itch.io

For your first solo rpg, I think you did a great job!

Always love seeing a physical game entry in game jams!

(Says the dev that has only submitted physical games so far - I'm totally not biased, lol)

Unfortunately I can't vote/rate your game for the jam due to not being able to finish and submit my own game (had a busy week) - but I do still want to give some feedback.

First and foremost: this is a very fun idea for a small solo journaling rpg!

The concept of physically building a path from point A to point B with cards is a nice tactile evocation of the narrative. Having the card suits be an adjective added on to the number's description, as opposed to having to come up with about 4 times the number of examples by having each number have a different example for each suit, is a great way to streamline the design.

Some smaller touches I love; the inclusions of flavor text thematically bookending the game, the changing of font to separate the card number from its result, the use of the word “oracle” for the supplemental table, the general formatting of the document, and (of course) the lil’ sketch of the lil’ guy.

Really only got 4 notable critiques - each are kinda not too big of a concern, but still notable at the very least.

The explanation of needing a “calculation” to reach the end feels a bit sudden and clunky. It makes sense on a 2nd or 3rd read, especially with the provided examples - but if any section could use some slight tweaking, it's that one. I think the main reason it feels off is due to the first half of that section initially sounding like you choose to end based on vibes - “if you notice your most recent cards pointing to your destination” can kinda read as “well, the destination is a forest, and I’ve been getting some forest-y events, so kinda feels like I’m getting close” - but then you reach the mention of a calculation and it suddenly goes from a vibes-based decision to a mechanical-based one. To be clear, both vibes-based and mechanical-based are valid options (heck, you can even offer both and leave it to the player to pick one), it's just that sudden switch that seems to be the cause for a lil' confusion on the 1st read.

The way line breaks and indents are done feels… off - it's hard to fully articulate, but since most sections before a line break are relatively short, it almost feels like they are operating in reverse to how normal indentation works (instead of 1 line being slightly to the right, 1 line is now slightly to the left). It looks fine in the “your journey” section, but elsewhere it what I'm talking about is a bit more noticable. I could see this simply being an aesthetic choice - which is fine, it works (once I got over the initial “wait a sec” reaction, there is a sort of charm to it) - but I could also see this being the result of just defaulting to the usual essay style of writing (ie. "the first line of a paragraph is always indented"), in which case I'd say maybe reconsider (tbf, if you reconsider and end up with "you know what, I like it as is" that's 100% valid).

The yellow background, while nice, could cause printing issues. If someone tried printing this on a black/white printer, it would use up more ink than needed by making the background grey. It would probably be a good idea to include a 2nd file on the game’s page for a “printer friendly” version with a white background.

Lastly, it seems you uploaded the game under the category “game” - I’d personally suggest going into the itch page editor and changing it to “physical game”... That probably sounds pedantic and silly, but it helps with stuff like organizing and searching for stuff on the site.

Overall - great game!

(P.S. sorry if this was a very long winded response - that's just how I tend to write.)

The short answer is "that's just how jams go."

Not everyone who sign up for a jam is able to finish, which can be for several reasons. Signed up but forgot, couldn't think of ideas, couldn't find a team and didn't feel comfortable solo deving, scope-creep got out of control, busy week so didn't have time (hi, that's what happened to me), etc etc etc.

Not to mention that projects that do get submitted aren't exclusively from solo devs - so the number of entrees inherently will always be less than the number of members.

Put it all together and a small 38 person jam might only get 9 projects submitted.

(And while I'd rather not address it tbh - some people are homophobic - while, I'd like to assume the community that has grown out of these lil' guy jams generally aren't - it's not outside the realm of possibility someone quit from this specific jam for that reason. Though if that was the case, I'd assume it was only a small minority of participants, since the previously listed reasons are typically more likely to be the cause.)

So yeah - "that's just how game jams go."

It's fine, it happens. If someone wasn't able to finish, they may have at least gotten a chance to start a new project to finish later or simply just practice for a skill set. There's always the next jam.

Glad to hear you completed a game! Looking forward to checking out your entry and all the other entries.

Regarding the last bit - I was in the process of designing a game, but unfortunately the past week just got a bit too chaotic for me to finish and submit it. It's unfortunate, but it happens - thankfully there's always the next jam (plus, I can always just finish up the WIP design for this jam and post it seperate from the jam later).

