Parcel Panic by pdotjpg
NOTE: The embeded version here doesn't fit the window. Either go fullscreen or play on itch.io (link below). I might fix this in the next couple of days.
Phew! Off to a slow start with this one but ended up with something I'm quite proud of. It's not the most fun thing to play in the world, but I'm glad I went for the weird experimental idea. Super happy with the presentation. Nice to participate in the compo again after missing a few.
Looking forward to feedback and everyone else's games.

| Link | https://pdotjpg.itch.io/parcel-panic |
| Unity Project | https://pdotjpg.itch.io/parcel-panic |
| Original URL | https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/53/parcel-panic |
Ratings
| Overall | 112th | 3.79⭐ | 33🧑⚖️ |
| Fun | 143th | 3.597⭐ | 33🧑⚖️ |
| Innovation | 127th | 3.581⭐ | 33🧑⚖️ |
| Theme | 61th | 4.242⭐ | 33🧑⚖️ |
| Graphics | 15th | 4.516⭐ | 33🧑⚖️ |
| Audio | 109th | 3.613⭐ | 33🧑⚖️ |
| Humor | 267th | 2.519⭐ | 28🧑⚖️ |
| Mood | 109th | 3.645⭐ | 33🧑⚖️ |
| Given | 28🗳️ | 43🗨️ |
Congratz!
Firstly, I love games where you work towards something. The music is very atmospheric and adds to the mood. I loved the hand-drawn textures - simple details like borders on packages makes all the difference on graphics to stand out.
The ASMR-like sound effects at the right volume matched perfectly with the gameplay.
Overall, the feeling is like playing with a 3D toy.
Congratulations!
@tumblingpuffin @kgurniak91 @nick-baggett I definitely agree that it's probably a bit too punishing and throws you into the deep end immediately. Was thinking of having the spawn times get quicker as the game goes on (starting slower) but didn't have time to implement it. I did want to tune it quite difficult as it's pretty content-light. I'd rather the player lose too quick and maybe try again than get bored because there's no risk of losing (common problem with highscore LD games). That said, it could still be tuned a bit easier and more beginner friendly.
@ltyrosine That's incredibly kind of you to say, thanks so much! I'm glad you appreciated the little details in the presentation - I got really into that aspect while working on this. Happy to read that the gamefeel clicked for you. I love that it gave you the 3D toy feeling. I really like games that feel tactile so it's cool that you got that out of this.
@jackaljk I'm with you, would have loved to do something like that. The tutorial messages were coming in at 2 AM, in the last hours of the jam. Didn't have time for anything more advanced.
Like others I had hard time to stay ahead of the time because of the early packages, reducing it a bit would help a lot!
Great entry with an amazing style. Good job :thumbsup:
However I was stuck once, I finished examining a package and it disappeared from view entirely, and clicking on other packages didn't do anything (but I could still interact with the lever). Also, I never succeeded at sending a package to the customs, this lever didn't do anything / the customs box never emptied :P
@cagibi Hmm, sounds like the physics glitched and the package flew off-screen while you were stuck in the 'holding' state. Sorry about that! Seems like the game's more fragile than I thought, didn't have such problems while developing/testing. Not a huge surprise when dealing with physics, of course. As for customs, the box isn't supposed to empty! The idea is that you put a parcel in there, it gets "scanned", and then you can forward it like a normal package. I should have explained that in the tutorial better. Thanks for letting me know! And thank you for the kind words despite the problems you encountered.
@machinescreen @ani I was pretty happy with the keypad sounds myself, glad to see other people enjoy them too :)
I had troubles reading the zip codes, then I played on fullscreen and could finally read them :D also I had troubles to rotate the packages to see the zip codes.
Good entry as a compo!
The controls can be a bit wonky, as expected with a physics-heavy game - quite often I was fighting to rotate the parcel properly to find the zip code, and when I did, I dropped the package off the screen. :( Though it made me think this could work pretty well as a VR game, where you could use two hands to manipulate the objects more easily. So far my record is 110 points, but I'm going to try and get at least 150. :P
Really nice compo, congrats!
@helen You couldn't read the zipcodes even when in the zoomed-in/rotation mode? I'm sorry to hear that, thought the text was large enough. Noted for future games!
@lcstark haha, the music was coming in last minute, so synthy drone is all I had time for. Cyberpunk vibe is def in there somewhere - my main inspiration for the graphics was Metal Gear Solid 1. Glad the vibe works for you! I agree about the physics - no time to tweak it in the compo, obviously. VR definitely crossed my mind, but that's completely foreign to me. Thanks for the feedback!
Sometimes packages just vanished and seemed to maybe be bouncing around off-screen? Not sure. But who cares, mail is piling up too quickly anyway...
Great entry overall !
https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1816190498
Basically I agree that the game needs more variation. This is all I had time for, and it's the reason why I tuned the game very difficult - because it doesn't hold up for a long time as is.
I really like the graphics too. Pixel art textures on boxy models is always great. Too bad the level feels off being cylindrical. Awesome entry!