Alphish

Tale of the Dreamer by Criobite 2019-10-26T10:06:18Z

Short and to the point, I like it. There was some walking around, but not so much that the game would become tedious because of it.

I like how unrealistic yet very internally consistent is the realm the creature is in, presumably a dream world. Things keep changing, but they change to adapt to what the dreamer needs. When they find a key, a house spawns. When they find a chest, a dungeon with the key emerges. When they find a broken lever, a handle is bound to appear. Pretty much what one would expect from lucid dreaming, where the dreamer's thoughts and needs shape the realm.

Not much to say about graphics and sounds except that they serve the game well.

Overall, a pretty nice adventure game. Well done. ^^

Dumpy's Endless Quest for Crap by Budaniel 2019-10-27T17:45:00Z

The audiovisuals are cool, but the gameplay is way too clunky. I tried going for a few attempts, I even got 4th or 5th power level on my last one, but the super-speedy movement combined with the falling pits and moving platforms is just too much.

That one time I didn't lose by falling into a pit I got stuck into ceiling after being skyrocketed there while jumping from a vertically moving platform instead. >.< Also, sometimes the collision felt "jagged", as if the collision was based around the main character's actual 3D model. In 2D platformers, it's often a good idea to base a collision around some character-centered rectangle instead, and I think this game would benefit from such approach.

Also, I really would have preferred if there was some tangible increase in power after upgrading it. At some point I was genuinely wondering whether I'm increasing the power of mine or of the opponents, because they took more and more hits to be taken down. ^^'

(also, I'm not really sure if "nothing but your axe" counts as "nothing"...)

I hope you'll take notes from this experience and sort out the platforming mechanics by the next Jam. ^^

Void/Entropy by Tygrak 2019-10-26T12:10:06Z

Completed in 29:46, with 16 deaths. Guess me being a regular Touhou player* helped here.

This was quite taxing, especially since I didn't expect an entry that long in Ludum Dare. Other factors that contributed to general tiredness was no indication of how much was left, and the music getting gradually slower and slower with each death - don't know if it was an intended effect or just a bug from when the music slows down upon death and not resetting the speed, but it kinda felt depressing after yet another death on the last level. >.<

Aside from that, I found the patterns to be quite varied and enjoyable - visually my favourite level was the one with flowers, and the maze with wall-orbs was a fun idea mechanically. I suppose one of the cool things about bullet-hell genre in general is the variety of patterns one can come up with, and this potential is used well here.

I also appreciate staying true to bullet hell conventions and having both regular speed mode and focused slow speed mode. I like when the game allows me to pull off some micrododging.

Overall, a nice and varied bullet-hell entry, though still somewhat tiring.

*actually, I tend to fall back to Easy Mode when it's enough to unlock what I want, occasionally completing Normal if Easy doesn't suffice

Something from Nothing by Alphish 2019-10-12T18:48:01Z

Thanks for the feedback, people. I knew adding a save system in this kind of game was a must. ^^

@danilo-freire I'd like to post a Web build, but when I tried it out, it turned out it acts completely goofy. I mean, some differences between web and desktop builds are expected, but when the game carries the click state to the newly created buttons (which doesn't happen on desktop build) or when it makes NaN of page number when I try to get to the previous page (I don't even know where *that* came from... it's just a simple subtraction), I feel it would take too much effort to get a working Web build with GameMaker. >.<

(I was planning to learn Haxe anyway, so I might end up recreating the game with that; but that's beyond the Jam scope)

As for the Mac version, I'm afraid I can't afford a Mac to test builds at the moment... ^^'

Something from Nothing by Alphish 2019-10-23T17:51:22Z

Thanks again for the feedback, everyone.

@ahistyap Good suggestions about the game feel (or juice or whatever). After I implemented drag-and-drop letter swaps, I pretty much kept using it and the click-and-click swap fell out of my focus - I agree that having a little tween would improve the general feedback and aesthetics of this swap. I wanted to make SFX for letters clicking or other events, but I got other things to do and I really wanted to include the music. That, and there was one very important SFX I had to include for a particular level.

@jamioflan Thanks for the warm review. If I make a full version, I think I will get rid of the upper-tier/lower-tier words mechanics in favour of other conditions, such as "at least one letter from this word must be used" or "you need to use letters from at least two words", or maybe have different letter-number mappings in some levels to shake things up a bit (one alternative mapping I consider right now is old cellphone keyboard, i.e. ABC for 1, DEF for 2, PQRS for 7 etc.).

Something from Nothing by Alphish 2019-10-28T06:29:40Z

Thanks once again for the feedback.

@tygrak I actually considered making the phone ports at some point, which is why I started off with a small resolution, so that I wouldn't need to haphazardly cram the UI into a smaller space (that said, I've yet to find out what sort of resolution is considered "acceptable minimum" for mobile games).

@anion-z Thank you for your kind review. I'm wondering what you meant by playing around with different colour schemes - I mean, there are 5 colour schemes in the game already, each added with a new word.

I also plan to make the resizable window in the full version - in fact, I wanted to make the UI elements adapt to the screen size, so that larger screen can use higher resolution assets.

Something from Nothing by Alphish 2019-10-28T12:01:31Z

@anion-z I see, thanks for clarification. The Jam version has been put together quickly (less than 36 hours of actual development, in fact), so I just defined some 5 core colours and used them as a basis for specific words and the areas introducing specific words.

I suppose in the full version it would be a good idea to have a generic "skin" of sorts, defining background colour, UI colours, words colours, particle effects used and so on. If I put together some simple parameterised prototype or even editor, it should be easy to mass-produce such skins. Since I plan to have some degree of non-linearity and mixing up different combinations of words, an ability to define many skins easily would be definitely helpful.

So yeah, thanks again for bringing my attention to it.

Alphabet by rplnt 2019-10-26T11:12:46Z

Minimalistic with the graphics (though there's still that boom effect and the asterisks in the background) and there are no sounds whatsoever, but the gameplay concept is pretty strong for this little game.

I like the idea of attaching the letters to the ship, how it counts the unique letters - indicating that you need to gather different letters to increase your score - and the strategic element of placing the same or close letters on the outskirts to keep the bad glyphs at bay. The zoom-out effect, aside from being neat in and of itself, is greatly helpful to see what's around. I think it glitched at some point, because I collected a letter yet the game zoomed in instead of out, but otherwise it still worked well.

Once I grasped the rules, I enumerated the alphabet in my head to find the missing letters and eventually managed to get them all, winning the game. Glad you included the winning condition here, especially since after you get all 26 there's nothing left to do.

One minor complaint I have is that the game seems to be restarted by clicking on the "restart" button (at least that's the impression I got on my first few tries). I'd rather have it done by pressing Enter or Space or something.

Overall, pretty neat gameplay concept and executed quite well mechanically. ^^

Unlock Everything by DDRKirbyISQ 2019-10-23T16:50:30Z

The general game setup would fit the "Upgrades" theme a lot, but it works here as well. I appreciate the unparalleled dedication to the "unlocking" take on "Start with nothing". I mean, that's the first game I stumbled across this Jam, where moving left and right are unlocked separately, and there is actually some challenge provided for just moving right part. Also, it got to the point of audio and stages and ending unlocking, and it's just so silly it has its own charm.

The gameplay itself isn't particularly innovative, though with it the game being specifically Megaman-inspired, I don't think innovation was the main focus here, anyway. Aside from that, it works pretty well; I didn't notice any jarring problems. I appreciate that the top of the Libra's head is excluded from the hitbox, so I could stand still one tile below a cannon without being affected by its forward attack. I like when a game has this kind of precision to it. The boss battle took me a few tries, but then I figured out that charging right at the boss with maybe some little dodges (or just taking the hit) worked well enough to win.

The story... well, there seem to be some questions asked, but no answers given, which is pretty dissatisfying. There better be some continuation to it; I hope this cliffhanger isn't just another of Megaman references.

The game has well-made pixel-art graphics, but we all know that DDRKibry's games are played mostly for their soundtrack (aren't they?). The game delivers; I guess my biggest complaint would be that I'd have the tracks to be longer, but I can see why it wouldn't happen within the tight Compo timeframe. I think my favourite track in terms of mood is Level 1, despite being pretty short (maybe that's why I'd like to have a bit more done with this theme).

Overall, a solid and neat platformer, though the conclusion (or rather lack thereof) is still pretty disappointing. ^^'

NothingMan by Arity 2019-10-11T16:55:08Z

That was a fun little platformer.

Usually this kind of upgrade system would be used globally like e.g in a metroidvania, but here it was used per-level basis, allowing for a variety of combinations, which I appreciate.

The gameplay was mostly fine except for one little yet significant thing - wall-jumps. The way they were executed, i.e. with holding UP to stick to the wall, was needlessly cumbersome. I feel it could've been mapped to the wallside button (e.g. if you press left while falling against a wall to the left, you cling to it) and it'd be way more natural.

The graphics were fine, though sometimes they felt glitchy, especially the last level. The audio fit the game well. I love how you made the soundtrack increasingly rich as player collects more upgrades - way to nail the mood.

One note about the menu - the game doesn't really tell what to do to play, so I wasn't even sure if I'm supposed to press some keyboard buttons or click the PLAY or do something else. Some indicators like "Press SPACE to continue" are always helpful.

Overall, quite an entertaining entry, if maybe rough around the edges.

Armada by diptoman 2019-10-21T18:25:27Z

Oh, I finally found the whole Zombies Indie House squad again. I've been wondering how you were doing. ^^

The gameplay concept is strong here, with naturally increasing difficulty by higher and higher armada requirements, which in turn result in larger area of collision - and you don't even need to alter the rocks or ships spawn rate to keep the challenge growing (literally). There might be this "wall" effect, where players can reliably keep going through the few initial levels then they are constantly stopped at a certain mark and no amount of experience lets them progress further, but I guess that's how things are sometimes.

