Hail Of Bombs by tinyworlds 2013-08-31T22:53:00
Cute and simple. I think a good next step would be having the bombs indicate that they're about to explode.
Foon → Ludum Dare Explorer → Users → GrooveMan
| Year | LD | Theme | Game | Division | Rank | Ov | Fu | In | Th | Gr | Au | Hu | Mo | Co | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2016 | 35 | Shapeshift | Kenneth Rice: Vampire Detective | jam | 115 | 3.79 | 3.53 | 2.97 | 3.72 | 3.42 | 3.50 | 3.55 | 3.97 | 62 | |
| 2014 | 30 | Connected Worlds | Crisis Culture | jam | 263 | 3.40 | 3.22 | 2.80 | 3.56 | 4.17 | 3.47 | 4.08 | 3.85 | 75 | |
| 2014 | 29 | Beneath the Surface | Thought Police | jam | 54 | 3.81 | 3.74 | 3.25 | 3.67 | 3.85 | 3.56 | 3.27 | 3.86 | 86 | |
| 2013 | 27 | 10 Seconds | Pizzapocalypse 20XX | jam | 206 | 3.30 | 3.12 | 2.58 | 2.70 | 4.09 | 3.07 | 3.68 | 3.27 | 77 |
Cute and simple. I think a good next step would be having the bombs indicate that they're about to explode.
I'm getting a "Failed to create OpenGL 3.2 context" error, I'm afraid. I assume I'm missing something on my end?
I eventually got super lost, and some of the glitches are straight-up blinding rather than just trippy but DANG that was cool.
I love the drumloop for the timer, and the violent shaking for whenever you recharge. It took me a while to process that R reset you from a checkpoint (And it's a bit too far from the Z key if you were using that to jump), but once I did the game became a whole lot more fun. It became almost rhythm game-esque in parts which was really rad.
No sound, but that was pretty cute. A few of my deaths felt like it was because lining myself up with things was a bit dodgy, but otherwise p. cool.
Once I worked out what I should do, it was a lot of fun! If the sunlight effect was demonstrated in the opening cutscene, and if you prevented the worker trolls from crossing the finish line, it would be a lot more intuitive.
Gaining money, even through time skips was thematically jarring, but this was super fun to play!
Beat it in 7 Iterations, with 2 deaths. It's easier to avoid getting hit if you ignore where you're firing, and focus on your space craft!
Ah, it's been a long time since I've played Gauntlet, this is a fun homage! Love the grindhouse aesthetic too. However, the twinstick control scheme on keyboard felt unwieldy.
Incredibly polished! The way you use just snippets of what would be god-like abilities in other platformers to solve puzzles is super clever. Nice touch in the game remembering the loadout you chose last time, though I think if it showed you on-screen, it would mean the play wouldn't need to memorise as much info.
The doodle kittens are really cute. It's really hard to precisely aim food though.
From one guy with a faux-retro game about pizza to another, great job! I think having a visible invincibility period when damaged would help for the 'feel' of the game.
The moment Gymnopedie kicked in, I knew I'd enjoy this. Even with incomplete art, everything was incredibly polished! Snappy writing too, although the period-isms got a bit much at points.
The graphical effects are really cool, and running out of sun gives some serious tension. The zoomed-in rewinding animation feels unnecessary after the first time, though.
The visuals were some great eye candy (har har) but now I feel incredibly dizzy. In a good way, maybe.
I can't touch type, so when passing the stages I ended up missing a lot of the animations. It's a cute idea though, saying nothing of the philosophy.
The graphics are increds, but the hourglass placement doesn't seem to scale with your shop abilities so often I got hourglasses that were impossible to reach.
I'd recommend adding some screenshots of gameplay, because there's some solid fun here, that the title screen doesn't convey! You have a decent mix of useful, harmful and silly special effects that go with the timer, and it's easy to get to grips with the mechanics. A map would have been useful, though.
Character design-wise, this is actually really snazzy. It'd be cool to see where you end up taking it.
Looks and feels really solid, though fiendishly difficult. The pieces rotate just a tad too fast, too.
Excellent! My only criticism is having to run through each room to solve some of the puzzles and reactivate the core. But you knew that already, I guess~
The game looks and sounds great, but the collision detection got a bit sketchy at times, especially once the speed increased. Love it for the opening cutscene more than anything, though!
Ah, I think I've seen works in progress for the protagonist on Tumblr - the design is hella cute. The game is perhaps a mite too easy - having the time cap at 10 seconds, or making the pickups give variable amounts of time would be a fun way to build on the idea.
Once you get going, having to make split decisions to clear rooms is pretty fun. The process of getting going, though? Felt rather slow and opaque. Free movement often felt more like a hindrance than a help, as it was easy to overstep when walking up to a foe. The start of something really cool, though!
A mouse and arrow-keys feels rather finnicky and imprecise (mostly because I wasn't sure whether I should be clicking on my character, the item, or what). Mapping investigate to something like the space bar, and having a visual indicator (like a ! above the character's head) would make this much clearer.
A very cool style (I love the stage setting), though the difficulty of the stages mounts faster than the rate you get better guns, so it's a tad grindy.
Very peaceful to look at and play, though the death messages feel kinda out-of-tone with the rest of the game.
