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| Timestamp | Since previous | Game | Samuel Hollywood-Summers's comment | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Oct 5 15:33:53 | ch1Pik | ♥ 2 | Can't progress past level three. I split into phases where the wrong colour is in each room with a block I can't interact with (red with blue, blue with red), and unable to take a single step back. I restarted the level several times but can't work it out. Not sure if this is a bug, or if the learning curve is too steep from level two to three. Great, intuitive puzzle design for the first two levels though. Nice vibes. I'd love a sound for each movement and interaction. Thanks for sharing. | |
| Oct 5 15:43:31 | 9m 38s | Pasta Run | ♥ 2 | I found the controls awkward at first, but then worked out that the frustrating stickyness when touching a wall could be used to climb walls. I stuck with the game long enough to beat both levels and had fun doing so. The slipping when sprinting on blue ground mechanic was intuitive to pick up quickly, and alternating whether to sprint or not in response to the surface was a nice touch. It could probably be better communicated to the player that a double jump is possible. My favourite touch was the dynamic music, adjusting to the amount of time left. Good stuff, and thanks for sharing. |
| Oct 5 15:59:44 | 16m 13s | A Year of Rest | ♥ 1 | The absence of sound made the game feel quite empty and eerie. I enjoyed the nighttime visuals outside with the glow from the windows. I think the whole thing would be more impactful if you concentrated on a smaller area and added the detail (sound effects, etc). The distance between interactable objects outside could also be smaller, as walking between them can feel like a chore once you have done it once. A rich soundscape of cars, buzzing lights, and the movements of characters might help make traversal feel more enjoyable. Impressive scale. Thanks for sharing. |
| Oct 5 16:22:49 | 23m 05s | Candle Coffee Courier | ♥ 2 | Great game, if a little punishing. I'm surprised I was able to beat the game, having struggled a lot with specific obstacles. I'm glad the checkpoints work after the coffee mishap, as the prospect of doing all of that under time pressure in one go would be too much. My suggestions would be to be more lenient with hitboxes, and to get non-devs to playtest games like this as you go in the future. Many jam games end up way too hard because the devs know exactly what to do and practise it loads while making the game. The character and their changing facial expressions are great, and I enjoyed the visuals and music. The text narrative at the star was a nice touch, but I did find it interrupted the flow of the game a little too much and too often at the start. The game feels really complete, and is impressive for a jam. Well done! Thanks for sharing. |
| Oct 6 13:27:10 | 21h 04m | Tones of the World | ♥ 2 | Similar to other commenters, I'm not sure if there is a goal or puzzle mechanic I'm missing here. I like the overall mood, which is created through distinctive sounds and visuals. The music could feel quite busy and chaotic at times, and I was unsure if I should be shooting particular cubes, or sides of cubes, in a particular order in order to calm the music into something more serene? If I was, I wasn't able to work out how. Perhaps the aim is just to land as many hits as possible? And the number of world's destroyed: Does anything I do impact upon this? I can't figure it out. Overall, great work, especially on the mood, but game mechanics and/or goals could be better communicated. |
| Oct 6 14:34:06 | 1h 06m | Tangerine Massacre | ♥ 1 | I really enjoyed playing this game. The level of polish on the visuals is great. There were a few things that felt missing in the level though. I would love to hear music (which could enhance the mood and character of the game), and some vital sfx were absent (for example, a sound to signify that an enemy is preparing the throw an apple). The combat sounds felt great, but the death of an orange sound was quite annoying. The orange halves were a great touch! Gameplay and visuals were by far the standout features, and work really well. Gameplay would be enhanced with more attention to audio. Thanks for sharing. Great work! |
| Oct 6 14:48:31 | 14m 25s | GhostShore with a bulb | ♥ 1 | Truly beautiful experience. The gameplay was simple and relaxing. The music was beautiful and really helped to create a pleasant atmosphere. I spent a while struggling to find the final ghost, and unsure if I'd already been everywhere and there was just no end state. I enjoyed listening to the music as I explored and finally found the last ghost. Thanks for sharing. |
