fae.pdf

RAVTZN by F1Krazy 2026-05-04T21:36:39Z ♥ 1

A little frustrated that I couldn't read the messages because they stayed for so little time on the screen after deciphering them. Even worse, the save system was actually a detriment, because I couldn't see them again after refreshing the page...

The deciphering gameplay was very bruteforcey for rot/affine, I kind of wish the game would teach some pattern recognition that could help with that! I DID find something to help me with the final vigenere, because

!> I noticed the single "O" was probably an I so it helped me find the first letter.

The puzzles were kind of cute and the vibe of deciphering messages was cool, I kind of wish the atmosphere was a little darker, maybe a bit less cheerful/bubbly/jokey, maybe a bit denser to feel more in-line with the theming of the game.

Nevertheless, great effort, great work, great jam! Wishing you all the best!

Marshaller of Inalpla by Ranarh 2026-04-24T03:33:28Z ♥ 1

Capture d'écran 2026-04-24 052843.png

I enjoyed your game very much! It's very simple, but the controls felt strangely natural and I really got into the flow. The difficulty felt nice, never felt too challenging but still enough to cut your teeth on a little bit. Progressed nicely, but maybe the timer could have started decreasing after a point. At the end I was satisfied because I was able to do the entire thing rather quickly with minimal movement very consistently, which felt really good. I love games that have you master something, it always feels quite immersive.

Simple game, but sweet concept and sweet execution. Cute art! Very well done!! I had no trouble with Slither In, it seemed to work fine for me. No issue with any pose, really.

Pyre Lookout by outstar 2026-04-23T23:02:28Z ♥ 2

Holy shit the writing??????????? Can we talk about this???????????????????????????????????? This was insane. The Disco Elysium vibes are immaculate. I had so much fun reading this whole thing out loud and doing voices, I wish it had voice-over. (I wish I could give it voice-over lmao.) Immaculate entry. Gorgeous. The atmosphere, the mood, the vibes, it's so strangely calm and so strangely tense at the same time. Absolutely Kafkaesque work. Love it love it love it. Great job. Gold star sticker, not "you tried" but "you did it"

The Archives of Trevosa by celia14 2026-04-22T08:21:43Z ♥ 3

Absolutely OUTSTANDING work holy SMOKES I love you. This game is so good. So so so so so so good. You did this in just the time of the jam? You're cracked. Absolutely cracked. It's so fun and immersive and pretty and sleek and well-crafted. So smart to use the "Her Story" mechanics for a linguistics puzzle. The framework of puzzle-solving of reconstituting the family tree is just very clean and SMART. So clever. You're awesome. You rule. One of my favorite submission for this jam. Not super thematic but WONDERFUL. Thank you for making this <3 <3 <3 <3 <3

EDIT after finishing the game: I kind of saw the twist coming but I still LOVED the final reveal. It felt so so good to be immersed in that world. I feel like an orphan, like when you finish a long series of books, what do I do with this extensive knowledge of the bloodlines and intrigues of the varelen of Trevosa now 😭 <3 <3

I loves how clearly the titles slowly came into focus for each character as I read everything. The hints are well-crafted, and the documents feel very organic and cool to read. Some of the documents felt like BIG reveal and I loved how messy the relationships between some characters are. It was really thrilling to put everything together and I never felt like I had to brute-force anything, I was really putting together puzzle pieces slowly and holding several possibilities for titles in my mind until a document came along and cleared the ambiguity.

This is so impressive for a jam game. I think this is my first 5.0 of the jam.

Hive and Honey Horticulture by Sarah 2026-04-21T22:21:34Z ♥ 2

Capture d'écran 2026-04-22 001152.png

Adorable art-style, really cute management/incremental game. Overall, I really REALLY liked it! Some feedbacks/thoughts:

- The game felt a little frictionless in terms of spending (you start very soon making SO MUCH MONEY that a lot of the upgrades/mechanics kind of stop making sense, like the upgrade reducing the cost of plants and pots) and decision-making (bigger pot -> always better, most expensive/advanced plant -> always better, it seems), so you're kind of always just selling and mass-replanting the newest plant for each type of pot. - It's very hard to make good incremental games actually!! You did great, it's a very fun "numbers go up" game, very satisfying! - You've managed to fit SO MUCH inside the game in just two days! It's really pretty and really polished! (Although my PC was STRUGGLING when I stopped playing, especially when I would release a bee swarm for like a minute with like 50 bees in it) - The art style is lovely and the mechanics are smartly designed. The minigames kind of "get in the way" of the management flow a little, but they're also pretty welcome distractions, so... I'm a little torn but I think I like them overall! The path-following minigame did feel a little frustrating because the game kind of highlights whole sections of it, and they you can't earn "precision %" off of that section no matter if you follow it or not, and that makes some path kind of "unwinnable" because of their layout. - The tutorial messages felt very intrusive and I had no way to turn them off :'< I don't like tutorials, so I wish I had a way to disable her, even though her character design is GORGEOUS.

Great work, EXTREMELY impressive! I hope you had fun, because I did playing your game. Best of luck for your future jams!

Adventures in Xenolinguistics! by kristinamay 2026-04-21T19:18:33Z ♥ 2

I LOVE IT I LOVE IT <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 YOU DID SO WELL!!! I love the writing system, I love the idea for the system and how you based it on their body plan, I REALLY LIKE IT!!!! I got pretty far in deciphering the full dictionary even without the additional hints but I'm craving moreeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!!!!!!! Are the half rectangles all adjectives? And the half circles like prepositions/conjunctions/grammar words? (I'm basing that on what I believe is the word for "to", from the lasilian life timeline illustration)

GREAT JOB YOU DID GREAT THANK YOU <3 <3 I hope you had fun jamming!!!! It's very hard to jam alone!!

You definitely went hard mode to try and teach the language entirely through pictures like that, but I think you did a great job with just what is in there. Would love to chew on more.

We Come In Peace by Transkuja 2026-04-21T17:49:35Z ♥ 0

edit: sorry I had connection issues & can't delete my duplicate message :'<

S.I.G.N.A.L. by BigDippers 2026-04-21T12:53:40Z ♥ 4

Capture d'écran 2026-04-21 145038.png

Cuuuute!!! Really nice execution, very simple concept but well-done! The little SFX and elevator music are doing fine. The visuals are pretty good! Very clean, nice to look at, the little data cards are very nicely designed and are really functional! Difficulty ramps up in a very enjoyable fashion. It feels like one of these cooking/multi-tasking game, and you very quickly get into the flow of it.

Great work!! Excellent jam game!

Signal Colors by robin_schmitz 2026-04-21T12:12:09Z ♥ 4

Mines.png

Very cute game!

