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Zone Three, what do you want from me?!

The narrative here is simple but believable. You are say, vastly underqualified for your job and you need to maximize your resources to survive. The first half of the game is exploration with your two inputs, and the latter half is hypothermic finger biting and watching the count down.

The biggest missed opportunity here is the entire game is basically a one page puzzle. Once you've found the right ratio, and applied it to each page ( wasn't obvious why I was losing at first! ) we don't get any further dynamic content. I think you could artificially generate a lot more depth simply by having a smaller timer, upon success "You survived a day, but the storm doesn't let up..." and then then next day run the Maximum chill down even lower. Having a reason to click each of the zones would also add a little clock to the back of my mind. (Zone 3 probably needs me to click to restart its generator soon....)

All of the font and graphics are cohesive. It didn't feel like a HTML game, it really did feel like some kind of control surface. I didn't have any troubles with my inputs translating into the game either. I couldn't really ready the log, but I liked the fluff it brought the lore a ton. Really helped seal that immersion.

I think with this concept, if you consider how to challenge the player and either aide or obstruct them from finding the perfect ratio, you'll have the path to a complete game experience.

Zone three close your windows!!! It's not my fault you're freezing!

They call me mister detailed....

Detailed is my middle name.

I detail a da post.  :)   <3 xxx

The hacking and slashing action felt really really good. It was especially a treat that It didn't always strictly matter if I was getting hit once or twice in a fight, as long as I made up for it. I'm a big fan of life leech builds in games, haha.

Mixing it up, your slew of fun powerups definitely scratched some of that path of exile itch. Though I ended up pretty much always doing extra time.

It didn't feel bad making a mistake and running out of time from a lot of bad hits. What felt really bad, every time it happened, was losing because I just couldn't find where you'd put the enemy spawns. I sprinting around a labyrinth, sticking to each wall, and my only source of frustration was that the adds mobs, a core part of this raid, were missing some extra thought. I'm sure if you made and designed the experience, it felt completely natural where to rush and where to grind time, but I'm sure watching a stream of someone else try to organically discover this might surprise! :)

The accessibility of the game was great. I'm really thankful you took the smart route of one button for a combo chain instead of left click light, right click power kind of thing I see that adds no actual texture to a game while diluting it. This game was totally touting its own strengths. I can't wait to see even more incredible effects.

PS is it cheating if I had to whittle the boss and scurry away frantically searching for time recoveries? I liked that there was always a chance, right until the end, to recover. :)

Enough charm to keep me invested through my plays. It might seem silly to say the writing was great, but sometimes the white space can be just as interesting as a super meaningful dialogue tree. It was my reward for beating a layer, just so Blorbo could pow, stick it to the Demiurge!

For a game about the countdowns, that are so intrinsically linked to the countdowns in mechanics, I really don't think it would have made the game too easy by showing them to us. We have the godhead after all. With a clock for a head. He could just watch in the background. The game was absolutely punishing, but that's not worth any less. I wanna be the guy is fun genre and rewards patience and investment!

I have to give kudos to the character controller. There's a reason you don't see slopes absolutely everywhere in gamejams. You have to find the right asset, or put time and care in, to get those sonic levels of snappy-feelgood on slopes. None of the hurt boxes felt cheesy, and the jumps had in just enough forgiveness to keep me feeling like I really could save the world this time. The graphics are right where they need to be, completely coherent across the experience! xx

Right off the bat, this was my kind of dig, dog. Having wasted years of my life playing Lego flash games, I knew I'd like it as soon as you pulled out the transistor puzzle piece.

The set dressing and environment are fun, as is the narrative stitching for why we're here. You puzzles, rather than just being a shaken-jar of "guess the number", very clearly reflect to the player what their objective is, and promise it can be achieved by just playing around, engaging, and seeing the results. A lot of people miss that gamespace between "victory" and "defeat" that's supposed to keep the player going, and seeing the little animations and timed fuses helps convey to me when I am or am not on the right track.

I think the visuals could use a little more gamefeel. I think adding a snap-grid to the pick and place would make it feel a lot more responsive and purposeful to the player. Combine that with some free time post-jam to make the cable a little droopier and sloppier, I could see you reinforcing both aspects of mad-man and genius that you're trying to make the player feel. Many UI elements just didn't hold up to your excellent standard either.