| Oct 6 21:34:54 | 6h 46m | Dizzard Wizzard | ♥ 2 | A great idea for a spellcasting mechanic. I found it easier, and more advantageous, to just make use of the fireball throughout though, and water heal when not in a battle. The other spells were too difficult to remember, and no design decisions forced me to make use of them. I was also far too tempted to take all of my battles to doorways where the enemies would get stuck. If you could make it harder for me to make things easy on myself, the game might be a little more fun. I really enjoyed the art and the audio. I think it would be really helpful to have a door creaking open sfx for when all of the enemies have been killed in an area and progression is possible, as making the same tip to a locked door several times was frustrating. The game was fun and engaging enough for me to manage to finish it, so well done for that! Great visuals, and the chests were satisfying to open. I'm not sure why, but with each hit of the fireball, enemies sank further into the ground before dying. Great game, and thanks for sharing! |
| Oct 8 14:59:42 | 41h 24m | Catastrophic Journey | ♥ 0 | I enjoyed playing and was able to pick it up pretty quickly. The 'towns' look more like campsites to me. It would be great if sounds related to valuable player feedback were prioritised (in particular, a positive jingle or similar to indicate when health is replenished) as this was not clear without the text instructions. I managed to complete the game on my second attempt, which is a great difficulty level for a jam game. Thanks for sharing! |
| Oct 8 15:38:20 | 38m 38s | Noinun40 | ♥ 1 | I find this intriguing, but I can't win. I think I now understand the wrapping, but I don't find that intuitive. I tried to work out how to win (in terms of strategy) for quite a while but I haven't cracked it. I keep being given a choice of two elements where both with cause a match 3. Are the black elements broken ones? If so, could this be emphasised in the sfx when placed? Similar with the match 3? (A negative sound to communicate that you have lost). A great idea, but unfortunately quite frustrating for me, because I can't work out a winning strategy for element placing. Thanks for sharing! |
| Oct 8 15:47:38 | 9m 18s | off-balance | ♥ 1 | A great idea for a game. I like the abstract visuals and soothing sfx. The gameplay idea is interesting, but I found that I could get points most easily just by rocking the see saw one way, then the other, through the equilibrium point, rather than by spending more time in a balanced state. I would expect the game to reward me for keeping the board balanced, not for moving from one side to the other repeatedly. Thanks for sharing! |
| Oct 8 16:05:27 | 17m 49s | Drilbert II Diggeredoo | ♥ 1 | Awesome game. I really liked the playable win-screen and the bonus levels. It made me feel smart for trying to get to the goal on what I first thought was the end. Drillbert 2 Diggeroo.png My only complaint, and it is a small one, is that I didn't like the drill sfx, but I quickly forgot about that while playing due to the brilliant puzzle design and interesting movement mechanics. The other choices of sounds and music were spot on for the mood of the game, too. Thanks for sharing!!! |
| Oct 8 16:18:38 | 13m 11s | Unlevel | ♥ 1 | Awesome game. Great puzzle design, a unique concept, and lots of little moments of discovery. I loved it! The sound could be better: It feels like it is missing music, but other than that I love it. Great stuff, thanks for sharing! |
| Oct 9 06:45:09 | 14h 26m | Time Rift | ♥ 2 | Great mechanic idea with the time shift, and ambitious and complex control system for the time you had to develop the game. The movement mechanics are all introduced too quickly though, and feel awkward, making me pretty terrible at the game. Because of this, I realised the music does not loop if you don't get to the next cue trigger quickly enough. I would make sure that the level design was much easier, with new controls and movement types introduced and reinforced slowly, one at a time, rather than being introduced to all at once without time to get used to them. A great jam game difficulty level should feel super easy to the devs, who are playing the game over and over as they develop. You want other players to get through to the end of your game without too much difficulty. I couldn't, unfortunately. The mood was great, and the music felt appropriate to the different settings, reinforcing the difference in time period. Many sfx did feel missing, though. It would be worth trying to have a sound for every possible action and interaction. Think about the JUICE. Finally, I'd love to see on your game page who did what, and what (if any) existing assets or tools you used. It is hard to rate art and sound without knowing if you made it or used assets. Thanks for sharing! |
