Six Down Studios Thanks. For how simple the background is (basically the second thing I did after getting the player moving) I'm really happy with it. As for the source, I initially had a load of notes for another game and was just browsing when I hit this one and almost everything fell into place without any further consideration needed ;)

XGames studio Thanks ;)

Quite fun! I love games that can give you both the "man, I'm bad" and "man, I am amazing" moments. This one certainly qualifies; the U-turn mechanic can make for some really smooth escapes (as well as explosive blunders), and the enemy variation keeps you on your toes (especially those tri-spinners, woof!).

Background art is excellent! Making the cloud layers may not have taken long, but the beauty lies in the culmination; scrolling, opacity, background details, everything combines just right to really nail the mood, and the music complements both the gritty haze of the background and the intensity of the gameplay. Well done.

Also good onya for the lesser known source; I'm looking forward to reading the rest of it!

Cool!

Jupiter_Hadley Nice, it doesn't seem like a Jam's complete until there's a Jupiter Hadley video!

Ian Burnette Thanks, good to hear you had fun. I'm glad you feel it was balanced as well because that's one area where I had to make my best guess then cross my fingers. I wish I could take credit for the story as well ;)

I've fixed the timer bug and I'll be uploading a new version which (amongst other things) fixes that once the voting ends.

Nicely made, though I found that those enemies are REALLY much more skilled than me :P I included it in part 1 of my Public Domain Jam 2 compilation video series, if you would like to check it out :) https://youtu.be/xbZmIYuD92U

Not my sort of game ... but that didn't stop me from playing to the end. It's amazing what a good story will do to bring in different sorts of players, isn't it?

The gameplay was very well balanced, particularly the pickups and health. I only died three times, and that was in the last four minutes. It felt quite fair. The flipping mechanic was quite fun, and made for some different considerations than usually need to be made when observing enemy strategies.

The action was crisp and clear. I always knew where the enemies were, and if my shots were connecting, and if I was getting hit. The action felt a little overwhelming at first, but then scaled up very gradually from there, so it worked quite well.

I did get a bunch of errors when the timer appeared at the top, so the timer was just stuck at 4:00, but the bomb still went off and everything, so no huge deal.

Well done!

I really like the juxtaposition of the old 1930's war writing and the game itself, very cool concept and it plays out well. I finished it to the end just to see how the story builds, and I like that it's slightly vague about what exactly is happening.

The art juxtapose well, the backdrop below the fog sets the mood well. I like the retro sci fi feel. Would have liked some more enemy types or (visually) or additional areas (backdrops) but these are little critiques.

Mechanically, the end timer didn't work for me, it stayed at 4:00 until the final moments. My fire button was also jammed (didn't have to press CTRL) which didn't effect the gameplay much (made it easier I suppose, though you tend to keep your weapons firing in these games anyway ^^). I think lives are a little disposable in this, as there is no penalty for dying - having a limited supply with an in game way to add lives (double health pickup, new pickup, etc) would be cool.

This was quite fun. The story was presented nicely and the bi-directional flipping is a cool twist for a bullet-hell game (but I think I abused it by mashing the spacebar to spray bullets in all directions).

Just replied to your comment on my game page!

@Norbez Thanks for the comments, very good feedback. It can get a little bit brutal and I definitely considered some tweaks along those lines. Hard to judge at this point now that I've played through it so many times :D As it stands, there's infinite continues and no leaderboard. Losing power ups is basically the only real punishment to the player so I decided to keep it as is for the jam (though maybe I should have made your starting gun a little less weedy).

Oh, and if you haven't already, the story's well worth a read ;)

This was a nice surprise. The story is neat & very well presented, & the gameplay is smooth. Can't say I've heard of Werewolves of War before, but you've certainly got me interested in it. :)

Some complaints, though. I felt life dropped a bit too quickly, and heath was few & far between. Losing 10 health and then picking up a pack that restored 5 health seemed unfair, especially at the rapid rate health could be lost b/c of so many enemies on screen. (I could go from 75 to 30 in a second! XD)

What I really liked was how you put the player right back in the action, but made them lose their upgrades. Great idea! Losing upgrades was pretty frustrating, though . . . maybe have the player pay 500-1000 points to keep them?

I look forward to the game's additions in the future, and hope you the best in future projects!

(btw, I'm also in this game jam! My game is HummingBird Haunting. Check it out? I'm eager for feedback: norbez.itch.io/hummingbird-haunting)