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An ambitious concept that oozes with potential and sticks the landing. I love the core fantasy that's fulfilled in the final loop of each stage- overseeing my goopy platoon as they chaotically work in concert. The "goop loop" mechanic is technically impressive, and I didn't encounter any issues or bugs with it. There are some tricky puzzles in here, especially that last one, which had a great "did you really think it'd be that easy?" moment. I want to eat the little guys. The main theme bangs, and I never got tired of the sax riff, even after 30+ mins of continuous play. The track kept the energy up in those moments when my keyboard hand migrated to my chin, and it also gave the experience some mystique and atmosphere that helped offset the puzzle fatigue I usually get from these sorts of games.

If you choose to continue development, I can think of a few minor tweaks that might improve the experience (for me, at least.) For one, it might be worth shuffling around the puzzle order to create a smoother difficulty curve. Also, I feel that loops resulting in death should be ignored, rather than instantiating an NPC phantom goop. While we're at it, it'd also be nice to be able to manually reset a loop without instantiating an NPC. This would lead to fewer hard resets by players who are targeting the par score.

Hats off to the whole team! You made something original and fun, and I think you could take this concept far with some additional dev time. Whether it's more Gooplicate or something entirely different, I'll be awaiting the next drop. Oh, and Level 9 was my favorite.

Thanks for playing and taking the time to leave your thoughts! I'm glad you enjoyed the visuals- one of the most exciting parts of developing this game was importing all of lleyksie's illustrations into the project and trying out flower combinations.

The core mechanic rocks and has a lot of versatility! The binary-launching computer miniboss was a standout moment for me because it required me to use the scythe both as a weapon and as a movement tool. I think it was smart to limit the scythe's utility as a teleport point until it's lodged in a wall, because it'd be overpowered otherwise.

The only issue I had with the scythe is that its long, spinning collision made it hard to aim with precision. Some of the later bouncing puzzles were frustrating for this reason, and a smaller collision might have made them a bit more forgiving. I also think that some timing-based challenges would help the scythe mechanics to really shine. A lot of the challenges revolve around aiming, and I think adding some moving platforms to teleport onto would add a new dimension to the platforming.

There's a ton of potential here and I'd love to see how your team expands on this idea if you choose to continue development. I hope to see you in the next jam!

Awesome concept very well executed! Draft and Graft takes me back to the golden age of flash- it has that undeniable morbid and grungy appeal that commercial releases just can't satisfy. Personality emanates from every ruptured pustule on display. The flailing limb combat never got stale for me, and the item descriptions were entertaining across the board. I also loved how stylized the UI was while still maintaining clarity. The grafting table subscreen serving as the player stat visualizer was especially great.

I'm impressed at how good the game's balance is given how little time is left for testing on a jam deadline. I really felt like my build choices mattered, and it was fun strategizing about synergies and seeing how my upgraded abomination fared against the next baddie. One feature that really stood out to me was the small random chance of losing a limb when rerolling the shop. I love it when games tempt me to be just a little greedy and make risky choices.

Great work to you and your team, I'm hoping I can survive to Round 20 on my next play!

Thanks for giving our game a shot and leaving your thoughts! I think your suggestions are spot-on. My hope is that once we update the game and make it a bit longer, there will be more opportunities to utilize the different flower types. As for consequences, I'll see if it's feasible for dissatisfied customers to angrily return to the shop, or to leave bad reviews or something. That'd make the choices feel more important and open the door to some funny interactions. I appreciate your kind and helpful feedback, friend!

This was the most fun I've had with any of the jam submissions so far! I got a serious case of the "one mores" and couldn't move on until I beat the boss and got a run that I was satisfied with. There are a lot of small design considerations that go into making an action game that's this irresistible, and you clearly know the recipe for that secret sauce. 

Having the enemies spawn in designated and clearly marked locations makes the waves feel fair, and grouping those spawn locations together was a stroke of brilliance, as it created zones of higher risk and reward. Destroying the bots right as they spawn makes it so the batteries drop in a tight cluster for easy farming, but going to retrieve them is risky because an enemy could spawn right next to you without warning. The special shotgun blast attack encourages risky play as well because of the wide spread. It felt great to melt the boss' HP with 4 close-range blasts and then retreat back to safety. The camera's zoom level was also ideal for reading the action, and it subtly teaches the player the optimal distance for engaging enemies.

As far as presentation goes, the visuals were fun and distinct, like something out of a cartoon from the early 2000's. I appreciate that the UI elements occupy a small space- it must have been tempting to make them bigger because they're really stylish looking. Also, the music never got boring or repetitive even though I played for a good while. It does a great job setting the mood of the game and keeping the excitement up.

