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sakura_magika

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Timestamp	Since previous	Game		sakura_magika's comment
Oct 6 00:31:06		....To the Ends of the World and Back	♥ 2	i liked the visuals for the stars, they were nicely mesmerizing. i think making correcting the steering a bit more involved would have gone a long way to make the game more fun. i think it's nice that you made grace queer.
Oct 7 20:44:57	44h 13m	Crewman 49	♥ 0	nice job, especially for compo! I liked all the voice over, especially about the password. the game reminded me a bit of The Stanley Parable. I know you were going for "UNSTABLE" but the camera shake was a bit extreme, I think. it adds to the personality of the game for sure, but a little less, or maybe a user setting to reduce it, would be appreciated. I actually found the hacking a bit frustrating, because I think of WASD in terms of arrow directions, not the actual button letters, so I struggled to remember what finger mapped to what letter. I think the graphics were pretty cool, did you do any modeling yourself? I think I beat the game by getting to the escape pod, but I was a bit confused, because right before then, I found an empty fuse box that needed fuses to be repaired. I ended up accidentally escaping as I was trying to find the fuses. are there multiple endings or something?
Oct 9 00:08:15	27h 23m	Unstable(d)	♥ 1	the art and animations are very cute! the farmers running at you are terrifying! i like your take on the theme :) some feedbacks: i saw an upgrade for kicking farmers, but i never saw any instructions for what button to press to kick. i tried various ones and they didn't do anything. the first few runs, i didn't notice that the dash had limited uses, i thought there was some kind of bug where i could only dash once. i think the movement up and down the track felt a bit floaty.
Oct 9 01:47:53	1h 39m	Ruff Tuff Skies	♥ 2	i like this concept a lot! the graphics are very cute, and i like the idea of balancing attacking enemies against repairing the ship. i think the game said i could press "Y" to repair the ship, but it didn't work for me. i'm not sure if it's actually supposed to work or not, but i really would have appreciated button-only controls, instead of having to use the mouse. my main feedback is that it would be cool if repairing the ship was a bit more interesting than just spamming right click everywhere. like, maybe it consumes some kind of resource, or has a cool down, or something. i found myself completely giving up on the platforms above, and just walking back and forth trying to hammer as fast as possible, and occasionally slashing enemies. overall, i think this is really well done though!
Oct 9 01:54:44	6m 51s	Unstable Patrol	♥ 2	i liked the visuals, but i found myself unable to play this very well. first i tried exploring to the right, and just found the end of the world, then died. then, i tried exploring to the left, looking for house #XYZ, but i walked so slowly, than i died before i could find it. i only managed to defuse one bomb in one house, the house right next to the starting point. and even when i tried to drop the bomb in the drop zone, the physics didn't behave the way i expected, and the bomb dropped behind me. i would have been interested to explore more of the world that you built, but the slow movement speed and short timer to find bombs made it too difficult. also, as far as "fun-ness" goes, i don't think it's that fun looking for the right house, it feels really arbitrary to match the house to the number at the top of the screen. i think it would have been more engaging if the house actually had a visual indication that it got bombed.
Oct 9 02:09:00	14m 16s	Plubertium: Galactic Exchange Student Sim	♥ 1	this game was delightful! i'm in love with the cross of succulent photographs and 2D cartoon art. Mew Mew 2's character design is my favorite, but the caring relationship with Moomdud was really touching as well. i love the writing, humor, and funny names. i took the drugs route. wahooooo! what at trip! one possible bug is that in the drug sequence, i had a flashback about playing noseflute, but i didn't actually do that in my run (in fact, i ditched to do drugs, which was why i was tripping in the first place), so maybe it's a bug that i got that flashback? anyways, thanks for such a fun experience!
Oct 9 02:10:01	1m 01s	Bright Burning Beelzebob	♥ 0	i got an error "mac build cannot be opened". running macOS Catalina.
Oct 9 02:31:35	21m 34s	Wonky Brew	♥ 2	i like the spooky take on overcooked! the cute graphics were my favorite part, i like the hue rotation filter when the brew gets unstable. i think combining various ingredients together in the ritual circles was a cool idea. i think the three different ingredient prep stations didn't add a lot to the game, since they were all so close together, and had the exact same interaction, there was no motivation for actually learning which ingredient went with with prep station, and consequence for getting it wrong, since it would just make the "nope" sound, and move on to the next one, without losing much time. if you had spaced them out a bit more, it would have cost more time to get it wrong, which would have been more motivation to learn them. also, while some of them made sense, others didn't like grinding the feather looking thing, or boiling cobwebs. with no intuitive connection between them, that also made it seem more like a minor frustration than a fun mechanic. for the opening cutscene, i would have appreciated a button that simply advanced the dialogue right way, instead of either skipping it entirely, or waiting the full duration of each dialogue sentence. i also think that having some kind of progress meter would have been good. i felt totally blind as i played, not knowing what goal i was pursuing, or even if there was a goal, or if it would go on forever. that motivated me less to keep trying again, when i wasn't sure how much progress i had made in the previous run. on the score screen, it said i had "00:01", and par was "05:00" or something. that didn't make any sense to me, i definitely played for more than one second. was 5 minutes supposed to be the duration of the game? or was there a certain number of recipes i had to successfully brew?