Totally understandable. A fun thing about jams is that, end of the day, they are meant to help find inspiration - so even if you don't have an idea now or you can't finish a game in time to submit for the jam, maybe it'll at least give you and idea or 2 for future projects.

Regardless of if you end up submitting a game or not - good luck with any future designs and have a good day!

(The question was effectively already answered, but A: Could use a little more detail & B: Have a lot less rude of a tone, so here you go)

Game Jam Theme (general concept):

The goal of any jam is to try making (and ideally, but not necessarily, finish) a game within the allotted time (for this jam, a week). To help provide motivation and a general starting direction for brainstorming, a theme is usually included. In most jams, themes are intentionally loose concepts left up to the participants interpretation. More often than not, as long as there was some explainable logic that got you from the theme to your design, you're good to go!

Theme 1 "Lil' guy:"

This series of jams all share the theme "lil' guy" which simply means any sort of small character or creature. A fantasy dwarf? A cute bunny rabbit? A sentient toaster? The specifics don't matter - it's more about the vibes. If you can point to it and go "look at this lil' guy," you got it! If you're struggling to think of ideas for a game revolving around a little guy, remember you can always just make a game to then retroactive slap a lil' guy into.

Theme 2 "little gays" (happy pride month!):

For lil' guy game jam 7, the 2nd theme is "little gays." The wording of the theme is mostly a play on the "little guy" theme, so if it helps, you can instead think of the 2nd theme as incouraging your game to have some LGBTQIA+ related element. Yuri visual novel? Pride parade management sim? JRPG that's a metaphor of the experience of being queer? Like the first theme, the specifics don't matter. Heck, if you're struggling for ideas, just focus on making the game and simply add the detail that one or more of your characters in it are queer. If your game doesn't have characters (your "lil guy" could just be a box with googly eyes) then another idea could be limiting yourself to the color palette of a Pride flag. End of the day, if there is some connection to LGBTQIA+, you're good!

Game Engine:

Any engine is allowed! You can even choose to not have an engine and instead make a physical game like a board game, card game, or TTRPG.

(Not one of your questions, but feels like an important note to make given the other response to your questions)

Regarding Generative AI (and asking questions):

Generative AI of any form is not allowed for this jam. As for using AI if you have a question, while no one can stop you, there are a lot of people here and in the Discord server that would gladly answer any questions you might have. There's nothing wrong with asking for clarifications.

(And TBH, I know a lot of people - myself included - would much rather someone ask their fellow jammers questions than ask an AI.)

I hope that answered your questions, but if you still need some clarifications feel free to ask and I (or another jammer) will try to help out as soon as possible.

Glad to have you here, good luck with your game, and don't forget to have fun!

Since I can't code (yet), physical games are my go-to when solo developing a game. It's mildly amusing to me how often I've seen people be surprised by the idea of designing a board game, card game, rpg, etc for a game jam - but tbf, the ven diagram overlap of jammers and digital game designers is nearly a circle, lol.

What originally started as a fun idea - using playing cards or similar easily available game pieces to make trying out a game easier - has more/less become a staple of my game jam designs. Awhile back I learned about how Uno decks are effectively a combination of 2 standard playing card decks, and since then been wanting to try and find a way of using that knowledge - so here we are.

There is probably a bit of balance fine-tuning that could/should be had with the game - besides and core game edits, I hope to add some variant rules later to help play groups adjust the game to their personal liking. Some sort of "once a turn you can discard 1 (or perhaps 1+) card(s) to draw that many cards back" could probably work well as a variant rule. As far as the base game goes, I made it a 3 card hand with no real draw options to avoid overwhelming players with options - especially given, outside of the non-wind cards and some late game strategies, a lot of the main gameplay loop is guessing what others will play and the randomness that causes. It's not entirely luck - but there is enough luck involved that keeping the base game options simple felt like the right call.

Regardless - thanks for the feedback!

So, there is the following rule that makes me assume physical game design (board games, card games, TTRPGs, etc) isn't allowed...

"Control Guidelines: All games must be playable on at least Windows 10/11 and with mouse and keyboard."

... But would designing a physical game that is playable via a program ok? For example, a board game on Table Top Simulator, or a TTRPG that can be played over Discord.

