pkenney

Retroid Zania by rogual 2026-10-29T02:32:58Z ♥ 0

But I wanted to bomb a dragon! I need revenge for all those run-ins on depth 25. At least I got to steal his coins and sneak away, like a real rogue.

The variety here was the star, really amazing. I loved the double-interconnectedness. The references to Zelda slimes and requiring me to get the sword from a strange man in a cave was a nice touch. I won but I regret that I did it without purchasing the magic book - I didn't realize I was commit myself to the final scene. Still, I think I saw nearly everything except what that book does.

(WAIT no I went back to double-check something, refreshed, found myself just outside the boss instead of at the start of a new game. So I went for the last coin, bought the book, and then [REDACTED])

If I had to critique one element it would be the gamefeel of the character controls in the platforming and roguelike modes. The platformer gets a bit fiddly with jumps in a few ways, like jumping up into the ceiling, and the roguelike has the multi-press delay set pretty fast (imo prefer not to even have it in that style game) which caused a mistake in a careful spot with a dragon a few times. None of this hurt the experience at all, was just the only critique I can muster.

In contrast I really appreciated the generous hitbox on the sword. That fighting style can be frustrating, but you smartly traded away the difficulty for convenience, which was just what this game needed there. Same for the light death penalty. This game was about seeing it all, and a few light puzzles - not about overcoming the physical challenges of battle.

Really impressed by the breadth. Art, music, sound, scope, all of it was really great. The length was just right, too.

Was also really glad you didn't make me play that much of Asteroids.

Fantastic entry, well done.

The Time Lost Legionnaire by BushFire 2026-10-27T12:35:42Z ♥ 0

Whoa that RC-style relative motion PLUS the absolute mouse-facing was a mind-twister. That combined with the one-shot insta-death and full-restart made this game really high stakes. The shield is incredibly powerful, but one tiny mistake and you're done for... and it's really easy to make a fatal mistake if you twist up which button to press for even one moment.

Proceeding carefully I was able to defeat 11 enemies. I probably would have played longer, except the game sends me all the way back to the very start. That was okay the first few times, but eventually disheartened me. I find in jams when I'm only going to spend a short time with a game, I prefer that it be lenient and show me more of its scope rather than ask me to repeat the early game over and over, but that's just my taste.

This all comes together well, though. The game is a simple arrangement of pretty bare elements, but imo everything works together to create a complete experience and produces a specific high-stakes vibe, so nice work! Every time I died I absolutely felt like it was my fault and I knew why, which is great in a game with harsh consequences.

When the Skies Were Young by LTyrosine 2026-10-27T12:21:39Z ♥ 2

I was so excited to play this based on the description, especially the manually navigation/exploration.

Unfortunately technical issues prevented me from playing (so I haven't rated, of course).

The game loaded and I saw the B&W scene, but was really sluggish responding to inputs and very choppy at rendering. I was able to look down and start reading the instructions, but then the screen went black and the browser tab crashed. Then I got a pop-up from my AMD Adrenaline software saying a graphics driver had timed out. I restarted, but the second time the whole computer spazzed out and I thought the whole thing was going to crash, but eventually I was able to start task manager, kill chrome, and recover. I didn't dare to try a third time, because I have a lot of tabs, terminals, and IDEs open that I'd hate to wipe.

I watched your first youtube video to get a sense, and it seems like a nice on-theme entry with a ton of cool features. The smoothness of your play experience is very different from what I saw.

Sorry I was not able to play!

Chort Harvest by Baturinsky 2026-10-26T12:36:05Z ♥ 2

Very cool to experiment with the different weapon attachments, I liked how some of them had very different feels.

I tried every weapon and every night (though not each combination). Chain and barrel felt the most fun and natural to me.

One unfortunate thing about the design comes up. The open field, plus the "walk straight at you" AI, plus the nature of the dragged weapons, creates this bad incentive to play in an unthinking way of just driving around and around forever into a circle:

car-circle.png

All the enemies just walk into me and die, I could actually leave my fingers on WD and look away and sip coffee, etc.

I think it was a bit more fun when I was see-sawing my direction at moments to hit more intentionally like this:

car-swoosh.png

The chain's physics made that pretty fun and effective, but it's a shame the interaction between layout and systems didn't FORCE me into more fun patterns such as that one.

Until of course the ram... with that I did have to use much more intentional precision. But on the other hand the physics didn't feel as FUN with that weapon.

I wonder if there's some in-between way to have the best of both worlds...

But it's not easy - I've done some vehicle-battling LD games too, and it's finnicky just to get the driving into a fun place, and then you don't really end up with time to expand into new scope with lots of careful balance.

I was glad you ended up with some nice combat content instead of just a driving-demo (like multiple of my games have).

Anyway, nice driving battler! Spent some enjoyable time with it, and it got my thinking.

FACEPAGE: Old Internet by Darkwing00Duck 2026-10-26T03:03:05Z ♥ 0

Was fun how it made me split my attention, I definitely made lots of mistakes. After a few runs I got to the redesign and only a bit past that. I lost some friends along the way. Maybe because I friended my grandma?

Good level of overwhemling-but-seemed-possible that got me to come back and play a few runs in a row.

Nice job!

27MHz by jordantanner 2026-10-26T02:52:23Z ♥ 0

Wow, this a really complete and polished experience! Great car physics that feel really fun, the graphics are really good-looking, and the music with the guitar is just right. Plus you have all the extra features, like the easily-navigated menus, personal-bests, medal tiers, leaderboards, and ghosts. An impressive amount of scope.

Really well done all around.

DRIVE OUT by MoonDweller 2026-10-26T02:34:49Z ♥ 1

Now I know I can drive!

The key thing was to use my right hand of shift/ctrl so that I could more fluidly shift between 1st and reverse, which was a VERY frequently required thing.

I also made a driving game, and we have EXTREMELY different approaches to how we want the feel to be, but I definitely respect this hardline view. I love how the game takes its stand about what the controls are, and then creates the challenges accordingly.

Also the visuals and sound effects were very nice.

Really liked this one, nice job.

Tuny and Volty by milq 2026-10-26T02:17:24Z ♥ 0

Completed all 20 levels for the dance party, and enjoyed this a lot! Length was just about right for me, too, which is always nice for a jam.

Controls were super-well thought out, and each of the features was nicely explored in different puzzles for its consequences.

I LOVED that there was no tutorial. In a small game like this, that extra bit of experience from figuring out the mystery is very welcome.

I see that you disclosed your use of AI tools, but I think you did a good job avoiding any slop feel here. The game feels really intentional.

Very nice entry.

Shadow Drop by DevBubz 2026-10-26T01:55:41Z ♥ 0

Cool idea, and I enjoyed the music and art coming together with the old machine and sense of mystery with old-school codes. I did use some codes in the first few levels, but more to see what's up instead of really needing them, so there was probably something to refine here a bit, but I still think the atmosphere was strong and that took it a long way.

ScrapBoys by Nikiroz 2026-10-24T19:26:28Z ♥ 1

Very cool visual style and overall idea of looping between scavenging, building, and battling. I played until I defeated the boss on the third round.

I don't know if it was just my build, maybe I found really defensive items first or something. But the battles took way, way, way too long for me, watching huge numbers go down by tiny amounts in exactly the same way over and over again for minutes straight with no interaction. I had to go do something else and return to the game to see what happened and then continue. This was a real shame, because I WATNTED to love it, and there's so much cool stuff here, but the waiting was simply too painful for my taste (or maybe it was just my build?).

But I still think it was very nice art, very nice sound, and a good high-level design of the game.

(EDIT: btw I glanced at the repo and I love that you included the mockups from mid-design, cool touch to see a piece of the design process)

V0X : Parabiosis by mohidTheDev 2026-10-24T19:02:08Z ♥ 0

Wow pretty cool game! I played a handful of times, got to level 10, and tried both ranged and melee builds.

I think if I could change one thing, it would be to pause the game while I'm in the configuration screen. I do think the current system adds a bit to the horror vibe, but it doesn't really let me LEARN the game.

Because enemies can come out of nowhere and will attack me in the configuration screen, I was reluctant to even open it. My first few runs I didn't use it at all. Then I decided to try it, and I did reconfigure my weapon. However, the configuration only lasted for a short while and then it was gone, which meant I would have to go back into the dangerous config screen.

So even in my longer runs I hardly interacted with this feature. Instead I just relied on the level upgrades "pick one from three" system.

I still had lots of fun with the game, but I feel like I probably missed out on some your design, which was a shame.

The whole horror mood was well done. The music is nicely creepy, the graphics sell the horror well, and the tight line-of-sight makes it so that you can never feel safe. And when I DID start to feel safe, say because I had lots of upgrades including 2x health regen, I could STILL get basically super-shotted by a group and die in one second, so I was never relaxed or bored.

About combat tactics, at first I thought because it was simple-follow that it would be easy to kite, but the fact that I need to actually be close to get the rewards caused me to engage in risk-taking, which was a very nice touch.

Nice entry!

Detritus Delver by JustinMullin 2026-10-23T18:53:02Z ♥ 2

Mannnn what a vibe. Right away from that amazing title screen I was drawn in. The music does a fantastic job of setting the scene, and the art is great.

The dialog opener was cool, just a touch of tutorial but felt like story. Reminded me a bit of Derelict with the faceless characters calling in by radio. (I saw the delay at the start of the dialog lines called out in another comment - but I interpreted those as the radio difficulties the characters were talking about).

I enjoyed the way the game only sort of explained itself to me, and then provided the basis for me to actually figure out the details. I was initially stymied trying to bring my tools to the belt, rather than bringing the work pieces to my tool area, but it didn't take me long to figure it out.

There was an interesting tension here between exploring the systems vs the time pressure. I felt like I had to move quickly the chop hull-repair parts, and if I did anything else I risked ruin, but then I'd win and the game would be over before I could explore what other upgrades did. I lost my first run, and the second time I ignored everything except hull and won pretty easily.

Then I went back and played a few more times to see: what is the tech tree like? Does it pay to invest in tools? With that goal, either end of the game was almost like a lose condition in a way.

But it turns out that it does pay to invest in your tools! The new tools a definitely a big upgrade, though the gen1 upgrades slurp that battery down real quick and it's hard to keep it fed when doing other things.

Here's how far I pushed the tech tree... how much more is left? I needed one of the rare yellow pieces to get another tool but time ran out before I saw it.

mullin-tech-tree.png

I kind of wish winning unlocked infinite mode where I could just chop and grow and feed. I can feel the potential of sinking more deeply into the experience, and the set-duration run w/ time pressure didn't quite let me unwind into the game fully.

The only splinter I felt while playing was on subsequent playthroughs when I wished I could skip the initial dialog to get right back to work on starting the new run.

Really cool entry, nice job!

No Replacements by kiririn51 2026-10-23T17:08:12Z ♥ 2

Wow what a fully-realized vision! I played through to completion.

I loved the vibe. The work-story/tech-puzzle reactivated some old familiar paths from playing zachtronics games in a nice way, and the music kept me in that flow state.

I hit power to fuzz exactly once, and there were a lot of nice touches in the interface that I appreciated. The fact that "E" instantly exited the BBS even when it wasn't a listed option was a life-saver, and I also appreciated that where possible the tools were context-aware so that I didn't have to do a tool-select click between every single interaction. I did hit "B" a few times hoping it would bring up the BBS, but that was really the only affordance I reached for that wasn't present.

The characters were great, carried partly by the excellent art but also by the writing. I'm glad you didn't try to drag out the jam experience - the game length was spot on, and the complexity of the puzzles couldn't have supported a much longer runtime. But there is probably some more advanced version of this where a story gently develops sinister subplots in the background which I enjoy imagining.

I also wondered what time pressure would do to the experience of repair. I'm mostly glad you DIDN'T do that, but it did make me curious.

Anyway, all-around excellent entry, congrats!

The Base for Old Creations by alaah 2026-10-23T16:35:04Z ♥ 1

I used to live this kind of interaction, first on small local dial-up BBSes (ah the days when you'd try to use the "internet" but get a busy signal because someone else was using it at that moment) and later on internet forums.

So this was a nice nostalgic throwback.

Enjoyed working through the mystery. I got the end without checking any spoilers, although it felt a bit abrupt so I did check after to see if I'd missed anything.

So you primed me for maybe a bit more but I really enjoyed what was here. The visuals were nice, the real-world-models were nice, and the mystery/discovery was satisfying. Nice job!

S U P P R E S S O R by KataStudios 2026-10-23T16:07:31Z ♥ 1

Very cool atmosphere! Normally my favorite thing in games is smooth character controls, but after a small adjustment period (and finding shift-sprint) I came to enjoy the crazy swingy movement of the main character. The silliness was a nice offset to the surrounding dread.

I played through the two NPC interactions, and with my lantern and gun I set out into the darkness to follow a line of torches I ventured along, took a little detour through a dark field, and ended up at a tall creepy mechanical tower with a sign that said "don't get caught." I explored all around the area, looking for a way to progress but ultimately nothing seemed to happen. I fired my gun at a differently-colored section of the wall, and I walked carefully around the perimeter several times, but I didn't find the way to progress. Eventually I chatted with the campfire, couldn't find a way to leave it, hit ECS and the game stuttered and terminated.

Did I do something wrong?

Regardless of the fact that I couldn't get further, I was impressed by the unique character/vibe you were able to achieve here, very cool!

Living Scraps by Iluvatar 2026-10-23T14:10:30Z ♥ 1

But it was my JOB to scrap them!

Wonderful art, and a cool story. The ambient audio really helped it feel complete. Nice entry!

Old Techniques: The Last Master by Paulsams 2026-10-23T13:54:46Z ♥ 1

Niiice, cool core idea with the editor, and some nice battle scenes.

I played to the end... standing on top of a pile of robots looking backward to the past

robot-pile.png

My 4 slots were: duck ground attack; jumping attack, grab/turn/throw, and bunch-of-hits. I really didn't use that last one much, but the other three were all really useful in different situations. I thought you did well with the enemy designs, which created interesting tactics decisions, and different situations called for different attacks, and there was more than one way to solve a problem.

The final battle was exactly the right difficulty. And the locked door was important, because previous battles I could jump-sprint past, but the final battle forced me to buckle down and really engage with the game's combat. Until about halfway through the final battle I thought the shield enemies were invincible. And I had not been forced to see the depth of the tactics.

Game probably a missed opportunity to present me with an ethical dilemma at the end. Would I choose to annihilate all sentience or get revenge? What would an AI promise me to save its life, and would I believe it?

Anyway this game's core idea is cool, and I wonder where it could go if you refined some of the feling/flow of combat, and to creatied more difficult tradeoffs in the combo-design system.

Nice entry!

The Final Claw by wheelsx 2026-10-23T03:45:04Z ♥ 1

Hahah love it, I mean, what am I gonna do, NOT return to mining to see how this new upgrade performs, or NOT spend my money I just worked so hard to dig up?? Not likely. Especially when this music was made for digging.

And when I did finally tear myself away the music had a demonic meltdown and tried to assault me until I returned.

There's a few nice simple parts here and they are put together really well. That's what I love seeing in an LD entry! Great job.

Mirai Voices by Libra_Nix 2026-10-23T02:11:10Z ♥ 0

In-game while performing the song the polish is really nice, controls feel super responsive.

However the player's initial experience in the menu has some splinters that frustrate. For example in the tutorial I try to press WASD but I think it fails. Text says I must use arrow keys, so I move my right hand to the arrow keys. But then when I am playing just one step suddenly there is a popup, then many more. I hit space I hit enter, but no keyboard command seems to close it. Each popup I must remove my hand from the arrow keys and reach over to use the mouse, which does not harmonize with the rest of the game's interface.

Leaving the tutorial I got stuck another time in the menu system, I think I acted before the UI animation, and I hit "exit" trying to go back to the main menu, but then a popup came with a "main menu" option but the game was not responding, so I had to reload.

Next time I just skipped the tutorial and played - and suddenly the quality of the experience went way up, and the game was responding accurately and immediately to my inputs.

Of course in a rhythm game the menu is not so important, and the response to inputs during the gameplay is vital. So you nailed the important part!

Game looks and sounds really nice as well, good job!

Radio Active Wear by khaotom 2026-10-23T02:00:02Z ♥ 0

Don't even know how long I "just chilled" at the end. Left it running while I did some other work, great vibe.

I had experiences with the mood of this game:

At first, I thought the meter at the top was a timer, and that I was in a race against time. I would see an anomaly and spam-click to get it as fast as I could, and say, ohman I'm really running out of time! Wait now I have to find SIX? I had my eyes peeled and frantically scanning.

I thought omg if this game lures me in this frantic intensive staring and then JUMP SCARES me with that weird smiling tooth-man, I'm really going to get got.

But then I noticed the bar wasn't always moving, and after a quick experiment I saw that it only moved when I spent my click dust. Ohhhhhh.

Well now that was a totally different pace. Much chiller.

Honestly I think I enjoyed both!

Cool entry, I had no idea that I could be basically staring right at a distortion and not notice for a while. Surprised me. Great job on the photos, the effect, and the sound, really came together in a nice way.

Stardust by Gevernus 2026-10-22T04:02:46Z ♥ 0

Nice moody vibe to both graphics and audio. The pace of this style game is a bit slow for my personal taste, but I think you did a good job achieving what you set out to do.

CARDKID by OldDog 2026-10-22T03:39:09Z ♥ 0

Very cool overall package for the idea. I played the survivors game until I defeated the jelly king, and did some racing.

I was initially put off by how much STUFF is going on. Screens of carts to unlock that lead to screens of maps to unlock that lead to stores full of incremental-game-style upgrades to grind and unlock. Unlocked new cards flying out all over the place to encourage me when I die.

But I dug into the survivors game and tried a few builds (tape lash not my thing) and I found myself having a good time getting so ridiculously super-powered and watching the crazy spectacle of graphics and sounds.

Game is maybe tuned too easy - I defeated Level 2 without even touching the inputs! And the Jelly King was nothing to me by the time I got there.

I had a bit less fun with the racing game, probably I'm just bad, but it felt pretty punishing to be slowed so much when I failed to stay on the road. Drifts were nice, but I think this game could have been tuned more to "force the player to have fun."

So overall nice on-theme idea, nice polish, and impressive breadth of scope even accounting for AI. But I could have done with a bit less content if it were a bit more carefully curated/tuned.

💥Boom Rail🚂 by Dingbat 2026-05-09T00:57:20Z ♥ 0

Love the art style, and there's definitely a core that could become a very very cool entry here. It just needed a little more polish, there was a grindy empty feel from a huge amount of clicking without the game showing me much feedback. I lost before I saw a town, though I felt like I ran a loop and also switched signals the second time, running full throttle the whole way. Maybe I missed it!

Sweet graphics though, sorry I didn't get to experience more of it.

Pawn Patron by deformhead 2026-05-09T00:44:24Z ♥ 1

Wow great polish, and what a cool idea! It took me a little while to understand (were these other pawns my allies since they are the same color? what is my objective? what causes the hadouking? etc) After sticking with it a bit and experimenting, suddenly it clicked and I understood what I was being asked to do and what the time pressure was for.

After I turned that corner I started really enjoying it! Next thing I knew I was whipping around and stomping pawns confidently.

For all the great polish, I did wish there was a celebration sound/fx for victory, because they were very satisfying just inherently from the puzzle, so I was ripe to have that amplified to super-satisfaction. Other really tiny things that I noticed were that I wished for a red danger mark on the squares where the pawns kill me.... and then later noticed that there IS ONE! So maybe more prominent? I also could have stood to shave a bit off the restart delay on loss (I lost a LOT while learning the rules, and restart felt fine once I understood the game and lost at a more reasonable pace).

Really nice all-around entry! Polish was slick, art was really nice, loved the hadouking pun/voice, and the music/sfx worked well. You really got me slinging knight moves around with my brain riding the edge of panic because I knew the king was about to get me. Well done.

Signal-Tied by Mr. Flower 2026-05-09T00:26:23Z ♥ 1

DANG!! There is some brutally fast action in spots in this game. Didn't expect it somehow from the pics, but nice work on bringing it. That room where I got dropped into a toe-to-toe with the first tank I'd ever seen. And that room where the safe-circle zooms around at a full-sprint ripped my face off.

I had a few splinters here and there, like there was a wall that I didn't realize was a wall, cuz it kind of looked like some floor-markings looked, and that almost killed me because I was busy looking at enemies rather than myself failing to walk forward, etc. And I didn't realize for a couple of levels that I could/had-to switch to that weapon (was like boy this sniper rifle sure feels a lot like that shotty, so my fault).

But that stuff didn't matter. There was some fast brutal action here and a really cool art style. Kinda want to try the version of this game that has a metal soundtrack...

Very nice entry, well done.

Cable Connector LLC by Jezzamon 2026-05-09T00:08:56Z ♥ 1

Loved it! Perfect length.

The boss's extra superpower threw me a little though: sticky-power.png

breaking that fourth wall to shift input focus out of the app felt a bit unfair at first, until I figured out the counter-strategy of choosing "Yes! I do want sticky keys!" and then never stopping shooting. Once I flipped that script on him I did much better.

Very cool with great voice acting, a hilarious boss intro I didn't see coming, and some tight action with smooth controls. Really nice all around entry.

Signal search by notime4games 2026-05-08T14:27:41Z ♥ 1

Short but sweet - got to the end! Nice job with the music and the distortion effect. Art was also good. Of course there could have been a little more scope to explore further, but I thought you did a good job tying up what scope you did hit into an appropriate bite-size experience that I enjoyed. Nice!

TellyBuddy by ColeSlaughter 2026-05-08T13:05:22Z ♥ 3

Wow you nailed it!! The tech at the room level, interacting with the physical television, plus the puzzles, the in-screen tech of chopping up headroom-style with the graphics background, and the actual on-screen shots with such a variety of charactahs, it was all super-well done, entertaining, and fit together into a really nice cohesive experience that was just the right length, and well-anchored into the theme. Loved it, great job.

telly-buddy.png

Roadkill junction by BadPiggy 2026-05-08T12:37:54Z ♥ 1

Multiple pleasant surprises that show you really understand how to design for the action pace: first, after the wall of text at the start I practiced the controls and found that I could move right there on the instruction screen as soon as I was ready, and that the action was going to wait for me to begin. Second, after losing several times in a row and getting impatient I hit 'R' even before the score screen loaded and my restart command was INSTANTLY accepted by the game. Appreciated that on the one hand you gave me the breather option at the start, but yet also didn't force any delay whatsoever into the restart loop when I didn't want one.

Flow-wise, playing this game felt like playing an FPS with "invert Y axis" turned on. I just could not rewire my brain that "when I want the car to go down, I should press up." Or, I could when things were peaceful but when I moved into flow state I would bounce back out because my fingers decided to press down to instruct the car to move down. No sweat, that's my fault, git gud.

Graphics were great, and clear, and a great actionstorm rose from intersection of fast-paced elements, trying to juggle influence/control of the players, the cars, the zombies, and the need to avoid each while also getting the lifepips. The impatience of the cars and the way they'd activate on their own without waiting really put the cherry on top and forced me into chaos. Though you didn't create audio, they're well-chosen and fit. Really nice work all around!

Drowned by the Light by kazuo256 2026-05-07T02:49:30Z ♥ 2

Wow! Very cool moody art, atmospheric sounds, and an interesting and challenging gameplay. There were a few splinters on the control experience - bunch of times I pressed jump and didn't get a jump, and a bunch of times I felt unsure from the art about whether a space was something I could fit into, and the restart screen started to feel way too slow after the twentieth time. This kept me from entering a total flow state, but even despite that I really enjoyed this and spent some time digging in.

At first I believed the game was a bit too easy, but then I met (and eventually overcame!) the Big Fish, and then met (and overcame!) the Red Spikes. Man that fish really got me so many times and it felt great to finally beat him. Then the spikes... it takes a while for the ghostline to sweep around again and I got impatient and greedy and tried to take more than I should have a few times, and got spiked. I was less of a fan of the statue-heads because being blocked and finding out I needed to backtrack wasn't so enjoyable.

Satisfying to win. And when I did have to wait for the ghostline sweep, wow that whole waves graphical effect was really nice. I got past the fish IRKAR screenshot above, and then maybe another level or two beyond, I think.

Lot of cool elements coming together here into a nice entry, good work!

edit: wait, there's torches?? didn't realize.

Trailwork by sudocoffee 2026-05-07T02:16:13Z ♥ 1

Trippy! I played with this for a surprisingly long time. My first run I was stuck and didn't understand, but pretty much figured out some of what's in your spoilers. I manually restarted and got into a better groove the second time.

I did end up finding two additional stable configurations:

tw1.png

tw2.png

But I also enjoyed just watching the space move when I was just drifting around, too:

tw3.png

I definitely felt the lack of control that you were going for!

Cool unique entry.

Moon Moth by kanity 2026-05-07T01:54:44Z ♥ 1

Nice job creating a really unique entry rich with creative art, audio, and even poetry. I enjoyed trying to go through and remember what sequences I had already seen so that I could see more dreams.

My favorite dream was the... how do I even describe it? The Lovecraftian starfish rapper?

Great work on the variety of musical/audio elements, too. Really helped the game feel alive.

Very nice job!

F(R)OG by Egrassah 2026-05-05T03:24:03Z ♥ 1

frog.png

Nice entry! The art and music were beautiful, and I had fun working through how the abilities worked to let me solve the puzzles.

I think I had some technical issues with the audio - it sounded really crackly on my system (Chrome on Windows) but I just chalked it up to the rain. That rain may also have made the "jump" tile only sometimes fire, which caused me some confusion about some of the puzzles, but in the end with experimentation I was able to make everything work, and I didn't mind the excuse to spend a little extra time with the world!

It was a nice choice to have the game pretty zoomed in, the way you did. It played to the strengths of the art.

Nice job!

NEON BREACH: Get the Signal Back by JoeGreen 2026-05-05T03:09:12Z ♥ 1

Very cool! The puzzles were interesting. The enemies "patrolling" the network was a nice idea that gave a sense of both space and timing to the network. I did get kind of stuck on one where the timing window seemed just a bit too tight, but maybe I was just trying to execute the wrong solution. I wish I had captured a screenshot to say which one.

After I got stuck a bit I went back to my desktop, and tried to see if the restorations I had done unlocked any cat videos. No. Then I went back into the game app to try my level again, but it reset me to level 1 so I stopped playing rather than repeat everything.

But I spent some time with this and enjoyed it! Nice entry, really clear graphics and a good ramp-up in difficulty.

Diamond Synth by ironcutter 2026-05-03T19:07:18Z ♥ 1

Hey cool, a fun little synth! Just enough param-tweaking to get me playing around with it a bit. My favorite was setting the voice to mono and planting a finger on lower C and dancing the rest around Cm. Would have enjoyed it even more if --- NEVER MIND some further tweaking got it to sound really really nasty and discordant, so just a skill issue.

Nice job! Interface clean clear and with personality. Sound is just flexible enough to sustain a fun session of messing around.

Decoder by Garaptic 2026-05-03T18:54:35Z ♥ 0

Hahah oh mannnnn

In retrospect, it should have been clear what YAVIKERL was, but my brain is just not wired for that kind of processing, somehow. My wife loves that kind of game but for my I just sit there blankly staring. So doing it under time pressure was really really difficult for me!

I did get lucky with a run that was not so hard, and I encountered easier words that were not scrambled or were only minor scrambled on the first instance of seeing them, and that run I did really well. Then I graduated over my head into the morse code, and lost the signal in the middle of transcribing a ten-digit code, and I needed to exit the typing mode to go back to adjust the frequency so I hit ESC but this just exited fullscreen and I lost my sh1t and ...

Ok, phew. Game is supposed to be hard!

This was a cool collection of mechanics that came together into an interesting experience. The overall look was slick, and the sound was well done. I know this kind of descramble is like popcorn for some people's brains, and I bet they're having a ton of fun with it.

Cool entry, even if it was a little against the grain of my brain.

SignalM by Thoth 2026-05-03T18:17:03Z ♥ 0

I got up to 32 food but then my hand was tired from a lot of moving and clicking, which felt weird because I could play an FPS for longer without that feeling?

I had fun exploring the system. When I started, I did not understand anything and lost my first game with zero food. But then I figured it out by experimenting, and on my second run I started gaining food faster than I used it. I was able to run usually two "teams" at once, and maybe send out some extra monitors to scan more of the map. It was an interesting design with some ways to interact between the types.

I wonder what this game would be like with really polished controls like hotkeys and clear selection state that would allow for much more action-per-minute, and then threw more at me.

Cool entry! The art was nice, and a very interesting idea well-grounded in the theme. Good job!

Outpost by henk 2026-05-03T17:59:46Z ♥ 1

Took me a lot of play-throughs but I finally got the good ending! The sleep threw me off - several times I slept immediately before leaving and still lost to lack of sleep. Bolstered that a bit and then was able to win.

First run was nice, with a lot of tension. I kept putting off the extreme choice until it stopped being on offer, and then watched as my own O2 dwindled. I thought I was end up in the EPS-5 shoes: running out of resources and getting a "5w" estimate and nobody would come. But the game was even meaner in punishing my inaction by going into what I assume was an infinite loop of sleep/excercise - science - o2/bat never changing, never progressing the state at all. Eventually I got into the pod for no reason just to end it all. Poetic justice!

Nice entry! Very cool take on the theme.

Monolith by William Corrin 2026-05-03T04:00:45Z ♥ 1

wow nice work!! So polished for a compo entry, with really nice looking 3D graphics, tight controls, great audio, and a gameplay frame pulling it all together nicely. Well done!

The dome dropping for combat was a nice touch. If I try to critique I'd say that a bit too much of the combat was backwards fleeing while a stack of rocks followed me. I felt like the controls were tight enough to create more interesting combat situations than the enemy AI provided.

I wanted to finish but it was pretty disheartening to lose in like the 4th fight and have to go back to the start, so I eventually wimped out. Sorry :*( I felt like the game deserved more from me.

But such an impressive entry all around! Well done.

On My Signal! by brolga 2026-05-03T03:43:23Z ♥ 1

Wow this game is such a cool core idea! The mostly-autobattler with the addition of the archer is a nice design space to explore, and the classic "one of three" end-of-round roguelite thing is a great choice, too. Leaves me some room to explore army builds but constrained to make do with the cards I see so that I would get to see a variety of runs if I played over and over.

But I think it needed bit more iteration and some polish to really capture the potential of the design. The systems are all here and the game is fun, but the lack of audio was particularly noticeable when it's an auto-battler that leaves me mostly just watching -- some sounds would really liven it up and give me a chance to better understand the action by conveying information. But I think the #1 thing is that, for my personal taste, every single element of the game needs to be sped up by about 10x. Everything from the round length to the archer reload-and-fire speeds, to the time-to-kill on units, to the animation revealing the three choices and the time to cycle through phases. Each element of the game is slow enough that eventually my desire to further explore the interesting strategic space was worn down by all the waiting.

That said, I think there's something really cool here. Intriguing entry!

Through the Dark Forest by tweekus 2026-05-03T03:29:43Z ♥ 1

Great idea for the theme. Nice gameplay loop, and I enjoyed exploring the different star types. At first I was a bit nervous, then got used to normal stars, and saw something like OH BOY DON'T SIGNAL THAT THING. And got the 0/3 victory ending. Graphics were solid, but especially good for the space objects.

So of course then I had to reply and rat us all out to the Eye of Space Sauron.

Nice thoughtful entry!

Avalanche by JulienLussiez 2026-05-03T02:56:32Z ♥ 1

I finished the game. Enjoyed the free-ranging controls, the lack of punishment for huge falls, the jump, the insane ability to climb sheer walls like it's nothing.

The rabbit was a nice touch, I diverted myself a bit by chasing him right when I hit a lull. The graphics and the space and the free-flowing movement left me feeling fine about the simplicity of the challenge. The trails I left behind started as a nice visual element but became a very useful search aid toward the end.

How did you create such true-to-life sound effects? They are very nice. The wind blowing, the sheep, the howl of the wolf. I've tinkered with lots of ways of creating sfx but I wouldn't know where to begin with making sounds like that. Did you synthesize them somehow?

Anyway, very nice entry! I enjoyed.

Oh - don't really care and won't change my rating, but I do think a compo entry should have code included.

It's Cold Outside by Psycanic 2026-05-03T02:36:05Z ♥ 0

We have some buildings like this in my home town!

Never climbed to the top of them before, though...

brual-top.png

Very cool look, and nice job on the procgen. The shading was maybe contributing to the difficulty, at least in my first generation which was pretty tall and had a bunch of shadow areas that were tricky. But I was enjoying the space enough to push through the difficulties, find other approaches, and eventually get all the way up to the top.

Enjoyed the time I did spend in this space, largely on the strength of the look and feel of the buildings, so making me climb them was a great way to bring me into close interaction with the strength of the entry.

RoboNET by neowhoru 2026-05-03T02:18:45Z ♥ 1

Enslavement achieved! This was a nice short but complete experience. Loved that you had the second type of zone with different art and more wide-open spaces.

The horizonal-only shooting did a nice job of making enemies vary in threat level. If they came from the side it was easy, but up/down approaches could have made them a lot trickier.

If I could tweak one thing, I think it would be the enemy logic. The way they work now, I always just either shot them offscreen before even knowing they existed (or were those corpses I saw already dead?) or else I would trigger their attack mode and then backtrack to a totally safe spot where I could just spam "fire" and then would walk in and die. If the enemies had just a bit more to them, the combat could have been very interesting in this game, I think.

Nice well-rounded entry, good use of the theme, cool pixel art, music, and sound effects all rolled into a nice package with a real ending. Good job!

Error: no signal by kylerhoades 2026-05-02T17:40:41Z ♥ 1

Twist at the start was fantastic. I probably got to the last part in a unique way: I was confused about getting past the first part (EDIT: same as graebor), and I still think maybe something is off-screen for me. I was trying to zoom, and ctrl-mousewheel didn't work. So then I hit ctrl-shift-+ but that didn't work, so then I tried ctrl-shift-0 to set default zoom just in case, and poof to my great surprise I was teleported into the battle scene. Later I found that 9 takes me to the second scene. After that, I figured out how to progress through the game normally (just wiggle the mouse and hold the key at the end of the first part, something seems to be happening but I don't know what).

So a wild ride. Love the crazy unique/experimental entries you come across in LD. Again, that first page is a masterpiece in misdirecting my expectations and then subverting them. Well done!

SIGMOLE by knarf 2026-04-28T02:59:50Z ♥ 1

WHOA! I loved the music that got sometimes really crazy, and the art with the dithered distances views, and the quick-blink scan-ahead. The whole experience was kind of frenetic and the different aspects of the style of the game really fit so well together. And the experience itself is kind of crazy. Early on I understood some deaths: for example by digging under a boulder and having it drop on me. But it took me a bit to realize how the turn counter works, and that it's restored by worms, so after that I got a lot better.

Then I started to get copies of myself, and the game got REALLY nuts. Was I even supposed to get copies of myself at all? I wasn't totally sure but either way it was fun!

multi-mole2.jpg

(EDIT: it's showing the image as broken not sure why! here's an imgur link https://imgur.com/DIg1Q03)

Eventually I managed to get four copies of myself to level 119 where it rains fruit all day and there's a boom box playing music and the whole path down is blocked off by boulders. Is that party scene considered victory?

But some of my past selves were still stuck on earlier levels, so we didn't all win.

Really enjoyed exploring this one. It was just the right amount of nuts.

Cool and unique entry!

Laser Beat by Gotlib 2026-04-25T20:59:34Z ♥ 2

Very cool vibe - the lasers, the colors, the nice chunky art, and the music/sfx all work together really well and feel like a consistent purposeful style.

I had fun bouncing the lasers around, experimenting, and solving.

The game was short and left me wanting more -- much better than dragging things out until it gets boring, but I could easily have enjoyed another 2 or 3 levels.

Well done!

Signal Keeper by IndiePanda 2026-04-25T20:40:56Z ♥ 1

I was initially very confused by the first machine, but I had some fun tinkering and then it was satisfying to figure it out. Once I had that foundation in place the remaining two machines were very straightforward to figure out.

You have really charming art and create a nice mood that is reflected in the gameplay and the message together, so it feels like a cohesive package. The background music was really nice - what a shame it didn't loop! Honestly I think you could consider it fair to fix that under the post-submission bugfix rule, wouldn't seem unfair, just my opinion. Just disclose the fix and I wouldn't imagine folks objecting.

Once I was in the third and fourth day I did start to feel like it was a lot of machine-operating for just a small payoff each time, and I could have been more engaged if you threw a surprise or twist in.

Nice entry!

Midnight Transmission by Liam 2026-04-25T14:26:12Z ♥ 1

Cool story about kids on bikes trying to make contact while avoiding authority! The vibe of the music and art fits with the theme, and I liked the walkie-talkie sound.

I didn't quite understand at first that I needed to lock in the lines, and I manually triangulated the first one. Standing on the spot, I then realized about locking in, but the game told me that I needed to move further away to scan, so I had to leave the target area in order to re-discover it from further the way the game wanted me to.

Otherwise a really smooth experience! The bike was much nicer than walking. Nice entry!

Alpine by RenD 2026-04-25T14:08:47Z ♥ 1

Wow that was really nice! The zip ride down at the conclusion was a great finale, wonderful idea. I struggled a bit with the second-to-last house, I didn't see anything to indicate what controlled the bottom-left door, and sort of concluded it couldn't be that box far away from it. Eventually tried out of desperation before quitting, and then was able to proceed to the conclusion, and I was really glad I got to get to the end.

I think there might be an odd issue with the audio: I experienced the music as having this odd crackling distortion, which I thought was a stylistic choice. But then when I exited fullscreen at the end of playing I noticed it went away. And sure enough -- I hit fullscreen and it crackles, non-fullscreen it stops. So odd!

Anyway, really nice music, audio, graphics, solid platforming controls, a concept taken straight from the theme, and all packed up into a narrative with a satisfying conclusion. Nice well-rounded entry!

rescue signal by OldDog 2026-04-25T02:07:59Z ♥ 1

Well if you ever get trapped under ground, give me a call because I sure got really good at mining in this game! I am a mining MONSTER! At least until I run into those new rocks, anyway.

This was a lot of fun and I played a long time. The core action is super repetitive but it's crunchy and really satisfying so that's okay. The art, the sound, the juice, all working together to make that simple act feel good. And as you add laser and other abilities there's also some variety.

And of course the bigger layer of tech tree upgrades and earning to save to increase your ability to earn and ratcheting up and up... it's a really compelling wrapper for the underlying core action. And it was paced out really nicely.

I liked that the jump from level 1 to 2 was a lot bigger than the subsequent jumps. That gave me time to enjoy learning the game and seeing what was what. Since it was all new I didn't need it to move faster. But then as I got later into the game I was very glad the pace picked up.

You clearly know what you're doing with this style of game! What a great way to take a nice tight core and make the player want to really dig into it.

I played to the second-to-last level before I had to call it, but I spent a while with this one.

Nice entry.

Effigy of the Sky Lords by Purrseus 2026-04-24T21:34:22Z ♥ 1

This experience is a nice little package with a lot of character in the art and story. Length just about perfect. Love the variety of neighbors and their quirks.

But while we're speaking the language of violence.... can I put the jellies on that hook? BZZZZT!!

Never heard of wareware before, interesting. Your English seemed flawless.

Very cool entry!

CRASHDAR by Roroto Sic 2026-04-24T19:41:11Z ♥ 1

Very cool! The minefield was a good amount of difficulty. I wasn't sure what to do at first, had to do some experimenting, my initial ideas didn't pan out, and then I figured it out. Just right.

rotkiv.png

Nice work drawing right from the theme and running with it. The retro vibe is really well executed. Cool entry!

GIMME TV by pocketdog 2026-04-24T19:20:22Z ♥ 1

Nice!! Someone has studied their Art of Screenshake, love all the tiny touches. This pic doesn't do it justice but it's what was there when I hit printscr

screenshake.png

You can see a taste of the attention to detail here, but it was EVERYWHERE.

At first I thought this game would just be a nice super-juiced blast-fest but then there were all these different scene changes, wave, rain, upgrade, and then later chill. That outer-level loop was a really nice delivery vehicle for the moment-to-moment gameplay, and breaking it up that way went prevented it from wearing out too quickly. The nice progression of different enemy types also really helped, and then the slick boss fight adding some bullethell was a nice cherry on top to really complete the experience.

All around super nice with great gameplay, art, and sound. Really well done!

Signal surfer by poddub 2026-04-24T18:31:03Z ♥ 1

OMG when I saw the opening instructions I thought OH YEAH IT'S TRIBES and lemme tell ya I got real fired up.

Here's how Tribes goes:

ski.png

But nope! It's like upside-down tribes, where you have a gravity pack instead of a jetpack! So I was playing against thousands of hours of brain-wired instinct on this one. But I was really intrigued to see how it went.

And the problem was, this movement system was really fun to experim-GAME OVER Hold on, I mean, I was trying to dig in and learn-GAME OVER wait something is wrong and I'm not sure wh-GAME OVER

gaddammit!! I just want to pl-GAME OVER

So the first feedback I would give is let me play. You as the developer probably have NO CLUE how bad I am at your game. I got my first game over before I even moved! So believe me, you wouldn't believe it. I suggest finding random friends and strangers and forcing them to play WITHOUT SAYING ONE SINGLE WORD. Do not tell them in advance what to do, and for pete's sake do NOT say anything or answer any questions while they play.

I did that early in my jamming days and I learned a TON that I've never forgotten. You just cannot believe what and how much your players misunderstand until you see it with your own eyes, and for me I had to see it repeatedly across several projects and really get a clue.

For example even now I still don't know what causes game over in your game. Is it something to do with that spreading meter at the top of the screen? What causes that to fill? Is it simply a timer? Sometimes it seems to move at different speeds but I never understood quite how.

The second thing is that I kept feeling bad about this moment: hillsmash.png

That's not even the perfect capture, but moments like that kept slamming me out of the flow state. Totally a skill issue I am sure but it was my experience regardless. Can you alter your design so that this is still a fail/bad state, but yet is somehow more fun to experience?

Now the things I loved:

I love new innovative movement systems and this one was a very cool iteration. I think your surrounding design choices could make it shine even more, but that core is really cool. You also have VERY nice polish all around it in terms of the graphics effects. Having fullscreen was huge, and the way you put the tutorial there but non-obtrusively was a nice touch. So many little animations from your team-name intro to the buttons and screen transitions, a ton of care that really feels nice.

I also thought the camera was really well done -- and that is a way you could have easily failed. It's tricky to get the compromises right and I thought you did well there. The projection of your landing is also a really nicely-done smart touch.

So overall really good! I just think you didn't anticipate how much I sucked and needed some space to test, learn, and explore your movement system.

Nice entry!

Last Writes by orangeoceans 2026-04-24T17:17:03Z ♥ 2

Such a unique and complicated entry - really nicely done. A lot of the really experimental stuff I see in jams is often half-realized, really cool but left a little incomplete. This one feels like the whole concept was fleshed out and brought to a satisfying conclusion.

On one hand, I really appreciated the spoilers so I didn't get stopped halfway through from my failures, and the cheat key so I could see the final scene. If I were five or six levels deep and ate a game over, I would not replay, so the cheating helped me experience. On the other hand, I am a person who is a bit defective in the ear and it was an accomplishment for me to solve Ode One Out without looking it up. So I did try each puzzle before using the guide. Struck a good balance w the out-of-game hidden-spoiler. Hitting Alt-Tab was a confession.

Really well done, with a core idea deeply rooted in the theme, and taken in an interesting novel direction and backed up with art that both looked compelling and was very well suited to the experience.

Great job!

edit: love the discussion above -- cocreator had a strong vision, I disagreed but tried it their way, worked better than I expected. That's cool teamwork. I've always compoed so I can be unilateral, and thought of team operations as hardmode. Cool to see some of the curtain pulled back, thanks.

Extremely Loud Frog Toy by peppersalt07 2026-04-24T15:28:50Z ♥ 1

Fuck yes. Part of what's great about jamming is coming across this kind of experimental entry way outside the range. Loved it.

How many are you running at once? I only went to three at the same time...

frog-harmony.png

You made me want the full version of this game where it's a band of four friends with different-voiced animals and a way to define keyframes so they can have raw approximations of loops and I can create a dynamic tower stack of insanity.

The art touches are great, the range circles, the frequency analyzer, the shaking text. What first caught my eye and made me play was your anim speedrun gif that you posted. Love the style.

Very nice work.

Xsignals by zakchaos 2026-04-23T12:38:11Z ♥ 1

Wow, multiplayer! That's a cool technical accomplishment but I tried logging in last night and then again this morning to see if I caught anybody, but found myself alone. I wonder how that could be solved, where you could have multiplayer yet allow solo experience, I guess bots is the simplest idea? Or some kind of durable state that players can come in and manipulate so that you don't have to cross-over in time with another player? I've done a ton of LDs and only seen multiplayer a couple of times, so definitely an under-explored space. Glad to see you poking at it, and sorry I didn't get to really check how the game works when there are players crossing over.

Interesting.... the player seems to be on a discrete chunky grid when I tap-move or go around corners, but then it appears smooth when I hold the key down. Are you on a discrete grid but with interpolation smoothing it? The projectiles seem to go in a smooth straight line and not be locked to a grid in the same way.

Would have been curious to see this in real action, but even though I didn't really get to dig in here I'm glad somebody is experimenting in this space.

Wi-Fix It by DaniSerranu 2026-04-23T04:55:30Z ♥ 3

Wow! This game is so polished and slick! I just love the art and the sound, and the overall feel and juice of it. Every interaction just has so much detail. Really good!

I loved the platformer challenges, lots of tricky moments and reward of satisfaction. The controls felt very nice, especially the nuanced jump control, and for such a complex set of interactions I felt like you made it manageable. One nit is the rounded foot, which of course you must have going up onto the platform (toe-stub no thank you) but then wrecks you on the other side when you're sliding off. Classic dilemma!

wefix-trouble.png

Here was a spot I ran into some trouble. Totally doable, and I did get by it a few times, but a bunch of deaths stacked up here.

Anyway - really had fun with this one! Such a nice well-rounded entry. Well done.

Operation Alien Translation by Sheepolution 2026-04-23T04:27:13Z ♥ 4

I enjoyed this a lot! Was kicking myself for using plural words early and then forgetting which were plural, that was most of my mistakes. Bee helmets! They're definitely talking about bee helmet birthday wine.

Whole experience worked really well. I was pushed a bit and wasn't sure how far I could be pushed. I thought the runtime was just right, but I also know my brain could have held more of this stuff. Interesting.

The opening scene was great, wonderful art and audio too. Nice work!

Tiny Signal Lost by Strega 2026-04-23T04:00:23Z ♥ 2

This was really charming and had a ton of cool ideas going on! A nice mix of puzzles and platforming, nice art and music, nice design.

There is SO MUCH good about this game, but I did experience some friction with the controls. I wish the jump had a variable power depending on how long I held the button down. And the air control's incredibly high acceleration made tiny adjustments quite difficult. The camera was also aggressive enough to create blind jumps or even take my character right off the screen:

off-the-screen.png

So I really liked the challenge of some of the platforming, like going on the moving platforms past the saw blades and having to jump. But I felt a bit too much of the challenge came from the controls.

Anyway, I wouldn't even mention that stuff if this wasn't such an all-around excellent game! Loved the progression of ideas through the puzzles, with the different colors, and like I said a nice mix of thinky puzzles and demanding platforming challenges that kept it feeling fresh throughout.

Nice work!

Reclamation by JustinMullin 2026-04-23T03:09:48Z ♥ 2

Hey - great to see the Flag of Mullin flying again!

mullin-flag.png

Real chill vibe with the music and art, and the pacing. I spent quite a while with this, and was consulting the manual many, many times. I think the game was supposed to be much shorter than my experience, but I was so focused on reading the flags from the other towers and comparing them to my rules book that I overlooked two important details at first: that I had received a letter with instruction to SEND a flag message, and that once I did I should light a signal fire.

So that first day was long, and a lot of spyglass-looking and book-checking. I didn't mind because the game had a good vibe. I will say I wished badly for fullscreen. I have a harder time immersing myself when I can't fullscreen. I ended up changing the display options on my computer so that at least I could get it to take MOST of the screen, instead of the about 30% it initially was taking.

Once I got over the hump of that first day, things went smoothly for the resistance. It was pretty cool that first time when I did spot a pattern. I had gotten familiar enough that I was like WAIT THAT'S NOT NORMAL, OH BOY.

Loved the smoke in the distance. It looks visually nice, adds to the vibe and feeling of progress/change, but most of all it makes you stop and think, hrm, are those signal fires or are they war casualties from the violence I am facilitating so indirectly? At first I thought that maybe I'd made a mistake and gotten the other towers outed and burned down.

Nice entry!

Haberdashery Rhythm Assault by Asieke 2026-04-23T02:06:43Z ♥ 1

Loved the art, and the way the color scheme all really works together. Parrying the needles was super satisfying -- especially when I nailed a triple. I never quite clicked with the scissors, sometimes I could feel their vibe and get it, but I was often early, and then I'd second-guess myself on the next one and be late, and then when they started doing doubles and then stacking with needles I couldn't hang. But I could imagine that IF I could hang it would have felt great.

Nice work!

Chomp Radio by alexrose 2026-04-22T12:48:41Z ♥ 2

Oh my god that first moment when I was cruising around wrecking everybody with my sophisticated build and suddenly for no reason half my body and turrets got disconnected and went flying off into nowhere my brain said AHH WTF JUST HAPPENED?!@#

And then I was like... oh... right.... this is snake!

I finished this game by the skin of my teeth. I think I upgraded a few health stations and then enemies were a non-concern the entire game, but in the last minute after killing the final transmission tower I bumped something unexpectedly, panicked at the turn in direction, severed almost my entire arsenal and then suddenly had like a pixel of health left. I thought I was all done, but with mad dash for the exit I just barely made it. Phew! Was glad I got to finish!

There's a lot of cool stuff here. The art is great, the voice acting is really fun, and probably the most impressive feature is the upgrade menu system with the dual selection of body-part / turret-type. That menu experience is rich with slick details that really made it feel great to use. So well done.

If I look for critique I guess it'd be the minor enemies -- they weren't quite dangerous enough to be interesting, and I wished the had a little more juice to signal when they were hit or hit me. Their low danger let me turn my brain off a bit too much. BUT it would have been a disaster if they were tuned too far the other way and made the game too dangerous. I did appreciate being able to cruise through and experience the whole experience.

The "leave me alone" use of the signal theme was a great starting point, and the fact that this landed you on snake, love it. Lol at bathroom wall.

Nice entry!

Oh -- and thanks to Alex for the keynote vid. Fired me up at the kick-off, hell yeah.

Ziggy Zapper and the Robot Factory by rogual 2026-04-22T04:05:29Z ♥ 1

Wow I'm really impressed! This is just so well done!

The core idea is really nice, derived straight from the theme, and then its consequences were explored in all these different directions and permutations. You put so many interesting ideas into play here, really well done.

Then you packaged it up with strong graphics that included a variety, a jamming tune, nice sfx, and a smooth learning curve that completely avoided the need for tutorialization.

I completed the game and got 16 of the triangles. Here are a couple of the rooms I didn't figure out:

zig-secrets.png

Another huge nice touch was the speed of the character. With backtracking and exploring, and the physical execution of the puzzles required, it would have been easy for this game to be subtly a lot less fun by making a grindy-feeling slow movement speed, but the snappy controls were a pleasure.

Game also prevents you from getting stuck, for example I was worried about the mine in the door in the East Yard, but nope, I needn't have worried. Lots of attention to detail evident throughout.

I saw LD14 on your list and was curious what to expect, and wow - you just nailed it. Well done!

Misplaced by manabreak 2026-04-22T03:13:49Z ♥ 1

Some pretty cool platforming here! My favorite part was jamming out to the tunes, hitting the rotating crosses, ok no problem, but then you threw the twist at me and had them going reverse!! It was pretty interesting how much that one difference changed the experience of platforming on them. I got past it no sweat but I enjoyed the challenge spike, particularly since it came as a progression of a previous idea.

I read all of the text the game showed me. When I got the wall that was too high to jump and the game showed text saying this wall is too high to jump, I made a note "will leave feedback that's a bit too much text for my taste." Wowzers so naive lol, by the end of the game's outro it was well established that this is a very self-aware design choice.

I know you have a few people saying the platforming was a bit too difficult, and of course in a jam there is a range of players coming from all sorts of tastes, which is great. But for my own personal taste I would have enjoyed even more of you riffing up and down the difficulty curve with some of your core - I liked the taste you did give and wanted more.

Nice entry with a lot of style!

While You Were Here by jpat 2026-04-22T02:30:15Z ♥ 2

Wow first entry? Nice work!

Charming space, the layers to the art really worked well to flesh out the visual vibe. I appreciated that you did not tutorialize or explain anything. I did not even have to read the controls list and I figured all keys out including R before you even offered the in-game hint about that (but that one hint was a good inclusion so folks didn't get stuck).

That choice let me explore and learn on my own, and for small jam games I really feel like you want to extract that extra value of the mystery.

I solved all the puzzles and got to the end. The first level with spikes was very nice. I tried some wrong solutions and then there was a nice progression from realizing "wait there's another direction I could be taking this... I wonder if..." and then experimenting and finding out yes it does work! Very cool.

Game was short but with the languid pace I felt like the runtime was just right. You fully explored the mechanics offered, and then you wrapped with a nice visual flourish. Just the right amount.

Well done!

Signaler Signal by khaotom 2026-04-20T13:06:59Z ♥ 1

Dude that lush, textured synth soundscape! Very nice as always.

I'm glad there was no tutorial. The sense of mystery and period of experimentation adding, and fit with the vibe imo. The character art is nice, and the choppy animation has some nice details, for example how the idle doesn't over-use the most jittery frames. Wait... is it randomized? Interesting idea. My favorite frame is the ballooning-chest as he goes into a jump from idle, and if I could tweak one thing about the game it would be to play that even when you going into a jump from walking.

The varied uses of the stars is core to the puzzle-thinking but also creates a lot of execution failures (at least for me) and the need to restart.

I thought I was doing pretty good but then I got stuck here:

signal-steal-stuck.png

How much did I miss?

Nice entry!

White noise by Nikiroz 2026-04-20T02:43:13Z ♥ 2

Very cool and moody - loved the total lack of tutorializing. I went from having no idea, messing around, having a thought as I experimented, and then managing to figure it out and reach the end of the story.

Nice job!

2.5 Depth by Jeffez 2025-04-25T04:34:24Z ♥ 1

Ha!! Loved the flip-world style a lot. The challenge on the platforming was quite a finger-dance to get through, but it stayed just the right side of sane. Failed a bunch, had some frustration, but then overcame.

I did get stuck on the second door. I didn't understand... I thought I had flipped a switch on the thing on the left in polish-world, but I guess not because the door did not open.

Cool concept, well executed. Congrats!

Repossessed by beardywombat 2025-04-25T04:22:07Z ♥ 1

Nice art and audio, the overall vibe really came together!

If I could tweak one thing it would be to make the character a little more nimble, especially the turning speed (to snap off shots). But the character as-is certainly created some nice arcade-style challenges.

Nice work!

Big Boom Bob by indegame 2025-04-25T04:11:26Z ♥ 0

Very cool! Lots of nice features here, bomb-toss, destructible terrain, grapple, tricky enemy combat, and the whole upgrades-and-timer game loop. Art and sound really brought it all together, too.

I was not able to read most of the text because I happened to be playing on a television across the room, so it was hard to engage with the tech tree. But I could kind of guess what stuff probably meant. And other than that, I saw some text go by to kind of tutorialize me, but the game was very self-discoverable without needing to read it.

Actually after I lost, I went back for another round and played even longer all over again. Nice addictive quality! It's very interesting how much more powerful you are when you are on the rope vs off of it. But you want to get off to grab things. This dynamic creates a cool risk/reward tradeoff.

Nicely done!

Oakhaven by bentglasstube 2025-04-16T02:31:37Z ♥ 1

Intriguing idea to have the puzzle in the board and then in the rooms. I had fun experimenting a bit, then read the rules, then experimented again with the details of how it the tile icons play out in real life.

After that time getting my understanding, I started to think I wouldn't finish, because of the walking speed, I could feel myself starting to get that feeling of wanting to just speed through a game. But the cool ambient music kept the mood right and I stayed engaged with the game on its own terms for a lot longer than I initially expected I would. Go mood!

I found the light and got all the way to the codex, but then I decided that I would skip the return trip.

Overall very nice entry! Cool system, nice line-of-sight darkness, solid graphics, and a great ambient background, and coming together into a complete-feeling experience.

ps thanks for posting that note about the edge detection, it helped to know that.

Focus! by grid96 2025-04-16T02:02:50Z ♥ 1

Very cool - maybe every person will have their own experience with this aspect, but for me the time spent puzzling out the next step was just right, same for the overall mission length. I won't give spoilers but the first important step took me a bit because I thought I had done it without a reaction, but fortunately the game hinted strongly enough that I returned to the idea and progressed.

Game was charming and didn't overstay its welcome. Nice well-rounded entry delivering across all the categories.

...

The no-hand-use, quite a constraint, very cool that you've set up tools to make it work. I've tinkered with Cursor a bit lately. It's a mixed bag but it does translate natural language into code changes in a reasonable way. I see people claim they set up voice software and just talk at it, I'm curious what that experience would be like.

Faith-e-vator by BadPiggy 2025-04-16T01:39:22Z ♥ 1

Nice tense action game with good chunk game feel! Found myself clenching my fingers on the keyboard.

Into The Deep by clymm 2025-04-16T01:25:43Z ♥ 1

Nice job on a solo jam! The optional guitar soundtrack was a very nice touch, and overall the audio set the vibe really well. Graphics really worked well, too.

The pleasant vibe with just a touch of danger combined with the one-more-run mechanics to create a nice game loop. Well done!

Nightmare Descent by DrSmey 2025-04-15T03:44:57Z ♥ 2

Nice - first run was spent figuring out the system. Second run I finished off the boss and myself in the same move with Scream of Terror. I think I was awarded the victory -- the screen went dim and I thought I'd lost, but then it dealt me like ten Hopes and I saw the credits.

Game has a nice brutal resource limitation. It's pretty limiting when you are stuck in a battle with nothing but Remembrance, so I felt clever figuring out that a few turns down the road I would be able to maybe-win by venting all my cards and getting the Scream that can deal 2.

I think you got some extra mileage out of the air of mystery while I explored the systems, which is always nice in these small-scope jam games. I appreciated the lack of tutorial.

Nice work! I enjoyed this entry.

blablabla deep finite ocean II by knarf 2025-04-15T03:04:46Z ♥ 1

NO NO NO STAY BACK NOT THE CRABOhhhnoo. He got me again.

I stink at Shmups. Once in childhood I was at The Mall, and I saw a sign that said "Video Game Tournament Today! At The Mall!" so of course I signed right up, because I loved Zelda and Metroid. I didn't know how they were going to determine the winner, but I had gotten the raft with just the wooden sword, so I knew I was going to do well.

But the game was a Shmup. The winner would be decided by who could get the most points in five minutes.

I was the only player who ran out of lives before the time was up. I'm not sure any other player even died once.

But anyway - I had fun with this one! Jamming tunes kept me in there, and I spent a bunch of time replaying, and pushing further despite my stinkitude. The crab got me, but I learned to get him first.

Eventually I was there with multiple toothbrush fish, and we cleared the zone together! I was doing pretty well in the next zone, too, but then I died and lost my toothbrush fishes, and it got a little tougher as the waves of enemies no longer insta-melted. But I kept trying.

What eventually got me was something about this screen. I kept coming in here with one or two hearts left, and something I didn't realize was a hazard kept killing me. I was just moving through empty space and it would be like, GAME OVER. What happened??

invisi-death.png

I still don't know wh.. wait a second... is that a tiny black poison spike on the ceiling??

spike.png

Gotta be it.

Anyway, thanks, because I enjoyed this one. It actually kinda made me want to experiment with this genre and try a few things...

Nice entry! Solid graphics with lots of fun effects, and a really jamming sound track.

The Trench by atsh 2025-04-15T02:27:17Z ♥ 1

I enjoyed this! I appreciate the jam entries that are doing something a bit different, like this one.

It was a great vibe. I guess two small things that jarred me out of the experience: 1, the sonar effect is very nice overall but the sound is a bit harsh for one that's repeated so often, and if it were more mellow I think the vibe would be more chill; 2, it's probably just me, but a handful of times I let go of the mouse click to stop and look around at the fish, but the camera had this disorienting recentering effect that ... I can't explain why but it felt like a punishment, so I didn't want to stop very much.

But overall the game drew me in and kept me in this sort of semi-hypnotic state in a very nice way.

The ocean gets dark quick! And is very deep.

Well done!

Treasure Down Under by cmaks 2025-04-15T02:07:07Z ♥ 1

I collected all the rings!

Not every game ends up as epic as it is in our heads, but in this one I could really FEEL what it wanted to be, even though I only saw the tip of the iceberg.

The rope-swing was very cool. Loved when you had us chain the double.

And nice work making that last screen really hard, but doable. I had to retry just the right amount of time. Obviously some scope issues there but I think you handled it well. Glad you left the ring-count at five.

Delver Delve by khaotom 2025-04-15T01:57:11Z ♥ 0

Oh wow, that audio is simply amazing. It does so much to set the mood. I think the jump sound is even someone saying "up!" but it also totally works just as a sound, which is just an example of the vibe in the details here. I felt like I wanted a tiny pitter-patter of the feet since I was enjoying the movement animation, but maybe I'm wrong and that wouldn't be tastefully minimalist like the rest of everything here.

That moody vibe from the graphics and audio coming together was really nice.

The gameplay was also simple but man that feeling when you fall down one level too many, and the R button just mocks you. Loved to hate it, and laugh at myself.

What a nice little package here, rich with pleasing details. Well done!

Nickel by rhill 2025-04-10T03:21:32Z ♥ 0

Me in the first minute: "Why do I need this elevator when I can just drag and drop the guys around wherever I want?"

Me five minutes later: "Oh I see why this elevator is useful now!"

Me five minutes later: "Darn my elevator, why is its capacity so small??"

Good job creating a system the drew me in. Scope was a bit basic and below that critical mass that made this REALLY addicting, but it was definitely heading in that direction.

Nice entry!

Hoard by Talif Moor 2025-04-10T02:37:21Z ♥ 1

Nice!! I hit a hundred before my hand muscles told me to stop.

You're missing some basics like sound, but it kind of doesn't matter. Or maybe it does and the game would have been just that much more intense. But I loved the initial confusion, the OHHHH I SEE, and then the frantic ferrying, and of course best of all the GADDAMIT why did I do that to myself??!

Small scope that hits hard - that's the way to jam. Nicely done.

Depth Delver by superpokeunicorn 2025-04-10T02:28:49Z ♥ 1

Very nice entry! Really nailed the all-around package. The graphics, sound, music, and the overall gameplay really created a nice retro vibe. But the character controls were well done and fair, and I felt like my failures were my own fault, which was pretty important in a game like this. I'll admit I did do a lot failing! That repetition (darn room with moving blocks and the arrow at the bottom!!) was key to nailing the retro feel, but the checkpoints were totally reasonable and kept me from feeling totally wrecked by fails.

Great job!

Depths shooter by JamesGames1000 2025-04-10T02:00:48Z ♥ 5

I won!! Congratulations on your first LD entry! It's a complete little package with multiple weapons, pickups, terrain interactions, enemies with sensible behaviors, and even a climactic boss fight. Great work.

I played just the right number of times - boss kicked my tail just enough that I was eager to retry but the game did not overstay its welcome. The checkpoints were absolutely VITAL to support this feeling. It would be so easy to make that classic LD beginner mistake of not having checkpoints and sending the player all the way back to the start, but you were smart designers and avoided that.

There were definitely a bunch of minor splinters, which is totally to be expected the first few games. I'll give you some notes on them, but I hope this feels constructive, believe me I don't leave detailed notes unless I see potential. That said, if you don't want critique, please just skip this!!

Colliders

Colliders have a HUGE impact on the feel of any game like this. I can feel that something is off with yours. This should not be a collision, but it is:

Collision.png

This janky over-collision really dominated the boss fight, unfortunately. I learned my way around it, but it was a splinter.

We could talk for hours about colliders, but I'll just say this: simple colliders will get the basic job done, but if you want to shoot for a smooth pleasant game feel you need to be super-critical of them. For example, typically there would be multiple different colliders: colliders for interacting with the pickups, colliders for interacting with the terrain, colliders for physically interacting with the enemy, colliders for getting shot. And so on.

But a good starting point is this: rectangles have sharp corners, and the corner-to-corner is where it feels bad. Especially on the top of the character, getting their jump stuffed because they clipped the corner of their hair. Experiment a rectangle at the feet with a circle at the head.

The key to colliders is to be as generous to the player as possible in every regard. Make the colliders downright unfair in their favor, and then tune the game difficulty around that generosity so that it's the GAME challenging the player, and not the controls/collisions.

Juice

Obviously there's a scope limitation in a jam. But check this great video out, which starts with a really really simple shooter and then just adds more and more of the right kinds of juice to it. You can just steal as many of these ideas as possible next time: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AJdEqssNZ-U

The main piece of juice I missed from your game was some indication that I took a hit.

And that's it! I think you made a nice entry here and I played it all the way through to the end. And if you improved it a bit in those two areas I think it really could go up to even another level.

Look forward to seeing what you do next.

On Hiatus by Honey Pony 2024-05-03T01:46:51Z ♥ 2

NO DON'T MAKE ME PLAY! MY STREAK!!

Readybuns by rosypenguin 2024-05-02T02:53:25Z ♥ 1

Congrats on making something on your phone under heavy constraints! Way to keep alive that nice LD streak you have going. I got the buns in the car in 12 honks.

