itch.io

Like how you could intentionally ignore the phone calls. 

I wish the sticker book sacrificed 'clean' UI for a messier sticker sheet-like vibe- its a bit difficult to gauge the stickers size from the book when all of them look like they are the same size (when they aren't). 

The game looks great! I feel like you guys overscoped slightly- the mechanic feels unstable and without sufficient feedback it's difficult to gauge game feel. I think y'all can really benefit from more basic prototyping stages where you figure out the fun parts of the game- for example, right now combat feels dull and almost tacked on. I think there's a lot of potential in the brushstroke mechanic (Okami is one of my favorite games of all time, so I'm biased) but I think you guys should try and figure out what works and what doesn't first before starting full production. 

The artstyle felt charming but a little all over the place. Also the platforming part felt a little rushed and not complete. I feel like if yall just made a visual novel instead of trying to make this into a game with platforming and interaction it would have worked in your favor. 

But I did really like the character designs and the audio direction was certainly interesting! Good job!

Great concept and great execution! I'm surprised that y'all made every asset from scratch, but I guess that's the benefit of having all art school students ;) 

The gameplay tutorial video helped a lot, but I feel like I would have been very confused if not for the video. 

The idea of playing god on a simulated earth and doing Among Us-style minigames is fascinating, and the integration of different terminology and research like Ozone levels is great! Although I felt like adjusting water and core temperature levels directly was a little too Sci Fi-ey for my liking and would have liked a slightly more realistic approach (ex: melting/freezing glaciers maybe? Or adjusting clouds/rains for temperature) but I do understand that there are affordance issues vs a more direct approach.

The PS1 dithering shader and lowpoly assets really shine, though I felt like some textures felt a bit too high-poly/high def and stood out from the rest. A minor issue though, given the sheer number of assets!

Overall, amazing job yall! <3

Great game! I beat the whole thing and was very impressed by how addictive it was despite having only a few mechanics. Great polish and amazing gamefeel! 

- I'm a bit confused as to how this relates to the jam's theme; the "Blu Eyes" glasses concept felt a little Sci-Fi Dystopian and not really realistic, and the idea that a corporation is manufacturing disasters felt a little off color given the jam's focus on climate change and natural disasters. 

- I feel like rocket arm's default controls should be towards mouse cursor- played it with that setting for the whole game and felt it was a lot more intuitive. 

- I couldn't really understand that the game's theme was about AI abuse and environmental impact- only knew that from the itch page- and felt like the game could have dealt with it more seriously, for example highlighting the toxic gas and emissions from GenAI server upkeep.

Game 5: Ballot Dash- 98 total (78 w/o newcomer) 

Political Impact: 16

• While the premise it situated appropriately around election day, I did find that the frenetic energy of catchind the ballots and delivering them (as well as some ballots giving a negative value) to be a bit off the mark. I'm not sure what the larger message is supposed to be here. 
• Deliver the ballots to the polling houses, count those votes, and do it fast so that we can count the vote quickly!!!!! My question is -- why must we rush? Isn't it better to make sure the vote is properly counted? I'm not sure I want a "high score" -- I want to make sure the votes of the electorate are counted faithfully.
• Lacks engagement with political content.
• i think a lot of the messaging and theming is missing from the game. maybe seeing what the negative effects of running out of ballots would have on the populace would help.
• The theme isn't super clear but the idea of catching ballots and filling the polling places makes sense. I think it could've used a bit more set-up and additional theming since right now the ballots could be substituted for many other things and still make sense. 
• Right on point with the theme!

Innovation: 16

• Again, hard to say -- as the polls started shuttering, I found a sweetspot at one, and that allowed me to stay in a game much longer than I would have originally thought. Interestingly there seems to be a connection between keeping at least one house alive and making sure the votes get counted, but without some sort of secondary countdown (like a timer) I kept wondering how long could I (or the country) keep this up?
• Standard game format with a coat of GOTV paint.
• i quite liked the gameplay, its a very simple but addictive design that i could see my self playing for a while.
• This is a pretty simple endless runner type game so the mechanics aren't necessarily innovative, but giving it a political theme is pretty interesting and I'm not sure I've seen it before
• It's unique and fun

