Egocentrism

for any poor souls playing this game i just want to say that i did NOT make the enemy fricking earrape sounds and i was a victim of it. everything else was made in less than 10 mins lmfao.

what a cool game i wonder who made it

what a cool game i wonder who that bob character is

what a cool game i wonder who schitzophrenia is

what a cool game is wonder

The wet fart sounds in the menu jump scared me lmao. Love the concept love the look. The trail your character leaves behind you is a wonderful mechanic. Also nice to see an ROR enthusiast.
Terrain was a little inconsistent. The dialogue is a little excessive as it keeps stopping your progress (maybe that's thematically intended). Think there was also a repeated message or two on the signs.
This game feels too big for its concept. The loop wears thin and the atmosphere fades. I get that it's probably for building tension, but it takes away from the experience after a while.
I also don't think this fits under the little creatures theme. At least from what I played. I wasn't looking forward to this theme either.

@sutt00 Thank you for the feedback!
I did focus "a bit" too much on atmosphere / look sound and concept and because of that failed at ... actual game design.

The initial plan was to have RoR2-style egocentrism "balls" that acted as tiny creatures speaking to you and having the entire narrative related to that, but I overscoped massively and had to rush everything to try and get it to work. I 100% agree that the theme is ... less than incorporated.

The dialogue before the maze is incredibly annoying, unintentionally. I too kept getting stumped by it while debugging :skull: . Additionally, a LOT of the sign messages are repeated (towards the end they all say the same thing), again, due to the rush of trying to at least submit something.

Thank you for trying out the game!

I think you should have made the interact key also progress the dialogs.

A very cool and atmospheric game. I love the visuals and the vibe they create. Was fun exploring around and reading the messages :thumbsup:

HOLY FRICK AAAAAAAAAA

@leothecoo1 Thank you for the feedback!

I definitely did have issues coming up with a good control scheme. Tried following Undertale (to some degree) and only now do I realise Z works both as interact AND as processing.

Edit: I presume you met the enemies and their ... "soundeffects" :skull: :skull: . I am sorry for that :skull:

@zwartraider Thank you for the kind words, I am glad the atmosphere slightly made up for the lacklustre "gameplay" and vague dialogue!

You did so well finally, like everybody else here. I really have a great time playing it. Congratulations!

@unagiv Thank you for the kind words! I am glad you enjoyed it!

Shame about the overscoping thing, but I think the outcome is cool nonetheless. I quite like the general visual style and post-processing effects, and the meta-narrative is an interesting take. If you managed to incorporate the little creatures theme better as you had planned, I'm sure you would have something really nice here.

Also, I do share some of the sentiment echoed in the dialogue, it's always a challenge in those first few hours trying to brainstorm something cool and on-theme, while also being fun and interesting. Our own team was also hoping for another one of the themes in the list, we were surprised to see Little Creatures. So it made for an appealing hook when that came up in your game.

@diomont Thank you for the review!
I am glad the visuals and effects were at least funky.

Indeed, the meta narrative was supposed to be the main point, the game being its own devlog in a way, culminating with the final dialogue box closing the game and reopening itself as a "let me show you what I've done" situation.

Alas, I didn't get anywhere near that :skull:

It's a very cool game, I liked the idea and the mechanics in it)

I had so much fun playing it. The mood is incredible while there are not so many props, that works really well ! Cool little wink to stanley parable !

@crozzy Thank you, I am glad you enjoyed it!

@marilou I am incredibly glad you enjoyed it! Haven't yet played the Stanley Parable, but it is on my "to-play" list; I've heard insurmountable things about it.

Thank you for the kind words!

That was a pleasantly surreal experience. Yeah, there is not much in terms of gameplay (basically a walking simulator :wink:), there are many dead ends with nothing in them (which is sad but realistic, I guess - just like in gamedev), and a lot of "checkpoints" :wink:.

But I think the strengths of this project lie elsewhere. The atmosphere is great. It's clear that the visuals received a lot of love. They are moody and consistent. The music goes very well and enhances the mood further. The narrative itself leave you with this frantic, fragmented and uneasy feeling - and that also fits the mood.

By the way, I tried to go to the youtube video found on one of the thought plaques, but it was unavailable. Sad, I thought I've found a secret :wink:

@fabula-rasa Thank you for the review!
Indeed, while the gameplay is lacking I do think the combination of the graphics, sounds and a bit too heavy post processing made for an interesting atmosphere.

Frankly, the narrative was cobbled toghether as I was trying to at least submit something, as the original plan was VASTLY different, but I am glad at least some of it managed to convey through.

Also, in regards to the link, there is only 1 link in the dialogues, taking you to one an [unlisted video](https://youtu.be/HEAzSDCFO6s) of jam progress. (The link from the source code seems to be working, not sure what happened in the actual game, however.)

