itch.io

Thank you so much for coming back and giving the game another try! I’m really happy that you were finally able to experience it properly. 🙂

About Resonance — you actually understood something that I probably didn’t explain clearly enough in the game.

Resonance is my interpretation of the second theme, “Buddy.” It works somewhat like a mercy route: instead of defeating an enemy, you can choose to build trust with a creature that initially misunderstands you as a threat.

It is intentionally more difficult than simply defeating enemies.

You should avoid attacking them, because every hit reduces their trust in you. The default weapon, Knife, is manually aimed, so the simplest way to trigger Resonance is to stay near an enemy for a while without damaging or overlapping with it.

There is also an unintended problem with this system: as you acquire more elaborate weapons later in the game, some of them attack automatically. That can accidentally damage an enemy you are trying to befriend and sabotage your own Resonance attempt. 😭 I definitely want to improve this interaction in a future update.

So the idea behind Buddy was essentially:

“This time, you can choose to become friends with the enemies who misunderstood you.”

And I’m also sorry about the hint boxes. They frustrated quite a few people — including me while testing the game.

My original reasoning was, “I’d rather make the tutorial a little annoying than leave players confused about how the game works.” But I think I pushed that idea too far. Not everyone needs that much assistance, and something designed to help the player shouldn’t become a second obstacle itself.

I’d like to add a way to disable further hints manually, and also make the interaction with them much less intrusive.

Finally, thank you — genuinely — for playing and for giving such thoughtful feedback.

One of the reasons I joined this jam, and why I hope to keep participating in future Ultimate AI-Powered Game Jams, is that I really appreciate the depth with which you experience and respond to our games.

Even while traveling, I wanted to work on the game because the game itself, the experience everyone has with it, and sharing this whole journey with other developers genuinely matter to me — just as spending this trip with my family does.

Seeing the game finally recover from this problem, while it was still not too late, was an enormous relief. This was probably the most nerve-racking development experience I’ve had so far, but in a strange way, it also became one of the most real lessons in game development I could have received.

Every Ultimate AI-Powered Game Jam has taught me something new and pushed me a little further than before. And being surrounded by developers who create, struggle, learn, and share that excitement together is a big part of why I want to keep coming back.

Thank you again for giving Thirst for Oxygen another chance. 🌊