itch.io

Absolute god gamer

Art and atmosphere were both really cool, taking a more directly sinister, foreboding tone while feeling clearly inspired by Portal's style in a lot of ways with the writing. The solutions to the puzzles were intuitive and easy enough to gauge what I was meant to do and it made good use of the mechanics present in a few different and effective ways. The main issue is that while the puzzles themselves were easy to solve theoretically, it was very difficult to properly line up the lasers to actually complete the puzzles,  with it often coming down to a lot of specific placement of the reflectors with trial and error, not truly being able to understand what each position would affect the direction of the lasers.  The sound effect of the gun also got quite unpleasant by the end due to how loud and blaring the sound was. Cool game though, really interesting stuff going on

Nice implementation of the theme, the name alone is very eye catching and amusing, which gives the game some immediate legs to stand on. I feel like the animations could definitely have used some additional polish, because it all felt a bit janky with the lack of them, especially when combined with the somewhat haphazard placement of a lot of the platforms, giving it a fairly unprofessional look that could be fairly easily fixed with the above 2 changes. The ducks also felt as if they didn't follow the player particularly well, falling down almost every pit and being unable to make even really basic jumps, making them feel a bit useless. Still though, there were some cool aspects, such as the minimap being a great way to mitigate the almost mazelike design of some bits.

Here's mine https://itch.io/jam/brackeys-5/rate/929385, going to go and play yours right now

Big fan of this one, and definitely think that it was quite a unique take not just on the theme but just in terms of puzzles themselves. It feels like most of the time and effort for this went into the presentation of this game, and on that front, it was absolutely excellent, wit the particle effects, the artstyle, the music to back it up, it all felt extremely polished and satisfying from a visual and audio standpoint. The game itself was mostly cool too, with the differing levels of magnet strength being creatively used. My main issues with this were in relation to the controls, as they never really ended up feeling fluid, being quite slow to move your magnet around to the other side, yet also too imprecise to be able to perfectly position the magnet, leading to a few annoying moments where I was spending a lot of time just trying to properly position myself. Switching between the magnets also felt quite slow, sometimes the clicking not really registering and taking quite a while longer than it should have to swap between them. Still though, other than the controls which need a lot of working on in their current state, the game feel was second to none in this game jam, and that's a really impressive feat.

This was really fun and charming overall, with a lot of attention paid to how well a person could control both characters simultaneously I feel.  Making this a race to see how quickly a player could complete it is a great middle ground between letting the player going as slow and carefully as possible, and being too difficult for the average player, instead giving people the option to challenge themselves to a high degree rather than forcing it in. Even with the few mechanics here, it all felt nicely implemented, nothing feeling wasted or even underutilised. A couple of the puzzles felt oddly placed I'll say however, some of then being unusually easy near the end, not a massive criticism, but I thought it pertinent to mention. Also the music got a bit repetitive. Great game overall though, enjoyed it quite a bit.

This is a game that I definitely think could do with a bit of touching up, especially with how you introduce the mechanics, as the first level was quite a bad impression in the way it showcased a lot of flaws with the game. Swapping characters for the first time felt really jarring, as the transition is instant and gave no real context that moment on where you were positioned in relation to the other character. The collisions were also quite strange, being unable to push a crate over the other one in the first level, which was quite frustrating. I also found that the game overall required a lot of precision in places to a cumbersome extent, which detracted from the puzzle elements of the game given the focus on executing tight jumps in some locations. That said, along with the central mechanic being fun, I also really enjoyed the aesthetic this had, and I found the boost jump to be especially fun to do properly. Overall, while there are some issues I had with this, it was quite cool and I'd be interested to see how the game goes from here.

The artstyle of this was pretty cool, very simple and cartoony in a good way, and the idea of a ranged character and a character that rolls around was a pretty neat dynamic. In terms of design and polish I did have some issues however, with the biggest one being the fact that I never felt like I really needed to use the ball guy at all, with the gun practically doing all the work, taking away from the whole teamwork dynamic that you're trying to push. I also has a lot of instances where the screen would tear while moving, which made things look quite unpleasant at points. I personally also think that the gun doesn't really fit the aesthetic of anything else in the game,. from the setting to the artstyle, which took me out of it a bit. In any case, there's a solid foundation here that could definitely be improved with some more attention to level design, along with ironing out the bugs.