Felt pretty easy, never really felt pressured, but it was VERY enjoyable!!! Super clean, I loved it.

Felt slightly frustrating during the mid game because I had sent every signal except the chain of 2-colors signal, where I had like 2 or 3 signals left to send in that category, and the game very much turned into "green mines waiting room simulator". (I think I had a streak of like 10-15 mine drafts without a single green mine where it was all I needed) (Still optimized the output of my other mines). The decision space of which dots to cover in order to renew them, and which dots to preserve depending on the resources I needed to accumulate was SUPER NEAT. Also the little turn vs. size axis for the mine felt really cute to navigate, depending on how tight the board space was and how efficient each mine could be or not.

I loved that I got a little bit surprised by the end signal requirement and had to kind of calculate how to prioritize and count really closely the results of the mines I was placing, but since I got there I think at around 80 mines placed and with yellow and red already completely solved (at around 60-some), it was still smooth sailing until the end. Randomness could have screwed me over though i think, I was lucky to find enough green and pink mines.

Would love to play a fuller version with several reactable input randomness layers to make it more roguelike/boardgamey and make the playthrough different each time, and maybe something where you can draft upgrades and stuff. Overall, lovely entry, and wonderful work!!! Very cool!! The graphics are also super clean. Theme might be the weakest part but WHO CARES!!!!

Awesome!!

Capture d'écran 2026-04-22 005624.png

Second try! I wonder how few mines are required to win...

Wavelatro by ForsakenAginor 2026-04-21T11:13:47Z ♥ 2

That's an alright clone of balatro. The balance is completely out of whack, but that's to be expected for a jam. (Extremely easy to win, with a lot of choices that are just plainly better than competing options, so there's no real decision making.) Really like the visual presentation of the game, that's pretty slick!! However, I do think the joker activation beeps were quite jarring and kind of went against the atmosphere of the game. Overall though, cleanly executed for a jam game, good job!

Into the Depths by CataclysmicKnight 2025-04-10T16:21:22Z ♥ 1

Really really cool entry!! I love it!! What a piece of work, crafting a full-on little singleplayer campaign boardgame with a very nicely written narrative to go with it! So much work went into this!!! The rules are really good and clear, and full of very tasty narrative bits. I have to admit however that I did not play it to completion. First, because I'm exhausted and insomnia has been destroying me these past few days, but also, because after the first twelve games (I completed week 1 and week 2), the gameplay started to feel very repetitive for the amount of agency and decision making it provides, with evolution to the gameplay taking a little too long to come. I think the game could be very well served by: 1. Maybe providing a bit more moment-to-moment & long-term meaningful decision-making. I like how streamlined it is with the push your luck gameplay; and I really liked the added element of having to stop right after drawing a red to gain the bonus, and the way that intermingled with the reveal you gain from hearts!! But I think it could have benefited from a bit more crunch and player agency, both short term and long term. - Short term, stuff like choosing what to do with the red cards you draw (maybe choose whether you use it as a valuable, or to stifle black cards, or to spend it to reveal cards from top?) - Medium term, maybe make spending the gained relics/food an active decision (like some sort of consumables) instead of automatically spending them the next day - Long term, stuff like picking between a choice of perks? Stuff exactly like the relics/food but that you could somehow make permanent to create a sense of progression as you'd ramp up the difficulty. 2. Reducing setup time in-between games, maybe? I did play the rules as written, but I think I'd have burnt out on the gameplay slower without the setup it takes. Since it's random and the spatial element doesn't matter that much, you could have the same push your luck/blackjack-like experience by just drawing from the top of the deck (although it would be less immersive, I understand that, but it would have also made it feel like you're digging through the deck, which fits nicely with the theme!) without setting up the grid 3. Having the game be more condensed. Something like, you play one round, or two round (and a round would be = a week instead of = a day) per rules change, and how much money you've gained is basically just victory points? Get all Reiner Knizia up in here. (Sorry I love victory points). That way, you blast through the first chapter in two games instead of 5-6, then you're in chapter 2 and you've got a new mechanic with the card reveal, blam one game then you get the relics mechanic, blam one or two games then you're in chapter 3 and so on, keep the pace brisk when the game is v. simple to get to the tastier stuff ASAP, right? Also it's a shame if players get discouraged before seeing more of the super cool (and honestly well-written) story!

Anyways that's just how I'd go about it/my feelings. Also clearly not necessarily the kind of thing that it's easy to think of 1. without feedback and 2. over just the span of the jam, you did SUCH TREMENDOUS WORK, once again I'm blown away by how much you managed to do in just 72hrs and how high quality it all is. Incredible job, thanks for the game!!

Gobbo Steals a Drillship by Providence 2025-04-10T13:48:02Z ♥ 2

Capture d'écran 2025-04-10 154644.png

I enjoyed the moment when everything clicked in my mind about being able to activate the furnaces and feed them with coal. Cute game, good effort for your first ludum dare!

I've found the character controller a little clunky - I went half insane trying to throw coal into the top engine.

To me, the game also lacked feedback & juice, especially for this kind of experience (which lives and dies by its character controller). For instance, a little dotted line giving a preview of the path of the ball before throwing it, which would also help communicate that holding the button charges the throw; some very simple particle effects like a little dust on the ground when the character jumps or land; some very simple SFXs, a tiny bit of screenshake... It would all have improved the game feel of the character by a lot, I think. But you are probably already aware of this, and I know it's hard to do in that short timespan!

The delineation between the rooms was also very unclear to me, once they were revealed, because of the floor and ceilings having no specific delineation. This makes (to my eye) the space as a whole feel pretty confusing and "melded together."

The effect of revealing the room progressively even while the character is already moving inside of the room was a little jarring for me as well, but that could also be an aesthetic choice and might be less strange with better feedbacks?

Anyways, good job, keep it up!

Is it Wrong to Try to Lay Pipe in a Sewer Dungeon? by Gizmolo 2025-04-10T09:52:04Z ♥ 6

Someone on the team played circadian dice I think 😆 I really enjoyed the game. Absolutely adore the COMPLETELY UNHINGED energy. Special mention to the intro poem, I loved the vibe it brought to the title screen. The artwork is VERY horny lmao, but also; lesbians. So let's fucking go.

And the whole pipe world fever dream - i don't know if you've made other things in pipe world, but I think it's almost better if you didn't and just pretended like it's part of a whole cinematic universe, I love anything that does that, it's so funny.

