Mateu

Deep Dive by mhorth 2025-04-10T03:41:07Z ♥ 2

I think this game was executed extremely well! Although the graphics are not the craziest thing in the world, the style works very well for the type of game you're going for. The stickman was a great choice, as it gives you a lot of freedom to make it expressive without having to try and make a complicated model. I loved way you got creative with the types of tricks you could do, and some of them were really fun to pull off. The sound effects were also a great addition, as they made the game even more humorous and light hearted.

I think the main issue I had with the game was the depth system. I think it came down to it not being super intuitive for which heights and angles would go to which depths. It kinda seemed like you would just have to memorize the optimal jump speed vs angle ratio for each pool height, which doesn't seem all that engaging. Perhaps if you showed the player's falling speed and angle in relation to the pool, it might be easier to make an intuitive guess as to where you're going to end up (depth wise). The other (not as problematic) thing was the fact that I couldn't really look at the player to see the tricks, because I had to keep my eyes focused on the button combos. One suggestion would be to place the combos around the player, that way you can see both at the same time?

Anyways, great job! This was definitely an ambitious project and I'm glad to see the vision come to reality!

(Below is my high score for the random pool depth. In this case the depth was no floor)

Screenshot 2025-04-09 203358.png

Devour by ScoobySnacks 2025-04-10T03:21:24Z ♥ 1

I clicked on this game because I thought the cover art looked cool, and I was definitely not disappointed! You started with a pretty creative premise and made it a really fun little experience. The visuals and audio were great and I think you really did a nice job with the mood. The gameplay is a little bit lacking, but it doesn't detract from the experience at all, and I still had a great time playing. Great job!

Record Depth by Indiealesha 2025-04-10T03:13:57Z ♥ 1

Wow I don't know what I was expecting, but this was really hilarious. The first time the swimmer started digging into the ground was so unexpected that I got really close to laughing out loud (which is pretty impressive for any game tbh). I guess the biggest thing I could ask for is some actual gameplay. Currently the game is pretty funny, but there's just not much to do except for clicking and holding the mouse button. Regardless, nice job!

Depths of the Void by EZduzzit 2025-04-09T19:19:56Z ♥ 1

This was a really cool premise for a turn based space game. I liked the aesthetics of the game, and I think you got the atmosphere down pretty well. For me, I think one issue was the lack of depth to the gameplay. It seemed like you just had to fire and hope you got lucky with the accuracy. Either you do that, or you get really close and then you're just trading hitpoints with the pirates, which also wasn't super satisfying to do. I think if you fleshed out the main gameplay loop and gave the player more control over their actions, that would make the game even better!

Insect Racing League by mhorth 2024-10-09T19:45:16Z ♥ 1

As always, your submissions are always extremely impressive, both technically and experientially. Everything you put together like the splines, flight controller, maps, and menu/UI goes together very nicely and is very seamless. The flight controller is really good and makes it so much fun to fly around and try to figure out the physics of the game. Everything has a very polished feel that makes it fun to fly around and try to beat your own times.

I think the best thing is the addition of the previous best time and WR time being displayed. It makes it so much more fun to try to beat my times when I know what I am going up against.

There's not that much more to say without being overly nitpicky. Awesome job this time!

Tiny Beast Hunter by neowhoru 2024-10-09T19:30:31Z ♥ 0

You've got a pretty nice concept for a game here, and I could see this being improved with a bit of work. The first thing I would change is the alt to suck, because I only have a left alt key and it's sorta hard to press while moving around. It would have also been nice to see the enemies react to the suction, and make that a fundamental part of the game. Currently, there is enemy variety but they are all defeated in the same way which leaves some room for improvement. The art looks very nice and for the most part everything feels pretty responsive. Also the music and sound remind me of retro 8 bit games, which definitely fits the aesthetic of this game.

Overall nice job! (Also we both used suction mechanics in our games which I think is kinda funny)

SHIPWHACKED by deadjolly 2024-10-09T04:19:25Z ♥ 2

This was an awesome game! You did so many things super well, namely the scale of the monster vs the the humans, the models of all the ships/helicopters, and the overall polish of the game. Occasionally it was hard to see in 3D space where the helicopters were, but it wasn't that big of a deal. Some indications of why I was losing health would have also been nice, like maybe some additional sound effects or more obvious hit indicators. Other than that this is a really awesome game and I enjoyed playing it!

Micro Wars by Zyppi 2024-10-08T22:24:18Z ♥ 2

Conceptually this is a really great game. The idea behind it is great and the core gameplay mechanic is really cool. I really enjoyed the physics behind the player controller, and moving around inside the cell is a great idea. The only thing is that the execution in some parts felt a bit lacking, most notably the explanations for the player and the framerate issues. It seems you linked your motion with Time.deltaTime rather than Time.fixedDeltaTime, so when the framerate goes down you start to slow down a lot. This seems pretty unfair, as the framerate drops substantially when there are a lot of enemies chasing you. Also, some visual indication that the red blobs are bad to eat and the green ones are good would have been helpful for me. Overall though, great concept and pretty decent execution!

Tiny Summoner by Dovodx 2024-04-29T17:25:21Z ♥ 1

Wow I was really impressed with this game! It was a lot of fun to play, and had a gameplay loop that worked really well to keep me engaged for a decently long time. This game reminds me a lot of Vampire Survivors, which is a good thing if that's what you were going for.

I'd say the next step would be to work on the audio and visuals, but I think the game being really fun more than compensates for that. Awesome work!

Clone fest by Tori 2024-04-19T19:07:08Z ♥ 4

Critiques first then compliments: The biggest problem is the controls. This game is really frustrating to control unless you know how the clones are spawned. However, since there's no explanation, it's really difficult. It was only until I read your comment that explains the controls that I could actually enjoy the game more. I feel like the clones should be the central mechanic, but if you know how to double jump, then it really is just another platformer with a double jump that's disguised as something else. Also, even though I was playing on the desktop version, the background was jittering a lot. There was also a constant sound that sounded like it was coming from the clones running, but it was very grating on my ears.

As far as the game goes, I loved the art style, the story was a lot of fun, the SFX and music was pretty good, and the idea behind the core mechanic was great. I just think it could have been executed a bit better.

Great entry!

Alchemess by SlickRamen 2024-04-19T18:49:31Z ♥ 3

There's a lot of really cool stuff here, as well as a lot of potential. I really like the core of the game, where you have to use the imps to get around. It was also really cool how they had a lot of different abilities for different situations. My biggest critique is of course that it was very unfinished. I thought I was gonna have to learn how to make a bunch of different potions but the game suddenly ended, which was a little sad. Other than that, I'd agree with some people that the controls could use some work. Great work on this game!

Meowpheus by ffffchai 2023-10-07T05:26:17Z ♥ 0

Hmmmm this one was really interesting. On one hand, it had one of the most brilliant mechanics I've seen for a bullet hell game, but on the other hand, it just wasn't balanced very well (in my opinion). I think the bosses should have had a fraction of the health. I'm not sure if I was doing something wrong, but it took me three minutes to beat the first boss - that was with charging my shots, using powerups, and doing my best to avoid getting hit. I think it really just needs some balancing, but the gameplay speaks for itself. This concept is wonderful. The risk/reward of shooting but then limiting your space is just genius.

The art/music is also great too :)

roadtrip by caryoscelus 2023-10-07T05:07:20Z ♥ 0

This is a cool idea, but like other people have said, it doesn't really have any goal or anything like that. I really enjoy the mood and the hand drawn graphics though, that adds a nice little flair to it!

How many sheep can you fit? by Manuel Magalhães 2023-10-07T05:02:23Z ♥ 1

This was quite a nice game! Interesting take on the theme, charming, and all around very playable. There were a few gameplay gripes I had, especially with the controls, but that's honestly something that could be ironed out pretty easily.

(I did get all 32 sheep in the pen btw)

Great job!

Aeris by Loka 2023-10-03T04:19:23Z ♥ 2

This was an awesome submission! I really enjoyed how everything seemed to work together to complete the puzzles. I'm gonna be honest, I couldn't beat it. I got past the third screen with the fire, but after that I kept getting stuck and having to restart which just wasn't fun. I'd say everything was done really well except for maybe the fire.

Regardless, this was still an excellent entry. Great work!

On The Edge by mhorth 2023-10-03T02:51:05Z ♥ 1

Wow, this was quite the ambitious project. Lots of stuff going on here, some of it's really good, and some of it could just use some work. I'd say the only thing missing is the lack of polishing. There were some things like the lack of light in the beginning or just in general knowing where to go that resulted in me waving my mouse around like crazy and clicking. I think you nailed the atmosphere. All the sound effects were super great, and I loved the comedic intro going into the super serious game. That was really funny. The puzzles were also pretty satisfying to complete, it was just really difficult to know what to do next. Again, you always amaze me with how ambitious your projects are, and even though this one could use some polishing, I still think it's definitely a great addition to your collection of games!

Western Fury by AlpalcaLad 2023-05-05T04:54:03Z ♥ 1

Omg this was amazing. I loved it so much! Like genuinely this is the most fun I've had playing a game jam game so far. The cutscenes were on point, the slow motion was great, and the physics were great. There were some things that were a little janky, especially regarding the physics objects and damaging and stuff like that, but I can easily look past that. After a while, even the art started to look really good. All I have to say is you did such a good job on this! It was so much fun to play.

