itch.io

Thank you so much for playing the game. I really appreciate your feedback. It's one of those gems that makes game jams worth doing.

As for the tutorial, there's a golden principle: "Show, don't tell." One of the greatest examples of this is Half-Life 2. I also really like the point you made about showing the player what they shouldn't do, not just what they should do. We often understand light through darkness, right through wrong, and so on. That's a really good point.

As for the story, I'll be very honest: this was my first attempt at making a dialogue-based story. While I personally enjoyed it, I can absolutely see how it could become boring or frustrating for some players. That's actually why the skip button was one of my top priorities. I even extended the dialogue system just to add it. But hey, now I can clearly see where I went wrong and what I can improve to make the experience better next time.

As for the animations... guilty as charged. I've invested in a lot of tools, especially ones designed to enhance game feel, and I wanted to show everything I'd learned in this game. Looking back, I know it was a bit too much. Sometimes when you try to include everything, you end up diminishing the impact of each individual thing. Too many effects can take away from the beauty of having just one.

As for the number of steps and clicks required to perform actions, along with other UX-related issues, I agree with you there as well. Every jam, I tell myself that I need to dedicate time to player testing, because once you've spent enough time with your own game, you become too comfortable with it to notice its flaws. But then fast forward to the last half hour of the jam and it's usually, "Just submit the game and go to sleep." So I definitely need to find a better way around that.

Thank you so much for all your points. I genuinely appreciate comments like yours. They're exactly the kind of feedback that helps me improve and make better games in the future.

WOW! This entry is really incredible. I'm really happy to end my jam rating journey with this game.

It feels like a high-quality escape room. The narration, voice acting, and little puzzles are wonderful, truly. I also really like the pixelated graphics and the overall eerie atmosphere of the game.

Great work!

I LOVE SINE WAVES! I have a notebook full of ideas for games where sine waves are actually the core mechanic!

As for feeling depressed when comparing your progress to past entries, I totally understand you. I find myself there a lot too. But hey, you made it, and we got to see your creation, and that's already a reason to celebrate.

Also, I know you probably already know this, but here's a friendly reminder: growth and success aren't linear. They're more like a series of ups and downs. What really counts is consistency and showing up when it matters, and here you are. So congratulations, really!

Another thing: it's very impressive how you managed to write detailed devlogs throughout the jam. That takes a lot of discipline and dedication, so shout out to that too.

Nice work! I have to say, I'm not usually a big FPS games fan, but this one hit different.

First of all, the game's visuals are really beautiful. I like cel shading a lot, and it's kind of rare to see a 3D game with beautiful visuals in a game jam, so shout out to that.

The theme interpretation also stood out to me. Although I've seen a lot of games in this jam adapt connecting things as the core mechanic, yours really stands out because of the purpose behind it. You don't just connect things to win the game. There is actual in-game context for why you're doing it, even if it's as simple as connecting the cables so we can watch the match. That gives the mechanic an actual reason beyond just "do this to win," which I really appreciate.

I also liked how the tutorial was easy to understand and follow, especially since tutorials are not my strongest suit either.

That said, one thing that could be improved is the precision of the grabbing action. Sometimes it felt a bit unresponsive, and I had to press G in multiple places or multiple times to grab the cables.

Other than that, great work!

The first thing that came to my mind was full-screen effects, such as vignette effects. For example, green for good moves and red for bad ones. Big combo text or multiplier text would also help keep the player in the loop, and you could add audio feedback to make it even clearer.

From your comment, I gather that you have experience with shaders, so maybe you could make the bullet leave a mark when it hits something. That way, the player could trace its path and plan for a better shot next time.

As for shaking the trees, maybe there is a way that doesn't require actually making shaders. You could use the tree's transform component, or even add a little cutscene where the camera moves to the tree view, shakes the camera/screen, then fades out and back in with the cat on the ground.

Those are just the things that crossed my mind.

Thank you so much for playing the game, and thanks a looooot for your rating. It honestly means a lot to me.

As for the amount of content in the game, thank God, I somehow managed to fit more into it than I originally expected. Although, to be honest, the development process was a bit of a nightmare at times, but reading comments like yours made it absolutely worth it.

Thanks again for playing the game!

Thank you so much for playing the game, you just made my day! I'm also very excited to try your submission.

Thank you so much for playing the game and for the detailed feedback. This is exactly why I make games.

First of all, I think it's completely normal to be a bit confused about how the game works. Revisiting the tutorial myself, I find it a bit overwhelming with a lot of information to digest. This was my first time making an interactive tutorial, and I'll be honest, tutorials are generally one of my weak points as a developer, so I totally understand where you're coming from.

