With the theme of MYSTERY, the 3-day, 72-hour statewide game jam for Virginia college students and alumni ended on Sunday, March 29th at 6:00 PM EST, and in today's post I'm going to be sharing my personal ranking of all 35 submitted games, describing each one's strengths and weaknesses along the way. We all worked very hard last weekend to put our own creativity and various forms of artistry to the test, so I wanted to dissect what came out of it and see what we can learn for the future.
IMPORTANT NOTE: This list is unofficial / purely for fun, it's just my random opinions and it's not intended to degrade anybody's efforts. I'm stoked with what every team accomplished with their game, so don't interpret this as me trying to put anybody down. I've done my best to describe what I think is positive about every entry!
1. Fractured Domain
I don't want to seem biased since I somewhat know the person who made this game, but it was genuinely the most engaging and addictive game out of the entire collection. Somehow it provided a level of challenge that felt simultaneously higher than expected but equally rewarding, with pixel art aesthetics reminiscent of those pixelly mobile games that are actually fun to play. For one dev with only 72 hours to work, I have no idea how he managed to create so much content, but honestly good for him. This was therefore my favorite game, even if I do think it interpreted the "mystery" theme rather loosely.
2. False Hope
For me, this game can be summed up as "game jam teamwork gone right". As expected, False Hope is not a very long game, but the objective and gimmick are clear right out of the gate (something which goes a long way with jam games, being one of their most common pitfalls), topped off with some of the best low-poly graphics, original music (like 5-ish tracks??), and overall polish/cohesion I've seen in any jam game. It's quick to calm the player's fears that they might be about to play another Ikea furniture-esque entry with unclear goals and half-baked assets, which I say is high praise. As a final comment to the devs, what do you mean you've since removed cards from that one part of the cavern? Maybe I'm bad but I would have likely given up early if I had to go with the number you're suggesting.
3. Mira
I have to confess that I didn't get to beat this game (I kinda got stuck, though I did watch other people make it further than myself), but just by looking at the graphics, the ambience, and the creative use of area-specific voice lines to tell a narrative, this game felt the most like a 'labor of love' to me out of all the submissions. That's not just in how authentic and unafraid it is to take on the mystery theme full-throttle, but the fact that it opens with original poetry and tells a deeper story than what most would dare to attempt in a 72-hour game jam. Very nicely done.
4. You Did It
This game has top-notch decoration / polish and a very creative premise, all assembled together really well for the time available. However, the police's guilt-detection mechanics felt a bit clunky and unintuitive, and the actual win condition for each level wasn't something I was able to comprehend from the information available at the time of playing. However, just because I struggle with a game doesn't mean it wasn't a good game, and from what I've seen, this game displays unquestionable talent.
5. A Quick Stop
A game's tone being serious or goofy is not nearly as important (in my opinion) as how well the game itself is able to convince (keyword: convince) the players that if something's off or weird, it's fully intentional on the devs' part, rather than as a consequence of overscoping or poor direction. This game had great polish, and was very weird, and maybe it's just the fact that I'm familiar with many of the people who worked on the game (or cameo'd in the game), but it comes across as though the devs were having a blast while making this and just wanted to make something knowingly absurd in the short time window for the fun of it. When set up well (as with this game), it's a wonderful experience. Still, it does feel a bit short, especially compared to what other teams were able to put out.
6. Wane
For some reason, this game felt like something I would have played on the Wii from a third-party developer back in the day. It has a cozy, decorative aesthetic that shows excellence in the asset department and little puzzles that are quite enjoyable. It also nods to a backstory that's not overbearing in terms of reading, which I really appreciate. Very mystery
7. Fruit Jam 3D
This entry was kinda bewildering with the talking fruit and their personalities, but the game definitely knows that about itself, and I can feel the devs' sense of humor being an intentional aspect of their creation (it's also more polished than I expected). I want to randomly say that I don't know what it is, but those eggs and cans barreling towards the player are the scariest thing I experienced across every one of these games.