Flooding Fisherman by JoaoPBax 2023-05-05T04:33:08Z ♥ 4

As everybody has already said, the art style is really good. I loved the premise of fishing, that was also pretty awesome. However, I struggled to understand the mechanics. I didn't have a problem catching fish and people and stuff, but when it came to the rocks in my way I really had no clue what to do. There wasn't much of an explanation that told you how to do anything. I also wasn't really sure what my goal was or what to do with the people and fish once they were on my boat. It was a bit confusing.

It was still a really awesome submission though, so great job!

EDIT: just realized you wrote down in the description on the LD page the different uses of the rods. Apparently I didn't read far enough to see that. I don't really know if that's my fault or not... generally I think a game should be able to explain itself without the need for an explanation outside the game.

Solar Sandwiches by Guardaro 2023-05-05T04:13:55Z ♥ 2

This was a whole lot of fun! I was drawn into the game by the artstyle, which was done very well, and stayed cause of the leaderboard. I didn't do very good, but that's okay. My only critiques are what other people have said. The game just feels way too out of control. I know I have control of the rocket, but dang it just does not feel nice to control it with how slippery it is. I also hated when my rocket would go offscreen and I just had to wait to die. I wish I died when I hit the edge of the screen. Other than that, great job!

Dear Yekate by ohfacts 2023-05-05T04:02:50Z ♥ 0

This was pretty neat. I was a little bit confused as to what was happening, but it was still a fun little experience, especially the intro and ending cutscenes.

Beat Boxes by PonyGirlLuna 2023-05-05T02:31:01Z ♥ 1

I had a whopping score of -150 on my first try 😎 43,880 on my second try 44,390 on my third try

Honestly this was a really fun game! The graphics look great, the music is fits well (even if you didn't make it), and everything just feels good together. The controls are very responsive which is nice as well.

The only problem I had was the fact that although they were responsive, they felt quite janky. For a rhythm game, this is an extremely important aspect that can not be overlooked. Luckily it wasn't enough to ruin my enjoyment of the game, but definitely something to watch out for next time.

Oh also that stupid bridge/interlude part was way too hard. The rest of the song in comparison was a cake walk

Overall great entry!

Hooked on Data by Notorious Frogs 2023-05-05T02:13:00Z ♥ 1

I tried really hard but damn this game was just really difficult. The grappling controls and depth perception kinda threw my off which was unfortunate, because the vibe of the game was super cool. It has a really cool synthwave atmosphere that lends itself very well to this type of game. I think it has a lot of potential, but there are just some things that don't lend itself to being very friendly to the player.

Man with a Van by kankje 2023-05-05T01:57:55Z ♥ 3

This was actually so cool, but honestly a little bit hard for me. I was trying to frantically plan out the most optimal routes while my time on the boxes was ticking down and people were getting angry. It was a little bit stressful, I think mostly because the map was so big that I couldn't really see where some of the packages were going. Very difficult to plan a route when you don't know where the box is supposed to go. The graphics and sound were really good, I especially liked the water lol. Did you write that shader yourself?

Anyways, great job and a really cool concept!

Egg Panic by RobLaro 2023-05-04T19:19:41Z ♥ 2

This was actually so good! I am super impressed by this. The audio, sfx, graphics, and gameplay all flow together so well. The controls also felt fantastic. Whatever you did there worked sooo well. I really don't have any criticisms for it at all, only suggestions.

What if you utilized the egg throwing/smashing mechanic and made the eggs you throw and miss an obstacle? Or what if the chickens can also destroy the eggs that are on the ground, which would make it more intense and force you to try to get the eggs much faster rather than the only priority being dodging the chickens. Really there are a lot of stuff you can do to make the gameplay a little more nuanced, which I think would serve it well.

This was a great game and I loved the Link Between Worlds gameplay, but with extra steps!

Westwick Street by niz 2023-05-04T19:05:28Z ♥ 1

Honestly this was really cool, but I have a major problem and that was the fact that I really didn't know why I would die sometimes. I read the comments and stuff and apparently stepping on the sticks had something to do with it, and I'm imagining running around also had something to do with it too. Unfortunately, when I played I had no idea that this was the case. If there was a better indicator or your noise level, or even just some explanation saying what you're supposed to avoid other than a very generic text at the beginning saying to be quiet, that could have been nice.

Anyways, the mood of this was fantastic. There were some parts, especially during my first attempts where it was genuinely really creepy. The music and sound effects seemed to fit extremely well and really sold the experience for me. I think if you fixed the gameplay issues I had, this could be quite a cool game jam game!

Love at First Slice by Dan Allison 2023-05-03T19:13:45Z ♥ 1

This was really great honestly. The story was a lot of fun, and the gameplay did a pretty good job to pace it out. You had some really good humor there, and everything was very well put together. I only have one question... Did I get friendzoned at the end?

Parcel Pursuit by bloodyaugust 2023-05-02T19:03:04Z ♥ 2

Great job on the game! Everything is so cohesive and looks really nice together. The UI is fantastic, and the transitions between the main menu, game over, and game are spot on. The only problem I had was with the double jump. It was very annoying to get the timing of it and it led to me getting hit quite a few times when I felt I shouldn't. Other than that, amazing job!

Darby's Delivery Service by tvyas 2023-05-02T01:33:59Z ♥ 1

This was a neat little game. Pretty simple gameplay concept, but it works pretty well. At first it was a bit confusing to figure out which letter went to what box, but as I played more it became clearer. The one thing I was very confused about though was what I was supposed to do to beat the game. Was there a certain amount of letters? At one point the score at the top was over 60 and nothing was happening.

Anyways, pretty cute game. Decently fun for a little bit.

Punchline Crunchtime by Jack Sims 2023-05-02T01:20:01Z ♥ 2

This might be the funniest game jam game I've ever played. That intro genuinely put a smile on my face. The boss character was really funny. The jokes in that intro definitely *delivered*...

Anyways I loved this! And it's great too because it's short enough that it doesn't overstay it's welcome. Fantastic job

Boxed Out by freakyzelga 2023-05-01T23:39:01Z ♥ 2

This was a nice little game! There's a lot that's really good about it. The atmosphere is really cool and I love the art style. If I had to give some constructive criticism, there are three things I would change. 1) Make the hitboxes slightly bigger 2) Create a countdown before you start playing so you can plan out a path before you start 3) I really really really loved the way the background art looked and wanted to be in that world. I feel like it would be so cool if I was actually moving around the city.

Anyways, great job on your game!

RIP: Ridiculously Injury Prone by theArtifacts 2023-05-01T23:26:20Z ♥ 1

I definitely agree with a lot of what the other comments are saying. This has the potential to be a pretty fun rage game. There's a lot going for it. I especially like how there's a very clear goal to get towards. It's funny, because normally you wouldn't think an inverted camera controller would be very fun to play with, but the strange controls actually add to the game a lot. If the controls were really easy I don't think it would have been as fun. I didn't have a problem with the sensitivity because I can change the dpi on my mouse very easily, but I can see how somebody else might have problems with that.

Anyways, the biggest problem was the lack of control I felt I had. Other than standing on the grass right next to the road, there wasn't much I could do to avoid obstacles. I was either too slow, they came from behind, or I just straight up couldn't see them until it was too late.

Also there were a few times I somehow ended up on top of a house or was in the sky really, really high up.

Definitely some potential here and was a pretty fun experience overall! Screenshot 2023-05-01 172522.png

Cyber Shapes by mhorth 2023-01-13T02:29:44Z ♥ 1

There's a lot of ideas here, some of which I think work fantastically, and others which fall a little bit short. To be honest, I don't have a whole lot of criticism to make about this, so I'll just say them first. I think the only minor downfall is how the game "feels". I don't know if I can describe this super well, but some things, especially some of the upgrades felt slightly unpolished. Notably, I'm talking about the speed upgrade in which I felt out of control at times. Other times, trying to harvest enemies felt very tedious. The pulse enemies were difficult to harvest because of their pulse, it was very difficult to get to the shooting enemies, etc. It's a really cool mechanic, but I just wish it was slightly more impactful for all the effort it took.

That's about it as far as criticisms go. Anything negative I have to say could easily be fixed with more time.

The awesome thing about this game is how cohesive it feels. Everything feels like it belongs which is a super amazing thing to accomplish. All the upgrades were (mostly) useful and each served a purpose in surviving longer. The entire concept of waiting for upgrades is an amazingly smart way to create play control. Everything I did felt very fair and I never felt like the game was punishing me for my own actions. As always, the visuals look superb. You're really starting to figure out this style that you have, and it's super neat. It works very well with the synthwave vibe your game is going for.

