pickens-inc

AURORA Project by Mathstr0fficial 2026-10-25T14:15:06Z ♥ 1

aurora.png

Never played a text adventure really, but this was amazing! Indeed like others, I think because the shelf being something mentioned offhandedly implied a lot more nouns were interactable that weren't later, but I rarely felt stuck and it generally felt super elegant! Loved the atmosphere, loved the writing. I keep wondering ifthere was a more definitive ending I missed, but I never referred to any help and that's a testament to the elegance of your design here. The only awkward part for me, really, was dealing with the key cover. Unlocking, opening, then having to use the word "scan" twice in the same command was a bit awkward. Loved reading all the notes and am happy I got 100! Lovely job.

The Base for Old Creations by alaah 2026-10-24T19:17:45Z ♥ 1

Managed to figure out everything without guidance! Love the atmosphere here, reading and waiting for new posts to pop up. Took me a bit of time to figure out how to "fix" the potion, but the message response was worth it lol.

Love the writing, and your utilisation of the theme is brilliant. Though it was more "experience" than game, I had a good time with it! Loved the screen effect too. If I were to critique anything, I was a touch disappointed and surprised by the abruptness of the summon seemingly just making everything disappear, only to just sleep and have the game end. Something a bit... *more* would have been nice. That, and I think the light by the table was a bit too low in attenuation and a bit too high in intensity, it made it quite difficult to make the untextured objects out at times, like the controller. But lovely experience, great use of the theme.

Caption Obvious by 100th_Coin 2026-10-21T20:09:27Z ♥ 1

Thoroughly enjoyed this adventure, and loved the premise! There was such a delightful grin I had whenever I realised I could use one of the stills, but particularly when I could *reuse* one. The style was very pretty, very evocative of Obra Dinn on the pier scene but with that splash of pink highlight that gives it its own style. Oh and I love the acapella song. Kinda took me too long to realise it was looping as I was just enjoying it. If I had any qualms, it was that it took me a little while to realise who was speaking at times, especially in the initial doorknob conversation. I think that would get fixed immediately for me if you just did a cheeky bit of panning so that we were always slightly panned left, and the other person slightly panned right. Lovely job as always!

yAI presents Himari, the Beautiful Super Genius Artificial Intelligence by alaah 2026-05-07T20:59:48Z ♥ 1

Most innovative interpretation of the theme I've seen, easily. Somehow even though I knew it was all fake, I've never been so antsy about running a file from a jam before! 😆 it was great, ||when yAI knew the game had been opened, I got a proper spook, and its interactions with the game were so clever! I hate do admit I only didn't finish it because I got stuck at a platforming bit after everything goes grey and it complains it wasn't trained for this. Neither was I, apparently!|| Amazing job.

Remote Mars Raider by Mathstr0fficial 2026-05-07T20:34:26Z ♥ 1

A very clever little entry! I just realised you and I did very similar and yet very different entries in a way, but you had the clever idea of adding an obstacle to the inputs. That definitely makes the second to second feel compelling and I thought it was a great idea, I just didn't love it as much when I had to do some awkward platforming, or when I moved off a platform pushing a block and it didn't follow me! Some audio would have been lovely, but I know you know that. The only thing that really impeded me was that I'd frequently get double inputsh appen, particularly on the square.

But the game's premise is lovely, the idea and the presentation is very solid. I think the obstacles were just the right amount of intensity to avoid whilst leaving some mental room to think of your instuctions, and whilst I didn't get usper far I did start to memorise all the commands I needed. Well done!

Oh, one last thing! Sadly it didn't work quite right for me on firefox. I spent a while figuring out why commands iddn't work only to check out 100th coin's video and realised none of hte walls loaded for me! Chrome worked just fine.

Space Record Studio by kayrum 2026-05-07T20:08:38Z ♥ 1

I played this yesterday after your strea mended, but didn't get a chance to leave a comment because I spent almost forty minutes playing it! I really enjoyed it, and love musical themed entries (obviously). The pure concept of making music from the stars is a very pretty one, and I love the little characters that come and go. I definitely struggled to match the tastes the customers had, but I appreciated that we could just give them the track and

There's so much work in the presentation there. THe animations ar elovely, the environment is lovely. There are just two things I don't vibe with. The biggest one by far is how slow and difficult it is to find stars! My index finger was really aching by the end, If stars were easier to identify and the telescope panned like 3 times faster, it would hve been a near perfect game for me! The only other thing was the cruelty of putting the bin right next to the arrow. There was a time where one of my backup records I was keeping just because I liked it was loved by a future customer. I went to go put it in a sleeve and then somehow clicked both the arrow and the trashcan at the same time, moving back to the customer screen but with no record in hand 😭 that aside, it was a beautiful little game, getting music to sync in unity sucks, so well done for managing it for your second jam.

Edit: OH! And my biggest payout was $420!

GHOST CHANNEL by Tetracold 2026-05-05T15:11:58Z ♥ 2

A solid entry! I think any feedback I have on improvements are things you either know about or have already been actioned. The presentation is gorgeous. The music is really charming, I love the character designs. I really struggled with the actual gameplay, searching all kinds of furniture before realising only one ghost could be around at once, and that red one was always flying past me and punching me, but didn't seem to be stunnable. I think some feedback as to whetherr you're hurting them would be super handy. I adore the "TV show" aesthetic with the volume for health, and the distortion at the edges of the curved screen - that's really impressive! Well done.

I almost found myself a little bit swindled by playing the version embedded on the jam page, before realising based on the context of the jam instructions that it's actually your post-jam version. Please make this abundantly clear and don't have the post-jam version as your embedded entry page version! As it should be, my comment is entirely based on the experience of the entry version.

Cableman [a rhythm game] by rucksack 2026-05-04T19:50:54Z ♥ 3

Amazing, this is easily my favourite entry so far that i've played! Elegant, incredible amount of content. I love rhythm games, and this had me and my friends singing and stimming "cableman!" for hours after. I kinda want to hear the theme whenever I want if you post it. The fact it transforms so elegantly both in visuals and beat, and that the new beat is demonstrated during the transition? Masterfully done, genuinely. I only wish we had more silly vocals in the second half. And the fact you had time to add more bonus levels too is amazing. THis is definitely going to do numbers in the final rating, I'm certain. I loved this, I'd play a full game of it, easily.

Beat the Signal by Fassenberg 2026-05-04T19:17:07Z ♥ 1

Lovely presentation and love the visual of the bullets appearing to the beat. There was obviously a focus on polish with that and it's really pleasing. I didn't get much as to how the rhythm played into the gameplay though unfortunately. I had a hard time relying on the dodge, expecting it to work like BPM: Bullets per minute, where it works so logn as you input on the beat, but it obviously has a hidden cooldown longer than a beat. I think that would have made a huge improvement to the game feel! But a solid entry with a compelling little game loop. Well done!

AGENTS RHYTHM & RAID by Nadia Pixel 2026-05-04T19:09:52Z ♥ 0

I think the visual presentation here is fantastic, all the amimations are super satisfying, I love how the aliens hop to the beat, and as difficult as they are, the attack telegraph of the purple beholder (when it works) is quite cool. I like the concept of getting the ability of the most powerful enemy in the previous round.

It does give me the impression that it was victim to a bit too broad a scope, though. As cool as the presentation of agent rhythm's section is, I think it would have been more compelling to just focus on the combat section and give it more polish. It took me a load of tries to beat the first level because I couldn't figure out why the slash wasn't hitting. Seems like the range is super short! As others have said, compared to the D attack, that makes things much more trivial. One thing I didn't see anyone talking about was I'm not sure what the F ability does? I couldn't get it to do anything. Was that intended?

This might all have been addressed in your post-jam version, so feel free to ignore it if that's the case! Well done on making everything that you did, and there's a solid concept here.

Mixed Signals by universeflow 2026-05-04T18:40:37Z ♥ 1

A novel and compelling concept! The art is great and the little character designs are very funny. Love the audio implementation here - I was hoping for some rhythm related gameplay from the description but I still appreciated the way the music dynamically shifted and evolved as the difficulty rose. It was just missing some chunkier sound effects on the beat for when you were succeeding. The addition of the hard more was a nice easy win for you and definitely hard. IF i had one bit of constructive feedback, it would be to maybe re-evaluate the controls, or to remove the possibility of getting happy and sad at the same time - it's very uncomfortable and inaccessible to have to quickly press up and down at the same time, in a way that isn't the same for left and right. But a compelling little game with lovely presentation.

Federal Bureau of Dance by drainkid 2026-05-04T18:27:16Z ♥ 1

My favourite entry I've played so far, this was an absolute delight!! I love love love rhythm combat, and I respect the hell out of however you managed to get that audio code working in the jam time. I found it really fun and intuitive, and I adored the doom-style portrait looking around as I moved, but with the cat ear headphones.

The only thing that was missing was chunky game-feel. Nice sounds when you're "hurting" the enemies, chunky tape deck noises when you switch out tracks, etc. But it was a fantastic entry. I was literally just saying out loud when fighting the boss "This is getting pretty easy, it would be cool for the difficulty if this boss guy switched up what he wanted whilst I fought him", and then he did! Amazing stuff, it lasted the perfect amount of time too.

Caller IDie by Charles Mossius 2026-05-03T18:49:47Z ♥ 2

As a thanks for fixing that quickly I gave your game ago. Honestly, even in its initial jam state I think it's a really compellig entry, you guys should feel proud for achieving what you did for your first jam! I love the art style, I tihink it's impressive how much level design you got out of it, and the style you've chosen lends itself well to the simple primitives where they exist. Didn't think it could be compelling to try and escap from a 2D image anymore, but it works! Especially the visual of how the agent jumps.

I found the signal aspect quite confusing. I understood that signal strength denoted whether or not I should use my ability (I assume) but but I still am not sure what the SIM chnips are for. Was there a mechanic I didn't get far enough to see?

Took me a while to realise the buttons opened the doors and some doors needed multiple buttons, but the game became moreintuitive after that. The only other thing I remain confused baout is that it seems like a lot of the red routes I tried were dead ends, like the first one. Is there meant to be a way to progress besides backtracking?

If I were to make two improvements that I think would be a big help, it would be: - making your own position in 3D space easier to visualise, with some visible legs and/or a clear shadow (and then you can hide the arm ones!) - making any "ramp" bits a bit smooother. I think al ot of the time I died it was from getting caught on two primitives trying to ramp up.

Overall though I thought it was a lovely entry. Well done. I'll happily play the post-jam too when I get time.

Fallen Ties by AXLplosion 2026-04-29T22:29:31Z ♥ 0

The game was absolutely inscrutable, and I was a bit disappointed that you don't get to find out if you actually did something right, but the atmosphere and feel of the game was spot on. The presentation, the dialogue of the radio when it's unable to tune in. It's grea.t The character design and dialogue was very unnerving and the entire game felt like it gave me HUGE Cruelty Squad vibes, with a bit more of a grounded setting. That's very much a good thing in my books, I hope you were trying to evoke the theme because the mix of hyper capitalism, violence, drugs and philosophy really conveyes Cruelty Squad a lot. Well done!

🐶ㅤ by thyoi 2026-04-29T22:00:35Z ♥ 1

A lovely entry. Short, sweet, and very well presented. Love to see the return of a character, and I definitely get the "oh god I need to downsize the game immensely" vibe, and yet you seemed to figure out that you needed to pivot early enough that you still got plenty of game in, and even a challenging little fight at the end. The sans lasers were very funny. As others mentioned, I'd have loved to just E and Space when picking up as it did get a bit tiring on my strained hands, but I still enjoyed it a lot!

Coverage by DecadeDecaf 2026-04-27T23:17:47Z ♥ 1

Lovely job! THese aren't my kinds of games usually but this was short sweet and satisfying! The kind of game that's really confusing for a few minutes but you pick up its intuitive mechanics very quickly. Love the silly battle animations, and as everyone said the AI using its own cursor is a really great touch! I'd have loved a bit more time to tell what the AI was choosing, and some more units overall, but what you have here is a solid rexperience with absolutely awesome music.

Channel 59 by auxC 2026-04-27T21:47:27Z ♥ 4

Lovely work as always! Incredible theming, the atmosphere is just right. Took me a hot minute to figure out the antenna mechanic, but jumping in and out of the TVs had really great game feel, and the performances were hilarious as always. I found the platforming very tricky, the mouse sensitivty and lack of friction helps it feel snappy but also makes it a bit too easy for me to fall off.

If I were to make one change though, I would say to stop the ladders from simulating physics if the player is climbing on them. I was unforutnately unable to progress because i'd climb up and the ladders would clip out and out of bounds beneath me, especially the long ladders. Absolutely loved the little infommercials with the capsule and tv, and the adorable animation that felt like it was being puppeteered with a mouse cursor. Lovely job!

Signal-flag Shuffle by HacksawUnit 2026-04-25T17:03:12Z ♥ 1

Oh, I'm so terrible at these sorts of games, but it had a great feel! I feel like the "hints" are more like a necessary set of instructions to know what to do, but once I got to grips with the mechanics, it was a great little complex game, you strike that great balance in that you realise that the game seems simple but is much more cmoplex than it initially appears. The visuals are super charming, especially the emotion changes, and the flags have fun designs that are all distinctive from each other. Well done!

Operation Alien Translation by Sheepolution 2026-04-23T22:23:14Z ♥ 4

Loved it! Absolutely hilarious theming, the contrast between the two is absolutely great and all the names of the software is so funny. Beautifully executed. Also.

Walrus archer jester rocket dota!

Winnerman Scams a Game Show by 100th_Coin 2026-04-22T22:43:35Z ♥ 1

Loved it, the inputs were a bit confusing but the theming and vibe was so on point as usual that it was great just seeing how things escalated. Especially love Winnerman's image of himself, and the music of his mind. I also really enjoyed the ending, weirdly? I could've played a whole game of that. Totally different atmosphere, actually really cool. Excellent work.

Fillmore's Island by Jeremy Ryan 2026-04-22T22:37:15Z ♥ 1

Really had fun with this! Incredibly cute, love the animations of the little guy - although as incompetent as I am this was almost a rage-game in disguise ahaha. I was so bad at it, but I just love the animation of the drone flying around, and Fillmore himself waddling around. Took me a bit to understand, but once I got it, it kind of reminded me of those steady hand games with a much more appealing coat of paint. Love the music too.

To the Depths of the Galaxy by alaah 2025-04-24T18:37:34Z ♥ 1

I wish I had a second player to try this with! I think I'm absolutely terrible at it though. I've always been dreadful at shmups but not all of this seemed possible to dodge for me? That is likely me just being bad, and I'd love to see a dev playthough of it!

The visuals were really pleasant, I loved the shifting of the colours and the lovely background. The music when the boss came especially was very pleasant. I just would have liked more feedback in general - I wans't really sure what my health was, or if I was damaging the enemy. Some more sfcx in general would have been great. Solid little entry!

Captain Peggles: That Man's Chest by Sheepolution 2025-04-24T18:18:32Z ♥ 4

Amazing entry, essentially no notes. Brilliant async multiplayer concept. Beautifully elegant and novel, the perfect thing you look for in a jam! I hope you guys rock the park with the steam version. I would love a reason to make my map more tricksy, and maybe make it trickier *to* make maps as times go on, like bigger islands, less obvious landmarks, or perhaps a requirement to follow a path, or even thingsl ike removing colours sometimes, or somehting like that!

