained hard to notice and figure out. Although, since this Jams rules told to include instructions for the game, I trusted it would be enough to mention about it on the page, but I guess many dont actually read those game pages before playing, or dont remember about it anymore after starting to play, since there is lot of stuff there anyway to read through, although I do have tried to highlight that defensive tower part in three different ways (in here as reply under the game page, which is alreadhy buried a bit. Then as a first thing in the main page. And finally, as a first thing in instructions part).

I unfortunately didnt really do any playtesting until the last two days, and I was actually wondering myself that the game might be completeable by just repairing the castle. I first wondered should I change it or not, but then I figured, that in case someone doesnt figure out the castles, maybe it is better to leave it as alternative way to complete the game.

I might make better version of this at later point, where I think the repair only becomes an option on second last level or something like that, since I think the first two enemy levels would be more fun if you cant repair the castle, and actually have to use those towers to defend, also forcing player to learn to use them. However, they need to be clearer first then.

Anyway, point was that you were supposed to keep using thsoe defensive towers, and it was all about balancing with them. Idea was that red tower would only hurt red enemies, green one green enemies, and blue one blue enemies. Therefore it was a matter of on which one do you put most power to, since you cant keep much power on all of them. For example, you can have only one of them at that max power of 10, since they decay so fast that you cant keep two of them at 10, it is just not doable, even if concentrating solely on those two, on top of that, you need to keep building the light tower at same time, so you cant realy concentrate all your power on just two defensive pillars either.

I am not sure how the shooting actually works, since there is a bug, and I am not sure what is causing it.

But originally idea was that if you have 1 power, it will hit 1 enemy with 1 damage. If you have 2 power, then it hits 2 enemies, with 2 damage each, 3 power, with 3 damage each, all the way to 10 power hits 10 closest enemies with 10 damage each.

However, enemies come from both sides, therefore there is the question of should you have some power on both sides, as towers also make passive damage once to each enemy as they pass them, or should you perhaps just concentrate on one side of screen, since by using that shooting power, you can damage enemies coming from the other side too, although, then also comes the question of which colored tower should you place closest to the building, since farther away from the center the tower is, harder it is to hit those enemies on other side by shooting, since tower is shooting closest enemies, and especialy if it is the edge most tower, it means that enemies on the same side are always closer than enemies on the other side, meaning you need to be able to shoot all the enemies from your side out, before it reaches to the other side.

So, by other words, you lost a lot of strategy, basically the whole main thing and fun of the game, by having missed the defensive towers, since the fun comes by balancing between defending by which towers, and building the actual light tower.

Anyway, thanks a lot from detailed feedback. And remember, you can now simply run the software again, and click continue journey, and will work.

However, if you accidentally click to end the final cutscene, then you need to once again QUIT the program, and start it again.

That had been good thing to realize that there was difficulty level. Could have switched it to 20 to learn first, then down to 4, since I think the low number is basically better, but at beginning, when playing with just 2, it can be bit frustrating to get to game over all the time. With 10, or especially 20, it gives you possibility to learn defending in much more peace.

Well, this was another attempt at making the same game you had done before for this years speedgame.

I think, instead of making two, it had been better to concentrate only on one, and make that one better.

However, I have to say that I am not sure which one you should have picked, since these both have their strong points, and there is no clear winner in which you should have picked to continue expanding.

Perhaps this one.

For while I liked many thing in Chrisian commander more, I however felt that this was much more feeling of a more complete game, and even little changes, like bit more enemies/attack patterns, would have already made a big difference to this one.

To give an example. I first enjoyed jumping on top of couple of first foxes, however, since they were all the same, they very soon became simply a slight nuicance, as they were so easy to deal with, that it wasnt a matter that I had become so skilled that they were now easy to deal with, but they were easy, right from beginning. I am not sure I lost any health during the first run, point being that I had 4 health and was able to pick one heart, but I am not sure if game started with 4, or I lost it. Anyway, that was only heart lost in first run. I took a second run specifically to  see what happens if foxes hit you.

As I mentioned, after a while they were simply a repetitive nuisance. However, at one point I happened to come in such way, that one of the foxes was behind a corner, without me seeing it. So I walked there, and suddenly fox attacked from a side. That instantly made the game feel much better. That basically by hacing set some traps like that, maybe couple of foxes on top of roofs, so player doesnt notice them, until they jump in front of them, would have already improved the game a lot, and then the regular foxes wouldnt have felt repetitive, since they would just be the regular guys, not the repetitive ones.

