jonmerrin

Every 10 seconds life by aDeCon 2022-10-17T17:09:08Z ♥ 2

This was very nice to play through. It also had a great, unified visual style about it, with nice scene transitions. I also appreciated interpreting the theme of the jam as part of the story for the game rather than being present in gameplay, and the story itself was simple and sweet. None of the mini games were too deep, but they felt like a good vehicle for the story. I also appreciated the simple changes made to increase the difficulty of the games as you went on. That was nicely done!

My one technical note was that not all the minigames lock the movement controls, so I'll be playing a game and walking around at the same time. But other than that, it played very smoothly!

Well done, congratulations!

The Curse of the Four Towers by Mateu 2022-10-17T00:40:11Z ♥ 1

Hey! Great game! It was visually stunning. Had to play with the volume off, so I won't review the audio, but it was really fun!

Some feedback: I had to refresh the page a couple of times before I actually got past the loading screen, too. It took me a bit to understand that the goal actually included destroying the towers rather than just surviving. I also wish I knew what the green dots did. I assumed they were health, but even just a single-screen tutorial of "This is what the things on screen are/mean" would have helped without being intrusive. Finally, I would've liked some indication that the world was about to switch before it did. I think that's more of a design choice, if you want to keep it sudden like that, but I think even some visual warping/flashing/something a second in advance wouldn't give me much more time to react, but a bunch more time to build anticipation.

But that's me trying to do constructive criticism. The game was super fun, and I cannot stress enough how pretty it was. The majority of it was clear, intuitive, and fun to jump right into and try and try again. Really great job!

Jumprope by djd123456 2022-10-09T18:26:30Z ♥ 1

This was a short, sweet, and compact experience. I really enjoyed it, and I agree with others that it first started feeling more frantic as it sped up, but then I realized it was sort of getting easier. I experimented a bunch with how low down the rope should be before jumping and noticed that the line just got higher as the rope sped up. I don't necessarily think that's a bad thing, but if you wanted to do away with it, you could add a negative condition for if you jump too late. It could be a cooldown on jumping, adding a second rope that comes not too long afterward so you need to jump in succession, or maybe just make it move fast enough that it comes back around quickly.

I also agree with everything @aristurtle said, and I also jumped before the rope started moving to see if anything would happen and got punished for it. Maybe add a conditional in the function changes your score that checks if the game has started yet? Or in the function that performs the jump to keep you from jumping before the rope starts moving? Just some ideas.

Digital Bacon's Every 10 Seconds by digital bacon 2022-10-08T05:21:58Z ♥ 1

Hey! Kudos! This is awesome. As a dev from another team that went the roguelike-deckbuilder route, I'm super impressed that you did all this solo. You really have the whole card system in there. It's easy to see where it was going and how much of it you managed to accomplish. This is amazing, and you should be really proud.

One thing I didn't understand was health... I didn't see where my health was being indicated, and at some point I realized I wasn't really afraid of dying. I brute forced my way through and won. It was fun, but I wish I understood what was going on a bit better. I did spam the health things for a while, did I maybe build up an excess?

Aside from that, I feel like this is a great foundation. As people have said: the store, some visual indicators, etc. would fill out the game really nicely, but you've got a strong start. Really great job and congratulations!

Night of the Spook by dxk2294 2022-10-08T05:00:53Z ♥ 2

To echo what so many others have said, wow you managed to do a lot!! That's an amazing number of assets, great variability among the enemies, which each have their own characteristics. That's an awesome amount of content, and that's not even counting the huge and detailed map I was just running around! That's awesome!

There's so much to love here. Music/sound effects are on-point. Regular progression with randomized buffs. Tower defense style turrets. The feeling of fighting off an inevitable loss. I enjoyed lining up the hordes of enemies in time for the blaster to mow them all down and watch that XP pile in. Overall a really polished entry with just a *ton* of stuff to shoot and look at. Really great job!

My one problem was I was playing the web version, so take this with a grain of salt, but sometimes my cursor would move through the screen like it was pushing through molasses. It was a very weird sort of half-lag that made it hard to aim in time. In terms of actual gameplay, I might've liked a little bit more to do. 9/10 seconds my only action really is running away. Having more pickups or more frequent turret drops would give me some more goals to achieve during my surprisingly long 9 seconds of down-time.

Congratulations on a job well done!

The Hardly Fair by pegasys 2022-10-08T02:18:23Z ♥ 2

Good stuff! Really funny, fun world you set up there. I liked the frantic nature of it when I started, but once I got the hang of it I could play without any fear of losing. Really great job on the atmosphere.

