itch.io

Atonement is really good, recommended!

This is not so much what would happen if Silent Hill and Slender had a baby, but more if Silent Hill drove Slender to madness, ate it's soul and puppeteered the remains. This is a compliment.

It's true that I'm an easy mark for monochrome with touches of colour but it's done really well here. The atmosphere never lets up, the Harbinger is damn creepy and every landmark feels like a terrible judgment on your character. GlitchedLizard is excellent at dark imagery.

Definitely worth your time.

The soundtrack to a Commodore 64 platformer that never was!

This really evokes finding keys, collecting pumpkins and trying to figure out a boss fight against a witch or gryphon in glorious 8 bit

Great work!

I can honestly say I've never had more fun flipping a fish!

There's a fun and silliness here but also legit challenge and stakes. This has the mark of a GOOD wonky controls game in that while there's chaos you do actually have some control. I never felt cheated and it was genuinely satisfying to complete the final objective

That's on me. I was aware I wasn't being consistent with my terminology but life admin was getting in the way and I'd rather eat my own feet than record myself talking again. If I continue the project I'll do some proper writing and tutorialising then find someone competent to record the lines! Useful feedback, thank you

Thanks for taking a look! The inspection options on numbers were a gamble, glad to hear it worked out for you. I might move them onto the ZXCVB keys, or maybe make it customisable. But the principle looks like it's staying

Please see the following excerpt from the official Zero State Strategy Guide (£14.99 from all good book shops):

To zap the first experiment you need to focus on it. Use the arrow keys to inspect the cells in the corridor - press down until you hear A2 (or is it A1?) announced which will tell you that the experiment is on that square. Then press the space bar to fire your stun gun and zap it! You can do this once per room that contains experiments from any distance. Well... unless it's a particularly strong experiment that needs a point blank hit...

Challenge accepted, I'll keep at it and experiment with different timing. It's clearly a good game, it would be a shame to go out for the count without getting a little further. Let's get ready to rumble!!

Thank you! I've seen another player mention naming visited rooms and I think it's a great idea that will help a lot. In 'canon' if you like the station is already completely pitch black throughout, that's why you are relying on your PDA. But I like the idea that in some places the PDA could glitch and not tell you everything. Maybe there could be a special type of experiment that you need to zap to make it work properly again. Hmmm... thank you for the ideas!

It very definitely needs more work to be a full game. As far as 'is it worth continuing?' goes, you and some other commenters have given me confidence that it just might be, and some thoughts on where to go with it. Thank you!

'Potential' is the word in there that makes me super happy. I approached this as a bit of a proof of concept and while it's lacking as a whole package I feel like there might be a good idea wanting to get out. It absolutely needs more sound both for atmosphere and feedback. Probably other work too but I feel very validated that you can pick out some promise. Thank you!

I'm glad someone enjoyed the acting, a small part of me dies when I listen to myself recorded... and then I put it on the internet?! The navigation etc was a bit of a gamble, an idea that's been in my head for years with no guarantee it would work. I think you have a point about familiarity with audio navigation being a factor. With some better sound choices and some tweaks I wonder if I could get something more intuitive to everyone. Your thoughts are a help with that, thank you!

Thank you, I appreciate that you found fun in there. It definitely needs more sounds, that sadly was something that got cut back when real life got in the way towards the end. It needs to be more atmospheric if nothing else. I like the idea of giving some detail about where familiar doors lead. I really appreciate your thoughts, for a first attempt at anything like this I'm pleased with them too

'Why on Earth is this labelled as a synth?' I wondered. Then I opened it up and OK, wow, that's why it's labelled as a synth. And what a synth! I don't know how you did it but you managed to appeal to my 'make the numbers go up' and my 'I will immerse myself in this meditative environment' sides in one package. I've never seen anything like it, tremendous work

I never would have guessed that a relatively simple dice game could have drawn me in so much but here we are! There's something very satisfying about allocating just enough dice for defense and then using the rest to push back and break through the opponent's shield. Or even going all out because you can JUST scrape together enough damage for this to be the final turn

This took me by surprise, this is a really good one

I really like the hinted-at dystopian future vibes. The UI makes me think a bit of Aliens which plays nicely into a Weyland-Yutani type company that will punish you doing your best and punish you for doing nothing just to protect their bottom line. Great minimalist story telling and an effective atmosphere

The controls take a moment to click but once they do there's a good sense of pursuing the creature and trying to eject it. I never would have guessed that a game that uses nearly 40 buttons could be so manageable and enjoyable!

