itch.io

A really nice and sweet game - great execution! I really liked the art style and the story. I also appreciated the gameplay loop, where you could simply learn it over time if you aren't that good at memorizing stuff. 

Really nice, short and atmospheric game, too bad it was over so soon! One thing I would have appreciated, though, is a flashlight - on my screen, it was really hard to read the correct settings in Electrical when the power went out.

So, I'll preface with the fact that I'm a big fan of text-heavy games, so I'm a bit biased here. I really enjoyed this one!

Though, I was a bit confused by how easily I got the good ending? I would love for the game to be a tad bit longer, and to engage a bit more! Awkwardly, the worst non-nuclear ending was the hardest one for me to achieve. Also, personally, I would love more encyclopedic options - as a non-native speaker, I was not aware what a "petty officer" is... I thought it was just an officer… who is petty. :D

Just a few more thoughts for improvement:

1. I saw something resembling a scroll bar on the right side? But I didn't seem to be able to actually scroll back up.
2. I would appreciate it if, for example after the [THINK] options, you could just pick another option immediately without pressing Enter (since you can usually still see all the available options just fine).
3. Because I use a smaller keyboard, the options starting at 0, 1, 2, … are a bit awkward to me, since the number row on my keyboard goes 1, 2, 3... 9, 0. This could be solved by starting the options from 1, or, what I think is cooler, using the Up and Down arrows for choosing options and Enter for confirmation (which I think forces the player to engage with the text more instead of just mashing numbers).

I really like what you did with the sound, though. I must say it was overall very inspiring for what is possible with a seemingly simple text-based game... it might be the direction I'll take my next game jam game. :D

As others have said, this is a really nice and cozy experience.

The only thing I would change is making the day progression more intentional - for example, when I clicked on the game to get it into focus, I accidentally skipped a day (the same goes for misclicks, etc.).

Also, as a non-native speaker, I didn't know what a trellis was, but that's on me. :D

Really cool and thoughtful entry!

Sadly, for some reason uploading images to comments is not working for me right now, so I can't share my garden. :(

Thank you for the comment and the thorough feedback you sent me. I agree that the current version is very rough around the edges. 

I really appreciate hearing that you'd like this to be taken further, it really warms my heart. Thank you once more.

Thank you for playing and enjoying the game despite the missing audio. :D

Yeah, you totally get it, thank you for being so understanding!

Thank you for the detailed feedback! It's really helpful.

You make a great point about the controls. I actually wasn't entirely sure which key to map the Undo function to, so that's good to know. And you are completely right about the level reset button - that is definitely a missing feature.

Regarding the colors, do you by chance have a blue-light filter active on your screen? The cables on the panels that Cole fixes are actually blue, unless there is a strange bug turning them orange! But you are completely right that it's hard to read. Working with the 16x16 resolution was a constant struggle for me during the development, so the details aren't as noticeable as I'd like. I also agree that the 2.5D perspective makes figuring out the exact interaction position a bit tricky. A highlight system would be a great addition.

I totally get the confusion with the characters overlapping at the end. Originally, I designed the levels with three separate exit tiles, but having such a massive exit door every time felt awkward. My backup plan was to make the characters grey out and trigger a "walking away" animation as soon as they reached the exit tile, but unfortunately, that didn't make the cut due to the jam's time limit.

Haha, yeah, the pillars are functionally just solid walls. I only added them to break up the uniform look of the levels. You are also spot on about the pacing and tutorials. I tried to introduce the abilities naturally, but there is a ton of room for improvement.

Thank you again for playing, writing this up, and for your kind offer to playtest! I will definitely keep that in mind if I decide to work on a proper post-jam build.

Really lovely game - I actually tried to make a similar choice-based town management as my first game jam game, although I was taking my inspiration from Sort the Court! Honestly, my version was pretty bad and broken. Thank you for making this and showing me how it could've looked.

Thank you for trying the game out and for the kind words! You completely nailed it - I definitely overscoped.