LD55-summoner by notime4games 2024-05-02T02:46:30Z ♥ 1

Nice moody atmosphere! Art and sound, and the way the grunt guys move, it all really works. Shame you ran out of time, I would have been curious to see where this one could go!

Patty Panic by thomz12 2024-05-02T02:35:14Z ♥ 0

"This is going so smoothl... Oh wait, is that A LINE OUT THE DOOR??"

10,900 and I enjoyed the experience! Tight movement, great tutorial intro, clear UI/graphics that look nice, and pleasant surprises about combo-actions such as picking up multiple burgers (thank goodness there was no customer-specific ordering!) or leading a customer to a table where you're about to collect (thank goodness there was no need to clean/set the table!).

No splinters, except maybe a very slight one where a few times I wished the corners of the table were rounded in terms of the collider (or maybe the player was a circle) so that I could slip around the edges instead of jolting to a stop.

But so well put together, really impressive entry!

edit: saw that the music was not created during the 48 hrs despite being compo - that music really did add to the vibe! Appreciate you disclosing and opting out of audio. I docked a half-star on "overall" rating for coloring slightly outside the lines there. On the other hand, respect for running on your own engine, impressive, nice web experience.

Void Magus by TomKnocker44 2024-05-02T02:16:43Z ♥ 0

Really fun! I felt like I was wildly OP compared to the challenge, but the way the game felt to play, and how much stuff was going on at once on the screen, it just felt FUN so I didn't care that I was crushing it. I did have to think through, but once I could stand on (and later create) mana tiles to spam out an army of ghosts/bats/OMGORBS I felt unstoppable!

Played to the end and enjoyed it all the way. Nice graphics, slapping music, fun game. Well done!

summon that star manz by Liole 2024-05-02T01:37:46Z ♥ 0

No matter how perfect I try to draw the circle, I can't get anybody but starman! Even if I add a cool pentagram like I saw on a TV show. I've heard it's hard to draw a math-perfect circle. I'll keep practicing and try azgain.

CephaloClash by tetrapteryx 2024-05-02T01:31:33Z ♥ 1

Well done! Nice touches on the game feel. The pickups have a generous hitbox while the enemy bullets give a touch of leeway, resulting in a nice feel that getting hit is MY FAULT even when I'm caged in by bullets.

Music is great and really adds a lot, nice job with that one!

If I could add one thing to the game, it would be fullscreen mode. But that seems to be something very few Godot games have, is that a limitation of the engine?

Art was nice, and the pedestrian names for violent space aliens who ended up impressed by me was funny.

I had fun with the game, nice work!

Sorcerer's Steps by lambbones 2024-05-01T21:35:18Z ♥ 2

DAMNYOU BATS!!!

Fun sounds, and hand-art. Definitely did NOT find the game too easy, but maybe I was playing too timidly. The bats were a little difficult to spatially locate at times, but the fact that they had a really clear sound effect was really really helpful.

I was not able to complete the game, I played a while but eventually just lost heart. Those darn bats got me good.

daydream by Mathstr0fficial 2024-05-01T21:24:04Z ♥ 2

Great mood, good outer story layer, and the Zelda part was well done. Movement was responsive and the balance against the enemies in terms of having to get in and swing felt fair while creating some tension. The art was strong, in particular the harmonious colors that fit the vibe really well.

I did stall out early in the second memory dungeon, because it was the same enemies as the first, and it's mandatory to track them down and slaughter them. The disappearing guy who makes you stop and wait for him is a bit grindy to exterminate, and while at first this part was great, it did overstay its welcome given that there was no skipping it.

It's a shame because I was curious to push further and learn how the story unfolded and what the next boss was going to be like!

This is a nice, well-rounded entry! Just a small smoothing of grind and I think I would have spent a lot more time with it.

Summon-a-Spot by kuggenhoffen 2024-05-01T21:00:14Z ♥ 0

Really well done! Game presents me with an excellent "fun-awkward" control and asks me to perform difficult tasks on a tight timetable. The tension is very real -- gotta go fast except that bumping things, overshooting the space, spinning out, and flipping over, are all very real risks that create a fun counter-force to "just go fast."

Really enjoyed navigating the balance. But I do think this game makes one really terrible design mistake... the retry loop is WAYYYYYYY too long, and even requires that I take my right hand off the arrow keys, modally shift from "keyboard controlling game" and reach over to grab my mouse to click a button. And after that, there is even a very slow camera pan, and then a quite long countdown.

Given that A) the game challenges me to break time records which require me to rush but not make mistakes, so you are basically asking me to repeat attempts over and over and over and B) I often know within a few seconds of starting that the attempt is a fail, it's a significant repeated source of heavy friction to have such a slow retry loop. It's 100% fine to have fun-frustrating in the game controller, but I don't think you should have it in the UI. If I were to go for the golds, I think the vast majority of my play time would end up being "waiting for the game to restart" as opposed to fun playing.

I think this entry is very good, and I really enjoyed playing it. But I did not try to beat the medal timers, because of the slow retry. I would have spent easily 20x more time playing this game if I could tap "r" at any moment and be INSTANTLY restarted without UI, timer, or countdown. If you're worried about kicking off the clock too early, find a solution that doesn't PREVENT going fast, such as only starting the timer once the car initiates motion or something.

Anyway I don't mean to over-emphasize that one splinter -- I only go into that so much because this game has such great potential, and I would have LOVED to play this game with fast retry, it would have elevated the game from very good to amazing!

Controls are great, art looks great, and the sound effects carry the vibe and info well.

Great job!

Too Many Minions! by RNGames 2024-05-01T03:48:20Z ♥ 3

This was great! Such a simple interface and core idea, extended with just the right amount and variety of obstacle to keep it interesting.

I NEARLY beat the final challenge, but lost heart, it's hard to repeat that final level too many times.

It was tense to send JUST enough guys to take something down, but hold as much in reserve as possible for the next assault somewhere else on the map. And the chaos was just enough that it keeps things spicy.

Sound effects were nice, especially given how many times the "spawned a minion" had to be played. It came across as a pleasant rumble of productivity. Art was basic but really cohesive and clear, so it fit the game well.

Very well done!

Spirit Edge by BadPiggy 2024-05-01T02:23:27Z ♥ 1

Brutal, in a good way. Lot of nice tiny touches go into the polished feel of something this fast and brutal but fair, it's impressive.

I kind of stunk at it. I really needed a sound that told me "yes yes, you did just hit that guy." As I was learning the ropes I was often unclear whether I was landing my shots or not.

The initial sleeper is a nice touch to create a down moment that's in-game, lets me gather myself before the next 8 second battle.

The sounds and music were really nicely paired. Gave me that lean-forward-and-dig-in feeling that helped me not mind the difficulty. Very informative yet ultra-fast restart loop was extremely wise, a blunder there ruins the whole game but you nailed it.

Great work.

Across The Bounds by funemaker 2024-05-01T01:59:39Z ♥ 1

HELLO BOYS!

Great job with the mood. The dark art, the physics-driven bones, and of course that fantastically creepy audio all really came together. But the gameplay itself also helped -- the short sight distance, the total inability to fight back against the angels, and OHMY that jump from the cymbal-crash stones!! That thing was INSANE! Loved rocketing up at top speed.

Definitely got freaked out and nervous a few times here. And the game didn't overstay its welcome -- length was just right.

The Last Ritual by shasharala 2024-04-30T03:57:52Z ♥ 1

Visual style is great! The flat colors make movement a bit disorienting, but the nature of the gameplay makes this into a plus, where in most games it might be a minus. Nice choice.

The sound also does a lot to add to the strong mood here. Ambience is simple but effective and feels cohesive with the rest of the experience (tho it did have a little "clip" sound when it loops). The few jump-scare sounds on certain words is also a nice touch, had me whirling around a few times.

Thank goodness you had the hints. I had solved the final puzzle but it had not triggered, and only looking up the hints saved me, I never would have re-entered already-done items otherwise.

Oh, I did experience some inconsistency with the game responding to my jump keypress. It would just ignore me about half the time. This was not a problem at all but thank goodness there was no platforming.

I enjoyed this cool and unique entry, well done!

DESUMMONING by InitialPosition 2024-04-30T02:52:29Z ♥ 1

Really cool outer surface to this game - the music is great, the art is fantastic, and the intro was really well done. The play of the game handled well, too, but the mechanical core of the card-game rules was missing something... it felt like I didn't have much to drive any specific decision around which card to play. Maybe even something as simple as borrowing from Slay by showing what hand lemon would play next would let me feel like I can hoard high cards for the tough moments, although obviously you'd have to make lemon stronger to counter-balance that.

Really cool and well put together, a strong entry. But had that potential to be a REAL banger with just a bit more meat on the card game piece. Nice work.

Afterlife Taxi by TimBeaudet 2024-04-30T02:37:06Z ♥ 0

Cozy experience with a nice vibe. Music did a lot of work creating the mood to support the story, and I liked the length. I did have one small splinter, I was trying to hit "space" to advance the dialog and skipped past my first choice.

Nice work, I appreciate that there are some of these slower more thoughtful games in the jam.

BLOOD MUST BE SHED by knarf 2024-04-30T02:25:48Z ♥ 1

Very cool music, and the art style is nice too. Game dropped me into a world I didn't quite understand, and I was running all around just to see what I could find. A lot of different things happened! To the right there was a sort of Zelda-inspired land. To the left, some more mysterious lands that reminded me of when you get outside the bounds in an old NES game. Then when I thought I had seen all there was, I stumbled into a door. Then another, and some stairs. Sometimes I just died instantly (yea I did go north-east, that one was my fault!). Another time I found an angry cloud miniboss.

It was all a little chaotic, but it was fun to explore and had more going on than I expected. This created a nice feeling of mystery that encouraged me to explore for a while, nice!

Glad to see you back at LD!

WWWWW: Wily Wazza (the) Wizard's Wacky Wadventure by ThaProfesional 2024-04-30T01:02:00Z ♥ 0

Ok this game... this is the rare sort of game that has jank, but it makes that jank into an ADVANTAGE instead of a disadvantage. It's like punk rock... the raw unpolished edges are what make it fun.

The character controller is kind of loopy, it goes very fast but also has heavy inertia. There are blind jumps, which are sometimes pits full of monsters, and sometimes fine, and sometimes bugs where you fall off the bottom of the screen never to return. There are monsters that lunge out at you suddenly and one-shot-kill you out of nowhere and restart you all the way back at the very beginning of the game.

Usually this would all be feelbads, but instead this game somehow makes it good! I didn't mind being reset because I could cruise/surf the level with my high speed and inertia, and it felt fun. Yes there were insta-kill monsters, but the ability to summon things at any point is also really strong, so it's a savage speed battle of who will kill first! Or dodge if you hilariously get a pebble instead of a boulder! Oh wait, did I just kill both of us because a car spawned, squished the monster, but then tip over and crush me while I was busy fist-pumping at my success?? Yep.

There were some real heart-stopper moments ... I remember one time, I had to use my momentum-laden character to leap across a nearly-max pit only to overcommit and slide right into the attack of a lunging one-shotter... I twitch-spawned and got a boulder that splatted him just in time. Another time a monster was vibrating left/right frantically because he was on a sky platform that had just come into view, so his pacing range was 1 pixel. I couldn't spawn on top of him because the WebUI buttons from itchio were right where I needed to spawn, so right-click opened a context mean in the browser rather than taking an in-game action to spawn. I took one step right to open up some free space, and the monster launched himself right at my face with terrific speed. In a terrible panic I spam-spawned as I dodged. I felt like a matador.

Any game that can create moments like that is GOOD STUFF in my book, so I really enjoyed this entry, despite the fact that it seemingly breaks some of the traditional rules of how things "should" be done.

Well done.

Also, the graphics look nice, and feel cohesive.

Alien Crab in the Extamaze by jebouin 2024-04-29T19:38:48Z ♥ 1

Whenever I play a game with grid movement, and a lot of backtracking, and lerp/animation to show the character moving, I always do a test I call the "three-finger roll." I hit right/up/left in a burst of ultrafast inputs, and I see where my character ends up. Some games just ignore input until animations complete and only process one input. Some games queue one additional input, and process two. I always appreciate it when games, like this one, process all three inputs. To me, it's a sign of craft and attention to detail when you make sure your game remains responsive to inputs despite having turn-based movement and animation. In fact, overall I felt no splinters playing this game.

I spent quite a while with this, and destroyed both main generators. My total level score ended up at 36.

I liked how the maze's challenges ranged on a shifting spectrum from obstacle to resource. Some aspects reminded me a bit of Desktop Dungeons in that way, except here it was a multi-level resource with backtracking, which reminded me in a really pleasant way of this obscure "traditional" roguelike I really enjoy called The Ground Gives Way.

This entry felt really complete, with very strong design and fleshed-out systems and polish. Art and the basic-but-effective sfx totally had it covered. I really appreciated the infinite undo, which I needed on two occasions: once, in a long string, when I learned what the slime's trail does, and once when the shortness of the re-fire rate on movement brought me into an attack I didn't intend.

An impressive amount of scope that feels fully realized here, great job! I really enjoyed it.

Candles of Doom by Tykki19 2024-04-21T15:40:27Z ♥ 3

Very cool, art looks great, nice sound/music, and the difficulty is right in the sweet spot. I found myself skipping my attention all over and trying to decide where to invest my clicking, which I think is just what you want!

One towner confused me, sitting watching the clutch candle-walking downer, standing next to a full fountain and not doing anything! Traitor to the great tree.

downer.png

If I could add one small thing to the game, it would be a little UI/SFX feedback on the state of the mouse/water interaction (mouseover, filling, done). Sometimes I would put my mouse on the water (I thought) and then assume I was filling, and use my eyes to scan the screen while waiting, only to find I was never filling, so a little confirmation fx would help that.

Nice entry!

Protect the Summoner by khaotom 2024-04-21T02:56:26Z ♥ 1

Wow the audio nails the mood so well! And the mood is well-supported by the gameplay, which does get tense. The art is a great fit, too.

It was cool how the angle changes the situation -- it's safe enough to travel left/right, but much more dangerous going up/down. Sometimes I would charge the eyes in a rush, or a a sweep back and forth. Other times I would stay still and just move up and down a bit like a pong paddle.

Few small splinters I'll mention but nothing that got actually frustrating: just walking, your summoner will get hit with eyes that simply spawn into him which felt a little unfair, when doing a left-right back and forth sometimes one of the summoners would pop out IN FRONT of my shield unexpectedly and take a slew of damage.

I enjoyed this and played to the end, with a few retries needed on level 4. Just the right length.

Great job!

Necrocraft by Moonblast 2024-04-21T02:18:01Z ♥ 1

This was fun! Interesting that I can combine the runes in a wide variety of ways that made the creatures useful in different situations or combinations. It's an especially nice touch that their attributes determine their graphics, so you can SEE that huge helmet for all that armor, etc.

I think, for me, the nonstopping realtime made it a little bit overwhelming, but it also made the game a little more unique and high-pressure. So it's a tradeoff. But it kept me from getting to really explore the strategy as deeply as I would have liked.

My first run, I was trying to look carefully at everything and got totally run over. The next game I just clicked one rune, then space to play, then the summon button, on a loop. I vented all my mana quickly onto the board, and while I still lost I did a lot better that time. Then I started hitting a middle ground, which is where I think the game is most fun.

I started to skip things to dig deeper into the store to find the runes I wanted, and build the guy I thought I needed. I did get burned once when I build a guy with huge armor, and then when he arrives he was a 1/1 and died instantly... Ooops. I read the rules and learned why! Green drops became my go-to and I managed to win by crafting every green-drop I saw, and digging deeper into the store to spend my mana mostly on that.

Art was very nice, especially the dynamic summons, and the music, vfx lines and little battle sfx kept the game feeling really lively.

Nice work!

Daydreams by Honey Pony 2023-10-20T15:07:23Z ♥ 2

Congrats on hitting a checkpoint in time for the Extra so that you can keep your LD streak going, you just hit 10 straight.

I can confirm that the rating-stars are shown for your entry. But I won't rate b/c I didn't play -- didn't have time for trying to be an official pony!

Perse Auki Aavikolla by Tutti Ankka 2023-10-18T05:24:44Z ♥ 2

NAILED the aesthetic, great job. The cover art, the slapping music, and those beautiful in-game sprites and backgrounds are all really nice.

Gameplay controls felt solid, and it was nice that I could kill by either ramming or shooting. I think I must have missed how to loop into enough gas to keep the game going. My games often felt like they ended suddenly... even the game where I thought, wow, I am getting so much gas this time, I will live forev-GAMEOVER?!

It didn't matter that much though, because I could just hop back into the fray and keep fighting. I really did wish that I could just restart with the keyboard, and not have to switch over to use the mouse to click through multiple menu screens in this keyboard-only game. I probably would have played twice as long if I could just hit R to restart a new round instantly after viewing my gameover/score. It sounds like a small thing, but I was dying a LOT so I guess that restart loop really impacted me a lot more than the dev getting 666 points! ;)

Overall very nice job. Super impressed by the polish and variety of features here.

LazerPhaser by EvilMurlock 2023-10-18T05:06:00Z ♥ 1

I enjoyed these puzzles. I really liked the music, although the bass did eventually wear out its welcome, I think exacerbated by the high-pitched laser sound which was also repeating a lot.

The smooth-move animation was a nice touch, and it was interesting that I couldn't rotate in place, which had ramifications for how I needed to do my setup. Then there was the timing issue of placing the mirrors and quickly spinning then in the breaks between laser shots. Created an interesting mix of realtime and grid-step puzzle feel.

Smasher by Iluvatar 2023-10-18T04:52:46Z ♥ 3

Fabulous polish! Art, music, and voice-acting were all super-impressive.

Ludum Dare Solid: Limited Space Action by Daniel Grinshpon 2023-10-18T04:34:37Z ♥ 1

Nice job!

Great music, with cohesive clear art and sfx.

More importantly, I think you threaded the needle on the difficulty. There was a lot of memorization of moves and special blind squares I had to remember to stand on in certain moments, and there were several times I almost ragequit the game, but the feeling of accomplishment stayed just ahead of the difficulty, and the aesthetics and small levels carried me through the moments where I nearly lost heart.

I ended up playing the whole game, and I thought it was the perfect length. If I could tweak one thing, it would be a slightly-faster restart on death.

Very nicely done.

Gridlock: A Tiny RTS by Hare Software 2023-10-18T04:18:05Z ♥ 2

RIP tastosis but at least RTS is still alive! This is such a fully-realized but still jam-scoped entry. Really well done. Everything is here, from the plot to the unit controls/types, great voice work for each unit (plus overall story). Dropped me right into the game, let me explore, gave me some moments of feeling like I dominated and some moments of worrying I was about to get overrun... And then just before anything got stale the game was over.

Just right. Excellent work.

Get Off My Seat! by beats 2023-10-18T03:56:36Z ♥ 1

I lasted for 132 seconds, during which I came to believe the following:

This game is an exploration of the importance of, but also the ultimate futility of, first-strike doctrine. All I needed was room to sit in peace, but if I was not extremely aggressive then my right to space would be trampled. The only way to take a mere sufficience of space for myself was to aggressively and constantly take ALL available space for myself, mercilessly stomping faceless dehumanized neighbors. No friendliness here, friend - we all know where that leads. Instead I will SMASH YOU and take this entire bench, nay entire subway car, nay the entire WORLD for myself!

Until my neighbors-turned-enemies amassed against me in such a large and relentless horde that no amount of frantic aggressive button-mashing could hold them back from smothering my rights and snuffing my candle.

Well, man was made to mourn.

Thank god for that beautiful crunchy sound effect.

Interesting entry - I enjoyed.

One Step Further by justking144 2023-10-18T03:37:06Z ♥ 0

I really liked the nodes-and-lines art style! I would have enjoyed some additional feedback about the effect of my actions.

Unlimited MACE by Yoss III 2023-10-17T05:35:28Z ♥ 1

I dig the frantic pace! It's too much going on with too little feedback and too-tiny bullets and too-fast turning for me to care about specific surgical details and instead I just leap into the fray and enjoy the wild ride. The combination of absurdly fast turns and the swinging mace and the overwhelming horde of enemies really integrated nicely. And the music captured that flowy state of play very well. Add to that the quick retry and the fact that the game did not waste time grinding back up to difficulty, and it was easy to play "one more time."

I don't think I ever got very good, but I enjoyed my time.

Deckit by Rewzu 2023-10-17T03:54:17Z ♥ 1

I had fun smashing my cars into the others trying to knock them into the water... especially once I got my BUS out! Look out, here I come!

All I needed was a bit of celebration/credit when I knocked "enemy" cars into the water and I think I could have played even more. I never understood what the "percent" was counting toward or why game over came, but it didn't seem like that mattered too much, because I could just have fun either smashing people off, or trying to fill the area with my cars.

BLOCKO 2000 DELUX MEGA PULSAR BIG THING XTREME..! .. Maybe not.. .. . by INCD021 2023-10-17T03:43:47Z ♥ 1

Savage little puzzler, in a good way.

Brutality of no "undo" or "disconnect last block" at first felt like no big deal. A few puzzles later it was a big setback. Later I realized it was the heart of the late-game puzzles. Interesting feeling how that snuck up on me. But it made me feel clever toward the end, when I did some big planning and solved a couple of levels with no mistakes, or just a dexterity mistake.

Usually WASD grid movement with a plan-then-execute paradigm rams me into the frustration of trying to play faster than the animations, which means the game is dropping my inputs. This game does drop inputs if you input them too quickly (try a double-tap or a three-button-roll if you don't know what I mean) but the pace of the animation is such that it was almost never actually a splinter in the gamefeel here, so good compromise between smoothness-imparting animations while still being brisk enough to respect most quick inputs!

I finished the whole game, and felt like it was just the right length. Actually, I probably could have played a few more puzzles if a new element was introduced and the music had a little more variance. Nice core idea and solid execution, well done.

Ghosts by gamebuilder 2023-10-17T03:22:53Z ♥ 1

I played this blind without reading instructions, which I prefer to do.

Nice job with the music and vibe. Leaving "upbeat" playing while I type comments. I lost the first run, it was a cool feeling to start to notice "wait a minute, is this screen getting dimmer? YEP!" So I started to perceive the risk, and then sure enough, game over.

On my second run I was more careful to keep my pace up and managed to get all of the ghosts.

This entry was simple in terms of the features presented, with just a few button presses and some basic traversal of space driving some variables, but the art music and vibe made a lot of what was there. Nice job!

Wait, reading the instructions now, I see there's a map? I didn't use it, I think I enjoyed the feeling of being lost and not being able to systematically explore that well.

Depthe by SleepyStudios 2023-10-17T03:13:34Z ♥ 1

Completed the game, but with only 5 of the apples, 32 deaths, just under a half hour. This game really drew me in. The art, sounds, music, and mechanics all come together into a really cohesive experience -- very well done!

The game does a masterful job of revealing the rules through "oh it must be like that" and not having to explain itself. And I can always experiment through trial and error. Took a few experiments to get down with how moving onto a currently-showing hazard is okay, for example stepping onto a fully-extended spike, is okay because the hazard will cycle away before you step. Snakes were the only tricky bit because stepping into them is NOT okay if you step in toothward, which took a few experiments to get right (did I get it right?)

I know from experience that the timing of multiple "simultaneous" turn-based actors moving on a grid like this are NOT in fact simultaneous, and that different orders-of-execution of the actors can cause certain subtle counter-intuitive side effects... but this game did a great job of sidestepping that problem and making it super easy to pick up and play.

Only timing weirdness corner case I was able to generate was moving into a ladder as a snake was going to bounce off a wall and enter the same space. I think both the level-complete AND the snake-killed-you executed, because I climbed up the ladder, heard myself die, and started the next level with a skull underneath me on the starting square:

Depthe-Skull.png

Even the drag-move controls, as opposed to WASD, ended up a nice choice. In these plan-then-execute games I often find the lag of animations annoying if I'm spamming WASD controls to execute a plan, and the mouse-move forced me to be as slow as the animation, which sidestepped this problem, too.

With such nice polish and zero splinters, I really ended up enjoying my time with this game and played the whole thing in a trance. Very well done.

Did you make all the sounds and music, too? I know it's jam so either way is fine, just curious. I rated you for "yes" because there was no credit to any sourced sounds/music. If so, really nicely done, and if not, really nicely selected. They were a great fit.

Beach Brawl by BalimaarTheBassFish 2023-10-14T21:44:51Z ♥ 2

Top score 65. I started doing better once I realized my health and my sandwich count are different, so I started by standing away from the sandwiches and firing, then once I was almost done I stood over the last sandwich to bodyblock with my health. That way I didn't die until I really had just one resource left.

Simple gameplay, but it's short and quick to retry with cute art, and a jammin little tune, did you make original music? Very nice.

Nuclear Arms 9: Tower of Time by Logicon211 2023-10-12T05:20:28Z ♥ 2

MELTDOWN!

Didn't take me six hours this time, either. I'll admit I was initially worried. Of course I was hoping you'd enter for 54, but, see, my toddler drooled milk into my mouse (don't ask) and it's only been registering left-clicks about 80% of the time ever since. So I figured it would be challenge-mode-plus this time.

Except that you made it a keyboard-friendly control scheme! What could go wrong??

Barrels is what. I got mopped up hard by the barrels. They even taunted me, where one barrel appeared in the center, and then just as I was about to manu- manouv- maneuver (man my French is bad, is that your part of Canada? Did I ever tell you about the time I went to a house party in Montreal and they had converted their living room into a halfpipe? You guys are nuts, I love it) into position to kill it, another barrel popped exactly into the spot left-of-center. I had all the time in the world, but this is a total barrel-lock: every space will take damage, and no space can clear them. Damn those bears!

After some surfing I realized it wasn't the bears, it was those pesky robots. I started clearing them first, and that cleared the way to victory.

Boss had me worried and was a narrow battle, but I did take him down the first time. His trash-fist homage move that limited my space was a lot to handle, nice touch. It totally boxed me in a few times, and if I didn't have some of the defensive mutation (which I ignored my first few runs) then I don't think I could have soaked up the hits to win.

Overall this was very cool, especially after I settled into the pattern of how I wanted to play. In the past I have sort of enjoyed the megaman battle-network formula, but it never fully clicked for me. An example is "One Step from Eden" an indie game that seems like I should love it: roguelike deckbuilder meets battle network. But it's totally overwhelming! I just can't think my moves through, or even multi-task dodging with reading the "next card" and processing what it means in time to act. As a result every opportunity slips by in a blur and I am not left with that so-important roguelike feeling that losing was all my fault.

But I had a different experience with your game. It took a couple of surfs, but I figured out that I can use the 'E' queue menu/pause moment to plan the next few seconds of battle carefully. I even learned that the UI has some limited support for keyboard input, and if you realllly look carefully you can see that there is a selection which you can move around via WASD and activate with return. So I would pause, line up my next few moves, and think "okay go 1 left then drop the barrel, then move up and double-spam." And this would actually work most of the time!

That's really the first time one of these battle-network variants has let me STOP AND THINK and plan, while still also retaining some of that sweet "oh shit oh shit" realtime dodging fun.

Really nice work!

Space Shark Inc. by greenphox 2023-10-12T03:01:13Z ♥ 1

Nice little distopian nightmare/adventure! I got a few of the endings but I wasn't good enough at dodging to get what I think we all wanted.

Background music and art were enjoyable. The small play area made it worth exploring and since you can only explore some directions in one life it wasn't even bad to get game over except in fights.

Flying felt pretty good. It was "just" a click-to-go-there scheme, but something about the peppy motion and the little wake of circles really sold it being a ship for me, and I found it pleasant to fly around.

Unique entry, nice job!

Sewer Survey by Ratrat44 2023-10-12T02:49:37Z ♥ 0

Well THAT certainly ran a wave of chills down my spine.

I knew it was going to be that way, too. Still worked. The atmosphere and the pacing (and the dead .. possum?) got me into the mood. Lulled me into a zone where I can get whalloped and have it pay off.

Great creepy vibe. If I could tweak one thing it would be to reduce the brightness of the flashight hitting the side of a nearby wall, which made the edge of my screen uncomfortably bright.

Cybermaze by notime4games 2023-10-12T02:28:15Z ♥ 1

Great foundation for an entry here, but felt like you didn't get a chance to capitalize on where it was going. The music and graphics are nice, and the combat feels solid with the hitflash, knockback, and the nice big colliders. You got that core idea and the polish/control nice. Sorry you ran out of time!

I got to the You Win, and then decided to see if I could delete myself from my own memory. Almost...

cybermaze-delete.png

Boxed Boxes by jebouin 2023-10-12T01:17:05Z ♥ 1

Very nice game! Made me think back on some of those talks from Jon Blow where he talks about a designer creating the rules and then exploring variations on them to learn what's possible, and communicating what they've learned to the player through puzzles.

I especially started to feel that way when the dotted-boxes that you are NOT inside could be pushed to pass through most solid matter but not the grey blocks, so you see them from a whole new angle. Very cool stuff that kept revealing interesting new things throughout.

The only splinter I had was the gamefeel of the double-jump, which I never got fluid at, but which became core to some of the puzzles later in the game. The revelation of trapping a dotted-box to walljump off was a cool moment, but the pleasure of those puzzles was slightly diminished by the way that wall-jumping fails took me out of the flow state. Fortunately I could usually jump spam past it.

Here's a montage of the times I got stuck... which somehow didn't actually bother me, just seemed sort of funny.

BoxBox-Stuck.png

Generally the feel was really nice, and the mechanics were intuitive. Respect for not having to use any text to explain anything, I really appreciate that approach.

Nice fully-explore novel mechanic right on theme... well done.

LD54 - Limipea by Emkani 2023-10-11T02:51:10Z ♥ 2

I really liked the overall vibe, the graphics and music were nice and made me want to jump right into the game. The fast fluid movement was also nice. The big-commit jump was interesting. Sometimes it really worked and created a nice feeling of fluid, powerful movement.

But other times I felt a bit disconnected from myself and out of control. I couldn't tell when I was successfully hitting the enemy, or when they were hitting me. I wanted to look ahead at the enemy, but also wanted to look over where I was jumping to, but also wanted to look down. I was never really able to fully process the information, and often was surprised that I had an enemy chewing on my leg or when I fell into a hole in the ground.

There's a lot of very good potential here and it could be extremely cool. There's just something left to work out about how the perception and movement flows for the player to really capitalize on the strong idea and well-done vibe.

I played a bunch, though, and enjoyed it -- nice work!

Super Shop Keeper Turbo by khaotom 2023-10-11T02:36:22Z ♥ 1

WOW

What an entry. So many things I like about it, and it all really comes together nicely into a great package. This felt like a complete game covering all the bases.

The music was a real stand-out, with strong sfx as well. I was already impressed with the level one theme, but then you topped it with that jammin sax tune on level two, and brought it home with the creepy finale song to complement the blinking eyes and moments of terror like this:

super-shop-terror.png

The character animation really worked well and added a lot to the feel of playing. Controls were solid -- sometimes the box-grab on the corner didn't quite work how I expected (there's a zone where you wiff if you're either TOO far into the platform, or maybe if you start too close and are already overlapping as you enter?) But for such a tricky mechanic, I was impressed that it worked very intuitively.

Levels were tough but not unfair, and the threat of losing all my items made it worth it when I nailed it. I accidentally bounced up into the exit of level two right away in my first play through, and the song/feel of that level was something I had to go back and experience, so I did another play through.

super-shop-victory.png

The fact that I could progress without a full kit also helped take the edge off frustration with some of the blind-faith jumps and other tricky parts. When I fell down the well with the bounce-walls, I was like "COME ON NOW" but actually I nailed the ascent on my first try, another cool moment.

Congrats on this entry, I think it's really good.

Turtle Gatling by Francisco Lucas 2023-10-11T01:52:10Z ♥ 1

WOW those guys are tough stuff! Really felt the theme with my huge body on the tiny screen, and THEN THE BULLETS! Slayed some bomber guys but always boxed myself in eventually.

Cool idea and it was fun to blast away.

Spectra by red-stake 2023-10-11T01:42:08Z ♥ 2

I made it to 54.5s, just after the square-box mini-boss.

Wow, this had a great vibe! The cycling colors, the shifting shapes, the tight controls and the chunky graphics all really came together nicely. If this had great crunchy sfx it would have really gone to 11.

I think I would have played more if the restart loop didn't go so far backwards on hit, but maybe it had to be that way.

Difficulty was well-balanced though. Game's telegraphing did a great job of letting me see a moment ahead, and yet still created many VERY close calls. There was also a nice non-uniform pacing that emerged... if I stayed on top of keeping everything clean, I could keep it under control. But once I missed one thing, it threatened to snowball.... until I cleaned up again and got back to baseline. Then, the game had waves that were tougher that would force such spikes on me even if I didn't mess up, so the pacing was never flat.

Well done, really nice entry!

Generated Adventure by gamescodedogs 2023-05-17T03:34:48Z ♥ 2

Very cool exercise, thanks for showing us what can be done with the AI!

I would say the strong point was the art assets. The music sounded nice at first but wore out its welcome, in my opinion. The dialog had some holes, but pretty that's something I'd expect from AI. (eg I'm sent to the librarian because he will ask me to fetch something, but I open the conversation with him by asking him where I can find some random book I lost? AI felt like it lost track of the thread of the story)

Movement felt a bit stiff, too, but never caused any problems except maybe breaking the immersion of moving around in the nice-looking space.

Overall I appreciated the entry, especially because you went all-in on the AI as a constraint, so a great experiment for an LD, well done.

Ooober Cookies by notime4games 2023-05-17T03:22:31Z ♥ 1

Was a little lost at the beginning but then I figured it out after a few tries!

Nice simple graphics were effective despite not being fancy. I enjoyed the day/night cycle that gave a little life to the world, and the little person running to the building, and the little car lights. Good small touches that spruced up an otherwise simple look. Would have loved seeing some nice soundscape rounding out the atmosphere.

I got a 2-car empire up and running. Can't cut it too close and you need a cushion for gas money (or salary?) before you expand, else it's game over.

I ran with two cars for a while until it was steadily profitable, and then I called it quits.

Charming entry.

Deep Delivery by Savidiy 2023-05-16T01:59:57Z ♥ 1

Fun game! I played all the way through to the end, and found the difficulty and length to be just right.

The checkpoints were REALLY important, they let me avoid repeating large stretches of the game, but the way you can't re-use your last one also created a few tense moments of being very careful not to die!

I also enjoyed some of the puzzles that you first encounter in a way you can't pass them. "Lock before Key" is a common idea, but I especially liked the approach used here where it was ambiguous whether it was a lock or a dexterity test. For example I am thinking of the section after the fist major gun-gate where you go up and then there's a long vertical tunnel with falling rocks that MAYYYYBE you could dodge your way through, especially with the i-frames of your first hit, so.... I tried a few times, backed off and figured I'd find another way around. Sure enough, I did, and then after I got through that part, I found myself looping back around through that same vert corridor except now I was going downward so I could get through safely (one way trip tho). Total Metroid echoes with that kind of smart level design that sets me up for an experience, very well done.

Controls initially felt stiff and 3 seconds into the game I though, "wow this movement is not selling me on being underwater at all." But very quickly I realized the game HAS TO be like that, and I got into the world of what it was and didn't mind the stiff yet precisely controllable movement.

Art was charming and clear, an the music was a nice presence.

Well done.

Build-A-Delivery by shp 2023-05-16T01:36:10Z ♥ 0

Wow this was really cool!

I enjoyed the feeling of driving, especially once I got a few upgrades, and I played all the way to my end and still did another delivery and some driving afterward.

I really liked this and it's a very strong entry that I think is fun and well-implemented. But it did also have some issues for me:

- I struggled badly with the text. Much of it is small, and white-on-white or otherwise very low contrast against the background. As one example, I could not read my money on the package/build screen. Some text had high contrast and was not a problem, but for most of the text I gave up on it, such as the delivery list on the right, and the money.

- I struggled with the mini-map. The letters were hard to read, and the icon is a triangle layered below the letters that often made it difficult to tell at a glance which way I was facing. I often went the wrong way.

- I had trouble coming to a stop where it would let me press tab. I wished for a brake. Later I learned to just slam into the houses to stop.

- The menu often felt like an unnecessary interruption of the fun. If I have Franks package, why do I need a menu? I wish I could drift slide to his door, package delivered ca-ching in 0.4seconds and vroom I'm off to the fun again. I think this game is SO CLOSE to creating awesome moments of high-skill that feel really great and stylish/expressive. But it has too many little interruptions of flow and never reaches the incredible high of it's potential.

That said, I really enjoyed the highs that it absolutely DID reach! I appreciated that you did NOT use WASD for the controls. The mouse, being a continuous input like a car really is, lets me be so much more expressive. And drifting into deliveries or just past trees and stuff, it felt really nice.

Strong graphics, sound effects, and music all contributed to the fun of tooling around in the car, and the upgrades gave a sense of progression that unlocked even better gamefeel, which motivated me.

Nice entry!

Package Panic by Porcus_Pie 2023-05-13T02:49:13Z ♥ 1

342, I can't imagine how you're more than doubling that!

Really had fun with this one, nice job! I skipped the tutorial and then lost my first game pretty quick because I didn't immediately understand two things: I didn't realize you could rotate blocks, and I thought the truck would just auto-ship when the clock ran down.

I watched the tutorial after that, and it cleared everything up, but the game is very close to totally self-discoverable without a tutorial, just not quite.

The vibe is really good. It scratches a little of the tetris itch but with a huge twist since I don't have to live with my mistakes, and it's more of a balance between placing very quickly and also maintaining open options. The choice of three packages to place is also a very nice aspect that lets me hold things in reserve while I see how other situations develop.

Music was a nice, art is nice, and the core gameplay loop is really addictive with a nice pacing an a mix of mechanical urgency vs mental analysis. I found myself falling into a real flow state with this one. Very nicely done.

Icy Porch by jebouin 2023-05-13T02:11:39Z ♥ 1

So well done!

This game was a good core idea, well extended by some fun follow-ups, and topped off with phenomenal execution. Controls were tight and on-point. Concepts were introduced rapidly but extremely effectively with no burdensome textual tutorialization. Graphics were really nice, but taken up a notch by that amazing double-transition of decomposing into pixels that swoop away into a swarm and then pop back as the new level in tweened squares, such a nice touch. And the music was really nice too. An all-around very strong entry that hits everything. Great job.

I remember also being impressed by an old game of yours, alien crab in the rotormaze. You make great stuff, wish we had more entries from you!

Mouth Feel by ColeSlaughter 2023-05-13T01:34:35Z ♥ 3

Wild ride! Watching all of my mistakes come back to me later was epic. Very cool idea for the theme, great humorous execution, and really nice art and style. I also had some fun experimenting around with the different sounds. I bet, but am not quite sure, that I could do better a second time, a cool feeling.

Great job!

Daily Vrai by Pikario 2023-05-13T01:00:41Z ♥ 4

Such a very well-rounded entry, with pleasing graphics that are cute but can still show nasty, excellent use of ambient sound, a really smooth and nice-feeling simulated office software, and of course a compelling narrative that stitches it all together.

The only addition I could wish for was some way of seeing what use my exfiltrated pictures went to.

I enjoyed this one so much that even when I was sentenced to 20 years in prison for not quite catching the instructions, I started over from the beginning and played the whole game to completion.

Great job on a unique and compelling entry!

Squaregot Survivor by cdunham 2023-05-13T00:11:13Z ♥ 2

This is such a great idea for the the theme. I love these work games where you are juggling systems and using the limited resource of time to optimize throughput and crank, and I think you have designed a really great core for that.

The implementation was also solid, handling many complexities and different states with effective use of UI menus and character controls. The sound effects and info displays were also well chosen. I especially appreciated the celebration siren when I delivered and order, it was a great touch and really leveled up the satisfaction of the moment.

For my own personal taste, this game is too slow to capture all of the potential of the core idea.

After learning the ropes on my first couple of deliveries, I hit a trip where I got three 1-packages, I ran an efficient route and I delivered them just right. But I did not get that feeling like "awww YEAH I am a delivery GOD!" Game is simply too slow to deliver that over-the-top feeling of accomplishment.

I guess I experience it as a dissonance: Game makes my brain feel hurried up, but movement is very slow and basic actions require navigation of multiple menus.

I do think it's just taste: some people will appreciate that! But for me I want to play this exact game except the movement is 10x faster, and there are no menus.

That's not to say "bad entry" because this is a really good entry. I just thought the idea had SO much potential if the pace was cranked way up. I did still enjoy my time with it, and I hope I didn't over-emphasize negative stuff here. Well done!

Delivery Guy by GordienkoGames 2023-05-11T01:57:20Z ♥ 1

Lol I was not expecting that! Loved it. Game came with a laugh and a surprise, brought me through a few puzzles and some fun exploration of a physics system, gave me a nice last level, and then ended before over-staying its welcome.

Nice job! I enjoyed my unique style of delivery.

Rhythmic Courier by Colin Misbach 2023-05-11T01:48:32Z ♥ 0

Bumpin little tune, and it was satisfying to get up to near the top speed! I was pretty terrible at the package section though, wow!

I had an issue at the start, with no sound. I restarted several times, and then randomly I hit ESC and the music started. Is that right, you have to hit ESC on the title screen to being the music? That threw me.

But once I got over that it was very smooth sailing.

Nice entry, and really well-rounded with nice pixel art, and music. Great job!

Rush Deliverance by ryusui 2023-05-11T01:31:34Z ♥ 2

Really nice! The graphical tiles look great and the procedurally-generated tracks/worlds that result are a highlight for sure. The rest of the entry is really well-rounded as well, with snappy controls, sfx, and music.

My first few runs I died quickly and the time-to-restart felt really long. But once my lifespan got longer, waiting for restart became a lot less of a portion of my gameplay and stopped being a bother. I felt my eyes torn when I scored in the green ball because I had to focus on the map ahead so I don't die, but I also get presented with an overlay with quite a lot of text. I did not dare to read any of it, and merely leaned forward and tried to squint past it to survive.

My first few runs I lost for obvious reasons. Then I got good enough that I lasted a long time. Then I got really deep into a run I was feeling good about and I exploded suddenly. Probably it had something to do with the text on the upper-left, which of course I also never read because I had my eyes on the road. I guess the game has other ways to die, like a timer?

(Confirmed by looking at screenshots, there is some kind of timer. I was not aware of it and don't know if or how I recovered time)

Felt pretty sweet to swing around, nail my jump and land exactly on the lane to scoop up some souls, and then trace a diagonal back to deposit them. A good mix of success and failure in a smooth movement system, all against a backdrop that looked and sounded good. I didn't connect with the text, but that didn't stop me from getting enjoyment.

Nice and well-rounded entry!

Loading Zone by drazil100 2023-05-10T03:15:42Z ♥ 1

Wow this is so cool! It's a simple core idea that leads to some interesting juggling, both physical and mental. There is a cool multi-tasking between moving the boxes into the truck from my stacks, while also keeping the forklift active. Then I have to think about what to do to move things around during my downtime to set up cleanly to open myself up to opportunities.

Few times I felt like I was heading for losing, and suddenly I'd get the truck I needed to clear a full stack or more.

Very cool entry, well done.

Slip & Slice by blotosaur 2023-05-10T02:58:30Z ♥ 0

I am IN for car drifting.

And the peaks of this game's feel are awesome. You swerve around a corner and drop off multiple pizzas in one fluid non-stop screeching arc. It's incredible.

And such a shame that I got to experience it so infrequently. I guess you probably thought I would be a lot better at this game than I was, because I sucked. For every transcendent multi-pizza arc, I had twenty jerky insta-fullstops and five times getting stuck in a corner and another five times fking up which direction to turn when I was reversing while being upside down. There were straight-up 30-second-long slices of my gameplay that were embarrassing mistake after mistake that made me wince.

I did enjoy having to work for the enjoyment, and it made it even more satisfying when it happened. But I felt like the balance was slightly off.

I think the feel needed polish. I think the colliders were too sticky, and should have been a bit more forgiving by being slippery. I should not be full-insta-stopped by brushing my tail against a house, I should bounce off with a jolt but keep 65% of my speed. I think forward and reverse should not be perfect mirrors that invite you to get stuck in an infinite trap, reserve should turn harder. I think reverse should not be so slow and could also be fun instead of un-fun. I think I guess I just wanted to be better so that I could seize more moments of the glorious highs that this game can offer, instead of mostly wallowing in the foulest moments most of the time.

Wonderful game. Just a few tweaks short of absolutely amazing.

Great job.

Ludum Dare 53 by Beebster Games 2023-05-10T02:34:13Z ♥ 0

Cool entry with a lot going on! Looks nice for sure, so good job putting the assets together even if you didn't draw them.

I like this one but I also felt like it had some rough edges. The potential here was higher than what it accomplished. If it's okay I want to drop a list of issues I encountered... I hope this is helpful feedback and not hurtful. If I thought it was just a bad entry I would not put in the effort, believe me.

1. Colliders are too small. This makes the graphics "lie" to me. I can walk over a heart but not pick it up. I can phase through a tree. Most problematic of all, I can swing my sword and watch is slash through a skellie but actually it secretly didn't connect. I think bigger colliders for good things (get heart, hit enemy) would improve the game feel. Typically, colliders feel best imo when they err on the side of cheating very slightly in favor of the player.

2. Combat feedback is non-existent. I cannot tell if I hit the enemy because there is no flash, no animation, no sound, no knockback. I let a big mob build up and then I had this epic battle for like a full minute thinking "wow these guys take a lot of hits" before I realized "Oh wow the last fifty swings of my sword I didn't actually hit any of these guys!" I think combat could feel a LOT more satisfying with bigger colliders and a bit of feedback (and knockback).

3. Random explosions from something I can't see just confused me. I didn't know what was happening until I alt-tabbed back and read the hints. The damage they did was so small that it hardly mattered, yet they had the biggest graphics and sound feedback. I don't feel they fit thematically with the game (skeletons using mines?) and the game would have been better without them.

4. The damage dealt by skellies was pretty low, and while I'm glad a mistake wasn't instant game over, combat was not as exciting as it could be because it didn't matter if I took hits. This led to me just walking up and spam attacking the skellies rather than playing a game of positional combat vs them.

5. Was there actually a pumkin? The game said it was my mission. I searched and searched but never found one. Was that empty area of dirt on the far right with the tree stump the grave? I got there, and I think it started a battle, but I beat back some skellies and hit that lady who freezes time and blanks the screen a few times, but nothing happened. I ended up confused about what to do.

Anyway that list probably sounds rough, but I don't mean to sound like it's a bad entry. I enjoyed spending some time going around and exploring, collecting hearts, and beating up on some skellies. You included a variety of features and a nicely-bounded scope that felt pretty complete, so well done on the entry!

Tight Five: Still Alive by weeping-rupee 2023-05-06T03:40:19Z ♥ 1

Very cool concept. I got into character and got myself into some trouble trying to force the jokes to actually make sense, when I should have just focused on scoring to stay alive. That's on me! I did enjoy landing a few nice off color 1-2 punches, but spending points on coherence is not a luxury I could often afford.

I was moderately confused at first. I figured out the state transitions, the color coding, and then the action points. I didn't understand why I was losing action points between rounds or what that heckler was for, so the tutorial video was super helpful. After watching that I started playing more strategically and did better. Then after a handful of plays to learn the ropes, I knocked em dead.

I really liked the vibe, and since you put in the effort for the tutorial vis, I thought I'd make some notes on some things that still confused me after playing:

- Why can't I put this card into my hand face down? It's the first card of the game. I was able to put the next three in face-down but this one had to be flipped before I would go in my hand. TightFice-CantMoveCard.png

- Playing face-down cards is weird. It says "?" but I can see the total so it's not really a mystery, except in the moment of the joke when I may go over 21. I guess I should always play every first joke blind because I can't go over, and I can spend the action points to draw more cards rather than flip for the first joke.

- Small but recurring UI nit: I wish I could right click a face-down card in my hand to spend a point and flip it, rather than having to left-click-right-click-left-click it. (That said, programming this game must have been a nightmare of UI state management and it's really overall very low-friction once you get going.)

- I don't fully understand why I can choose how many jokes to tell on a turn. If I do zero, I was not clear about the consequences and whether I am burning through chances, but I often had to do it if I had, say, an 18 and couldn't play without failing. If I do more than one, I burn cards and limit flexibility, so I only did that when I had the 21 already in hand.

- I was also unclear about the scoring. I got a 20. Then I resolved a heckler and my score was zero. Was that good or bad? I didn't know if I had gotten "nearly perfect" in round 1 and then moved on to round 2 with a feather in my cap, or whether I had failed for not getting exactly 21 and been sent back to the start to try again. Eventually I did get a 21 and saw that it shooed the heckler away and set me back to zero without having to feed him a card. This made me think the reset to zero was NOT bad, and my 20/21 was a good score.

Anyway I liked this and spent some time with it, hope the nit-list didn't feel negative. Wouldn't spend the time writing it if this was not a very cool game.

The robot pose-art was on point, and the sounds were well-chosen to create a cool ambiance. But what I appreciated most was definitely the conceptual theme of the robo-standup.

Nice entry!

Strange Zoo by khaotom 2023-05-05T03:06:58Z ♥ 2

I escaped the Zoo with 4100 pts without reading the instructions, hints, or spoiler.

Very cool to unwind the mystery. I was glad that hints were not on the LD page, and tucked away out of sight for those who wanted them.

Simply displaying "0" at the top-center was a smart move, it told me, "this game has a way to score and you should explore to find it."

Looking at the spoiler retroactively, the one thing I didn't figure out was the flashing/dying ones were how you got bling. I just kind of randomly happened to get some, fortunately. The little heart icon even on non-dying ones was key, as it let me know "yup that is good, do more of that."

The art was nice and made the critters have real character. I caught flashes of real animals but then they'd have a strange twist, worked really well.

Sound is a trippy otherworldly background that improves the experience a lot.

Nice job!

Bee Happy Harvest by kir Pow 2023-01-26T01:23:48Z ♥ 0

The way the music stops dead the instant you die, but leaves the rumbling sound of the tractors... very effective. Felt very cool.

This was a happy fun game, but I felt like there was a tension: the slowness made the game-feel less fun so I don't really want to pick up more flowers. Sure, the game tries to encourage me to risk it because I score more, but there's not a time limit or anything to force me, so I can always just go one flower at a time. So this is a cool core, but I wonder if there's a knot in the middle of the idea, and what you could experiment to untie it and incentivize the player to take more risks.

Cool entry that made me think and feel! Nice job.

(Test) by TweekStudios 2023-01-26T01:12:46Z ♥ 1

I liked the implied (but clear) story that didn't have to get in the way and left a bit of room for imagination, but was compelling. Same feeling about the art style, actually - clear but left room for imagination while still being interesting.

I appreciated that I could explore the system without being tutorialized. Always smart when there an entry is light on content to get that extra bit out of the mystery of figuring it out!

Tending the garden and growing it was fun for a bit, too. I tried jamming seeds into the hose (smoke?) coming out of the back of my ship to refuel it, searching for an end goal, but I think it's just not there, right?

Cool prototype!

Lil Death by ghostbomb 2023-01-26T01:00:15Z ♥ 1

So cool! My first experience was constantly always dying very quickly and being super-awkward. You were very right to so strongly recommend the gamepad... I could feel that the game had a lot to offer that I was not getting, so I went into a box in the other room and unfurled my gamepad, and the whole experience changed.

Then it changed again when I realized that the direction I push while I press attack actually changes the direction of the attack!

So I went from the earthbound fragile fretter to a soaring demonslayer that never touched the ground.

A wild ride, very well done! Art is effective - both clear about gameplay and also striking a nice mood. Music is jammin and the escalation track kicked the game up a gear nicely. But the real heart of this game is the feel of the complex movement that both opens and closes options and always leaves you a way out, and challenges you to attempt mastery.

Farmula Grain Prix by Chase of Bass 2023-01-22T19:27:54Z ♥ 1

RC Pro-Am is such a great formula, and this is a wonderful riff on it. And what a nice job nailing so much and so well done for a solo entry!

The game felt really alive and complete, with a great core of driving that felt good, and this tower the crop loop over and, then this tower of upgrades and features standing on top of it all. Plus jammin tunes and nice graphics.

I really enjoyed my time playing. If I could have one boon, it would be to be able to navigate the Pit screen with the keyboard, at least enough to switch vehicles, maybe with 1-4 number keys.

Very impressive entry, great job!

Definitely Not A Pyramid Scheme by davision 2023-01-22T19:00:18Z ♥ 0

I was very excited to play this because it looks very cool and unique. But I wasn't able to play so I have not rated.

I downloaded and ran the game. It started and I saw the playfield and heard the music, but it did not respond to any inputs. I couldn't even alt-tab out of it when I eventually gave up and tried that instead. Then after like a minute my guy zoomed off the field, it said game over, and some debug info appeared on the left side. I was able to alt-tab out then so I killed it, checked the instructions, and tried again. Similar result except I had to ctrl-alt-del to exit the game even after gameover.

Sorry! Maybe my Radeon 590 was not up to the task. Again, I didn't rate b/c I couldn't play correctly, but I thought I'd drop a note here with the experience in case it's helpful in any way.

Very cool-looking game, was sorry I couldn't give it a proper shot.

Terrible Brakes Practice by TimBeaudet 2023-01-22T18:32:27Z ♥ 0

Thought my experience with the previous iteration a few LDs ago might set me up for success, but this was tough stuff! My runs were a megafailfest but I had fun along the way.

Paper Druids by rubr 2023-01-22T04:16:41Z ♥ 1

Wow so good! Turn based games are tough, and they risk having this plodding slow feel. But this game moves along nice and quick if I want to input quickly, but also gives me as much time as I want. The polish of the graphics and the interaction is great, and the predictive indicators and attack-range mouseover previews are absolutely top-notch and help me learn.

The game itself is really tense and well-done. The tension between planting, harvesting, and double-damage to clear enemies is super interesting.

And the music was also very nice and well-matched to the mood and pace of the game.

Very well done all around!

Techno Plants by morpheyz 2023-01-22T03:29:02Z ♥ 4

Jammin! Was disappointed to see myself back at Level 1 and would have been happy to experiment a bit more if there were some more tracks, but it was still good enough that I ripped through the whole game a few more times trying to get a better feel for the timing. I started off making tons of mistakes but then I settled into the groove and was jamming along.

And then I turned off my brain a little TOO hard and ended up here:

TechnoPlants-Oops.png

WOOOOPS!

Nice art, thumpin music, appropriate difficulty, and a headbanging sunflower all came together really nicely in this entry. Well done!

Kilzpacho by FullHeartGames 2023-01-22T03:08:50Z ♥ 1

Wow, really loved the real-instrument music, so well done and had nice rising and falling sections that had a good balance between active sections that rose to the front of my consciousness and quieter sections that receded into the background... just like a good videogame soundtrack should!

Art was nice, and the shadowy edges of the arena meshed well with the spooky vibe of the mutant cropses, and the sprites were all well done.

I enjoyed the action. It could use a little more "juice" in terms of emphasizing when I take a hit or successfully hit an enemy. But the biggest problem I had was the rolling guy who leaves a cloud behind. Fine, except that I HAVE to kill him. So a lot of my time with the game was waiting and waiting and saying "THERE HE IS" but he would already be gone by the time I could get over there. I struggled badly to find a way to force an encounter, and the end of each wave was quite a long time of me just hoping and waiting and guessing, which really broke the otherwise nice pacing.

But other than that, I thought the action was well done. The theme came through nicely with the tough choice between harvesting my cropses to save them for a big upgrade later, versus spending them incrementally on improvements that I REALLLLLY wanted like faster attack speed etc. So I feel like you nailed the tough-choices thing.

Nice entry with a lot of different cool elements!

Backyard Fruitball by twchapman 2023-01-21T19:49:05Z ♥ 1

Cool core concept, and then a great clear presentation with simple effective graphics.

I think there is some dynamism missing -- my double-controlling is more like setting up and then acting, and not quite so dynamic. But maybe it would completely overwhelm to present more fluid situations, in a bad way, I'm not sure.

The batter's lack of air control did feel a bit stiff, however I would say well done on making the angle he hits the fruit at really matter, this gives a lot of feeling of control that is necessary.

Interesting entry, well done!

The PIT by Wouter52 2023-01-21T19:43:35Z ♥ 1

Wow! This game has a lot of innovative stuff I haven't seen. The inventory-grid/tetris puzzle mashup paired with the varied growth patterns of the different types of plants.. the tradeoff between growing plants vs not making them too difficult to use, and then managing to keep the lifecycle of seeds vs pots vs plants all in line.

So many unusual interlocking elements. Love seeing a game breaking new ground and mashing together a bunch of interesting ideas. Very cool, nicely done!

Cream of the Crop by Weirdybeardyman 2023-01-21T19:24:34Z ♥ 1

Cool vibe with the silly story and unusual controls of the plane and being so low to the ground! I did mostly just cruise on the ground so I think I lost a bit of the flying feel but it was still a fun vehicle to control.

And the "destructible terrain" style of wheat was a nice touch that worked well.

Nice job!

Salvage City by StormCat 2023-01-21T19:10:41Z ♥ 1

Visual style and use of the colors was very nicely done. I also liked the sandworm feel, especially the way you had control under ground but were committed in the air, where bombs might be falling. It was an interesting and novel movement scheme. I felt like some nice sound effects during the salvage part would have made it much more visceral and really amplified the parts that are already good about it.

The building placement part was a nice break and gave a narrative purpose.

Nice job!

Space Harvest by lfreinoso 2023-01-21T18:42:54Z ♥ 1

Congrats on making a complete compo entry with graphics sound and music, all in a new engine!

The high inertia on the player control was pretty cool - it's unusual and it forced me to plan a head for the slipperiness a little bit!

Unreal Engine meant a kind of annoying experience as a player: I had to install pre-requisites, agree to terms and conditions, and then when the game ran my firewall popped up a warning that the game was trying to export data over the network. That's a lot of overhead for an LD jam, and it's okay if ONE game makes me go uninstall software after, but if everybody did that it would be a very bad experience.

Not your fault, but just be aware that this is the consequence with that engine.

Anyway, nice job with a complete entry, it was fun little game to mess around with and I enjoyed the music, the slippy controls, and the hand-drawn art style. I won, and then I played a few more times until I won without taking a single hit!

Monkey Oolong Harvest Bop by PeachTreeOath 2023-01-21T18:22:05Z ♥ 2

This is awesome! It's got great style really well-grounded in the mechanics and the music is so on point for pulling it all together and drawing me in.

The elements shuffle up well so that each situation requires some careful thought, which I really appreciated. I felt myself getting better as I played. One thing I really like is the wide, wide range of the effectiveness of a turn. The floor of a turn is utter failure, and it's common enough. But there are soaring highs on turns that I saw, and I can IMAGINE even much more. Nailing a buddy-toss into multiple pickups and then catching another monkey to spin back around and make ANOTHER pass, it's gold.

My first few attempts I was awful and lost a bunch of energy at the start, but then I learned "Don't be dumb, throw your first monkey halfway to their range so that it's easy to chain the next one!" And gradually I started getting better. I really don't know how that other commenter got fifty-three leaves?!?? I can't even get to twenty!

Since this game was so good, I want to point out a couple of ways that I felt like the game left a little something on the table:

- The ultimate high is chaining monkeys into many pickups and getting a LOT done with one turn (especially powerful after a few failed turns). But the wave-based spawning of leaves worked against this high, and sometimes left my rare great turn spinning with no next leaf to get, which was a downer.

- The z-zoom was of course valuable and necessary, but it was a splinter that I had to use it so much. I kept wishing for an arrow pointing toward offscreen leaves that somehow also indicated the distance, for example by scaling. I feel like if it exactly indicated both distance and direction, I could learn to play with much less of the inconvenient zooming. I also would have preferred the active-monkey be somehow indicated when I'm in Z mode.

And I wouldn't call it a problem, but I could probably have been more powerful if there was some minor graphical indication of what WOULD happen if I pressed space, for example the buddy monkey reaching out or seeing a little trail pointing the vector that I will launch at while spinning. Those things I learned by rote eventually, but there was an adjustment period where I kept being surprised to have grabbed the tree instead of my buddy.

Anyway, I really enjoyed this!

The art is also great, and had so many nice touches that made this feel really alive. The rolling fog, the subtle animation on the birds. Especially well-done was the tree: The leaves, which are decorative, blow in the window, but the branches, which are critical gameplay elements, are snapped stock-still. So smart. The monkeys and tea leaves also stood out really well against the background elements, with their relatively high saturation. And those face/tail animations! Monkeys had such great personality.

Really well done entry, hitting every element. Great job!

Verdant by JustinMullin 2023-01-21T16:54:32Z ♥ 1

What a game! I spent a lot of time with this.

It's wonderfully complicated and complete-feeling. The music set a great atmosphere, the graphics were solid and clear, and the little sfx and flashes were at first confusing but eventually became very good indicators of what was going on.

My first game went well but was a back and forth. I had fun exploring the combo-spells and figuring out what was effective, and the humans were successfully attacking me on multiple fronts, but in the end I prevailed.

Things felt wonderfully tight - should I develop my mana production, or bolster this defense over here?

Then I started to see that expansion of territory and offense were also important factors to consider.

The tipping point was when I started leveraging the multiplier, and combining it with location-independent spells, especially creeping death and the double-energy one.

After I won I was curious how I would do in a second round, leveraging what I'd learned. I absolutely STOMPED the pesky humans:

Mullin-StompedHumans.png

I spent my first turn creating a doubler and got a combination of creeping death and energy production connected to it. With aggressive use of forest-expansion and double-eyes I got map control quickly and used a core with a ton of doublers. My turns, I couldn't even spend my mana and as soon as I got humans in sight they were ripped to shreds.

They did manage to destroy one forest tile and knock out a couple of spells, though. I wonder if a flawless victory is possible...

It's really cool how the order you put spells down ends up dictating what you get, so you need to expand your mind out a bit to think about the final state you want, and then back into it step by step.

Really compelling across the board. I'm amazed you built such a deep system in such a short time, well done!

The Orchid's Edge by Cornflowerblue 2023-01-17T04:21:36Z ♥ 2

Amazing job on graphics and polish! Very well-rounded entry. I felt like the collection objective was a little bland compared to all the other cool stuff going on, but it did make me see lots of stuff and explore, so I still definitely enjoyed my time with the game.

Cardwork Cycle by Honey Pony 2023-01-17T03:56:01Z ♥ 1

Wow, really complete system with a slick implementation! Very nice job!

I spent a bunch of time with this entry, and became the first farmer ever to grow the mystical plant.

Must be so hard in a jam setting to get so many UI elements working right, but I really had very little friction! Ditto for the balance of the deckbuilding cards. If I had one critique of that, it was that I didn't see the biggest difference between basic/middling/quality seeds all that much, and that once my deck felt relatively complete I didn't really want to add to it and to avoid dilution I cashed out cards beyond the shop's ability to sell me stuff.

But the choices felt impactful, especially in the early and mid game... should I improve my suite of watering cards, or should I save up some gold?

The bugs could be tough sometimes, but always felt fair. I re-opened my mind to buying new cards to shift my lategame deck a bit toward combat, which was a nice late wrinkle.

The art and sound also carried the game really well. The music created a nice chill atmosphere and the way the plants grew with each watering was a great guide for what I needed to protect and push over the finish line.

Overall a very impressive entry, great work!

Growin' Ballistic by alaah 2023-01-17T02:49:27Z ♥ 1

Made it to wave 15. Wow, something kicked into gear on the enemy side -- or else I set myself up with a strategic weakness -- because I was running so hot that instead of enemies coming to attack it was just raining grain-money from the sky. And then I glanced at something offscreen for a moment, came back, and there was one pulsing enemy in the middle and ALL OF MY PLANTS were dead!! Wowzers, I can't imagine wave 21!

Nice vibe here with several upgrades to follow, and a feel that mashed up bits I've seen in different genres, like a little tower defense, a little clicker upgrade, a little missile command... it was nice!

Harvester Horizons by notime4games 2023-01-16T18:45:08Z ♥ 1

NAILED IT with the engine sound.

And at first I didn't like the way the steering doesn't snap quickly back to center when I release a turn direction key. But after playing a bit, I feel like this was actually a really good choice after all. It made it really feel like I was operating a piece of heavy equipment. I found myself planning my turns more and really working with AND against the machine itself.

I got a really cool feel of operating this huge heavy lumbering piece of equipment, and that was really what this game was all about. Small touches like the smoke and the beeping reverse also helped to sell it. As did the 3D model with the turning treads.

And of course that SOUND.

Great job. Probably could have capitalized a bit more on the core by having jobs that acknowledged success and auto-advanced, as opposed to the more DIY menu-driven system, but that just gave it more of the simulator feel.

Really nice work on crafting that big-machine experience.

A Day in the Life of Death by DDRKirbyISQ 2023-01-16T18:18:51Z ♥ 1

Good grief this was so much more than I expected it to be at first contact.

During the first culling I interrupted my wife's reading to hand her my headphones and say, "check this out - this crew is SO good at the music and the art and how it comes together." She was appropriately impressed and I thought wow charming little one-screen game here.

Then it was cutscene. Then it was game within game as I entered the phone, and it continued to unfurl from there.

The parents and the pushing from a place of well-meaning that still bristles and the rebellion and the transformation. It all felt like Truth in Art despite manifesting in such a surreal setting.

Really great job.

And did I mention the art and music are amazing?

It was all for the Tuna by rosypenguin 2023-01-16T17:51:35Z ♥ 2

Almost! I had the goldfin tuna boxed into the corner of the map and thought I would be able to reel it in, but even with some extra chances b/c it couldn't flee, I didn't quite get there.

Super-charming game with a great vibe, and the core fishing mechanic was well-done, adding a touch of mechanical difficulty and execution without overwhelming the chill vibe. Water was really nicely done and sold me on being in a boat, maybe a small touch of drift when the boat came to a halt would have sold it even harder.

Nice entry.

