tjm

St. Exton's Night by aurel 2020-10-27T14:30:10Z

Perhaps you should consider at least making the original build available as well? I think a lot of people will be uneasy rating a game that no-one has seen until an updated release three weeks later; it's just not fair to the other Jam participants. Even though your changes may be within the rules I think making available the build you originally uploaded would go a long way towards reassuring people that you're being as straight as you can be.

Good luck, and don't forget to be satisfied with your work even if you're not able to get enough ratings in time!

Rail by reheated 2020-10-05T15:47:01Z

Neat! The audio works very well, and combining the simple puzzle gameplay with enemy avoidance gives it a unique feel.

The one thing I would suggest is that it might be a cleaner design without shooting, instead balancing the enemy waves for pure avoidance? I think that would make the feel even sharper and the gameplay more skill-based without taking anything away from the core pairing of mechanics. (I actually found myself playing that way automatically and it felt really good, but that might just be a personal dislike of mixed kb+m controls in 2D games.)

Sushi for Robots by ludipe 2020-10-05T11:52:48Z

This is excellent! I can totally imagine playing a version of this with more levels on Apple Arcade. Everything feels very smooth and stylish, the mechanics are intuitive, and the puzzles are interesting. The little animations give it a lot of charm.

VintageTime by maskinmask 2020-10-19T20:51:49Z

+1 for an instant restart button here. If you have a choice between adhering to the letter of the theme or making your game better, always choose making the game better.

Otherwise, it's good! The puzzle design is interesting, and obviously the aesthetic is really strong (and impressively put together for a jam game); good work all round!

Pre Call by zimennik 2020-10-13T02:47:23Z

Excellent style and mood, fully deserves high ratings across the board! I think the tactile nature of the gameplay and the way you have to juggle information would make this work really well as a VR game.

File 47: An Incident in the Exclusion Zone by juxipolo 2020-10-07T21:31:06Z

Very slick presentation, and you've got an impressive amount going on here for a Jam game!

The early stages felt a bit directionless, but that improved once the loops started; perhaps it would have worked better with some form of "fake" goal for the player in the early stages to give them some sense of what they might be trying to achieve?

It was also sometimes a little tricky to tell which cards were "move to" and which were "interact with". In the absence of some kind of map it would be helpful to get some hint of which cards are "go in deeper" and which are "back out" (insofar as those concepts make sense).

Still, the whole thing definitely has potential; good work!

The Toroidal Tower by nanolotl 2020-10-25T21:42:22Z

Very nice! The initial lead-in was a little disorienting, but once I started to get a sense of the world it was fun to explore; having a preview of the next area was immensely helpful.

I didn't feel I had any hints for the first code so I brute-forced it. The second code made a lot more sense, but I would suggest that it should have been able to start from any value (it is a loop, after all); I feel that would be more intuitive without making the puzzle any more brute-forceable.

Overall it felt very stylish and polished, with a strong aesthetic and attractive colour palette. Excellent work for a compo game!

Loop Cultist by udo 2020-10-05T19:28:32Z

Nice graphics, and the puzzles were interesting! Eta stumped me for a while, as it was hard to find anything that it reacted to, but once I did the rest was relatively smooth sailing.

The last couple of layers didn't seem very challenging? Perhaps if I had needed to use the swapping layers to get the symbol somewhere specific it would have been more difficult, but as it was there was already a layer in the right place. Maybe a more specific requirement like that would make it too easy to accidentally softlock, though?

Great work overall, extremely solid for a compo game!

Looping Dancefloors by dkdwrek 2020-10-05T12:51:01Z

Great music! Visuals are very clean, UI is clear but could possibly stand to be "bedded in" a little more? I could certainly see this being fleshed out into something interesting.

NightmESCHER by Rodrigo Denúbila 2020-10-10T19:01:40Z

Traversing the different surfaces was interesting! I would have liked to see some more quality-of-life tools for the player; some indication of which levers change which doors would have made it easier to focus on the puzzle element, and it would be nice if the zoom-out function was on a toggle rather than returning after a fixed time.

I think the levels would have been more interesting if the doors and levers allowed for different area of the level to be accessed; as it is the first level takes you on a tour of every area, so the later levels end up feeling the same. If the shortest path for the first level only went to a small portion of it the later levels could have been more interesting?

Otherwise it feels nicely polished; the isometric style and flat colours give it a distinctive look; good work!

Purgatory is a Music Store by MattWoelk 2020-10-27T04:58:28Z

Wow; obviously this is beautiful both aurally and visually; I'm actually finding it hard to find anything specific to comment on.

Playing multiple keys felt a little wrong? I think my input was registering correctly because multiple buttons appeared held down, but it didn't sound like they were played at equal volume. Also it would have been nice if you could continue to play with the number keys while the dialog windows were open, since the controls wouldn't conflict.

But these are very minor points; overall you've put together a wonderful little demo here. Amazing job!

Skinner Dungeon by UnluckyNinja 2020-10-06T22:32:47Z

Solid skinner box, felt well balanced and the graphics and animation generally communicated what you were doing pretty well! My only complaint is that the perspective makes it a little hard to tell what your weapon arc is in some directions?

...a loop is a loop is... by Le Slo 2020-10-06T18:51:51Z

This is great! Reminds me a tiny bit of Camera Obscura, but (with all due respect to that game) the core mechanic here feels tighter and the jumping puzzles more interesting.

The jumping itself does feel a little unforgiving; even some of the first jumps took me a couple of tries until I got used to it. Possibly the timing could stand to be slightly more generous, assuming the primary challenge is intended to be figuring out where to put the loop?

Unfortunately I also encountered the hardlock pictured above (but later on, with one of the first crates); it's hard to say what led up to it, but I do have a screenshot I can put up if it would be useful.

