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A jam submission

What Friends Are ForView game page

Game Boy puzzle platformer where you befriend your enemies to save the day!
Submitted by shin — 16 hours, 6 minutes before the deadline
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Play Game Boy game

What Friends Are For's itch.io page

Results

CriteriaRankScore*Raw Score
Overall#14.2684.268
Innovation / Originality#34.2444.244
Gameplay / Fun#34.2444.244
Sound / Music#34.3414.341
Game Design#44.1464.146
Theme#44.3904.390
Graphics#124.2444.244

Ranked from 41 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.

How does your game fit the theme?
In the game, you switch between friendly and unfriendly modes to use your enemies to solve puzzles and platforming challenges.

Did you use any assets?
Yes, only GB Studio plugins and a font, as detailed in the description.

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Comments

Viewing comments 32 to 13 of 32 · Next page · Last page
Submitted

Your game split the 3rd place in my personal rating with Friend Switch and Goose-A-Gotchi, 27 each, congrats!

Jam Judge(+1)

Strong points:

  • Charming intro! 
  • engaging music 
  • nice feature to change instruments and musical scale when switching emotions!!! 
  • nice how puzzling and platforming goes hand in hand 
  • setting is immersive but also clean and good to read

Other Feedback 

  • level 2 is a bit tricky, double swap emotions while jumping to move the block was a great idea but so early ingame it was quite a difficulty spike 
  • sometimes strong framedrops 
  • the mushroom jump is a bit hit and miss. I like the option to get a high jump when I jump from inside to mushroom, but it does not always work and I guess it is a bug. Gets in the way with one of the bee puzzles, but it is just a minor annoyance

This game really made me smile. It gives good context with its intro. The music is catchy and has that nice emotional twist. Puzzles are self explanatory and always go hand in hand with the platforming. Apart from some difficulty spikes there was no dull moment and i really enjoyed it until the end. To be honest one of my favourite Top 3 of this contest.

- Vashetrockner from ncon_ev

Submitted(+1)

We need a proper NES version, no discussion.

I will fail you on game design btw, by the levels are Montessori-like (which is good), but the excellence is not going on mechanically - in 3rd level, the second block is not pushing the player but just a button-smashing obstacle, that's a miss. And you know about the last screen. The balance issue is nit per see level or game design one, nor the gameplay literacy one. I'm sure you'll find the solution!

I'm leaning on you coz the game is good and could be much better yet, for real

Submitted

Awesome game, awesome concept! It was slowing down quite a bit, but I still enjoyed it a lot. I was also having that slowness problem with my game, specially to make an Actor follow me. It  is pretty challenging with so many sprites. Awesome music!

Submitted

Wow, a really good game. I loved it. Unfortunately I died >30 times at the end of the 4th level and didn't have much hopes for progressing, so had to call it quits. That was a major leap in difficulty. But I loved the levels and stages before that, good level design. And of course: sweet switching mechanic and fitting puzzles/challenges. My hat's off to you.

Submitted

Okay, so this was really well done. I really appreciate how well the tutorial was presented and loved the overall level designs. It feel very polished.

Submitted

Very cool game. I loved the intro, so funny! The switching mechanic was nice and smooth (we implemented a similar idea on ours) and the levels were challenging enough to be fun. At times the game slowed down for me but I really enjoyed it.

Submitted(+1)

So cool!! I accidentally skipped through the intro at first, so I missed the (important!) story reason behind the attitude-changing mechanic. But I'm so impressed by the level design, and especially the adaptive music. I believe I know how it was done and it's so, so awesome.

Also - Really cute art! The ending was so poignant -- a crying friend was helped just by pressing the B button like I had been doing all along!

Developer

Thanks to everyone for your comments and feedback that I haven't replied to! The feedback has been super helpful and I know exactly which areas to focus on next time! Also considering polishing What Friends Are For after the jam. 

Submitted

Great concept, creative implementation and lovely sprites. But what truely blew me away was the music changing according to the character's mood. I think I spent the first minute just switching between the two moods to listen to the changing music. If there was no slowdown, this game would be perfect. And I don't know if it's just me. But I felt like every now and then when I pressed B twice quickly, the last press was not registered, which made the last section really difficult. Apart from this I think the level of challenge is just the right amount building over time - not so easy that you would not feel any sense of accomplishment, but not so hard that you just want to give up. The game always felt challenging but fair 👍

Developer(+1)

Thank you! Yes, there is a small intentional cool down between B button presses of about 15 frames, but one thing I learned is that it doesnt get communicated to the player properly. Maybe an input buffer would help, hard to do with events though... Definitely something to think about in the future. 

Jam Judge

Great work! 

wonderful!

Submitted

I like the idea, this fits the theme very well.

Also the graphics are really cute :)

Submitted(+1)

This did not disappoint! Excellent job all around! I loved it. It was great to see the cute little bees 🤩 I think this is such a good mechanic because even though you did so much with it, it still has a ton of potential left to tap into! 

Submitted(+1)

Great game! You squeezed a lot out of this simple concept. The gameplay is real fun! There is occasional lag that caused me to miss a number of inputs, but that's not that big of a deal. nice music and lovely art!

Submitted(+2)

While I found some of the game frustrating and there are some issues with lag, I think this is one of the most impressive submissions both in its execution and overall concept and implementation. I would love to see this expanded on a polished further. Congrats! 

Submitted

So cool! Really fun and cute game. Couldn't beat the last level. played for like an hour though and def one of my favs so far for the showdown.

Developer

Thanks! I might release an easier version of the last level after the jam! Glad everyone has enjoyed it despite the torture chamber.

Submitted

this was incredibly polished and well thought out. the puzzling was fun and easy to get into. the music changing when go from happy to grumpface was immersive. 5s all around.

Host(+1)

This is absolutely one of my Game Jam favorites! The last section was a little too much though.

Viewing comments 32 to 13 of 32 · Next page · Last page