This game fit the theme very well, strongly encouraging the use of teamwork to get through the levels. The main issue I have with it overall is a lack of polish in a few key areas, along with a couple of flaws that could be easily fixed. My biggest issue is that in a game where you're controlling 2 characters simultaneously, the control key shouldn't be a button the player needs to press, as this keeps activating shortcuts that make it really inconvenient to play and take away from the whole teamwork vibe when you're only really able to control one character at a time without doing something unintentional. I also feel that the physics were kinda odd at points when trying to push the barrels, leading to some situations where I'd accidentally push it off just by nudging it a bit in the wrong direction. Overall though, this game has a cool premise that with some tweaking could become something really awesome, since the game from a purely level design standpoint was pretty interesting.

Thank you very much, I'll play your game in return soon.

I was quite a fan of the core mechanic of this game, with the throwing of ants being quite fun and making for some nice moments of problem solving, especially when combined with the fact that you can't get off platforms without throwing yourself, making you completely rethink what at first glance may seem like a simple platformer. Main issues I had was that sometimes the character controller would work in strange ways once I landed in some places, sometimes even reversing my controls. The red line to show the throwing arc was also really inconsistent, sometimes showing itself perfectly and other times only displaying a really tiny, short line that effectively communicates nothing. The presentation of the game was really nice as well, with the nice, simplistic artstyle working with the game's tone very nicely. Cool game that could work really well with some more content.

Super close at this point, so the last little hurdle would be of great help.

 Puzzle game where you play between a roomba and fridge and escape a space station.

https://itch.io/jam/brackeys-5/rate/929385

Really pretty game that made full use of the theme to come up with something very interesting. The game had a certain level of polish that I really liked, particularly from an art standpoint, with some really cool, detailed animations, especially the skeleton death animation. That said, I found the darkness mechanic to be a bit cumbersome, thought that it just dragged the flow a bit by forcing you to constantly swap between them to be able to do something as simple as walk forward. There were also some issues with the collisions, where characters would get stuck on walls or the wizard would phase through the moving platforms. Cool game even so however, surprisingly atmospheric as well.

If you have the time I'd appreciate it if you checked out my game as well.

If you have the time I'd love it if you checked my game out 

https://itch.io/jam/brackeys-5/rate/929385

This game was kinda brutal, took me a really long time to actually figure out a lot of these solutions, but I loved that about it, really making you think about the basic mechanics and how to utilise them. Furthermore, I absolutely adored the twists and turns this game took, from the way the puzzles shifted to having to properly orient all the characters, to what happened when you got 3 lined up in a row, the the really funny and charming finale that I will not spoil for any passerby people who might read these comments. My main criticisms come in the form of the presentation of the game, both visually, with the artstyle and colour palette being a bit hard on the eyes, and how the audio was very minimal. Still though, in terms of the actual design of the game, this is some seriously top notch stuff. 

If you have the time I'd really appreciate it if you checked out my game as well.

Cool game with some interesting ideas going on. I particularly liked the way you made sure to encourage more tactical, sparing use of your weapon compared to holding down the fire button constantly, made for an interesting dynamic to the gameplay. I'll say that I found the starting shield size to be a bit too small, but the ability to upgrade this took the edge off this issue a bit, even if I'd still personally have liked it if it were a tad larger. Other than this, the game also had a really nice sense of progression to it, and the ability to upgrade stuff provided an interesting risk-reward dynamic given how it gave a reason to leave enemies on the screen for longer and amass a larger amount of money to become more powerful. While the game didn't vibe too well with me personally, I can really see the appeal of it and think that this feels extremely polished, interesting, and just well made in a lot of respects, great job with this one. 

If you have the time, I'd also really appreciate it if you checked out my game.