Loved it though, top marks, huge potential

The Moon Reconstruction Program by 100th_Coin 2025-04-24T17:58:25Z ♥ 1

Wonderful entry, love the presentation. I thought it was a bit odd that sticking two non-moon parts together made the moon, I think it would make it feel more cohesive if I was trying to effectively create one big clump, but that's basically my only criticism! Everything else is on point. The characters, the little piping up for poor yellow. The moustache that was totally worth it, in all the draw calls 😆 and "frickin... jerk" is my favourite line of dialogue from this LD. Well done!

Cast Iron Hammer Golf by HacksawUnit 2025-04-24T17:19:47Z ♥ 1

Oh man, I am so bad at this! Love the concept. I didn't like that theme, but this would have been a perfect entry for that "combine 2 incompatible genres" LD! The implementation is super charming and the presentation is great. I found there to be a few too many factors for my small brain to manage - I never quite felt like I was able to predict where the piece would end up. I think that would have been a lot easier if you were batting the piece directly into the playing field, rather than you hitting, then getting a second screen with the playing field. Maybe thats just me though! Really clever idea, well done!!

Mr. Money's Phenomenally Soggy Water Removal Romp by Rhoka 2025-04-16T15:37:13Z ♥ 3

Even for a three person team I'm so impressed with the amount of content, heart, nad polish you guys managed to squeeze into this. I was not planning to play this for as long as I did, but whilst I normally dislike most idle games, this one had the unique twist of having a number go up to spend on an actual, visible progression! And the natural loop of the lake draining and uncovering more things is just brilliant. Plus, I didn't have to just wait around, I had actual incentive to explore! And exploring to unlock the 'vehicles' made it eeeeven more fun to explore. This is going to do very well I'm quite sure.

I'd just have loved more to unlock and upgrade besides the regular pump. It quickly felt like I didn't have to manually do things for long at all, nor did I ever need the middle ground. With a tiny bit of waiting, I was buying all the pumps and going for max profit, then max progress, alternatingly, never having to use my manual draining.

I'd also like to especially highlight the sound design and music. I thought it was perfect, zero criticism. It really adds to the amtosphere, particularly the fading in and out of the music. Well done guys, a top entry.

Temple of Hands by coyotethursday 2025-04-16T00:58:55Z ♥ 2

Loved this entry. I wish I didn't run out of time to play it, as watching the video I am happy to see I made it all the way to around the 3:56 mark in terms of the pattern I left on. I think the game oozes style, the hand and eye imagery was very cool, super alien and otherworldly, and in general I thought it definitely was fittign for the bizarre polyryhythms totally alien to your average rhythm game. I'm no musical expert but I love regular rhythm games so it was a fun jaunt outside my comfort zone! I thought the bell would get annoying, but no! it meshes so nicely with everything.

Reading the comments, I didn't realise there was a demonstration period either. My biggest critique in general is just a lack of feedback and player guidance. The biggest thing I'd advocate for more than anything, is a live timeline showing how far through the pattern we are. I appreciate it might detract from the challenge a little, but trying to figure out where the pattern even begins is not an aspect of the challenge I personally enjoy. For example, if that halo in the background perhaps filled up like a loading bar, to show how far through the pattern we are, resetting again when it reaches the end? I think that alone would have helped a tonne with the playability, at least ot me!

In general though I think this is an awesome, stylish entry, and I hope you get enouhg votes to get a ranking!

Hadal by ColeSlaughter 2025-04-15T13:34:16Z ♥ 4

Thank you for playing Oasis Dawn on stream! Finally got to Hadal.

Such a nice, solid little game. The introduction is quite elegant, and the core mechanic the entire game is built around is solid and satisfying. It's interesting you leaned more into a precision platforming vibe at times, I definitely appreciated the challenge there, but I admit I found it most satisfying when I was able to react enough to just glide through the level!

I'm also really impressed by all the polished details on this. I have a huge soft spot for music that evolves with the progression. The vfx of the water, the steadily breathing walls, the background (and foreground) sea life swimming around? Love it all! Also that you had time to implement a proper menu and leaderboard is great, and I can tell this will surely be a Dare To Play contender. It is unfortunately why I was surprised to find there were very few sound effects! Some proper atmospheric swimming and splashing sounds would really have added to the game feel, especially when you find that momentum. I was terrible incidentally. I beat the game but came 65th!

One minor bit of constructive feedback I have is the surprising file size. The game seems like it should be quite lightweight, but when unzipped it's like 1.5GB? Which is very surprising for a 2D unity game. I see you have one resource file sharedassets1.assets which is responsible for most of this at 1.41GB, so I wonder if you happen to have a few textures that are just reeeeeally high resolution? Might be worth crunching them down! Would probably encourage folks to play the donwloadbable version! Well done again for the splendid entry!

Grandpet by deadroach 2025-04-13T15:27:22Z ♥ 1

This was a wonderfully miserable experience in the best possible way. Your signature style is really great, utterly cartoonish and yet manages still to capture a total dissonance in tone with that photo and reflection. I'm dreadful at it, but I liked being bale to grab the grandpet and drag him around, whilst also acknowledging that it seems to be a meta thing, tied to his feeling of agency (or lack thereof). I have only found two endings (indeed, I'm wondering and worrying if he had something to do with the fact that his family is all dead). I believe I'm getting closer to figuring out the code but I'm not there yet. My current theory is the bookshelf and cups in the living room's colours all contribute to the code, and that the order of the code is denoted by the button order on the tv remote - that's surely not a coincidence. But it seems like the code is 6 digits and there are only 5 colours. I wondered if each shelf is a digit, plus the ones in the living room, to make 6, but then I have 6 digits for each colour, so that's not right. There's something else I'm missing but i'll have to come back to it.

For now, loved the entry, it was miserable, and I love that even the fake oven is sad.

Edge Digger by Arthur Tang 2025-04-11T00:08:11Z ♥ 1

I think everything I have to say has been said, it's a good loop and very polished! Some of the actual implementation could be improved. I definitely noticed a bug where hugging a wall and digging would cause the character to skip the block in front of them and dig out the one beyond.

think I'd find the experience *much* smoother if movement in general was removed? I know that sounds weird, but what I mean is that I feel like pressing the dig directions should have the character "dash" to that position in the grid. There's not really a need for platforming, and there's no situation where I felt like I'd need to dig somewhere I don't then need to move to. It would let me just feel a lot more free to get lost in it! And yes as others said I'd totally make the captcha more obvious that it's present, and maybe tone down the popups a little. It's a ocol idea but does get a bit frustrating quickly. The music and sound design is excellent, I love the wya them usic hcanges and has that filter applied when in the menus. Not sure what the menu animation is about but it looks sleek!

Kind of deep waters by 7uc4s 2025-04-10T19:58:25Z ♥ 4

The whole gameplay loop feels very tight! The difficulty is tuned just a bit too high, which I see you guys already knew, but the vibes qare all there. I could see this being a really satisfying game to play with more to explore and with a much lower difficulty! The atmosphere is great, I loved the music, and the level generation was - on the whole - very impressive! It all felt very organic, excepting the few times where you're faced with a literally impossible obstacle .Those angry fish too seem very difficult to avoid sometimes, so I didn't manage to make it pastg past level 3, but I like how the light became necessary!

I think as a result there are too many sources of difficulty, rather than just the game being too difficult. Light navigation, oxygen management, the deliberately tricky controls, upgrade management, and obstacle avoidance. I'd probably focus on one or two sources of challenge and cut others! I'm also not a fan AI generated content, but in this case I do appreciate that you stated pretty explicitly that you used it, and what you used it for, and it's pretty minor here. On the whole really solid entry, well done.

OnlyDown by nojoule 2025-04-10T15:32:38Z ♥ 1

An interesting concept for sure! I wasn't sure how I healed, but there's something here. The visuals make for a really fun little reality-bending painting. It's quitep leasing to watch. You don't need me to tel lyou this but it's always so important to try and set aside a tiny bit of time to have some kind of audio for your game - even at the expense of other mechanics! But it's a cute entry, I see a lot of the focus went to the tilemap and that is very very cool!

Dante's Mini-Golf by braktheman 2025-04-10T15:24:22Z ♥ 1

At first I was thinking, "huh, this isn't toooo difficult" especially when I felt like a pro for getting Fraud down in 3 strokes first try, and then I got to Heresy, fell off, and went all the way back to the first level! Aha. This is super clean and playable, but something not a lot of folks are mentioning is the music. It was a bit grating in the first level, but when I got to the second and realised it was being added to? Well, I have a huge affinity for music that develops with the gameplay, well done for that. Going back and doing levels again isn't my thing, but I think it's a fun idea you could explore - imagine courses with extra things and such, inaccessible except by carefully mentally mapping it and then falling off in later levels in order to access them. With some careful planning it could somehow end up a kind of labyrinthian, open world mini golf game? lol. Either way, I thought this was a nice solid entry. Difficult is right! I got to level 5 too.

The Retreat by Matt Ravenhall 2025-04-10T15:02:37Z ♥ 2

A nice, satisfying little escape room game! Love the sound effects, the radio puzzle was definitely my favourite. I appreciate it wasn't overly difficult and had a nice little subgame of finding hte ghosties. A solid, atompsheric little entry. Well done!

Nine Lives Deep by Simon Rahnasto 2025-04-09T17:53:48Z ♥ 4

I'm going to be brutlaly honest, I almost never give out 5 stars in a rating in virtually any category. But in virtually every category, you guys get 5 stars. Hot damn, you knock it out of the park every time. This was so cute, and the polish level was amazing! A tight little core mechanic, adorable characters with so much life. I love the sounds Matteo makes. I tried hard not to die just because I didn't want to see him hurt. The moment he popped out at the end I actually laughed as I realised what was going on. Amazing. The transitions, the atmosphere, the reflections in the water on the surface, the lovely water-level music, the amazing surface-level music with the meowing cat soundfont? I loved it all.

If I were to have any constructive criticisms at all, it would be that the game was actually quite easy, just because I realised quickly you can tank hits and just keep swinging at the boss, and he'll die way before you do. But also we all know that balance is super difficult, and better to make the game a little on the easy side, than way too hard - especially with a narrative focus like here. Top tier work friends.

Archeologic by auxC 2025-04-09T12:58:13Z ♥ 4

Very polished as always! Love the style and the silly brainrot copywriting. Building in the centre makes it very difficult, but adjusting to that and figuring out how the minecraft-style physics work was enough for me to get in the groove. I like the shaders when the camera rotates too.

Doctrines - LD57 Game by Riggen 2025-04-09T03:44:46Z ♥ 2

The aesthetic, the game feel and the sound design are all there, really quality. The art style is cool, and the premise is fun. I think the time constraint in the card design itself is what bottlenecks it unfortunately. I beat all 3 monsters, mostly by just prioritising the 5% damage card. I think it would have been better to cut the useless cards from the deck, and just kept the lovely art for them in a gallery or something. I loooove the card design visually. Perhaps some more player choice would be good? Like we draw 6, discard 1? Or osmething like that? As I said I foudn it quite easy just to deal 5% damage over and over till I won. But solid entry, definitely promising! Well done.

Dark Depths by buckmeister 2025-04-09T03:27:13Z ♥ 2

Loved the game. I liked having to explore, the atmosphere is top, and it's always impressive seeing a bit of narrative woven into everything. Unfortunately I couldn't finish it because of some hardware issues I'm experiencing, and the game crashed (not you guys, my PC's issue), but once I've fixed it I'm curious to see how it ends.

I love the effect and feelign of doing the scanning, and all the visuals were just great. Combat felt a little odd to me, in that I wasn't sure how to avoid the neemies' attacks. I nthe end I foind it most effective to level speed and strength and just avoid them, get to the logbook, then flee until they lost aggro.

Really great entry, super impressed for three days.

Regenesis: Bacteria King by Synapse316 2024-10-23T10:06:21Z ♥ 1

It took me a while to understand what I was looking at, maybe some more information on the actual LD page? But eventually I started to get a better idea of what was goign on - build your bacteria and fight with it - the matrix of numbers was very confusing. The art style is nice and the music is a vibe. You have something here but just need to strip away a lot of the buttons that don't do anyhting. I think I locked myself as my bacteria couldn't move in the second level. Not sure why!

Glad to get you out of the danger zone though!

Among The Deep by Langotriel 2024-10-21T21:32:11Z ♥ 1

Absolutely beautiful little game. Certainly didn't expect that tone shift, even though our research partner (who which was just delightful! What an excellent VA!) hinted at it as time went on. I should have suspected! Everything lends to the atmosphere so perfectly - the lighting of the stones and mushrooms, that wonderful music, the parallax background. You captured some quite satisfying gamefeel, such that mining the stones wasn't boring but satisfying, and the amounts required were pretty much perfectly the right amount. If I were to nitpick anything, I'd just have liked the laser-swapping wheel to be a bit faster. That's a real nitpick though.

I'd have been happy for this to be a chill little game about the wonders of researching tiny creatures, ahaha. Most importantly, you managed to make me worried for a faceless character in a jam game, so damn good job all around. Even with a bigger team, this polish is impressive. Well done!

Ladybug's Underworld by Dekajoo 2024-10-17T20:10:51Z ♥ 2

When I started this, you were still in the danger zone! This might sound harsh but it's a compliment: I wasn't expecting to enjoy this as much as I did!

It starts off feeling a bit clunky, like a bog standard slightly-awkward-to-control platformer. But when I unlocked the roll, with that gorgeous little effect, I knew I was dealing with a wonderful little metroidvania. Very Hollow Knight! I found the rolling controls a bit clunky at times and some parts got me very stuck, but I thoroughly enjoyed the whole thing. The atmopshere is top, the visuals are lovely. So pleased my video game instincts kicked in when Ig to the "end" thinking "I swear I left some coins behind down there, this wall looks jumpable..." and lo and behold, there was another gate!

So I am pleased to say I got the true ending, even if I got stuck for a stupid amount of time until I figured out that first coin where you need to speed and then jump pad. Placing the jump pad there was the most difficult part of the whole game, ahaha.

The design of the ladybug interesting. Cute, but the red eyes and hunched posture give it a slightly sinister vibe to me, like those gates were placed to keep us inside. If you've never read Lovecraft's "The Outsider" I recommend it, it gives me similar vibes and it's the kind of narrative that would fit a game like this well if ever you extended it. Well done! Especially for a solo entry!

Play With Me by gord10ahmet 2024-10-15T22:56:32Z ♥ 2

Finally gotten round to commenting, though I played the game days ago! Quality work from you guys, big step up from the last jam! Got a genuine spook out of me, for one. But the individual games were lovely too! I think the effects worked great, the way it's all framed into the tamagotchi console, the little minigames. Love the way that only the middle one's is an endless game with no win con, and you figure out why eventually. Well done!

Neckmeat's Tiny Adventure by Jerem Watts 2024-10-15T22:55:00Z ♥ 0

That was a surreal experience! Not much of a game beyond the balancing of stats, but the visuals were lovely. I enjoyed the warm lighting to everything, and the ugly-cute paper sprites were very charming.

Echo Echo by Demure 2024-10-15T22:48:40Z ♥ 1

Lovely little game. I had hoped the echolocation would come more into the gameplay elememtns for navigating as I thought it was a great idea, but the execution of the game was lovely. Very zen, despite the fact I'm bad it. Love the visuals, the soundscape music is very fitting. Well done.

