Aww I'm sorry to hear that. You're not the first person that has struggled with holding shift as the core mechanic. Thanks for playing regardless, I'm gonna play your game now!

Reposting here so people can see I commented: 

Hey, you reviewed my game and so I played yours. Here's my thoughts: 

Liked:

- The sound, atmosphere, and coloring were incredible. It felt like just the right amount of lighting where I could see and understand the world, while still feeling terrifying. 

- Your objective was very clear and I knew instantly what I needed to do. I was not confused on the objective at all. When I got enough food, it was clear that it was time to go home which feels maybe like a small thing but it's not

- The first time I saw the horse was so terrifying. I still didn't know if there was gonna be anything actually dangerous out in the world but it was so spooky I knew there could be. That felt great

- The dialogue on food pickup was a really nice, fun touch that gave the game a lot of heart 

Things I thought could be improved or different:

- I held shift basically the entire time which is funny cause my game is the one where holding shift is tough but I thought you could maybe just split the difference and have a single speed in between the slow and fast or just keep the fast as the main speed you move at. I think I understand why they're different but ultimately, I just wanted to move fast the whole time because...

- There was not very much food out there and it felt like I was hitting a ton of dead ends. I don't think it makes sense to constantly find food but with how lost I was getting, I think it would've felt better if more paths had a clear reward. Even just doubling the amount of food would've made the game feel much better to me as I sometimes spent over a minute running around with no "result."

- It was hard to find my way home. It took me awhile to realize that the light was where my home was but even then, it was still pretty challenging. I'm not sure what the fix is here because I loved the fact that I'm wandering around and it's so mysterious but my bad idea would be that you could just teleport the player home instantly. It's really hard to find your way around the maze and I already was so lost and had traveled so far while looking for food. 

Overall, I really enjoyed this game. I think my main critique is the pacing issue but in all honesty, I really didn't mind it nearly as much as it may sound because I just really enjoyed running around your world. It felt really interesting and the vibe felt extremely intentional

Replied!

Left a comment on your game!

Reposting my reply: 

What I liked:

- The character movement and animations generally were really strong. I really liked the way the player moves and the dash in particular was very fun. 

- I loved the story and justifications you put on your page. The vibe, atmosphere, and feel were stylized and clear to me. The art fit the vibe well and overall I just loved the feel of the game. 

- The time mechanic was really cool, it was clear when time reverted, and I found no bugs or anything when time reverted which, if you play my game, time and resetting was a core mechanic so I know how that can go sometimes. Oh also, the sound effect that played when time switched was fucking great. 

What I thought could be improved: 

- I know you put the objectives directly on the screen but about halfway through my first playthrough, I had saved all the kids and had no idea what to do. Also, the danger zone intruding was meaningless to me until I walked far enough out of the center to realize what was happening. Ultimately, I did figure out what to do but I was a bit confused for a minute

- It was very hard to kill the enemies and the long press spell that makes the line slowed me down so much. With how fast the enemies move and how fast their spells move, I basically was taking damage every time I tried to do anything but the basic attack and it felt unfair

- I was confused by the time mechanic even though I read your whole description. It feels like I couldn't use it to coordinate anything as there was nothing that stayed "stable" when time resets. If the kids were still saved or the enemies I killed were still dead, it would feel less like making me have to do what I just did over again. Also, since I didn't have any control over the time mechanic, I couldn't actually use it to strategize. Idk if this is the fix but if there was like, a time spell that I had to wait 30 seconds for to recharge and then I could decide when to use it, it would've felt much more like I had control over my fate.

Overall, fun game and I genuinely enjoyed playing it!

Replied! Reposting here: 

Omg the apple death scene is the hardest I've laughed in a long time at a game. That really got me.

Overall, really solid game! I didn't get to the end but I was impressed by the mechanics you added. I think it was hard to find my way through the maze but the lighting, animation, particles, etc. were all really strong! I agree with a lot of the other comments that having a more clear way to get through the maze definitely would've helped. 

Something I've heard that I think is really helpful with game dev is the idea of "intermediate goals." Obviously, the big goal of your game is to escape the maze but it would've been nice if there was intermediate goals like "I have to get to this spot so I can teleport to -> here" or "if I collect 10 coins, I'll be able to buy a lantern to help me get out." I don't know if that makes sense but since there were no levels or intermediate goals, it felt hard to work my way through the maze to the end. 

Hope that helps!

Reposting here: 

I know everyone else is saying it but I literally just put down Balatro to play jam games and here I am lol

What I liked:

- God damn this is the most enjoyable game jam game I've played yet and I've probably played at least 30-40 at this point. The game feel was just really there, it just felt so fun to play. 

- The game was actually intuitive. Of the card based rougelikes I've played at the jam, a lot of them either didn't have a tutorial, weren't intuitive at all, or both. While I was going through your tutorial, I was like, "alright, this is definitely too simple for what this game is gonna be" and then it was actually the perfect amount of information to get me going. It's really hard to make one of these games intuitive and it's really hard in general to make a good tutorial so great job!

- I thought the UI was extremely clean and straightforward for the most part (see below). The game looked great and the UI had a clear intentionality and hierarchy of importance

What I thought could be improved:

- I thought I was softlocked when I couldn't play in column 2 and also I think corners and didn't have any space and I think it was just lucky that I tried clicking everywhere and discovered you can stack chips but despite how great the early game learning was, I missed this completely and it almost stopped me from getting past the first few minutes. Not sure what the fix would be but this was frustrating for a bit

- The keep card system and generally, picking a card every turn was a bit overwhelming and I was honestly confused how it works. My understanding after playing through 8 rounds is that I get to permanently keep those cards? And it's always 2 but I'm not sure how they're chosen? Also, selecting a new card every single turn just felt like a lot. I kinda wanted to just keep playing but also, obviously that's how the game works so I don't feel great making this comment

- I think it would've been really helpful to see how many tokens I've won each time I place a chip. I could see what each card was scoring and the final result of each multiplier but I couldn't see what total the multipliers were using and in terms of game feel, it would've just been nice to have a sense for how many tokens I was scoring each round so I could see myself improving and such

- I found myself playing the same strategy over and over and placed my chips in the exact same spots every time and then just tried to pull cards that would maximize playing the same exact tic tac toe every time. It just didn't feel as fun, it felt a bit like routine to just place my chips in the same exact place every single time. See below for what I did every turn 

                                          X                              X

"X |     | X" then "X | X | X" then "X | X | X" then I'd just stack them on the middle as high as I could

                                                                            X

- This is a small thing but I didn't realize chips could have different values until like round 6 and maybe it might be good to make that clear somewhere or maybe you did but either way, I didn't know

- Some of the UI was covering the cards in the top corner and just overall, a lot of the cards were packed together so I couldn't get a good read on what was hitting. The fun of your game to me is the Balatro-esque watch number go up and this got in the way of that

- I'm gonna be honest, this game has basically nothing to do with the theme of this jam at all. Between it's quality and the fact that it is so clearly not on theme, I almost have to wonder if this game was build with additional time but I kinda mean that as a compliment haha. But yeah, I gave you really high scores in everything except theme lol

I couldn't get the game to play properly, sorry!

I left a comment on your game but since I'm only on a mac, I couldn't play it. Would love to play your game if possible!