Neat idea that tied to the theme really well and gave some cool puzzles throughout in having to utilise the various abilities cleverly to make it through. Along with this, I also liked the way the game looked, the post processing effects really contributing to a distinct style. That said, this game desperately needs the the blocks to respawn and some way to restart from a couple of rooms ago, as there were multiple places that I got stuck in because I didn't carry certain blocks over or they got destroyed, which did become quite frustrating. Also, not sure if it was an issue on my end but I couldn't hear any audio in game. Despite this issue I still thought that this was cool and would love to see it in a more polished state with the issues mentioned, because the potential of this one is extremely high.

If you have the time I would also really appreciate it if you checked out my game.

For a little gamejam game this was really neat, had a nice narrative setup which connected to the theme really strongly, with a nice bit of exploration thrown into the mix for good measure with the coins.  I think that the enemy variety could be improved a bit though, even if that final encounter was really awesome and surprising. I think that the music also got really repetitive by the end as well, mostly because of how short the loop was, even though it fit the setting really well, so maybe if you extended it out a bit it would fix the issue. Cool game, glad to have played it.

If you have the time, I'd really appreciate if you also checked out my game.

Simple, yet effective, always had a soft spot for these sorts of games where you just end up amassing an army of pure destruction. My main issues come from the fact that the camera moves a bit too fast when moving the cursor around and can get extremely disorienting at times, and also that the difficulty ramping is a bit slow, where I felt like I could really only die if I started trying to be aggressive, rather than feeling a constant threat from the enemies. Even so, I liked this a lot, and it fit the theme excellently, great job with this :)

If you have the time I would also really appreciate if you checked out my game as well.

Very chilled out and satisfying to play, making it quite fun overall. There's just something so nice about seeing the colours slowly converge into one throughout.  While I can vaguely see the theme, I'll also say that it wasn't really conveyed strongly and is probably the weakest aspect of it in regards to the context of the gamejam, but still, I thought this was pretty great regardless.

If you have the time I'd appreciate it if you also checked out my game

The yellow circular object

Unfortunate, but fair enough. After you click you need to move with WASD but I didn't really make that clear. Thanks for checking it out even so.

The main draw of this is definitely the extremely novel format of it, having it run on a gameboy emulator is some seriously cool stuff and I'm 100% for it, especially with the artwork matching that sort of aesthetic perfectly. I'll say that the actual gameplay needed some tweaks though, for one, the game drops you directly into an enemy at the start without fail and you need to immediately jump or else you'll die and have to reset, which ended up getting a bit annoying. I also think that the game would speed up far too quickly, reaching insane speeds almost impossible to dodge within about 10-15 seconds. This combined with a couple of enemy patterns either being impossible or at least considerably more precise than anything else to dodge, I definitely think that that aspect of it needs some more refinement to take this from a really awesome idea into a game that matches this extremely unique way of submission. I also didn't really think that the theme was conveyed clearly in the game itself and think that the idea of getting faster when you become closer together is actually a bit like the antithesis of the theme, since the togetherness is actually making it more difficult. That said, I still thought this was really neat and was very glad to have checked it out :)

If you have the time I'd really appreciate it if you checked out my game as well.

Fun little game that was promising immediately from the title screen and game over screen being absolutely on point. The game itself was mostly cool too, little puzzles to figure out how to move everything without getting any of them killed, made for a couple of light brain teasers that I had fun with. An issue I had was that I couldn't click back to the title screen after pressing the credits button, so I needed to close the game and reopen it. I also found some bits really easy to get through without really engaging with the puzzle, where I could just jump up to the end of the level with 2 of the rats and completely avoid having to manage any of the other rats, though I'm unsure whether or not that was intentional. The music was also a lot of fun, whether it was the funny theme song or cartoonish level theme, it was just a constantly fun thing to hear throughout and made the gamer all the more enjoyable. I enjoyed this quite a bit.

If you have the time, I'd really appreciate if you could also check out my game.