The game is also highly polished, not only in terms of audiovisual quality, but also the gameplay feedback - by reading the messages and seeing the things happening I could intuitively figure out the specific mechanics of the game (don't collide with the ships, don't leave a stray ship once you engage it etc.).

Overall, a high quality entry with cool gameplay concept. Well done.

(for the record, I scored ~2500 points until my invasion was foiled at the 15-scale planet)

Armada by diptoman 2019-10-27T20:07:18Z

Just for the record - yes, it's a me, Alice. Thanks for the reply. ^^

Beet-hoven by jamioflan 2019-10-22T22:50:46Z

The use of theme might not have been very original, but the gameplay mechanics themselves are quite creative.

I was pretty confused at first, when I collected first few carrots and then the cook was constantly "waiting for vegs". In part it was because I somehow focused on the patches yet to purchase, not noticing the already available ones. ^^'

After I explored a bit and playing around with planting vegetables I finally figured out how pies are made, mostly going by the colour rather than the sound. After that, things got clearer and I finally earned a few vegbucks, eventually affording the third patch.

Then, after making one three-note pie and fruitlessly searching for the green vegetable, I accidentally ran out to the water, and from there I fell off the map entirely. So I had to restart. >.<

I played again, and this time I think I succeeded treating everyone to a pie (two 2-note pies and four 3-note pies). Then, I made a four-note pie just for the heck of it and then carried it, while listening to its ethereal melody. Also, I finally noticed it's the vegetables that are literally singing, i.e. moving their mouths when it's their cue. This game seems to have quite a few easy to miss details like that. ^^'

I found the gameplay unclear at the beginning, but somewhat enjoyable once you know what to do; the game could use some movement speed-up option, though. The audiovisuals are good, and complement the game well - the audio aspect in particular is essential to the game mechanics (I mean, you can serve right pies without any sound, but you lose a large part of the experience).

Overall, a pretty well made and original entry. ^^

carrot by Andrea 2019-10-12T13:36:37Z

I got to the point where I have everything I want and I invested in like 50 CarrotCoins, while having 200k houses and loads and loads of... eggplants? Was it all? I didn't seem to get much progress from that point.

It was a nice and somewhat silly incremental game (seems like this theme led to many incrementals). I appreciate the minimalism of using only some webpage-like layout with Unicode characters, though the progress bars seemed to be slightly misaligned in relation to each other (i.e. the research bar was slightly to the left compared to the carrot planting).

Speaking of research, I wonder what benefits did it do, aside from providing randomised bits of science? Having some research stat along the number of carrots and housing spots would at least give an impression that the research is increasing something. ^^'

Overall, a nice little entry, though it doesn't stand out among other incremental games I've played.

PS. "Got thinks Andrea is seductive" is more or less what the game told me.

Game from the Void by Cole and Jordan Studios 2019-10-27T16:02:39Z

That was an enjoyable ride. Pretty meta and genre-crossing in a way.

One thing I'd really like in the game engine portion is subtitles for the narration, especially helpful for non-native English speakers or people with hearing problems (though I acknowledge that there could have been no time to prepare and sync subtitles). Also, I agree that there could have been more feedback from the boss, or maybe even some explicit healthbar to make it obvious that there's some health that you need to tear down?

Aside from that, pretty cool job done here, it's all around quite complete and pretty polish entry. ^^

Solar Grid by svntax 2019-10-26T20:17:15Z

Not much to say except for what others pointed out - mostly the part about controls and how the game can be cheesed with a literal power grid (maybe more of a graph than a grid, but still power). Having to control the turrets manually in this kind of game doesn't really work out... ^^'

I liked the audiovisuals, still, they were cool (though destruction sound effect volume could be toned down a notch).

- V O I D - by AtomFox0213 2019-10-23T20:24:19Z

Gee, that's exactly the type of game I needed to play around the evening.

Aside from that, I completed the whole thing. It wasn't too hard, considering the game isn't really long in the first place, but it really could use some user experience features, mostly when it comes to hinting that some part of the screen is actually interactible (especially that void shard spike, that unlike other background spikes was actually collectible). Many adventure games like that also provide some tiny arrows around the screen borders, to kindly inform the player that they can move that way to another area. In general, the game involved a bit too much blind clicking and trial and error for my taste.

As much as I feel the void as the place of distortions and darkness and eeriness and monochromes etc. is somewhat overplayed, the game does a great job using these aesthetics here. The ending was a bit underwhelming, but the gameplay portion in terms of mood was pretty well executed (though I guess it still could be improved by some kind of background animation or something).

Overall, a game with a well-set mood and a gameplay that relies a bit too much on blind clicking and guessworking. ^^'

0 by blaster391 2019-10-09T19:00:06Z

Alright, at first I had no idea what to do, but after playing around with things I eventually figured out how can I make my character move.

I love the concept of re-usable slots, allowing for some nifty puzzles. My main complaint would be that it wasn't exactly clear how the W/S upgrade worked, because for some reason I couldn't take off the ground while pressing W. For a while I even thought I need to be in Shift mode for it to work, until I respawned at some point and found that I can hover without it.

Aside from that, though, the game provided some nice platforming challenges, good progression with higher levels of perception and a satisfying conclusion, putting together all the gathered pieces. The graphics weren't too great, but the overall setup and design makes up for it.

Also, I liked how the character starts with no vision and how they have to retrieve the most basic things. It may not be original, but it's pretty strong and tangible take on "Start with nothing" (more so than starting without tools or clothes, especially if you gather your first utility within seconds of the beginning).

Great job here, overall.

Build Yourself by lilkrit 2019-10-27T13:02:52Z

Somehow I ended up writing a review but not publishing it, so I'm writing anew. Oh well.

I've found the entry challenging, but enjoyable - though this might have been affected by me playing a game with frictionless movement just before, when I couldn't even stop the character. Here I could wait for the car to stop and I could freely change camera perspective, so the game didn't make itself more difficult by depriving the player from some quality of life features, at least.

The maze at the beginning of level 2 was tricky, until I realised there's no point in trying to see my way out and instead just opted for moving along an arbitrary wall. It was hilarious in hindsight when I had to restart and using the same method found the exit right away.

I liked the graphics, especially the neon car with its add-ons. The levels were also varied rather than using the same colour or texture over and over again, providing a cheap way to prevent the monotony. The encouraging text was a nice touch. The lab UI could use some improvement, e.g. highlighting the add-on currently in use or actually show jumping in the list of passive upgrades. Sadly, there was no audio.

Well done, overall.

White Starts With Nothing by Baturinsky 2019-10-26T16:13:42Z

I love the concept of the game and how it uses the theme - it's got to be one of the most creative ways to handle it. I guess chess has this charm to it that allows some creative modifications - I remember seeing another fun chess-based concept many Dares ago.

The different modes added to replay value, too. I like how different mimics resulted in quite different strategies. Double nothing has got to be my favourite, because of how you try to strategically place the white pieces while sabotaging the black pieces placement at the same time.

Well done. ^^

Rubber Duck Genesis by Rayne 2019-10-08T20:43:45Z

The first level reminded me of Hacker Typer. The second level reminded me of these puzzles where you have to interact with elements in a specific order, except here it wasn't as much about the order. The third level reminded me of this Jam theme, because there was none.

Either way, that was short but fun trip. I hoped for more levels, because it seems like one of these riddle games (like dozens of ways to "find a button" or "paint everything black"). I kinda liked the audiovisuals and funky symbols, too.

Polychromatic Escape by BLK Dragon 2019-10-21T20:48:58Z

I sympathise with the main character who has to run and jump through all that uneven terrain in heels.

I played the Jam version. On my first playthrough, I passed through the wall into the inside of a mountain and couldn't leave. On my second playthrough I got stuck between the crystals for a change - that's also when I found out I can actually shoot stuff (but I didn't have the red necessary for breaking the crystals, anyway). On third playthrough, I figured out that I'm actually supposed to destroy crystals by shooting properly coloured stuff at them, rather than avoid them by some imprecise collision trickery. After a few minutes of items collecting and precision platforming I reached the exit platform and got the congratulatory message.

I tried the post-Jam version, and it largely improved the most jarring problem, i.e. the collisions. Also, adding the target mark on collecting first shooty pod makes things more intuitive, and there's a proper ending now. So props for that.

The graphics work well enough for the game, and the music gives this nice ethereal feeling to this odd world. The UI was also clean and readable, though I'd have also liked some more explanation, especially about the pod-shooting controls (I mean, I did discover it pretty randomly). The theme is technically there, but it doesn't feel like going from near-zero to 100%; more like going from about 50% mark... (all the platforming abilities are already there, the only difference is getting tools to smash the crystals and collecting all key characters).

Overall, a pretty if clunky platformer when it comes to the Jam entry; the post-Jam version does add some useful polish on top of that.

Timed Cave by DrDolan 2019-10-26T22:00:23Z

I agree with others that an indication that you can use a bomb multiple times would be helpful - especially since apparently you need not to do anything else at the moment, so the bomb button often becomes unresponsive.

Aside from that, it was a pretty nice incremental entry, though I wouldn't mind an extra upgrade tier for a pickaxe and/or a clock, to give players even more breathing room and opportunity to play around. The graphics were somewhat silly (in a simple, but nice way), the ending was... very themey. Too bad there was no audio.

Bob the Brawler by itsdanidre 2019-10-23T16:15:18Z

I got about 72k score on my second run.