The only "secrets" were the 2 portals on the top and bottom edges, both in reference to older games I have made for a game jam.

Thank you again for the thorough review!

"schhhhhh mimimimimimiimimimim"- yes,that's my sounds, phphph)

Anyway, this is a good job. It's pleasure to read and explore. Well done))

Text effects is working work on the atmosphere and convey the mood.

this is such an atmospheric game that I'm ready to play it again and again!

I have discovered that tranquility hurts my ears. I think you really nailed an aesthetic. I did get stuck, I didn't seem to have a place from this checkpoint, and tranquility would get me before I could backtrack. I might have missed something.


The game is fine, even if i didn't know what to do. Visuals are decent, atmosphere and is fire but low overall because here is just nothing to do ;( I enjoyed playing the game, but can i ask. After some time there started spawning white squares where i go, was it supposed to be like this?(like on the screenshot) because of it i thought its an maze and tried to find the exit out of it, but found nothing, only some interactable objects, played for like 10 minutes.

Excellect game!
The simple but surreal art style has deeply attracted me to the game itself!The pullze in the dialouge is also attractive and thoughtfulm.The special effect and the step audio was simple but successfully immerse my self in a surreal,strange and a litte terribly atmosphere.It also combines a seriees of puzzles in both the dialouge and the map.Sometimes I even make no scene of the functions of the settings,but when I finally figure it out,WOW, it was reallly attractive,immpressive and amazing.
However,I have been trapped in the maze for REALLY a super long time,IT IS TOOOOOO DIFFICULT FOR ME.A good and unique game in total.Expecting for your next game

lots of things to EXPLORE!!!!!!!!11111!!1!!!!!11!!
My ears broken BTW XD

@iolis-lui Thank you for the kind words!
"Pshhhh mimimimimimimi" indeed!

@ostqv I'm glad you enjoyed the atmosphere! Thank you for the review!

@damien-black Yeah, I apologise for the obnoxious screams from the enemies. It is waaaay too loud, I should've toned it down. I am glad you enjoyed the aesthetic, as it technically is the only thing I managed to implement in this game. (Over scoping is a mess....)

I am aware the maze was rather poorly designed, so you might have actually gotten soft locked. That was why I decided to add Godmode just in case.

Thank you for the review!

@dan-nik-sg Indeed, the game lacks anything but atmosphere due to me over scoping as always :skull: I am glad you at least enjoyed that part!

Indeed, it is a maze, and there are 3 exits out of it, (top bottom and right sides respectively, each with a small event at the end, but nothing much / significant).

The blocks turn white to show you better where you previously went and what path you took. (My attempt at balancing the abhorrent design of the maze)

Thank you for the review!

@wdnmdld I am so glad you enjoyed the game!

Indeed, the game doesn't offer too much in terms of gameplay, and, frankly, all dialogue and map designs were WAAY more rushed. When I started out I had an interesting storyline in mind, with different character represented by the way they spoke and their dialogue visuals, but as you could tell, over time, I completely lost sense of that.

Perhaps that is fitting, considering the interpretation and lore I had in mind :skull:

Indeed, the maze is very poorly designed, with Godmode and the white path trail thing being added as ways to try and mitigate that.

Thank you again for the kind words and appreciation of the game. I'll be sure to try and "cook more" next time around, and in the meantime. Anything that I'll do and feel is worthy, I'll upload to Itch, so keep an eye out there!

@esstormmoonly I am sorry for the audio :sweat_smile: , I really should have toned it down more...
Indeed, lots of things to explore, but still less than I would have hoped initially...

Tank you for the review and comment!

Incredible little gem ! I wasn't ready to find a game on a theme like this one. The graphics are nice too !

Well, that's an interesting way to tell your game dev story! I like the sorta augmented reality nature with the link out to a youtube video to check out

When I tried to play it, I got “WebGL context lost - please reload page” over and over again, but I see this is a problem on my side. Reading the description and watching the video, I can say this is a great game. Well done!

@marcoleric Thank you for the review! Indeed, saying the game doesn't quite fit the theme is a bit of an understatement, so it makes sense it's a bit unusual.
I am glad you liked the graphics!

Interesting little game. I really like the visual style and the atmosphere but as you also mentioned in the description there wasn't much of a gameplay to keep me interested for more than a few minutes.

Like the arts and gameplay, wow

@eerongal Thank you for the review, I am glad some parts were enjoyable!

@martingonn I am sorry you didn't manage to play the game. There is a windows build attached that should work + the source code is on GitHub so theoretically you could build it from source (not that I expect anyone to do that, it would be too much work for a jam game :skull: )

Thank you for the compliments based on the aesthetic!