This one was really great in making everything FEEL good to play, the way there's a constant give and take, with you ramping up in power significantly and then getting dropped back down whenever you make a mistake, giving you that moment of vulnerability as you're scrambling to get more nodes to bolster your attack. This sense of flow feels excellently handled throughout, with any moments where you become insanely powerful feel short lived, due to the fact that naturally the more powerful you are, the bigger target you also are, acting as an additional layer of balance. I'll say that I'm not quite sure how to feel about those triangles attached to rectangles that just feel a bit like an enemy to say "you lose", but I could also just be bad. Really fun game, glad to have given it a shot, willingly played this one for a lot longer than I planned on doing. 

If you have the time, I'd really appreciate it if you also checked out my game.

I was planning on increasing the speed but then I found out the the way I had the character controller set up meant that over a certain speed they'd just start phasing through walls, so I do plan on fixing that up but I just didn't have the time during the jam itself. Thanks for checking out my game, I really appreciate it.

Yeah fair, as said, it was specifically the sword and jumping characters that it felt a bit odd, though I guess with the jumping it would add an additional layer of puzzle solving to it all.

There was a lot to unpack with this game when playing through it, and I loved practically everything it did. Taking a push block puzzle game and turning it into a pseudo-metroidvania was a super clever spin on a formula we've seen so many times at this point, and really separated it from  a lot of other titles. The aesthetic was on point because really, if you want the player to care about the characters, adorable animals is an easy, sure-fire way to elicit such a response. The puzzles also got surprisingly tough, with a lot more thought needing to be put into them than I expected, which I liked, since having a bit of a challenge in these sorts of games is absolutely lovely. One thing that I would add to this to make it a far more enjoyable experience is some sort of Undo button somehow, like many of these sorts of games tend to have, as it makes accidentally pushing a block into a corner a far less costly and annoying mistake, keeping the flow going strong without sacrificing any of the good difficulty either. In the end though, this was a minor issue for the most part, and I was going to criticise the lack of the theme running throughout the game other than the ability sheep, but then the ending really tied everything together as it showed how collecting all these sheep contributed to the gamejam in a much broader, more powerful way. Great job here, loved it.

If you have the time, I'd really appreciate it if you checked out my game as well.

One of the better games I've played so far, and I've played quite a few jam games in this at this point. The idea is absolutely wonderful, making full use of each of the unique abilities to make for some decent puzzle elements. My main issues were that there was a strange bug where the characters would get stuck on seemingly nothing, so I had to restart the level at a couple of occasions, and I'm also not sure how much I like the fact that the sword and jump character won't stop using their ability when not selected, as it just clutters things further, and made pressing the switch in the final level quite annoying to pull off. That said, I liked this a lot and am glad I took the time to play it, you really nailed the theme :)

If you have the time I'd really appreciate if you checked out my game as well.

The artwork combined with the name really drew me towards playing this game, and I'm happy I did, because it was very cute and interesting. The audio in particular impressed me, being very understated and elegant, yet extremely effective in how it's utilised. I love how the cars and ducks played into the music, and also gave you some audio cues on how to approach a situation. There was a constant sense of tension as well, because they're cute little ducks, you obviously don't want to see them get hurt!!! I will say that I didn't really see how the game fit with the theme too well at all, though I've read the comments and it makes sense why now, though I thought it'd be good to still bring it up. I also found the inconsistency of the the duckling speed and their pathing while getting distracted made walking near a piece of bread practically a death sentence, even with the quack, since only some of them would get called over while the rest would remain in the same spot or get newly distracted. Still quite an impressive game with a lot going for it despite my criticisms, would be really interested in seeing where it goes from here if you plan on touching the game once this jam ends.

If you have the time, I'd love it if you checked out my game as well.

Insanely cute game that I'm a big fan of some aspects of, especially in its presentation, with the charming, adorable penguins and audio giving it all a sense of childlike wonder. The game also fits the theme really nicely, with using the penguins as the way to attack the polar bears being a nice way to tie the following mechanic into more aspects of the gameplay. The main issue I had was in regards to how the penguins would get stuck on everything to the point where I couldn't actually finish the game because I got impatient, but other than that it was a nice little game that with some polish could really flourish.