What I liked more in Christian Commander was that those light pillars were easy to locate altready from distance. In this one those Grapes were easily missed, since you wouldnt see them very well from a distance.

I liked mood in both of these, but Christian Commanders mood was even bit better.

But basically I could easier see this one becoming a god game, than the Christian Commander, as in, this was almost fun already, since as I mentioned, I did like jumping on top of the couple of first foxes, it was only when it became repetitive, due to no other attack patterns, no other enemies, or foxes being able to ambush you suddenly, that it became a problem from fun point of view.

I also liked moving around and jumping basically, although I would have liked some stuff that I could have been climbing on top of by jumping, like jumping on top of a mountain, or building, or something like that, insteaf of staying on same ground level the whole time.

But from the previous years speedgame that was similar, that I have played before, both this and Christian Commander were clear improvements.

The christian message part however was quite thin. Not only was there really any message there, but it also didnt seem like reason good enough to flip the roles, as in Foxes have already got the grapes, now you take them back, instead of defending grapes from foxes taking them.

I can see there could be a point, and specific teaching about that, as in, if foxes already grabbed your fruit, dont lose hope yet, perhaps you can get them back! which would be nice idea, but unfortunately, this game is not exploring that angle, at least not in a way that had translated to me.

But all in all, despite it feeling very much like unfinished project, or proof of concept or something like that, it did feel basically good for the little it had.

That I think quite quick improvements would be to make some of the foxes ambush you, one way or other, and put grapes into more interesting places, like on top of building or something. Actually, one could have been top of hill, which is close enough that, for example, four foxes would all activate at same time, when the grape is grabbed.

Oh, and graphics looked very good, and music was very good. User Interface was clear, nothing ambiguous about it, you understood right away you have certain amount of hearts, and that you can get more of them from those hearts, if you find them. etc.

So there is lot of (very) good in this game, just feels like the game is not there yet.

By the way, I guess there was something wrong with the sounds, since someone Island treehouse mentioned a nice jumping sound, and I didnt hear any SFX, only music (which were chocen very well and gave a great mood to the game)

yes, that explains the ”messy” outcome of the story. Now that you mentioned it, there indeed were more some things that felt like loose ends, which is explained by the lack of time. Like when tou first checked the books in the shelf, it says you dont recall what the book is about, but after phone call, checking again, it tells about the book. I remember thinking that something happened on the phone, like maybe that phone brought light to hus life and hence he remembered.

And regarding the checking the books again, just in case. Only recalled after reading your teply, but part of the problem was that there was this paper letter inside the desk of the phonetable.

When it said on the phone to read the note, i thought it meant that paper there. Hence I wasnt looking for a note anymore, nut I was simply looking how to continue the game next, without any clue what I should ve doing next. That is why I went to check both the painti g and books again, since there werent any other things to interact with around.

Had I realised I was looking for a note (which I did realise, thanks to when rechecking those books, it mentioning about not finding a note, and even then I wasnt sure if it was actually just referring to the phobetable note), then I migh had intentionally went specifically to check tge books. Now I went to them simply, because at least they were interactivable items, without any idea if they would help anything, and why.

after your explanation, it indeed felt like there was some great stuff brewing there, but due to lack of time, they didnt get ready yet.

I think this could have been the winning entry, had you had more time to flesh out those missing story parts and get it all cohesive, since even now it felt basically great, but just very confusing, and like missing things.

Was waiting to get more info regarding tgat painting, and about the caller, etc. But there never came more.

And yeah, especially about the overcoming of apathy that was mentioned in way that it seemed like one of the main themes. Was waiting fir something that someone suffering from apathy could grt some help, or some insight ibto apathy that someone who is not suffering from it, could have better understanding of it.

unofortunately I am not home at this point, and there was only one week of voting time, or otherwise I would have recorded every gameplay I did. I can perhaps make a video after I get back home, after first checking that I have the issue with my own machine too.

This machine should be 1920x1080, also says so in the windows display settings, but I am not sure, since at one point when I was showing 1920x1080 on my own game, it was leaving part out, and that is 1920x1080, so there could be something wrong here.

In your games case I have a new problem. I am not sure on what basis I should give the rating.