Vox Regis by Sheepolution 2024-10-14T23:24:57Z ♥ 2

This was wonderful, my favourite compo entry so far, easily! The moment I saw the name I realised what the theme interpretatio nwas, and I thought that was magnificent. I found the game quite easy, but that's just because it was so elegant. The visuals were lovely, and I especially loved the silly latin "speeches". The rate at which the crowd joins new factions in general was perfectly tuned for the single-playthrough a LD game often gets. Top scores.

TinySlime by H1soka 2024-10-13T09:38:33Z ♥ 10

Severely disappointed and calling out that this person leaves ratings generated by chat gpt, not even editing out the fact that the screenshot and description was fed in:

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Please stop this, it's lazy and the antithesis to what this community is about. Dreadful.

Shrimpy by Kultuk 2024-10-10T22:27:56Z ♥ 3

Had a great time with this one. The concept is just very clever whilst also being quite cute rather than perilous (even if you can get eaten), the art is lovely, the little nibbling animation is adorable. The only nitpicks I have design wise is what others have said - the biggest being that sometimes jumps are impossible. I think you were really clever that most of the time that's mitigated by the nature of the gaps being closed as the jaw closes, but sometimes even that's not enough. The others are much more minor, in that sometimes facing the right direction was tricky and the spikey platforms felt like they should be hazards. But I completed it first try with a score of 12 so I'll take it!

In particular I want to highlight the sound design and music. I really love the music and calming atmosphere the audio helps cultivate. I think it's a splendid entry. It's my favourite shrimp-based game I've played thusfar, and that's not even a small compliment!

Mini Beaker by LePeridot 2024-10-10T22:25:05Z ♥ 5

Top quality entry, so glad I played blind without reading comments! I saw your team was pretty big but I am still very impressed. The initial theme really had me convinced I knew what it was about, and then- nope! The only shame there was that the design for the scientist lady is adorable!

Quality stuff! And pretty darn challenging! Well done.

Scrubby Shrimp by Steven Garberg 2024-10-09T11:47:06Z ♥ 1

I had a lovely little time with this! It's a good shrimple game. I thought at first the other sealife were obstacles, but once I bounced off of the crab harmlessly I just spun around eatin' up all the algae. The art is very cute! A little more challenge would have been nice but I think this works as just a nice little toy.

Waddle by grizeldi 2024-10-08T23:07:23Z ♥ 3

Adorable, and very beautifully presented. I found the mechanics a touch confusing at times, particularly how the splitting up mechanic worked with stopping, but it was a lovely, simple game with so many details. Love the little touches like the leaves and the wind. Well done!

Blood Crux by Dmitry Kaidash 2024-10-08T23:03:23Z ♥ 2

Thoroughly enjoyed this one. The visuals are one point and whilst I was confused in-game at first, I then actually went and, you know, read the instructions, and all made sense. Very smooth! A touch easy but that's not necessarily a criticism! The only thing it needed to me was punchier effects and sounds when you hit enemies and got kills to make it more satisfying, and perhaps faster, more thumping music! (this music wasn't bad! Just I felt faster more energistic music would fit better!) I absolutely love the style and the designs, especially of the vampire herself. Blending the poses with movement is super hsard so I appreciate the way you did it in the end given the time available.

I also love a good scoreboard, and the presentation using the graves is great! Managed to get #6, which I will take! Very well done.

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Necrohorde by Tricky_Fat_Cat 2024-10-08T21:41:35Z ♥ 3

Love the presentation! What stands out most to me is how amazingly detailed all the screens outside the game itself are, with the menus and transitions. It's lovely! The gameplay is a touch confusing but I quickly get the gist! Nice satidfying little game, love the chain lightning. The only thing I really felt was missing was the game feel impact when using those bailities. YOu have sounf effects for a lot of the interface stuff but not for the abilities themselves, which is a shame! Still it's a very solid entry and the visuals are perfect! Well done all.

Throes of the Javelin by MatterLinx 2024-04-27T11:57:38Z ♥ 3

I'm stunned this was made in three days, the polish, ambience, and tight controls are all there. It's a simple mechanic explored so tightly. You even have a ready-made combat system built into it. The atmosphere is reat and i love the subtleties of the spear's weight, and the way it pushes you as you catch it, a mechanic in and of itself.

The only CC I'd have had was perhaps a button to brace yourself on impact as having to compensate catching it on a small platform was a little frustrating, and also an option to tone down or remove the delay in camera smoothing, because it gave me a little bit of dizziness.

This is one of the few games I'd 100% say you should absolutely build on, because this already feels like a premium product. Top notch work.

Veles Book by Forik 2024-04-24T17:10:02Z ♥ 1

Hey guys, I'll definitely give this game a go tonight, but would you be able to tell me what you did to make the build run smoother? I'm experiencing the same issues you guys had! I cap the FPS, set the sclabality level, resolution scale and texture quality, so I'm really interested to see what solved it for you!

Will definitely get to this and return with a rating today!

Exorcist Pianist by Aviv Levy 2024-04-23T22:18:48Z ♥ 2

I try my best to play any music related entry I find, and this was the first time I got to dig out my midi keyboard to play a game! I love that concept. Loved the vibe and atmosphere too, though I'm no expert pianist, I've had my evenings spent cathartically playing notes as if letting out my own demons. I love that. I think any CC I have is probably already mentioned either by the comments or in your post mortem, but my big ones are that yes, it would have been great had it been more melodic (indeed since they were all in a scale, I'm sure there's a good way to have a backing harmony help make it sound like everything you play is in context. I think the fact it's free-metred and not a rhythm game is totally fine personally, my other issue is just difficutly. Took me a while to realise the difference between big A and little a, embarrassingly, but constantly having to peek up and down was a bit tricky, never managed it.

Still, solid entry, be proud. Well done! Would love to see more games like this.

HellKiller by owenmdvd 2024-04-23T19:04:50Z ♥ 2

There's a lot of charm here, and a lot to like. You do a lot of things to nail the game feel, which is the most important and most often overlookedp art of a micro-game like a jam game, in my opinion. For a game like this, it's that snappy, juicy satidfying combat gameplay. I think you succeed in making all the projectiles feel really nice to shoot and killing enemies feels great - in no small part thanks to the gorgeous VFX.

Some firing VFX wouldn't have gone amiss, and naturally the big area that would really help with it is more and punchier sound effects. But! That's often something we run out of time for during jams.

I think given the emphasis on snappy, twitchy action gameplay, there's a few things that are done great, and a few things I'd change that I think are conflicting with it. I think the player has some nice weight to it, but perhaps a little too much weight. When you die so quickly, I want to be able to change directions immediately. I think on that note of death, being able to take more than one hit would be good - maybe just 3 hits and you're dead?

I also would love it if the dash got buffed - I never felt like it really helped out there. I really like the variety you add by way of upgrades, some of them felt really great (I loved getting the fire rate one). However, I'd make two big changes personally - first, I'd remove the bad ones. I think it's a genuinely cool idea, but doesn't fit the game too well. I want to feel good about getting an upgrade, and it feels bad instead when I get loads of bad ones, and that I had to put myself in danger to confirm that. It messes a lot with the pace, and I think it would make much more sense that I should feel happy to see an upgrade drop. Then, I'd simplify the UI pop up to just say something like "Fire Rate+" or use icons, so in the heat of the moment I can see. Perhaps a voice over would help there.

Over all though, I think this is a great entry, and there's some splendid polish in it. In the end I only managed 13th place on the board, but I was never very good at these games!

Manku the Magician by PorChor 2024-04-20T16:01:51Z ♥ 5

This oozes style and polish. The gameplay is simple but intuitive enough that it needs no words to explain it. It's incredibly cute and the animations are charming. I think some sort of scaling or duration to end the game would have been nice beyond the increase in carrots, but in general every aspect was quality. The music was lovely, the good and bad endings were very good, and I abslutely loved the chat and twitch donations coming in. Well done for a quality entry!

The Unholy Rise Of Catthulhu by Nishikku 2024-04-18T19:43:03Z ♥ 2

The art and themeing here really is spot on. Love the sprites for the characters, and the little story. Felt bad about taking out the little dogs! I am reticent about the idea of changing the balance of the game post-jam though, I think you should add an option to play it as it was submitted, as usually post-jam fixes are more meant for "typos" - i.e. things you'd have caught that are small fixes. But the game I played was solid and a nice enjoyable experience. Well done! Splendid job.

Blåkulla by Simon Rahnasto 2024-04-17T23:12:09Z ♥ 4

It's me again!

Wow, I've not rated many games, and I always expect good things from Simon's team's games, but this has been the best one I've played so far. It's a totally complete experience with an insane amount of content in it! The UI polish is nuts. The card flip-flpping, the loads of spells, enemy variety, the cutscene. The little characters waxing philosophical. I lvoed the theming. Took me a while to realise that the cards were just reminders, and I could actually draw at any time, but once I did, I quickly found my favourites to use (the flame in the cloud was my MVP! Partly because it was one of the few I could always remember lol). Honestly my suggestion more would have been to cut down the number of spells a little, and make it a little more of a decision, trying to choose which spells to cast. But there was also kind of a chaotic joy in just panicking at the end and spamming squiggles, and happily getting some spells I'd forgotten about working.

5/5 from me, well done all involved. Quality entry.

Infernal Interns by Richard Ortiz 2024-04-17T22:38:17Z ♥ 2

It definitely felt like I was picking at random, and it was a little dismaying to get what felt like positive outcomes but zero gold reviews. But on the whole I enjoyed the concept of this! Loved seeing what I could make, and there were way more combinations than I expected! I especially loved that the results weren't in the form of numbers or anything, but little stories. Also kind of helped through replaying then, and I love that there is genuine replayabiltiy to it.

Alas, I still ended with zero gold reviews after three tries, perhaps I'm just not meant for demonhood. Still, fun little entry!

Church of Pain by ThorPalsson 2024-04-17T17:59:57Z ♥ 3

As others have said, the graphics and atmosphere are what really sell it. The lighting is top notch, the use of the shadows and volumetric fog, how you had time to make all these assets is crazy. That last area is very cool too. I especially quite like the death animation for the ghoul things.

I think more time could have been spent working on the game "feel". In old school shooters, the key aspect was to make the guns feel really nice to kill things with. That comes from stuff like punchy sound effects, splashy gore, and stuff like camera kick. I think the blood particles were fun, but in general everything could have been amped up some. I fully appreciate that audio is often a rush to get in during a jam, but I think a simple improvement would be fixing the starting pistol's sound, which is a little delayed.

A solid entry with some juicy visuals and atmosphere. Well done!

Mushroom Conundrum by auxC 2024-04-17T17:45:23Z ♥ 3

As usual, Cameron's games are adorable and excellent! What a hilarious and impressively polished little puzzle! I love the art style, and the little animations are great. It's the sort of game that doesn't even need a tutorial since it's so intuitive. I especially liked the way the music changed when entering the mines.

I loved the stupid little mushrooms wandering around doing their own thing, the only thing I'd have wished is for is that they didn't put things in the summoning circle when I'm trying to make something, I fought with them a fair bit around the halfway point, until I individually moved all the nearby logs away.

Overall though, absolutely lovely, well done guys. And it even had a nice little ending shot too.

Milkman by themorfeus 2022-10-18T00:07:42Z ♥ 1

I have no idea what bizarre set of circumstances led to the inspiration behind running a telekinetic milk shop, but I love it. Though there's not a huge amount of challenge to be found to help solidify it as a proper game, the game*feel* is absolutely spot on, with the snappy animations and movement and satisfying sound effects! A class act there, and that's very important as it really helps outshine some of the games awkward parts. I found aiming quite tricky with the sensitivity, and I think the FOV and camera distance might need some tweaking. Right now it feels a bit claustrophobic and I think that might cause some nausea in folks who get motion sick easily. But overall, really nice little entry, and a fellow UE dev! Hail!

WHO'S NEXT !? by Kmyho 2022-10-17T17:56:25Z ♥ 2

There's a gorgeous level of presentation here, so much has been done to make the game look great. Everything is super stylised and playfully consistent, the UI looks brilliant, from the menu to the speech bubbles., and the gameplay is a solid simple concept. I'd have liked to have seen a little more gameplay-wise, than just trying to scroll left and right finding the person, and I never really found it too tricky. Perhaps giving each character a single set of speech bubbles and having the operator instead describe features of the person you're looking for like "Brown hair! Big moustache! Getting married!" but what you have here is super solid and playable.

As it is, the thing I find a bit odd is mostly the curious clashes of tone. The stylised comedic presentation implies a lighthearted or at least gallows-humour dark parody about a heist going wrong, but in reality the game is about systematically executing hostages that are begging for you not to kill them 😅 which feels very odd to me given the cute style. Still, I think it's a very well made entry and you guys should be happy with it!

Spacivery by fireKS 2022-10-16T20:24:31Z ♥ 2

A charming little game! I think ten seconds is a bit too short a time to navigate the environment, but that it wouldn't be difficult to make this game feel great! I know it's not of your creation, but your choice of music is great, I'd say you should probably consider crediting it! The graphics are lovely, from the design of the characters to the background environment objects, especially the space stuff.

The only thing is I really couldn't figure out what any of the items did!

MEGACHONKER by Senover Games 2022-10-15T21:54:11Z ♥ 2

This is actually quite a fun little idea for a unique shooter. It'd be fun, I think, to make an actual game where you grow super wide and each part of the ship does something different. There's not a lot here at the moment but what there is is playable and is a fun take on the theme!

Neon Speed Gauntlet by Empty Set 2022-10-15T21:46:59Z ♥ 1

A very solid entry! The palettes are super slick and the vibe is pretty cool. The lives system is a touch confusing and it'd be nice not to have to start entirely from scratch, but I do appreciate how it felt to beat a level in its entirety without failing. The controls were a little confusing and/or a touch inconsistent-feeling at times but in general I think you did a great job.

TurnKee by StudioKraze 2022-10-15T17:32:42Z ♥ 1

A solid entry. I think a lot of the points I have to say are already echoed by others, but I'll give my full thoughts still!

First of all, I think the presentation is perfect. The graphics are consistent and polished, intuitive and sharp, and everything feels quite smooth and nice. The palette is minimal and consistent and looks *great*, and I'd also like to praise the font choice. As a veteran jammer this is always something that has hounded me, and I genuinely think your font is perfect for the style.

The constructive crticism really lies in the fundamental concept of the game. Indeed, if you're deviating away from the standard genre by adding in a twist, the key thing to ask is "how does this spice things up/make it more fun?" and you guys seem to fully understand that the ten second idling doesn't really lend to that. I kind of think it might almost have some merit as a kind of idle game if you could queue up actions and tab away. But if you're not going for that, then the question is more to ask what the player has to do during those ten seconds. Maybe they have an entirely separate task to decide upon. I'm not entirely sure reducing the timer is the only thing to make it more satisfying but it it'd definitely help! And make the game a lot shorter 😅 But yeah, maybe consider adding in some separate mechanic to induce stress during the timer if you'd like to help stand it out a little.

It just has to be said too that I did find the music a little grating! Nice that it was there, but sometimes if you're going for a jam entry, royalty free music works well too!

