I would really love to see achievements and/or challenges for doing things particularly quickly, getting orders right allot, never making mistakes while using the equipment, ETC, for fun things like being friendly by talking to everyone fully or throwing lots and lots of cups and cinnabons, ETC, and [optionally] for doing things wrong allot.
superfreq
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First, congratulations on winning the grand prize! You really deserved it. 🎆👏🏆
Second, yes, I think your idea for a new motivation is a great one And I meant it when I said that it didn't bother me that much, but your new idea would still be a nice improvement!
Also, I would love to know who the voice actors are if they don't mind being known.
At least once a jam, I find a game that doesn't have a whole lot to offer in terms of content or scope, but for what ever reason is just addictive and replayable as hell. This is definitely one of those games.
The concept is fun, regardless of it's simplicity, and I'm so glad you took the extra time to add a theme to it. Maybe if I wasn't as into SciFi as I am, I wouldn't have thought that much of it, but I am, so...
I love the challenge too. It's one of those games where you don't need difficulty settings, because you lose points based on time spent, and you can never end the game early by losing too many as far as I can tell. That makes it really easy to pick up and play for anyone!
The game it's self is one thing, but the level of detail put into the settings insured that there was a true degree of customization for the player. This is not just awesome to see from a player comfort PoV, but also from an accessibility PoVm, especially as it applies to the separate music/sound/speech volume sliders, and the font type. Just as commendable, because of how difficult it can be to get running properly, was the realtime screen reader readout option. The decision to add a TTS fallback was a smart one though, to cover as many users as possible.
The instructions were comprehensive and well written, but I do wish that it had been specifically pointed out that one needs to hold down the key to properly hear the radar, rather than just pressing it. That confused me at first.
I am truly impressed with this game, and while I'm not sure it will make it into the top 10 do to it's lack of flashy gameplay, I think it deserves it based on the features alone. Really, despite how humble it is, this is one of the games that most exemplifies the spirit of the jam by really going the extra mile in important ways.
Okay so it wasn't just me then! At first I was scared to say anything because I thought maybe she wasn't trying to be annoying, but with all of the other humor touches, I really think she was. I guess the fact that I couldn't tell for sure if it was honest or over the top just proves that it was well done... LOL
She also has a fantastic recording setup it seems. And while I'm not dunking on VAs that don't, it was still a nice change for a jam.
An excellent entry! I would not be surprised if this game wins the whole thing, but I am certain it will make the top 3 for sure, and it's well deserved.
The sound design is very impressive from a quality point of view, fitting the game well and standing out nicely, but it also does a great job at prompting the player. The voice acting is really fun and seriously helps to put you there with the characters, giving them more unique attitudes. The music is nice, and it adds allot to the atmosphere!
I love that this is actually challenging, and doesn't try to hold your hand much. It really got my heart pumping and my whole attention focused, which I've only experienced a few times in blind game jams!
The tutorial does a great job at explaining things, and the game doesn't shy away from traditional RPG terms for our sake, which I find respectful.
I could take or leave the whole [quest to get your sight back] trope, but I've been blind for my whole life. People who haven't may have a different opinion. Either way, it doesn't bother me over much, and I like the fact that the awakening gives as well as taking. The metaphor there isn't perfect, but I appreciate the feeling behind it. It also serves to make the world more interesting, which is important when you don't have much time to tell your story.
The biggest trouble I had with the game was the target selection controls. I don't know if I was just doing something wrong or if there was some kind of lag, but I had a hell of a time getting it to work.
It was pretty difficult at times to tell when a target was behind me. Perhaps a significant pitch step or attenuation would help to indicate that?
I found the snakes quite difficult to pinpoint, maybe that's on purpose?
Ultimately, this game rocked! Everyone who worked on it should be seriously proud of what they put together. The fact that you managed to essentially take a piece of an RPG and make it accessible and enjoyable enough to be used as an example for other devs within a month is pretty damn commendable!
I love this game! The concept is the most fun part, with genuine strategy, randomization, and tension. It's an easy game to replay.