I was so happy when it started clicking and I could see all the different permutations of numbers I could achieve with just a few tools. I think the concept, the models themselves, the content you created is all up to fantastic stuff. I hope I can see more clever games from your team. xx

The Bar elements are.... Quads zeroes with -.5 -> +-.5.... how did I miss this :laughing:

Thank you. A sensible person to actually check the options menu for me xxxx

Not to be rude, but me and my new bitcoin miner aren't even sure there's a countdown in this experience.

If you wanted some feedback on this game even outside of the GMTK jam theme..

Being an asset flip, there was still absolutely no distinction between my inputs contributing anything meaningful. I went to one end of the world to find nothing. I thought I saw a beacon on the other, but it in fact turned out to be a visible seam in the skybox. The game files themselves were updated four days ago and there are posts from a month.

Unforgiving, but also unforgivingly fun once you get some feet under you.

I really liked how accessible the inputs felt. I didn't particularly need a tutorial, and no loss felt cheated. I wish that I could see a little more around myself, especially later on the level layout can get quite punishing and due to the gmtk's theme you're only ever one wrong turn from a gameover, which sometimes felt a little unfair and random.

The bouncing to advance was definitely a cool factor, and I appreciate the bit of forgiveness I can see you tuned into the hitbox of those. The grapple enemies also directly factored into the theme, as their only real menace was costing time! I did find that one grapple was still pretty much a gameover for me. :)

The art deserves some adoration. I would loved to have seen even more drawn, time-be-willing, because cohesively it would be a really nice sight to see!

I sunk quite a lot of goes into this, delaying a bunch of other stuff in my day so that's tote goats high praise xx

The right click arrows are just really satisfying. I think the entire game would survive totally great without the left click, they were so fun.

I have to share a lot of the sentiment that the movement is pretty-tricky. I was just all the time sticking to walls I didn't intend. But on the other hand, the wall jumps are really crisp and easy to pull off. I'm sure if I spent the better part of an entire jam playing and testing, I wouldn't be struggling as much.

The music and art were all very cohesive. The setting really set itself. The attention to the sprite work and animation is just absolutely staggering. I also smelled a lot of care put into the scripts of the character movement, the indicators and such. All of the information on that front too, was clearly presented and I had no trouble getting my arrows to do what I want. Just the moves. :)

I never got to meet the count, I'm sorry. Slay him for me!

I'm not sure if my machine was underpowered, but the entire game for me was through a gmod-stutter filter which was really funny and felt in tune with what you were going for. MMMMMMMMMMMMM

A classic buckshot that actually rewards and encourages you to think through your moves. Don't laugh at the microwave, and keep a straight head on. Absolutely nothing wrong with the mechanics here. I never had any issues with my inputs or clicks, and the animation did not drag on or anything, keeping the pace nice.

I think the player experience could use some fine tuning. In your goal make me smile about a classic game, we prioritized a few things like the first-person look at the LIVE vs BLANK text. Which while a good salute, had half the text clipped through the table. More than anything the challenge of the game was trying to acquire all the information I needed to- play the game. Some things that should have been the most legible, like the microwave timer, are some of the least.

I went through twice to beat the microwave twice, because I really did like the idea of a good epic videogame _survive_ mission objective, and because the idea of a complete drunk in his kitchen with the microwave is dark enough to be funny. :) 

Nice work champ

The strong point is definitely some of the creativity and emergent behavior you can get with the different enemy variety. Slowing down a quick guy on a slow guy, or being careful to not trip the aggro range when they spawn in the corner..

I think the random generation and infinite gameplay actually weakens this a bit. Number go up is fun, but I don't really get to explore your gamespace when I'm just idling in a corner waiting for the timer.

I am always glad to see, of course, any game where the timer is not the bad guy! The timer here is refreshing, a chance to score higher and something I look forward to each round.

Every puzzle lived up to the countdown. At first I was like, "Ok, platformer with a timer," but then I started throwing the eggs around and getting to the multi egg timer puzzles and I saw the vision come right through.

I wanted to give a special shout out to your natural and well-paced tutorial. Every level until the finish had me thinking about something new, and I never once felt overwhelmed by a new mechanic. Additionally, the play is well-tuned and I never felt like I missed a throw or an ice timing unfairly. That takes work.

I'd have like to have seen more , certainly. The gameplay felt like it was missing that one extra element that could bring in emergent behavior, or really make me think about the main countdown.

I'm always partial to this, but the champion's-run at the end was a super nice inclusion, and if you ever doubted it, I'm glad it's in there. Having a fun reward level to cap off your completion animation really leaves a smile on your face when you play it, and that's in no small part due to your wonderful storying and cutscenes.

