itch.io

Hello! Your review is really detailed. Thank you, and sorry for the late reply. 

The accessibility issues are the difficulty to click on the seat and the passenger, or do you mean something else as well? 

During the development of the game, at some point we were a bit late, and we haven't had the time to polish the game in the way we wanted, but your observation makes sense. Hopefully, we will manage to fix bugs, and then we will see if we have the time to add some stuff in the game. 

Thank you again. I am glad you liked the idea, tho!

That's a great approach, actually. Being able to make people understand how a game works without text is not easy. Nevertheless, I think it is a useful skill to develop because with time, you'll probably be able to create video games that are more intuitive and easy to learn in their mechanics. Keep doing that!

Hello, I am Mirko. I am interested to join, but I wanted some information first. Have you already found a programmer for your team? 

When you have an idea for a video game and you create a prototype or you publish a polished version of the game, the only way to know which things work and which don't... is to have as many people as possible try it out and wait for their feedback. I wouldn't say you failed because it's part of the process. In fact, immediately after the end of the game jam, you modified your project. Even without feedback, you realized something was off. That's good. 

You do something you think is clear, but then people will give you all different kinds of feedback. You correct the project, and you continue like this until you are satisfied with the result. Or until you have time to do it. 

Btw, the ending I got was the first one you mentioned.

Short, polished, and a fun game! It is really hard to keep counting the seconds, especially in the last stage.

I also could enjoy the music for hours. 

Once I understood how to play it, I really had fun. I played it various times. The only issue I have is that the tutorial pages aren't that clear sometimes, so it took me a while to understand how to do things. For example, I haven't understood immediately that you had to drag and drop the characters in UIs corresponding to the action you want to make them do. That's too bad, because some people might give up on it before they even try. I found it interesting to play!!
Other than the tutorial, in-game, once you enter the loop, the game is good, and the icons you put in the UI are clear, so it's easy to understand the consequence and their meaning.

I was able to reach one ending where I started the ship before time ran out. It took me a few attempts to understand how to activate the ship, and I think the trial-and-error aspect was intentional. Once I figured it out, I was no longer confused.

However, if it weren't for the game's description, I probably would have given up because I found it frustrating to understand what I was supposed to do. I think part of the issue is that the ship has multiple levels and many sections look very similar. During my first attempts, I mostly ended up pressing random levers and hoping I was making progress.

Because of that, it felt more like succeeding through repeated retries and a bit of luck than through understanding how the ship actually worked. I didn't really feel like I was applying or developing any particular skill, and I think making the different areas more distinguishable or providing slightly clearer feedback could help.

Overall, the concept is nice. The goal of the game is easy to understand, it doesn't require any explanation, and it fits the theme of this game jam. Congratulations for doing this all by yourself, it is not easy to work alone!

Oh, wow, this is such a good concept. It's really fun and matches perfectly the theme of the jam! I don't have any critiques to give you because I only have positive things to say about this game.

I didn't need to read the instructions for the game because it's pretty self-explanatory how you have to play it. The feedbacks in-game for each action the player does makes the gameplay understandable even without the consultation of "How To Play".

Thank you so much. I am glad you liked all those things in our game. 

The passengers that disappear are probably missing an animation (where they show impatience), or it's a bug. Each NPC has a level of patience and should have a matching animation for that. Thank you again for the feedback!

Thanks for your comment, really appreciated.

For the money, yeah, you're probably right, and with more time, that would have been possible. Having more types of passengers or additional features, but we preferred to remain simple and focus on the core mechanic, which was getting more people as before the train leaves.

For the clicking part, yeah, that's an issue to fix because it influences the general game feel. Thank you again!

Thank you for the comment. Happy to see that you liked it, even with those visual issues. 

When I did the playtest, I had the feeling that selecting the NPCs or the seats would have been a problem, and you confirmed my fear. The business people have a higher ticket cost, but they have a limited number of seats (4 each train). They should stay in the yellow seats because that's the business class. In theory, if you put the business-people inside a regular seat, the business guy should refuse to go in there. But apparently, this isn't working as it should. 