My main advice for jam games is to use the restriction of the theme to help your creativity in conceptualising the game flourish, and that the moment it gets in the way of the actual gameplay, to abandon it. That's not a mantra shared by everyone, but I prefer to make a more fun game that was inspired by the theme, rather than a less fun one that adheres strictly to it 😆

Again, it's a solid, polished entry and you should be proud! I think in the end perhaps the real nemesis was a completely different timer, the LD timer 😆 so well done for finishing it.

Ludum Ware by PenguinMunch 2022-10-11T13:45:41Z ♥ 1

I'm always a huge fan of wario-ware style games. This was a neat little addition into them, I liked the idea that the weapon chose carried over into the next, making what seemed like the incorrect choice at first actually being the key to doing the second game correctly. I would have liked more than just the three games, and some feedback to be able to tell if there was a reason the game had won or if it was just looping/I had done well, but time pressures get to us all. Well done!

Junk Seller by kimau 2022-10-11T13:38:08Z ♥ 0

Hmm, I seem to be unable to run it unfortunately! I'm getting an error stating my video card driver doesn't support any of the supported Vulkan or OpenGLversions, and to either update them or upgrade my GPU. I'm running a GTX 1080 with the latest drivers which should be plenty for an entry, but I'll try reinstalling my drivers to see if it's something on my end.

Dubious Arcade by ocwal 2022-10-11T13:31:52Z ♥ 4

A very cute entry! I'll definitely need to try this one with some friends after work. I think I echo what a lot of the others say. As a huge wario ware fan it had some great vibes to it. Perhaps a randomisation of the order of the games would have been fun, but I can definitely seeing this be some silly competitive fun with a full party! Love the music and sound design, and I have to agree that the crowd control train minigame was the highlight. Well done!

Energy Out by Govoroha 2022-10-10T22:38:16Z ♥ 2

A solid entry! I got a bit confused by the puzzles themselves, but the basic mechanics were very solid! The graphics are extremely charming. It's a classic issue, not having time for sound, so I sympathise there. I would have loved the ability to insta-drain a battery/just switch to another robot at my leisure, but I figured out that I could sort of do that by just resurrecting the robots I needed, so that was pretty cool! Overall, solid stuff. Well done!

Boulder Bash by W4YN3R 2022-10-10T22:08:13Z ♥ 1

Very well executed game! This highlights how a good jam game should be - focussing one simple mechanic with lots of fun variation added in with the environment changes! I think perhaps making the objective be to avoid the balls rather than knocking them off might be better as I found they tended to fall off by themselves! But overall very polished experience!

Are We There Yet? by CameronPenner 2022-10-10T21:05:16Z ♥ 2

Excellent! Absolutely loved it, you guys clearly had so much fun voicing - would've been a blast to join in! Love the little microtasks and the art of the environment, and the camera transition from beginning to going in. The way Stepdad grows progressively more furious is such a joy. Took me a little bit to get the controls but after a very early game over I quickly got the hang of it, and made the journey second time! Super cool. Only CC was I think the mixing on the sfx and music is a little loud and so I can't always hear the VA! Excellent stuff ❤️

Neon Meltdown by Milan8890 2022-04-19T14:01:33Z ♥ 1

Neon Meltdown definitely went up in my books the more I played it. Beginning with the awkward conrols, muted-by-default music and high difficulty, I had thought it was a classic case of "game jam game that's been tuned way too difficult" - a common jam trap I've fallen in many many times 😆 but once I started getting some of those upgrades together, it was a rewarding experience getting the ship and gunplay to just *feel* better. I don't think I've played many games where the controls are deliberately awkward to use with the intent of making them more responsive, and that combined with the smooth ramping of difficulty means it doesn't just make the game easier. Whilst it did make it crushingly annoying to then die and go back to the jank, it did make it extra tense to stay alive. Of course, the visuals are also very pleasing, and that pretty explosion did make dying more tolerable!

I think my only main complaint besides the lack of sound effects (that'd really add to the game feel!) is that I think the timer-as-health system is unneeded and I feel like it'd just feel better if you stuck to a standard health system. :)

Well done!

Bitboy by Proxy-Games 2022-04-12T13:17:40Z ♥ 1

Very impressive entry! I had skimmed over the flavour text on this page after "infinite runner" and so fell for everything at first. The dialogue gave me suspicions but it didn't click until it all kicked off. Definitely enjoyed the experience, the meta-interaction was fun and I was always intrigued to see what would occur when I reloaded. I wish there was a touch more that changed between resets, however, the three times are basically each the same sequence with minimal changes in dialogue, where I think one or two would have sufficed. Perhaps that would indeed have been less repetitious with - echoing the statements of others - there was a button to speed up the dialogue and it was keyboard driven. There was a lot of time spent waiting for it to continue. But! This was an excellent implementation of the theme, and it disguises itself incredibly well. I also really liked the music and sound design. Well done!

Elephant In The Room by kylerhoades 2022-04-11T22:34:38Z ♥ 1

Super bizarre and fascinating concept! Really impressive the way they pull the related titles, this might be the first LD project that I actually delve into the source code for to have a snoop around. Took me a bit to realise there was a certain timing required, and once I did I found that it was quite easy to just keep thinking of any random thing. But it was worth keeping playing just to see them bring up the different topics. Very neat!

Get Out Me Dungeon! by BlooAlain 2022-04-09T18:13:28Z ♥ 4

Very neat! I'm not yet sure how best to give feedback upon an Extra game, but assumign it was made majoritarily in the 72 hours, I am very impressed! A wholly complete experience that gives me some nice Dungeon Keeper vibes in premise. The building system didn't take me long to figure out and it all played quite nicely! Managed to make it to the Hero being level 21 before dying. Love the adorable animations, that even the traps get little happy victory animations.

I think my biggest criticism is just that the UI is a bit confusing regarding how much resistance the Hero has gained. UX is difficult to get in a jam though. I think a quick win that would have improved the experience would have been a little element of randomness in the actual fights; I get that it was meant to be a numbers game, but once I'd understood everything, it was a bit underwhelming to know the exact outcome of the fight before it happened. An occasional critical hit on my or the hero's side would have been a little spicy unpredictability.

But overall, very solid entry, well done!

VargaVinter by Simon Rahnasto 2022-04-09T18:01:05Z ♥ 4

Remarkable! The entire game drips with atmosphere, holding the metaphorical and poetic quality of a grimm fairy tale. I loved it. The gameplay was super functional and intuitive, the visuals were well put together and the deities were super creepy. I managed to get myself killed by the bird deity on my first playthrough, but I'm curious to know if I get a worse ending

I am, however, very glad that I'm not just delaying the inevitable in the end. If there was no good ending, I'd be very depressed. 😅 brilliant job as always!

Darkness In Bloom by Simon Rahnasto 2021-10-14T23:51:42Z ♥ 2

Sorry this post took so long to come about! I played the game a while back but life caught up to me, so to remind myself of how it all works I played it again just now! So let's go.

First off, that's a really cool mechanic you've put together. The duality system is freaking cool and it's made all the cooler by the litany of UX that has gone into it. From the visible effects and the particles to the way your character changes dependent on the level of your chaos and life,. And the sound effects were just magnificent, that looping sound that still somehow sounds like a flock of doves taking flight as you give life is probably my favourite sound effect in the game.

A lot of my constructive criticisms have already been echoed here, but really I just wish I got to make more use of the mechanics in a more nuanced way. I liked that you had to drain life from the enemy to give it to the pillars, but garnering too much chaos could mean you have to buff your enemies. That's clever, but I think the only benefit of giving life being to be able to open the gate is not quite as satisfying as the way draining it very obviously makes you safer. My other constructive criticism is on the lack of utilisation of the environment, and here I think I could probably tie both of these issues with one solution - what if you could - on select tiles - give life to bushes and buds that form walls or slowed terrain - both for you and the enemy? It'd allow you to be able to gain control of the terrain, and perhaps they'd slowly wilt. I'd as a result probably try and modify the actual forward objective in that scneario however, perhaps to collect something or survive for a certain amount of time.

Anyways. Enough with the cc! The ending was great, I love the little twist and I noticee upon playing the second time that the dude is the same state as you too, as I was in the skeleton-y Gravelord Nito-y form, and so was he! Really nice touch. We have cast ourselves into that first flame and all is right with the world again. Overall, a really solid entry, as I've come to expect from you guys! Well done.

Fission Horse in The Escape From the Condemned Stables by nanolotl 2021-10-10T23:00:18Z ♥ 1

What a compelling entry! I really rather enjoyed that. A silly and enjoyable concept with a great mix of takes on the theme. Worth it for the pun alone. I found the controls rather difficult and the experience was marred only by a few small things. Some feedback beyond UI for your approaching overheating or too much speed would have been great, and I think two ways of dying in addition to the standard anti-horse hazards was enough, the addition of the spike wall on occasion was a little bit too much to keep track of. But overall, well done, lots of content and a great game for a compo entry.

Manicat by RexTGun 2021-10-09T20:08:34Z ♥ 1

As I said on stream, that was a much much better experience than I was expecting given the obviously shitposty aesthetic it was going for - usually games like that have an equally "deliberately bad" gameplay loop. However it's clear to see how much thought and design had gone into the game feel as the gunplay was surprisingly satisfying and improved in half a dozen ways that weren't immediately obvious to me until I took a second. The sound effect for the gunshot is really nice, the camera movement, the particle effects were both very satisfying and so did the time slow during kills which added a moment of much-needed clarity to the current situation. It even felt nice to die.

I also successfully found the cabbage, though as I could not ride it I would consider this game unplayable. (only joking it's great fun, well done)

Sky Burns Red by nardandas 2021-10-09T19:38:46Z ♥ 1

Really solid entry! I love creative rhythm games and the simple input system allowed me to be able to better acclimatise myself to the constant monitoring of the stage balance as a mechanic! Which never felt unfairly tricky as you saw I was even able to beat the last level so hurray!

As mentioned on stream I would have liked to have more audio feedback on getting a successful beat to add to the satisfaction and meaning I don't have to be on the lookout for the UI tags all the time. It also would have been nice to have a better idea as to the state of repair of the stage and the happiness of the crowd as you can never really have a good look at the stage in the moment/.

I'm really impressed that you managed to get an editor in there and I hope people more talented than me make some cool levels for it! Well done!

Scootles by Surfa 2021-10-09T19:14:15Z ♥ 2

A solid entry in all regards! The graphics were appealingly cute and I've certainly never played a game where you are driving a mobility scooter around. I actually think that the instbaility mechanic is more of a hindrance to the overall experience than a help, as it reduces the idea that this a skill-based game, and can feel at times more frustrating than amusing. Still, it was always funny when I did accidentally just ram into someone at a million miles-per-hour. Very well done!

Deathrail by Hotowlgirls 2021-10-07T14:33:35Z ♥ 2

This was a neat little game! At first I thought the challenge was a bit too high, but then the short length compliments that, and I realised after a bit that there were actually two separate levels so I wasn't starting from scratch every time. I am probably reading too much into it, but I interpreted the clash of her pixellated, rough art style (she's cute by the way) juxtaposed with the clean minimalist style of the environment to be some sort of smbol for her rebellion. Intentionsal? Probably not, but it adds to it for me, in a way that clashing styles rarely do. The controls were prety intuitive and the main mechanic adds a layer of complexity to a pretty standard genre.

My only real criticism is that it would be nice to have some better way of conveying the imbalance without having to look at her. My eyes are mostly trying to focus on the path ahead, and having to keep glancing back at the character to see where balance is was the main reason I'd die. Possily on purpose but it does feel a bit unfair at times.

Overall, a solid entry! And the music was great too. Well done.

Stronkey Kong by 100th_Coin 2021-10-05T20:43:20Z ♥ 2

What a magnificent entry! I spent a lot longer playing this than I thought I would. Incredible polish for a compo game, and I loved how much it felt like Donkey Kong reimagined. The music especially was appreciated, how nearly everything was *just* different enough from the original, and the main theme was great, using that little five note motif repeatedly.

The controls were pretty clear once I read instructions and it was a nice clear indication of progress. I do have some constructive criticism. The main one I think has been echoed a little in that there were times, especially near the beginning, where it felt like a real grind trying to earn enough - especially for that ladder. Losing 1000 meant having to sit there grinding potentially ten barrels, and sometimes this didn't always feel fair - I wasn't sure how to deal with the flame enemies without the hammer, and they'd sit there rudely in the one place I need to build or surround me on both sides. Generally cutting down the -1000 punishment and making everything way cheaper (and maybe making powerups more frequent, only saw two in 20 minutes) would be a big improvement for a jam experience.

That said, it was still a remarkably fun and cute game with wonderfully authentic graphics and a tight controls. Well done!

stronkey.png

WATERCOLOR GALAXY by chaoclypse 2021-05-18T08:00:09Z ♥ 1

Neat little toy! The whole concept gave me big "old Windows Media Player visualiser" vibes, so it was a bit of a nostalgic hit! I really rather enjoyed playing around with the settings, watching the ants zip about like little signals through axons and dendrites. I turned chaos down to zero, very much preferred the nice satisfying lines, but then I am a programmer, hahaha. Well done!

HELL deep is your love? by Villanelle 2021-05-17T21:50:31Z ♥ 5

Whew! So many comments I had to refresh the site a dozen times to load them!

Really impressive entry! I was about to sit down and get ready to type out the many many paragraphs I usually find myself writing no matter how concise I attempt to be, having taken a bunch of mental notes throughout my time playing. However, whilst waiting for the comments to stop bugging out, I noticed your bullet point changelog and smiled. You kind of stole my critiquing thunder! Virtually every single comment I wanted to make was tackled already. Which makes sense, given how much feedback has already been given. I think the only thing I can mention is it would have benefited by a slight zoom out so I have less leaps of faith, though this is mitigated by your correction of the screen border killzone.

So I shall praise what I liked instead. The art style is *consistent* which is high praise, and very appealing. The main character's style is very reminiscent of Gods Will be Watching. The backgrounds were delicious, the medusa head very much giving me Symphony of the Night vibes. The platforming is solid and fairly intuitive, and bloody hard! I haven't beaten it yet but will continue to try. Congratulations again!

The Final Frontier by BinaryPrinciple 2021-05-05T16:55:16Z ♥ 1

A nice, simple entry with a solid mechanic that's easy to understand rooted in precdent. The audio is what really helps, all of the sounds felt really nice actually, gave it a sleepy relaxing feel.

It felt a little weird to have the mix of 2D and 3D, I recommend standardising that. I believe some polish would really add to the experience. Something to make it feel like we're actually going below the water. Some more satisfying effects to blowing up coral, and a bit more colour overall. Combined with some mysterious, relaxing music, you'd have a very chill and satisfying game. Nice job.

Glyphs of Madness by itsatony 2021-05-02T23:42:53Z ♥ 2

A really good entry! Marred only by its conveying of information. I think everything I have to say has either already been said and/or has is something you already know. The mechanics are well-thought out and have a lot of content to them, and seem like they have real layers of nuance and complexity to them, which is impressive for a jam. Voices always make the game better, like that too. The art is, of course, gorgeous, both of the character and the monsters.

The major flaw is just knowing in the moment what any of the runes did was impossible unless I went to the spellbook to look it up everytime, which isn't too fun, so I try to memorise it. That's not even an option in the levelling bit though, where the runes have fantasy names and no easy indication of the shape. The UI between the fights is a little strange in its wording too.

Well done though, lots of content, and an easily solvable main flaw given time, should you wish to extend the game.