I'll admit I was rather skittish about messing with the default GUI graphics out of a fear I'd break shit, or I'd end up submitting something that looked sloppily done. Ren'Py is easy to use, but I am Not A Fan of its documentation.
Still though, I've learned a lot! My next foray into Ren'Py will def. be more ambitious. By the by, both me and Wicked are blown away by all these positive comments. We're so happy you've enjoyed playing.
Ah, there are people that would heavily contest that kind of definition of a game. I presently work on the paradigm that a game is "an experience defined by rules", if that gives context.
I did consider including an option to turn down Priest's offer to reset things, leading to the game ending, but that doesn't achieve much other than making the player go through everything again if they didn't save.
Despite being awful at this I got far enough to flip the controls a few times, which is a really REALLY snazzy idea.
More games need to run the sentiment of 'fuck death' so openly.
There's a crash after you enter the first door - I think a graphic is missing.
I'm not familiar with Dedalus, but it seems to be a pretty interesting alternative to Twine. I liked the concept, but the way the story was told was rather scattered. Like, whoah, why am I suddenly kidnapping Chelsea Manning (and why would I remember that I need to do so?)
I do understand that it's difficult to do longform writing when it's not your first language, but never feel too proud to find a proofreader, even when it's a short time-limit like this.
This was really solid and enjoyable! Making the rescue targets kittens (named kittens!) is surprisingly effective.
I get that the slow vertical movement is intentional, but I think what gets people is that the vertical movement is /always/ slow. If it was faster initially but got slower as you got closer to the black hole, that would work. (Also it feels cheap that you're affected by gravity slowdown, but the asteroids seemingly aren't).
I love the way that even though everything is overwhelmingly confusing at first blush, you eventually figure out what the keys do and maybe even come close to making something as intended... but making crazy messes is much more fun.
A really cute mini-rpg! The graphics are really fun and simple. I kind of feel the heroes need to be rebalanced a bit, but that might just be because I fumble inputs a lot.
Tightly made, but it's weakened by being able to spam arrows. Spiders sometimes spawned so rapidly, the sense of it being 10-second waves blurred a bit. I think less frequent spiders moving at variable speeds would be a better fit.
That was really cute, and a very interesting use of Ren'Py. I had no clue it exported to Android!
The art style totally made this game. Great use of the theme, and bonus points for the wizard in galaxy print. Old man is fresh to death.
While I was not able to find either of the endings in the time I played, I was content just following the sun as it floated around the island. The skybox and colour use are beautiful.
This will be on my tumblr!
Wonderfully cute. I /sorta/ wish the percussion samples were a little more musical, but that would probably spoil the fun.
I burst out laughing when I reached the part on Dadification. Really enjoyed how punk this game is.
I get strong Another World vibes from this, which I really like. I was surprised that it didn't point out the gun controls straight away, but fortunately that wasn't too fiddly.
Visually wonderful, but the controls need not be so slippery and floaty. Was music intended? The atmosphere could be even better with the appropriate music and some gentle bubbling sound effects~
The controls were amusingly fiddly, though I was startled by how loud the sound effects were. Being able to watch in spectator mode is a really nice touch.
Although the game explains none of the rules, it was easy enough to learn the ropes (Though I spent the first room intentionally dodging the monster for 20 seconds, heh)
I love the art direction here. For some reason I couldn't use the detonation function, but I had fun nonetheless.
It was really interesting getting to know each of the crew members as you approach the mission. It took me a few tries to make significant progress though, and it sometimes felt a little like trial and error to make the correct decisions. Having some kind of counter to tell you how close you are to landing (at least before you play the game enough times and can tell by the size of the planet) would be helpful.
Hooray for mystery games! I enjoyed interrogating the bar staff and collecting clues, but it sometimes felt like the conclusions it tried to draw you to were vague. I would have expected a more sombre piano jam, considering the aesthetics, too.
Despite the interface being a tad fiddly, everything else is incredibly on-point. I love the juxtaposition of such a calming soundtrack and pastel visuals in a game about making people drown themselves.
This feels really ambitious for a solo project, great job! Some of the coolest games are born from personal experiences, and I'm happy you turned something you fear into something creative. I really enjoyed the cute little romance subplot, too.
If I was to change anything, I think your key choices are all over the place. All the action buttons could be just mapped to Space, and X to cancel.
Excellent audiovisuals and mood! The mash-up of animals that could in no way survive together in a winter landscape gives it this Aesop's Fables feel that I really like.
Shit got incredibly real incredibly quickly. At first the meta-ness didn't really grab me, but as things escalated, I just went along with the madness.
I really like the style you did the characters in! And I can tell you gave Ren'Py a serious work out of its different features.
However, background music would have helped a lot for fitting (and intentionally breaking) the mood, and the font was both a little hard to read, and didn't play nicely with the gradual text effect you're using.
While I know it's hard to make graphical assets on your own, good writing can make up for that. Sadly you didn't really manage that here.
There were so many spelling errors it stopped me from getting into the story (and some parts just didn't make sense as a result).
While proofreading is boring, it'll make or break anything story-heavy.
