Heroic Handiwork is a game where you have to keep everything up and working for as long as you can so that as many other people can escape as possible before you and everyone else succumbs to space-wolves and/or fire. Featuring 'endless' style gameplay, a heart-wrenching plot told entirely through cutscene, and skillful animation, Heroic Handiwork is sure to be a hit with the whole family! (or, at least, you might like it.)

Played entirely with the arrow keys. Basic movement, down to select a machine once you're near it, and use the keys as told in the 'tutorial' to fix the machines. (By the way, sorry sincerely for the tutorial. It's 2 in the morning and the tutorial was one of the last things to be made.)

This is my first gamejam, made on vacation on a mountain on a potato of a computer with internet reaching speeds of almost 50kb/s (no joke). I had a lot of fun and am glad to have finished it (to the extent I did) in time! Please download and rate and whatnot, and try to enjoy yourself. Constructive criticism gladly received!

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  • Jupiter Hadley
    Lv. 13

    Really nice game! I included it in my GM48: Sacrifice compilation video series, if you’d like to take a look. :) https://youtu.be/owM22-wcZP4

  • Fachewachewa
    Patron

    Really fun game. Some images in the tutorial instead of a wall of text would have been much better, because it seems really complicated when you read it, but it's all pretty simple. Or maybe just an interactive tutorial that makes you repair each machine once whit little text above.

    Also I didn't get why it had anything to do with sacrifice because I skipped the intro by accident !

  • DefinetlynotJohn
    Lv. 1

    Truly the greatest creation i have ever seen objectively I am not biased at all who is this John person who you speak of? Also i just realize that there are 1024 characters allowed in this text box which makes me happy :) well now I'm rambling on again. Well i guess it all started when i was a young child and i first got into games playing lego star wars the OG number one for the PS2 real hot stuff when I got my hands on it, anyway so i really enjoyed that and after a while i graduated from my ps2 to a terrible old xp computer where i played mostly spore and age of empires 2 and 3. Also civ 4. Well when i bought civ 4 i bought it digitally through amazon because that was a thing back then but when i tried to download it it made me first install some weird thing called steam. At first i ignored it after i got civ 4 working and really just played the hell outta civ but then looking for other games one fateful day i clicked on steam and for then on i was hooked. But anyway in all those year of playing this is th

  • Lisa
    Lv. 1

    Great work! I enjoyed all the mini-games within the larger framework. I didn't do very well, but that probably has more to do with the player than the game...

  • Veralos
    Lv. 38

    I saved 125 people! That's probably pretty bad, but I had to spend some figuring out how it all works. Yes, it seems complicated at first (especially when you read the tutorial) but once you understand what's going on it's pretty fun. I like all the different mini-games you have to do to repair stuff.

    The art style is a bit crude, but also amusing and charming at the same time. The sound effects and music also work well. The introductory cutscene was a nice touch.

  • cortop
    Lv. 4

    Haha oh man this game is great! Really funny and juggling all the things was engaging enough to be fun. The opening was great and, while crude, the art only added to the hilarity. The monotone death cries just topped everything off. I suppose if I had any criticisms, it's that there's not much re-playability. Also the tutorial screen quits the game instead of returning to the main menu.

    I have to admit, I was expecting a low effort game, but you produced something surprisingly fun and polished. Nice job!

    MONOLITH
    Submitted

    MONOLITH

    • Josiarthei
      Lv. 4

      Aww man thanks! I'm glad you understand my sense of humor! Not to mention that you can apprecciate the effort put into it, because let me tell you (as I'm sure you can relate), not a lot of sleep was had during this. And yeah I'm hearing about this tutorial bug. Woops!

  • Tecna
    Lv. 10

    I loved this game to pieces. Seriously, you need to keep doing games, your style is amazingly comical and fun. I really liked the cutscene and the sound effects of the main character dying and the wolves invading are top notch. The style of the game is amazing, the people at the background running to each door as they closed and opened was a nice touch. Your style, although nonsense, is serious in conveying action and fun to your game. To convey more seriouness on your next games, try focusing a little more on the physics and controls of your game (aim to what you normally see in platform games).

    But, please, please, please, keep doing more game jams. Don't stop.

    EDIT: I liked your game so much that I drew a fanart: https://imgur.com/VsVh8A3

    I hope you like it, it's a monumental registry of the bravery of the main character. He'll always be remembered.

    • Josiarthei
      Lv. 4

      This review has made me happy beyond an excessive level. Thank you for your kind words and encouragement! Style admittedly cam first in this game, and I shall take to heart what you said about the physics!

      And I shall do more game jams to the best of my ability!

  • SpaceMyFriend
    Lv. 15

    Hey this is awesome! I had a blast playing! The little mini games were really super fun and looked really good. Music was chaotic and fit the setting. Fit the theme well, since we get to play as the sacrifice :)

    Awesome job!

  • Problematicar
    Lv. 37

    I'm so conflicted right now, this game looks and sounds comically bad, but it's so damn fun, and the style is so consistent even though it's bad that it becomes good again.

    Shelfless
    Submitted

    Shelfless

  • _l3on_
    Lv. 8

    So the game is funny the first time you play it but became hard and repetitive really fast.
    I like the in-game art style, all the animations of NPCs and player, less the intro.
    The tutorial screen is a mess but is ok (at least you have one -.-').
    Overall is a good game. Good job!

  • Kwis
    Lv. 67

    Hello! I liked the idea and music, though the notes are a bit annoying.

    Now for the bad stuff: the tutorial is long, so you skip it and play. Then you get back to the tutorial cause you need it... Prefer several pages to just one if you need to give much info. Also, there is a bug, sometimes when clicking on the tutorial screen, it closes the game. The "E" key for menu is a bit awkward, prefer the right side of the keyboard (wasd controls usually keep the left side for game controls) For the game itself, i like the concept but you move extremely slowly and the jump is kinda useless. Also the game is not hard at first but all of a sudden, everything breaks down quickly, not letting you enough time to do anything. I just got the water fixed when all of a sudden the wolves are destroying the lock... and it's game over. I didn't feel like the theme was there, cause i can't choose to sacrifice anything or not. (like, letting the locks break is an insta-game over, we can't sacrifice anyone)

    Munchun
    Submitted

    Munchun

    • Josiarthei
      Lv. 4

      Thank you for your feedback! Yeah, I totally understand about the tutorial, and multiple pages was my original idea. But once again time got to it before I could. Actually, the whole menu and balancing too was put in right towards the end unfortunately, so yeah I totally see that it gets quite hard quite fast, but I think rather than seeing that as a failing like the tutorial or menu bug, I see that as a lower roof for highschores (though it definitely could have been raised a bit). As for theme, I knew it was a bit iffy going into it, but I wanted to make something minimally sadistic and quite silly, so I went for sacrfice in premise only. Not a decision made by most or anyone else here, unfortunately, so I guess that doesn't reflect too highly, but I had fun doing it nonetheless. I shall keep all this in mind for next time!