A few notes a gameplay mechanics: - having to mash LMB to fend off the enemies is just way too tiring in the long run, with this many enemies and so much of their health attacking repeatedly by holding would have worked better, I think - on my first playthrough I got a large map, on my second one the map was smaller (no scrolling, just as large as the screen); the random generation of permanent walls already adds a risk of unfairness between playthroughs, but getting drawn different sized maps exaggerates that even further (or maybe it's a bug?) - I couldn't quite decide whether I'd rather fortify myself behind a wall or go collecting things; the walls promote static gameplay, the collectibles promote dynamic one; maybe it's not a bad thing, though - the fact that a wall once destroyed by baddies is lost forever discouraged me from getting the wall; maybe if the destroyed wall became a rubble I can collect, I'd be more eager to place them around (with a restriction that I can't place a wall on a baddie)? - on both playthroughs, I was doing pretty well for a while, and then I got caught in the loop of baddies punching me, swiftly leading to game over; with that, it barely feels like health is really that significant if getting hit once leads to many subsequent blows; maybe the main character could have some invincibility frames or something? - the game could definitely use some more variety aside from punching the same brand of enemy, sometimes with shinier helmet but otherwise acting the same

Also, I don't really feel much of a theme here. I mean, technically the protagonist starts with no potions nor walls of their own, but still has his magnificent fists. Throughout the game, I didn't really feel so much more powerful than I was at the start.

Aside from that, the general idea behind this game is pretty workable, and audiovisuals are spot on. Maybe you could expand that concept into something more?

Angry Words by Madbeagle 2019-10-26T09:52:40Z

Oh, yay, a fellow word game. The premise is completely different from mine, but it means more originality. ^^ (and from what I've seen, it's not the kind of theme that promotes a varied gameplay, though people still tried)

I enjoy the gameplay concept itself - on one hand, trying to fit the words into the crossword is quite challenging. At the same time no knowledge of English words is required - you could consistently swap each letter with a Chinese character and NOTHING would change - yet the challenge would not.

I'm not a big fan of the controls - for this game, mouse controls would be way simpler and much more convenient (click to select, move around to choose the right location, right-click to rotate, click on board to place). Also, the game could really use word reset and level reset options alike.

I have no idea why the game starts at the level 2. Also, as someone else pointed out, level 10 is impossible (there's only one way to place PLAYING x YOURE on board, and that way locks out THIS). Maybe it would have worked if NOTHING was placed two tiles higher...?

The graphics are aesthetically pleasing, and music - despite being simple - does a good job keeping the player engaged. I liked the story gradually revealed by words in each level, but sadly I couldn't get past level 10.

Overall, pretty well made game, though it could definitely use better controls and the impossible level needs to be fixed.

Spooky Isekai by ahistyap 2019-10-15T20:37:54Z

Yet another isekai this season...

I agree with others about the clunky mechanics, especially the character hanging from the corners of the platforms. As for the flashlight, I can see the point about the character pointing the flashlight towards the direction he sees - that's why I'd suggest if he instead turned along with the flashlight independently from the movement direction. Another note: maybe have the relic activate right after the player collects it? Unless there's a reason to stick around after the relic is found? O.o'

The graphics are pretty nice when it comes to the foreground elements and the pre-isekai area. However, the background of the main gameplay area was pretty lacking. The music was appropriate, but the sound effects felt out of place to me. ^^'

Also, I don't really think having a flashlight right from the beginning counts as "Starting with nothing", so I'm going to give a penalty for theme here.

Overall, somewhat clunky platformer with nice graphics. Hopefully, you'll do better the next Jam. ^^

BLOB by Dudum Lare 2019-10-26T13:16:21Z

A pretty simple crafting entry with decent audiovisuals.

It definitely could use some UI and gameplay improvements. It's not explained in the game itself that the mine and oven have to be clicked to produce resources, so I spent a while trying to get the mine to work (it especially contrasts with the game clearly hinting that e.g. spacebar is used for harvesting etc.). Other thing I noticed is that I didn't actually spend the ore on metal nor the metal on engine parts. After trying out the different buildings, I built the rocket and completed the game.

Overall, the game needs more polish in terms of user interaction and mechanics. Most importantly the gameplay needs to be redesigned - especially since I could built a rocket with no engine parts, so just spamming the ore and then metal leads me to endgame, making the auto-spawner and engine parts redundant.

There was something here by Adrien Dittrick 2019-10-12T10:31:19Z

It was an entry so entertaining it made me check out the prequel. I love how well these two work together.

The game's definite strong points are variety and uniqueness of gameplay mechanics and sense of progression. The void and body are kinda generic, but when we enter the world is when real fun begins, watching the world being rebuilt with armies of friends. There's some beautiful chaos to it, yet still there's some pretty simple logic to it. Entering the last phase, while it didn't really add much to the gameplay, felt epic with all these worlds around. The sense of progression is reinforced with progressively rich soundtrack, which makes advancement all the more satisfying.

There are some minor complaints, like the purchase buttons covering the gameplay area; I would rather have them separate instead, I guess. Also, it wasn't clear how anti-things work at first - I only figured it out long after purchasing some anti-thing converters, wondering what these do (though when you know how to use these, anti-things are super-profitable).

Despite being an incremental game, it doesn't take much time, which I appreciate from the perspective of the Jam reviewing. Also, repeatedly halving the prices down to 0, which would break an ordinary incremental game, works here because it happens at the endgame stage, anyway.

Great entry overall, my favourite thus far.

Zen Man by Team Catwheel 2019-10-24T17:29:03Z

I've reached Nirvana in 193 seconds. I actually like that there is an ending, because at this point there was such a cluster of word that adding one or two more words would make the level unbeatable. I also liked the background change.

The gameplay itself might not be particularly innovative, but it's not overplayed, either, and here it's surrounded with a neat story and matching aesthetics. I don't know if fish symbolise something, but they're pretty and they're fish, so I won't mind even if they don't. Some things weren't immediately obvious (e.g. it took me quite a few hits to spot how the health is displayed), but I don't mind.

I also like that in this theme execution starting with nothing is beneficial (you want to keep it as nothing as possible) rather than detrimental (you have no abilities/tools/money and must gather them).

Overall, relaxing and aesthetically pleasing entry*. Well done. ^^

*I first typed "empty" for some reason; must be either the game or the theme in general

Tart with nothing by flynn 2019-10-12T18:57:34Z

That's a cute and wholesome little game. The tart searched for everything, but I feel a Jam is all it needed.

Just a technical note: It wasn't clear to me that you need to leave the area to cross the word out; at some point it appeared to me like I need to stay at the word for some time instead, and was kinda confused overall. Having the word crossed right after stepping on it would probably make it more intuitive. ^^'

ReWorld by Firesplash Entertainment 2019-10-24T19:01:11Z

Those were pretty enjoyable puzzles. Took me a little bit to grasp the general concept and specific cards functions, but I eventually figured things out; that, and I assumed that every card other than colours is inherently beneficial, so I've been activating the strength upgrade without really considering what it's for.

Speaking of that matter, it'd probably help if the currently carried card had some kind of description that'd appear near the screen bottom. E.g. "Strength: allows you to push blocks" or "Menacing Rainbow: Reveals all the rainbow monsters".

Aside from that, I found the puzzles challenging enough not to get bored with them (though player speed could be increased a bit, there was quite a lot of walking around), while at the same time pretty logical, if sometimes they required thinking about the box (yes, I mean the last level). The audiovisuals fit pretty well, and I liked the special effects related to various modes of vision. Use of theme isn't particularly original, but I appreciate having the upgrades level-scoped rather than game-scoped.

Overall, pretty well made entry. Good job. ^^

Color and Creativity by Collin Thompson 2019-10-27T10:22:47Z

The visuals are cool and so is the gradual soundtrack buildup, but with these highly sensitive controls, frictionless movements and changing camera angles I could only reach the second red pedestal, before giving up after several more tries. >.<

The Legend of Nothing by Niarkou 2019-10-18T07:00:09Z

At first I was kinda lost, because I thought I sunk while stepping on the lilypad thing, while I actually must have been a little off, so I was thinking I had to collect the boots before crossing the first river. Then after examining every bush and piece of grass in the starting area I've tried walking through the lilypad again, this time succeeding. Oh well.

After that, things went more smoothly. I didn't exactly like the part with the large lake, since it required lots of precise movement, but other than that, I didn't stumble upon any major hurdles. I just don't know what was the purpose of the cat ball thing; I tried throwing it at cats and raccoons and it didn't help.

Overall, a cute and enjoyable entry with a nice range of abilities. The audiovisuals were fitting as well.

The Firebrand by selkkie 2019-10-12T16:13:55Z

So, I spent the first few seconds clicking on the top image, thinking it's a title screen, before scrolling down and noticing the actual game area is below. ^^'

The game is definitely well-made and polished audiovisually; I was quite impressed with the intro, and the animation was pretty good as well, making the game livelier. Also, it has some good story behind it, as well as some nice bits of lore that become apparent through the investigation.

I played through it many times, eventually building up a tree of words that the game leads to, until I made sure I've found every dead-end word. And here comes a problem which I'll call "Phoenix Wright syndrome" - even knowing all the words, even having more or less complete picture of what the context is, who is the protagonist, the woman, the crime and the culprit, I still can't figure out which buttons to push to get a relevant answer from the "truth"*.

There seem to be two parallel goals - convincing the woman that you figured out the situation and gaining her trust. But based on the dialogue alone, I still can't tell with 100% certainty which of potentially useful-sounding leads are actually useful, and which are actually a waste of time. In Phoenix Wright, the barrier was picking the "just wright" piece of evidence from a bunch of sensible-looking ones (and sometimes picking the not-sensible sounding one), or suffering a penalty/quickload. Here, it's finding the right combination of many answers, or starting from the very beginning, with lots of guessing which leads are relevant.

Personally, with this many possibilities, I'd have the mechanically-useful information emphasized somehow. Granted, it'd make the gameplay more schematic - just note down the routes with important-marked dialogue and use them for the final showdown - but I don't think it's a bad thing.

