| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Theme | #3 | 4.622 | 4.622 |
| Controls | #5 | 4.222 | 4.222 |
| Overall | #10 | 3.904 | 3.904 |
| Originality | #13 | 4.111 | 4.111 |
| Fun | #23 | 3.511 | 3.511 |
| Audio | #31 | 3.378 | 3.378 |
| Graphics | #34 | 3.578 | 3.578 |
Ranked from 45 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
Godot Version
3.2.3
Wildcards Used
Arcade
Game Description
Pump it! Go out on a limb and survive the longest.
Source
https://github.com/bitwise-aiden/gwj30
Discord Username
velopman
Cute little game :D
It became very easy though after I lost a single limb and I probably could've continued forever. Mayhaps make it a tad bit harder as times goes on?
Presentation is nice, but there was an unfortunate lack of gnomes. Maybe for the DLC?
Nice presentation! I like the way that the hazards keep coming in faster and faster - it's a nice way of keeping it interesting. After a while, I had to let one limb fail so I'd have enough time to keep the others going, and then another, and then another. But don't worry, Mr. Patient! I can keep your right hand going indefinitely!
...Wait, that came out wrong.
- I did it doctor! We got 99%!
- What did it cost?
-... an arm and a leg...
(loved the two minigames and how the blood was coursing through! Especially enjoyed the "fill in" the artery game, that was unique from the games I've seen so far in this jam!)
Well done!
When I first started playing this I exclaimed "this is cool," because, well, this is cool. The idea is very easy to grasp and is a solid concept, and as soon as I saw a second minigame I was pretty excited.
Sadly I was less excited when I never ended up seeing a third minigame. But when it did feel like I was going to be discovering a bunch of cool minigames, that was a very nice feeling. This game does a great job of being easy to learn, and if it had those extra minigames it would be a great game that people could pick up and play.
One nitpick: the music is only twelve seconds long, which is much too short when you play the game for a long time. By the way, I ended up with a score of 4222.
I do have one substantial criticism, which is that I'm not sure if this game can function as an arcade game. In particular, arcade games are, in my understanding, meant to be playable forever if the player is good enough. However, this game would be impossible for a player, no matter how skilled, if the game sent minigames at a rate so fast that the player would be unable to beat the heart.
As a result, there is a difficulty ceiling in the game--it is never allowed to get more difficult than a certain point. And this is a problem, because arcade games should optimally have constantly increasing stakes--at least for the players below the very high skill bracket.
I think I definitely am in the skill bracket that could conceivably play the game forever given its current difficulty ceiling. I'm guessing the game could be made a bit more difficult while still being humanly possible, but I'm worried that it might not get hard enough to really be much of a skill gate.
That said, I'm sure there are ways to make it work. This is just my broad sense of a failing of the game as it stands now.
One thought that comes to mind is that having a larger variety of minigames could very easily fix this problem. When I only have to deal with two different minigames, it is quite easy to not slip up for a very long time. If the mouse movements required vary even more, then having to quickly determine what to do could be enough additional difficulty to allow the game to escalate more intensely.
Or, of course, the game could be allowed to be rather easy to play indefinitely. That's not necessarily a problem. Or it could escalate the difficulty to mathematical impossibility. That's not necessarily a problem either. Both of those possibilities would just make the game a little less of a traditional arcade game.
Anyways, if you figure out which way you want to take the game in that respect, and add in those extra minigames--this game would be a very solid game. The graphics are already absolutely fantastic. I think saying this game feels like a good game that is simply unfinished is not a particularly shocking take.
I hope this feedback is useful somehow! 😄
Good morning! Thank you so much for such a well thought out reply.
First off, what an amazing score! Great job :D
I'm definitely a fan of more mini games! I had the exact same thought as you on the last day of the jam. I really wanted to get at least one or two more in, with a few others being planned, but sadly it wasn't top priority for submission. I couldn't agree more that having more games would have lead to a higher skill bar, meaning that it wasn't as likely to go infinite with the game. One of the planned ones was actually a whole system issue, impacting the heart rather than the limbs, adding that extra layer of difficulty.
There is a theoretical maxima to the game in that after a certain point, the time between issues reaches a zero cooldown time, but given scores like yours and another of 12k, I think that it may have been better to have shortened that time.
In terms of arcade, I definitely wouldn't call this an arcade game. The mini games were taking inspiration from the wildcard to have a sub game within the game. Although this is an incredibly loose definition and I don't want to take away from those who worked to create awesome games within their games, it was my interpretation of the wildcard that I felt I could personally work with in the timeframe that I had for the jam. But I really love your points on this and will take it into consideration when I extend the game further.
Also sorry for the music being only twelve seconds and that you played long enough to be able to time it, haha. This was my first time trying to make the music myself, so as you can tell, I didn't focus a lot of time on it.
Seriously, thank you so much for all of the really useful feedback! This is going to really help when considering where I want to take the game post jam. I'd already known that I wanted to add more minigames, but I hadn't thought critically about what long game means, so this has given me something to chew on! Thanks so much!
Oh right! My bad. After this I actually worked out my theoretical end game math to see if there was a point that it would actually be impossible. Sadly it isn't as bad for the player as I'd anticipated.
After 8.5 minutes the event code will be triggered every frame. At that point it selects any of the limbs, 1 in 4, then a further 1 in 20 chance to trigger the event. I thought that with that and the ~1.5 seconds to finish a current event that it would be near constant that there would be a hazard. Alas this is not the case. Good to know for balancing.