Nice little game, with the narrative capturing the spirit of the theme really nicely, with the darker themes throughout honestly leaving a decent amount of speculation in such a way that contributes to its appeal overall. I feel like a bit more style with text placement and times sound effects could really bring this game to life, since right now it's practically only a narrative showcase, but even as it stands, I like it quite a bit, nice job.

The concept itself was pretty funny in its absurdity, backed up by the ridiculous choices that don't really matter at all. The issue is that the game was really repetitive, and the unscrewing minigame felt painfully tedious since it just amounted to waiting every once in a while. Funny game that definitely could use some work, especially in the unscrewing minigame and maybe giving some more dialogue responses.

Games like this remind me how absolutely awesome gamejams can be. This was just really funny and charming across the board, from the simple, yet effective gameplay that was constantly funny, both from the character sprites such as the hyper-detailed janitor, to the dialogue and concept itself. Gameplay itself was fairly light, but it didn't really feel like the game needed to prioritise it much either, instead acting more as a vessel for the writing, art and narrative to shine through. Great job, also fit the theme perfectly :)

When the monke screamed, I felt that, which means, I felt a lot. This game really makes you FEEEEL like a monke. Only thing it is missing would be more monke screams that overlap and make the scream louder.

Fun little management game that actually required to think about how to manage resources, which was quite cool, since I find a common trapping with these sorts of games is that throwing everything into one category can often allow you to effortlessly win. This shows some pretty cool attention to balance, though if you put all of your points into research in the early rounds, you win anyway, so maybe some more incentive to actually use some of those early game cards would add more strategic depth to how you manage your resources throughout. Other than that, this was pretty cool, and I enjoyed it enough to experiment with it a couple of times to see how easily I could beat it. With some more time spent on this to create a greater sense of variety, along with tweaking the balance further, I could see this becoming a fun full game.

This game was really, really pretty, I spent ages just staring at some of these pictures as it all captured the aesthetic of a kids' picture book in such an effective way. What little gameplay mechanics there were all blended in really nicely with the story as well, making them end up feeling incredibly charming. My main criticism is the way that sometimes the next picture wouldn't load and I ended up having to scroll back up to get the animation finished before scrolling back down, so I personally feel like that aspect could've used a bit more refining to make it a far smoother, more intuitive experience. Other than that though, this was a really unique game that I immensely enjoyed, and I'm interested to see where you go from here, especially if it entails more art that's as amazing as this :)

Interesting little game, not sure how much I was actually sold on the gameplay itself,  more feeling like an art showcase rather than much more, but for what it was it was quite a fun time. I loved seeing all the objects explode into pieces when they were shot, and just found a lot about the visuals really creative, with even stuff such as the horizontally moving camels having their own bit of charm to it in the grand scheme of things. Game is definitely far too easy and feels a bit like there isn't much of a game here at points, but with some more levels and complex environments this could be a very fun little title.

I was genuinely taken aback by the concept of this game once I discovered it, truly ingenious stuff that just had me keep thinking "Wow, this is so cool". Really the main problem I had with it were some of the aspects surrounding this mechanic however, such as the level design getting sort of repetitive by the end where almost the exact same solution was being applied to multiple puzzles. This combined with the edit mode feeling a bit clunky with having to push blocks around made for a less compelling game, though still good. I also struggled to really connect this to the theme much beyond the idea of both worlds needing to be utilised, though said theme still didn't really feel conveyed too effectively within the game. Even so, there's no doubt that conceptually this is absolutely stunning and that there's so much potential, with some cool puzzles throughout to keep things interesting despite there probably being a few too many of the same sort of puzzle solution. Keep up the good work though, this was awesome. 

The mechanics in this were pretty cool, nice, simple premise with the ability to attach yourself to the enemies giving the game a bit of a nice risk-reward twist, where you become far more powerful at the cost of becoming a larger target. Main issue I had with this is that the level design itself wasn't particularly great to me, with enemy spam not really giving enough time to really build an army, and instead prioritizing dodging everything and rushing for the exit, especially in the final couple of levels where it was all a bit overwhelming. Even so, I thought that this was quite cool and think that with some more focus both refining existing mechanics and spending some more time on level design, this could become a really awesome little game. Keep up the good work :)