@spacecadet Indeed. Not much gameplay, but hopefully the atmosphere slightly made up for that.

@pimping Thank you for the nice words! I am glad you enjoyed it.

Really nice work on this, it looks like a lot of effort went into it. The visual effects are awesome and very atmospheric. My laptop did struggle a little bit at times though to keep up with the framerate heh. I'm also not entirely sure what I'm doing but I enjoyed spending 10 minutes or so wandering around :)

The visual style is quite enchanting and really compliments the emotional side of the narrative. Not the biggest deal, but, I did find the glitch effects to be somewhat disorienting. This could be an problem with others who have photosensitivity issues.

Overall, a solid effort! I look forward to seeing more from this creator.

@scott-redrup Thank you for the review, I am gad you enjoyed it!
I realised way too late that I even bypassed Godot 2d lights count limit, so I certainly will take that into account for the next game, especially for web entries 💀

@emsea I apologise for the obnoxious effects, in retrospect I certainly should have made it a better experience for everyone / at least let people know what was to come.

Thank you for the review and the kind words, I am glad you enjoyed the game!

I love the visuals and the atmosphere it creates with the audio!

@jellyfishhunter I am glad you enjoyed the game!

Really cool concept, super ambitious to do within the jam and I guess it checks out. Love the commitment to the bit too! The only thing that peeves me is when games stop my movement to read the text and I prefer to be allowed to move during it, but overall a cool implementation of the concept. Felt like I wanted a bit more gameplay value out of it, but you nailed the atmosphere.

Cool spin on the theme, I really like the mood and simple graphics, footsteps is nice touch that rare to see in gamejams. But I had issue that Id stuck on every dialogue, I had to restart game everytime.

Wow, a reflection genre? Well, that's new here... Or is it? I don't know... Am I reflecting enough in my life? Should I reflect right now as I'm writing this comment? Man, this reflection stuff is contagious... Great entry though!

P.S. I thought I should add some obvious positivity right there, to show that I indeed liked this game, was it a bit redundant? Should I continue adding my thoughts layer by layer as they go? Am I going too far with this? Help...

It was just great!! your work has found a huge response in my soul, because I really hope to do a similar project myself in the future. an incredible atmosphere that makes you feel tense. especially after the moment with the grown-up tree (you go on and wait for something to happen again, and because of this you strain yourself more). I hope to continue to see your work, thank you!

A very atmospheric and cool game. Lots of references to game jam development. The art style is consistent, and I also liked the mechanic where you can see the road you’ve already traveled—it makes navigating the maze much easier.

Nice VFX work! I can tell a lot was put into the shaders and it really helps create a neat atmosphere for your game. Also impressed to see a more narrative focused entry coming out of Compo! I'd like to come back and find some of the other endings some day, and look forward to future work from you. Good job!

Cool game. It is like mine thoughts. So much wanted theme "playing with fire"...

@arstotzk Thank you for the kind words! Yeah, while all themes were good I wasn't quite expecting this one to win, so it left me a bit baffled, but still, looks like we both managed to make something, and you cooked especially! (You are the creator of Tiny Bots, right? Already left a review, but just to state it again, you made an amazing game!)

@thomas-gelman I am glad you enjoyed the VFX and the atmosphere! Next time I'll try to also cook a bit of gameplay, that's certain :skull:

Also, indeed, while the game was submitted as a Jam game I was initially intending to submit it to the compo, so everything was made from scratch. Only when I realised I certainly wouldn't have time did I add some SFX from a friend and linked to some external things.

Hoping I'll manage my time better next time around!

Thanks again for the review and the kind words!

@alexascher Thank you for the review! Indeed, the only reason I added the white trail was to try and balance out my badly designed maze :skull:

I am glad you enjoyed the game!

@nill Thank you for the really nice words, it means a lot! I am glad even this little game managed to convey some emotions to people. I wish you the best of luck in creating a similar game, may you make it 10 times as good, and may it also have some actual gameplay :skull: !

@shakirovich Thank you for the review!
That is a really odd issue, no one seems to have experienced it thus far. I am sorry, restarting the game after every dialogue must have been rough. I'll look into it and fix it for future reference!

@frostbeak Yeah, I was very torn between stopping the player when reading dialogue or not, and decided in favour of it to combat enemies, but I agree it is very painful, especially in the section where the dialogue appears on its own...

Thank you for the review!

@purplexy Thank you for the thought out / interestingly designed review! Also, there can never be enough reflection layers... go ham overthinking 💀

( I am glad you enjoyed the game, even though scope creep got the better of me )

I liked this. Nice mood.