Ah, I should have been clear - I've only looked at your contest entry. It feels like it'd be unfair to pass judgement using something made afterwards.
I do appreciate that the post-compo entry would have been proofread, but considering the genre you're working in, I'd argue that a refined script is important enough to have on the first iteration - just as key as good jumping physics would be to a platformer.
Refinement eats up time, yes, but I would enjoy a short or linear VN with pitch perfect writing infinitely more to one with increased content, but roughly-written.
Ah, the problem with working to an existing puzzle game so closely is that you can really tell when the 'feel' is off. like-colours not combining (or at the very least vanishing as a chain reacion) made things feel a little tame.
When it kicked in why you referenced Puzzle Fighter, I got super into this game. Making a chain of breaks is just as satisfying, and you made the breaks sound nice and meaty. I hope you go back to this later and add VFX/SFX for chains and combos, it'd look so dope.
The slow-mo closeups was really neat and satisfying (though maybe best reserved fer passing certain kill count thresholds for best effect)
Nice. Very good atmosphere and fun to play. Starting over every time I crashed was a bit frustrating though.
The above/below water thing is great graphically. While the absence of music gave a certain atmosphere, I think something minimalist would have also fit well. I don't think I noticed if the handling changed when submerged, but it's probably because I'm not very good at this type of game. :v
Amusingly gross. Everything was wonderfully neat and polished, great job!
The character design for the spyware is super adorable! The MegaMan influences are definitely appreciated (I'm getting a bit of Battle Network here, considering the theme and background animation~)
You really have the Japanese creepy-cute aesthetic down with the character designs - I especially like Aguaron. However, the script could do with a little refining - some of the dialogue felt a little stilted, which made certain parts hard to follow.
There's a lot of polish in how you handled the act transitions (The night club opening was good in particular). There are some faint seamlines on the characters for the different heads and mouths - I'm not sure if that issue's unique to my computer.
The style of this is incredibly slick - both in how the game graphically and musically handles dipping in and out of meatspace, and the peppering of style cues from the GBA Fire Emblems, right down to the style of the mugshots.
I'm not sure if something went wrong on my side, but I was unable to unlock the second security door - you're unable to jump to wirespace next to it, and going back and defeating the first security gem again seemed to do nothing. Ah well.
The jumping mechanics are incredibly rough and finnicky. I eventually could feel that there was meant to be some kind of timing to jumping, but with such a featureless character, determining jump height was difficult. Mostly I just grinded my face against walls to ascend.
I appreciated that it was a Lucille that was helping their wife, but apparently they're male, which is less exciting.
Hah, being the murderous butler is a lot of fun. Trying to juggle all the residents is pretty difficult at your walking speed, the ability to run (at the cost of the trust meter, maybe) would be a good way to build upon this.
The graphics are stylish, but definitely need to come with an epilepsy warning.
I have a terminal problem that I can't write serious fiction. The previous VN I wrote was extremely goofy, and I must admit, I had that weighing on my mind as I wrote this one.
The policeman was sadly a time concession. It was the last sprite required, and to ease the pressure on Aryn, I handled it. Thing is - I can't draw, so I found a functional compromise.
I really like this one. Well done.
Fun and kinda relaxing at the same time.
The concept is really neat, but a mixture of even the first set of typing sets going at a decent clip, and punctuation being unresponsive (for some reason, using an apostrophe de-prioritised the game for me, making some sets impossible) made it frustrating to play.
Even if it would have broken 'character' for the game, having both a warning countdown that a typing set is going to start, and having things like capitalisation and punctuation auto-complete (with the game telling you this beforehand) would make things a lot more playable.
Oh man, the graphical style and dynamic music were awesome. Sometimes the attack range was a bit fiddly, but nothing insurmountable. More games in future should star hipster cat warriors.
I like the ambitious approach to the theme, but from what I understand, a lot of what A Hunger Artist tells is as much the artist's reaction the the crowds as the crowds themselves. But since the game character doesn't emote, and there's not much information to put ourselves in the artist's place (beyond watching how tired and thin he gets), I finished the 40 days somewhat passionless.
Which may even be the point, I suppose.
For a game about sewers and rats, this was really cute! The way the jumps work was a bit janky, but in a fun way. Add some sound effects (rat squeaking on collisions?) and you'd be golden.
The shounen anime-style story was amusingly goofy, and the map design is nice, but the constant typos really pulled me out of the experience. Proof reading game scripts is lengthy and boring, but it's so, so important.
I get what you're going for in how the gameplay works, but the short range and cluttered playing field is not so much challenging and irritating. Always starting at the beginning (for as far as I played) upon death pushed cheap deaths into dealbreaking terrirory. =(
Meta ideas like this are a bit love-hate. While I enjoy the idea of meta detectives in video games (After all, the Thursday Next novels are meta detectives in written works, and that's cool), the knock-off versions of existing franchises felt... cheap. Meta humour about classic games is well-trodden territory, y'know?
The concept is nice, and the music choice is great, but the abrupt, short loops and slow walk speed make things harder to sit through.
The idea of sacrificing your score in a score attack game is really cool - it both allows me to save a run gone awry and dares me to push an already successful one a bit further.