I like the strange atmosphere, and the sound effects, while not perfect, really fit well. Using different steps for the distance markers, the bell, and the clicks to indicate how much of an item you have are great examples of using audio cues effectively.
The voice acting definitely added to the experience, making the character feel real, especially when she finds supplies in the houses.
I'd like to have eating and hiding sounds, and I'd like it if some volume normalization was done. For instance, the tutorial voice line for the monsters is quite loud, as well as the monster deaths them selves.
I also feel that the walk speed should be changed to a different key, as it often seems to conflict with action keys. I know that detracts from the 1 button concept a bit, but it's probably the easiest solution.
Bottom line, I think you did an excellent job, and you deserve to be in the top 10 at the least!
A good job done by everyone on the team. Thank you for your effort!
This game was really excellent! One that I will be replaying long after the rating period ends. I can really tell that you took the jam seriously. I like the well thought out, high quality sound design and chill music. I like the funny voice script, the excellent [and well recorded] human voice acting, and the humor injected into the AI voices. I love the player comfort touches you added, like F as an alternate cup throwing key, Q to skip the tutorial and R to repeat a line, and that you took the time to make such a comprehensive help menu. This earns you a few cognitive accessibility points as well!
I do feel that some quiet background ambience would liven things up a bit, and some kind of reward for being fast would be cool too. As it stands, the game is quite forgiving, which is nice, but a harder mode with penalties for failure would be an exciting option to have. Saved progress would also be a nice to have, but it's not that important in a jam game. As well, more randomized customers would be interesting, though I understand why they show up as a progression ATM.
Thank you very much to everyone who worked on this game, you seriously kicked ass! And just sayin, if you decide to add to it a little and make it a paid game, I would absolutely buy it. Hell, I'd buy it in it's current state as well, if that was an option...
I want to thank everyone in the team who made the choice to prioritize accessibility for blind and low vision players in this game and continues to uphold that principal. A special shoutout goes to Souphase and HereToHelp for their UI work. Thank you so much guys! It really is appreciated. And I will now be able to suggest this game to other BVI players with zero reservations thanks to the updates. Making sure that as many players as possible can enjoy your game even when it takes extra work to implement is a kick ass [and smart] thing to do!
I am so incredibly impressed with the blind accessibility features of this game! It is one of the rare titles that truly makes me feel like I am having the most equitable experience possible. I can absolutely see you guys winning a GAConf award once the full title comes out, and it would be very well deserved!
Thank you for your thoughtfulness and hard work to make this a great experience for us. You've got allot of blind players really hyped up for the release now!
Okay, I've figured it out, and it turns out that the issue is a completely different accessibility error.
I had custom names disabled via preferences, so keys were passing through to the game because the edit field wasn't available. I must have enabled it at some point by accident, because the toggle for it isn't actually labeled. I'm wondering if their are other settings in their with that issue as well? Might be worth going through and checking to see that they are all available and togglable with voicing enabled just encase.
Thanks for the attention on this issue! ☺
I'm a fully blind player and I'm delighted to say that the "self voicing" and even better the "clipboard voicing" features built into Renpy work great with this game, except for two areas.
1. I can't edit the name of my dragon. Pressing keys to type just activates UI commands, and I can't press enter or space to put my cursor into the edit field because doing so progresses the story.
2. When choosing places to attack in my war room in act 3, the icons representing the various regions are only pictures with no text labels for the self voicing to read, so I have to randomly press enter on one of them, see what it says, go back, try to remember how many presses of the down arrow to do to find it again, and then pick it that way.
Still 90% accessible though, and I really do appreciate that!
Play an exclusive demo for Access-Ability Summer Showcase comments · Posted in Play an exclusive demo for Access-Ability Summer Showcase comments
Reporting for Duty, Sir! - Changelog: 0.4.5b comments · Posted in Reporting for Duty, Sir! - Changelog: 0.4.5b comments
Can I just say, as one of the blind players, I really appreciate you putting out a hotfix patch for the TTS errors in between the regular updates?
I know that accessibility is often considered an extra feature or a ?nice to have", so treating accessibility bugs with the same importance as any other makes disabled players feel equally valued.