For a game like this, you'd probably need someone with a little more writing experience. Definitely was reminiscent of my own writing, which I'd also categorize as the dev-art of writing.

I appreciate the thought that was put into your entry though. The graphics are pretty good and the little effects like the footsteps, or the distortion around the doors had enough impact to make the game feel polished.
I thought the little quips and conversations around joining a game pretty charming, although of course they don't let them self that much to the horror atmosphere the game is going for.

Sadly I hard locked my self after finding the doors in the south and thinking I had to return to the entry which led to me being stuck between two doors.

Should've read the description before hand. ^^

Don't beat yourself up, submitting a game is the hardest part and you did that. The aesthetic is also really good along with a well written narrative. Mood was really well set, so great job!

(makes chromatic aberration reference) :) I like the mood here against the mostly monochrome palette, and can appreciate all the work that's gone into the systems for visual effects and really setting the tone. Managed to stagger through the forest and find one of the portals (without godmode) - the atmosphere is quite enjoyable :)

Nice game, I really liked the story being portrayed! I think I have found the exit for one of the mazes but I ended up getting stuck while escaping those rgb glitch things. When you said that the maze has objectives on all 4 sides, does this mean that there's 4 'mazes' or just 4 things to do within the maze?

[Thanks for submitting your game to stream!](https://www.twitch.tv/videos/2274205446?t=01h40m36s)

I can see myself coming back to this one to discover the other endings. :slight_smile:

"Serious" games are quite the rarity in LD. Always happy to see 'em!

@elzach Thank you for the review.

Indeed, much more writing experience was necessary, alongside dedicating more time to it. (the entire dialogue / signs were paced within the span of ... 2 hours I believe, when I wasn't even too certain if I'll submit a game at all)

I did realize one easily get locked, I just hoped it wouldn't happen / godmode was added as a sight fix :skull:

I am glad you enjoyed the art and VFX. I'll do better at writing and actual gameplay next time!

@sevadusk Thank you for the kind words! I'll certainly try to have more confidence (within reason, of course), but seeing all the other amazing entries is certainly an experience. That being said, I am proud of what I have done, even if I know it could have been MUCH better. I'll certainly make use of the feedback I got and experience next time around.

(Also, considering my track record, as you said, even submitting a game is amazing already 💀)

@picttarge I am glad you enjoyed some parts of the game! Also, really cool that you found one of the portals, I was worried people won't find any portal in general (I should have done a better job pointing to them 💀)

Thank you for the review!

@plasmapuffs I am happy you enjoyed the game. Yeah, "objectives" was used rather poorly. There are 3 portals basically, each with a funky "event" / interaction, located at the midpoint of each side of the maze. (top, bottom and to the right)

@coleslaughter Thank you very much for playing the game! I don't have anything else to say than what I did during the stream, I am glad you enjoyed it!

I didn't expect to play something such atmospheric/meta and heart touching. I felt like I've been in the same situation as the narrator too many times already, with urge to express some distress to whoever would read, and maybe who knows, understand. The progression really builds an atmosphere, a little bit oppressing, until it became quite sressfull :) I couldn't really understand how to escape to TRANQUILITY in the end so I then cheated to godmod and had a deeper look around...
I enjoyed B&W visuals mood and style, and these extra shaders and noise were perfect in the context ;)
It was also really cool to feel implicated in the game somehow on a "meta" level (no spoiler), some stuff was quite unexected and nicely surprising :)

As this personal/meta part is assumed, i'd like to get a little deeper in my thoughts in return to what the game offered, not sure it's relevant but it's a game about sharing thoughts right ?

Nagging thoughts can be a pain, hope you're fine if you may had some during jam; I believe such art can help releasing them ; also i'd say you don't have to be sorry neither for loud noise or anything else :) It even have volume options so... Some like it, some may not, personnaly i wouldn't care so much, the SFX in question and words about it made me smile :) Also hope you don't get exhausted switching from jam to compo, even if that can be satysfying to add some polish in my case it often gets my mood and sanity worse for a small benefit aha. It's quite a relief for me to have learning / fun as a goal during jams instead of the eventual player's or even my own expectation from a "game". In other words, it's neat to have some introspection induced by a game, congrats for that.

what a cool game indeed

cheers!

Great graphical style and awesome effects with the walking and tile update when you go down a path. Very thought provoking and a definitely different vibe than almost all the games I played this LD. Loved the ROR shout out and just the stream of consciousness vibe of what it feels like to do the game jam sprint.

Awesome audio, really well polished vibe and overall great work.

thank you again calco for bringing this to us! glad i managed to come back to it <3

https://youtu.be/WByKtP-GQwk

Relatable on too many levels! Thank you for coming with it to the stream :)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VJXygc0PNGM

~XpMonster