This game has some serious style - though the organic style to the levels doesn't fit the jumping mechanics well. The interactions and character designs obelisks are my favourite part - upon getting stuck in the room with all three, I contented my self with just bouncing between them~
I love the restricted colour choice and arcade-y feel. Sometimes the collision detection bugged, so I started a stage in the floor, or kept walking after I finished a stage, but nothing excessive.
A really cool concept. That the enemy units will still attack you if you haven't killed anyone yet feels a bit off. That there was no sound effect upon catching prey was a bit of a shame =c
I love the style of this game (and the music, though it didn't loop for me), but talking to the other staff felt a bit aimless. Dialogue trees repeated between characters often, so I wasn't sure what kind of direction I should have been taking.
The idea is a fun one, but I don't know how enjoyable it is to execute in practice. The character's control is very twitchy (I appreciate the increase in speed from standing, but it feels way too fast for small, precise jumps), and sometimes jumps failed to execute, which may have been the collision detection or just how my comp wants to respond to simultaneous inputs, I can't really say.
Playing is quite fiddly (partially because the game window is so tall, but it was amusing to play. It might have fit the theme better if the order of the ingredients mattered, so some are BELOW THE SURFACE, and some rise above.
The style of the buildings and the mirrored city are pretty cool, but the spacing of the coins feels strange. On one playthrough, coins were really far apart and would have been impossible without the run; on another they were all within 2 screen lengths.
This is certainly a daring engine to make a jam in, but as a result it feels just a tiny bit stiff. There's something about the animation that makes the walking speed feel too slow. The style of the models and music is cool - I think you could use bolder and less realistic textures to match.
As said, the sense of style is great, and I can see a glimmer of where the game goes, but more instruction than just 'collide with objects' is needed to enjoy it in full, I think.
Who knew Microsoft Sam could be so haunting? The ending was a great piece of interface-screw, though I can see it scaring off people!
Being a journalist, the idea of balancing what higher ups want with personal politics is a feeling I know all too well! Wonderful atmosphere and style. The font choice was initially a little murky to read, but I managed to adjust quickly.
A surprisingly tricky game, but entertaining to get right. There's some unintentional humour to staring at this train carriage filled exclusively with white guys, some in dorky hats.
The character design was neat, and more diverse than I was expecting! The layering of Ygg was a bit off, so his arm ended up clipping through his knees a lot. An amusing microgame!
Aryn here, posting as Nathan (GrooveMan).
A fun little game. The music was very fitting.
Aww, this was really cute. And deceptively hard to play well. But then, cute and challenging is a great combination~
Fiddly, but in a fun way. I enjoy how clean everything is, like a real tube/metro map.
The coke-snorting microgame makes me laugh every time, I love it. It's a shame the audio came out so compressed though, considering the rock star theme.
Messing with the debug is such a great idea, if a lot twitchier than I'd prefer. You're given a whole lot of variables off the bat, but then the experimentation is also fun.
I dig the grimy, 80s analogue style of this. It took me a fraction to work out what the movement controls were. If there's a run or push button, it'd be that much more engaging~
Oh man, I love Tetris Attack! Playing it on keyboard is a bit fiddly (or maybe I'm a tad rusty) but all the basic strategies still work like a charm.
Adding in enemies is a nice way to freshen things up, locked blocks are frustrating in just the right way (I wish killing an enemy released all the blocks it locked, though).
The concept is really cool, but I found the tank controls to be awkward, making stages a little harder than need-be. Having a swing to your weapon instead of a stab would be both a little easier to use, and more thematically appropriate for a reaper~
The light effects are really pretty, but the hitboxes on the fireflies feels way too small. I think having the different colours be different instrument notes or different shapes would both add variety and be a nice concession for the colourblind (though I can see the latter not mattering once enough are on screen).
The style of this is great, and it has a damn funny premise.
It feels a little off that the characters don't turn away from the screen when moving upward, the punching felt a little clunky (If you were able to cancel the end of the animation into moving/jumping it would feel so much tighter), and that all the thugs were black felt kinda... unpleasant.
It took a bit of random guessing to work out my aims, but it became a decent game of planning the best cards to use. It could be an even better game if the results of winning and losing weren't random - there's a lot of strategy in planning what cards you can afford to sacrifice.
The idea was really solid, but for a game this text-heavy, proof-reading is essential. The message was good, but it made the choices before feel false. I think having an implication of what you would say at the mask select screens would make playing feel less like guesswork.
Ah, this is very touching. I really like your interpretation of the theme and the idea of it being a music video. I also like that the messages you shoot down reflect the main line of text, but since those messages are both positive and negative, it muddies the idea of shooting down the negative vibes to retain sanity.
Ah, that was really cute, and beautiful to look at. If there were actual musical refrains for the bits of inspiration you find, that would be absolutely magical.
Wow, this is incredibly polished! Once you get going staying better than competitive with your stats is easy enough, and the incidental dialogue is really cute. I don't think I could bear to get a bad ending in this game!
I really like how syrupy cute this is, and the really clean pixel art. I'm reminded of Kirby in many ways, or at least Lololo and Lalala.
Oh man this is some serious Ren'Py mastery - I definitely respect the behind-the-scenes working you'd have to do to make this work.
I am all for queer relationships and I'm all for monster people, so those are definitely boxes checked.