Yeah the balance is completely out of whack, but it's very hard making a good, well-balanced roguelike in just 72h. Game is extremely easy. Slightly problematic is also the fact that the map doesn't have a really strong structure, and gives you a lot of freedom, so you can often piece together paths that are like, no combat encounters, and mostly high value floors (item trade, chests and mutations)

The game really really needs tooltips though, for a roguelike like that; really hurts the legibility. Like I pieced together from experience what every symbol meant, and the item evaluation wasn't very hard (especially once you find some arm warmers), but it was sort of in spite of the game's way to present the player with information?

Good effort though, I know in my flesh how hard it is to get balance and UX right, esp. in a jam. I had a fun time, great job! There's just so much personality to this! Very high marks all around, & thank you for the game!! ❤️

Made me yearn to go and play a few runs of circadian dice though...

Storky McStorkface Express by Flying Dog Fish 2023-05-02T23:16:45Z ♥ 2

The visual aesthetic is completely fucked in the best way, I loved it. The game feel is actually really nice as well! It's in the same ball park as getting over it, albeit significantly nicer - it feels fair and pretty good. I finished it, and had a very good time doing it. It's fascinating how much adding a forward impulse when flapping changes the game feel and the functionality of a flappy bird-type controller. Carrying the different animals adds another layer to this, and it's overall interesting even though the game is very simple.

Starting while looking at the wall is absolutely sinful though. I died absent mindedly so any times because of this! It was somewhat funny to me whenever I'd chain kill myself against the wall on accident though.

Great job!!

Baby Dino Delivery by Cobear25 2023-05-02T21:51:20Z ♥ 1

Baby Dino Delivery by Cody Mace - Opera.jpg

A nice match-3 game that pushes it somewhat elegantly into the realm of the puzzle game. I wish the decision was taken further: maybe we could "deliver" at any points to progressively trigger falls and chain reactions at intentionally selected points, accumulate moves to spend in difficult situation, and move blocks in an intentional fashion without needing to match-3 when moving them. It feels like quite a few situations are unsolvable, and it's rather frustrating. I had fun though, and enjoyed my time with it a lot. The baby dinosaurs are absolutely adorable and the vibe is really cute.

Rogue, fluff & nuts by Meta-link 2023-05-02T20:42:41Z ♥ 1

Cute entry! The trees felt a little laborious though. I'm glad I found the shortcut to get back to the seller at the end! I like the good vibes of the game, it made me smile! Nice work, especially for a Compo game!

Cat Elite by Julvador 2023-05-02T19:38:37Z ♥ 4

Pretty fun experience! I liked it! The ship was quite hard to steer, and it was a bit difficult for me to aim as well. But the graphics were really playful and expressive and the theme is buckwild, I love it! Running over people in space to cook them and can them up has a very special brand of funk to it. Incredible work with the gravity, but I ended up being trapped in a black hole, which I did find rather funny. (But you might want to make it slightly easier/possible to escape it.)

Good job!!

Dante's Delivery Service by Scott Steffes 2023-05-02T19:18:06Z ♥ 5

Really enjoyed this experience. The swap at the end of the day was unexpected! I loved how the two different vibes are bound together by gameplay commonalities, but reinforced by the differences. The day-phase works as a sandbox to learn the layout of the town in a risk-free environment, but also creates an economic pressure to be fast enough to get stronger to go farther when playing at a higher level. Strong loop.

I really appreciated the doomlike aesthetics of play and visuals! As always, the daytime graphics were absolutely adorable, in your usual style; but I really loved the contrast with the new night-time looks. It's fun to see something that strays from Different Strokes & 10 Seconds Mixtapes, even though you seem to have incorporated your signature robust online features with that trackmania-style leaderboard. Excellent work, thank you!

Superfetch Dog by benjamin 2023-05-02T17:18:55Z ♥ 3

Oh my god. Just a single line completely broke me. That twist is so powerful and effective. How dare you. It's so polished, so efficient, so full of juice, so full of heart. The storytelling is minimalistic but effective. The progression of the difficulty works well.

On the other hand, it was very easy to accidentally pick the upgrades before they even finished displaying themselves, which prevented me from seeing the gorgeous upgrade cards.

Incredible work as always, thank you. I'll be playing the full version.

Magic Map of Adria by Shiiro 10psi 2023-05-02T16:35:14Z ♥ 5

Magic Map of Adria by Shiiro10Psi - Opera.jpg

Tried to maximize the profits, it turns out that the game is extremely generous with how many days the game allocates to us for the itinerary; only the levels that you can't cross with modifications are required to reach the destination in time. Too bad that, for an optimization game like that, you can't keep your last itinerary and you have to redo everything when you click on one of the segment of the itinerary.

It was really fun, even if it's such a simple game, I like the almost zachtronics-like take on a classic puzzle-toy, and the packaging/context/narrative design of these taquins! Good job and really nice layering.

Mad Meow: Purriosa's Panic by Strega 2023-05-02T15:58:14Z ♥ 1

As always, cosmic adventure squad delivers! Such nice, pretty, playful, colourful graphics! A really tight, efficient gameplay loop. Gave me strong oldschool flashgame vibes! The click & drag controls and the upgrade systems were a really nice way to craft something fun and pretty fresh from classic mechanics, all in a really cute and whimsical package. Awesome work to the entire team, and thank you as usual!

The bullets were a little at odds with the rest of the art, though!

The game seemed rather simple though. It felt like just adding one segment with the basic canon and upgrading everything was largely enough to win comfortably; making a big truck is heavily disincentivized by the loss in maniability, increase in difficulty with dodging everything (which can actually become impossible), the financial loss of paying for the new segment, and the risk of losing parts. This balance issue made the upgrade/buying system somewhat irrelevant: by that, I just mean it did not seem to hold any meaningful, interesting decisions.

This is mostly a detail, and the game felt extremely polished and fun and good; incredible job!

The Frog Prince by Thomas Karcher 2023-05-02T12:25:50Z ♥ 2

A cute take on a sokoban! I like how you tried to add some frogger elements to the classic, more puzzley gameplay. I enjoyed it, although it sometimes felt like the two design elements were somewhat at odd with each other. I now crave some further exploration of that specific design space. I also enjoyed the progression of the game, introducing each element of the final level separately. Good job!

Punchline 'em all by Samoussa 2023-05-02T12:07:17Z ♥ 3

It took a little bit to understand how the game functions, but it was pretty fun afterwards! Finding all the right rhymes for a sequence was very satisfying, and reading out loud the lines while playing with my friend was indeed really fun! Good job!

Delivered with care by Axelle Desquilbet 2023-05-02T11:04:30Z ♥ 3

What a cute, tiny game! The scope has been handled really well. I loved the gameplay of "slingshotting" that emerges from the mechanics, where you find yourself flying for very short bursts of time and trying to guessland as close as possible to where you need to be delivering the package!