8. Who Killed Mr. McKinley?
The game wasn't really able to flesh out its scope in time (by the dev's own admission), but everything else was fantastic. Namely, the aesthetics and attention to detail with the retro, almost Windows 95-esque aesthetic, the rain sounds, the player's mustache showing at the bottom of the screen, and the cozy indoor lighting, to name a few things. I love that polish was prioritized over scope; while murder mystery narratives are a widespread, low-hanging fruit, the work that went into this game's look and feel is not something you see everywhere.
9. Bernard's Star System
This was actually my submission! Originally I didn't want to rank this to avoid bias, but it would have made the list incomplete. While this game was a huge step forward for my game dev abilities, and it had a narrative / feel I felt I was able to execute really well under the given constraints, I don't think it excuses all the bugginess with player-environment collisions routinely softlocking the game and some of the password digits being way too difficult to find (probably because I didn't allocate time for playtesting). Oh well, lessons for next time.
10. Grayscales
Wonderful audio and (original!) music with this one, I also love this interpretation of the theme being more of a design aesthetic instead of trying to shoe-horn in a mystery narrative where it doesn't always work. Gameplay-wise it got a little bit creative, but at a core level it still felt like I was playing one of many 2D platformers with a different coat of paint (which is not necessarily bad, I just think it could have been more original).
11. Ghost Boy Seeks Ghoul Boy
It was a bit clunky and hard to latch onto at first, but the more chances I gave it, the more things started to make sense, and the more I started to progress. By the end I had a moment where I went "woah, that's cool!", and I felt like I really did put the pieces of some puzzle together. Also the ghost character is cute. I would just recommend pressing a single key to possess something instead of having to press both up and down, aside from giving the game more polish and clarity.
12. Dungeon of Thunder
I love the puzzle mechanics that were set up here, and the rotation of the electricity orbs around the player speeding up as they collect more was a nice touch. My main complaint is that it was not longer, and that the ending was a somewhat contrived "The End" without a proper narrative cap-off.
13. Physical Medium
This game had neat puzzles and intriguing worldbuilding, though the ending felt a bit underbaked and hard to recognize as the intended end of the game. Still though, I think this is one of the more authentic interpretations of the theme, and the art boasted a lot of character and craftsmanship, although the quality of said art felt a bit inconsistent across the game.
14. Atlantis Risen
I love it when games feel like a bunch of dudes messing around, and I feel the main dungeon gameplay loop had some great tile / enemy art. However, there are obvious technical problems with the inconsistency of the dialog volume, as well as the game seemingly softlocking the first time you die to the final boss. So unfortunately I never got to see the conclusion of the epic story.
15. Unfamiliar Familiar
This visual novel did a great job (and surpassed my expectations) of creating an unsettling environment (particularly with the psychological aspect), which kept me engaged and curious to see how the scenario was gonna unravel. I love some of the tongue-in-cheek dialog and flavor text that's self-referential and funny but not to an excessive or distracting degree. However, visual novels are relatively limited in their programming, which is a skill I look forward to seeing people show off in game jams.
16. Reality Breach
This game didn't work on my device, but when I did get the chance to play it, the puzzles were some of the most unique and impressive that I've seen made in 3 days. If I recall correctly, the game doesn't really have an ending or a narrative, or that much of an explanation for what's going on, so unfortunately I can't really rank it too high given the lack of cohesion, as well as the simplistic graphics.
17. A Botanical Blunder
The art was wonderfully made for this visual novel, although the plot progression does feel a bit linear, and the game had a few notable bugs.
18. Black Box: Mystery at Glimpse, Inc.
I've seen computer terminal mysteries before, and this one doesn't feel particularly innovative, though I still found it fun enough to play for the little while it lasted. Loved the commentary on surveillance. However, it's a little jarring that you can seemingly switch between endings as many times as you want by repeatedly entering a different option than your last.
19. Key Combinations
The computery art is phenomenal, and I was pleasantly surprised by how fleshed out the crafting/combining mechanic was, but the game feels like it's cut way too short and like the narrative has potential to go somewhere where it didn't end up having time to. I know the game had a stringent time limit, but managing scope and getting a game to feel like a complete experience despite the constraints is an important skill in and of itself.