Also:
YOOOOO when the drum beat kicked in I've not had that kind of feeling since Porpentine's 'All I Want Is For All Of My Friends To Become Insanely Powerful'. Great job~
(Phil Here) Fun little game! Really impressive that you managed to do all this in such a short time. Ruined my finger clicking though :(
The jumping physics were really off, so even though you can jump far enough to make it, it really doesn't feel like you can. The Dragon Quest-style static-y walking noise is cute, but it needs a jumping sound to match!
Yesss I'm loving that pulsing cyberpunk beat. I like that as you keep playing you learn the map, and can start taking turns without focusing so hard. Pretty devious that going to the wrong endpoint also kills you~
I threw an average party, but that's good enough for me. Some of the choices feel like they exist more as guesswork than things I could have genuinely puzzled out, but I don't begrudge that too badly.
I am reminded strongly of Catherine. Which is a pretty goddamn great thing to be reminded of. I know the feelings of long-distance relationships all too well - I'm kinda glad that my decisions lead to a positive ending as a result.
The musical vignettes are cool, but maybe a little loud and don't quite match in tone.
Thanks for making this!
Funky. Controls were intuitive and you can definitely form a strategy on how to handle the invasion. It's a shame the camera is zoomed out for much of it, the dancing aliens are totally rad.
I wasn't expecting to be reminded of the randomised maps in Dragon Warrior Monsters, or, later on, the glitched-out maps in MegaMan Starforce 3. The music was really cute the first time then hard to stand after that. =(
Oh man, that's a really depressing survival mode! I like that the pilot and mission control banter as you play. The paralax scrolling and gentle movement of the floating islands worked great.
Controlling the ship felt natural, but it was a bit unclear about the rules of picking up items and laying turrets.
It took a while for the best joke to appear, but it was definitely worth looping through tech support a whole bunch to get it.
Graphically, I really like the skeumorphism you have going - all realistic textures, but /just/ stylized enough to not feel out of place. The music choice is really good too.
I think the overall experience could be improved if the "It's been an hour since..." increased every time that message came up, and if the background shifted to evening lighting as you kept playing. Thanks for making this!
Liaising with aliens turns out to be pretty fun! The designs are all really solid, and I love the washed-out 60s tech aesthetic. I totally get why you did a rebalanced post-jam version - combat is pretty frantic and confusing at first glance.
Even if coding isn't your strong point, you've made a very solid game! I love the style, and even with no instructions, I quickly worked out how to play. I'll definitely play a post-jam version if you continue with this!
I can never commit to cookie-clicker type games, but I can see people getting super into this. All it needs is the ability for different users to pool their resources together and you have a meta political drama waiting to happen.
I loved the style and gentle mood, and I always love it when I game has dynamic music tracks. Thanks for making this!
That you can solve a request without hearing the problem is a little jarring - maybe let the player click through their request until you can give them the item.
Also (and this is a more minor nitpick) in windowed mode the mouse movement's a lot faster than the camera, so it's too easy to accidentally click outside the window.
Oh man, there's a whole bunch of stuff here I had no idea you could do in Twine! This is really technically impressive.
The spaceventure was super engaging, but upon finding an ending, it seems to boot me to a menu that will take me to other random (and slightly contextless) endings. Hm.
While the theme is seriously tenuous, it was a cute game to try.
It took a little meandering to get what the aim was, but it's a cool game concept. Some of the news items you discover are a bit vague in what they're trying to convey, though.
"I miss not being angry. I miss smiling."
...Holy shit, that cuts deep.
As metaphors into race relations go, this is really well handled; and the art is super pretty. It seems the code for summoning sprites is broken (Most scenes after the first had no character sprites, and the sizes of characters was a bit inconsistent), but they're easy fixes.
Definitely come back to this and polish things, you have a wonderful game in the works here.
Ahh, I do love the attention to detail, and how straight up personal this is.
The text de-synchs just a liiittle bit halfway, but the conversation (as one-sided as it was) was so engaging I'm surprised I noticed.
Ah, this was super cute (and a good deal more challenging than I expected)!
Auugh, the control system is smart but so imprecise and frustrating. I think what broke me was managing to finally progress a screen, then a random click interacts in a way I don't expect, and I'm bounced back down a screen again.
The aesthetics though? Really nice and solid.
Shit starts out real, then gets increasingly more real as time goes on. The text effects were fuckin' excellent and eerie (it's a shame Twine isn't great at playing music on cue, that would make the drug sequences phenomenal).
I very much respect the personal angle - that kind of thing is hard to write without self-consciousness. I really empathised.
Thanks a bunch for making this, you should be chuffed.
The game runs a little weirdly for me - the Web version lags a lot and the Windows download will crash and reload after you make a move.
Still, even in the laggy web version, the game's beautiful to look at and listen too. The neon-on-black, the organ dirge, and the classically-rendered Atlus Dong are all perfect.
Dating shoes are already kinda creepy, so having ethereal music laid on top was wonderfully appropriate. In a way, it'd be good if you didn't know which response belonged to whom until the ending; but considering the, um, disparate speech styles, there's not much can be done about that.
Went with Tranzton, tho. Fuck yeah Tranzton.