For me, the appeal of this game comes from learning about the story and its context, as well the internal sense of figuring the story out. The challenge - external validation that I *did* figure it out - doesn't work so well. It relies on pinpointing the relevant leads solely based on a dialogue that puzzle-makers may find obvious but is often fuzzy for puzzle-solvers. On the other hand, explicitly important dialogue would make the challenge not as frustrating, while still keeping the internal figuring-things-out appeal - I mean, detective novels have no mechanically imposed challenge, but they can still give this kind of satisfaction.

Of course, that's my view on things, you may disagree with it.

From other things - sometimes the game would randomly restart. And by randomly I don't mean after the time runs out, but around the third or tenth question or so. It didn't happen for my first few playthroughs, but then got two situations like that in a row with questions I earlier got an answer to.

Overall, a well-made entry with a great story behind it. Sadly, because of the aforementioned Phoenix Wright syndrome and the combinatorial hell of all these words finding the Normal ending - let alone the True ending - is way too frustrating for me.

*incidentally, on my graph "truth" is spelled in a distinct rectangular box, and with a badly-drawn homunculus next to that

The Firebrand by selkkie 2019-10-12T17:59:22Z

@dwam Thanks for your reply. I understand that under Jam conditions, making the game alone is a challenging task, let alone running the playtesting rounds.

> I’m afraid I’m not really in favor of the suggestion of highlighting which leads might be of the player’s interest, simply because the players are likely to just focus on those and not bother with the other conversation topics.

Just for clarification, the highlights system as I imagined would be at the dialogue level (e.g. by having relevant piece of dialogue shinier or in a different colour, but orange is already taken by the keywords), not the words list level. The player wouldn't know whether the word is useful *before* clicking it - they would still need to explore it and read carefully to spot the "shiny" dialogue. So the player still needs to explore every single word, because they wouldn't be able to tell in advance which words they should focus on.

That said, getting rid of the time limit is also an option. I just wanted to reassure you that the highlight system can be executed without the negative side effect you mentioned (also, the time limit is nicely integrated in the game with the curfew, so I wouldn't be too eager to remove it altogether).

As for the frustration - as long as I eventually get to play a version where I can get the endings without semi-blind guessworking, I should be fine (so please keep me updated). ^_^

The Firebrand by selkkie 2019-10-13T07:33:45Z

@selkkie Thanks a lot for the flowchart, it's tremendously useful. Of course, I'd have preferred if the game itself was more clear about the right answer (there are quite a few nodes that explain part of the truth while not being mechanically relevant, e.g. "school"), but I'm glad I got to see the endings, anyway. ^^

Never Ending Entropy by CodeKoto 2019-10-27T17:03:45Z

The gameplay and progression were generally cool, though with its degree of nonlinearity it was sometimes easy to miss the bits you should have collected (I took down quite a few wisdom-bearing creatures before unlocking Wisdom).

The game is strong in story department, though I would've preferred if I could activate the dialogue with intelligent creatures myself (e.g. by right-click or F to pay respects or something). In particular I like how the ending neatly wrapped the story up - personally, I kinda rooted for chaos, though I'm also the kind of person who went "oh, look how adorably they wiggle their tentacles" when looking at the enemies. #TeamChaos

(that said, I would really like to see an interpretation of chaos as something other than organic horrors, but I guess it is pretty well-established)

As someone who firmly believes you cannot have too many particle effects (as long as your GPU can handle it), I liked the visuals here a lot. The audio was fitting, too, too it's unfortunate that it really played part around the endgame. Also, the initial portion of the game could have really used Yakety Sax, but I understand you might have not wanted to use it so that you could be rated in Audio (and/or copyright reasons, don't know what's the copyright status of Yakety Sax).

Overall, quite a fun and original entry, with a well-developed story. Well done. ^^

Inventory Loss by The-Vecter 2019-10-26T16:30:40Z

I completed it on both normal and hard.

The troubling thing about it is that the game is apparently meant to have the player collect as few items as possible so that they can go faster, but at the same time the speed itself is more of a hindrance than the items slowdown. I guess if the player had lower zero-item speed and/or the level didn't involve falling off the screen and losing some time and/or the items slowdown was more significant, then there would be more incentive not to collect the items.

Another thing I'd suggest is not put the time limit on removing items from the inventory, but instead make clearing the inventory part of the run. In such case, the player is encouraged to go as fast as possible (not just as fast as they need to remove all items in time) and the race portion is always guaranteed to actually start with nothing.

Overall, it was a curious concept, but its execution could seriously use some rebalancing/redesign.

Bricklayer! by triplefox 2019-10-27T21:00:42Z

Oh, so that's where Arkanoid levels come from.

Neat concept. As much as this theme seems to promote incremental games and power-up themed ones (usually platformers), there are some cool twists on it like this one.

I like how the game didn't really have any losing conditions, but instead is just based around getting the job done as fast as possible. It makes for a less frustrating and more relaxing gameplay, which I appreciate in Jam games.

The graphics are simple, but functional, and there are some stars in the background too. Sound effects are fitting. While I initially didn't know what are these counters above for (especially the constant 0 ones), I eventually figured it out while playing 2nd level.

Pretty cool game, overall. ^^

(by the way, my final score was 104483)

Temptris by Alexander Crane 2019-10-27T20:05:08Z

Very enjoyable and unique concept, wouldn't mind getting a full version with more levels and some overarching story (though with these many Jam entries, I'm glad it's as short as it is). And I agree with @triplefox that playing as Temptris would be pretty awesome on its own.

One surprise for me was that the level zoomed in so much that I had to recall the labyrinth layout to follow the trail of skulls (thankfully, it wasn't too hard to remember). I would also like to have a bit less time in exchange for proportionally higher player speed.

The audiovisuals were decent and matched the general retro aesthetic, though the font stands out with its non-pixelly smoothness.

Overall, great and nicely executed concept. Congrats! ^^

CreepyCandy by Slipultura 2019-10-15T17:36:27Z

Halloween Jam game in October? Themed or not, I'll play it!

The best part about this entry is graphics. They set the mood well and have good variety to them. It feels wasteful at times how the level structure and mechanics results in me not getting a good look at these - in particular in the last level, when I drop myself into the oven and I instantly get to game completed screen, without even properly seeing what the oven is like.

The no-so-best part is the gameplay. The mechanics combining wall-crawling and jumping are pretty unique and provide some interesting challenges, but sometimes they feel off, in particular when the main character sometimes does a super-high jump. Maybe that jump was intended at certain spots (I realised that jump allows me to Mario-skip most of level 3) but it feels more like a bug.

Also, the levels could use more checkpoints, especially level 3. Playing the same section over and over again because of a mistake near the end is quite painful, especially if it was caused by wafflespikes lurking in the dark. Another part I didn't like was the tight passage in the level 4 you had to jump into - the cookie kept bouncing off the ceiling.

Overall, a great-looking platformer with neat platforming idea, but could be improved in terms of mechanics execution and level design.

Nothing is my car ! by T-Bo 2019-10-15T21:13:45Z

When I saw the picture of the main character float-driving a no-car, I knew I had to try it out.

I like the idea of assembling the car on the fly, though the penalty for collecting a repeated part can be harsh. Personally, I think it would work better if all parts were listed by name - collected highlighted, uncollected dimmed - so that I can tell which parts I've yet to collect and which parts I've already got. Aside from that it's a pretty generic endless runner, but a fun one, still.

Not much to say about the audiovisuals, except that they worked well with the game. Also, I liked the game over screen with the main character sitting on the tree - a silly conclusion to an even sillier run.

Got 15k on my second run. Not getting anywhere near the 60k scores others reported here... ^^'

Overall, an entry that is just as fun as it is funny. Good job.

Nothing is my car ! by T-Bo 2019-10-17T21:15:00Z

I played the new version with the checklist, and I've found the gameplay to be more focused in general, and it was nice when I reached that Zen state when I have all the car parts and all I need is to dodge. So I think this worked out for me. ^^

(the final score I got on this playthrough was 58606, by the way)

Nothing left for Jim! by GreenDinoGames 2019-10-09T20:51:36Z

Is it Sanic there at the beginning? I dunno, but gotta go fast, either way.

I love how goofy this game is, starting with the premise of the dude putting the items in place before the race and having this generally cheerful mood. My favourite part has got to be theme execution - I mean it's kinda an opposite of theme but also leading to the specific phrasing of the theme. Another thing I love is how at the finish line there is Sanic (?) standing at the top place and then you go to the starting line and find Sanic is already there. Now that's fast!

One thing that could be really improved: have keyboard-controller menu instead of mouse controlled! >.< It's already quite annoying whenever one controller is used only for menu and nowhere in the game, but here it's particularly distracting when I have to briefly move my hand away from item-placing keys so that I can click the button with a mouse.

Other thing - I feel this kind of gameplay could benefit from more behind-the-back perspective rather than the skewed one. As it is now, it's somewhat tricky to map the visible directions vs the WSAD keys to press.

Either way, I enjoyed this entry quite a lot, largely because of its Humour factor. Well done!

(by the way, my best run: 25 seconds with both extras)

JustStart by Decappoolla 2019-10-26T15:13:33Z

That's a good start, now make the full game. ;)

It's nice to see a "Find a button" style game every once in a while. This one has some nice puzzles, though I'd have really preferred if scrolling wheel wasn't used. First, because when a game tells me it's mouse-only, I instinctively think of mouse curses + two buttons, and second: because scrolling wheels tend to get broken and I generally wouldn't rely on them as a required control.

Scrolling wheel aside, I've found the game to be pretty enjoyable. Good job.

Witchcraft: the Collecting by theufo 2019-10-08T18:29:35Z

An incremental game... I guess theme like "Start with nothing" tends to lead to these (full disclosure: it's actually the first game I play).

I feel like the game could explain itself better, especially with gameplay mechanic (collecting witched stuff) being so different than the framing surrounding it (a card game). It took me quite a bit of mental shift to realise that the game plays itself and requires no involvement from me.