Good work

I beat you, Ghost! It was fun being some combination of James Bond, Jack Bauer and JC Denton. I wasn't allowed to play the recorder at school because I literally couldn't tell high and low notes apart (true story) so the exact direction of the guards was sometimes an issue for me. However, I made it through the corridors and completed my mission just by knowing when to be careful. I found navigation a little bit trial and error. I think a hint at the beginning would have been useful - 'you're entering from the west, the terminal is somewhere on the east side' would have given an idea of what to aim for. That's a nitpick, you brought together the spy thriller feeling really nicely!

The traditional alignment chart has an important category missing: campy evil. It's a style that I really enjoy and the writing and acting were spot on for it which had me smiling throughout! I made the mistake of going straight to the campaign and got absolutely walloped. Once I explored the tutorial properly things made way more sense and I started having fun turning the tide. I was always a fan of turtling in Command & Conquer so the strategy I was taught here scratched the 'my turn to unleash hell' part of my brain

Love it!

This was a really nice game! I enjoyed the calm pace and atmosphere, it was actually a little soothing. You managed to set everything up so that with the basic controls outlined, using them was pretty intuitive. It didn't take long for it to click what the various sounds mean. The only thing I struggled with was building a mental map. I took a bit of bemusement before I realised that the area with the pixie had a path other than the one back to the camp site. My suggestion would be to announce compass points for each exit, I think that would make it clearer

Lovely job though!

I think it's a case of me being absolutely terrible at the game but I just couldn't dodge those punches. Maybe my timing was off. I absolutely loved the presentation though, the atmosphere was there, the acting was great and the sound effects really sold the idea of a being in a ring. The game took me there and I even felt like a proper character! I'm chalking up my lack of progress to a severe skill issue and saying that this was a good entry, thumbs up

I love that I get to play as a bat, first of all. They are underrated critters. I tried playing using the graphics (I like the style, simple but has character) and with my eyes closed

I found that with eyes closed I could avoid the rocks and get a decent run going but I struggled to find the bugs. I agree with others saying that keyboard controls might be helpful, I'd even throw out a suggestion that you have a kind of lanes system. If you swapped between (say) 8 lanes it would be easy to announce and track your location and you would always know whether you are going to touch something or your 'beam' is just clipping the edge

I had fun with this one, the theme and the gameplay matched up really well too

A rhythm game? Great idea! I especially enjoyed your recorded intro, you succeeded in making that atmospheric, I was immediately a little scared of the Sirens. I agree with JRJurman that a little more feedback would be helpful. Even something as simple as a ping for 'yes, well done' and a buzz for 'wrong/missed it'. To further agree with JRJurman, you could definitely get something Beat Saberish out of this with a selection of tracks

Nice work!

That's completely fair! I stopped quite abruptly when there was more I wanted to add, it definitely would have been better with way more sounds. I'm happy that you think there's an idea in there though, I'd like to have another try at it one day. If you press the arrow keys it should read some text via NVDA/TTS - if not I uploaded a new version on Friday with some missing DLLs. Thanks for trying it out and for commenting!

I think that was the problem, it must have been completely unplayable! I have uploaded the DLLs as part of the zip and made a declaration that I have done so with a credit to you for pointing it out. Thank you once again

Declaring a change to the submission:

I am very grateful to zersiax who pointed out that I didn't bundle the NVDA DLLs making the game essentially unplayable so that I could fix it! Should be working now

Thanks for trying it out! I suspect you're right about the dll, I'll have to reupload it. I appreciate you pointing that out.

It's definitely not polished, I had to drop it a couple of days before I would have liked. And nothing I ever make is quite what was in my mind at the start!

Thanks again for the comments

Hi, Catherine's husband! When you eventually find out about these and want to have a go I think the trick is what you'd expect - go back to centre court once you've returned the ball. Good luck :)

This is good fun for such a rapidly assembled game!

Congrats, winners, you absolute legends!

And now that I know I won't come off as fishing for votes - it's been amazing seeing how positive and encouraging everyone has been towards each other. I never knew jammers were such great folks. Stay awesome and well done to you all.