I don't have many issues with this game, but I'll say that the feedback for taking damage could be more clear. A prominent sound effect and some screen shake would do the trick. Also, making the camera pan based on cursor placement was a good idea, but the effect is disorienting and could be toned down a bit.

I'd love it if you dropped a downloadable Windows build, because I'll absolutely be revisiting Bots n' Batteries and the browser build's performance gets a little crunchy when the action gets hectic. Really great stuff, I had a blast with this one!

I love the cutesy horror atmosphere! The art direction across the board is inspired and I especially like the tutorial bear. His washed out hue and strong contrast in the shaded areas give the impression that he's been worn down from years of love. The gradually fading ambient light was great too, and I think you could have scrapped the flashlight meter in the UI to allow that mechanic to shine (or dim, rather.) It conveys enough information on its own to clue the player in to what's happening, but it's ambiguous enough to create a bit of tension. I hope that makes sense. Also, if you decide to continue development (which I hope you will!) I think Power-Cut would benefit from an additional layer of challenge and stress to make the gameplay feel more frantic. Cool game and I hope to see more from you in the next jam!

Power Lines has immaculate pacing, which has gotta be tough to get right in such a compact game! There was plenty of time spent on build-up, and the first jumpscare really caught me off guard! And no horror game is complete without a "you've got to be kidding me, there's no way I'm going back in there" moment, which you executed very well. I also liked that despite being told outright how to dodge the monster's attacks (thanks Gideon!), the placement of trees meant I had to still be mindful of positioning even once I knew the strategy. 

If this wasn't a jam submission and you'd had unlimited time to make it, I'd hope for a little more variety, but I think you made the right choice in keeping the experience focused. As it stands, there's still plenty of room for surprises in these dark woods.

Great stuff- I'm glad your game is getting attention!

I thought the expression was "skate or die", but I sure did die a lot despite really trying my best to skate. I like the core idea here and it was fun chaining tricks together, but the feedback felt VERY inconsistent and the tutorial was too bloated to be helpful. My trick inputs only registered about half the time, and I seemed to fall through the power lines for no reason at times. It's very possible that the game works perfectly as intended and I just misunderstood some vital nuance of the mechanics. When things were working for me and I could shred uninterrupted, I had a lot of fun. I think you captured the core appeal of the THPS series, which is the feeling of flowing naturally from one action to the next. All that's missing is some polish and a ska punk soundtrack.

Kinetic and addictive with just the right amount of challenge! You clearly have a solid grasp of action game design and feel. The player's movement speed is just right, and the varied enemy types are utilized well to make sections feel distinct from one another. It feels great to clear a room without taking any damage, and it always felt like my fault when I did get hit, never a result of unfair design. I'm a sucker for scoring systems that incentivize me to stay in the action and play aggressively, and I plan on trying for a no-death run with no dropped combos. It's rare for game jam projects to have this level of replay appeal! Also, including a boss fight is ambitious in and of itself, but creating a boss that gains new abilities across several fights is a huge accomplishment.

As far as constructive feedback, I'd be interested in playing a build of Night Sweep with more emphasis on sucking up and launching enemies. The suction ability is necessary in order to collect the 4 colored powers, but other than that, I only really used it to catch bunnies for a higher combo multiplier. Finding a way to incorporate it into the core gameplay loop would be cool, and there might even be an implementation that also balances the other attack types. Maybe you could have a universal ammo/mana resource, and colored projectiles deplete it at varying rates based on their strength. To replenish ammo, you'd need to successfully launch enemies into each other. Just an idea, but even without any changes, this game is a blast to play and is extremely polished. Kudos to everyone involved!

Dude, this is next level! I'm shocked at how complete your game feels. The sound and environment design had me completely immersed, and the tunnels section in particular was genuinely pulse-pounding! I never got confused or stuck, but I also never felt like I was being railroaded; that's a difficult balance to strike and you nailed it. Clearly this is not your first rodeo, and I'm excited to check out Spirit Level next.

I was more than happy to give my thoughts, you clearly worked very hard and I had a great experience. I should be thanking you!

One of my favorite aspects of the game jam format is that the time constraint often makes it impossible for devs to adhere to genre conventions, and instead forces them to hone in on a single core element or feature that can really shine. POWER is an extremely focused experience, but not at all lacking in surprise and delight.