I really enjoyed the music, and the frantic (but not overwhelming) combat, even if the sword is only useful/mandatory against one enemy.
Having one of the characters/bosses be a dreadlocked black guy who says nothing except how much weed he smokes is a really lazy and unfunny stereotype, especially since it has nothing to do with the rest of the game.
The idea is absolutely incredible, if at times a touch fiddly in execution. The subtle changes in background hum with the different realities was particularly nice.
It's a neat system that takes a few plays to really 'get' how things work. The units that buff allies are incredibly strong, and I didn't do a good job of keeping them alive the first time I played, heh.
I dig the premise! And I always love me a bit of Twine. The colour choice is definitely appropriate for the concept, but I think subtle changes in BG and font colour (which you can do in Twine on a room-by-room basis) would do wonders for both making the switches between perspectives clearer, and make the changes in scene more immersive. Keep experimenting!
It's a bit of a clunky system, but it's a really neat idea. While you're told that 'balance' is a win condition, it initially feels super vague as to what you should be aiming for, instead of trial-and-erroring.
The character design is really nice, and the technical tricks you've made with Ren'Py really show. I haven't tried the itch.io version yet, but I'm certain the extra polish you've put in goes a long way.
That sweet, sweet Katamari feelin', yo.
It took me a while to get into this, but when it clicked I really enjoyed shuffling around the areas and then making everything fit into place. What I initially thought was a lazy naming convention turned into a big puzzle, which really impressed me!
The dynamic soundtrack was a sweet touch.
Your Y co-ordinates are backwards, though... I had to spend time re-adjusting the pieces after my first arrangement made no sense. :v
Ah, I do love cute romance stories. I'm not sure if I'm feeling the design decision to have both characters look at the 'camera' (Usually you choose to either look through the eyes of the protag or have the characters look at each other).
I think you needed another, more sombre music tracks, since the upbeat music kinda made the more heartfelt parts fall flat, but overall it was an enjoyable story!
Keep experimenting with Ren'Py functions (I'd say look into how to move characters around the screen and changing the look of the textbox as your next steps), and you'll be a pro in no time. Thanks for making this!
I love that underneath the soft aesthetics, the commentary is incredibly sharp-toothed. I particularly like how you used the nature of Twine branching stories and that the player was likely to play through again to work in the theme.
That story... was not really fleshed out as well as it could have been. While I have no issues with a text-only game design, I don't think you made the best use of Ren'Py for it - I was expecting a lot more play with text style and positioning to make use of the huge game window.
Have you considered using Twine? It's great for interactive and kinetic fiction like this.
(Phil here) Cleverly written, interesting little game. It was fun while it lasted, but I felt like the endings I got weren't so much endings. I feel they left too much unsaid, if that makes any sense.
Cool design though, keep it up!
Oh man, the passive beeping noises that aren't your keystrokes are incredibly irritating. With the right backing music (especially considering the source material), it could a weirdly hypnotic game.
I think you fell afoul of having goals larger than time could allow. The idea is a good one, but it might have been more manageable if you chose a single school scenario (like say, kids getting lunch at the cafeteria). And as with any dialogue-heavy game, proofreading is essential.
I appreciate the Persona influences, though.
It's always a shame when text-based entries have unfinished dead ends. Sometimes narrowing your scope and revising your story so what you /do/ have comes to a functional conclusion is the best option, even if it's not your initial vision.
It's funny, while the characters (and myself?) are not explained in detail, the sex of characters involved reads really clearly. I'm reminded of Pippin Barr's Hot Coffee, where it turned out that writing erotica or sexual metaphors without clearly attributing sex is actually pretty hard.
I love that you can end the scene on a blank page. It's something that I never considered for a Twine game and it just- /works/, you feel me? Great job.
Christ this game is cute. I love the narration and sarcastic back-chat. I like that there's a signal when you're near to something you can interact with, but I think an audio cue for when you successfully collect it would convey things better.
Thanks a bunch for making this! Hopefully we'll see you guys at the next jam~
I don't suppose you're a fan of the MegaMan Battle Network games, eh? This is an awesome game to play with two people, and an amusing nightmare to play solo. I like the different attacks everyone gets, too.
To nitpick, while I get that your attacks lock you in place, it feels cruel that Franco's attack has the longest animation, but also tends to have the most attackers on his side.
The technical level of the road is really great, and you do a good job of getting the car to respond to the shifts in height, but... the feel is really off.
It's a whole bunch of little things that add up - The background scrolls waaaay too fast when you turn, so you feel like you're driving in circles, rather than making progress. The car has no sound or graphical effects when turning, so it feels floaty, especially on the hard corners (which is a shame, because otherwise the car handles really well). The music choice too, feels very light and pressure-free, which doesn't fit a convertible burning rubber down a space road at all - I was expecting some Perturbator up in there.
You have some rad framework here; go and give this some more tweaks, and it'll be really fun to play!
Oh man, I really see the potential in this (and I'm very intrigued about you building this in Unity, as someone who uses Ren'Py). It's a shame that the narrative arc doesn't tie up a little better before the game ends, even if it wouldn't be how the full story is supposed to end.