That aside, the overall presentation is excellent and with more content there are definitely the makings of a professional exploration/puzzle platformer here. Good work!

Snaketroidvania by Antti Haavikko 2020-10-05T18:23:53Z

Very smart idea, very stylish and plays well!

It sounds like I had a bug that was similar but not identical to other people; after a while the performance cratered and I started getting the death effect (without dying) every couple of seconds. Possibly it was spawning multiple copies of the player character or something?

With a few iterations on the feel of the controls and a larger map this would totally be a game I would buy on Steam!

A Certain Particle Chamber by Baturinsky 2020-10-06T21:14:10Z

Neat idea!

The scoring seems to round a little unintuitively; on Nailed, for example, I've seen it show 800/800 as objective not met and as objective met, which is a little annoying when some of the positions are very precise.

But it's fun to play around with, especially on the levels with targeting goals.

ShortRails by Yorsh 2020-10-05T16:09:51Z

I really like the tilt-shift style, all the animations and models feel very charming!

I was unclear on some of the mechanics? I wasn't sure whether I was supposed to be directing the train *through* the ladies (which seems like it would be very bad for them!) or alongside them (then what counts as "alongside" in that case?). Similarly I wasn't sure why I sometimes couldn't change a piece of track after placing it down. Do you need to have an extra piece of track in stock to change an existing piece? It also took me a while to recognize the bandits as such (I assumed they were passengers, though in retrospect I can get a slight Snidely Whiplash feel from them).

Still, it's a fun little casual game and I could imagine myself wasting away a lot of time on it, especially if the placement controls were a little more streamlined (maybe something with gestures?). Thanks for making it!

The Loop by Jin9310 2020-10-06T21:56:55Z

Very nice sense of dynamic music! The aesthetic is clear and fits the gameplay well. A very good entry overall!

Stuck in the Clock by Aaronacus 2020-10-10T21:35:07Z

The mechanics are a little confusing, but they feel nice and very innovative! If the physics were a bit more tutorialised and some of the floatier aspects were fixed (maybe prevent the player from getting too close to gear centres?) this could be the basis of a very tight and unique platformer. Great work!

Stuck in a loop by change 2020-10-06T17:45:05Z

Neat game; the idea of programmable agents pushing each other around is an interesting one, I suspect it would be possible to make a lot of good puzzles out of it. As it is you've got enough here to demonstrate all the mechanics very clearly, so :thumbsup:!

I did have some minor issues with the web build (unrelated to full screen); the first two times I tried it (Chrome on Windows) it didn't register keyboard input even after clicking on it. On the third refresh it was fine, though? No idea.

Anne's Topological Adventure by schsam 2020-10-05T18:55:31Z

Very cleanly presented, and some of the advanced topologies are very interesting to think about!

I've probably been spoiled by modern puzzle games; I was constantly wishing for an undo button. I beat it twice without, though, so no complaints!

(I did notice that for Cylinder-3 you can just go through the portal and walk right, which didn't seem to be intended since it ignores most of the puzzle elements?)

Loopity by oceanm 2020-10-08T01:57:42Z

The art and music styles suit the game well, I feel? It's simple, but it does what it sets out to do.

I did find it a little confusing that (assuming I understood the mechanics correctly) the moving the top slider *left* makes the game harder, but moving the bottom slider *right* makes the game harder? I think it would be more intuitive to the player if they changed in the same direction.

Splines 'n Shapes by SharkWithLasers 2020-10-12T02:25:35Z

Wonderful aesthetic, and the best audio I've heard this LD! This definitely seems like a concept that could really blow up on something like Apple Arcade.

Sasha by amirrajan 2020-10-27T20:16:12Z

This is incredibly stylish! As others have said it uses audio expertly. Definitely worth taking the time to expand it to something a little longer post-jam!

Loopertary by BinaryPrinciple 2020-10-05T16:35:12Z

WebGL build unfortunately doesn't work for me; it just displays the Unity logo with an empty progress bar. Same results on Chrome and Firefox, running on Win10 64-bit. No obvious error messages in the console (except for a complaint that UnityCache can't open indexedDB, which doesn't seem like it should be fatal).

Infinity - 1 by Potato Imaginator 2020-10-25T23:44:19Z

Solid Sokoban clone, with a twist that plays well! Not having an "undo" button was quite painful, but understandable given the limitations of the platform. Fortunately the controls were responsive enough to prevent any input mistakes, so with careful thought it was fine. Thanks for making the game!

Tomb of the Mummy RL by Eldar 2020-10-05T17:31:49Z

Solid design! First few levels are very easy, but it seems to turn into a pure resource management roguelike, which is interesting and something I feel like you don't see very often.

The wind spell feels like poor value to me early on, considering you're giving up one of your two casts of exterminate to get it, but maybe it's more vital later on for crowd control?

High score upload didn't work for me either; network panel says "(failed) net::ERR_CERT_AUTHORITY_INVALID".

The Power Loop by maxflav 2020-10-06T18:04:43Z

Very clean mechanic! Manipulating the loops, especially from inside, felt just awkward enough to be taxing and challenging without being annoying.

I would have liked it if the failure states (dead person/broken stabilizer) were more clearly highlighted; I was a little unsure for a while whether a stabilizer in the path of a laser counted as being in the loop or not. I think a little audio feedback would go a long way there, just to give an immediate warning of "that's wrong!"?

But otherwise, clearly communicated/tutorialized and a good set of levels. Great work!

Chronometry by PrincessChooChoo 2020-10-10T18:45:02Z

Smart puzzles, and I really like the aesthetic in the puzzles themselves; it communicates the mechanics very clearly! Very impressive use of the Pico's abilities.

