GMC Jam Discussion The Tropical GMC Jam 38 Discussion Topic

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Poizen

Member
The folder for the game Grow a Plant by Poize is empty, there is no game to run.
I guess that's a problem that needs to be fixed.
Oh that scared me a little. I did test that the download works, but I noticed Windows ran a virus scan on it which is unusual.

I should get started on playing all the games too.
 
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Calepiaro

Guest
Oh that scared me a little. I did test that the download works, but I noticed Windows ran a virus scan on it which is unusual.

I should get started on playing all the games too.
Sorry for alarming you:)
The problem is on my end I will play your game from ur personal provided link!
 

Evanski

Raccoon Lord
Forum Staff
Moderator
You Only Have 3 Minutes by Evanski

A compelling and well thought out game that captivates the player and confronts them with the question: What happens at the end??? I don't want to spoil the ending, but let's just say it's wirth the 3 minutes.
You Only Have 3 Minutes by Evanski

I understand this was probably a joke entry...but why troll your voters? It doesn't even really fit the theme...
You Only Have 3 Minutes by Evanski

This game?
You Only Have 3 Minutes by Evanski

I kinda dozed off in the middle. There were no rules, this game is just a three minute egg timer without the BRIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIINGGGGG at the end.
I just wanna say, I never expected "You Only Have 3 Minutes" to actually be added to the game list, it was a joke game and meant to be ignored
*looking at you* @Alice @GameDevDan
 

Alice

Darts addict
Forum Staff
Moderator
@Pat Ferguson Just to make sure, are all your ranks the way you intended?
I'm asking because I played a bunch of games and found some pretty neat (in my opinion) games rated unexpectedly low while not-so-neat (in my opinion) games ranking higher.
At the same time, about top 10 games seem to be somewhat consistent with the rest - it's the later ranking that begins to feel random. What's more perplexing is that some higher-ranking games feel more harshly reviewed than lower-ranking games.

It looks like you intended to rank your top 10 games, but when using Jam Player you put all the games in the "Ranking" list - leaving none in "Unranked entries" list - even though you didn't really rank games past top 10 in the first place. Your own game being 11th adds to my hypothesis (by the way, you can't vote for your own game, so you should remove it from the list to keep the ranking clear).
I mean, if each game is ranked exactly the way you intended to, it's fine as well; I just want to make sure there wasn't some mishap regarding your vote.

By the way, if you want the Jam Player to export only top 10 entries into ranking, move all the other entries to the "Unranked entries" list. The comments for the game will still be exported for that game.
(and please keep in mind that you aren't required to rank each game, either - the vote is valid as long as you rank at least top 3, and it can never contain your own entry, anyway)

I mean, the reason I looked into the rankings in the first place was because our game was rated 43rd, but the point still stands - some games that seem to be reviewed more harshly actually ended up much higher.
 

Pixel-Team

Master of Pixel-Fu
@Pat Ferguson Just to make sure, are all your ranks the way you intended?
I'm asking because I played a bunch of games and found some pretty neat (in my opinion) games rated unexpectedly low while not-so-neat (in my opinion) games ranking higher.
At the same time, about top 10 games seem to be somewhat consistent with the rest - it's the later ranking that begins to feel random. What's more perplexing is that some higher-ranking games feel more harshly reviewed than lower-ranking games.

It looks like you intended to rank your top 10 games, but when using Jam Player you put all the games in the "Ranking" list - leaving none in "Unranked entries" list - even though you didn't really rank games past top 10 in the first place. Your own game being 11th adds to my hypothesis (by the way, you can't vote for your own game, so you should remove it from the list to keep the ranking clear).
I mean, if each game is ranked exactly the way you intended to, it's fine as well; I just want to make sure there wasn't some mishap regarding your vote.