Also, while I got these typical cards quite a lot, there are these glossy cards and I don't know what they give compared to the regular cards. Likewise, I couldn't tell if I can safely sell as many cards or if it would negatively affect my prestige. And for that matter, what benefits I get from my player level.

Maybe it was explained somewhere, but lots of information was given at once. Some on-demand help system would help a lot, but the closest thing this game had was description at the bottom (it *was* pretty helpful, but convered too little).

I think additional game feedback and maybe some redesigning would make the game easier to grasp. For example, some extra effects when the witched stuff is clicked, or cards actually being moved around to indicate that the card game plays itself (though maybe the latter would have the opposite effect?). Also, visually grouping the duplicate cards into a single card with a number indicating their count, to know how many cards I can sell while keeping at least one card of a given type. Then again, I can't tell if I benefit from owning a card once I already collected it...

There is also some additional room for polish, be it with graphics, UI (these cards displaying off-screen) or audio, but this lack of clarity stood out the most to me - I couldn't really tell if I'm playing the game correctly. >.<

Oh, and another thing - for a game that takes a while to finish, having a save mechanic is essential.

Girl in a Dungeon by Phoenix Fireflower 2019-10-10T22:14:49Z

That's a nice top-down platformer you got there, you got all this 3-dimensional movement working well, so I appreciate that.

The gameplay generally worked well, though I've found luring the enemies to be somewhat annoying. Still, the game kept me interested enough to keep playing to the end, so good job with that.

I think the graphics fit well together and have some charm to them; animation certainly helps with that, too. The sound effects were alright, but I'd really prefer if there was some matching soundtrack, so that I could adjust my phones volume before getting to the end-of-level sound effect (I had somewhat high volume set, so when I reached the end, I was a little startled by the unexpected sound effect).

When it comes to the theme execution, it felt pretty weak. Many games this Jam try to evoke the "start with nothing" feeling by giving some kind of tangible and permanent progression, so that it feels like the player starts with nothing and works their way up. The closest thing to theme here is that every level you start with no coins and no buttons pressed, which many games do without even trying to match the theme. ^^'

Overall, quite a solid and somewhat challenging entry - good job. The use of theme could have been more prominent, though.

Unstable Dungeon by Rhymar 2019-10-26T10:54:42Z

No wonder it's an unstable dungeon, considering it's filled with so many bugs. Programming jokes aside...

That's a decent basis for a complete dungeon crawler, though there is a lot of room for improvement.

First of all - the upgrade system. The upgrades take lots and lots of resources to take any real effect. Also, the system is counter-intuitive - taking the green upgrades feels like making some progress, but there's no actual increase in capabilities taking place.

I mean, it makes sense if your bag cannot contain all resources necessary for a full upgrade, but maybe have each green upgrade cost the same amount per blue upgrade level? If we kept blue upgrade costs the same, it would be 3 per green at level 0, 8 per green at level 1, 13 per green at level 2 etc.

If green upgrade costs were fixed, then they could be represented with a bar gradually filling up instead, and blue upgrades could instead be represented with "LV. X" text, and possibly some additional descriptor (e.g. "1DMG", "10 items" and so on). I think this would work better from user experience perspective.

Final note about the upgrades: I don't like how sword, shirt, staff and bag each use only one kind of resource, while amulet uses two kinds of resources, and it's the same as the one for staff and bag. It means that amulet resources are in twice as much demand as non-amulet ones. I feel an amulet-exclusive resource would break that imbalance. Having each upgrade use two kinds of resources (spread evenly among the upgradable items) would add some element of strategy.

The gameplay is functional, but tiring in the long run - especially with how slow the player movement and attacks are. Speaking of attacks, I'd really like an ability to attack up and down aside from left and right. Dungeon exploration can be particularly tedious, when I've already visited most of the floor and there are just a few monsters left (or nont at all) and walk around at snail pace, trying to see if there aren't any nests or bugs to clear. Having a minimap showing the already discovered parts of the floor would help quite a bit. Also, the game needs more variety of enemies - two regular enemies + boss with lackeys isn't nearly enough to keep the player engaged through all that grinding. ^^'

The graphics are fine, but they could likewise use some more variety - some kinds of skulls lying around, or some debris that could act as a landmark. Even using a different hue for each floor would go a long way - as it is now, each floor feels exactly the same. Sound effects are fine, music is absent.

Again - it's a good start (better than nothing), but there's a lot work to be done here to make a full game out of it. ^^'

itemless by NachtWitch 2019-10-09T06:14:01Z

People here already said most of what I wanted to say, so just a few key points: - could use more player speed and/or more resources along the way - more weaker enemies would work better, I think - the blocks didn't seem particularly useful; it'd have been a different story if player could attack over these blocks without destroying them (or maybe they could place some turrets; everyone loves turrets) - I liked the appearance of progressively upgraded gathering tool, especially this scythe thing that could collect metal

The use of theme is adequate, but not particularly creative.

All these things aside, it's a pretty solid entry, though it missed something that would make it stand out.

Super Goat Life by Olivier argentieri 2019-10-21T17:55:45Z

That was fun to play for a bit, I guess?

Mechanically, the game was fine, though it felt clunky or slow at times (it should be noted, however, that I played on a laptop with a high-end processor, but no dedicated GPU).

When it comes to the powerups, I'd have preferred if they had some shine around them or other eye-catching effect, to make them stand out among all these colourful background elements. Especially since they aren't really hidden in the first place, so I'd assume that they're meant to be spotted easily. Also, the grass-grazing minigame, while not completely unenjoyable, here felt redundant and out-of place - a distraction from a powerup focused game.

I was also a little disappointed that with the supposedly straight movement at the beginning I still could turn around. So when I collected the A/D side movement, it didn't really feel like going from virtually nothing to a remotely sensible movement. What I wasn't disappointed with was the demolition at the end - I assume it's that hidden ability the game mentioned? Also, the game provided some reasonable variety of powerups in general.

By the way, in search of secrets I got back near the beginning, and from there I managed to fall off from the map, seeing the disappearing layout from the below. Unsurprisingly, that concluded my playthrough.

I was quite impressed with the amount of assets in this game, graphics and audio alike. Looking at the extensive collaborators list it feels a little less impressive, but you still did a good job here. ^^

Overall, a pleasant game, though rough around the edges.

Return to Nothing by SageWare 2019-10-09T21:37:28Z

That was quite a curious sandbox entry. Many bits of curious lore, wouldn't mind getting to know even more of these species. The first playthrough was quite a hassle because I didn't know RMB can rotate the camera. Also, it seems that no matter what, I could get the good or evil down to 0 (which sort of fits a "you can't rid the world of all good/evil" theme, I guess) and I didn't get any title except for the Abandoner. How would one invoke other endings, I wonder?

When it comes to the gameplay itself... Personally, I'm not a big fan of these black-and-white morality systems, with obviously peaceful and obviously malevolent species, especially if it implies that it's a benevolent thing to destroy "bad" people. Also, I kinda hoped that these ray-eyes species (Brilights?) concerned with universe balance would actually react to the balance in the universe changing (be it for the side of "good" or for the side of "evil"). I'd have preferred if the game would describe the outcome of the player's actions, and let them judge whether they like it or not. Also, maybe have more nuances in species behaviour?

One of the additional actions I can think of is moving one unit of population of some species to another planet, and see how they interact (whether it results in a multicultural planet, a mutual eradication or eradication/enslaving of more peaceful species). Of course, this would have been many times more complex and way beyond the scope of the Jam, but since you plan to work further on the project, maybe you'd be willing to try?

Either way, it's a curious project and has some potential, especially with even more wacky species.

Return to Nothing by SageWare 2019-10-10T13:38:51Z

@sageware I'm glad you appreciated my feedback. As for the calculations bug, I played the game on Windows build. I might try out the web version later today to see if it works correctly.

Return to Nothing by SageWare 2019-10-10T18:23:33Z

@sageware Alright, I played it on web version and now I indeed could get three endings I couldn't get earlier. Also, thinking back, maybe the missing pieces in the Windows build were some particularly sinister lava planets?

Now that I replayed it on Windows build, I got the ending, too, so it might very well be me ignoring lava planets earlier (I thought they didn't affect overall good or evil, but it seems I was wrong). So maybe there's no error after all, especially if Windows build and Web build use the same underlying base.

--- EDIT ---

But then I played again and got in a situation when there's one good and one evil left, despite there being no planets in sight. So I guess there is a bug after all (maybe something akin to a rounding error).

--- EDIT2 ---

Other time I had a setup where I ended up with seemingly a single planet, and still good and evil in nineties. So yeah, might want to look into that algorithm (on the web version, too).

Other thing - I tried to get the positive balance with destroying all good, but I couldn't make it - the malevolence score of 50 for destroying a good planet is way higher than benevolence score of 10 for destroying an evil planet, so even if I maxed out the good population before destroying the planet (because... uh, it's very good thing to make planet more populate before destroying it, yes), I'd still be short of 20-30 benevolence.

I restarted the game lots of times, but most of the time I got many more good planets than evil planets, and the one time initial evil far outweighted the good and I could get the positive balance, I ended up with 1/1 score and no planets left...

Another thing - the player can randomly get Expert Balancer ending right from the start. I managed to get one by proper and intentional gameplay, though.

Return to Nothing by SageWare 2019-10-10T21:00:11Z

Yes, the immediate Expert Balancer was on Windows build (incidentally, I got the proper Expert Balancer on Web build).

By the way, from what you write, it seems like Web and Windows builds are maintained separately (or maybe it's the same codebase, but Web uses more up-to-date one?). At the risk of suggesting the obvious or being ignorant about Unity - have you looked into having a common core code for web and desktop builds, so that you wouldn't need to maintain the changes in multiple places?

