Thank you Doctor_Succubus for hosting the 2026 NES Game Jam 👈(ﾟヮﾟ👈)

And thank everyone who had the time to play our team's submission, Volley Stars. It has been fun starting the project and playing others' submissions.

Now for the Volley Stars roadmap...

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Social Media Posts (Jul-Aug)

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Shorts showcasing music, art, and programming content!

Follow the GameCave LLC media pages for creative insights (●'◡'●)

X (Twitter)

Youtube

Instagram

Playtest (TBD)

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When the team feels prepared and available to run a play test event, an announcement will be posted. 

Want to be credited as a play tester? Join the GameCave LLC Discord for announcements, follow the social media links above, or track this thread for future updates.

Discord (Server Invite)

oh also, is there a way to download/view the song?? its so good like what??

Great game.  Loved the enemies, music, art, and the boss battle made me lock in. 

I love hearing vocals alongside some good chiptune!  The art and rhythm game was fun and just challenging enough to where I was able to enjoy the visuals and nail the inputs. (～￣▽￣)～

What a great game!!! This had me on the edge of my seat the whole time. 

I really enjoyed the narrative and found myself laughing when squinting and trying to read certain lines of text at times.  I was struggling to depict the font occasionally, but the dialogue was entertaining and made it well worth the investment.

I love being a goat!! the puzzles were so fun to figure out (i got stuck behind the rock on the 4th level lol

OMG i love the art and music and atmosphere of this game!! This is such high quality!

Lol, GG!

Loved the art and gameplay.  I was bopping to the music, too. []~(￣▽￣)~*

I love the sprites!!! they're so cute!!

I would love to hear some insights on your creative process for this game.  I liked the concept of being able to guide the dark blue window for the level. Once I understood how that mechanic worked, it was fun to click around and try avoiding the obstacles.

GG ╰(*°▽°*)╯

The minigames are so fun!  Jumping in resulted in a great deal of romantic chaos.❤️‍🔥 Your art style is cute and colorful, and I got a kick out of all the scenes you made of Serge and Vicki. The lore behind Vicki is awesome, too. It would be funny to know if Kornichon was aware of being a character at the start of the jam. 🤣

You have a wonderful Miro board.  🔥Your inspirations, concepts, and results were all shown in an insightful and inspiring way.  Seeing the Papa's Gameria video reference hyped me up, as did your interaction with Rei8bit. 

Thank you for participating! Also, I had to get a better score off-stream, so here is that redemption:

The pixel art is well-detailed! 🎨💕  Each area has interesting characters and an engaging variety of dialogue sequences.  I loved the music for each scene and sound design. It made the interactions and transitions between areas more immersive. 🎶

According to your GitHub, I did not get all of the endings.  I tried to meet the conditions that could alter my fate, but my dice rolls were not good. 😅

I would love for the Blind Seer to be able to sway fate more effectively when I am replaying the story.  You have a beautiful world and characters. 🌟

What would your team's focus have been with more time?  Thank you for participating!

Ser Bernard, the greatest of the greats.  ❤️

I loved this, and am reminded to try out Godot!  I was completely oblivious to the dino the first time and got snuck up on, lol. 🦖

The objective and controls were straightforward, and the title music was so cool and ambient.  Once I realized the raptor was on the prowl, I became mindful of audio and spacing as I searched for crystals. Three crystals, one enemy, and not too large an environment were a good first-level experience. Your endgame message teasing bats was an exciting thought. 🌟

This is a cool concept to whip up in little time, and just the start of Ser Bernard's journey! I am left to wonder what lies deeper in the cave? 🤔

Woop woop (~￣▽￣)~

GGs, 2314!

 When I became Master Bullcheater, the employee stopped coming around to help!  I lost when I stopped staring at my keyboard.  🤣

The sentences are amusing and challenging. I love the low-poly setting. 🔥 Starting in a chaotic office stresses the importance of gameplay learning curves. This was a fun idea that you tackled with good instructional and UI approaches.

My question comes from your constraints document's mention of trigger alerts: What are your thoughts on feats that could enhance the player's learning experience?   

 Thank you for sharing, and I am glad the jam was a good experience. : )

Thank you, Seveniscool, and yes, the imposed theme is constraint.  You will need to include additional attachments in your submission that demonstrate game design and project management (i.e., Mood boards, asset tracker sheets, storyboards, video game design docs, sketches, doodles on a whiteboard...). 
These additional attachments will be used for determining a submission's rating in the 'Constraint' category.

You will be required to include additional attachments for this category.  Otherwise, your submission cannot be fully scored.

If this does not make sense, please let me know where you are confused. : )

Hello everyone! 👋 

My name is Johnny, and I will be moderating this event for its duration.  The best methods for contacting me will be through my Discord account in the server, @BaggoNotes, or through my email: gamecavemain@gmail.com

I wish all the best in your creative endeavors.  I also apologize for the lateness of announcements, and will be continuing to roll out more info as everyone is jamming.  More cool details will be revealed as the event progresses, so keep an eye on our Discord and media pages for some news I am excitedly putting together!

Everything you need to know to participate has been reflected on the game jam page.  I will be posting a video announcement soon to recap the details given, and I am actively working on answering all questions.

I appreciate your time and interest, and look forward to seeing your work!

- Johnny (BaggoNotes)

Fun game , I feel smart. : D

Green mouse is best mouse friend.

I am a pinballer!  I don't know if I can get 1 million points, but if I do, I will post an update. (～￣▽￣)～

The sounds all the flippers and pushers make made me try to play a tune with specific sequences of inputs. I loved it!

I really liked the puzzles, dialogue, and difficulty progression!

There was a funny moment my friend was watching me play, and I freed Troll Girl for the first time.  When she noticed the fire jar cannon and went to destroy it, she made an exclamation and ran off-screen.  My buddy and I went "Oh no", and all we heard was a crunchy sound effect.

We had no idea Troll Girl had destroyed the cannon.  We thought she got destroyed the moment we freed her.  I was dying with laughter, especially when we went to scope the scene and saw she was still alive.

Troll girl for the win, lol.

Fwooh, I am stuck haha.  I feel like my last three endings have something to do with the lights, the star revealed by the flash light, and the morse code.  Good game!

I second this.  I need this tune!!!

Holy moly, FOR THE EMPEROR!  This was a lot of fun, there were so many minigames and options that enriched gameplay!  I am also a sucker for outer space.  I really liked the level select map and ambient music.  

This was a cute play, I enjoyed the bubble parkour.  The ending was so happy!

All of this game's scenarios were super fun.  I found the treadmill level to be most challenging!  The sound of the meteors is intense and satisfying, and the end-game tune keeps me sitting and debating whether I want to try again or not.  Very engaging gameplay, love it!

I GOT SO CLOSE TO 1000 AGHHHHHHH!!!!! This game is great. : D 

Fun game!  It was nice to explore the level each time I repaired the dam and discover new paths.  I liked the character interactions too.  The bunny cracked me up.

Very cool, unique Horror experience!  I enjoyed the sounds, end-game tune, and really liked the channel surfing mechanic and progression for the game's story.

Challenging but in a good way.  A big part of the thrill for me is seeing how many steps ahead I can think, which becomes a crazy task with lots of enemies on the screen!