| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Cleverness | #8 | 4.000 | 4.000 |
| Judges Choice | #20 | 3.000 | 3.000 |
| Theme Implementation | #26 | 3.000 | 3.000 |
| Playability | #37 | 3.000 | 3.000 |
| Artistic Style | #42 | 3.000 | 3.000 |
Ranked from 1 rating. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
Link to your Game Design Doc on Google Drive.
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Hw4-BUJcuSHwZRAXpaft05RRjUeXBk2RHmfaBQM80Y4/edit?usp=sharing
Have you checked that your GDD is publicly accessible ?
Yes
Is your game set to public on itch.io so we can see it?
Yes
Summarize your game!
WASD/Arrow Keys/Space controls. ESC/Enter/Mouse/Keyboard UI. A platformer with puzzles where available routes can depend on if puzzles are solved. The story about the darkness hanging over the world is revealed through the puzzles.
Please explain how your game fits the theme.
A literal take on the World is Watching: eyes on the terrain can end your journey if caught in their gaze for too long.
Did you use Generative AI to make any assets in your game?
No
Is there anything you'd like the judges to pay particular attention to?
The player may need to use cryptii or something similar to solve the puzzles, as I wasn't sure of the legality of including similar tooling.
Thanks for trying it out! The second puzzle starts going into ciphers which might need external tools to solve easier. E: Oh! I should add - the NPCs hint at the way to solve the puzzles most notably in act 1 (level 1 - 5).
Thanks for giving it a go! Level 4 needed more work - you can't get back up to do the platformer path if you don't solve the relic, and the hints as to what to do are too subtle from all the feedback about it. My initial idea was to have different groups of colored eyes, with more relics to disable them, but I didn't have time to pursue that. I ended up just making them all in one group and all disabled by one relic. It's a cool idea to have different timers for different groups.
Thanks for trying it out! I wanted to hint about mechanics and puzzles in addition to lore with the NPCs, like this guy:
The idea was that the player would then use this new mechanic demonstrated by the NPC immediately, but it was too subtle - the level should have been designed with more of these so a player could climb back up. One thing about the eyes that may not be obvious by that point is that they do not stare directly at each other, so if there's a place where they would be, then something must be blocking their gaze.
In a level very soon after this, the explanation for what happens if one is caught by the eyes is played out by NPC conversation. Without spoiling too much, they fade away.
The idea with the puzzles was to tell the story as well - my thought was if someone wants to know more about the story, they could decipher it and as a reward make the platforming easier by disabling the eyes in that level. One misstep there is having it be a 1-try puzzle; this can be circumvented by a bug that an early player found - hitting ESC to pause and resume resets the puzzle. The very first puzzle is standalone: count the things, with an answer being a number. The second level puzzle builds on that with the NPC hinting how to decipher it:
This infamous phrase is attributed to someone with famous a cipher named after them - and in particular - is encrypted by a number, which is why the first puzzle's number is relevant. The third level is more obscure, but is also a common cipher used for example in ARGs. A similar thing goes for the next couple of levels, though while no further types of ciphers are introduced afterwards, the chaining nature continues. Every 5 levels is an act, and the introductory puzzle (levels 1, 6, 11) is independent of the previous chain so it can be picked up.
Thanks for playing. Yeah, that's something I didn't really figure out how to do - hadn't ever done any Javascript (though I had programmed in other languages for a long time) and the engine was completely new. It would have made things easier for sure. One trick I used at times was bouncing into a wall to reduce jump height.
Thanks for playing! The idea was that the NPCs hint towards mechanics (ex. level 1 or the second NPC in level 4) or what kind of cipher is being used through act 1 (split acts 1-3 into 5 levels each). It definitely could be easier, like I found how to copy the riddle to clipboard a bit after the deadline. It isn't a bug that the 2nd NPC is standing where it is in level 4, but is perhaps too subtle. It can be passed by platforming, but unlike most of the other levels there isn't a way back if you get to the relic after that point.
Oh, I was able to figure out that the 2nd NPC in level 4 was standing on an invisible platform so that's not an issue for me! Where I got stuck was the uppermost long horizontal corridor after jumping across the chasm and reaching the riddle. One of the eyes started watching me as soon as I reached that corridor, and since I couldn't solve the riddle (is that what you mean by getting the relic?), I didn't have the extra brightness and couldn't run down the corridor in time.
Yeah that's the issue with level 4: if you jump down to get to the riddle (relic) but don't solve it, you can't make it past the eye corridors - and there's no way back up to the platformer solution without restarting the level - something I missed during development. Try using that same NPC hint elsewhere.
Thanks for giving it a try! Solving the riddles is not required to beat the game, though it makes it easier. I saw after the deadline that I had not made level 4 as easy as I thought. Other levels you can beat after failing the relic in the same run, but not level 4. The idea with level 4 was the NPC is standing on a weird thing, saying to do a thing, and eyes are pointing at a place. It could be really hard if the first act NPC dialogue is not interpreted as hints though.
Thanks for playing! The chat can be really weird/funny with an active channel (doesn't have to be yours, no login or anything). Sorry about the external tool thing. I just wasn't sure about the legality of including cipher tools in the game (even these simple ciphers) so decided against it. edit: Oh, wanted to point out, the relics can be skipped - it's just easier to do some of the platforming by solving them.
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