The mathy audio wizardry behind this game are and always will be far beyond my understanding, but I still never felt like I was playing "wrong" despite my lack of intentionality in which keys I pressed. It was sort of meditative to embrace my lack of understanding, let go, and just jam out to my monkey-at-a-typewriter composition. I wonder if my haphazard playstyle was your intended experience given the impenetrable interface and the fact that there's no way to generate sound without modifying parameters.

Thanks for doing something completely different, this one's gonna stick in my mind long after the jam is over.

Wow, your team has something really special here! I noticed that another commenter made the Katamari Damacy comparison, so I won't dwell on it too much, but there was a really special unscripted moment that occurred about midway through the final stage that was reminiscent (but not a copy!) of Katamari's secret sauce. Up to that point, my character's growth made me more and more cautious of hazards, as I was becoming an increasingly bigger target. But once I was a screen-filling monstrosity that could no longer avoid anything, I stopped being mindful of bullets, as they no longer stood between me and my bottomless appetite. I had simply become too powerful to care.

And this is to say nothing of the detailed and cohesive art direction that would be worthy of praise even in a commercial release! The contrast between the harmless little guys that get deleted by the dozen and the menacingly-detailed agents of death from above gave visual clarity to the chaotic action. I also liked how prolonged the anticipation phases were for the hazards, as they created moments where I had to choose between running to safety or risking another snack before fleeing.

The only hiccup in my experience was my own damn fault, but I'll mention it anyway. WASD movement is explicitly tutorialized in-game, but pointing and clicking to eat isn't. Had I read the instructions on the game's page, this wouldn't have been a problem, but I still think including one more line of tutorial text could be a good idea. At first I thought the goal was to lure the bird into eating the ground critters, but it didn't take long for me to realize my wrong assumption and put a hand on my mouse. It clicked within a minute, so again, very minor gripe. Awesome work to everyone involved, and I'm excited to see what you cook up next time!

Thank you so much for your kind words! I'll play your game and leave some feedback as soon as I get the chance!

The feedback for grading the player's bouquets isn't really there in the game's current build, so don't sweat those customers' snarky remarks! The main goal of this game is to soak up the vibes, and you gave an exemplary performance on that front. I've decided to grant you the coveted SSS Rank 5-Star Pure Platinum Trophy of Highest Esteem. Thanks for playing :)

Thank you, friend! I'll be sure check out your game before the rating period's over and leave my thoughts.

The confusion seems to be a common problem, you're not alone! I wrote the logic that decides the accuracy of a bouquet shortly before the deadline, and there was no time to test it. It needs some post-jam tweaking, as does the selection of flowers available for each vase, which was also decided haphazardly at the eleventh hour. On top of that, I didn't have time to implement detailed feedback after selling a bouquet, so it's pretty much a crap shoot in its current state. Thanks for the feedback, and I'm glad that the presentation kept you engaged despite the game's issues!

Yeahhhh I'll be the first to admit that we strayed from the theme, but the word "power" still served to remove the dreaded blank canvas and inspire our idea, even if only on a superficial level. I appreciate the feedback and I'm glad you had a good time with our game! I'll be sure to check yours out before the rating period is over!

Don't get too comfortable, the next one is gonna be a survival horror shopkeeper game with a sanity meter and weapon degradation! Nah but in all seriousness, thanks for taking a moment out of your day to unwind in our virtual mom and pop shop. Our valued customers thank you, too.

Thanks for the sweet feedback! I'm glad that our tireless efforts delivered a positive experience, and I'll be sure to give your game a shot today as thanks.

I wasn't aware of that game until I looked it up just now, but I'm flattered to have my game compared to a commercial release! It's funny you should say that, though- when brainstorming our premise, "the pizza minigame from Club Penguin" came up multiple times! So you hit it right on the money. At its core, Say It With Flowers is a pizza game.

Cool game! It made a really strong first impression- being provided with an opportunity for some introspection before playing was a nice surprise. I did 3 playthroughs so I could play with all 9 abilities, it only seemed right to see all of your hard work. I had fun all 3 times, but some abilities are DEFINITELY better than others. The broken build I found was dagger + double jump + float. I'm sure you're aware of that, though, and it makes me happy to know that you're going to continue development and polish the rough edges. The final boss was creepy, too. I'm hoping the final version will reveal the mysteries that your world holds! I had fun and I'm excited to see what's next.

Great feedback, I completely agree on all fronts! In the next build for our game, I'll be sure to better explain which parameters suit which occasions, or what a player specifically got right or wrong. We wanted it to be a little ambiguous, but I'll admit that it's pretty obtuse in its current state. I'm glad you enjoyed yourself despite the issues, and I really appreciate you taking some time to think about your experience and leave detailed feedback!

