itch.io

"I really love PAWN HUB! ⭐️"

First off pixel art is 5/5 - the main character's posture, the customers, the color scheme, and the sketchy shop design that already make me feel disgusted.

Gameplay concept is cool as well. This is the second pawn shop game I've rated today, not that I'm complaining, who doesn't love ripping off shady customers?

Lowballing items only to sell them at the highest price is always satisfying. It kind of takes me back to the time when I trading on MMORPGs and wonder if I should have increased the selling price a notch just to extract a little bit more cash.

Good decision on making the timer stop when talking/negotiating mid-jam, I was able to figure out the patience meter after a while.

The achievements feature was a nice touch as well.

Great entry and one of my favorites in the jam so far!

Thanks for the post-mortem writeup!

It was great that you guys had outside playtesters, even at the very last minute. Great decision as well to lock in on the single core mechanic which really worked well in the end. TIL about Rami's 4:44 rule which I will keep in mind for next time.

> Using Godot alongside Gitea with a webhook that automatically deployed web builds to a small test server saved us tons of manual export headaches.

Good idea, I'll try this out on my Love2D workflow as well.

The one thing I learned on this game jam is to build often and test especially on your target platforms (which for the most part is web).

I made a mistake where I only tried my game on web at 1d before submission, and found out that some of the shaders didn't work on the web build. I kind of panicked but luckily found a workaround in time.

Thanks a lot for the detailed feedback, really appreciate it!

> For future expansion

Yeah, I initially wanted to add upgrades, which is why the quests mention monetary rewards. I'm definitely considering continuing development and turning this into a full game!

> Why am I piloting a penis?

I realized this a little too late and was hoping no one would notice, but dammit! You got me 🤣

Checking out your game now!

Love the commentary on this, as someone from a third-world country who's had its fair share of dictators and "Minitruths." Cool audio and music as well!

Was kind of aiming for a 2001-esque vibe but I agree I might have overdone the slowness, this being a game jam game and all. Appreciate the feedback!

Thanks! Valid feedback on the repetitiveness, had a few more mechanics in mind but just didn't have enough time.

Thank you!

Yeah that was quite an early build but I've already patched the bugs. Thank you for playing!

Hey there! Awesome work on Trust Noir.

Your page already looks good to begin with. But two suggestions:

1. I would reduce the contrast a bit between the text vs. the background, as it could be a bit hard to read. A black overlay with 30-50% opacity on top of the background would do wonders.

2. I would also add a screenshot or two with some dialog that hint at the premise of the story. GIFs would be even better coz the game's atmosphere is already amazing.

Keep it up!

Beautiful art, great vibe and one of my few 5/5 Visuals so far! Always a fan of the little details like the lighting and stepping on the bottle. Nice work!

Hi! I just checked out your game and left a review.

I don't have much experience with text-based games, but I actually think your game is a great candidate for GIFs. You could show the main mechanic of clicking on words to reveal associations, which gradually uncover more context about the story.

For screenshots, I'd add one for each major part of the UI. For example, one showing the main text, one for the letter, and maybe one for the How to Play screen.

You could also create screenshots that hint at the themes of grief and a troubled family. For example a screenshot showing the words "Ma and Pa wanted to protect me more than anything", another that shows something about the gambling debt problem, another about mourning a loss (if you're ok with some spoilers), etc.

Great game, by the way!

As a fan of non-linear storytelling this is absolutely beautiful, a brilliant concept for a game jam and probably one of my favorites so far. Great UI and music is well. Very minor suggestion, but some sound feedback would have been great. Keep it up!

Cool game and art style. The player character reminds me of Eddy Gordo. My favorite part is the sync mechanic. I guess my only feedback is that the platforming could have been tighter and the fighting punchier / more juice.

Keep it up!

Appreciate if you can try out my game!

This is my first time participating as a solo dev, and my first time making my own art and music for the game.

https://itch.io/jam/brackeys-16/rate/4952847

Men in Black: Anime Edition! Background music got me head banging from the get-go. Cool art style and love the character switching mechanic.

A little laggy when I use the ult skill, but could just be my machine.

Keep it up!

This is the most charming game I've rated so far!

Some constructive feedback:

• For topdown/2.5D games, one technique you could do is to sort the rendering by their Y position, so that sprites near the top of the screen are rendered at the back. (Check out this video)
• I think the background music had some sort of positional audio setting since the more I move to the left the more it pans to the right, and vice versa. Not a big deal though.
• Some of the collisions still felt off, but I didn't get stuck at all anywhere like others mentioned and managed to complete the game, so great job on fixing that

Other than that, loved the graphics, the level/map designs, and the chill background music, which fits well with the overall vibe of the game. I wish we could attack the enemies in the dungeon level, I wandered around the entire map trying to fend them off before finally finding the wizard 😂

Keep it up!

Very cool concept! Like Paper Please for street dealers. Great visuals and love the psychedelic PS1 vibes.

Number Go Up: Particles Edition!

I just wish you’d found a way to tie it into the theme.

Done!

Appreciate if you can try out my game too. :)

https://itch.io/jam/brackeys-16/rate/4952847

Nice little topdown shooter. Great atmosphere and love the art style which fits perfectly with the story.

I actually like the slow pace and how the player stops for a bit upon shooting. Coz then I have to think about my positioning and not just keep spraying bullets.