Suggestions: (If you want to refine this in the future) I think some of the upgrades were underwhelming. This could have been in the way they were visually/audibly presented, but I feel like they could have done more at points. The ones I'm talking about are the regeneration and hitscan (Regen could give you a glowing green ring around you or something idk). Mostly though, I just felt like there could have been a huge variety of upgrades (possibly some that even harm each other to pick?). I perfectly understand that this wouldn't have been feasible given the amount of time you had, but the possibilities are pretty limitless when it comes to upgrades. If you continued to work on this, a more unique visual style would be good to separate yourself from geometry wars. Inspiration is great, but if it was its own thing I would want something more defined as its own.

I could probably say more but I can't think of anything off the top of my head as I haven't played for a few days haha...

Overall really fantastic job. Out of all your game jam games, this one is by far the most fun. Aesthetically, some of the others do a better job, but you really hit this one out of the ball park! Can't wait to participate alongside you in the next jam!

Justin Time: Man of the Hour by applecore555 2022-10-18T17:15:41Z ♥ 2

Omg yes this was soooo good! I was a little bit hesitant at first, because I didn't really think I was a card/turn based type of person, but this is executed really well in a fast paced manner, and I really think it just goes above and beyond what is required from a card game. Everything flows smoothly, doesn't feel confusing to play, and just overall is really fun. Using time as a resource really requires you to make quick decisions have fast reactions.

If I had to give you a critique, I would say that the gameplay gets a bit stale a bit too quickly (or maybe I just played for too long). After the first few rounds I understood how the game worked, and from there I had no challenges defeating the enemies. After a certain point I got to the 76 round level and just decided to quit, because quite frankly that is way too much time to play the game I felt I already mastered. Honestly though, this is probably a good problem to have, because it means that you have a good foundation for your game, and it just needs to be expanded upon. Another thing is that some audio and visual feedback would have been nice. The time indicator in the center was super small so it was sometimes difficult to see the impact my cards were having on the timer. Some SFX like error sounds when you try to do something you can't or success sounds would have been nice.

These problems are pretty minor overall though, and you have a really fantastic game here! Congrats!

The Hardly Fair by pegasys 2022-10-10T16:59:53Z ♥ 2

I think you did some things really well here. The atmosphere/concept is really cool. The idea of being in a circus trying to go quickly to the next act is super fun and I really enjoyed that part. The sound effects are really good, and the creepy voice is pretty cool as well. I think where this game struggles a little bit is in the controls/replayability. I made it to a score of like 65 before I got bored and just stopped playing. After a certain point, there is just no reason to continue playing because you've done everything. Granted, I had a lot of fun playing it at the beginning, so I think that makes up for it. What I'm saying is having some sort of win condition would be nice, and then anybody who wants to shoot for a highscore could do that. Overall very nice job!

Lost Depths by Ventuscaclium 2022-10-10T05:10:41Z ♥ 3

I have lots to say about this game. Some of it's good, some of it is not so good. I want to preface this by saying I do not want you to think that I disliked your game, or that it was somehow bad. On the contrary, this is one of the most ambitious, awesome projects I have seen, but with a few major problems I think get in the way of making it something amazing.

I'll first start with the good. Your atmosphere in this game is unrivaled. I've played a lot of game jam games, and I don't think I've found any that are quite like this. Somehow you manage to capture a haunting, lonely, terrifying feeling from such a simple concept. The fear of the ocean/exploration/unknown is something that is so hauntingly scary and you do a wonderful job of capturing that here. Everything is so immersive, whether that be through the display indicators, the radar, the submarine light, or being inside the submarine.

The scale of your game is absolutely massive. The map feels endless, and the cities are so cool. I love how the underwater city just blends into the environment and works so well to make the game feel natural. The radar really compliments the game as well. It's a really cool concept to only be able to know what's around you every 10 seconds. It's quite unnerving to think you know where you're going, but only for sure once the radar light turns on.

As far as some of the bad things go, direction and control are major flaws I think this game suffers from. I'll talk about each individually.

Having complicated controls is not a bad thing in video games. In fact, in can be quite rewarding to master a complex control scheme. Unfortunately, in this case complex is not good. Most things felt clunky, if not outright bad to control. Specifically, accelerating and decelerating, resetting, and turning left and right. When accelerating, you would have to press space to go in the direction you were facing. When decelerating, rather than stopping, there would be a force applied in the opposite direction of your accelerating (I think?). This made me quit using the deceleration feature and only reset to stop. When I was turning left or right, I felt like the roll should not have changed, and yet it did. I would have to compensate by turning while rolling, which was very uncomfortable. When I was first playing, I assumed you needed to navigate through the underwater cities, which led me to crash into many things because I thought I could fit. Controls being easy to pick up in a game jam game is essential. If a player does not feel like they can control the game, they are going to quit rather quickly.

As far as direction goes, I am not referring to the actual direction of travel, but rather the player's sense of "what am I supposed to do?". I felt that there was very little in the game to tell you what to do except for "go find treasure". On my first attempt at playing, I was trying to get acclimated to the controls which pretty much resulted in my flying around into nothingness. I reset the game and on my second attempt all I did was traverse the closest structures to you. I had no clue what I was supposed to be looking for other than "treasure". On my third attempt, I finally thought to myself, "the radar feature is pretty prominent, maybe I should actually attempt to use it", which led to me discovering a cave and finding the treasure.

I ended up getting 3/10 treasures on that attempt, after about half an hour of playing. (I never found the monster).

With all that being said, do not be discouraged at all by what I have to say. The fact is, I'm writing so much about this because I see a lot of potential in this. The mood, audio, and visuals are phenomenal but the game design and fun are very much lacking. When it comes to game jams, the most important thing is to have a quick hook and easy to understand gameplay. I'm definitely not one to talk, and struggle from this a lot myself as well, but I feel like it's such an important thing that often gets overlooked. (Congrats on being my longest comment ever, I maxed the character limit)

The Forgotten Crawler by wolderado 2022-10-07T01:50:17Z ♥ 1

Wow this is so good! There is so much crammed into this little game, and it's honestly so impressive. I only did one ending, (good 2/4) but the fact that you managed to cram four into this is so awesome. The world really did feel like it was changing around you which added a lot to the intensity. The graphics are very nice. Everything felt super cohesive and looked good. I only have 3 minor gripes. 1. Backtracking was super confusing. Lots of the rooms looked pretty similar, especially when the world was falling apart. Having a distinguishing feature per room would have been nice (which, yeah you did do. Trees, lava, water, sewer, etc.) It still felt confusing, but maybe it was just me. 2. The lack of audio was kinda disappointing, but considering you did this by yourself and intended it to be a compo, it's completely forgivable. You managed to put a ton of stuff into this, so I wouldn't worry too much about something like that. 3. The HUD was way too big. It obscured at least 1/3 of the screen, which I don't really think is acceptable. Luckily it didn't take away from the experience, but if I was playing the web version, it might have been pretty bad.

Those were only very minor gripes, and when I have to get nitpicky you know you did a wonderful job. Also, I loved the humor of the NPC's. They were so self aware, had references to other games, and in general were just super funny.

Great game. This is super impressive!

Beat Survivor by pndaa 2022-10-05T17:48:06Z ♥ 2

Wow this was sooo good! Very glad I played this :) There were so many good things about this. The gameplay was really smooth, the visuals (even though simple) worked pretty well to convey the point of the gameplay, and the audio was pretty decent. There are a few minor gripes that I'll talk about, but don't take this too harshly because the game was super fun to play in general. I would have liked to see the theme being incorporated more. Every 10 seconds enemies spawned, which I didn't think was very creative. The only time I ever messed up on the timing of the shooting was after the upgrades menu disappeared. This was a little bit annoying, because even though you gave a timer, it still felt unfair when I would lose my combo. I would have liked to hear some other sound effects, such as damage or something similar. It was really hard to tell when I was taking damage. Last thing, but I would have rather had less upgrades that felt more impactful. It was very easy to get to the next upgrade which I felt hindered the flow of gameplay. If you made the upgrades more powerful, but less of them I think this would not have been an issue. Overall wonderful game. It was super fun to play and I really enjoyed my time with it!

Esgobert's Escapade by Martoow 2022-10-05T01:20:01Z ♥ 3

This has some good stuff going for it. Visually, it looked very nice. The environment change was also really pleasing to look at. Unfortunately I think the gameplay left a bit to be desired. The whole concept of running around fighting enemies and changing your environment is super awesome, but there was no goal except to survive as long as possible, which usually just meant running around for a while while shooting back at enemies. Also, some audio would have been nice but of course it's a game jam game so that can be excused. Overall very nice job. I very much enjoyed the graphics and I think you have a really cool concept going for you!

Game Name by Strega 2022-10-04T04:44:02Z ♥ 5

Yooooo this was so amazing!!! This concept was so good I can't even describe it. I got like a 4.75 overall score at the end =D There's not much criticism I can give. Usually I have lots to say, but the fact that I'm not really speaks a lot. The only problem I had was that by the end of the game some of the minigames were getting a bit stale, but really that's not a huge problem. Everything was fantastic, wonderful job!

Also, was that a rickroll you snuck in there??