The Bonekest Dungeon by Tricky_Fat_Cat 2021-05-01T00:05:34Z ♥ 3

This was a very different wxperience! I admit when I first saw the many gifs I was expecting a typical dungeon crawler experience, the maze exploration angle was quite interesting! I feel like with a notepad and pen it'd make it a lot easier - in fact they feel almost mandatory. But that's also kind of fun. :) The only thing I couldn't understand even from the instructions was how to tell exactly where the monster moves when you do. I know it moves to an adjacent room to the one it was in before, but which one is difficult to tell and thus really had to plan for and predict. It was also a teensy bit annoying that you are thrown to 3/3 when you lose a life, as when I had found all three keys, I returned to where I knew the exit portal was, and then got bonked in that room, so I had to go back to it again - it definitely shouldn't be

I'm curious as to why you have opted out of graphics! The visuals and presentation were absolutely excellent, the pixellated aesthetic looks great and I have always really loved it. The sound effects are humourous, even if the music doesn't feel it *quite* fits the atmosphere I assume you're trying to cultivate.

Overall though, a different and interesting experience with wonderful presentation. Well done!

Disco Inferno by Simon Rahnasto 2021-04-30T18:40:03Z ♥ 3

What a lovely little game! As usual. Indeed, your iconic mix of very pretty 2D spritework and excellent presentation are raised to a new bar, because I absolutely adored all the presentation Disco Inferno has. From the little splash screen into the menu, with the DUDE falling behind, to the camerawork transitioning into the cutscenes. Also his little pixel cigar with its little pixel cigar smoke. Voicework was very characterful too, and the whole 70s disco vibe (why are they all in a disco?! Doesn't matter!) was groovy, baby, and it's topped off by some fitting banging tunes.

The presentation is definitely the game's strongest aspect, in all regards. Gameplay is simple but effective; I have never been good at bullet hell games, but I feel like in some ways it was very difficult to predict or anticipate projectiles. They were large and enemy ones felt a tad too fast to dodge in time, especially when they're coming from all directions. This is compensated by your fairly tanky health, but it doesn't feel quite as tight as it might! 😆 Perhaps the camera could have been zoomed out a little? That may have helped. Some variance in environment between levels, whilst luxurious, would have been lovely, but I did like the change in cilour schemes. That was a nice touch.

The boss itself was a bit too weak as others have mentioned. It was awesome to "finally" get to fight the Big BOss Man himself, but once he was half health I was able to just stand still and fire, tanking his shots till he died. I beat the whole thing first go actually! But despite complaints regarding both it being too difficult *and* too easy, what resulted was a good experience where I had some close calls but never felt like I was about tob e cheated.

Super solid work again guys, nice job.

Periphery by agentparsec 2020-10-27T00:46:19Z ♥ 1

What a wonderful and pleasing entry to end my stream on, even with the tragedy of my failure to complete level 11, despite two incredibly near attempts.

The concept was simple, intuitive, and immediately obvious to learn. The classic example of simple to learn and hard to master, which was essential for the harder levels. I really liked how much you could do in those puzzels with such a simple yet powerfully and demonstrably versatile mechanic, and I applaud you for coming up with it.

As I said on stream time and again, I have a big soft spot for games with mechanics or features based on music or rhythm. The progression and chance in your audio was absolutely lovely and actually my favourite part of the game. Everything about ti from the different instrument sets to the sound and feel of the transitions between levels was great for the audio. Wonderful job with them. I also loved the visualiser. Crazy you had time to learn how to do that amongst everything else.

I have only three minor gripes with Periphery and we have spoken about them on stream. The main one is the palette. It feels dark and washed out, the green in particular feeling out of place ocmpared to the blues and purples and reds. Juxtaposed with the chipper spritely nature of the flute-filled bouncy soundtrack and the sleepy almost-murky aesthetic of the colour pallette feels at odds. I think a pass on this may improve the game immensely.

The second and third are super minor. They are that I felt like the puzzle on level 11 held too much chance in its timing as it was too difficult to mentally plot, and the third was that it'd just be nice to have a level count in the level itself. :)

Again, what a lovely compo entry, probably my favourite of 47. Excellent job.

Loopfield by MikoziQ 2020-10-27T00:09:58Z ♥ 1

A nice solid entry, and a very good attempt for your first LD and your first completed game.

The instructions were confusing, but despite the seemingly repeated requests for a bette tutorial it took me literal seconds to comprehend everything I had to do - avoid asteroids, collect powerups. There is beauty in how simple it is, though as we spoke about in stream the timer mechanic does throw into question the efficacy and irregularity of the difficulty curve.

Relatedly, the biggest flaw with the gameplay was certainly the randomness of the asteroid's appearance and the frequent appearance of impossible onslaughts of them simultaneously from all directions - this would certainly need to be fixed in future versions and may not be super easy, but once you have a syste mdown I think you'll find iterating on it much easier.

The menu music was nice and I kind of wisiehd it kept playing as we went through. The background was nice and I loved the glowiness to all of the sprites - it helps add character and a charm to the simple graphics and grants it a pleasing aesthetic. I think you could take more advantage of it if you extend the game.

But the again there is little more to say, your requested changelog clearly shows you've a clear handle on things and know where you're going from here. Best of luck with moving forwards with this and all of your other proejcts and congratulations for completing your first game.

Space Drummer by Guilloteam 2020-10-26T23:33:38Z ♥ 2

Definitely one of my favourite entries this jam, class job.

I suppose one should definitely expect something marvellous with a team as large as yours, but you certainly exceeded my expectations, especially with only one programmer on the team. I absolutely adored the concept of mixing my own drum loop and having that affect the weapons. Wonderfully executed and I always have a big soft spot for rhythm or music-based games.

I think the two things the game was lacking most was feedback and variation. The enemies were nice and effective as they were with multiple angles of attack and different projectile types, but hitting them didn't feel super satisfying. I agree with your comment that it's definitely difficult to strike a balance between useful feedback and distracting from tracking the enemy projectiles, but I'm sure with a bit of iteration you'd be able to find it. With regard to the lack of variation, I wonder if you might consider perhaps building multiple different kinds of drum loops you can switch between for different kinds of enemies, each with their own stat build - perhaps difficult stages increased the tempo or something, there's plenty you could do I think and it would be super fun.

Wonderful music, very catchy, found myself singing along to it. Loved the level names, even if I only technically made it to level 3 Ior 2nd level boss) I'm sure the post-jam version is even better and I'd love to know where you go with this game.

Thanks for hanging out on stream and well done on the excellent entry.

TimeBot by Mightymaster99 2020-10-26T23:01:26Z ♥ 1

Very solid entry, high respect and regard as always to anyone who submits something complete in all regards for the compo. The concept, whilst not an original one, is solid and works well, and your talent for level design shines through it.

Whilst I think there's limited value in repeating what othersh ave said, it's worth stating nonetheless given our discussions in stream - the first improvement I would make is of course to fix the physics materials so you can no longer get stuck to walls or, indeed, your former corpses (do robots leave corpses?) as that certainly made my progress in the finale more difficult. You could also stand to amp up acceleration and max speed and ramp up the gravity to make the controls feel more tighter and more responsive.

The graphics are likely the weak point of the game, and as we discussed their improvement and replacement could really serve the game feel a lot.

Loved the music, I didn't realise they were random variations that were chosen between each loop, but I'm glad you told me because I love that, and that you had time to do that. Excellent stuff.

Overall, really solid entry. Well done. I hope you learned lots during it.

Cycle Breakdown by TheJohnyFeeD 2020-10-26T22:27:30Z ♥ 1

Wonderful entry, really hit all the things I adore in a good solid LD entry - compelling, punchy gameplay, lovely vfx and a music track that doesn't get boring despite the fact I was playing the game for bloody ages on stream! Loved it, great fun.

The combat system was fairly simple but did the job, everything was instantly familiar, as were the pros and cons of the two weapons. The task system was a great mechanic and really served to help vary the gameplay in interesting and unique ways. The "use the right weapon" was definitely my favourite. The 'don't run and gun' one probably being my least as it kills the pacing a little (pun not intended), but definitely a great place to start expanding the gameplay here.

Another place would definitely be the rooms. I'm sure you're well aware but the same room shape every time was a little rough. The "avoid the red" rooms could really help with this by adding the not-obstacles to the environment, so more than one kind of pattern there would have been great.

All the effects were punchy and satisfying and really helped the combat feel satisfying. You have the game feel down already, and that's such a huge thing to have. Nice.

Finally, my biggest gripe with the game - knowledge on how the progression worked! It was so tricky to know if I was really starting over or making any progress at all! I didn't realise I was going *back* in progress for ages, I just figured I was running out of invisible lives at some point. I think a map at the top of the screen wouldn't go amiss. I also think a little reminder of your task would be great for the less attentive of us.

Also, a reminder that I somehow got stuck and didn't progress when I tried to go to the next room! Wonder how that happened.

Really well done though guys, I was addicted by the end and very satisfied to have beaten it.

Smells Like Chlorine by TheGreenWorm 2020-10-26T21:41:35Z ♥ 2

What an excellent entry!

I mentioned most of what I'm about to say on stream when I played it but I thought it was a brilliant piece of interactive storytelling. I would almost have opted out of the 'fun' category were it possible, as this was a story and an experience more than an enjoyable piece of gameplay. That you managed to construct a complete and cohesive narrative, this small story that makes you feel like such a worthless cog that many of us have had to be, is very impressive for the LD.

Though you made use of the art pack, the original GFX and VFX you did do are not to be discredited. The environment was lovely, the use of shaders excellent. And of course, I can't forget the non-euclidean geometry, not only is it combining another interpretation of the theme into the already lovely one of being stuck in a dead-end job, it really helped serve htis narrative of chemical poisoning affecting our character's perception and mental stability. Completely seamless. Really enjoyed my time with this game, much as it left me sad. :(

As far as any improvements I can think of, I think perhaps adding something a little more compelling gameplay-wise could have been nice, like making cleaning more satisfying with a nice shine and sound affect with punchier effects, even if it would have had an adverse effect with the narrative. That and a minor niggle of changing the font and/or colour on the Quest UI. It was a little hard to read.

Very well done.

Dance! Dance! Dance! Dance! Never-ending! by Egan Henderson 2020-10-21T17:31:00Z ♥ 1

Good attempt! I am a sucker for rhythm games and so I'll always give them a try where I can find them. There are a number of constructive criticisms I have however that I think the others have already mentioned. The music is nice, and I love the little stickman and how his emotive state depends on getting the notes right.

However, a rhythm game pretty fundamentally lies on being able to accurately measure the player's ability to act to the beat of the music playing, and the arrows appearing are rarely synchronised. It took me a while to realise that, despite pressing the keys on the beat, I was losing points. I think this is the first flaw that should be addressed. There's also no development of the song, an almost harmonic intertia, which in a rhythm game means the game never gets any more difficult, and if it synchronised already then I think it'd be reallly easy.

Finalyl, as stressed by another commenter, the enjoyment comes from good satisfying feedback from getting the button correct. There being no feedback besides the incrementing of the score (which was rather hard to see but then I have poor eyes) meant that I didn't play for a super duper long time.

I think, however, that these are all really easy problems to fix, and that you should consider making a post-jam version with tweaks and QoL changes that could speedily improve it. Well done!

Sir Runalot by MadParrotStudios 2020-10-19T19:45:04Z ♥ 1

Lovely art style! I really liked the character and evnrionment design. The gameplay was immediately obvious and intuitive. I managed get about 900m! The music was simple but functional.

I must confess however that the spinning really did make me motion sick throguhout the latter speeds. And I am someone who typically doesn't experience motion sickness so this was quite a surprise. In addition, it becomes difficult to ascertain what kind of jump will be required as things speed up - at higher speeds most small gaps don't need jumping at all which almost made it easier.

I think some sound effects wouldn't have gone amiss for UX, especially a nice satisfying jumping or landing sound. But I appreciate sound and such can sometimes be a luxury in an LD, especially in a compo! :)

Overall, a pleasing and solid entry, my own biological weaknesses seemingly being the only major flaw. Well done!

Dating Hel by BrentBro 2020-10-19T19:15:27Z ♥ 0

Post us the link when it's restored!

Complete information by Synedraacus 2020-10-19T19:14:03Z ♥ 0

Add a download link and ping me!

Start The Game (Together) by Raivk 2020-10-13T23:01:34Z ♥ 5

What an interesting entry. I was very impressed at first that the UI and menu had so much care put into it, then realised after a few minutes why - I was going to be spending a bunch of time in it. 😅 what a gorgeous game, though! I have no idea if I discovered most of the things to be discovered, I'm guessing not. I admit, however, that after trying all the games and playing with the floating furniture, I dedicated myself to singlehandedly Starting The Game. I was somewhat disappointed by the lack of payoff from it, though perhaps I missed something! I did however become curious as to what happened if we QUIT the game. But by then I wasn't going to quite 201 times so I'll have to consign that to the annals of history ;)

Genuinely though, one of the most intriguing entries I've seen in an LD, lovely visuals and UI, and online functionality in an LD game is always impressive.

The LD site is being garbage as usual so I can't post my image proof, so I've uploaded it to imgur:

https://i.imgur.com/UCBIHMy.png

Hyperloop by R3L0ad1 2020-10-13T22:50:55Z ♥ 1

This was quite enjoyable! I've seen a good number of the concepts like this, the theme connection is slightly tenuous, made only by the curve of the track, but the work involved to make that happen is alone impressive. The visual effects and sound effects are all gorgeous, the filters and lighting really elevating what would at first seem like fairly simple visuals. I'd almost be tempted to see what this game was like in VR.

Gameplay-wise I think there's not too much to say. It's solid, works nice, the controls are tight. I think the game should have ramped up in difficulty as time went by (or if it did then I didn't notice) and even in hard mode I never felt like I was super challenged.

On the whole, really solid excellent little entry. Reminded me of a stripped down Thumper.

WHILE(ALIVE) by Skyeward 2020-10-12T23:17:49Z ♥ 1

What an excellent entry, definitely one of my favourites of this jam. I loved virtually every aspect of the game, and that it was all done by but a single person was something I found extraordinarily impressive. Regardless of any of the constructive criticisms I list, make non mistake that you should be incredibly proud of this entry. Top class.

Firstly, the graphics are gorgeous. Love the unique art style and this character design of half-animal half-robot. Very unsettling, especially how all the legs are just slightly too sharp and move a bit too fast, like the lizards that flee from you really caught me off guard at first, with the oppressive filter over everything it really made it feel creepy and off whilst still maintaining a bit of sillniness with the fun gun function names and squawky sound effects. The music was lovely too.

The theme interpretation was wonderfully unique, I've seen a bunch incorporate while loops and general code-related iteration as a concept but none that I felt tie so intuitively into gameplay. At first I thought the function system was more like a glorified inventory menu for equipping your weapons, but when it clicked with me that your weapons were fired sequentially, suddenly the order mattered as your delay time was so big. It would have really helped to have health bars above my enemies so I could better plan what way I targeted everything. If I knew an enemy was low for sure I could, for example, fire my burst fire at someone else, then turn around and pop them with ol' reliable for some health back. It was rather a shame that the weakest gun was the only way to get health back, it would have been nice if there were pickups or something.