Jungle Beats - A Raindrum Audiogame jam comments · Posted in Jungle Beats - A Raindrum Audiogame jam comments
This is an excellent idea with a somewhat lacking execution.
I love the format of placing instruments on an audio soundscape, and the setting is pretty cool too.
The sound design is of course excellent, and the voice you chose really fit the theme.
I wish the game used lower pitches to represent behind, especially for raindrops, drums, and south facing steps while turning. I know that screws up the soundscape a little bit, but it's really important IMO.
As with many others, I was not able to complete the last raindrop sadly.
The background ambience are gorgeous, but seem to include some raindrops them selves which can be misleading.
For some reason, when I pressed or held the WASD and space keys, I got a Windows sound. It's the one I usually get if trying to press a key that isn't available. I'm not sure why that happened here though... Maybe something to do with the Window's focus?
Though this game is mechanically quite simple, I still feel that it does a really good job of setting a scene. I was excited to see that comment on the game page about it being updated. I would love to see the game expanded, but either way, thank you very much for participating in the jam, and I really hope you come back again next year!
Definitely one of the best games in the jam, no question!
It's got a great, wacky concept and a charming character, trippy and unique sound design, and fun mechanics!
The controls are logical and I always appreciate the inclusion of controller support. We even get mouse support here on top of that.
We have plenty of volume options which is always helpful, and the TTS speed control is a very nice addition.
The game was a breeze to pick up and play with solid instructions on the itch page, and the point and click style interface was easy to use, especially with the addition of audio positioning on object labels.
I wish that the fuel put into the core would leave the room, and instead that the core would just say the amount of fuel loaded when tabbing over it, to cut down on clutter a bit.
I don't mind extraneous objects for flavor, but being able to filter them out would be nice for when you just need to get to the important items quickly.
Sometimes I wasn't able to leave a room until clearing my target, and I'm not exactly sure why.
At high speeds, the TTS tends to cut the start of words off and sound strange. I hope that maybe Screen Reader support could be added at some point.
I wish that there was a way to limit the maximum panning distance for people like me with some hearing damage. I know that's kind of an extra, but there are more of us than you might think, and it's more common as we age too.
I really enjoyed this game, and I can feel that it had allot of heart put into it. Thank you so much for participating in the jam, and I would love to see you back here next year! I'm excited to see what you might do. :)
I'd also be willing to pay for this game if it's expanded, and I doubt I'm the only one.
Wow! I'm really glad you got this one in on time to be rated, because it's one of the better submissions!
Works great with my screen reader, the controls are simple and understandable, and the included readme was appreciated.
The sounds are simple but easy to pick up on, and they create a nice atmosphere.
I really like that the gameplay gets more and more challenging as you go so that it doesn't feel too easy.
The shooting element is nerve wracking and exciting, while the endurance meter adds some strategy. The rewards you get at certain checkpoints are a great way to make the game more interesting from one playthrough to another.
Controller support is always appreciated, and so are volume options. So thanks for including those!
I wish that the game also worked with the JAWS Screen Reader, as it's also extremely popular.
In the readme it says A and D to move, but it seems I can't really move backwards.
Even at max endurance, monsters still seem faster than me. Either that, or they have a high range of attack. Maybe that's on purpose, but it would be kind of nice to have just a bit of room to reload my gun as long as I have near full endurance., as we die only in like 3 or 4 hits. I don't think that would be too much of an advantage, especially as it wouldn't last long.
The heartrate loop isn't seamless.
Thank you very much for participating! I really hope you come back again next year too. :) We're glad to have you.
I actually couldn't play the game, and had to instead rate it based on gameplay from the stream that PG13 Letsplays did.
I got this same error on Chrome, Firefox, and Edge, even with my adblocker turned off, and even after trying in fullscreen.
HTML5 canvas appears to be unsupported in the current browser.
Please try updating or use a different browser.
Oooh good ideas! And totally understandable about the time crunch. I think this is a difficult game for sighted people who naturally aren't used to using their ears like this, and I don't want to exclude them so easier modes are totally a fine idea, but [and not to sound mean about it] but this is for blind gamers ultimately, not sighted ones.