Oct 9 02:42:37	11m 02s	Egg Racer	♥ 4	great idea, but turning around instantly drops the egg out of the pan, no good! i'd rather have no ability to turn around it all, than for it to be an instant-lose button. the walk animation is crazy unstable. the walking physics is also interesting, it seems to track some kind of momentum, which resulted in me getting stuck at the bottom of the ramps several times, which was frustrating, because i would have been able to catch my flying egg if i hadn't gotten stopped on the ramp. there were a few times where the tiny gaps between the tiles became visible, resulting in glitchy (unstable?) looking visuals. maybe put a very slight overlap between tiles? (like, have the tile size slightly smaller than the sprite size) i made it to the fire, but my egg fell into the fire, and i still lost :( i liked all the egg related quotes, added to the charm of the game.
Oct 9 02:55:44	13m 07s	Elbatsnu's Brewery	♥ 1	i went through phases of thinking i understood the mechanics, realizing i didn't, thinking i did, and again, i didn't. got stuck at level three. it wanted me to get 150 gold, but it would deplete my gold every time i made a new option, even if i didn't buy anything. was the intention that i had to make 150 gold in one option? so, i got 150 gold on the next round, then was working on buying cards, but it blew up randomly! right before my fourth card! (probably there was some rule for why it blew up that i just forgot about). maybe from playing the same card too many times? got too frustrated at that point. i think the concept is cool, but it felt like there were too many arbitrary rules / goals to keep track of.
Oct 9 03:04:31	8m 47s	Cake on the run!	♥ 2	cute and fun, pup needs cake! i made it as far as the big hole in the road, not sure how i'm supposed to get over it, i feel like i jumped as late and high as i possibly could! for a level as long as you made, i think it should have check points, or be broken up into multiple levels. the gameplay wasn't engaging enough to motivate me to try again when i died half way through, because of how long it would take just to get back to the point again. the "lives" mechanic was a bit unintuitive, because there are some things like hitting the barriers that would take away a life, but other things like the hole, or losing balance completely, that insta-killed, and it wasn't clear what would take life or kill me immediately.
Oct 9 03:14:32	10m 01s	SEXY BOOBY 95	♥ 1	this was a lot of fun! i love the win95 nostalgia, and the handdrawn/pixel look. i'm not exactly sure how i got the big boobie win though. i debugged the fleas, then got stuck on loading forever, played some surf. tried to click back, of course can't go back in the trial version. restarted computer on a whim, and then it worked?! i mean, if that's what you're going for then great job, very true to life.
Oct 9 03:21:37	7m 05s	Volatile Defender	♥ 2	i think this game is excellent! reminds me of crypt of the necrodancer. i love the blend of rhythm game, tactics, and combat. i made it to round 6. those walkers that explode everything around them are so tanky! one feedback is it felt a bit confusing when everyone is two grid tiles tall, i felt like i should be able to shoot the enemies feet. maybe making them 1.5 tiles tall or so would help the visuals line up with the grid better.
Oct 9 21:53:35	18h 31m	Rocky Rhodes and the Cracked Case	♥ 3	oh my god. i think this is the best game jam game i've ever played period. fantastic job across the board. i can't imagine a better take on the theme than this. more than being enjoyable or fun, this game took me on a journey and changed the way i see the world. i think that's the most important thing art can do.
Oct 9 22:02:44	9m 09s	Instability	♥ 1	i like the minimalist visuals! my high score was a meager 24.88. i think the platforms were cool, but i didn't like the ropes very much. it took me a while to figure out i had to hold down space to stick to them, and even then, i didn't feel like i had any control. i died plenty of times when the rope didn't have enough momentum to swing me to the next platform. when this game is all about twitch reflexes, not having (or feeling like i had) control for random obstacles that come up, which cost me the run, was frustrating. for this kind of game, i think an unstable environment is great, but not unstable player control. or, maybe there's a secret to dealing with the ropes that i just didn't figure out? minor UX note: it would have been really great to have the menu buttons controllable with arrows and space bar, or at least have a short cut to press space to retry on the score scene. i really wanted to have a seamless experience of trying runs over and over, but needing to switch to the mouse to click retry was annoying.