By the way, if you want the Jam Player to export only top 10 entries into ranking, move all the other entries to the "Unranked entries" list. The comments for the game will still be exported for that game.
(and please keep in mind that you aren't required to rank each game, either - the vote is valid as long as you rank at least top 3, and it can never contain your own entry, anyway)

I mean, the reason I looked into the rankings in the first place was because our game was rated 43rd, but the point still stands - some games that seem to be reviewed more harshly actually ended up much higher.
Yes, I need to make an adjustment. Last year I didn't even know how the jam player worked, and today I just figured it out, at least I thought I did. I will update my ranks.

*UPDATE* Ok I see what I did. I dragged all the games to the sorted list before sorting them, then I quit sorting them after like the 30th game or so. I updated my list. Thank you for showing me about the ranked/unranked entries.
 
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Alice

Darts addict
Forum Staff
Moderator
It wasn't me, I swear!

No, but really, it's Dan who compiled the ZIP this time. At any rate, the final results will credit both of you.
 

TehPilot

Member
Just wanted to leave a note for anyone who has reviewed / will be reviewing my game: If you don't want to write up something lengthy (or even anything at all, if it's not in the review-required zone of the top 3) I welcome any constructive feedback you all might have! I have a habit of going back and tweaking/fixing older jam games of mine, even ones from several years prior. I figured I'd explicitly express this since I had friends and contacts outside the GMC run through my entry and I'm looking to incorporate their feedback in a typical post-Jam release; I think it's only fair I disclose my willingness to take input when I am doing so elsewhere.

That and there are already things I'm thinking of changing for post-Jam versions anyway - mostly thinking of minor mechanics adjustments (i.e. rules around when and how many items you can pick up / dispose of at once) and changes to how information is conveyed visually. I have also thought about changing the game more dramatically by altering the pace (via shorter levels, simpler puzzles, increasing level count / frequency of certain patterns to compensate for shorter levels, etc.) but that's an exploration of the design space which will take a little while longer to walk through (and beyond what I wanted to mention in this post to begin with!).
 

Gravedust

Member
Howdy folks :) Now that I'm approximately conscious again, thought I'd throw together a quick post-mortem of Your Rules. :)

First off thanks for everyone who's reviewed it so far, there have been some low scores which was totally expected, and perfectly valid. :) I was kind of ambivalent about the whole idea myself, but in the end decided to go with my gut. Like the game says, in the end it's what I wanted to do. :)

If you have played it, and are confused why -anyone- would even consider rating it highly; there is a little bit more to it than may be obvious if you're just looking at it as a shooter. If all you've seen is space, you haven't seen everything there is. :)

I tried to make it noticeable without making it blatantly obvious, but I can see how it'd get missed pretty easily by someone trying to power through a multitude of games and deliver a review on each. If you want to know the secret just PM me. ;)

Notably, this was my first time collaborating on a Jam, which turned out to be a fun experience. :) Tomato is pretty new to GM:S, and I've been giving them some tutorials on how everything works. While I intended to let Tomato program some of the simpler parts of the game, in there end there simply wasn't time, and so their contributions were strictly artistic this time around. T was great to work with and really impressed by their work ethic, they stuck with things all the way to the bitter end. I literally could not have completed the project in the timeframe without them though. 10/10, would compromise health sanity with again. :)

Beyond that, the overall experience was pretty similar to the jam grind I'm slowly getting used to. Slept about 4-5 hours per night, Everything began pretty organized but the coding behind the entire project reached Jenga Block status by Saturday evening, and by Sunday I was freely engaging in coding practices that would make me weep black tears of bitter shame on any other day.

(Also in a moment of pure yawning horror, I realized yesterday that I didn't remove any of the dev cheats. So uh.. have fun with those. :p )

I am pretty happy with how my half of the visuals turned out, as always I probably spent a little too much time on it, and as always I would have liked to put a bit more polish on everything.

Working on Defendergroove gave me pretty good grip on basic shooter mechanics, so I didn't have too much to learn there. (Incidentally, if you like shooters, check out Defendergroove, I promise it is 1,577,500% more enjoyable and prettier to listen to than Your Rules, and I'd love to see more people enjoying it. :) )

I did find what I felt like was a nice way to do transitions, and coded up a pretty decent background switcher and handler which I can probably use going onward.