Hourglass by WooshDUde 2022-10-04T04:22:03Z ♥ 1

This was a cool concept and I think with a bit of work it could be a super awesome game. The concept of going forward in time was pretty neat, and I think if you leaned into that more, you would be getting somewhere. Unfortunately right now it was very hard to tell what was going to happen after the 10 seconds were up, which left me wishing for some indicators or something like that. The audio and visuals were decent and the controls were relatively good. Good job on this entry :)

Escape the Island by john-wuller 2022-10-04T02:11:19Z ♥ 0

This was a nice entry. It has quite a bit going for it. The entire concept of the world getting more destroyed as you go collect items to fix your helicopter was cool. I really liked when you would have to build while running, there was definitely some fun to be had there. My biggest concern though was the graphics. To me they didn't feel very cohesive, and it felt like lots of different models and animations were put in the game from a variety of different sources. Overall though, this was pretty decent.

Gravity Run by Jonas Michael 2022-10-04T02:00:02Z ♥ 4

This was a super simple take on the theme, but it works really well. I think with a bunch of polish this could actually be a really awesome game! I would have loved to see different types of environment changes that force me to change up my playstyle, but I think two is a good starting point. Wasn't expecting too much based on the visuals, but I guess you can't judge a book by its cover.

Pancake Simulator by alec 2022-10-04T01:52:45Z ♥ 1

This was super creative! It was such a small game, but you delivered so well! I will say though, that it was quite difficult. I believe the best I did was around 80 on each pancake. Everything works really well together. The art, sounds, and gameplay are very cohesive. There's not much bad to say about this except for the fact that I do not know how the theme is incorporated at all. That's kinda a minor gripe though. Great job!

10 Seconds, 9 Lives by Joe Bevis 2022-10-03T21:50:18Z ♥ 5

This was pretty nice. I like the PICO-8 style! The theme was pretty simple, but it works well. I loved when the cat would sleep, that was a pretty funny addition. Unfortunately I wasn't a huge fan of the gameplay. The controls were a bit too floaty for my style, and the difficulty scaling after a certain point made it impossible to get any further. As far as a concept for an arcade game goes, this one is really cool and with some polish (and heavily leaning into the )this could actually be a decently fun turn-off-your-brain game.

Terminal Velocity by mhorth 2022-10-03T21:34:39Z ♥ 1

As always a super solid entry! The graphics look really good, the audio does a great job at making the gameplay cohesive and understandable, and you have a pretty good gameplay loop. There are a few games that this reminds me of, I just can't think of the name of them. I love the use of online leaderboards. They really add a lot in terms of replayability.

My biggest gripe with the game is the difficulty scaling. It's super easy for a few minutes and then it suddenly gets noticeably more difficult with the addition of more obstacles. Sometimes it's too hard to see what's coming up which is also frustrating, as it makes it feel like I wasn't in control of when I got slowed down. Once you do get to the more difficult part, it doesn't get any more difficult, so then it just becomes a test to see if your reaction time is fast enough.

I definitely like the take on the theme, even if it is a bit loose, and I can tell there was a lot of effort put into this. Great job!

Lava Run by BlueDingo 2022-04-20T23:18:32Z ♥ 1

This is a very simple concept, and it's done decently. There were some things that I would have liked to see, like you said already, a more prominent lava wall, and maybe some more interesting lighting effects. It's still got a ways to go, but this is a pretty good start!

100 Seconds to Midnight by Substain 2022-04-20T23:03:21Z ♥ 2

This reminds me a lot of the mobile game "Reigns". For a game jam game, I think you did a pretty good job and it's cool that you have something this complicated that was finished. My only problem is that this game is almost *exactly* Reigns. The plot is a lot different, but gameplay wise it's really not. That's not to say that this is a bad game, I just would've liked something a little bit more unique. Anyways, what I did play I enjoyed and I think you did a pretty good job (setting aside my one little gripe).

Inevitable Slap by Jacinto Mba 2022-04-20T22:55:35Z ♥ 1

lol this is pretty funny. Using a relevant situation in a game jam game is a great way to do something like that. Although the gameplay wasn't all that engaging, I think your humor makes up for it. Great idea, not so great execution, but still fun anyways.

The Witch's Curse by clue 2022-04-20T22:49:34Z ♥ 1

This was a really unique take on the theme, and I thought it was pretty great. The whole idea was really unique, and knowing the rule set was pretty cool. I got to a score of 17. I don't think that's super great, but it was still fun nonetheless. I have an interesting idea: What if the characters said some unique stuff when they were conversing, I think it would not only make the gameplay more interesting, but also serve as a distraction from the game. (Obviously this is out of scope for the limited time of the jam, but I just thought of it and wanted to share). Great game though, I quite liked this one.

Crushed by Holtzzy223 2022-04-20T22:40:56Z ♥ 1

This one was quite great! The concept was super simple, very well executed, and very well thought out. Tbh I'm not really sure how people got such high scores. I could only get up to like 1300. Anyways, the only *real* critique I had is that restarting the game took too long. Going up the hill the first time was cool, but doing it multiple times when I had to restart was a pain. Great game though! I really enjoyed.

Elephant In The Room by kylerhoades 2022-04-08T03:26:47Z ♥ 0

This was a really cool concept. I really liked the AI talking about things, that was awesome. (I wonder how you did it). Even though there wasn't all that much of a game, it was still pretty cool. The only problem I found was that you could get super high scores by just typing jibberish like "cool bananas are the cats that when they and go to" etc. etc. The mice would just talk about whatever for a long time. Still, neat idea and decent execution!

Delayed Destruction by Imaginary 2022-04-08T03:19:38Z ♥ 1

This one was a cute game. The mechanics were pretty simple and worked well with the theme. The premise was also really great. (My poor house :() Anyways, some things could definitely be polished, specifically the player controls and the gameplay. I wish it had been a little bit more in-depth than just pushing the bulldozer back. Great job!

Lava Hop by BarelyEvenGames 2022-04-07T03:45:59Z ♥ 1

Honestly this is a lot more fun than I thought it would be. It's so simple yet so satisfying to try to go for a higher score. Your video really explained all the mechanics, and they make perfect sense and work so well in execution. As of right now my best is 239, but I think I'll try for higher. At one point I had 18 seconds on the clock. If I *had* to give you any feedback it would be that the music does get a little bit repetitive, but really that's not that big of a deal. Fantastic job!

Hymenoptera King by Skleembof 2022-04-07T03:27:44Z ♥ 2

This is really cool! Your idea is spot on, and the world felt really lively. The music complimented it nicely. I think your game suffers from two things: the first being the amount of bugs. Sometimes it just felt really confusing as to why things would happen. And the second is the controls. I had to read the ld page, which isn't the worst thing in the world, but the fact that there were so many controls to remember didn't help. Anyways, if you could get those few things fixed up, this is honestly a really great submission.

The Assessment by Okamit 2022-04-07T01:17:59Z ♥ 2

If a masterpiece of a game jam game exists, this is it. Almost everything is perfect. The games are all creative and unique, the theme is great, and the whole premise is spot on. Was there an ending? I couldn't tell. I just died.

Now, the most important thing: your audio. Holy crap this was fantastic. Seriously felt like I was watching a movie at times. This was fantastic, and I congratulate you for your game!

Precious Sleep by mhm32167 2022-04-07T00:52:27Z ♥ 3

This one was very well executed. Honestly, the only real critique I have is that I wasn't quite sure how the scoring worked. Sometimes I would survive a really long time and think I was doing really well but not get a great score. That's about it. Other than that I like the art and overall vibe the game gave me.

Fire Escape by Dj Depressive 2022-04-07T00:20:32Z ♥ 3

This one was a really funny one! Running away from your boss is always a pretty comedic concept. Oh, and the fact that he destroys everything in his path is the cherry on top. The voice lines are also pretty funny (albeit a bit repetitive). Like somebody above said, there's not much in terms of the mechanics, and it doesn't really get much more difficult as the game progresses. However, I could 100% see this as a full release on steam or something. It would be a really fun game. Great job!

Out of Breath by raptor851 2022-04-06T23:13:44Z ♥ 1

This was a really good take on the theme. I quite liked this one. It took me two attempts to beat it. The only thing that confused me was using blood as "oil". That was strange. Other than that, everything was pretty logical and it was fun to explore the ship. Sure, the hitboxes were a bit wack, that that was a very minor problem for me. The fade out animation was also pretty good and it did make me feel like oxygen was running out. Also, why the heck was there a dead person in the vents?

Elbativeni by Kiddy 2022-04-06T22:59:12Z ♥ 1

Wow this was a really creative game. I loved how the monster was inevitable backwards, the sound the monster makes is great, and the whole concept of the game is great. In my opinion, the game is a bit too hard, and doesn't leave you with many options after you move a few rooms, but with some tweaks that could easily be fixed. Overall, I really enjoyed the game!

Loose screw by Codexzier 2022-04-06T22:50:47Z ♥ 1

This is a pretty good start. I like the concept of having to fix the machines as they break down. Your pixel art looks really good too, and the sound effects were decent as well. Some minor tweaks that I would change: - Add diagonal movement - Make the repair window longer. It was a very challenging game. - Make the parts more visible. Some of the gray parts were hard to see.

Like I said, this was a good start and you did a pretty good job.