Among those few blind people who do game, and the even fewer who play action games, generally we don't mind some challenge. Obviously there are blind newcomers as well, it's not just sighted people, but I've always felt that the default should be a more difficult game, with easier modes as an option, rather than the other way around. No shame to anyone who wants or needs those easier modes for any reason, but doing it the other way around can often give devs the wrong idea about our capabilities, or lead them to creating harder modes that aren't very inventive about how they make things more difficult, preferring to simply change some values rather than adding true complexity. Always easier to remove than to add IMO.
I like it!
Excellent sound design, logical controls with a great tutorial, a bit of writing to make things more interesting, and I enjoy the rhythm mechanic even if my tempo and memory is terrible. Also, bonus points for the ability to pause any time.
The biggest point in your favor though is that the game isn't overly easy. It gets complex pretty quickly, and honestly as a blind gamer, I'd rather lose at a game meant for me because of a skill issue than win easily any day.
Maybe this is unfair to a first time jam entrant, but any game with the word blind, darkness, sight, light ETC in it is just kind of annoying at this point. It's really overused. A game with a blind protagonist is much more annoying to me, but since you didn't do that here, I can hardly complain much.
We've had many of these bopit style press arrow to react games in the past and they are getting a bit old, but again that's hardly something that I can really hold against someone who doesn't know that, and at least your game used rhythm and had a steep difficulty curve which is more than I can say for most others in this genre.
I do wish that the game would penalize you for attacking too soon though (within reason).
If the game ever gets expanded, I hope that things get more complex. Maybe with the enemy countering and needing to be blocked in the middle of a set and you having to figure out where you left off, or adding the down arrow key to block in the middle as well, or making you hold the shift, control, or alt keys with the arrows to block elemental attacks from a wizard, putting you on the offensive instead and making them defend, making a hard mode where injuries carry over to the next fight, changing the block and strike sounds for different enemy weapons, letting you use a special attack after building up a meter, having a bard enemy who tries to confuse you with music of a different rhythm ETC.
A game like this is inherently kind of limited in scope do to not having free movement or equipment, but there are a few things you can do to spice it up a little.
Despite any criticisms I may have, this is a solid first time audiogame and I think you have a good chance of placing in the top 5, definitely the top 10 at least.
Thank you very much for lending your time and effort to our jam. It really does mean allot, and I'd love to see you back here again next year!
Maze Recorder Training Program jam comments · Replied to G. Carbonell in Maze Recorder Training Program jam comments
This game is pretty neat conceptually, but mechanically it could use some work.
The theme is interesting, and I really like that you took the time to sprinkle bits of lore and humor into a relatively simple game!
The controls are logical and the tutorial does a decent job explaining how the game works.
The music is catchy too!
The footstep sounds are unfortunately too quiet, so it is difficult to listen for them to stop in order to know when one is bumping a wall, which wastes time.
The phrasing in the tutorial is somewhat confusing, likely just do to a slight language difference.
When turning, the voice should just say the direction once and not again unless that same compass point is reached, so that the player can stay facing that direction without constantly hearing the voice. The pitch change is cool though, so please do keep that in.
Sometimes the gaps are very small and easy to miss.
The music track does not actually loop seamlessly.
The game over sound is a bit too loud I think.
Over all a pretty wacky and edgy game, which is fun. I really hope you come back again next year, because you definitely spiced up the jam with this one! 😄
The Keeper - Curse of the Wretched jam comments · Posted in The Keeper - Curse of the Wretched jam comments
A great game, especially for only 1 month of development time! Bravo! I think you will place in the top 5 for sure.
Great use of audio cues such as different footsteps and ambiences for the 4 regions, wall bump sounds, and attenuation to represent reaching the edge of the map [something I've never actually seen done quite like that in audio games].
Voice acting was a big plus [the person sitting on the rock was my favorite], sound design was excellent [that jail cell unlocking was particularly 💋] and the writing was pretty funny too 😏 ["some douchebag in a pointy hat"]
The controls were simple and the instructions were comprehensive and easy to understand.