Anyway. I think that's about all I have to say about that. There might be a Jelly (post-jam with more polish) version later, but I think that's mostly up to if T wants to go any further with it. There are certainly improvements that could be made on my side of things, but I think I'm pretty content. (and also still really busy)

Finally, thank you everyone who has played the game, I hope you enjoyed it, or at least tolerated it. I think working on it was a good experience for me. And thanks to the GMC and Jam organizers for putting all this on! Kudos as always.

I hope to get to play and review everyone's games in time, though due to my schedule it may not happen with any amount of quickness, sadly.

Take care everybody, and have fun. :)
 

kris24

Member
Hi everyone! This was my first jam with this community, and I just wanted to say the experience has been fantastic! I'm amazed at how many people are taking the time to play and leave feedback for every single game. There's already been some very kind comments about my entry, which I have really appreciated. Jams like this are so great because even an amateur like myself can feel like I have made a game which brings at least a few minutes of fun for people. I'm working my way through playing all the entries myself; I'm in awe of how so many people are so talented at making really well-made games in such a short time-frame.

One thing, not a big deal really, but my name is kris24, not chris24 😊 It gets mixed up in real life all the time too so I'm not bothered by it all that much, but just in case it's a problem with the final results or whatever, I thought I should mention it.
 

Alice

Darts addict
Forum Staff
Moderator
@Sk8dududu Could you please try our game again (Three Rules Standing), but this time pressing F to enter/leave fullscreen mode? This should make the gameplay screen and rules appear correctly on-screen, as long as your resolution is at least 1024x768.

There seems to be a weird (and somewhat random) visual glitch the first time people play the game, drawing things at incorrect scales/positions. It should get fixed when you enter/leave fullscreen. Replaying the game might also work, but turning fullscreen on and off again seems to be the most reliable way. After you successfully get rid of the glitch, it shouldn't appear anymore.

After that, hopefully, it should be clear enough where you can leave the first room and explore the map.

(also, in general please make sure to read README_PLEASE file associated with the game if you haven't already)
 

ghandpivot

Member
There are hints for "Three rules make a riddle" in the games topic post. It says so in the game but I think that might have gone unseen for many. I would have included them but there was simply no time :)
Cheers for all plays so far!
 
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Calepiaro

Guest
Ok so I have seen that many people say that finding the red power orb (in my game, "Mage's Quest") was too difficult.
So for the ones that want to find it but are stuck (please only look at this if you really couldn't find it!):
The red power orb is situated on the left part on the map.
From the main middle platform you spawn on just jump from the left edge and you will see a platform(it was out of the view of the camera while on the main platform).
From there you just continue going left and you will find the red orb!

Also there is a little hidden secret in my game so congratulations to anyone that finds it!
 

Toque

Member
Ok so I have seen that many people say that finding the red power orb (in my game, "Mage's Quest") was too difficult.
So for the ones that want to find it but are stuck (please only look at this if you really couldn't find it!):
The red power orb is situated on the left part on the map.
From the main middle platform you spawn on just jump from the left edge and you will see a platform(it was out of the view of the camera while on the main platform).
From there you just continue going left and you will find the red orb!

Also there is a little hidden secret in my game so congratulations to anyone that finds it!
I didnt find the easter egg but I did persist and finished it......... Now the easter egg has me curious.
 

Gravedust

Member
Howdy again folks. :)

From reading through the reviews, it seem like fewer people have figured out the trick behind YOUR RULES than I'd earlier assumed. This is pretty understandable given the number of games that reviewers have to go though, and I guess I should have thought about that. :p

My only issue with this is that all of Tomato's work is hidden behind the 1st part of the game, and I feel bad that in a lot of cases their contributions aren't really being seen, since they put in a LOT of work.