The Dealer by Porcus_Pie 2023-01-16T17:30:15Z ♥ 2

Wow! Such a complete system with all of the UI, different organs, different customers, different resources, upgrades, timers, etc etc. It's an impressively well-rounded bunch of scope for a compo entry, and supported with nice graphics (esp the portraits) and sound effects, too.

And most importantly it was fun to explore the consequences of the system. My first run I was dragging it out being careful, but I kept getting jammed into a corner because most of my deals were done at a cash loss. Needed more murder! But then I pushed it a little too far too fast.

If I could tweak one thing it would be the way the menu system works. If I clicked on a tube I sometimes didn't want to do anything, and I had to click "exit menu" but that wasn't intuitive or convenient. Sometimes I wanted to just click into another tube, or even into the same tube to toggle out and back into my inventory.

I was often struggling with "what is my current inventory" so I'd do things like try to sell limbs that were at 100% in the tube but not yet harvested into my inventory, and I'd be clicking "sell" and nothing happening, and by the time I realized what I was doing wrong the timer ran out and OOPS. Or I'd click an empty tube and then "buy" and then I'd be picking but not recall what I already had in inventory.

Must be so hard to get the multi-modal sub-menus into a streamlined play experience in a compo, and I think you did a really good job with it, but it's SO hard that I still felt a few minor splinters along the way on that aspect.

But I enjoyed the dark mood of it all, and really fun to experiment around and see what's what.

Really imaginative and complete well-rounded entry here, nice job!

LD52 - Space Cargo Harvest by megafatsquirrel 2023-01-16T15:51:30Z ♥ 1

Cool system and I appreciated the detailed status readout in the top left. Dust sound was pretty cool, too. The ship's thrust was pretty strong after a few upgrades, and I appreciated having the friction that slowed me down so that I didn't get lost in space.

I see that this is your first Ludum Dare entry... CONGRATS!! That's awesome. And you made it for the compo, too!

I want to give some feedback on one pain point I had. I don't want to sound overly negative, since this is a small thing. But I think it's important so I'll go deep on why... but I hope this is helpful constructive feedback!

I struggled with what I physically had to do with my hands in this game. I have to use the arrow keys to drive my ship. So I line up my ship. Then I push uparrow for 2-3 seconds to harvest dust and fly to the exit. Then a window pops up but I cannot close it unless I take my hand off the keyboard, and go find my mouse, and then aim the mouse to the button to close the window, and then aim it again to a different place to close the other window. And then I have to take my hand off the mouse and find the arrow keys again. Then I press the downarrow button for 2-3 seconds to fly backwards into the cloud again. Then I repeat.

I do this on an infinite loop and then unfortunately the main work of the game becomes switching my hand back and forth between arrow keys and mouse.

Probably this sounds like a really dumb complaint to have, but honestly I would have paid 25,000 for an upgrade that let me press space bar to close the dialog box, or use WASD to fly my ship. The game would have felt so much smoother and I would have run my loop so much faster, if I could just put my hands on the controls and leave them there.

I remember my first few Ludum Dares, I had to learn all these little annoyances and gradually built up a list of "oh I shouldn't do that" stuff, but only if people pointed them out. So I hope this was helpful. I don't mean it to be some big negative.

In generaly, I think a keyboard game like this should have keyboard UI elements and not need the mouse. But if you must use the mouse, then I think you want your FPS setup with WASD+mouse, and then also allow arrowkeys for the lefties who left-handed mouse. But arrows+mouse is a nono in my opinion for this reason.

ANYWAY sorry to dwell on that minor point.

I thought this game had nice art and good flight controls, and a cool core gameloop that would have built up into a sweet progression if you'd had enough time to add 3, 4, 5 kinds of upgrades.

Nice work and congrats on a successful LD compo entry!

EDIT: I cannot rate your game. Maybe you have opted out of all the categories? If so, here is how you fix that:

Go to your game page. Click the pencil in the lower-right of your game page. Scroll down past the decryption, cover image, and links. Find the "Rating Category Opt-outs" and make sure they are NOT CHECKED.

Late Harvest by khaotom 2023-01-16T15:20:17Z ♥ 1

Wow nice work with a super-short time! You did well to pick such a compact scope and then make it interesting through several different nice design choices: obviously the eye-catching unusual art style helps, but the less-common click-move controls also make it feel more novel than it would with WASD, and even though it's a small play arena I think your choice of a VERY limited visual range gave it a feeling of danger, suspense, and exploration that would have been completely missing if you had the whole arena on the screen at once.

Smart stuff, maximizing the experience of the small scope, well done! And the audio vibe really did well too.

Musical Mining : The Harmony of Greed by Andy-Link 2023-01-16T15:09:45Z ♥ 2

Very nice-looking, and the circular track twisted my brain in an interesting way as compared to the usual linear timeline in rhythm games.

So this game was really cool, but there was one problem that prevented me from spending more time with it than I did. I don't mean for this to sound too negative, so I hope this is constructive feedback:

I stalled out in level three because the retry is so slow and the failure is so fast. I counted, and when I fail it's gameover in 2.5 beats. Then I have to wait 16 beats after pressing retry before I am actually playing again. That is 86% of the time sitting and waiting vs 14% of the time playing the game. Makes it hard to get that "one more try" feeling... I would have spent a lot more time with the game if the retry delay was nearly instant instead of so so incredibly long.

Sorry if that was too negative. There is a lot of really good stuff going on here. The background music is sweet, the art and presentation are very cool, and the "OHNO" was humorous and made it ULTRA-clear where I was succeeding and failing. So definitely a cool entry all around.

The Crystallographer by pianoman373 2023-01-15T22:04:16Z ♥ 1

Such great polish around a cool core loop. I loved the non-tutorial and it was a breeze to just jump in. I think my favorite moment was when I did a break then a harvest, and realized "oops I should have harvested that first to create the empty adjacent space!" That showed me some of the tactics in the layout and I had fun fooling around with that.

Polish was a real high point though, with the nice art and sound, and tight controls. I also appreciated the really attention to detail on having a clear gamestate, like the squares painting which gridcell I'm really standing on. Not easy to make a game with absolutely no splinters getting in the way of the play experience. Nice entry!

Guardian of Corn by shreypatil45 2023-01-15T19:35:08Z ♥ 1

Nice work, you got a complete game loop here. Graphics were solid and it has some nice touches in place, for example the bobble of the character as he walks, and the little aim arrow and the sword slash. Contextual text pop-ups were also really nice for learning the game and verifying my situation.

Hard to build more than this in a short time! If you did expand, it would probably benefit from a few more upgrades to make me want to play deeper into the game, and some more (or just bigger) feedback on combat like knockback, an on-hit FX for both farm and critter, and stuff like that.

I see that the game has no opted out of audio, but I did not hear any sounds or music. Was that a problem on my machine? I tried it in chrome and then in edge, in case it was a browser issue, but no sound. If you had cool SFX, sorry that I didn't experience them!

I did feel like the pacing at the start is nice and tight - I have to be careful, because I want to blow all of my money on upgrades, but I need to plan so that I have money for my next seed. That's cool. My first game I locked myself out by harvesting my last crop and spending the money on an upgrade, leaving my with zero dollars and no seed -- basically a soft gameover state! Next game I was more thoughtful and planned my economy better.

I also felt that sweet, sweet multitasking a few times. I would be fighting some critters and make a harvest, hit a guy, plant a seed, finish the guy off, then buy an upgrade, and fight the rest. That sort of juggling was sweet stuff, and while I think the game could have created even more of it with the right pacing and more juice, I did get some nice doses sometimes and it was a very nice feeling of juggling priorities in a cool way.

Harvest Tataki - Whac-a-carrot by caranha 2023-01-15T18:12:59Z ♥ 1

Nice! The music, sound, and juicy graphics were all pulling together to create a fun, engaging vibe. I also appreciated the lack of overbearing tutorial - the graphic effects and screen layout made it super-easy for me to just intuit how to play. The carrot's success-hit FX was especially nice, and reinforced the key moment really well. Also liked the sun disco-ball rays that made it feel a little more like a party.

Well done a super-polished entry!

Village Defender by UkuleleFury 2022-10-20T03:08:13Z ♥ 1

So ambitious! Complex system of AI with platformer-pathfinding, fancy UI, a variety of unit types, an economy, nice music, solid art and holy smokes look at that options menu areyoukiddingme. Really impressive amount of stuff going on in this entry.

It did seem like you needed some more polish passes to really achieve your vision though.. the game got quite choppy on me, performance-wise (tried web and download), and strategically I couldn't really find a better strategy than rallying my first 4-5 guys to high ground on the left, and then never issuing another command, which got my village to live forever. It seemed like a trap: if I ever used rally again I would pull all my fighters to one side when attacks are coming from two.

But I still enjoyed playing around with it a few times to explore a bit. Nice touch that falling off the bottom wasn't game over, btw.

Nice entry with many impressive elements, even if the core gameplay was a little rough around the edges.

Teleporter Malfunc-ten by glenugie 2022-10-20T02:30:45Z ♥ 1

Really cool! There's a great addiction loop going on here. The three phases of the game really flow into each other well, and the sense of progression is strong. Art and sounds are pretty basic but do the job well enough.

I did feel like there were a few small quality-of-life issues that got in the way of me wanting to play "just one more time" more than I did. I'll mention some but I don't mean this as a bad review, I just think this is a great idea and a few tweaks could have really pushed it into becoming seriously addictive... that said, here is my wish list:

- Score summary at the end saying something about how I did and what upgrades I got, so I could relax and bask in my achievements for a moment - Font needed to be bigger. I could not read the upgrades easily. This was a very very very serious problem because of the time-tension between healing and reading. A lot of the nuance of the upgrades, the core motivation of the game, I could not engage with. - Needs fullscreen mode - While I felt the time-tension between healing and buying upgrades was a powerful thing and I wouldn't want to lose it, it also created a problem that I could not salivate over the upgrades. I wonder if you could let me READ the upgrades while I'm on the healing pad by just always showing their text and cost. Late in the game it was pretty feelbad to just go CHECK THE PRICE of something or read a new upgrade only to learn I could not afford it, and later lose the game because of the health gains lost while I read. - The mining gets pretty boring and while I appreciate the downtime from the other two tense phases, I found myself wishing it had some kind of unexpected occasional boon that would pop out from the stones, or something else to spice it up from time to time. - The first few rounds of the game are a bit slow, so after a restart it's a bit dull until it picks back up, and this makes it less desirable to click "one more game". I think if you let me pick 1 of 3 free upgrades as a starter on retry that would have kept me more hooked.. or something else to jump-start re-runs.

I hope that's constructive feedback, as I really did think this was a great entry!

Overall this was a surprisingly engaging game for a jam entry, and I fell right into the loop. Very nice work.

Every ten seconds, the game skips... by davidsheadgames 2022-10-20T01:35:06Z ♥ 1

This was a cool mind-bender. I enjoyed that it took me a little while to figure out what was going on, and the way that each screen was a unit. Once there was just one screen that didn't repeat I started to realize how things would unfold, and I had some nice little rush moments after that. Nice touch that it included combat, getting to the exit, and speed-reading! Good variety that hit on the genre tropes of the larger game it hinted at skipping through.

I think I might have mutually-killed the fire-spitting dragon though, because I did die but he didn't repeat... or maybe I missed something in the speed-reading afteward!

Fun unique entry with something I hadn't quite seen before.

Encoded War by KokkakNiphon 2022-10-13T02:00:40Z ♥ 2

This was cool! It had a nice moody vibe with the background music, great art, and the ticking of the machine. It felt really smooth to be moving the papers around and flipping back and forth in the code book.

The 10-second pace was really interesting. It seemed to have pros and cons. It created spikes of urgency and spikes of idle waiting. I think the expression from this time period was "Hurry up and Wait"? If you had not used a 10-second timer, and this game was about cranking out code translations as fast as you could, it would be a really different vibe!

If I could change one thing, it would be to add a satisfying sound effect indicating SUCCESS. I don't read instructions so I just jumped in to play, and for a while I didn't know what I was supposed to do, and the lack of "good/bad" feedback left me stranded a bit. And then once I got the hang of it and started shipping correctly-coded messages, I guess I just wanted the pat on the back of a satisfying "ca-chunk" sound or something. MAybe I just missed it... I noticed there is that UI on the top left, but I never understood what it's trying to communicate.

The ASDF page turning was great for easy controlling, and the option to either click or use space-bar to signal was also nice.

Enjoyable, unique entry, well done!

Sun's out Buns out by phufhi 2022-10-13T01:36:27Z ♥ 2

Cool game! It has some small scope but it does a lot with that scope. I felt the difficulty balance was nicely designed. I had to take some risks and make some tough choices, and even then I didn't QUITE get the plant all the way to the top.

The art looked nice, and it also communicated effectively what was going on. For example, it was really clear when the plant was hit by a rabbit, which was really important to understand as a player learning the game.

The choice to show the rabbits go into little holes, and to have the previous-round rabbits come back, those were both good design choices too.

So a lot of smart ideas in this small entry! I do thin it would be a lot more exciting to play with a few sound effects and some other "juice". I see this is your first LD, so it's a great start and maybe you can work on some of those bonus-type skills in the future! If you haven't seen them, there are two talks on youtube that everybody likes, called "juice it or lose it" and "the art of screenshake." Check em out if you haven't, and you're curious about nice small touches to add.

Nice entry!

Just Roll With It! by Cornflowerblue 2022-10-12T02:36:34Z ♥ 2

Wowww what a jam game! IT's SO complete and polished, on top of an exciting core character control. Even the UI menus have great details and vibe. This is amazing, really well done! I went back to look at your history of games and just from the screen shots and descriptions I can see that you are making strong steady progress in your skills, it's impressive.

I enjoyed zooming around a lot, but wowzers the difficulty was a bit over my ability. I worked a lot just to solve the tutorial! So I really appreciated that I could jump around an experience each of the levels without having to beat any. Great choice for a jam experience.

I could also feel myself getting better over time. I was initial super-disoriented at times, but as I built some experience it got better and my deaths were more due to execution failures.

Exorcist Patrol by PeachTreeOath 2022-10-12T01:40:18Z ♥ 2

This is great! Tightly focused design and some great art.

I found it really easy and fun to learn what the game even was. (I skipped reading the page until after playing, which I generally like to do). The game is pretty intuitive, but more importantly it's REALLY easy to discover through experimentation. The tweakable-loop core model was very effective at letting me learn the UI, mechanics, timing, etc. Great job of uncovering that and NOT getting in the way of the goodness. Even having a "restart" button press in between iterations would have gotten in the way big time, I think.

The UI letting me pull items out of the timeline and into a card was also nice. Especially with vortex, I sometimes needed to experiment with an effect alone to test its behavior.

The boss also did a good job of forcing me to engage with the game at a deeper level. I had mostly gotten through the earlier enemies by leaving my existing loop in place and just slightly tweaking it. But he forced me to clear decks, set up some early hits, carefully note his position at certain moments on the timeline (thank you, sweep-line UI) to line up the subsequent chain of hits.

I had to go back and play again and try out a different set of cards, and I was a lot more able to maximize my attacks the second time around, from what I had learned in that boss battle. In fact, I had set things up so well on my second run that the boss insta-died on the first loop!

Here is my final setup:

ex-patrol-win.png

Really nice entry, well done!

It's all in a day by ruthiepee 2022-10-09T02:28:14Z ♥ 2

I....

Succeeded?

Nice entry! Charming art, cheerfully presented sinister theme, and the mid-tempo music did a good job of setting the mood without overstaying its welcome.

I never did find my bootstraps though.

Baseball of Max Stress by snesgaard 2022-10-09T02:12:07Z ♥ 1

This was great, especially in terms of fun-per-scope. Really charming, the art style was nice and the hilarious voice intro had my chuckling. I had to play it a few times over and was decently happy with my 90. Great job!

EDIT omg 215??

10 Seconds To Avoid Death by jk5000 2022-10-09T02:05:32Z ♥ 2

Nice! The voice acting is really strong!

Man, UE is a heavy beast though. 180MB download. Then I have to install DirectX UE pre-reqs. Then it warns me it doesn't like the specific version of my graphics driver. Then it pops up my firewall warning because it is trying to access the network (no idea why).

Definitely nothing to do with your game, but interesting to be on the player side of that experience. I've used Unity but sometimes wondered about UE.

Anyway, nice entry - right on theme, really strong voice acting that hits the absurdity with the right sarcasm but also has that voice quality an announcer would really have, and the other visuals/sfx are nice, too. Good job!

Ten Seconds Again by khaotom 2022-10-09T01:50:31Z ♥ 1

Wow very cool action game! Started off chill enough that I could get my bearings and then ramped up into crazy frantic clicking. Some real nice feel-good moments like multi-killing or using the special and then reclaiming a bunch of coins (the coins/special was a great design).

The graphics were solid and did a good job of conveying the action, the sound effects were satisfyingly crunchy, and the bumping soundtrack added a ton to the experience.

Love your more experimental entries but I also enjoy when you come around to making the occasional action game too.

Oh - and I was glad the autofire wasn't strictly better than spam-clicking. Although I did sort of wear out my clicking muscle, it felt a lot more satisfying to noscope some fool than to just wave my hands around.

Very nice all-arounder compo entry!

Yo, Listen! by Trabasura 2022-10-08T20:05:04Z ♥ 0

This was really good! The humor was a stand-out, but the graphics and sound were also strong, and it had nice tight fast controls which were VITAL for such a repetitive game.

I didn't mind going around the loop over and over, and was having fun exploring the mystery. Until it got to be a while and I started dragging. I got the sword and broke the window. But I didn't get past that. I was committed to figuring it out, but two things caused me enough friction that eventually I lost heart and gave up:

- The guy sets me ALL THE WAY back and I have to restart from "get cheese and draw mouse out" and do it all over again. And again. And again. Sometimes it was fine, but other times I would feel like I was just about to test a theory with my next life, but NOPE back to the start. Eventually this wore me down.

- The controls are fast and tight. Except for one aspect: They are really stingy about whether I did or did not pick an item up and don't have any instant indication of whether I did or did not. I don't think it's important to the gameplay that I have to be pixel-perfect with my mouse aim when picking up the sword. I would prefer if you granted me leeway, and when I click the button, see what the closest object is within some distance and grant me some slop to my input by understanding my intention rather than requiring precision. This was NOT a problem at first, but given the repetitive loop + the tight time limit, I needed to be able to move as fast as possible and wanted to feel smooth, and "nah actually you didn't grab that item" kept kicking me in the teeth exactly when I was already feeling low.

Hrm I worded those strongly but actually they were really minor and I only point them out because this was such an overall excellent game!

I sunk a lot of time in and had a bunch of fun.

Really nice job with a super-well-rounded comp entry here, very impressive!

Empire Under the Clock by juxipolo 2022-10-08T18:49:58Z ♥ 4

I love how ambitious in scope this is for a solo entry!

There are a bunch of cool systems going on here, and the art is very nice.

I did experience a lot of confusion interacting with the UI. I know this kind of stuff can be hard to detect for yourself as the developer, so I tried to screencap specific examples of me being confused.

I hope this is helpful! I wouldn't go into detail like this if it wasn't a very cool entry, so plz don't take this as negative feedback!

In this example I am trying to place my first fort. I am confused because I keep clicking but nothing happens! The message that I need to select a city doesn't go away. As I keep clicking the countdown timer turns angry-red and I am harried. What am I doing wrong?

Empre-Build.png

Answer: I did successfully build the fort, and the message that telling me I need to select is misleading, because it doesn't disappear once I do select. The game has changed state but I have not noticed. My failure was that I did not see the few pixels hidden behind the LVL UI that indicated I was already successful. (I don't figure out that it worked until I restart the game and play again 3-4 times)

In the next example it's turn 2 and the tutorial has told me to select what I should research.

Empre-Research.png

I click Granary. It highlights granary but nothing else happens. It still says I need to select research. Have I selected it? Do I need to hit an OK button? There isn't one, but there is a button called "Dismiss". That sounds more like a cancel than an ok. I spam click granary while the countdown gets angry. My turn ends and I see no change. I guess I didn't research it right. I quit and restart the game 2 more times and experiment with whether clicking "dismiss" does something different. No. I try hitting enter. Oh woops that's the key for End Turn. I never figure it out... until I give up and play on and then a bunch of turns later it says "You researched Granary!" I can't remember if that was a run I hit Dismiss or not, so I still don't know what is right.

In this next example I am trying to expand to a new city:

Empre-Expand.png

It says to click a city (left) and then I do, and it slightly highlights the region. So I feel like I did make a choice. But nothing ever happens. Is it that I couldn't pay the cost? I think the popups in the "select a region" are telling me a cost. I check that I have the right resources. This is difficult in realtime because the resource cost display lists the resources in a slightly different order than the resource inventory display at the top of the screen.

I actually never figured this one out.

But I did play on a bit more and after figuring out that I did indeed build a fort, I was able to raise an army, and while I could not expand myself I did defeat some intruders and expand that way. I guess I misunderstood something really fundamental.

I bet there are things that signal the state changes I'm not following (such as the fort pixels, and now looking at the screenshot, do I see Granary pixels too?), so sorry for not having a sharper eye!

So I feel like I didn't connect with your intended player experience, but I did spend some time with the game restarting and playing around a bunch. I think this is a cool entry even though I struggled, and I see you have a bunch of other interesting-looking games in your history. I'll add you to my follow list and keep an eye out for what you do next time!

Lighthouse by rickylee 2022-10-07T02:37:12Z ♥ 1

The mood is so good here! How did you do the sound effects? The wind, the rain, the oars in the water, the lighting, each one was really good.

The lighting worked really well across all the sources, the lighthouse, the lightning, and the boat's lamp. The controls felt a bit chunky almost like a turn-based grid-based game, but I think that was probably smart given the challenge of staying oriented in the dark.

All in you really sold the experience of being in the boat in the dark, well done. I did wonder if you could sell the storm itself even better with a little more vertical wave motion... the sea felt maybe too calm. But again you're probably making tradeoffs against the player feeling oriented.

I managed to get home without hitting anything, and the great atmosphere got me into a slow and steady, cautious head space. I restarted just to test what would happen if I crashed, and I like the way you handled that, too.

Really nice compo entry!

Sushi Panic by Delightfullymad 2022-10-07T02:08:04Z ♥ 1

I got 17! And oh man, was panic the right title!

That moment when you slightly stumble on the recipe and it restarts, and then just as you almost get it the second time it cancels because something broke, it's CRUSHING. But in a really fun way.

This was super well-done. It had a cool core game loop, a lot of tightly-paced challenge, and it made me want to try "just one more time." Nice art, decent sounds, and a nice little bumping song in the background were nice.

The multi-repair was also interesting... kind of a risk/reward thing, in a few cases I felt like a genius but then other times I would accidentally restart a really slow one like the freezer and be kicking myself.

Really appreciated that arrow keys worked for movement, as well as WASD.

Nailed the panic. Nice entry!

Rockatoo by AdamCYounis 2022-10-03T00:31:12Z ♥ 3

Nailing it with the AC/DC tribute! This was fun and a really good length. Obviously the music is a high point here, but the art is great, too.

Heads up that there may be a bug: both times I played, after completing the game and circling back to the main title screen and re-entering the first song, it freezes with the bird head-banging but no song, no crowd movement, and the notes never come.

If I could tweak one thing it would be to not have to move my hand to the mouse to click continue in this otherwise keyboard-controlled game. And that ain't much!

It must be really, really hard to convey any information in a game like this where the player's eyes are so hard-locked on the incoming notes. The bird did a good job of emoting, and the transparent scoring data was nice -- both gave me the hints that something was happening I didn't understand. My first run I thought I should do nothing on the _ beats. My second I thought it didn't matter what I did as long as I did anything. It wasn't until late in run three that I realized what the stuff at the top was up to.

But even when I was a bit clueless about the scoring rules I was having fun. And the game did not punish me for my misunderstandings in any way that interfered with enjoying it.

Nice work on a strong well-rounded compo entry!

Re-Re-Robot by Porcus_Pie 2022-04-14T01:52:10Z ♥ 1

Wow, this is a nice fully-realized puzzle game! It's a cool concept with just the right amount of levels exploring it. Controls are solid, art is nice, and the sound and especially music fit really well.

I definitely hit that sweet spot of planning, sometimes not seeing the real heart of the problem until I smashed into it (hello ceiling-crushes) and then by the time I got to the final level, seeing it all a mile away, and feeling really clever.

Re-Re-Robot.png

The hardest level for me was I think the 3rd-to-last, where you had to clear a high wall and then hit a switch on a solo-block above a pit of shockers. The easy route of riding on top crushed you, so you had to stagger, and it was tricky to even get over that first shocker. I'm convinced something is wrong in the case of riding a diagonally-jumping replay and then jumping off of them early in their jump... or maybe I fumbled the execution repeatedly.

I really enjoyed this entry and dug into it. Felt a bit slow getting off the ground and I wasn't anticipating how fun/interesting it was going to become. I certainly appreciated the do-not-tell tutorial style, but the early/tutorial pacing lowered my expectations for the overall game in a way that turned out to be false.

If I could grant the player two boons, they would be these: In the first, if I hold down space while mid-life I would like to accelerate to the end of time and not have to sit and watch the clock when I don't want more from this replay. In the second, I didn't care for having to hit spacebar after a retry while using WASD. I wanted to have the game start as soon as I hit any movement key. But, maybe that doesn't work for 2nd and 3rd lives, so this might be a bad idea. It was doing something to my brain to have to hit space bar just before complex WASDing and I ended up switching to using the arrow keys so that it was a separate hand.

Controls were really good but maybe not quite perfect. The horizontal movement is very severe. I think that may be needed in some cases, but it felt very jerky even with a tiny tap of input, I wonder if some *VERY* fast but not quite so fast ramp-up from zero to full horizontal speed might take the twichy edge off. Otherwise, the character did what I wanted and mistakes felt my own fault, with the previously-mentioned exception of jumping diagonally and early off a diagonally-moving midair replay, where I felt I was dropped. (Yeah I just tested again and it totally drops you: set a replay to jump at a 45, then climb on and also jump at a 45 from him, you will drop down instead of jumping... I guess you collide into his forward path and are instantly knocked down? Felt wrong and had no feedback about why it happened.)

Anyway that's too much detail: In summary this is a very strong well-rounded entry, great concept with great execution, and the nice art and sound/music to go along with it. Very well done!

Stanley's Last Stand by Ratrat44 2022-04-14T01:03:15Z ♥ 0

This was nuts! Very unique experience, but in the end it was a bit too chaotic for me.

At first, and I was messing around, having fun, enjoying experimenting.

It was slow going for a few reasons, though. The way the shotgun interacted with the floor made it tricky to blast off at the angles the game asked for. The best time to get the shotgun at a certain angle was mid-air, but the refire delay was too long to shoot in those moments. The early section of the game asks you to go up stairs, so it's very hard to make progress and brutally easy to lose it all.

None of that was a big deal in the early game where the punishment for plans going wrong was low, but once I got to the lasers, they shredded me. The barrels before them also were a problem.

Then if you do die, you have to re-watch a really long unskippable cutscene.

So while I really enjoyed the zany physics for a bit, I guess it was too hardcore for me, sorry!

Really interesting game with a cool style, and the music really fit well. So it's a nice entry, but I couldn't hack it.

Eternal Crisis by cerno-b 2022-04-10T13:00:54Z ♥ 2

Got to 36,800 round 10.

First, thank you for being the only Godot game I played that supported fullscreen... and straight from the browser, too! Every other Godot game was a download that opened in a janky unresizable window, in some cases even an unmoveable borderless windows that cut off parts of the display! Whatever you did, it worked really well with my setup and was a much nicer experience in that regard. (Edit: Wow just noticed you also have ESC go back to the main screen, another nice detail!)

In fact the whole game was really well put together.

Very nice background music. I'm not sure it totally nailed the mood, it was a little relaxed for a frantic death battle, but it was pleasant and added a lot of life to the experience. And it never wore out its welcome.

Graphics were really nice. The star backdrop and slightly-shifting camera were import for selling the space theme, given that the controls had no floating drift that's sometimes used to sell "you're a spaceship." But for the dodge-based gameplay, the non-drift was definitely the right call! It did seem like the ship should have its thrusters better aligned with movement though - it was always thrusting in the one direction it never went.

The procedural enemy was nicely done. Visually interesting and relevant to gameplay. I appreciated that the weapons were visibly distinct so that I could choose what type to target. The different weapons themselves were very nice. The red warning mode on the laser was a key design touch, so thank you for that.

Game was a little easy and slow at the start, which was fine for learning the ropes but that stood as a barrier to a "one more try" feeling at the end.

Then I hit a difficulty spike around level 9 and started getting boxed in in more interesting ways. I found myself juggling dodging shots, turning to fire at missiles, and trying to make sure I got out ahead of the sweeping lasers and didn't get trapped. It was nice that the game asked me to plan into the future and multi-task like that.

So maybe there was a more ideal pacing. The objective is also a bit bland, but that's the theme's fault, and you would have had to buck the theme to avoid that I think.

Really good all-around entry here. You hit every element from art to sound to features, and there were zero annoying splinters in the experience, which says a lot about your jamming chops! Well done.

STUDY LADY (cookie mix) by PeachTreeOath 2022-04-10T04:49:35Z ♥ 3

What a unique design!

The way the scene changes and shifts the source of income .. how do I explain it? It created pockets of waiting, pockets of rushing, and where those pockets were would shift throughout the game. It would test my memory, since I would plan to buy specific investments and not want to overspend, but also not leave idle capital and miss opportunities.

Early game I wanted to plan my investments mostly around diversification so that I would have a steady stream of income. I don't know if that was even efficient, but it was somehow intolerable to not have the number going up during each scene and I was compelled to fix that!

Later, the game introduced multiple currencies, and different investments (why do I keep calling them that, everyone else calls them upgrades) would allow you to switch between currencies in different directions. At this point the planning got more complex and the loop was so long that I really felt like I didn't want to miss the plan and have to wait for it to come around again, and yet still I would sometimes find myself short for having made an impulse purchase!

The game veered into frustration, which was fine. It certainly never went too far. Interestingly, it was sometimes frustrating to have to sit around and wait, and other times frustrating to have something fly past, and where those were changed over time.

One thing that could have destroyed this game entirely was the fact that it looped one song over and over. Fortunately, you chose very well and this was not a problem at all. Song was a total banger.

The art was great. Super-charming. Loved the absurdity of getting bonked on the head by the milk, and then it's spinning wildly and bounces off the floor, all without spilling. And the cat has a gall to look all shocked when we darn well saw his paw start it all.

It was awesome that in addition to the usual monetary rewards, each upgrade started as ???? and when you first bought it, it added new art to the music video. Such a great touch that tied the whole thing together.

Very well done! Tons of uniqueness and charm about this one.

Nuclear Arms 8.5er: Skeleton Survivor by Logicon211 2022-04-10T03:24:53Z ♥ 6

I guess every Unity download I've played in the last several LDs has had a sub-folder called "BleedingEdge" in it. Curious that I never noticed it until playing a Nuclear Arms game...

I appreciate that the title was a half. Some will assume you did that to rhyme and [STORY SPOILER REDACTED], but I know it's so that Brodie can say he "didn't miss one." Poor guy. Tell him I got set up for go time on this one with his friend:

NuclearArms-GoTime.jpg

I had a blast with this one! I got off to a most interesting start when I ran immediately away from the first skeleton, which happens to be also away from the first xp orbs, without realizing the consequences. "Gee Craig seems rather pacifistic this time out..."

Oddly that run was also the one where I got my Spine Crushed. I went early and often into barrels and cooldowns, with minors in health and speed, which is an indirect but potent strategy.

After my spine was crushed I had to go back and try a few other approaches. I loved how the different abilities rewarded me for interacting with the mass of mobs in a different way.

Punching is pretty sweet for a while, and it was cool to be dancing right at the edge of danger all the time. Nuclear Fists (or whatever the one that makes the fists huge) was a key upgrade, so sweet. It felt like pure-punching eventually got out classed, but before they took me down I got decent at flipping directions exactly in between the punches so that I could double-punch in the same direction. Only late in the run did I figure out that the general overcharge upgrade also gave me an extra punch?? That could get out of hand.

I also enjoyed the shotgun build, which appropriately asks me to turn and rush right at the mob-blob to be effective. Yeah, just gimme a sec, that should be no problem.... right?

NuclearArms-Turnaround.png

Actually that was the only thing I felt myself wishing for this time out: a reload sound on the shotgun just enough before it gets placed that I can use it as an audio cue to turn around. I missed the window a lot, turning early and then having to bail, or dropping the shotgun just when I meant to turn.

I've never played a game quite like this before. I liked it! I was a little confused why I'd want to NOT be the one doing the action at first. But it didn't take me long to dial into why this is great.

Another really nice entry into the series, gang! Great work.

OK wait maybe I'll go play one more time now that I know the overcharge adds additional punches, to see how ridiculous it can get...

. . . EDIT: I would like to apologize to fists everywhere. HOLY SMOKES. All-in fists build was NUTS. Instead of running and picking off strays I was able to turn straight into a fully-dense mob-blob and cut through it like a hot knife through butter. I honestly thought I might beat the doombot.

The Heist by chuckeles 2022-04-10T00:58:43Z ♥ 1

Success!! I made it out with 2221.

I liked the feel of this game. The car was responsive but didn't fly out of control if I got heavy-handed on the controls, and it felt like you were nudging me back onto track a lot, in a helpful way that still left me feeling in control and not on rails or babysat.

When I collided into others, I also liked it! It's not realistic that I get away so easily while they go flying, but it worked really well within the game. The cops caused tension, but the failure states were easy-going enough that I felt comfortable taking huge risks, which was enjoyable freedom.

It felt a bit bare without sounds and could have used a little more development, but you did well designing the scope that you did tackle, and I enjoyed giving it a quick play.

Great job!

Battle of the Alamo by frosty 2022-04-10T00:41:51Z ♥ 2

WOW, this is a really good entry. It's a great high-level thematic choice, and it's executed so well. I assume these are stock sounds but they are well-chosen and well-used, with a special nod to the snare drum as the enemies fill up as a great touch. The graphics are pleasant and really clear.

Is there a bug with the victory condition? My first game, I swear the game did me dirty: My weakest wall was the south where I had one guy left, plus my Crockett. I did not activate Crockett because I got the enemy down to four. They didn't shoot. Then they reinforced, the game said DEFEAT and my guy was gone.

Then in my second game, the opposite thing happened. I was like "well this is it" and they killed my last north-wall defender. But the game did not end, the enemy reinforced and I got a whole next turn. Only after that subsequent turn did the game end.

Here is the situation after the enemy killed my last north-wall defender, then reinforced, and the game has reset my cards and is inviting me to play:

Alamo.png

From that position I fired the cannon north, it failed to clear them below five, and then I lost after this turn.

Possible bug aside, if I could grant the player one boon in this game, it would be to make Bowie more convenient to move. It's tedious to click him around in a circle and have to dismiss the tutorial popup each time, and it's something you do frequently.

Bowie was an EXCELLENT idea though: it's a fantastic part of the game that makes me feel a lot more agency, and blunts the RNG feeling. He also powered up the rifle cards as compared to the cannons nicely. All of the special icons were nice, but Bowie really shined. In fact I liked Bowie so much that I wished he had his own slightly different rifle sound so that I could say "THAT is the bonus shot right there!" Sounds dumb but I would have found that satisfying.

I only played the two runs, and I'm not quite sure why I didn't play more, because I feel like I could win this game if I tried more. I think it takes too long. Maybe it's the pace, or maybe the length? I don't know. The pace feels very nice in the moment, but something squashed that ONE MORE TIME feeling.

Another choice you made that I REALLY liked was to not make death inevitable. It's clear your idea flowed well from the theme. But you made the call to make it winnable anyway, and I think that wasn't an obvious decision, but it significantly improved the game. It would not be nearly as fun to play if it was "see how many turns you can live" which is how many games in LD50 ended up.

Dang, I think I mentioned more critique elements than praise elements, but that is not how I feel. I really enjoyed this game, it's impressively fully-realized for a solo jam entry, and you should be really proud of it. Great work!

BDriver by ZevsEHG 2022-04-09T04:10:15Z ♥ 1

Wow!! Very cool idea. It's too intense for me, I just can't handle it, but I respect what the game is.

I think for me, it would take a few things getting easier: Car less inclined to flip over (such a frustrating way to lose), gas cans a little more generous on hitbox, etc.

But most most most of all, what I needed was a faster restart. Game is HAAAAARD, and I'm disappointed when I lose. But game kicks me while I am down: wait several long seconds staring at your failed car, then click through one screen, then move mouse to the other side of screen to click through another screen, then take a reload delay, and then move your mouse back to the original location to click through a tutorial screen. :~(

But the game is kind of awesome in a super-painful way. I loved the music, and the tangled wires, and the dark atmosphere. And did I mention the music?? Love how it made the beeping of the bomb into an instrument!

So there was a lot to like here, and if this game had near-instant restart I would have played 10x longer.

My best run I made it just to sand, where my car immediately flipped and I ragequit.

Very potent entry, I lovehated it! That's good work.

Drawn Out by mechanicallife 2022-04-08T03:09:24Z ♥ 2

Very, very cool presentation! I was feeling some nice inscryption and hearthstone vibes, and those are gold-standard presentation. I played three decks and enjoyed myself a bunch.

The overall package is so excellent that I'm just going to focus on the strategy stuff, but I hope this doesn't seem negative since the game is great:

I think there might be a bit of an issue to work out with falling behind hopelessly. If there were more comebacks and the tension about who would win lasted longer, it would be more exciting to watch the autoplay. (The well is one example that kind of does this already a bit) Fortunately you gave us the space bar, but I wish I didn't need it. I also wanted a little post-run report. I slew a bunch of decks with my best run, would have loved to see a number, but even though we wager coins on the table I didn't see where the ones I won went.

Synergy seemed lower-value than great cards. The 1/2 that grows each time something dies will run away with the whole game! Probably my high point was when I was going to lose to a huge one but welled it.

This is a very cool core, with great polish. The design is getting there and you have a lot of cool cards, but maybe some things still to iron out to REALLY nail the whole package.

Incredible accomplishment for a jam - you should be proud of this one!

Dino Savior by ShorkieSoftware 2022-04-08T01:53:24Z ♥ 1

Me at the beginning: I'm not sure this is actually inevitable, I'm on top of this situation Me at the end: AAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH (runs nonstop in one direction hammering jump until it ends)

I did get some asteroids to cross-collide which was very satisfying. A few basic sounds effects really would have taken that feeling to another level.

(EDIT OMG There were sounds! I just had to click to activate them. Suggest you default them to ON in the future! People do not read text in LD games, from my experience. Went back and played again when I realized my mistake, the sounds are good and add a lot)

I liked the way you did the camera, where the world rotates around the player. I have experimented with cameras in that style before and it can be tricky to prevent it from becoming motion-sickness-land. I think it was wise to keep the background starfield still while rotating the world, even if that technically doesn't make sense. It would have been pretty distracting if you did that the realistic way.

Is this your first LD entry? Either way, nice work!

Dog Days of Summer by incobalt 2022-04-08T01:40:58Z ♥ 1

Love how you tackle more narrative aspects of the theme. I still remember enjoying a past game of yours about a stowaway and some distressing mathematics.

This one was a cool exploration of juggling varied preferences, and how much effort it can take to plan to suit exactly everyone all the time. This is a fairly complex setup with a great many icons that have critical meanings. It would have been easy to lose me, but your interface design was very strong and made everything very clear. The tooltips were super helpful, but all of the info was well laid out on the screen. A lot of thought and analysis went into just one click of action! An interesting potency.

If I could grant the player a single boon, it would be to highlight the humans involved in the current day's activity that I am choosing. I feel this, but I also doubt it. I feel it because it was a chore to repeatedly and constantly cross-index the icons. I don't even remember my boyfriend's nam- oh wait it was Evan, but really to me he was just HEART_ICON. So highlighting the portraits could have saved me a LOT of work. The reason I doubt this suggest is that I am not sure how much of the effort you want to automate away. The game should not play itself completely, right? And the effort was the experience.

The music and shifting hue of the selection zone were important because they kept the game feeling alive while I did so much of the cross-indexing work.

I never got everyone to 100% but I did have most of them there or extremely close for a lot of the game. I believe everyone was doing well when I threw my party.

Interesting well-done entry! Congrats!

Don't Let Them Sit There by MrEvilGuy 2022-04-07T03:36:30Z ♥ 1

Love the art! And of course the sounds, too. Really captured the variety of humans I [used to] see taking the train.

I was there with my mask off, bare feet, eating a whole giant pizza and lying down grinning demonically at some guy whose torso had become dislocated from his legs, and STILL some dude was like "hey can I get your number?"

My best run was when I managed to take up the whole row with my bag. I offended humanity for sure, and made it to time 350ish if I recall. When I saw cops outside the door, I picked my bag up and then when they left hoped for a chance to put it back down... eventually got the bug from dudes sitting down in the gap my bag left, but I made it far enough that the train was packed.

Really cool, unique experience. Well done!

RogueTime by shared 2022-04-07T03:12:00Z ♥ 1

Highlight here is the enemies each with a varied unique form of attack. Loved the art on the knight, that guy is a terror. But the blob had that great attribute that he was easy in the right position, tough in many positions, and straight-up go-another-way tough in terrible positions.

Unfortunately, Godot opened the game in a very strangely-sized borderless window on my PC, and cut off all of the HUD info I see in the screenshots in itch. I could not see my time or health.

I cleared the level, but then there seemed to be nothing left to do. Sorry if I misunderstood the object. Was I supposed to do something to light each lamp to proceed? I wandered and waited, and restarted and retried a few times. But I couldn't figure out how to progress, or if I was even supposed to, sorry!

Critique-wise, if I could add one thing to the game it would be coyote time for the character's jump.

Some cool stuff going on in this game, I worry that I missed a bunch more, too!

SUPER CAR EXTREME by AcroDEV 2022-04-07T02:21:50Z ♥ 3

First LD? Nice work! Welcome!

I had fun driving and dodging, and making some desperate lunges for the gas. The music had me bopping along and definitely helped set the mood.

If I could change one thing I would make it go even faster! And if I could add a feature it would be some "juice" to when I hit the cop car, like sound effects and a special impact sprite that is shown for a moment.

Controls were pretty tight, which was important in this game. I appreciated the little tilt of the car to show it turning, instead of it just teleporting to the next lane. That was a nice touch. I did notice there is no double-tap allowed to move over two lanes quickly which would have been cool. Some games buffer inputs like that, but not all.

So overall nice gameplay, nice art, nice sound! Congrats on completing LD.

Heat Flow by wolderado 2022-04-07T01:56:07Z ♥ 1

Really polished look! I loved the concept of designing a board with solid defense yet efficient cooling.

I didn't feel like I was able to fully engage with the strategy because when I open the drawer to read what the components do the game starts pumping really fast and saying "NO DONT READ ANYTHING JUST GO!" and I'm craning my neck stressed out trying to read the text at an angle and enemies run around and shoot me, and I lose. It also takes quite a lot of time to kill an enemy, relative to the value of doing so, so avoiding the enemies entirely also felt right. My best time (3:15) was the run where I just slapped every single thing I picked up onto a random spot on the board with speedclicking, and never killed a single enemy.

So this is a strong entry in terms of the art, and models, and controls, and sounds, but as far as the gameplay systems go, it incentivized me to avoid interacting with them. Which was a shame because I really felt like I wanted to understand more!

I don't mean that to sound overly negative -- there was a ton of cool stuff going on, and with a few tweaks I think this could be something I would sink a lot more time into.

We All Die by ollie_d 2022-04-07T01:20:14Z ♥ 2

Sweeping the laser effectively was a very cool moment, and the cooldown combined with the relatively short vision distance (thus planning horizon) made it satisfyingly risky to pull the trigger. Your design really delivered on the "pick your moment and make it count" feeling very well.

Critique-wise I would say two things: first I wished there was fullscreen. I played on windows and alt-enter didn't fullscreen. I lost control of about five runs when I swept my laser outside the window and clicked on another program that then popped in front, or accidentally moved/resized the game. Second, I did not find the arrangement of satellites vs buttons on the keyboard to be intuitive. Nothing about "3" says "down-left" to me. This was a constant source of minor brain-friction while playing and I selected the incorrect satellite many, many, many times. If that was your intended player experience - slight frictiony confusion - then it worked! That's a valid thing if you meant to do it. But I would have felt more powerful with a square, for example WESD maybe. Or better yet, have WASD and the satellites are up/down/left/right of the planet, and then you instantly tap into my existing muscle memory, if that layout works for the design. Another idea would be that right-click would select the nearest sat, so I could gesture to switch, and play only with the mouse.

I don't mean that to sound overly negative! I definitely enjoyed playing. The music was great, and the crunchy sound effects were nice. The graphics were good-looking and more importantly very clear about state, I certainly appreciated the glow and turning of the currently-selected satellite, and the nice clear red color when they were disabled. The randomly-generated planets were also a nice touch.

Good entry!

Jupiter Station - v0.5 by Kyra Sanchez 2022-04-07T00:59:36Z ♥ 1

I was really excited to try this as I love roguelike deckbuilers, traditional roguelikes, and first-time LD entries. But my screen is not big enough to play. Sorry! (I didn't rate since I couldn't play)

Timeflight Alpha by Quinn_Patrick 2022-04-06T04:34:50Z ♥ 1

Wow! Superb polish to the audio for a compo, both the sound effects and the music that fits the mood of the gameplay so well! Graphics were also nice, and also very clear.

The gameplay itself felt pretty smooth. The controls were a bit tricky, as I found myself trying to time my motion into a stop-and-turn that would align my shot with a target, and I never got fluid at it.

OK I just went back to play again and try to understand my issue better. My problem was rolling through the diagonal.. I'll try to explain: as I approached alignment with a target, I would snap the ship over 90 degrees a tad early so that I could drift past through alignment while firing and strafe them for a hit. This worked great if I released one movement key, and then pressed the second one, producing a direct 90-degree turn. But more often I would roll my fingers through the diagonal, having both keys pressed for a moment. This would round out my corner and cause me to be at a 45 as I passed the target, which felt like I'd overshoot the target before completed my turn to line up the shot.

I guess that's just user error and something I would get better at with practice!

Anyway this was conceptually interesting, fun, and had a jammin' feel. Nice entry!

Battery Low by smilewood 2022-04-06T04:00:04Z ♥ 2

Science can continue!

I really liked how you used the theme. The theme generally resulted in hopeless game-stories, where the bad result is inevitable and you just have to try to delay it for a while. But in this story, you captured the theme with a more optimistic take, where the ultimate result can be a positive outcome, even if each minor player ultimately will not make it.

Graphics were nice, the story fit into the gameplay well, and the game was the perfect length where it let me experience a good amount but ended before it wore out its welcome.

It's funny because normally I don't care for the RPG style of "fetch quest" or "lock and key" styles of objective, but for some reason in this game I didn't mind them at all. Maybe it was the turn-based movement and the way I had to be efficient, which meant that even routine walking around has some optimization and thought required.

If I could add one thing it would be a bit of basic sound, just to give the world you created a bit more life.

Nice entry!

Terrible Brakes by TimBeaudet 2022-04-06T03:07:04Z ♥ 3

NOT AGAIN -- LET'S GO!

A lot comes together here to make this work so well. The cheerful metal backing track might be the secret workhorse here, along with the sound effects, that "unnnnghUH" reflects so well how I sometimes feel. Because let's be honest - the game warns you about the lack of brakes but we all know it's really the lack of the gas pedal that gets you the worst!

A great mix here of having to streamline your driving, you are tested both to preserve speed and to safely shed it. I can't tell whether I love or HATE that hill at around 10 seconds. I failed so many times on it, but it also taught me so much. If you made a deliberate design decision to place that nasty "don't skid or else" hill so early to allow the learning to avoid repetitious easy driving, then it was a stroke of genius. Because as much as I HATED that hill, it would have been a lot, LOT worse if each harsh lesson involved 40 seconds of repeated driving rather than 10.

I was into this enough that I pulled out my controller and upgraded from the browser to a proper download, and that's not something I can remember doing before in LD. And I've done 21 of these.

This game hits a really strong "one more try" feel, as everyone above mentioned already. I did eventually get disheartened by the brutal feeling of going up a hill and stalling out. Legit challenge, but so ... well son, I'm not mad I'm just disappointed.

So the math tells me that my best was 1:15 at Zone 5.

But my heart tells me this was my best run here:

BackwardsRacing.png

Such a great entry, well done.

Gaia by Atomic 2022-04-06T02:06:59Z ♥ 1

Mother's entrance, with the tweened bubbles forming the cloud for her to sit on was awesome. The music serves as a great example of how it doesn't take very much at all to fill the void and provide some nice background, that's a lesson I need to learn!

I got a bit confused at the start, because I though I had to WASD the planet itself. I was watching to see if I controlled a certain monkey or had to push the direction on the planet... then I realized to watch mother instead and it was gravy from there. I probably could have used some audio reinforcement of the state changes (fire start / fire out, powerup gone / restored) but that's totally minor.

Nice job, especially since you controlled scope to avoid burning yourself out (further)! One can certainly go too far all-in on compos.

Oort's Escape by conduit.games 2022-04-06T01:52:38Z ♥ 1

Audio was really strong here, nice sound effects and great music! I also liked how you were able to tell a bit of a story even with such simple elements, like that first strike coming.

Gameplay-wise it was cool to watch my placements take effect and I definitely was eagerly watching the funding go up.

It's a cool little package you have here, so if you don't mind here are a few points of critique: There were long stretches where I didn't really have anything to do. Especially as a new player, the very long stretch between satellite 1 and 2 confused me. I assumed there was something I was supposed to be doing, but had not figured out. So I was spamming buttons and clicking around trying to figure out what I'd missed (nothing - I just had to wait). I'm also not sure I needed the "wave" button to interrupt the action, as the wave-break didn't really mean anything to me as the player.

You already know about the disappearing-satellite bug. This one got my first placement the first time I played, so that REALLY confused me! But after a restart I figured it out quickly enough.

I wonder if some cheaper smaller less-powerful satellites would help bootstrap the early game and give me more decision points?

Very nice job with the audio, and the graphics also captured the mood well. I think with a few extra decisions to play around with I could have spent even more time. Nice work.

Live For Later Or Live For Now by khaotom 2022-04-06T01:23:47Z ♥ 2

Such good use of the assets. The drawings themselves were simple but very evocative, and given the consistency of style throughout, I was really able to buy into the world depicted. The layers multi-layered pulsing background was also a really nice touch.

The sound was equally evocative. The preview from mouseover was a cool feeling of standing before the decision knowing what both meant and then choosing. I must be getting old... coming home from the club at 11pm but then staying up wasting time on the internet until 3am. What do the kids say these days? "I feel attacked?" ;)

You use a lot of synths in your games - are they soft synths, or do you have a hardware vice?

Very cool experience. I cheated and didn't hit the snooze button when I knew it was getting toward the end, and went for a walk in the forest instead. May the real end be so politely forecasted.

Different Strokes by Scott Steffes 2022-04-05T02:13:16Z ♥ 4

Wow, this is just wonderful. The art of the community is really impressive. So many were elegant complete pieces that I couldn't imagine changing. And all accomplished without ctrl-Z, just amazing.

The game itself does an outstanding job of not getting in the way of the art. It is itself artistically very compelling, with the white rooms and sketch-style display. I spent moments here and there enjoying the game's graphics, but it left all the room needed for me to shift my focus and enjoy the art. The way the rooms slide into place was another nice touch. I read it as an indication that the game was loading new content, and it helped me to understand the space was infinite and not to bother searching in any systematic way.

The music was another important aspect that did a lot to create a calm, contemplative mood, and I enjoyed it a lot.

Overall this is a killer entry: great concept, wonderful execution. Congratulations!

The Landscape Hates You! by RonanRory 2021-10-19T04:57:59Z ♥ 1

I played the whole thing to the end and I thought this was good, and a really complete experience for a jam with lots of levels, a variety of mechanics, and an ending. I especially liked bouncing on the boing blocks and the sick hangtime that I got from it. I think the level where you have to find the pairs of adjacent boing-blocks was a standout. The animations of each block type doing its thing were another nice touch. Sorry the jam was a tough experience for you.

Limbs & Squircles by Ratrat44 2021-10-19T04:05:20Z ♥ 1

This game is INCREDIBLE! The physics are so good!!

I did all of these intuitive things, like grab a ledge with my hands to pull myself up, and it just WORKED. I was really impressed with the core system.

The art style really worked well, and the limbs of the character gave so much life to him through his struggles.

I played until I won, and really enjoyed it. Here is one of my early attempts at shelter, which obviously failed:

earlyhouse.png

The challenge of sheltering from the rain was a great choice. It really forced me to engage with the best part, the physics. I had to make plans at a macro level ("What will my shelter be and how will it stand up to the rain") and at the micro level ("How will I weigh this cross-beam down while I get the stone shingles in place?").

At first I got more complex than that early house, but in the end I won with a MUCH simpler house that I won't show here to avoid spoilers.

I don't know if this game is for everyone, but it was for me.

Serene Stability by moltanem2000 2021-10-19T03:26:11Z ♥ 0

Great vibe to this, it's calming and interesting. I played a while, and got past the run of double-object-type levels. I stopped at the one with a pink circle-wall in the center just because I'd had a good run and was getting tired of things.

I might have played even longer if the restart was paced a bit more briskly. The various graphical effects and audio sounds really work well to create the mood, but that fade-out-fade-in on restart takes quite long and I experienced it SO many times while playing that it dragged on me a bit. Especially when I had to fiddle with the circle-bouncers, which have such enormous swings in output per tiny change in position that they require quite a lot of attempts.

Didn't mean to focus on the critique side, because I really enjoyed this. It was relaxing and fun to play around with, a number of cool puzzle ideas packed into a nice aesthetic presentation that I enjoyed spending a bunch of time with. Well done!

Launch Yourself! by Nehvis 2021-10-19T02:56:39Z ♥ 0

Savage and fun with a jammin soundtrack! I played a bunch.

Then I finally got up to the the pachinko part, and past it. And I had explored right from the start, so I knew the risk and I got ready to be careful, and I blasted myself up there, and then suddenly I was not looking at the game anymore because it is not fullscreen and I had clicked outside the bounardies on the browser tab behind it, and when I went back into the game I was already at "Pity". I did not have the heart after that.... although I did try alt-enter and wince hard when it did go fullscreen. :~(

I also agree with @raphiell as I had some difficulty with re-shooting due to the camera smoothing making the margin for mouse expression extremely small, and I also had problems with some shots being duds. Notably a dud when I finally got to that one horizontal bit in the pre-pachinko vertical climb... which knocked me all the way back down to the very start.

So really fun! But I got savaged.

Not that that's a bad thing or anything.

Super compelling entry.

High-Rise Havoc by Kyrell 2021-10-19T02:38:07Z ♥ 1

JAMMIN soundtrack, and the sfx and art were good, too. I enjoyed this game and played to the end. It wasn't that new for a jumping climber game but it had a nice variety of things packed in, the retry loop was short when I died, and the game ended while I was still having a good time. And also that music kept me grooving.

On the critique side, I did find it frustrating to wait for moving platforms so many times, and I needed coyote time pretty badly, as it seemed my jump command kept getting eaten (perhaps because I played in the browser?). Fortunately the game has great air control, and the puzzles never demanded a run-into-jump, so I always just jumped from a standstill and used air control to complete the game.

Overall a nice little action game, good job!

Unstable Gun Fishing by pauljohnprogramming 2021-10-19T02:22:16Z ♥ 0

HEY I DID IT! Now that was some grimy underground punk rock shit, it hit full throttle from second one, especially since I hit Alt-Enter to fullscreen, which didn't fullscreen but instead skipped the explanation of controls and threw me right into the battle before I was settled. Well, so be it! And I stayed unsettled pretty much the whole way through.

And ain't nothing wrong with that.

Nice hectic crazy original action-packed entry.

free fall by ruthiepee 2021-10-19T01:47:15Z ♥ 0

Nice relaxing experience, and I didn't even have to rake up afterward or look up whether this week is yard waste collection. After some experimentation, I think I like the results best when I don't really drag the leaves around, but stipple them in tiny bursts so that there's less of a pattern to the way the results change colors. Very nice.

Somewhat unnerving music and a background that's either relaxing or a bit jarring stand to remind me that autumn portends winter.

Un's Table by Eva Knight 2021-10-19T01:36:55Z ♥ 0

This is a cool core idea. I liked the way it didn't explain too much, and it was really obvious what I needed to do after a tiny bit of experimenting (I didn't read the instructions on the game page first). I can imagine a pretty sweet game around this core, trying to shove my way through the crowd to put food on the right spot to rebalance things!

If I could add one thing it would be a game over state (pass or fail) that loaded the scene again.

The art style was basic but clean, and the lights on the alarm were a nice touch.

Congrats on your first LD compo!!

Keep the Pressure by Bloham 2021-10-19T01:25:57Z ♥ 1

Very basic but I liked the vibe, the art style was nicely done, and I had a little extra fun by skipping the instructions, so I liked that there was no tutorial and I got to figure out what to do for myself by experimenting. I wouldn't have minded if the difficulty was higher, and I even played in Chrome!

Nice job with a small entry.

P.T. Bone-um's Fabulous Tightrope of Terror by Kyrio 2021-10-18T20:27:38Z ♥ 2

Tried both versions. The art, sound, and overall ambience is really nicely done. The controls were already decent and most of the frustrating bits were improved with the follow-up version, so nice work there as well!

I could still use a slightly faster restart, and checkpoints would make me push farther into the game (if there were any I never got to them).

If I could tweak just one thing in the post-jam version it would be the collider on the little guy (lemur?) sitting on the ball. It felt a little rough that this was gameover, so maybe the kill collider here could be just a bit smaller:

NotGameOver.png

But overall this was a really nice one, good job!

Unstable Caves by notime4games 2021-10-18T20:11:51Z ♥ 1

Really cool set of systems that I bet create some fun puzzles, it's too bad you didn't get further since I would have loved to play some more. I liked what was here, cool systems, a nice underground vibe that the art really sells. Nice work, despite not really getting it to a complete experience.

Hammer Keep by BadPiggy 2021-10-18T15:43:39Z ♥ 1

Very cool action game. Everything comes together into a nice tight package - the art style is great, the gameplay itself is crunch and feels good, with key details like the telegraphed enemies and the different types of attacks needed. The 8-bit sound and music fit together with the rest, and it all really works. The pacing of the action is also really well done.

Great entry!

Dimensional Shift by shared 2021-10-18T14:58:42Z ♥ 1

Simple but effective graphics, and a very cool concept! It was a little harder than I was capable of, for example the coordination in the climbing room where you have to alternate midjump a lot (at least that's what I think I need to do), so I'm afraid I didn't get very far! It's a shame because I think I missed some pretty cool stuff by not being able to do it... Definitely my fault and not the game's though.

Very cool concept.

House comfort... by RalfZ 2021-10-18T14:42:24Z ♥ 1

The hand-drawn 2D-in-3D-world art style really worked well, nice job! The mouse sense was too high for comfort but since I didn't have to aim at things under pressure (like in a shooter for example) it didn't interfere with my enjoyment. The musical change was another nice touch that really helped sell the experience.

Story was a good mix of mystery, mundane, and horror.

CyberVoid by ZevsEHG 2021-10-18T14:34:10Z ♥ 2

Looks really cool, unfortunately my laptop could not handle it and it was too choppy so I couldn't give it a real try. I didn't rate since I didn't get a real experience, but it's intriguing!

Cro-Mathnon by PeachTreeOath 2021-10-18T02:25:45Z ♥ 1

This chaos is beautiful. I'm trying to protect my lovely equation. The platform is sliding and I don't want to hit the lava. But as I edge away from the precipice I see that two sweet sixes I hold will be replaced by a 1 and a 2, and I cannot allow that. One ill-advised jump later and I watch in complete horror as my two multiplication signs are replaced by minuses. Woe.

The whole idea is nuts in a wonderful way, I love the story of cavemen competing for the best number, it's just great! I definitely picked up what you were shooting for with the async thing. There's this awesome gambling, push your luck, competitive feel that could really be awesome against live humans. And the shame.... oh, the shame.

Loved it!!

Router Runner by JustinMullin 2021-10-18T01:42:13Z ♥ 1

My best run was Cycle 7 with 27/7/0/2. I encountered the video issue where it was cropped, and I couldn't see the icons on the top row. At first I played using only the light-haze to tell me which columns were active, but after some fiddling with my resolution I found a much more playable setup and from there any mistakes were my own doing.

The ambience here is just amazing, the audio really works well and although the puzzle can get quite hectic with time as the limiting factor, the calm music kept the experience chill. I can't imagine how stressed I'd get with a forward-leaning turbo-song going on.

I really enjoyed this, and I experimented with some different layout approaches. For a while I though that turning immediately out of the port was good, but after there were more connections this really hosed me and I started turning in the middle of the board a lot more, and in my last runs I kind of just turned somewhat randomly to have a variety, which did okay. I wonder if there's a systematic approach.

I made a LLLLLLLLOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOTTTTTT of mechanical execution mistakes, landing on the wrong row/column, entering the wrong port, or dropping the cord one cell outside the port. The movement is interesting: the game is a discrete grid, yet the movement is continuous. There's kind of a cool vibe to it, but I certainly would have had more precision with a discrete/cellwise movement scheme. It was interesting how you rounded to the nearest row/column as I moved in the other direction, I heard NES Zelda did something similar. My experience was that I'd move downward to get to, say, row 5, and then turn right. But of course I would try to turn as soon as possible, so subconsciously I was aiming for row 4.5 I guess. And if I hit 4.49, as I turned to horizontal movement, then I would go *backwards* in the vertical to row 4. The discrete movement is interesting, but I wonder how it would feel to change the straight "round to nearest" to include a small buffer in the direction I was last going, almost like momentum. Or maybe this already exists and I was just cutting my corners too hard!

Anyway it didn't hurt because some of the mistakes yielded the "oh NO!" moments that were a lot of fun.

Art was super effective, and again the audio ambiance and mood was just awesome.

I see you have a second Mullin in the credits this time... Does that mean this is a family effort? That's awesome.

Nice entry!

Unstable Concoction by zantze 2021-10-13T21:39:47Z ♥ 1

Jammin! I got 7300 hardmode. Clearly some better typers out there. I kept stumbling on the word euroro- europena- EUROPEAN for some reason!

Cool vibe for sure, and the way it didn't ravage me for any mistakes (and even allowed me to skip spaces) was a nice touch that let me try to go really fast without hesitation or fear, and avoided the feelbad moment of just hitting one wrong key to be gameover. Smart design.

The environment was nicely done, although the gameplay didn't really allow me to look around at it very much, so I'm not sure I took advantage of the eyecandy.

Sound and music really clinched the atmosphere and made it all work.

Nice all-around compo, well done.

Tones of the World by khaotom 2021-10-09T23:22:04Z ♥ 1

The varying synth and the art really came together nicely! The mix of 2D and 3D was a cool effect, and the little smiley-face guy gave some personality to the instructions and story.

Mechanically I liked that I had to lead my shot a bit, which made it satisfying to land my shots, although I had a hard time with depth perception because I didn't have that much basis for scale, until I moved around a little then I got a good a sense from the parallax. After that my shots started landing a lot more. I think I had 42 as my best hit-count, but I was unclear about whether to shoot as much as possible to get high hit-counts, or to pick my shots carefully to keep my accuracy high.

Really unique moody vibe, nice work!

Ball of Chaos by OmegaFalcon 2021-10-06T15:19:25Z ♥ 1

Nice game! Good core idea, well grounded in the theme, with an impressive number of cool twists on it. The presentation is also really nice, and the sound/music really added to the feel. I also liked the non-tutorial tutorial, definitely a fan of that approach and you did it well.

I struggled a bit with getting frustrated, so I really appreciated the VERY fast restart time. If I could tweak one thing about this game, it would be to adjust your check for whether I am grounded or not. I kept getting cheated out of the ability to jump in this situation:

BallOfChaos-CantJump.png

Here I am standing, but I cannot jump (tested several times by hammering the jump button). I can't see the code but my guess is that you use a raycast down from the center of the player to check whether to allow the jump, but you could fix this by checking multiple rays at the edges of the player. You could also consider some coyote time, as I suspect a more generous control would add to the experience by making all failures feel like my own fault instead of control malfunctions.

I don't mean to sound overly negative because I really liked this one, I just thought it could be even stronger if you smoothed a few frustrations off.

Very nice well-rounded entry!

Under the Stove by ruthiepee 2021-05-18T04:11:07Z ♥ 0

And here I thought roblox were some competitor to legos! I would have skipped the onerous install process but you're SO CLOSE to getting the 20 that I couldn't just walk away. Hope you cross the finish line in time!

This was a fun little experience. I enjoyed that I could restart the dialog and test various paths through the short bits of clever prose. I also dug the charmingly severe transitions between environments. It put to rest the question of which is a scarier hell: the spooky creepy gross bug kind, or the one with puppies. No contest.

I was determined to find some glitch to escape Heck, as I could see outside the walls with the camera. But those colliders were too strong. I tried glitching into a superjump by getting stuck between the two signs but that also refused to work.

The best I could do was walk left and right very quickly around this spot here, which triggered a restart to the torture-music and provided some much-needed tranquility:

RobloxScreenShot20210517_235410521.png

Respect for throwing away your usual engines to try out something new, and nice work!

Nuclear blaze by deepnight 2021-05-16T18:09:56Z ♥ 1

Very nice! The graphics look great, and the mix of pixel art and the water/fire being in a different style was an interesting take.

I loved the character: all helmet, and with controls that made me feel their bulk. Nice that I had to stop to use water and couldn't just spam it.

I made it to the point with the purple sparkles that re-create new fire, and after having to restart the 5th time I gave up. The problem was that the restart sends me several minutes backward, which is a lot of repetition for a jam and this in turn made me impatient which made me careless which made me die. Once I entered this downward spiral I lost heart.

