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Edit: sorry, the newsletter link was broken. Itch.io seems to break my site links for some reason.
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I don't know what to say - thank you! I hope you make many more pieces.

Thanks, I'm glad you enjoyed it. Imagine if you went into the forest and the Jabberwock was there playing tea party around a tree stump haha

Might be an easteregg for the future :p

Yes. I explore it a little in the narrative but I don't think I ever directly say what happened. The main character is a child who was left at Grandma's house by their parents one weekend and they never returned.

It's possible the parents had some financial difficulty and couldn't afford to raise their child, but it's never explicitly clear why they left. It was purposefully left hazy to reflect the perspective of abandonment and uncertainty. One can only know the resulting actions and hardly ever the motivation.

It's a maternal story, and I strongly believe that while writing it the grandmother was the child's mother's mother. You can infer from the grandmother the traits of the mother.

I never explicitly mention the child's gender or physical traits so that the player can Quantum Leap into the story with the greatest of ease - but the child is curious and lonely and they rarely interact with other children (X CHILDREN at the foot of the hill).

Playing back through the game I note other aspects that were explored about the family dynamic, like the grandfather keeping the family together until he passed away.

The village sits on a horizon that can be explored mentally but not physically. It may as well be another country from the player's perspective.

Thank you for your comments! It's been a lovely moment of reflection.

It's so nice to have you back at Grandma's cottage! I can't believe I made this a full five years ago. It feels like only last year. Writing the game was very therapeutic. I wrote it at a time as I was coming to terms with some of the flawed people in my life and understanding that love is a complex and nuanced thing. I'm glad that shines through if only a little.

I hope you too have a great life :~)

We have reached the end of GBJam12!

Here's the short version:

• The results have been announced
• GBJam13's page is ready and you can join for next year
• GBJam starts on the second Friday of September every year
• Hear about more projects from Polyducks via this newsletter (https://polyducks.co.uk/subscribe - for some reason this link gets broken on itch.io so copy and paste it)
• GBJam's discord will go into hibernation in a week

Results

Please check the site here for the breakdown of the results. Entries are ranked by their different categories as well as an "overall" score. Remember:

• none of these ratings matter
• there were some real high tier games that got passed over for ratings for whatever reason
• voting is an inherently unfair and opinionated process and cannot be fixed with any particular system
• your personal value is not tied to what other people rated your game
• the scores are skewed by the number of ratings they received

Most of all, congratulations for finishing and submitting your work. 399/2287 people submitted this year, which is tons if you consider that most of the people who didn't submit were in a team who did. For those of you who were unable to submit, we hope you learned important information this GBJam that you will be able to apply next year - even if what you learned is that work and family commitments are more important than a game jam. GBJam is all about personal creative development and balancing that with life.

Next Jam

GBJam13's placeholder page is ready. The new illustration has been provided by Batfeula. The page will be updated with more details later in the year, and will see the return of this year's animator DL. Join now to be notified via email a week or two before it starts.

GBJam starts on the second Friday of September every year.

Subscribe To My Newsletter

I run a few other jams and launch games and articles now and again. If you'd like to be the first to hear about these, you can subscribe to my newsletter via this page on my site. I email infrequently.

newsletter (https://polyducks.co.uk/subscribe - for some reason this link gets broken on itch.io so copy and paste it)

The Discord

The Discord will stay open for another week, and then go into hibernation once conversation has died down. We hibernate the Discord every year to reduce it to a single channel for people to ask questions. We do this to reduce the moderation requirements.

And that's everything! I hope you all had a great time and that you'll join us for next year.

Thanks again to the dedicated moderator team. Your moderators this year have been Traslo, timconceivable!, Graf, tatltuae, Poltergasm and Polyducks. They've done another season of sterling work.

All the best,

Polyducks

Thanks! I really pushed my limit by repeating tiles and blending similar ones. Aseprite's new tiled function is so helpful for counting tiles.

Thank you!

Page is restricted and can't be viewed. Make it public!

Striking heroes. It reminds me of those photographs that were taken of expeditions. Wonderful.

I really like how the main character and platforms take a back seat to the dazzling clouds of the skyscape. Enjoyable and comfy.

Super cute, wonderful fog of distance.

Excellent rendering with an important message.

Really nice depth of field. I feel like we might approach it at any moment!

Awesome ocean texture. I hope the cat makes it home!

I love the clever use of repeating textures. The subject is unique too!

Lovely, geometric textmode vibes!

Very beautiful. It captures these birds so well!

Yes, that's fine. If you visit the page it says "submitted to GB Pixel Art Jam 2024" in the top right corner. I don't think the cover picture matters, but I can see it and it looks okay.

These are the colours sampled from a snapshot of your game. Your resolution for your UI is much higher than 160x144. Usually we overlook slight fluctuations in the rules, but this one broke too many and had to be disqualified. We hope you join us again next year!

Submission was disqualified for multiple violations of the jam's rules.
* Resolution higher than 160x144
* More than four colours
* Incorrect controls (mouse)

The game was interesting, but felt quite random at times - I found it difficult to know what was happening. The surreal videos were a big plus, it showed a lot of effort had gone in to accumulating assets for the game!

There was a lot of walking through large empty spaces and backtracking which I found frustrating. I found it difficult to navigate the large empty field and I'm pretty sure I missed a few exits. Luckily I accidentally went behind a building in the city otherwise I would've assumed it was a dead end. I managed to get Tanner and Clare.