Some player damage feedback would have been nice.

Keep it up!

Great to see a card game in a game jam!

I agree that the UI is a bit confusing, but I did get the hang of it after a few tries and won. An in-game tutorial would have been great, but this being a game jam game I understand there's not much time for such things.

The best part of the game is the bluffing mechanic, which ties into the theme really well. It would definitely be fun to play with friends as a physical card game, almost like a more casual version of poker.

Awesome work!

What a sick and hilarious game!

After a couple tries I got to about 200 and ended at 150 as my highest score.

Love the gritty and industrial vibe . The tutorial alone sets the tone perfectly. I feel the icons of the parts look too small and hard to see on the telescreen (for destinations other than Global).

Props for adding in a leaderboard, and hat tip to your sound designer for the amazing music and voice acting which I did not expect at all!

Appreciate if you can try out my game! :)

https://itch.io/jam/brackeys-16/rate/4952847

Appreciate if you can try out my game! :)

https://itch.io/jam/brackeys-16/rate/4952847

Appreciate if you can try out my game!

https://itch.io/jam/brackeys-16/rate/4952847

So, you've made your game, uploaded a screenshot, and submitted it. Congrats! ...now what? Hibernate and wakeup once the rating period is over?

NO! My friend, this is where the fun begins!

Here are a few tips on how to promote your game jam game.

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A bit about me: I've been a long time game jammer since the peak of the Ludum Dare era (RIP). I took a hiatus and Brackeys Game Jam 2026.2 is my first ever game jam in 10 (!) years, and I've had a blast!

Starhauler. A game about hauling space cargo, outrunning pirates, and evading Interstellar Police. My first game jam in a decade!

While I don't claim to have made the best game jam games ever, I did learn a thing or two about how to market one.

But first of all, why bother? Well, you are doing yourself, and us, a disservice if you do not promote and share your creation to the world.

Imagine depriving the community of seeing an awesome indie game!

1. Setup a nice game page

Adding screenshots, taglines, and controls is the bare minimum. Get creative and make your game's page beautiful and cohesive.

Here's a collection of cool game pages for inspiration: https://itch.io/c/1536/cool-game-pages

One of my personal favorites is the game pages of Ludum Dare legend Managore: https://managore.itch.io/

2. Your cover image is your game's trailer

Most jammers take a screenshot of your in-game title screen, slap it as the cover image and call it a day.

Rookie mistake!

Imagine if the official Star Wars movie poster is just the intro crawl, and not a cool collage of the main characters, the Death Star, and lightsabers!

Make sure your cover image showcases your game's features.

Ideally, it should be the best, most beautiful frame (or most chaotic for action games) from your game.

If your game is a shmup game with powerups and explosions, make sure your cover image looks like a shmup game WITH powerups AND explosions, and not just two lines of text.

For my game, Starhauler, I used the most action-packed scene in my game, and overlayed the title and subtitle on top of it.

It's also actually a GIF, which leads us to our next tip.

3. Use GIFs as cover image and screenshots

If you didn't know, you can upload GIFs as your game's cover image.

Ideally your screenshots should also be mostly GIFs.

Here's how I usually do it: I take a screen recorder app, record a few minutes of gameplay, highlighting as many features and visuals as possible.

I then make 3-5 second clips of the best ones, and convert them into GIFs using ffmpeg.

My screenshots are usually then taken from these recordings.

Also note that GIFs must be under 3mb. If that happens, try to reduce the resolution or the fps (24-30 should be fine).

But now you probably wonder, what makes a good GIF? I'm glad you asked!

4. Stage your recordings and screenshots

Here's a top secret tip!

When trying to take a good clip or screenshot of your game, you do not need to use a normal scene from the actual gameplay.

Remember, you want to pack in as many features, visuals and effects as possible to your main poster.

To do that, you can set up a special scene just for recording your "trailer."

For example, temporarily exaggerate your enemies' spawn rates, or bring multiple enemy types onto the screen at once.

Just make sure not to falsely advertise some elements that the player won't actually experience in your game.

5. Talk about your game or experiences

The message boards is full of rate-for-rate threads. Set yourself apart and talk about something else!

Write a post-mortem of your game: what went right? What went wrong? What would you have done differently?

Was there a cool mechanic or shader that you wrote for this jam? What were annoying bugs and issues that you encountered and how did you fix them?

Sharing what you learned during the jam can help other developers, while also giving you a chance to show off your game.

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Other quick fire tips to get more exposure to your game

• rate other entries and leave a decent review
• share your game in the jam's Discord or appropriate community channels and subreddits (just don't spam hehe)
• when sharing your link, always include the GIFs/screenshots you've prepared

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That's about it!

Since we're talking about promoting games, feel free to share your games below and I'll review them. I will prioritize those with fewer ratings.

Here's my submission if you're interested: https://itch.io/jam/brackeys-16/rate/4952847

Good luck! 🫡

Hi! Appreciate if you could give some feedback on the music of my game. There’s two tracks in there which loops with a 30s gap.

It’s my first time writing my own music for a jam game, and made it in like 30 mins each with Garageband. I specifically have no idea with EQ, other than removing the highs for bass, and removing lows for pads and leads. 😆

Thanks heaps!

https://itch.io/jam/brackeys-16/rate/4952847