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Parasite's itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| gHosts' Choice | #1 | n/a | n/a |
| Creativity | #17 | 4.295 | 4.295 |
| Story | #57 | 3.523 | 3.523 |
| Horror | #59 | 3.614 | 3.614 |
| Sound Design | #80 | 3.568 | 3.568 |
| Aesthetics | #85 | 4.136 | 4.136 |
| Enjoyment (Best Game) | #164 | 3.341 | 3.341 |
Ranked from 44 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
What game engine did you make this project in?
Godot
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Comments
Wow, I really enjoyed this. I like a good text based adventure game. This one was really descriptive and I could really imagine what was going on with the player. It set in a feeling of dread when I was in danger.
Very creative concept using the brain sections as a stat system and choice based dialogue to improve these. I also liked the dice rolls and probabilities of different actions.
It could feel a bit frustrating using trial and error, having to see the same choices you already made multiple times. But it was really satisfying when I was able to pick a good choice and progress through the game.
I would like to see the story continue for this game. Good job.
Nice ambient, to much to read
It's just an amazing idea of choosing in dialogues. It's really something unique. And the combination of unique mechanics and a very atmospheric visual is one of the best games in this jam. You've done a great job.
P.S. I would like to see the dialogue history in the game.
My first game ever was a text-based adventure in Python. It had music, voice-over and images. It turned out pretty sweet. Your game is better though, and you've put a lot of effort into it. It's definitely among the top 10 entries to this game jam. Congratulations.
super interesting way of implementing narrative choices! i liked how "upgrading" your stats means more holes in the brain that you can use rather than a direct numerical upgrade; i wonder if being able to choose between that and the standard stat increase would be an interesting thing to play with. i think just a little more initial clarity with the tutorial would help, and as someone else already mentioned it'd be nice if all your choices progressed or punished you instead of being stuck in a "loop" until you select the right option.
overall a really cool game! all the elements worked really well together ✨
writing, vibes, general concept- everything is great!
I like the concept and the art.
Peak, extremely well done, great, good, and many other congratulations, I like this very much
The game concept is really interesting, but there’s a huge amount of text. As a non-native English speaker, it’s a bit challenging for me, so I’ll take my time playing while translating.
You've come up with a pretty interesting concept! Congratulations on the project!
Absolutely love this kind of game. The concept of being a parasite invading a wolfs brain is pretty unique. Keep going, you guys are onto something -3- !
Very Interesting Concept. I Loved The Aesthetic And The Writing Truly Encapsulated Being Puppeted By A Malicious Being. I Have A Fear Of Parasites In Deer And Other Mammals And This Game Capitalized On This.
One of the most interesting and horrifying games I've played so far for this jam. Very cool concept and excellent execution. Loved the sticky, visceral atmosphere and brilliant writing. Every choice I made felt impactful and meaningful, the story weaved around them very organically. Visually, I think, it was a bit too much, like, I'm not sure why the TV render is here and how it connects to the story (although it looks absolutely sick!), and how exactly dice are connected to the story of a wolf being invaded by the parasite, but still, these aspects were not distracting me from the experience, rather highlighting its strangness.
My only wish is that there would be an option to skip the intro section on restart or to have some checkpoints to save intermediary progress, since watching it over and over after each death quickly becomes tedious.
Thank you so much for your awesome comment! ^^
Fully agree about the tutorial getting annoying. We have the save functionality fully implemented already but didn’t manage to complete the start scene that is supposed to show up once you completed the tutorial in time. We’ll add a special dialogue that only lets you choose you character and then gets you straight to the first scenario as soon as the rating period is over!
About the pin-dice and static effects: the idea was that you are visually seeing the perspective of the parasite, who can only intercept the electric impulses of the wolf’s brain. The pins represent it interfering with the brain’s functionality to affect the wolf’s reasoning. We ended up writing the text from the wolf’s perspective instead of the parasite as that turned out more engaging, but I hope it didn’t muddy the idea too much.
Very cool, very original, very disturbing. Great job.
Much appreciated!