Essentially, your game is in category called walking simulator, and this creates some problems.

Like thinking of funness, well, it wasnt very fun, but then again, walking simulators arent fun like other games, but the story was very immersive, which is the point of walking simulator.

I am also wondering that where should I punish the point that the walking itself wasnt very fun. That instead of wanting to move around, I had to move to get forward in the story. This might not be much of a problem on other game types, but in walking simulators case that is a negative, since whole point is walking forward in the story.

But basically I liked this game very much, and I am going to rate it mainly around 4-5 star area.

The negatives in the game, biggest problem was that walking itself didnt feel like something I wanted to do, which in this case is extra problematic.

There was bit of feeling of confusion, as in, when I walked to some place, like followed the lights, I felt bit uncertain if that really was the right thing to do, and was worried I might be getting somewhere from where it will be hard to find back. That however never happened, that while I felt uncomfortable going where I thought I was supposed to go, especially when I was supposed to leave the second building to follow the star, they however always were the right thing to do. So it worked in sense that I didnt get lost, but I didnt feel good going to those places.

Another slight issue was when I followed the star, I looked real high in the sky to see it, and then suddenly got blocked by a tree completely, and start was moving at same time, making me nervous I might lose it completely, however, that again wasnt really an issue, since start didnt disappear, but stayed on sky. Had it disappeared and I had been behind the tree at that point, then it had been an issue, but that wasnt a possibility.

So as I said, minor things. But just thought to share the user experience.

Also, there wasnt much of an understandable hint on rereading those books. As in, I first checked the books, before i checked the telephone desk, after which I had to go read the books to find the note about follow the star between the bible pages.

But, since there were so little to explore, it wouldnt take much time to figure out that checking those things twice might be the solution, although it wasnt an idea of "hey, maybe i should read them twice" but rather "not raelly much else to do but try read those things again. Dont think it helps, but who knows, maybe should check anyway, just in case".

About the positives.

First of all, it was very important that the messages changed. That when you read things twice, it was giving you quite strong hint that point is not to interact with this thing another time anymore. That made game much smoother to go forward.

That, is it CPM shading, or what is it called, the old time monochrome black and white shading, I have seen pictures/videos of game/s using that, but this was the first time I actually played a game that used it, and especially in this case, it was very appropriate, it fit the story and theme very well. So it was a great choice in more than one way.

I also liked how the game started dark, that first you had to go in complete darkness, until you switched the lights on.

Following light/s was also very thematic and working, and made a great mood to the game. And follow the star made you think wise men following star to see Jesus immediately, worked very well again.

And I absolutely loved how the music followed the progress. I noticed after the end screen, that when you moved away from the end screen, the music faded, and got closer, it got louder. Very simple, clever, working solution to make sure that the music playing was of a right mood, therefore making the music work in narrative way, that despite players pace, music followed along.

And story felt very immersive. My only bigger complain in this is, that I didnt get the Christian Teaching message part.

Perhaps the game was too short, and therefore there wasnt enough time to give enough explanation. It seemed like you probably had some clever angle there, in that Light to your life I guess.

Seemed like player was having apathy etc. issues, some other people were trying to help, sent him the letter, telling to follow the star. Maybe idea was telling the gospel to help? But I am not sure how did the end work on that then. Did he follow the star to the Cross, and then when he went through the final door, he accepted Christ? Or was there some other meaning? I didnt quite get the idea. That even if that is the idea, then it sounds like bit too straightforward answer in that someone has apathy, evangelize him, and when he takes Christ, problem solved. Was that the message?

But I did like how you implemented the verse to the game. You definitely earn at least 3 stars, perhaps even 4, and if you have a good explanation, then I will consider even 5 stars, since once again, some stars from the implementation to the game theme/mechanics, for that part was quite well done in sense of even the used shader was part of that, so basically all those game implementation things might be worth the 3 stars alone already, and then even if story would be simple, hard to understand, but is there, that could easily be worthy another star already, perhaps even that two to reach the 5. But do comment on that teaching part.

I have to say, this one is really hard one to rate, I will likely come back and change my mind on some of the scores.

Basically this was really great entry, this could have been the best entry even, but now it felt like it was only level 1 of a winning entry, and hence it is not going to win as 1 level demo only.