Quality: 19

• easy enough to understand
• Everything works, so that's great! There is music and sprites and there are no bugs. I would have appreciated a little tutorial or some text letting me know what's going on, though.
• Mechanically and artistically solid, but not standout. 
• the gameplay is pretty smooth and the mechanics are easy to understand and fun to play, however i think this game would benefit from a bit more juice.
• The mechanics are very easy to understand which is a plus: just move your mouse around, catch ballots, and keep the houses from getting to 0. Needing to Alt+F4 to exit and not having instructions or a menu within the game do hurt here.
• Everything worked perfectly and the game was very easy to understand

Accessibility: 19

• Definitely struggled with the mouse. 
• You basically just use the mouse; there's no other way to play the game.
• Standard settings options.
• very accessible and easy to play, the use of only symbols and images makes it quite accessible.
• The game itself is pretty easy and accessible since you only need to move your mouse.
• Just move the mouse. Very straightforward.

Diversity: 8

• No comment
• There could've been some commentary on how votes from historically disenfranchised districts aren't counted, or how low-income marginalized communities face obstacles getting to vote, or something like that... but that wasn't brought up in this game.
• Diversity is not engaged with.
• there is a lack of diversity in this game as we only see one person in this game.
• This didn't seem to be a super important part of the game design
• No specific focus on marginalized groups

Best Newcomer: 20

• Game runs and plays well.
• i quite liked the gameplay, i think there is a bit missing from visual polish and the messaging/engagement with the theme. but overall, fun game!
• This is a nice game with a fun gameplay loop that could've used some more polish, but is a really great entry for a newcomer team!
• I really liked this game. I really wanted to catch every single ballot! Well done.

Game 4: Promtition- 114 total (92 w/o newcomer) 

Political Impact: 21

• What I was able to play certainly adhere to the theme around civic engagment, with a narrative storyline of mobilizing the student body into signing position for a dresscode in porm
• I think visual novels and non-linear narrative games are definitely more impactful when it comes to taking political action -- you've got to try a bunch of things to see what works and what doesn't work. I also appreciate that this game is about organizing your fellow classmates into taking action. The necessary game verb is... well, agitation! Keep at it, talk to your neighbors and friends! So of course the options that allow the player to stand to the side and "not get involved" aren't going to be successful. While I've found this to be true of real life, of course real life is more nuanced than that -- so I wish some of the choices weren't so obvious ("give up" versus "keep going").
• Ironically for a game about democracy and political organizing, your choices are very limited. Would have like to see more narrative paths, but the one developed was very good.
• i like the idea of teaching the player about petitions and exercising your right to do so. However, i think the message is a undercut by how low the stakes are in this scenario. is having a dress code really going to ruin everything about prom? what kind of important real-world petitions are out there that you could draw inspiration from?
• I think the visual novel style is great for delivering any kind of message, and this game did a good job of putting that into the context of a high school.
• The game clearly demonstrates how civic action can make a difference, even on the local level

Innovation: 13

• What I enjoyed was the opportunities to display persistance, as the main character didn't particularly strike me as the most confident individual, and there were a couple of set backs along the way, with the students not immediately jumping on board for the petition. 
• It doesn't feel extremely innovative to me, but I did like the environment/setting of animals at a high school (a la Goodbye Volcano High). Also, side note, the political issue of organizing around the dress code is PERFECT for high schoolers.
• Very individually focused. protagonist format not well suited to democratic theme. Narrative format barely qualifies as gameplay.
• i think there are some missed opportunities in regards to how we convince people that petitions are important and can enact change. I would have liked to see more rationale for why citizens should care about petitions and see them as an avenue of change.
• The visual novel alone maybe isn't super innovative but I did like the prom petition idea and giving players choices in how to navigate situations always creates potential for new ideas
• I liked the focus on high school politics; you even included disparate voices that show how complex political negotiation can be

Quality: 17

• There were elemetns that did really work in its favor: the art and music especially, as well as the narrative progression. But there were also a couple of game breaking bugs that got in the way of me playing through the experienece, and I tried back tracking to see if I could get around them, but no dice. 
• In comparison with other games, I thought the art was exceptional, and I appreciated the writing and music as well.
• Laughed at differential equations for a HS senior. Art and sound is solid. Game crashes after on track section.
• i really like the art and for the most part the game runs well and is easy to understand. however, i did get a crash at a certain point.
• This is a very polished game and it was a good idea to pursue a visual novel in RenPy since it does make it much easier to put together a polished product for this kind of genre. The art is very well done and looks like a professional product and the music is nice too!
• Unfortunately a couple options I selected led to error codes that forced me to restart the game