Alien Annihilation by MeritCoding 2022-04-06T22:45:08Z ♥ 0

Well, you've definitely got an idea going here. You're off to a good start. If you could flesh out the objectives and the bugs, you might have something that could be great. In its current state though, it's not really enough to be considered much of a game. That being said, if you keep at it, eventually you will have something great! Like people have said, the walk cycle is pretty funny, and if you lean into that humorous side, you could get some pretty good ratings.

Save The Dinosuars by ScalphaMission 2022-04-06T22:39:33Z ♥ 1

This one was a lot of fun! I was a big fan of the graphics, I thought they worked really well for the type of game you were going for. I always love games that have you get stronger over time. They're super addicting to play. I also think that the idea of saving the dinosaurs was pretty fun.

Two little nitpicks I have: 1. Gameplay wise there wasn't all that much to do. Luckily the satisfaction of blowing up the meteors kinda negates this 2. It didn't really feel like the dinosaurs were "inevitable" - you could just save them in the end.

Other than that I thought this was a great game, and it's really cool that you designed it for android.

Hard Light by Guardaro 2022-04-06T22:18:24Z ♥ 1

Second place, not bad! This was a really fun game to play. Simple, easy to understand, decent enough graphics/sound. It all adds up for a really good game.

My two gripes are: A: the controls felt really weird at first (but I got used to them) and B: The longer I survived, the laggier it got. For somebody with a good computer this wouldn't be a problem, but on my laptop it didn't feel great. This probably stopped me from being number 1 :(

Anyways, awesome game!

Great Escape by Martinek 2022-04-06T21:00:22Z ♥ 2

This was a really hilarious take on the theme! Everything fit super perfectly together. The gameplay (while not the most unique or engaging) was at least enjoyable enough to fit your idea and make it work. Overall great job on this game. I loved the humorous take on the theme.

1 Man 6 Bullets by Raphaeltan 2022-04-06T20:44:06Z ♥ 4

The perfect game doesn't exis-

But for real though, I don't really know how this could get much better. The art, sound, gameplay, theme, innovation. It's honestly perfect for a game jam. This is probably the highest praise I can give for a jam game tbh

Civil Servant by Daniel Klautsch 2022-04-05T21:41:30Z ♥ 3

This was a great submission. The art, audio, and gameplay was pretty fun. I do wish my choices had more of an effect on the story though. I couldn't tell if there were multiple endings or the same thing would happen no matter what. I feel like you had too much fun writing all the text on the papers. Some of them were really funny. If you made the gameplay a bit more in-depth, I feel like this could make for a great dystopian desk job game!

Wizardfall by Quite Good 2022-04-05T21:13:45Z ♥ 1

This is one of the best games I've played so far! The art and sound is absolutely amazing, and the gameplay is simple enough to understand easily and fun enough to keep me playing. It's not particularly challenging, but I liked going for different endings. I went through three of them. Overall, you did a great job, especially on the visuals. (like always)

DIZT by Sodaro 2022-04-05T20:57:22Z ♥ 1

This was pretty cool. I really dig the vibe I got from it. The sounds and visuals were pretty great too. Although, with the visual style it was sometimes difficult to see what was going on. Another thing was that the game was really difficult. It wasn't until I read a comment that I saw that you could destroy the boxes, leaving me with very little health and ammo. One minor issue I had was the lag. I can only play the web version because I'm on linux, and it was just pretty laggy for my laptop. A downloadable version should fix that. Controls were nice and responsive (except for the lag) and the horror element was done very nicely. Great job!

Frame Buster by JCMonkey 2022-04-05T04:32:08Z ♥ 1

Well this was interesting.... I've never heard of a game relying on your framerate to play it haha. Obviously some people can do better than others. As I am on a laptop I most likely will never have the greatest score. Learning that the red chickens exploded was very helpful too. The visuals and audio was also great :)

Re: Placement by Outfrost 2022-04-05T04:22:16Z ♥ 4

This was a great game! The concept was super unique and I thought the "puzzle solving" was a great addition. The addition of new pieces was also great, and felt pretty good, until you added four in one round. Then it got way too difficult. If I had time to learn what each piece did, then it would have been fine with all 8 pieces. One little issue I had was seeing the slots. Sometimes it was difficult to tell different slots apart. Also, I felt like the shifts were too long. For a game jam game, it is a bit of an ask to have somebody play a game for a very long time like yours requires. Other than that, great entry!

One Last Letter by fosf0 2022-04-05T03:30:48Z ♥ 6

This was a really cool concept. It was fun figuring out the old man's story and what he had to say. Like somebody said, the resolution was way too large. Having a fixed resolution for a game is never a good idea. Sometimes it felt like selecting things and exiting was a bit buggy, which made walking around the house frustrating. If the art matched the title page that would have been awesome as well. Anyways, I thought this was a great entry and enjoyed my time with it.

The Cold Night by Steffo 2022-04-05T03:09:35Z ♥ 2

Well this was certainly an experience! The mood was spot on. It was absolutely terrifying when my fire started to die out. The gameplay was also pretty good too, at least for a little bit, until it devolved into running around spamming at all the snowmen, trying to pick up as many rapid fire upgrades as possible. I got a time of 5:31.

Side note: you might want to take into consideration the performance of the game. My laptop was struggling a little bit.

All Charged Up! by Izokia 2022-04-05T02:57:14Z ♥ 0

This was a fun little game! The drifting was really fun to pull off, and trying to improve my time was a good challenge.

My score was 101k with a fastest lap of around 17 seconds. Once I fully understood the mechanics and got the controls down, this was a blast to play.Great job!

Carbonara by DR_Felice 2022-04-05T02:31:58Z ♥ 1

This was a pretty decent entry. You have a good concept. The idea of snowboarding away from an impending snowball sounds awesome! The controls felt pretty good too. However, I wish I could build up speed and jump further. Like somebody said above, doing flips could have been a lot of fun. A few minor additions that would have done wonders to the game: - A dynamic camera (it was very hard to see the obstacles in front of you) - sound effects Other than that this was a solid entry and the art was pretty awesome!

Space Ninja by mhorth 2022-04-05T01:15:19Z ♥ 3

This game is pretty cool! First off, your graphics and sound design is superb. Your graphics are what my game wishes it could be. Your sound really compliments the game well, and makes it very satisfying to perform actions. Really well done in that regard. The leaderboard is also a nice touch, really lends to the replayability.

That being said, MY WRIST..... unfortunately, due to the state of the game, there isn't much gameplay other than "swing your mouse back and forth". It becomes an endurance test, which, I suppose lends to the theme, but not the fun. If somehow you made the gamplay more in depth/strategic then it could be a really awesome take on the fruit ninja genre.

Anyways, I really enjoyed it and am amazed by your visuals, but there just isn't a whole lot of replay value.

When Penguins Fly by SolanumTeam 2022-04-04T22:22:24Z ♥ 1

This was kinda fun. It was interesting to glide around and try to stay up. Fits the theme very well. I wish there was more variety and mobility in your movement. If you made me feel like I was going super fast and "catching the currents" that would be awesome.

QA - The Game! by Chartle 2021-10-21T00:23:49Z ♥ 1

This is a cool idea. My biggest gripe is that I didn't really know what to select and what not to select. Objects clipping inside other objects - pretty obvious. But, other stuff like the people, or a wall or something like that just didn't make sense to me. So that was pretty challenging. If you could provide some better telegraphing to the player, I think you could have a really unique game that's also super fun to play.

Emily vs the Unstable Creatures by JPatchZ 2021-10-21T00:13:35Z ♥ 1

Wow this was a really good game! But... the balancing just feels off. I loved the art, sound, and gameplay, and played for a pretty good amount of time. I even maxed a few of the things. But that was the problem. Once I maxed everything, it felt too easy. Everything died in one hit, which made me not want to play any more because there was no challenge. I'm not saying that this is a bad game, far from it. But, I think the balancing could use quite a bit of tweaking. Congratulations on such an amazing first jam! This was a great game.

From the Roof by Paulsams 2021-10-10T21:49:11Z ♥ 0

I don't even know what to say. This was a phenomenal game. The art was fantastic, and the sounds were great. I was honestly shocked by how good the visual storytelling was. And the twist in the second section was not expected to say the least. I'm glad you only did 3 sections though, like some other people said, the gameplay did get a little bit boring towards the end. Speaking of gameplay, the controls were amazing. I hardly ever felt like they degraded the experience, and for the most part they enhanced it. I loved how unique it was. My only gripe was that I don't understand how the game fits the theme "unstable" but luckily that's not required to have a good game. All I have to say is that you did an AMAZING job!

Robobull Hunter by Jiri Hysek 2021-10-10T20:52:27Z ♥ 1

This is a fun game. I liked the procedural generation, and the idea was pretty cool. I think if you leaned further into the idea, it could have been even better. The bulls could have dealt more knockback, that way it was more essential to avoid them. I liked the graphics, they seemed pretty unique, and the sounds were decent. Nice job for a compo entry!