I would say, if this had been level 1, then there be, maybe 2 more levels, and short final fight as level 4, then this would have clearly been 5 star Best Overall entry.

Similarly the Best Christian Category is something I am having trouble deciding what to give now, since basically the teaching was good. Verses were well used to make a game, and teaching was inside the game too, but it felt so rushed now having to get the message through in such a short time.

And Most Fun, I was definetily having start of a 5 star fun, but then it ended before it began. Now it might be only 3 stars or something due to that.

That all in all, the main problem with this is that it was too short. It was heading towards 5 stars in many, but then got interrupted before getting there.

So basically you started running 100 meters run real strong and fast, leading the run, but then you stopped running at 30 meters already.

That basically this was fantastic entry, I really enjoyed everything I saw, but then you stopped it too early.

I was about to say that this was almost commercial quality from graphics, until I realised I actually have one good commercial game in my WII U, that actually looks somewhat similar to this, and even the gameplay is very similar feeling in that one. So actually, this is basically commercial quality already, as long as you keep it this way.

The game I am talking about is called 3Souls: 

I didnt figure out how to kill those enemies. I got first one killed accidentally, just walked to it I think. Then walked to next one and died.

Slight confusion was on two places. First was when the man told me to light up all the lights in the area. My first thought was it meant those 3 lights that were in that specific area, not all the light in the whole area. However, it wasnt hard to figure out that it meant all the light all around, although I did feel bit confused and even questioned going there forward.

Second slight confusion was about how to continue from that same area. I did quite quick decide to go back to previous area since it seemed like a dead end the new area, and in the previous area I basically instantly tried to jump up the screen, which was the right solution, but that was based upon having played enough games that had similar system (In the 80s/90s). Without having played similar solution games, I dont think I had instantly started trying that.

By other words, that might have needed some more hinting for the player, although I did figure it out quite quickly myself.

And tutorial was also nice and working. If thsoe enemies were killable, then maybe some tutorial about them too had been needed to tell how to kill them, although, only two enemies around, which can easily be avoided, that wasnt much of a problem really.

Idea has been to keep this monthly.

Originally idea was that you had 1 month to submit, and then the during next month people would keep playtesting and sending feedback.

Then by having monthly, you can keep submitting your game continously, at any time, and also get constant feedback.

If there would be running only one at a time, as in, one every two months, then that would mean you could submit your game only every second month, and similarly get feedback only every second month. This way you will always be able to submit your game, and also always be able to get feedback.

Also, as so far there seem to have been enough interest that people have been submitting their games, I have been holding a new one every month. If interest drops, then I will start holding these less often.

It is, but there is a bug in itch.io, which I have sent messager to itch.io already 3months ago, and still have not received reply for them, hence I dont expect it to get fixed at this point anymore.

But point is, for some reason, when games I host get to the voting phase, in which the #5 is right now, it will show on the page like the Jam has already ended, and gives no option to vote.

When I look from my own pages "own hosted jams"-list, it shows like #5 is in voting phase, like it should be, but for whatever reason, it publicly isnt.

And as mentioned, I havent been able to get a single reply from itch.io to this issue, well, except for the autoreply telling that they received the message and will reply as soon as possible.

I do have a youtube channel, but not the kind you are looking for, for I have previous years speedgames playtests etc. In them, but I am not talking there.

Well, except for couple of exceptions. Right now with mobile, so harder to give the link.

Yep, part of the fun was supposed to be in figuring things out. Also for thematic reasons, as I just explained in reply to earthfarers comment. As in, Apprentice is only one acting in faith, and therefore he encounters things forgotten/ignored, and has to figure out how those things work, since there is no one to instruct him (except what he read from the book)

there was actually supposed to be a big boss in the game too, already had generated graphics for it, but didnt have time to add it. Idea was that it had been this big black thing that sucks colors, and then you would have needed to damage it with all 3 colors, as in, it would have had separate health for each color. That you couldnt destroy it by just using red, but had to use all red, green, and blue to beat it.

It had been like a final attack to try prevent light coming to world.

the lack of instructions was a deliberate choice for two reasons.

1. I took a try at making a game which is intuitive enough that you dont need them. Except for the two hotspots in defensive towers, my guess is rest is figurable easily enough.

