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This is the first post of what I hope will become an ongoing series. The fourteenth Indie Game Utopia game jam has just ended, and now that I'm posting on this blog again, I've decided to start covering all the games that come out of the game jams from now on. Let's start with the winning entry of the IGU Summer Jam: The Game of Doors Link to the game's Itch.io page: https://3dpishu.itch.io/the-game-of-doors It is a cute top-down puzzle game where you have to help wizards find the exit to a high fantasy dungeon.  I really like the art direction of this game. The character models look like toys, and I think that's cute. As for the gameplay, it's pretty simple, but in a good way. There are doors which open or close if you click on them, but they come in different colors and if you open/close one of them, all other doors of the same color open/close as well. There's traps which kill wizards if they walk into them. There's also monsters, which come in different colors, and can be killed by traps as well as wizards whose hat has the same color as the monster, but they kill wizards with different colored hats. I don't have much else to say about the game, but I liked it, and I'm curious to see what this developer will put out if they join future game jams! I will now go through the other games that came out of this year's IGU Summer Jam and give my thoughts on all of them. --- ReWIRE! Link to the game's Itch.io page: https://sizuruuu.itch.io/rewire This is the first game from the IGU Summer Jam that I've played, and while it's pretty rough, I think it has a lot of charm to it!   The game is a grid-based factory sim where you play as an industrial engineer who found an abandoned factory building and decided to start his own business, and now has to make ends meet. Every day, you have to meet your quota, and you can spend any extra money you make on materials (which you can use to build more machines and conveyor belt pieces) at the end of the day. It's a simple concept, but I think that's a good thing, and it's a solid foundation for the developers to build on. All of the game's mechanics are explained in a manual which you can access by pressing the "G" key, and I love how full of personality the manual is. It's so good.  I wish it was a bit easier to read, though, and there was a bug (or, at least, I assume it's a bug and not an intentional decision) where the timer keeps ticking down when you're reading the manual. I also noticed that the game doesn't seem to have a fullscreen option, and the minigame where you have to rewire broken machines could use some work. Because there's no feedback when you click on the things you have to click on, or hover over them with the cursor, I thought that the minigame was completely non-functional until I happened to click on the right thing through trial and error. The character's movement is also a bit too slow, in my opinion. But, with all that said, I think this game has a lot of potential and I think the developers should continue working on it. It could turn into something truly great if the devs add more stuff to the game and fix some of the jank, and I would love to see it! --- Connection Lost Link to the game's Itch.io page: https://checkmate-entertainment.itch.io/connection-lost This is a short game made in Unreal Engine. I will admit, I am not that much into first-person shooters as a genre, and while I did my best to give this entry a fair shot (pun intended) like the rest of the IGU Summer Jam entries, I want to be upfront about that bias. The game is very bare-bones, but I did find things to like about it.  This is a screenshot from the game's Itch.io page. I'm assuming it's from an earlier stage in the game's development, because the actual game looks a bit different. The colors and lighting are a lot more vibrant. And, if I'm being honest, I kinda like the black-and-white look more. It almost looks kind of brutalist. It's got strong vibes.  The game lagged a lot, but I'm assuming that's because I have an old laptop and not because of anything the developer had any control over, so that one's on me. What I will criticise the game for, though, is not having an options menu. Luckily, the game was still playable. To start the game, you have to walk up to the holographic projector in the center of the room and hold the "E" key to interact with it, something the game does not communicate very well. The actual gameplay consists of shooting a bunch of stationary targets, and that's about it as far as I can tell. I didn't run into any bugs, though, aside from the background music not looping. The music, which is composed by Jacob Haselhoff, is pretty nice and fits the vibe the game is going for. I am curious to see what this developer will create for future game jams! --- Connections Councilor Link to the game's Itch.io page: https://mdshu6.itch.io/connections-councilor A short little visual novel style game where you play as a couples therapist and help different couples fix their relationship issues. I think it's really sweet!  