The Mandela Conspiracy by Not_AS_Artistic 2021-10-10T04:37:38Z ♥ 0

This was really cool, and also pretty creepy. From my interpretation, the guy was schizophrenic or had some type of mental health condition. It reminded me of "A Beautiful Mind". The mood was spot on. I do agree with a lot of the other comments. I wish there was more to the game. But that's okay. What was there was really good. Also, I couldn't figure out the password for the life of me. So, that kinda sucks :/

Half Summoned by Game Endeavor 2021-10-10T04:20:08Z ♥ 2

This is a really cool concept, and if fleshed out could make a super sick game. I loved how you randomly changed forms. I wish each form had a completely different playstyle though. For the most part I just had to hold down click to kill the enemies. If you were to make this into an actual release, that would be something to consider. The possibilities with this are endless - especially if you do some procedural generation. I also really liked the first cutscene. It was funny. I would recommend a bit more player feedback for when you got hurt, but that was about it.

Stack Up by Barney25052 2021-10-10T04:08:24Z ♥ 1

This was super cool! I liked the concept and I think the execution was pretty good. If I were you though, I would make it so that the objects can kill the player if they land on it. That would add some depth as to how the game is played and the decisions the player has to make. The game got really good once I realized there were special objects that changed the other objects around it - the lock, destroy, and grow power ups. It was hard to get past a certain point, as the acid rose pretty fast, but that was okay. Great game!

Gravitational Shift by OneSmallBoy 2021-10-10T04:02:55Z ♥ 1

This was a great little game! I beat the whole thing and I think it has a lot of potential! The only real criticism I have is that the movement felt way too slidy and unresponsive. Other than that, I think you have an awesome thing going here. I really love the way you did your main menu screen. It acted as a tutorial which I thought was pretty smart. Great work!

The Yellow Wallpaper by WhenYouCantFindAFriend 2021-10-10T03:54:09Z ♥ 1

This was pretty interesting. It would probably help if I actually read the story. Unfortunately, that would take too much time. I think what would help make this feel more polished would be if you intertwined the gameplay with the store more. I get that you were inspired, and that's super cool! But, if you want the majority of the people to understand your game, you should put the material in your game, not outside of it.

Unstable World by Rayo 2021-10-10T02:46:17Z ♥ 2

Unfortunately, I have to agree with @3mpty. I am impressed that you made all these assets fit together, but It just doesn't feel like it has soul to it. Your idea is sooo cool too. It just didn't achieve any cohesive results. If you had this idea, but scaled it back a ton, and made one simple idea that the player had to achieve, I think it would have been 1000% better. The amount you have in this game is insanely impressive, but like I said, it just doesn't feel like anything, and I'm sad to say that. There's so much that this game could have been.

BUT... don't let this stop you. This game only proves that with a little bit of time you could do great things. You just have to refine your vision to accomplish those great things.

Stabler by Cinar 2021-10-10T02:25:36Z ♥ 1

This was an amazing idea! I loved the concept and the pun "Unstaple". The controls felt super smooth, and the gameplay was pretty addicting. I got a score of 600. My biggest complaint was that you could get stuck in midair or on walls way too easily. Also, it would have been nice if the different types of books/papers gave different rewards. That's about all I have to say. Great game!

Unstable platformer thing by FloppaDev 2021-10-10T02:04:21Z ♥ 1

Well... that was certainly something. I finally beat it. This is probably going to be quite a long review, so strap in.

I will first talk about things I liked, and then talk about things I disliked. (By the way, for reference my time was ~28 minutes, so I spent a long time with this game).

Things that I liked: The controls were pretty solid. A little floaty at times, but nothing too bad. The dash felt really good too, and you could do some pretty cool maneuvers with it. I enjoyed how you could do the double jump no matter where you were in the air. It made for much more interesting gameplay than if you could only do it when traveling upwards with your first jump. The levels were very well thought out, and with a bit of polish they could be great, and could fit in a full game.

Now, let me get on to the things I dislike. Don't take this as me saying your game was bad - because it wasn't. These are just things that I would change. I play platformers, and consider myself good at them, so please don't take offense to anything I'm saying, I'm just being critical. The biggest problem by far was the unforgiving nature of the game. It felt like I wasn't the one making mistakes, but I would be killed anyways. The spikes hitboxes were too big, I would walk off of a platform with a spike on the side and immediately die, I would get to the end of the level, almost touch the win condition, and explode, things like that. Now, don't get me wrong, I understand that this is a LD game and you only had a limited amount of time to work on this. But, things like this just ruin a players experience. So, with a fair amount of balancing you could have a game that feels good to play. My other issue was that I didn't know what the game was trying to achieve - it had an "identity crisis". Was the game supposed to be a precision puzzle platformer, where the challenge was figuring out where to go, or was it trying to be a split second decision making action game, where the fun/challenge was making last second decisions and barely surviving? And that's an issue many games suffer from, not just yours (mine suffers from this too, don't worry). The problem was that I wanted to take my time to figure out how to complete a certain section of the level, but I couldn't take that time due to the character being "unstable". This led to many moments where I was stressing out because I knew I didn't have any time left, but I still wanted to be able to progress which resulted in me not being able to make any progress. So, your levels should reflect what your game is trying to be. In your case, I think it would be better as a split-second choices kind of platformer. (But that's just my opinion, take it or leave it). The third biggest issue was just how hard the levels were. They felt like they were supposed to be at the very finale of a game, but I was just at the beginning. That, in theory, is a simple fix. Just make the levels get progressively more difficult. However, in practice it is not so simple. This is where playtesting is essential. Obviously, because this was a game jam, that would not be possible, but, if you plan on expanding this game, you NEED to do playtesting to make sure your game is balanced.

This is by far the longest review I've written on any game so far. And I've written about 45... However, that goes to show that your game has a lot of potential. I wouldn't have taken the time to write this if I didn't think that. So, congratulations of making this game, and really getting me to think about what makes a good platformer! I wish you well on your gamedev in the future.

Black Cat Apothecary by ArmchairArmada 2021-10-09T03:15:27Z ♥ 1

I liked how this game made you think about your choices. Each action you did had a consequences. It really reminds me of the game "Reigns". If you haven't played it you definitely should. The hyper realistic art didn't fit the style unfortunately, but I don't think that was too big of a deal. Also, I wish the potions had a bit more depth, like, if you give somebody a cure they shouldn't have, something bad could happen, idk. Again, I suggest Reigns. I think if you made this game, and took some of the aspects from that game, but made it your own you could have something great. Also, thanks for playing my game!

Gods And Towers by Nerisma 2021-10-09T01:35:29Z ♥ 3

This was pretty fun! I played it with my brother (I won both times)... The opening cutscene story thing was super cool, and the gameplay worked pretty well. Sometimes the visual indicators of where the things were going to drop was a bit messed up though, so that was a little frustrating. We had fun playing this, so props to you!

Hellbamb by Alopar 2021-10-08T23:40:36Z ♥ 1

Heh, this was a really fun little game! The art was fantastic, and I loved the screaming at the end. The audio was also really good. The only problem I had was that this game felt too random. There didn't seem to be a reason behind my choosing of people. Other than that, this was a really well polished game.

Pinfall by geist_191 2021-10-08T23:26:40Z ♥ 2

This was a pretty fun, addictive game. I just wish a few things happened. It felt like I didn't have enough control, leading to some frustration. Some bullet time/leniency towards the player would have massively helped. Also, I wasn't sure if I beat it or not... I made it through the top, but there wasn't really any "win" screens or anything.

The visuals and music were super high quality though.

Structure Rescue by GlacierEclipse 2021-10-08T02:33:14Z ♥ 1

This was a nice game. It fit the theme really well, and the rogue lite aspect could have been super nice. However, (idk if this was a bug) but my upgrades didn't save between rounds... and that was super frustrating. I wanted to feel a sense of progression from collecting the scraps, but then I didn't. Also, this has already been mentioned, but sounds would have been great, especially in a game like this. But yeah, solid base for a game. I'd like to see this expanded upon.

Unstable orbit by itsmebutsolo 2021-10-08T00:49:48Z ♥ 1

I tried to download the file on linux, marked it as executable, and I still wasn't able to play it. Is there anything special I need to do before I try to run it?

I tried to execute it as a program in the terminal and got this error: "./ld49: /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libc.so.6: version `GLIBC_2.32' not found (required by ./ld49)"

Crazy Cauldron by Quite Good 2021-10-08T00:46:47Z ♥ 1

Holy crap... This is some of the best pixel art I've ever seen. And I've seen some pretty good pixel art. The music and gameplay were also really good. I got a score of 2120, which I seemed to be about average. If I had to change something, I would make it so that the colors that the customers were requesting matched better with the actual potion color. Often it was difficult to tell which potion I was supposed to make. Other than that, this was a fantastic game!

Toy Tactics by JoeShanahan 2021-10-08T00:03:00Z ♥ 1

This was so much fun! The idea of a turn based "fps" was amazing and I had never really played anything like it. It really hit the spot in terms of the type of game I like. I probably played it for a solid 20-30 minutes? So great job. I wish there were more levels, and more levels that force you to use the environment to your advantage. I really, really, loved this game. So great job!

