RatJar by PolyOrbit Studio
Here is RatJar
The rat in the jar !

The main character is a rat, and this rat tries to escape through a city by being inside a jar, and you have to keep him alive by controlling the jar and avoiding obstacles !
Make sure you will never break the jar !

But this city has a lot of surprises for you, and a concept that seems so simple risks to bring much more challenge than expected !

We've made within the 72 hours delay : - All models. - The music. - All game mechanics and source code.
Download the game on Gamejolt or Itch.io at the end of the jam :smile: !

[Itch.io] https://polyorbit-studio.itch.io/ratjar
[GameJolt] https://gamejolt.com/games/ratjarld46/487795
Ratings
| Overall | 143th | 4.081⭐ | 64🧑⚖️ |
| Fun | 180th | 3.944⭐ | 64🧑⚖️ |
| Innovation | 115th | 4.024⭐ | 64🧑⚖️ |
| Theme | 601th | 3.952⭐ | 64🧑⚖️ |
| Graphics | 145th | 4.444⭐ | 65🧑⚖️ |
| Audio | 128th | 4.089⭐ | 64🧑⚖️ |
| Humor | 700th | 3.31⭐ | 60🧑⚖️ |
| Mood | 542th | 3.767⭐ | 60🧑⚖️ |
| Given | 37🗳️ | 42🗨️ |
@developers
Great one! Looks and sounds good, and the camera is pretty sweet. Overall, one of the most aesthetically pleasant games from the jam in terms of look and feel.
A few places where the path forward was not very obvious, like when you go right at the two arches and the wall explodes I was very confused and the camera did not work well in that location. Just past this point, you have to go off to your right breaking through a fruit stand, but I thought you could go down the stairs if you go slow enough. I get that that was meant to be a mini-puzzle, but maby thats not the best core gameplay.
Often, you have to go slow and steady, but I feel like a more fast pace with more focus on destruction would be a better match for a rat causing chaos in the bazaar, and just be more fun to play. I don't think difficulty is important when the main appeal of the game is the sweet aesthetic.
The palace approach is also super sick by the way. Overall great job!
I did manage to get myself stuck a couple times, and there wasn't a good recourse that I could see besides quitting and restarting.
Overall, I loved it!
Fun game. Easy to understand and very fun to play. The camera movement is a little strange at first glance, but it gets easy to understand through the game.
Good job!
Sadly i could'nt make it to the end, the 2nd checkpoint killed my joy :(
The downside for me is the level design, which is sometimes really frustrating, and the camera angle make you die too often. Beside that, it's for now the most polished game i tried !
Great job !
The graphics, post processing effects and camera dolly shots where amazing, the idea was very innovative and awesome, I also loved the little details like when you pushed that cart over and the apples (?) rolled over the floor, simply amazing!
I just felt a bit stuck as soon as I didn't make the slope upwards, maybe have the rat move the jar by itself and you just navigating the direction? :)
and after you get stuck make like a little pause and fade-in of speed until the rat moves in full speed again?
Anyway, this game is a real gem, you can be proud of yourselfes :)
I don't know why, but I got stuck every time after the first jump, and I can't move anymore.
That's how I discovered the secret rage quit menu x)
Best feature.
I'll probably try to get further.
The difficulty was quite high however. Some glancing light tappings would sometimes smash the vase. Also, despite the great camera work, sometimes the angle made the things unnecessarily difficult (like a diagonal red tent in the beginning of the 3rd section.
But it was a really satisfying and pleasurable experience otherwise! Great job.
One thing though, it's weird to me that you can slow down as a vase. I think without it the level design (slope of the ground) would have a powerful tool to modulate the difficulty and pace of the game.
So first of the quality of this game for a jam is amazing. It really is and I feel bad I have to search and think really hard to give constructive criticsm. Saying it's great is constructive criticism but the game is not perfect by any mean so how with such a quality game do you give feedback that can make the game and devs improve ?
I mean the music are not repetitive. The concept is not that innovative but its certainly not a classical, the assets and the works are great and we have something that is very very rare in a game jam : a long game with a dynamic camera.
Honestly that same camera gave me a lot of difficulty to do precise movement wich the game asked a lot. But that's when I might give an idea that I hope for next dynamic cams might help you out.
There is a rule in game design that says to never even hide your character. Games do that by making invisible the view blocker or by making the outline of your character visible through the view blocker. The first one might takes more time than the second one depending on how experienced you are in shading and what software you use.
I think that will have greatly prevent many situation where not seeing you character can end up making him dead.
The second thing I would have done ( unless it was voluntary obstacle ) is once you explode a barrel or table, make its parts simulated physic, that's great, but prevent them from colliding with the player. There's this instance at the end of the game where 3 tables are in front of a ramp you have to rush through and the tables parts derived my trajectory, wich means I have either to do that again or die. And in the die case next time you like sweep around the parts so they do not bother you and then you manage to climb the ramp only to fall into water and having to start again.
Also on a design side, I think that more obvious way to go would have been better. Your character is already so fragile that I feel like dying because you're not sure where to go or what to do because you can't see it shouldn't happen. Understanding tables, looking for possibilities and trying again. Not a problem. But actualy not seeing where to go and dying again and again because of that. I think it might not be what you aimed for as an experience.
A precise instance of what i'm talking about is at the entrance of the palace with the golden jars. The first thing you have to do is climb a ramp in order to go on a crate and from there... Nothing. If you fall you die. I had to try every direction to fall on leafs and then proceed. I really feel like some paint on one side of the crate or anything to say you have to fall this way, even if subtle, would have help a lot. I'm not one to get frustrated but I feel like someone who easily gets would just rage out.
Sorry about this long and precise post but honestly with such a good quality game you can't do an overall criticism and say wich point to improve in general. The game is really good. Maybe a bit too hard. I'll go and rate it now
cons: The camera isn't perfect, how speed and obstacles kill you is not really clear (I died just by stepping on the first ramp but fell from far higher later without dying) and... a faith jump ? That's a bit harsh
A couple little problems though:
-It felt a little bit cheap having a bunch of hay bails be put at drops that the player just can't see the bottom of. Obviously once you die and know they're there it's fine, but the first time it happens is still annoying. It's not really a challenge, and comes off more as a joke at the players expense. Which hey, first time around I actually found it funny! Less so afterwards though.
- When I started I somehow managed to get myself turned around, so trying to get used to the tank controls without knowing which was was forwards was a bit frustrating. Just something to roughly tell the player which was is forwards and back would be a great touch!
Seriously though, I loved this game! Great entry!