About the number of clicks, I see your point. Fewer clicks are ideally better for UX. For example, making the attack range appear when hovering over a monster and then showing additional information with a single click. I was afraid that approach would clutter the screen, since the levels already have a lot going on and a lot for the player to track. Ultimately, though, I think this is exactly where feedback like yours shines. UX design is largely based on user testing, or in our case, player testing, and unfortunately I didn't do much of that during development. So those are great points, thank you.

As for the timer, my thought process was that I wanted to simulate what happens during an actual natural disaster, where events don't wait for you to take action. They just happen. My intention was to give players enough time to think and strategically place monsters, but not enough time to become completely comfortable. I wanted there to always be room for chaos and unintended situations to emerge. However, more and more people have mentioned that the timer actually fights against the core mechanics and the somewhat turn-based nature of the game, so that's another valuable lesson I've learned from the feedback.

Thank you so much again for your feedback. I'd be happy to read any additional suggestions or notes you might have about the game.

WOW, that is really impressive! The amount of content, dialogues, mini-games, and attention to detail are all top-notch.

I enjoyed everything about the game: the dialogue, the mini-games, the atmosphere, and the city itself. Honestly, I wanted to move to that town myself by the end of it.

You're an incredible developer. Keep it up!

Nice work! I enjoyed the game. It's been a while since I've played a memory game, so I was a bit rusty at first. The voice acting was funny, and the fact that the recording quality wasn't that great actually added to the overall atmosphere and charm of the game.

Keep it up!

Very unique platformer! It really stands out from the crowd. The core mechanic is so good, and I feel like it has a lot more potential to show and build upon. The game loop is fun, and I found myself wanting to see more ideas and tricks built around this amazing mechanic.

That said, I felt the game was a bit too easy. I'd love to see more challenging situations that push the mechanic further and make the player think in new ways.

The visuals also felt a bit inconsistent. Some assets seemed to use different styles and resolutions, which made the overall visual identity feel less cohesive. The background music didn't really match the vibe of the game either.

All in all, great work!

Nice work! I like how this game feels like an elevated, evolved version of Tetris. The core idea is familiar, but you've built it around connections rather than color matching, which makes it feel fresh and interesting.

Great work, and keep it up!

Shout out to the whole team, you just made an amazing game! It's fun through and through. Everything in the game feels polished and well put together, from the gameplay to the presentation.

I really enjoyed learning about each character and trying to figure out how they relate to one another. It was a very balanced and fun experience, and discovering those connections kept me engaged throughout the game.

What really stands out is how well everything works together. It's clear that each member of the team brought something valuable to the project, and the final result reflects that. The level of polish, consistency, and attention to detail really highlights how strong of a team you are.

Amazing work, and keep it up!

Nice work! This game has a lot of potential, but unfortunately, in its current state, I found it very hard to understand and get into. There doesn't seem to be a clear gameplay loop or structure, which made it difficult for me to figure out what I should be doing.

That said, I hope you keep working on the game, because the description on the game page is really interesting, and I'd love to see that vision fully come to life.

Keep it up!

Thank you so much for playing the game.

Although this isn't the first grid-based puzzle game I've made, this one almost drove me crazy, and thank God it eventually paid off.

Thank you so much for playing the game and for your kind words. And don't worry, ever since the jam ended, I've been sleeping like a baby!

Thank you so much for trying out the game.

Honestly, I agree with you about the animations. They definitely could've been skipped or made significantly shorter. I've honestly been investing a lot into tools and techniques to enhance the game feel of my games, and I think my obsession with making everything look visually beautiful might have hurt the experience a bit in this case.

As for preparing things before the jam, the answer is both yes and no.

I've been making grid-based puzzle games for a while now. This is actually my fourth one, so many of the systems, utilities, and tools used in my previous games were also used in this one, but extended and more polished. That gave me a lot of extra time to add new features and content during the jam itself.

Thank you so much for playing the game and for the feedback!

Great work! The game is highly polished and feels great to look at and play. The mechanics are solid, the upgrades are good, and the overall atmosphere is great too.

That said, I feel like the game loop itself is a bit incomplete. It feels like there's something missing, a stronger hook or motivation to keep the player engaged over a longer period of time. I kept asking myself, "Why do I need to connect the drill's wires?"