Unstable magic by Mads 2021-10-07T23:44:51Z ♥ 0

Well, I have to say, I really liked the gameplay. It was pretty fun and the controls felt super responsive. I found the red grave somewhat easily, but it took like 4 minutes to find it. I also got into the mausouleum, but there was nothing there (I assume that's where the bossfight is supposed to be?). I also ran into a glitch where I would take damage... I think that might be the game mechanics, but it was super uncertain. The visuals and sound were very nice. Overall good game, but it kinda feels unfinished atm. Maybe you scoped too big. However, what you have is pretty solid.

Watch my nucleus by Aquilart 2021-10-07T23:18:25Z ♥ 1

This was a wonderful little game! I tried to beat it on hard, I put about 3 attempts into it, and gave up, but that's okay, cause I got close. The art is on point, the voice acting is amazing, and the sounds are super addicting. It was really fun to combine the elements together. I played this game for a lot longer than most game jam games I usually play. A problem I had with the web version was that the custom cursor was super glitchy, so I had to download the actual game. Also, I wish I didn't have to watch the cutscene every. single. time. I wanted to play again. I put quite a few attempts into the game, so it was slightly annoying. Other than that, great game! It felt super polished for a game jam game.

Operation Meteor Shower by Seracrooce 2021-10-07T22:56:28Z ♥ 3

Well, that was pretty interesting. I think the controls could have been a lot better, and the camera following the meteor could have been a lot better. However, I think that your concept is fantastic, and it was fun floating around as a meteor. (Eventually I figured out a strategy where I could just spam the space bar and not even have to try controlling where the meteors went). However, my biggest praise was your visuals and audio. The music was great, and fit the vibe perfectly, and I don't even know how to describe the audio. All I have to say is I loved the voice lines. Your visuals look really good too. The art style really suits this type of game. Nice job on your game. With some work this could be really fun!

Side note: I just sat there jamming to the music for a couple of minutes in the menu screen lol

Boat History by etrealjunior 2021-10-07T03:45:15Z ♥ 1

This was a great game! The controls were super responsive, and the concept behind it is great. I enjoyed playing it quite a bit. Also, the visuals and sound were really good too. Congratulations on this great game.

Unstabled by Rein 2021-10-07T01:51:12Z ♥ 2

I loved this game. It had a super unique mechanic, and it made for some really nice puzzles. It fits the theme of "Unstable" extremely well. My biggest praise though, is that it didn't feel like a game jam game. If I didn't know better, I would genuinely think it was an actual game, like something on the app store. If you do want to make this a full game, I would work on the controls. Sometimes, they felt a bit too janky. (I know, it's supposed to feel a little weird, but sometimes it was just too much). It made it so that I could see the solution of the puzzle, but I just couldn't execute it. So that could be frustrating for the player. One last thing before I conclude would have to do with the UI. It doesn't really feel like it fits the game. For now it's not a big deal, but again, if you want to work on it some more that's something I would work on.

Anyways, I really enjoyed this game and like I said, I wouldn't know if this was a game jam game or not. So great job.

LD49 by jeinzi 2021-10-07T01:05:23Z ♥ 1

This was a fun game. My best time was 112 seconds. I would recommend slowing down the fuel. It was hard to move to get to it. Also, maybe add some obstacles to avoid. Congrats on using c++, that's no easy feat. Nice job!

Catamaran Cats by notke 2021-10-07T00:50:35Z ♥ 1

Wow this looks pretty cool. I wish I had somebody to sail around with :( The visuals look great (sometimes the sin wave that curves the water was pretty obvious) The sailing mechanics were well executed (a particle effect saying which direction the wind is going would be nice) I'm sure the multiplayer also would have been fun, if I had somebody to play it with. Solid game, and I'm sure if you had a large playerbase it could be a blast to sail around in.

Perfectly Balanced by mhorth 2021-10-07T00:40:18Z ♥ 1

Woah this is one of the best games I've played in this jam. And I've played quite a few. I absolutely love the music and sounds, the gameplay is addicting, and the leaderboard system is super cool and makes the game really replayable. 10/10

One thing I would add is a save system if you were to make this a full game, but at this point I'm just nitpicking.

The Score by ToxicComputer 2021-10-06T23:50:46Z ♥ 1

This was a pretty cool game. With a bit of polish and time you could have something that people would really enjoy playing. As of now, there are some issues, but nothing that can't be fixed. The idea of robbing the bank is pretty fun, and could definitely be expanded upon. I started in the sewer and one problem I had was that I could pretty much just run past the cops.

Temple Of Tozi by Denzil Gomes 2021-10-06T23:36:35Z ♥ 1

This was a really good game. The graphics were really good, and the puzzles were good. Sometimes the controls didn't feel too great, but that wasn't too big of a deal. The last puzzle I didn't quite understand, and then the door opened, so that was a little confusing. Overall very nice entry. It was a fun little experience.

A Curious Case Of Lines by BridgeOnAStick 2021-10-06T23:25:06Z ♥ 1

This was fantastic. It was super mind bending, and I really thought it was cool how the camera rotated as well. Also, the fact that it was not level-based was refreshing. The audio was really nice too. I honestly think this could become an actual game if you wanted it too.

I would agree with some of the comments saying it doesn't relate to the unstable theme, but that's a minor detail considering how good this game is.

Great job!

Hopper Unstable by Castoor 2021-10-06T23:16:10Z ♥ 1

Oh, that was kinda nice for what I played, but it was soooo short. I was expecting at least like 5 levels, but no. :/

That's okay I guess, I just wish there was more. However, as far as what I see right now, you have a good game.

Fission Friends by Peco 2021-10-06T23:05:20Z ♥ 3

This was a fun game :) I liked the gameplay. The visuals and sound were great (a damage sound would have been nice), and stuck around playing it for a decent amount of time. Some things that maybe you could improve upon would be the movement. I think it feels a bit floaty. Also sometimes the beam thingy went kinda wack if your cursor got too close. It was a nice challenge, that I enjoyed playing!

Cranky Robot by SkallyWags 2021-10-06T22:53:56Z ♥ 1

This was a surprisingly good game. I loved the music, sound, and visuals. And the puzzles were pretty good. I did manage to beat all of them, even the last one without any help. So I'm happy with that. great job. Might I recommend making builds for web/mac/linux? That would be nice.

Virus->Run(); by Alpha Wolf Studios 2021-10-06T15:57:39Z ♥ 2

My score was 5916 before I died. I liked the gameplay, but wish it got harder over time. Also, an upgrade system would have been nice, and give a sense of progression. It kinda just felt like I could go infinitely with no challenge. Maybe you could have added something negative about the double jump, that way you couldn't just spam it.

Unstable Space by FaberNull 2021-10-06T04:26:03Z ♥ 1

The fact that you managed this game is beyond me. I think it's amazing, and I don't think I could have done something like this given the amount of time. (Maybe I could pull it off in a month). Anyways, there are some things that maybe I would change. The enemies seem to conquer things really fast, or maybe that's just me. That's about it, as far as balancing goes.

My biggest issue though, was the fact that my spaceships started killing each other. It made 0 sense at all, and didn't really seem to serve any purpose. Idk, maybe something's supposed to happen with that, but to me I just didn't like it.

I would have liked a tutorial. The first few minutes I played was just pure confusion until I figured out you could move with wasd.

I think the game is a little bit too long for a game jam game. Most people aren't willing to spend a lot of time on a game. (This is a good problem to have btw, not a bad one). My point is that the game would be better as a full release, so I think if you have the time and motivation, you should definitely try that!

But overall you had an amazing game, and I liked how it was unique.

First Flight by defectivemelon 2021-10-05T23:56:45Z ♥ 4

Wow this felt really well made. The idea is pretty unique and the puzzles were pretty good. I have some things I would maybe change, if you ever want to improve it. Getting the obvious out of the way, ADD MORE LEVELS. This was a super short and polished experience, and if you ever want to sell this commercially or something, it needs levels. I think one of the problems that I had was that the levels felt too random to me, like I kinda just swiped randomly and it worked. That's honestly about it. The graphics were top notch, and so was the audio. Great job! If this were a commercial game I would probably get it. It would be a great mobile game.

loop by peterfiftyfour 2021-10-05T23:39:27Z ♥ 1

This is quite a fun little game you got here. The gameplay is pretty fun, and I liked going around picking up shards. So, I have some things that I believe would improve the game. First, more technical thing: You should make it so that the browser page isn't so huge. I had to use my moniter instead of my laptop to play it just because of how big it was, so that was annoying. Second thing: This has already been mentioned, but you should have a tutorial. Third thing: You should make camera controls. It was super unsatisfying to fall down and not be able to save yourself due to the camera controls.

Overall this was a really fun game and I enjoyed playing it. My score was 31, which wasn't super high, but I think it was perfectly acceptable.

Should I Buy It ? by henriquecanella 2021-10-05T23:23:43Z ♥ 1

I put way too much time into this game. I got 138 factories and reached $1 billion. I don't think I really need to say any more than that, as the time I played speaks for the quality of your game. So, nice job!

Unstackable by Flazone 2021-10-05T23:00:56Z ♥ 1

Overall, I think this is quite a nice game. The premise behind combining houses is quite nice, and doing so is satisfying. Your graphics and audio were also very nice. (The water was too bright at points).

My biggest concern is the huge file size for the download. Half a gigabyte is way too much for a game jam game (at least in my opinion).