I'm not sure how experienced you are in programming, but I feel "extracting common algorithms to a module shared between builds" isn't a possibility everyone will immediately think of, despite how obvious it may seem to many developers.

So, while you might be at the level where it's a common sense to you, or maybe you already tried doing that without much success (I don't know how easy/hard it is to pull off in Unity), I decided to throw that idea here just in case. I hope it doesn't come across as patronising or anything like that. ^^'

Return to Nothing by SageWare 2019-10-10T22:05:15Z

Ah, thanks for explaining the situation. Two collaborators compiling their own builds isn't something I'd think of as a cause, but with how intense LD is, I can see how this versions discrepancy could happen. I mean, I posted my entry within the last 5 minutes of submission hour, so I can totally relate to the deadline havoc. ^^

Lucifer's Rise by hydrate 2019-10-10T20:40:31Z

So, I was brought in by the blog post I saw a while ago on the main page. Back then I couldn't really check the game out, so I really wish that there was some kind of "Play later" feature, much like "Watch later" on YouTube. But enough of these technicalities. For the record, I played the 1.0.0 version, as it's the one I believe to be

When it comes to the game itself, the blog post promised a cutesy graphics and it delivered. The platforming mechanics felt sloppy, with the character sometimes hanging on the edge of platform, seemingly floating in the air; I don't know if it was some ledge-grabbing mechanic, or maybe physics of non-rectangular platforming*. Also, the movement above water felt too fast; that's why I preferred to stay around the water area in general.

I don't think the economy aspect meshes well with platforming gameplay. In the end, it boils down to moving between shops, repeatedly overcoming same platforming challenges and looking to buy things low and sell high. I think I'd have preferred if the game either focused entirely on platforming coin-collecting or the business one.

The general audiovisual presentation works from the design perspective, though when it comes to the gameplay I still resent that ninja rabbit hopping around that bright cloud background. I mean, I know rabbits adapt their coats to camouflage themselves, but still!

When it comes to the story, it has an alright premise, but I'm not the fan of the ending. It seems like this kind of "subverting expectations" when it doesn't so much surprise (I mean, these shaggy dog stories aren't that uncommon) but rather disappoint. Like, it replaces generic but satisfying conclusion of reaching the goal with aan un-resolution where God doesn't care and that's it. Now if you followed through and made Lucifer turn into a supervillain as a result, that'd have been much more interesting, because rather than silently accepting God's indifference, Lucifer would take action instead. As it is now, the ending feels just sad and pathetic...

Overall, quite a pretty game, but could realy use some polish with mechanics (seems to be somewhat addressed in 1.1, though I didn't check it out) and more satisfying conclusion.

*Rectangular platforming being the kind of mechanic where each platform, enemy and the player have plain rectangular collision mask.

Chasing Light by Lychee 2019-10-28T06:22:04Z

That's a good self-balancing concept here. The attack uses up visibility, yet it being area-of-effect rather than single hit means that to attack most efficiently, you need to gather the enemies round. I also liked the audiovisuals, especially the coloured pencil aesthetics.

Well done. ^^

Quest for the Good Time Adventure by Thomas Sylvester 2019-10-23T20:07:24Z

I got to the point where I got a small shop and a bunch of employers, and I just kept cleaning up the danger area with all monsters that stood on my way, including the scythe-wielding boss. The cool axe is OP, but it feels so right.

In general, I've found the game to be veeeryyy sloow and clunky to play. Ideally, all commonly used controls should be within the reach of two hands - here we have WSAD/Space for one hand, inventory I for second hand and, for some reason, left mouse attack button for third hand. The game doesn't even use mouse pointer information as far as I can tell, so I don't see a reason why the attack button couldn't be on a keyboard as well. >.<

Another troubling thing is that the game has lots of items with overlapping purpose, but provides no stats for them except for the Common/Uncommon/Rare/Legendary descriptors. With these, I can't really tell if Common Iron Boots are better than Common Leather Boots, or whether I should pick a Legendary Sword or a Legendary Axe. The game in general has issues with providing feedback to the player, making things inconvenient. For example, the only place I can check my actual cash is the item-selling shop; there is no such information in inventory, and the board where I can purchase shops and hire people always shows 0 money for some reason.

As for the gameplay itself, the premise could be interesting but I've found the game to be pretty monotonous, especially after I defeated the scythe monster. There is a good feeling of progression when I start with nothing and gather the equipment, I give you that. However, once I gather the equipment the monsters-slaying portion becomes tedious. The business empire aspect felt pretty unsatisfying, too; I dunno, maybe having the employers physically appear around the stall/shops could add some feeling of progression to it?

I won't really comment on audiovisuals because they're from RPG Maker assets.

Overall, there is a lot of room for improvement in this game, especially when it comes to better feedback to the player, avoiding the monster-slaying-junk-selling monotony and having some more visible progression of business empire. I guess the project's scope ended up too big for the Jam...? ^^'

50 Second Apocalypse by superpokeunicorn 2022-04-06T18:50:04Z

I really like how the gameplay and scoring mechanics are balanced here. It's good to kill as many zombies as possible in a loop, but you shouldn't start shooting too early or you won't restore your bullets (also, with limited bullets you want to aim for groups of zombies rather than single ones). Also, with each loop you lose at least a bit of time overall, so the game won't drag on forever (which further makes efficient scoring in a single loop imortant). The only thing I'm missing is some bonus points for health remaining after 50 seconds pass (e.g. 10 per health remaining), to slightly push the score boundaries even further for those who reach the apocalypse without getting hit.

Also, it would be nice to get online leaderboards, but I understand why it wouldn't make it in the Compo scope. ^^' It would be nice to have some more spectacular apocalypse (at least screen gradually turning white or something with some noise and maybe screenshake), so I can tell I died from the apocalypse and not from a zombie. On the other hand, the time rewind mechanic was very satisfying to watch. ^^

The game kept me engaged until I reached the apocalypse while still trying to get as much score as possible - I eventually ended up getting the score of 125. Well done! ^^

Kiwis Can't Fly by DDRKirbyISQ 2022-04-19T18:44:53Z

"I won't cry, you will cry"

Ahh, this was such a beautiful experience, loved how all these sounds came together, even if in some areas towards the end I was pretty much slamming the bounce-able objects towards the kiwi (still managed to make a hit with each of them). The story is super-adorable, too, and it actually executes the theme in a way that keeps the most common interpretation (the player delays the inevitable failure) yet ending it in a hopeful rather than defeated note.

Great job, as usual! It's always a delight to see your entries during Ludum Dare. ^^

Their Next World by bellatrion 2022-04-19T15:30:50Z

That was a nice little entry; didn't see much of environmental messages here, despite them working well in this context (I know it's them humans who keep lighting the fuse! Give them some more thousand years, and the next planet will be on fuse again!).

The tutorial explained things well, but it spent really long time on certain messages; I'd rather have the ability to advance to the next message instead. Also, I feel WSAD + mouse controls would work better than mouse alone, since right now using the powers - especially the fuse-blowing ones - interrupts the movement. The game still worked pretty nicely, and I sorta wished it had more levels - with proper level designs, there's lot of opportunity to strategise (possibly with some extra gameplay mechanics). The audiovisuals were cute, especially these noises.

It's just regrettable that there doesn't seem to be a selfie mechanic at the end of tutorial. I guess I'll need to settle on approaching the human for posing...

Paper Plane by Simone 2022-04-17T22:55:54Z

That was a fun little upgrade-launcher game. Graphics weren't exceptional, but they serve their purpose. It's pretty satisfying to go from the aurosphere to carbosphere, and finally launch into the gratisphere (then again, reaching it was inevitable, not matter how delayed). Even when I reached what seemed like the final layer, I still play around some more to upgrade even further and hone my diamond surfer skills - so well done on getting me to play past the "ending".

Death and Taxes: A Puzzle Game by Rooksword 2022-04-19T17:02:21Z

Thanks for the feedback, everyone. Clearly, one recurring theme is that it takes a while to understand the concept, but once it "clicks" it's enjoyable.

I wish we would have added some tutorial (or ingame story, for that matter), but alas we ran out of time. Myself, I wanted to make sure all the animations work properly; I hope they were enjoyable at least. I also made different graphics for different areas (and there's different flavour of the music as well), though it seems most people end their playthrough before even reaching the second one. ^^'

As for the ZIP name not matching the game title name: that's because I and Rooksword came up with the titles independently, and "Clash of Certainties" was a last minute name I came up with before realising there's already the game page with "Death and Taxes" title. The ZIP isn't called "DelayTheSFXWithRooms", at least...

@christian-zommerfelds As the game description explains, the movement commands are caused by the Reaper's mind control, and you need to shake it off by first resisting the command and then following it to get it out of the system. Granted, the plot explanation came after the game mechanics themselves - the initial idea was some kind of random dungeon crawler, but we settled on a puzzle game because properly balancing a crawler with these kinds of commands would be an insurmountable task, especially in 3 days span. Originally, it was meant to be properly explained in the game dialogue (also, how Reaper is delaying the inevitable by trying to stave off the tax official), but time constraints happened. ^^'

(also, here's a little secret: you can use C to move to the previous level, and V to move to the next level, so you can check out different areas and gameplay mechanics; it doesn't register the level as completed in the level selection screen, mind)

Mia's Bear Service by Lumous 2022-04-17T16:16:11Z

That's a nice sweet game, with some good degree of polish. I particularly liked how the bear's clothes and accessories appeared on the finished bear, and how bears had varying colour and head-tilt, giving an additional sense of uniqueness/variety.

I managed to reach the Fluff Core Meltdown without missing a bear or making a mistake, so I'll count that as a success. Took me a bit to discover the dash functionality (mostly when things got hectic and then I started wondering if I can speed up), but I found the control for it without a problem so it's actually good. One visual bug I noticed is that when a bear asks for a watch, the watch image is much bigger than other images on the price tag.