Every game jam, I try to go for something I haven't done before. This time I aimed for a story-driven puzzle game and accidentally added a visual novel element into the mix. I ended up using an entire day on the character design and the VN implementation, which was time directly stolen from the actual game and puzzle design. The game was supposed to be a lot longer and the levels much more complicated. Because the current puzzles are pretty straightforward, you can rush through them, which makes the story pace feel way too fast.

[Spoilers ahead for the intended story!]

The narrative was meant to show that Cole (the blue technician) was never fit for the job and couldn't handle the stress. The second-to-last level was supposed to be a highly complex puzzle where it would be mathematically impossible to reach the exit with all of the characters in the given turn limit. This would have tied the game mechanics directly to the story, forcing a sacrifice. But, as you guessed, those levels were rushed on the final day, so it didn't go as planned.

To answer your question about the epilogue: the second-to-last level was meant to imply that you, as Cole, directly activated the fire extinguishing system in the library. This system sucks all the air out of the rooms while Chloe is still inside, effectively killing her. It is also only mentioned once, but they were dating.

Crushed by the guilt of killing his loved one, Cole decides to take his own life, which is what that final level represents. Cole is already lost, and Marcus cannot help him at this point, no matter how hard he tries. This is symbolized mechanically by the fact that the level exit is exactly 1 space away from ever being reached by Marcus (since he uses 2 turns for moving, he will always be one turn short). The final fade to white symbolizes Cole shooting himself. Because of the rushed execution, I know it falls a bit flat and is hard to piece together.

Thank you again for playing and for the thoughtful feedback. I am really glad you liked how the characters turned out!

Really great game - my favorite so far! I like how making the game easier is tightly bound with making the game a bit harder (at least temporarily). Though, I did kinda cheese it by not picking up the dropped clocks, waiting until the end of a wave, and then buying stuff for both the 30-second refill you get + the dropped clocks. :D

Just one minor thing I noticed - it seems you can't really "sell back"/put down a part you picked up but haven't placed down yet. I would appreciate it if I could change my mind. But I really enjoyed it nonetheless, thank you for making it!

Okay, not gonna lie, the intro bit made me chuckle. This is a solid WarioWare-style entry, especially for (as it seems) a first game project.

Strengths:

• Stable and bug-free: I didn't encounter any technical issues or bugs during my run
• Intuitive: Easy to pick up immediately without needing a tutorial.
• Fun core loop: The micro-games work well together.

Feedback:

• Art consistency - The style varies quite a bit. I totally get it, it's completely fine for a jam game. Personally, I prefer it more to using an asset pack.
• Pseudo-randomness - The minigame selection feels strictly random, which led to some repetition while missing other games entirely (I only saw "CLICK!!!!" once across 47 games). A deck-shuffle system or weighted selection could improve that.
• Transition timer - The countdown timer keeps running during transitions, which feels unfair since the player can't react yet. Pausing it until control is returned would be cleaner.
• "Find the Target!" - Adding a quick directional cue (left/right) would make the feedback much clearer.

Good effort on this!

PS: Managed 458 seconds and 47 games.

It's quite a simple game in the terms of mechanics but the concept itself just seems so funny to me. It's such a funny spin on games like Tricky Towers. 

However, I did accidentally discovered that you can get a really high score by just throwing the loops into the air - I suppose that's the same exploit as was mentioned by someone else here. Feel free to delete the scores by "Loop_thrower" (after the jam ends I suppose), I apologize for getting scores like that into the leaderboard.

Really funny idea, I can't even imagine how you've thought of that. :D

Based on the name I expected a game akin to Crypt of the NecroDancer, but I was nicely surprised with a Vampire Survivors-like! The game feels great - the controls are smooth, the graphics are nice, and the music is excellent. Just overall a great experience. One minor thing that could be improved is the balancing - I felt like I got a pretty strong build by the second wave already and the enemies weren't much of a threat, but I might've just been lucky! :D

Great job!

Thank you for taking the time to play my game and writing such an extensive review!