The key puzzle mechanics were interesting. The first one you interact with has the controls partially covered which makes it difficult to read and thus difficult to understand.

I was a big fan of this character, they had good energy:

All in all, a very interesting game which could use some attention to level design. A very unique addition to GBjam and the first I've seen with FMV.

What a charming and very enticing game. I particularly liked pushing the meaty block with his kicking feet - YEAH YEAH yeah YEAH! The frog was a nice touch too. I really enjoyed seeing him.

There were some real moments of panic. The shaking moon, the chasing block. I thought you managed to reuse the movement mechanics quite well to make some solid gameplay.

If there's anything missing it might be a game over screen for being caught by the moon. I died just as I was going into the tower and it sent me back to the title screen, and I thought that was the game. Luckily I tried it again and found the rest of the gameplay.

What was the importance of the choices at the start?

Thanks for this delightful gem. I hope you come back to it.

That was a blast to play, I really enjoyed the mechanics and the flexibility of the commands. The levels were packed with character and I'm frankly shocked at how much game you managed to include. The sprites felt like a really good use of the space, and the movement and animation drew the eye across the level.

The music and SFX were really well covered from all directions. It felt like everything had something to "say" when it was interacted with.

I found some difficulty where the paths split and wasn't sure where to go - especially with meeting a dead end that wasn't solvable from that position.

Beautiful palette and shading work.

*For clarity, it must be the owner of that game, not an admin of the jam / admin of itch.io.

A charming game. The music slapped hard and I listened through the whole thing on Bandcamp. Loved the graphics and the usage of the palette which really bought it all to life. Exploring was fun and poking down those alleyways to find dead ends and wells! I found it difficult to know which exits were available.

I'm definitely coming back once combat is added. Exciting.

Thanks Mike! Let me know how it works out in D&D.

As long as it's not intentional, it should be fine. Make a note of it in your description.

Disqualified: Game is not an entry for GBJam.

Game does not appear to be an entry for GBJam.

No, the jam started on September the 13th and ends tomorrow at 12pm GMT. The next jam is in September next year.

Yes to both. The jam doesn't specify that it must run on hardware, but a lot of them do.

Hello everyone!

FAQ
Can I edit and reupload a game after I've submitted it?
Yes, right up until the deadline, where the entries will be locked for updates until the rating period has finished.
Will everyone in the team be able to vote in GBJam?
Yes, in theory - though we've had trouble with this before. Please follow the guide for teams above to give yourselves the best chance of success.
Can I exploit the rating process?
Exploiting the voting process will result in a ban of you, your team, and your entry. We are aware that no voting system is 100% fair, but please try to engage in the spirit of the celebration of the GameBoy, creativity, and love for your fellow creatives.
If my game is really broken when submissions are locked, can I reupload it?
No, but you can make another itch.io project and upload a fixed version there. Link to it in the description of your entry. This is to make it clear that it is a post-submission fix.
I'm planning on uploading my game at the very last minute, is this a good idea?
Do not do this. Every year we have about twenty people do this and it does not go well. We do not allow 'special circumstance' fixes for this.
But I'm special, so I can upload everything in four minutes.
You're not special. There is a high chance it will go wrong.
Can I edit my submission's page design after the deadline?
Yes, you can decorate the page and change the text after the submission deadline.
Is it a flex to upload my submission as late as possible?
No, uploading your submission late and risking all your work is really unattractive. Upload a version right now, even if it's not finished.
Can people see my entry before the deadline?
No, only the admin can see your entries, and we see so many that we don't have time to take a look at them before the deadline. Everyone's game is released at the same time.
Someone has uploaded something that breaks the rules / is distasteful / is a virus / is a gif of a cat eating cake and not relevant to the jam. What can I do?
Please report the submission. The moderators will be keeping an eye on the report queue and will take care of it as soon as possible. Reports go directly to us, not to Itch.io. If it is a matter of urgency please ping @moderator on our Discord.
Entries which are in the spirit of GBJam but technically breaking the rules will be given leniency. We much prefer people to try than not try at all.
Should I pull an all-nighter to finish my jam game?
No. Be healthy for your body and your mind. Add those extra features after the jam and put them in the notes of your description for now.
I'm going to upload in the last five minutes of the jam in spite of you giving everyone 12 hours of submission time and hope that my power doesn't go out.
Okay. Good luck.
How long do we have to rate games?
The rating period covers two weeks so as to allow two weekends for playing and rating games. Please try to rate as many games as possible and comment with helpful feedback and nice complements.


This year we've seen so many fresh new developers making their first games, and it makes me really proud. Well done to everyone who finished, or partially finished, a thing this year. Thank you also to the moderation team and our regulars, who have worked tirelessly to answer the many questions that come alongside GBJam.

-Polyducks

Thanks for your kind words :)

We had heard about the door (it was meant to be an illusion) and the rope (was going to be replaced with a telephone) after testing, so I'n glad feedback has been consistent.

The project is on ice now, but if we ever come back to it that'll be what we fix :~)

Precisely! I should've been paying attention haha

It's external to the game and assists in accessability, it's fine :~)

Loved using the water as a precussion instrument!

I got stuck here. I left the game running while I dealt with some messages and when I came back I couldn't leave. How odd!

Comfy game. Looking forward to the sequel.

Multiple submission to multiple jams - doesn't qualify for GBJam.