| Oct 9 07:01:00 | 15m 51s | Nightstruck | ♥ 1 | Great art! The audio doesn't quite match up to the visuals though, and makes the game feel quite empty. The opening cutscene was so detailed, and such a great touch, but with only one sound effect it felt unfinished. I really enjoyed walking to the village. The mixture of pixel art and 3D worked really well, and the landscape and features to navigate around changed at a rate that kept me engaged. The inclusion of a rain sound effect was a great idea, but being located at a specific point in the game world made it feel wrong: the rain was visually surrounding me, but sounded like it was ahead/to the right, until it was behind/to the left. Triggering a stereo ambience to start playing as you enter the rainy area, and stop as you leave, would work better. I also got a bug after talking to one of the villagers in a house. After talking to them, every time I pressed the up key, the dialogue was started again, even back out in the world, so I could not climb any ladders. Because the introduction took quite a while, I didn't restart and get to play the whole game, which is a shame, as I was enjoying the peaceful gameplay and the relaxing world. Thanks for sharing! |
| Oct 9 07:13:38 | 12m 38s | icnaw | ♥ 1 | A fun shooter. The audio was frustrating though. Rather than the voiceover, prioritising sfx for player actions, and to indicate when enemies are spawning/shooting/damaged etc, would have been a much better use of time, and help with improving the gameplay. I loved the window size growth after dying: not something I would expect! Thanks for sharing. |
| Oct 9 07:32:12 | 18m 34s | Time Rift Racers | ♥ 0 | A fun idea, and it looks great. It's nice that you made the effort to include a responsive VO and the opening cinematic is a nice touch too. This project may have been a bit over-ambitious for the length of the jam, and many important things don't seem to work. For example, other racers provided no competition, because they didn't seem capable of navigating around the track, and instead got caught on the side of the track. I'd also prefer a different visual presentation for the portals, as I thought the one in the castle door was just a dead end at first. Something glowing or sparkly could still be opaque, keeping the technical requirements limited, but look more like some sort of magical transportation portal rather than a solid black nothing. This game is super charming and very much a jam game with all of its quirks. It made me laugh and I had fun sailing in my car, driving in my boat. Thanks for sharing! |
| Oct 10 18:25:24 | 34h 53m | Animal Farm | ♥ 1 | I love the artwork. It's also great to have an easy, non-demanding jam game to play amongst the platformers and shooters etc. I enjoyed hearing about the lives of the animals, and was pleased to eventually build the barn. Some sound effects would have gone a long way to improve the experience of playing. For example, UI sounds when selecting and then confirming a choice would make the game feel more responsive and inherently pleasant to interact with. Different music for the win screen would also feel much more rewarding than a cut to silence. Narrative was a strength of this game, so it is a shame there is no rating category for this. At first I thought here was no objective to the game, and that it was just an interactive narrative experience, where the order the text is read is partly randomised and partly down to player choices. It might be sensible to somehow communicate to the player what they are supposed to be doing/aiming to achieve, as this was not very clear. Thanks for sharing! |
| Oct 10 18:45:59 | 20m 35s | They need attention | ♥ 5 | An interesting idea. I do think that the puzzles would be more fun to solve without having to constantly look up at the attractions, though. There seems to have been a lot of attention and effort put into the ambient spooky sound effects, but sounds that communicate to the player what is actually happening would be much more useful, and could still be designed to be scary. For example, the brick being thrown by the first attraction, I first thought was just a brick on the floor that I found. Having the sound of the builder attraction picking up a brick, and grunting as he prepares to throw it, then throws it, would communicate to the player what is going on, and also could act as a way of telling how long you are able to look away for (ie, until the end of the preparation grunt, before the throwing grunt). The very quiet impact brick sound, that is drowned out by the music/ambience, doesn't really do this effectively. I enjoyed the transitions, and was impressed that the one into the first attraction kept pointing me at the problem I needed to fix. It did still take me a long time to notice the broken tracks, though (facepalm). It would be nice to know who did what in your team, and what (if any) assets/tools etc were used to make the game. Thanks for sharing! |