One note is that I couldn't figure out how to pop the balloon the first couple of times I played. I got it right by accident once, and then it was fine. Also, I wish that the game kept pace with my skill increase. Not necessarily giving me less time, that would make some tasks impossible, but some kind of difficulty curve would keep me engaged for longer. That said, I did get up to 130 points, so I guess it kept me engaged for quite a while! 😄

Great job!

Forest of the Lost by MartensCedric 2022-10-08T00:22:51Z ♥ 1

Hey! Fun game, fun concept, and great job doing a story game in a jam! That's tough. I felt sometimes that the hitboxes for the monsters was generous to the monsters, when I feel they should be generous to the player (allow for a slim margin of error). Aside from that, I thought it was really nice!

Rockatoo by AdamCYounis 2022-10-08T00:08:08Z ♥ 0

Hey, great game! I love rhythm games, they're one of my favorite genres. The art for this game is stunning, the bird is really cool and really cute at the same time and I love the stylization. The actions were funny and dramatic, and I liked that the symbols for the rhythm game were the actions that the bird then immediately did. Something about that was funny to me. It was neat that you didn't use the default arrow keys, but it still felt really intuitive. The "do anything" spaces were a nice touch too, that was fun and cool!

The music was also fantastic, as was the timing of the beats, and the game felt so responsive. I was surprised at how smooth it got, usually rhythm games let you give your own input lag offset, but I didn't feel I needed one here.

My one real note is that the extra poses that fall from above were hard to see and hard to understand. They were partially cut off on my screen, so I couldn't see them clearly, and I was so focused on where the notes were coming from, I didn't notice them at first and didn't understand why my combo kept breaking. Even once I did notice them, it took me a while to understand what I had to do to hit those notes in time. Maybe a little more information on them in the tutorial would have helped.

Also, I saw someone else already pointed it out, but when you try to replay it, there's no music or notes.

Overall, really great game! It felt really polished and complete and I had a ton of fun playing it! One of my favorites of the jam so far!

Thirsty Vampire by mcmuniz 2022-10-07T23:47:50Z ♥ 2

Really fun! I think you nailed the ambiance, between the music and aesthetic. I liked that all the people were wearing bags over their heads. A funny look and it made me feel less bad for eating them! I also liked the sound of the indication that you found someone compatible. That was really helpful for me playing on O mode trying to spam q on everyone I saw.

I agree with @fribolin that refilling the full 10 seconds would make it feel more fair, though it may make it too easy (especially on AB mode, it would just be a people-eating simulator!). I feel like different ways of making it difficult would make the game feel more fair, even just obstacles.

The Bear's Drunken Adventure by crbotnari 2022-10-07T23:30:04Z ♥ 1

Congrats on getting this in! It looks really nice, and has a fair bit of platforming in it! Like the others, I would've liked some kind of ending. Also didn't realize I could double jump until after I'd beaten the game. I really liked the theming, bear traps as enemies was a nice touch!

I don't know how the engine you used works, but you may want to look into having one way colliders on the top of the platforms and using a separate foot collider for the bottoms of the bear's feet. That way you can have Ted only responds to the platforms when his foot hits them (instead of sticking to it from the side and being able to jump again). Also the walk animation made Ted dribble a little, I'm not sure what was causing that.

Overall, solid submission and really great job!

10 second pAIrer by binaryDiv 2022-10-07T23:09:36Z ♥ 1

This was really funny! Personally couldn't get over the literal train. My friend who works at the Department of Transportation just started dating someone else from the Department of Transportation and it was too perfect not to send to them.

Really fun, really enjoyable, and the connections were just tenuous enough for me to be unsure of what to pick, but understanding when I saw the answer. The art felt really appropriate for the humor and scope of the game, and the time limit definitely added an element of chaos that I think it really needed. I'm not sure if I have any notes, it felt like a pretty complete package. More characters are always nice, but you already have a good bit of variation! Well done!

edit: Also, changing the soundtrack per location was a nice touch!

Wizard Heist by TheHansinator 2022-10-07T20:11:52Z ♥ 2

I loved almost everything about this! Before I give any constructive criticism, I want you to know that I played until I escaped with all 5 treasures, so I did really enjoy myself.