Oct 9 22:18:50	16m 06s	Chickie Catchers	♥ 1	wonderful job you two! this was an absolute charm to play, especially with a friend. great job with the controller integration, made playing coop a lot of fun. one feedback item is that i found it hard to reliably move the scratching post left and right using the tipping physics. sometimes i could get it tipping in the direction i wanted, then run that way, but others i couldnt. i ended up resorting to repeatedly activating the "lifting" sequence, then trying to run to the left as it lifted, since it wasn't effected by physics during that state. since moving left and right is crucial to the game, i think it would be nice to improve the ability to transport the post left and right reliably.
Oct 9 22:48:37	29m 47s	Divine Intervention	♥ 2	hi hi! how funny that we made nearly identical games! i loved ye oldey timey computer aesthetic, and the tangible integration of the menu items / controls into the visuals. i liked that for the pasta, you had to open the lid to stir / add salt. creating dependence between the temperature and these two other parts meant that i had to more closely manage the temperature, so that i had a buffer space for when i needed salt/stirring. the first time, i lost because temperature went to low when i needed to open up to stir. critiques of your implementation: the most important thing i found missing from your game was audio feedback, and more strong visual feedback, for pressing the various buttons. i often couldn't tell if i was pressing the right button, or what was happening when i pressed any button. i think getting this right is critical, otherwise i can't build up an intuition for the controls; how what i'm doing is effecting the game. i think the learning curve could use work too, you throw a bunch of rules for what button to press under what circumstance all at once at me, and it was pretty difficult to get going. i think going step by step to gain mastery would let you make the latter levels more difficult, because the player has already learned the basics. possible bug: i beat the first two tasks, but the third task never unlocked. Screenshot 2021-10-09 153955.png Screenshot 2021-10-09 154226.png
Oct 9 23:03:37	15m 00s	Unstaball	♥ 1	i think the concept is cool, but i never figured out the underlying mechanic behind exploding. does it just happen at random intervals, or do i have any control over it? what governs how big the exploding radius is? i found myself desperately hoping around to the turrets hoping to get an explosion, but none came. then, on my very next playthrough, i rushed straight towards the first turret, got an explosion, and unexpectedly won right there! maybe because the win condition is "0 turrets), and the next turrent hadn't spawned in yet? it was amusing, but you probably want to fix that, by settings time limit, kill coung goal, or altering how the turrets spawn in. i challenge anyone to beat my score of 5 second win! Screenshot 2021-10-09 155959.png
Oct 9 23:12:21	8m 44s	Core Weapon	♥ 1	i made it a meager 51 seconds. the core blew up but i have no idea why, i thought my pressure and temperature were in good zones, and none of the meteors hit. i like the concept a lot (and my game is actually somewhat similar), especially balancing the controls/condition of the weapon with actually using the weapon, but i think the feedback needs to be more clear about what to do to stop the ship from melting down. like for example, some kind of visual hint for the control that you need to use to stabilize the ship for whatever meter is in a bad state.
Oct 9 23:24:03	11m 42s	Gnolab	♥ 1	i like the concept, but i found it pretty easy to get stuck, and also to glitch my way past a lot of the blocks in an unintended way. if i jumped at the blocks, i could stick to the edges and getup around them. also, the platform colliders seem to be solid blocks, which made it impossible to back track because my head would bonk into them, which was pretty frustrating. it seems like the blue plants are supposed to be exploding, so you launch yourself over the spike pits? i wasn't able to get it to work in the end, the physics was rather unpredictable. it was pretty difficult to read the on-screen instructions, and while the readme was helpful, i don't like needing to read about how to play a game outside of the game itself. also, it seems like using potions is disabled when in potion crafting mode, but the sound effects still played, which was confusing. the sound effects also seemed to play even if i didn't have enough potion to actually do a spray/lob, so that was confusing as well. i think there needs to be a much more clear visual distinction between crafting mode and playing mode. personally, i'd bring up a menu screen for crafting that has instructions always visible in it.
Oct 9 23:41:53	17m 50s	A day in a life of an electric spaceship owner	♥ 2	the intro cutscene was pretty funny, with the scream, and nonchalant switch flipping. i liked how the game challenged me to plan and replan a good route to navigate the level that efficiently picked up the right tools and dealt with the challenges as they appeared. however! not being able to jump off ledges was pretty frustrating. also not being able to switch a wrench for cup of water was frustrating, instead i had to walk over to the nearest disaster, waste it, then walk back to get the right tool. one thing that confused me was the ship in the basement started freaking out, but nothing i could do interacted with it. i guessed this was just supposed to be a visual indicator of the ship's health, but visually it had the same treatment as the intractable elements. i went back to read the instructions, and realized i just needed to press space with no tools to fix it. i think making that clear in the game itself would have been nice. i got close, but failed just one or two pixels away from a full charge.