UPDATE: Got this answered by the hosts in the Discord - yes, physical games are also allowed.

So, itch isn't a platform only for video games - assets, tools, albums, books, comics, physical games, and really just about whatever someone wants to post as a project can be found on the site. When searching through projects, that's why there is a drop down box at the top of the page to separate what kind of projects you're searching through. Switch if from "Games" to "Physical Games" and you'll get thousands of examples of TTRPGs, board games, card games, one-pages, etc.

Which brings me to another point, physical games aren't only boxed board games and card games, like you see in a store - it's just anything that doesn't require code to play. Which, if you wanna make the argument of accessability for people regardless of accessable tech - loading an image to see the rules of a game is *waaay* simpler for a device to do than trying to load and run code.

Sure, you could make a game that requires a board, pieces, extra bits, or what have you - but that doesn't stop it from being accessable on itch, or suddenly make it require shipping to play. Say you need a board; you can simply post the image file and players could just print it out (or if they are playing virtually, say over discord, one player could stream having the image file in a paint/photoshop -like program where you add and move the pieces on another layer).

That being said, a lot of the physical games you see on itch, especially those posted to game jams, don't require a ton of stuff like that. If it's an TTRPG, the most you might need besides a PDF for rules is a piece of paper, a pencil, and some dice (all of which can easily be replaced digitally, for free, if the player wanted). One-Page games are literal designed with the philosophy of "all you really need to do is to print 1 piece of paper," or, heck, just load an image of said paper (there is currently a jam specifically for these sort of games going on if you curious about learning more and want to see examples). Having multiple players (a common assumption when discussing physical games) isn't even a real requirement - solo physical games exist just as easily as solo digital ones.

As for actually posting and participating in a jam (especially one with voting): yes, you can post videos to itch on a project page or for a devlog on a project (or, bare minimum, put a link in a comment or the project's description), so if you wanted to include recorded game footage, you can. That being said, you don't really see that happening a lot, since (as discussed above) these games aren't really all too difficult to just pick up and play. Sure it's not as seemingly simple to the player as clicking a "play" button and the game running (assuming the game was designed for browser play and the player has a device that can run it - which is not always the case, or arguably the case most of the time), but in most cases all that's required is loading an image or downloading a PDF, doing some reading, and MAYBE getting some sort of physical component like dice, playing cards, or a notepad, assuming they are even needed (all of which, again, can easily be replaced digitally).

TLDR: Itch isn't just a site for digital games and physical games are a lot more simple and accessable than you're implying (arguably more accessable than digital). There is nothing really stopping non-digital entries to game Jams, unless the host specifically wants it to be digital only (hence this thread - seeing as digital vs non-digital is never clarified in the jam's page).

Love the design of this game! The whole idea of using syllables count mechanically is really inspiring and led me to making my own syllable based one-page almost immediately. Just wanted to thank you for the idea! ... And also point something out I randomly noticed about your project.

Apparently the way Itch allows users to search for projects is extremely separated by project type, and they make the point to separate "(digital) games" and "physical games." While doing some research/testing into how it all works, noticed your game is categorized as "game" as opposed to a "physical game" (which I assume is the preferred category... But also for all I know this might be intentional) . . . I get this is probably a weird specification to make, but it seems if you are searching physical games, this project just won't turn up as a result (personally wish there was a search for both physical/digital - or they call the "games" category "digital games" - but oh well). IDK if this is something you'd want to change or not, but just in case it was, thought I'd point it out.

Personally, both digital and non-digital game design should be welcomed in game jams unless the jam's style is specifically for one or the other (ie. One-Page RPG jam, Godot game jam, etc). That being said, I am well aware to many people, the "game" part of "game jam" means digital only. Since I can't seem to find anywhere in the rules here providing a definitive yes/no on if non-digital games would be allowed, I thought it might be best to just directly ask.

Thank you!

Thank you!

While it can be a bit of a pain at times, I've found Slides to be a surprisingly useful program for designing documents and pieces for games; however, I wouldn't really recommend using it for a game's artwork like I did here, really that was just a self-appointed challenge... There were so many times I was considering just scraping it and opening up paint instead, but I'm glad with how it turned out in the end.