It took me five or six times to win, and I'll be honest, the winning run mostly took cheesing mashing 'E' as quick as possible.

I like that the countdown is not visually present, but is so audibly present that you're always paying attention to it.

A lot of the click hitboxes could use some alignment or flexibility, especially since the final run has to be so almost "pixel perfect" to pass. I'd have liked to have seen this expanded into something more, but aside from a lot of my input not feeling totally well-received by the scripts, I had no issues with the idea. A very very tightly paced  race.

Not my poor hamsters... though I make a pretty good doctor at twelve little lives saved.

I had no issues at all playing the game. All the inputs were read clearly, with what felt like a little forgiveness too. 

I wish there was more game! To be completely honest with you, for 'countdown', I didn't even once look at the countdown because it wouldn't give me any meaningful information. I just put my head down and saved lives.

The paper cutout style endeared me a ton, and Brodie, you did absolutely fantastic on a larger than life score. There was a nice punch to each of the key presses that was well received, and I'd be really excited to see a game like this that ends the time, tells me I did a good job, lets me pick an upgrade, then throws me right back in. :)

Hard not to likethis game. I'm obviously biased to love a submission where the countdown is the good-guy. The mechanics came quickly enough, I didn't particularly need any tutorial help.

The actual gameplay came quite punishing to me! I couldn't even barely side-scrape a spike, or hang a split second at the edge of a jump. I think you'd get an immediate triple boost in fun by smartening up some of these gameplay-feel tweaks. They can have a huge impact not on making a game "easier", but by letting a player better see on screen what they intended to do.

The protagonist is just a treat, and as mentioned below, the menu screens show real cohesion with the rest of the non-asset art. Big Cheese! It also felt like all the level designs had been well thought out and planned, which helps to keep the game feeling like your takeshi's castle for me to beat. 

I tried to play it alone, with the description up on another monitor. It might have spoiled some of the intended magic, but the lovely attention to detailing was not wasted on me. I ready did feel like Indiana Jones with a tome in my other hand.

I did run out of time multiple times, but the process didn't feel insulting at all. Maybe it's the Myst/Riven nature that I really can like games like that. Putting the timer in the hourglass was a nice touch, but I do think that lost a lot of the 'count down' aspects.

The controls were intuitive, though I spent more time reading and thinking than playing anything. I think one quick easy way to boost retention would be to add a couple clickable fun animations. They likely wouldn't confuse the player if the "needs a manual to play" was more prominent anyway.

Art gorgeous. Enough said there. I didn't pick up on right click to look around right away. It could probably be covered in one small popup, or adding some accessibility forgiveness would help too. (IE, right click... or WASD... or arrows,)

A game that goes negative! I liked that. We're still counting down of course, but the number keeps getting bigger.

It was a little buggy for me. After the couch fell, I was kind of trapped in limbo and couldn't seem to progress any more. I love a cookie clicker so bad, but I could never collect from say, sinner #8 because presumably he's behind the couch. It an auto-sinner mechanic, it'd be right on the money as beyond 3-4 sinners, honestly, gets beyond my ability to quickly enough click everything!

That art style is charming and doesn't overstay at all, though I think there could have been more things still to draw. The first game I've seen that goes negative, which is inspired.

I think the only thing missing is allowing me to take a 3-minute bathroom break or walking out the front door for comedy game-overs. :)

I was glad to see just how many examines there were to find. Once I had a couple plays, I decided to take my time and read as many of them as I can. You've really filled out this fictional office history in a (frightfully) believable way.

For a game where clicking is the main input, It definitely didn't feel as clicky as I think it could have. Some text was hard to be legible for someone as dyslexic and with as big glasses as I have. A couple of times I was really juggling around my WASD position to look down right at a desk.

I think three minutes is a very nicely tuned timeframe. Almost as cruel as 72 hours to make a game. Nice work on getting me (and apparently others) to replay so many times on the strength of your writing xx

Thank you so much. I call it, the "hand write an ECS system from scratch in rust then completely botch the release at last second" special ahahah. :)

The outpouring of support for the theming really means a lot to me, while also teaching me about my priorities next go around xx

Completely and utterly surreal in just a right fantastic way. :)

Opening the game without realizing the check the keybinds was fantastic. The charm of the little goop goobers outweighed how completely at their mercy I felt. The game opens with like twenty of them. But after a couple playthroughs, I was really able to lay down mirrors. I got over 120f! Now that's an edible hot pocket.