| Oct 10 18:56:34 | 10m 35s | Crazy Kitties | ♥ 1 | A nice little game. I like the concept, and I'm pretty sure I've not seen it done before. If the donuts were replaced by some semi-transparent crystal, or similar, then it would be easier to see which colour cross the player is stood on, which would help with knowing where to stand. Also, if the hammer was raised higher at the end of a spin, it would feel a little fairer, giving that moment to respond to which colour cross is about to be hit. Sound effects would also be hugely helpful. Maybe a different sound associated with each colour, both for squares stood on, and for which button is hit by the hammer. Everything would feel more full and alive with footsteps, hammer hit sounds etc. The idea for the mechanic and gameplay are the biggest strength, I think, and the visuals in a close second. Well done, and thanks for sharing!! (PS, also, I love it when jam games are at a difficulty level where I can complete them in two or three attempts, so spot on with that!!) |
| Oct 11 15:24:42 | 20h 28m | Brittle Buildings | ♥ 0 | How do you progress from the building/module placing phase? I only managed to move off this screen by over-spending stability points and the building collapsing. Running out of space to place modules didn't work, and I couldn't find a key to press to progress to the second wave. |
| Oct 11 15:51:55 | 27m 13s | Dark Forest of Echoes | ♥ 1 | I loved this. Effort put into all the things that matter, and that make this game unique. A sound effect to accompany the collisions in the bullet hell would be useful. I thought at first that I was tying to pick things up, not avoid them, and the druggy visual effect seemed to match with the floating head as a potentially thematically related and potentially positive thing, rather than being a clear thing to avoid. The music and visuals are, of course, highlights, and the gameplay was engaging enough that I wanted to stay longer in the world. Thanks for sharing, this has been a highlight of my experiences playing others' games. |
| Oct 11 16:04:18 | 12m 23s | Pink Dragon | ♥ 1 | Interesting platformer with a nice vibe. It would be great if you could also include a downloadable version, as the web version has some problems with glitchy audio. Also, it was very cruel to have platforms that drop if you touch them at all (the bottom or sides) and made this far too hard for me! Thanks for sharing. |
| Oct 11 16:23:01 | 18m 43s | ECOLLAPSE 2030: the world is ending and also you are a penguin | ♥ 0 | Great fun, which is only enhanced by the music. Loads of challenging levels, and great movement mechanics. I had to give up eventually, but I was able to complete a satisfying number of levels before I did, especially for a jam game. I think it would help if there was more of a visual contrast between ice platforms with the background/non-gameplay ice blocks. This would help readability of the levels, and allow for more reaction-based gameplay as opposed to learning the levels through trial and error (as I had to a few times). Also, more sound effects for movement, gliding etc would be great. Oh, and another positive: the quick level reset was a wonderful touch. I kept playing for a lot longer than I would have if there was a lengthy pause/death animation/other interruption. Great decision! |
| Oct 11 16:32:46 | 9m 45s | Displaced | ♥ 0 | Other than clicking on wood to collect it (not mentioned in the instructions) and using a and d or left and right to move the entire screen left or right (sometimes far enough to end the game) I can't actually do anything. I just pick up a few logs, usually one person is created, then everything eventually falls off the boat. What am I supposed to do? Left and right click are not creating people or houses for me. |
| Oct 12 14:48:45 | 22h 15m | Unstabled | ♥ 1 | I like the interpretation of the theme! Also there seemed to be plenty of sfx for all the possible events/interactions on screen. Nice. I liked the music. It would be nice to be able to attack backwards. Thanks for sharing! |
| Oct 12 14:59:01 | 10m 16s | Solar Disturbance | ♥ 0 | Mac build isn't working for me (Catalina). Will try on my PC later. |