Nice and fluffy game overall, and I like how at the end there are the bears from before everywhere. ^^

Procrabstination by sebastianscaini 2022-04-21T13:55:51Z

The largest crab has legs spanning 4 meters or 13 feet? That's a lot of feet for one leg!

Crab Apple doesn't seem like that good of a pun, but when I thought of the alternative (Crapple), that wouldn't be too favourable either. Crabble, maybe? Or even Crabple, to have "b" stand next to its vertically flipped counterpart "p". ...Crab pie?

Crab Wars: Got 8 points on my first go, possibly because I tried to avoid all these bullets which as later turned out might have actually been stars or something. On my second run I got 245 points. Would be nice if I could hold down mouse to shoot automatically, instead of click-spamming. There's already another click-spammy game here.

Crab Clicker: Managed to get up to the 800-costing claw and 1000-costing auto-crab before proceeding to other types of procrastination. The crabs appearing in the background were nice.

Crab Fantasy: Rather than being another click-spammer, I wish it instead had two commands - Attack and Heal - and it would be properly turn-based. I mean, isn't it what lots of jRPGs boils down to - cast recovery abilities when things get tricky, and spam attacks otherwise? One more thing: wish the attack sound effect wasn't so loud, because it prevented me from enjoying the music.

I can relate to delaying laundry more than I'd like to admit. Though in my defense, I'm not procrastinating from doing my laundry *right now*.

Overall, this was nice little crabby silliness, I admire the dedication for crabs and the amount of content. It was enjoyable, but I'm also sort of glad there wasn't too much of it, so it didn't overstay its welcome. Well done, I expect some high Humor rank for this one. ^^

Rat King by noisemaker 2022-04-16T11:55:57Z

Neat concept, I like how the rat king legend was incorporated and the sprite of the rat king is especially cool. For a moment there I thought that with the game having 8 levels and rat king also being composed of 8 rats, each level would be actually serving a different rat, though the 8th level kinda breaks out from that trend.

The gameplay mechanics generally worked well enough, and there were interesting puzzles built with them (though often I had to make multiple attempts at a given level because I had to figure out some remotely optimal route). My complaint would be mostly about sometimes unresponsive jump. Also, the fact that I collect the bag from any place and position was a hindrance sometimes, e.g. when a bag landed near the platform edge, I automatically grabbed the bag, and then I landed on fragile tiles and fell down. I guess it could help if the player had to stand on ground to collect the bag (might be tricky if the bag is lifted by fountain, though) and/or they'd need to hold down a special button if they wanted to collect the bag from non-standing position.

At any rate, a well-made game overall, and with some pretty cool concept and mechanics too. ^^

Avoid Him Like the Plague by CKTO 2022-04-21T15:02:10Z

It was pretty fun. I like how the game neither goes on forever nor ends with some forced end that doesn't differ from usual loss, but actually has a proper ending with dialogue and such. Also, it does seem like while the plague was there before the plague doctor died, it might be actually him that made the losses even greater, which is also a nice twist.

The gameplay mechanics were nice, I like how the attack has the dual purpose of taking down the human and performing a dash - it was especially useful in the later stages of the game. Level design is also nice; I'd just prefer if the side scrolling advanced faster if I was near the edge, so that I wouldn't need to wait for the next part on another of my playthroughs.

Audiovisuals were fine, I just sort of wish the gameplay had these hi-res graphics as seen on the menu, rather than the pixel art. Not that there's something wrong with pixel art, I just would like to see other styles more often for a change. ^^'

Project Timeswall by Lisichka 2022-04-19T15:54:06Z

There's some mechanics stub there, but it still needs some more polish and variety. In particular, there's the troublesome bug with portal spawning right on the altar, or the issue with sometimes being unable to find the altar in the first place (and it's quite crucial in a game like that). Also, it needs some kind of score/progress tracking - don't know if the metric would be times teleported, or zombies petted, or total number of memorabilia collected, or maybe the score would be a combination of all of these. Tracking the score would definitely improve the replayability. ^^

Visuals are nice (though some more variety would be welcome, e.g. different types of areas, enemies etc.). No audio to speak of, as far as I can tell. u_u'

Sun Chaser (Survival Platformer) by Tom Kun 2022-04-17T21:54:47Z

Nice little endless runner, I like the aesthetics, but the controls feel a little too floaty on the one hand and the jumps were somewhat uneven - sometimes when pressed against a tree, it would take me a few attempts to make a jump high enough.

Over time, I figured out how it's possible to do some strategising in that I could jump not just off the ledge, but sometimes a little earlier so that I could react to subsequent trees without losing too much momentum. I just wish that trees themselves weren't followed by pits between platforms that often, because then I either slow down or I fall into the pit. And the sun is really challenging to keep up with.

Speaking of the sun, maybe instead of "ahead of sun/behind sun" messages there would be some bar in the bottom middle, with the center corresponding to the current player position and the sun shown relative to it - it would be easier to see how far ahead/behind is *too* far. And if the loss condition is based not only on the distance to sun, but the time the flower was outisde of the sun, it would be nice to have an indicator of the flower's health.

Anyway, got 50s on my best run. Really pretty game overall. ^^

We Have to Talk by Oleg Bone 2022-04-18T09:53:04Z

Nice little adventure game, it was already off to a great start with white-on-black colour scheme - one which suggest a night - only for the girlfriend to point out it's actually daytime.

From what I can tell, I managed to complete all the mini-quests, which gave me a slightly different ending than the first time round, so I assume it was intended to be the 100% completion ending, where it still turns out the guy was just delaying the inevitable. And... it might not be satisfying ending in the sense of accomplishing the original goal (keeping the girlfriend, but it fits the theme.

Also, I like how it defies the trope that throwing enough gifts at the girl (...and robbing the jewelry shop in the process) will eventually make her love you. The fact that she was more considerate in her last speech (compared to the SMS in the incomplete ending) is also a nice touch. I can totally imagine her being internally like "dude, those gifts are all sweet, but it still doesn't change the facts we're not compatible, dude, please".

Well executed entry, I enjoyed it quite a lot. ^^

Fire Up! by Pranav Sai Arra 2022-04-21T16:25:49Z

I would much prefer if I could move independently from my shooting - right now I pretty much need to fly towards the enemy (even if only briefly) to shoot them. Good old WSAD and mouse allows for much better maneuvering, which in turn gives more room to make the enemies more challenging.

Other than that, the game is pretty nice, I like how there's a game-clearing goal - I managed to rescue 30 ships on Easy, which I consider to be equivalent of completing the game (as opposed to getting shot down, sucked in by the black hole or running out of time). Speaking of different ways to end the game, it would be nice if the game end message differentiated between causes of ending, with rescue ending presumably being the best one. Other than that, maybe being able to detect some nearby distress signal (maybe even jammed by enemy signals) would help too, so that the player doesn't look for allies to rescue completely blindly. ^^

(on a side note, after a while I noticed that enemies stopped coming after me; is it because they started spawning near the black hole, or what?)

Escape Grades by naplz 2022-04-19T16:22:27Z

A game where you avoid being unfairly beaten up for bad grades by giving mom excuses to beat you up even more... I guess? (not that beating up own children can be excusable in the first place, barring extreme cases like self-defense and such)

Anyway, it took me a while to actually complete the game - in part because the punch animation is offset in relation to the actual targeting. Hint for the future players - *you need to aim your cursor at the items, not try to aim your punch animation*. Other than that, the goofy premise is pretty enjoyable (as long as it doesn't hit too close home, I guess).

One particular glitch that caught my attention - if there are multiple dialogue lines scheduled to be typed out, they start interleaving with one another which leads to some really weird words, kliinkde tohfi s.

Debt Train (card construction game) by Christian Zommerfelds 2022-04-18T20:56:32Z

There's a special fun to be had when trying to build larger and larger railway, and I'm a little disappointed in how the theme gets in the way of this fun, instead of harmonising with it. I mean, being able to connect every single house in the game for 100% would be so magnificent!

I felt there was too much card manipulation - drawing cards, accepting cards, placing cards. The more debt cards I got, the more of a chore the game became (another reason why the inevitable debt is a poor fit for this game). Rather than cards, these could be abstracted as random events: +1 funds, -1 funds (i.e. debt), +1 track, +1 station, and then placing tracks and stations would just be a matter of drawing-and-accepting the tracks, or finding the right spot for the station. Having to draw a track, then place the cards on that track is such a drag (and drop). Having to pay the debt manually instead of it cancelling my funds is even more of a drag.

Other than that, the game played pretty nicely and kept me entertained for the while. Once more, I just wish I was able to actually integrate every single household into the railway network. ^^'

The Final Clue by mirianbr 2022-04-18T07:53:53Z

The moral of the story: if you learn fast reading, you can pull off any crime you want. ;) But yeah, I concur with others that the story-driven and real-time natures of the entry are at odds with one another. Having each event take a fixed amount of time (rather than having the clock tick in real time) would definitely help to make the mechanics more balanced, in the sense of letting the player enjoy the story at their own pace. I still tried to read as much as possible - skipping through parts I read already on my earlier playthroughs - but it would be a lot nicer if I didn't have to restart because I took my time to read descriptions along the way.

Technically, since you can succeed in the game, getting caught by the police isn't inevitable, but I can forgive that because the alternative would be yet another of these depressing games where losing is the only option. Aside from that, the story was enjoyable, there have been some nice remarks too (like the fact that countries without the extradition treaties tend to be the kind of countries one doesn't want to live in).

Well done, overall, it just needs the timeout mechanics that don't punish enjoying the story.

Watch Your Step by Rhanzoc 2022-04-19T16:42:53Z

"G O O D E N O U G H" Best ending message ever.