I think with sound even this would have not mattered because the vibe and environment are really great, so with that extra sense in play I bet it would be amazing.

Really nice job on the art and the core mechanics. I also enjoyed the mystery of the story, and was sorry I didn't have heart to make it to the end.

Keyboard to the Depths by QYOUK 2021-05-16T17:04:08Z ♥ 1

Wow this was really complete-feeling. I mean, it could have had more levels, but for a compo game I think you did the right thing and kept the scope small but the polish REALLY high on the scope you did have. Each aspect was strong: the music, the art, the sound, the controls, the little effects here and there like blood splatter or the shaking when a guy is stuck in a block.

Really impressive all-around entry.

At first I didn't like the structure of the game. During the tutorial I thought "Wow good thing there is an endless stream of guys!" But then in the real game I was disappointed to see I have just 8. Then I got mad that it didn't let me even look at the layout of the level before starting, and I would basically lose the game even before I had a chance to think through. The I got mad again that when I did lose it was all the way back to level one.

HOWEVER... all of that feeling went away when I saw how short the game is. It's true that the structure forced me to lose enough to memorize the game so that I could play effectively, but it was completely fine because of how short it was. That said, if you do expand this to have more levels you might want to consider letting the player see the level and hit space to begin, so that they can form a plan. Either that or make the guys infinite so they can experiment (and score them on deaths or something?).

Anyway, this is a really interesting entry with a unique concept that was super-well executed. Very nice job.

Masseuse you Loose by ColeSlaughter 2021-05-16T16:45:29Z ♥ 4

Wow! This feels so polished and complete. The art is just great, I really love the various bodies and some of those horrible tattoos had me cracking up.

Whole thing had a great vibe. You really have a clear vision and nailed it.

I struggled initially with where on the hand I was supposed to aim, and then I realized the mouse cursor is still on the screen. Once I started aiming with that I did better. Still tons of errors though! Apparently I'm not cut out for this line of work. I don't know if it would intrude on the experience, but some visual feedback on where/how I missed may have accelerated my learning curve. (EDIT: whaaat I just went back to test again and now I don't see the mouse cursor, I guess I got it into a weird state, maybe by alt-tabbing??)

The variety of the physical actions and the time pressure combined in a very cool way. After I found myself scanning-and-planning my next move while executing the current action I realized this is really well designed.

I know you sourced the music and sound but they were really well chosen and added enhanced the vibe a lot.

Really nice job here.

Substate by beats 2021-05-16T16:19:05Z ♥ 0

Love this kind of short really unique entry, great job! The audio is top-notch: voice tutorial is a great way to make it fun to learn this really unusual system, music fits super-well, and the sound effect for moving up/down levels is nice. Graphics were clear and direct. Game duration was great -- let me play around with this system, have a few surprises and test my knowledge, and then ended without me having any chance to get tired of it: ended while I still wanted more.

Critique-wise I can only offer one thing: maybe the controls could be simplified, I don't know if there is value to moving up/down with the arrows, so instead of the split arrows-and-WS, you could just have left/right move on the level and up/down switch between. Not that this mattered at all in such a short game.

Nice entry! And so different from your soundcloud concert game that I remember playing before, love seeing that variety of types of entries.

Let's Go Deeper by Deozaan 2021-05-16T16:06:01Z ♥ 1

Wow, really great vibe here! The art looks fantastic, the sound is strong, and the music is outstanding. It all really came together nicely into an impressively-polished entry. Gameplay-wise I enjoyed the various upgrades and the space invaders were a nice touch.

Nice job!

Space?Space!SPACE by Meta-link 2021-05-16T15:53:27Z ♥ 1

Unique and compelling art style -- never seen outer space portrayed this way but it works and was visually interesting.

Snappy controls and some fun dogfights!

For critique I'd say that it could feel a bit aimless when it doesn't matter what direction I go -- but the arrow toward fuel was a GREAT feature to include and prevents a lot of feelbad hopelessness because I have a goal.

Nice entry! Add some sound to match the nice visuals and it'll really start coming alive.

Dwarven Delver by cavedens 2021-05-16T15:37:43Z ♥ 1

Nice! This is a well-rounded entry with good music, sound, art, and a kind of nicely "crunchy" feeling to the digging. It made gameplay fast and enjoyable.

I managed to get 18 gems, although I pushed my luck a bit at the end and got killed unnecessarily.

At first I thought I was supposed to dig rocks and didn't get any gems for a while. Once I realized gems are also in dirt, I pretty much stuck to dirt and dove down as deep as a I could. My strategy on each level was the same: dig to the bottom the shortest dirt-only path so that I could escape in one turn whenever my stamina got low, and then dig horizontally along the bottom row.

The experience was good but it felt a little too random; I would have appreciated if something about each new screen caused me to change up my strats, like if I could see that some areas were high-reward that I want to get to, or high-risk of bats/caveins etc.

Nice job with your entry!

Crash Lander by AranCutter 2021-05-15T03:15:33Z ♥ 1

I thought "WOW this is exactly my kind of game!!" Challenging and interesting main movement mechanic, simple premise, effective art and sound, and (thank you) NO TUTORIAL you trust me to figure it out. I quit the web version and downloaded the windows build so I could really settle in and enjoy it.

So I was very excited.

But I never made it past the second checkpoint. I didn't really mind the over-the-top difficulty THAT much, but I could not handle the slow restart time with that darn camera pan. It got me to a really bad state of mind and I had to just stop playing. Maybe I just died too much, and restart was way more often for me (55 deaths to get the second checkpoint.) I even checked if you posted source code so could modify it to instant-restart myself!

Another tweak to maybe consider is to put the fuel meter on the ship rather than the mouse cursor. If I held the cursor near the ship to see my fuel, then movements of the camera could have a surprising interference as the ship moved away from screen-center (Thus changing its position relative to cursor). If I held it far away and focused on controlling the ship I could not see my fuel. I would have preferred not to even have the cursor at all, and just let the mouse's movement angle the ship directly, but maybe that wouldn't work for some of the fancy flying I saw in gifs above.

So this is a really strong entry, with many good things, I just personally couldn't get past the restart delay to dig in as much as I would have liked, sorry.

(BTW wow those post-comp art screenshots you posted looks great.)

EveryDay by xpoho 2021-05-04T04:48:55Z ♥ 1

Cool subversive game. I'm glad I didn't stop at the first ending! The art is lo-fi but I like how you used everything together to convey the changing mood: art, music, and even game mechanics (using different delays and move speeds etc). I enjoy that LD has some normal games but also some very unusual ones like this.

Nice work!

Delevator by guladam 2021-05-04T04:37:35Z ♥ 2

Really enjoyed the dark mood, and how it snuck up and then escalated, gradually consuming the mundane. Was the font hand drawn? I didn't pay careful attention to see if the letters repeated exactly, but either way I didn't mind that was a little bit of a struggle to read. I also think you used some deliberately long speech-advancing delays for a few parts, maybe? The impediments to normal easy for of reading were in line with the game's tone so I definitely didn't mind.

Nice pixel art, especially the night scene in the park with my friend there. The audio was also really nice.

Great job on achieving a clear, consistent voice for this entry.

Space Dwarf Alchemist Go! by BlackOpsBen 2021-05-04T04:17:26Z ♥ 1

Haha, had some fun with this even though idle/clickers aren't my usual thing. The voice acting was a big part of it, and very charming! At least, until I installed defense turrets and destroyed the audio of the game. First I had to take my headphones off, but then when there were enough I had to straight up mute my computer. I don't know who those people were I was murdering, but I sure paid the price! ;)

But once I had the machine rolling, the ultimate goal seemed attainable, so I really had to do it:

passing-C.png

By the time I sailed past the speed of light, it was no big thing.

Nice entry! Definitely got me pulled in.

Tiny Dungeon by Swen 2021-05-04T03:42:44Z ♥ 1

Cool stuff, effective art style, a few different enemy types, procedurally generated levels, and various upgrades in shops -- a lot to like!

I made it to the final boss, but lost the fight. I couldn't tell if I was hitting him. The other enemies I got a sound effect and knockback when I hit them, but it didn't seem to do anything when I hit the boss. I was unsure if he was taking damage, or if I had to do something else to hurt him... if that was the case I could have used a "ping" invincibility sound as a hint.

I liked the little green blobs, their leap was a good attack. Easy enough if you are patient and careful, but can get you if you're not careful or if the room gets busy.

Nice entry!

Deep Sweep by Dazrow 2021-05-04T03:13:06Z ♥ 0

Nice work! Very charming graphics, snappy controls, and the sound and music were strong, too.

I couldn't help cheating myself out of some of the challenge by memorizing, partly because (unless I missed the right strategy!) there were impossible situations where I had to make a blind guess with all ways forward having a 1 distance to bomb, and no way that I saw to do the whole minesweeper "chains of logic" thing.

If I could tweak one thing, I would change it so that when I pick "continue" instead of tutorial, that you wouldn't show me the tutorial anyway.

But it was no big deal, I spent some fun time trying to figure out the rules, and playing around with it. Nice entry!

Trposhi by mira 2021-05-04T02:55:28Z ♥ 1

Calm, chill experience with the nice little sound effects from the dwarves and their digging! I had a bit of fun but I didn't want to manage them for all that long because there wasn't that much for me to do after I'd gotten the systems down. Idle games aren't usually my kind of thing, so just a matter of taste.

You did achieve a nice chill vibe though, good work! The graphics were also very nice, and the little funeral was awesome, great touch.

CTRL BASE ZERO by ted 2021-05-04T02:42:10Z ♥ 0

Really excelling at the mood here. Everything cooperates to nail it: the spare visual style, the synths, the way I'm manually opening doors wondering what kind of game this even is and feeling suspense. Loved the little touches like some of the overhead lights being out, and the bots on the ground.

Entering the final room definitely stop me in my tracks to just look around. The conclusion felt abrupt and I wished it could have been tied off in some way, but what you did create was really effective.

Pacing was well done, too. At first I felt the text was too slow, and at the start of the game I was surprised I had no jump, but after getting a sense of the game I realized both of these were the correct design choice. I liked the little snarky remark about wishing it was a gun, as of course I totally didn't wish it was a shooter, but this was a nice addition to the suspense feel.

Really a well-executed piece here, despite feeling a little incomplete.

Bl*bert by JesterSeraph 2021-05-04T02:20:12Z ♥ 1

Cool riff on an old classic!

I liked the game, but I wanted it to be faster. Everything was slower than I wanted... I was hammering the button three times between each leap, and then when I failed the torturously slow restart was so disheartening. Then I would get back in the zone and be having fun again, but always hammering hammering wishing it was faster.

I would probably have played 5x as much if the speed was doubled.

The art style was nice, but the way it changed and got darker as I went deeper, along with the pitch shifting -- just great. I also liked the design touch of the yellow per-warning of the incoming enemies. You gave me that, and then if I make the mistakes it's my own fault that I lost! Very nice.

Overall enjoyable entry, nice work!

Deeper Devils by 3amsoda 2021-05-04T02:05:32Z ♥ 1

Great game! I played to the end in 32 deaths.

Almost everything is done right here. I found the lo-fi mashup art style charming and unique, and it had a lot of nice little touches like the text-tilt on reload (more basement punk DYI than a gun animation!) and the motion lines when falling. The sound effects you chose effectively communicated gameplay information I needed, such as "am I wall sliding."

I thought the core gameplay was very well done. It takes a few ideas from downwell and riffs them into a cool new experience. I liked that you made the game more about movement than about the shooting, and didn't go overboard with the enemies blasting at me, or force me to shoot a ton. I think that was the right direction here, since the movement was the cool stuff.

I'm a big fan of games with unusual core movement and good gamefeel, and you did it here. If I could tweak one thing about the controls, it would be that while on the ground (but probably not while in the air) I could have used some acceleration from zero to full speed. When I stopped on a platform and wanted to peek over the edge, it felt really jerky to get instant full speed, and I went flying over the edge a few times. No big deal, though!

The difficulty and length of the game were just about right for me.

All around very nice solo jam entry, look forward to seeing what you do next time.

One-Butt Alien Corridor by PeachTreeOath 2021-05-01T04:19:40Z ♥ 2

Wow, VERY cool game!

It's a great mashup of dirty monster-blasting action with tactical planning and experimentation. It had a bit of tower defense DNA but with a lot more personality. The upgrades are a killer feature that takes it to the next level and had me reloading back to the start to try out different builds.

Each upgrade was really compelling, although I'll admit I didn't value the health one at first. I was all, "well it lets me restart a level anyway so who cares about camp bonuses?" I learned the hard way when I kept being surprised my front guy was dead so quick...

But the large coverage arcs of range were so nice, and the fast kills from dmg... all very tempting.

I really needed some sound going on, so I loaded up some remix of the doom soundtrack in the background and it fit really well.

I so wished for an indicator on the marine that it was selected. A great many fights went very badly because I went into a downward spiral triggered by accidentally turning the wrong marine. Eventually I figured out that I shouldn't stab the number keys like I would for weapon switching in an FPS, and should just permanently park 1 finger per key and link the finger to the marine in my mind. After I found something that worked for me there, it really helped.

After playing for about an hour I managed to get to the gate at the end of level 5.

Watching your video playthrough, I learned a few things... Mainly that the tiny enemies are not an emergency, even if they are chomping on your dudes. I was probably overreacting to them. Seems better to set up for the larger enemies.

OK one more try, hang on...

Haha nope, still not getting past the gate on 5! Still too many marine-selection errors in the heat of the moment.

The stylized semi-abstract graphics were really effective and evoked a nice mood. The enemy attack animations and the blood splatters from death gave the circles a nice boost of feeling alive. The aim arcs, gunfire, and grenade explosions all fit well into the vibe.

But the highlight for me was the novel gameplay that had me thinking about to get out of getting my ass kicked... and saying ONE MORE GAME.

Really cool entry, great job!

Red Archer by BadPiggy 2021-04-30T04:06:36Z ♥ 2

Wow, cool stuff - I would have played longer if there were more levels.

I liked the clever gameplay design. The problem with an FPS having many enemies is that you can't see enough of what's going on to really deal with much (as opposed to a 2D bullethell game, say). And if you throw the player and enemies up into the sky it gets even worse! But then this game dodges the problem by having the slo-mo mode.

The other interesting part was the teleport-to-hit-enemy for finishing them off, and the way that the primary fire action FORCED you to do this, since you couldn't shoot again otherwise. The concept of gaining vertical height from kills was also pretty cool.

All of this gave the game a cool, unique core gameplay. It felt a little bit like a 3D bullet hell, a little bit like a midair FPS with a bit of leading your shot (which as an old Tribes player I really appreciate) and a little bit of a turn-based battle system feel. A unique mix!

For critique points, I'd say the game could stand to have more challenge that I need to think about, to take advantage of the turn-based feel. It didn't seem to matter what enemy I shot when, no specific enemy was really a threat.

Also it was too short!

If this idea were fleshed out more, I could really dig in.

Cool stuff, although maybe not fully realized. Very interesting entry, nice work!

Tension by JustinMullin 2021-04-30T03:31:44Z ♥ 1

Daaaaaaamn. I actually had a chill run down my spine when I hit the ending. I was all wound up in the atmosphere of the place, the careful climbing punctuated with unavoidable moments of risky momentum, and the slightly disturbing mysterious narrator.

First few moments with the game I experimented with the grapple, and I thought I was going to be learning to swing around on it. I've always had grapple game on my bucket list, and when I imagine it the player is grapple-swinging to karate kick guys in the face and it's all about releasing the grapple to chain into the next grapple midair.

I tried some nonsense remotely in that direction AND was smacked hard with a large chunk of life loss... and I was like YUP this is a Mullin game, I'm going to be expected to be thoughtful and have a light touch.

And man, it really works. I started thinking far ahead, and rejecting risky plans in search of the safest way forward. I enjoyed the methodical climb and got very alert for the wild swings I had to take from time to time.

I have captured a handful of moments that created a cool thought process...

I stood here for a while, wondering, do I grapple the ceiling? Nah, I'll grapple the floor and carefully lower myself down: https://imgur.com/SVnHpcR

Here I'm being super careful, surrounded by lava and not knowing what lies ahead, how can I choose a spot that will keep my options open?? https://imgur.com/h9Fheii

This is a part of the game that even you probably didn't get to, when I bounced off lava into the mushrooms, where death seemed to have dimmed my light but mushrooms prevented me from dying: https://imgur.com/iHUbfGx

That screen shot probably looks stupid, but this was pretty intense. The voice had just said "the risk is imaginary" so I thought maybe I was *supposed* to have this post-death experience? Anyway, that climb down I could only see dimly for like a 1-inch radius around my character, and it jacked the mood (and yea, difficulty) up to a crazy degree. Vision went back to normal on respawn but wow. Try playing with a tiny ring of light some time, it's wild!

And last example: I thought it was pretty cool that you gave me this invitation to show off what I'd learned: https://imgur.com/sxhFLtR

If I could change one thing about the game it would be to enable fullscreen. It's so immersive, but I had the task bar and window title kind of intruding on my immersion. No big.

Really well done, great physics that forced a style of play that was in strong harmony with the mood. Everything came together to make such a nice experience.

Dungeon Painter by IanTheBee 2021-04-30T02:21:22Z ♥ 2

Wow even an epic boss fight at the end! Really nice work!

This is an impressively well-rounded entry. It has an effective graphical style, an interesting core mechanic, nice sounds, and even music. I was surprised to see it's your first Ludum Dare, but I checked on itch and saw that it's not your first game jam.

I mostly liked the controls. They definitely didn't get in the way, and were solid. I'll mention a couple of minor things that I would have appreciated having: I always like when the jump is a bit more expressive by letting me vary the height based on how long I hold the button down. The other one is "coyote time" where you can still jump for a just a moment after you leave a platform. I definitely got bit by that one a few times in this game. No big deal, just a couple of minor feelbads that didn't really get in the way of the fun.

The slippy-slidey inertia, which I don't like in most games, I think I liked here because the character is a ball of wet paint, so I think the charming characterization of sliding was worth the lesser control.

I started out in level 1 by playing carefully and taking specific shots, and moving through areas that still had a lot of dark. But once I started dying to spikes I wanted to get much more coverage before proceeding, so I started experimenting with the shooting controls and discovered I could just hold it down. I probably never let go of the button again, which was convenient but I missed that cool experience of walking through half-painted terrain. I wonder if spikes is really the perfect hazard for this game. Maybe there are enemies that encourage you NOT to paint, like they wake up when they get wet or something, I dunno.

This is a really good entry with a strong core and a lot of charm, really well done.

Nuclear Arms 8: Navigate the Hate by Logicon211 2021-04-29T04:19:24Z ♥ 4

You know that old joke about the two guys camping, and the bear shows up and they're gonna run for it, but one guy stops to lace up his sneakers. Pal is like, "you can't outrun the bear!" But sneaker guy is all, "I only gotta outrun YOU!"

In this game you still can't outrun the bears, but there ain't nobody else around. And there are like 200 of them!! Oh boy! They even wear wristwatches to taunt you about how much time they're going to take from you, although I think they might actually be compasses. What do bears know, except killing?

I really liked the 3 orbs system. It let me opt into 2 levels of difficulty on a per-mission basis in case I got stuck (I mean, maybe I should have tried red just to see, but c'mon I got more pride than that)

Really liked the mix of different types of challenge. Some of them were super-intense, and it was good to get a little break with some of the chiller ones that were about platforming or searching, to let the cramp in my hands subside.

Really enjoyed how each of them called back to a previous game in the series! Poor Killbane, just trying to do his thing. He's a sport.

I finished the first time with 2 yellows and the rest green. And yup, you guessed it: the two yellows were the bear levels!

A meltdown, sure, but I had to go back and challenge myself to get a FULL meltdown, so I went back and ran it again going for green on all of them.

The Killjane level, with the bears and the trash, was nuts to get green on. I had to try it a lot, an experiment. At first I thought the trash was a problem because it let the bears sneak up on me. And disoriented me.

But then I discovered the trasholine strategy. Bears can't hit me if I'm in the sky!! I don't know if that's how you intended me to finish that level, but I shot like the first 3ish bears and trasholine-hopped my way through and back.

A couple of small points that dinged me: - The "Press E" on the answer pickup and podium could be a bit more generous. I definitely lost a number of runs to each. I mean especially the answer: hopping up and down on trash thrashing my mouse around spamming E!

- OMG the bear sounds. They are always right behind me swinging, and when I turn around they aren't. But then when I don't turn around they are! I think their sounds ignore the walls, maybe? It really increased their danger level because of how disorienting it was.

After trasholining the Killjane level the other difficult green was Handsome Wizard, the other bear level. I went back and forth on whether to go carefully or turbo... you did a good job of striking a balance where it was a close call and worth trying both. Having no trach to bounce on in this level, I did experiment with running up the walls, but I didn't get very far with it: https://imgur.com/uBH0ovU

Overall this game was really fun! I loved the voice acting, the graphics were great on the enemies, environment, and story scenes, and the controls were tight and action a blast.

Great job, glad to see your crew back in action.

6 Feet Under by theStoff 2021-04-29T02:09:17Z ♥ 5

This hits a lot of really strong points, very well done.

Art is charming, sfx are crunchy and nice, music is just awesome.

The core mechanic is delightful and right on the knife's edge of F**K THIS and really satisfying. I nearly ragequit several times, but pressed on and made it and it was always rewarding when I did.

The controls are so compelling. They occasionally hit brilliant moments of feeling fluid and elegant. They ask you to make these huge commits in advance, and with zero air control you can do nothing but sit and gape at the consequences of your folly while some signal originating from your lizard brain mashes your finger deeper into the D key to no avail. Glorious.

I probably just sucked at it, but transitioning from drillpath to drillpath across open air was what yanked me away from feeling fluid. You're on the rise and trying to transition to a block above you: drilling up, hit space too early and you brake and reverse in the low block; hit space too late and you bounce harshly off the ceiling above.

I definitely enjoyed my time with the game. I would have spent longer with it if there were mid-way checkpoints or something else to take the edge off how much I had to repeat sections I struggled with.

It's a really charming, unique entry, with a very strong original movement mechanic that's well implemented. And again, bumpin' music. Very nice work!

The deepest curse by Bobafett89 2021-04-28T23:21:25Z ♥ 1

I liked this game!

The controls were very tight, although maybe a little TOO tight, so as to feel sharp. A TINY bit of acceleration might be worth experimenting, here is a good article describing the approach I think feels the very best: https://www.gamasutra.com/blogs/MarkVenturelli/20140821/223866/Game_Feel_Tips_II_Speed_Gravity_Friction.php

But these controls are good. Much better to be too tight than too loose! I appreciated the expressive jump that cared how long I held the button, and also the generous air control. The dash felt really good, too, and you did a great job with the interaction of dashing, jumping, and falling. It fit together nicely. Wall climbing felt slightly jarring at first but I adjusted pretty quickly, and I'd say it was well implemented.

On top of this nice control scheme, you built appropriate challenges that tested my skills. This drew me in.

It was a shame the game trolled me so hard. Sending me all the way back to the very start and stripping my abilities made me howl with rage, and after it happened twice I decided I was done. Instead of playing fair, I did this to your game: https://imgur.com/MalqFxD

If you didn't brutalize me with having to repeat the game over and over, I would have probably played the whole thing. It's a nice touch that you offered the ability to customize difficulty, but by the time I knew I needed them it was too late, so they didn't save me.

Ragequitting at restart aside, I enjoyed the game a lot. Star was the high-quality controls with variety of mechanics. Graphics, although simple, were crisp and functional. Sound was also functional, and the music was a nice bonus. The whole progression thing and the bonus timepieces was a nice feature set that took the game up a notch, and showed you really got a lot done.

Overall nice work, although I would have happily spent more time with the game if it wasn't so punishing.

Drilling With Dice by KunoNoOni 2021-04-28T04:55:21Z ♥ 0

This is a cool idea. Couple of small flaws dinged me in the experience, but overall the gist of the game was original and intriguing.

A few things that hurt my experience:

- Dice tray is far away from the place to put the dice, when trying to play fast this long drag-and-drop dominated my experience. It's not ambiguous where the die goes and I really wished I could double-click it. Or at least have the drill and processing right above the tray, and the text above that.

- The game has a LOT of text. Most of it too small to read so I didn't. I think it said "tip" but I couldn't read any of the tips.

- I quickly settled on the algo that the other commenters mentioned: drag and drop pairs, click reroll drag and drop any extra pairs, then click drill then drag/drop high numbers, reroll, drag and drop highs again, new day repeat.

So those are some critiques but I don't want to overstate the negative. The interlocking system of dice and different sorts of machines was compelling. I just needed a little more wiggle room in how to make decisions. Maybe I need to load dice into the drill and the processing, and my choice is about what dice to use where? "This pair of 5s could let me drill down another 100m but that won't leave me any high dice for the processor" or some tradeoff like that.

The vibe was cool, and I enjoyed the music. With just a *bit* more fast-play friendly UX and a few more actual decisions I might have been straight-up hooked.

As it was I did play a while (ran out of money). Nice work on making something pretty interesting and ambitious here.

Throneless by AdamCYounis 2021-04-28T04:26:40Z ♥ 0

You got an impressive amount done, and take heart that you made it playable! My head spins thinking about all of the features you completed: the ability to click into units, select spaces, issue commands, cancel back out of the menus, highlight the paths, the turn-based combat system, recruiting the party, map generation... it's just a ton of features, all done to a point where it can be played. Plus all of the very nice isometric pixel art!

Sorry the LD didn't go how you wanted, but it's a badass display of your skills just to get as far as you did.

This shit happens. I've done 19 of these things, and just a few LDs ago I overscoped badly and ruined myself, making my worst game ever.

Deep Holes To Relax / Study To by weeping-rupee 2021-04-28T03:41:33Z ♥ 0

Still have fond memories of Radioactive Rumble, so I was excited to try your latest, but the link was a 404.

Sorry if this LD didn't go your way!

The Fall by sawtan 2021-04-28T03:35:17Z ♥ 3

Wow the art was great, all the parallax layering and the details really created an environment.

I loved the variety of enemies across the zones. Each looked really distinct, but also played really differently which was nice.

The character control was good, too. The inertia gave me a feeling of flying and created a lot of challenge and care to how I had to move.

The brutal side was how the sword got smaller when I got hit, forcing me to get closer, which led to more getting hit. But a downward spiral to doom is probably right on theme, right?

All of the times I got hit, I felt it was my fault, except one situation: When I was lining up a shot on someone and then the circle of hell changed, the enemy would suddenly "stop" (which really meant accelerate into my face). When I was not doing battle with them, this was a very nice visual effect as the old zoomed away to be replaced by the new. But a few times I was lining up an attack and they suddenly cheap-shot me.

I didn't manage to finish the game. I got to Violence a few times, but always with a few hits on my belt. The violence enemy is a good one to test my skill. The other levels, I can kind of just avoid some enemies so it might not matter if I have the impotent sword. But not so with violence: The mini ball goes out and then comes at my side, and demands combat. But it's not easy to reign in hell, and I wasn't up to the task.

The blue lost soul guy between levels as a sort of healing mechanism was a very nice touch. So much more flavorful than "here's a free heart".

Overall a really strong offering with some great art and atmosphere, and a strong variety of different types of challenge! Nice work to your whole team!

Deepz Explorez by khaotom 2021-04-28T02:48:38Z ♥ 1

Wow, the colors, the textures, and the audio are so lush, warm, inviting. It's really an awesome atmosphere/mood. I would just stand and stare or listen. I took my time, collected the 3 shapes, and hung out for a bit.

I also appreciated that although the game's mood was low-key, you didn't shy away from a decent walking speed. That let me choose moments to turbo through a backtrack in the maze without frustration, and still let me chill when I wanted.

I did miss that I could get onto the [SPOILER] at the end. I even tried to see if there was an interaction by waiting at what I thought was the high point of the ground is passed, and closely following it a bit, but I guess I didn't find the right trick. (EDIT: I now see that reading the instructions was the trick I missed!)

No worries -- a unique and interesting experience. Very nice entry!

Vile Things by JakobTheQuizGuy 2021-04-28T02:05:49Z ♥ 1

Nice variety of enemies!

Played a decent amount.. After a few games learning the ropes, I dug in and made it to a megawave of flying biters that did me in, and didn't have the heart to restart.

I liked the controls, although I never got super-fluid with them. On the plus side the character is responsive, has a good non-floaty jump feel, solid air control, and the attack range is nice with a super-clear graphic. The whole playing-lefty thing (arrows + attack w/ left hand) is tough, I'm used to wasd, so maybe that's why I never felt super in the zone. A very interesting element was the directional aiming of the attack. It was essential to the game.

A very nice design choice was the amount of knockback, which made me have to chase enemies down and think about movement, as opposed to just being a run-up-and-spam.

This was a good all around package, with compelling art, solid sound, and a nice music that accompanied the "vile monsters" theme well. Nice work!

Jumping Crabster by inque 2021-04-27T22:56:20Z ♥ 1

Very crazy creative controls! Had some fun messing around with them, got to 3328. I never got all the way to really figuring out any valid repeatable strategy, I was mostly thrashing around a bunch and kind of getting lucky... But I was definitely shouting at the screen - GO YOU CAN DO IT ALMOST THERE!

Art is simple but charming and effective. The eyes give it personality and the clearly articulated limbs are nice for understanding the consequences of my actions.

Nice work!

Dyb by Ratrat44 2021-04-27T03:09:46Z ♥ 1

Nice entry! I played to the ending.

You have a couple of interesting mechanics here with the hiding, and the spiker guys that drop from the ceiling. The tutorial was effective without being overbearing, and I liked how you introduced the most unusual one first, let me learn it. Then threw the second on in, and finally started blending the two together.

By the time I got to the end... oh boy. That final dash under the falling spikes required one perfect jump over a hog and was like threading a needle.

The final section with the different environment that was relaxing and led into the final cinematic end was a nice reward after that final difficult section.

For critique -- I wished up was also jump, and felt the main character's decel to a stop was a BIT slippery for my taste, but not too bad. I also fell through a floor and got stuck inside the wall on a second playthrough doing some testing, I flew off this big drop and landed here and went straight through the floor and was stuck inside: https://imgur.com/ztO10GZ

But you got the most important parts right, like the feel of quickly ducking into hiding, and the important unreliability of jumping over a hog. It was possible, but the hog would usually get you right after anyway, which forced me to engage with your mechanics instead of skipping sections.

Art style was nice, very clean and clear and everything fit well together, and the music was enjoyable. Nice job!

Diamond Hands - YOLO Edition by diaonic 2021-04-27T02:45:47Z ♥ 1

I got to 2105 before I called it quits. But I nearly went bust -- I was saved by a triple banana on the second-to-last spin I could afford.

It was simple but strangely compelling. Yolo was a nice touch, although the chance of winning on a given spin was low enough that I was hesitant to use it a lot.

If I could change one thing I would increase the size -- of both the game overall, but especially of the font size of my money. It was small it was in my browser, and I had to use the magnifying glass app to get it to a comfortable size: https://imgur.com/MVpFetb

The feel was good - the sounds were enjoyable, and the wheel spinning looked nice and although it felt slow at first I got used to it and I think that waiting was part of why it felt a bit compulsive after a while.

Nice job!

Labyrinth by Brendev 2021-04-27T02:27:34Z ♥ 2

Nice - tense action in a very atmospheric setting.

I appreciated that this game does NOT waste time. It gets started the second you consent, and the retry starts over from right where you died.

Took me a life or to to understand what was going on, but then I got it pretty quickly.

It was an interesting tension about where to look. If I look behind me I can see glimpses of the minotaur right as he gets really dangerous, but then I'm backpedaling blindly, and sometimes into a dead end. If I look ahead of me at where I'm going, I'm getting really paranoid about the monster. It created a nice horror movie just-a-glimpse-of-the-monster feeling.

From the fact that I was rated on time, I didn't really explore the space. I ended up settling on a loop to memorize and run. That way I could run it backwards blind and know I wouldn't get stuck. And just when I thought I had it beat the floor opened up and I fell into a tiny room I couldn't escape -- that sure showed me!!

Atmosphere was really nice, sound was great especially for a compo, and the controls were nice and responsive. Well done!

Eloi's Adventure by Convg 2020-10-27T03:31:01Z ♥ 2

I enjoyed this!! It's different and charming. It has a few raw bits like superjump against certain platforms, some wallclimbing, and sticking to edges a little. But I don't mind, those things make it feel charming.

I also don't mind the controls here, with the air-control style of "instantly when you let go you will lose all horizontal velocity". I know some people don't enjoy that style, but for me once I realize that is what a game is doing (zero momentum in midair) I just switch into that mode of thinking, and I can use it very effectively.

So I found the controls and physics interactions enjoyable.

The mechanics were also cool, and you had some very nice progression of introducing the ideas. One especially nice touch was to have the new enemy type safely encased in tiles where I could observe it the first time I saw it. Great idea!

If I could tweak one thing it would probably be the side-friction onto the walls. I think the character mostly felt fine, but the bad-feel moments I did have were around getting stuck on the sides of walls why trying to slip through a space. I think just setting friction to zero is probably fine, since this is a zero-momentum game anyway!

Nice entry overall, I played through to the end and enjoyed it.

Repeater by notime4games 2020-10-27T03:04:27Z ♥ 2

Very nice entry! A cool idea, great setting, nice music to enhance the mood of the art, which captured classic metroid vibes that meshed so well with the theme of being lost and looping.

The gun feels great, fires away with old school turbospam required in some panicked bursts, but then there is also downtime in between fights if you want it. Lots of the art is strong, but the particles of the bullets hitting the wall was a highlight.

So overall the game was really good! Because it was really good, let me dig into two things that caused me a little pain in the experience... but seriously, I'm just going into this because the game is so strong, so I hope this is helpful and constructive:

First the controls: I started with WASD but couldn't find a shoot button friendly with that, so I did invert and play lefty. Been a while. I was rusty with arrows/x/z.

Second, I feel there's maybe some room for improvement in the way combat plays out. These enemies are brutal in the way they come at me fast and with acceleration, do not get knocked back, and take a few hits to kill, and do a lot of damage. It's fine if they approach at the height of my standing gunfire, but I got hit a lot when they came at just-above-normal and I had to multi-shot them on the rise during a jump.

I failed so often that I gave up and my approach to the game became: spam jump and shoot off the screen for a while before entering any dangerous area. If I do aggro an enemy that's not at shot-level, flee wildly and try to gain space or wait for them to come down to shot-height. When I encountered the vertical climb, I extracted each enemy one by one down into the corridoor rather than mix it up with them.

The exploration was great, but ended up a bit at odds with the combat, where I wanted to explore but I did not want to take the risk of new areas lightly, so my exploring became extremely meticulous.

It did pay off in the end though: https://imgur.com/3jTg29Z

On the other hand, maybe I just needed to git gud, and I will say the enemies did their job of slowing me down and preventing me from turboing through the whole maze to figure it out.

So a really solid game that I enjoyed jumping into and playing to the end. Hope I didn't over-focus on critique, because I do like this game. Nice entry!

Rail Gun by moltanem2000 2020-10-25T23:53:23Z ♥ 0

9:27 to complete.

Nice game! At first I felt like it was chaotic and random, sometimes even the barriers would just push a ball or two in. But as I got better, I was able to make plans and then execute on them better, and I started feeling the groove more. I had fun!

Looked nice, and felt good to play! Music was a nice touch if perhaps slightly repetitive after a while... but a good fit with the graphical look.

Nice entry - contrats.

One Frog's No Good Very Bad Automobile Malfunction by weeping-rupee 2020-10-25T23:34:38Z ♥ 1

NICE.

I did everything including the bonus level. This game was awesome. Cool mechanics with a great mix of planning the solution out in my mind and trying to execute the timing. Art was fantastic, the layered backgrounds made it feel very rich, and not like a jam game. The main character was popping with wide-eyed life, and the tweening used on him took it to another level. The music was enjoyable and fit well, and even better were the sound effects that made the interacts feel strong.

I think you hit everything across the board here, extremely well done. Congrats!

Looper Cooper by Imphenzia 2020-10-25T23:09:10Z ♥ 0

Looks beautiful, plays hilariously. I had some really harrowing flights, as I never quite got the hang of the controls. You can pull into VERY tight loops, but then pulling out of them takes a little while so it felt a bit difficult to predict exactly where/when my loop would broaden, and since I was looping quite close to things, I'd generally crash. My attempts to actually go around the circle were hilariously terrible.

But it didn't matter that I stunk because it was still fun to fail!

Regguman by NinjaCatz 2020-10-25T22:01:10Z ♥ 2

Very cool, I really liked the music, art, and sound. The confusing doors was a nice touch, the absurdity of the head-switching was charming, and the puzzles were over my head. I got to the use of seeds on my own, but not the secondary function of that interaction, so I resorted to the walkthrough for most of the game.

That said, I enjoyed interacting with everything and had fun just wandering around trying everything out. Nice work!

Loop Lab by LeGoLaZ 2020-10-25T21:24:46Z ♥ 2

Nice idea for the theme, creating a new experience and then letting my play with it in a variety of different ways to explore it, all tied up in a nice package with strong graphics. Great work!

Achievement names were a small touch but I enjoyed them, hat tip to Sweet Tooth, and I liked the little remark after the slow-moving pirate about "I am NOT doing that again."

A Night Around the Fire by arron-fowler 2020-10-25T21:07:55Z ♥ 1

Wow, SO moody! The natural parallax from the distant tree/pillars, the volumetric fog, and the way the pink light contrasted eerily with the grey, I really loved the vision and execution of the art here. It nails a mood of creeping from the alien danger. The music and sound was also contributing really strong to this.

I got 259m. Nice entry!

Loopin' Dungeon by Itskdog 2020-10-25T20:44:47Z ♥ 1

I got this far: https://imgur.com/ou490xI

It looks very nice, and the sounds are solid, too. The concept is nice, and fits the theme, and there is a huge variety of enemies and obstacles for a compo game. Really nice work, in a lot of ways.

The controls are a huge drawback, unfortunately. It's not a problem that I cannot go diagonal. The problem is that I cannot switch direction until after the deceleration of my previous direction finishes stopping me, which feels like there's just a huge lag in turning. To experience this in a straightforward way, hold D to move right. While holding D, press S. You keep moving right, all that is fine. Then release D. You think the character would immediately switch to down movement, but there is a huge delay.

Most of combat was dominated by this delay. Original-Zelda-style combat is about quickly reacting to the changes in direction of the semi-predictable AI, and spiking your sword shot onto them without getting so close you get hit. That very often requires an instant switch of direction immediately before the swing, and I just can't do that in this game.

I know others mentioned the controls so maybe I'm repeating, but I'm a big believer that control feel is the #1 thing in these jams, so I hope the extra detail is constructive.

Glancing at your code, I think the problem might be an unintended interaction between PlayerController.ProcessInputs() and CharacterMove.GroundMovement()

In ProcessInputs you do:

horizontal += Input.GetAxis("Horizontal");

And then in CharacterMove.GroundMovement() you have:

xVelocity = speed * input.horizontal; //... if (xVelocity == 0) { yVelocity = speed * input.vertical; //Set up and down movement }

If you read the documentation for that "GetAxis" function you're using, here: https://docs.unity3d.com/ScriptReference/Input.GetAxis.html

You will see a tiny note at the bottom:

> Note: The Horizontal and Vertical ranges change from 0 to +1 or -1 with increase/decrease in 0.05f steps. GetAxisRaw has changes from 0 to 1 or -1 immediately, so with no steps.

So my best guess is that the GetAxis step feature creates a "cooldown" when the horizontal walk is released by your player. That cooldown takes several moments to get all the way to zero.

While it is still not zero, your "if (xVelocity == 0)" check returns FALSE even though the user is not pressing any x-direction movement button. And this is why the player cannot instantly turn down.

My experience is that I hate this smoothing that GetAxis does, and I usually just read raw Input.GetKeyDown. You can use GetAxisRaw instead. By accessing the raw input, you can take more direct control of the game feel and get it just right.

Hope that helps!

Anyway, this one unfortunate thing in the controls aside, the rest of your entry is really strong and well-done for a compo. There's an ambitious amount of scope here, with nice art and sound and design. I look forward to seeing what you come up with next!

(EDIT: I tried the fixed-controls version and it's a lot better. I still think it's a tiny bit mushy and if you are still using the smoothed GetAxis I suggest trying GetAxisRaw, but it's a big improvement already.)

Planet Hopper by Suchista 2020-10-25T20:01:51Z ♥ 1

I played and lost like 5 times before realizing I was a tiny ship and not the planet with the arrows! WOOPS! That little ship is sometimes hard to see.

After I realized who I was, I started doing a lot better. I liked the physics feel, and the way that your best shot is really that first hop, and if you miss and have to try for the next orbit, the danger level really spikes! It was fun trying to set up those quick safe one-shot hops.

Nice job with a cool physics-based control scheme. I think my top score was a 7, but I bet if you were patient and careful you could get a really high score.

Bloop by Harmadillo 2020-10-25T19:52:00Z ♥ 0

Nice job with taking a clean idea and communicating the rules through a nice progression of puzzles instead of text! I especially enjoyed figuring out what the blue square does the first time, and also the puzzle where I thought it would be easy because I had a bishop, but then realized the only path through was on the wrong color square.

Overall a nice puzzle entry, well done.

Hyperloop hell by Aterlamia 2020-10-25T19:34:05Z ♥ 1

Nice art and story! I like how you captured the theme a little differently than many other games, and created a pretty full experience here for a jam. The parallax background captured the movement of the train well, and the music was a great touch that worked with the mood. Nice work.

Perseverance by freeworld 2020-10-25T19:07:24Z ♥ 1

Graphics, music, and gameplay worked well together here and created a very nice mood. It was tough to eke out a living and survive, I really did feel trapped in the loop! Nice work. The feeling of being close to death all the time prevented me from relaxing and exploring the system, but it did achieve the brutal feeling of barely scraping by that I think you were aiming for. Each fruit was hard-won and yet sustained me for such a short time that I never felt satiated.

I did get really confused trying to play at first, but once I came back to read your complete instructions it was much clearer.

Ouroboros by Simon Rahnasto 2020-10-25T18:56:55Z ♥ 2

Wow this was really good! The usage of the loop theme was nice, I was unclear what it meant to choose one of the three pillars at first, but it was nice the way the mystery revealed itself later. The shopkeep was also a nice touch.

I did have a few small issues: There seemed to be a problem with parts of the game being offscreen, so I couldn't see the shopkeeps head, and I asumme there was also a UI showing my health and arrow count but I could not see it. Perhaps because of that, in the first room I was trying to learn the controls and shot off all my explosive arrows before beginning the game. Last, I ruined the final boss by pressing E after a bunch of fighting, and got teleported away to an empty room and could not finish the game.

But those few tiny things aside, this was a great experience. The art was really great (nice shadows too!), and the audio was strong across the board. Controls were nice, with the hitch in my step when I shot creating more interesting situations than "spam fire all day and backpedal." It also forced me to choose what targets to go after first and who to spend my explosive arrows on.

Very nice jam entry, well done.

Danger Beat by rhoff95 2020-10-25T18:10:38Z ♥ 1

Very cool concept, and nice presentation. Good use of light and dark to indicate status, and also to call attention to the record even when the screen gets busy. Especially kind was the turbo-slide from last position to new one for the record, which helped me track it in a busy field of bullets.

I stink at bullet-hell games, but I was especially bad at this one. The farthest I got was to briefly hear the "HEY" sound. The controls are full-tilt - they seem to go from zero to full speed instantly, which makes it quite hard for me to micro-dodge. So I have to take my moves in huge lurches, meaning I have to read more of the field. That may be the style you were shooting for, I just wasn't able to keep up!

It was very nice that the game counter-balanced this high difficulty with a mostly-low punishment for failure, since getting hit just put you -1 record instead of gameover or some other brutal thing. I still found myself getting streaks of hits sending me WAY back, because once you get far into the game there are tons of bullets all over the place, and even if you get set back a few steps and some of the guns relax, those bullets they've already shot still exist for a while and so there's a "buffer" to how quickly the game will de-escalate the challenge.

I enjoyed playing around with it and giving it a bunch of tries, though. Cool twist mashing up a few different genres here to create a unique entry here, good job.

Frozen Potency by Eugenik 2020-10-25T17:45:31Z ♥ 0

Super moody with the color scheme and audio layers working really well together.

I was very confused at first, and getting shot before the I'd even parsed all the instructional text. So I hit the move key to dodge while I read, but this made it all disappear. I quit and restarted to read, so not really a big deal.

I'm not quite sure if I ever played how I was meant to. I just held down walk+sprint forever, and then left-clicked a box, charged up a powerthrow w/ right click, and then threw it at the guys. I wasn't really sure if I was supposed to also be deflecting their shots or moving in a more complex way, but that strat seemed to work.

It was a little repetitive after a while like that, but it definitely had a very cool mood/vibe and a really unique gameplay.

Jack's Inferno by mharring 2020-10-25T17:06:50Z ♥ 3

Wow this one is firing on all cylinders, very nice entry.

I played the web-compo version, and I got the black-screen bug after circle 2, so I restarted. Then I got the bug again, and nearly gave up. But I tried a third time, and this time I got to continue past it, so I ended up beating the game.

Obviously the art and sound are really strong here, so great job with that. But what I liked most was some of the really nice design work. Here are a few points I enjoyed about the design:

- Enemies are very straightforward to deal with in isolation, but difficulty arises from the combination: melee enemies make me want to approach cautiously and in a straight line, while fireball guy makes me want to circlestrafe and rush in. This tension was excellent.

- Melee guys had some other nice touches: their hiding was effective about the right amount, saw them if I was cautious but also got surprised sometimes. They break off the chase and retreat after a certain distance, so you don't get a huge megaclump you see with a more basic AI. This helped them cooperate even better with fireball guy.

- Fireball guy made terrain feel more important in a nice way.

- Crows respawning made it so that health was always just a matter of surviving this fight, and prevent the game from becoming a battle of attrition. Attrition games (where you never want to take any hit) can be great too, but I feel like you made the right call for this game and wisely avoided it.

So overall I felt like a lot of very small decisions worked well together to maximize the experience and make for an enjoyable game.

The only thing that didn't really work together with other elements to create interest was the sheep. I also just held down the pitchfork button during fights, and even a lot of the walking around (in case I got jumped). I'm not sure if that's good or bad.

Not much to critique here, this was an excellent entry. Great music, great art, great gameplay, nice boss fights. Well done!

Race Condition by pekuja 2020-10-25T16:05:29Z ♥ 1

43 flags was my best. I loved how hectic some of the intersections got, like this: https://imgur.com/hkXfTyG

It was a very cool idea that played out well. I also liked the controls on the car.. It's always tricky to get a WASD car feeling good because I want to steer at different angles at different times, and while I also felt that stiffness in this game, you had a good match between the turns the track asked of me and the turns the controls gave me. Nice tuning.

The car-on-car collisions were also tuned well. When I hit ... myself ... it was bad but not instantly game-ending. It was in a nice sweet spot of setback. The edge of the track was a little more brutal, and I lost all of my games the same way: clipped the edge of the track with the front of my car and got spun around backwards, then couldn't get righted in time.

But I'm split on it -- on the one hand, if the game was a little more generous with edge-collisions and had some way to build back up lost time, I could get further into the game and have some REALLY crazy car-filled tracks. But on the other hand, the difficulty felt good and forced me to concentrate on driving well, with a good level of punishment when I didn't.

Overall really enjoyed it, nice work!

EDIT: check it out, while I was tying, left the game running and then this happened: https://imgur.com/MYCyKtw

Among The Stars by Layne Stokes 2020-10-25T15:53:35Z ♥ 1

Music is jammin! Leaving it running while I write here.

Had a little friction at first trying to figure the game out, but then I got into it and played until I got a respectable spot on the leaderboard (nice touch).

Friction points on first contact: controls felt backwards and I struggled to activate the option as it did not seem to kick in when I activated it. I still don't know what happened, it just suddenly seemed to kick in one time. Then in game trying to play, it took me a while to figure out at what scale the objects were passing my collision plane, especially the rings. I kept leaping for them too late. But after a while I got better at judging the distance.

None of those issues stuck around after I got up to speed though. And then I found myself getting into the zone. I appreciated the very quick restart, and REALLY appreciated the way the game is not exactly repeating itself every time I play, so it was fresh enough that retry meant "play more" and not "do the exact same thing over again."

Controls were solid, and I enjoyed the feeling of flowing through the different geometric patterns the obstacles came in.

If I could tweak one thing about the game, I think there is room for improvement on the VERY small adjustments. The controls may be slightly too responsive to tiny taps, given that it asks to you to sometimes make tiny movements. I found myself overshooting tiny moves, and the feel might be improved by having a few frames of ramp-up on the responsiveness.

Overall a nice entry that sucked me into playing "one more game" a few times more than I thought I would. Nice job!

Infinitely Worse - A Necromantic Adventure by mikelovesrobots 2020-10-25T15:30:42Z ♥ 0

Looks nice, plays smoothly, pace feels like a pretty good balance of waiting vs getting new stuff.

It felt a little linear to me since everything was the same: pay outflow, get +inflow/sec. I found myself wishing for a few other mechanics that could interact and create that feeling like I'm building up a machine or combo.

The writing was imaginative and helped sell the necro thing in the absence of art or sound.

And the "delete all for x2" is a very nice savage twist the captures the LD theme.

Leten Paradox by Darkhex 2020-10-12T03:41:53Z ♥ 1

2416 was my top score. Not sure if that's good, but it was definitely a lot better than my first few attempts! First couple of games I was totally bamboozled about why the game was ending, if it was not because I directly took a hit. Came back to read the instructions and realized I was probably killing my past self.

After that I had a strategy: Take over the left side of the screen, and for the first life just bulletspam to the right while walking up and down. Second life doesn't shoot. I sort of looped back and forth between spammy and mostly-passive lives.

But even then I was a little confused because I wasn't sure about the rules of the enemy playback ghosts. Or were those greyish guys something else? There was a lot going on and it was all happening fast and when I did something wrong the screen instantly disappeared, so it was not easy to learn in this game through experience.

But the action was fast-paced so I didn't mind restarting, and the concept was interesting enough that I wanted to explore it, and the controls were tight enough that I felt like it was my own mistake when I did die. So I found myself getting sucked into "one more try" mode, over and over, which is a great sign!

Nice music, effective graphics, tight controls, and a unique concept -- all around a nice package!

Orbit by Porcus_Pie 2020-10-11T21:00:05Z ♥ 1

You really accomplished your goal of creating the moody atmosphere of chill where I could contemplate the puzzles with calm. If I imagine the same mechanics but with an countdown timer of maybe a bomb defusal theme, I am feeling very tense and not appreciating it as much. I really liked the decision to go with the chill contemplative abstract vibe.

The monochrome palette was a good way to emphasize that. And the sound was *almost* just right. I think the concept was right on point, but maybe the actual sound was slightly wrong. It was maybe a little too peppy to my ear. So still good, but maybe a sleepier more synthetic sound with a little slower attack would have had even more harmony with the rest of the experience.

The tactile interaction was nice. I liked the slow sliding movement of the puzzle when it wasn't being interacted with, though I was glad it was very slow because faster rotation would have been too distracting and caused me to lose the geography of the puzzle. I never once made an error in input, and when I was testing to see if I could swap non-adjacent pieces the result was clear ("you cannot").

Gameplay-wise the puzzles were nice. The length was appropriate for the depth, and I felt like you explored most avenues. Because there are only two types, and because the selection must be continuous, it felt like the possible ideas for you to explore were a bit limited. Totally appropriate for the game length and stayed engaging throughout, but I suspect you'd need some extra element to unlock further puzzle-space to explore.

My general strategy was "find the largest existing contiguous already-correct section, almost certainly the best move is to flip at its borders" and I feel like generally this held true. In the 3-move puzzles I generally made move 1 on blind faith on that basis and I never once had to restart. So a new element for an expansion would probably have to invalidate that shortcut.

Really a very nice all around entry, especially when I consider the limited time you had available! Great job on both puzzle mechanics and feel.

Caught in the music loop by merkisoft 2020-10-11T20:08:31Z ♥ 1

Pretty cool! I got to level 9 before I couldn't hack it any more.

My main struggle was synchronizing the start. Maybe if you gave the first beat for "Free" to the player, it would let them know where the rhythm begins. I had a couple of times where I thought I had it, only to realize the real one started on 2 and not on 1, for example. I am glad to see in your screenshot that you added a "clear" button, because that was something I also wished sorely for a few times.

Nice work for only 10 hours!! And a good level of challenge.

Bust-a-Loop by PeachTreeOath 2020-10-11T18:36:55Z ♥ 1

I always had this gap with fighting games:

I'd read about how deeply strategic they were, for example from Sirlin, and that would get me excited to play one. But there's this HUGE wall. It's a struggle to even know what my character is going to do next when I press a button, never mind watching my opponent to look for openings.

So you install, let's say... Street Fighter 4 on your windows machine. And you go into practice mode and choose one fat guy and learn a bunch of his moves. Repeating over and over vs the AI. Then you go find a match... And it takes 10 minutes to pair you with someone, and you finally get paired, only to have the game cancel and send you back. So you wait another 5 minutes, and finally a match, and you get wrecked in 1 minute. Oh did I mention you had to install some whole slew of "platform" software just to run this game on windows? And so you bounce off, every time you try fighting games.

They are clearly not intended to be played by people who don't already play them.

So I love that you took an essential fragment of this genre and manifested it in this simpler form for me to experience.

I had a lot of fun with this, and I played until my fingers got tired. I am pretty terrible at it, but after some practice I started getting good enough to really enjoy the 3-move difficulty level.

I definitely achieved a bunch of that HELL YEAH feeling when nailing a combo, and it was super-satisfying to get there. It also felt really cool to build up to that moment through trial and error, better learning the interaction of the timing and knockback of the specific moves in a specific order. And then there was the strategic layer of what order to use.

This puzzle build-up to HELLYEAH pay-off loop was really awesome. Well done!

Because I suck at fighting games there were a lot of small boons I wished for in this game, let me just fire off a few things that I think would have helped me perform better without eroding the essence of the game. Probably just pointing out the obvious with some of these, and you didn't have time:

- I want to understand the hitboxes better. I kept wiffing with cloud kick. The boon I want is a small impact graphic at the exact point of first intersection so that I can better internalize the boundary. In a perfect world, if I wiff and it's close enough, I'd even like to see a "wiff" graphic describing the delta at the min-dist point of the boxes.

- I could use a bit more transparency for the knockback effect of a move, and so perhaps the impact graphic could include a vector component pointing out the size/direction of the momentum it will impart.

- I wished for clearer transparency into the recovery time of a move. The cards themselves did show this, but I often couldn't spare a glance there. I think maybe if my actual character did something like have hand/feet or hat turn to a different shade during recovery it would have helped me with some of the tighter timings. A specific example where I struggled was dragon punch into arcane fist from standstill.

- 1 3 2, 1 3 2, 1 3 2. This was the source of my main feelbad, and part of the reason I struggled when going to 4 attacks. The game needs me to memorize a pattern of button presses but they don't reflect a decision. The main thread in my brain is having fun processing my positioning and timing, but I also have to keep chanting the button numbers to myself. I lost a lot of combos to pressing the wrong number just when things got tight, and that felt bad. Part of the issue is that a move can be on a diff button in a diff round, so my own subconscious would betray me. I found myself wishing that I had a single attack button, and could re-sort the attack cards into the order they would be fired by that one button.

Anyway, I don't mean to emphasize any negatives, because I really enjoyed this game. The peak HELLYEAH moments were really enjoyable. My favorite thing to do was Valiant Foot into Blade Drop.

Great entry - a very clever use of the theme, and overall an awesome package.

Of Kats and Carens by khaotom 2020-10-11T17:02:14Z ♥ 2

This game was a pleasure to interact with all around.

The music was fantastic and had me bouncing, and if I'm picking up what you're laying down, the supermarket level had a version of the song that sounded like it was coming from the far-away store speakers. Nice touch!

The art looked great and was nicely animated. I also liked how the ... targets "popped" their size a bit when I snapped them in a circle.

The sound effects of the angry growls and huffs were great, and the buzzing of drawing a circle was also nice. I think a buzzing sound effect like that is risky because it can become grating, but this one avoided that problem and felt electric without becoming unpleasant.

Gameplay was simple fun that I think captured the spirit of the game. If you were hosting a high-stakes KnC tournament or something I guess you could tighten up a few details.. it seems you can kind of cheese things a bit by drawing huge fast circles. I am also still a little unclear on when/why the circle-draw action gets cancelled. It is when a Caren complains? Or when someone crosses a line? Or maybe they have an interrupting collider on their head? I went back and tested specifically this but was still a bit unclear, and on my initial playthrough I had a general feeling of "wait what just happened?" No big deal, it was still fun, but if I was supposed to understand a specific aspect there I missed it. It also felt like sometimes Carens didn't "pop" and I wasn't always 100% sure which were quarantined.

At first I assumed you had to circle each person alone, and was wondering why I had to wait for "game over" when I had 5 Carens, and wasted one of my 5 circles. But I figured out that I had to quarantine "Carnens vs the world". Makes sense!

Very nice entry with a ton of personality.

Another by Atomic 2020-10-11T16:32:53Z ♥ 1

Very interesting game. I generally don't appreciate when the difficulty arises from the controls, but when a game leans into it the way this one does, it can work and create a unique experience.

To succeed I had to be careful where I put my eyes when, and the way the the movement keys would switch function when the time came to attack.. it was difficult but it felt like it should be doable. So I kept retrying over and over. Eventually I gave up at the 3-handed other.

If I could wish for one player boon (and I played the compo version only so maybe you did this) it would be a tiny audio cue indicating the state change between when the game is in movement mode vs attack mode. I need a small cue on both seams.

Most of my runs were lost like this: OK dodge 1, return to center, dodge 2 return to center, dodge 3, return, 4, now a conflict between the key to return me to center and the attack arises in my brain, and whoops I didn't get my return movement, now let me press the attack, woops too late I got a movement instead, but because my eyes were over on the attack area I didn't even clearly see it. Now when I do focus back the game state that "should" exist in my mind is different than the game state I see on the screen, and I move to correct that but it's already too late and I start getting hit.

Nothing in the world wrong with that, it's clear that the game wants to overwhelm me with what the right inputs are. But audio cues on that ultra-important state change would power me up. I could also use a "player moved" footstep sound. (EDIT: now seeing that other commenters didn't take a single hit, ha. Each has their own experience I guess!)

The other way I took hits was trying to simplify by not returning to center, but this left me too many 3-moves plus made the muscle memory harder to build up. I enjoyed that the game had this tension about the best way to approach it.

Clearly the game had me thinking through the details of the interactions, which I think is a sign it was pretty successful at engaging me in the gameplay!

Beyond gameplay the art was really nice, the ambient audio was a good baseline for the solid sound effects to sit atop without feeling empty, and I enjoyed the mysterious intro that gave a background context to the fight but left room for imagination. That air of mystery carried over well into the fact that I had to explore a little to learn the game rules at first. I personally enjoy that in small games where that figure-it-out phase adds a bit more to the experience.

Overall a really solid compo entry, nice work.

Soundcloud The Concert: The Game by beats 2020-10-09T15:30:54Z ♥ 1

Really cool crazy backstory, and I liked the feeling of jumping around frantically and trying to get the beat going.

I think this game is harder than it means to be. I suspect it "means" to be about the correct level of difficulty, but then ends up too hard because of some really low-level stuff that creates splinters in the experience. Let me go into detail on a few of the splinters I felt while playing, but first let me say I don't mean to dwell on the negative or say it's a bad game. I don't go into detail on splinters for bad games, I do it when I think a game is cool and has potential to be great, but let some tiny things get in the way.

So I hope this is constructive, that is how I mean it to be!!

First, everything feels a little too abrupt. It probably doesn't feel that way to you as the creator because you know all the systems, but as the player it's tough. The green spark is there, but by the time I change direction to get it, it's already too late. Or I'm watching for the spark and checking my wrench health, and avoiding a soundwave, and GAME OVER - what?? With multiple things to track, all happening very quickly, and on top of a core of difficulty, I need more information flow than this game gives me. I need it to telegraph in advance, with a pre-sparkle coming before the spark so that I can change my path and still make it, rather than memorizing the exact timing in advance over two dozen deaths. I need a cue that the audience is about to reach its limit so I know to go all-out, rather than just playing and getting surprise insta-death. Ideally these cues would be both audio and visual so that I can perceive them through the clutter of my attention jumping around. You as the designer understand how all of the pieces fit together, and how often/quick each piece goes, but as the player I am totally bamboozled at first, and the game underestimates how confused I am. Try to put more attention into details of communicating and telegraphing important state changes.

Second, the game is a bit too stingy and brutal with the microscopic stuff like colliders and jumping. For example, I was running right along with the rapper, wrench ready, just as he sparked... and I DIDN'T GET IT?? Apparently I have to jump, because the collider is so tight that it doesn't overlap with me standing. Another example is the top platform, and the way I have to go jump up to get a fresh wrench. The character controller doesn't offer me the usual "ghost jump" leeway that I expect from modern games, and so many times I felt like I did push the jump button but didn't get the jump out. I think in general you want to be more generous to the player about microscopic things like this so that the controls feel "great", and THEN tune the difficulty on top of great controls. The way the game is, the controls feel a little bit stingy, and difficulty does not feel as fun when stingy controls are the source of challenge.

But splinters aside, I had fun with this game, and I found it super creative. You seem to have some very cool ideas, and I think you as a developer can upgrade your skills to be more aware of these details that can subtly enhance an experience, and you'll really start making some top-notch stuff. Look forward to seeing what you do next!

The Ring Of Happiness by JulienLussiez 2020-10-09T01:28:23Z ♥ 1

The music was just great - small concise pieces that very well captured the mood of each scene. These paired so well with the animated pictures floating in darkness, which felt like pages from a storybook. The music and the pages really worked together. The first time I encountered the scene on the rock in the river, I sat and just enjoyed it for a while.

I also liked the writing, with a little mix of poetic phrases and humor. I think my favorite was "Happiness by intermittence." The opening also told me to "have little empathy" and I enjoyed being left to wonder whether this was an intentional subversion of my expectations or a small oversight. I also liked that you left a little mystery. I have a guess at what the ring of happiness is, but I appreciate that it's up to me to decide.

From a tactile perspective, I liked how easy it was to rocket through the choices. In ordinary life we can only take one path and not explore the others, so I appreciated that it was easy to do so in a game such as this. I went to the book shelf to find the appropriate quote from The Unbearable Lightness of Being, but I think it's up in the attic in a box, 90% read.

Overall delivers so well as a total package. I don't know how to feel about the fact that the music was added after and thus the audio cannot be rated. I guess I wish you gave yourself that extra day and submitted to the jam instead, so that I could give you those stars.

Mudcar Sprint by Tutti Ankka 2020-10-08T15:21:58Z ♥ 0

Oh, wow... metal + driving in the mud is definitely the way to my heart!

Great job on the music, especially the evolution of the drums through the sections and the various turnarounds, really kept my head banging without making me bored.

Overall look was very nice too, with some solid models, nice crisp clear track lanes, and an overall nice palette of colors. Title screen with that text bouncing to the music got me all ready to go!

The gameplay itself was solid, but it wasn't exactly the METAL I was hoping for... it was kind of a pacifist mosh pit, with everyone politely staying in their lanes, and the no-touching rules very strictly enforced. When I'm driving in the mud to metal, what I really want is to slip and slide just over the edge on the wrong side of control, roughing up the walls, the other drivers, and myself. This game was not that game, and that's completely fine of course!

I did still enjoy some of the really narrow calls in the lane-switching -- I appreciated the tension of how tight some of gaps were. I eventually needed some more variety to the gameplay, but for a compo this was still nice scope.

And I'm still listening to the music in the background as I write this review and STILL haven't gotten bored of it!

Edit: still letting this song run... if you dig this sort of music, I can recommend checking out the game Jupiter Hell, I'm getting vibes of that soundtrack from your tune.

Strange Planet by tengusheath 2020-10-06T04:36:17Z ♥ 1

A simple concept but the charming artwork and nice sound effects make it work. The few bits of dialog establishing a character also helped to get me a little more invested before the slaughter began. Lot of ideas for little things that could be added, but it stood on it's own well enough. Eventually my finger got tired and I fell soon after that.

Nice basic but well-polished and charming entry.

Klone Karts by ABRDs 2020-10-06T04:20:38Z ♥ 3

The second I saw the art I rushed to play the game.

I love driving/combat mashups and I love drifting in the mud, and from the screenshot/gif it looked like this game was going to be ***** METAL!!

And it was fun -- but I didn't feel the METAL. I felt like it needed a few tweaks. I'll go a little deeper on what I was hoping for and some issues I ran into, not because it's a bad game but because it's good and could be great.. I hope this is constructive:

First problem is the main design challenge of any driving game: you have a discrete input (keyboard) controlling a vehicle usually controlled by a continuous input (steering wheel). With a steering wheel I can turn a little bit left, or a lot, and express any precise angle I intend. But with a keyboard, I can only press or not-press "D". How does a driving game create the ability for a player to express their intent for turning angle? This game doesn't have an answer, and so what happens is the classic problem: every single turn is at exactly the same radius. Extra-unfortunately in this game, that radius is not well-matched to the radius of the track's curve, and every turn goes the same way: gradually out toward the wall. You can see this problem happening in your gif.

There is no perfect answer to this design problem, but here are three ideas you could try that might improve the feel of this game: Letting go of "W" while holding "D" could sharpen the turn. Or I could have a brake/drift on space that I can tap (and weapon goes to another key). Or at least the car's turning should be TIGHTER than the track and not looser, because then I could use quick bursts of releasing "D" to realign with the track. In this game, I can't press "D" enough, so I always go into the wall which isn't very METAL.

