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XENO-STABILISER's itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Innovation | #127 | 3.680 | 3.680 |
| Theme | #380 | 3.480 | 3.480 |
| Gameplay | #428 | 3.040 | 3.040 |
| Overall | #461 | 3.200 | 3.200 |
| Audio | #524 | 2.960 | 2.960 |
| Visuals | #581 | 3.240 | 3.240 |
| Enjoyment | #676 | 2.800 | 2.800 |
Ranked from 25 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
How does the game fit the theme?
Strange planets
What code and assets did you not make from scratch during the jam (if any)?
All code and art we made. Audio was outscourced
How many people worked on the game?2
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Comments
Interesting game. Took some time to adapt but got the hang of it after. I don't think there's a game over screen because I'm pretty sure I failed but didn't get anything. I think this game would really benefit from a tutorial since you're dropped right into the middle of the crisis from the start. I understand with this time constraint It might not be realistic. This is a creative game. Good job with it.
The presentation is top notch for sure but everything after it not so much. After reading a few times the instructions i kinda understood the assignment but between kinda understanding and applying during the game there's a lot inbetween. I feel like making the game simpler period is just a lazy solution since a lot of thought was put into it. Thinking about a full game there should definetly be a tutorial going step by step over it and most importantly a ramp up of choices and difficulty. Keep it up!
A very complex game mechanics, nicely implemented. This game has a lot more potential with proper back story and some polished out onboarding with lot more variety in gameplay!
The game was complicated and I didn't understand it very well, but the graphics were good. Overall, it was a great game but it lacked explanation. Well done!
Really cool idea. I like how every single plant and planet has a name!
By the way, I would be really happy if you rated my game too, as I am still under 20 ratings c:
https://itch.io/jam/brackeys-15/rate/4311361
Super fresh (and complex) idea with tons of depth -> there’s clearly a lot going on with plant types / secondary states / different planets making it feel like a bigger systems game (very very impressive for a 7 day game).
However these systems indeed a lot more cognitive overload on me than I had planned going in expecting from a jam game. I was confused at first and had to rely often on instructions. A tutorial and gradual progression (1 planet -> a few plants -> introduce alt plants later) would massively improve first impressions.
Tons of potential for a full release here
I'm not very good at the game - I thought the art was nice, and the theme was well met. The systems felt deep and complex. But the planets were definitely better off without me trying to help. The perfect plant timing seemed to be very difficult to hit, and the secondary plants seemed to just always make the planet work and half the time not fix the thing I was trying to fix.
The how to play was helpful, but I'm still not sure I was using the settings correctly. I think one thing that would be helpful is if the plant would default to a secondary harvestable state rather than have to be destroyed. I guess you have unlimited seeds to try, but the first planet died before I figured out how to ship a plant without destroying. (Then I focused on helping just one planet, and it died next lol)
I still had fun
Very complex game, good job!
Thank you, Hoping to make it a little clearer after the jam.
Somehow, it was a little difficult to understand the rules :)
Yeah we didnt do an ingame tutorial, so I wrote a how to play in the page text
After I understand how the gameplay works, I think there is potential in it. I think many players will be confused by all the different planets and plants. I think start with one planet and a few plants, or get rid of the alternative plant thing, so that the player has fewer things to understand at first and gradually add these in.
We want to create an in-game tutorial and slowly introduce the plants and planets. This was a test to see if the idea was something to continue. Thank you for the feedback.
At first I didn't quite get the gameplay, but then I looked at the instruction and game became way more fun. Good work!
Yeah, I had set up a menu in-game with the tutorial page there, but didn't manage to put together the tutorial graphic till after the deadline, so I hid the menu and exported without it. Im wanting to build a playable tutorial for it after the game jam dates.
Cool.
Thank you for playing :)
This was a really interesting idea. I honestly don’t think I’ve played something quite like this before — especially this kind of crisis intervention game where you’re managing everything from a UI/monitor perspective and sending out solutions in response.
I liked the whole “you’re not winning, you’re just delaying the inevitable” angle. That tone carried through the mechanics well and made it feel tense in a different way than most games.
It was also cool seeing the different plant sprites as you experimented. The art did a good job making each one feel distinct, and it helped sell the whole ecological lab vibe.
Creative concept and a strong execution of it!
Thank you so much for the feedback.
I know it still has some work to get the management balanced, but at the moment it was testing the idea and if people liked it.
I cant wait to make unique assets for each plant. I went with just 3 and colour changed for the jam to keep it simple.
i like the ui and the sound effects of this game, however i struggled with maintaining the bars as there is no info on which plant can prevent what so i didnt really enjoy it as much but if i did have some documentation maybe ill understand the gameplay a bit more
Yes, we want to be able to step through the stages and teach what the plants do rather than have everything unlocked at the start, but we compromised this for the sake of getting a workable game done for the jam.
However, there is a level of play to find out what plants do what that we also wanted to explore, because when a researcher first discovers something, they don't know what it will do, but then we want them to know (which we didn't get to implement)
I have uploaded a few stats on the plants in the screenshots and written a spoiler section on the page.
that is a fair point. btw i cant see the screenshots on my laptop but i can see it on mobile so maybe change the screenshot layout to sidebar in the theme editor (idk why it does that). but anyway, i was able to play the game for longer and, along with ur concept of progression, i would also suggest speeding up the rate of events over time gradually for better gameplay. again, this game is an amazing concept with a lot of potential!
Yeah, I think at the moment they are 20seconds apart. We wanted the timer to get worse as you played cause in the end, you shouldn't "win". In previous games, we have had timers that give you scores, so we didn't focus on that mechanic, but it probably wouldn't be bad for this game.
cool so its basically an endless game where u try to maintain the planets as long as possible
Sorry, it has an end, thats when you stop maintaining the planets.
but u can end at anytime so yeh i gtg now
The game is interesting, a bit overwhelming at first, but once i understood it (and read everything correctly ahah) i really had fun, well done!
Thank you for playing. Once we add a playable tutorial I think it will be easier to understand.
Cool concept. Gameplay wise, i feel that theres an inbalance of tension and management. Once i understood how the game works, it was fairly easy to keep all the bars full. It felt more like a click and drag sim than a management game, as my actions were limited more towards dragging the seeds and plants around than planning out my resources and growths. I feel that the game could be much more fun if the bars of ALL planets drained at the same time but at different rates, forcing you to micromanage each requirement instead of only needing to make a choice when you see one planet needing something.
Thank you for the feedback. Each planet will have stats and a set of seeds they will reject in the future, but at this stage, it was us learning how to make the growth times and events work. We ticked a lot off on what we wanted to learn in this game jam. Hopefully we can improve the management aspect in the next update.
I like the idea of the game and I'm sure this was probably a time problem but I would have wished for more feedback and maybe some kind of simple tutorial in game. Besides that, I enjoyed the interesting concept and the visuals. Keep it up^^
Glad you enjoyed it.
I have a screenshot of the tutorial in the photos, and the tutorial is written on the game page as well. But yes we didnt have time to create an in-game tutorial.