The characters are really well written, each one of them has a distinct personality and feels like a real person, despite the fact that there aren't really that many lines of dialogue. As for the actual gameplay, you can ask the characters various questions as well as ask to speak to them one-on-one, and once you figure out the problem, you get to pick one out of several pieces of relationship advice to give them. I really liked the first couple, Andrew and Jasmine. Their issue was that Andrew is spending a lot of time playing Dungeons & Dragons with his friend group, and Jasmine worries that she isn't a priority for him and wishes he'd spend more time with her. But Andrew really does love Jasmine, it's just that he's known this friend group longer than he's known her, and he hopes that you can make her understand that. But if you speak to her one-on-one and ask her if there's anything she hasn't told you yet, she'll admit that she wants to ask Andrew if she could join his friend group's D&D campaign... she just hasn't asked him because she's worried she'll seem jealous and possessive because she and Andrew have been arguing about his D&D campaign before. So I decided to tell Andrew to approach Jasmine and ask her if she wants to roll up a character for the campaign. That's so sweet. I won't go into more detail about the other couples, because you should play the game for yourself. I know the game was made by two people, and it's their first time completing a game, and I just want to say that whichever one of them did the writing clearly has talent. I hope they decide to make more games in the future! --- Dial-up Madness Link to the game's Itch.io page: https://xxchester.itch.io/dial-up-madness A comedic management sim where you have to keep your dial-up connection running long enough to finish downloading files.  First of all, I love the concept. I am a sucker for video games that have fake old Windows interfaces in them. I think this is the first time I've seen a game use that for comedy, though, rather than just as a stylistic choice for its menus. The gameplay is pretty simple; you have to keep your dial-up internet connection running and deal with a constant stream of interruptions, like your mom getting on the phone, rogue beavers chewing on the power poles outside and constant pop-ups that remind you you're using a free version of LimeWire and interrupt your downloads. It's total chaos. To be honest... a lot of the jokes (except for the pop-up bit) didn't land for me, but that's just because the game is a nostalgic throwback to an era that was slightly before my time. I was born in 1997, and the game is set in the year 2000, so I would have been 3 years old at the time. I didn't really get to use the internet until I was about 9 to 10 years old, and I grew up in a fairly rural part of the Netherlands where technology was behind a few years compared to the cities. I can see what the developers were trying to do, though, and I think they did a good job. --- Connected Worlds Link to the game's Itch.io page: https://dani101.itch.io/connected-worlds A platformer game where you have to collect energy cells in order to open a portal and travel to the next level.  This one is pretty rough. As a game, it's really bare-bones, and the level design has a lot of the common mistakes of bad platformer game design: mainly, blind jumps. For those who don't know what I mean by that, it's when the game expects you to make a jump without knowing where you'll land, or if you'll land in a safe spot. There were also several points in the game where I didn't know I was supposed to jump on a moving platform, because the platforms take a long time to move back and forth and I missed it. A simple solution to both of those problems would be to give the player directions. If the player has to jump down a pit in order to progress, maybe put a sign on the edge of the cliff with an arrow pointing downwards? Maybe have the moving platforms travel on rails, like in the Mario games? I wish the developer the best with their future projects, though, and I would love to see them participate in future game jams. --- Wi-Fire Link to the game's Itch.io page: https://aaathenaaa.itch.io/wi-fire A simulation game where you have to complete all your tasks before midnight while also dealing with malware from the public wi-fi you're using.  This is another game with a fake retro user interface, and like I said before, I love it when games do that. I also really like the music, it's catchy and it also fits with the retro vibe. As for the gameplay, you have to use the browser to complete several tasks which are outlined in the notepad file, such as buying something from an online shop and completing a form. If you connect to one of the wi-fi networks, the malware progress bar starts filling up until your computer gets infected with malware. The concept is really cool, but the game doesn't give you any directions on how to complete the tasks. I only found out which URL takes you to the shop by exiting the game and looking at a screenshot on the game's Itch.io page, and there's one URL in the notepad file... but it doesn't actually work. Also, there's no way to get rid of the malware or to disconnect from the wi-fi network to stop the malware bar from filling up, which is a shame in my opinion. I think this game has a lot of potential, though, and I would love to see the developers continue to work on it after the game jam. --- Old Great Subway Link to the game's Itch.io page: https://yogyrie.itch.io/old-great-subway A platformer game where you join Rei on a mission to explore the titular Old Great Subway and expand her crew's influence.  