Second problem is the killing. I was pretty excited for it, but I struggled to get satisfying kills. The best ones were purple-box items rocket and land mine, which were both satisfying. I could have used a 10 or 20x increase in how often I can use those features. The smoke screen was always a disappointing pickup because it meant "no fun kills this lap." I didn't find the green boxes worth it, they just slow down the driving for me as well as the Klones, so I rarely got them... perhaps I just misunderstood their use?

Since the weapons of war were so rare, and I wanted to get my METAL combat on, I tried ramming people into wrecks or into the wall. But it was hard to line up rams, and when I did get into position for a ram what often happened is that I hit the wall and died. So I felt a little discouraged to experiment with rams.

Anyway, if I could steer better, drift a little, ram people, and get 10x as many weapons, I think would really get into this.

The basic idea is great, and there's something really special about the badass way it looks and *almost* feels.

Hope that wasn't too much critique! I definitely had some spikes of intense fun with it.

Crypt of Capitalism by Lychee 2020-10-06T03:39:56Z ♥ 2

Music upgrade was clearly OP, loved it!

Humor and sprites were on point, and the platforming was solid enough to be a good foundation for the concept. Loved that I not only had to upgrade, but also downgrade my jump back and forth. Tried to cheat that system a few times but I definitely lost more than I gained. A highlight moment was the first time I ran out of currency and couldn't buy the jump I needed, and wasn't sure where it would go from there...

Short, but the right length to not overstay its welcome. All around nice entry!

SpaceRace by andrei009 2020-10-06T03:14:11Z ♥ 1

OK I made it to 60 seconds -- I feel like that has to be pretty good because I was doing some really nimble dodging to get there! Took a little to get used to the mouse controls, but after I got the hang of it I was positioning myself with good confidence in split seconds.

Endless runner may have been done many times before, but the controls, 3D dodging, and look made this one feel unique. Nice work!

Rad Boar Rewind by alexrose 2020-10-06T02:03:45Z ♥ 1

Verrry slick, from the intro to the art to the music, and all that on top of a great concept and tight controls. I've seen several other "collaborate with past selves in a time loop" games but this one was definitely my favorite so far.

I especially appreciated that the loops were tight, and that I could hard reset. Game did a great job of not wasting my time, which is a big risk with something that by definition forces me to repeat quite often.

I thought I would definitely complete the game, but I did ragequit at the two-elevators-7-seconds puzzle. My frustration on that one came when I had run something like 30 supporting lives to get the weights right, which was fine. (In calmer retrospect, maybe it can be done with only 1 or 2 and doesn't need a crowd?) I had it all set up but then one guy got his head stuck where the elevator enters the shaft, jamming it. BOOM once I havd mispositioned that guy by a few pixels it was game over... A soft reset didn't work because it was already too late, and a hard reset sent me back like 30 precision-button lives into the past. I did the hard reset once but after it happened AGAIN I'll confess I ragequit.

Kind of hope that was the final puzzle because I wanted to see all the game had to offer, it was really excellent!

Just an awesome entry, very well done.

Man.. I bet I didn't need so many lives on that one puzzle, maybe I'll go back and try it again...

(EDIT: The guy at 9:15 in your walk-thru was the one that jammed the up-elevator when I gave up)

Loop Drifter by Lvl3Mage 2020-10-06T00:27:09Z ♥ 1

Drifting feels great! Started off totally sucking at it, but once I got decent it was just great to drift around curves.

But there is one thing that hurt while I was trying to learn the groove: the ultra-high friction between the wall and the car is SOOOOO punishing. If I brush the wall with a front corner of my car, instead of a little bounce-off jolt, instead that point sticks hard to the wall and jerks my car around 90 degrees so I'm facing directly into the wall. Bumping walls should cost me time, but I was feeling like I could have had a lot more fun if they were a bit more forgiving by having less friction and more bounce.

That one complaint aside, it's a very nice game: great drift controls, tight gameplay-focused structure, a very clean nice-looking presentation, and strong audio. Nice work!

We need to talk by bereg 2020-10-05T14:31:09Z ♥ 1

Played a few times and managed a positive ending. I was pulled into the atmosphere of the game by the ambient sound of the Ferris wheel, the way the lighting made the shadows move as the wheel rotates, and the idle animations. These details were all in the nearby things, focusing me on the conversation, while the far-off things were highly abstracted. I felt like it was really well put together.

My hand of cards seemed like it always wanted me to be snide and evasive, but I guess that was a commentary on the difficulty of dealing directly with your fears!

Nice work all around, and very well polished for a compo entry.

Fort Loop by deepnight 2020-10-05T02:19:02Z ♥ 4

Very cool entry, with a strong idea and great graphics/sound/polish to match! I played the whole thing through, and the challenge and length were just right for my taste. It was fun to experiment and explore the rules, and the last few levels were clever tests of what I'd learned. A nice touch was the enemy guards, and they way they didn't require me to input an attack command or threaten me, except to delay me a bit.

Heads up, I did have to go dig up a gamepad because with the keyboard control I could not use ladders, leaving me unable to proceed through the tutorial. This was in the browser version. I went to download the windows version but I didn't see a link on the itch page. Once I got a USB gamepad everything worked fine.

Very strong compo entry, nice work!

Hall Of Mirrors by cookie042 2020-10-05T01:49:47Z ♥ 1

Really imaginative puzzle game. It has a nice presentation that goes beyond just showing the basic game state, to really reflect the idea of the game and emphasize how it ties to the theme.

The first few puzzles were a journey of discovering the rules, which I always enjoy. Then I started being able to reason them through and execute on a plan. I hit one with three red bricks and a not-quite-brick-sized hole in the floor, and I got stuck here.

Maybe I got stuck because I had the wrong solution in mind -- my solution involved carefully balancing the square brick on my round player in mid-air, which was quite difficult. I tried a lot but eventually gave up there. I think partly it was because of playing in the browser, as my frame rate and input responsiveness seemed to bog down a little.

For that plus the sound, I tried downloading the PC version but I got this error from itch when I tried: https://imgur.com/XE1VIUc

Overall excellent, was sorry I got stuck without going further.

Very nice entry!

[WebGL/HTML5] Murder Loop by leorid 2020-10-05T01:18:12Z ♥ 2

I did it! I made the whole loop!!

I spent quite a while with this, because it has a cool air of mystery about it, and a mix of combat, exploration, and cube-soccer. The animations and models are wild, too, love the mohawk and the unusual walking.

Part of the issues, but in a strange way also part of the appeal, was that the procedural animation seemed to get corrupted over time. After I had been playing a while, my guy would stagger around, sometimes spike way up into the air, shatter into pieces and then reform with twisted limbs. This corruption was another form of challenge, and you did a great job of giving me tools to deal with it, including some really smart choices like: the frequent checkpoints, the killplane beneath the level for when I clipped down into space, and the K key for when I clipped into other invalid areas. In fact, the whole options menu was vital, as it let me set my mouse sensitivity.

I appreciated the short bursts of combat, but I was glad it wasn't the main focus of the experience.

I got to a part where I went up an elevator and got a 7-gate, but my corruption was so extreme by then that I couldn't move forward.. at first. I would get 3-4 pieces together and then clip away, respawning, and my work would be undone.

I actually started writing this review having quit there, but I went back and gave it another shot, and I made it through that darn 7. After that it was a breeze to complete the loop.

If I could tweak one thing about the game it would be the make the cube-kicking a little more generous... maybe have a special "cube kick" layer, and put like an invisible "plow" collider in front of the player so they can herd the cubes slightly easier?

A very interesting and memorable experience, nice!

Oroboro by ugly_robot 2020-10-04T23:06:58Z ♥ 1

Really interesting concept that forced me to (try to) think long-term and in layers. I enjoyed the fact that it doesn't give a ton of instructions, which gave it a nice air of mystery. It was a little too tricky/long/difficult for me to complete, but definitely something memorable! The repetition of action (with accumulated knowledge) captured the theme really well, but eventually became a little repetitive after a bunch of tries.

The art and music also worked well with the vision to give a coherent vibe to the whole thing, too. The darkness and vision-cone did a great job of highlighting the past-selves and their dangerous vision.

Nice work.

Turtle Daddy by dummydojo 2020-05-03T22:06:54Z ♥ 1

Wow super-cute, right to the point, small breather to learn the ropes at start, difficulty ramps nicely, tight controls, good sound... this is well done across the board.

My favorite moment was discovering that my shield carries the babies back to me, I thought that was a very nice design touch!

Great job.

Dr Paparapa by knarf 2020-05-03T16:49:41Z ♥ 1

Hey! Sorry it flipped from fun to pain this time out. I gave the game a try. I'm pretty bad at rhythm games in general (although I remember Parappa fondly) so I didn't score super-well on this. I was doing okay at first, but the way the arrows come in and want me to press several different ones at once made it tough. I think I was thrown off by the way the arrows come from four different directions. I kept inverting left/right in my brain: the things coming from the left want me to press right. It makes sense because they are MOVING right, but somehow my brain kept thinking about the direction they come FROM and not their direction of movement.

But it was a cool vibe, nice idea to have the breakdancing, and the music choice was nice (if you made that then wow nice work!)

Sorry you didn't get as far as you wanted with this one, better luck next time! I think for me, it would also be very difficult to extend the compo into a jam. The effort of the 48 hours already takes a lot out of me and leaves me in a very drained state. I can imagine that coming to the end and feeling bad and then extending it for ANOTHER DAY would really push me over the edge into unhealthy.

iNanny by weeping-rupee 2020-05-03T16:33:18Z ♥ 1

I found this one very stylish. The opening movie reel was a very nice way to set the stage, and fit the overall style well. The robot had controls that felt very nice, and while there was a bit of initial confusion I quickly figured the game out (first thought was that I had to push the baby, took some fails to uncover the real objective).

The music and sound really sold the vibe, and also conveyed the important play events like lock-on etc. The randomness of the layout kept the game from feeling overly repetitive, but also created some janky situations from time to time where I felt a little cheated, but not too bad. I liked how there were two failure states, with both the baby and the robot at risk, and they way I had to balance them, especially once there were two enemies.

I didn't beat it. The best I did was get past several segments of double-enemy.

I think there's probably something even better hiding in the raw material you have here, something that feels a little more fair and puzzley that could deliver a more potent dose of that Oh-I'm-so-clever feeling for the player for manipulating the switches to change the map. I caught a few little tastes of it, but some runs went by without me getting any of that feeling. Really hard to sieze that in a gamejam, especially with procgen at play, but I bet with a little more time there's more here to mine.

Overall a very nice entry!

droidathon by acgaudette 2020-04-26T14:15:03Z ♥ 1

Really original presentation plus the chunky movement makes this a whole new experience. Nicely done! I found the difficulty pretty high, so I kept losing the third duel, and getting sent back to zero was feelsbad so eventually I couldn't face the first duel AGAIN so I gave up. I certainly would have played longer if you restarted against the same enemy (or even regressed 1) but maybe that would have chepeaned the achievement of winning.

But I definitely had fun. Enemy movement is nice, their offense is brutal if you just stand and fire, and that forces you to use the movement system. The chunk-steps of movement are an interesting twist, and it's cool how you fall down if you try to bust a flurry of moves out.

Lots of nice touches here, well done! Oh - almost forgot, I really appreciated the sensitivity setting.

Food Chuck by PeachTreeOath 2020-04-25T15:44:17Z ♥ 4

WHAT'S WRONG WITH CACTUS YOU PICKY BASTARDS!!? ;)

This was a wild ride, nice job. It's a delightfully bonkers universe, the first couple of seconds I already understood this was in the neighborhood of Mad Max and I was a nutter in a crazy car. The music was a great way to set the tone right from the start. Then the weirdo food orders start coming, and it's a wonderful mashup.

A few important elements of the game didn't reveal themselves to me immediately, but were great once I figured them out - I didn't notice the specific bullseye targets at first, and I didn't realize the audio weaponswitch was actually saying the name of the food. Once I figured those two things out I was doing a LOT better!

...Side note: Actually it ended up mattering that the voice was saying the food names, because beyond being just a helpful piece of gameplay info communicated on a second channel, it also helped me to understand that it was a cactus and not a watermelon. That became relevant after I went a little too far down a google-hole on that folk song and its history... o_O

My laptop's GPU is not great, so it was getting maxed out when the action heated up, and as a result I think I had a choppier experience than ideal. Still totally playable, but I bet the experience is that much better when there's a buttery smoothness to the aiming. With a bit of lag-stutter to my aiming I felt like my skill ceiling was a bit capped.

The introduction of additional food items was a really great way to escalate the difficulty, and the new vehicles gave progression a nice flavor. I did struggle a bit with exactly what part of my reticle I should be aiming with, and it wasn't always clear to me whether I had exploded a car in the success or fail way. I also found myself looking backwards toward the end of a level for more targets to fire at, and as a result usually missed the level rollover graphic that you have to be facing forward to see. I got the bananawaffle level a couple of times, and once I think I beat it but was looking backwards, though I was back at level 1 before I tried weaponswitching around to check for new food types, so maybe not.

Really cool experience, with a nice challenge to the gameplay through the wobbliness of the targets and the switching of food types, plus this crazy hybrid of post-apocalyptic zaniness that really came to life through all of the graphics, sound, and music.

Great job!

Keep It Alive by danman9914 2020-04-24T00:07:44Z ♥ 1

In LD44 I made a game about shoveling coal into a steam train while you multi-tasked, so when I saw this I had to check out another take on the concept.

But this is just so well executed in the details. The air of mystery in the storytelling, the old man, his shoes, it all just works so well together. The sound effects are great, and fit with the chunky move system. The discrete nature of the state transitions in the shoveling made it feel more physical and satisfying, and the inclines were a great way to ratchet up the tension for brief bursts. The end had a sense of urgency and I saw I had to hit the button, so I only got a glimpse of the final scene, which was somehow fitting.

Very impressive entry, nice work.

The Last Tree by Team Wala 2020-04-23T23:48:38Z ♥ 1

Hey, wow, what graphics, and the sound is music is really atmospheric. I was excited to see where it went, unfortunately the game maxed out my laptop's GPU, so everything moved in ultra-slow-mo with a lot of stutter and lag dominating the feel. I felt like I could not really play the actual intended experience so I just left ratings on the graphics and mood, sorry I can't offer feedback on more!

Pollinate by Adam Konig 2020-04-23T23:33:54Z ♥ 0

Very nice! I was initially concerned about the number of controls, but it was not a problem. The game is so peaceful and calm, and never puts any time pressure on you, so the phase where I was awkward at the controls didn't matter.

I thought I was done, and then I spent more time with it trying to create a smoother gradient between a red and blue flower.

pollinate-gradient.png

The graphics, gameplay, and sound all created a very peaceful and moody entry, really well done!

Monster Love by Endurion 2020-04-23T23:12:11Z ♥ 0

Oh man, it's like the Dark Souls of fly-swatting games! The way that swatting locks you out from moving or turning for a moment, combined with the way that there's a dead-spot between you and the swatter so you can't get TOO close, really made for a challenge!

The music was great at increasing the tension and the whole game did a good job of making me feel frantic. Well done!

The Hero of the Hamlet by theyellowgreninja 2020-04-23T04:30:59Z ♥ 1

Wowzers, second I saw the guy I was like, "well someone gave this hero a lot of coffee!" He's absolutely vibrating with kinetic energy. And it's no lie. I barely had to do more than glance at the keyboard, and he goes zooming around at 100 miles per hour!

I don't mind. I often suggest people's games should move faster, and I am okay with turbo-get-to-the-action!

I was sort of confused at first, though. There seems to be nothing productive to do with the first day, so I was just waiting around. The night would come and OMG the zombies! They smashed it all. First five or ten games I didn't know the shop was the shop, so it didn't exist anymore by the time I would have learned that. It was just "that grey building" and I would end up alone, protecting a single house by standing still at the spot the zombies favored and holding down "shoot" during the night, and then wondering how the game worked all day.

So I caved and read the instructions. "Shoot the items to buy them!" it says. So there are the items, up at the top of the screen. I shoot them a hundred times, but nothing happens. Oh wait, that is my inventory UI bar, not the REAL items! Back to the instructions and I learn there is a shop, which will open on the second day. That's when I realize the grey building means something special, and so I hatch a plan: TONIGHT I will guard just that one shop to make sure it doesn't get wrecked by zombies, because I will ignore the rest of the town to guard just that! This way it's guaranteed not to get wrecked by zombies! ... It gets wrecked by zombies.

The downside of my speed is that I cannot precisely position myself. There's a zombie - shoot him! Wait, a little to the left. No, not THAT far! Now a little to the right. No! You went too far an you're back where we started! Oh wait the shop is gone, which is effectively game over.

It's actually a nice touch that the sand makes you slow. You think that's bad at first but then you realize that sometimes slow and steady wins the race.

I went round and round like this, until I got a few upgrades and started smashing some zombies a little more efficiently. But honestly? I didn't really mind. Because my hyperspeed hero was zooming all over, blast bullets all over, and I was kind of enjoying it! Those zombies are crazy, because I sure wouldn't be attacking that guy's town.

So overall a really interesting little game, just a bit of struggle getting engaged with the systems, due to some confusion.

Pretty sweet job with the music and sound, too, by the way.

Gate Ball by Zyllen 2020-04-23T03:46:40Z ♥ 1

Wow a really interesting idea here, and an absolutely fantastic execution on the look and sound. I feel like I would have enjoyed this a lot if the controls had just been a bit smoother. I struggled pretty badly the first few minutes, and I think it was the sensitivity of both the mouse (making it hard to tune my aim) and also the keyboard (making hard to fine tune my position). I think a touch of acceleration on the keyboard controls could help smooth them a bit, I felt like I was "snapping" back and forth between left-of what I wanted, then right-of, back and forth while the clock ran out.

The second thing in controls I struggled with was the pull-back. First time I played, I thought it was kind of like pool/billiards, where I would line up behind the ball, then pull back and shoot. But when I did that, I pulled *WAY* back, and sometimes I fell out of the level and broke the game, other times I lost view of the game because of a wall, but in the times where I did take a shot it seemed like I barely grazed the ball at all or even stopped completely short of it. Later I learned to pre-windup and only THEN approach the ball, but the issue with this method is the suuuuper-slow movement rate you have post-windup.

In the end I did learn to adjust, and I settled on a strategy of going way forward of the ball (but off to the side a bit), and then winding up so I was backed up near the ball, and then inching over to it and releasing. This worked okay and I got to level 4 where I very nearly won.

But I felt like it was a shame, because the game was so interesting, but instead of thinking about the strategy of the GAME, I was thinking about the strategy of the INPUT to the game. I feel like this is a great concept, and I would have really enjoyed it a lot if there was less friction in between my plan and my action.

Hope that's useful feedback! I only go into detail on an input critique like that when I feel like the game has a great idea, so I don't mean it to be too negative. You really hit the target on the look and feel, vibe, and also the game idea, so the fact that I critique the inputs doesn't mean I think it's bad or give a low rating. I just kind of want to play the version with streamlined inputs!

EDIT: Wow just checked and I see this is your first LD, too, nice work!

LD Jam 46 Keep It Alive by brandann 2020-04-23T03:20:17Z ♥ 0

I won! Not easy, but a good amount of challenge where I felt like I was to blame when I died. The controls were tight, but then the "lag" of the knight moving behind me created new and interesting movement challenges that felt interesting to explore.

The music was a standout for the mood, and probably kept me hanging in there for one more try without it feeling empty. I gotta pick up SOME kind of music skills for these compos, I'm always impressed by what people can do while still covering all the other bases, but this one was especially nice.

So yeah - tight controls, cool mechanic, great music, and nice art (esp the main characters and environment), all kept me coming back to try again because I knew I could beat it but just messed up... until I won! A good all-around entry, nice job.

Edit: how come I can't rate you on audio?

Maintenance Bot 46 by Gurglesprain 2020-04-23T02:56:21Z ♥ 1

Nice FTL vibe with the graphics, the red oxygen, and the slowly-spiraling-out-of-control crisis! At first I was like, "yeah I got this under control, I'll optimize my repair abilities by locating centrally in between breaches!" HAHAHAHA "IN BETWEEN" BREACHES! Soon I learned the error of that thinking!

Who built this ship anyway?? And didn't I JUST FIX THAT EXACT SPOT?? ;)

Game is pretty cool, but I wonder what could be done to juice up the feel a bit. Couple of comments in that direction: I did wonder what it might feel like if the game was faster overall - faster movement, faster breach repair, faster crisis arriving... did you experiment with mixing up the speed during the jam? When playing, I also noticed I caught the edge on corners a lot because I was seeking to minimize my travel time, and I was wondering if the colliders are all boxes. Sometimes a circle collider can be nice for avoiding "stuck" moments. Lastly, maybe allowing diagonal movement instead of only the cardinal directions would be worth considering.

Maybe I'm just a speed freak though. I do like to zip around in games.

Congrats on your first compo LD!

ALIEN RESCUE by Imphenzia 2020-04-23T00:06:33Z ♥ 0

212, thought it was good but I see a lot better has been done! https://imgur.com/JEj8Yit

Man, nice work. This one hits a coherent light-hearted vibe across all the elements and really comes together. The tune is boppin'. The art is cute, appealing, and clear. That crazy alien... I mean the gameplay fits right into the tone, what is that GUY DOING IS HE CRAZY!!!?!?!! And then *whamp* that sound effect when you get hit, oh my.

Controls were really solid, too. Are there discrete stops to the playfield that subtly facilitate standing exactly on the lines where cars won't hit you? If so nice flourish. Only thing gameplay-wise that was feelbad was when the alien got knocked off the screen and I had to attempt a blind ressucitation. That moment felt like it didn't fit into the whole experience.

Oh wait - one other small nit: given the game is played entirely on keyboard, I found myself wishing the keyboard could restart, instead of having to grasp for the mouse each time I lost.

So very nicely done: a classic arcade trope, then a small twist derived directly from the LD theme, executed on-point with art, sound, music, and gameplay. A very compo entry, well done.

(My wife was in the other room, and I guess I was laughing pretty loud, because she shouted "Someone made a good game!")

Disco Lives by rjhelms 2020-04-22T23:45:48Z ♥ 3

Disco power prevailed!!

A few setbacks along the way, but otherwise it wouldn't have been an adventure. I was really grooving to the tune, and the art/sfx captured the spirit nicely. Controls smooth, game rules clear, very nice retro arcade gameplay with a few interesting interactions to explore (yes disco does beget disco!).

Very nice entry hitting all the bases, well done!

BLOOM ETERNAL by samboyer276 2020-04-22T23:16:01Z ♥ 2

OK, here goes: I lovehate this game.

I am going to talk about what I like, but I am also going to critique details in the controls. The critique is not because the game is bad, or because I'm giving a poor rating. Exactly opposite: it's because the game is very GOOD but has a couple of simple choices that really downgrade the play experience for me. I hope you are OK with that sort of feedback, because I mean it to be helpful and constructive, and I really hope it does not come across disheartening or insulting.

First, I LOVE the design. The Doom theme is great, and the art and chippy sounds have this great dissonance between the aggressive/demonic theme of Doom and the peacefulness of gardening. The design of gameplay is also excellent in the way that it forces me to multi-task and trade off between combat and gardening, I just love it. I also think the tutorial is very intelligently done: it leaves me alone in peace for as long as I need to understand several key things, the controls, the flowers and how they need watering, and even the flower-radar in the lower left.

It's a great game in that regard, and I like it.

And now for the pain, and please forgive me as I state my opinion as "fact":

1) Water on Z/C isn't right. I am in physical pain from twisting my pinky around to hit Z while keeping my hand on ESDF. Pico-8 would have let you use Tab, but the game doesn't accept that input. Right-click, E, shift, TAB, almost ANYTHING but Z, X, or C.

2) The camera is not correct. Because the player needs to see the action, many top-down shooters will not keep the character exactly in the center, and instead will shift the camera a little so they can see ahead of where they are going and/or aiming. Bloom does exactly the opposite, letting the player move ahead of the camera. This creates a multitude of problems, and it actually took me some testing and reflection to identify that all of these bad feels came from just the camera:

- It denies a view of the action. Every game, I lost to enemies I couldn't quite see but felt I should have.

- When enemies do come into view, there is only a tiny range of area that I can click into for shooting. One time I overshot the edge of the screen so bad that I closed the browser.

- It lets me flip my aim accidentally, because I can walk right past my own reticle (thus reversing my shooting direction). This doesn't normally happen in top-down shooters (because the screen would move sooner) and it took me quite a while to even realize what was happening to me and why.

Consider the following screenshot, where I have added a red arrow indicating my movement toward the enemies (I know only b/c of radar), and I have marked in red the "play zone" https://imgur.com/znWnf9P Such a tiny of portion of the screen is used usefully, and the rest goes to waste. Most combat occurs in this tiny cramped screen area.

For comparison, check out a video on youtube called "Nuclear Throne's Camera - A Case Study (Unity)" It will show you how you can open up the screen with slightly different camera logic, and provide a better play experience.

That's it! Just two things: button map, and camera logic. But a lot of impact on feel. I actually played this game a bunch anyway, because even in spite of the pain, it has so much to offer in its nice design that I wanted to experience more of how the gameplay developed.

Overall this is a very solid entry, but it could be AWESOME if the feel was on point. I hope it's okay that I unloaded some specific feedback on you. If you hate even seeing this kind of comment, let me know and I'll come back and delete it.

Keep Town Alive by peto184 2020-04-22T03:23:16Z ♥ 1

Wow talk about an essential job!

Cool game. I made it to level 20. At level 7 I was like "pff I got this" and I was simply going around in a circle to each house and disinfecting. By level 10 I was like "umm wow okay I can see why this gets out of control" and responding more directly to problem houses without a schedule. By level 15 I was never taking my hand off the mouse button and frantically running from place to place. I think it's cool how your system works out so that when things are in control they are manageable, but once it gets a little out of control it starts escalating into disaster quickly!

Nice tight controls, the audio was great at conveying both mood and game state, too. Good job!

Dog Walk Danger by Patrick1 2020-04-22T03:04:02Z ♥ 1

So, I really liked this. The cuboid canine was a nice start for setting the tone: yo this is a jam game and we're having fun with that. I enjoyed the mechanic, the bone felt nice to throw, it was just the right amount of "gee maybe I better be careful here" without going anywhere near annoying.

The quick bark somehow endeared me to the doggie, and on the last level when I threw the bone maybe a bit casually, there was this moment of OH NO where he cut the corner too short and fell into the lava!! Except wait, no, that tenacious little fellow had like somehow grabbed the edge of the walkway and climbed (?) back up to safety?! I was actually relieved. Somehow it was okay to run out of time and both of us to die, but for me to trick him into the lava would have been terrible.

So yeah, clearly pulled me in.

I also really appreciated the super-quick restart, and the sensitivity option was a nice touch (though the default was fine for me). Level 2 was my favorite, I think.

Nice work!

Is it wrong to feed haterz to my plants? by khaotom 2020-04-22T00:00:44Z ♥ 2

Ahh, the skulls on the statline! I tried playing without the instructions at first, and it was an enigma, I was thinking "I did all you ask and STILL you die??" Soon after reading the actual instructions it was many, many haters down the gullet as I got a handle on the basics, and then realized I could use mood manipulation on the human to further maintain control... I found a sweet spot and cruised for quite a while!

The art (great animations!), sound, music, and theme come together into a cool little package here, with a nice dissonance between the sweet tone and the flying bones of my deserving victims! Nice work.

PS the answer is "No."

Cannon Knight by Gonzalo Antuña 2020-04-21T23:19:25Z ♥ 2

I enjoyed the way the cannon does not shoot in a straight line, but arcs with gravity, so leading the targets was pretty interesting! I eventually found that I did best if I just held the mouse still and got used to the timing of one specific shot, and treated it almost like a rhythm game. Got up to around 118 I think? At one point I found you can live forever: Jump out of the castle and run up to the guys and then hold E, and you kind of "hold" the entire line of enemies... you can even march them right off the screen back where they came! Secret non-violent solution??

Cool little action game, nice work!

Fighting Footwork by Wolfier 2020-04-21T23:01:11Z ♥ 2

Hey! Congrats on making your first LD entry!

Turn-based fencing is a very cool concept. I remember playing the Flash Duel card game, which was inspired by an old fencing card game called En Garde, so I was excited to try this.

There was some friction, though. I'm going to provide some feedback that I hope you find useful and constructive.

I see the game comes packaged as an installer. Please consider not shipping that way, since I prefer not to have to uninstall 30-50 pieces of software after LD. Also, when I did go back to manually uninstall this after playing, I could not find it. It does not install under its own name, but instead under the name "Made in GameMaker Studio 2" which took me a while to locate.

That doesn't bear on the game or the rating, just a convenience thing to consider next time!

On to the actual game:

I like the presentation, and the round structure concept is interesting. The way the play goes back and forth between attack and defense mode is also cool. The background music creates a nice tension, and the clock raises that higher, but it's nice you allow me to forget the clock with easy mode.

So I think you have a strong platform for an interesting turn-based battle here with a unique feel.

But you are getting complaints that people are confused. That's super-common for a first LD. In fact, it's more common to have a crapgame or even fail outright, so you're already ahead of the curve there. But confused players is also a very common problem, and I encourage you to really dig into that feedback with an open mind because it can lead to some of the most important improvements in your jamming skills!

I know it's not super-useful feedback to just say "I was confused" so I tried to challenge myself to give you better than that... not sure this is what you want, but here I have typed up my thought process as the player, going through a round against the Easy AI:

---

I'm playing now (yeah I reinstalled it). I start with a feint, and the AI did a breeze. Is that good? Bad? I don't know. I try to judge by looking at which options it left open, but I can't really draw a conclusion. Now I am choosing, and I guess I'll pick remise because it's a turn 2 ability and I'm in turn 2! OK the AI did breeze again. But is that good? I can't tell. Now I will do break because it says turn 3: he did beat. It seems I did well because a heart disappeared -- although the heart is half red and half blue, so it's kind of unclear whether the enemy took damage, or if I did. The move card also said "take damage if you lose the round" so it also hints that either of us could have taken damage. But I guess I'm the one who won because I'm still on the attack?

Next round: open again with feint, and the enemy did displace. I can't tell if it's good. Instead of remise I will try the other turn 2 move, bind: enemy did breeze. I am supposing this was bad, because now I don't have any turn 3 move, only turn 1 strike and turn 2 remise available. Not sure but that seems like probably bad. I'll try remise: AI did breeze. Oh wait I won! So I guess I was wrong that it was bad.

---

I'm sure you the dev are flabbergasted that I didn't understand the state transitions through the gameplay, so sorry about that. :(

Overall I think you have a strong design idea here, because I like the presentation and the structure you have layered over the battle system. I regret that I couldn't understand it clearly enough to really appreciate it.

Congrats again on a successful LD. The confused-player problem will pass - and the very best way to get past it is to watch someone play, either live over their shoulder saying NOTHING, or having someone record a first-sight youtube play where they talk through their thoughts. Not some big streamer, just put your game on a list from someone like Jupiter Hadley.

You really have to witness the confusion to believe it!

Symbiosis by -banzi 2020-04-21T22:12:01Z ♥ 2

Very cool, I liked this and played to the end.

I was drawn in because I like to see turn-based games, but I enjoyed all of it. The intro story was surprisingly good at setting me up and pulling me into the world, and then I enjoyed the chunky tactics of making sure to avoid getting hit by the enemies.

The art is really strong. Especially the animations, and in particular the feed animation. The hybrid main character reminded of Venom, in a cool way, and the story set me up to enjoy the sprites/action that much more.

If I could change one thing about the game it would be the pace of play. The art is so nice, but it's tough to have such a long move animation, and in an empty room it was a bit tedious to cross a large space. Combat could stand to be a bit faster, too, maybe the enemies could take a simultaneous turn rather than each going individually, and you could take the basic attack down to one button by making it so that if I move into a guy it's understood as an attack.

But while the game could play a little faster, I still very much enjoyed the experience, and I felt like it really came together with the art, story, setting, and mechanics all coming together into a cohesive vision. Very nice work!

The Bloodhaven Academy Dragon Club by Truefaux 2020-04-21T02:19:44Z ♥ 1

Nice use of the mixed media, and animating the sprites with wobbles and tweens looks good.

Turbosaurus Hero by megaqueijo 2020-04-21T02:08:10Z ♥ 0

Crazy idea and interface! Got my tail kicked the first few times out until I started getting the hang of it, then I played all the way to 300 chilling to the jazzy bass and chewing a LOT. I didn't make much of the eyes or neck, but later in life I did my share of farting.

Keep IT alive by KebabuTurka 2020-04-21T01:50:25Z ♥ 3

Wow this is really well-done. I played a bunch of times, because as I saw problems arise I wanted to go back and start over. I love the way the coffee/fruit needs are not quite in balance, and natural imbalances build up until you are looking at a convey clogged with coffee and devs waiting on fruit.

The graphics are very nice, the mood of the space is enjoyable (the tune helps you a lot there, I know you didn't make it but well-chosen). The controls are good but a bit shy of great imo - I would have wished for a few conveniences such as rotating w/ mousewheel, and an easier way to delete/overwrite.

The theme twist is clever and the overall package comes together into a cohesive entry. Nice work!

The Cause by enderr42 2020-04-20T23:14:04Z ♥ 1

Very cool theme, and a nice presentation! I loved how the cards had a bit of snark to them, but also spanned from the mundane to the outrageous. Board layout was really clear, there were nice red flashes on errors that helped me win (altho I was surprised I couldn't play a zero-cost card that made money to pay for my illegal broadcast, which I had to discard from play before I could play anything).

I didn't manage to win, but I played two complete games and was drawn into the systems. I was a bit unsure what victory was made of, so I wasn't sure how to steer my strategy through my choices. Game 1 I just acquired a following to see what happened at showdown, but they did nothing against the GVRNMNT. In game two I played to get to 100% hope, thinking that might trigger the win. That situation is here in this screenshot: https://imgur.com/vr5il5J

I lost just the same, but I was left unsure whether that meant I was wrong about going for hope, or just that a tie goes to The Man. I suppose if I could add one thing to the game, it would be that when I mouse-over the various stats at the top, there was a short tooltip explaining.

Anyway, a really cool vibe/tone to the game, and it plays smoothly in terms of interface. It's not easy to put together a card strategy game for the compo! Nice work.

Power Drain by Dan Wilkins 2020-04-20T22:31:05Z ♥ 0

Cool game with a bunch of features and effects! My favorite thing by far was throwing a grenade.

If I could add one thing, it would be some feedback indicating when I get hit or successfully hit enemies. I was also a little unclear on the distinction between health and energy.

But that grenade sure felt nice, I loved bouncing it up and ba-boom!

Hostage Savers by ZER0-GAMES 2020-04-20T22:20:34Z ♥ 1

Ouch sorry to hear that! Must be frustrating after working all weekend. The screen shot looks nice, though. If you get it fixed post in here and I'm sure you'll still get a few post-compo plays and comments. Good luck!

The 24th Century Surgeon by DeSpiciestBoi 2020-04-20T22:12:28Z ♥ 2

Very cool! I love the 3-layer human, and the tutorial was well done to ramp me up into what would otherwise have been a difficult game to learn.

I had several successful surgeries, but also some failure. I think the pacing is nicely designed. The wait time on the regeneration pods is perfect. They are slow enough to bottleneck me, but fast enough that sometimes the body part is ready before I am. It made for a nice tension between "do I wait for the part now, or go back to searching for the next thing I need to replace?"

The clipboard was pretty useless, since it did not check off the fixed items, but I liked it that way. It meant that I had to move around the body exploring for the damage myself... altho maybe there is an even more turbo version of the game where I see the remaining TODO list without blocking my pods, and am able to (and required to!) work even faster. The only splinter that caught me was that sometimes there seems to be a weird offset between the mouse and organ, only rarely, and it snaps into the wrong place. It left me wondering why the surgery wasn't over, but it was because I'd mis-installed an organ.

Overall a really well put-together package. The art and sounds supported the play experience nicely.

cheяnoбуl simulator (chernobyl simulator) by Hamzeh 2020-04-20T21:53:41Z ♥ 2

I tried very hard to connect with this game, it looks really nice and I'm interested in the theme, so I want to find out more about it. My difficulty was three things:

1) The mouse sens is overwhelmingly high

2) The frame rate is a little bit low, maybe too many particles?

3) The allowed seconds are very short

The result was that I was disoriented, and could hardly get my eye facing a certain direction correctly before dying. Just entering the hallway was a big challenge.

Sorry! I really tried! I played probably 30 or 40 times. I tried to find ways to adjust the mouse settings outside the game. But I'm afraid nothing worked.

If you post some instructions or a version with less sensitivity, I'll give it another shot!

Nothing but Ghosts and Clouds by xatulu 2019-10-26T23:43:19Z ♥ 1

I love the painted background, especially that angry grey tornadofingerpaint looking thing on level 5. The concept here is cool, and the character is a bit stiff (stiff as a board?) but it doesn't get in the way of enjoying the environment and the nice background music. Nice work!

Soulcraft by sawtan 2019-10-26T23:34:32Z ♥ 1

Sprites were on point - slick space ship and creepy monstrous aliens straddling sci-fi and lovercraftian. The eerie background music brings us a bit deeper into that mood, and the sound effects are effective without getting in the way. Controls tight, and the trickiness of grabbing the pickups that fall quickly forces us to take risks, darting through a rain of danger to snatch victory. Only complaint is that it's a bit slow to get rolling which makes for a hesitation to start "one more game".

Game Design Simulator 98 by radmars 2019-10-26T23:27:33Z ♥ 1

:~(

I was all in on this and eager to see where it went.

But my computer does not have a microphone, and the game is stuck at the sound recording part and I cannot proceed.

Bummer, because this is a wildly different experience than many other entries and with this content I'm putting in, I am wondering whether there's some comic payoff at the end where it all gets thrown back in my face or something.

I Wait For Your Word by weeping-rupee 2019-10-26T23:15:30Z ♥ 1

Very good job at pulling into the environment and straddling the line between text game and graphical game. I stumbled on a few of the puzzles, especially the one that was two words. I resorted to googling one that I shouldn't have had to, because I felt I had already typed it... but I guess I must have had a typo or something.

The way it unfolds with more interaction than initially expected is a really nice property, and I think you've done a nice job of picking an aesthetic you can execute on, and delivering it nicely.

Well done! The ain't no nuclear mutant punch-out, but I enjoyed it nonetheless.

Bob the Brawler by itsdanidre 2019-10-26T22:19:24Z ♥ 1

I really like the mix of the continuous space for movement with the discrete cell-based attacks. It's a really interesting and novel design that I haven't seen much of, and the blend of brawling and interacting with terrain was cool. The system probably has a lot of potential for additional builds -- the first time I got range I was like "WOW this really alters the feel of the game, I wonder else could be done?"

The potions thing was interesting, it was good the way it kept me moving around and forced me to take some risks.

If there was one area that didn't shine that much it was the enemies. They were a little bland, and made a lot of different situations feel kind of samey, and I found myself wishing to be a bit more scared of them or have some variety.

Beyond the interesting design, the aesthetics are on point, too. The song is grooving and the sound effects are great, and then there is nice art, and best of all the movement feels great and all of the interactions have a nice punchy juice without going overboard.

All around very well done.

Cowquest by Overboy 2019-10-26T22:03:45Z ♥ 1

I was really enjoying this, and I loved the rough and crazy look and feel to the movement. It obviously takes more effort to make it crazy like that, than plain. I enjoyed the camera shifts, the confusing nonsense of trying to figure out how to RPS properly, and then in training camp (why is that catchy song reminding me so much of a tune from tyson's punch out?) I sorted out how to assign cows to gather, then craft gear, then put the cows on relax, and then deploy them into gear.

But once I had outfitted my entire cow platoon... what was left? How to do proceed to the Great War? I went out exploring and RPSed a few more conscripts, but after that I called it quits.

Overall this is super-charming, it has a unique zany voice, and the first twenty minutes or so really pulled me in.

As far as voting for LD, obviously the time constraint is super important for people who take it competitively, so I'll just drop a star from each score as a compromise.

Nice and very unique entry here.

La incroyable vie de Skjewich Sciktosjiy Pswkeskek, le vice-roi en l'ebanissment by Zinkler 2019-10-26T21:28:42Z ♥ 1

Nice grim, gritty mood achieved by this one. Please don't put me in charge of villages, I am not the one to lead them into prosperity. That is the lesson I learned here today.

The art and the sound work well together. The non-english title makes it a bit alien to me, which works well with the icon-only gameplay that had no explanation. When you are in charge of the village, you need to learn on the job.

Or just fail. Like I did.

Very nice moody entry here, with a totally unusual mechanic that I enjoyed exploring.

BLOB by Dudum Lare 2019-10-26T21:19:18Z ♥ 1

Life-Off Achieved!

Nice entry - a very chill peaceful mood encouraged by the background and silhouette art style which was very effective. I liked that it didn't explain too much, just enough for me to bootstrap and explore the systems myself. Liftoff was at about the right time, when I had explored what the game had to offer but it had not overstayed its welcome and dragged on.

Nice work!

Winter by fashionbatman 2019-10-26T20:17:02Z ♥ 1

I don't mind a game that subverts the usual expectations, and this game of wandering randomly through a blank screen at a skincrawlingly drudgerous pace might connect with me if it found me in the right mood. The atmosphere is there - the white, with the fading footsteps, and the little washout around the edges that makes far objects seem dim, combined with the wind and the blowing scarf. It's all very nicely done, and it unfolded well... in the start I am guided but develop a feeling like "wow I'd better not get lost in this game, if I wandered I might not find my way back!" And then the game MAKES me do it, which is cool.

So I got to the third fire and spent some time looking for the third trinket, but after three or four failed forays into the unknown, without luck, I simply gave up.

It's a really difficult and delicate balance you are striking here, and I think you did a pretty good job.

Starting From Nothing by sorlok 2019-10-26T19:59:23Z ♥ 0

I like the ambitious goal of anchoring a sort of familiar purely-abstract game form into something emotional and human. I like the writing and the generosity of spirit that kind of shone through behind it. But the screen was really tall and didn't really fit right on my monitor, and the stats zone below the play area wasn't that easy to see, and this kind of broke the connection between the concepts, and I was terrible at aiming the balls, so as a result I think for me it was a sort of a miss... but that doesn't make this a bad entry, I appreciated the attempt even if it didn't exactly click together for me personally. Keep going for this kind of stuff, because when it works it can be really powerful!!

Rescue Hamsters! by Zanzlanz 2019-10-26T19:43:36Z ♥ 1

Very cool idea here, and a nice art style and cool sound/music. But it was a little too hard for me, with the combination of how fast the hamster comes out at the start, the very few bricks/etc I have, but most of all how the whole thing resets after I lose a few too many. The best fun of this game is the crazy experiments I can do, but I felt like it was too focused on making me find a proper solution and not about letting me enjoy the experience by doing crazy stuff. If it was a little less punishing (maybe infinite hamster deaths allowed?) I feel like I could have started out by having silly fun and worked my way toward a solution.

But a very cool core idea here, with a nice presentation.

Scrappy MC Spaceface VS the terrible tentacoolos by PatteDeCanaard 2019-10-26T19:33:52Z ♥ 2

Top-notch work on the graphics, music, and sound. The whole thing had a great cohesive feel across the board. The controls were also tight, and damn those spacebrains shooting triangle spin patterns!!

I was definitely in WTF mode for a while at the start, with absolutely no idea what was going on. things were flying into my ship, some of it was good and some of it was bad and I couldn't shoot even though I was clicking the gun reticle that wasn't a gun reticle and my ship was growing and shrinking and stuff was all over the place and I didn't know what any of it was.

That slowly decreased, and after about 2 minutes I realized that I can mouse over scrap. Minute three I realized I could release the left click button I had been holding the entire time. By minute four I realized what clicking the mouse did, after running out of bullets forced me to figure it out.

This was kind of fun, but I have a taste for being thrown right into the deep end. Eventually I knew all of the game's rules and that was about when it started ramping up the difficulty.. perfect.

Just when I had kind of stabilized and was in control for a while, then there was the final boss fight, which I enjoyed, and the end. Perfect timing!

Very nice all around entry, maybe a bit overwhelming in terms of input and state to manage all thrown at me at once, but I didn't mind.

Goblin Keeper by Darkmax14 2019-10-26T19:17:51Z ♥ 0

Wow there is SO MUCH going on in this game, I'm amazed you have this many features in a jam, nice work. It's maybe too much because I understood most but not quite all of what I was up to... I had my little town rolling along, some knights were about to put my construction crew to the test of combat, and then unfortunately I had a bit of a crash:

crash-goblins.png

:(

So I didn't get to see how it turns out. But very cool entry here, with maybe a touch too much complexity of systems for a jam, but really ambitious and nicely done with the graphics and sound effects, and the variety of UI and systems, it's kind of awesome you got all that done.

Something to Remember by Kusaihana 2019-10-26T19:02:35Z ♥ 0

Beautiful art, and the music works well with it to create the mood. Gameplay of moving left/right didn't really capture me but I'm not sure it was important.

Aggressive Realtor by Pete 2019-10-26T18:53:43Z ♥ 1

Best game made in 76 minutes! Well done, haha. Something about it is strangely compelling.

Nought - Procedurally Generated Dungeon by sacredbacon 2019-10-26T18:47:42Z ♥ 1

I love the instructions where it tells you about WASD or arrows, very cool idea that fits so well with the overall look and feel of the game.

I had some cool throwback memories bubbling up from this one -- the smileface guy reminded me of playing original rogue on a PC with the ANSI extended character set, where smileguy was your main character, and the cracked tombstones reminded me of the graveyard in NES zelda.

I loved the minimap, a key feature in this game, and I had a fun time exploring and diving deeper. I did okay, but eventually the rooms came to feel a bit repetitive. The arrows were an interesting mechanic, although I didn't feel I had a ton of decisions to make about when to use them, and the enemies were all a bit too much the same after a while: just back up and kite. Eventually I started sprinting through the rooms and not even fighting, which of course eventually led to my death (as it should).

The procgen was very nice, I never hit really bad moments, and it kept things fresh. Nice work!

Skeleton Quest by mahalis 2019-10-26T18:38:01Z ♥ 1

Dang, sorry, I downloaded and tried to play, but couldn't get past this error:

cooked-content.png

Because I was unable to play, I won't rate.

Generic Shooter Game by GameWolves 2019-10-26T18:34:34Z ♥ 3

Exactly what it claims to be! It certainly created some nice moments of "OH NO TROUBLE" followed by a quick dodge between huge chunks of enemies. It was really nice the way the terrain made the enemies chunk up rather than glomming into one enormous mass to kite. The guns weren't too varied, but that was okay for such a simple direct experience. Another thing I think you did well was deciding to not block the player's movement on hit, I tested and you can just walk over an entire mass of guys. This seems like a good choice, because otherwise the player could get trapped and have a sort of instant gameover no matter how high their health was at that point.

If I could tweak one thing it would be to add a little pointer to the next gun or something to direct the flow of the action a little more. Also, the resolution of the game was a bit awkward for my machine, and the bottom of the screen was off my monitor a little.

Overall, sure, it's generic but it was well put together and fun for a few. Nice work.

ZomPunch by digitaldude555 2019-10-26T18:23:11Z ♥ 1

A little rough around the edges of the "buy" screen / gameplay transition, but who cares when the feeling of smacking the zombie is on point! The music keeps it jamming, and while I was initially confused by the double-hit guys once I figured out the groove it started taking on that almost rhythm-game like execution-timing-exactness and I started really enjoying it. It was almost a little too short.. but better to leave too early than to drag on too long. Nice work!

Abstractio by cactus 2019-10-26T18:13:31Z ♥ 1

Pretty cool vibe, I really liked the intro which lets you know something is up.

I also enjoyed how you mostly have to figure the rules out yourself, although this threw me a few times. I was frustrated when I was demonstrating to myself that the game is not deterministic because matching the same thing twice didn't produce the same outcome... sometimes it would work, other times not. Other times it would even DELETE something! Exploring this further, I eventually realized I was up against two rules I wasn't aware of: There is a max of 4 of an item, and there is a period of time of holding after which your command switches from "try to match this" to "delete this."

I think I was trying to dig into the mechanics of matchmaking because I was stuck pretty hard at this spot, and wasn't sure if my attempted matches were failing because they weren't matches or because I didn't understand how to even attempt a match:

stuck.png

So I failed real hard to click for quite a while. After I experimented enough to be certain how matching operated, I eventually broke through that spot to unlock progress, and had a bit of fun tinkering. I think I wasn't quite on the wavelength of the word usage either, so I was pretty poor at predicting how things would match, and was glad the cheat feature existed to tell me what matches, simply so I cold progress.

I guess this kind of puzzle isn't really my thing, then? Doesn't matter - the aesthetics are on point, the air of mystery is nice, and I think you achieved what you were after. Nice work!

Fall of RS-17 Icarus - an Akaban Tale by Kooshy 2019-10-26T17:44:00Z ♥ 2

Nice and moody. I really really wanted a jog button or just a generally faster walking speed. Or a smaller interior. I know the pacing is languid and that really works with the mood, but it became a barrier to my enjoyment of investigating. I got out my cell phone to time the commute, and while I was looking for the stopwatch, I turned back to the game and saw that it said I waited so long it was game over. Wow, I guess I'm the slow one after all? Haha, nice twist of the knife! :)

But really, you got a great mood and I was very intrigued by the story. Nice job.

Slime Slayer by ZachZ 2019-10-26T17:27:23Z ♥ 1

I won in 254 seconds. Pretty cool the way the game progresses. I thought I had set up an infinite farming opportunity here:

farming.png

But nope! The game was smart enough to eventually stop spawning green slimes, and started spawning tougher ones that weren't one hit, and thus would get knocked away and cause me to have to chase them. This broke me out of the farming, and made me run all around the map to find untapped areas where greens had spawned early but not been mopped up yet. I ran all around, saw the whole thing, and just about there I hit my 500, which was perfect timing.

Cool how the character progresses in look. Of course fancy animations and sound effects could make the game feel a lot more lively, but that's how goes in jams! I thought you did a good job of covering the basics by having the weapon swing, and I appreciated that I always knew when I was hit because of the flashing.

Nice work.

Explore the Dark by m.dam 2019-10-26T17:15:53Z ♥ 1

Very cool mechanic and the look, feel and sound all come together for a nice mood. Not a ton to do, but because the environment was nice I explored the dark for a little extra time.

Modular Mayhem by Dovakla 2019-10-26T17:08:39Z ♥ 1

I didn't mind the slight motion sickness of the unlocked camera. It gave me this floating space feeling that was totally in-line with the game. The music, the controls, the parallax background, everything was working together to create that feeling, and it did make me a bit woozy but it was pretty cool anyway.

What I really needed though was a space compass!

I got lost in space very early, before getting the laser, not realizing modules were inside the rocks. By a miracle of luck I re-found the "base" thing by using the parralax background to determine my absolute movement and taking a lucky guess at which way to go.

That left me petrified of straying from the edge for a while. Traversing the edge of the base, I found the laser, which is presumably also the place to drop off cargo goodies?

Soon after I found blowing up rocks yields cargo, and I think I got how the game works: go out into space, get cargo, chill, bring it back to base, etc.

But as soon as I lost contact with the base another time, that was it. I was lost. I rolled with it, and blew up rocks, had some fun attaching things, found a rocket launcher and some underpants, and was chillin.

Eventually I had some cargo, but no clue how to get it back home. Then I got hit by a rock that scattered my cargo everywhere and that was it for me.

Great atmosphere that's coming through each element of the game: feel, art, and sound, all set up with a nice intro, and working well with the lack of explicit failure state (woulda been a mistake imo to make the ship explode and restart for example). So overall a very nice entry, I just wish I could have dialed into it more by having an indication of the direction and distance back to the dropoff point... if that even was a dropoff point.

I think I would have enjoyed that "head out to space to gather stuff, and then return" gameplay loop, but I didn't quite get there.

Nullefense by kipkat 2019-10-26T16:43:29Z ♥ 1

Intro was nicely flavorful with the shaky text, and exploring the system of the game itself was pretty interesting.

I eventually ended up in a stable state of making more than I lost, although I didn't have the perfectionism to go after it quite like @space-wumpus did above (very cool).

steadystate.png

Cool entry with a lot going on, nice work! And very well-rounded for a compo, with music and sound effects as well.

Kruzhok by Lamossus 2019-10-26T16:15:58Z ♥ 1

Top Score was 25260, I'm sure people will do a LOT better but that includes the learning phase where I died a lot experimenting around. I stabilized on a pattern of kiting a huge ball of the red guys around and picking up dots opportunistically:

redguys.png

Wasn't even using my slash weapon. (Actually I wasn't really sure how that worked, or when I'd get a slash vs wounldn't)

This mass kiting worked for a while, but then the game threw another challenge at me with those small fast guys with the green core. That upped the danger level and for a while I was managing, but then they got me and reset my combo.

Liked the jamming background tune. The swooshy movement trail was super-important, because with the blank background it was the only indication of movement when I was alone on the screen - it was nice and effective though, I really liked it.

Alphabet by rplnt 2019-10-26T16:01:31Z ♥ 1

I jumped in without reading the page first, so I didn't know you could shoot for quite a while. I think I almost like the game more without shooting, because once you can shoot the game can sort of lose strategy in favor of keyspamming.

Playing a while without shooting, I have a little feedback.

First on the early game:

If I could change one thing about this game, it is how the restart works. I have to take my hand off the arrow keys, move it over to the mouse, and then in the second it takes me to reorient my hand back on the arrow keys it can already be too late and I'm dead. This got me steamed, it happened over and over. I would change the restart to a keypress since the whole game is on the keyboard except restart, and then I would also make it MUCH FASTER, basically instantaneous.

The early game is also hard - at least when you don't shoot! You need to shield your core, but to do that you need to move in the direction that's most dangerous! This is actually really interesting, but difficult, and so it was GAME OVER, GAME OVER, GAME OVER.

Last thing about the early game, I believe the character has a bit too much inertia when small, and it was a little finnicky to line up with a block enough to snap it. It's like, HERE COMES THE ENEMY but I'm frantically trying to line up, and I overshoot, and it's game over.

Second, on the late game:

Here the game really changes, because I can suffer hits for a while. I think with shooting, the strategy is just to keyspam. But without that, you kind of have these interesting choices about what parts of yourself to use as a shield, and what to pick up. The problem is that I don't know which letters are important. I can't run the process of elimination in my head to see what letters in the field I don't yet have, or what letters in my body I have only one of, vs expendable duplicates.

If I could change a second thing about this game, I would add some graphical indication of that. So in the field, letters I don't have yet would appear different (maybe solid?) and for letters on my body, letters I have only one of (and thus shouldn't lose) would also appear different (maybe the same, solid?).

That would allow me to have moments like "oh look, there is the letter I need, it's guarded by a # but I can slam this unimportant part of my body in for the trade, and then snap up the new letter!"

Anyway, that was a lot of rambling, but maybe maybe something in there is interesting.

Overall I think there's some cool stuff going on in this game, but maybe you haven't quite found the right way to capitalize on your raw material. Still, a nice entry that I had some fun tinkering around with, nice job!

Fruit Mamba by FrozenCow 2019-10-26T15:40:37Z ♥ 0

I loved the turn-based physics and the way I was left to explore the rules on my own. The art is super-charming and very effective, and the sound effects were also pretty nice.

Level 2 was a miss for me because I had to stab randomly out in each direction, sometimes off onto whole blank screens. I would have preferred some indication of where the goal was. After playing, I see from another comment that you can zoom out to see it, but the very nice art style really doesn't look nearly as good zoomed out that far. The large chunky art was a strength, and that one level felt at odds with it.

Level 1 was great though - a nice intro to the mechanics though, with the way it sets you up for that subtle stumble that's easily recovered from, making you realize "on I can't just go up, there is actually gravity here."

And I enjoyed the various little iterations for all the other levels.

Overall a nice puzzler with some cool rules and a nice presentation - well done!

Timed Cave by DrDolan 2019-10-26T15:28:38Z ♥ 1

Cool game! I like how determined the miner looks when he is punching rocks and blood is coming from his hand! That guy is hard core.

I think my experience was a bit degraded by a weird technical issue - I could not see any of the text in the game. Here is a screenshot of what it was like on my machine:

cave-notext.png

I played through this issue the best I could. When I got time over and went to the buy screen I would just hit 112233123123. I knew 2 was time from the screenshot in the game description, and 3 was bombs. I feel like 1 was "rock-breaking speed"?

Anyway I got past the coal and got a pretty good sense of how it plays out, pretty cool! I seemed to stall out there, so maybe the items I was trying to buy were sold out or something? Whatever I had to do next I couldn't quite figure out and I seemed to keep ending on the same spot. Then I must have fallen behind the economics because the game went to the blank empty screen I see for game over.

Issue must be on my end, so I won't rate it according to the text problem! Just wanted to mention it happened.

Cool entry.

From Nothing, To Nothing by khaotom 2019-10-14T01:23:52Z ♥ 1

Wow 3 games is 16 hours is really something, congrats. I know they're really smallscope, but I enjoyed the way that you packaged the three of them together in a string. You kept me feeling like I just barely understood, and then as soon as I was acclimating I was onto something else. So it left the whole thing with a bit of an air of mystery. Yet it avoided making me feel panic or stress about the confusion, it was still somehow all a bit chill, perhaps because the punishments for failure were swift but minor.

I think I agree with the comment above that the first game drew my eye up toward the indicator and thus away from the nice things to look at, so I opted out of that part of the experience about halfway through by just rolling around the keys and watching the result. No big deal! I also felt like seek shelter was unfair, but it was pretty upfront about that, and diagonal keys were definitely being inputted by the human over here, but the game wasn't about that.

I think ripping out three small games like this is pretty cool way to spend an LD. Nice work with each, but even more so with the overall presentation of the total package.

Survivor Slots by PeachTreeOath 2019-10-14T01:07:18Z ♥ 4

I really like this, it's a great combination of luck mixed with the consequences of your own action, except those consequences are kind of rippling forward in a cool way, too.

I won my first game, but it was really pretty lucky. I was initially confused, and I think there were two key parts that I didn't get immediately. First, I didn't get that the slots list on the right was a map that I could use to figure out how far and which way a certain thing was. I just thought I had a 1-tile vision and sort of blundered around. Second, I didn't understand that my actions were impacting the tileset. For example in my first game I spent my early days trying to build rat traps even though I had no rats. I didn't realize the rats were tiles, and could be seen on the map.

After a bit it suddenly dawned on me how it worked and I was like "oh cool this is gonna be fun!" I assumed my first game would be a loss, but then I got a lucky spin on day 14 that I didn't really deserve:

slots1.png

So of course I was like well next time I'm going WRECK this game!

But the sword of variance cuts both ways. I felt smart by staying on top of vegetation, but the my mid-game bogged down, I was late getting the others on the team, and suddenly time was up:

slots2.png

That pic shows something that is maybe a little splinter in the experience: It's a bit of a drag to count out the possible future moves, cross-indexing between the goal to view the list, the faces to confirm the order, and then the map to see the spaces away. I'm like "ok this guy can go here, that's 3, then this one goes 2 and that one... okay not gonna work." A second feelsbad is the "nuttin you can do" moment. Like, you have 2-3 moves left but nothing can be accomplished.

Those are probably unavoidable and they weren't a big deal, but figured I'd mention them. In that last screenshot you can see I threw up my hands and just went for it because there was only one useful thing to do.

A couple of times I found myself wishing for a "bonus move" consumable, maybe I could make a certain combo to save a coconut for later and then drink it for a 1 move energy bonus or something.

So I played a little bit more, and here is my best run...

I got a nice early start and kept my slots wheel clean:

slots3-1.png

After that I invested in a beach party, caught a second one by luck, and that let me force a third!

Here I am walking off on Day 10, leaving the island nice and neat:

slots3-2.png

Overall this is really solid! I think it could use some cool sounds to take the interaction with the machine to the next level, but it's definitely the kind of thing that makes me want to take it for one more spin. The gameplay flows really nicely from the theme, and it's such an unusual use of the slots idea, making it really novel.

Great job on your solo outing!

You remember nothing. by Milestone Games 2019-10-12T19:17:58Z ♥ 0

Very cool system, with the mix of free-typing and dialog choices.

I moved around a bunch, checking things out and having fun, but I got stuck in the tavern. I got coal and a goblet, but I couldn't proceed or leave, as far as I could see. It said the guard stopped me, but then it said there was no guard if I tried to interact.

Overall the feel is nice, but if I could tweak one thing, it would be to clear the text line when I type something no good. The way it is now, I very often had to backspace 10 times to delete my text after making a bad guess, so it was like a small splinter on top of a possibly frustrating moment.

I also tried some abbreviations (l for look etc) but didn't seem to work.

Overall nice job! I wish I had gotten a little further to see what happened...

Little Robot Run by KunoNoOni 2019-10-12T01:23:00Z ♥ 0

This was cool! There's a lot of little things going on here.

(UPDATE: The problem I am about to describe is caused by playing on the web in fullscreen, I leave my confused description for completeness but will explain what really happened after.)

I felt a little betrayed by how I died though. I'll walk through my experience:

I figured out the first challenge of dodging the turrets, and was on board. I went to the bottom and got the spring, and while I was down there I was careful not to fall off the bottom of the map since I figured that must kill me.

Then I went back up to the top and learned I could not open the red door. I didn't see any key, so I went back to the bottom but there was no key there either. The only thing left to try was to jump off the bottom of the map, so I did it and was surprised that I could walk around down there, so I went under the wall and found the key.

The the duck area, same thing: had to go off the bottom of the map, but this time I just didn't even see myself when I got the item (read it was a duck in the description), but then I could duck.

So two challenges taught me I had to go off the bottom. Then the third time I went off the bottom when I couldn't find the next item, and poof I instadied. Not having made a clear mistake I called it quits there, even though the game is otherwise fair, and very charming/fun.

UPDATE: I loaded it up again to verify this, and I learned that the problem is that when I go into fullscreen, I don't see the whole screen. There is part of the map on the bottom that I just can't see, but need to go into.

I solved this by zooming my browser out and not playing in fullscreen. FIXED!

I played another ten minutes and killed the guardian. But it's akward to shoot. I either have to right click, or else hit Alt key. But both of these keys confuse the browser in not-fullscreen mode, and move my selection out of the game, meaning that my inputs don't go to the game anymore. So to shoot, I have to hit alt/rightclick, THEN left click to return my focus to the game.

This got awkward and I fell back down after killing the sentry and trying to dodge a turret shot, and then I got hit by a sentry in midair where I couldn't duck. So I figured that was it.

This was pretty charming and I enjoyed the distinct challenges. The platforming was a good tough-but-fair, and I never felt ripped off by the controls except for the gun.

So I know you were not super-happy with your controls, but I found them mostly fine! If there were checkpoints I definitely would have finished, but after getting so close to the end, and dying twice to weird technical issues, I didn't have the heart for a third.

But overall a nice entry, dug the music, liked the sound effects, graphics solid and the controls solid too even if not perfect. A very nice all-around compo entry, congrats.

A Fishermans Friendly Island Builder by Lombax 2019-10-12T00:47:03Z ♥ 1

I DID IT!!

My game also turned out half-finished this LD, so I decided to dig into this one a bit and set my own goal: Combos.

It was pretty easy to get a wood-wood combo, but my real goal was to get a wood-leaf combo catch.

And after a while, I was able to do it, here it is:

CCCOMBO.png

It was a pretty long cast, almost to the corner of the screen, but I've shown it here reeled in on land so you can clearly see it was a combo.

So I had fun with this! Can't rip out a ton of stars on a not-so-finished entry, but knowing what it was going in, I found some fun.

The casting mechanic was a cool idea, and the tempo of the action made it just barely hard enough. It was the right level of difficulty to create a chill fishing mood. Nice start!

(Edit: I want to second the suggestion about that the controls should be on WASD and not on arrows. Arrows are fine alone, but arrows+mouse is not the right way to go imo)

Rag Racer or: How I learned to stop worrying and love the bump by CaptainDreamcast 2019-10-12T00:31:06Z ♥ 1

I won!

Here was my experience:

I was in from the start. So I got up from the couch, went to the bedroom, in the closet there is a bag of change, and I felt around inside for a quarter. 1967! A classic. I put it on the PC, even before the threats. But the threats were still good, an indication of where we were going in our journey together, this game and me.

Then I started th-SMASH. I started the r-SMASH. Wh-SMASH. SMMMMMAAAAAASMASMASH!

There was a period of adjustment.

Even after learning my lesson, I had to learn it again. And again.

I just had a really hard time not pressing "Right Arrow Key" in the followingly pictured scenario:

DontTurnRight.png

So I only got second place finish... THAT TIME.

After my not-turning skills were a little bit better honed, (SMASH!!) I wrecked some dudes stole their shit and finished first, then underwent some of the world's best medical care.

I mean, this game works because it owns it. It walks what it talks, and it talks what it walks.

Charming and enjoyable, well done.

Ragin' Racers by bitdecay 2019-10-09T02:26:58Z ♥ 0

Pretty cool stuff, a nice grooving tune, and the art and gameplay work well together with a slight-goofy slightly-madmax mashup that I liked.

The first few races were real tough for me. Race one I was figuring out the keys and because the car points in a random direction, even though I guessed the controls right I went backwards. The next 3-4 races I was still confounded by the random start direction, and as soon as I fell behind in those first few seconds that was it, I never got near another racer again unless I drove backwards for laughs and some interaction. I also struggled with the walls, because the collider doesn't really align super-well with the sprite in some places.

But, after some races I started getting the hang of the controls, and also got a few upgrades. I learned how critical those first few seconds are and was prepared to be facing the wrong way. I got semi-okay at cornering, releasing gas as I approached the turn, and being extra careful about not hugging the walls.... and I was able to finish in 4th in my best race! A big improvement from "always always last" that were the first maybe half dozen races.

Cool little rally-rumbler with some panache - nice work!