Minor bug that if you start again after escaping it doesn't reset properly, but obviously most players will never encounter that so it's not a big deal for the competition.

Skycrawler by oneiromancer 2020-10-10T21:59:48Z

Very unique take on Mario Galaxy-esque gravity changing, I like it! It allows for a lot of interesting traversal routes that aren't immediately obvious, and I feel like I solved a few levels in ways that weren't the intended default (or at least didn't use all the platforms/obstacles).

The controls did feel a little awkward to me; I would often find myself changing direction as I landed from a jump, which felt uncomfortable. I think I would probably like them better if they were screen-relative rather than character relative, but perhaps other people would feel differently?

Death also felt a little unforgiving; the levels are moderately large relative to the character's move speed, and I didn't generally feel like the gems in each one felt like part of a unified "whole" puzzle; it often felt like missing a jump required me to re-solve the previous one or two "puzzles" (gems) rather than just the one I was on. Perhaps if there were fewer gems on each level, and where there are multiple gems they should be part of the same jumping puzzle? When I return to the central island after getting a gem I feel like I should be "done" with that gem, and I shouldn't have to collect it again because I failed to collect a different one.

Though in many ways that speaks to the slickness of the presentation; the way the levels flow into each other is excellent, and it does a wonderful job of making the game experience feel like a unified whole. With a bit more time and art variety I think this could be the basis of a really great full game, so I look forward to seeing what you do with it!

Cycloop by Erlioniel 2020-10-10T23:36:42Z

Excellent pixel art; the movement is a little slow. It's quite hard to hold the entire logic of the level in memory at once, so perhaps some form of map (or an easy way to quickly scroll the camera) would be helpful? There's enough in the puzzle mechanics to make them interesting, and I'm sure I would enjoy them as part of a larger game.

~~How exactly is the player's character activating these hand scanners?~~

Loop Deleter by Zachary Barbanell 2020-10-05T12:29:43Z

Very interesting mechanic! I've only made it to level 8 so far, but the puzzles feel like they require genuine insights to solve, which is usually the mark of a good puzzle game.

Also it's neat to see UI in a puzzlescript game! That's a clever way of doing it.

Too Many Phases by ItsAina 2020-10-27T05:35:39Z

Strong Warning Forever vibes here! Excellently put together, doubly so given that it was made under compo constraints. The movement felt very smooth and the player's weapon was very satisfying to use.

For specific feedback: There didn't seem to be any downside to just holding down the fire button at all times? I know to some extent that's a philosophy thing for shooters, but personally I think it's better to either have some trade-off (e.g. faster movement when not firing) or just remove the button and auto-fire. It would also have been nice to have more escalation between phases? I didn't really feel like the phases were getting harder as I beat them, though I only made it to phase 6 so perhaps I just didn't notice yet.

Anyway, it's a great compo entry; I hope you're able to get enough ratings to place, the game definitely deserves it!

Oscillator Panic by tjm 2020-10-08T01:45:25Z

Thanks for the kind words, all!

I was concerned that the Life ruleset would be too complex for players to predict, but I'm glad that people still seem to be getting enjoyment out of the game even when trial-and-error is required. I do wonder if a less chaotic ruleset that still supports oscillators might work better, though that loses the benefits of familiarity that many people have with Conway's Life.

@udo Showing a "warning" on cells about to grow is actually a really good idea, thanks for suggesting it! I would have to try it and see how it feels, but it does seem like it would reduce the time spent in "try moving, oops, undo" cycles without hurting the (occasional) forward planning aspects of the levels, which I think would be a big improvement.

The "undo" feature is actually built into PuzzleScript's engine so I can't take any credit or blame for that part (though I should still be able to fix the bug @eldar called out?). I will, however, defend to the death their decision to have "undo" undo "reset". If anything it's a bug that pressing undo can't take you back to previous levels! :smile:

Oscillator Panic by tjm 2020-10-15T02:17:03Z

I've uploaded a post-compo version 1.1 with various minor fixes, including some suggested by comments here!

* **Cells now show when they are about to grow.** * **Can no longer store extra "undo" steps after death.** * Use community patches for level select and smooth scrolling. * Improved full screen support. * Closed off some ways to get out of bounds in the final level. * Fix certain objects being destroyed when you moved into them on certain tiles. * Improve logic for when simulation audio plays. * Torches now flicker forebodingly.

As always, if you're rating please use the original compo version.

To everyone who has played the game so far, thank you very much for your support!

Oscillator Panic by tjm 2020-10-15T11:44:31Z

@matlab Thanks for the feedback and suggestions! I did consider trying to get some music in for the compo, but unfortunately PuzzleScript's audio capabilities are very limited. Playing it dynamically like that is a very neat effect, though, and I'll certainly bear that in mind if I port the game to a different engine!

@ltyrosine The last level actually does explore that idea, yes! If you're interested in checking it out the post-compo build will now let you skip ahead to later levels.

Seasoned Wizards by fufer 2020-10-25T23:32:43Z

The matching of music to seasons worked really nicely, and the movement felt pretty good. The cycling abilities was interesting, but it often felt like only one ability was relevant at any time and 24 seconds was a long time to wait for it to come back around again, so the game felt quite stop-start. Overall still fun, though, and the art style is cute!

Push Stack by stevenjmiller 2021-04-26T11:29:39Z

This is fascinating! But I don't get it at all. :cold_sweat: I gave up on level 7 (I didn't want to skip it, because it seemed like an especially "you need to understand this mechanic to get anywhere" level), but there is clearly a lot of depth here that I can't see yet, and the overall package is very smoothly put together. Great work!