There's a lot to like about this game. I love the art direction. It's got solid vibes. And the music is really good as well. Also, I like the protagonist Rei's character design and her interactions with her crew's leader, Old Great Hazza. At the start of the game, he sends Rei on a mission to find his sister Lulu, who he lost contact with, as well as expand their crew's territory by tagging their symbol all across the underground. In return for expanding their influence, he promises to give her "blessings".   I almost immediately got a bad vibe from him, though I didn't make it far enough into the game to see if anything ever comes of it. The reason for that is that the gameplay... needs work. Rei's movement speed is very slow, her jump height is pretty low for a platformer (even when taking the double jump into account) and using a melee attack stops all movement. There also isn't really any feedback when you hit an enemy, they just keep charging at you while you keep attacking them until they die. Enemies don't always damage you either, and I was able to get away from some of the rats by just walking away while Rei's sprite was overlapping with theirs. I feel like I should have taken damage from that. The grappling ability is also pretty weird, as instead of throwing a grappling hook like the name of the ability suggests, she kinda just dashes into the direction of the object you're using the ability on. It's also bugged and just randomly doesn't work sometimes. The game is very rough, but I think it has a lot of potential and I'd love to see the dev team continue working on it or make something else for a future game jam. --- Alfar Workshop Link to the game's Itch.io page: https://aferrmuneco.itch.io/alfar-workshop A card game where you take on the role of an elf who works at a factory that makes toys for children.  First of all, I love the game's art direction. I think it looks adorable. The music is also really fun to listen to and definitely fits the vibe of the game. The gameplay seemed a bit complicated at first, but it's actually pretty simple once it clicks in your head and you understand what you're doing.  The cards each have their own attributes, and you can stack multiple cards together to create a super-card that the attributes of all the cards that go into it. But, to prevent this from being completely busted, each card has only five attribute slots, and if you stack cards that have an attribute in the same slot, the super-card will have the attribute of the card that's higher up in the stack. You have to stack certain attributes together in order to meet your daily goals, and you get points which you can use to buy more cards for your deck. It's a pretty fun game and I'm curious to see what the devs will put out next! --- Nuit Link to the game's Itch.io page: https://f4ilortrue.itch.io/nuit A contemplative visual novel style game where you take a deep dive into your memories through your dreams.  That's a really strong introduction. Right off the bat, it sets the mood, and also establishes that the protagonist is clearly struggling with... something. I also want to point out that the game's music and sound design is amazing. And so are the visuals. Anyways, as the protagonist enters the dream world, we see the representation of their journey through dreams, a web made up of different nodes that are connected to each other:  To progress through the dream world, you have to go through all the memories, and each node represents one of them. At the end of each memory, you have to choose how to react, and your choices affect the emotions the protagonist is feeling which is represented by Plutchik's wheel of emotions, which is a real thing that the game didn't invent. I think the way the game references real-world psychology like that is pretty cool. As for the different memories, each one plays out like a little mini-scenario, and most of these scenarios are pretty mundane. But I think that adds to the game's surreal vibe. The "unknown letter" scenario kind of reminds me of something that happened to me a few years ago, where I got a letter from someone I don't know, written in a handwriting that I couldn't recognise, and it was just paragraph after paragraph of deranged religious rambling. I never got a letter like that again. It scared me at the time and it still kinda creeps me out when I think about it.  And the other scenarios are like that as well. You get asked out on a date by a stranger who kind of gives you a bad vibe, you have to go to the bathroom but you accidentally locked yourself out of your apartment, you run into an old friend from high school who you haven't spoken to in years and don't know what to say, and so on.
This is probably my favorite game from this year's IGU Summer Jam. I haven't completed it yet, but I will almost certainly be playing it later. I am curious to see if this game has different endings depending on the protagonist's emotions. I hope the dev team keeps working on this game now that the jam is over and I'm curious to see what other things they'll end up making after this! That's all of the games of this year's IGU Summer Jam. I hope you liked this blog post, and I hope you check some of these games out for yourself. I also want to express my thanks to everyone who participated in the game jam! I hope to write more posts like this when future game jams come around, if anyone's interested. Let me know if you would like to see that! Signing out, -Jules
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