I really like the character art, but the way you've filtered the backgrounds really doesn't work for me - it's a little too blurry and indistinct.
In terms of interface, button clicks, (definitely with buying and consuming items) would benefit from an audio cue so you know you've clicked on it properly. Clicking outside of the inventory or shop window should probably close it - I was clicking on the 'go to map' button on a few different occasions wondering why it wasn't working.
I'd love to play an extended version of this! Keep at it.
That ending was uh, a little on-the-nose. A good payoff to your setup, though.
It takes a few waves to get the feel for this game, but frantically dashing back and forth and mashing the punch keys to rotate the pulley is a lot of fun.
Combat would feel a little less sticky if you could attack while in the air, and part of me wants the choice of fist to determine which way you rotate the pulley, though.
Oh man, that was beautiful - the music was especially engaging and haunting. I'll definitely play through a few more times and find some other endings.
I am reminded just a touch of I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream, which is def. a cool thing to be reminded of.
Oh my god, I'm getting some intense Ghost Trick vibes here, and I couldn't be happier.
This plays like a dream, but if I was to suggest anything it would be a little more consistency to what you can interact with in Ghost Mode - all the switches are in red and that makes sense, but I fell the electrical sockets should be too.
Thanks for making this! It was real cute.
(Phil here) Others have commented on the fact that it would be really interesting to see where you'd go if you had the time to develop more levels! I really enjoyed the concept and despite a few minor oddities it's very well executed.
The whole game was eerily silent, though :(
You do a great job at delivering the tone you wanted, and the sound effects for transformation (and movement) are very effective!
But as you keep transforming (and getting lost) the effect wears off some. A lot of walk-abouts keep things quite directed so you can keep up the pace/tension, I think.
A straight-forward idea executed really well. I think the way you've got the arrow keys the wrong way around, though. Or at least my brain was working in straight opposite to how I wanted to rotate the level!
A very tight concept - I can see the polish you've put into this!
I think a fun way to take this further is for an attack to still come out if you've made at least one Hit in a rotation without missing, but what you turn into changes based on how many Hits and Misses you got.
Ooooh, this was really neat. At first, because some of the hotspots become inert once they stop being relevant but not others, I was scared I might have gotten myself stuck!
The style is super atmospheric and the script well written, though it needs proofreading in a few places. An excellent entry!
It took me a handful of tries to 'get' what I had to do, but once I did (Ohhh I had to click to transform?), I was getting super into it!
The combination of the movement physics and the sound effects made getting around feel really graceful, contrasting a lot with the staccato feeling of attackin' dudes.
I really love the visual style of this game! Though with a dance that funky, it seemed a shame that the music really didn't match and had a loop so short.
If you want to return to this no longer beholden to not using outside assets, definitely find some hip hop, or some vogue beats to set this to!
You had me at the decision to call the frog Freddo. Christ.
I am amused that another entry is also a comedy detective noir leaning on the 20s slang; though your use is much broader and consistent than my own.
There might be an issue with event flagging? I talked to everyone before I spoke to Sailor Jerry (I didn't realise I could click on the sewer pipe) and so his dialogue made a lot less sense in places.
The game looks really nice, though it's a bit fiddly to play. I notice there isn't any mercy invincibility if you get hit, so I found that if I ever took any damage, I would generally get hit again or fall into something else and die.
Oh man, this was adorable, and really vibrant. It's surprisingly enjoyable to watch the mundane lives of these characters. I'm getting a strong Magical Diary influence?
I think to take this game further, some dialogue choices would be a great idea. They don't need to branch the story off, just offer some alternate lines of dialogue. Keep at it!
A really nice progression of mechanics and difficulty! Really relaxing to play, too.
Some of the sprites were a little unclear as to what they were due to the size (I didn't clock that it was a frog totem/transformation until the story said so), and I would personally have the entry and exit portals as different colours, just to make things a touch more intuitive.
I entirely love this game from the title art alone. Look at that jiggle! Daaaaaaymn.
When it comes to playing it, I find that changing shapes is really sluggish, but I can entirely believe that's my computer being not-very-good.
Both the art style and the writing reminds me a lot of 90s MTV cartoons, and I very much appreciate that.
I speak almost no French, so I had to ask a friend to explain parts of the dialogue. It's a really bleak story! The fears and concerns of the girls feel very believable, but my friend felt that them all being so down felt a bit frustrating, especially when you're trying to help.
The art and GUI is absolutely amazing, and the music fits well. I really look forward to seeing an English version!
Really complete and well-executed! It took me a moment to get the 'logic' of the game down (why can't I get into the shower as the cat, or just dump the salt directly on the slug?) but once I got into your mindset it played really smoothly.
The music and graphics worked great together, but the jokes were sometimes hit and miss. The absurdity of the premise is hilarious; Marlo being really bitter about his wife (for seemingly no reason?) is less so.
This is such a cool concept for a game, but it really feels like the kind of game that would benefit from a hint system. I understand enough coding logic and python syntax to get /what/ I should be doing, but not how. =(
Even if the hints were written elsewhere instead of in the game proper (so as not to break narrative), I think that would be an excellent finishing touch.
I always appreciate some good wordplay; and this game really sells it.
Well, he seems to be transforming things for free, but still.