Time for some really minor niggles. One is that I felt the acceleration when moving was a little too... not high, but oddly curved. It ramps too quickly at one point, I ended up moving fast very suddenly at what feels like an arbitrary amount of time. It should either happen slower or a lot quicker, for me. The second is an easy fix, I felt it rather awkward that I pressed tab to open the inventory, but then had to press escape to leave it. It would have really smoothed things for me if I could have used tab to toggle it. The third is that it would have been nice if either the grenade didn't deal splash damage to you at all or if it did a better job at warning you. I was getting stuck at the beginning for ages until I realised it was my own grenade killing me, haha. The fourth was that I felt in some arenas, especially those with other birds like me, I felt the camera was too zoomed in to be able to have the enemies on screen and to be able to reasonably predict the projectile paths so I could dodge.

There. I've plenty more good to say but I think I've basically said everything useful. I think with some more time taken to design and balance the weapons, some UX improvements and then just more content and narrative you could have a fantastic release. Well done.

Rhythm Step by Thulium Games 2020-10-12T22:52:37Z ♥ 1

Very interesting entry! As everyone else said, the aesthetic and the audio direction for the game was absolutely stellar, the filters and the glowing effects look incredible, the animations were smooth and the music was on point with the colour scheme. I have a soft spot for rhythm games.

Gameplay-wise I believe the concept itself is a little flawed, and I think the theme actually hindered more than it helped here. I love the more fundamental concept of almost programming in moves that are then executed to the beat in a majestic platforming dance, however unfortunately I feel like it doesn't *quite* work with this concept of forcing us to be locked into moves with each loop, especially with so little time to plan each time. The core issue with this for me is that with no time to plan, I never felt like having my actions be looped was a good thing, it just felt more difficult to plan. My dominant strategy for the early half of the game ended up being memorising what the correct route should be then entering it all at once after resetting a dozen times.

One final niggle is I'm not sure why your Unity game has an installer? That's rather inconvenient for a jam, and the game is pretty big for what it is, I'm assuming lots of uncompressed audio.

I think Rhythm Step has a lot of potential and the music and the beep beep beep beep is sitll in my head, so you definitely did things right! Well done for some good work in such short time.

Ouroboros by Simon Rahnasto 2020-10-08T22:34:36Z ♥ 3

I really enjoyed this. Wonderfully polished and a nice varied experience. It took me a while to figure out what to do with the three torch braziers, but the moment the second loop begun suddenly it all clicked into place. The combat felt nice, the enemies were nice and varied and I loved the gameplay meta-narrative of travelling along with the ourobourous until you slay it to escape. Fantastic interpretation. The voiceovers were a lovely touch, espeically having a separate line for each shop item, and the little poems were nice.

The graphics were also very pleasing with some lovely effects. I think my main constructive criticisms are related to the combat, and I think they'd mostly be fairly easy to rectify. The first is that when the combat began I immediately felt myself reaching for a dodge/dash button that wasn't there. It would really help add to the skill ceiling of the game and allow you to make it much more difficult as the onus of evading the projectiles shifts much more to the player. The second is that it was occasionally difficult to see the thin bolts compared to their shadows. I think they could get away with not having a shadow or toning it down a little, and perhaps a trail or some motion blur wouldn't go amiss to help keep track of them. The final is that the pacing and smoothness of the combat was stunted only by the fact that the character must stop to fire. I assume this is because the torso and legs of the sprite aren't separate? But it would be very ideal to do that so you can move and fire at the same time. That would improve the game by leaps and bounds, I think.

But overall, I emphasise that this was a great entry. Stellar job.

AutoMate by nelow 2020-10-07T22:49:15Z ♥ 1

What a phenomenal entry! My favourite of this jam so far. You took so much time to get such a lovely polished look to it. It's absolutely gorgeous, the glowing feels so warm, the soudns were great, the UI was great, even the little intro screen was brilliant.

The core loop was one I expected to see done a fair bit this jam, but I think you really got the best out of the concept, I loved having to stack them, and only being able to cascade by one was very interesting and a different take on the mechanic.

In the end, there's very little I can criticise. There seemed to me like I didn't quite understand the rles and sometimes I think I solved things in ways you weren't meant to, and it would have been nice to zoom out a bit or give me control of the camera as at times it felt a little claustrophobic. But honestly I think this is a fantastic entry. Music and sound was lovely too and there's a skill in finding music that fits your game.

Well done.

Danger Beat by rhoff95 2020-10-07T18:58:22Z ♥ 1

Excellent entry! Really enjoyable, even for osmeone like me who is typically not a fan of shooter games. I'll definitely have to remember to use that sampling site for a project sometime. :) The controls were tight and responsive, that melody was great once it built up, and I love that you had time to add difficuly purely by changing the BPM.

Personallly, I still found the game too hard, even at the lowest difficulty, due to three things, I think. The big one for me is that the majority of the projectiles are too big and could stand to be reduced in size signficiantly, as it makes dodging them feel almost impossible sometimes due to the limitations of keyboard-controls and the density of the projectiles, and I think reducing the size would work wonders for the experience. The second is that I believe they start too close or the map is too small. It felt especially punishing when I was hit by a turret right next to the vinyl I was collecting. Moving the possible locations for the vinyl to appear closer to the centre would also help let me gauge and predict my movements ahead of time. The third is just a bit more audio/visual feedback for when you were being hit. Not knowing if I was dodging or not in the heat of the moment was tricky.

Still, I emphasise that I still had lots of fun and that this a great compo entry. Well done!

Master of Tiles by Protagonist-kun 2020-10-07T17:57:47Z ♥ 1

Very interesting entry! I always have a soft spot for games revolving around audio and incrementing music, and the audio was definitely the strong point of the game. The art style mixing 2D and 3D was an interesting choice, I'm curious as to why it was made, but I do like how the monochromatic styling meant you naturally focussed less on visuals, forcing your ears to pay more attention and appreciate the music more.

Gameplay-wise I found it a little dull, as there was little challenge or variation between rooms, and I would have liked to have been able to tell what button I had to press next, and I didn't like having to hold down right click the whole time.

Overall though, a solid audio entry. Well done.

The Lonely Tree by Virtu 2020-05-09T12:48:44Z ♥ 1

Absolutely gorgeous game, the atmosphere is really there, marred only by the jarring bullet sounds. Perhaps a different kind of projectile. As Topper above me says, feedback would have been really great for player messaging. I didn't realsie you could shoot enemy bullets for a good long time. The gigantic wind turbines look imposing and elegant and I was disappointed they weren't part of the gameplay environment, as the one lonely tree doesn't serve as cover. 😜 so some environmental obstacles and features would have been great especially to mix up strategy. It wasn't long before circle strafing grew a little wearying.

But it was a very pretty little experience. I didn't even dislike aiming all that much and reloading feels good. Well done.

Healer by PisiTo 2020-05-09T12:24:00Z ♥ 0

I see people complaining about the controls, but whilst they're not perfect I play a lot of Dota and it felt fairly natural to me. Really like this concept even as someone who tries to steer away from the Healer role. The skills didn't need much to figure out how to use (although I thought the entire time that E was passive, not sure what it does!), and it felt good to use them too, quick snappy effects and sounds.

Constructive criticism! It was a bit frustrating that, especially during the late game, the knights split in different directions, and there's no off-screen indicator to see if the knights are taking damage. So I sort of have to frantically squint and spam heals and hope it's going right. There's also no indication or sound (besides health bar at the bottom) to tell you yourself are taking damage. Every time I died was because I didn't realise I was being hit, and it seems somewhat counter-intuitive that you can't heal yourself!

Finally, love the cover art. Looks great. Very stylised. Well done!

Hack'n Dice by Fluffy_Kaeloky 2020-05-09T12:03:54Z ♥ 1

I should have read the instructions on your page right away. Once I understood the mechanics I found it quite compelling! Really quite nice game. Having different dice to choose from added an element of skill with a nice dash of luck in there. The options of dice could have done with some balancing as I was occasionally offered the choice between two seemingly entirely red dice, which I think is a bad thing? It was a little difficult to tell what the effect icons implied (besides the very clear heal and super heal ones). Stylistically the cowoy and hooded swordsman feel like they're both from the same game, but a very different game to the rest of them. Same goes for the knife lady. But individually the graphics are gorgeous, and I really like the attack animation on the cowboy man especially.

Well done!

Team Wipe by Louis Mareau 2020-05-08T21:42:32Z ♥ 3

Really liked the entry! Took me a little bit to understand the cooldown system but I really liked it and felt it was quite intuitive after a bit.

Also really love the concept. I love games where I'm the boss against a party, it's great fun. The spells looked great, too, the particles and sounds were all excellent so it genuinely felt great to use my abilities. I felt like I was in some kind of Final Fantasy XIV instance (specifically the Warrior of Darkness fight). The only thing that ruins it for me is that with all of the wonderful kit and the enemy party to fight, I only have one real objective, and it's just too easy! Once I understood the spell system I just spammed Fire II repeatedly till I won. Mixing it up was far more fun!

I think it would benefit instead with having just a health system rather than the time limit of the wizard.

Really well done! Genuinely had fun.

A Case of the MOONDAYS by Dylan Pineo 2020-05-08T19:32:02Z ♥ 0

Interesting entry! I have some constructive feedback for you.

First of all, the best part about the entry is definitely the visuals. The entire environment is really appealing - and that's not just because you used assets. Even with assets made by others it takes effort to put them together in an appealing way. Animation on the character would obviously have been great.

My biggest gripe is the gameplay. I think I can see where you're going for this, but, like others have echoed, if you're going for the 'frantic busywork' kind of loop, taking care of the tasks needs to be quick and snappy. I'm not sure why it's three clicks. Because there's no feedback on the first two it just ends up feeling a little clunky. A single click and a fast satisfying sound and visual would help that a lot, as well as some indication for when the player is close enough to start clicking. In addition, since there's nothing to aim at besides the object itself (which you are already approaching by moving there) I think using a button press rather than a mosue click would work.

Finally, you need perhaps a fail-state rather than a time. Or you have to survive till the end. The first thing that cam to mind was a bar that is slowly decreasing, and you need to fix the machines when they malfunction, and if you don't do it after X seconds they explode and the bar takes a big hit.

Obviously, a bit of a different game, but in my head I see it resembling a lot of the aspects of yours! So well done for making me think. :)

Protect Floaty by BigQuacko 2020-05-08T19:17:09Z ♥ 0

Not bad! Twin stick gunplay works quite well, all your meshes are quite appealing (Floaty especially, the particles with it are very nice). My main gripe is that I wasn't sure I understood how having the enemies go for Floaty instead of me improved the gameplay, beyond being there for the theme. I often found myself feeling powerless at Floaty's being assaulted, as he would often not seem to follow me when I try to flee and reposition.

One other nitpick is that the dim lighting lends itself to a rather grimey look which your lovely meshes don't fit with. Consider brightening it up a bit and playing with the lighting!

Well done!

Sacrifish (Local multi-player) by Papaver 2018-12-28T15:26:20Z ♥ 1

A really neat little idea there! I actually think it would have looked better with a completely minimalistic aesthetic, than the fish idea, like other number-y games. Really like the concept, though it'd be great to somehow have a way of ruining life for your opponent, as mentioned by others.

The concept was great and super simple, as all good jam games should be. The implementation was really solid. It would have benefitted from some music, I think, but I'm nitpicking.

Well done!

Beyond by MouthlessGames 2018-12-28T13:58:20Z ♥ 1

Well... that was horrifying.

You rather enjoy stripping the player of parts of their body, don't you? :P

I think that tapped into one of my biggest murderer-related fears, the torture, taking apart my senses. When the head cracking happened I shuddered.

I honestly can't say I enjoyed this game, but I didn't hate it. I experienced exactly what I think you intended for me to experience, and that's not easy to achieve. Well done.

FTD : Fixin' to Die by Dezzles 2018-12-28T11:42:03Z ♥ 3

On par with the best entries I've played this Ludum Dare, and possibly ever. Phenomenal execution in all regards, which is great considering the size of your team is quite large.

The concept was grim and amusing, and implemented really smoothly. I'll be honest, I hate Overcooked, but I loved this. Overcooked felt like it lacked any actual consistent character, charm, personality. Felt a little dead to me. But this game, ironically, had all of that. The frantic gameplay was emphasised by all the voice acting which was amazingly done, the surgeon's empathy mixed with his childish lines whilst operating was just perfect.

I'll admit, it was actually too difficult for me, I've never been amazing at these kinds of games, so I didn't get to beat it, but as far as I got I was unbelievably impressed, and it's also a testament to the sheer amount of content in the game too. The only frustrating aspect really was the luck factor. I gave up when I failed three operations of 80+% hehe. But that can't reallybe pinned to you. It also would have been good to better understand how the length of the operations is discerned. Those are literally the only two thingsI could think of to improve upon perhaps, or to explore.

It also had a really good, really clever use of the theme, and I'm glad it wasn't a grim dark gruesome approach to it - making it humorous really helped everything.

I will lastly mention that using any audio that isn't yours and yet still rating yourself in the audio category is usually grounds for not rating at all for me, but the voice acting alone carries it, so I'll make an exception tis one itime, haha.

I really hope and expect to see a fully released version on Steam at some point in the future :)

Feasts must be made! by Caffeinated Psychics 2018-12-28T00:43:00Z ♥ 3

Cute entry!

The concept was clear from your description, especially the helpful TL;DR, and the gameplay itself simple. I actually think it was far too easy, as I never had to sacrifice anyone. Maybe I'm just a godlike platformer 😎 hahaha.

The graphics were cute, especially the menu ones, though they did feel a little inconsistent. It's been mentioned, but the environment and the "cages" (which looked more like dungeons to me, haha) felt like they belonged in separate games to the protagonist and the fruit.

I'm glad to see you fixed the requirement to press E when picking up, because that was a minor nitpick that interrupted the pace of the game a little for me.

The music was charming, if a little shrill occasionally. Well done though, a complete experience.

Good job!

At least it's not death... by Ajayajayaj 2018-12-28T00:12:28Z ♥ 0

First entry this LD that I've given 5 stars for theme to! Really good entry here, and absolutely dastardly!

The gameplay itself was simple and satisfying until death, whereupon it becomes crazy. I wish there were checkpoints, as that did make it very difficult - in fact I found it rather unplayable at random rotations, but some mixups like fading in and out, becoming bigger, but getting moon gravity was super interesting and a really cool challenge!

I absolutely loved the changing colours sacrifice, oddly. It made it look really really pretty, actually, albeit very distracting, which is obviously the point haha.

Some music would have really made this shine, but it's a compo entry, so that's perfectly understandable, and I can really see the results of you focussing gameplay. Plus I know you're a programmer :)

Well done! Hope you're proud of this entry.

Cyberdisc-0 by Hi Im Greg 2018-12-27T23:54:43Z ♥ 1

This is definitely my favourite entry that I've played in this LD. This is my 12th time doing this, and I don't think I've ever played an entry that was *this* aesthetically appealing! I absolutely loved everything about it.

The gameplay was super tight. Much prefer using a controller, movement felt way more natural with it. Fighting people felt really satisfying, and though it would have been great to have more moves to work with, like a block or dodge, or for the AI to be a little dumber in a way that lets me be more tactical, even the three I had felt great to use, especially when an encounter was ended with that lovely slow mo finish! 👊

The balancing spike was quite alarming, mostly because going from one checkpoint per encounter to the sudden boss followed by two encounters without one. I laughed and cried when I saw that message, initially I was surviving Bill and Ted with only 1 or 2 health! But the dark souls player within me persevered and it felt great to get my health back after (though%LS

Sacrizism by Erkberg 2018-12-27T16:48:17Z ♥ 1

Extremely difficult, but I think you know that! Ufortunately I ran into a lot of trouble with controls. The right stick wasn't working for me (using a DS4 controller), and on arrow keys I could only really shoot in diagonals, which is odd. Would have really loved to have been able to fire with the right stick whilst also moving about.