That's a bug. In theory, the retry button inside the game-over page is supposed to work. In the game engine, the button worked. We didn't have the time to do a complete playtest of the build before uploading the game on itch.io, so we missed this bug.

How have you felt playing the game without a tutorial level? Were you a bit lost, frustrated, or something else entirely? I am asking just to understand how to improve the game.

Thanks for the feedback, anyway!

Thank you! Happy to see that you liked it. :)

Yeah, giving and receiving feedback is actually the best part of the game jam, in my opinion. Thank you for the additional time!

That's a good idea. This way, the tutorial probably feels less overwhelming.

Yeah, the tutorial is something to be improved because you're not the first person give us a feedback like this. Now that the gamejam is finished, we will update the game.
Feedbacks like yours are really useful, so thank you so much! I hope you enjoyed the game despite everything :)

For the tutorial, I think you're right. Thank you for your comment. I'm glad you've enjoyed our game!

I have appreached your video, thank you for the feedback!

Were you able to figure out what you were missing at some point, or not?

No, that’s not dumb at all. The darkness and limited visibility were intentional, but if it becomes too frustrating, then it’s definitely something that needs to be improved. Personally, I had a feeling the flashlight setup might cause some navigation issues during gameplay, but I wasn’t sure.

Did you find the tutorial images overwhelming all together, or was the amount of information okay once you started playing?
Thank you for your detailed feedback!

I wanted to leave a comment here, but I wrote it on itch.io game page instead, lol.

As I mentioned in my other comment, I really liked the idea, and I think it’s executed well. I had fun pressing all the buttons. Overall, I agree with the other comments about the game!

Yes, I was talking about that! 

I left a comment directly on the game’s itch.io page instead of here. Oops.

I really enjoyed this game: it has a good balance between difficulty and rewards. I also found it very easy to understand what each reward did, even before seeing its effects. 

Because of the color choice (gray on gray), I didn't immediately notice the indication of the object to pick up.

I like the pixel art used. Overall, color aside, I found the instructions easy to understand. Good job.

Do the logs spawn over time, or do you only have access to the initial ones?

That's a shame you couldn't make on time! Like others said, the game looks really nice 

I really like the game's concept. While it's clear what you need to do in general, it took me a while to figure out how to start and how to move around. If you want, I can be a bit more specific.

But once I got into the flow, it became really fun. Well done!

I've been playing it for a while, and I really like the game you've created. I think it can be a bit tricky to avoid enemy attacks sometimes, but I had a lot of fun playing it. I think the rewards are fair.

Thank you for the comment and the feedback! Really appreciated

Unfortunately, the load of the game can be a bit slow. If you wait a bit more, the game should load completely. Thank you for your patience. After the voting session, I guess it's a good idea to have a downloadble version of the game as well. 

Thank you for the comment!

Hello! I've found a team, so you can remove me from the list. Thank you for this topic, it's really useful!

Sure, I’m in! I can adapt to whatever needs to be done. :)
For some reason I can't see your friend request on Discord, so I just sent you one!

Okay, thank you!

Hello, the team is full or not yet? I am interested to join. I use Unity and C# for creating videogames. :)

Yes, but for 3D, I’m not experienced enough to handle a full project on my own. I’d be more of a support to another 3D artist. I’m a bit slow when working from scratch in Blender, and I mostly do quick fixes or adjustments on existing models.

Hello everyone! I am Mirko (he/him) and I live in the EU.
I use Unity to develop videogames, and I can help with coding (both 2D and 3D), level design, and creating 2D animations in Unity (I cannot do humanoid stuff). I can also help a bit with visual art... not as an illustrator, but I can use tools to modify and adapt images so they fit the game (e.g. UI elements or textures).

I’ve used Blender before, but I’m not very experienced, so I can’t handle complex stuff yet. I can mostly do simple modeling and basic texturing. Lighting in Unity, 3D animation, and rigging are not really my thing.

This is my first time joining a game jam. So far I’ve mostly worked on projects alone, and I’d like to collaborate with someone.

EDIT. My username on Discord is: .hinarii

Hello! Are you still looking for someone to join your team? I use Unity for developing videogames and I know C#, so I can help you if the team isn't full yet.
I've sent you a request in Discord (I have the same username)