It gives a good flow to the game, alternating between short bursts of high speed, very approximative "general direction" movement (which feels good and is fun) and short bursts of frantically running around and trying to get situated to deliver the package (which delivered a sweet bit of tension to me). The game did not seem to be very hard or tense though, so I never felt really pressured to go as fast as possible, and only did it because it was the most fun way to play for me (but other people might end up missing on that fun because the game doesn't seem to require it, but that's still fine).

The graphics are super cute as well. The Kiki remix has a very Microsoft Puzzle Collections retro feel. Awesome work!

I think it probably would have really shone with a little more feedback (SFX?), maybe a slightly smoother UX? (some things were not immediately clear, and though I ended up understanding them alright, it might not be the case for everyone! Understanding the mana system takes a little while, for what I've seen when other people played the game)

Carddown! by RahmKota3 2022-10-06T10:37:32Z ♥ 1

Wave 31.jpg Yayy.jpg

I don't think I could have died at this point other than on purpose.

Really liked it! You scoped it well! Not the first game like this i've seen this jam, but this one did it best. Very nice spin on that formula and clever implementation of the theme. You really showed the potential of this little design, and made me crave for more! More enemies, more cards, more relics... Surprisingly and interestingly, the most dangerous enemies were the rats: they leave you no leeway if you ever enter a 4 or 5 rats room with like, a hand full of attacks. That's a nice quirk of the design space and I think it would need to be exploited a lot more! Low health enemies is actually a ressource for you to unload your cards into. Lots of very interesting things could be done within this space. I'd love to play around designing for this kind of stuff. Great job, good entry, I had a lot of fun with it.

BUN-hop by bqq 2022-10-04T23:13:35Z ♥ 2

bun hop.jpg

Bun-hop is a game with a vision. And that vision deploys itself fully, beautifully, in that final level. At the start, the movement feels slow and slightly floaty; but once you get to dash-jumping everywhere, and especially when navigating very tight platforms, crouch-dash-jumping through laser walls... It feels like you're flying. More importantly, it feels like you're actually *bunny hopping*. The character controller just springs to life as the gameplay starts to reveal itself, and that last level is truly touched by grace. A lesson in controller design and level design.

I didn't get times as good as yours, but I had a lot of fun getting everything sub-10 seconds! So many super smart design decisions in this game.

I love the soundtrack. Especially the way the two level themes interplay, the very chill, ambient theme from the safe burrows, and how it fade into that much more tense song with those clock noises integrated directly into it. After a while, it feels like that song turns a backdrop against which the sheet music of the player inputs are played. Optimal play becomes a melody.

I think this game catches in a bottle the essence of why speedrun experiences are good, why they work, finding all these little optimisation, and the controller becoming an extension of the self. This game is tightly scoped, polished, and masterfully done.

Thank you very much, I had a wonderful time!

The book of time magic by Senso 2022-10-04T14:12:05Z ♥ 1

timed magic.jpg

Ah, the brutally efficient magic of "number go up". You channelled the addictive, skinner-box element of 2048 into a cute little aRPG package. Balance feels very strange; I killed one of the late game slimes with an attack that did very little damage, I think. I'm not entirely sure if code-wise, the enemies really take into account the damage dealt to them. The game is very easy as a result, and starts feeling a little hollow. I do enjoy the idea of the timed spells that consume the results of your various combinations, though, that's a neat little design idea that gives rise to interesting decision space! I tried to make a spell reach 1024 and levelled up to level 5 before I could. The story in my mind was that I was trying to resurrect my dead significant other with a particularly powerful life spell.

On that note, the game somewhat lacked an endgoal, which would have given it some more direction, I think.

You're using nested reward schedules that feed into one another to great effect; combining your 4 colors to the next bigger number, using that to kill the enemies to gain XP, gaining XP to level and make even bigger numbers. Having 4 colors with a little elemental triad going on is smart as well. I enjoy how the game pushes you to rotate your spells, because having big number blocks makes it harder to combine your blocks, and thus harder to get newer blocks and go higher faster. Every time you use your biggest blocks, you get a burst of action where you're combining frantically.

I enjoy the base value of your blocks going up with your level. It gives rise to this nice little pattern where you have to "get rid" of your old multiples which you can no longer combine now that you levelled up, which forces you to stay on one spell and "use up" all your spells of that type until you can get rid of that pesky 1 or 2 value block that's eating up space. If the difficulty was more balanced, there would be genuine risk-taking to this management: since every spell cast is 10 seconds, there's a very real cost to trying to use up every block of one color just to get rid of a weak spell.

You really piggybacked on the affordances from 2048 here, not telling us that only same-value blocks can combine - it felt instinctive.

All in all, an interesting, rather fun entry. Well done! There's a lot of character to the artstyle and the voice acting is really charming as well! Great job!

Room Again by SofiGnedova 2022-10-04T12:19:26Z ♥ 7

Wonderful little game.

It could have been point and click, and it is not, and I think that's *very* smart. The controls are slightly imprecise. Nothing bad from a UX standpoint. But they leave you struggling a *little* to do what you want. And from this springs the very immersive anxiety, of shuffling, your hands trembling, with the rising fear of having to start everything all over again. It's feverish. It really drives the immersion home.

I think the controls would not feel this imprecise if you weren't always pressed by the clock. I also believe they could feel better with some polish, highlighting the interactive elements, maybe an other control scheme...

But I'm really glad you didn't do that. I'm glad - because for this experience, this is the perfect game feel.

It's never dramatic to start over because of that ruthless, extremely efficient, 10 seconds loop. I think there's genius in the way these 10 seconds squash and stretch depending on the context. Sometimes feeling extremely long as you're waiting, your single battery in hand, to start the cycle over again, and more often than not feeling incredibly short.

You really played in that space, with the texture you could give these 10 seconds you were working with; and I believe, for such a short experience, with so few words, you really did a wonderful job with the narrative design, and the ludo-narrative consonnance. The atmosphere, the aesthetic of the visual and the puzzle design are all really good.

Ultimately this is a game that leaves you with more questions than answers, and that's very much my thing. Who's jo? That singular voice clip about the key? It's so jarring and strange to only have that voice clip, for something obvious as well, because, well, there's a lock on the door - but it really adds to the experience. Never explain or try to justify that kind of things. Great, great mood. Awesome job and congratulations to the team.

Ten-Second Murder by lectvs 2022-10-04T12:06:18Z ♥ 2

Honey, wake up! New lectvs game just dropped!

I thought really hard - is there any reason not to give this 5 stars everywhere?

No, definitely not.

You had a plot twist in your *fricking tutorial*. How could this game just keep on giving? You're so generous with your content, your writing, so many items with descriptors... The architecture is reaaallly innovative!! Procedurally generated little murder puzzles? And you said it's not a puzzle game, but it is! If you pay close attention and you're careful, I believe you can have everything you need to catch the culprit. I never failed once after the tutorial!