I would love to see a more advanced version of this game where you can also add a catalyst that changes the 'rule' of the shapeshift. The guy who wants a fish comes back, but you've already used up your gold ingot. Luckily you have some mold and some Rhyming Powder...
Very finely-tuned mechanics (I take it you're a Magic: the Gathering fan) but at the behest of giving things much polish.
That said, if you now took this further to give the graphics a coat of paint and add music and sounds, this could really shine!
The style of the graphics is really nice - clean and desaturated. I was not expecting jumping to be that dramatic!
While I get that the shape shifting being subtle was part of the challenge, telling those poses apart was actually kind of hard for me! I think I would have preferred them changing body shape (taller/shorter/fatter/thinner) or colour.
Really tightly-designed and intuitive to play. I am not fully sold on some of the plot reveals (Particularly the 'Z' in AMAZIN - that felt really out of left field), but I'm gonna love any game that lets me play as a butterfly. =)
Vibrant and cute! The choice of music was really good; puzzle games like this need rather driving music to keep the energy up.
Very solid and well polished action puzzle game, great job! Really meaty sound effects, too.
If I was to suggest an improvement, I wonder why it's those specific shapeshifts? How did this spaceman learn how to become a frog? It could be a really funny backstory!
Oh man, I love this game! Squishing and stretching all the animal parts is intuitive, and way more robust than I expected. I wasn't expecting to be able to turn a greyhound into a rabbit but the end result was remarkable! Fantastic job.
While I like the idea, I think it's marred a bit by how fiddly the controls and physics are.
I enjoyed making the baby moonwalk, though.
I really love the concept! It feels like a robust Rhythm Heaven (or Rhythm Doctor) stage. My computer was lagging/dropping inputs a lot (I guess there are quite a few moving pieces) making it harder to play, but I still enjoyed tapping out all of the rhythms.
The concept is super interesting! But I can see why the scope of the idea made finishing it really difficult. I love the polaroid graphic showing you the identities available. The character design is cute too, they remind me of the Russian doll characters in Stacking.
The way the controls are designed is somewhat awkward - I would have assumed that the WASD movement would be camera-relative, not mouse position-relative. Depending on how tricky you wanted the stealth elements to be, simpler controls might be a good idea.
I immediately thought of Sonic and Sega All Stars Racing Transformed's rapid switching between car, boat and plane. The super bright and chunky visuals do wonders.
The engine noise I really wasn't a fan of, though. From what I played the sections of each type are the same length every time - maybe a way to take this further would be switching tracks of music alongside each transformation~
A really cute first entry! That working on it has already given you ideas of how to take things further is great - I'm sure your next Game Jam will be a knockout!
Hey, a mystery visual novel buddy!
Your game is really robust! A lot of dialogue and a really strong mechanic (I am yet to use menus like your transformation menu in my own work, so I'm super impressed).
The characters are bold and interesting, and I like that you've used both colour and font to denote their voice, but be careful about readability. Some of those fonts aren't very clear, and white text is easily lost against the textbox background.
I don't seem to be able to save? I get why you might implement that as an anti-cheating measure, but for a long work like this, I might want to take a break! Maybe a checkpoint system would be a good idea?
I was unsure how I felt until I saw a dragon in a top hat, which made me laugh way harder than I had expected. AMAZING CHOICE.
Your sense of absurd humour is good, but I think the writing could flow a little better (a little bit of proofreading helps a lot!). Having your characters on screen emote a bit more can also do wonders in making the story easier to follow and breathe a little more life into them.
The idea of combat via dialogue is interesting, but I'm not sure if it's framed in the best way. That the tutorial combat somehow makes less sense than the combat that follows doesn't help.
The graphical effects are nice; you managed to convey different personalities from just basic silhouette well (though how the eyes and mouths are done feels out of place).
A good first shot, though!
WHO'S CRYING?! I'M NOT CRYING YOU'RE CRYING
For real tho, I really enjoyed that. I love twists and retellings of fairy tales, and the way the story is slowly rewritten is wonderful. I also really like the heavy blurring between the physical heart and the metaphorical one.
Super great job!
You definitely committed to the joke!
It's great to see this in the submissions after following you making it at Mad Lab.
I died enough where starting from the beginning was not something I liked, but I made it to the end! The music is great, and I am a big fan of the Yellow Sentry's design! Simple and cool.
Mechanically really solid, though I don't think I'm a fan of using emoticons in dialogue that. More than anything else, watching a hunger meter drop to 0 when you can't do anything about it is weirdly distressing.
The graphics and music implementation is really great! The gameplay is simple and tight, though it's actually pretty hard to judge jumping over things.
Also, when compared to other rhythm games (in particular Audiosurf), failing upon a single mistake and having to start over is quickly frustrating. You want to at least hear the whole song!
The style of your game is excellent! That pop art, pulp novel style is very eye-catching and well-drawn.
But for a story-driven game, it was rather hard to follow in places. That made it much harder to choose the 'right' answer at some choices. With some good proofreading and a bit of editing this will really sparkle!
At first I wondered what the relation between my keys and the shape-shifting was, but then I realised why a 360 gamepad was the recommended choice.
It's really intuitive otherwise, and the monster designs are really cute!