I enjoyed it quite a bit, though it was really tricky to see where should I go next - maybe camera could be placed better, or the player could be given an ability to move it around (e.g. by moving mouse). Another thing - rather than F1 to restart, I'd prefer something like R instead (or just good ol' "press any key"). Having the tiles become gradually darker the further down they are was a helpful touch.

The entry could use some visual polish - though the zoom-out at the end was *really* nice. Also, any audio at all, like e.g. a clock sound when you press the button to temporarily stop the disappearance of tiles (or at least that's what I think it is). The entry was enjoyable still. ^^

Death Is Inevitable by TherealMoebius 2022-04-05T18:37:22Z

My final time was about 493 (might have misremembered the number). After like 7 minutes of walking around and crafting stuff, I ~~finally managed to find~~ was found by the monster. Then I ran around some more, used the speedy potion for a good measure, crafted and used the squeaky mouse (which was apparently a toad) and died in the blast - I am the master of my fate, and it's also up to me to end it so foolishly. Death may be inevitable, but getting killed by monster isn't. ;)

So yeah, I won't be original in saying that it took quite a lot of time to even find the monster at all. ^^' The crafting system was perfectly functional, though I was pretty clueless how should I actually use the items (the healing potion was very straightforward, at least). The maze felt a little monotonous - I don't even know whether or how much I was going around in circles, having some characteristic spots would be nice. I'm not saying the game should take place in some fair (though I guess Five Nights at Freddy's did a nice job using usually cheerful elements and building horror elements from that?).

At any rate, the game had some proper unsettling/tense mood (with graphics and music alike), though I wish it had more visual variety to break the monotony of running through the maze. One last thing - way too often I found myself seeing through the walls when I got close enough (especially around the corners); maybe it's got something to do with camera or such?

A drop of water by dont work 2022-04-18T10:13:00Z

It's a fun concept, but platforming mechanics could use a lot of improvement - in particular, how the movement is very floaty and hard to control precisely, and how the droplet seems to appear above ground (or at least above steam clouds, since that's where I observed the effect).

One thing I do appreciate is how the game naturally teaches its mechanics - e.g. in case of the fire, you are pretty much forced to do "something" with it (that something pretty much *boiling* down to going into it) and that reveals how droplet + fire results in making steam.

The audiovisuals are cutesy, but the visual side is bogged down a bit by some visual glitches - mostly the droplet seemingly floating above clouds, and sometimes the level end animation not being executed properly. The idea for the theme is nice, and it's nice to see someone actually making a meta joke about game jam development being all about fighting against the inevitable deadline. :stuck_out_tongue:

Nice entry overall, though it could really use some mechanical polish.

Life Finds a Way by Mopifish 2022-04-05T20:28:25Z

I know that evil overlords love their red, but I wish they colour-coded their gardening tools! Also, finally a survival-type game where the goal is to keep things *dead* for as long as possible. Didn't know I need one until I tried one.

Aside from that, I liked the audiovisuals, and the goofy minion is my favourite (still needs colour coding, though). I found it tricky to keep juggling between various gardening tools, and would often pick up the wrong tool for the job (especially shovel and hammer, since saplings and cut down trees are pretty similar) - that aside, the experience was enjoyable, though it might need some additional balancing. Overall, I lasted 150 years.

For some reason, the Desktop version has no menu buttons, so I had to stick with the web one.

Search The Depths by KielanT 2025-04-25T06:06:44Z

The game has some foundation of a launcher upgrade game, but misses some key aspects that make this kind of game fun. Two things that stand out to me. First, the launch sequence doesn't affect how well I will perform in the given run (because I will get similar collectibles no matter where I begin the descent). Second, there is little mid-term benefit to diving deeper aside from bragging rights, because I don't get any upgrade money for getting further, and after a while collectibles disappear; that's in contrast with usual launcher games where items get denser or more valuable the further you reach.

Also, it would be nice to get a greater variety of upgrades, though to warrant these tweaking the game elements might need to be done first; at the moment, aside from collectibles magnets and maybe improved horizontal and descent speed I can't think of something that would improve the loop as-is. Though getting these upgrades would be nice too. Also, I'd prefer if there was some shared currency, or maybe varied prices for varied upgrades; currently, fuel is the rarest collectible by far, and getting 5 units of fuel was consistently the blocker here. Though I acknowledge time constraints might have gotten in a way.

I might have eventually reached the bottom? Or at least, around what seemed like 10k kilometers, I got to a brighter background without any text and my "return to ship" button got disabled? Does it mean I win? I did try leaving the submarine on freefall to see what happens when I reach Mariana Trench depth, so I guess that's what happens?

There is nice little base here but the entry could use some design bits from launcher games. ^^'

Sea Devil by Tom3y 2025-04-24T20:43:38Z

That was a cute little entry, and I found out what was that Tenerife incident too. Some people won't stay still and keep climbing up the highest mountains, no matter how hostile the environment is; maybe a similar instinct played part there, too...?

The art was pretty lovely; my main complaint is that the blue text would be pretty hard to read on the sea's background, even more so as the fish reaches shallower and shallower levels. ^^'

Agreed that having more creatures in place of lights would be a good addition - clearly, some of the text came from other sea dwellers rather than just the fish itself - but I understand the time constraints. ^^'

Drill Down, Dog! by Mavvy 2025-04-16T18:43:07Z

The game is broken. You can only purchase health in shop, and you can't get pizza.

Would be nice to give the player a "you win!" condition, especially since getting money for the pizza is the whole point of this journey. Could also make for an interesting decision, whether to keep racking up the gold at the risk of losing the game, or to get some expensive health or win with the score you have.

Another potential way to make the game more interesting would be getting a clear bonus for collecting all money and getting rid of all enemies (increasing with depth, e.g. 10 gold for each 100 meters), though admittedly this one can get tricky when a small movement can get you to the other side when you aim for the laser enemy.

Other than that, the game played, looked and sounded pretty nicely. ^^

Abyss Prison by EpicGameFan 2025-04-23T19:04:06Z

It's nice to have a game that isn't about digging or diving for a change. ^^

It was an enjoyable point-and-click platformer (even if pointing was keyboard-controlled). I solved all the puzzles, though the fridge one I sort of brute-forced. The runic arithmetic felt odd at first, with different symbols involved in the operation than the ones shown on the blackboard. But once I realised the symbols on the safe are arranged in a plainest way possible, it all clicked together!

I really liked the mood here - intriguing, not too relaxed but not oppressive either. The audiovisuals were pretty nice too, I just wish the itch.io page didn't have the promotional GIF constantly moving in my peripheral vision.

Well done, that was a fun adventure! ^^

Flatline by Empyreans 2025-04-18T10:44:25Z

I played the Jam version; some of the feedback might be outdated by now.

The game is quite difficult, which on its own isn't necessarily a bad thing; however, the restarts are too slow for a game designed around many short attempts. The game also has the puzzle aspect to it where you need to figure out the order of operations. Often I found myself knowing how to complete the level, but then struggling to actually execute it. The small goal and narrow passages didn't help, neither did moving pieces later on. Also, I wish paddles consistently just bounced the orb like a mirror, without any Pong-style shift near the edges - if I'm not mistaken, beyond level 1 hitting the paddle for a plain reflection is generally preferable. If level design demands non-plain paddles behaviour, it might be better to incorporate by splitting the paddle into a few segments, each with own explicit rotation.

The level voiceovers caused me a great deal of frustration - I don't like hearing a distressed Debbie Downer every several tries, when I already feel bad enough about missing some or other timing. As early as level 2 I kinda wanted the voice to shut up, and that's before dialogue went from "help" to "actually there's no way you can help me". I understand one can be overcome with plenty negative thoughts in an emergency situation, but would it hurt to be a little more hopeful for the last few levels at least? He didn't even say thanks in the end, the last words in the game were "you are already dead" (as in, the person helping...?), how rude!

Overall, I think this game would have benefitted from a more pronounced structure, with rise in tension throughout the first part as professional help has yet to arrive. The climax would be applying an invasive but effective method and then last few levels would have decreased tension as things finally stabilise. I think such a structure is hinted at through level design, but not through audiovisuals. Things getting darker towards the lowest point and music getting more tense and ominous, only for these to turn around towards the end would sell the dynamic better, I think. Admittedly, dynamic music might be hard to pull off in a jam timeframe. That said, I'd prefer it to have more sense of urgency at least; at the moment the soundtrack feels a bit too chill for the situation. I'd happily trade all the voiceline instances past the first one for more urgent music. ;)

More on the implied structure - the patient's dialogue gets consistently more downer while the helper's dialogue gets more hopeful, which also creates a disconnect; again, panic and harshness is understandable in a critical situation, but it would be nice to get at least some relief/hope in the last "stabilisation" levels. When it comes to the helper, it would be nice if her voice gave away hints of panic too, especially when help has yet to arrive while things are getting worse. Currently, she sounds really calm and collected, almost as if she's not human given the circumstances. It might be just me, but I feel a dialogue between a panicked patient and trying-to-be-calm-but-also-shaken helper could make for some pretty fun dynamic, making both more sympathetic. ^^

Despite my extensive criticism I think the game played and looked mostly fine, though I admit towards the last few levels I wished it would just end. ^^' I think having more urgent-sounding music and a dialogue more nuanced than one-sided pessimism and one-sided hope would benefit the game a lot. Adding shorter respawn times and wider error margin here and there would make this near-perfect. ^^

Towards the Light by MikeMikeMakes 2025-04-24T20:30:02Z

Took me a bit to figure out, but eventually reached the end. A non-negligible portion of time was spent looking for another secret passage that opened up somewhere, when all I needed was to drop down from the final platform for once. ^^' The game would have benefitted a lot from mouse camera controls, keyboard-controlled camera felt quite clunky.

I really liked the artstyle here. I appreciate that the artist didn't spare polygons on those trees! I would have liked to see more of this landscape, there's this whimsical, dream-like charm to it. ^^