I can only but agree that the game is a bit rough around the edges. I had a list of things I wanted to include in the game, including some music, but I didn't schedule my time correctly. :D 

Thank you for the feedback about stopping at stations! That is something that has not crossed my mind, but I do see how it can be a bit hard for a new player. 

Thank you for playing!

Oh, my apologies then, I was wondering why I wasn't able to get the full score. :D Cool game nonetheless.

As a fan of Tower Defense games, I really enjoyed this one. The start felt a little slow and mostly consisted of waiting for the car to reach the finish, but then it started ramping up and became a great challenge. As a game jam game, it was really good.

Some changes I would make:

• Upgrades should increase the sell value of the tower.
• The towers seem to target cars that haven't gone through the start line yet, instead of cars nearing the finish.
• Maybe stopping a car could award some money too? This would give the player something to do while waiting for the round to finish.

Some QOL changes I would appreciate as a player:

• A basic health indicator above the cars.
• Hovering over a tower could show its reach.

But overall I really liked it! I got to round 35 before one of the speedy cars managed to slip through the finish line right before my racer. :D

Quite a cool game! The story seems intriguing, although it wasn't fully fleshed out (but that's to be expected in a game jam).

I have two personal suggestions for the gameplay:

• I would add a cooldown for the attack to prevent spamming.
• I would prefer if you switched lanes adjacently (i.e., from the left lane, pressing right would only move you to the middle lane). I do understand, however, that the current controls offer more direct control.

Nice game overall, well done!

Thank you for playing! I actually did take some inspiration from Mini Metro, glad it is noticeable! 

Thanks for playing! The 1x is an extension of the basic score counter - it is meant to symbolize one "overflow" (but let's call it a loop) of the score. :D You can reach a higher multiplier by simply achieving score 2 000 000 and so on. 

Thanks for playing once more. 

I must say, for a 2-day time limit the game's pretty good!

The graphics are simple but completely functional, and the gameplay is quite enjoyable. Maybe catching a cow could also increase the time left? That might make the goal of catching all the cows more attainable.

I like the spaceship controls, but personally I'd prefer if acceleration and the lasso were separate inputs. I understand this might be intentional design, but I simply dislike the loss of all control when you inevitably run out of energy.

But I must say it again - for such a short time limit, you've done a really great job. Congrats!

Sadly, like some others, I didn't get through the glowing levers puzzle - I tried going in the direction of where the glowing lever was in each room, which seemed to make progress, till I hit a dark room where I have no idea what to do? Following the light like I did before just seems to reset the puzzle, activating the levers in the final room in the order they were lit in previously didn't help either… no ideas.

Some subtle instructions or signs of progress would surely help.

Took me a while to understand the gameplay fully - I thought that the shapes were loops you had to draw (maybe reading the instructions on the game page would help haha) - but then it's a really cool idea, very unique! Honestly, haven't seen anything like it. To me it seems like a very cool combination of a tower defense game (but the only enemy is yourself) and a nice drawing minigame. I also love the background text, it's really mesmerizing!

Really well done, full points for creativity!

The game really excels at what it's trying to achieve - frantic gameplay that keeps you on your toes. You always have to be ready to dodge and be aware of the positions of the saws at all times. Although there isn't much to look at, this actually works in the game's favour as you are not distracted by unnecessary elements. 

Personally, I would switch the constant refill of enemies for a wave based system to give some breathing space in the action, or at least add an option to pause the game. 

I really like it overall though! Well done!

I really like the implementation of the theme here! It isn't forced and fits into the game nicely. The game also controls really well, and just the overall gameplay is awesome. 

If I could make a few changes though:

• the soundtrack gets repetitive after a while, but I understand that this may be due to the jam time constraints
• the spikes seem a bit too unforgiving, more than one of my runs ended because a spike knocked me back, off the platform (I do not mind them serving as a punishment but that just seems too harsh)
• personally, I would limit the slide ability for the sake of realism, so the player can't just slide everywhere even though they have no speed to do so

Overall a very nice game though, the quick and smooth gameplay makes for a really great game loop.