So, here's how you get to the 2nd part of the game:



After the first 'loop' of the shooter section, the topmost 'rule' will be cracked when it appears again. Shoot it to destroy and disable that rule.

Another loop will crack another rule, repeat until all rules are broken.
(Or, since I left Dev cheats on like a blockhead: Press the "K" key to instantly crack all the rules so you can shoot them without doing any of the loops except the last one.)

I don't want anyone to change their ratings, but I hope you'll take the time to run the game again and see Tomato's work. :)

Thanks again to everyone who took the time to play and review the game, I accept all criticism without complaint. :)

I hope to finally get to play and review the other jam games soon, hopefully tomorrow!
 
@Red Phantom In regards to Wizard's Pub Crawl, the controls are explained in the readme.txt
The only "controls" are left click to shoot. Thanks again for your incredibly insightful and in-depth feedback for our game.
 
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Deleted member 45063

Guest
I think a lot of people are having trouble with my entry (Color Wars). The controls are explained in the README file, you can shoot with three colors (each has its own weakness and strength against the other colors) and you can even activate some protective shields of a given color. Hope this helps the people that had some trouble!
 

Pixel-Team

Master of Pixel-Fu
Hi All. There have been questions about how to play, and I'll be the first to admit that it was the most fatal flaw of my submission. Here is a tutorial screen to show you how to play. I also had to fix a couple bugs related to the timer getting messed up, and one that caused the draw surface not to get cleared properly between levels.

My apologies to those players. If you would like to give my game a second try, with the understanding that if you vote you should vote for the initial submission only, I have added this screen to the game, and dealt with the bugs.

DOWNLOAD

spr_how_to_play.png
 
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Calepiaro

Guest
Howdy again folks. :)

From reading through the reviews, it seem like fewer people have figured out the trick behind YOUR RULES than I'd earlier assumed. This is pretty understandable given the number of games that reviewers have to go though, and I guess I should have thought about that. :p

My only issue with this is that all of Tomato's work is hidden behind the 1st part of the game, and I feel bad that in a lot of cases their contributions aren't really being seen, since they put in a LOT of work.

So, here's how you get to the 2nd part of the game:



After the first 'loop' of the shooter section, the topmost 'rule' will be cracked when it appears again. Shoot it to destroy and disable that rule.

Another loop will crack another rule, repeat until all rules are broken.
(Or, since I left Dev cheats on like a blockhead: Press the "K" key to instantly crack all the rules so you can shoot them without doing any of the loops except the last one.)

I don't want anyone to change their ratings, but I hope you'll take the time to run the game again and see Tomato's work. :)

Thanks again to everyone who took the time to play and review the game, I accept all criticism without complaint. :)

I hope to finally get to play and review the other jam games soon, hopefully tomorrow!
Very big shoutout to this!! This is amazing and I have totally missed it!
 

Ninety

Member
Ahh, thanks for that @Pat Ferguson. I really wanted to play your entry but for the life of me couldn't figure it out. I'll give it another shot!

@FrostyCat: Killer concept, I love it. Someone else said in their review that it has a strategic depth akin to chess or Go, which I find myself agreeing with because I am also bad at those games
 

Pixel-Team

Master of Pixel-Fu
Howdy again folks. :)

From reading through the reviews, it seem like fewer people have figured out the trick behind YOUR RULES than I'd earlier assumed. This is pretty understandable given the number of games that reviewers have to go though, and I guess I should have thought about that. :p

My only issue with this is that all of Tomato's work is hidden behind the 1st part of the game, and I feel bad that in a lot of cases their contributions aren't really being seen, since they put in a LOT of work.

So, here's how you get to the 2nd part of the game:



After the first 'loop' of the shooter section, the topmost 'rule' will be cracked when it appears again. Shoot it to destroy and disable that rule.

Another loop will crack another rule, repeat until all rules are broken.
(Or, since I left Dev cheats on like a blockhead: Press the "K" key to instantly crack all the rules so you can shoot them without doing any of the loops except the last one.)