I wish you got points for actually keeping the houses stable and upright, because that would add to the "unstable" theme.

That aside, I think this was quite a nice game and it felt nice and polished!

Butler with a gun by KneehatGames 2021-10-05T22:45:46Z ♥ 3

Heh, I really like this game. It was actually one of the first that I've played where I really enjoyed the gameplay. My biggest concern though, was how close the burgers spawned into the holes and how easy it was to fall into the holes. That was my main cause of death, and it was annoying when that happened.

Another thing I liked was the music. I don't know if the dissonance was intentional or not, but it led to a kinda intense "unstable" feeling. So nice job.

Very solid game, one of the better ones I have seen in the jam so far.

Remote Work by Frozedon 2021-10-05T04:20:48Z ♥ 4

Wow... this is so amazing. Like other comments have said, it feels so real. I got to the part where I got to the commands, but I couldn't get any further :( and then the text glitched out... I'm really sad about that I wanted to complete the game. Anyways, I really like how different this is. Probably my favorite game I've played so far. 10/10

Spirit Soother by OverloadedPampukin 2021-10-05T03:46:41Z ♥ 1

This was a nice game and I especially liked the controls of the player and the colors. It was kinda hard to circle around the spirits, so I would work on that a little bit. Also, you have to circle around them way too much in order to capture them.

Unstable Stable by BrielleY 2021-10-05T03:35:51Z ♥ 3

I came for the artwork and was not disappointed. It's really good. The game could maybe have some more stuff to do, but that's not too big of a deal. Nice little story you got here

A Stable Job by UCSBDad 2021-10-05T03:25:20Z ♥ 1

This was a really creepy game... the music was kinda terrifying, but then it stopped which lightened the mood. Again, pretty creepy. Also, I think the player is a bit too slow

A Stable Life by baconharemthug 2021-10-05T02:33:17Z ♥ 1

Woah, this is a really good game. I like all the subtle touches and clues. The visuals were pretty good, the music was great, and the story was also great. I wish the controls were better. I felt really slow. Also, the sensitivity was waaaaay to high. I had to turn my mouse down to the lowest setting just to make it playable. Other than that, I liked this game a lot

Server Hell by ChristianB 2021-10-05T02:08:39Z ♥ 2

This is a really good concept, and definitely has some of the best graphics of any of the games I've played. But for the life of me, I could not figure out where the tasks were, and that just made it really hard to play. The game feels really claustrophobic, and unstable, so you did a great job. The gameplay is also good, if I could figure out where the heck to go

Failing 4 You by Plutonium Powered 2021-10-05T01:51:58Z ♥ 1

Well, the game started off pretty nice, decent controls, etc. But then I encountered a glitch where I fell through the floor and I didn't want to go through what I had just done. For what I did play, the audio and graphics were good, and the story might have been nice.

Mad Zomber by someoneman 2021-10-05T01:44:42Z ♥ 1

Uh... I couldn't play your game. Did you perhaps forget to make the itch page public?

SplashX by IdeasPerSecond 2021-10-05T01:40:49Z ♥ 2

Hey, this is quite a nice game. I like the idea behind it, and it was pretty fun to play. I think it could do with a little bit of balancing. The last level was pretty challenging. I beat the whole game in about 42 attempts, which I think is quite a lot. My biggest issue though, was the music. The main menu goes from a nice quiet ocean sound to that, so, I think that could use some work. But, I like this game, it's one of the better one's I've played.

NEKONOVA'S NOT HOME by LeYamez 2021-10-05T01:29:53Z ♥ 4

I really like the atmosphere and graphics of this game. I'm not so sure about the gameplay, it felt like I didn't have enough control. And it was also unclear what all the different meteors did. Maybe I missed something important, idk. I think your sound/visuals/atmosphere make up for that though. It was fun to just float around.

Split by Zeit 2021-10-05T01:21:40Z ♥ 2

I really like the character art, but I think the game suffers due to that exact same reason. I can definitely see where you spend your time, and in that regard, you did an amazing job. However, the rest of the game just doesn't seem very playable. Anyways, if you worked on that, I think you could have a very nice, good looking game :)

Totally Rad by Marika 2021-10-05T01:16:30Z ♥ 2

I like this game, up to a certain point. It's super calm at first, and as it progresses it gets really, really stressful. So I think that's good, and really sells the "unstable" aspect. Buuuut, after a certain point, there are less things to fix, because they all broke down, so the game becomes easy again. I don't think that's what you intended. But I could basically survive for as long as I wanted, or, in my case, until I got bored. I really like how the music reacts to how unstable the reactor is. At least, I think it does. Also the graphics are top-notch. Good job!

The Town of Clarity by IvanPavlov 2021-10-05T01:03:59Z ♥ 2

Woah what can I say... That ending made my heart drop. The gameplay was definitely lacking, but I really, really like the mood of the game. Also, not sure how it fits the "Unstable" theme.

Great experience.

Instability by R3L0ad1 2021-10-05T00:20:03Z ♥ 4

High Score - 62.70 Wow, this game was pretty hard, and sometimes it felt like that shouldn't have been the fault of the player. Sometimes the ropes got in the way, and made it impossible to chain between the ropes. Also, at a certain point, the wall just moves too fast to go any further. With that out of the way, I think this game was fantastic. The controls were super responsive, which I love, and the gameplay was super understandable. I didn't even need the tutorial. The visuals were nice, but at times I think you overdid the post processing just a tad much, nothing game breaking though.

Great job on your game! I enjoyed it

Critical Mass by Parker Nalch 2021-10-05T00:12:39Z ♥ 1

This game is hard - a little too hard. That being said, I really, really like the gameplay. The balance between going fast, but needing to control your fuels is superb. I think you did a great job in that regard. Buuut, it was really difficult, and some of that seemed to be due to too tight spacing of obstacles. Also, collecting the fuel pellets was really satisfying

Idle Is Bad by FlorianBalD 2021-10-04T22:29:00Z ♥ 1

I think this was a fairly decent game. One thing, the "A" key doesn't work - at least for me. Some things I would change are the floaty jump and responsive controls. I liked how there were 10 levels. I felt like I actually accomplished something when I completed the game. Nice work for your first jam :)

....To the Ends of the World and Back by Peace Of Cake Games 2021-10-04T22:09:45Z ♥ 1

Nice game. I liked the idea of having a visual novel instead of other types of gameplay. IDK if this was a bug, but my mouse cursor disappeared and I couldn't do some of the tasks, and sometimes I just couldn't do it in general. Maybe that was a me thing, idk. Also, (I know this probably wouldn't be possible due to the time constraints) but if this game had voice acting that would be amazing.

Unpredictable Shapeshifting by OctahedronSoftware 2021-10-04T20:58:58Z ♥ 1

I liked the idea. I beat the game and "prevailed". If I could change something, I would make it so that there were more visuals when you attacked. I also didn't realize you could only kill the other type of enemies. However, the concept is definitely really unique, and that I liked.

Fragile Payload by Connor Magson 2021-10-04T16:33:27Z ♥ 1

I really like this idea, but there are a few things would work on. First of all, I almost quit because of the last level. I spent like 10 minutes on it or something, but I pushed through and did it. I would also like the controls to feel more responsive, it was very hard to control the ball and not make it explode.

Bob's Underworld by chesschaser 2021-10-04T16:01:09Z ♥ 2

I really like the graphics. The gameplay is also fun, I just wish there was more feedback for when you jumped. The jumping feels way too floaty, and it seems unclear as to when you actually jump. However, that being said, the gameplay was really fun and I loved the pixel art.

One problem I ran into was that when I died, the lava just kept rising and I couldn't restart

Silly Skateboarding by Richard08 2021-10-04T12:46:50Z ♥ 2

This game was awesome. You made this in 72 hours? Good job. I love the dynamic music, and all the sound effects. they fit very well. The mechanic was super unique, and your idea was executed very well. I'm glad I played this one. By the way, my high score was 19.

Horse Pile by Big Play Ben 2021-10-04T04:29:18Z ♥ 1

This is a hilarious game! I love the chaotic nature of it. The sound effects are probably my favorite part by far. The sounds the horses make just seal the deal.

SFX 10/10

As far as the gameplay goes, I kinda had no idea how to beat the level, but that's okay, because it was really funny.

Brain In Jar by MechanizedIT 2021-10-04T03:58:48Z ♥ 2

I really, really like this! It was a super unique, super fitting game for this jam. It felt really polished and complete. However, I have one thing that I would change if I could. I don't like the glass breaking mechanic. It makes the game extremely difficult, and I could not get past level 3. However, as far as gameplay goes, I really like the mix between QUOP and getting over it. Thanks for reviewing my game btw :)

Unstable Concoction by theviraldragon 2021-10-04T03:40:58Z ♥ 1

Interesting game. I really like the art and music. I do like the gameplay quite a bit, so take what I'm saying with a grain of salt.

I think that the game is too random. It's too hard to figure out which ingredients need to be used to make what. That's about it though, I like the minigame.

Oh, also, You should probably include the fact that you need to stir the cauldron. I spent a few minutes figuring that out, only to read your itch page.

Again, really nice game, especially for 48 hours :)