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A jam submission

Packet LossView game page

Labour is Joy. Silence is Safety.
Submitted by DuckRanger — 13 hours, 51 minutes before the deadline
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Packet Loss's itch.io page

Results

CriteriaRankScore*Raw Score
Playability#15.0005.000
Artistic Style#15.0005.000
Cleverness#15.0005.000
Theme Implementation#15.0005.000
Judges Choice#15.0005.000

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/1iLJMN-2GdrJuqPUIjAcx5qMooM3qOi9rbeDJvEof0Cc/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!
Packet Loss places you in the digital cage of Tenant 103, a worker drone in a retro-futuristic dystopia. Your job is simple: extract data packets to meet the quota. But as the grid begins to glitch, the dark secrets of The W.O.R.L.D Estate start unveiling.

Part arcade reflex game, part psychological thriller, the game explores the cost of survival in a surveillance state. Will you keep your head down and erase the past to feed the System? Or will you risk "deletion" to listen to the ghosts in the machine?

Please explain how your game fits the theme.
Narratively, the concept is interpreted through the "W.O.R.L.D Estate," an omnipresent surveillance corporation that monitors every keystroke. The tagline "The W.O.R.L.D is watching" serves as a literal warning from the antagonist, transforming the jam theme into a diegetic threat.

Mechanically, the theme is weaponized through the Watcher’s Eye system. The abstract fear of being watched is converted into a tangible gameplay constraint: a digital eye that physically opens to scan the player's terminal. This forces the player to engage with the theme by frantically locking their screen to avoid detection, ensuring the sensation of being watched is not just a story element, but a constant, high-stakes pressure throughout the experience.

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?
There is 15 days in this game. If you want the full narrative and impact I'd play though all 15 days.

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Comments

Host(+1)

Playability:
Simple gameplay loop but incredibly well written and deep narrative. This is executed extremely well and the setting is very compelling overall.

Theme:
Fits the theme directly and incorporates it into every aspect of the game. All of the gameplay and narrative relies on the theme entirely.

Cleverness:
Exceptional writing and implementation. Well done.

Artistic Style:
Consistent and full of brutal simplicity. Not just in the game itself but also in the itch.io page for this submission. Great work.

Developer

Thankyou for your kind words and taking the time to play the game! It was honestly such a fun project and it was interesting to try something different :D 

Submitted(+1)

UI looks nice and the feel is great, but the text was selectable and cursor changed when hovering the text. You can fix it by adding "user-select: none; cursor: default;" CSS to the body style.

I guess my progress was discussed in the narrative, but I didn't read much, so the ending came very suddenly, I think I didn't make it to day 15 because it suddenly restarted on day 13 or 14.

Developer

Thanks for playing the game and for your kind words :) Very good call out about the selectable text, I'll add in your suggestion in the next build to fix that. 

Submitted(+1)

A whole lot of art polish here and really good flavor. I will say personally I just spam clicked and there was no mention of my performance. It was actually kinda funny that at the end the person called me "efficient" despite me never reaching more than a score of like 3. It definitely was a more story based experience and assumed good faith of the player to engage, but I would have liked to see more impact of player decisions. despite picking all the worst options whenever possible I think I still had some social credit left by the end. 

Still though I want to praise the art and juice of the game. There was good immediate feedback, just not "longer term" feedback based on actual gameplay performance.

Developer

Thankyou so much for this comment. It’s really great to hear where I can improve. I fully agree with you. If I had more time with this I would definitely love to add in a big negative side effect of doing poorly in the game. Something more than a snarky comment from the Watcher. Thanks again for taking the time to give such an insightful comment it really helps me 🙂

Submitted(+1)

Damn, didin't think I would be sucked into this world as much as I did, you did an awesome job with this! I'm usually not into these types of games, but played through it fully. Nothing to note, this is just awesome, very nice work!

Developer

That's super kind of you to say thankyou! It was a lot of fun to try and write in a way to hook people in. Just wanted to say I absolutely loved your game to. I sunk in a lot of time running from the police aha. 

Submitted(+1)

I really gotta praise the whole UI/Art style of this; its so polished!!!

Developer

Thankyou very much! I'm a graphic designer by trade so it was good to use those skills in a gaming environment :D 

Submitted(+1)

Interesting game, wish I could get further.. repetitive clicker games I just can't do that much these days. Dystopian story up to day 3 for sure.

Developer

Thanks for playing and for the feedback :) You bring up a very good point about the accessibility of a clicker game. I'll look into that as I develop this game further.