Accessibility: 23

• The Game is a pretty straight forward visual novel, so other than the occasional click, it didn't feel like there were many challenges to surmnout. 
• Again, in comparison with other games, I appreciated that there were more options to customize the game to the player's desire.
• Accesibility and customizable settings are provided on startup.
• the game is very easy to understand how to play and is very approachable.
• Visual novel games are inherently pretty accessible, so I think this game did a good job with this
• The game is easy to play and accessible

Diversity: 18

• The animals as character was really cute, and I think there is animplicitly diverse message with cuddly creature of different kinds getting along pretty easily.
• The game's world is full of animals (and in my playthrough, it didn't seem very allegorical to real-world racial diversity), so I would't say that the game is particularly concerned with justice & liberation in the real-world sense. However, there are different people who have different thoughts and opinions about the dress code in the game, so I wanted to give some credit.
• Diversity not engaged with as a theme. Variety of characters (nonhuman) depicted.
• i like that the game shows a diverse array of characters with differing views.
• This game pursued diversity by representing various kinds of animals as the characters, which I think is a fair way to do so
• No specific highlighting of minority groups or diversity

Best Newcomer: 22

• As newcomers, this was a stellar first playable! You guys should be proud! I was bumping to the sound track and rooting for our duckling the whole way
• Loved it!
• Game is not in finished state, crashing after certain point.
• i think the game looks great and generally runs very well.
• Great stuff for a new team, with a nicely polished product!
• This is a great first game! Well done.

Game 3: Pack the Court!- 109 total

Political Impact: 24

• Very entertaining concept and execution! Playing this game was fun and I got the joke!
• This is another game that has chosen the path of civic action as "combat", which I personally kind of balk at. There are monsters that represent the citizens' disagreements, but what *are* those disagreements, and *how* are you dispelling them in a political way? Yes, the player "defeats the monsters", but what exactly are we doing as King & Wizard that translates to political action? Also, I was kind of confused as to why an official ballot dropbox is considered an enemy/monster in the game? Sorry, one more thing: why are we being "elected president" in a kingdom?
• Not particularly democratic in theme, possibly could have been improved with a more localized (e.g. friend group deciding where to eat) theme rather than a judicial one. The depicition of "disagreements of the people" threatening the nation is particularly undemocratic.
• this game does a good job of abstracting a complex topic in a very humorous and approachable way.
• This was pretty awesome! This game was so cool and I loved how it delivered its message about the composition of the court, putting you in power and showing you how it can be difficult to manage!
• The game strongly presents a fun way to think about the judicial branch of government

Innovation: 25

• It was so interesting how much I came to rely on the recuse and undisclosed gift inorder to tackle the monster requirements for a better score. The implicit argument was grokable without getting too doom and gloom about its realworld implications. The bigger the court gets the more it resembles congress, and there is a lassitude and pettiness with lifetime appointments involved.
• See above.
• Novel engagement with judicial branch. Liked representation of legal problems associated with technological innovation.
• there is a very nice harmony between the humour of the narrative, the design of the gameplay and the educational message behind it all. I think there is the right amount of messaging here without being too heavy-handed or talking down to the player.
• I think this game was definitely innovative. I loved the idea of turning the court into kind of an RPG party to go out and handle "cases", and leaving you to deal with the issues of a bloated court and handling public opinion.