I don't want anyone to change their ratings, but I hope you'll take the time to run the game again and see Tomato's work. :)

Thanks again to everyone who took the time to play and review the game, I accept all criticism without complaint. :)

I hope to finally get to play and review the other jam games soon, hopefully tomorrow!
I loved your ending! And the more I played it, the better I got at dodging all those bullets!
 

GameDevDan

Former Jam Host
Moderator
GMC Elder
@Sk8dududu and @Mightyjor - both expressed a similar sentiment in reviews of Coco Cards Casino:

• I couldn't really find any particular way to ensure you win based on skill
• I think it could improve the mechanics of the game which appear to be very luck based. Is there a strategy to winning?
So I thought I'd address that :)
  • There are exactly 6 of every individual card (Red rock, paper, scissors, Black rock, paper, scissors) for a total of 36 cards.
  • The points returned for betting correctly are basically the odds of guessing right at the start of the game. 2-1 chance of guessing the right colour, 3-1 of guessing the right symbol, 6-1 of guessing the right card.
Knowing these two things you really only have to bet on colors, symbols or cards that you know have the most cards left and therefore the most chance of appearing. If there are a lot of black cards already flipped, bet red. If all the rocks and papers are gone, bet scissors. etc.

When it comes to picking which card to flip over the most sensible tactic is to just flip the card with the most neighbours. From the moment the first card is flipped just keep flipping one of the ones next to it (and so on). If you're picking a card with few or no neighbours you're going to score fewer bonus points.

Finally, once you've won or lost a match the game tells you how to open the little cheat menu showing you how many of each card are left. Which makes keeping track of them much easier for the betting phase.
 

Evanski

Raccoon Lord
Forum Staff
Moderator
@Sk8dududu and @Mightyjor - both expressed a similar sentiment in reviews of Coco Cards Casino:



So I thought I'd address that :)
  • There are exactly 6 of every individual card (Red rock, paper, scissors, Black rock, paper, scissors) for a total of 36 cards.
  • The points returned for betting correctly are basically the odds of guessing right at the start of the game. 2-1 chance of guessing the right colour, 3-1 of guessing the right symbol, 6-1 of guessing the right card.
Knowing these two things you really only have to bet on colors, symbols or cards that you know have the most cards left and therefore the most chance of appearing. If there are a lot of black cards already flipped, bet red. If all the rocks and papers are gone, bet scissors. etc.

When it comes to picking which card to flip over the most sensible tactic is to just flip the card with the most neighbours. From the moment the first card is flipped just keep flipping one of the ones next to it (and so on). If you're picking a card with few or no neighbours you're going to score fewer bonus points.

Finally, once you've won or lost a match the game tells you how to open the little cheat menu showing you how many of each card are left. Which makes keeping track of them much easier for the betting phase.
I opened the M menu and then I only bet on what color I thought it was until I knew I had a really good chance at guessing what color and symbol it was, often the game gives you the last card to guess and thats when I pick the correct one for an easy +6
 

Toque

Member
@Sk8dududu and @Mightyjor - both expressed a similar sentiment in reviews of Coco Cards Casino:



So I thought I'd address that :)
  • There are exactly 6 of every individual card (Red rock, paper, scissors, Black rock, paper, scissors) for a total of 36 cards.
  • The points returned for betting correctly are basically the odds of guessing right at the start of the game. 2-1 chance of guessing the right colour, 3-1 of guessing the right symbol, 6-1 of guessing the right card.
Knowing these two things you really only have to bet on colors, symbols or cards that you know have the most cards left and therefore the most chance of appearing. If there are a lot of black cards already flipped, bet red. If all the rocks and papers are gone, bet scissors. etc.

When it comes to picking which card to flip over the most sensible tactic is to just flip the card with the most neighbours. From the moment the first card is flipped just keep flipping one of the ones next to it (and so on). If you're picking a card with few or no neighbours you're going to score fewer bonus points.

