itch.io

     I had a lot of fun in my playthrough, the game mechanics have some real depth to them, nice job!! Having the lantern push the ghosts away was a great design choice for 2 reasons imo: it added to the tension when light was running low, and it gave the player extra motivation to keep looking for more fuel. I think both the player and the enemies had a good speed, it forced you to keep moving but it always felt like I could escape to safety with some clever movement. It felt a little like a 2d cod zombies where I had to manipulate  the ghosts into one pack to lead them around the room safely. I would recommend adding WASD and/or arrow key controls too, as using the mouse worked well enough but felt a bit off from the traditional way of controlling a 2d top down character.

     The individual sprites/assets all look nice enough, but together they do not fit together very well. The background, player, and ghosts all have noticeably different pixel densities and the colors do not complement each other too well. I think trying to make sure that the pixel density is consistent and the color scheme (can be touched up if need be) is complementary across all assets will help the overall aesthetic of your game a ton. The assets were used well in terms of level layout though, I felt like there was a good balance of open space and more risky confined areas. The changing radius of the lantern lighting effect is really cool too.

     I appreciated having a pause button for a game jam, it was a nice bit of quality of life. Sometimes the z-sorting of the ghost sprites goes a little crazy and looks like a visual glitch with all the sprites getting shuffled around. The easter egg was a fun surprise and the lava lamp sprite looks super cool. Overall, I think you have a pretty fun core gameplay loop  and the lantern mechanic is a cool twist. Some more cohesive visuals would take it to the next level. Keep up the good work!!