Quality: 28

• It works, it's funny, I ran in to few bugs and nothing was game breaking. Looking good!
• This game, compared to the first two, felt more polished! I appreciated the sound effects, music, art, animations, and more.
• Stylistically charming. Art and sound is very good. Appeared to be a mechanical discrepancy between cases and scoring that I did not understand.
• this is very, very well polished. the visual design is gorgeous and cohesive.
• Polish was great, the art and music were high quality and fit the theme of the game, and I really enjoyed the tutorials and hints every time a new mechanic was introduced.
• The game was very polished and the explanations were clear and concise

Accessibility: 18

• No standout accessibility features, but the mechanics were easy to understand for me. 
• I appreciated the wizard's guidance button, which allowed me to go back and read old instructions from the game.
• No accesibility features were provided.
• i think this game has a lot of explanation that makes it easy to understand and play.
• I'm not sure if there was particular attention paid to accessibility with this game.
• I didn't see any alternate controls but the game feels easy enough to access for anyone

Diversity: 14

• While I don't necessarily count this against the project, it wasn't looking to really make a statement on diversity or the challenges of underrepresented populations, as it was mostly providing a commentary on the halls of power itself, and the increasing back deals needed to make something happen. 
• It didn't seem like diversity or marginalized groups were on the minds of the developers here.
• One character was depicted. Diversity was not engaged with.
• there is an interesting mix of obstacles, enemies and colours of justices.
• I think this game did a pretty solid job at representing diversity through the various types of judges and the wizard.
• No highlighting of minority groups or specific focus on diversity

Best Newcomer: N/A 

Game 2: Plated Talks- 82 total

Political Impact: 17

• While I wouldn't say that it necessarily "captured the theme" of civic engagement, I do love it's take on the dinner table as a poltical battle ground, as well as something that is often defined by generational divides. Very insightful! 
• I felt that I understood the theme of this game more from the description than the actual experience itself. There is no explanation of rules or environment or what exactly it *is* that the player is doing in this game. I'm not sure how impactful a tower defense-style game is as a game that's meant to be about discussion of politics, civis, and personal beliefs -- it definitely frames these kinds of conversations as combative, and I don't know how I feel about that honestly.
• Minimal engagement with political content beyond the stated theme.
• the message of democracy is kind of abstracted away here, which I do like. However, I think you need a little bit more of a thread that makes the player think of the theme. Even just having the word "democracy" written on the piece of paper would be enough to have the player think about that word in relation to what they are seeing on screen. 
• I think it was a nice idea to deliver the message through family conversation, since that is definitely something many of us experience! Although I think it would've been nice to have more explanation of the theme within the game, as it could be a little unclear. 

Innovation: 22

• It's abstract, but where this game succeeds in my mind is in how well it manages to illustrate the tensions between generations, receiving perspectives, and influencing decision makings. The fact that the thought clouds are "neutral" (they only reflect the magnitude of the outside interest, rather than consideration for themselves) can illustrate the consequences of passivity while being under bombardment from outside perspectives. The need to define oneself is the missing element in voting, and what one cares about for themselves, is a takeaway from playing this. 
• I have never played a tower defense game that was about political conversations, so there's that! But ultimately I don't think it's very innovative, frankly.
• Connection to political discourse/polarization/ideology is nebulous at best. Tower defense concept is interesting but underdeveloped - would have liked to see more choices available.
• i do really like that the political theme is abstracted away here. it doesnt hit me over the head with it too much. However, i am not exactly sure what this game is saying.
• The tower defense concept for a political game isn't something I've seen before and could have a lot of potential for sure. I'd like to see that idea fleshed out more one day maybe.
• The idea and implementation of a combative dinner is very clever

Quality: 19

• It took me a couple of tries to get it (I'm not super familiar with the tower defense genre) but I won on the second playthrough, mostly by hedging my pieces at the end of the coveyer belt. If the thoughts enter red, then the opposition won't target them, buy my pieces will, and so I could convert them just before they hit the end of the line. 
• As with "Get Out the Vote", I'm not sure the developers had enough time to truly polish the game, but it's a good start.
• Credits lacked specifics as to who did what. Game mechanics explanation lacking.
• Even though there isnt much instruction, it is very easy to figure out how to play. i really like the paper aesthetic of this project!
• I liked the music direction with things sounding distorted/messy during the conversation, and the art with the scribble/sketch theme was really nice. I did have a lot of trouble understanding the mechanics, though. It was unclear when or why I got a new tower, when a new round was starting, or how I won.
• Straightforward, clean and fun!