What an incredible job you did. Everything is so clean, so polished, the deaths are emphasized in clever and powerful ways. It's juicy everywhere, all the little animations, the sprites bouncing up and down, and shaking, terrified when questioned, the clues popping up after each murder, the timer with that skull icon, it's all so well put together, so high quality. I enjoyed every second of this experience, because you made every second count. There is no gameplay incentive to solve the murders as fast as possible but narratively, preventing the next death had me rushing, but at the same time, weighing that element of risk/reward: do I take the risk of being too hasty and accusing the wrong character?

It's incredibly how you captured the spirit of traditional murder mysteries and managed to cram that in a hyperactive, hyperefficient treat of a distillated micro-puzzle gameplay loop. Masterful. Thank you.

bäbäböx X by Kultisti 2022-10-04T11:54:57Z ♥ 5

Honey, wake up! New Kultisti game just dropped!

Really nice, tight little core gameplay. Love the idea of destroying the ground periodically like that. The jump -> throw contextual action is a really elegant way to make this which gives a lot of heft and physicality to the throws, but the hands holding the block staying in the same place kind of hurt the legibility of the action and void that really cool element that would add a lot to the gamefeel otherwise, I believe.

The feel and polish and juice is obviously still really good, I love the aesthetic that you deployed, it's so deliciously bizarre and really grabs you in. The game is fun and very well executed. I like how the difficulty ramps up and the little arcade scoring backdrop. Maybe it lacks a way to throw the blocks 1 further than just on the next spot available, because I feel like something to push you to play a bit more acrobatically and maybe to be able to hit enemies in spots where the blocks might get destroyed anyway would add a bit to the experience.

Had a little trouble understanding that the sprites on the next-to-be-destroyed tiles were clock arrows, but that's such a neat idea, so UX-friendly! Also love the faces on everything.

You did an incredible job making a game this tight and polished just for the LD, I would have enjoyed it no matter the context it was born from - you can't really tell that this was done on such a tight schedule.

Awesome awesome work to everyone, and thank you very much for the treat ✨

Poda Wants a Statue by Doot 2022-10-04T10:57:18Z ♥ 5

poda.jpg

Oh my god, the cuteness of the graphics! Everything is just so so good, look at the little bunniiiiiiessss aaaaaaaa💖💖💖

There's sooooo much polish in this little game, I love it:

- The sparkling ressources to signal they can be picked up! - The little question marks on idle bunnies! - The little upside down bunnies when you pick them up that swing lightly from left to right - How everything you can interact with gets highlit with big satisfying arrows when you pick up anything! - Poda's animation, and the niiiice heftiness to its jump!! - All the little super super clean UI elements, like the counters that show how many bunnies are assigned anywhere! So smart to keep everything crystal clear at a glance!

This all really makes the game completely effortless to play! And there are so many clever decisions that just stem naturally from the design to give the optimisation game a little crunchiness! You can micromanage the bunnies, but then they drop their ressources, and the higher tier the buildings are, the more it becomes actually efficient to leave your bunnies to bring the ressources in by themselves, and how this interaction stems super naturally from the fact that the bunnies drop everything and must be reassigned after every jump. I think it's super elegant and really adds that layer of micro-management to the game that gives that leeway for even faster times with the right APMs. So elegant.

The music is really whimsical, and all the little satisfying plops and clanks for the tools really tie the design together.

It's such a simple idea, nothing exactly new gameplay-wise - except from the little twist from the theme - but it's executed on so flawlessly I can't help but love it.

Thank you. Incredible work to all the team!

RIITA by wobs 2022-04-28T02:01:24Z ♥ 4

Wow, you nailed it!

That intro has an insane Zelda vibe. It's so moody, so pretty, the music, the artwork..! It absolutely blew me away!

But the rest of the game is really good as well! I believe it's quite hard to make a well adjusted, responsive rhythm game in a jam, especially because of the content you have to make, and you did a great job at that! I'd say the day side feels a bit more polished and enjoyable music-wise, but it's also much harder than the night side.

I love that you can see the cumulative delay durations for each side at the end of the game. I know it's just a collective scoreboard, but it's still a neat touch. It's all so polished. And it's rather fresh as well! I enjoyed the cheekiness of the dialogues. The gameplay loop is sweet, and does just what it set out to do. Talk to a few inhabitants then perform the ritual, rince and repeat. I think talking to inhabitants and failing makes the next ritual harder, which adds to the "delay the inevitable" idea.

Awesome work everyone, I had a blast! Thank you for making it and congratulations for the well deserved super high ranks ❤️

Gods of Divine Stuff: RAgnarök by Anaxie Studio 2022-04-09T21:05:20Z ♥ 1

W200.jpg

Haha wild hunt goes brrr

Level 42 Artemis and her huntresses aren't messing around.

What a super cute game! Short and sweet tower defense, reminds me of ye old flash games of my youth! Also lil defender's quest vibe as well. Quite a lot of content, and rather polished for a ludum dare game! I like that the level ups carry on from one level to an other, there's a decision space in there around risk/reward of putting units down, and how much money you can save to level up your gods. (Because obviously if you're not spending money to buy units, esp gods, it's money you can spend upgrading.) Unfortunately, it also makes the game extremely easy (at least it did for me) since you can just focus on levelling up Artemis and just plop her down and a bunch of huntresses every time and mow down everyone. I'm not complaining though, Artemis is the best ❤️ But yeah, it feels like there's a first order optimal strategy, and you can't really justify the cost of the other units (either because the comp wouldn't be as effective using any minions that aren't nymphs, or because it takes away levels from your minions to use other gods, and if you have to level up 2 gods you can't just power level everyone alongside Artemis.)

Nice going, as far as inevitable goes, to use Ragnarok. The ludo-narrative consonance was a little weak though, except at the end. Love the irony of Loki being like, "yeah yeah after that I'll help you when Ragnarok happens" but the endless wave of monsters is defo Ragnarok.

I had fun! Very well executed game with cute writing and adorable artwork. Also that Ra design made me feel things. Thank you for your work, and congratulations! I don't think I'm going to lose that endless run anytime soon, though.

Battery Low by Milestone Games 2022-04-09T17:50:19Z ♥ 6

image_2022-04-09_194058586.png

Booyah, sub 30 baby!

Really sweet entry! I loooove the voice clips that play during the game, like the startup "Hello!", the elated "science!" when you pick up an artifact, or the tiny "ouch!" when you hit a wall.