Squiddies decent by Rialgar 2021-04-27T17:51:58Z

A solidly designed maze game; I feel like I would have preferred if the timer were turn-based rather than real time, though! Nice clean look and monochrome palette, everything was very easy to read. Good job!

EARTHWYRM by HolyBlackCat 2021-04-27T21:46:20Z

A nice, carefully designed puzzle game. I didn't really get what level 8 was going for, but otherwise most of the game was pretty clear and made sense, with solid and clear art. Good job!

self reflection by torcado 2021-04-28T13:00:11Z

Really interesting mechanics that feel like they have a lot of potential; I think this could be the basis of a full-length puzzle game. The graphics support the mechanic very well too. Great job!

Unearther by udo 2021-04-26T21:01:10Z

Interesting! I never really figured out the logic to how the goblins moved (I was able to beat all levels without doing so, but some of my solutions felt unintended; the game doesn't seem happy when you both win and die on the same move!). Most of the game elements were easy to read from the visuals, except that (at least on my screen) it was almost impossible to tell the difference between "impassable wall" and "open space". Music is nice!

The Descent by iovorobiev 2021-04-27T16:21:35Z

Honestly I think it would have been difficult enough without the move limit! Nice game, solidly put together. Not sure if there's much progression? I couldn't really tell whether the levels were getting harder or not as I descended. Maybe at least changing the grid size as you descend would help?

Pipes All the Way Down by kroltan 2021-04-27T18:09:11Z

Same problem here, game didn't end when I ran out of open spaces (presumably because there were still some open spaces that had scrolled off the top of the screen). I liked the push-your-luck mechanics, though, and everything felt very smooth.

One nit-pick; I would continually find myself trying to drop the cards when the icon on the card overlapped with the slot, when of course you actually have to drop them when the *cursor* overlaps the slot. I'm sure other people would find the current way more intuitive, but maybe a compromise could be to have the card snap so the icon lines up with the cursor when you pick the card up?

Thanks!

LAYERS by Le Slo 2021-04-29T00:04:18Z

The music and font are nice, but... I can't get it to do anything. It shows a "Welcome to Layers" message and an empty grid with no tiles; nothing responds to clicks, no keyboard buttons seem to do anything, and nothing changes if I wait. Am I missing something fundamental, or is it broken? Playing on Chrome.

Rooted by Webox 2021-04-29T00:44:45Z

A few little criticisms, some of which I think have already been covered by other comments:

* Mixing mouse and keyboard input at the start is kind of awkward and confusing; fortunately after that game can be controlled exclusively with keyboard for a while, so that was much better. * Can be hard to tell easily how many objectives there are and where; a couple of times it wouldn't let me out the exit and I had to carefully scour the level to find what I missed. * I found the rules for which segments I could branch from and which I couldn't a little confusing, and sometimes messed up because of that, leading to... * Undo would have been very helpful (though obviously that's very tough on a jam timeline unless you already have a system for it!) * Are the moles random? I felt like I would start a level the exact same way, but the mole would be in a different place, which was awkward on the levels where you had only just enough strength to get by. Speaking of which... * It wasn't immediately obvious what replenishes your strength and what doesn't; a tutorial for that would have been helpful.

...but none of those are huge deals, and overall it's a neat, interesting puzzle game. Good job!

Fade by Jeremy Ryan 2021-04-27T18:25:07Z

Just a heads up: I'd like to run your windows build through the itch app (partly because it should take care of the Windows Defender problem), but I can't because the file on itch isn't marked as being "for windows" so the app doesn't find it. Would it be a problem to tick that box on the itch page? Thanks!

Fade by Jeremy Ryan 2021-04-27T19:40:04Z

Thanks, that worked! The game is pretty difficult, though, even as someone moderately experienced at music games. :sweat_smile: I found the number keys quite awkward to rest on because they're so high on the keyboard; I think I would have had a lot more success if it used the home row (ASDFJKL; on QWERTY). The game's very pretty, though, both audibly and visually, and very nicely put together so great job!

[WebGL/HTML5] Who am I? by leorid 2021-04-28T19:51:19Z

Very well designed puzzles! The movement felt a little stop-start, but honestly I'm not sure what could be done to improve that; it might be purely a feel thing from the animation/tweening? I did like that you could play as fast as you like and (at least on my machine) it still felt responsive. Waiting for movers always felt a little wrong to me; I never felt like I could intuit their movements (or that of crates on them), so I generally had to count steps and jump whenever my count was one earlier than the cycle point.

Overall very solid, though, hope it does well!

Mined mines by Alexey Kuzovkov 2021-04-27T15:12:19Z

Like another commentator I was expecting "Defuse" to be a toggle, so I blew myself up trying to defuse my second mine. :sweat: Showing the numbers before you dig does take most of the puzzle out of minesweeper, but the game's still pretty pleasant and the graphics are quite nice. Not bad!

Ocelot Safari by pancelor 2021-04-26T11:52:12Z

Neat little game! Some mechanics were a little confusing (I died a couple of times before I figured out the exact requirements to light wood on fire), but the idea of different movement styles to do different things felt interesting. I gave up after accidentally locking myself in a corner with my own machete....

Deep Thoughts by bordonne 2021-04-27T16:43:08Z

A clean, straightforward maze game. I like how you used the level structure to get nice visuals out of PS!

Fall Queen by MKRaw 2021-04-27T17:31:37Z

For better or worse I feel you have captured the essence of Jump King here. Mechanics feel precise (though obviously difficult), and the whole package comes together well (at least as far down as I saw). Not bad at all!

Cutting Edge by Notan Lemon 2021-04-26T11:12:34Z

Well put together! I was a little unsure of how to interact with the menus initially (since they don't use quite the same controls at the rest of the game), but once into the puzzles everything went very smoothly. The puzzles themselves were smart and rewarding to reason about, with some neat realisations. All in all, great work!