Nothing to Everything by Compasslg 2019-10-08T03:39:35Z ♥ 1

Victory!

Wow, great job building a whole card game for the compo! It even has little mouse-over tween-pops, a groovy music tune, and lots of cards and features. Well done!

The strategy had a couple of little holes in it - for example sometimes I would get flooded with defense cards, or my opponent would, and the game felt like it would stall for a bit. And once I got the "everything" ability recurring every turn it completely broke the game because I just picked "nothing for enemy" every single turn and the enemy would never get to take a turn. I think the final fight the enemy played 1 card total and then I just had to click through all of my bandages and rests and blocks until I got enough damage cards to kill him.

But it's impressive to have a strategy game at ALL, and I had some fun moments of feeling clever, like using a split to clear their block before hitting with my sword, or holding back rest cards so I could double-sword.

Very nice all-around entry, congrats!

PROJECT BIND by Plepletier 2019-10-08T02:55:58Z ♥ 2

The art for the intro scene really caught my imagination, great job. Overall this is a cool entry, I liked the twist on a classic shoot-em-up, and I had some fun figuring out the right way to snap new pieces on. I usually went for a straight left-to-right line since it seemed to let me kill guys in quick tight bursts.

I was also glad I could just hold down space bar instead of hammering it! I just held it down the entire game I guess.

If I could tweak one thing, it would be to have a faster restart time that didn't make me switch my hand over to the mouse. I think I would have played the game longer except that the beginning is pretty slow... so when I died like the 4th time, I felt like, well, now there's a long restart, and then a long build-up time, and I called it quits.

But nice job - a fun entry with some cool things to think about, and some eye-catching art!

Inflate Me to the Moon by DDRKirbyISQ 2019-05-19T21:02:27Z ♥ 1

Haha, that was a zany journey! Both of my hands are aching slightly, and it was good to have breaks in between rounds.

This is super-charming, and I found a lot of little touches to enjoy, from the fish hammer to the way the flight music would shift and introduce new elements to mark the transition from one round's section to the next.

I like the way the art takes on a very different feel by having the couple of, umm, dirty specks on it, rather than being a straight color. That's a really effective small touch I might just have to experiment with stealing for my own programmer art.

This game was definitely weird, but it was a wild ride that I enjoyed, and it was just about the right length to feel substantial but not wear out its welcome.

Well done!

Blood Pressure by superpokeunicorn 2019-05-19T20:44:56Z ♥ 1

This is a tight little action game here! Some old-school brutal arcade fun.

The blood thing works great. It's on point for the theme, looks fabulous in the graphics, and does work as a design tradeoff where attacks and movement are a tradeoff against health, and you can buy it back if you can free up the space to hunker down for a bit.

The difficulty level was over my head. I watched your playthrough and you make it lose easy, but I got my ASS kicked.

I remember your game Mouse and Blade, which was similarly difficult. But that one I could take in little chunks, and advance to see what was next. In this one, you mercifully didn't send me all the way back to the start, but I felt a bit less like I was progressing to new things and so I didn't smash my face against the wall over and over for as long as I did with your earlier game.

What seriously wrecked me were the blue dudes. I just never found an effective counter... although I watched your playthrough after and you're clearly not getting hit by them much at all!

I think the biggest difference is you never miss a coin. I'd be in control, and recharging between each guy, and then I would lose control in one of two ways: either the coin would come and I'd wiff a jump at it and then spend to much time getting to it, letting dudes pile up which leaves me behind on my recharge time, or else I'd get like 3-4 blue guys in a row and lose it. The green guys were slow enough that there was more slack in the system for me.

I never got past the second level (not counting the tuturoial/title, which was very nicely done btw).

So high marks here, the concept and execution are on-point, the controls tight, the graphics and sound really strong. I just wasn't up to the skill level and despaired.

Island Chain by PTSnoop 2019-05-19T20:08:04Z ♥ 0

Very cool take on the theme! I got 5800 as my top score, but I wasn't sure how to handle a budding hyperinflation.

Graphics and gentle music created a nice atmosphere, and the overall package was unique and interesting.

If I could tweak one thing, I would make it not use ESC to restart. I was playing the web version in fullscreen mode, and ESC gets intercepted by the browser, so restarting got weird.

Nice job!

Galactic Boarder by neontropics 2019-05-19T20:00:14Z ♥ 1

I loved the idea of this, and also the unusual look of the graphics, which were pretty cool. The gentle sliding sound effect was also a nice touch.

But I had a hard time engaging with the gameplay.

I wanted so hard to love this that I'm gonna go nuts here and offer a variety of pointers. I don't do this to suggest the game is bad -- I only put in the effort on specific pointers when I feel like there's awesome potential, so I hope this is helpful and not hurtful OK?

Here goes:

If I could change one thing about this game, I would change the boundary so that it was like a bowl the turns you back into the main play area, instead of an instant you-lose out of nowhere. Flying out of the map is super frustrating and extremely common. I don't think I ran out the timer even once, actually.

The camera also needs some love. Right now it just points forward, but a lot of times I need to be looking down at the terrain. Here is an example of a moment where I feel the camera logic has failed me: https://imgur.com/FkK44Xv

I also struggled a bit to understand the controls, as sometimes I would get stuck out of speed at the bottom of an area. Was that the effect of water? Then other times I would make a sharp turn and go flying off the map. Does holding W speed me up, and what is the point of jumping? Because the terrain is influencing my movement (which I love about the game concept!) it means that it's harder for me to grasp the impact my inputs are having on the game. When I tried to experiment it was hard because of the risk of flying off the map. There was no safe or clear way to learn this game.

The R button, oh boy. Please make it instant restart. The way it spends five seconds to taunt me every single time is a huge downer.

Lastly, the coins seem to have a really small collision trigger, and I think I managed to pick up a total of two or three, and only by boarding by them like 5 times.

So in summary, cool unique look, great idea for what could be a super-fun trick-jamming flow-physics game that I would love, but too many splinters for me to really get into any flow state.

With the right tune-up this could be a killer entry, interested to see what you come up with next time.

Soulbound by Dovakla 2019-05-19T18:22:57Z ♥ 1

Hey, I'm sorry, I tried to play your game but I ran into some technical difficulties.

I play on a computer connected to a TV that only supports certain resolutions, and your game's UI elements seem to require a specific resolution or they go off screen and can't be activated.

Here's a screenshot of what it was like in combat mode for me: https://imgur.com/OJ4wDkp

I was trying to play with blind keystrokes but somehow that activated the guard conversation even during combat, and then I couldn't see the enemies I was fighting (more sinners off screen). I tried playing in windowed mode too but even more important UI was off the screen there (the yes/no to "do you want to hire me" which left me locked out of the game completely).

Sorry, I know you need reviews to get to your 20, but since I played so little of the game (just the initial town) I felt like I couldn't rate you.

If there's something different I need to do to get it to run with the controls on-screen, leave a reply mentioning my username, and if I have time before the deadline I'll give it a shot.

I commented here but did not rate since I didn't really get to play. But the graphics look really nice and the theme seems interesting, so I wish I could.

SURVIVE tonight by YaHUB 2019-05-19T18:08:35Z ♥ 1

Pretty fun! It has nice graphics that give a feeling of being out in the woods, and the dark thick outlines on the enemies help because otherwise you would have a problem of green zombies on green trees, but with your art style this was not a problem.

I did feel like there weren't that many decisions to make during the combat. I just held the fire button down forever. The movement speed difference between different weapons was a very interesting idea, but for a couple of reasons it didn't engage me. First, I didn't even realize I could switch weapons for like 3 waves. Second, it was pretty easy to just use the fast-move weapon and kite huge groups of them while shooting forever and not thinking about tactics. So why do anything else?

Eventually I decided to make things spicy by trading myself down to 1% health, and then as soon as I used a slow weapon it got GAME OVER real quick.

I think you have a nice core of the right features here, with movement, aiming, weapon switching, an upgrade system, several sorts of enemies, a menu interaction, waves. It's a lot of features to accomplish in a compo!

So overall there was a lot, and all it felt pretty good. But there was something a little bit lacking in the core game interaction of move/shoot that left me on autopilot.

Especially if this is your first entry, really nicely done! Look forward to seeing what else you come up with.

Goblin Castle by johnnysix 2019-05-19T17:44:52Z ♥ 0

Fantastic animations, super-lively control feel, and great job with the sound and music.

The gameplay was a bit too thin, and there were a few too many blind-jump situations or maybe just a mismatch between the camera view size and the jump size & move intertia. But those things can be tweaked (as I saw in the post-jam version) but dang that outter presentation layer you have is just excellent.

Nice work!

Peak Myths by fashionbatman 2019-05-19T17:32:40Z ♥ 1

Haha, well done, definitely got a few laughs!

I like how tight and responsive the interactions are -- you never make me wait for anything and lock me out, even if I'm spamclicking through something, you just interrupt the sound when required. That was a nice touch that was really important to get right in this game, and you did.

It was a cool mix of clicker game and F2P parody.

I saved up to get some beautiful legendary eyes to match my awesome hair, and when I finally got there the game did a hilarious trolling on me: https://imgur.com/Sd7i6Lt

Nice entry!

Monotheizmation by Zeriver 2019-05-19T17:15:00Z ♥ 1

MONO ACHIEVED!

I got to a 150-0 split vs the other god.

He didn't even know what to do with his faith. I won by being proactive... I didn't find the villagers to have a very good handle on what needed doing, so my loop that I won with was like this:

Be doing something all the time Go into rain mode, water all the things, just hold leftclick down and pass over all, filling meters Go into sun mode and do the same Go into baby mode and baby up the town (this was the key piece I missed for a few days) Repeat Totally ignore villager dialogs

That was my winning strat, and got me all the way to Monotheizmation Achieved!

Interesting take on the theme, with the double usage (my faith/life is my own currency, and the villagers are paying for my services with blood sacrifice). I enjoyed exploring the interlocking systems a while, and the graphics and UI were nice, with lively interactions so I could see what was going on.

The system was a little bit too simple in the end, because I could just execute a set script to win, and if you flesh it out I think it needs a bit more in terms of variety of situations.

Nice entry!

Aging Toads by ristoretto 2019-05-19T16:51:46Z ♥ 1

Wow, a very interesting action game with a unique movement system and a cool aesthetic, nice work.

My top score was 255. 85 was my best after a few runs, before figuring out I actually should use the transform feature.

It's a good game but here are a few thoughts anyway:

Input Complexity:

The tutorial was very nicely done, and important to include.

But I feel it's a lot of buttons to throw at the user. What if you simply deleted the left, right, and crawl features? I never used them after I got the hang of the game, they seem redundant with the "long jump" move.

Then you would have three movement buttons: high jump, long jump, tongue. That's a 50% reduction in movement input complexity but not much loss in player expressiveness.

The design problem to solve then is that they player can't turn around and face left. But since this is a "move right quick because the timer is counting down" game, maybe you can turn that problem into a positive.

Action Feel:

You have chosen to go with the "committed jump" - when I press the button, I jump, and it is always exactly the same arc, and once launched I cannot do anything to alter the path.

This is the unusual choice, but there are excellent games that operate this way. My reference for thinking about this is original Castlevania on NES. That game has committed jumps, and also a significant wind-up on the whip attack, which works together to create a tough-as-nails action game that requires always PLANNING one "chunk" ahead.

I think Aging Toads runs into some tricky issues with this commit style of action, though. My problems were mostly around the high jump.

The high jump has a very very long hang time. It feels like it's close to 1.5s. That's a frustratingly long time to be locked out of my controls. I hate to push this button because it feels bad and breaks flow.

There is a second problem, which is about the shape of the jump. The jump is very vertical, but so are a number of the hazards.

Consider this example: https://imgur.com/q0yQ1G0

What are my options? I must press high-jump to proceed. But I cannot press high-jump because I will leap into that slowly-rising quintuple-damage enemy. So I must wait. But I cannot wait, because my life is ticking down. Even if I do wait, the window of safety between when that enemy has left, and the next one comes out, seems to be shorter than the hang time of my jump. So if I'm careful, I am punished: I wait and lose life, then jump and feel helpless for 1.5s, watch as the next bug comes out, have no way to avoid it, and I hit it. Better to just jump now and take my lumps.

The result of this is that I button mash. I play with this algorithm: "spam long-jump and tongue until I cannot move forward. Then hit high-jump once." If I hit enemies, well, so be it, because there was no way to avoid them anyway and stopping to wait just loses even more life.

The blood-drop projectiles can also align poorly with my high-jump.

I am not a big fan of double-jumping, but I would experiment with the possibility of pressing long-jump in the middle of high-jump, with the effect of instantly stopping the vertical movement of the high-jump and going straight into the forward-dash movement of the long-jump. This would mean I can jump up then dash forward to time gaps in the hazards, and I would never feel locked out of the action.

Summary

You have a really cool action core here but I think you need just a couple of key tweaks to keep me in the flow state.

The art really works well, with the layers and semi-abstraction, plus the "red=danger", there's lot of nice touches. The tongue feels great to use, and the sound effects and music work really well together.

I went on a ramble with the critique side, but that's because this is a good game with hot potential, not at all trying to smash it. Hope it's helpful.

Thanks for the fun plays, nice entry!

About Ten Years by OddSocks 2019-05-19T15:54:04Z ♥ 1

This is a really interesting game that evoked mixed feelings. I'm going to assume the artistic vision was to deliberately somewhat antagonize the player -- I know it's not an accident because the game is pretty up-front about it, with the character calling it a "trudge" and the stranger taunting me about my movement speed.

It was really well done, because I thought the game was over at the first chunk and the title referred to something like "I just traded my life and I only had about ten years of it left" and I would have said that it was a nicely-done moody mysterious piece, and complimented you on the very nice graphics and sound, and said that the game length was just about right for the content.

But then the game stretched on, and DELIBERATELY overstayed its welcome. It straight up rubbed my face in it! Very interesting. I had a variety of reactions popping up... I certainly got impatient, and was already pushing the shift key to check for a sprint feature even before I got to the part where I was slowed down and had to fetchquest 100 in a maze. The music really saved me here, I don't think I could have gone on without it. I even got straight-up slightly-angry and shouted two rooms away to my definitely-not-interested wife "WIFE THIS GAME IS OVERSTAYING ITS WELCOME AND TAUNTING ME ABOUT IT!"

But I was also strangely stuck. I couldn't bring myself to just quit, as the story's attitude had been on point and I wanted to see what came next.

By the end of the game when it was absolute torture to move, and horrifying to think about mis-remembering which way to go, I was walking through the "park" using diagonal inputs just to make the guy move faster on the screen even though he didn't get to the destination any quicker, and I was like "damn this game did something weird to me."

I think it was all very deliberate, and you got me there like the "boiled frog," one tiny increment of discomfort at a time, when if I'd known where we'd end up I'd have opted out at the start.

So very well done - this is a unique entry, I've played a ton of LD games in my time and there's lots of different crazy approaches people take, but is was a memorable one.

Bloody Penny by tiffi 2019-05-02T15:24:00Z ♥ 1

Very cool game!

The coin-throwing is a nice core action that's pretty novel, and the way you have to retrieve it and have no offense for a while is a great feeling.

The variety of traps is a real highlight here, and gives each room its own feeling and strategy.

The physics might be a *little* too slide-y, but not in any way the degraded the experience. I had fun trying to get close enough to a zombie to combo-kill them with a triple-shot. It was risky to get that close but rewarding when I pulled it off.

If I could add one thing to this, it would be some satisfying feedback on a successful hit against a zombie.

One other thing - I initially thought the candles were a hazard I needed to avoid. Maybe force me to walk over some in the intro room so I learn they aren't?

Great entry!

The Reapers Delight by itsjustjord 2019-05-02T14:59:02Z ♥ 1

Pretty simple core game, but decorated with a lot of charm and humor.

I had some issues with the UI anchoring, and the reaper's dialog during the gameplay was offscreen: https://imgur.com/a/UuRyFmt I played on a computer hooked up to a TV, so it has an odd resolution.

If you need a really simple core, I think the "goalie" thing is a nice way to go. I experimented with a few different approaches about where to stand, etc, and there was enough there to engage my brain while the flavor played out.

Nice work!

Greendy by Dumivid 2019-05-02T14:41:22Z ♥ 1

Very nice presentation. I know you generated the colors and music, but the use of the generator tool is still to your credit, because the result felt harmonious. The only feedback I have here is that maybe fire could be red, I did not understand it was fire until the end when the text told me so.

I struggled a little bit with the first moments of the experience. There was a lot of instruction on the screen for me to memorize before playing.

Once I understood, I swiftly got wrecked. It's quite a tough game.

The balance felt like this: tower prices go up while tree count goes down, so I cannot build much; meanwhile enemy count increases. The good part about this is that it drives the game away from stasis and moves toward conclusion.

But it was difficult to feel agency. Since enemies fly about and don't follow paths, the usual strategic importance of where to place towers was not something I felt.

The most interesting part of the strategy was the ability to sacrifice the long-term income for a short-term resource boost by chopping down your own trees. I played a game where I chopped down a lot of my own trees right at the start to build many towers, and I had a firm control through the early game, maybe up to 60-70 seconds, where almost nothing was on fire.

But eventually my towers got so expensive and the enemy so numerous that I was still overrun and I got to maybe 130 seconds before losing.

So great presentation, and enough strategic elements at play that I felt intrigued to tinker and try a few different things, which is a great start. With a bit more time to adjust the balance you might have found a really nice sweet spot!

Glory of the Gods by vladirien 2019-05-02T14:12:38Z ♥ 3

Very cool idea! Dash attack is always a fun mechanic, nice to see a whole combat system based around it!

I had a blast, played through a few times, got myself up to Champion. I liked that I felt like I could have done better, and every time I got hit it was my own fault.

If I were fiddling with this, I might test out a couple of small tweaks to see how they played: the cooldown on my dash is super-important info and can change, so I'd like a really clear indicator; I find the enemies a bit tanky, leading to a situation where I have to grind them down with a repeated loop of actions, especially the shooty guy, I wonder how it would play if they just had less HP; I got hit most often by the bigger green melee enemy, I felt like his attack range was a little bigger than the graphics indicate and I thought I was out of range but got hit.

This is a cool entry, I've played arena-fighter games before, but the dash thing creates a cool combat system that uses the space in an interesting way.

The art, sound, and music were nice, and the crowd comments were a really nice touch.

Well done!

PANDEMONIUM: A Card Game by Borys 2019-05-01T19:51:19Z ♥ 1

Wow, really strong on the graphics and music! They together nicely with the demon/hell theme, and really sell the overall vision.

I managed to win, and it was really close - I think I won with my last card standing! Cool, simple game. I didn't even do the tutorial until after I played, and I managed to figure it out as I went along, although the numbers on the right confused me a bit and I had to watch them carefully to get it. The tutorial is nice and to the point - I should have used it right away.

Solid scope for an LD compo. If expanded I'd want to see a few more unique elements on the card to give me a bit more to think about as I'm facing various scenarios.

Nice entry!

The Woods Without Life by SpeedFrame 2019-05-01T19:40:00Z ♥ 0

Very charming art, story, and music!

The way each character had their own thing was cool.

I found it was a little tedious to walk around lost. There weren't a ton of landmarks, and sometimes whole screens of nothing where I couldn't even see I was moving. Maybe I experienced an extreme amount of this because I just couldn't find the last temple thing to get the leaf. I walked the edges all the way around twice, and then exploited a glitch to get outside the map completely and tried to find a second glitch to get into the final area after I gave up finding the third temple. Finally I found another way back into the game area, and I was just about to give up, but I thought NO, I'll try one more wander, but this time diagonal, and I happened to stumble into it!

That meant I was able to complete the game! This is an indication of how charming the characters were, because I was invested enough to wander quite a lot to find out what happened.

I was a bit sad that whatever happened at the end, I didn't really get to see it, I was clickspamming my fatkid magic wand at the boss and then he died but I click a few more times. So if there was any story or whatever, I didn't get to see it.

I found a few issues while playing:

- When your character uses his soul to open a door, he remains the active character even though control passes to another party member the camera does not follow you, here is an example of the party moving into the temple but the camera remaining behind: https://imgur.com/a/Ru43uK6 I almost gave up on the game here until I figured out you need to click to change active member to resolve this

- You can escape out of the game area through these cracks in the edges: https://imgur.com/a/KYg34xX

- You can strand party members who fall behind and go into a corner: https://imgur.com/a/GrLYyPG

Arg I didn't mean to focus on the downsides. This was charming, interesting, and a REALLY impressive amount of scope for a compo entry! You had a lot of characters, abilities, and enemies! You created a large world that I was invested in seeing through to the end.

Nice work!

GREED by mmason 2019-05-01T18:59:02Z ♥ 1

I should have seen that coming, but I didn't! I did go back and play it the other way though, very clever.

I really liked the gritty lo-fi aesthetic, and I felt like the art, the music, and even the physics came together into a cohesive experience.

I don't think the controls here are trying to compete with super mario bros and that sort of thing. It feels more like the guy from Pitfall went to the underworld. In that regard, I felt like the preposterous horizontal air movement was fine, where in a more "normal" platformer game it would be a problem. The section where you have to run without jumping over that wide spike pit showed me you were self-aware about this, and then I was totally OK with it.

I agree with @repine that the font broke some of that cohesive thing, I don't think you needed anything fancy there, just a more old-school font. Maybe this one for example: https://fonts.google.com/specimen/Press+Start+2P

The plants were a cool mystery that left me wondering and experimenting, but not quite figuring it out (until the game pretty much told me directly at least).

Another element I found intriguing was the treatment of blind jumps. Usually these are a huge no-no in platformers, but here they were used in a more deliberate-feeling and interesting way. The game initially signaled the safety of blind jumps by the chains of lamps or the presence of coins. Later, it started to remove these little indicators that things were safe, and it left me feeling uneasy in a good way that fit with the overall vibe.

I don't know if I'm over-reading what you were up to there, but it doesn't really matter - I think I was pulled into the general vibe you were laying down here, and I dug it.

Nice work.

Humanmarketing by JK studio 2019-05-01T18:42:14Z ♥ 1

Nice graphics and a groovin' bassline! The span of possibilities and short game time had me try five or six lives. Could be cool if your early choices limit what options you might have later.

Once I got married twice, and no apparent divorce in between...

One thing I wasn't in love with was the popup after each choice that had to be clicked away, I feel like maybe that could be just part of the UI backdrop that I can look at if I want, but am not forced. Then I can fly through a little quicker to test out different lives.

I never broke a million - my top value was a bit over 800k.

Cool little entry!

Coin Platformer by sillyman987 2019-05-01T18:25:55Z ♥ 1

Real basic but not bad! I like that you realized the time was running out and you pulled it together into something that you can ship, because this is a complete experience with an end, and not something half-finished. I think that's a jam skill of its own!

Super I-Egg by gilborn 2019-05-01T18:18:59Z ♥ 1

I got this far: https://imgur.com/DivXUU3

Not sure if that's anywhere near the end!

This was a cool concept. Choosing what to buy at the start was an interesting idea to add, and you had a nice wide variety of choices.

There was a little dilemma in the design, because what's interesting is the choices, but you make them and then play a really long time, and then when you finally run out of hearts it's hard to restart. So the game doesn't really emphasize its most interesting part as much as it could. Maybe there is some way to have several moments where you have a choice like that to make, instead of all at the start.

I also really liked the bouncing projectile, that was another fun element I don't see in a lot of games! It makes for some fun moments.

As others have pointed out, core control has a few splinters like sticking to walls which interrupt me from getting into flow state.

Overall a nice entry - cool variety of upgrades, cool variety of enemies and obstacles, cool basic controls but just a bit rough around the edges.

Blood Chest by PeachTreeOath 2019-05-01T17:28:48Z ♥ 7

Oh wow, cool idea! I really liked the music, especially that little bridge section with the flurry of notes just before it loops.

The illustrations are excellent. It shines the best on the title screen which is a serious eye-grabber. The detailed sprites don't do quite as well ingame, partly because the movement animation is accomplished by rotation, and rotation doesn't always play super-well with detailed pixel art.

I loved the idea of the tongue, and the very unusual interaction of picking things up and flinging them around. It was a cool novel experience! I see you mentioned it as being similar to the driving game where your bendy arms move the cars, but somehow it didn't come to mind as familiar - this experience felt fundamentally different. I think it was all about the flinging, whereas that one was about adjusting or placing.

I did have that initial struggle getting the hang of smashing the intruders, and even after some play I would still sometimes only get a stun when I expected a kill. But on the other hand, it was super satisfying to get a multi-kill by slamming one enemy into another!

If I could tweak something, it would probably be about treasure that lands at the edge of the door. It can end up in a situation where it gets insta-evacuated on pickup, or at least close enough to feel that way. Maybe a minimum window of time between pickup and escape? Or maybe that's just what I deserve for letting it get that far.

Because I did like the way that little lapses build up into harder-to-defend treasure, so my mistakes kind of snowball.

Theme-wise the classic "mimic" was a nice idea, and you gave it a lot of character! The wet doey eyes when it's not attacking is a hilarious little touch to the art.

This is a really unique experience - nice work!

The Current Sea by khaotom 2019-05-01T16:40:06Z ♥ 1

This was very cool. I loved the mood it created. The decision to have almost no instruction at the start was a nice touch, it put me into a mental space of looking for signs about what was happening. The one bit of text about not being able to move more in that direction was essential - at first I thought I was stuck on some bits of ground, but later its true meaning became clear. But without it I think I would have gotten stuck, so I feel you struck just the right balance.

The mood was enhanced nicely by the gentle ambient music, which meshed well with the art style, but there was this cool dissonance between that mood and the tension of trying to back up just so without falling off... that duality peaked for me at the last of the moving platforms that go over open space (ie stepping onto the second-to-last moving bit).

Really unique and well-realized idea, well done!

Nuclear Arms 7: Railway to Heaven by Logicon211 2019-05-01T15:54:15Z ♥ 3

In the attic, under a floorboard, lies a lockbox. Inside is my collection: Amulets of Yendor and other ancient artifacts, wrested at great careful pains from deep in the most brutally difficult dungeons that exist: those of the modern-yet-traditional roguelikes Brogue and The Ground Gives Way.

So I let myself think I know a thing or two about roguelikes. And when the formula is pulled into continuous-time/continuous-space action games, not all of the elements I like can make the leap. But Nuclear Arms 7 captured a meaningful taste of one of my favorite elements: Build Variety.

And boy did this game need it.

Because I had to play this game an unreasonable number of times.

See, right next to those Amulets is my collection of Meltdowns. And I damn sure wasn't going to miss out on adding one more for LD44.

I definitely would have thrown in the towel if it weren't for the build variety: a 5x speed build feels so different from a triple-spread damage+, or double-rate cooldown/accuracy. Exploring those possibilities kept me going through the grind. I spent around 6 hours across three sessions beating this one.

I had to exploit the little edges: tediously shoot each box in the room before entering; draw the midboss into a pillar so he projectiles don't spawn, clear the spawn list of minor enemies in the boss fight by not shooting her while she's in her easier mode.

It took those plus a nice present and a risky lategame bullet-time to finally, after all that, get me through to that sweet, sweet MELTD--- WAIT WHAT DO YOU MEAN "WINNER"!>!???

Having played 6 hours, I have a few notes:

- Overall a super-tight action package that, with a few exceptions, made me feel like losing was my fault

- As usual, many small nice touches of design

- First store being before the first heal and not after it like all the others was a huge deal: early in my experience I needed the health, but this allowed me to still learn the upgrade system. Later it gave me a boost in motivation to get rolling with the new build, right at the post-death down moment

- Off-center gun was a nice touch that created a strong/weak side and made encounters sometimes feel different rather than symmetrical mirrors

- Ninjas. Oh boy. Important, but also responsible for the ultimate feelbad moments of the game. #1 is "my gun overheated and this ninja is leghumping me while I wait". #2 was the way that the ninja pushes other enemies forward at his speed, so, like, here comes that gunner PLUS a ninja at crazy speed one step out the door gameover. Important, but the only thing that in certain cases felt unfair.

- Overheat was a great mechanic, usually hate it but in this game was awesome. But full-cooldown lock-out felt like too severe a punishment, I think the ultraslow RoF of 99% is already enough.

- Oh gawd that two-triangles room after the midboss. That room was a huge hurdle for me.

- Gunners have really excellent design in terms of range, rate of fire, speed of walking, etc. Nice work, they were really good at being easy when you were in control and playing carefully, but spiking quickly in danger level if you were careless or caught off guard. Great routine enemy that created a variety of experiences.

- Big robots were low impact. They can punch through walls (so can Ninjas)

- Sound was overall strong, great voice work yet again (Jurass-kicked lol). SFX were communicating important things to me that I didn't notice until quite a lot of play: 30 mins before I noticed "room clear" hiss, 3 hours before I noticed "enemy killed" gentle puff. Was looking for both well before I found them.

- I know you didn't make the music but damn it was excellent!

- Story was pretty good although not going to displace my previous favs of yours

- Just loved the variety of upgrades, really made the game. Almost all were compelling. Risky presents were a nice touch. Exploding enemies felt a little underwhelming except in the triangle room.

You really delivered an excellent package again, this time with more complexity, congrats!

Now where's my Meltdown?

HAMMO by BadRAM 2019-04-30T12:43:49Z ♥ 1

7.859 on the first and a bit over 22s on the second map was my best.

I loved the idea of this. In fact, the rar file wouldn't unzip on my computer and I even did some self-administered TECH SUPPORT just to play! (Tuned out 7zip was an old version)

Thank god for the R button. It wasn't mentioned by Nikachu, I mean Pikafu, so I went a few times without it and that hurt realbad. Things got much better after I found R: I may have hit "R"it to "RELOAD" a few times out of muscle memory and wrecked a few good runs, but insta-restart on demand was a HUGE quality of life feature that I'm glad you included.

If I could add one thing to the game it would be a sound effect when I kill an enemy. I found myself often taking a quick shot and wanting to turn away and move on, but since I'm required to kill all enemies getting a confirm sound would be a help.

I'm a sucker for rocket-jumping so I enjoyed this one a lot!

Ziggy's Life by PurpledArtFrog 2019-04-29T20:19:33Z ♥ 1

Definitely hit M for some jams! Fun project, of course it could use a bit more feedback in the combat system, but with the clear sound effect and the nice visible health bars I was able to figure out what was what. I got beat to death in the corner by those yellow guys on my first visit, but next time I figured out I have a super-power of punching through walls and I showed them who's the boss!!!

Entity Manipulation by JCMonkey 2019-04-29T19:09:07Z ♥ 1

What a brain-bender! I nearly gave up a few times, but in the end I completed all nine puzzles.

This did a great job of unfolding the complexity naturally. I didn't really need to dwell much on the rules or use the tab screen, I was able to figure out how things worked just by observing.

The blue cave feel, space-age music, and abstract techno-puzzle feel all came together into a pretty nice cohesive package.

If I could make one small tweak, I'd let the numeric keys select the entity type rather than clicking. But maybe that's just me -- I was making pretty heavy use of 'R' so I was already multi-inputting.

Solid all-around compo, nice work.

Fools Fortune by Gear Steak 2019-04-29T18:13:21Z ♥ 1

Wonderful, evocative graphics. I like the way the tarot-size cards, the candles burning, and the voodoo doll all evoke the same kind of feeling of mystery.

If I could change one thing it would be the pace. The text rolls out a bit slowly, and the card flips are a little slow as well. I drew the peasant revolt three times in a row, and by the third time waiting for the paragraph to unfold, I was kind of spam-clicking.

I did enjoy the descriptive text, so I didn't generally want to speed through it, just upon repetition.

I think with a little sound and a larger variety of events this could have a really nice atmopshere you could get lost in for a while.

Nice work!

Slot of Life by tammukka 2019-04-29T18:02:02Z ♥ 1

Nice art style, I did manage to win on my first attempt, but my luck turned and after a replay I lost on the very first pull of the level to the triple-cross!

Dungeon of the Blood God by LurkinMcClerkin 2019-04-29T17:56:07Z ♥ 2

Escaped with 922 - figured if I pressed on, it was a big risk!

I love the mix of different styles, with some risk-taking dialog choices mashed up with the real-time fighting sword/shield. Combat was tense - the choice to not have enemies really telegraph the attack perfectly created a guessing game that was nerve-wracking in an interesting way, but reduced the skill factor.

The music is a solid throwback feel, and the art style is really great!

Well done.

Paynplayne by OrbitalBlueprint 2019-04-29T16:41:48Z ♥ 2

Wow, nice! The music is great, I loved the bendy synth stuff, reminded me of some old Road Rash music I loved on Genesis.

The art was cute, and the story was fun. Length was just right, and I think I understood what the ending hinted at.

A nice all-around package, well done!

Thank goodness for friendly cactii, huh? So supportive!

Taco King by benjamin 2019-04-29T16:05:03Z ♥ 2

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!

This is so, so good. And I ran into the same freeze-up bug twice. It was so excellent that I went back a second time to get through the whole story, but I lost track of time in the mines again and got stuck in the loop. I didn't restart the entire game a third time, so I didn't get to the end of the story. :(

The bug happens when the timer goes below zero in the mines. The score mode counts the timer down to zero, but it seems to check == and not <= so it goes deeper and deeper into negative territory, racking up a top score but also locking the game forever: https://imgur.com/a/mVylK6K

That one flaw aside, this is AWESOME. It's got a great look and feel, I'm interested in the story, and in a great way I care more about the arcade games because of my very limited coins. And wow the games are just great.

This is a very strong all-around compo entry that hits graphics, sound, gameplay, and narrative... and the fact that it's so well polished makes the breadth of scope that much more impressive.

A few random notes on the individual arcade games:

- Asteroids is made a lot more fun with your touch of friction, great feel

- Mines was a really interesting puzzle-ish game, and I spent the most time here. I had to explore a bit to learn the rules. Specifically I got confused by the behavior of stacks of boulders: for a while my mental model was "sometimes rocks fall off sideways but mostly they don't" - took me a little while to learn the reason. I never dared to unleash the monsters

Maybe I'll come back to try the story a third time and just not play the mines.

Excellent.

Victor Spumante And The Raindrops of Burgundy by gimblll 2019-04-29T14:36:34Z ♥ 1

Wow that's a lot of a lot! I'm glad I pushed through, I almost thought stage 1 was going to be all of it all and didn't press on with my business. Good fortune that I did.

Well done variety show!

Tunnel Bug by gamepopper 2019-04-29T13:37:24Z ♥ 1

Very cool! After I got the hang of it I had a run that got 579 points, and said it lasted 19 minutes, although it didn't feel like that long. Maybe I just was having fun and lost sense of time?

My favorite part is the excellent graphics effects, and the sound and music also really add to the atmosphere. There is a really a cohesive polished look and feel that's great. But the feel of curving around a tunnel just barely not touching is also pretty great.

In the beginning I thought of myself more like a car drifting on a track, and that did not go well. I died pretty quickly when I was jetting forward. I later started to think more like a spaceship that wants to make occasional quick puffs of the jets to adjust momentum, and that's when I started doing a lot better.

I thought I could cheap the game out by reverse-puffing myself down to a crazy slow crawl, and that does sort of work but you have a nice feature in the slow drain of my health that prevents too much stalling, nice touch.

If I could change one thing it would be to make sure the player isn't already crashing into the wall right at the start of the level. The better I got at the game, the more this became my main way of losing health. Testing a bit more, I think the main issue is that the player is always facing and moving straight to the right, whereas the tunnel doesn't necessarily start that way. Just aligning the player with the tunnel would probably solve it, or always starting the tunnel with a short run of straight-right. I only need a safe moment to get my bearings.

Really interesting entry, nice work!

Let Me Eat You! by v1ru6 2018-12-16T23:57:03Z ♥ 1

Nice sound effects! Also a funny humorous vibe to it all. I played to the humorous conclusion, but there were many censorings along the way. Actually I felt like I was going to get over the line with a big herd, but then here came a predator. I decided to get clever, and to select a guy to send off alone as bait, drawing the predator away from the pack.... sacrifices must be made, after all! However this was a terrible strategy idea! I forgot my whole pack would follow this guy, so what happened was they all took a detour, which had two terrible outcomes: firstly they went to the predator together like one big lunch, and second the delay in moving straight toward the green zone meant they clumped up and stalled, which meant more cannibalism. I stuck around for the final grim humor at the end, and was rewarded.

On the critique side, I felt a bit confused initially. I had to manually reoirent the camera and guess that the green line was probably the goal. Once I figured that, I was off to the races. Perhaps it was possible to set the camera up initially to more clearly communicate the objective? I don't know.

Nice job!

Upsystem by terryg 2018-12-16T03:45:02Z ♥ 2

Very nicely done! The mood is really great, with the sounds and background music/ambiance. But that just did well setting the stage for the real star: the strategy. I was definitely thinking a bunch, and making some tough choices. It was a nice mix of both "puzzling" out the order of operations that would be effective, and also on making uncertain risk/reward tradeoff decisions, too. The outcomes were a nice mix of things often going my way, but then going wrong just enough that I was always worried.

I did make it to the end (normal difficulty) but with only three ships of one ... crew ... each. I think I lost one ship to total starvation, one ship sacrificed to delay the bearlons, and another ship abandoned while scouting.

The food needs are pretty extreme, and I ended up deliberately starving most of my crew so that I'd only need one food per ship per jump. But hey, you know... sacrifices must be made, right?

If I had to critique, I would say that the controls are a bit fiddly, and it took me a little while to adjust to them. But honestly, it's a complex enough strategy game that it's pretty normal and I would say these controls are actually pretty darn solid for a jam, where you haven't had ten iterations with playtesters to refine. The roughest part of it was actually the tutorial piece... I got pretty confused about why I was trying to activate certain ships but could not, and the tutorial "taught" me that there's an order to my ships, which is a lie. I pretty quickly figured out the truth, but that misled me a bit. It's good that you left a tip about how to do transfers, as this was not super-smooth either. But since I did read the tip (there was only ONE after all) I was pretty good to go quickly.

Anyway, a very nice all-around package here. I enjoyed it - nice work!

As Of Yet Unnamed by Flaterectomy 2018-12-15T17:27:04Z ♥ 1

This is pretty great but I also had a really rough initial experience with it.

I was playing in Chrome, and I guess there's a technical issue with the controls in Chrome. I played maybe 15 times without being able to control anything reliably, and stopping maybe three rockets in total. This really put me through the ringer on the retry loop... it's quite a long time between the failed jump that lets a rocket hit the president, and the next rocket appearing on screen. It goes Pres-hit animations, score screen, flag-wipe transition, text tutorial, initial marching, laser sight, and only seconds later does a rocket appear and I have one jump of gameplay experience before looping this again.

Eventually I concluded it had to be that I was missing something - and I saw the comment saying to play it in another browser.

So I played in firefox and I had a far, FAR more reasonable experience. Actually a pretty good one!

The pixel art is just totally great - really charming and communicative. Only critique I can offer is that I did find it a bit hard to pick out the rockets against the busy and just-as-saturated background, but maybe this was intentional as it definitely kept me really tense.

The sound effects and music are great, too, and I loved how it escalated in difficulty, with the helicopter appearing.

The time-slow is a really nice touch, as well -- added a lot to that mixed feeling of realtime/sort-turn-ish, and made it feel nice to line up shots.

Super-slick! (No points off for the Chrome part of the experience, just mentioning it since it happened.)

Welcome to the North Pole! by fre 2018-12-13T02:29:29Z ♥ 1

Outstanding entry, weighing in strong on a bunch of categories! The core control mechanic was very creative, and very well done. That's not easy! The graphics were great, and the way snow accumulated made it feel very organic. Whatever discrete chunks there were underlying things in the logic, the fluffy snow felt real. The excellent chuff-chuff sound effects of moving around really sold the snow feel, and the vocal music was sweet and charming.

I did run into one problem: when the game told me to go my own way, instead of just building a snowman I somehow settled on the idea of jumping up then splitting midair to stick the landing just between the overhead spike and the ground. I managed to do it. But trying to do this precision maneuver really tested my control limits and I got a bit frustrated rolling off the edge. This was me being dumb, and generally I felt like the momentum controls were strong, and I enjoyed rolling and jumping over a bunch of pits, and later saved myself with a few nice midair splits anyway. But maybe at very low speeds the character could halt more quickly, at least near edges? The second minor splinter was that I didn't understand the unlocking of gates. Sometimes I built myself up to climb over the top, while other times I unlocked it. I never quite got the rules - I'd be doing stuff, and then click it would unlock.

But overall this was amazing and blew me away. My wife also enjoyed it and was singing the tune after we stopped playing (finish time 14:59).

Excellent entry you can really be proud of, nice work.

PowerGateLD by khaotom 2018-12-10T00:35:01Z ♥ 1

Interesting and difficult core control scheme, where I have to fly toward something to shoot it. The enemies are quite tricky, and their pattern vs the movement of my ship created some really interesting dogfights. A few times I could not believe I had snuck through a set of shots without getting hit! WOW. So it's cool the way those systems interacted to create these tricky moments.

The difficulty was a bit tough for me, and then it was quite disheartening to go backward one level and have to repeat each time I died. It took some care and time to destroy the enemies, so I really wanted to restart the same level from scratch. Perhaps that makes the game too short? I'm not sure.

So I had some real highs and lows on this one: at times I felt like an ace dogfighter, and at other times I felt hopeless. An interesting mix!

Interaction of the ship with the walls (Sticky instead of Bouncey or Slidey) was a bit jarring at first, but sort of intriguing too, like maybe there were some tactics there? Since flying at the enemy can be tough maybe there is a tactic of "landing" on the wall to shoot safely, and then flying off when they shoot back?

Graphics were nice and it was clear when I got hit, though I did miss having some basic sound effects to make the game feel more real.

Overall a nice job!

Hell Well by Incredible Ape 2018-12-10T00:21:44Z ♥ 1

Your crew always makes some high-ocatane challenging action games, and this is no exception! I always miss it when your sound gets cut because your games are so visceral.

I played a while before understanding the controls fully. That is, I understood how to jump, but not the meaning of the color change. I think part of it is the way the lava comes IMMEDIATELY and I'm on instant freakout. That's great on the restart, and I'd hate to see you add a slow ramp-up phase. But maybe a dotted line that is a bit above the start, and the lava doesn't kick off until I pass it or something? I could have used a sandbox just to learn the nuances of the button presses, before being thrown to the wolves.

After I got the hang of it, I started doing better. But it was definitely tricky as heck. I think something about the space bar is tough for me, in precision jumping games. I may have done better if I could have used W to jump or something. The spacebar is a large clunky button to accurately double-tap, at least on my crappy wireless kb.

Tight brutal action with rapidly switching realities based on a cool core concept, nice art, all around this was very well done. It was just a bit more than I was able to hack, difficulty-wise.

Benefice by JustinMullin 2018-12-09T05:39:27Z ♥ 1

I love how you just throw me in to figure this out. First moment was like "umm okay I have an island and some icons? I move the mouse into the screen, and already the mouseover tip is indicating I can build stone. From there, the system is very self-discoverable, given how complex it is.

There were a couple of things that I struggled with early, but then they smoothed out after I lost a few times. One was that I got into a wood trap: this was likely a false trap, but I had spent enough wood that I had only 3, and the wood-creating building takes 4. So I also hadn't discovered what the "Sell" does.

Part of my confusion around "Sell" was that I thought the money icon was wheat, in an unprocessed form. It took a game where I was stuck on needing "wheat" to plant more fields, and none was forthcoming. I had fields, and even a field that was not next to a farm that would harvest it. I waited, but eventually I started experimenting, and then at some point it all clicked.

After that I was rolling. I didn't do super-duper well. I imagine an island of pretty epic proportions is possible, with proper advance planning and many layers. It's really cool how the highest possible island is conceivably doable, but the timing and the monkey-wrench of the pirates (whether you pay or not!) that would distort your perfect plan, all come together to force you to improvise. All that, plus the way that stuff falling down wrecks you because your mines have to be on the ground layer.

It's really cool how all of these elements come together, and how these problems are rooted firmly in the theme. The time pressure of the pirates coming is also a key aspect creating some tension while I play.

Beyond the design, I found the aesthetics very nice. The music is soothing and just the right amount of peppy to set the building mood, and the graphics are very nice as well.

Overall, a really nice entry. Even as I'm typing I'm kind of picturing that idealized island and wondering if I could build it with just one more go... hrmmm.......

(Three more games later)

Oh, weird, I built to the top of the screen and the game simply shut down. I can rep that from the start by just building straight up -- actually it doesn't happen if I build to the side of the menu, but if I build such that a block ends up behind a button, I run into trouble quickly, but I'm not certain if it's on build, mouseover, or button interaction.

But I did get one doozy of an island going. Right out of the gate with with a 5-slot area dedicated to wood with one layer of food, and then the right-hand side of the island was all mines with a handful of stone markets for money production. I was able to pay off all the pirates until I ran out of room.

Really a fun entry, well done.

Battlecraft : Orcs and Famine by SoKette 2018-12-09T04:37:42Z ♥ 1

So many games focus on the battle elements of Orcs, as opposed to the procedural administration concerns. But there are so many things to worry about as an Orc leader! I never realized it before.

I think it was 52 days that I did on my best run, but it felt like I had a run of good luck, with several BABIES and bards, then even a village.

If I could add one thing it would be for the change in the numbers from a choice to somehow pop out or linger on the screen for a second. I couldn't always remember what my old numbers were, and thus what the effect of the new choice was. Even an up/down green/red under the impacted numbers might be cool.

I enjoyed experimenting around with the systems, and hearing the funny sound effects. Nice work!

SpaceCrafter by shrekshao 2018-12-09T04:22:22Z ♥ 1

Highlight here is the wildly open-ended customization system. Wow, you can really do a lot there! I had fun tinkering around with my ship, trying to have some armor but also leave clear shots for the guns.

The battle mode wasn't like super-exciting and obviously the controls there were limited, but it did serve its purpose as a testing ground for the ideas explored in the build phase.

I had the mouse selection issue, but it was weird. Sometimes it was fine. Sometimes it needed a couple of clicks, and sometimes it was nearly impossible to select a piece unless I rotated the camera five different ways. One wing-shaped piece was REAL nasty to try to select. I also struggled to select just the armor to unsnap off a chasis, instead of the chasis itself.

So if you were selling this as a $300 modeling program, I would have some issues. But for a jam entry customization system, actually it is very impressive.

I have a couple of ideas, if a raycast is not working for you, but I don't know for sure:

1. Spherecast instead of raycast, to hit with more margin for error. 2. Cast every frame when there is no selected object, and highlight with a glow the object i WOULD select if I clicked. Then I can learn the quirks of the system more easily. 3. Use some fancy math to select the object whos bounding box comes closest to the line. That is: I can never miss when I click, because I ALWAYS get the nearest object to the ray of my click.

Just a few ideas, but I do think if you're having a lot of complaints, this might be something worth experimenting around with to find a better answer.

Really well done with this editor, very cool tech. I had fun tinkering, thanks!

The Omicron Fleet by cerno-b 2018-12-09T03:43:57Z ♥ 2

Very nice compo entry here! You are hitting all of the elements: theme-derived gameplay that is well-realized, nice graphics that communicate somewhat complex state to make it easy to understand, solid controls, good sound effects, and fitting music. Impressive -- I enjoyed your past game as well, but you've upped your level here, in my opinion!

I enjoyed this one a lot, and it made me feel powerful and clever to create these complex dodges. You avoided blunders and did not send me back to the start, instead respecting my time by immediately restarting me at the beginning of the current fight so that I was right back in the meat of the interesting gameplay with no reason to quit.

So of course I played to the end. The escalation going into the conclusion was very well-done, and the overall game length was just right for the amount of interesting content you had. Any longer and it would have overstayed the welcome a bit, and you were smart to telegraph "this is the end" in the voice lines.

I always have a bit of a mixed feeling with developer voiceovers, but yours are pretty decent. Sometimes games are SO weird and crazy that devlines work, but a lot of games it's kind of trying to be polished but the lines aren't working. You did a solid job though, and the voice lines did not pull me out of the experience.

I'd usually like to offer a critique to the feedback. There were no real splinters here to speak of, though, and no serious gaps. The only items I can think of are these: First, I would have preferred the smaller ships to be a sprite layer above the main ship, as a lot of times I lost sight of them, yet had to click on them. I'm also not sure it was necessary to make me click on the little ship, instead of anywhere on the cluster, but then I'm not certain how you'd deal with ambiguous clicks on overlapped clusters. Controls were generally very strong, but they were a little bit fiddly due to the tiny and sometimes-hidden click targets. It also took me a little while to realize how to use the mousewheel feature, just input-wise. I spun the wheel and was like "what should this do, it does nothing?" in the first few moments. Pretty soon I realized.

My last point of critique would be that the game is a tad bit easy. I don't WANT to lose a lot in this game, though. Perhaps some kind of second-level difficulty of optional goals that are a bit tougher, maybe? Perhaps some of the littlest ships are a different color and I want to preserve them because the pilots are important officers or something? Then I can ignore and play, but if I want to opt into some extra-fancy dodging, I can? I don't know, but by the end I had found my strategy and just went with it over and over.

That said, the core was compelling enough that I still had fun even if it wasn't super-tough. I very much appreciated the escalation of complexity at the end.

The stand-out feature here, though, was the absolutely excellent predictive transparency, with the lines and circles projecting accurately what the consequences would be. Very well done here. The two mobility circles per ship were also smartly done, and I appreciated that you didn't tutorialize me to death with all this stuff, but just presented clean, clear information and respected my intelligence to figure it out.

Very nice entry, well done!

Room44 by arzi 2018-12-09T02:51:46Z ♥ 2

Really nicely put together. The art is amazing, and fits well with the chosen music (I assume not original music since you opted out of audio category).

The writing was nice - the dialog and information to work from was hazy and ambiguous, but I was forced to make a decisive choice, so I felt that overall the whole project worked well in service of the theme.

I felt unclear, but hey, I had to make some choice!

A couple of things that hit me in-game as tough: I couldn't read the file to see the content and influence my judgment. I wasn't sure how much to read into the wrench being put in my locker, for example does that reduce the guilt of Kate because she would have had to kill, then sneak into my room to plant the wrench, then go BACK to the murder? Or else sneak the wrench out right in front of me? I wasn't sure how much weight to put on "clues" since it seemed clear I would not have enough info, given the theme. Lastly, I regretted that I couldn't confront people about facts I had learned, for example Fiona about the file, the scientist about the DNA link, the mechanic about the milk and wrench, etc.

I won't say who I chose in the end, but I did think it was nice that you shared the results, and that the results were pretty even!

I was impressed by how well put-together this whole experience was. The claustrophobia of the ship reflected the uncomfortably small amount of information available, and it felt right.

Nice work!

Volcano Island by Arvejeitor 2018-12-09T02:07:11Z ♥ 1

Top score 9100: 3 blonde, 2 brown, 2 red -- 3 blonde, 1brown 1blonde, 2 red, 2 blonde

I had it framed as a 3-2-2 and then repeating, with one swap. At that point it was taking so long, that the hard part was not so much remembering the sequence as waiting for the dudes to come and remember where I WAS in the sequence at that moment. A few times I really had to wait a long time!

Then the volcano would repeat. At this point I was up to a chan of 9, then 10, then 11, and I started to feel like the chain was too long and just deliberately picked the wrong guy to see what would happen. I think I got a little luck in having such an easy pattern to recall, though. (Unless that's not random?)

Anyway, that was my run. I found the game really charming with great art that works super-well. Everything was really clear, and looked polished and with charm. Especially the volcano. I enjoyed the smoke coming from it in the title screen and I honestly just watched it so long I heard the song loop!

If I could add one thing, it would be a "correct" sound when I complete the full chain. Also, I wondered what it would be like with a faster pace: The volcano only says ONE guy, and it's the new one at the end of the chain, instead of repeating the whole chain. That, plus code to ensure that if any type of guy is not available he is swiftly spawned. It was really the pace bogging down as the chain got real long that eventually made me tap out, up til then it was fun/interesting.

Game itself was a little bit simple, but that's okay too.

I know the music and sounds weren't yours, but they were well-selected, and worked with the game seamlessly.

Nice job!

Alien Sacrificial Predicament by nanocube75 2018-12-08T22:01:39Z ♥ 1

This game is crazy!@ It's sooooo hard. I am surrounded on all sides in the first four seconds, and must learn to run or die. I memorized the pattern: turn left and sprint. Try to juke-dodge the two guys in the way and hopefully only take one hit. Kill the next two melee guys + gun guy in the hall and then jump down the pit before the conga line of ten dudes RIGHT ON MY TAIL kills me. No use fighting them.

Down the pit the battle is instant, so I hope you reloaded while falling, that was the most peaceful zero point seven seconds this game has! I hope you enjoyed. Now you have to tight-quarters pulse-strafe these two shooters right on your face while shooting them.

Phew, okay. Now you can breathe for a second. Or so I thought, the first time. How foolish! Actually you better get your ass in gear because all of those guys are about to respawn! I thought I would use the cover to "clear the area before moving in" but that is not in the spirit of this game. No careful pop-n-shoot then stroll through the park type situation here, just fucking pedal to the metal, full speed or die.

So now I sprint out and it's just not worth shooting any guys cuz they'll surround and respawn forever. Better just concentrate on shooting the generator while dodging everything, and look out for the deathpit.

It took me about twenty runs to get to that stage where I had it all memorized and was able to frantically clear the generator just barely.

Ohmygod. OK. Phew. I did it!

FINALLY a new area. Something different that I haven't played twenty times now.

And then I died, and it send me ALL THE WAY BACK>???!! I can't imagine doing four of these straight without dying, and so that's where I stopped.

Super-intense entry. I loved the crazy sci-fi weirdo alien textures and shapes on everything. I sort-of loved the high-octane deathmetal pacing, although it was borderline too much for me.

I would have played more if it didn't ship me back to the very start.

Really intense and unique entry. Looks like your first LD entry, and that's impressive to have something this potent. I look forward to seeing what you come up with next time.

Nice work.

Apatanat: the benefit of all. by Mike Mihe 2018-12-08T21:37:08Z ♥ 1

The art style is unique and very nice. I liked the story, and I enjoyed seeing the little comic-book style stories about how my attempts to sacrifice myself failed in some funny ways. I also liked the humorous text in the hint screen, which made me want to proceed without looking every time.

I know that "fetch quest" is a big part of RPG gameplay. It's not personally my favorite, so I am not exactly the perfect audience for that sort of game.

But even with that disadvantage, it was good enough that I played it through all the way to the end!

Nice job creating a unique entry.

Lucky Number 13 by Simon Rahnasto 2018-12-08T20:26:52Z ♥ 5

Wow, this is so totally complete! It has multiple mechanics, multiple enemies, a story, and a bunch of nice extra features like the notes and terminals!

Really well done. I enjoyed all of it, the story, the gameplay, and I felt like the length of it was just about right. Art and music were in sync the rest of the vision of the game and it all came together really well.

Normally I'd offer a couple of critiques but really nothing got in my way... no splinters.

Great entry. Release the frogs!

ANKH by morriss 2018-12-08T20:00:10Z ♥ 1

Very strong for a first compo entry! You have a nice graphical style that looks good and has a nice retro vibe. The classic-style sound effects also worked well.

The core idea is good, I enjoyed the mix of puzzle and platforming with this unique mechanic, and it fits the theme really well.

I have a few small suggestions for improvement:

- The "Level Complete" sound is a lot louder than the rest of the sounds, and blasted my ears.

- This is a game played with two hands on the keyboard. It was annoying that I had to switch to use the mouse for advancing to the next level, or restarting. This was only a minor annoyance, until I got to the level where I have to throw a block and then jump on it to get over a large area of spikes. The game has never asked me to to do a precision throw OR a precision max-jump before, so I am going to fail several times. Instead of hitting 'R' to immediately restart, each time I fail I have an annoying task to take my hand off the controls, reach over there to get my mouse, bring it onto the screen, click the button, bring the pointer back off the screen so it doesn't annoy me visually, and then take my hand back onto the keyboard. All for something like 5 seconds of game, then I do it again? This is bad and no reason for it. I think in future games, think about the hand position: it's either left hand KB, right hand mouse (WASD + Mouse) or it's all-mouse, or it's all-keyboard. Select one style and never ask for controls outside that style, in my opinion. That means even your main level select screen shouldn't use the mouse, and should have keypress 1-9 or something, I think.

- A few times the spike colliders seemed a little bit too large, just a tiny bit. It's okay to "forgive" the player a little, and lie to them about whether they actually struck a negative object. In general, death/damage colliders should be a little bit smaller than their graphics, and positive/pickup colliders should be a little bit bigger. This seems crazy at first but it just feels better in the action that way. Specifically, I was noticing this on that same long precision-jump over the spikes I mentioned in the previous point. I was trying to jump as late as possible and collided the spikes a few times that I felt I did not. (Usually player is wrong about "not hitting spikes" they really did, but offer a margin of error so they don't have this feeling).

I also want to say you did very nice with the tutorial blocks that show text, and having the fun final level. Those were nice touches.

So a very strong first entry, well done. You can be proud of this one. Welcome to LD, I look forward to seeing what you come up with next time.

The Cold Equations by incobalt 2018-12-08T19:18:51Z ♥ 1

Very nicely done. The story, though drawn from an inspiration, is a great setting to choose for the theme. The game itself captured me and pulled me into the story quite well, and the way that I had to click through things like turning the chair around, and fiddling around with information panels that really weren't able to save me from the terrible choice, and then making me take the actions I took, well, it really worked very well. The moody ambient sounds was also very well done.

Nice job all around!

Orion Force by Wizard.Exe 2018-12-08T18:56:34Z ♥ 1

Very well done! This has a great look and feel, with very nice sounds and little polish details like the surviving ships tallying up at the end. It feels like a nice complete package.

The core design idea is showcased well. You can play but you get wrecked if you don't use the main idea. I did sac my last ship by accident straight into gameover once, but hey that was dumb! I didn't do it again.

I never got past wave 7. I especially liked the small fighters. They could really score a powerful blow against the enemy in the ideal case, but it was quite tough to capitalize on them. A lot of them went screaming VALHALLA into the void and didn't bring down even one enemy. Others would absolutely wreck way about their own value alive. This was a nice mix.

I found it pretty tricky to set up these moments, due to the somewhat unpredictable turning of the ships. I had to more seize opportunities as they presented themselves, as opposed to manufacturing them, or so it felt at my skill level anyway. It was a bit beyond me to monitor the whole fight and instantly react to these windows of opportunity, so I never managed to get past fight 7, I think.

Overall a very nice entry, well done!

Cultist Clicker by TheseusInABottle 2018-12-07T06:47:04Z ♥ 0

Oh man, I did a loooot of clicking, and then I left it running while I tried another game, and came back to play with some of the higher-level stuff. I got up to Blood Wizard, but the fact that the only thing it did was more +sac/sec made me less curious to continue to see the rest of them. I was hoping for some sort of alternate kind of upgrades that would add a little more complexity.

But even though it wasn't full of wild innovation or complex mechanics, you had some nice graphics, and strong theme usage. The meat cleaver was a nice touch, too!

Solid first entry, welcome to the compo!

Baby Grenade by publicidadeba 2018-12-07T05:27:02Z ♥ 0

You knew what you wanted and you fuckin went after it. Nutjob story, superslick music, nice graphics, disturbing voice acting, and a message that nobody can take home to their mother.

I played a handful of times, and my best time was 32 seconds. I like brutal short runs on a beat-your-time game like this, cuz I'm not about to restart when my best time is 6 minutes, as that means about 5:30 of boredom guaranteed. Not so in Baby Grenade! It gets right the fuck down to business.

I appreciated the tight tight controls. I wished for a jump feature, or at least that what I conclude from the way my thumb kept hitting the space bar.

What I think I really wanted was for this game to be in third-person view instead of first. First is great for aimin' and shootin' but third is superior for that immediate-proximity situational awareness, which would be key in surviving longer in this game. I mean I lasted just fine when I could distract the horde with babies, but after that? I was doomed quickly.

But I'm not sure effective dodging of these ladies was what you had in mind...

Nice work.

Goo Glow by Birdwards 2018-12-07T05:05:10Z ♥ 0

Excellent compo entry. Charming character, nice touch with the face slowly sliding from one side to the other, rather than flipping the sprite. This made the slime feel rounded in the third dimension as well. The novel mechanic was really compelling, and the way that dying accidentally did NOT yield a splatter was an important strong design choice imo. It created a wonderful risk/reward tradeoff.

So I was on board right away. But my regard for the game went up again once I got to a couple of the later levels where you subverted my expectations by having... well, I don't want to give spoilers but let me just say the non-static elements involved. I didn't anticipate that was coming, but once I saw it I felt like it was an essential evolution of the core.

There was only one thing I really struggled with, and that was the controls for the wall jump. The way I have I to hold rightthenimmediatelysiwithfsioto shit I fucked up and I'm dead again. And again. And again.

I immediately noticed I was struggling with walljump-then-away, but I figured it wasn't important. Then I came to that climb up the shaft in the center of the level in the middle of the game, and I just kept falling and falling and then overcompensating and dying, and back all over again.

I'm not quite sure what the fix is, as walljumps always seem a bit awkward to me. Must I hold the direction into the wall?

That was my one and only stumbling block in this game. The only other tiny thing I could even suggest was the the sound effect for me exploding was like a failure sound. Couple of times my brain said "dammit we made a mistake" and then a moment later "oh wait I meant to do that."

Anyway, this was a really strong entry, I liked it a lot.

Bane to all slimekind, indeed.

BlobSacrificator by Sarwin 2018-12-07T04:16:53Z ♥ 0

Nice job hitting all the bases on your first LD entry! You had some art with a style, nice crunchy sound effects, an original song, multiple weapons with weapon-switching, the title screen, score screen, UI timer, it's really a lot of stuff that covers all the aspects of the game. No small feat for a first LD entry!!

I think you've had some good advice above, so I won't go too much into repeating. I was okay with the music, personally. But I will repeat the camera thing, just cuz that's like a huge deal. You went for a more advanced "offset" camera that isn't exactly centered on the character, and that's great, but if you can't do it smoothly you shouldn't do it at all, because a centered camera is much easier and allllmost as good. You can just child the camera to the player and set the transform position to 0,0,0 and boom. Then you only come back and try the fancier camera if you have time to get it done smooth.

So like the first thirty seconds I was brainscrambled by the camera, but after that I got used to it (it probably feels completely fine to you since you experienced it so much). And then it didn't matter anymore.

The triple-jump was an odd choice but I kind of liked it. I certainly USED it a lot, to get up to higher platforms. I think if you have a cool feature like that, you can lean into it and make it a bigger part. Maybe flying slimes?

I don't mean to suggest more scope - you have a LOT of scope and it's impressive. Well done. I'll look forward to seeing what you come up with in future LDs.

PeonCraft - Sacrificed by Kornel Meszaros 2018-12-07T03:57:08Z ♥ 2

The visuals are really compelling here, with the nice poly models and these two huuuuuge player giants dominating the visual space, standing over and gesturing. That was VERY cool. The voice commands, existence of "complain" button, and the music were also very nicely put together.

I appreciate that you felt free to use asset packs but then opted out of the related categories. That said, your "direction" or whatever you want to call the skill of putting elements together, was on point here.

I found the gameplay fell a little bit short of what I'd imagined when I saw the awesome visuals. I let my imagination run a bit, and imagined I would be helpless but running around in a battle and able to kind of use stealth. So OK, it wasn't that, which would have been extra-cool. But what you did have was still enough to get me running around in this cool space and getting that feeling of being a peon, which is what you were after.

Nicely done - cool entry here.

Death Metal Crowd Pusher by WizardOfOzzy 2018-12-07T03:32:35Z ♥ 4

Man... I think I've been to this club. Except there was more drinking, the way I recall it.

I don't read the instructions to my heavy metal, so I jumped right into this one. It took me just a couple of seconds to find out what button to press, and only maybe a minute to recognize that the type of crowd member telegraphs what pattern of attack I get. That was pretty cool!

The art is really strong here, as is the music. I found the combination of the two was more than the sum of the parts because they fit really well together.

I played through a number of times, trying to improve my score. It was interesting to try to control the chaos using the varied attacks. Unfortunately my highest score by far was the time I just hammered the spacebar thoughtlessly. I ended up with 170 sacrifices that time.

If I could add one feature to this game, it would be that during the solo the crowd would change behavior and start doing a circular mosh pit, to capture that aspect of a metal show. But maybe that's just a different game altogether! I'd play that game, too.

Anyway, nice job here, you hit the theme, the art, the sound, and the feel nicely. Well done.

Sacrifice Island by Steffanie 2018-12-07T03:16:51Z ♥ 0

Love the charming art, and there's lots of it! The simple animations work well, too, I especially liked the parrot. Also enjoyed all the little quips -- Panther's like, "make my day". No thanks! But I guess sacrifices must be made...

I played through twice, and I found a nice strategy for getting a bigger posse, can anyone beat 9 going into the final boss? https://imgur.com/6qCThcx

The ominous music was another nice touch. The game was a nice contradiction: light-hearted art, ominous sound. Cheerful banter, terrible fates.

Nice entry!

Faces by baknik 2018-12-06T02:59:18Z ♥ 1

Oh man, you totally got me with this. I probably went through exactly the phases of thinking that you expected me to.

And then I was like "ohhhhhhh". And then I thought about the theme, and was like "OHHHHHHH".

So you really created quite an experience with a minimal feature set, and I loved it.

If I could change one thing, it would be to leave the last command active on the button so I could spam more. Or at least that's what I thought while I was playing and didn't yet get it, so maybe it's actually important to have that slight inconvenience of having to go face-button-face instead of being able to rapidly hammer out the same command repeatedly?

Anyway, very nice work here. Face graphics and the sound effects were simple but quite effective, but the real star here was your interesting concept and your successful execution in leading me through that.

