Thanks to all

First, I want to thank everyone who took the time to take a look at Aber’s Rations. And special thanks to those who left feedback. This game is one that I spent a lot of time on and one that I am very proud of, but it obviously wasn’t perfect, nor was it as good as it could have been if the jam had given us more time. This post’s goal is to take a look at how I could have made the game better in the same period of time and also at how I would improve it if I could still work on it. Finally, I also want to take a look at what turned out better than expected!

The heart rate mechanic

The first thing I realized is that people mistake it for a health meter, which then confuses the player as to why it is going up or down for no obvious reason. The initial idea was to make the heart rate go up depending on the player’s distance to the campfire and the number of creatures staring at them. That last idea was well implemented, and I think it worked great at giving the player a reason to fight the monsters and stay close to camp. The other use of the heart rate meter was to make the food and thirst meters go down quicker if the heart rate meter was high. This seems logical, but I think it should have been clearly specified to the player. In the end, I think that what could have made the heart rate mechanic better would have simply been to better communicate to the player what its purpose is and how to keep it low.

The sleep mechanic

This one brought much more negative feedback than I would have expected, but I get it: how is it that my player randomly falls asleep even if I stay near the campfire? It seems counterintuitive. The simple answer is that the idea was much simpler than most players interpreted it to be: I wanted to make the player fall asleep at random, without taking into account its actions or location. I now understand that this implementation was frustrating because it made the player feel punished without knowing why

You could also fall asleep if you were touched by a monster, which I feel is not a bad idea. I have, however, received comments about the monsters having to get too close to make you fall asleep, so that could be revisited.

If I could make it again, the sleep mechanic would be based on a sleepiness meter that would vary depending on how much time you spent away from any light source, which would also give use to the scattered lanterns that were previously useless if not for ambiance.

The eating and drinking mechanic

This one I felt pretty disappointed about when submitting the game because I felt like it had no reason to be but to make the player press some keys periodically. The initial idea was to add findable food sources throughout the map and some water puddles to drink from extra of the rations that you already have with you, which would introduce a management aspect, but time didn't allow me to. That seems to me like the best way I could go about better integrating the food and thirst bars into the game loop and is what I would do if I still could. Funnily enough, I still had to include a ration system in my game since it sort of is in the title :)  (And I really like my title ;) )

The spear's mechanics

Now, let's get to the good part. The first thing that I got positive feedback about was the spear throw mechanic. The throwing is indeed very satisfying and well implemented, which I'm very proud of because getting that functionality to work in Godot using the physics system was no easy task. I'm also happy about the functionality of the spear coming back to you if you hit your target, as I feel it generates a good balance of risk and reward when using the throw feature. 

As mentioned earlier, the hitting mechanic generated some mixed feedback, with some saying it was well balanced and others thinking that it should reach further. That is a great example of a feature that should have received more balancing if time had allowed. 

The ambiance

To finish everything, I want to mention a greatly appreciated feature, which was the mood of the game. I'm very happy with how the whole atmosphere settled since it was pretty close to what I was hoping for. Of course, Godot's volumetric fog is an important foundation for this whole scenery. I'm also happy about how the music integrated with the ambiance because it was my first try at game music but also at spooky, mysterious-feeling music and I feel it gave the desired outcome. The eyes piercing thought the fog also gave the effect I was hoping for on the horror side of things, even if, as you've realized, they were quite simple. 

In the end, I think that all aspects that touched the horror side were very well implemented, which made none feel out of place. And it also gave the game the horror feel that I was going for! If there is one thing that I am most proud of about this jam, it is definitely the ambiance.

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That's it for me. Thanks for reading. I'll be very happy to read your comments, and definitely go check out Aber's Ration if you still haven't!