One idea that came to mind is that the wires could carry oxygen to mining camps. You could have multiple camps, each with a different timer before their oxygen runs out, forcing the player to prioritize some camps over others. You could also add enemies that try to damage the oxygen supply, creating more urgency and giving the player a stronger reason to upgrade their equipment and defend the network. Of course, these are just my thoughts.

The background music also lost some of its charm after a while due to how often it repeated.

All in all, great work!

WOW! This game is really amazing. I could keep playing it all day. You've actually checked all the boxes.

The game is easy to understand and get into, very fast-paced, and satisfying to watch. There is a great variety of weapons to use and countless strategies you can experiment with. On top of that, there are upgrades that make your next run even better, which adds a lot of replay value.

FANTASTIC ENTRY!

Very fun, chaotic entry! Honestly, I've seen a lot of "connect this with that" kinds of games in this jam, but this one clearly stands out. A roguelike logistics game is a really cool idea.

I really liked how there are both good and bad upgrades. That was very clever. Having tiles break so the player doesn't get too comfortable was also a really smart move, and it kept me on my toes the whole time. Also, having to reroute to obtain wrenches to fix the tiles was smart design. I also liked the UI effects, especially the squash-and-stretch effect when pressing buttons. It added a nice amount of feedback and made the UI feel more responsive.

That said, I had a few issues with the game:

Balancing

• In general, the game felt pretty difficult to me. It may be an issue on my side, but I felt like the time window to rotate a tile before the crates reached it was a bit short. Maybe you could make the crates a bit slower.
• Also, if a crate reaches the edge of the board while the tile is pointing toward the edge, the crate explodes. Maybe the game could be a bit more tolerant and make the crate get stuck instead, or something similar.

Upgrade Descriptions

• The upgrade descriptions felt like a bit too much for me. Maybe highlighting the important parts with a different color would make them easier to read quickly.

That said, incredible work!

As for auto-deselecting, the issue you're describing is definitely a bug, because there is no minimum distance for auto-deselecting, and the threshold is 180px, so the distance shouldn't be that short.

As for the range problem, honestly, at this point, I'm just going to add a Range Description section to the info page to clarify it. Since I'm using  ScriptableObjects to store each monster's data, it should be very easy to add.

Thank you so much for trying out the game. I'm happy you enjoyed it!

• As for the typo, you're right. Funny enough, I made that mistake in both the game and the game page. I'll fix it on the game page now, and then fix it in the game itself after the jam.
• As for the monster being deselected for no reason, there is actually a reason. It is mentioned in the tutorial, but it can be easy to miss. If you move the cursor away from the selected monster, it will automatically deselect.
• As for the monster range, I agree that it is definitely confusing, and it is totally on me. All creatures that have more than one square in the info page are meant to see all along that row or column. However, because the grid in the info page is only 5x5, it makes it seem like their range is limited to just two squares. I thought highlighting the attack line of sight whenever you selected a monster would've helped make it clearer, but I can see now that it still caused confusion. That's something I'm planning to improve after the jam.
• As for the dialogue system and the barks, I used Dialogue System for Unity by Pixel Crushers. It's amazing and very easy to set up, extend, and customize.

Thank you so much for the feedback!

Yet another smart interpretation of the theme!

However, the game loop felt a bit incomplete to me. There wasn't much indication of whether I was doing well or poorly, or even whether I was winning or losing. Some additional feedback on the player's progress would help make the experience feel more rewarding and easier to understand.

I also felt that the story didn't quite connect with the gameplay. I didn't really understand how hitting the targets with a certain number of ricochets was helping save the cats, so the narrative and gameplay felt somewhat disconnected to me.

All in all, nice work!

Incredible entry! Very clever interpretation of the theme. Connections can actually be interpreted as dependencies, which is exactly what this game is all about. To kill one monster, you have to shoot another. Brilliant! I was especially wowed during the boss fight. Amazing work!

The art is amazing, clean, and consistent. Somehow it gave me Game Boy Advance vibes, though a bit different. I also feel like the core mechanic still has a lot more potential to explore, and I'd love to see more done with it.

I do have a few suggestions:

Progression & Difficulty

• I wish there were more progression elements. The game felt fairly easy up until the boss fight, and I would've liked a bit more challenge leading up to it.

Controls & Combat

• My biggest issue was the aiming. It felt a bit rigid. I think the game would benefit from allowing the player to aim with the mouse cursor, since the player's movement speed combined with only one firing direction can be frustrating at times.
• The shooting system is also easy to abuse. Adding a cooldown or reload period could create more meaningful consequences for spamming shots and encourage more thoughtful play.

Technical Issues

• The game crashed after the 70-monster wave. I had to reload the game and play through everything again to reach the final boss.