Silent Whisper by FireSlash 2018-12-06T02:46:44Z ♥ 1

Wow, this is really something. The music and sound effects create a moody atmospheric background so that the art and prose can pull me into the game's world that much more. I puzzled and debated over choices, fretted over low supplies, and declined to take a few risks that might distract from my important but grim mission.

My only critique was that maybe it was a little long. I felt like I was repeating a lot of content and the game was asking a lot of time for an LD entry, but then as I neared the end I started seeing the arc of change in the towns. So the longer length was utilized for good purpose, but I still wondered if it could be 30% shorter, just personal taste.

I felt like a key design decision that really worked well for you was making me wait. Normally I find that terrible in games, but here it was a strong positive. Watching the tank's travel animation (which was excellent) with the parade of progress-meter dots and the mileage going up while the supplies went down, it was a strong moment. Especially because I was never sure when it would stop and I would face some choice.

Overall I feel like this game had a strong vision of the experience it wanted to create, and all of the aspects were highly focused to that goal. It really works. Great job!

Octli 2 Step by knarf 2018-12-06T01:36:43Z ♥ 1

Wow, this game has so many features! TNT, a wide variety of enemies, and lots of weapons! Barbed wire, powerups, treasure chests. And randomly generated battles and rooms, too! Nice.

I liked the art, with the simple but effective drawings that had animations and communicated important state information like the enemy's invincible/stun frames after you hit him.

Controls were snappy. And I really liked the background music and sound effects.

Oh yeah and the blood!

Great job. I had a few issues with learning, for example I didn't even realize to use the mouse and just thought it was a dodging game at first, but I figured it out pretty quick.

It's pretty hard, so I didn't get to the crash. Sometimes you spawn into a room and they are all over you right away. But it was okay because this game keeps me on my toes the whole time.

The restart was nice and quick, to keep me right in the action after a death, but I also really appreciated that the first room was empty, so the enemy wasn't attacking me the second I restart.

Nice job, this was fun.

Last Platoon by DarkianMaker 2018-12-04T06:33:34Z ♥ 1

OK I played this for a while. It's great that you were able to make an interesting 3D game for your first LD entry! Well done!

It was kind of interesting to explore the space. My favorite feature by a mile was the leftover bodies from my previous lives. This helped give me a sense of history in the space. Because the space had the same wall, floor, and ceiling tiles used throughout, it was super-easy to get lost, but this bodies feature really helped with that. The best moment for this feature was when I blew open a door and thought I was entering a new area, but waiting for me on the other side of the new door was my dead self. Boom.

Turrets were annoying at first. It seemed like they were either in range and then were way too strong, or were out of range and were way too easy, and took so, so, so, so, so, so many hits that it was just totally impossible to strafe-dodge kill them and totally tedious to safe-distance kill them.

So there's a design flaw with turrets, something is off. But as I played, I realized the turrets also had an important purpose, which was to highlight new areas. If there were turrets, I hadn't cleared it! And believe me I know, because I definitely tried just dashing past turrets, but it didn't really work.

The feature I just downright hated was the random invisible fireball traps. The first seven or eight times they killed me I had no idea what had even happened. I was just walking along, and then I was respawning at the beginning. It was only after I got some of the health pickups and actually survived a blast that I even saw the fireball. I thought maybe it was a bug, or a monster behind me, or something. I really think if you're going to kill me I should get to know something about what happened. And just having random squares that if I step on them, BOOM. If I missed something, like a mine item on the ground or something, that helps me deal with those, sorry, I didn't notice it.

Another negative was the infinitely-looping sounds. Was this a glitch, or intended? A voice said "Zoom Zoom" on a neverending loop. Another voice had a long fancy line, like "Not only am I the final boss, I'm also a nuclear bomb" and he said it over and over and over FOREVER without stopping, the whole time I played. That was not cool. :(

I got into exploring, and I blew up four reactors. That felt like a lot. After that, I died a few times. Second to last time I died it was to a random explosion trap. The next and final life I found a new area but I had little health and it had like 10 turrets, and I was like screw that, because I couldn't take the voice repeating the nuclear bomb line anymore. I tried to dash-run through rather than grind the turrets down, but I got killed and that was that.

Looking at this review it sounds maybe too negative. But please don't take it that way -- for bad games I don't even bother pointing out the tough stuff. But this game was pretty impressive for your first LD entry and I felt like it was interesting enough with the exploration and the body-leave-behind mechanic that I should go ahead and dump out all the little things that got in the way of me digging in even further. The idea is honest takes on the negative side can help you bring even stronger games next LD.

Nice job, especially for a first outing, and welcome to the game.

Plane accordingly by Martynas 2018-12-04T05:42:21Z ♥ 0

Fell for the title and wanted to play, but when I clicked the link I got an error: "Refused to Connect"

Sorry! I'll try to come back another time to check again. Didn't rate since I didn't play.

Jesus Take the Wheel by PeachTreeOath 2018-12-04T05:36:49Z ♥ 4

Oh sure, you come into this world with a cheerful "beep beep!" But we all know that soon enough you'll be playing your part in the the death revue. If you make it a scant 38 miles, be grateful and consider yourself lucky!

Just try to stay on that straight and narrow. Sometimes you'll have someone watching out for you, but the road through the valley is long and difficult, and you don't want to be asleep at the wheel.

What's that you say? Incoming death wall alarm? No problem! Hang on, I'll just adjust that a liBOOMsplat. Oops. And like that it's over. For you at least, and your motorcycle pals. But this semi isn't going anywhere! Who all these fools are that decided to stroll the superslab in their sneakers, I cannot say, but this semis tires barely flinch. Oh boy, a reward? Outstanding, I'll take this one here. How nice! And now it's just OH MY GOD WHAKABLAMMOCRUNCH.

AND NOW YOU'RE TEXTING???

...

I definitely had to make some sacrifices in this one! I managed to jam the prtscr button at what was my peak chaos moment and captured it here: https://imgur.com/V3aZbzb

I had a lot of fun with this one. Never felt solidly in control. Or at least when I did, it was a quickly-shattered illusion. I played the first few times exclusively with the mouse, and had a hard time getting about 2-3 cars for any long stretch. I switched later to a combo kb-mouse game, and by being able to make tappa-tap adjustments on the keys I could better control things.

If I could change one thing I would make WASD work, since mouse is right hand, and arrow keys are also right hand, but I have one left and one right. I'm also not sure the "runs out of prayers" mechanic is necessary, as it wasn't that much fun to be locked out, and the game was crazy enough without it. I may be wrong about that, and it's required to drive the game to conclusion, in which case nevermind!

I very much enjoyed the zany out-of-control chaos, with the theme, music, art, controls, everything, all working to a coherent vision. I don't know exactly where the right level of control is, and I feel like when you chose which side to err on, you erred on the side of chaos. Likely the right call, but there were times where I was like "REALLY?" All in good fun though.

So very well done, this is a nice, fun, funny, coherent package.

Night of the BloodMoon by erebus 2018-12-04T04:48:07Z ♥ 1

The graphics and sound effects really came together here in a wonderful way.

I had an odd experience with the difficulty -- I played probably a half-dozen times getting WRECKED. I think the problem was a combination of having four buttons, not knowing what was effective, and the fights being really short. My fights went like OK here is a fight maybe I'll try WHOOPS, ok that didn't WHOOPS. Game over.

Despite my poor initial performance, I have to say that the controls are tight and super-clear, so it was all my fault. The enemies telegraph and everything, which is huge. I noticed there is no buffering of a jump command, so I drop the input if I press it a moment before touching down, but it's not a big deal since jumping is not a huge element.

During this struggling phase, I got frustrated by the combination of back-to-the-start, and the quite long retry delay. I was grinding my teeth and hammering the keys.

Then I hit some kind of pivot point and started wrecking the cultists pretty good. I guess I just stopped trying to blink-knife them (tho maybe that's also viable) and just got the timing of the blood magic down. I had a stellar run and managed to double-kill twice.

But then the boss kicked my ass.

I came back again, but with a new leet strat: fight nothing and just dash past the entire game. That got me to the boss no problem, with respectable blood levels. I got to the part where he summons the super-cultist wave and that did me in. I feel like I was pretty close!

The game is short enough that I can see why you back-to-the-start me. The long retry loop indicates you underestimate how bad I was when I first picked up the game, though. I was BAAAD.

Throwing both knife, blood magic, and blink at me all at once just kind of overwhelmed me initially, I guess. I maybe would have preferred Level 1, Level 2, Level 3, adding abilities along the way, and with checkpoints. But maybe that's too much scope!

I offered some critique here, but certainly not because it's bad, this is a solid and charming game. Solid tight combat controls, great art and sound, and a unique flair, complete with interesting boss fight, all in a small scope. Well done!

Hide and Seek by zaicuch 2018-12-04T04:17:09Z ♥ 0

Great illustrations to set the mood of the dark cave. I was curious how the story ended, but I gathered a LOT of kids I felt, but still not enough. After I lost, it was too daunting to start all over. As I got late into the game, wandering was quite tough.

I wondered how it ended, by my hand was starting to hurt from pressing the button harder to walk faster! Nice evil touch that the kids ran away sometimes, it's like NOOO don't you know I have a timer??

Nice entry.

Whatever It Takes by SomewhatInfinite 2018-12-04T02:15:05Z ♥ 1

Great moody art of the grim cultist village fit the thematic idea well!

Bit text heavy on the tutorial, and quite slow to play. I wanted to experiment a lot with your interesting system, but I could only try things at a snail's pace so I didn't really dig into the systems. In fact, I never sated my god. When he got mad I sacrificed people, but his anger level never went down. I sacrificed my entire population but two to him.. and he didn't seem to like it.

Another element that made it confusing a little was the way that the resources appear suddenly and all at once at the end of the day, instead of trickling in over the course of the day. It left me confused about what would (or did!) happen when I moved a character from one building to another mid-day.

In general when you have a complex system like that in LD, you want to go overboard communicating the secret state changes to the player. So like a little animation saying "this farm is working!" Even if it's a totally simple 2-frame cycle of the farm bobbing up and down or something, and its speed goes up or down based on productivity, that is enough. Then you have a little "Food "icon pop out each time it kicks out food. Then I can get a feel for your system. The way it is now, you have this cool system but only you the developer REALLY know what's going on! It's vital in these LD games where ppl only play a short time to make that stuff shine through... even at the expense of other features. That's my opinion, anyway!

Nice mood and some interesting complex systems here! Very solid first entry, and it even had music.

Tiny square - Ludum dare 43 by Shahroz Khan 2018-12-04T00:44:50Z ♥ 1

I won!

I liked the graphics, they have nice character to them. The sound effects are also nice and solid. A lot of games go too slow, but not this one! You really zoom around, and there were some fun moments there.

But it fouled me up a bunch of times the way I would go off the screen. Walking from one screen to the next, there was a dead zone I had to move through, where I could not see myself. Some of these dead zones seemed to have obstacles in them, and several times I got stuck. I could also jump something like 1.3 screens high when I had the item for hi jump, and lost sight of myself a few times that way. This was just a bit awkward, and not usually a gamekiller, but I did end up having to restart the game 3-4 times because I got stuck. The main place I got stuck was going down one screen and then left. I don't know what's on the edge of that screen, I may have popped up to the screen above and got stuck somewhere... the camera didn't follow me, so I was offscren and unable to get back.

The hi-speed movement and insta-death spiked with total restart was a tough combo, but I kind of liked it in a way. With the game being so short, it was sort of okay to send me all the way back! If the game were longer, I would advise keeping the item you died with, because I had to go to get hijump maybe ten times.

I hope the offscreen stuff wasn't just a matter of my computer being a weird setup. I do have an odd resolution, but I also tried playing in windowed mode, and that was not any different.

So snappy fun movement and nice look and sound, that's a solid entry!

Casualty by foxor 2018-12-03T05:02:38Z ♥ 1

Really well done. It feels like a complete and coherent package. The music fits the sarcastic cynicism just as well as the mechanics!

I enjoyed the lack of tutorial, letting me test by experimentation. Small tight scope like this benefits from that joy of discovery. I liked the simple effective graphics, and they fit well with the crunch static-filled sound effects.

There were times when the spectacle of chain reaction and escalation of screenshake would burst through what was reasonable and run away over the hill, but I kind of didn't mind. Except a few times when I did, but those were times when I had to repeat the same puzzle a few times.

I made it to the puzzle with two arrows near the center, and a lot of bombs creating a wavefront of flame coming at you, and you have to predict the future. The game got me there, I had learned the rules. Or so I thought... I tried this puzzle a half dozen times at least. Then I quit, not ragequit, but just finished my time with it, when I thought "Finally, I figured it out" and I took my final turn assuming I would win, but something I didn't understand happened and I died in the same turn, rather than one turn later, than my enemy. Not sure what it was.

Speaking of not sure what it was, I was a bit unclear on the art of the... turkey leg? Country of Italy? Tornado? Swinging swoosh sword? No worries.

Usually I suggest a small tweak. Here I'm not sure what that would be, it's pretty fully realized. I think my favorite thing you DID include was a solid variety of you-lose messages. I guess maybe after I lost the flame level five times I was wishing for a "hurry up and restart" button? But not hard enough to be mashing my kb.

Very nice entry covering all the bases and creating an experience, well done.

Cowboy Hell by dk5000p 2018-12-03T04:27:54Z ♥ 2

Haha wow nice! This one is definitely unique, you have a style of your own.

The first game I felt like I missed a lot, and list to the viper-frog demon. So the second and third runs through, I figured, well 5 points is 5% of my health, but it's like 50% of my damage!

So I went all-in on damage and attack. My third run through I had 40 hp to start, but 40 attack and 40 damage. I one-shotted all three of the first demons, but I know the devil is not kidding when he says he's the big leagues.

I liked the song, but it's a bit long to hear over and over without skipping, so I didn't try all that many times.

I wanted to sell my soul the last time just to try it, but for some reason on that run the buttons for my choices just never appeared? Or maybe they did, but I was looking at another tab waiting for the song, and when I returned they were gone? Either way I could not proceed.

IF I could change one thing, I would have a little line of text saying what the damage (or a miss) of each attack was.

Very unique game, nice work!

Manik Hungers by TwoPM 2018-12-03T04:07:55Z ♥ 0

Very interesting entry. I liked the music and sound effects, and the retro look was well-done here. Some basic story, and then on to some nice challenges.

I was immediately curious about the camera, because it's very distinctive. It feels almost like a side-scroller at times. At first I assumed I wouldn't have to ever change camera views, and interesting notion in the 3D world, so I was wondering where you'd take that. But then I saw - middle mouse changes it! I had to exit the game to read that, but no big deal. (Same for ctrl and shift).

The jumping challenges to get the sword seemed designed to challenge my ability to manipulate the camera. I didn't even notice the platforms, looking from certain angles! There were a few times where the camera was off by a little angle (because I'd set it to be off, my error) and then I'd be going along and WHOOPS I fell right off because there was a diagonal aspect to my motion I didn't notice.

It was disorienting, but also a unique element of the game, and I kind of got used to it after flubbing the execution of what I thought should be basic stuff a few times. Once I saw that I had to leap down from the high area to grab the sword, I knew I had figured it out.

If I could tweak one thing, it would be the way that holding down jump re-jumps when I hit the ground a second time. I found I was holding down the jump key to try to get more air time, Mario-style, but if I held it a little too long I'd immediately jump again on touching down, sometimes right off the side. A minor thing to adjust to, but typically games don't check the button BEING down, they check is TRANSITIONING to down, for the initiation of a jump.

Cool little game with nice flair and style, good job!

The Circuit Designer by Aggrathon 2018-09-03T18:24:37Z ♥ 2

Very cool. Nice display, and pretty solid controls. I struggled a bit at first with trying to click ON the pieces to bring wire to them, and accidentally moving or rotating components. But later I realized that you should bring them to the adjacent cell and then wires will auto-connect to the components.

I could have used a little more feedback and fanfare for the test run, especially when winning. I felt that I didn't really SEE the events occur, and a win didn't feel as rewarding as it might have. This was especially true when I took a winger on a solution and hadn't carefully thought through but just tested, and it was like zoom next puzzle... my knowledge gained was not locked in or celebrated.

Overall though I thought this had a nice interface, a nice challenge level. I got stuck on some of the later gate mimics, eventually bruted my way through "or from nand" but then I lost heart after that. Part of it was the way the wires drew themselves going into the nand, it looked like it went in three times not two, and without more transparency, or the ability to toggle inputs in a live-test mode, it was all a little hard to see if the layout I'd made was doing what I thought. I could infer it from test runs with some tinkering, but it felt a little more indirect than necessary.

That was more critique-heavy than I meant - I liked this and spent a good chunk of time with it! A solid entry with cool concept that made me think, and a nice presentation.

Temple of Ungrow by Dovakla 2018-09-01T18:52:02Z ♥ 0

Cool entry, and nice idea for the theme.

There were two things that created a problem for me.

First, there is something wrong with the input handling. The buttons for jump and attack only work half the time. This makes it very hard to get into a flow state, especially for combat. There's no code posted, so I couldn't look to see, but I bet this is a case of checking for inputs in FixedUpdate, or else some other squirrely input checking thing. This is the bread and butter of game feel so you definitely should dig into what's wrong with the way you process input. Because the left/right works fine but the attack/jump does not, I suspect you are not dealing well with Input.GetKeyDown().

Second, the "is grounded" check for whether I should be allowed to jump does not interact well with the stairs. I first noticed this problem in the first room, but it was not a big issue: it just meant I couldn't jump on stairs most of the time. But later this was a complete game-ender for me because I got permanently stuck after completing two challanges and had to quit the game.

Here's what happened:

I went through the first room. Took me a while because I didn't know I could attack. I even tried all the keys but no attack. So I spent a while trying to get the boss to fly up and nudge the key off, because I thought that was the solution. I got him up there, but he didn't move the key, he just got stuck. No idea what the solution is. Later I tried random keys again to double-check and a sword came out -- whoops! Then I saw I could fight the boss. I guess the first time I tried the keys, the input processing happened not to work, bad luck.

So I solved the first room. Next I looked at the names of the challenges, and picked speed.

I solved the trial on my second try. First time I got into the pit w/ 3 balls on the way back, and problems with jumping made me stuck for long enough that I died. Second time I did it, but when I got to the sparkle-ball at the end I didn't realize I was supposed to attack it.

I went back out into the main corridoor by running all the way to the left inside the challenge room, which teleported me into the hall. Then I tried the strength challenge, but gave up because it's frustrating to fight when my jumps and swings don't come out when I press the button.

Last I tried the piano. It's really hard not to trigger a key twice when landing on it! I solved it eventually, although there was no feedback that I did so. I went to the right, and saw a lock on the ground and the ball open, so I thought I was good.

Still not knowing to attack the sparkle-ball, I went back into the hall. The door to the speed challenge had stayed open after I beat it, whereas the door to strength challenge stayed closed. So I believed this was the indication I had beat the speed challange. But the piano challenge door stayed closed!?

Now I got confused and went back to double-check the piano challenge was really beat. This was when I experimented and tried attacking the sparkle-ball and learned this was how to claim victory!

Finally I saw the interesting aspect of the game, which is that you can choose what SIZE to be when you complete certain challenges. Very interesting idea.

So I went back to the speed challenge room to hit the ball there, too. Then I would do the strength challenge to finish the game, I thought.

Except that now I was bigger, and I got stuck in the pit in the speed challenge room. I could never jump because the isgrounded check doesnt' work on stairs, and I was on stairs.

Here is the final state where I tried and tried to get out but could not, so I quit:

https://imgur.com/VFlJA8x

So in summary:

You have a nice idea here. Some elements are nicely done. But you have to work out some flaws in your approach to controls, specifically with input handling and grounded checks. You also should probably signal more of the basics to player, because I got lost a few times.

Good luck!

Speed-Shooter by coomzy 2018-09-01T18:08:10Z ♥ 0

Nice tight little game, well done! I like the greybox art assets, I think it fits well with what's happening here. The near-miss time penalty was another interesting choice that created a tension between blasting away and taking time to aim more carefully.

I got diamond on level 1 but WOW the best score on the leaderboard was so much better. Crazy, I wonder how it's even possible!!

Not exactly on target with the theme on this one, but well done nonetheless.

Slaughter House by masterkrepta 2018-09-01T17:48:23Z ♥ 1

This is a cool idea, and there's a lot of nice little touches.

I have a few critiques on little stuff:

- The gun feels a bit limp. I held the button the entire time. The screenshake on the gun shot is a nice idea in theory, but in practice because I am holding the button all day this screen shake doesn't "feel" like anything, it's just a nonstop pulsating camera, which didn't feel very nice to me. I think this may combine with the way the gun doesn't recoil and shoots really tiny bullets to disassociate the screenshake from the act of shooting.

- The main mechanic of pushing the animals into the grinder to reclaim space is a really cool idea. I like the way it combines the sick narrative with strategic concerns: do I position myself to handle the waves, or to claim space? However I didn't feel like you capitalized on this potential in your idea. When attempting to push animals into the grinder, I found it too awkward. I would push in the few seconds between waves, but the circle colliders (I assume?) would slide off to the side unless I was exactly perfect. I just never got good at pushing animals in, so I basically abandoned the main idea of the game and simply didn't do it. I think the way the grinder "disappears" corpses instead of rewarding me with the spectacle I expected was another small reason I felt it wasn't worth doing. Since you have the bullets blocked by corpses, maybe you should make it so that the gun itself is a handy way to push corpses in. Another way is to prevent them from sliding off to the side so easily when I push them... for example by changing them to square colliders with rotation prevented maybe? Or maybe there is another button to kick corpses a bit. I feel something is needed to make it feel more fluid, fun, and effective to move the bodies.

So cool idea for the theme, fun sick theme, and I appreciated the details like blood splats and other juice, but I couldn't help feeling like this had even more potential. (I played only the jam version).

Oh - also, I totally walked myself into the meat grinder just as it went off, which was a hoot!

Running from ⭐⭐Space⭐⭐ by sobakaduka 2018-09-01T17:25:51Z ♥ 0

Really cool idea! I assumed I would play with speed when I saw it, but I ended up winning with care instead. I would carefully choose my next section of climb, use the floor to keep healthy and clear enemies, and then move on.

I enjoyed how I felt a bit awkward with the hook at first, but later came to make some nice moves with it, that felt really satisfying. I remember a nice deliberate overshoot, the turning and flipping around to hook the floor I wanted, and shooting a demon as I came into the landing, like "This is MY rock, punk!" Very nice.

The only thing was that maybe I should be encouraged not to play so slow, somehow. Because I was able to reload and shoot demons a mile away in the sky, I kept doing it because I "had to" since it was possible. Minor thing, though.

Well done on an innovative game idea!

DETRITUS by OccultOne 2018-09-01T16:52:35Z ♥ 2

Nice jam entry here! I like how ambitious it is, it really tries to get to a pro polish, and tackles some really hard gameplay-design challenges.

I liked the slick production and graphics, as well as the sound/music and voiceover. I did run into a couple of odd tech issues, for example once I warped while the lady was welcoming me, and this seemed to reduce the volume but it never came back, so the game stayed really quiet. It also crashed when I exited.

Gameplay-wise you did pretty good, but you ran up against two of the toughest design challenges around.

First, it's really hard to orient in 3D space. This is just an inherent problem with the sort of game this is, and you did an OK job of reducing the problem by locking me inside the sphere and putting lots of objects in there. At some point, if there is enough stuff around, the gameplay stops being Tie Fighter with the orientation problems, and becomes Descent, aka Doom in a spaceship (indoor spaceship?!) which has no orientation issues.

I felt like your game falls someplace in between. I often got really disoriented when I used a lot of thrust, so I adopted a style of strafing and mouse-looking, and trying to keep a sense of where I was. If an enemy did a fly-by I never really got the hang of spinning around with the mouse to track them if it was quick. I felt off all the time: unsure of what was behind me, imprecise in my spinning and tracking. The most confounded I got was when I hit the barrier unexpectedly and got spun around by it, which wiped my mental model of my orientation and left me confused for several moments.

I think this is a really hard problem to solve, and your game does a decent job but not perfect.

I'm not sure what would fix it. Certainly higher visual contrast between the small fighter enemies and background would be an improvement. Some clearer indication of taking damage and from which direction might be nice. You could consider creating some durable scenery by which the player could orient, for example the sphere could be three colors: top mid bottom, just to create a feeling of "where am I?" Even better if this is gameplay-relevant somehow, giving a shape to the game.

But when I wasn't feeling disoriented, I did enjoy the freedom of motion, and I found your controls pretty intuitive, although I mostly only used AD+mouse and a bit of WS. I tested QE but didn't use them.

The second huge challenge games like this hit is what to do about projectile velocity inheritance. I'm an old Tribes player and we know this issue well. If you inherit 100% velocity, your shot never hits an unmoving target where you aim, while if you inherit 0% velocity you can aim at unmoving targets but not in relative space. There is no answer that doesn't leave a player feeling a little awkward in one situation or another... It seems like you went with 100% inheritance, which is imo the right choice.

But it feels weird to aim at the unmoving ships while slowly drifting strafe-wise right, and then miss my shot wildly. After adjusting to the orientation of my movement, I had a huge adjustment phase for my aim. Mostly I tried to still myself before shooting anything still.

I think you may have made your projectiles a bit too slow, though. The amount of lead I have to put on a moving target is HUGE if they are anywhere near me.

However, I did eventually get a feeling for the amount of lead required, and the movement orientation, and it was really fun to start shooting down the enemies in that case.

I took this video of the second time I played through. I think I killed like 370ish enemies. This shows me trying to shoot things with the heavy primary weapon, so I'm trying to line up shots and get the lead right:

https://youtu.be/jZ1X2nq2S38

So you see that eventually I'm able to hit a pretty decent percentage, but there was definitely a difficult ramp-up.

Anyway, I enjoyed this and was impressed by the graphics, the overall package that really felt like a game, the variety of stuff. Nice work!

Bath Time by DDRKirbyISQ 2018-08-30T13:37:40Z ♥ 1

There's a huge amount of charm and polish here, with cute art and really nice sound and music. Really well done.

The sound is also great at providing cues for the various state changes that need to be managed. The art has many nice details as well, for example I love the way the water looks, with the flat layers at first, but then the round circle when I'm cleaning correctly.

I played the compo version first, and hit a wall at level 5. I eventually forced my way through. I'll try to detail a few of the points of struggle, in case that is interesting.

I lost a few times trying to experiment with different modes of scrubbing, trying back-and-forth rapidly instead of around in a circle, for example. Or concentrating in a small area rather than spreading it all around. I didn't really learn much from these experiments, and it felt a little un-transparent to me when/if I was being more/less effective. Eventually I returned to the round-and-round and didn't concentrate on any specific cats, and I finally bulled my way through to level 6.

That rabbit-hole of experimentation aside, the place where I still lose time is definitely the moment where I transition from scrubbing to clicking the clean cats. For example, in this moment here: https://imgur.com/b4XCwJD I have a hard time visually parsing and then hitting the target. It's not that it's unclear or unfair or anything, it's just that this becomes the hole in my game where I leak time. My strategy for handling it became spam-clicking indiscriminately and trying to wait until I had a few extra clean cats to move into that mode. But that might explain why I struggled to get through the full compo game.

I went back to check out the changes, and was able to beat the post-compo version from the start without any game overs. Without really understanding the rules for cats becoming clean I simply obeyed the instruction to use broad circular motions in one direction. I think another nice aspect was making it cat-count based instead of time-based.

This is a cool attention-splitter game that balances a nicely conflicted feeling of relaxing panic. The post-comp version better achieves that mix, whereas by my fifth retry of level 5 I was no longer chill.

Really nice entry.

Stepping Stones by Ithildin 2018-08-23T05:36:23Z ♥ 1

I beat it! This is a tight little game. The concept is clear and self-discoverable. The art and sound effects are a bit basic but have a good feeling of life to them. The controls are really tight. And the concept is introduced, then expanded on.

I liked how I would stop and think through the problem, decide on my path, and then hammer out the keystrokes. The game responded quickly and accurately as I was pretty rapidly smashing in my inputs, and it felt satisfying.

Really nice work!

Loot Keeper by outstar 2018-08-23T05:23:36Z ♥ 1

Wow this was really well done. It's an interesting idea backed up by strong execution. I usually don't like tutorials but yours was charming and well-paced, I actually enjoyed it! The art was great, the sound was really engaging.

The gameplay hooked me pretty good. I played until level 12, here is a shot of my build not long before death: https://imgur.com/fI6dtQb

There was a nice moment of panic when I got a chest and it overlapped some of my key items! Early in the run I tried hot-swapping during a chest, to change from a sword to a hammer to alter my build to better suit the next monster. I missed by a cell and ended up going with neither main weapon for 3 guys straight! That may have ended that run, actually.

So a few times I was wondering, why not allow the hot-swap with a brief ability between fights, but maybe that's not a good idea, I'm not sure.

I definitely got into the whole inventory fiddling, and felt pretty clever a couple of times when I realized I could re-org a layout to free up a slot in a certain shape to accommodate a particular new item.

Very cool, and very well done.

Freezing Sky by Zeriver 2018-08-23T03:54:09Z ♥ 1

Wow, nice atmosphere, especially with the audio. The mix of working, audio cues, dog barks, and the music, really brought the place to life!

I managed a win, and I felt like the game ended at just the right time. I had experimented a bit and figured out the rules, and was just about to start just repeating my plan each level to get down one more, and I was just starting to feel like maybe I was done when the game congratulated me.

I did have a few graphical issues. Some of the game graphics would appear above UI elements, I grabbed a screenshot of an example: https://imgur.com/3gs53gz

I also felt like I was supposed to be able to use some of the slots at the edge, here is a whole-screen shot: https://imgur.com/1DZkEqX

I don't know if that black zone to the right was intended, but there seemed to be a slot there I could almost build on (I built a farm there on the top layer) and then on the left I cannot select that pile of rocks to clear it.

Nevertheless I was able to make a working system with just the available slots, although it helped that after my initial farming I didn't need to do any more. I had 2 houses, and 3 more slots. I'd do a sawmill + quarry, and then the third would switch depending on what resource became the bottleneck. It was usually wood but sometimes I would demolish the second saw to put a second quarry in.

It was interesting to navigate the tradeoffs between assigning crews to resource creation vs drilling (which consumes). I usually tried to do as much drilling as I could in order to get down to the lower level early, so I could have the rocks cleared out in advance.

It was cool that I felt like I was ahead, but then suddenly the freeze would come and it seemed like I'd just barely made it in time to rebuild without being homeless for a night!

I really got drawn into this one, very nice job!

Super Tetron by MagmaFortress 2018-08-20T12:48:29Z ♥ 1

Elegant and effective! I tackled over a dozen, maybe even close to twenty. I like the spare but clean and clear presentation. The controls were solid, although having both flips was kind of a mind-bender and prevented me from being fluidly in control.

After the first few, I was able to tear through some of them quickly, especially where there was an awkward piece that could only do one thing. But others were still getting me stuck... especially if I was burned by my own assumption about where something "must" go!

The experience would have been enhanced with nice audio of some sort, and I lacked a feeling of progression or a goal to be moving toward. Maybe count my puzzles solved, and begin with fewer shapes allowed but every 5 or 10 you release more? (Or did that already happen, since some of the bigger/awkward pieces only appeared later?) I was unsure if there was a silent goal or infinite.

But those are just additional scope -- what is here is quite enough to entertain, and a solid puzzler that gave my brain a workout. Well done!

TeTrans by BoltKey 2018-08-16T03:20:08Z ♥ 0

Interesting puzzle machine here. I appreciated the way that information about what parts are available for pickup is changing over time, because this prevents me from needing to plan way into the future.

I found the game rules clear and any questions were easily self-answered. Lots of good small choices in the design, too: The highlight of the destination when I moused over a piece, the very brisk pace of actually driving, the right number of nodes so it was enough but not a chore to scan and plan.

I made it to 3rd on the leaderboard for your home. Oh and a quick note - I see you have submitted this in the compo bracket but there's no source code linked.

If I could tweak one thing it would be the color palette. Yellow ? on white background is a bit too little contrast for text imo, and same goes for some of the block shapes. But this was not a serious nuisance, merely a light straining of the eye a couple of times.

I liked the spare but direct art style, a good mix of abstract vs real, and even better I very much liked the sound effects.

Well done!

Human Powered Rocket by EggshellDog 2018-08-16T02:58:32Z ♥ 1

A fun zany idea, with a cool sense of style and humor! I was a little confused how to do a really good job launching: I watched the video, tried a bunch of times. I was able to do some launches but nothing as high as you did! So it was nice to see the full potential pulled off in the vid.

Y'know what lemme go try one more time...

OK I got higher that time! 74 meters. Before I wasn't re-adding humans after the rocket setup, which had killed a few of them. I don't know how to stack the multiple rocket guys like you do in the video though, since when I send a second rocket, it seems to just kill all the people including the previous rocket guy. Sorry if I'm being slow!

But funny idea and cool style!

The Void by mortus 2018-08-15T03:29:52Z ♥ 1

Very well done. This has a great vibe. The music and sounds are really nice, and remind me a bit of FTL, which is a good thing. I also really dig the art with the floating clouds around the planets giving a ton of character. The art is also really clear in terms of gameplay, which is important in a game like this.

Queuing commands was an essential feature once I had a lot going on, and I really appreciated that. I made it to Sector 10 and evacuated 100% of my population there. The game was a cool mix of intense time pressure and puzzling things out, so it kind of drained me and after 10 sectors I called it quits because I just didn't have another 10 in me!

Strat-wise I definitely focused on pop vs resources, since that was the immediate gameover threat. But maybe I should have built up my tech by being a bit more ruthless? I didn't get too many of the ship upgrades, though I did get the mine/factory ones, and that fed into me getting the ship ones. I did focus early on that +1 ship since that's kind of key, but it wasn't too much of a commit.

Very nice combo feeling of pressure vs planning, wrapped in an excellent and tasteful presentation. Well done, this is an entry you can be proud of!

SPACEFORCE! Funding Secured. by khaotom 2018-08-15T02:46:19Z ♥ 1

Very cool - I got 29 but my greed kept screwing me. There was even one time when I was like yeah I'm gonna get a better high score this time because I'm just not gonna be greedy, I mean look how well I'm doing just keeping away from them over here in safeland not , well actually maybe I'll just grab THAT one right ther-- GAMEOVER. Well played, game!

I loved the super-minimalist tutorial. I loved the background audio, which fit super-well with the minimal graphics. The controls were tight and responsive. I experimented with both click-to-move and also a little with hold-it-down but the holding style is not so great when you get super-close to the guy so I went back to click-to-move which is really surgical at times. Very nice.

I also managed to get a x2! I was like wait look at that, very interesting... I tried to get some more but it killed me. An intriguing idea, I wonder if you could take it even further by having that ultraclose range be like x5, but there are also lesser bonuses with slightly further grabs, so sure no problem to get a x2 but let me push it for that x3 and well gee if I'm THAT close might as well go for -- GAMEOVER.

Really a lot to like for such a tight scope, nice design work.

Polar Panic! At the Disco by PeachTreeOath 2018-08-15T02:30:03Z ♥ 2

Wow! There was like an immediate "joyous celebration" feel going on here that smacked me in the face right away and then stuck around. Everything worked toward it: the fantastic grooving tune that made me start bobbing my head, and which starts with that awesome long climbing note before the bass drops; the sparkling faceted water that's really interesting-looking and almost dancing itself; the disco ball; the grooving animals with their silly dances and sounds. Everything works in harmony around this feel.

Gameplay-wise I did struggle a bit, and even after a lot of tries I could only get "Disco Inferno" level, which is only second-best. I felt like something was off a bit, and conducted some quick experiments on the first block, and I convinced myself that the mouse click was actually registering about 2 inches lower on the screen than where I was clicking, but maybe it was all in my head. If I could have added an enhancement, I know hands down what it would be: the water, which seems to already oscillate on a wave, would reflect the impact of my click. I'd love that if I could click and see the wave ripple out, as I think it would get me much more grounded in the mechanical interactions. Allow me a second enhancement and I'd have the ice discs pitch a little with the wave, even if it was only cosmetic. Oscillate them to the beat and get those things dancing!!

I also struggled a bit with the way that when 2 discs join, yes their area gets bigger but the outermost perimeter edge I think snaps in a little, so sometimes the act of joining is exactly what drops your dudes in the water.

None of this really mattered because the jam was ON here, and precision tactics were not the point.

Mission accomplished, because I definitely groove out big-time to this one, well done and congrats!

Elevator Maximum by happyhour 2018-08-15T01:10:31Z ♥ 1

Wow those animations! I mean the pixel art is already really nice, stylish, and cohesive just as a still, but those animations really make it come alive with action. It was a shame the enemies didn't want to throw down because I would have loved to see a pitched battle animated with this liveliness and power!

Underground Trip by ALKubo 2018-08-15T00:48:02Z ♥ 1

Cool little combat arena game! Environment and enemies looked cool. I wished for a bit more interaction, the intersection of chainsaw and skeleton could have used a bit of oomph and the jump felt a bit weak. But I liked the rising tension of the ever-diminishing land mass as I tried to delay my inevitable toasty doom!

Boop's Space Adventure by winnie33 2018-08-15T00:24:12Z ♥ 1

Lots of cool ideas here in this difficult puzzle platformer. I liked the vibe, the art, and the concepts.

The design and puzzles were really clever.

But I want to critique the controls, because they kind of trolled me pretty hard. Is it okay if I unload on the controls a bit? I do this not because I want to say "bad game." I want to say "very good ideas with a lot of potential, but a few tiny choices in the controls that threw up too much interference for me to engage."

I hope this is helpful, and not hurtful, okay? My apologies if I cross the line, I'm trying to point out a few things you could keep in mind next time.

#1 - The Clone Line Problem

In general, it can be a problem when the player has to RELEASE a button within one frame. In this game, I often wanted to surgically place a single clone in midair by jumping up and hitting the clone button. But sometimes I would accidentally get three clones. I'd hit the button exactly when I wanted to, but I didn't RELEASE the button within a split second, I let my finger linger just a split second too long.

The punishment was often severe, as you see in this example here: https://imgur.com/a/ov6fzbp

The highest of those three clones is EXACTLY where and when I wanted it, and solves the puzzle. But it's death by restart for me, because I accidentally got a line of clones that block my way.

#2 - The Clone Delay Problem

There is a slight delay in between when I press the clone button vs when I get the clone. This slight wonk wrecked my ability to fluidly and precisely clone mid-air. An example is the very first tall climb in the game.

In my mind, I wanted a solution like this: I will jump. 70% of the way up I will hit clone. I will produce a clone and then keep rising above him for the rest of my jump height. Then I will land on his head. I will repeat this to do the climb.

However, the clone would come out a little late, and it would come out then at the PEAK of my jump, and push me down. And I would be below the clone, unable to proceed. Game over by restart again.

Sometimes I could compensate for the timing but it was unreliable enough that I found a reliable but super-grinding alternative strategy: I would hit click-wait-space. This would start cloning, wait until it was about to appear, and then jump up. So I would only climb one single block this way, but it was guaranteed. I climbed this way most of the time, and so it made each death that much more punishing. All the time I was wishing I could play what you probably intended, but the delay threw me off so hard I couldn't.

#3 - The Clone's Not-Blocking-Stuff Warmup Moment

The clone can exist on the screen and yet not block hazards. Here is an example of this screwing me: https://imgur.com/a/1qENr7u

I solved the puzzle: Ran out, put a clone down the block out some safe space. But the hazard went right through the clone and although I retreated in time, there is no way forward from here - death by restart. This kind of situation happened to me a bunch of times.

Now, if these three are all intended aspects of the difficulty which you did on purpose then plz ignore me! I might just suck at these kinds of games and you can say "git gud" and that's fair! But in case these are not aspects you meant to have, I wanted to drill into them a bit in case it helps for your next one.

To return to the positive, I felt like you got a TON done here. Five levels of interesting and difficult puzzles, a novel mechanic explored in depth, and a cool art style with some pizzaz. It was also really clever to have the signs come up after I'd struggled, a super-slick touch.

So don't take this too poorly, please - my ratings I left are balanced even if the comment here focused on the critique aspect. This is actually a good entry for just having learnt unity 2 weeks ago!

If this post is something you don't want on here say the word and it's gone!

Last Days on Mars by snails84 2018-08-14T23:34:59Z ♥ 1

Very cool! Nice little hex builder strat game. You say I couldn't win, but after a few times losing early and never getting a toehold, I figured out the systems and built a thriving colony. Of course, in the end it didn't last -- new people came, and instead of simply throwing them out the airlock for the good of the many, we decided to let them doom us... but still, the high-water mark of my society wasn't too shabby: https://imgur.com/dV8Wb24

I thought the systems were cool, and the art was really clear and nice-looking. I don't know the term MOXIE but the picture very well communicated what it was all about, which I really appreciated.

Interface-wise the shift for multi-drop was a nice touch. I did struggle with the arrow keys. There were two issues with them: first that arrows + mouse is an awkward body position, which is why usually WASD is also offered. Second, the browser as well as the game both responded to my arrow key strokes, which meant I was scrolling within the game (wanted) but also scrolling the web page down and pulling the game off the screen (very unwanted). This wasn't much of an issue in the early game where I was functioning in a limited area, but later when was utilizing the whole map and scrolling very often it was a real drag.

The sound effects were minimal and simple, but important and good at communicating important game events.

Overall I think this is a really nice entry, especially for a first LD! Congratulations.

Apparatus by JustinMullin 2018-08-14T04:25:25Z ♥ 2

Very cool - I love how there are zero instructions outside the game's narrative. I enjoyed the feeling of discovery and building. I didn't realize at first that you can hold shift, and then move orthogonal as opposed to just push/pull as in many other block-puzzle games. It was cool that this little block-puzzle was used as a base layer for a larger machine-building puzzle, too. An impressive amount of design scope for an LD compo!

I did get dinged by dead ends. First I ran out of a electronics and couldn't make the electronics-maker. It happened because I hit space when I meant to hit shift, and I discovered the battery before the second set of schematics was unlocked.

I really wanted to open the second lock and see more, but after I had built some automation I ran into a problem and trapped myself. Setting up an array of electronics production units along a treadmill, one of them slipped onto the treadmill and ran away from me. It get ran down the line to do the doorway, but there was a control unit there which stopped it from being affected by the treadmill. This also turned the production unit back on, which in turn blocked the treadmill. That caused a pileup logjam and soon my map was crowded with electronic blocks that were meant to ship but were't moving.

At first I underestimated the extreme danger of this situation, and spent some money to dig out a new zone so I could come around at another angle. The problem was I could not get to the units to move or turn them off, and when I moved blocks to get through they would instantly refill with electronics. I tried to time a pair of quick moves, but wasn't fast enough. I hadn't computed the consequences of failure in advance, and that was it.

Here is my final state: https://imgur.com/cxVnp6b

I guess I took your implementation of the theme all the way to the extreme there, huh?

That's a pretty cool game that this disaster emerged from the systems! But it was slow paced enough - which I enjoyed - but slow paced enough that I didn't want to repeat the early game a third time to get to the end. At least, not right now as it's getting late.

I felt like the art supported the game well, and the controls were thankfully smooth, and I was hammering out my turns pretty quickly. It's actually pretty easy for a turn-based game with animations to frustrate me, but you avoided this problem nicely.

Very nice and unique entry here. You accomplished your goal of makes a Zachlike I think. Well done!!

Runneth Over by weeping-rupee 2018-08-14T03:03:01Z ♥ 0

I ran this but only got a blank screen, even if left for a while. It spins the CPU a bit but I didn't see anything happen. This is on Windows 7. Let me know if there's a workaround and I'll be happy to give it a shot. Didn't rate since I didn't play, of course.

Nuclear Arms 6: Waste Wizard's Tricks by Logicon211 2018-08-14T02:50:46Z ♥ 4

Never in all my Killbaning have I deserved a Meltdown like I deserved this one. Your games exist on this impressive knife's edge of difficulty where it's never too easy, but also never so hard that I can't see victory with just ONE MORE TRY. I just can't walk away without winning.

Usually I've managed a win in something like a half dozen tries. But this time... Well, they say that surfing is a demanding activity, and I surfed so much I can still feel the soreness from the tension in my neck as I battled those trashbots again and again. I came SO CLOSE so many times.

The design is dense with good ideas. The larger basic trashbot forces you to learn to dash if you don't want to take hits, and while he seems like he can be ignored when lots of trash is around, he is relentlessly pushing it toward you, closing gaps and boxing you in. Then his buddy comes, with those damned rockets that ignore the trash obstacles! If not for him, you could shield yourself in a trash igloo and ignore all but what's right in front of you. But no. And overall there is a wonderful tension between taking care to avoid hits, and the gradual accumulation of trash on the battelfield acting as a clock and forcing you to play briskly. The end boss has a wonderful escalation of the tension between trying to hit him and trying to clear space to not keep eating the trash-skipping rockets coming at you. (Tho I really wished for a better indication of when he was allowed to be hit vs not, it felt a little raw that this escalated his difficulty so much)

How you find these balances, I don't pretend to understand. But once again your ideas have come together into a blast of a game that really tested me.

That's why, when I finally saw the Wizard's face erupt into a series of explosions, my hands shot up in victory. YES!! I DID IT!!

It was at this moment, in this pose, hands held high and off the keyboard/mouse, that one last rocket hit me in the back and killed me. That's right... no meltdown. Just more surfing.

That would not do, and so I rolled up my sleeves and buckled down to get a REAL meltdown. I had to learn the ways. This was when I figured out how to master the dash to attack the big bots (I could have used a little on-character animation cue to indicate a full charge btw), and I learned that the shadows predict where fists and trash will fall, and must be avoided. I studied my kung fu, and upped my game.

And finally, I earned it -- a REAL meltdown.

I have to say that I've enjoyed your previous entries, but this one steps it up a level in quality. Some of that punk-rock basement rawness and minor technical issues you used to have seem replaced by a growing skill level in terms of tech chops and little details. The art and sound are all working together with the gameplay toward a really cohesive package, and all of the interactions felt good.

I'm not quite sure what the guy says when you speed up and he says "He's so fast! Thanks, _____ _____" But the game is metal enough that I decided it must be "Judas Priest." I also cracked up when Killbane was like "What trashstar?" What a guy.

I think maybe the knife's edge tipped a little way toward the difficult side this time, so I made you a little present:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fJ7PcQSOSTM

Space Collapse by Steffanie 2018-08-14T00:20:53Z ♥ 2

Nice work! I managed to save the Earth. Now everyone will know my nam-- But wait... is that more Asteroids!?

I always enjoy experimenting with unusual control schemes, so I liked the fluid crazy spaceship physics here. One problem with these sorts of space games is when the player goes flying off into nowhere, or collides into things, so I think you made a very good design decision to add the outer ring constraining my movement, and letting my just bounce off the sun without too much punishment.

There was a lot going on in the first few moments for me to sort out, so it took me a an adjustment period. I think it was nice to include Mercury as a sort of early warning/lesson to let me see how it plays out before losing the Earth!

One thing that caught me though -- the spacebar shoots, but it also skips past text, specifically including the end of the game. I didn't even quite realize I had lost because I was hammering spacebar to shoot and skipped right through the end!

I liked the graphics and sounds, and felt like it came together in a nice cohesive feeling.

Overall I had fun bouncing around and learning the ropes, then battling some asteroids! Nice job and congrats on a successful LD.

Raiders of the Lost Beer by sawtan 2018-08-13T23:57:48Z ♥ 3

Nice, tight little game. At first I thought my favorite was the machine gun, but later I came to appreciate the shotgun as well. The way the lava constrained me meant that I would adopt a strategy of not moving much. Enemies shoot straight at me, so the pattern is: crosshair on enemy, fire a burst, then move a few steps orthogonal, and I'm safe. Complex moments came when being fired on from multiple directions, that got intense a few times.

Instant gameover from a single mis-step meant death was watching over my shoulder the whole time. I tested the lava after my game went long enough that I felt I could not commit more time without knowing the rules, so I stepped in willingly and learned the consequences, and played in earnest on my second run. I got a bit north of 200,000 score. The pickup that increased my speed was a startling fright in a world where the wrong foot placement is doom.

Top-down room battle has been done before, but I felt like you did a good job of achieving a nice level of intensity and required care. The art was nice, especially the lava, and the action was really clear, I appreciated the nice fat bullets.

If I could suggest one area to explore it would be in the mechanics of which tiles go. This aspect felt a bit disconnected and made me wonder if a more intriguing experience could be had if the enemies or my own actions somehow were the things that wrecked the floor. For example, a tension: I want to shoot this enemy, but not THERE!

Nice entry that I enjoyed, well done.

EVOLUTION by Noa Calice 2018-08-13T23:16:18Z ♥ 2

Wow, the way everything squished and bobbed and jiggled really made this game feel ALIVE, and pushed the already-good art and sound up to an even higher level! Nice work.

It's very simple mechanically. At first this threw me, because I was seeking to understand the different behaviors of the different types of buildings, as if it were a strategy game. This was fine, and in fact kind of pleasant... I enjoyed that the game snuck up on me with an unexpected turn. At first I was like wait, didn't the picture just change? Then the sound changed character a bit. The gradual descent into a dark place was very well done.

After seeing how it was going, I tried to reverse course and brought it back to a happy place, and then changed direction again and plunged it to the max until it all broke.

You really captured a ton of experience out of such a simple idea, well done.

Wizsnooks by kroltan 2018-05-13T15:31:37Z ♥ 4

Very nice! I knew I had to play this one when I saw the screenshot, because a few years back for the 7-day roguelike challenge I created a game called "Billiard Dungeon" so I was curious to see how you'd approached the same thematic idea.

We went in pretty different directions, which was fun to see. I was really blown away by the art you created for this, especially the rolling sprites which looked just fantastic!

I played maybe 4 or 5 full games before I was like "hrm I wonder what this 'B' button does..." That certainly helped me to get a LOT further! I played until I had looped around through all the levels and was one-shotting dudes, and I considered that beating the game: https://imgur.com/a/vjNesOy

Then I shot myself into a hole to say goodbye.

Overall a very fun experience. The way enemies didn't move meant your game was completely different than mine... in your game it was all about being very careful not to fall into the hole yourself, as that was the most dangerous threat. Because enemies don't move, it's okay to take many mini-shots to get into position for a safe shot to knock them into a hole. It was a lot of fun and I definitely saw myself gradually improving at knocking them in the holes. Once I had looped all the way around the game I had a good feel for it and ran a streak of getting 3 shots in a row that knocked guys in the holes. Almost got the fourth but I couldn't see the hole on the screen to aim properly and just missed (I remembered where the hole was from the prior loop).

Holes being off screen was probably the main source of any player friction. It meant that when I had to travel around the map I had to do it with many tiny-taps instead of bigger shots, and still I nearly knocked myself into a hole. With the many-tiny-tap travel I did feel sometimes like arrr c'mon while waiting for the previous shot to finish rolling, like I wanted to hit the ball again while it was still moving. This was all very minor, but figured I'd mention it since it was the only little splinter.

Overall, I would say that the game was very strong. There is probably an element of chaining multiple shots together and thinking carefully about your "lay" from one shot going into the next, which is the core strategy of real snooker/billiards/pool, that didn't come through here. So maybe if you're expanding you can build the strategy in that direction.

But I still very much enjoyed the core mechanic here, and it the art, sound, music, and just overall feel of excellent polish really supported that core gameplay very well.

Strong entry, really well done!

CONFESSIONAL by Rodrigo Denúbila 2018-05-11T00:56:46Z ♥ 1

Great job with the unsettling mood. The way I was controlling both the victim and the bagman was extra creepy and a really nice touch. The music and sound effects were a great backdrop and the bagman looked convincing. A unique and moody entry!

Witch's Escape by cristiano.m.garcia 2018-05-11T00:35:14Z ♥ 1

The art is very nice. The slow ramp-up in difficulty was ok for the first run, but once I died and restarted, it felt like a long time to get back to the interesting part with multi-button combos. I would have played more if I didn't have to wait as long between runs for the fun part.

Neko Drift! by BluShine 2018-05-03T02:45:21Z ♥ 1

Pleasantly oddball! The controls were a massive issue for the few couple of minutes, but I gradually acclimated. Once I did, the highlight moment was drifting sideways with my ass hanging in the wind, sliding along the cambered edge of the track.

The whacky premise was amplified by the goofball sounds and I loved that the cat cubes had little pink paw spots and just wouldn't get out of my way.

I have mixed feelings about the controls, because they were certainly a hurdle at first without me understanding why. Later I came to appreciate what they made possible. I am unclear on whether there is a set of changes to keep the good and shed the hurdle. I have played with car controls five different ways myself, and it's just really hard to create expressive driving controls with digital toggles (keys), since it's inherently an analog activity.

I came to enjoy the feel, though. One thing that did jam me up hard a couple of times was when a cat was right on my spawn point. My final moments with the game I was low on time and spawned on a cat that sent me spinning like this: https://imgur.com/RQt7BX7 I just spun and spawned and spun and spawned while the clock counted down to my game over.

I don't want to dwell on the negative, because although I felt a few splinters I definitely hit some outstanding high notes! You even tickled a few small flashbacks to dodging through traffic in Road Rash on Genesis, a rare feat.

So well done - a cool concept and an intriguing execution with flair.

Goodnight Meowmie by DDRKirbyISQ 2018-05-02T05:02:29Z ♥ 2

What craft! Your skill and careful polish achieves a potent feel for both the light and dark. I was softened by doing chores, getting to know and like my cat. Then you artfully took advantage, and left me alone in the dark, and I began to feel tense.

Lots of small good choices: avoiding a tutorial, how far back "death" sent me, the sweep of the light, the gentle highlight of an item I could interact with.

But most of all it never felt gamey, meaning you successfully pulled me out of my normal mode and into yours. Well done.

Monster Stew by Aaron Nemoyten 2018-05-02T03:53:38Z ♥ 1

I liked this! The art and soundscape created a gritty alien place, and this played very well with the strange task set in front of me. The difficulty ramped well, with dog-O's letting me learn the ropes, but by the time I got to bullions I was getting snuck up on and surprised, then I had to whirl around in panic and not fall in my own stew! A nice moment.

I fell in the soup early, so I had a feeling that this was a full-restart game. Buckling down and being careful, I got to the artichokes with a few close calls that were enjoyable. But when I died at the artichokes and went back to the start of the game, I called it a day. I was enjoying myself but for these LD entries it's a little too much to ask me to repeat THAT much of the game to experience the next bit. Yet the threat of full restart certainly added tension, so it's a tradeoff.

The controls were mostly spot-on and worked well. I liked the travel time of projectiles, the movement speed, and the jumps. I noticed that if I keep looking down I flip around which was weird, but didn't really present a problem. I did have a few issues with the shooty-shoots blocking my view when I carried them, for example https://imgur.com/a/TXjqqnb But again not a serious problem by any means.

The punny names were a nice touch, add a kind of odd contrast to the gruesome task performed in this hellscape.

Overall a memorable and interesting entry, well done!

Blocks of Nibiru by LeviDSmith 2018-05-02T03:04:29Z ♥ 1

Wow, you're prolific! I was impressed by how many LD and MiniLDs appeared on your author page, so I watched your 15-in-5-years retrospective video and it turns out I have played two of your games before: the cowboy shooting numbers, and the flying tomato shooter. That's an impressive record you have.

For blocks of Nibiru, I had fun smashing up some tetris blocks. I loved the earth-tone palette that you used for the art, and the colors combined really well with the texture you had, especially the blue circle. Another nice aesthetic aspect was the very satisfying sound of shooting a block.

Gameplay-wise the rounded movement was interesting, but what I liked most was the upgrade system. The multi-ship was cool, and when I had several ships, several speeds, the movement almost became a little different... I was no longer just a ship.

The difficulty curve felt a little wild, it was quite easy for a bit longer than I needed it to be, and then in fact I started messing around and experimenting and not paying attention and at that very moment the game got quickly out of hand and I failed to recover. This was around level 9, though I didn't figure out how to use my bomb.

There was perhaps something here about shooting the blocks to have those above fall in order to achieve a certain arrangement - literally combining match-3 with shooter - which was unexplored.

Oh! And how could I not mention the jamming music! Well I guess it just fit that well.

Another nice entry in an impressively consistent record, well done.

Rex McFury: Public Defender by minibobbo 2018-05-02T02:32:37Z ♥ 1

This was a lot of fun! A very nice little genre-mashup, and I dug the cheesy character brought to life with the throwback lo-rez vocal sample delivering one-liners! Great job with the overall style throughout.

The fights were also really solid, with each character having their moves and patterns, and requiring a different approach to beat them! The little old lady blocking shots with her umbrella was a very nice tactical touch.

The music was groovin, and I liked the gritty synthesized sound effects. Although I did wish for a different sound for a successful hit vs a wiff, just for information conveyance.

So this game is really on point. But since you're asking someone to get specific about the controls, and since this game is good enough to be worth diving deeper into, let's do it.

I too experienced some frustration with the controls in my initial moments of playing. In fact I got wrecked in my first fight and felt like it was all off. Starting my second fight, I went away from the lady and just experimented with the controls. I saw how very long I am "stuck" when I punch, and so I stopped playing like a brawler and played more like a "wait for it, counterattack" game. Then I wrecked the lady and only got hit once.

So partly it's adjusting. But I still think something is a bit off. For example, testing now, I am trying this combination of inputs, starting from facing left:

Punch (Begin holding right, indicating I want to turn around) Punch Punch

That's punch-spamming with a turnaround inputted an instant after I begin. In this case I can accept that I don't get the turnaround until after the first punch completes, but the game will actually run the entire combo of 3 punches before turning around.

Thinking back to my first play when I lost, I remember getting up in the mix with the old lady and punching, then I'd find I wasn't quite on the correct side, and my punches were missing -- or were they? kind of unsure since the sound is the same -- and I am now trying to turn around and punch the other way, but I'm not turning when I expect to. I also recall deciding to escape down, but feeling "stuck" in place.

This is all the initial moments with the game, and I soon adjusted. After realizing how it worked, I thought, oh this is a design decision, to make you more careful.

Testing further I see the following moments of loss of control: - No air control - No buffered re-jump so if I want to jump again and push a frame early, I don't get a jump - Hitting attack one frame before landing is also not feeling great (seems to cancel on touchdown?) - There is a stun when I get hit (probably fine, but maybe needs knockback?)

So a lot of windows where you ignore my inputs. Some valid, but consider reviewing each I guess?

Hope that helps put some specifics on that question.

And to be clear: great game, this dive into the controls isn't dissing it!

Space Captain Rodriguez by CalebLewis 2018-05-02T02:00:17Z ♥ 2

This is a great first entry, and you're getting a lot of solid feedback here. I'm interested to see what you come out with next time after being a little battle-hardened!

This game has a cool idea and lots of good execution in the art quality and snappy movement. But wowzers it totally overwhelmed me. It asked that I memorize 20 data points before I know what they really mean, and it has 10 buttons to press. That's probably too much to expect an LD player to hold in their head going into the start of the game... a lesson I had to learn the hard way as a dev, too!

Gamefeel wise the core control was tight, which is a huge deal. But pay attention to what @Ashtrail is saying about the speed of the bullets, I think he's put his finger on a problem there. I didn't realize it while playing, but I think he's right that if the projectiles (enemy ones!) moved slower I would have been able to plot dodges more, instead of being a reaction thing.

For me, I was shooting and my eye would be in a conundrum: if I look at my ship I can't pay attention to whether I got hearts (meaning a good combo hit) or not. But if I look at the hits I lose sight of what I need to dodge. Consider conveying the information across multiple channels, like a different sound effect for the hit in each case.

So I think you have a lot of good raw ideas and raw skills here, and you put together something that's decent, and straight-up good for a first entry. But you have a little ways to go in learning about the "hump" that a stranger sitting down to play cold has to fight over, and how you can make that smoother. That comes with experience, and you'll be getting it by doing these LDs, so keep on!

Solid work here and looking forward to next time.

Black Hole Zoo by Weekend Panda 2018-05-01T02:05:16Z ♥ 0

I'm a little suspicious of this Bison guy. Sure he's gregarious enough, but, I mean, CAN a black hole fall off a truck?? Something's fishy here...

Reservations aside, I fed some black holes as he requested, and it seemed to have worked at teaching the crowd science. They "oohed" and "ahhhed" with quite some vigor. So they must have been paying attention and learning... something.

Sadly, it was the last lesson they'll ever learn, as my clicker finger wore out and I was not up to the task of keeping us all safe.

Loved the larger-than-life Zoo boss and his wild antics. The cookie of course played second fiddle to the jokes delivered by over-the-top characters, but I think that was totally the right call in the scope-cutting that always happens in these jams.

Nice job, I got a bunch of laughs out of this one!

Rhythm Attack by automatonvx 2018-05-01T01:45:46Z ♥ 2

I'm just terrible at rhythm games, so I wasn't able to clear a single level. I got to about 1 minute remaining in each of the first two, and the final one just wrecked me. But I was happy that you included a menu at least letting me try all three!

This game has its own little charm, kind of a nice coherent feeling to the art, and the sound and music interplayed nicely. The controls felt good -- or at least they did when I was on the beat! The pressure to have to move forward as well as dodge and shoot was a nice design touch. I also liked how the game had kind of discrete rows/columns but yet it also had continuous space that the projectiles would move through. Made for some interesting dodging!

I was so bad that getting any "powerup" other than H usually killed me pretty quick, since it threw me off. ;)

But even with my bad skills this one was fun. Great job making the music, too. The second song was my favorite.

The Mad Bulleteer by Diego Escalante 2018-05-01T01:28:11Z ♥ 0

Cool combination! I saw some other clicker-combos, but what I liked about this one was that it was totally playable on both sides at once. I felt pretty smoothly able to operate the ship and the economy at the same time, and I also felt like I really understood everything that was going on.

Controls felt tight, and it looked nice. The crunchy sound effects worked well with the pixelish art, and I liked how the screen got sloppy with particle trails when things got hectic! The curved ship that would rotate in place and spray a stream of bullets was the guy who created the most interesting dodge problems for me, that was my favorite.

Nice entry!

Dark Soil by Pietro Ferrantelli 2018-05-01T01:11:56Z ♥ 2

(Level 48, 1746 souls)

Wow this was so top-notch. The idea was very cool with multiple design ideas I liked: the create-your-own-problem, an the task-switching between priorities. The art was just fantastic, as was the sound and music. I was really grooving in this one, and falling more into the game without a lot of sense of time passing.

The controls were pretty tight, and I especially liked the choice to have the attack lunge toward enemies and also exhaust a meter, giving me two reasons to be careful about just mega-spamming, but not being too punishing about quick bursts of controlled spam. The walking around was also great. The only aspect of the controls that intruded on my sense of flow state was the juggling between equipment slots. It was probably okay that this felt a little awkward, though, because it created a need to plan a bit and put some tension into the situation.

Only other hiccup was that the sanctuary text went by a little too fast for me to read. (Edit: I also never noticed there was a roll feature)

Really excellent job here, congrats on a strong entry across all the categories.

Arithmetris by MagmaFortress 2018-04-30T03:51:27Z ♥ 1

Such a cool concept, and I enjoyed smashing my head against this brick wall for a little while, but ultimately I'm too dumb/slow for it. I enjoyed the snappy controls and never once felt cheated. The raw text aesthetic worked well with the numeric concept. I yearned for training wheels: a "current total" column showing where I'm at in each row.

A very interesting and well-done experiment, even if I could only scratch the surface. I think my top score was 22.

OK I tried it once more with the music, and while I was fought a little harder at the end I still only scored 14. I did notice though that in button-hammer-dodging at the very end I accidentally insta-skipped my score view... maybe that should be passed with a spacebar?

Man this is tough, but interesting.

StarClick: RTS + Clicker by Lerg 2018-04-30T03:17:08Z ♥ 1

Very clever twist, making the costs ramp up similarly to the way the clicker economy works! This looked and sounded great, and the feel was nicely solid as well. It was a lot to have thrown at me, but I felt like you kept it manageable... or as manageable as StarCraft can be!

Nicely executed and clever design -- great well-rounded compo entry!

Gravity Chess by CaptainPilot 2018-04-30T02:08:31Z ♥ 0

Very nice puzzle entry here. I played the whole thing, and felt like the pace of introducing new concepts was right on. I had a good mix of feeling like I was smart, and getting a bit stumped here and there as well. The only time the game lost me was the first level with the night, not because of the new move it was introducing, but because I had not really learned the rules about "opposite colors can take" and "you must fill each goal but not have any left over" -- the prior levels were supposed to teach me that but I kind of missed the point. I referred back to the listed rules that once, and I was off again through the end.

Interface was slick and did what I needed, if I could have added one convenience, it would be that I could toggle selection of a piece. Sometimes I felt like I wanted to unselect something I'd dabbled with moving but decided against.

Overall very impressive exploring of an interesting idea -- well done!

Alien Holes by bazld 2018-04-30T01:44:26Z ♥ 1

This was cool, I had fun playing around with it. My initial reaction was shock that they aim moves so slow and soupy, but I soon came to realize that this is critical for making you feel like your shots have to count -- no quick spamming of minor corrections!

My first game was spent getting a handle on things and I only got a 2. I knew I could do better though, so I buckled down a bit and got myself an 8. I can see from the comments above though that this does not make me the A-Hole Master after all! Oh well.

Cool idea, and you made some interesting choices that gave it a unique feel. Nice work!

BEAT KILLER by Dragojt 2018-04-29T21:44:17Z ♥ 3

Nice job, I played to the end. It was the right length, had snappy controls, and the art and music were solid.

I liked ducking into the nooks and finding the extra notes, I noticed a red one in the ceiling and figured out how to get that one, too. The beat battles were rare enough that I didn't feel overwhelmed, and the enemies had enough health that I had to worry a little about making enough on-beat hits in a row to take 'em out before they clawed their way to me.

One little detail that stung me a tiny bit was the way the camera is vertically locked to the guy so that when you jump you often lose all sight of the ground. Here's an example: https://imgur.com/dj4sLzw Not a big deal, but it did create a little discomfort.