The sounds, visuals, even gameplay are *extremely* reminiscent of the old classic 8-bit style. I think you captured it perfectly. Even the funny looking character you play as. Really really nice. The game was responsive, clear, to the point. I liked the ambiance, I enjoyed searching the map for the treasures, really really good.

I have two notes: the first is that I wasn't sure exactly how this fits in with the theme. I didn't notice a timer, and I don't think the wizard appeared every 10 seconds for me. The second is that the wizard was REALLY hard to escape once you were in a room with him. On the one hand, that's exactly what I'd expect from a tile-dungeon-exploration game from the 8-bit era, I can think of several examples of games that do this. On the other, there might be some room for some innovation there, giving the player a little bit more agency over the situation. That way when I got too close to the wizard, I'd try until the last second rather than throwing my hands up in defeat. I don't know if that's actually necessary, but I would've appreciated it.

Great job and great game!

Pizza Time!!! by real_flamingicecubegames 2022-10-07T19:56:47Z ♥ 2

@last-angle I also really enjoyed the dark humor. Something about the flippancy with the deadly aspects of the game was really fun. The tutorial was great, both in presentation and just helpfulness. I tried to play once without the tutorial and was totally lost, but having the tutorial as a new-employee-orientation-video sort of thing was great for immersion and it really did teach me how to play!

Like others have said before, some pizza restaurant background music would help a lot with the ambiance. Also, needing to constantly flip between the pizza making screen and the pizza delivering screen felt like a UX pain-point. But the game itself was fun, humorous, and a fun take on the theme! The shock humor of the giant monster thing devouring the corpses of the customers also got me really well, I think you guys handled the humor masterfully.

Also appreciated the diversity in the customers. Nice representation :)

Dice Against Time by Rowdy3 2022-10-07T15:02:07Z ♥ 1

Hey! This was great. Really polished, seemingly bug free, and well put together. I liked the idea of using the dice to overcome obstacles, and I especially liked the extra die you got every 10 seconds. It made me feel like there was a measure of strategy on top of what was otherwise random die throwing. The visuals were great and the UI was super intuitive. Really great job!

I think I agree with Blaster about making the consumable dice permanent, with a single use per round. That would've encouraged me to pick them over an extra die sometimes, which on my second playthrough I realized I never wanted to do. Making them permanent gives the game a sort of deckbuilding aspect to it that I think would compliment the luck part really nicely.

I often got stuck without the dice to use to pass an obstacle and nothing to do about it, so I just had to take the extra time penalty. That's a bit unsatisfying when it's neither my fault and I can't do anything about it. Maybe some sort of incremental progress, or more ways to affect your dice, might help.

Overall, really nice job, and really well put together! You should be really proud of this!

Birdwatching by Iguanana 2022-10-07T05:48:07Z ♥ 2

I enjoyed this! Very zen, learn some bird facts, fits the theme. The music really grew on me too! I got the same bird a few times in a row, though, maybe something to prevent that from happening would be nice, like a list of recently seen birds so you know what not to repeat. Good job!

Face the Weird Worms! by Brovovar 2022-10-07T03:28:46Z ♥ 1

"I have a gun in my backyard!" Classic.

Really funny, great ambiance. Well done! I did wish I could move backwards, and one of the starts of the levels felt like a trap (the one where you're in a tight room with people). Good job overall, incredible job making a game engine. Really nice!

Just In Time ! by Heine Hohenhart 2022-10-07T03:08:53Z ♥ 1

Greetings from the other Justin Time game! This was super fun! It took me a couple of tries to not immediately lose, but once I got the hang of it, I had a really good time! I love tower defenses, and I liked the switching between two styles of gameplay. Each side on its own was simple, but splitting your brain between the two was very engaging! Also the art was great, I'm really impressed you filled out the scenery so nicely in so little time!

My main feedback would be that you can die too easily at the start. I had to keep replaying the game so I could have enough time to figure out where to go to make the towers and that the towers only shoot in their lanes. Also, once I'd fully upgraded the towers, I'd essentially won since nothing could get to them anymore, but the game kept going.

I had a lot of fun with it once I got the hang of it, and thinking about where I should place the character so I could maximize my time on the next phase was really fun! Great job!

It's Snake, But Every 10 Seconds The Food Turns Into Walls by Aristurtle 2022-10-07T02:00:51Z ♥ 2

This game is absolutely brilliant. Love the concept, love how it ties into the theme, and most of all, I love the tension of trying to go for just one more before the time runs out. The background and loading screens are simple but beautifully animated, the dots pulse with the music, everything is so well put together. Really great job.