Cave Golf by RoofloorWall 2021-04-27T15:55:45Z

The aesthetic here is simple, but works very well! I enjoyed the gameplay, but it was quite frustrating; the power curve never seemed to change in the way I expected, and it was hard to predict how far the ball would roll; at slow speeds the friction felt surprisingly high, at high speeds surprisingly low. Still, I had a lot of fun with it so good job!

Terminal by Squidsheep 2021-04-27T19:59:35Z

There were a few mechanics I still didn't really understand after the tutorial, but the idea is strong and the pixel art is very nice. Good job!

Undersea by Alopar 2021-04-27T17:19:05Z

A nice little FTL-like! It didn't feel like there was much variation and progression between the enemies; once I had assignments I was happy with I was able to pretty much leave people there, except for swapping them in and out of healing. Slight enemy differences (like displayed armour or evasion) might have helped with that, forcing me to switch up my tactics more. But I still had a lot of fun playing through it, and it's very pretty, so great job!

Unfathomable by tjm 2021-04-26T12:16:50Z

Thanks for the kind words, everyone!

@hotpaw You're right, I should probably have made the cliffs on the first screen a bit higher since I haven't taught the player the "return to checkpoint" button at that point! For the rest of your comments, it's hard to say whether you were experiencing a bug or not; the controls are definitely intended to feel like a struggle to descend, with many tanks only just reachable - and once you have them, it's deliberately difficult to get back up again. It should always be possible to collect all tanks, though (except on the screen that deliberately traps you to teach the "return to checkpoint" button). But with all that said, you may well still have encountered a bug! There may be edge cases I didn't find in testing where collecting tanks in a certain order traps you; unfortunately it's difficult to test every path in a game like this without watching other people play it. Hope you were able to find some enjoyment in the game in spite of that!

Unfathomable by tjm 2021-04-26T12:27:37Z

@roboolet Thanks! Difficulty balancing for a jam game is always a tricky decision, yeah; if you go for difficulty it's easy to make it too much for people (I should know, I'm one of the people most of these games are too difficult for!). I decided to go with making it easy (or cheeseable) enough that anyone can complete it, so as many people as possible get to see the full game. People who want to challenge themselves can always try to play through without getting hit!

Unfathomable by tjm 2021-04-26T14:39:15Z

@pd-dev Thanks! I wanted to use proper underwater photographs, but it turns out that's not really achievable with no specialised equipment and only 48 hours notice! :sweat_smile: I experimented with filters for the early stages, but the effect was weak enough that I decided not to bother for the later ones and just tried to go for an impactful look. Thanks for playing!

Movin' Mole by catnariss 2021-04-27T21:55:42Z

I don't know if it was a problem with my computer but the music and the in-game beats didn't seem to line up for me at all; I couldn't rate the game on Fun because of that. The graphics and music are nice, though? Foxes are cute. :fox:

[HTML5] Bodenhorizont by minotalen 2021-04-27T14:56:22Z

Really nice! Slightly more instruction early on would have been nice (it wasn't initially clear what my options were), but once I figured out the mechanics it was nice and I managed (after a few false starts) to explore almost all of the map. Very pretty too!

Unstable Towers by mrnannings 2021-10-04T10:35:11Z

Simple, but works well! Do you use any kind of algorithm to select next pieces, or is it a simple random order? I felt like some deals were just impossible, especially when you get the X pentomino. My failures usually felt like they were because of the last two specific pieces, but I think what you want is for the sense of instability to grow inexorably as the tower gets higher. Slightly more planned piece orders might make that more likely?

YuraYura! - Tidying up the tilting tower! by Cornflowerblue 2021-10-09T16:10:28Z

Great work! Very clear game mechanics, though it can become very difficult to read the game state when the platform is heavily tilted. Music and graphics are very polished, very impressive for such a short period of time.

Viole(n)t Cooking by Shess 2021-10-09T16:30:27Z

Looks and sounds great, but like some previous commenters it just doesn't seem to work for me? I can't click on or drag anything except the floating book, and all the things that look like ingredients are greyed out and noninteractible. Refreshing the page doesn't help. Playing on Chrome, on PC.

Crunda by LancesCaterpie 2021-10-09T15:33:21Z

Very nice! I didn't quite get what the water did, but otherwise the mechanics were very clear and the graphics and audio sold them very well. I think this could easily be the basis of a commercial title, along the lines of games like Ynglet. Keep up the good work!

Dream Dog Dilemma by potatolain 2021-10-09T13:51:58Z

Excellent work; reminds me of Eversion!

My one minor complaint is that it was a little easy to forget which machines did what? Usually what I wanted to know when looking at a machine was "will this take me up or down?", and I couldn't tell that without memorizing which colour machine was for which layer pair.

Otherwise, game was strong across the board and pretty fun to puzzle out.

Spherry by Rewzu 2021-10-04T11:13:43Z

Cute! The division into stages initially didn't make sense to me, but now In understand it's a "push your luck" system to decide whether to bank your score or not. That said, the difficulty of the movement didn't seem to change as the game went on, as far as I could tell? I think that (e.g. stronger waves in later stages) would make the challenge more interesting; as it stands the game feels like it gets easier as you go along, as some kitties are necessary casualties to attrition so you have fewer to manage. Overall, though, it looks and feels fun, so nice work!

Floor Falls by Toomblercazz 2021-10-07T22:52:19Z

Solid design; the 3D structure is neat and different to think about. It was a little difficult to realise how the levels are stacked at first; obviously puzzlescript is very limiting in that respect. Perhaps the higher floors could be slightly higher on the screen (maybe by a tile or so) to convey a sense of height? It might also be helpful to put the cover image (with the isometric projection) on the game's page? It's very helpful, but if someone comes to the game by a path that doesn't show the cover image then they won't see it.