I really like the interface design. Gameplay is very simple, but suuuuper engaging! It's like, the unit movement part of a RTS with poor pathfinding, but distilled into a game! And it's *fun*! No frustration on my part here, every mistake made by the rover feels like a feature. The pixel art is amazing, the music is really good, everything is top notch. That short intro rover animation loop is sooooo good!!! And I love how you get to learn to optimize your energy usage and clicks and find the right balance between greed and speed.

The tracks from your last run are a nice touch, although they seem to remain the tracks from your first run instead of being like your "best time ghost" or something, but that would be my main complaint about the whole thing. This is so well scoped, it feels like you were really in control of your project. Congratulations to the whole team on making such a tight experience! And thank you for your work!

Rise n Time by alec 2022-04-09T15:32:45Z ♥ 1

Wow! What a game! The online version on your page is significantly faster than the one you can download, which made me think that it was a very bold choice to make such a fast, responsive, but challenging game. But actually, the game in its normal speed is just hard enough, not as brutal as the, what, x2.5 speed version is? But I've enjoyed my time with it so much that after downloading the game and finishing the normal version, I went back to the faster one to try and finish it too! I did use the safe spot in the Eye of Sauron, but I did black hole without moving from my starter spot, which felt good. (You only have to dodge the green and yellow clocks there!)

Suuuper polished game. I wish there was a cutscene at the end that showed us what we were dreading so much! It felt like a weird oblique Zelda ref, what with the sprite kind of looking like link and the "waking up" theming of it? Awesome work, top marks all around. I love everything about it. The clocks synced up with the music, with the dots on the beats at the bottom? Yes please. How good the various clock colours look? The little salto when you jump? That cute retro aesthetic? The fact that restarting the level when you die is entirely painless? It's all so good! There are bits of juice everywhere, and the gamefeel is excellent. Also, great job with the level design.

I hope you have a great day! Thank you for making this gem!

Save Gogo by MAT4DOR 2022-04-09T14:35:37Z ♥ 1

I had no plans to, but after finding myself coming back now 4 times to feed gogo, almost despite my intentions to the contrary, I have to say that you did an excellent job. The execution is extremely simple, but you obviously perfectly captured the theme of the jam. There are a bunch of very smart decisions here, though, deceptively so even. The exponential increments, the diminishing returns, the little counters on top, it's all very clever. The "game" is not fun, but it doesn't have to be. This is about death, its inescapability, and delaying the inevitable. Your work is so simple and so effective at what it does, no frills, no fanfare. Just the ticking of the clock. To me, it's more like an interactive art installation or a poem of sorts. A poem about death that we all take part in. Obviously, you used a bit of manipulation and emotional leverage, like, "oh no, this cute pet is going to die if YOU don't feed him!" I'm not necessarily a fan of that, because it feels like a mobile game engagement tactic, and maybe, mechanically, your game didn't need that kind of cheap strategy to be effective? But that's fine, it's par for the course. Great work nonetheless.

The Ultimate Martian Roulette by HaaYaargh 2022-04-08T01:10:05Z ♥ 4

Excellent work! Lot of polish in many places, like the character expressions, the charges they were convicted for, the subtitles... The whole set for the game(show) is pretty good, pretty cinematographic. Nice work with the lighting! Also, the way the characters just keep the same pose and wobble back and forth on the ground in their chair after their death absolutely murdered me. The name of the cards felt a little bit like they were trying too hard to be pop culture references, so it didn't feel super aesthetically cohesive overall, but the game is pretty fun! I like that you keep your cards and can choose not to play one, to save the really good ones. There are some avenues for smart and strategic play, and they are welcome. It's all pretty light though, the vibe is very much "party game with friends", which is not necessarily my cup of tea, but I can recognize something that could make for a very fun discord-hang-out-evening for some crowds when I see one. Good job, I think you did what you set out to do very well!

Video Games : the game by namnam 2022-04-08T00:40:18Z ♥ 2

What a nice blackjack hack! Very visually appealing, I love the testers and the characters on the cards, it's all so charming! The theming is smart, very meta, very cute. Everything about the visuals is incredibly polished. And this is such a complex game as well, there is so much work put into this!! You did an incredible job.

Some mechanical/game feel feedback: Adding cards to the deck was slightly weird as is because you add cards maybe twice or thrice in a run, so you can't really build any synergies. I did enjoy getting a holiday card once run, really strong, felt good. Not being able to check the deck was slightly frustrating, because you can't really make informed decisions when calculating risk/reward with each draws or when adding cards. The malus of poor management felt rather opaque too, and it was frustrating that it would add bad cards to my deck while I didn't see what I was doing wrong - bad cards that made me lose, and it kind of felt like I had had no control over it, which felt kind of bad. I'm slightly frustrated overall, but it's mostly because I crave for more now that I caught a glimpse of what this game could be.

Clarifying those elements, maybe adding slightly more control to them, a way to earn money, maybe a shorter card-addition cycle/some ways to have more control over the deck, and well, I'd buy this as an actual blackjack roguelike deckbuilder now! Even if it's short, like, it's not that far from something I'd actually buy for maybe 2-5$. Thank you for this great entry!

Some Heart For Your Boyfriend by RIBOUT Horace 2022-04-07T13:45:14Z ♥ 2

Sweet game! I enjoyed the traversal very much. Using the lateral attacks and the many jumps to zoom through the map and murder big files of zombies felt super good! The theme shines through as well. I like the lore snippet, love that weird aesthetic. I guess zombie hearts aren't very nutritious for a demon though, because with how much he's chowing down it's a wonder he was still alive! 😆

I kind of wish that the upward and downard attacks had more range and gave you momentum like the side ones, to really supplement the movement toolkit of the character. Would give even more weight to the heat management mechanic. (Because you'd have more utility in your attacks, so the competition between them for your heat gauge would be fiercer. As is, it's mostly the side attacks that feel "worth it".) Also it would be nice to have a total heart counter? It felt a little empty collecting so many but not seeing any "progress", since time was endlessly ticking down.

Really cool entry, great job on the feel of that character!

We Need To Talk by Doot 2022-04-07T00:13:20Z ♥ 4

We Need To Talk by Doot, dorirandri - Opera.jpg

Oh my, you two!! I loved welcome Googoo, and now, this!! What a wonderful game *again*!! This is guaranteed to be a smash hit, look at these glowing reviews. And you deserve all of them!

The idea is rather simple, but executed so well, so effectively! It's beautifully polished and juicy. And the graphics are very pretty, there's sort of a Scott Pilgrim vibe, it's adorable.

It's all *so* smart, *so* well done. It's about tiny details: the clever, coloured words to signal the element of the attack? Great piece of UI. But now, you draw hands of 3 cards and you have to choose which attack to use, based on the length of the combination? But *now*, the elements have specific effects, and they're contextual. Wind is useless if the bubble is super far or too big, fire is useless when it's small, frost is the best but only if your situation is already good.