One note I have is that it's not super responsive when trying to do rapid turns (like pressing up then right too quickly). I might suggest trying some sort of input buffering, so that when someone makes a move in a legal sequence, even if the second move isn't legal quite yet, you could still execute it so the user doesn't feel like the game isn't doing what they tell it to.

Awesome game, awesome job!

Death Factory by Cataractar 2022-10-07T01:43:33Z ♥ 2

Mwahahaha, Cthulu has fallen! I'm the Eldritch Lord now! Bow before me!

This was neat. Took me forever to get started... some indication of which panel could be pulled off would have been great. Or something to tell me to click there. I kept trying to click on the panel with a bent corner, but that didn't fall until the crowbar. But I liked the puzzles, it was bite-sized but satisfying. Really fun, good job! Edit: Also, nice job on the art!

RogueDungeon: A Deck Builder by thedude3600 2022-10-07T01:28:46Z ♥ 1

This was super fun! My team also went with a roguelike deckbuilder, so it's nice to see someone else going down that route! I love the blocked movement mechanic, it's a really fun and intuitive input system. I immediately knew what the cards were and what they did, and the whole thing really clicked into place. I love the idea of a roguelike dungeon crawler real-time-ishness crossed with deckbuilding. Gives me vibes of Crypt of the Necrodancer, maybe crossed with the combat from the Mega Man Battle Network series (which has a combination of real-time combat with turn based card play). I think the visuals were very satisfying for a jam and conveyed everything really clearly, but if you were to build out the level generation/art/polish stuff, I think you have a really strong foundation for a publishable game!

Some notes I think would help: * Having more than 1 of each tile in the starting deck. As is, you guarantee that your band is always the same until you add cards. For me, I felt that was incentive not to add any cards to my hand, because no cards were better than the cards I was already using and adding cards meant less access to potions or the exact direction I need. Sure, moving left twice was strong, but not worth it if I couldn't access my potion in time to survive an enemy. * Having more variation in cards. I know easier said than done, but having the cards you pick up be better than base cards is what makes me want to risk diluting the deck. A double-move in one direction, for example, might make me willing to add enough rope to my deck to hang myself with. * Either a nerfed heal or ways to add to max health. The +5 health potion was a great get-out-of-jail free card, but assuming I never added more than 4 cards to my deck (so that I'd get the potion roughly every other round), I could survive any fight. This might also be a good opportunity for easy card variation, where your base heal is 2 or 3 and a heal that you can find is 4 or 5. * I walked onto some spikes for fun and found that it let me discover a card before disappearing. I'm not against this as a mechanic, it reminds me of the Binding of Isaac rooms that let you trade health for items, but it wasn't clear if this was intentional. If you want to keep this feature, I'd make it clearer that it's supposed to happen. * A goal/something to work towards would be nice. My game is missing that too, but I do feel like it's good motivation to come back when you lose.

All in all, I really enjoyed it. That sort of rhythm and fast acting thinking is hard to capture and you did a great job!

FifteenRooms by DurkaGames 2022-10-05T16:22:26Z ♥ 2

Hey! Cool game! I liked the visual style. Like @sagiii I also tried all the possibilities for the chest code, but kicked myself when I saw it. I should've gotten that!

I would've liked it if the character walked a little faster. Also, the dialogue text got jumbled sometimes, I wasn't sure if that was a bug or a feature. All in all, great job, nice use of the theme, and way to go!

Tones of Singularity by marianpekar 2022-10-05T15:59:44Z ♥ 1

I like the aesthetic a lot, and I always enjoy musical theming mixed with gameplay. The cursor movement was a little extreme on my computer, which made it hard to aim at times, and I wish I could adjust my trajectory a little in air. A bit of coyote time would have been nice too, to avoid the feeling of "But I jumped!" when you fall off a ledge (https://www.giantbomb.com/coyote-time/3015-9701/).

Not Late, Or Early by ShaunShepherd 2022-10-05T03:09:41Z ♥ 1

Truth be told, I'm not sure I understood the timer... I always got an x regardless of how many boxes I filled in the timer, and I never got a game over. That said, the pixel art is very cute and I like the concept. Overall, really nice job!

ANIMAL HOLE by ben_throop 2022-10-05T01:58:55Z ♥ 1

Wow, what a pick-me-up. Really funny!

Forgetful Despot by taikinaaa 2022-10-05T01:26:04Z ♥ 1

I agree with Sohei, this was a cute idea and the screenshot is fun!