Thanks for playing and stay tuned for updates! I'm planning to release a new build with some balance tweaks, better sound mixing, and extra missions once the submission period is over.

First off, the game design on display here is exemplary. Each world's unique mechanic was introduced clearly and gradually developed, leading up to that world's climactic final stage which requires mastery of the mechanic. Planning an optimal route through each stage and then executing it is a blast, and the enemy placements (and the timed waterfall gates) did a great job of complicating the routing on the fly. Even though Horti doesn't meet the criteria to be considered a "time attack" game, there's definitely some pseudo-speedrun appeal. Having to wait for an enemy cycle or getting stunned for a brief moment were effective soft fail states that motivated me to improve the route and risk close shaves with enemies to save time. My favorite level was Jumpy Jungle 2, but the quality was great across the board.

All this is to say nothing of the incredible aesthetic touches and sound design that gave Horti a fun and bouncy feel. That bassline kept me grooving until the credits rolled, and I'm sure I'll be booting it up for another playthrough not long from now.

I'm so glad you enjoyed your time with the game! We fully plan on continuing development and making the parameters a bit less strict, you're not the only one to have difficulties with it. Truthfully, we didn't have any time to test and balance the game once the scripts successfully compiled and all the assets were in place. Thanks for the play and the kind words!

Thanks for giving our game a shot! I played you back and I hope to see more from you and your team in the next jam.

Stylish and addictive! The gameplay loop reminds me of the flash games I played as a teenager that could consume whole afternoons. Powery is considerably more polished than those games though, and its action game design choices are much more modern, in a good way. I can tell that you put a lot of work into balancing the stamina consumption and regeneration, and it gives the game an ebb and flow that keeps it from becoming stale or spammy. Also, the animations and music are sick as hell and suit the vibe of the game to a tee.

As for constructive feedback, I'd suggest fewer but faster enemies. Parrying is essential, and it's hard to see the enemies' attack wind-ups when you get mobbed by a million dudes, so my strategy was to run away so that I could engage enemies one-on-one and nail the parries. Faster enemies would make running away less viable, and make it so that the only means of relief is to risk a parry and activate the screen nuke. That would tighten the risk and reward tradeoff, I think. And like I said, making the crowds slightly thinner would make parrying while in the fray feel more fun and fair.

All in all, Powery feels very complete in a way that few game jam submissions do, so hats off to everyone involved in the project! I had a lot of fun with this one.

Cool game! Definitely greater than the sum of its parts. The goal of the game was immediately clear, and the way you implemented the will meter elevated the experience a lot for me. I particularly like the occasional lightning strikes that add some unexpected time pressure, and I also like that the meter keeps depleting during transitions. I found myself frantically tapping my foot and thinking, "can't you go any faster?!?" The eerie sound design also contributed to the stress, and I'd say it was the stand-out feature. If you'd had more time, I imagine that you'd develop the art style a bit more, but I still enjoyed the look of your game. It made me think of drawings on a chalk board.

All in all, you nailed the atmosphere, and the gameplay was appropriately frantic despite its simplicity. Great work!

One of my favorite ideas that I've ever seen come out of a game jam! It's inspiring when a team can remix a feature that's typically not considered gameplay into a central mechanic- even more so when that mechanic bolsters the game's narrative and theme. Having the "rules" for beauty change constantly and become progressively more specific is not just a device for ramping up the difficulty- it also highlights the absurd futility of chasing beauty's ever-moving goalpost. There were times when I was confused by the negative ratings I received from customers, but it's the same confusion that I feel when a real-life person expresses dissatisfaction with their appearance despite conforming to beauty standards. I can't say whether the inconsistent feedback was a design choice or a result of my poor play, but either way, the absurdity lent to my experience by that feedback helped drive the message home. Also, the art direction has personality for days! The grungy looking, cobbled-together faces are a key component of what makes this deconstructive work so powerful and funny. I love video games. I love this video game. Thanks for making a really good video game!