The visuals are nice and generally clear; my one slight criticism is that the inner walls don't read to me as walls - they seem a little more like pits with a different background. That might be because the slight isometry from the platform edges makes me expect it everywhere, so walls that don't extend "upwards" don't read as walls?

The Yellow Wallpaper by WhenYouCantFindAFriend 2021-10-09T14:30:08Z

The illustration is very nice, but I feel the presentation is held back by the text presentation? The text is very plain, it doesn't really stand out against the background, and it doesn't really match the visual style of the art. If it fit in better I think it would elevate the overall look by a lot!

The level design was fun, and the movement felt okay (except for not being able to jump right after landing), but it would be nice if the level design could give me a little more hint where I was going; blind jumps downwards feel a little uncomfortable when falling in other places resets the level!

Thanks for making this!

Emily vs the Unstable Creatures by JPatchZ 2021-10-09T13:28:44Z

I can't get the game to run, I'm afraid; I've tried the latest versions of both Chrome and Firefox (on PC); both get to the "The game will start soon" screen and stay there forever (well, for at least 15m).

An oddly SATISFYING game by Duck Reaction 2021-10-09T17:03:05Z

Short but sweet; very pleasant to interact with, with a great visual flair.

I'm afraid I don't really see the connection to the theme, though....

Autoscript by Zachary Barbanell 2021-10-07T22:31:40Z

Others have commented on the learning curve, so I'll just say I appreciated having free access to all levels, especially on a web game I may come back to after losing save data. Visually it has a strong coherent style, though it's a little tough to tell what's interactive and what isn't? Naturally I could figure out from context that thinks like "Pass turn" were buttons, but it would be nice if the interactable elements were more distinct?

(FWIW I've done 1-4 so far; I feel like I would need a *lot* of experimentation before I can get anywhere in the next few, though.)

Reactor by RefraX295 2021-10-04T10:58:08Z

Solidly made! A way to select levels would have been nice since they can take a while (also a quick way to reset them after you've made a mess), but it's understandable given the limited timeframe of compo. Mechanically the forces seemed a little counterintuitive at first, but once I got my head around them I could make things work fairly consistently. Good job!

Nucleus by mrBell270 2021-10-09T15:12:50Z

Very nice visuals, and I like the advanced gameplay of using deflected electrons to deflect other electrons!

My one criticism would be the main menu/instructions screen; it's a lot of information at once, and the thin text makes everything feel a little hard to read and bland. It might be worth splitting the instructions over a few screens, presented in sequence, ideally with their own diagrams to make it a little clearer?

But otherwise it's good fun, glad I found it!

Snek Left by Martin Magni 2021-10-09T16:46:54Z

Very pretty, obviously! I found the controls for retrying a bit frustrating, though; so a game this fast-to-fail you really want retries to be as quick and seamless as possible, but here I seem to have to switch from keyboard to mouse every time I fail (which is often, obviously), and the animation on death is pretty long. With faster retries I'm sure I would play this game a lot more!

Honestly, double the number of levels and you could probably sell this on mobile or steam just fine.

Snek Left by Martin Magni 2021-10-09T22:15:36Z

I'm afraid I don't remember; maybe space? Since the game doesn't use any specific keys for gameplay I don't think I was expecting any specific keys to do anything, and the restart wasn't "any key" (and obviously you wouldn't want it to be, since that would be too easy to trigger unintentionally).

Portrait of a robot climbing a dystopian megastructure by voxel 2023-10-02T19:28:17Z

Finally, a game to justify my 9:16 monitor setup! :smile: I think the game successfully achieved its goal of playing meaningfully differently because of the tall aspect ratio, looking up and down genuinely felt key.

RT wasn't working for me on web on controller, so I had to switch to mouse. Not a big issue, obviously web is always a bit flaky.

Web performance was completely playable, and I think the industrial PS1 aesthetic served the game well. A few places felt a little cheeseable with the grapple, but for the most part the sightlines worked and kept me on a sensible path. The one part that stumped me briefly was near the end, on the big slope in sight of the path of pushers; I spent a while grappling them are trying to figure out whether I needed to use them before I found the right path.

Overall a fun and unique experience, I enjoyed my time with it!

Stingy Seating by stevenjmiller 2023-10-02T18:43:14Z

Your games are always just a bit above my level, but I can still appreciate the thoughtful design that goes into them! :sweat_smile: The L-shape of the bus and pickup has a lot of interesting knock-on effects, I can see how you were able to get some pretty complex behaviour out of it (and of course the other mechanics increase the problem space in even more interesting ways).

Overall pretty great! I always like to see a fresh puzzle mechanic, and the visuals and feedback are all clean and immediately readable. The puzzles, while very challenging, build well and I felt the instructional levels were clear in teaching me the mechanics I needed to know. No notes from me! :thumbsup:

QPCA-77B by Jimbly 2023-10-03T10:57:43Z

Excellent; it has all the modern conveniences and QoL I'd want from a modern game like this, and some interesting restrictions to work around. I'll be sure to recommend it in the puzzle game discords I'm in!

Brainspace by loveapplegames 2023-10-03T12:41:10Z

It's... interesting? :sweat_smile: I was able to clear the first four problems just by playing around and a layperson's intuition of how neural networks work, but that was about my limit.

I do want to come back to it later and try to understand the underlying maths a little more, though; I think with maybe a little more in the way of supporting examples this could be a very useful teaching tool?

What's there works well and feels smooth to use (and I've written enough node-based editors to know how annoying it can be), so good work; Hopefully some other players can make it further than I did!