Well sorry it was to the point that you thought to check. I'll definitely spend more time composing something longer for the update.
I got 1960 :D Funny concept! I really enjoyed the audio and the minigames were a good idea but wish there were more :D. Would have been awesome to include a leaderboard too. Congrats on the submission
Woo! Nice score :)
With how often it's been said, I should really add a few more in once the voting period is over! I had worked out a few and a member of my Twitch chat even one that is a complete system shock that messes with the heart. Would be great to see that variety as it definitely felt like it was missing.
Yes! I didn't have the time to look into how to implement one, but I'll definitely need to. The highest I know of is 12,221. No clue how they had the patience to get that far, but it makes me wonder where everyone is getting.
Wow, what an awesome game. At first, things were chill, but the stress quickly grew as I could barely get a single pump out before a new blockage needed to be cleared. After losing both arms, I knew this poor soul wasn't long for this world, but I still managed to just barely scrape past 3k. This was a lot of fun, well done.
Pump it! Blast your stereo! Pump it!
A very arcadey game, well polished, I think everybody's already given a lot of feedback, I noticed that I don't have to wait for the blood to circulate back to the heart before I can click again, so I kinda regret not spamming the heart sooner. I love the art style :D very loose but consistent and "correct".
Willow :D Thanks for playing!
Haha, yes... Spamming is the meta at the moment I think. One of the stretch goals was to add a BPM mechanic to deter people from spamming, keeping a much more regular flow. I might add all these nice to haves once the voting has finished.
Thanks so much for the art comment! I really value your opinion on it :) :)
Glad you enjoyed it!
Nice take on the theme! Liked the animation of blood circulating. Would have liked a little more variety in the events that popped up. Also, strangely enough, the game got easier as it went along. Once I got down to two limbs it was very easy to manage. Made me think that pacing wise if you started with one limb and built up to 4 it might play a little better.
Nice take on the theme! Liked the animation of blood circulating. Would have liked a little more variety in the events that popped up. Also, strangely enough, the game got easier as it went along. Once I got down to two limbs it was very easy to manage. Made me think that pacing wise if you started with one limb and built up to 4 it might play a little better.
Couldn't agree more on the events. They were sadly the next thing on the list to be done, but there wasn't enough time to create them. I had a few ideas in the works, but it'll have to wait until the next one.
Ooo, that is a really interesting way of approaching it! You could have limbs being dead/alive and the more you have alive the more points you're getting. (That last part is already in there, although not conveyed overly well).
Thanks so much for playing the game!
Really enjoyed the original take on this kind of game. Especially enjoyed the really clear, smooth heartbeat animation as blood travels around the body.
The hazards seem just about manageable while keeping the heartbeat going, so once one limb drops off I always feel good about how long I kept all four going, instead of feeling frustrated that I'd lost one, which is really nice!
I'm glad you liked the blood travel, I had the idea to switch to that early on and I think it really helped to sell what was going on.
That's so great to hear! I definitely felt through testing that it was toeing that line of potentially frustrating, but glad that it ended up in a more balanced state. Thanks for saying so!
I appreciate you playing the game :)
This was really fun! I like the high score system and having to manage getting blood to all the limbs and making sure they aren't blocked. Should you keep pumping for the other limbs or unblock this one?
Really fun game. The cartoony art style also fits perfectly. And after losing a few limbs, the game was much more manageable :D
It's really an interesting idea that the game gets easier the worse you do but at the same time the consequences in a way are quite horrific (and a little bit morbidly funny).
Nice game. Going for among-us-like minigame was a cleaver idea :)
I'm wondering how you implemented pixel painting, is there a node for that?
Main menu button sfx is a bit hurtful. Low pass filter in Audacity is your friend :)
Looks great, there's feedback wherever it's needed. I'd only maybe change the % number color and/or size so that it's more visible, or perhaps used progress bar. Good job!
Hey! Thanks for playing the game. Glad you liked it.
I kind of don't want to give away how hacky it was, but the pixel paint was done by using a tile map, removing an area around the mouse when it was held down. Here is a link to the source for it if you wanted to have a closer look.
Oh awesome! Thanks for the advice, this was my first time trying to do the sound myself, so good to know these tips and tricks for next time!
Mmmm, good point! I originally exported as white so I could modulate the colour as I felt necessary, but time got the better of me. Spot on with that though.
I really appreciate all the feedback, it's super helpful!
Quite an addicting game, the amount of hectic clicking and micromanagement I had to do made me feel like I was a real doctor. The action stops once the patient has one limb and I can finally relax and keep him alive seemingly indefinitely.
Fantastic job! Solo, and open-source!? 5/5.
Soul! Thanks for playing my friend, really glad that you enjoyed it!
The hazard system still tries to create blockages on the dead limbs, which is why when it is down to one limb it feels like it is slower. I left it in as a moment of respite so people could feel calm for getting as far as they did. Maybe I should have made it more hectic, apparently there is a bug where the other limbs resurrect themselves after a score of 8000!
Pretty fun, and i like the minigames within the game to patch up/unclog veins, overall visuals and music are nice as well, the gamefeel has got good feedback to it.
My only gripe would be that the random events can sometimes pop up a bit too often meaning you can sometimes not have enough time to pump the heart in between them, but other than that solid entry.
Well done :)
"I accidentally ate 18 cheesburgers..." (cit)... and now I'm PUMPING it!!!
Great bro!
Leave a comment
Log in with itch.io to leave a comment.