The midi sound font, simplistic visuals and precise jumps remind me of the flash games that could distract me from work for an entire class period in the school computer lab. You've got a formula for fun here and I'd be interested in seeing if this concept could be applied to an infinite runner sort of game. I don't have much new to add to the conversation, but I agree with the general consensus that the camera could use to be zoomed out a smidge. A minor adjustment would make the game feel more fair without compromising the difficulty and removing the satisfaction of the eventual perfect run. Also, running into a wall and having to manually reset the level is a hard fail state disguised as a soft fail state, if that makes sense. I'm fine with only having one chance to jump over a hurdle, but I'd suggest adding some spikes or something to the side of those hurdles to make it clear that they're hazardous. Making contact with the spikes would naturally end the run and prompt a restart- bonus points if you add in some of that signature flash game gore. Great work to everyone involved, I hope you continue to develop this concept and explore its potential!

Thanks for taking the time to leave some constructive feedback! With more development time, I would have done some additional tuning to make the controls feel a bit less slippery, and I'd also probably adjust the jump animation speed like you suggested. As for the music, I personally think it fits the tone we were going for, but it's possible that taking a cutesier and less triumphant approach could have worked just as well- something to consider for next time.

Thanks for the play and the nice message! We're big fans of moles and plan on featuring them in many more games down the line, so stay tuned for those. I'll be sure to give your game a rate and comment before the voting period ends- I'm excited to see what it's all about!

First thing's first- I can't believe a single person made this in 4 days. Hats off to you! I love these sorts of games where I'm the guardian of predictable AI entities and I have to control them through indirect means. Playing with a level editor that makes pretty sounds is both unique and rewarding, and hearing my compositions layer on top of each other as I ascended was a fantastic feeling and a perfect example of what makes the interactive medium so uniquely powerful. My only constructive feedback is that the layout of keys felt unintuitive on some layers of the tower and broke the illusion that I was playing piano keys. One example that comes to mind was when the 'A' key served as the note one step above the 'M' key. It was an extra layer of mental gymnastics that made certain floors trickier than they needed to be. Because the game never requires use of more than one octave at a time, I think the keys used could have been consistent across all floors in an unbroken left-to-right layout, similar to a piano. But don't get it twisted- this game rocks and my singular gripe didn't hamper my enjoyment. Outstanding work, and you can bet I'll be checking out your future projects!

It takes a lot of bravery to make a puzzle game in such a short time, so I commend you for successfully making one that explains the mechanics well and isn't overly complicated. I had to stop and think a few times, but I was never frustrated and I wanted to see your game through to the end. One minor note is that factoring consumables into puzzle design is bound to result in players being softlocked (and maybe not realizing it), so I'd generally advise against that. Thankfully, the rooms are small enough that any time I did something in the wrong order, it never took more than 30 seconds to restart the room and get back to where I was. The transformations could have been a little faster as well and had a satisfying sound effect to compensate. Nitpicks aside, I had fun playing your game and I hope lots of people give it a shot!

Super inventive take on the theme, and the level of polish here is inspiring! I really hope you continue development because not only does the concept have lots of potential, but I also selfishly want to see some more complicated and devious puzzles. Great work to everyone involved, and I hope lots of people find this awesome game!

I remember playing a similar flash game back in the day in which you clicked to spawn minions and had to outnumber an opposing army. Simple gameplay, but context can make it fun, and the art direction kept me invested for my entire playtime. One thing I will say is that the game appears to be balanced around players who haven't discovered the two-finger clicking technique. I'd love to see some more challenging stages that punish this technique by forcing you to move the mouse and click on specific things. Congrats on releasing your first game! You saw it through and made something charming and fun.

As a classic survival horror fan, I think fixed 3D perspectives are an underexplored concept and it's awesome to see a developer utilizing them to do something fresh. Paired with the high-contrast lighting, the scale of the environment is often ambiguous, which put me on edge and made the game world's secrets feel vast and unknowable. One drawback of limiting the player's perception with light and perspectives is that it took some trial and error to figure out where I was allowed to walk, so I spent some of my playthrough walking against invisible walls and losing sight of the player character offscreen. I don't make 3D games, so take this suggestion with a grain of salt, but I wonder if lifting some of the camera perspectives a little higher off the ground and rotating them down would give a clearer indication of where the navigation path is. That one small gripe aside, you've made something really outstanding and the most atmospheric experience I've played in this jam! I'll be thinking about this one for a while and I'm excited to explore your catalog once I've given some other submissions a shot.

Easily the hardest game I've played in this jam so far, but I was motivated to complete it because the concept is so unique and the art style quelled my rage somewhat. It was fun to get the hang of how the grabber moves, and by the end I was a master of rocking it back and forth to reposition. I truly think this concept is fresh and versatile enough for a full release with some levels that ramp up the challenge even more. I really love when games demand this much attention and care to play, and there are lots of people out there who feel the same. 5 stars across the board- really outstanding stuff!