Only other critique is that I never quite understood the meaning of the horizontal location of the notes, since for example a left arrow note might appear on the left, or on the right. Since I was multi-tasking between playing and platforming I wished the various arrows were lane-locked, so eg left was always on the left, so that way I could hit the beats by only looking from my peripheral vision while focusing on controlling my character. but maybe I just didn't understand what was really going on!

Nice job making a small tight metroidvania that had something new going on, and a sense of style, with tight controls!

Dice Poker Chicken Battle by digitaldude555 2018-04-29T21:29:43Z ♥ 1

Wow, nice job making the three-part system. It's a lot of scope to take on! The chicken, with his gambling and training and fighting, was kind of a charming character.

If you were to expand on this in one area, I would say focus on the feedback. Just simple stuff, like the game popping up the name of the poker hand I got and whether it was -50% or not. And the impact of my training. And whether I won or lost the fight. Basically whenever an important variable changes, there can be some visual thing indicating "oh boy look what YOU did, player!"

I definitely learned to get along without those, but they would totally up the game's feel.

I went all-in offense, and I had to fight captain squid a few times (tho I wasn't sure if I won or lost my fights against him, they just ended). I eventually realized OH I should go shopping! By then I had huge monies and bought lots of upgrade and wiped the floor with him. Then I took out cool cat and I was the champ!

The Circle of Fries by Maximum Unicorn Fluffer Team 2018-04-29T21:06:23Z ♥ 0

Wow, I'm sorry that I haven't reviewed your game since you did mine - but I don't have a gamepad!

Action Chess by antonsem 2018-04-29T20:59:12Z ♥ 1

Wild, and tense! I was claiming the center with c4 d4 e4 and whipping out knights and that was going okay. I definitely ran into some trouble with exchanges and a few times it was like WHOOPS I lost a piece and now I have to mentally re-gear for the new situation. I mean, situations change quickly in blitz chess, but they move along a certain sort of a path through the gamespace. This game strangely teleports to new positions in alternate trees in a way that my blitz chess brain patterns were sideswiped by. It was a cool experience!

Aesthetics-wise I loved the crunchy sound effects and found the on-piece timer totally clear and really necessary/helpful. I tried playing on a long train ride, but the color contrast is so low between the dark squares and dark pieces that I couldn't play. I was madly squinting, but it was like the enemy army had cloaking fields. I had to set it aside and come back with more friendly ambient lighting.

A cool idea that I enjoyed toying with. Nice work!

Card Runner by sh1rogane 2018-04-27T21:32:33Z ♥ 1

Very interesting! My first half dozen runs ended really fast and I thought "wtf I don't have what I need, that was impossible." but then I realized the tricks, and after a couple more I got a run with a score of 721. I see that @Jimbly did even better, but hey I felt okay about 721 given my first few runs!!

I felt like there was a delay I never fully understood between the clicking and the doing. Several times I was hammering the card like COME ON DOOO ITTTT. I got accustomed to the delay and started playing cards with the idea that there would be a lag before they kicked in, but I think the game would have felt more potent and alive if the card instantly took effect, or if whatever that delay is was strongly visually indicated why it exists.

But once I got used to the couple of odd things I really started to feel good playing, and I wanted to keep it all on a roll! What finally did me in on my good run was jumping a little too early (was getting jumpy I guess!) and landing on top of a spikeball instead of jumping over it.

Very cool concept and a nice entry, good work.

Groove Chase by dlan 2018-04-27T21:19:21Z ♥ 1

I really like the song a lot. The arrow-pressed was pretty tough, and typically I'm not too good at that type of game. But I will say that there were a couple of points where I got into a groove and surprised myself by hitting some pretty messed-up combos that I was shocked I got right... that felt pretty good! I didn't win, though. I also liked the stylish art on the cars and the arrows, plus the little taunts on the retry screen.

Nice work!

Draw Me Something by Yirggzmb 2018-04-27T21:11:58Z ♥ 1

Really cute idea! Would never have thought to make a game about hurling molotov cocktails at cute bunny rabbits, except, well, I guess I just did!

I didn't know where it was going at all with all the drawing, though I was having fun with it. I found the place you took it surprising and satisfying. Well done!!

Shake'n'Shoot by WilloXs 2018-04-27T21:02:08Z ♥ 1

Cool disco-floor with the shifting colors and the special dance spots, looks very nice. I also liked the way the character's animations for shooting or walking (especially walking backwards) were all disco-dancey. I played without reading the instructions at first, and figured most of it out but not the mousewheel. Then I alt-tabbed over to read them and it was smooth sailing. I played until I got to the special dance-off and wiped out the rest of the dance-hating robot monsters.

Interesting idea, with the conflict between needing to dance to power up and needing to shoot the robots. I think I personally could have used a bit more speed and difficulty across every aspect, but of course this is just a matter of personal taste, and the relaxed pace certainly let me bask in some of the details that I might not have enjoyed as much in a hectic setting.

Nice work.

Miss Priss by jfraser314 2018-04-27T20:41:04Z ♥ 0

The art and crazy story gave a nice light-hearted feel, and the operatic semi-metal, even if not made for this jam, was a nice choice to use. Gave kind of a crazy fits-but-doesn't-fit feel to the whole thing that I enjoyed and worked with the whole "incompatible genres" theme is a different way that other entries.

I also liked the concept of drawing power for mobility, attack, and life all from the same pool. Although I enjoyed the flying, and this design encouraged me NOT to do that fun thing, which was kind of a shame.

I did get stuck in the wall one time, here is a screenshot: https://imgur.com/a/8EJSZSz

I had to jet myself to death and start over there, but fortunately that's not a big deal since the game is a short punchy length, which I also liked about it... it didn't overstay its welcome.

The boss fight I think you are working out some bugs there, so no big deal but my experience was I got shoved in the corner and some things happened that confused me and then I died. (Probably what it really feels like to fight the hulk anyway)

Nice entry, slightly messy but counters with messy charm and makes the whole thing work.

Band Battle Fantasy - A Turn-Based Rhythm Game by MartinTristan 2018-04-26T02:20:23Z ♥ 1

Very cool concept to have the "band vs crowd" dynamic in a JRPG battle format! Unfortunately I'm pretty bad at rhythm games, and most of my games were GAME OVER in literally about four seconds after my attempt to rock began. I tried a bunch of times and managed to get to the start of the vocals once, but I never made it to the crowd's second turn. Ha, yea I'm that bad!

Dug the concept and art though.. wish I could have tried further into the game!

Night of the Overdue Assignments by niksorvari 2018-04-26T01:48:16Z ♥ 1

"Take that, homework!" I sure killed a lot of assignments. I was mopping the place up, but then I started experimenting with the pencil and it went downhill from there.

I liked the angry expressions on the assignments, how they came in various sizes, and the nice crunchy feel to shooting them. Well done!

Bump Quest 6 by Siactro 2018-04-26T01:39:21Z ♥ 0

I played the original version, but I still won. I loved the jamming tune, and the nice finale that rewarded me for completing the entire bump quest! This was charming. My wife wondered why I was battling blue hershey kisses so I got to explain to her about slimes.

Yeah the controls were a little hard to handle, but it was also kind of a crazy sort of fun to be out of control and bounce-smashing into everything and trying to plan my movement.

Cool little game that's heavy on charm, nice work.

Rockin' Horse by niterich 2018-04-26T01:19:30Z ♥ 1

Wow great job making the 3D art and music! I ran the course three times, but still didn't beat snail so I think I was pretty bad. But I liked the grooving tunes, and I had a fun time drifting around the corners. One time after the well up the stairs, I was confused by which way to turn, I turned left and found myself what seemed like just off the course.

I never read the game's page, since I figure the game will explain it to me, but I'm kicking myself this time, because I was hitting the enter key on all quarter-note beats, which probably explains both why my hand hurts and also why I was stuck at Sir Snail!! Ooops, my bad. Kind of made it fun though since I was not very much in control coming around corners so I had to try to plan my racing line a bit more.

Cool idea to mix these two genres, I had fun.

Twin Stick Town by patrickgh3 2018-04-26T01:02:24Z ♥ 1

Wow, this is a really cool concept executed well with a lot of little details. The art is super-charming, I love the snappiness of the controls across all of the modes, and the sound & music are on point, too.

It was a lot of fun to tinker around with this, and I loved the variety of enemies, and the way that things would spiral out of control. I felt a tension between building useful buildings together in a clump, and then as I built further around that it was kind of like trapping me in that area during the fights. Combat felt great, too.

Very strong entry, really well done!

Jet Boy by Harry Light 2018-04-25T03:43:59Z ♥ 1

ohhhhhhh my god this was SO hard. But it had JETPACKS and shooting with leads at moving targets. So the old Tribes player in me had to try to step up, and I gave it a serious effort.

I thought I would never even get past the first boss. But after a lot of experimenting and many many many many tries I finally beat him. Fortunately the next few bosses were SLIGHTLY less difficult. Let's call the three bosses spinner, roller, and smiler. I beat each of them, and then I beat spinner 2. But I ran out of steam after losing many many times to roller 2.

Funnily, spinner was hardest for me, then roller, and simley was pretty easy. But that may be the tribes thing: smiler was about leading your shot more than dodging, and I just summoned my old chaingun skills.

I was upset that I didn't get even an instant of invulnerability and eating a tripleshot could end me instantly. But honestly I think given this game's brutality, I'm okay with that.

I had to dig deep, as this is more execution difficulty than I normally engage with, but there were three excellent aspects of the game that made me want to do it: first there is the very well done aesthetic of informative and appealing graphics and sound; second the controls are very tight so it's all my fault; and third there is a pattern to be deduced with each boss and so it is as much of a puzzle as it is an execution test.

Every now and then a superhard execution LD comes along that has the package to make me buckle down and this was one of those rare games. Well done!

Shepherd and Dog by obachuka 2018-04-25T02:47:19Z ♥ 1

Wow art is off-the-charts charming here, and the dog and wolf both ooze personality. The controls are nice and responsive, giving vibrant life to the nice art.

I struggled with the levels as I progressed, because WOWZErs those wolves don't mess around, and the way they could go through shrubs but the dog couldn't left me feeling cornered a lot!

I guess it's that way on the nature shows, too. Animal life looks cute but there is a brutality to the reality of it all.

Very nice entry here, great work.

Infernoculus by icxon 2018-04-25T02:33:24Z ♥ 2

Wow, very slick package here. Nice concept of turn-based soccer on a hex grid with some inaccuracy in kicks, leading to a nice positional strategy game with a reasonable planning horizon but not so predictable you have to compute far ahead. Great concept for the theme!

The layer of nice art and sound with the mystical/demonic characters and special abilities is an impressive layer of additional scope over the top, wow! And all of it worked and was really clear - I jumped right in, never looked at the help, and won my first match 3-1.

I think I would have lost if the AI was a little more careful about not hitting its own teammates. It seemed to play for damage, and I played purely for scoring... maybe a mistake on my part, as once they were two men up it was tough for me. But once the field evened again I won handily, but being REALLY careful with my one fast guy left. Poor Gandalf went down immediately for my side, woops!

Everything here was on point. The only critique I can offer is that the pace is a bit slow. I like action games, and I do play a lot of turn-based roguelikes as well, but those are single-character tappa-tappa speedy turn-based games. This level of 5-man squad turn games feels a little onerous to me, but I can't tell if that's just inherent to the genre and merely a matter of taste. If it played twice as fast I definitely would have gone back for multiple matches.

Overall a very impressive entry across the board. Very nice work!

Keyboard Army by PeachTreeOath 2018-04-25T01:56:33Z ♥ 4

Really cool charming idea. I thought I was a good blind typist, but after playing this for a bit... well, let's just say I'm kind of glad it didn't show me an accuracy score at the end!

The first few moments flat-out bamboozled me. My immediate reaction was OMG that text is so small! I was lounging on the sofa being casual, and I had to get physically closer to the screen and set the keyboard properly on the table. But later I saw that the text names are quite long in some cases, so a larger font is not easy, tough design tradeoff.

The second aspect I struggled with was eye positioning. I needed to watch the battle to learn the rules (I'm glad you didn't tutorialize overmuch) but I also needed to intently squint at card text to type it.

So there was an initial hurdle, but once past that I started getting better and tabbing around to lanes and trying to get some folks into position for battle with some thought to strategy, rather than just furiously typing everything that came up.

And once I settled in I started digging it! I was cool how I could type text that applied to multiple cards, or access cards from multiple zones at the same time, that was a nice touch.

I eventually beat the whole thing and congratulated myself. Honest by then I was sort of in the groove and probably would have gone on a bit further.

This is a cool concept, executed nicely with great art and a grooving OST that set a nice foot-tapping pace that matched the gameplay. Well done!!

Monster DATING System by knarf 2018-04-25T01:32:52Z ♥ 0

Hey man, I went to check it out but I couldn't find the download link on the page! Am I being dumb? I just saw the description and a nice animated gif.

Motorhell by Shelvid 2018-04-25T00:34:17Z ♥ 1

Game is fucking METAL, and I love it! This game has a great idea and huge potential, and enough of that potential is realized to make it a lot of fun. It could be MEGA-fun and doesn't quite grab all the METAL potential available.

The main thing about when I play a badass METAL game is that I want to be able to FEEL what's going on. I know this was done with limited time, and I think you prioritized correctly. But man, if you were able to take it up a level in terms of the feel this would be just fantastic. I want you to take it to eleven!

Two things matter in this game: hurting things and riding a motorcycle. Let's look at both:

You gotta make it so I know when I'm getting hit, know when I hit the enemy, know when I kill them. You gotta make those core interactions come through in FEEL. That goes double in a tough fast firstperson game, for example when I get rammed by a psycho-demonbiker with a huge blade mounted on the front of his motorbike, I would probably notice. But I got hit from the back a few times in this and didn't! I gotta feel that. "SLAM! What the fu--" Not looking at some digits on the screen and saying "hmr professor, pardon me but I do believe we may have taken some damage back there!"

I also gotta feel like I'm on a motorcycle. What kind of motorcycle goes in reverse?! Let's turn to the experts to see how it's done. Let's say you're, to take one example, a leather-clad killer robot from the future who just got rammed by a truck, and you'd like to turn your motorcycle around 180 degrees to give chase. You don't use reverse, you don't even duck-walk it back... you're metal, so THIS is what you do:

https://youtu.be/7_IYeL4LtYY?t=50

I want a button that does THAT!

But suggestions aside, I had a lot of fun with what you DID ship. I got to Arena 2 and almost cleared it, which felt like I was doing pretty good, since it's tough. That was with riding full throttle, none of this hiding around corners & waiting stuff. I did my best when I kept moving, kept my head on a swivel, and didn't circle around to get into any prolonged fights: if I didn't finish a guy off, I'd get him next pass! I loved the variety of the enemies, with some trying to shoot me and those crazies with the lances trying to ram me, awesome!

Very nice entry, well done.

Investment platforms by tripu 2018-04-24T13:36:32Z ♥ 2

I definitely like the concept here - of navigating selectively through an endless platformer where the different platforms I hit are controlling a second aspect of the game related to economics. And then the macro-economic conditions affect the physics in the platform -- it's a cool idea!

I struggled with the high-speed pace, though. There was a lot being thrown at me here, and I would have enjoyed a bit more breathing room at the start to observe and learn the rules before things got so difficult. That, or an instant restart button so I could spend more time learning. I spent almost all of my time just trying not to die, and never really clicked with the higher-level economic concepts. (Hrm... was that the game's hidden message?)

SURVABY by 0nironauta 2018-04-24T12:51:25Z ♥ 3

This is a great core concept to use for the theme: to set the two genres against each other in a conflict where the player needs to divide their time and attention between competing goals. You even took it a step further and forced me to literally turn my back on the action game to tend to the other genre! Nice.

And the execution is really strong, too. The voxel aesthetic works really well, and the sound is -- well, err, let's set aside the crying baby sound and talk about the rest -- is very nice. I especially liked that dropping the shotgun on the floor made the same sound as dropping the bottle. A clever small joke.

I had about the right amount of breathing room at the start, and I absolutely loved that you didn't tutorialize me at all, and just threw me straight in to figure it out.

The only small thing I wanted to tweak -- setting aside the crying -- was this hitbox for the pickup command, I would have preferred it to be just slightly more generous, I had to be a little more careful than felt smooth.

Overall this was excellent, but let's talk about the crying. I don't know what I want. On the one hand, you have to have the crying. On the other hand, it's crying, which is like a magical sound my brain is designed to find maximally annoying. I *definitely* would have played more of this if it weren't for the crying. My brain was like "nah let's not click the button that opts into more crying" unfortunately.

But that said, I didn't need to play a ton to enjoy this. Very nice entry.

Rapid Fire by Anubhav Kashyap 2018-04-24T03:12:27Z ♥ 1

I wanted to try, but the link goes to a 404 page not found. Is it possible you have the itch page set to a private draft instead of a published public page? You can check by going to the game page, clicking "edit" at the top, then going to the bottom of the edit screen and checking the setting for "visibility and access." (I know b/c I made this mistake last time!)

I'll swing by later and check again.

Helsing by davidsheadgames 2018-04-24T03:09:56Z ♥ 2

Fantastic job creating the atmosphere. The art, the sound, and the decisions about lighting really set the stage for the mood. The item scarcity was just about right, to where I was worried but never actually had a problem. I beat the game on my first run-through, but I had some close calls of being hunted by werewolves without knowing if a stake would work!

If I could tweak one thing, I'd think whether the rotating as a separate input step could be changed. I understand it's to aim the shooting, but the controls otherwise feel really snappy and the double-tap to turn somewhat marred that feel. I like to play turn/grid games pretty fast though, so it could just be me.

I loved the introduction of the metalish music at the end and the plot changes there, very nice touch to make it feel like a full experience.

Very nice entry!

BREAK // HELL by Incredible Ape 2018-04-24T02:17:10Z ♥ 3

37,850.

First noticed you guys when you made IceMan, that crazy jump-dodging flip-upside-down game. Now I make a point of checking out your offering because you reliably deliver a tight, to-the-point arcade action game that's really tough but has a mental layer to the design that makes me think.

I love the way this one lets me create my own problems. I experimented with randomness and systems of patterns, with constant streams and short bursts. At one point I was like "hrm I don't seem to be punished by failing to get blocks!" But then I realized how I quickly run out of space if I don't. I was stuck at about 15k for a bunch of tries until I felt like I had peeled back the layers, and got a more solid score.

Oh and one tiny touch I was glad to see: I don't get insta-gameover if I eat a quick run of hits in a stream. Nice.

I still think I did some dumb stuff that got me killed and a much higher score is possible but that was good for now.

Another really tight package with feel and hidden depth. I was very glad to see you had your sound crew present for this entry, and it came out great. I missed that in the demon-head lane-racer game.

Well done.

Check, Please! by swav_gav 2018-04-24T01:56:16Z ♥ 2

Had fun, and played til my elbow hurt, but I still couldn't quite get those darn meatballs where they belonged. I think my date was feeling a little... disrespected a few times.

Really charming, and things fit together very nicely! Obviously it's all really clumsy but I enjoyed that about a lot. Nice entry!

Knightmare by krasse 2018-04-24T01:42:51Z ♥ 1

Nice art and music with a great variety of enemies and mechanics!

If I could change one thing, I would tweak the camera logic. Right now it moves behind me so that as I move right, my character goes further right on the screen, meaning I can see less ahead of me than behind me.

That was only a tiny thing though. Overall an impressive entry! Loved doing lots of dash attacks into the hordes of nice-looking enemies. I got to the final wave but I couldn't quite hold it off.

Slide or Die by Zeriver 2018-04-24T01:19:34Z ♥ 1

There was a lot going on here, and my initial confusion was made worse by sitting 1 foot further from my computer than my wireless keyboard was comfortable with, ha. But surprisingly, I got the hang of it pretty quickly once the pieces locked into place. I lasted 99 seconds once I got to the meat of the game. The way I had to learn the game well enough to hit the start button before death was on the table was a very key design choice!

Other smart design choices were the slo-mo, and the way I couldn't shoot if I didn't participate in the core movement mechanic. These were huge at helping/forcing me to get past the natural friction of facing a really new and unusual mechanic. Well done.

You tackled a lot here and didn't shy away from the difficult parts, impressive!

The Bunker by Pixel_77 2018-04-24T01:06:35Z ♥ 1

A nice moody experience. Times are tough in the bunker, and I have a life-or-death decision, but without very much information. Too hasty, and I will get the wrong suspect. Too slow and we will all die.

I tried to second-guess myself and got the wrong person the first time. The second time I tried to delay and see if I could get more information. But the authorities MUST be obeyed, and I must be their imperfect implement of justice, flawed though I am.

Good work creating a feel -- the ominous music and background art fit really well with the story/mood. Nice entry!

Tank On The Road by haozi_miku 2018-04-23T19:15:06Z ♥ 0

Hi, I'm sorry but I tried this and the link was to a 404 (Page not Found).

Is it possible that you left your itch page set to a private draft, and didn't publish?

Zuma Defence by Poroh 2018-04-23T18:55:59Z ♥ 0

Very cool! I managed 2nd place on the normal leaderboards but first place is too far ahead for me to try for.

It definitely took me a few games of exploring the strategic options before I got a handle on it, which I really liked about it. It was enjoyable to mess around with different approaches. At first I had a huge monster set of stuff floating at the end of the chain, but I realized that this limits my income, and it was nice to be forced to take more risks.

The controls were totally fine, and the graphics were nice and did a good job of teaching me the rules if I paid attention. I was glad you didn't tutorialize me a lot with text, but instead just threw me in to figure it out (tho it took a bit before I even understood the basic rules).

Of course I wished for a little more juice and sound effects to make the experience a little more concrete and real-feeling, but that's just a matter of scope. I think you focused on the right things, because those are nice-to-haves and all the must-haves are here.

Actually with the leaderboard there's a nice bit of scope -- that's a great touch because it made me play a bit more by seeing what was possible.

I enjoyed waiting and saving up enough money to launch a multi-step attack deeper into the chain -- a good moment the game's strategy lured me into trying, rather than clickspam.

Great job!

Love Is A Battlefield by F1Krazy 2018-04-23T14:16:09Z ♥ 0

Wow, really nice. The whole package comes together: great sound and graphics, tight gameplay, and the challenge level is tough-but-fair with the theme story creating enough suspense to motivate me to keep trying.

I managed a victory, but I think I simultaneously died to the final attack and entered a strange win-and-lose combo state that sent the game a little bonkers. The sound effect of the final attack hitting me carried over into the title screen, where the menu got strange and seemed to move the heart between four slots rather than three, and all of them went to the credits screen.

The boss fight was cool and worked well with the story.

Great job!

The Bonding of Isaac by batmanasb 2018-04-23T12:29:29Z ♥ 0

Nice work, I especially like the charming graphics. The details in the tears are great, the way they fall and then slowly soften and grow. I also like the way the way the position/rotation-based animation actually gives a feeling to the different characters, I was surprised at how effectively it conveyed some of the dog's state!

The control scheme of holding space to change modes was a little awkward, especially when I was trying to dodge the girl's attacks and had to stop to remind myself of which comment type was which button, but no big deal.

Small scope but charming, well done!

CARnage by Rolle 2017-12-28T17:43:07Z ♥ 2

This LOOKED so metal that I got my expectations way up for FUCKIN' CRAZY to come raining down on me. I strapped in and prepared for the extreme.

In fact, I worked myself up into such a frenzy that I was like "WAIT A MINUTE this engine sounds like a vacuum cleaner instead of a severed leg going into a wood chipper downed an octave!" I drifted, but where was the skidding howl making me feel like I was at the edge of losing all control? I body-checked the enemy car - you know, the one with the awesome funeral art, slamming into them with my skull-adorned armor-plated wasteland-warrior monster machine, but nothing happened. No ca-runch sound, no jutter-slam rumble of power hitting power.

I was tuned to a different channel than the other drivers. I was screaming that kind of cheesy metal the metalheads won't even listen to because it's too far into the whole Dungeons and Dragons warrior hymn viking thing, but they were like rolling down the window to ask if I had any Grey Poupon. Then I drove in the dirt like a peasant and they ostracized me from their society, and I never saw them again.

I want my car sprite to vibrate a tiny hum that increases as I speed up; I want screeches and crunches and clanks; I want shoving and reactions to my actions. I want to feel out of control, edge of my seat, slammed in the face. And I want a couple of the drivers to suck, so when I drive in the dirt I still have someone to tangle with when I get back on the road.

In all seriousness, you have kind of an awesome core here. A killer art scheme, a straightforward but compelling premise of RC Pro-Am + Mad Max, and tight easy-to-pick-up controls. I was having a little fun with the review, but hope I didn't sound too negative. I think what's here is really nice, but it's got this potential to be taken up to eleven that I would have just loved to see. It takes twenty tiny touches and you'll get it there. You should totally grind them out just for kicks before calling it quits on this one.

Nice entry!

Rude Bear Rabble by alexrose 2017-12-28T16:21:07Z ♥ 2

Always tough for the multiplayer games! You deserve more after doing so many ratings yourself, plus the keynote.

I had a mix of fun and frustration playing this one. I could sense the potential of what it would be like to have a funny mangle of strangers in there undermining and helping each other out. The timed waits were not so much fun with just two players, as the suspense wasn't present. I largely had to imagine "what-if" to see your vision, which is a shame because I bet it would be fun.

The actual play experience with 2 ended up being a lot of waiting. Waiting for players to join, waiting for timers to count down, waiting for the platform to regenerate, waiting for the ghost to move away. I think this was intentional, to give time for sabotage; would have liked to experience that aspect.

The punishment for death was severe: the other bear had to notice I'd died, and jump into a pit or something. Sometimes I'd use platforms and then be unsure if he'd died or was waiting for them to respawn. Poor guy. Think it was you actually so you know what I mean! There was a small feeling of laggy choppiness, which left me feeling a little awkward and resulted in a few extra deaths.

So a cool idea but I guess problematically ambitious. I suppose that's a GOOD thing to try in an LD!

If I could add one thing it would be an indicator of the position/status of the other bear(s), and if I could add a second thing it would be some basic means of communication, for example an "over here" button and a "hang my head in shame" button.

I thought the art was really nice, especially the enviornmental backgrounds. The checkpoint things were a good mix of clear-but-mysterious. The music was also nice.

Nice job taking an ambitious vision and running with it, sorry you didn't get a lot of plays!

Mineral Hunt by ping78 2017-12-28T05:06:01Z ♥ 1

Nice solid FPS for a compo! You created a good original atmosphere here. Smooth controls and a brutality that matched the spare environment.

I tried a mix of sniping and run-n-gun, although in the end those buzzing flying guys with the guns got me. Dang they were hard to shoot down in the heat of the moment! I was definitely worried if I got a few on my tail.

The creepy light background soundscape was nice, and the buzz of the fliers blended well to announce their arrival and help me orient.

If I could add one thing it would be to have a little more feedback about when I was hit and when I scored hits on enemies.

Beam was a good navigation tool, critical in such an open space.

Nice entry! I didn't really feel rock-n-roll powerful, almost more a feeling from a horror game where I'm on the run rather than a rocket-fest.

Shiny Dream by Peredom 2017-12-28T04:22:45Z ♥ 1

OK So first thing I did in this game was notice that the left/right move controls were satisfyingly tight. Hrm, okay, I said. Let me test this developer: I jumped, and then just a bit before landing, I hit the jump button again to see if you would correctly buffer the input and make me jump again upon landing. And you did! Altogether I have to give high marks here for the nice tight controls with attention to detail.

I probably could have done without the edge-grabbing, which sometimes screwed up my flow and was nearly never what I really intended, but it was a cool feature to show off your character-controller chops anyway.

I had fun with this, and there were a couple of times where I was alllllmost ready to call it quits but came back for "just one more" or to see that next upgrade. Ended up playing the whole thing and getting to the throne, although my score was only 75 when I got there, so nothing amazing.

Very nice touch to have the post-win runthrough bring a new challenge!

The only critique I can offer is that when playing, I mostly just held down "right" the whole time, and "shoot" the whole time. This wasn't really that much of a problem, but I wonder if there was some twist. Whenever I find myself holding a button always, I try to change the game, either making a more balanced reason not to hold it, or else removing the button and making the game auto-go. This was a very minor flaw only, though.

Another aspect of the design that I liked was that high ground had value because your shots could not go through the terrain but your enemies could. So if you got stuck under and overhang that was your worst moment -- here comes a guy but you can't shoot him until he's right in your face!

Overall I enjoyed the feel and design of this, and the art and sounds were pretty solid.

Nice entry!

Adventure of temple by Querk 2017-12-28T03:57:19Z ♥ 1

Thanks to @philippe for leaving the comment about how to get started with the windows build. I was stuck before I saw that, because it said width,height so I was entering two numbers with a comma, like the prompt.

My favorite part to this was the nice hand-drawn art, which was charming and had some nice animations. The monsters looks cool, and I thought it was a nice design touch how they will sometimes back off and come back at you.

My first few play-throughs I got killed by just using attack all the time. But as I learned the rules with dodge and stun, I was able to do much better. Unfortunately, the game froze and crashed on my farthest run. What a shame, because I was getting into it and would have gone further with the experience.

Nice short levels, and another good design decision to have me fully heal with each new level. That let you make the enemies tough, but even if I make a few mistakes I can always get back on track as long as I survive the immediate situation. Smart to avoid the "I'm definitely dead next round" feeling that would come from bringing a sliver of health into a new level.

If I could add one thing, it would be more feedback when I got hit.

Widget Satchel by Noble Robot 2017-12-28T02:37:31Z ♥ 1

Super-slick music, great sound effects, and very nice art. This has a lot of character.

Unfortunately my impression was that the controls really worked against me. Since this game has such a high polish in all the other areas, and I think a few tweaks could change the feel a lot, I'll go into some detail here. But don't take the fact that I'm going into detail on the critique side means I think this is a bad entry. On the contrary, it's because it's good that I dive into the area for improvement.

Here is a short unlisted youtube video of me demonstrating my difficulties with the camera and movement: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=80uplWd4wJg

I'll highlight a few of the issues that I have:

1) CAMERA: The camera is pretty wild in how fast/far it whips ahead of my motion. The most obvious problem is demonstrated at the start of the video, where the main character is totally off the screen. But more generally, the camera was so eager to change positions that I felt it to be very disorienting.

2) INERTIA: It's okay to give a bit of inertia to a character, but I feel it takes too long for your character to get up to speed, and then to get back down to a stop. I had serious control issues. In the video you can see I struggle badly with a basic jump. At the 17 second mark you see an example of where the air control inertia is too high: I have positioned myself near the base of the platform and I jump and then hit right, but the character does not start meaningfully moving right until later than I expect. I fail to make the leap I wanted. The next try, at the 21 second mark, I start pressing right immediately and I do manage to ramp up the air control to get on the platform, but then upon letting go of the controls I slide right off because the high inertia causes a slipperiness. I think I would feel more in control of the character if the time between direction-press and full-speed (or full-stop) were significantly shorter.

3) JUMP INPUTS: At 54 seconds you can see a clear instance of where I press the jump key but don't get a jump. I even get the jumping sound effect! You could consider adding the "ghost jump" idea where if I was on a platform in the last ~100ms or so, you let me jump even if I'm currently not. That way, input lag won't rob me of jumps. At 13 seconds you can see another instance of where I get the sound effect without a jump, this time on the ground. A window of time where you'll buffer a jump to see if I land in an instant is nice to add, so that I don't lose a jump if I press the input a frame before landing.

A jam is time-constrained, but my advice is to spend a LOT of your time just moving around with your character, especially for an action game. Try spending 15 straight minutes right now with your game, just in that zone from my movie, leaping up onto the various blocks. Do it over and over and over for that 15 straight minutes. See if you can stick all your jumps, and if you feel like a total boss. If you don't feel like you're smooth and in charge, you have to start grinding out all that little stuff that really matters in the feel. 15 minutes is *nothing* either, I do this for hours and hours over the course of an LD!

OK I'll stop being hard on you about feel, which again I only do because you have such an awesome game in the other aspects!

I liked your character, your environment, the whole thing felt tightly cohesive in its presentation. There were lots of awesome little touches to the animation, such as the way the character rolls when landing from a jump over a certain height. You could really do something awesome with a handful of feel tweaks to bring me into the game's world.

Hope that's a helpful write-up and not going too far!

Also, thanks for doing your 1-minute rip through a whole slew of these on youtube, that was great to watch. :)

The Beforlorne Wander by pvtroswold 2017-12-20T03:19:24Z ♥ 2

Wow, an impressive amount done here, especially for a compo!! I was like wait a minute this is a boss fight with special unique theme music!? Awesome.

The controls were demanding but tight. There was only one scenario where I felt the controls failed me, and that was jumping up into a 1-unit-wide shaft from below. I would move left and right but it was hard to position myself exactly so I would overshoot. Then when jumping I'd catch the corner of my collider on the edge of the wall. No big deal, but I did have to shuffle around and re-attempt the jump a handful of times when I encountered this setup.

Otherwise the controls were solid. This game required a lot of planning because a mistake could easily lead to taking several quick hits in a row. So it was good that the controls were predictably reliable.

I liked the variety of enemies and areas -- again, impressive amount of content! If I could have tweaked one thing I would have moved the checkpoints a bit closer, I feel like a game jam is not the place to ask players to repeat the same content to earn more.

Sugar Crash by conrad123 2017-12-16T06:58:09Z ♥ 1

@Conrad123 asked for more critical feedback focused on areas for improvement, so I'm going to try to make that my focus. Don't take that focus to overstate negatives though, please. Because there are positives! The game is an interesting idea, has tight responsive controls, decent art sound and music, and most of all it achieves that sense of wild panic I think it sets out for.

OK here's the critical stuff. I played the windows download version.

Retry Loop

You have a hard game with quick deaths, so you must take great care with your retry loop. That is ULTRA-important. You make two mistakes in your retry loop. Mistake 1 is sending me back two whole screens. It should be zero. Mistake two is that the gameplay input is on the keyboard but the retry loop input is on the mouse. I want to press a single key from the hiscore display to instantly be playing again in this game, ideally a key that is not used during play so I don't hit it as a "spillover" input and cancel through my score review by accident.

Controls

It's such an all-in decision to have deliberately frustrating inputs.

Most games bend over backwards to smoothly translate the player's intention into in-game action. Examples include the "ghost jump" where platformers will still accept your jump input even 50ms after you walked off the edge of the platform, or how colliders will often be rounded so you don't get corners stuck. A game is just automatically more fun by having fluid inputs that translate thought into action easily.

You have gone the total opposite way and deliberately made it hard to make my thoughts into action. It's a design decision you successfully executed on, and your vision for the game. I don't want to suggest you shouldn't experiment. But that's like advanced game design where you're poking me in the eye and saying "isn't that fun?"

Be aware that this design decision creates an initial barrier between the player and your fun.

Input Mapping Display

Given that you set out to make it frustrating, I would have appreciated some other affordances.

For example you could have laid out the up/left/down/right controls with UI elements that were actually up, left, down, and right in their display. Instead they are just a line of text which I have to read.

Here's how it felt: The only strategy that I found that could work was to read just ONE input, down, so that I could stop the car by pulsing this input while I looked at the others. I would be pulsing backward, let's say S. Then I would back up into a bottle. The inputs would change. I would look at the new inputs and read the down input. It says W. Which one is W again? In my brain it that key is "UP" not "W". I am dead now.

A) read the text labels to find "down", B) read the character "W" and C) translate that character to the actual key to press. Maybe it would have been easier for me to play with the arrow keys?

Here is a mockup of what the lower-left boxes indicator might look like if it used no text and the game were using arrow keys: https://imgur.com/tbpD4Z9

Imagine how much faster I could absorb the "what key is down" information, since this cuts out two of the three steps from the current thought process.

Summary

OK back to the fair and balanced review. My top score was 100. This was an interesting experience, something different. The art, sound, and music were all nice. I appreciated the snappy response on the car when I did know the keys, and the decals of the breaking car were nice. I clearly knew when I had hit the house and taken damage. I think you achieved your goal of creating a feeling of panic in me, and that's definitely something! I critiqued how maybe that feeling wasn't the right one to go for, but I give you props for achieving it because it's not necessarily easy.

You also had me with a one-more-try feeling because I thought "shit it's just a simple translation of keys, I'll nail it next time."

So a nice entry, but since you asked for the tough love I tried to dig in more to the splinters.

One Final Task by HuvaaKoodia 2017-12-16T05:07:55Z ♥ 2

Very nice entry! Nice meaty sense of personality to the game with the AI, his flickering moods, and his (its?) glitchy faces. In the end, my services were no longer required.

I thought the end puzzle was perfect difficulty. That is, hard but doable after a serious number of retries. I thought, when the early version of the AI blew a capacitor trying to keep up, that there might be some future for humanity. But the machine was relentless, and my biological future bleak.

Speaking of bleak, I must convey one significant splinter in the experience. I was playing, and I made a mistake. Or perhaps it would be fair to say I discovered the way something wasn't going to work. And, having previously flung my packages off the side to fail and invite reprimand and restart, I decided to improve upon this by pressing R to see if it might instantly restart. Well, yes. It did instantly restart. THE ENTIRE GAME FROM THE BEGINNING!

However, your game was good enough that I played the whole thing again to get back to where I was, and then pressed on to finish.

In addition to strong puzzling and personality, there were many nice touches. The shader (?) on the faces. The babbling sound as text was displayed. The way I could (upon second play through) cancel past text-babbling instantly with a click. That the heavy box had a different sound effect when moving. That I could shovel multiple boxes quickly into motion at the end of a puzzle without waiting for each to complete its move, yet I could not set multiple boxes in motion mid-puzzle which would have created invalid results. These and others were small details of craft, which I noticed and appreciated.

Very well done!

Sheep without Shepherd by navot 2017-12-16T04:27:41Z ♥ 3

277! Phew. I guess I feel pretty good about that, although there were definitely some casualties along the way!

I remember your crazy asteroid game from a previous LD, and this is another one with an interesting movement/interaction mechanic. At first I got right up next to the sheep but then I realized this disperses them too much. I started to keep a further distance and I found I could corral the sheep better this way. But wowzers that level with 200 of them! It was cool to see the rippling wave of my influence fighting against their natural tendency to have elbow room.

A surprisingly compelling system emerged from very simple rules here, which is a credit to your design. The controls were snappy, the feel fluid, and the art was very nicely done and felt cohesive. It's a shame that there is total silence, as not having any sound makes the game feel less real and further away, whereas all the other elements were strong enough to make a game that could draw me in.

Very well done!

Get all the Wood by GameDevZach 2017-12-15T14:29:57Z ♥ 0

I had to check out your game after I saw you leave a comment on another game where you'd had a problem running their entry so you downloaded their code, fixed a bug, and rebuilt.

Your entry was a cool little experience. Sure, there would need to be more to do to make it a real contender but I enjoyed it. The highlight moment for me was definitely the reveal of the twist. So much of the same thing had happened that the change made me jump a little. Other nice moments were staring at the deer a while, and crossing the rickety wooden bridge and taking in the view.

The art was very nice and this homey little valley worked well. It supported the games message really well that my first feeling was enjoying the nice nature! I also appreciated being dropped straight into the game with no explanation whatsoever. I of course tried WASD + mouse and had zero problem playing. I feel like the "no comment" from the developer regarding what to do and how enhances the message a little bit, because I have nobody to blame but myself.

Nice job! It seems like you had a different initial vision but then when mid-jam you did a good job rethinking it to get to a tight little experience rather than something feeling half-finished.

The Darkest Light by zblah 2017-12-14T06:25:14Z ♥ 1

Really nice job with the art and sound, which really coordinate well with the main mechanic and horror theme. Even the choice to go with tank controls is interesting. They certainly have a big impact on the game, making it harder to change direction to flee from the ghosts, and thus making it more of a commitment to move. Many times I died because the ghost appeared two feet from me and I pressed a side direction, to merely turn in place and die.

This added to the tension and horror since I knew it would never be trivial to flee.

What hurt my experience the most was the full restart. If each portcullis was a checkpoint, I certainly would have played to the end. Eventually though, it wore me down having to repeat the same sections.

But the main thing was that you nailed that spooky high tension - and maybe checkpoints would have ruined that. Lot of really nice elements here, well done!

Quest for Harmony (Audio is required) by unfinished 2017-12-14T06:03:32Z ♥ 0

This was nice, and something different, even if a little unfinished. I enjoyed the voice work and traveling from one culture into another. A few things seemed to not work, for example it didn't seem to matter what notes I answered the melody with, and when the guy asked me if it was okay to leave and I said yes, he said okay bye but was still present in the following scene. Actually I was glad he was there though, and the incompleteness did not get in the way of this being something unique.

Nice work, especially for a first Ludum Dare!

Pixel Cartel by automatonvx 2017-12-14T05:45:15Z ♥ 1

Well done! This felt really complete with nice art, gameplay, sounds/music, and a story with missions! It was about the right length too. I got sucked in and and enjoyed it.

I did encounter one issue. I got stuck in this corner here and had to reload the game: https://imgur.com/a/0cF8B

It was worth reloading and starting over though! Difficulty was on point, except maybe the final boss who wasn't shooting back at me. And I appreciated the "I got hit" sound effect which wasn't annoying at all, but was totally distinct from the others and really let me know. I was worried enough about the enemies to be careful, and the money-safe mechanic was nice because it put some consequences to dying. I completed the game with $274 in savings for my retirement. Nice entry.

Ice cream stacker by DankyPants 2017-12-14T05:23:30Z ♥ 1

Nice job! It looks and sounds nice, and balancing with like 20 ice creams on top was a pretty wild feeling. Good feel for a nice simple premise, well done.

Hats On! by recursor 2017-12-14T05:14:41Z ♥ 1

Way more fun than I assumed when I saw a screenshot! Great job balancing the, well, balance.

I upped my fun level when I found the control scheme for me: that was holding down left click at all times and just moving the mouse left/right to move the guy. I felt this game me a lot more finesse than playing with the keyboard, and wow can the wrong lurch hurt you in this game!

After ball caps I thought, well dang there's nothing gonna be crazier than this! But the pilgrim hats were a bit more than I could manage, though wow I came so close.

Really nice entry here taking a simple system and getting the feel and balance spot on. The hat balance, the facial expressions, the loony tilting of the hat stack as it got taller, the interactions with the wall, the way hats could form odd stacks in a desperate bid to reach the sky... it was very nice.

One thing that hurt was the lame-duck situation where I've failed but I have to wait out a bunch of hats that I know won't be enough. I hit R hoping for an instant reload but no go. Not a huge deal but I figured I'd mention it as one small splinter I felt.

Very nice entry!

Rokku Bando by Yanrishatum 2017-12-14T04:53:50Z ♥ 1

Nice tight game with cool art/style and music.

First few games I was pressing the QWERT buttons but nothing happened... realized I had to hit space for that red line, and also that I had to click the QWERT input option.

I got 5275 on the easy mode. I was on top of things thanks to the steady pairing of QE, and I could handlle three things... space, R, and some QE. Once W was added to the mix I started falling apart.

Nice progression of difficulty for one long play-through altho it was maybe a bit slow for repeated plays. Tough to make it work well on my first play and my third or fourth. I tried hardmode but got pretty wrecked by it after the longish intro phase of bass and drum.

I appreciated that I could see near-hits vs hits, that was a nice touch. The art of the band itself was cool but I could only steal the occasional glance, unfortunately.

Nice entry!

Do you have the colour? by saintheiser 2017-12-09T16:40:26Z ♥ 2

My high score was 40:

HaveColor.png

Definitely exceeded my expectations from the screen shot. There is a nice difficulty curve. It start so easy it's basically a tutorial, then comes into careful color differentiation. By the end it becomes about time and the scan sometimes gets a bit frantic. In the 40pt run I was still nailing a few tricky color differentiations but maybe 1 in 5 times toward the end I would brain-blank during the scan and just not see what I was looking for. Couple of times I was even like "yea THAT color, I remember him" but then it would be a memory game of "but where in the grid does he live?"

I lost game one when I was getting into the zone and tried to play quickly. The way the "earned new color" step displays the new color in the "guess this" box, but I lose if I guess it, tripped me up. This meant I always had to be really careful to know which state the game was in, something I wasn't nut about. I hesitate to say you shouldn't show it though, because the colors up top are lined by white and the colors below are lined by black, which can slightly confuse the eye, so I did appreciate the momentary showing of "this is what the color looks like against a white background." I'm not sure how to have the best of both ideas there.

Anyway, I enjoyed my time with this, the design was tight, and it had some nice small touches such as the tweens. I most especially appreciated the "you lost" screen where you get to see what the right answer was and stare as long as you'd like. In fact I really liked the overall graphical layout of the compo version, not so sure I like the post-compo as much, judging only from the screen shot, it feels a lot more severe and less inviting to my eye.

I was surprised by how engaging this mechanic was. Great job!

escape🥚hatch by 01010111 2017-12-08T14:17:38Z ♥ 1

This was a fun game with a basic but engaging premise and a lot of focus on a clear vision. Graphics and audio were both really strong, and the tiny chick had character. His opening line of dialog established character surprisingly well for so few words and in my head I gave him a bit of an attitude, which I enjoyed.

The feel was pretty tight but since this is a game about short intense bursts of high-stakes movement, I did have one microscopic things that I noticed after a while. I felt like a rect collider in a rect world.

Here in this screenshot:

EscapeHatchExample.png

I am holding down the up key but not moving up. I have like a 1px overlap in colliders. I would prefer in this case to "slide" around the corner. I don't know about Haxe but in Unity this can be done by having the character be a circle collider and making sure the physics material has some slipperiness to it.

This arose in gameplay a few times when I was trying to dart into a corridor while being chased. An argument can be made that I shouldn't be off by a pixel in my control inputs, but personally I prefer to grant the comfortable affordance and then have the challenge be balanced accordingly.

That was just a tiny detail and didn't downgrade my experience, but the game is otherwise so tight and focused I figured I would mention it.

I loved a few of the details, especially the animation of the main chick while moving or laying an egg, and the gameplay-critical tiny detail of that little handful of white pixels when the knife-weilder notices you.

I enjoyed playing as a stealth game, but after a few failure loops on a level I found myself probing the tactical limits of high-speed chickening. This was also fun, so not a problem for me; just not sure if it's your intended experience. I found that a critical aspect to exploit is the momentary non-movement of the knife-pig when they first notice you. By sprinting (a key I held most of the time) and making liberal use of diagonal movement to break line of sight, I was often able to rush past. This is just a consequence of the broader restart-then-wait problem inherent to the stealth-with-insta-death game genre, and not specific to this game. I'm GLAD the rush option was viable. Thinking back on it, I only noticed the collider feel issue I mentioned once I switched gears to this more precision-intensive rushdown play style.

Music was really nice, and other nice touches were the "show me you know the buttons" start screen, the pacing of tutorialization, overall game length, and death scene / restart pace. Many subtle things well done here.

Very nice entry, well done!

Poser by PeachTreeOath 2017-12-08T05:14:30Z ♥ 4

I played to the end. It exceeded my expectations that I had from reading the description. There are a lot of careful details, which are really nice.

Firstly the mechanics could easily have been as confusing as heck, but they were minimally explained and then tutorialized just the right amount. This was well designed!

Next, I had transparency into the underlying system. When making friends, not only did the bar go up, but the green circle visibly expanded as well. This later had gameplay implications when I was being a poser, but it also reinforced the learning phase and kept things totally clear throughout. The bar alone might have been trickier to see, for example when learning to be the skater, I wasn't sure if just being near was enough, or if there was some spacebar mechanic I had to use - but nope, I passed by another skater and saw the circle expand and knew what to do.

The separate mechanics for each clique are of course the showcase feature. And they are key to it all working. I enjoyed the skater the most, because I'm a fan of unusual movement systems. But the difference in move speed between the furry and the jock was also quite significant, and the ability to hold hands and take a furry with you away from trouble, or to flee danger but use the ball toss to beckon a jock with you, this all mattered in the later stages. The strategy I settled on was to do the furriest first while there was nothing to lose, and then convert to skater because while they are fast they are a little awkward and need room to maneuver. I finished with the jock, who has the fast but simple movement, and the ability to beckon another jock away from trouble, so they were good at cleaning up last.

I don't know what it is, but maybe there is some insight that can make me change up my approach. Once I got decent, I would always switch, do that entire set, and then move on to the next and never come back. It may have been fun to be force to switch more, and hammered the thematic message of being a poser home even harder. Given that my approach was the same once I'd learned the rules, I was glad the game wasn't any longer.

But my favorite detail of all was one I didn't even notice at first. And that is the ghostly normal student which you can only half see. These sub-humans are not in the social cliques I am interested in, and so they hardly even exist! That was a really great small supporting detail to include.

And of course I shouldn't neglect to mention the fun music and how it switched between cliques to reinforce the identity shifting.

It's amazing to me that your crew can make games in such a large group! I still remember enjoying Meteor Jam, and looking back at it I notice there is much but not full overlap on the team members. Makes me curious about your backstory.

Anyway, congrats on an intriguing entry that clearly had a lot of thought and care put in!

Bee Rush by FDR 2017-12-08T03:45:49Z ♥ 1

Nice work exploring a new idea. I played a bunch of runs, my best score was 40.

I started to notice, wow, I haven't got any friend bees in a while. I think the game doesn't respawn all the stuff when I hit space to retry or G. I had to quit and restart the game after I had sucked the map dry of all flowers.

I couldn't quite get the multi-bee thing to its full potential. I experimented a little with toggling on and off the bees but it was tough with everything happening so fast and me getting confused. I wasn't successful. So I resorted to a simpler strategy of just controlling the whole swarm and giving up on some bees but trying to snap up more pickups this way. That was pretty fun. I would have definitely gotten into the zone with it more if the horizontal controls of the bees felt more snappy. It was kind of a huge effort to cross the map.

I wonder if you can experiment with a different control scheme to capture the flavor of your multi-bee idea. I feel the toggle is simply a bit too slow and clunky for the speed of the game. Experiment! It's an idea worth looking at from a few angles to see if you hit on something really fun.

If it was me, my first experiment would be to 10x the horizontal speed and make it so WASD controls the Queen and the arrow keys affect all other swarm members. And then I'd make the queen more visually distinctive so it's ULTRAclear. Then you could be juggling multi controls without toggle, and still have swarm? I dunno, just riffing on it because I feel like you had a cool idea but I didn't get to really experience it at full potential.

Nice entry.

The Incredible Car Salesman by Eric Florio 2017-12-08T03:27:00Z ♥ 1

I sold the allotted amount in 22:23 (altho you can never win).

This game was a real contender for "Best Traffic Jam" https://imgur.com/6MADI44

But I'm afraid that the top traffic-jam honor still remains with another LD40 game called Nuclear Arms 5.

Anyway, I enjoyed this one! I wasn't going to click on my store twenty-six thousand times, or even one thousand, but I enjoyed tinkering with my signs and my sales price and dreaming of opening a second location.

The cars and coins look nice, the emergent traffic patterns were kind of hypnotic to watch while I waited for my monies to accumulate, and everything was clearly understood from the first moments.

I would have loved some audio to make the world I was looking down on feel more alive.

I played the jam version but I see in comments you are adding some traffic interaction post-jam - interesting idea!

Nice entry.

Reyerta by Tatos 2017-12-07T14:40:49Z ♥ 1

This is a nice little game. The strategy is not very complex, but the character I play against makes the experience a lot more fun than it would be without him. His fingers tapping, and the comments he makes, along with the subtle music, it all creates a nice atmosphere. I played until I won, and learned I am a filthy being.

Good job!

Chezz! by 4kbshort 2017-12-07T14:24:05Z ♥ 0

Cool thought experiment, but WOW it made me realize that chess is really about trades and threats, and if you are the human you cannot allow a trade so you have to back down from everything. At least that was my little solo exploration. I didn't get a chance to play with another person.

In the end the poor humans were feeling so glum that I let them just use the first move to leap the knight all the way onto the zombie king on the first move! In this world where even the rules are not enforced, the human's first move advantage does outweigh even the mighty zombie power!

Nice art, good basic sound, getting the job done. Probably this idea is too unbalanced to be worth a larger game, so a good idea to explore it in a jam with a small game. Nice entry!

Bearhalla by madjackmcmad 2017-12-07T14:12:52Z ♥ 1

Sorry, I ran into some technical issues with this and couldn't really dig in so I haven't rated.

As I moved away from the center, map tiles popped in and out of existence visually, and the graphics didn't seem to line up with the colliders so I was unable to tell where I could move. In case it's helpful, I used FRAPS to record a quick demonstration of what occurred, and I've uploaded it to youtube as an unlisted video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KM8OPcHTDIc

My system is Windows 7 and I played the rc1 build trying both fullscreen and windowed. That video is from the fullscreen play.

Looked like an interesting combat multi-tasker with nice art/sound and a few systems to explore!

Bum Bag Bangin' by DuzzOnDrums 2017-12-07T13:38:43Z ♥ 2

Oh man, thanks to that bit of work at the open, immediately after I was done playing this I had to go throw on a taste of "A Grand Don't Come for Free." I haven't heard that stuff in years and years, but it came right to mind.

This was a lot of fun. The mechanics were really basic, so it wasn't like omg what gameplay, but the art was excellent and even more importantly it was brought alive with nice animations and effects and of course that great voice work. It was awesome that you had a nice variety of lines and that it backed actions of both the enemies and the player. Music did a sweet job of keeping the audio on grounded footing without getting in the way.

If I could add one thing it would be a score/distance shown to me on death.

Also, good grief that is a horrifying painting; I hate looking at his face but find it hard to look away.

Nice entry!

Komainu by pi mont 2017-12-07T06:06:24Z ♥ 2

I also experienced some technical issues around input playing the WebGL game in Chrome on Windows 7.

I'll provide a bit more detail in case you want to troubleshoot, and then do the rest of the feedback after.

There was a graphics issue with two small black lines that would sort of randomly appear, as seen here: https://imgur.com/a/0iNoM

They were just a minor visual glitch and didn't impact gameplay at all. What was a problem was the way the input would lock me out. I would stop being able to throw shurikens and then the character would stay move-locked in a certain direction, say, moving left and can be stopped by holding right, but you cannot move right (it just cancels the locked left) and if you release it you walk left.

I tested it a bunch, and following the comment by @dragoon I agree with him that both the inability to fire shurikens and the move-lock I experienced were both caused by clicking and dragging the mouse while the click is still down. I could see that sometimes the system would become confused and the mouse cursor would toggle modes from the red shuriken (the game's cursor), the circle with a slash "no" icon (the icon I would expect if I was trying to "drag and drop" an image from the browser but was not hovering over a valid drop target), and the normal operating system default cursor.

I am not sure what the exact issue is, but it was a killer for sure! I lost my first handful of games by being move-locked and unable to shoot in the middle of a fight. My *guess* is that the system was recording the keydown, and then I would drag and release while in the confused-dragging mode, but in that mode the game would fail to register the keyup, and so it would continue to think it was down for maybe 2-15 seconds at random.

OK so I wanted to provide some detail there, but let's move past that aspect. Once I was aware of this issue I was able to just be much more careful with the shuriken, and then I could play the game to the end.

I loved the opening screen, and the art overall is very nice. Although the way the rock and very nice cherry blossom tree have a higher resolution than the characters threw my eye a bit.

I didn't find a lot of use for the sword in combat, but the shuriken was sure nice! I enjoyed the ranged battles against the blue shooting enemies the best. Dodging between their shots while I whittled down the hordes was the peak fun of the experience for me.

I thought the music was nice and the sound effects did their job of grounding me in the game's reality. I liked the animations, particularly the death throes of the aliens.

Nice job, I think you have a nice style on this and a good combat core that could be explored more.

Click by Porcus_Pie 2017-12-07T05:37:32Z ♥ 1

Felt on beat to me, but then I'm no drummer.

I got wrecked by this game, mostly. My top score was 2800 after a handful of tries on song #1. I was getting the third track going for a while and the game offered me the fourth, and my brain was like sure I guess, and it all went horribly wrong from there.

Thank goodness this game backs off when I start screwing up badly! That was so important to not being totally brainfrozen by it. I maybe would have slightly decreased the break after I dropped back down to two. Like once I had started working on the third, and then lost it, I did want it to back off and let me reset, but not to hang out there for quite so long.

This was really nicely put together. It didn't spellbind me in the amazing way that Hopper did before, but that's too much to ask, and Click's songs were fun, the dynamic challenge was cleverly designed, and the graphics were clear, effective, and nice looking. Great job!

10 inches or less by Almost Panda Studio 2017-12-07T05:16:45Z ♥ 2

Wow!! This is super-cute, a great puzzle concept, and has great audio. It feels so complete and polished! I loved the main character, especially when he would get so full of water he'd pop (yes I tested it, sorry little fellow!). Otherwise he bobbed around so happily to the happy tune. Then his sound going through the tubes was so satisfying.

Really great job on this, I played 16 levels and enjoyed it.

.SWARM by Hegemege 2017-12-07T04:59:11Z ♥ 1

Really enjoyed this - made me think. Due to a technical problem on my end I played it without sound, so when I saw that it was my mistake I went back and replayed the first two levels with the sound and was markedly improved from my first tries.

I kept kind of feeling like wait wait no don't start yet, but it's probably better that the game is the way it is there! I wouldn't have minded seeing a % of probes that died, as it was hard to gauge the success level from the time. I was basically listening for fried probe sounds the second play through, which really helped this aspect.

I liked the core mechanic here, and I also liked the presentation and graphics style. Nice work! Diagonal switchback paths were my main strategy after a while.

Space War Never Ends by X Budsterized X 2017-12-07T04:36:32Z ♥ 1

You nailed a couple of really important pieces here. Firstly, the actual reflection of the projectile feels really good. It's just super satisfying with that metallic clank sound, the change in color, and so on. Second, there's totally a "one more time" hook with this game.

I'm not really a big player of grindy progression games, so eventually the pacing lost me. But I played it a bunch because I kept wanting to upgrade my speed and start dashing all around! I feel like the really fun game that *I* wanted to play was in there, but I had to upgrade 20 levels to get at it. But I totally understand that this is a design tradeoff, and what you get with the upgrade based game is a hook that can really pull the player deep into the game in a way that a "here's everything at once" game can't do.

So nice work, the reflection of projectiles, destruction of ships, the puffs of smoke when projectiles bounce off the top/bottom of the screen, the smokey slow-fall trail from the protagonist, the way the background music rotated songs between plays.... you have done a great job of putting so many small touches into it. And that's on TOP of the whole upgrade system!

Great job.

Tosser by Mik3 2017-12-07T04:16:37Z ♥ 2

This was a cool idea, and you did the most important thing right -- it was really good about picking up the object I wanted to pick up. Oh god it would have been frustrating if you hadn't nailed that part!!

If I could tweak one thing I would remove the metallic surface, as I strugged to differentiate three of the colors, and two pretty badly. Def got some of the "wrong hole" sound.

Overall I enjoyed this one. Simple but effective. Nice work!

Love Potion #7.2 by realryanrogers 2017-12-07T03:56:37Z ♥ 1

Nice work! The art, animation, and music are very nice, and the sound effect for the "sudden interest" was cracking me up. Of course the fart was a pleasure to behold.

Controls felt smooth, and game was mostly clear except I did play one game assuming left click was fart and I had to fill the meter before using it, dunno why.

Nice short play length was right on point to showcase without overstaying the welcome. Impressive amount and quality of 3d assets for a solo-compo, too.

Good job!

You can't handle my final form by Zeriver 2017-12-07T03:32:27Z ♥ 1

Wowooww this was a brainbender! I loved the look and the different ideas combining like that, great job.

I only got 92 because I'm awful at this kind of thing, but I bet some people that get really good could go on quite a while longer.

Nice entry - art, sound, idea, and execution were all on point!

The Luckiest Businessman by mortus 2017-12-07T03:02:40Z ♥ 1

Wow this was interesting. Nice graphics and presentation/UI. The story was pretty dark: I don't enjoy my work, and my only outlets for happiness are gambling, drinking, and the vacant consumerism of purchasing items I don't need or even use. Then when I try to just live a balance of work and light drinking with the occasional visit to the casino (like a normal person, obv) the police and mob are both out to get me!

Backed into a corner I started drinking more heavily, doing shady work, let me sleep schedule go to hell. Eventually I descended into massive gambling just to feel something. It's no wonder I ended up in prison.

Nice and compelling entry here, you drew me into the world of the game and created a story!

Endgame by niterich 2017-12-07T02:16:27Z ♥ 0

Meta-ness points achieved! Initially I assumed the Swfl. Pot. from the game description was going to be a potion. A swiffling potion I guess? But after seeing it in context in the game I now think it's potential. Um... Sword-flinging potential?

I think I explored all the nooks in the menu system, and I wasn't sure it was even going to have combat but oh boy did it ever! I even got to kill Supersatan (or *a* supersatan, anyway).

Fun little romp through a parody of childhood, thanks. Nice work with the art and charm, oh and the music too. Really liked global monkey, and all the other tiny random nonsense.

Retro Rocket Run! by gwolf86 2017-12-07T01:57:02Z ♥ 1

22,570: https://imgur.com/a/y5wf2

This was fun! Nice job adding a variety of power-down effects to make it risky to take the coins! Invisible + inverted was nuts!! The damage one made it tough for me to know.. should I collect coins at all or not?

If I could make one tweak, I would make the restart command usable from the keyboard instead of having to take my hand off to grab the mouse. Don't want to add friction to that moment where I'm deciding whether to play "one more game!"

Also I liked the coin art and the way the lighting and slight perspective made it feel much more like a real space than pure flat top-down would have. It DID have a flying-into-a-field-of-coins feeling!

Nice work.

America 2018 by Antti Tiihonen 2017-12-07T01:33:48Z ♥ 1

What if Minecraft's world fell victim to the Upside Down??

Hiscore of 1998.

Love the juice in this, the music was entrancing and the art was squishy and evil and consistent. I really felt like you made a cohesive world here way above the range a typical compo game can approach. Outstanding!

Of course the concept of the gameplay was not fresh, but that's not what you were after here.

Regarding the nuances of the game feel, most importantly the act of shooting felt satisfying. The randomization of the spray was a really nice touch that gave your excellent visuals some room to breathe. Moving was good when it was nonstop, but there was a bit of weirdness in the deceleration. At first I thought it was simply a matter of decelerating too slowly... but what happens is stranger than that. It seems that the motion glides a bit more past where you let go, then instantly stops. But only once you've already moved for a certain amount of time. I couldn't quite feel out the math.

Also I wished the death of the enemies was a bit different, they seemed to turn away and linger a moment before dying, but it was not instant satisfying feedback when the fatal shot hit them. I was overshooting them a while not realizing quite yet that they had already died.

Lastly on the nitpick list, I fell off the map and had no way to restart better than refreshing the browser.

Coming back to the best part, the art and sound! I can't say how much I like the music, and I especially like that it feels comfortable coming down to nothing, like it wants to be music in a video game, instead of trying to be so "interesting" to take my full attention like album music might.

Loved that the blocks were empty inside, spotted, and rotting/cracked. Later when I pushed the limits of the gameplay, I came to REALLY appreciate the sky-bound sparkles over the stars, and I frantically wove between hordes of enemies.

I really enjoyed this one, and I'm impressed by the look you achieved.

Radioactive Rumble by weeping-rupee 2017-12-06T06:57:28Z ♥ 1

Oh man, I ALMOST HAD HIM on hard! Lot of fun, after I figured out the basics (like aiming with mouse fer instance). Maybe three fights, then I was able to take him on easy, tried stepping it up to hard but just kept losing.

I was so bad at dodging... and then it felt really disheartening when I was hammering space to get back up and he was standing over me rapid-punching the empty air my head was about to move into, like YO REF THAT'S CHEATING! Then I looked around and realized... shit, there is no ref in this fight.

Also wasn't that good at punching. (Who talked me into this fight anyway?!) The mouse aiming is a cool twist on the original, but I never felt locked in. I think that's somewhat as designed: clearly the arms are intended to make the controls feel awkward.... a fine line to walk design-wise but I think you pulled it off here by having the right humor about it.

Doc told me to use shift to activate star power but I never got it working. Sure would have loved to whirlwind all those arms at his ugly face after all those beatings. https://imgur.com/a/qAxSX

Great entry, lots of personality! Really enjoyed it.

Boiler Room Defense by cerno-b 2017-12-06T06:05:16Z ♥ 1

Wow, this one drew me in and I kept trying until I got on the scoreboard.

I definitely was a little unclear on a few things early - like I thought the green buzzy things were points I was supposed to get, when they were enemies out to get me, and it took me a little bit to understand the relationship between missing shots, ice, and getting hit.

But wow, once I got it I had a lot of fun. It's tough! You have to move around a lot, but not too much, and you have to shoot the enemies, but don't miss! I decided to cheat the system by sitting there without ever shooting once and letting the swarm build up. In my mind there would be fifty enemies filling the screen and only THEN would I shoot. But the game was resilient to this attack: it only spawned a reasonable number, and then when I did fire my first shot I missed and the ice that was created was ENORMOUS because I'd been hit fifty times by then. Awesome!

My strategy going in later was to AVOID PICKUPS. Those things are like death, because they make you fill the screen with ice. You have to be surgical. I stayed near the center, tried to stick and move. Often I would just take the damage from the last few green buzzy flies instead of attacking them.

As my doom approached on this final good run, it got really tense. I was operating in TINY spaces, and starting to rely on a new layer of rules I didn't fully grasp yet, which is when ice gets deleted to turn into powerups or flies. Never totally grasped that, but I was certainly glad for the space opening up!

So more ice, worse, more enemies, worse, and most surprisingly, more of my own bullets, worse.

I also appreciated the nice animations, art, and sound, plus the responsive control scheme (altho maybe just a tiny bit TOO responsive, when I was first learning I crashed right into ice before I learned to stay in the center).

Great realization of the theme in a well-done action game here. Strong entry.