Even though it was a bit frustrating, I really liked that the final puzzle wasn't just handed to you. Also, no mention of blindness, or any associated cliches which gets a big 👍👍 from me...
Because of my hearing impairment, games that rely on extreme panning don't always work well for me. In this game, as there was no fast action and all of the important dialogue happened in the center channel, that wasn't a very big deal, but having the option to reduce maximum panning limits for people like me is always highly appreciated.
I think it would have been nice to have a bit of an indicator that we were actually playing the game after the intro. Maybe that seems silly, but for the first 30 seconds, I thought I was just in a tutorial do to there being no transition.
If the hitboxes for the event triggers were just slightly wider, or there was an approach warning for the adjacent tile as there was with the guide at the end, I feel like there would be less wandering or systematic grid searching. Thankfully, the maps weren't very large, but I think this would definitely become an issue if the game were expanded any.
The game is actually quite quiet. I know that you can turn it up, but until that point, it's a bit hard to hear.
I got the "don't play the same instrument twice" line a couple times when I had actually played two separate instruments.
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To be honest, the evil narrator twist trope has kind of been done to death by now so I wasn't really surprised at all with that, but no big deal for a jam game. I do wish I had the option to take the evil rout and give him the instruments however... But again, I understand the time constraints.
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Really a great showing by your whole team, and I would love to see what you can come up with next year!
Also, if you decide to expand on this project, I'm all for it. 😉
Thank you very much for participating!
That's really great news! I'm happy to hear that you intend to stick with this! I'm also really glad that we could make you feel welcome enough to want to come back next year. Just participating is appreciated, given how niche this community is, but you guys managed to make a pretty good game as well, which is just a bonus.
And yes, verbosity is becoming more of an issue in front end as well, so it's really nice to have some front end devs learning about this in a more fun way. Allot of unnecessary alerts and redundant phrasing in menus. I think it's a problem that comes out of the best intentions at least, but I can't tell you how many times I've been driven off a website entirely when browsing on my iPhone because of a "this ad will end in..." "this ad will end in..." "this ad will end in..." alert that popped up every second of an auto playing video to interrupt my screen reader, making me want to screech in outrage and throw my phone out a window.
Solace: Memories of the Lost jam comments · Replied to Corinne Kaulia Kimball in Solace: Memories of the Lost jam comments
Great response, thanks!
IMO you guys should be proud of what you accomplished in this jam, regardless of the final product. As someone who's helped with jam games my self, I know what it's like on both sides of the Equation. Getting a top spot in the ratings feels awesome, but you learn allot either way. All the sub goals that were completed still teach you valuable skills, and the information you gather from feedback about things that didn't work well can help you pinpoint what you need to learn more about for the next time.
As for the NVDA and JAWS thing, definitely join the jam discord and we'll be happy to help. There are some experienced blind coders in there.
It needs work, but the concept is solid!
I like the whimsical setting and amusing sounds. In theory the mechanics could make for a pretty fun game, and the controls make sense.
Bonus points for not mentioning blindness even once!
Sadly, the lack of explanation of what general direction to head in, the large hitboxes on the dogs, and the absence of volume normalization for the snores make this game feel very unfair. I'm also not convinced that we always have a path to the door to be honest.
Footstep sounds and wall bumps (even subtle ones) would be very helpful as well.
I actually don't mind the limited amount of reaction time, but it would be good to cut the sounds to make sure the snore is always immediate after the step.
Over all a game that has promise!
Thank you so much for entering the jam! Hope to see you again next year. :)
I'm really glad that you're proud of your work. I know how that feels as I've worked on the sound design/advising side of jams like this before. Even if you don't have the product you wanted, you still achieved many sub goals along the way, you met the deadline, and you now have more skill and more knowledge of what to do next time.
Okay this is just such a fun and quirky little game! I kind of love it....
The fact that you guys managed to create a roguelike card game in a sea of roguelike card games that actually does something more unique by going back to completely traditional roots in terms of gameplay, while using an unlikely setting is both amusing and admirable. The fact that you managed to do this while also avoiding blindness stereotypes and cliches is worthy of a top 5 ranking in the jam, in my obviously correct opinion. 😂
I think the music is really catchy and I love the retro esthetic as well; a treat for the ears to be sure. The sounds fit well with the theme, though there aren't many.