Paul Klee, Rich Harbour by Subsage 2023-10-02T18:27:29Z

Neat idea! The lack of any time pressure made it feel more "thinky" than traditional snake, though my losses still came from getting distracted and making silly errors. (Or from using a gamepad, which is a very different experience especially when the left stick is slightly broken. :sweat:)

It wasn't clear to me whether the game was changing or becoming more difficult as I progressed? I could convince myself that alike colours were coming closer together, but I wasn't sure. If not that might be something to work on, since (at least with my clumsy play) the screen fills up fairly quickly and the wall density doesn't go up much past that point. That didn't interfere with the fun of the game, though.

Oh, and great music; my compliments to the composer! :smile:

Soffie's Tiny Garden by FTZ 2023-10-02T21:12:21Z

Really nice! Quite tough, but just the right level of puzzle challenge for me. The mechanics weren't immediately obvious (I'm still not 100% sure what some elements represent in the world), but it didn't take long to figure them out through experimentation (which is exactly how I like my puzzle games, so I'm counting that as a point in the game's favour).

The mechanic is clever and a simple idea that I've not seen before. The game's relevance to the theme wasn't immediately obvious, but it became clear once I started getting stuck into the real levels (so to speak).

The visuals are quite pleasant, and the audio did its job well. Overall a very fun game, I'll be recommending it to other puzzle gamers!

Cubic by Afra Gerami 2023-10-05T12:59:32Z

Pleasant and pretty! It felt like I was solving most of the levels through trial and error rather than by understanding them? To some extent I could work backwards a little from the goal state, but that never took me very far. Even on the repeating last level (which I solved a few times) I never really figured out a strategy; each time I was just blundering around until I hit a state I recognised. That may just be me not being great at these puzzles, though! :sweat_smile:

But overall the design and audio felt very polished and I always appreciate proper undo and restart support in puzzle games. Great work!

Kefnac, the Word Grid Game by Greytyphoon 2023-10-03T12:13:37Z

Not bad! First attempt took me 12 minutes.

You *might* want to consider a blacklist/whitelist on the word generation? Not a big deal, but having the game serve up a curse word in the first setup does colour its impression a little. Seems like you know the direction placement is a little finicky, but it's perfectly playable.

Overall pretty fun, and it's nice to have options to tweak for multiple plays.

Push Away by fraanns 2023-10-05T10:41:25Z

Nice puzzles! Switching between mouse and keyboard for controls felt a little awkward; it might have been nice to be able to control it entirely with mouse (e.g. by swiping)? That would make it a good fit for mobile as well.

But overall, very clear how things worked, and fun to play. Good job!

AM4LGAM8 by Alis 2023-10-05T12:14:22Z

222 here; the bomb spawning seemed pretty generous, so the limiting factor (appropriately) mostly seemed to be the walls closing in.

In some ways it felt like combining numbers wasn't that important? Since the scoring is linear (a 1-block gets you 1 point, an 8-block gets you 8 points) combining the blocks you get doesn't make them worth more points, it just potentially decreases the number of bombs you need to clear them. It might be interesting if the values of higher blocks scaled more, so clearing an 8-block would be worth more than clearing two 4-blocks.

Overall a well-put-together, fun experience, though. Good work!

Vestal's Path by SenatorMyth 2023-10-02T20:44:18Z

This might be presumptive of me since the jam deadline isn't up yet, but there doesn't seem to be any way to play the game right now? Even though this page is published, it currently only seems to have the source code. You probably want to export an html version of the game and upload it, either here or to itch.io.

Vestal's Path by SenatorMyth 2023-10-03T09:27:14Z

A well-designed puzzle game with a bunch of interesting levels, very nice! The mechanics were mostly very clear and easy to understand, and I enjoyed the late game "reveal".

The controls did feel a little clunky; obviously it's tough when you only have two buttons to work with! Still, two of the most common actions (using a specific item and dropping an item) took 3-4 button presses if you didn't remember which item you had equipped, which is quite a lot. I would have liked to be able to see my inventory at all times, and ideally be able to use either item with one button press? Even if that meant pushing drop item into the pause menu I think that might still be fewer overall presses.

The one thing that wasn't clear to me about the items was the exact ranges, which was particularly important for the hookshot and the ice wand. There were a couple of places, especially on the last level, where I wasn't sure whether or not particular actions would get me stuck with no way to return. My own position not being grid-locked made that a little harder to read too. Fortunately I made it through the final level without that happening (which would have been tough on a longish level without undo.)

Overall, though, I enjoyed the game a lot! Nice, straightforward use of the theme, clear and pleasant graphics; an enjoyable game all round. Great job!

CERT by tjm 2023-10-05T10:11:59Z

Thanks for the kind words, everyone!

@jimbly Thanks for playing! It sounds like you might have either missed the rule on page 19, or not noticed some of the hex-shaped holes? Both of those could definitely have been a lot clearer; other players have reported problems caused by not noticing them, so sorry about that! The design is absolutely that each puzzle should have exactly one legal and deducible arrangement of pieces, so the right answer shouldn't ever be ambiguous.

CERT by tjm 2023-10-05T10:27:19Z

@kaaleb Thanks! Yeah, I've been a big fan of exploration puzzle games in this genre (like The Witness or Lingo) for a long time, but this is my first serious attempt to make one. A puzzle book felt like a fun way to approach it, with a lot of potential to do things that wouldn't work or wouldn't be practical in a digital game. Hope you had fun with it!