20. A Quiet Life in London
My biggest gripe with this game is that the social engineering mechanics and win condition don't seem to be clearly explained anywhere, leading to a potentially confusing playing experience. I didn't even know what to do on the peggle screen until I luckily stumbled across the way to launch the balls. Even if the way the game worked was clearly explained though, I feel like it still would have had perhaps too much going on for such a short experience. The mystery aesthetic and that one screen transition though, those were great.
21. Mao?
I like how unique this take on the theme was, and there were a lot of fun, unexpected touches like the cat or that wobbly door stopper thing being an actual part of the gameplay. However, for my personal tastes, the amount of patience and memorization required was too high to feel rewarded playing this against AI instead of real people. Still though, I like that you thought outside the box with this theme.
22. Kaden: Finding Reasonable Doubt
Making Ace Attorney for a mystery-themed game jam does feel a little too "on the nose" if that makes any sense, but my main thing was that I couldn't tell if there was supposed to be thematic commentary on AI making important decisions, and that the prosecutor/defendant arguing felt kinda like 7 year olds having an argument. To be fair, I don't think this game was begging to be taken the most seriously in the first place lol, and it was decent fun anyway. I do love Ace Attorney.
23. Light Up
I love the flare physics, and the way this game is lit up reminds me of Terraria at nighttime. The goal / ending feels kind of contrived though, and the overall gameplay doesn't go very far beyond just platforming in an otherwise empty environment with an item you can throw.
24. Dive or Die
Great job with your first game jam submission, I would recommend adding something else to make it stand out from other dungeon crawlers / point-and-click adventures. Unfortunately this genre of fantasy isn't really my taste.
25. Detective Keybind
It's unfinished but still pretty interesting- I could see puzzle potential if you ever decide to expand on this idea. I love when the player character puts a cigar in their mouth and makes a "hmmmmm" sound.
26. Visual Novel of an Unfinished Game
This game is cute, and I think it's tastefully meta with the way it ends. However, it does feel like a bit of a cop-out, and I can't help but wish I could instead play the game that was supposed to result from this. I'm surprised, albeit happy, that Mind Mage doesn't have an existential crisis since she's about to technically "die" when the game ends or something.
27. Basement Dwellers
The game was completely broken for me but the concept art looked cool.
28. Life Steal
Chaz is such a funny name to me and idk why... anyway, I like the concept and the vibe that this game sells, but it feels pretty unpolished and it's easy to beat fast without seeing what most of the game has to offer in terms of its lore.
29. The Monster Mystery
I'm sorry I couldn't get further into your game but I simply couldn't fix the screen sizing. I even went into my computer's display settings to change the zoom-out factor so I could see everything, but that still only worked temporarily. What I've seen so far seems promising and like it was fun to make but I can't overlook barriers to access that are this difficult.
30. Konnect 4
While the art and sound are good, the game feels lacking in depth simply because it's a Connect 4 x Reversi tabletop game with no narrative, level progression, or broader meaning (unless I missed something). Definitely enjoyable for the right people though, it just feels like this isn't the right jam for this game.
31. 🐴🍎🥕
Continuing last year's saga of horse-themed submissions by this one participant, this hour of code-style game was a bit too tedious for my liking and felt like it could have had its mechanics spelled out more clearly. I respect your dedication though, and I hope to see more horse-themed games from you in the future.
32. Dino Detective
Simply peak. This placement is a glitch it's supposed to be at #1
33. Old Rickety Shack
It's definitely a start, I'm happy that you submitted what you made for your first jam regardless of how it ended up turning out, it paves the way for better games in the future.
34. Murder at Modern Art Manor
This game unfortunately ran incredibly slow for me, and while I wish I could see the things the comments are talking about, nothing is really explained about the game's mechanics and there's not a lot of graphical detail at spawn to provide context / worldbuilding to justify the struggle.
35. FIND HER
It's not because this game is download-only, it's because THIS game is download-only...