The variety in minigames and inherent randomness between runs makes it highly replayable.
Screen reader support wasn't perfect, but it was still pretty solid, and the controls and UI made sense.
I liked how easy it was to access important information as well.
The verbosity when moving between cards in my hand was a bit unnecessary, and I'd rather have instructions placed in a single UI item for reference after hearing them for the first time, rather than seeing them every time personally, or have a key I could press for contextual help, like H.
The game crashed when I accidentally played a single card for my hand in poker.
I didn't see any info about how to play that game where you're supposed to not draw 2 clubs.
Honestly, great work, and I hope you will consider working on this game more. I also would love to see what you can cook up next year, so please do join again if you have the time!
Thank you very much for participating! :)
This is definitely one of the best games in the jam, and really quite impressive for just a month's worth of dev time. Allot of fun!
There were a fair amount of bugs/missing features yes, but in general the main game loop was really solid [enough to keep me interested over multiple playthroughs], the accessibility is great [with support for multiple screen readers], the music was catchy and the sounds [though limited in scope] were high quality.
I like the combination of monster fighting with a roguelike, and the space and chaos types were a nice departure from the norm.
There were a few parts that could have used more explanation, like the stats listed for each move, or the big mostly empty grid when using a shrine, and I really felt like a key to describe the item your cursor was on would have been a great addition especially for items, moves, and the monster selection screen at the start.
The keys were listed all at once, and with no way to repeat the last spoken message or see previous messages in a history buffer, no other place to find the keystroke list, and immediate loud [though awesome] music on startup, it was like being thrown into the deep end.
I had some menu weirdness when picking monsters that kept me from choosing the one I wanted at the start, and I wasn't able to use any items other than the rocks. I also had trouble in the give item part of the shrine.
I wish we would have gotten specific damage info for moves in battle, and the ability to check the type and basic stats of the enemy.
I consistently got a nasty error when trying to turn TTS back on with F1, but thankfully the option reset on restart.
Despite any criticisms I may have, this was an awesome start, and I would be happy to support further development of this project. You've got a good thing going here, and something to be proud of!
Thank you very much for participating. :)
Honestly, a decent first effort. You have some good ideas and did some things right. It's a solid foundation to build on, and I really do hope you come back next year. :)
The dog mechanic was really quite cool, and the little puzzles were not bad either.
I liked the sound design even if it was sparse, and the controls and UI were quite logical.
The TTS voice gave off cool retro vibes, though I know that not everyone could understand it well.
Unfortunately, you didn't include the keystrokes list in the description or a readme file packaged with the game, nor enough of an explanation of the base mechanics. That really hurt your player interactions, which is a big shame.
For instance, I didn't know whether the game was using a 2d system where WASD would move you in a direction by one step, or if it was free rotation, or if it was limited rotation that snapped you to certain points on the compass. I didn't know whether I should hold the turning keys down or not, and it took me a bit of guesswork to figure out that I had to interact each time to play a note for the puzzles. I also couldn't tell what direction I was facing, or if I had been in that part of the area before, which may have been purposeful but it wasn't explained that way.
The maze was lacking in general ambience [possibly an esthetic choice] and the dog sounds didn't change in pitch to indicate in front and behind, so following it could be hard at times.
Openings weren't indicated in audio, leading to allot of wall bumping and guessing.
There was seemingly no way to sidestep, leading to allot of weird turning to try and line up with doorways.
Sadly, nothing in the options menu worked.
There was no way to learn which sounds meant what before the game started.
I didn't know if I was supposed to keep heading in a general direction, or if things were always randomly generated.
At one point the dog got stuck on the other side of a wall when I called it back while inside a room, and then after that point the dog sounds were doubled as if there were now two dogs, but one of them would never come back to me properly.
Despite my criticisms, I still think this has potential, and especially the keystrokes list and mechanics explanation issues are things that can still be solved quite easily even now just by editing the game description on the page.
Thank you for participating!