itch.io

I had a lot of fun with this. The five 'attack' types feel fairly well-balanced (I had situations in which I preferred to use each), although I think the greens might be strictly worse than the gold lines unless some kind of 'armor' mechanic comes into play (especially because if you max out attraction at any time, you win immediately regardless of ick). Pink seemed to be the best value in all situations until I realized it doesn't synergize with courage multiplier, so I figure you want to focus on one or the other. 'Stubborn' is definitely hard to deal with without using items (first time I lost because I forgot I had them, second time I got lucky and got 2.5x Courage on turn 2, used greens to mitigate the ick and then got a super-effective gold line to oneshot from full HP.)                                        Oh, and the music's spot on. Never thought I'd hear a piece that so precisely conveys the gravity of realizing it's gonna be totally on you to carry an interaction.

Gotcha, looking forward to playing more!

Thanks for sharing this! I loved the gravity changes, that felt really smooth (I think the sphere in the first level was especially fun, since you couldn't see the enemy until they were right in your face). I did manage to get myself into unwinnable situations when I ran out of ammo (that room in the first level right before you get the laser is definitely the hardest part of the game IMO). Of course the aliens get stuck on the terrain, but it's hard to shoot them when this happens, and you really don't want to waste ammo, so you get this odd stalemate while they're stuck. It also feels a little harder to aim than it should be without any sort of crosshair; I felt like sometimes the aliens wouldn't take damage even when they were right in the center of the screen. The little plankton guys that run at you were super fun (ironically I had less trouble hitting them than the big poofy tentacled things).

I really appreciate how this game tells a story with its mechanics (esp. how the rent keeps going up, but your ability to earn money stays static...)
Haven't managed to beat it yet (if that's possible) but definitely enjoyed it. Really great choice of music, too!

That helped! I got through the rest of the demo with no problems. I was glad to hear some original music, and I really liked the piece in the desert area, and the one that plays in that cabin scene with Aldebrand, Eivor, and Johnathan.

Looking forward to playing more in the future!

Hey, thanks for playing so much of the game! I didn't expect anyone to make it through to the space station at all, so I'm glad someone did! And thanks for the detailed feedback! I'm working on a big update right now, so I'll try to address all of these things before I release it.

Hey, congrats on the progress you've made so far! Kudos for making the switch to homemade art (I've yet to do that myself in my own games) - looking forward to seeing your art style develop over time. Also excited to hear some original music!

I played the demo, and unfortunately I couldn't progress past the first town, because I couldn't enter the railroad station where (I assume) the first quest was waiting for me. When I tried to enter, it booted me back to the town, so I think the transfer player line might be targeted to the wrong map. Looking forward to playing more once you've fixed this!

Oh gotcha! I did find that understanding some of the poems took some thinking, but the sound and visuals made it really fun. I think the presentation is just unsettling enough to inspire a certain curiosity, which helps me appreciate the challenging language.

The sound and visual design are really pleasing, you really did a lot with a little. Was Slay the Princess an inspiration?

Really neat puzzle game! Once you figure it out, it's pretty straightforward and easy to understand. Nicely done!

Nice atmosphere, easy to pick up and play. I think the winning strategy is to get a few turrets to defend the ship (the freezy balls seem to be really effective) and then run around and draw aggro from as many beetles as you can while you search for the ship parts (the first time I didn't do this and my ship got destroyed even though I had a ton of turrets surrounding it). The 'defrosting' of the planet makes it easy to see where you've already been, which helps you in searching for the ship parts, although I think you might want to make them stand out a little more from the ground (I almost missed one at least once).

This game is hilarious (the music makes it even better).

A few comments:

I love the chaotic nature of the game, with the various random events like the cars getting hacked or hitting pedestrians. It feels kinda like playing real-time monopoly. There's a bit of a random factor here which might be off-putting to some, but if it's a casual game it seems fine. I feel like this concept could be really fun as a Mario Party minigame or a chaotic co-op game like Overcooked.

It's hard to know where I'm supposed to go at any given time. The cars seem to break down at random (maybe after hitting enough walls?), and it's seemingly impossible to know whether any given car will reach its destination on its own or not. Once the car crashes, you can't drive it, so it's too late once you realize it actually needs help. A 'low health' or 'stuck' indicator for a car on the minimap (the arrow turns from blue to orange, for instance) might be helpful to make it clear which cars need your help. Again, for a casual party game, this might be less of an issue.

The tank controls for the player are pretty awkward. Even the car controls are somewhat janky and it's actually pretty hard to manually unstick a car that's stuck between two walls. This does make the game funnier, though! Maybe you're forced to use a company-owned Segway to get around, or something?

Sometimes two or more tow trucks will attempt to tow a single car (which is very amusing, but probably not intended)

Great stuff!