J Loy

Toucan's Revenge by AfroAnt 2020-10-06T00:37:56Z

I really dug this one! Very distinctive style, and I love riddles. The riddles in this one struck a nice balance between not-obvious and yet not-bonkers.

The one that gave me the most trouble was actually the second. There are multiple rooms with objects that seem like they SHOULD fit the riddle. I initially thought I had it when I found the chocolate pie, but then it was wrong and it was actually the room with keylime pie. That felt bad.

And that's when I found out what happens when you fail a riddle. You have to replay the ones (presumably in the set-of-5) you already got. Riddles aren't... replayable. So just going through the motion of recompleting the levels is busy work. The only way that could be fixed is if prior the riddles were remixed on death a bit but otherwise it's just better to restart the one you failed immediately.

Pip's Journey by JemSmith 2020-10-05T22:36:28Z

Cute game! Did encounter a bug as I was figuring out the bridge puzzle tho, had to restart. Placed a boulder on the far end of it (I was trying to set it in the bridge to close the gap) and the rook couldn't pick it back up when I later discovered that I needed wood for it.

The dialog is a nice touch, the beginning was a bit confusing though, think there's room for improving the player's (and by extension, Pip's) context to start with. What was the deal with the knight who charged ahead with Pip? And that's the same Knight you party up with later right?

When I beat the game and it immediately restarted to the beginning I assumed there was going to be some narrative twist on 'New Game+', to tie in with the Theme. But no it just restarted. An end screen with a 'Thanks For Playing' message or the like could've spared me that (perhaps unfair) assumption. That said I don't think this game ties strongly into the theme of the jam, I can get what you were going for but I think there needed to a bit more narrative set up to establish a status quo loop for Pip to break out of.

TALLY MARKS by de3sol 2020-10-05T22:59:19Z

A stellar little puzzler! Loved the aesthetics, very nice audio and visual polish to sell the mood. The flavor text helped too.

I did find the camera controls being bound to the cursor keys while the attack was tied to the mouse frustrating. I died more than once because I got mixed up switching my right hand between the two on short notice (particularly in the level where droids spawn after you break those tube things). I would suggest fixed camera angles, controlling the camera with the mouse (such as hold down right click and drag), or binding the attack to the keyboard.

I mainly suggest fixed camera angles because it could help with aiming throws. The free rotation doesn't really serve the gameplay much (though when I first got the prompt to rotate the camera I was pleasantly surprise), but I got a little frustrated when my camera angle was slightly askew and I had to throw something precisely. Sticking to 45/90 degree notches to suit the player's controls could do well.

Hammy the Hamster by FlyingKiwi 2020-10-06T01:00:22Z

Really cute visuals, and moving the hamster wheel around and between platforms feels good!

Unfortunately I think the the camera could do with some work to improve the enjoyability of actually navigating the levels. The hamster+wheel take up a lot of the screen's space and the camera simply following it doesn't leave much space for crucial gameplay information, like platforms and the rock. Takes a few inevitably fruitless tries just to get a clear mental map of the later levels.

Amusement Shark by No Grapes Games 2020-10-06T00:08:46Z

Very cute and appealing, nice variety of levels too, very impressive amount of content for a jam!

Will say I didn't find myself without a finger on the boost the entire time, though. I think some of the following could've helped make more interesting micro-decisions while playing: -Momentum in movement that you'd have to counter act to keep steady -A boost-gauge that depletes and refill

An emphasized momentum based movement would require whole new levels probably done from scratch so really I think making the speed boost a resource you have to manage would be the go-to lil improvement I'd suggest.

M4LL0's Journey by Plutonium Powered 2020-10-06T01:33:19Z

Pretty appealing lil game. Positively adorable. The core gameplay doesn't have much going on for it, though. Just trial-and-error with nothing engaging between errors. Can pick up the speed boosts but a few obstacles before the end of a segment could help. Also asteroids can block the correct exit and that feels really bad, having to east a hit. And when you do the smoke particles from damage heavily obscure your view towards the top side of the screen, which taken together with the necessary hit(s) just feels unfair.

Just Another Day by Chaoseiro 2020-10-05T23:29:23Z

A quirky little point-and-click, depicting a big mood in these times.

Figuring out what goes where was a bit of a headscratcher, but a few times veered into the bad kind of headscratching rather than the delighted. There was some delightful interactions don't get me wrong (my favorite was the engine), but I think it would feel a lot better if you didn't just drop an item you were carrying when you click a wrong piece of the environment. Instead A lil error sound effect + maybe a visual wobble of the carried item would feel a lot better instead of continuously dropping and picking the item back up as you test the different nodes.

Also I tried to apply the hammer to the dishes multiple days but it kept not working until like the fourth. Also some of the items weren't clear to me initially, the tie in particular I didn't 'get' until the dog started a day at the desk.