2. There was also thematic/story reason for this. Apprentice works through faith. Everyone else thinks this is all there os, while the Apprentice believes there is more since the book says so. So he by faith believes and decides to act upon what the book says, and therefore he also encounters things that others have forgotten / ignore to exist, and have to figure out hinself how to deal with them.

Therefore also the player, who too is one of those who have forgotten the existence of colors and light, will have to figure these new things out.

You could say that through acting in faith you receive light to thing, which reveals new things.

Putting here too in hopes people notice this since this is only critical to understand  thing that doesnt come out very well in the game.

Defensive Pillars have TWO hotspots in them:

GREEN CIRCLE Increase Power

YELLOW CIRCLE Shoot with the current Power (when 0, it was supposed to be unclickable, but there is either a bug, or I forgot to prevent it)

rest of the instructions you either learn by playing, or are not that critical to understand.

This is one of those rare situations where giving best overall a rating is misleading. One of the best boughts from Nintendo 3ds eshop I have done, was a game called "Ascent of Kings". Funny thing was that despite that being one of the games I have enjoyed most having bought, and which had excellent price value (it was maybe 3 euros as normal price), it had been rated only 2 starts out of 5, and when I thought about it, indeed, I would give it 2 stars too, since it simply doesnt earn more than that, despite that I fully recommend people to buy it, which is normally not the case with 2 star games.

Your game is one which I again rate only 2 stars (In Best Ocverall), since there simply isnt enough to justify more, but this is one of those games that I really liked playing for the little it had.

I would have very much liked tehre to be more levels, since the idea of the game of using mouse to move the light, and not actually needing to get that close to the enemies, seemed like a mechanism that  gave all kinds of interesting possibilities, but now they are not explored much, also, just like HanClinto pointed out, this could be two player Co-op too, and actually, specifically parent-children co-op game.

For when my daughter was something like 4 years old, we pplayed Donkey Kong on Wii U, and it was very good Children-parent co-op game, as long as child doesnt figure out that he can actually jump out of Dokey Kongs back.

For point is that when you start the game, or die, it always starts with Diddy kong or the girl version being on Donkey Kongs back. And then the one on back was able to throw bananas all around, by ohter words, hekped donkey kong, without affecting movement in any way, only helped, didnt hinder, so me, the dad, was able to concentrate on a typically Donkey Kong difficult platformer, while my daughter at same tijme was throwing bananas around helping me.

I can see similar potential here, as in parent going around the platformer, and then kid keeps frying those enemies with that light.

And even if you would keep this as one player, like it is now meant to be, I assume, it is still an interesting mechanic to give new kinds of possibilities, specifically because you dont necessarily have to get everywhere, but you only need to get the enemy visible on the screen.

Which reminds me, there is actually one problem with the game, for I started by making the game fullscreen, but when you make it fullscreen, instead of aking things larger, it actually increases the amount visible on the screen, which made this game bit too easy, as almost every enemy (i think there was perhaps only 1 or 2 enemies notinstantly seeable), meaning, all you had to do was move the light. I first wondered what was the poin in having the platforming at all, until I tried second try to make sure it really was everything there was after it said "You win", since first I thought the game just froze, but when I started second time, I this time realised that much less of the screen was visible, when I handt made it fullscreen, making the game more interesting and better.

But the little it had worked nice etc. although it felt more like a taste rather than actually something complete, since after having dfinished the game, I felt hungry for the second level.

Unfortunately rating will be bit on the low side, since it just doesnt have what to give more, but the little there was, was actualy very good. Just Couple more levels would have easily upgraded star rating with one more already.

I played twice, second time I got 57 points. Is there anything else to the game but to move the cahracter and keep hitting? As in, can I place towers or something?

For while it did look quite nice for the little there was, I obviosuly couldnt give much rating points for it in its current version.

But, to give some feedback. The basic premise was somewhat working, you could keep hunting those foxes, and with more skill you can last longer. I am sure I could get more than 57 points if I would play a third game, since I for example lost one of thhose three patches right at beginning still, not realising yet how this should have been played.

Also, I like the sound world, it did make it feel like there was some world. And titlescreen made me expect something much greater a game, as in, titlescreen is good.

Oh yeah, and I liked those foxes walking around on the title screen.

But the game as it is now doesnt hold up interest for more than couple of minutes, but looked like it could have been interesting game had it got further, since that little did feel mostly good, which is a positive sign already, since there are people who are able to make much more complete game, but it feels terrible to play them. This felt mostly nicely to play, only hitting felt bit limited in way that it felt like it wasnt doing what I meant, but was rather limiting a bit what aI was planning to do.