I feel like if more of the enemies were dripfed spawned instead of all at once it might be more approachable for players. I also think the mirrors could be a little more forgiving considering you're lucky at the moment to catch a heatray, nevermind be smart about directing it.

Cohesive. I love a good wario ware and there was just enough variety through the minigames to get me really quite far. Plus I'm hungry now for a good pretzel and mustard.

I think for being a major part of the game, the countdown rhythm games could have used just a hair more dress up, and that work would immediately make hitting those really really satisfying. You did convey well the tension in the barrel though, that did feel explosive.

I am the world's biggest fan of sprite billboarding (obviously lol). I don't think it's ever done me wrong

Very nice pace, you spread out the tasks nicely for the timer. The animations were charming, but once I got to the change in artwork, nice work. I hope enough people take their time to get immersed in the narrative. <3 

Some of the clicks that weren't 1-shot could be a little confusing without much input feedback. The pace of the walking meant I relied a lot on the hitscan range of the clicking, and I think your sprite billboards are turning to face the camera position, when you're going to get a lot nicer of an effect by turning them to make the direction of the camera ray itself. :) 

One of the more narrative experiences in the jam!

Lovely expanding difficulty. The scoring system always felt fair, though I'm good at dancing and I could never get those back-to-back perfects yet. I'll just have to come back and try more.

This jam has had a lot of adorable art, and this is definitely up there and I'll remember it. It well-supported your Count narrative in a sensible way with the villagers reactions to their daily life. I would have loved to see more about these characters!

I feel like on the mechanics, there's a missed opportunity to spice something up in a way that isn't just adding an extra channel/keypress. IE, two different mechanics can have more interesting overlap than one mechanic twice etc.

Totally a sensible time sink I would have spent way too much time on miniclip on back when.

Unfortunately, I couldn't get this one to run. I think its missing some Unity dependencies.

I tried splicing in some UnityPlayer.dlls besides it, but there must be a version mismatch. If there's a cheat or trick I can try to play your game, let me know!

The sweet-spot mechanic really is a nice addition. 

I agree with a lot of the other takes that I could really see this expanded! More kinds of fruit and customers? It was very jolly. I had no issues with my inputs, and your hitboxes for drag seemed nice and generous.

The art of course was really endearing. We're team animals-in-peculiar-situations. 

I'm not sold (ha) that spam selling the fruit isn't the best move, and as far as I can tell there's not a real failure or win condition, but that didn't stop be from spending over fifteen minutes feeding cats because I felt bad anytime I had to give away something mouldy.. :)

Hey, go team "3d in 2d"!!!! :D

I liked the creative take on countdown, and I would have loved to see this game finished. The cutouts definitely conveyed your intention here, I just would have loved to see the finished picture (get it). Kind of like 'youre in the movies' where I spent far too much time.

The swap between perspectives was well received. It immediately read that I was in the audience.

Once I had my feet under me, this was a really enjoyable romp. 

In the yes category, obviously all the asset working, the moodsetting, and the 2d inverse kinematics are all just fantastic. I loved the bugs-eating-bugs behavior, just a nice little touch. Getting to shake the jars felt cute.

The inputs were inspired, but not too forgiving. That was a little fun in a QWOP way, but might have put a person off. I'm glad you had multiple timers in different venues of the experience instead of just one big one, but aside from the clock It felt just a little disconnected from 'countdown'.

I don't intend to be bad news! The truth is always best. But, out of the games I've played the input method here was totally unique and very memorable to me. I'll definitely be checking out everyone's works. xx

Hi GMeta OS neighbor! 

I was so thankful when I discovered your countdown wasn't a timer, it really was a countdown! Then I was inspired when I understood that counting down multiple iterations was the point. A really creative puzzle platformer. 

I was worried I wasn't going to be smart enough to crack it, but it's actually a nice peaceful game that gives you chance to think. It's going to take me a while to get the achievement though.. 

The inputs could be a little sluggish at times. It wasn't ever super important that a jump did what I needed it to, but I definitely think a point of improvement could be the legibility, input, and accessibility aspects. I have zero notes on the gameplay itself. They're definitely reinforcing and doing what's right here. I liked the little art. I'm sure you'd eventually make it a... character or something. The vector landscape was also definitely a plus for me, but I know that's part of why it can be challenging to tweak those moves and jumps!

Nice workkk

Now this I'm putting on a bookmark. There is a ton of content here! 

The attribution to the Countdown theme is obvious, imaginative, and reinforced through the gameplay. Before each battle has me so far judging and guessing and heuristicing in a way that is similar to slay the spire's "meta game". Return playthroughs I'm already getting a better grasp on the relative challenge-rating of each of the numbers, and its nice to feel that I'm being rewarded for that.

