fae.exe

The Machine's Blessing by Solrinn 2020-04-22T13:33:56Z

Hello all! Thank you so very much for your feedbacks and comments, it makes my heart go afflutter. Even though I keep seeing that the design is confusing (not surprising really, I'm a bit used to that), just reading that some people still found fun in the gameplay is pure bliss to me!

And some enjoyed the experience anyway! To see the fruits of my teammates' toil so justly lauded makes me so happy for them!

The team is working hard on a fix for the UI, which is admittedly unclear, on a little tutorial, various bugfixes and tiny features that they couldn't get to work before, and to try to make the little tooltips readable. The short background that was written during the jam and some moody tooltips for the crops might find their way into the game too, but only if the devs can find some time for that, which is not a given (they're already very hard at work).

Indeed, the gameplay might be a little much for a game of this scope, and especially with the troubles we encountered trying to display the relevant information clearly. It would need some form of progression to make it easier to get accustommed to the various systems, easing into the concepts, a bunch of streamlining and balancing... I think complex systems are fine, learning curves are fine, but this all need to be taken into account to really make the player's experience as enjoyable as possible. Still, it's proof of concept for a tiny bit of something larger, that I thought could be fun and interesting.

(I'm a bit sad for now that we could not get the crop laboratory-atelier into the game, but one day, I may get to repurpose some of those ideas to torture some other team. I can only hope they'll be as wonderful as this one.)

As you noted, the balance on the ressource systems and crops yields are kind of wonky, and needed a lot more tuning to really get right - especially after so many gameplay features had to be parred down and put into the garbage can, which threw a bunch of design elements out of the metaphorical window and the balance with it. But time was like oil between our fingers. I have not a great grasp of scope and achievability yet. I do very much lack experience and efficiency in, let's say, practical game design - but isn't it very much the point of doing these jams, I believe?

A lack of foresight on my part wanted to take the game in one direction, but the constraints of practicality in the design took it in an other, and I'm pretty happy that we could collectively make that shift of focus work - some tokyo drift-like turn it was - and still have some elements of the intended experience delivered through other means than the ones intended.

Again, I thank you kindly for your returns and feedbacks. They are duly noted. I wish you all a wonderful day, and success in what you do! Please be kind to others and yourselves.

The Florist by Crystal Clod 2020-04-22T23:54:44Z

I very much enjoyed the game - in fact I played through twice.

The mood is pretty strong; the music and graphics do a lot to establish the game's aesthetic and immerse us in the otherness of this desert world. The music never got the time to be boring or repetitive, and set the mood perfectly; the sound design was very nice. Some illustrations are a bit wonky to me, but overall, beautiful pieces that underline nicely the text and help immensely with the experience of travelling in this world. Maybe the UI could have used a little more juice, but it's entirely functionnal as is. The character design and environment reminded me a bit of Homestuck and the wayward vagabond's story, with some Grim Fandango vibes and Journey thrown in.

I loved the details in the writing, some little moments of brilliance. Rock soup and forearm spoons, the two tailed fox leaving glitter and questions behind, meeting the deads, the ransom of bites... There is some awkwardness in the text here and there; sometimes it feels a bit convoluted, sometimes it's a little off or disjointed, but I feel like the little scenes still manage to paint a pretty story that's rather cohesive, even though the content is atomic and with not much in terms of variations in the text. Also, obviously it's a jam game, and writing is hard as fuck, so very solid work here. Overall I found the writing competent, and despite the stumbles, the tone and style are good, and the "inland empire" of the writer shines through. I felt it was soulful and original, so keep up the good work.

I thoroughly enjoyed the journey; it's short and it's sweet, and did not overstay its welcome. I found it rather poetic, and paradoxically refreshing. A charming little game. Not blown away, but it washed over me like sunshine in the afternoon, and I felt warm. Not very innovative, I feel, but not every game has to be. Not very funny either, but again, not every game must be.

The whole work really oozes theme, although the story might be a bit too easy and forgiving - I never felt in danger of dying.

Thank you for this experience. I had a great time. I wish you all the best, and hope to see more of your work in the future. You did very good.

Monkey Quest by paulloz 2021-04-29T19:34:04Z

Awesome work! I really enjoyed all the polish that went into it. Very simple, but you demonstrated an absolute mastery of the scope of your game; it's so tight! Nice difficulty curves, nice, simple mechanics that you exploited really well, cute animations, good use of signs and feedbacks, good use of color! I really like the three circles of light around the character, and how they shifted to emphasize the direction Bubbles was facing. The end credit, and the whole experience, were super cute! You really had a good, coherent, well directed aesthetic. Great gamefeel, great use of everything. I loved that you can't fight the lizardmen, and I loved the way you teach that Bubbles has to trap them by showing one trapped in the middle of shovel holes! Outstanding job overall, thank you for the game, do keep it up!