Your game looks great too, I’ll make sure to give it a try this evening ^^
I'm thoroughly impressed with this title. It really feels like you've managed to create a true branching narrative with meaningful role-playing elements that actually affect what's happening. That's not something common, and I'm sure it took some serious planning to make.
I've played through twice, and both times reached a different outcome. First time I blacked out when climbing the hill and the game ended - I assume this was a game over? And the second time I reached the clearing on top and was shot (at least I believe that's what happened?), with parasite leaving the body. I assume there are more possible outcomes?
Anyway, it's great. Really impressed.
Thanks for the kind words and great feedback! :D
There currently are two good(-ish) endings you can reach. For the bad endings the monitor should always turn to black for a couple seconds before kicking you back to the main menu. Did that happen for your up-hill run or did you get stuck? Asking to make sure there isn’t another dead-end left. 😅
We will also go over all the endings and make sure they’re explained better for the post-jam build. And maybe we can add some more good endings as well. :P
Yes, that's exactly what happened on my first run. I mean, the screen blacked out and I went back to the beginning.
Oh my god this was crazy. Parasites honestly creep me the hell out more now. Thanks for that I guess XD
Well, I see a very original game, with a very heavy musical and artistic atmosphere. It wasn’t easy to explore this subject, and in my opinion, you’ve succeeded. The mechanics that form the lever to change the outcome of the story are very clever.
In terms of improvements, it would be nice to be able to read the old text via a history function, for example.
Well done!
Thank you for the thoughtful comment! Yes we are looking into a text history for the next version of this game.
Conceptually and visually jarring in all the best ways. Great work!
This is one of the more creative and experimental games I have seen durning this jam! One of my favorite games so far aswell!
I really like the themes of determinism in this game, some of it is a little on the nose and over the top but I think its executed quite well for 7 days.
The graphics and sound are really good aswell, its super imerssive and has quite a dark aura behind it, the game is quite text heavy and sometimes reading a novel when you want to play a game is kind of annoying, sure it can be skipped but you are just missing out on the most important part of the game then, I think more could have been said with less. A little bit more abstract and tought provoking instead of doing bold philosophical statements with very little player output, this is quite a subjective take though, I just love writing that is more show don't tell.
I do dig this concept quite a lot and I want to see where this project goes incase it does get worked on after the jam has ended.
You should also play and rate my game roughneck, it will change your life and you will get 1 milion dollars in 2 weeks!
Play and rate to affirm 1 milion dollars in 2 weeks! (Refunds not accepted)
Thank you for the feedback and the encouraging words! We will try to tell less and encourage to imagine more in the next version of the game while also shortening the intro, so that players can be thrown faster into the actual gameplay! Also quite enjoyed your game haha, as you saw probably :D
Parasite is a dice pool CRPG about a wolf regaining control after a parasitic brain infection.
I like the idea of being able to use almost any skill to when faced with a challenge, and the idea of rolling dice first then assigning them to a skill is pretty neat. I also like how you are limited in the amount of dice you can assign to a skill.
However, I also felt like when I chose a skill that wasn't suited for the situation the consequences weren't harsh enough and often times I was stuck in a loop of just repeating the same skill check over and over. I attempted to run from the hunter many times before realizing that I needed adrenaline and the only thing that happened was I kept getting prompted to flee, which is what I thought I was trying to do.
I also wish that the text didn't clear all the way until you attempted a check. I got up to go to the bathroom in the middle of playing and came back to just the question "What will you do?" and I had forgotten the exact context for the situation.
I also liked the organic look of the pins and the parasite squirming in the background. Very creepy!
Thank you for your great and very helpful feedback!
You make a very good point about it being hard to pause the game - we already implemented a save system and will include a quit&save and continue button in the post-jam build, but I’ll also look into adding a log for recent dialogue.
I also agree about the loops being a being a bit awkward in the current build- it’s at it worst when going down the river as we barely managed to complete the scenario in time. If you fully succeed the senses skill-check before running, you can go up-hill which leads to a more polished story path.
For the full game we’ll definitely avoid loops as much as possible and intend to have most choices continue the story right away- the loops were more of a last-minute save when time was running out for the jam.