Wow, a very very interesting game with a very interesting tone. Although it doesn't seem that different from other incremental games at first glance, there lots of things that stand out making it a unique experience. The visuals are incredible, tons of mechanics, and a whole plot revealed through well-timed dialogues ALL made by a single person? Under 4 days?! Phenomenal, really.
It's only natural though that for a jam game this ambitious, there are some imperfections so i'll start with those:
- Things get reaaaally out of control as your counter comes closer to that zero number, and not always in like a fun way. At some point I stopped feeling like i'm making any thoughtful decisions, and even when I thought I did, the impact was almost invisible, it was just more noise.
- The game is sort of very limited with it's controls and space to do and place stuff so I had some frustrating moments where I couldn't really drag things where I want to, trying to automate the process of smashing boxes. Boxes they flood you, paralyze you, making you helpless. Boxes must be broken >:}
- Although having islands is a fun idea, I think just adding more connected space and separating it in some other way if needed would have worked better. The camera didn't let you see as far as needed to feel enough control on those islands, alongside already overwhelming number of things you have to click on
- It feels like it's a lot of fun to really connect things together if you full understand how it all works, but I don't think the game explained those upgrade mechanics all that well. I didn't understand why that box crushing machine shouter 'no energy' until the very end of the game. Still not sure what's the difference between treadmills and buttons. And maybe the information is there but it's scattered in such a way that, at least for me, it didn't all click together.
- This one is obvious, but yes of course there are plenty of bugs with minions having some questionable choices on how to be helpful and boxes assembling into a giant live creature as they all start pushing each other (although at the same time, it's pretty impressive how they work in the first place)
What's good!! :
- I mean the theme of the game is 10/10. You have just one number: 9999. Your entire goal is to get it to zero. It's creative, established right at the start, and exciting as you watch it go down faster through-out the entire game.
- As an incremental game this is perfectly executed, you start with barely being able to break boxes and suddenly there are minions and machines doing it for you, and oh wait you can also just melt through them cause your damage is insane. Very fun
- The story is revealed in a veryyyy fun way, and connecting it all to the only way to progress through the game - the countdown. Fun dialogues, fun faces. It's awesome and simple, maximizing it's impact to max, which is a very smart way to go about adding a story to your game jam game
- The upgrades are very creative, and fun. Nothing repetitive, just cool ideas. Good balance. Having multiple recourses and ways to get em is also an excellent design choice
- The game looks bonkers. Lovely colors, crunchy effects. It just catches your eye immediately
That's all I have to say! Simply INCREDIBLE result for a game jam game. An incredibly talented solo dev right there, i mean few teams can do what they did, so how are you supposed to beat this?! Crazy talent.