I like to think that one of the ways to gauge the quality of a decision space is to look at how much of the context it takes into account. And this system is so contextual, so simple yet brilliant in its elegance. For its minimalism, the actual depth it has surprised me, when everything clicked together in my mind after a few games. You want to chain-freeze the bubble, but what do you do when there's no frost attack? And it only works when the bubble is not too big, so you have to get it back to the right size with fire and keep it at bay if you can. But every decision has to be split second. It's great.

And I haven't even mentioned that the elements have a unique feel because of the recurring arrow combinations in their moves! And the various combos recreate in a lovely way some of the feel of the fighting games, with the quarter circles and all of that... And I love the way the keys light up on fire when you start inputing a combination! And the risk/reward of losing your concentration if you miss just one move, but of delaying the use of it so you can get the best value from it!

Beautiful work. What a gem. And it just takes 10 minutes to enjoy properly. Thank you very much. I hope you get the rankings you deserve, and I can't wait to see what you make next!

Cold and Alone by David York 2022-04-06T03:41:34Z ♥ 4

image_2022-04-06_052528.png

I shall not know death but from sickness, old age, or crushing loneliness.

Damn david, what a *game*. What old-school charm. What an efficient and to-the-point design. The writing is in equal mesure cute and touching. The dialogue really has this energy of fending off the despair through humor. And that's kind of what it's for, right? You laugh because you can't afford to just sit there and face the reality of your situation. Incredible atmosphere, *welcome to Klaxxon-9.*

The numpad control scheme is actually pretty smart and works well for the isometric perspective. I found the game kinda easy, but man, that only makes it hit harder. It's not the cold that's gonna take you, in the end. You're just delaying the inevitable. You'll die alone, on this rock, and there's nothing you can do. I love that you can take breaks or just go to sleep, even though there are no mechanical incentives to doing so. Klaxxon-9 felt like the new home, the new normal, a familiar prison, and being able to just take some breaks and rest some days because I had so many resources felt like this: a small victory. You keep your eye on them, to forget the fact that behind looms the inescapability of death.

You pried these five-star ratings from my cold, stranded hands. I hope you're happy.

Barbar-chicks by kangsoon 2022-04-06T02:31:09Z ♥ 3

image_2022-04-06_042712.png

What a nice game! It really clicked after a few tries, and I really enjoyed airdropping knights as bait to divert the chicks' attention to make an escape and/or using them to mitigate the dangerousness of the random spawning into my territory (bait + deleting an inopportune enemy? Yes please!). At first I felt slightly underwhelmed, but getting the hang of it really allowed me to see how smart the design is! I almost managed to clean up the top right quadrant of the board! Rather simple, but incredibly effective, and so well executed, and oh my! What polish! And the theme really shines through!

That king, though, is a cold blooded killer. He *should not* be waving his arms helplessly like that. (Unless of course, it's a brilliant act to get his adversaries to let their guards down?) In my last run he killed about 40 barbar-chicks. What a warrior. Thank you for this wonderful entry!

Mad Wizard's Attack by Fedora 2022-04-06T01:52:51Z ♥ 1

[image_2022-04-06_035222.png](///raw/2c8/24/z/4cf54.png)

Very cute offering. The graphics have this nostalgic charm, reminding me of old flash games! I enjoyed the gameplay, the idea is rather simple, but it has to be fun since I've been obsessed with trying to survive the +70 surge for what, half an hour? Maybe 45min actually. As others said, the balance seems rather off, though.

Some feedback about the balance: Stone is the most limited resource, and things require so little wood that you barely need to build any sawmill (and since the game is so fast and dense, you can't waste anything, and sawmills are super expensive). Booster towers don't seem to be really worth it, as well, not even for space compression? I've managed to build like 4 in a game (lucky roll on stone mines), all completely surrounded by 21 regular towers (if I remember correctly), and still couldn't get past +53 in shieldgen, which is barely any better than you get by just spamming regular towers, and the game doesn't last long enough that space would be a concern (on normal difficulty anyway).

Note after further testing: they don't seem to be working properly, actually. I monitored my shieldgen as I built one surrounded by regular towers, and it only gave me +1! !

The portals seem really enticing, but the stone cost is so prohibitive, that you basically build it, then die for lack of shields. The fountains are cute, but it's hard to justify building them, because when you lose, you lose so fast that your reserves barely matter anyway. It also feels kind of awkward that you'd have to build a portal before you gain any points, and that you have no basic point generation?

The pacing of the game is extremely fast, which is good because it makes you want to play again right after you lose, but it also makes the game very reliant on your APMs, and the shortcuts are a bit awkward on AZERTY keyboards; and it also makes learning the game a bit harder, since you have to always play so fast and be on top of things, so you can't really take time to read the tooltips and think about things.

I'd love to play again on a rebalanced version!

You did a great job!

Timeless by shmador 2022-04-05T15:49:55Z ♥ 1

Very good game! I enjoyed the puzzles a lot, although some of them were a little too based on timing, and a little too finnicky, for a game with controls that are *kind* of clunky. I just wish the character didn't feel as floaty, and you could stop and start time more dynamically, that would drastically improve the game feel for me!

But other than the character movement, the puzzles were clever, and there were a few "AH-HA" moments. Kept me hooked till the end! Loved the last puzzle. Also, the art is just delightful, wonderful job on that front! Excellent, polished entry, with lots of little juicy details and smart design. Maybe kind of off-theme, but awesome work!

Unstable Magic by DrSmey 2021-10-08T17:38:10Z ♥ 1

One of my absolute favorite entries of this jam. Extremely charming, beautiful, wonderfully crafted. It all works like a charm. The mechanics mesh together perfectly. Love the balance between the two spells and the two special attack, the heal on level up, the difficulty curve, the way to change spells to gain partial aiming control, the little sand timer, the UI and graphic design, the use of color to communicate the different spells... Awesome work.

The Curse of the Un-stable by dikkop 2021-10-06T16:21:47Z ♥ 1

Unity WebGL Player LD49_Curse_Of_The_Un-Stable - Google Chrome.jpg

Good call making the action queue 4 actions long rather than 5.

Really nice game! The interface is hard to read and on my end it was a bit laggy, but I did have a lot of fun. Although this is pretty rare in the context of video games, it's a pretty classic boardgame mechanic. No matter, I still enjoyed it a bunch despite the clunkiness, lag, and readability issues. The scrolling background especially made the action hard to follow, although it did make it much more dynamic, and adjacent horses sometimes hid their action queues. The UI was rather clunky overall and it would have benefitted from some UI/UX work. But nice level design, it was really fun navigating the decision space!