Oct 9 23:51:45	9m 52s	Inner Demon	♥ 1	i like how you tied the narrative to the gameplay! the writing was kinda meta, which was cool. sorry you ran out of time, that's frustrating. during the dialogue sequences, does it just auto advance? it seemed like sometimes pressing space worked and other times it didn't. i think it would be nice to press space to advance through the dialogue.
Oct 9 23:55:10	3m 25s	The Unstoppable Guio	♥ 1	i liked the graphics, reminded be of okami. the gameplay would have been fun, except the camera instantly jumped upwards whenever i jumped, which was really jarring, made me dizzy, and made it really difficult to keep control.
Oct 9 23:59:35	4m 25s	Celestial Waltz	♥ 0	it's always nice to listen to some tchaikovsky, and it really fit with what you're going for here! at first it was really beautiful watching the orbs weave in and out, but unfortunately, i never got a sense for how my inputs were effecting the game; i never had a sense of control. eventually, my orbs just drifted apart, and i was sad. is this just a simulation, or is there actually a goal, like, don't let them crash together, or don't let them drift apart?
Oct 10 00:12:14	12m 39s	Understable	♥ 2	i like the pixely art i think the concept is cool, the idea that you need to drain your health to become small enough to fit through the crack, but then run to the end before you run out of health was a great moment in your game! the "ah-ha" was very satisfying. i think the idea of silver and pink portions of the health bar, constantly draining, alternating, and changing you, is super awesome, but unfortunately i never figured out how to control it, so i got stuck at a level. i think the "f to pause your health drain" felt kind of arbitrary, not sure how it fit in, didn't make sense in the gameplay narrative you crafted. like, as metaphors for life / relationships, what does it mean to pause? and from a pure gameplay perspective, yeah, just kinda arbitary. like "why do i have the ability to do this?" anyways, cool entry over all! rainbow!!
Oct 10 06:05:14	5h 53m	O'Ryan	♥ 2	i thought the floor crumbling right when you get to the cool thingy on the roof was a great moment! i think the floors crumbling into physics-enabled rocks is the most unique thing about your game, would have liked to see more of that to make it stand out. make it feel more Unstable. the jump was a bit finicky, doesn't always trigger when i'm up against the wall. falling onto spikes was very annoying, can't jump out, but doesnt instant kill either, just need to walk back and forth until i die. please make it insta kill! i'm not quite sure what the theme tie in is.
Oct 10 06:18:58	13m 44s	Realignment	♥ 1	i really enjoyed this entry! it's hard to find dialogue this well written in a game jam, well done. especially the renaming bits, they were really entertaining, how frustrated Curie got haha! also, i love how deep into music theory you went with this game! i can't say the mini games were particularly fun on their own, but it was really relaxing to hear the discordant tones resolve, and if they were too engage i'd miss the dialogue, so it made an overall very serene little journey. i of course took the obvious route at the end, i was half-expecting the AI to sort of turn on me at the last minute, which... kinda happened?
Oct 10 06:28:54	9m 56s	Crisis: Reactor	♥ 0	i like the concept, and the snarkiness of the AI or whoever's talking to you, but more feedback, visual or audio, than just raw numbers would have been more engaging. there seem to be a lot of cool mechanics at play with balancing all the meters, but it's just not that fun when the result is just numbers. i thought i was doing well, but screen suddenly faded to white then i died, and i have no idea why, it just instantly goes to rebooting screen, so i didn't get a chance to learn what i did wrong to do it better next time.
Oct 10 06:39:54	11m 00s	Crumbling Mind	♥ 1	i like the concept, did you ever consider switching between anxiety and depression as the game goes? it seems to lock you into one until you either check point or die, i think it would have felt more dynamic, or dare i say, unstable, to deal with constantly flowing through different mental states. the background music was cool! i tried several times to make a certain pretty difficult jump, but then i went pretty after the jump and unfortunately never ran into another teddy bear, then the screen blacked out from depression. the depression mechanic was honestly a lot more anxiety inducing that anxiety itself (and honestly kinda frustrating) since it's essentially a death timer: if you don't make it to the next check point before the screen blacks out, it's all over. maybe that's exactly what you were going for, but it doesn't feel very much like what depression feels like to me, and was just kinda frustrating to get lost and die to depression over and over.
Oct 10 06:47:58	8m 04s	LCD DREAM ESCALATOR	♥ 2	this was a cool experience! very cool! i like the music and retro graphics and strange newspaper thing a lot. and the title! cool title for sure. i made it to the forest, and then i was doing my best to follow the sound, there seemed to be a sound that got louder. then very suddenly, i stepped behind a tree or something, and warped back to the beginning? does that mean i won? or i lost? if i lost, then, well, so be it. i wish i knew if i made it to the end or not; it wasn't very clear. but then again, neither are dreams. this definitely felt like a dream. a liquid crystal dream.