Accessibility: 13

• This game could have improved with even a short explanation of what the rules are or how to play the game.
• No accessiblity mechanics present.
• overall i think the accessibility is solid. its mostly icon/symbol based which is a good accessibility choice.
• I don't think there were any accessibility features that I noticed.
• I could have used a little more explanation about gameplay. I figured it out after a few tries but a bit more upfront would have been nice

Diversity: 11

• It's mostly agender and and aracial, with an aesthetic minimalism. Having said that "red" is associated with republican in the national discourse-- perhaps choosing another color might work best to avoid implications of a known party.
• Given that we don't even know what the political discussions are about, it's hard to answer this question, as the game is so metaphorical. One thing I will say is that it portrays older people (I assume the parents, uncles, aunties, or older family members) as the villains, which.... like, yeah I get why younger people (myself included!) are frustrated by boomer antics. But again, ultimately, framing civic issues as an issue of combat is too simplistic, not productive, in my opinion.
• Diversity not engaged with.
• its kind of tough to judge this section as the individuals in this game are paper-people.
• This game only had two characters from what I could tell, so I don't know if diversity was necessarily a focus.
• The explanatory text talks about young people finding their voice, but the gameplay doesn't necessarily tie into this

Best Newcomer: N/A

Game 1: Get Out and Vote- 121 Newcomer total (103 w/o newcomer)

Political Impact: 27

• Centering a game around the verbs of political action are a great way to remind people of their engagement opportunities. Great Job!
• So close to the election, the game is all about the specific political action of voting -- just one of the many tools in our toolbox. I think the most effective of the 3 minigames was the "speaking to different potential voters" minigame and processing people's thoughts and feelings about voting as a political action. 
• Reinforces voting as the sole avenue of democratic political action. Fails to grapple with democracy as a political concept.
• the game does a good job of sticking to the theme. it is very clear what the message is and i think there are some good arguments within the game for why and how people can and should go vote.
• Great job sticking to the theme! The visual novel especially did a great job communicating issues and potential solutions, and the other games delivered the message as well.
• Thematically on point!

Innovation: 18

• By highlighting what community members look like at the ground level of your experience, you are hinting at the evolving landscape of the voter. Bravo.
• Overall, the game to me felt solidly in the middle: not especially innovative or fresh, but not boring either! I appreciated the "political Wordle" minigame, that was a cool idea.
• Stakes presented as self-evident. Fails to challenge critiques of democracy.
• while the game has strong messaging, i dont think it is particularly innovative with HOW it conveys that message. It is an assemblage of mini-games which feel quite disjointed from each other. it would have been nice to see more cohesion between gameplay and theme.
• I really enjoyed the visual novel portion of the game and the overall narrative of getting out the vote, I think that concept has a lot of potential for a fun and informative game.
• All three minigames were creative and unique

Quality: 16

• There were a couple of hiccups that prevented me from easily progressing through the wordle minigame mode. I needed the guide to enter the words, as the wordlist was a bit too constrained for me to work through it on my own. Wordles usually have a word list of a few million, so I get why it wasn't feasible.
• Though a cool initial idea, the game could certainly use more time for polish. I wasn't exactly sure how the poster-hanging minigame worked; I would press "E" and nothing would happen. It seemed like I was collecting posters automatically somehow.
• Default audio level should be reduced. Wordle lacked many common words in list, such as "world," "drive," and "crate," making game nearly unplayable. Poster game mechanics not fully explained. Art & audio quality are solid but gameplay & narrative feels like a rush job.
• the conversation and poster mini-games are easy to understand and play. I had a hard time with the wordle section as the word bank is very limited, i found it very frustrating. 
• The music was great and I enjoyed the art of the various voters we got to talk to! I had some trouble figuring things out with the wordle and top-down poster game, but the mechanics were presented clearly.  
• I struggled with the poster placement mini-game; I could have used a little more instruction/clarity.

Accessibility: 18

• While there are no features for accessibilities that I saw, I would say the work does emphasize the avenues of engagement and access, which is a form of efficacy and empowerment. 
• The game could have used more accessible features (even just a pause menu to refresh the game or go back to the main menu would've been nice), but I understand that there probably wasn't much time to plan ahead and really implement these important features.
• Unable to exit from minigames or game menu to main menu. No accessiblity features.
• there are subtitles but that is about it as far as accessibility options go.
• The mechanics seemed fairly accessible to me and straightforward, although I think there were some missed opportunities (such as allowing the player to use their mouse to advance the visual novel dialogue, I may have missed it but I could only use the space bar)
• It seemed accessible enough to me, but the controls for poster placement were a little funky.

