Jeff Origin Stories Jefferson Escape by phlp

[raw]
made by phlp for Ludum Dare 49 (JAM)

Play at https://phlp.itch.io/jeff-origin-stories-jefferson-escape

Jeff.png

Jeff was just a regular guy, at his regular job, on a regular Tuesday. Suddenly, the world around him changed. His reality had become... UNSTABLE. Something something. Escape the maze.

WASD to move. Mouse (LMB) to attack. Enter to restart.

Ratings

Overall 913th 3.4⭐ 22🧑‍⚖️
Fun 875th 3.31⭐ 23🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 582th 3.475⭐ 22🧑‍⚖️
Theme 673th 3.619⭐ 23🧑‍⚖️
Graphics 1176th 3⭐ 23🧑‍⚖️
Audio 626th 3.325⭐ 22🧑‍⚖️
Humor 536th 3.278⭐ 20🧑‍⚖️
Mood 574th 3.571⭐ 23🧑‍⚖️
Given 54🗳️ 16🗨️

Feedback

Surfa
04. Oct 2021 · 22:31 UTC
Was really good game. The maze shifting with reality was a nice touch. The ambience was spooky if not a little loud in parts. Graphics were good if nothing amazing. For the time spent was a really good game.
Westmave
04. Oct 2021 · 22:33 UTC
This is a good one. I really like the concept and its execution. Nice visuals, onpoint annoying music. I managed to free Jeff from the office, but I was followed outside :D
Taffaz
04. Oct 2021 · 23:25 UTC
Great game, loved the mechanic where the doorways shifted in the different "worlds".
Fizzget
04. Oct 2021 · 23:26 UTC
Nice combination of theme shifting with graphics and music to match. Standing in a room with a 'co-worker' waiting for the theme to change was a particular highlight.
THX
06. Oct 2021 · 21:43 UTC
Cool entry, I was a really big fan of the music layers and how they matched the current environment, awesome job.
Contro1990
07. Oct 2021 · 18:01 UTC
The phase shifting is a really nice idea! Good job!
bak
08. Oct 2021 · 15:10 UTC
Well this is a rather dark story.
I think it would be nice to highlight the passages to know which one would change.
I liked the gameplay and had a fun! nice job!!
yikescloud
08. Oct 2021 · 15:35 UTC
Cool game mechanic! A fun maze running escape with a horror and thought provoking story. You nailed it!
ranseur
08. Oct 2021 · 17:42 UTC
Nice entry! For some reason I really liked the sword animation.
Sarah
10. Oct 2021 · 22:11 UTC
I'm still a bit confused about the weapons and how it determines which you'll use, however the fighting was fun but I was incredibly bad at it haha. The idea of shifting into a different world to fight your monster coworkers? was an interesting idea and definitely fits the theme haha.

Nice job!!
jelch
13. Oct 2021 · 18:27 UTC
Neat idea!
jk5000
14. Oct 2021 · 13:20 UTC
Overall a fun little game. Well done.
Hydezeke
14. Oct 2021 · 13:43 UTC
The shifting of the maze walls themselves was my favorite part (though I had to wait a long time to figure out my path sometimes). The whole process of seeing a guy in office mode, then waiting a few seconds so you can /kill/ them is kinda hilarious.
doomshmuck
14. Oct 2021 · 13:54 UTC
The idea is super cool. It was pretty difficult to navigate around with the changing walls, and having the different mechanics based on the theme was cool too. However, on the fun factor, the fact that getting touched by an enemy makes you restart the entire level kind of killed it for me.
🎤 phlp
14. Oct 2021 · 14:51 UTC
@doomshmuck what would you have done instead?
doomshmuck
14. Oct 2021 · 15:02 UTC
A couple ideas that come to mind would be maybe have generous check-points, so that when you do get hit, it only sets you back a little... another idea might be to have the enemy just stun you for a time, or something.
🎤 phlp
14. Oct 2021 · 23:31 UTC
@doomshmuck both good ideas. I'm worried either would take away from the game as we imagined it. Nevermind that literally everything we did is first-draft and this was just the first thing we thought of, but that would be something to iterate on.

I do get the frustration of playing a difficult game without checkpoints. For a maze, I would think you still gain knowledge of where not to go, so not all progress needs to be repeated or is lost. Can you add checkpoints to a maze without taking away any of its essential maze-ness? Do you add checkpoints in wrong directions?

Maybe the easiest fix would be to just not reset enemies, so you don't have to kill the same ones over and over. Oh well. It's something to think about, and a great reason to have other people playtest.

Thanks for your feedback! It was really helpful to me.
🎤 phlp
22. Oct 2021 · 03:09 UTC
Thank you to everyone who played our game! See you next time.