CERT by tjm 2023-10-05T13:36:52Z

Ah, yeah, that would do it. :sweat: Keeping the rule to only hexes-and-hexes would have made it clearer and easier to remember, but unfortunately I don't think I could have made good enough puzzles with it. Thanks for persevering anyway! :smile:

CERT by tjm 2023-10-06T07:14:39Z

@jebouin Thanks! As far as I know mine is the first puzzle book to combine this style of puzzles with exploration/adventure book gameplay - that's why I wanted to try it! For a similar style of "puzzle books with very light story" I can recommend [Blaž Urban Gracar](https://www.blazgracar.com/letibus)'s "Lok" and "Abdec" books, both of which were definitely influences on this.

CERT by tjm 2023-10-11T19:19:00Z

@justcamh Thanks for playing! Finding the secret path out of the hub was definitely intended to be one of the most challenging puzzles; the idea was that each of the three paths gave you a different clue phrase, and by thinking about those three phrases together the player would figure out how to progress. It definitely requires the player to be in a particular mindset, though; perhaps it would have helped if I'd found some way to encourage players to reexplore old areas if they get stuck?

Thanks for commenting, and I'm glad you enjoyed it!

Quetzals & Ladders by jkyd 2023-10-09T17:40:59Z

Very cool game with unique puzzles, though very hard without an undo button. The visuals have a lovely style to them!

The audio is nice, but very quiet; at first I thought the game didn't have any, and only noticed it when I put my volume up a lot.

But overall excellent; clearly communicated mechanics and it's clear you understand what makes the puzzles work. Great job!

Dwarf Monastery by hotaloca 2023-10-03T20:06:32Z

The graphics and audio feel nicely tactile and boardgame-y!

It was sometimes difficult to understand why plans were failing, especially since I often couldn't make out what the voices were saying. I'm still not sure why this didn't work, for example? Dwarf Monastery Level 4 Screenshot It would also have been nice if the "playback" of the dwarves schedules could be quicker; I felt like there was a bit of waiting around during the experimentation phase.

But the basic idea is a fun twist on set-up-and-play puzzle games; I enjoyed my time with it!

Dwarf Monastery by hotaloca 2023-10-06T13:48:47Z

@hotaloca Ah, I didn't realise that the shifts needed to be able to loop (that is, that the dwarf needs to be able to get from his hour 20 shift to his hour 0 shift). Thanks for explaining!

Misplaced Tie by knexator 2023-10-02T17:46:27Z

I like the idea; sort of a more diegetic take on Towers of Hanoi?

It might have been nice if the "currently selected object" (and how you would be moving it) was a little more clearly highlighted, but that only confused me briefly at the start and wasn't a big issue for most of it. The use of spot colour to make things stand out was very nice, but it felt a little thin/underused; maybe if the selected items changed colour themselves, rather than just the selection UI?

Overall, a solidly put together little game; I enjoyed it!

Stretchmancer by Choo 2023-10-06T10:00:36Z

Very nice! The visuals and gameplay really evoke the era you're going for, and the axis-stretching gameplay has a lot of potential. I'm glad Jam and Compo games don't compete with each other in Innovation! :sweat_smile:

A few very minor points: - The text didn't display for me in a couple of places; not a problem, since the voices were very clear and crisp. - It's possible to break the dialogue sequence on level 4 if you take the secret path early, then come back - but you probably already know about that. - There's a Source Code link on the LD page, but it doesn't seem to link to any source code?

But again these are just tiny things; overall this is a very fun and well-made entry, I hope it does well!

Inside the Field by Debugdancer 2023-10-05T11:17:08Z

I think the idea of a puzzle platformer where you can effectively create platforms by moving a held object is really interesting, and has a lot of potential! Level 1 here feels like a great example of the kind of awkward environment you might be navigating in a later level of such a game.

Unfortunately here I feel like the challenges just get too fiddly too quickly? Even just positioning the object so that you could pick it up from a higher level felt a little awkward. I would suggest that in a game like this it's better for the *execution* to be really generous (with large objects, long pickup distances, lots of snapping and backstops for throws), and for the challenge to come from figuring out *where* you want things to go, not from fighting with the physics to get them there. Obviously Portal and Portal 2 are cited to death, but for good reason; they did a lot of subtle and not-so-subtle work to make it easy to precisely line up jumps and portals as needed for the puzzle.

Hopefully you're encouraged to continue with this, and can turn it into something great!

Greasy Justice by kasmilus 2023-10-03T11:36:33Z

Interesting game! The art feels really good, and I like the music (even if it gets a little repetitive).

Unless I'm missing something it feels *extremely* slow to play? Once there are a few enemies out every spawn takes a few seconds of clicking to resolve, and playing out a full wave can take minutes. I don't really feel like I'm making many decisions during that time? Enemy positioning doesn't seem to matter that much since my attacks never hit more than one of them, and they always move closer to the target anyway. The real-time elements also felt a little out of place; I was pretty much always getting stuck reels before the 90 seconds became an issue, and the timing aspect of aiming didn't feel very impactful.

But still, it's a technically solid game that clearly does what its designed to do, and looks good while doing it. Good job!

A Barren Land by penguindustin 2023-10-05T13:22:59Z

This was fun, but a *lot* of clicking. :sweat_smile: Especially when buying things with crafts, I didn't see any reason why I would ever want to spend part of my crafts on buying part of something, so it would have made more sense to me if clicking on "Fields (10)" would either spend 10 of my crafts to buy one field, or put all the crafts I have towards one field (whichever comes first. For assigning population that wouldn't work, but it would have been nice there if I could hold down the button to assign population in bulk.

Still, the background was nice and pleasant, and the communication was clear; overall well done!

Clearing space by Sevansevan 2023-10-03T19:17:25Z

@sevansevan FYI compo rules actually specifically allow (and even encourage) the sfxr sound generator that Puzzlescript uses, so it's fine to use them in it.