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Journey's Start - Golden's itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Graphics | #12 | 4.200 | 4.200 |
| Audio | #25 | 3.600 | 3.600 |
| Overall | #39 | 3.500 | 3.500 |
| Gameplay/Design | #46 | 3.400 | 3.400 |
| Fun | #80 | 2.800 | 2.800 |
Ranked from 5 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
What would you like feedback on?
Feedback on presentation and gameplay, how could I improve any of the mechanics or change them? Also is everything clear in the tutorial and guides? How could I make things clearer when communicating what quests might best suit a character?
What did you update?
Added:
Inventory System
Linear Progression
More Quests & Characters
Crystal Ball helper
You can check out my initial GMTK entry "Journey's Start" here to see what's changed! https://cyberthreat.itch.io/journeys-start
Name of updated upload (if downloadable)
This is the updated project, no downloadable yet.
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Comments
Nice idea and really great graphics and feel to the game well done! Keep working on it :)
Great idea!
I enjoyed the idea and its a nice way to spend a bit of time. The art and music is atmospheric, but once you figure out the pattern and become used to the quests, the game becomes super easy. It might be useful to add more encounters/quests and some additional challenges. I even forgot about the existence of the crystal ball, so needless to say it was a bit too easy. I am not sure what function the star system serves, so maybe having some sort of punishment for low ratings would work well. The writing is witty and enjoyable, so putting a bit more emphasis on it would help the game but don't "overwrite" either - people are lazy and don't like to read long chunks of text, but in this case, a bit more writing/descriptions (like a sentence) wouldn't hurt the game.
I would say adding more purchasable items would be good too, to decorate or even provide functional benefits to the tavern and the barkeeper. It's mostly an idea, but being able to build relationships with certain races/groups/guilds I think would be pretty cool and give your game more depth.
The web version was really buggy for me, sadly no downloadable, so I had to go with it. Really like the presentation and the idea, but I don't get how you are supposed to figure the quest out. On the other note the 3 "0" before your actual money make it feel like you are earning little money.
Sorry to hear it was running poorly, I'll get a downloadable build up ASAP! Thanks for trying it though, and I appreciate the feedback on the money, I'll tweak that so it doesn't feel too low in the grand scheme of things!
The game feels very polished and offers a well-thought tutorial sequence. Art is great, sounds and music is atmospheric and relaxing. UI is good. Also loved the touch with rating on the wall. Core problem I see is a pretty simple core that becomes less fun with repetition.
1. Tutorial sequence
All the UI was covered and core loop was pretty clear starting out. The only thing I see to improve here could be slightly changing the tutorial section about the quest acceptance. It is phrased like you would always have 2 options — Accept or Decline, but in the game you more frequently encounter A or B quest, not Yes or No. Maybe it is covered somehow, but it was not clear to me. I would suggest putting less emphasis on the type of quest, and more on the "making choices to help the characters".
2. Core gameplay
Gameplay feels fun, with all the immediate consequences (and smart writing, leveling up the drip is legendary). But it becomes stale after the first week when I already played through a lot of encounters and didn't really see a point to keep playing. Maybe some long-term goals could solve this issue. The only thing I wanted to see after a week was the promised upgrade (which only improve the visuals but doesn't add to the gameplay as far as I can tell). Also some new encounters or even phase of Day can make the loop more fun. Like petting a cat / spending money on it or dealing with other innkeeper's stuff like placing the quests on the wall.
3. Quest communication
To make clearer what quests are about you could use more functional writing (aka Kill the Lich King with subtext — The foe of a great power or smth like that) or tagging quests by their type (aka DnD encounter types: Combat, Exploration, Social) or even suggesting a characteristic check it would involve (but be careful, it can ruin everything cause it would be too clear). Maybe some iconography could help, but still remain not obvious and direct.
Overall
Good game with a potential to become more than a Jam game, if enough work is put towards keeping the player engaged with different activities that suits the theme. Choices are fun, but only making choices between two options becomes less and less interesting as you play. "Papers, Please" is a great reference on how overarching narrative and long-term goals can support the simple core. Maybe you'll find some more inspiration in how they tackle difficulty curve to always raise the stakes.
Thank you so much for your in-depth feedback, I absolutely agree with and really like your ideas! Totally agreed with the fact it gets repetitive after the first week, I think something like having other activities and things to do through the day/week would definitely help, as you mentioned. And the quest communication, I couldn't agree more, definitely icons is a great idea, but I really love the suggestion about tagging and functional writing to give it more meaning/flavour.
I really appreciate you taking the time to play and give so much insight, and thank you for the kind words on the music and artwork!
Really fun! Sometimes it was a bit hard to tell which quest to give but the crystal ball helped with that!
Thanks for playing! Yeah, I'm still trying to figure out the best way of telegraphing the best quests for each character without the crystal ball, but glad to hear it's serving its purpose too!