Visual Clarity

• I noticed that some projectiles, such as the circular ones, didn't damage the city when they touched it, while others, like the mushroom projectiles, did. I wish there were clearer visual cues to help distinguish between the two types.

That said, this was an amazing experience. The concept is clever, the boss fight was memorable, and the core mechanic is genuinely interesting. I'd really love to see more of this game in the future. Amazing work!

Nice work! The game has a lot of potential, and I can see the effort that went into making it.

That said, I ran into a few issues while playing:

Gameplay

• Whenever I moved, the player kept snapping around, which made the game almost unplayable for me. Because of that, I couldn't fully experience or properly evaluate the gameplay.

Theme: Connections

• I couldn't really see how the theme was implemented in the game, if it was. If there's a connection that I missed, I'd genuinely love to hear more about it.

Visuals

• The art assets seem to use different styles and resolutions. The player, enemies, stage outlines, and spikes all felt like they came from different visual directions. It may have been an artistic choice, but it didn't come across that way to me. Instead, it made the visual identity of the game feel less cohesive. This particular issue is often called "mixelation," which refers to the visual clash caused by using different pixel sizes or resolutions within the same artwork or sprite set.

That said, I can definitely see the potential in the project. Thank you for making the game, and keep it up!

Nice work!

The visuals are great, and the atmosphere is fantastic. The game has a lot of potential, and it's clear that a lot of effort went into creating its world and presentation.

That said, I ran into a few issues while playing:

Tutorial & Onboarding

• The tutorial disappeared after only a few seconds. I actually had to look at the screenshots on the game page to read it properly, and even then, I didn't feel like it fully explained the game. It felt like the game was designed for a very specific audience that already understands the genre.

Gameplay

• I felt that the gameplay itself wasn't really about skill or building expertise to make better decisions. Most of the time, it felt like I was repeatedly left-clicking and hoping for a better attack action. Because of that, I think some players might lose interest since there isn't much meaningful decision-making involved.

UI

• I encountered some UI issues. For example, the Quit button didn't work for me.

Audio

• The game could benefit from more sound effects. When you polish one aspect of a game, such as adding visual effects for spells, it raises expectations for the other aspects as well. For example, a water spell looks cool visually, but without matching sound effects, it can feel a bit incomplete.
• The background music didn't seem to loop.

Theme

• I couldn't really understand the interpretation of the theme, if there was one.

That said, I genuinely appreciate the effort that went into the game. The visuals and atmosphere left a strong impression on me, and I can definitely see the potential here. Keep it up!

Truly incredible entry! I'll be honest, I've seen a bunch of "connect this with that" kinds of games in this jam, but this one truly stands out.

Why? The presentation of the puzzles. The way you rotate the cube and inspect the tiles is fun in and of itself. The game is well balanced, easy to understand, and easy to get into.

I'd really love to see more levels added to the game.

Great work!

Nice entry! I couldn't beat the game, but I still appreciate the puzzles and the ideas behind them. I also like the writing. It gives me Tolkien vibes, which add a lot of charm to the experience.

Great work!

Very impressive entry! Shout out to the whole team! This was a funny Metal Slug-like game, and the fact that it has actual cutscenes is really impressive. Needless to say, the art is incredibly clean and beautiful. With artwork of this quality, I believe you could land an artist role at any indie studio. The animations were amazing as well. Having multiple enemies with multiple clean animations is seriously impressive. I enjoyed the game from start to finish.

I do have a few suggestions that I think could enhance the experience even further. First, the game lacks background music during the stages. Adding one or more tracks would enhance the atmosphere significantly. Second, the game could benefit from more feedback effects. For example, adding effects when the player or enemies get hit would greatly improve the game feel. Since you're using Unity, I'd suggest checking out Feel by More Mountains and All In 1 Sprite Shader by Seaside Studios. I used both extensively in my own game, and they're very easy to set up, extend, and customize. Third, the UI, especially the health bar, felt a bit small. For reference, I played the Windows desktop version. Finally, I found the game a bit easy. A more gradual increase in difficulty could improve the sense of progression, although I think the game already does a good job of introducing new abilities and enemies with each stage.

That said, this is still an incredible entry. The presentation, art, animation, and overall polish are outstanding, and it's clear that a lot of care went into making it. Great work!

Thank you so much for trying out the game!

Thank you so much for trying out the game!

Duuuuuuuuuude! You just made my day! Thank you so much for playing the game and for your kind words.