Finally, once you've won or lost a match the game tells you how to open the little cheat menu showing you how many of each card are left. Which makes keeping track of them much easier for the betting phase.
so basically it’s a training app for counting cards. NICE! bonus points from me.
 

Sk8dududu

Member
@Sk8dududu and @Mightyjor - both expressed a similar sentiment in reviews of Coco Cards Casino:
Although I wasn't aware of the cheat menu, I was aware that there was strategies to increase your odds. Such as picking cards with lots of neighbors and stuff like that.

It sounds more like blackjack than I had originally thought which probably would have slightly increased my enjoyment of the game.
 

Evanski

Raccoon Lord
Forum Staff
Moderator
Okay so because nobody found the secret in my Jam game, if you run the three minute timer 3 times in a row you get a secret message
 

SoapSud39

Member
When it comes to picking which card to flip over the most sensible tactic is to just flip the card with the most neighbours. From the moment the first card is flipped just keep flipping one of the ones next to it (and so on). If you're picking a card with few or no neighbours you're going to score fewer bonus points.
I might add that something I found useful is that when you bet where all three types surround the spot, you'll want to bet the type that beats the one with the least.

For example: let's say the space has two rocks, two papers, and one scissor around it. You'd want to bet rock because if you're right you get those points, but even if you're wrong, you get the two points for beating one of the other two signs. It works too if there are, e.g., no scissors and you bet rock.

Well, I don't know how well this actually works in terms of strategy, but it could be useful to know.
 

Evanski

Raccoon Lord
Forum Staff
Moderator
There are hints in the games topic thread. If you still don't get them feel free to msg me. There is no real reason to do all of them though other than satisfaction :)
I felt the questions where pretty good and that the hints in the devlog were just right to keep me guessing but a good push in the correct position
 

Bart

WiseBart
So.... what button do I hit to replace mask? Because it said I had 11 of them, but I kept dying when the first one ran out. Readme didn't say, and spamming random keys didn't work.
Thanks for playing my entry.
You're definitely not the first one to mention the lack of explanation and it's something I have to agree with.
The readme does mention that the Space key is used as the context key near trash cans and all but it doesn't explicitly specify what it is that you're supposed to do with it. There are a couple of things you can interact with: trash cans, sinks, elevators and the metro.
The timed mode requires you to constanly be on the lookout for a nearby trash can. They're basically the waypoints to the fair area.
Riding the metro costs 10 coins each time, in timed mode.

I do admit that's quite a bit of info that's just not there.
I'm working on a post-jam version of my entry with much clearer instructions, with the entire Spielcomm site finished and with a teleporter that gets you there in an instant from the first area. In case anyone'd like to play and reach a pretty lively fair area.
It's almost empty in the jam version except for the star powerup that makes you resistent, effectively putting the game in untimed mode.
 

ghandpivot

Member
One thing to improve - have backspace clear the letter and go back at once, rather than first clear the letter and then on another backspace go back. At no point have I thought "oh, that's nice how the cursor still stays on that position after removing the previous letters", and many times I thought the exact opposite.
Cheers for playing! Yup, that is stupid. I think I caught on to it being stupid once but then I forgot about it.
 

GameDevDan

Former Jam Host
Moderator
GMC Elder
I might add that something I found useful is that when you bet where all three types surround the spot, you'll want to bet the type that beats the one with the least.... etc.
Yes! I did this also when testing the game. Guaranteeing yourself points no matter the outcome. (None of the AI characters are programmed to do this specifically, although they may do it by accident, so it does give you that extra human advantage).
 

Alice

Darts addict
Forum Staff
Moderator
By the way, I just noticed this in rewards section...
@EvanSki - I want to offer a free copy of the official release version of my Debug console for the games that place first to third, and the games that place third to last - last place
What would happen if @EvanSki wins both top 3 and bottom 3 entries? 🤔
 
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