Lots of content though, which is really impressive. Music is great, and the little intro was quite charming too. Well done! Good entry.

God's Thirst by Vlad Ilisan 2018-12-27T16:08:05Z ♥ 0

Solid entry!

Very solid gameplay loop, nice and clear. The sounds are crisp and sharp, a good choice even if you didn't make that. The combat itself felt a bit bare bones, never saw what I could feasibly do besides blocking an attack then spamming attack. Also not sure

To improve or extend I think it would be a great idea to add some variety. More weapons or powerups. Some environmental hazards or obstacles would do a lot. Another suggestion is to have multiple weaker enemies, then maybe get health for sacrificing, annd maybe if you don't grab the corpse and sacrifice them, the enemies will.

Just some suggestions! Really neat entry. Nice job!

Neon Kata by Marco 2018-12-27T15:11:52Z ♥ 2

I love the aesthetic. The entire game is gorgeous. The game is fun too! Marred only by a lack of polish that is standard for LD, so it's hardly a valid criticism.

I really enjoyed running around and killing stuff to the music, the mechanics were clear and easy to understand, (though a minor nitpick for me was that the 8/8 to me implied I only had 8 bullets max. 8/inifnity would maybe have been clearer for me). The theme was also super well executed and obvious, yet had a genuine impact on the game.

Criticisms regarding gameplay I think have mostly been mentioned, but I'll do so anyways. Movement felt a bit clunky, and so some smooth transitioning between directions would have really helped. Obviously, animations were a bit janky at times, especially whilst aiming. Enemy hitboxes felt a bit too small or odd, and more feedback from hitting enemies would have been good, especially since the sound effect for shooting is so good.

Definitely you guys absolutely took it away with the graphics and *especially* the particles. I love seeing great particles and you have them in abundance. Theh ead, the laser, the reload, the bomb explosions. It all looks great. I have lots to learn about making particles, evidently. My only criticism is that it felt a bit inconsistent style-wise. I would have seen the frog, then the protagonist, and thought they were from two completely different games.

Would love to see this fully extended and completed, and with its own original soundtrack. Well done.

Off the Rails 2 by Karai17 2018-12-24T17:59:30Z ♥ 1

This reminded me so much of Jet Set Radio! From the art style to the zany PS1-like music. It's a shame you didn't get to finish it and would love to see it completed into a game! Skating around was really satisfying, despite the lack of sound, the Potato mode looked gorgeous and I kept it on there willingly.

The music was perfect, the protagonist was adorable. The animation for fast skating was a tad peculiar, I think it should have been a little wider in stance, especially with the arms. Regardless, I thought the whole thing was super cute, and would enjoy seeing it completed and polished further.

Berrytales - Fracture Flight by Purrseus 2018-12-24T17:08:26Z ♥ 2

Really neat! I think all my criticisms and points have said already, but I'll reiterate just in case!

First of all, loved the concept! It's super cute (albeit slightly ominous, haha!) and interesting how abitious your scope was for this game - lots of content. I know from the name and style that you guys were behind the last game (please, tell me, do the cherry boy and the briar princess ever get married?! I must know!).

My brain was far too slow to handle everything needed to be done at once. It would have been a lot easier if I could just press left/right once to switch to the three parts of the ship to do stuff, rather than moving. It made things extra confusing. Everyone has mentioned the control issues, I realise.

I also would have liked it if eyes burst in one hit. Having to reaim was difficult, and trying to manage that and keeping aloft and keeping the dragon fed was extremely difficult.

Still, it was an adorable, gorgeous little game and you guys did a good job. The music was adorable as well as the sound, and the art was great. Well done!

Mantis by Linus 2018-12-24T16:17:06Z ♥ 2

4th.PNG Aw yeah! Not too shabby if I do say so myself 🆙

This is a nice, simple game, with a mildly challenging additional mechanic. I think, perhaps, that the mantis energy replenishment was a bit too forgiving. I never got close to running out. But it was a compelling score collector.

I have to admit, I have no idea why but the scoreboard inclusion really was what got me playing this much longer than I otherwise would have (since it's a simple premise and understandable in gameplay). Instead I found myself striving to get the top spot, but I'll settle for 4th :)

Well done!

Manned Missile Master by Capital-Asterisk 2018-12-23T12:40:56Z ♥ 1

Wow, this is really fascinating.

The movement actually feels really satisfying, something that surprised me with the fact that keyboard-controlled vehicles were never something I was a huge fan of. The concept was fun and silly, and somehow, every start to the mission harkened back flashbacks to Armoured Core, for me. Not sure why, maybe it's the way you're dropped in, initially.

The graphics were quite charming, especially of the missile itself, though they were a cause of some frustration. The lack of decent lighting and shadows meant I had a lot of problems with perspective sometimes. This was especially prevalent when trying to figure out in De-Automation as to whether I was in front of or behind the missile, and even moreso in Boring Game, where sometimes I would not be able to tell where the turn was since the back of t he cave looked like it was part of the walls to my left and right. I also once thought I was looking at a red sky with the sun, when in actuality it was the solid wall reflecting the light attached to my rocket.

These were nitpicks though, and I really did enjoy the game, and its variety was really nice. The sound design also was brilliant, loved it a lot.

Well done!

Hellhole by fusionnist 2018-12-23T11:59:43Z ♥ 1

It's been said, but this game is absolutely gorgeous. I would genuinely consider making a general animation a Wallpaper Engine. Really really good stuff here.

The game itself was a little confusing to understand - I wasn't sure what levelling different buildings did, nor how they affected my resources (not with regards to the cost, but to how, if at all, they would speed up my resource gain). I always had plenty of villagers to sacrifice, and had everything max level within plenty of time before doom. The actual doom cutscene was absolutely amazing, and I was looking forward to seeing what happened. When it came out and I got the good ending, ooh that was satisfying. Just iwsh the actual journey there had been more difficult and strategic.

More explicit tutorialisation probably would have helped wiht that a lot, but I know this is the LD, and so that's a very common problem. I'd love to see this expanded and refined. The sound design was also great, music moody.

Well done, everyone involved!

Cosmo Buddy by easy82 2018-12-08T22:03:52Z ♥ 1

Nice! Very stylish look and feel to the game. I think the concept and brevity of the game work really well together, and had an element of replayabiltiy to it too. Really smart choices. The graphics were gorgeous, even the text font and style fitted perfectly. I think everything I want to say has probably been said regarding feedback, but I'll give it anyways. It tTook me a moment to realise how the theme tied in, realising that the "Lives" system was actually meant to represent different cruel members. It would definitely be cute if you were actually a captain in the rocket, and all the crew were standing outside waiting one by one to become the one who has to go out and get the gems.

My biggest criticism beside that is probably that the controls felt a little floaty. I think perhaps the gravity needed to be upped, at least. It felt sometimes like there was an input lag, or some such. It didn't feel as tight and responsive as I'd have liked.

It also would have been great if there was a different screen for the victory condition! It felt a little sad getting the same game over for winning as my losing, but this is the LD, you can't make everything, sacrifices must be made :)

Overall, it had a really simple, smart concept which was compelling and executed fairly well. The graphics work great and you can be proud. Good job!

Mo' Loot Mo' Problems by JamesL 2018-12-06T13:51:03Z ♥ 1

That was really amusing! It was a great take on the theme. The gameplay was really quite solid, if a little buggy - I often couldn't throw enough things overboard in time, and sometimes the timer would bug out. Dragging items across was a little more difficult than it ideally should have been, but it functioned, and the game itself was fun.

The challenge really came from throwing things off, rather than the actual combat, which was cute and fun but was more of just clicking until the enemy died.

The audio was super silly and fun, love the use of the Wilhelm scream, and the little pirate noises. It all fits really nicely with the cute aesthetic of the graphics. I love low poly, and they fit really well here. Would have been great to have some fog to cover up the ends of the ocean instead of it just being a rectangle, but hey, 72 hours :)

Overall, really nice solid entry. Well done!

The Space Between Us by plufmot 2018-09-04T16:49:23Z ♥ 0

Hey, this was really charming! I haven't played anything on newgrounds in a century but it was super cute. I didn't really understand how it fit the theme, or why there were different ships, but that's likely just because I'm a bit slow. The graphics were really cute and sounds really reminded me of C64 era games. Very fitting. I liked how it went from different stages of gameplay, so that it was almost like several uber-short games in one :)

Having fun and making a little game is the best reason to do the LD, and I'm glad you had fun! I think this is fine the way it is. Well done!

Froggily by AlbeGame 2018-08-31T09:24:16Z ♥ 1

Good concept! It's apparent that the game wasn't finished, but it has potential and was a really chill and relaxing experience.

It took me a while to figure out how I was accidentally jumping since you provide no controls, but once I figured it out it was pretty neat! The entry would have been dramatically improved with a lose condition, both for going out of the edge and for falling in the water. As it was the latter defeated the purpose of your lovely lily pad system since I could hop onto the water, and whilst it was satisfying eating bugs there was no actual point or challenge to it anymore.

As others have said, all your art is lovely, but stylistically inconsistent. Lily pads are 8 bit, the bugs are kinda 16 bit, the water is a blurry stretched texture and the frog is an adorable cartoon. The audio, though, was great. Loved the music and the little nom sound.

Would be interested to see this finished, well done!

Cherrytales - Cherryboy and Briar Princess by Beebo Studios 2018-08-30T23:25:02Z ♥ 1

First off, please please please make an adventure story-based game about these two please. I want to see them have a magical adventure escaping her Father's clutches. I would pay actual, real money for a real game.

Now! Onto the entry! It was super nice. I've seen variations on this mechanic, but I think this was definitely the most well executed and enjoyable. The controls took me a while to figure out, and when I did it felt quite hard. I would have really liked it if I could hold the buttons down to move because that was kinda tiring ater a while. Once I did understand it was a frantic experience, pretty much just keeping it clear enough so that I was always in range to clear the roots from Briar when she got hit. Some indication as to how long I had to hold out would have been really helpful.

The actual gameplay was compelling but a little reptitive for the amount of time I had to wait out. But I did it because after failing twice I couldn't bear to not see the two emerge happily ever after. I was proud to have achieved that.

The audio was adorable and simple, music lovely. The art, as everyone else has said, was drop dead gorgeous and adorable and perfect. I loved everything, especially the two heroes. I would have loved to seen more of Lord Thorn. It's amazing.

4/5 for sure.

Again, please make an adventure game about them :D

Alchemist Dungeon by hexkritor 2018-08-30T11:46:41Z ♥ 1

Nice solid entry!

I think a lot of my thoughts have already been said by others but I figured I'd say everything I thought during play anyways. First off, I think the actual concept and mechanic is cool, and seeing the gas spread is really neat. Good job on that! It's a shame I didn't see it quite enough!

I think the primary flaw is how easy it is. The gas didn't appear that often, spread quite fast enough, nor did it damage you all that much when you ran out of time. As a result it didn't really ever feel like I was "Running Out of Space" although not fitting the theme has never been any kind of real flaw to me :) There were far more coins than needed for the exit so that by the time I had wandered straight up and found the exit I had already enough coins to leave (but I didn't, since I thought it was the next level and wanted to explore the whole map). I wouldn't mind having it require collecting every coin, honestly.

There also felt to be some tonal or aesthetic confusion. As others have also mentioned, the sprites have varying scales in terms of pixels per unit, so it feels like a lot of the art belong in different games from each other. The character is really nice and has a lovely animation, as does the coin, but the former has way more pixels and detail than the coin, if you see what I mean. I also really liked the music, but felt it didn't quite fit the atmosphere of a frantic dungeon, more like an epic overworld map theme, or something. Perhaps having it be faster with percussion would have helped.

Overall though, well done. It's a solid entry, and I'm sure you fixed a lot of this stuff already in the Post Jam version. Rock on!

TrackBlasters by paulloz 2018-08-19T13:07:02Z ♥ 1

Really neat entry! The polish level here is top notch. As everyone has quite rightly already said, the art, animations and sound are absolutely great, the music really fits the atmosphere, and I loved the cute bomberman-esque explosion animation.

The controls were good and intuitive, and even more comfortable on a controller, so racing that first and second lap was pretty nice. I have a few common niggles. The main one being how easy it is to make the track impossible to complete. I think this is amplified by how far back you're put when you fall, meaning that the more you fail repeatedly, the harder it gets and the closer you approach to impossible.

I think this unfortunately combines with the fact that it seems your bombs only spawn when you reach a certain speed, meaning I could dishonourably become a TRACKBLASTER (albeit slowly) by just racing in short bursts.

A few fixes I would suggest are perhaps spawning you only a little bit back after a fall, some kind of way to reform the terrain like the above suggestion of building bridges temporarily, or hey! How about a jump mechanic? That keeps you racing and could really help. Have a few invulnerable bits of terrain so that you can always jump from one to another in the event literally everything else is gone.

Once again though, the polish is great, the controls are nice and I really like the entry besides that. Good job, especially for two days!

Freezing Sky by Zeriver 2018-08-18T18:06:07Z ♥ 1

Really love the entire concept and the aesthetic, the mental image of a freezing sun and freezing world is very evocative. The gameplay is pretty solid and though I normally don't really play or enjoy management games of any kind, this was simple and straightforward enough that I could actually form some semblance of strategy. The lack of need for certain buildings was perhaps a flaw, it would have been nice to have more buildings, or less space both to fit the theme and to require more micromanagement.

The art was really cute but I would enjoy seeing the UI style being a bit more consistent. Tutorialisation is also a difficult thing to make time for in an LD but is also quite important. The balance was surprinsingly good! It wasn't back soul crushingly difficult, but you couldn't just afk either. Thank you for being so patient on my stream and really well done!

Space Invasion by Nam Nguyen 2018-08-17T19:34:53Z ♥ 1

Wow, really great entry man, definitely one of my favourites this LD. The graphics worked very well, and the simplicity allowed for that gorgeous animation, and just watching the level close up was satisfying.

The humour was also funnier than you gave it credit for. The dynamic camerawork was actually really smooth and polished, as was the entire experience really, I very much enjoyed it, and managed not to skip any levels, woo!

Really liked the ability to shape the darkness that was enclosing, though it did take some getting used to and was a bit finnicky, but that was certainly not a deal breaker. Sound was effective. This was just a very polished and complete experience that didn't feel like an LD entry at all. Besides the finnicky gun controls, the only complaint I would have would be that there wasn't enough of it! (though there was plenty :) ) By which I mean you should definitely expand this! Thank you for hanging out on stream!

Misadventures of Crowley Flatcheeks by detectiveLosos 2018-08-17T19:05:18Z ♥ 2

Really lovely entry guys, well done! I loved seeing the planet come apart like that, it was super impressive, and uh made for fun times navigating and having to chagne routes. The mixing of 2D and 3D is hard to pull off, but i think you guys did so very well, and the sprites were really cute.

