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A jam submission

Words of DespairView game page

A text-based survival puzzle where every word counts. Can you craft the perfect message before it’s too late?
Submitted by nuuunu (@therealnuuunu) — 10 hours, 12 minutes before the deadline
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Words of Despair's itch.io page

Results

CriteriaRankScore*Raw Score
Innovation#344.0774.077
Theme#1583.7693.769
Overall#1913.6413.641
Audio#2013.6353.635
Visuals#2124.0384.038
Enjoyment#5913.3273.327
Gameplay#7203.0003.000

Ranked from 52 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?
The submitted game is a puzzle escape room game where you are trapped in a burning building with only 1% battery left on your phone. In a scenario where apparently nothing will go wrong, everything does. And now you have to rush to make your friends understand you are in danger by texting them before your battery runs out. Oh, have I told you that your keyboard is not working and you can only use the text predictions? Good luck!

What code and assets did you not make from scratch during the jam (if any)?
Code was made from scratch, except for repurposing some base code for audio managing. Assets were found during the jam on itch.io (credits in game).

How many people worked on the game?
1

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Comments

Viewing comments 44 to 25 of 44 · Next page · Last page
Submitted

Really great game! i think i would add some new dialoges, but overall, is very fun and new the ideia of the game!

Submitted

Really good game! I love the concept, it's super unique and very clever! The gameplay is fun, challenging and really funny. I like how sometimes the predictive text leaves you purely with nonsense and you're forced to say complete gibberish, it's very funny. The art is really nice as well, good job! Overall the game is really well made and polished. Good job!

Submitted

Pretty unique concept. The responses were kinda repetitive tho like what several others have said. I got mom to ask me if i wanted to call 911 and I typed "call" and well... mom just asked the same question... 

Submitted

Great game! I like the concept and the visuals. I panicked a little when my friend thought it was only a joke :')

Submitted

This is a great idea! Initially I thought I was only able to choose one person to message but was pleasantly surprised to see that you could contact multiple people. The limited word options were cool, though I think I was probably just spouting nonsense to my poor contacts half the time. Cool game though, nice job!

Submitted

Interesting idea, but for the most part the responses were very repetitive and the words to choose from were not very useful. It was enjoyable, well presented and innovative!

Submitted

Good innovative idea and my suggestion is to add a variety of responses because they become repetetive.

Submitted

Very cool idea! Because when there is emergence, you always can missclick some buttons :) But, to be honest, i didn't understand how sentence must look. If only there would be at least one example. Also when there are more than 6 options they don't fit the screen, so you can't choose the last option. Also it would be cool if you could remove already selected words (or you already have this mechanic?).

Submitted(+1)

Frantically texting your emergency contacts to save you, what a great and fitting and idea for the jam! I like the sense urgency the game evokes with its tense music.

And I really like how you can contact multiple people at once, it gives you something to do while waiting for the other people to reply, it helps keep the gameplay always moving and fresh.

Overall great job on this!

Developer

Truly appreciate the insightful and detailed review! It means a lot :)

Submitted(+1)

Fun concept, I liked the game! I tried communicating with more people but only "Mom" understood my messages, I managed to ask for help properly and she called 911 and I finished the game. The visuals are nice and the sound effects and music also, overall really great game!

Developer

We can always rely on Mom :D Thank you for the kind words and feedback!

Submitted(+1)

Nice small game. Fun concept too.

Some of your so called “friends” really don’t understand words like “Call SOS” though :D I would have loved a bit more dialogue in the text messages too. You can hide more feedback there probably.

Anyway, a good entry to this jam. Well done

Developer

Thank you very much for playing and for your feedback! That's really helpful :)

Submitted(+1)

Loved the concept and the potential of the gameplay, but I'll second some other comments saying the feedback wasn't effective enough. Like others, I tried to play normally and exploded, but was rescued when I just spammed every word possible (though I did lose two friends first, what jerks). On my first attempt, I also lost a few points because of the words moving after one was selected, so I accidentally selected a few I didn't mean to. Still, I think there's merit here and would love to see this expanded on with a better feedback system and additional puzzles to play with.

Developer

Truly appreciate the detailed and insightful comment. Will definitely keep that in mind for my future projects :)

Submitted(+1)

I like the visual! It was a very comedic experience. I played two rounds, choosing only words that conveyed my situation.  Didn't work, my phone exploded and I died. I played one extra round after reading through the comments, and picked every single word that I could pick. I was rescued in like 10s.

Developer(+1)

If you think about it, not making sense at all can be the best panic SOS message possible... Thx for the feedback!

Submitted(+1)

Yeah, 1% ain't never lasting that long irl. Great game but I burnt to a crips sending stupid messages for the lolz.

Developer(+1)

You went down with style. I respect that!

Submitted(+1)

Damn, that was a pretty innovative gameplay, really!
It is an excellent simulation of people in panic who try to send SOS messages while in a huge disaster.

Sometimes feels unbalanced, when there is no appropriate word that you can use, but on the other hand - it is how your stressed brain works in those types of situations.

Just add some more pro tips if the player fails really often and then it will be much more better! 

Keep up the good work!
Can't wait for other projects!

P.s. Moms are awesome.

Developer(+1)

I truly appreciate you taking the time to play it and leave the detailed feedback and review! Will definitely keep this in mind on my next projects <3

Submitted(+1)

I don’t know how to win, don’t know how I won. The feedback is quite vague.

Developer

Thank you for your feedback!

Submitted(+1)

fun game love the art style

Developer

Appreciate it mate :)

Submitted(+1)

really fun game, coveys the urgency of the situation well

Developer

That's the goal! Glad you enjoyed it :)

Submitted(+1)

The art and vibe were great! I've never played a game quite like this before but it was very fun and well put together (although I found it quite difficult), great work :)

Developer

Thank you for your kind words and feedback mate!

Submitted(+1)

Nice game! I played a few times but didn't managed to rescue. Rook asked me "Should I send help or...", "send help" I responded, and there is again "Should I esend help or...", it was a bit frustracting.

Developer(+1)

Time to remove Rook from my friends list... Thanks for your feedback :)

Viewing comments 44 to 25 of 44 · Next page · Last page