Postmortem and post-jam updates (v1.1)

Now that the rating period is over, I have uploaded a post-jam version with dozens of small improvements. Most of the changes consist of refinements to the story, but I also fixed a few minor bugs, such as the one where it took the crawling enemy too long to defeat Dagger. I also made a few minor updates to the graphics: e.g., Dagger now takes his helmet off in the flashbacks.

I had a tremendous amount of fun with this jam. It was my 13th completed game jam, and my first produced with a tool other than Unity. I learned to use GB Studio by watching and following along with Pixel Pete's great tutorials on YouTube.

Although of course GB Studio has a lot of limitations, it is still a remarkable piece of software. It's very exciting to produce real Gameboy ROMs. I have a lot of nostalgia for that console! Working within the narrow specifications of the Gameboy, especially the graphical style, was a fun challenge.

I originally intended to include more action in the game, culminating in a confrontation with the pirates on board their flagship. However, I was unable to overcome some technical difficulties: for example, I could not get projectiles to collide with walls, which meant that it would be impossible for Dagger to take cover. 

Ultimately, I settled for a game that is mostly narrative. This appears to have hurt me in the ratings because narrative does not fit neatly into any of the rating categories, but judging from the comments the audience response to the game was mostly positive. My best category was Gameboy Soul at #11. In a way, this feels ironic because I don't remember a lot of wordy games like this from the Gameboy era (the closest may have been Link's Awakening, and that game was mostly action).

One inspiration for the story was Battlestar Galactica, from which I borrowed the endless drama between sci-fi space pilots. Another was the Silent Hill series, from which I borrowed the device of projecting the hero's guilt to transform a familiar environment into a claustrophobic place of horrors. 

Anyone interested in the broader universe in which this story takes place may wish to check out some other games in the same futuristic, feudal setting:

The Derelict Orpheus (~5-10 min)

The Gnawing Hunger (~90 min)

My one regret is that I did not get a chance to compose a piece of music for the game proper. I did create a short loop that plays over the main menu, and worked on a couple of little compositions for the game proper, but everything I tried felt too distracting for a game with so much text to read. I intend to revisit this in the future.

Thanks to everyone who tried the game and left their feedback!