The use of the theme is *extremely* cheeky, but still, good one.

Great work, thank you for your contribution!

Deathrail by Hotowlgirls 2021-10-06T16:01:27Z ♥ 3

Same as @hacksawunit , couldn't move past Journal #3.

You weren't lying, the core gameplay loop IS fun! I enjoyed it a bunch.

Not sure how much the balancing adds to it though, and other than that it's very classic mechanically, but well executed upon. I did enjoy the fact that it made me play with two hands, one for the balancing and one for the board control, which I found to be an engaging exercise in multi-tasking, so the balancing does add some value, just not sure how much because it soon becomes automatic and doesn't interface too much with the rest of gameplay. And I never died directly because of it, and can't quantify how many times it killed me indirectly. Mechanically it feels a bit tacked on, although it's quite flavorful and makes a lot of sense narratively.

I like the idea, the use of theme, and the sliver of worldbuilding you give us. Wasn't too hard, but wasn't easy either. I really had fun! Could use a bunch of polish though, but them's the breaks. Great job <3

Plate Spinner 2021 by StoicKekis 2021-10-06T15:45:08Z ♥ 2

Simple idea, perfectly thematic, very good execution. The game is competent. It works, and it's pretty engaging! I had fun, but it ended rather quickly, and that was pretty good for me. Short and sweet is, for my taste, the right length for a game of this weight. Great job! Of course it could have done with more juice, but I think the focus on balancing the feel and not overscoping was time and energy well-spent.

I agree with @mathiouza in that I believe it would be more enjoyable to have just points for being alive, because I feel like it creates this strong incentive to always be spinning, even when it's not useful, and that feels a bit weird. Fewer plates, but faster action, and maybe something to give a bit more texture to the gameplay (another way to interact with the plates that creates interesting decisions points? Already kinda present with the fact that you can choose to let a plate fall and catch it after though, but that's mitigated by the fact that it gives you no point simply surviving, so maybe that change would be enough.)

Great job, keep it up!

Atomic Rock Paper Scissors by lucasvb 2021-10-06T15:17:56Z ♥ 3

Atomic Rock Paper Scissors by 1ucasvb, m1nus - Google Chrome_2.jpg

I had a lot of fun playing this. I was a bit worried that there would be no endgame condition with continuous perfect play, but the faster and faster trickle in of metal plates even without errors (which I still occasionally made even after I understood how things worked) made it a really good experience; slowly ramping up the difficulty while giving a clear horizon for the end of play. I wish there was an endgame screen with detection of whether any move is possible or not. I think I set up four or five entire columns or lines to break at once, it was very satisfying. I wish it had just a little more juice, maybe with some numbers popping for the score showing an increase in score, little things like that. But it was still super polished, a very complete, self contained, entirely intuitive experience. Controls felt a tiny bit wonky at first, but at the end it just felt natural. I liked the sound design and the tiny bits of polish like that little screenshake and the occasional shine on the plates and gauges. Main gripe would be that I don't feel like the connexion to the theme is very strong! But otherwise excellent entry.

Shaky Structures by TomBuston 2021-10-06T14:12:52Z ♥ 1

Very cute game! Big World of Goo vibe of course. Classic idea but the theme shines through. Graphic design is slick. Wonky physics with the balloon and inconsistent interactions between the dots, lines, and the walls made it a bit weird, but it was pretty fun with a nice amount of challenge. Not very innovative, but very competently executed. Great entry!

SEXY BOOBY 95 by silkworm_sweatshop 2021-10-05T22:31:04Z ♥ 1

Incredible game, one of my favorite so far. I love how bootleg everything is, I fucking love the "homework" folder, it's all so fucking spot on, the virus, everything. Outstanding work. What a gem, so short, so sweet, you nailed everything. What a sexy booby.

Overclocked by Coda Highland 2021-10-05T21:32:02Z ♥ 1

I tried, but I couldn't quite understand what caused the heat to rise. You say that "everything that moves" does. But I couldn't understand from playing in what capacity the moving, spikey things did create heat, nor whether I could interact with them or not. And standing still didn't seem to lower the heat either (I died a few times while just standing still). Moving myself didn't seem to increase the heat either! Which is weird if *everything* that moves creates heat. It's weird for me to say but I found the overall experience rather confusing (even though I'm prone to making very confusing games.)

I think the most confusing thing was that the lack of consistency! Why does the heat rise at very different speeds from one playthrough to the next?

Other than that, the game is pretty cute. I like the idea (although it's confusing as is). I kinda like your take on 8-puzzles (although I'm especially bad at solving 8-puzzles and 15-puzzles for some reason). It's a lot of work for a solo jam game, but maybe it would have benefitted from a smaller scope. I think a bunch of the problems here come from the ergonomy/UX/UI side, and that would have required a greater share of your attention. And although it's flavorful to talk about a debugger for instance, it's unclear from the game what its function is (and it's not easy simply exploring and discovering what the things do on one's own). Polishing the onboarding and the difficulty curve would do a lot for the experience.

Very cute game, lot of work, but some issues make it a bit harder to enjoy. I really liked the visual manifestation of the bugs though! Keep it up, and thank you for your hard work!

The Escape by Marin0104 2021-10-05T20:39:17Z ♥ 1

Pretty cool game! I enjoyed the visuals. The concept is really nice, and well executed upon. The hardest part of the game, for me, was getting into the safe zone, because I usually didn't have the correct angle when I got there, and it happened to me a good few times that just all the tiles leading into the safe zone were destroyed, which feels pretty bad. Also, the steering didn't feel like it was reactive enough to espace the crumbling floor tiles when you were running parallel to them and they appeared just beneath your wheels, so running diagonally is kind of mandatory I believe. Anyhow, good job, this was pretty fun and polished! Great entry!

Dank Brew of the High Mage by John Luke Lusty 2021-10-05T15:36:43Z ♥ 3

Very nice game! Challenging though, and pretty punishing.

I had to try many times before I managed to git gud, but I had to give up because it kept giving me seemingly random game overs (blue screen without getting hit by a flame?) after the 4th flame, so I couldn't finish it.

It's really fun though, once you figure out the (to me) very unintuitive control scheme! But it felt especially weird that there seemed to be no friction between the ball and the table, and so you really have to treat the character and the ball as two "separate" entities you have to keep on top one another. Once I understood that, it became much simpler.

The dragon's randomness also made it hard (not in a good way) to predict its movements, because there wasn't much in the way of clear telegraphing. So that made the experience a bit frustrating; but these are my main grips. I really like the tongue in cheek writing though, and the visual atmosphere! Love that dragon. Great job and cool little game!