Diversity: 24

• great representational elements in the canvasing and poster work. 
• I think the part of the game that most exemplified diversity was the minigame in which you "convince people to vote" -- you get to see a wide range of citizens and potential voters.
• People who were not white men were depicted.
• this game does a great job of representing many different people.
• I think this game did a great job with diversity and portrayed many different kinds of people.
• I liked the diverse pool of people in the first minigame a lot!

Best Newcomer: 18

• I'm not sure I understand the question, but I think the game is a great start as a product made by a team of new game developers!
• Feels like a game that was developed as a introductory project.
• i think this is an excellent first game! Something to think about in your future projects, is thinking of ways to harmonize the gameplay with the theme a bit more.
• I think this was awesome work for a newcomer team, well done!
• This was well done! Props to everyone involved.

The deadline has been extended to 10/18 at 11:59PM PST!

A friendly reminder to join the Discord server! This is the place to form teams, communicate with other jammers, and so much more! 

https://discord.gg/3EPFdMDwzV

Yeah most of the impactful dice features got cut due to scope, if you wanna see them the design doc is linked in the game page

Really nice polish- the ink/doodle style art fit the black and white theme perfectly. Art had a really lovely charm. The audio had a lovely playfulness to it which was really fitting.

Design- I wasn't exactly sure as to why the loop/timer was necessary; I feel like the core emotion/pillar of annoyance/playfulness would have been better served if the game was presented in a more sandbox/toybox format where there was no "real" objective, or maybe they are hidden information. Also, I understand that the indicator for what can be knocked down or not was planned but couldn't make it- I felt like in certain cases the affordance for what could be knocked down or not wasn't clear. Finally, level design- representing a 3D space in 2D is really hard, and though the artstyle largely masked it I found it a bit difficult to distinguish between platforms I can stand on and ones I can't stand on. 

UI- Certain button placement (pause menu or settings for example) felt a bit random, a bit all over the place. This delivers on the theme but sacrifices usability- meaningful sacrifice for some but not all. If button placement was standardized it would've been better I think. One minor thing was button highlights- I felt like the button wasn't highlighted enough when it was already selected. If it was completely blacked out or greyed out it would've been better. 

Overall incredible game. Exquisite polish and great tone, though some mechanics I feel like can use some iteration. 

-Magnifying glass mechanic is very clean and efficient: directly revealing hidden information through this felt very intuitive

-(Bug): I couldn't move around with WASD or Arrow keys; "interacting with NPCs" also didn't happen? I was able to read dialogue when I moused them over though. Also on Level 6 the "pairing up" of townsfolk was kind of a guess since there was no narrative clue (no real dialogue when I moused them over)

-Trigger warning is always always good. Well done on that one. 

-One thing to note about heavy subject matter: I recognize that this is a game jam game and it simplifies certain elements of emotional distress  for the sake of time, but the idea of "doing okay on surface but doing Not That Great actually inside" was maybe too simplified? It delivered the message, but there is a lot of potential with this mechanic I believe, and if this was a more narrative-heavy game I feel like it would've made more sense, but the simplicity of the narrative kind of takes the potential away from a brilliant gameplay mechanic. 

Overall a great game!

Pretty damn good! The anxieties of a platforming challenge paralleled with the anxieties of talking to an old friend is a really cool concept, especially when you're trying to vertically scale a level (and how you have to scale it slowly at first vs. quickly later when actually saying hi). The falling down event is also very memorable, really nicely conveys that exact feeling when you miss the timing by just a bit. 

Writing was also pretty good. It sorta broke my heart towards the ending but the general messaging was quite solid- maybe integrate text into the platforming blocks? Wished that writing was more integrated into the level design itself.

Intro levels were pretty well constructed, faithfully following the Mario logic of "introduce a mechanic in a safe space -> elaborate on that mechanic with risk -> further elaborate on that mechanic". 

Bouncing ball to double jump felt a bit too tight on the timing, but it definitely conveyed that rushing emotion/confidence- again, conveying emotion with level design. Very very well done. 

I've learned a ton through this game- hopefully we can collaborate in the future!