Although there are no instructions in game (by purpose), the first level forces you to figure out the basics.

However, the second level introduces the defensive pillars, and that might be difficult to figure out that there are two different places on them to put those embers/jewels, whatever they are.

One place increases the power, second place shoots with the current power level.

Didnt have time to make something that would have hinted about them, was thinking of adding sparkling effect or something on them to indicate player that you can do something with them. 

I did mention it in the games page, but theres lot of stuff there, so not sure people will notice it.

Nothing big to complain in this game, so I will just nitpick then.

Fox might have got caught, and yet still appear on the other side of the hole. That was slightlhy dissatisfying.

Forgot the levels name, but there was one quite hard level, maybe 8 or something, where I kept actually succesfuly doing of luring the guard far away, and then getting through hole away from the guard, and then instead of pushing arrow I pushed Z, that happened twice, which was verya nnoying, and it wasnt even fast situation at that point anymore, so there is something confusing about the key combination.

And then only reason I was confused about the rules, was becaus you put those rules on the page.

On the second level, insetad of figuring out that guard doesnt catch me instantly when going behind bush (picking grape behind bush), I instead was trying to figure out why Z and X do nothing, and kept through my keyboard thinking maybe you accidentally marked something else as z and x.

But other than that, excellent level design. Both from being fun and suitably challenging, hard but not too hard, and especially with endless tries it was possible to keep them hard, and they also taught you how to play the game excellently, forcing you to learn stuff. That as I said, if I had not read the instructions in advance from the page, I wouldnt have had the confusion.

Looked like this could have been a commercial Nintendo 3DS game and musics were similarly suitable, well, except that this had been too short a game for a commercial release. But from quality and looks point of view, could have easily believed this could have been published to 3DS eshop.

Christian Teaching part I liked how you first of all flipped the role around, instead of guarding from foxes, you were the fox grabbing the grapes, and also there was a point to that being so in the end, in a way that fits to the verse.

I however gave you only 4 starts in the end for the best christian teaching part. For while idea was excellent, the execution did fail a bit.

When game had finished, I didnt understand the message very well in sense I didnt understand the xonnextion to the game, not until I read your desxription from the page (thanks for keeping it behind spoiler kind of tag, didnt know there was such an option), therefore I came to xonclusion that while the message is excellent etc. it howecer failed to deliver it without additional explanation, whixh in this xase was a problem.

For there are two kinds of messages. Ones like this one, which are meant to be understood instantly when you see the reveal, and then the are those like Narnia, where the power comes partially from the point that you dont fully understand it right away, but you keep thinking it more and more and you realise more and more.

Since this didnt fall to Narnia type, it failed a bit, despite otherwise being great.

There was also another thing I was thinking. For I think you once made similar kind of message to earlier speedgame. I dont recall it exactly, but it was something about father/daughter relationship/ Mayve it was dungeon crawler kind of thing and in the end you realised it was your daughter resisting you. That was great, it translated instantly, and it also worked all the way great.

It was also easier to deliver, since the emotion of the game was already battle and chaotic, and then the resolution fit to that emotion. In this case it was harder. Since this is childhood happiness kind of mood, while everything is axtually breaking. Now that mood fits the idea, since you are ignoring your relationship, and keep living in childhood fantasy, but the transition to the end didnt work in this case. As in, you did right going from childhood game fantasy to the end emotion, but the transition didnt work.

In the previous one the transition worked too, but that might have been simply, because it was easier transition, this one was much harder, going from comlpetely different type to another one.

But great game. Have played roughly third of the games so far, but this has been clearly above the rest currently. Might well be the winner.

Oh yeah, the innovation. I was bit wondering what to give on that one. On one hand, there was mostly nothing  unusual in this. Moving uards, alerting guards, grabbing stuff, seen that on many oher games, even Zeldas, on the other hand, that digging hole was unique (oh, and smiled on that reference to DigDug), switching to fox instead of defending against foxes was unique, and the way you implemented the christian message was worth uniqueness, although it is same way as you did before, but that is unique to you, and brilliant too by the way, loved both times you did that, so currently having it at 4, but might still decide to change to 3, which howeevr seems like too little.