I'm really happy you liked the mechanic. I've been iterating on grid-based puzzle games for a while now. This is my fourth game jam using grid-based puzzle mechanics, and I'm pretty happy to see that I'm getting better.

As for the story, I actually understand that most people wouldn't want to read that much, but I felt that having a story would definitely give a stronger sense of purpose, urgency, empathy, and so on, so I couldn't just ignore it.

I'm also really happy that you liked my art style. Honestly, I'm still learning pixel art, and I'm extremely weak when it comes to animation. That's why I rely heavily on VFX and code-based animations (tweening) to help mask some of my limitations.

Again, thank you for your feedback, and I'm really excited to check out your submission!

Great work! First of all, shout out to the whole team. The visuals, music, and effects all being done by you is seriously impressive. It’s also not very common to see rhythm games in game jams, so shout out to that too.

For reference, I’ve played some rhythm games before, such as Sayonara Wild Hearts, Fresh Tracks, and Everhood, yet I still found Act 1 pretty difficult. Maybe it’s just a problem on my side, but I think the game could use a bit more balancing.

I also noticed some UI issues. The menus felt a bit unresponsive at times. For example, in the start menu, the mouse has to be almost exactly at the center of the button for it to highlight properly.

I also honestly couldn't understand how the game implemented the theme, if it did. If there is a connection that I missed, I’d genuinely love to know more about it.

That said, the presentation and overall vibe of the game were really good, and it’s clear a lot of effort went into it. All in all, nice work!

Nice work! The game's visuals are pretty neat, and the overall presentation feels polished. Once I started getting into the gameplay, I found it genuinely fun.

That said, it took me quite a while to understand the game loop, and honestly, I'm still not sure if I fully understand everything yet. I think adding a bit more explanation about the core gameplay loop on the game page would help a lot and make it easier for new players to get into the game.

Still, I really liked the overall vibe and presentation, and I'd definitely give it another shot after reading more about how the mechanics work. All in all, great work!

Great work! The art in this game is amazing. Is it hand-drawn or vector art? The story is very good and emotional, and the gameplay is solid. However, I feel like it lacks a wow factor. Other than that, it is still solid and fun.

I really wish there were checkpoints in the levels. Sometimes there are some difficult jumps, so having to repeat the whole level just to retry them can get a bit frustrating.

All in all, Great entry!

Thank you so much for trying out the game.

As for being unable to place a character in the shelter during a turn:

1- It is a turn-based game, so I can't allow the player to place another monster before every existing monster has taken its turn, if any.

2- I don't think it ruins the sense of urgency. In my opinion, it actually intensifies the consequences of a wrong placement, since attacks take more time away from you before you regain control. However, it is still a good point to consider and think about, so thank you!

As for the facing direction, I totally agree with you. Some sprites don't represent their direction clearly enough, especially the diagonal ones.

Thank you for playing the game and for your feedback!

Interesting entry. The art style is very unique, and the game itself is satisfying to look at and observe. I also liked that I was playing the villain here.

My only feedback would be that the font size for the stats of each hive mind is a bit small, especially since the game doesn't support fullscreen.

Great work, and keep it up!

Thank you for playing the game. I agree, I went a bit crazy with the dialogues.

I finished the game, and I'd say it was funny from start to finish. Great work. The whole game idea is very creative, and I was sold from the very beginning. The dialogues were good and funny, especially the ones about AI. I'm against using AI for content, by the way, which made those dialogues even funnier to me.

I'd really love to see the GameDev.tv team play it during their stream next week. I'll probably spam the chat for it!

I just wish there were more gameplay elements in the game. For example, a little puzzle to open up the panel or the locker, or maybe a small audio engineering quiz to calm Leah down and get her to talk.

Overall, amazing work. Keep it up!

Cool game! I couldn't beat it, but I appreciate the idea behind it. The puzzle seems cool, and the basics are easy to understand, so shout out to that. I also liked the introduction to the story. It actually gave me Star Wars vibes, and honestly the whole game did too.

The enemy AI wasn't that strong, though. They didn't feel like much of a threat unless you were in the same room with them, and they also piled up in rooms very quickly, which might cause some balancing problems.

Great work, and keep it up!

I see now. As for some creatures showing only two squares of threat when they actually have more, all creatures that have more than one square in the info page are meant to see all along that row or column. But because the grid in the info page is only 5x5, it makes it seem like their range is limited to just two squares, which is totally on me.

I thought highlighting the attack line of sight whenever you selected a monster would've helped make it clearer, but I can see now that it still caused confusion.

Thank you for your feedback!