Totally, I am NOT a good artist - I'm an even worse artist on a time limit! Glad you had some fun though, thanks for playing.

To be clear you've done an absolutely amazing job on this! The tutorial was a big help and you've come up with really clever systems to make it controllable. I try to give one bit of constructive feedback in every review I write, but the game you've made is incredibly impressive, that's my most important comment.

These games always stress me out! I enjoyed this one more than most though, you managed to make the vibe much less pressured and I appreciate that.

My immediate thought for feedback is that a bit more background would be nice - a sense of there being a wider restaurant setting, some kind of character response if you do a good, bad or middling job of preparing a burger. I did notice, however, that you only had about six hours to work in, and you've done a phenomenal job in that time! I'm approaching the suggestion as an 'if you took it further' type thing.

You've put together a complete gameplay loop that with a couple of practice goes makes sense with two buttons. I enjoyed the squeaking sound from the sauce bottles very much. It sounds like a little thing but actually I think it speaks to the level of polish you've achieved in so little time. Well done!

Giving kudos for setting out your game in such a way that it can be played on mobile! Something I should have done myself, simple but useful.

It would be nice to see a scoring system, maybe with some pick ups for bonus points, something to bring out a risk/reward element.

Overall though, I had a good time with it. I like that the character constantly moves so you can't survive just be making little nudges, that was definitely a good decision!

I can only imagine the skill that went into this. A whole lot of systems working together and creating something (to my knowledge) unique.

By it's nature this is a complex game to control. I have to admit I found it a little overwhelming and found the symbols hard to keep track of. Maybe pressing and holding both keys could pop up the ref sheet?

Incredible work though, I never would have guessed something like this could work with two buttons. Huge points for including a true tutorial, for a working AI and for including a Wilhelm scream.

Good on you for seeing the development take on a life of its own and rolling with it. That somehow feels very game jam-y and something interesting came out the other end.

It took me a couple of tries to figure out that the squares are bad and what to do about them. It would be interesting to see the recall button having more impact, maybe if the drones were there to drag enemies into hazards rather than attacking directly.

Sending out the drones was really satisfying though, it made me feel dangerous. There must be some clever stuff happening under the hood to nail their behaviour the way you have.

Thank you for playing and for writing such detailed and considered feedback, it means a lot.

The button mashing issue is the comment I get the most and it's definitely true, I 100% agree. If I were to make it again I would lock the weapons for a fraction of a second if you use the wrong one. Even just resetting a combo counter would make it a matter of pride to use the right one!

Thank you again for your comments, they are appreciated.

Thank you so much! I'm glad that the work that went in comes across. Not as polished and beautiful as Lunar Caves but I'm proud of it

Thank you!

I added the regen quite late, I figured the bosses needed something but my implementation is the wrong kind of tricky. Thinking about your comment now, what I should have done is added health bars at the back of the queue instead of the front. That way you would have to keep up the pressure but you would always know what button to press next.

The presentation is top notch here, I was immediately taken with the UI and transitions - best transitions I've seen so far.

Your own description says it though, friends, enemies and interactivity are yet to be added. When they are the fun will really start!

I know the gameplay is a bit different but this takes me back to Golden Axe with the barbarians who are 80% hair and sword. Nice!

This one legit made me smile while I was playing it - it's cheerfully and cutely chaotic!

Almost certainly a time issue but there was some very odd AI controlling the other vehicles. It's not that important and having the moving obstacles definitely adds to the gameplay.

Something that really impressed me is that unlike some other 'intentionally awkward controls' games I've seen over the years there actually is a knack to it and it is possible to do reasonably well with effort. Nice!

Note to anyone finding that the screen is too big: I zoomed out in my browser and was able to play comfortably, try that.

Really nice to see the buttons assigned to two different attack types, I had a go at a similar thing! What I didn't do was manage to get an inventory system working with just two buttons, good work there.

I think someone else suggested a progress bar to see how far through a level you are, I agree. I was starting to think it was an infinite runner but your first screen is the progression map.

The minecart is a fun, action-adventure style take on the autoscroller. If I didn't know it was from the jam I might have guessed it was an Indiana Jones game on the Commodore 64, nicely done.