Up front, it's a little intimidating and it's hard to want to cater to myself by spending heavily, especially as the levels get harder. But I'm not sure that's a gameplay flaw. Framing them as cute blorbos definitely makes me feel better about the decision paralysis. The UI I had a little trouble with at first, between space, legibility, and understanding my interactions. Other UI stuff like the arrows for navigation were spot on though. I didn't have as much trouble with the balance/difficulty as more about how I _felt_ about judging the challenges. :)

The artstyle was very cohesively chosen. Are they all from the same pack/creator? Leaning into the strengths of the asset selection worked out a ton. Same with the levels. Felt a little bit like playing with action figures.

I couldn't figure out the win condition on this one. The character controller was snappy on lateral movement, but I had no forgiveness for the off-the-edge jumps in a platformer. The timer felt nicely tuned and just right, but I did get to the top of the level three times across plays and I seemed to lose anyway. Maybe a statement about life..? :)

I think sprinkling in some dynamics, some moving red zones could go a ways. The hard cut to loss is a little rough too, as you might make a mistake early on and not know you've already lost until the very end where you're a half second behind. ( if reaching the top is supposed to be the win! )

Now this one was a wonderful surprise. As a horrible horrible chess-player, this let me feel like a SuperQueen, and gave me that power fantasy.

The imagination on the set dressing is lovely. I think everyone agrees we'd love to have seen more of that make its way into the assets, but you know, gamejam. :) 

I'm not sure if I just was good at chess or if you did the great designer work of making each stage forgiving with multiple ways to succeed. I'd like to just believe that I'm good, so nice work there.

The game was free of bugs and I had zero issues with my inputs. I think a little more flourish and reinforcement would make each of these moves feel really snappy too.

I am so weak to card games so this one came naturally. The use of time as a currency felt really rewarding because it meant that if I was quick (two-pair, my always beloved... :) ) I had some input and control over the random elements. IE, play a hand to throw it away, save it all for a joker with a nice effect.

I liked the joker cards a lot, very charming. The game didn't overstay its welcome, and the concept is quick enough to grasp. I didn't realize the cool cards at the end were playable until a couple gos in, and they really opened up the gamespace for me. I think of course, it just needs more control, more things for me to do other than being quick to spot hands.

Nice work!

I can't say enough about this game. The countdown was tuned to just a great length to make me second-guess myself every time.

The tree you built for grading sensible and unsensible input never felt random or unfair. I appreciated throwing me a bone with 'local heartthrob becomes the love of your life' because boy was I sweating.

Because I am required by law to critic something... I suppose some of the narrative could really have reinforced the 'love is a battle' ideation behind including a timer. Then this perfect game could eek out being a 2% more perfect game by reinforcing the countdown other than being a timer.

This just absolutely oozes personality. You made all of this yourself? The art is all cohesive, the inputs smooth, and I didn't hit any bugs or hiccups. An unexpectedly production level release I'm super agog! Congratulations!

I'm hearing a lot that I should I have started the tutorial content a day before and not at 2am LOL! Thank you for the feedback it really does so mean much to get. <3 

Buttery smooth gamefeel. I really like all the animations for popping up, and the first zoom-out had me go :O

It took me a while to notice they had more variations than just color. Nice touches!

I'm very happy with the scope of this project. None of it felt incomplete. In fact, I think my biggest critique is I'd just like 'more'. More twists, more inputs, more complications. Not a bad note at all for a <72 hr game.

Maybe the character input was a little float-y, but that's just tuning, not a fundamental misstep. Very happy to spend twenty minutes here.

Coherent and intuitive. I love a traveling salesman game. The art is charming and it does read as self-consistent across the assets. :) 

I wish there were a bit more nuance between winning and losing. The adherence to the countdown prompt is completely fab.

I played a few times and really tried to min-max my shop buy order!

The execution really did come through in the end! Thank you for giving everyone such a wonderful little sidequest <3

I see you, stretch-hose physics. Absolutely loved the focus on the cord, and watching it nicely bend around corners and guide me back. The turbo button was also really appreciated.

The opening cutscene and lots of the little details and care into the effects is well-received!

Very satisfying to click. Nice little music, and I'm glad to see the countdown so intricately linked to the game. I wasn't very good at it!

Thank you. I really spent a long time trying to add all kinds of forgiveness factors. Your feedback means a lot.