Minor niggles included the hypersensitivity of the camera panning, the dialogue boxes requiring the zoom and the fact that you slid around all the time which was a little jarring, but none of those were deal breakers at all.

I really like games were you're meeting a bunch of different characters, and it all came together really nicely, the mumbles adding that bit more life to it all. It would have been nice if we got a bit more decoration around the planet and perhaps some more landmarks, but the entry itself was very really nice and complete, very well done, and thanks for hanging out on stream!

Oh no! This is monsters! by Alexey Akulovich 2018-08-17T18:34:07Z ♥ 1

Nice entry! Genuinely fun and whilst the graphics and sound are simple, the gameplay is really solid and the entire loop is sound. Destroying portals felt actually satisfying and there was plenty of variety in both enemies and how you killed them!

A minor niggle was I would have really liked it if I could scroll through my weapons, as it meant I didn't have to take my fingers off of WASD in the heat of the moment, but that's definitely not a dealbreaker. More animations would have also been nice, but it's the LD so that's all good.

Overall, nice entry! Good stuff. Enjoyed playing it on stream and thank you for hanging out there!

CrumbleDungeon by Celdur 2018-08-17T18:19:14Z ♥ 1

This was a really great proof of concept and a solid entry. It would have been so good if you had had the time to implement a win condition so the player had something to actually work towards, but the mechanics were really fun to work around and the art style was really cute.

If you made this into an actual dungeon crawler with lots to explore, different uses for the different weapons, and basically more polish and sound, it would be a really neat and fun experience! Nice job with your first finished game! Enjoyed playing it on stream.

Foto 5 by wavertron 2018-08-17T17:56:59Z ♥ 1

Very cute entry! I really liked it. As others have said, it could do with some more content, but obviously you could say that about nearly every LD entry.

Loved the art style, the sounds were really cute, and taking good photographs was actually pretty satisfying. I did, however, find it a bit too easy, and managed to get all 5 bigfoot pictures on my first attempt at doing so. But it would be really neat to see this expanded upon! Enjoyed playing it on stream, for as brief a time as I did :)

Exhaustlands by Sand-Gardeners 2018-08-17T17:07:32Z ♥ 2

Wow this was really a fascinating experience to play on stream, I really enjoyed it. Played it for a very large amount of time and got thoroughly lost. The gameplay is super interesting and unique, and the art style works surprisingly well. The audio really ties it all together, with the radio making it extra atmospheric. Loved it, even if I couldn't really tell exactly what I was meant to be doing, I just enjoyed travelling and seeing what there was to see! Love to see that there's a post-jam version in the works!

Disembodied by MouthlessGames 2018-08-17T16:34:07Z ♥ 1

Realy incredible experience, probably one of the best narrative experiences I've played in a Ludum Dare, and the simple graphics go hand in hand with the gorgeous music making the entire experience creepy and dripping with atmosphere. Loved playing it on stream.

Warehouse Madness by Andreadbx 2018-08-17T16:12:17Z ♥ 1

Really great entry! The graphics were spot on, the gameplay was intensely stressful only and amplified by the tense music! For some reason in the heat of the moment I kept forgetting which button I needed to press (i.e. either left or right click), and I personally don't think there's a reason to have two separate buttons assigned to what is essentially a toggle.

It would have also been nice to not be doomed so quickly as my space fills up too quickly for me to do anything about it, but baalnce is pretty tricky to strike in LDs :)

Overall, really nice entry, good job, and I enjoyed playing this on stream!

SystemDefender by Shapkofil 2018-08-17T15:53:22Z ♥ 0

Really neat entry! Concept was super solid and the end result was polished and bug free!

I think I was too bad to get to the point where the errors were really beginning to get in my way (got a top score of 560 haha) but what I played was neat! As I'm sure others have said, enemy variety and sound would have really helped add to the playabilty, but I know all to well the struggles of running out of time before being able to get to audio The art was super cute!

Sugar Withdrawal by Raccoon_JS 2018-08-17T15:41:13Z ♥ 1

Cute entry! Got a little confused when I tried to fullscreen it, but realised after I had to play it in the window :) then it was neat! My only gripes were that I got stuck on the corners often, including when doing the sugar cube movement. But a good entry and could be really nice with mroe content and polish.

Quantum Customs by sidewalksleeper 2018-08-17T15:28:00Z ♥ 1

Made it to day 5! Was pretty awesome, loved the concept and the music. The interface was a teensy bit confusing/unrepsonsive occasionally, and it would have been nice to havbe the game begin a little easier and more forgiving, but it suits the aesthetic that it isn't, the letters were very entertaining.

Some more sound effects and more relevant art would've been great but it was a really solid entry, had fun playing it on stream!

Bad Websites by Ian Henderson 2018-08-14T16:15:36Z ♥ 1

I like the concept! It would be cool if the names not to close changed between each stage, but it was a cool system! The art and music was great! Was a bit frustrating that windows that appeared behind the UI were unclickable, but it was fine after I realised I could move windows around :)

Crucifix and Tentacle by Cedric Fey 2018-08-14T13:00:38Z ♥ 1

Really interesting! I swear I only got hit once but after a few minutes the darkness just suddenly closed in and engulfed me. Up until then I loved the way it worked, hacing to drive it back. I think with the way you have to hold it down, a holy beam or something would work a lot better. The art and animations were really nice though. Some more variety in enemies would have been nice but that's the LD for you! Good job :)

ASTROPOCALYPSE by artish357 2018-08-14T12:50:42Z ♥ 1

I'm afraid I couldn't quite understand how it worked, at times it felt like I had only one option but would still lose (probably because I didn't understand my options), but it was very charming and the details were really neat. Some better tutorialisation and some sound would work wonders. Good job for a first jam!

Elite Beat Zombygons by Archimagus 2018-04-26T17:36:13Z ♥ 2

Loved the entry, always enjoy good rhythm games, and this was definitely that! I was very impressed by just how polished it was! Even a super functional menu! The graphics were simple yet lovely, the rhythm system was super tight and the music and audio was spot on. Killing loads of dudes with the super was very satisfying, and the different weapons were all fun too. Only gripe is the potentially offbeat part I mentioned on stream for the last level. But great job, definitely continue development!

Jeff From Accounting by Almax 2018-04-26T17:12:49Z ♥ 5

Not much I need to say here that I didn't gush about on stream. Gameplay was superbly fun and compelling, and very innovative. It was *gorgeous*, the assets, the lighting, the textures all came together perfectly with the crazy geometry and the music was really fitting, loved the lift music. 10/10 entry, very good job, wouldn't be surprised to see this be the winner.

Shadowscape by Gonz0 2018-04-26T16:48:42Z ♥ 1

Controls were intuitive once I finally understood them, same with the premise, although it's super psychedelic and trippy, and the music really adds to to that atmosphere. I agree with the others in that you should totally make vr version, although I wouldn't play it because I think I'd die. Very nicely done, clever premise. Only major thing I'd improve is perhaps the difficulty scaling and the leniency and/or some tutorialisation, which given it' an LD entry is totally understandable to not have

Tower Deck Furenzy by Seanharrs 2018-04-26T16:12:35Z ♥ 2

Pretty solid entry! It's tight, it's functional and bug free, and the graphics are cute and appealing. It was sad that it was so short because the few levels there were were too easy in my opinion. As others have stated already, more cards and more levels would really help. And also some more distinction between enemies :) good job!

On The Fly by qkjosh 2018-04-26T15:56:59Z ♥ 1

This is, by far and away, and without a shadow of a doubt the single best looking Ludum Dare game I have ever played, you absolutely nailed the aesthetic. The sound design is lovely. The mechanics are simple but effective, and as I mentioned on stream I'm almost glad that you didn't have failure added because I didn't want to see the two adorable birds fail because I am incompetent at games. Very good, nice job guys, and thank you for hanging out with me on stream!

Sneak To The Rhythm by BlakeMcDeezy 2018-04-26T15:36:36Z ♥ 1

Brilliant entry, I loved it, whilst being simultaenously terrible at it. Not tapping and having to hold it down was a little confusing, and I think it might be a little bit easier to see what's going on if the cubes were joined together (perhaps isometric might work?). Either way, the music was great, the gameplay challenge (at least for an idiot like me), and the premise amusing and innovative. Good job! I had a good time playing this on stream.

The Minstrel of the Kings by Jacoder23 2018-04-26T15:12:19Z ♥ 1

Really like the general atmosphere and the story! You should definitely develop the world out into a more choesive story, you can't leave us on a cliffhanger like that! It didn't seem to scroll all the way to the top when I clicked options though. The music was nice but as much as I love rhythm games I didn't really get the gist of yours. Would love to see it developed into something more cohesive with the story furthered. Nice!

Jing & Jang delivery Co. by Sanguis 2018-04-26T14:54:16Z ♥ 2

Very solid gameplay loop, it was fun both mechanically and atmospherically, bizarrely enough! I don't even think it needs to be extended by much besides the already mentioned more levels. It's tight, simple, and the music is going to be stuck in my head all day. Great entry!

FPS - Fugly Puzzle Shooter by Fedor 2018-04-26T14:41:27Z ♥ 1

As others have mentioned, fixing the controls so it was less tank-like would be a great improvement. Graphics are simple and functional, not fugly! However, ramping up the difficulty would greatly improve the experience and make it more compelling.

PongCraft by meskaline 2018-04-24T19:47:42Z ♥ 1

A nice amount of content, especially for the compo! Gameplay is pretty nice, and as I said on stream I think it would be right at home on mobile, so do consider extending it! The system is a tad confusing, and the AI is a GOD, but I bet it's loads of fun with friends. Good job!

Typerider by Sun Parlor Studios 2018-04-24T19:33:27Z ♥ 1

I have determined that the level designer is a sadist. Despite this, it is the best entry I have played yet! Compelling gameplay from a very solid premise, it has an addicting quality that makes it very satisfying to beat a level. Thanks for suggesting it to me on stream, and definitely have ambitions for this game, develop it more and make some money!

jump jump jump look I can do it so fast now

The Devil's Cabbage by EckyYakov 2018-04-24T19:05:23Z ♥ 2

Very silly context but the gameplay premise was solid and innnovative! Definitely challenging, especially in later levels. Perhaps make it a little clear as to how you win (i.e. going to the money dude). Perhaps some more dynamic and less random AI would benefit the gameplay, followed by slowing them down. However, very good entry, well done!

Sandwich with Pigeon Meat by rodancheg 2018-04-24T18:52:32Z ♥ 2

Love the bizarre concept, the two genres work very well. Tutorialising could have been improved but that's always tricky in the LD. For 72 hours this is a very good game, trying to think when answering between shooting is challenging. The loot boxes felt a little confusing but overall it was great. the only major improvement I can think of would be as less mouse-reliant interface (e.g. mapping the abilities to buttons). Good job!

Down to the last Percents by Garazbolg2 2017-08-21T16:57:05Z ♥ 1

Lovely atmosphere, and the creepy monster and death animation is nice too even if it's placeholder. The lighting was good and hiding felt natural. The phone was pretty cool to use too and would have been much cooler if it had mroe use than for turning the torch off. Solid entry!

Station 5723: Reactor Down by Archimagus 2017-08-21T15:38:19Z ♥ 2

A solid entry! I liked the music, very FTL, and the puzizle was just tricky enough to take time. Kind of busywork rather than fun, but that might just be because it's not quite my style. The models were good ant the reactor itself looks really cool. Nicely done!

Funkotron 5k by Jannes Nagel 2017-08-21T15:26:25Z ♥ 0

I've been doing the Ludum Dare for about four years now, and during that time this is now one of my all time favourite entries. I was grinning from the get-go. I love me some rhythm games, and this was one of the most unique I had ever played. The intro was amusing and the procedural animation very cool. Love the designs of everythting too.

Only two qualms. One was that it just closed when it ended. A dance party room or something just to end it with would havbe been awesome but hey it's the Ludum Dare, no worries. Two was just that the rhythms didnt' really feel like they got harder, just faster. In fact to me the first one was possibly the hardest, haha.

I would pay money for a polished, fully fleshed out version of this.

Ludum Dare Simulator - Click your way to the top of Ludum Dare leaderboard! by Nufflee 2017-08-21T15:10:26Z ♥ 1

The ability to fail is very unique. Unfortunately, in my opinion, it lacks the satisfying qualities that make a clicker actually fun. That's usually a big giant number that is generated and is clearly and visibly increasing. A clear goal is in order and a bit more feedback than the bars would have been good. Good attempt, though!

Energy Raid by -FL- 2017-08-21T15:05:26Z ♥ 1

Solid entry! I've always sucked at bullet hells, and the additional challenge of feeling like I should be at the bottom rather than at the top didn't help haha. Very stylish though, and the variation in enemies and in my abilities helped its lastability. Alarming use of 3rdf party assets and I'm not sure if using licenced assets like you have done is allowed, though.

PowerDown by PRANEET56 2017-08-11T13:06:20Z ♥ 1

For ten hours, this is pretty neat! I'm curious as to how you made such a functional engine so quickly, haha. As has been said, the controls are a tad wonky and sticky. Especially, I found, with crates after they have disappeared and clipping up cliffs. But very solid for such a short dev time, and nice going for the zany and garish retro chic.

Eclipse by SaraMartins 2017-08-09T19:07:28Z ♥ 2

Wonderful atmosphere, and a unique spin on a maze game. The difficulty in seeing my exact location, whilst frustrating at times, did add to the challenge. Nice little compact experience. Music was perfect, too.

Trough The Desert by zyow 2017-08-09T13:23:01Z ♥ 1

Building the plane was pretty cool and the graphics were quite good too. Flying the plane was a little difficult and sterring seemed al ittle hard. Also I accidentally made the plane in your screenshot, feels like it's the only plane you could really make with the paerts available. However, it's a very good proof of concept.

Also, I believe you want to rename your game to "Through the Desert", not "Trough the Desert" :)

Plastic Frontline by Aggrathon 2017-08-09T13:00:31Z ♥ 1

That's quite a neat little concept you added to what is (in my opinion) quite a stale genre. Managing what parts of the map I provided power added a nice layer of complexity to my decision-making. The graphics were functional, the sound effects were cute. The addition of little tooltips and upgrades were a nice bonus, too :)

The Light City of Karola by davidcollado 2017-08-03T13:10:13Z ♥ 1

Nicely done! An entire engine in a few days, with a really charming art style. Love the aesthetic of the light city, would love to see more about it.

Running from Power by dirkinz 2017-08-02T20:05:06Z ♥ 1

Nicely done! I really like this clever take on the theme. The game seems a little impossible times but maybe I just suck. I really like the time you took to add the continuity of the Blink Ring rather than just "you died, lose a life". It's been said but Audio would've been great :)

Robots from 1991 by dminsky 2017-08-02T16:30:57Z ♥ 1

I agree with @mortus. It's quite satisfying to kill things and the aesthetics and music is absolutiely lovely. I did occasionally got lost and the bobbing is a bit disorienting, and yeah it can get a bit reptetive with the lack of variety but for a game jam, really Very nicely done!

15 Minutes by TJ Reynolds 2017-08-01T19:49:03Z ♥ 0

Good effort for your first attempt at the Jam! Simple and besides the flickering quite simplistically and obviously presented. Sound effects and a bit of polish would make this a lot nicer, but I'm well aware such concepts are veritable luxury during the Ludum Dare :)

Monolith by samlo 2017-05-01T12:13:21Z ♥ 3

This rocks.