Holey Hell by managore 2021-04-27T13:14:55Z

Beautiful. The wobble felt really nice to exploit in order to avoid obstacles. It really grew on me, it was super enjoyable to get better and better at the game. The literal "gameplay loop" is great; superb revisitation of classic mechanics with several very smart twists. Tight scope, striking artstyle with a very nice aesthetic, very polished little game that kept my attention for way longer than I thought it had. Best I could do was 8. Brilliant piece of design to link the hazard pools to the color of the hole. An absolute joy to play, many stars were given. Keep up the incredible work.

Mine Cards by Rose 2021-04-29T19:55:38Z

Very cute game! Really like the mechanical genre mash-up idea. Very solid, esp for a compo!!

I think there are pretty clear dominant strategies, but it felt pretty good to just pack a few upgrades, and snowball into a very tight deck filled with stairs to get a nice final sprint in just a few seconds to the hundredth floor.

Good execution, very nice use of the playing card pattern to give it a good visibility, of the very cute iconography, with nice distinct forms and colors; good use of the collective imaginary landscape by appealing to all the tropes established by mining games (esp minecraft). A nice way to explore the experience of "mining deeper and deeper" in card form, really appreciate the innovation.

Cute upgrade mechanic, and it's also cute that the cost of removal decreases with deck size. Very clear layout of the cards and costs that has the game basically teaching itself, I loved that! It made the experience super effortless and smooth, great work! Thank you for the game, keep designing!

Deepest Sword by Strega 2021-04-29T18:09:17Z

Outstanding work. The use of the theme is smart, the art is awfully cute, the level design is very clever. This is a super interesting spin on Getting Over It, with a lot of physicality in the sword. I loathed, and loved, and loved to loathe, the weight and the sword and how the character moved every time I'd try to swing it. It very much had this "ah-ha!" moments that a puzzle game should have, even though I wouldn't necessarily say that it's fully a puzzle game. (It's kind of open ended, so it veers on the side of problem solving with a specific tool.) I found it pretty fun and cute that the sexual undertones took the edge off of the idea of "killing the dragon", and that the two main characters were female-coded (and that the protagonist was rescuing her cat); I really appreciate that. Please do keep making games, thank you! I spent more than 40 minutes on this, I wanted to test a lot of games today, but I don't regret spending this long on this one. <3

Magic Worm by namnam 2021-04-27T14:37:07Z

Super solid game, very nice aesthetic! I really enjoyed that riff on rock paper scissors, really made me think of other deduction games like the boardgame Alchemists where you slowly gather an understanding of some hidden principles by trial and error. Wrapping that in a turn by turn combat with an intent system really made it sing. Had a lot of fun with that game!! One of the most fun games of this jam I've tried this far. Excellent!!

Chthonic Brilliance by cassowary 2021-05-04T15:41:39Z

Oh boy! What a cute, smart puzzle game! I loved this! Really liked how you introduced your mechanics and exploited them. Loved the level with the destructible ground and the two boxes! It felt really good to plan out the solutions and execute upon them smoothly. I don't know why, but there's something in those point and click controls that were an absolute JOY to play!! That music is really nice. Beautiful polish! These animations and wonderfully crunchy, retro SFX really pulled it all together! Wonderful <3 <3

Selkö by Doot 2021-04-27T12:26:29Z

Awesome work, great experience! Short and sweet, I really very much enjoyed it, super moody, super pretty, super polished. Very nice interactions between the flashlight and the environment. The atmosphere is *tasty*. Keep up the good work!!

Down Whale by notpjriavs 2021-04-27T12:57:57Z

The artwork is breathtaking. I really enjoyed the idea of the drill just continuously digging, and having to run off to the sides, then just freefall back into the drill! Great work overall, keep it up!

Find The Page! by Rouge_dragon 2021-04-29T20:48:59Z

Good job, that's a really neat little game. The idea is not new, but it's cute to have built an interface and a more formal way to play, good effort! I feel like the connection to the theme is a little tenuous, but it doesn't really matter. The game has always been fun, and it's fun here too! Tight little scope, well executed, makes me think of games like skribbl.io that could be very nice online social activities for friendgroups over voice chat and stuff, with a little overhaul. Keep up the good work!

Comatoast by crow_seeds 2021-05-01T01:45:57Z

I absolutely loved the voice acting and the writing. Great job with the room design, and the extremely distinctive aesthetic, this game oozes personality!

The horse was, of course, wonderful.

I'll never get out of my head the "maybe I should stop complaining about my stroke, there are starving children in the world", and the "stroke of luck". This is both a blessing and a curse.

Thank you for this scintillating, slightly burnt gift you bestowed unto this sinful world.