A really lovely game, seems super polished - the graphics are nice, the level design is great, nice music which isn't in any way distracting but also provides enough variation to keep the game flow going. The gameplay style kinda reminded me of Reventure with, of course, the cool addition of non-euclidian exploration.

Personally I found the grappling hook section quite difficult (even a tad frustrating having to go back all the way after failure) but I suppose it is alright as it is close to the last section of the game.

I would like to say that I'd love to see a full post-jam version but it seems so complete and full already! Great work, awesome game!

Hey, thanks for playing my game and the kind words!

To give credit where credit is due - the menu and settings are a part of the game engine I used - Ren'Py, so it isn't my achievement.

I'm glad to hear that you enjoyed the game so much.

Thanks again for playing. :)

Really great game!

The gameplay is nice, the control feels responsive, just great!

The only bad thing is that there is so few levels.

Sorry for that.

As I wrote to the comments below, sadly there is a bug that prevents the ending from triggering. If you have met the child, the ending is supposed to be the next day. If you did not, then the ending is supposed to be 2 days after you meet the plague doctor for the second time.

I have no idea what happened, as I was able to playtest the endings previously just fine.

Thank you for playing.

Hi!

To react to all your points:

Thank you for your kind words. I'm glad to see that at least someone enjoyed playing my first game. So, thank you for all that.

Because I expected people to mainly play the browser version, I made the buttons very small because there is not much use for them (i.e., you won't probably save your progress in a short browser game). I suppose you played the downloadable one, so I understand that the size isn't good there.

I do plan on updating the game after the jam and maybe adding more content.

First, I have to fix the endings or remove them entirely because they can't be reached in the current version.

Secondly, this was my first actual game in an engine I never used before, so the code isn't very good and results in some errors, which I have no idea what causes them. Because of that, I will probably rewrite the entire game to make the code better, but that will take time.

Because I'm also a student, I have to balance studying and doing everything else, so I'm unable to invest as much time as I would like in game development.

I promise you though, that I will try to deliver more content for people to enjoy.

Thank you for playing my game.

- aragon789

It would be great if you actually played the games you comment on. :)

Hi!

Thank you for playing my game. :)

Mainly the ending was connected to the theme, which you can't see. As I discovered, there was an additional "+" in the game code, that prevents the ending from triggering.  

I also planned on the game having an additional ending, which you would trigger by messing with the game's files because the kingdom is not real and neither are the people you meet in it. Sadly, I didn't have the time for that...

I hope you enjoyed the game anyway.

Thank you once again for playing.

Oh, wow, that's not supposed to happen!

After a lot of time going through the code, I discovered an additional "+" that prevented the ending from triggering. I also tested the game again and you are correct, there is some bug in there... although I have no idea what it is, because everything seems okay in the code.

Normally the ending is supposed to trigger around the 10th day.

I will try to look for the error, but I appreciate you for playing the game so much! :D

I would love to get some feedback on mine:

https://itch.io/jam/brackeys-7/rate/1420391

There is an ending around the 10th day and yes, the choices start repeating quite fast, although there is about 40 of them, so you should be able to see new stuff for about 5-6 days, but I know that the next time I make a game like this, I have to make more of them.

Thanks for playing. :)

You can lose if you get one of your resources to zero twice. I made it harder to lose because I did not want the player to lose.

But before I made some changes, it was very hard to finish the game, so I made it easier. Chances are, that you were just lucky, so the game was easy for you. But a lot of things are random, so you can lose just because of randomness, which can feel unfair to the player.

Originally I had planned on doing more with the "it is not real" theme, but as the submission date kept coming closer, I decided to include less of it, so all that remains is the child and a few more dialogues that mention it.

Nice game, but quite hard!

Really nice game!

But very short. :(

Great game, love the art!

Just one thing: 

Why is everything on the itch.io page so big? I had to zoom out the page to 67% to even be able to see the entire game window.

Sadly, I can't play the game. :(

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