itch.io

Great atmosphere and one of the better feeling 3D camera controls/movement I've seen in the jam so far. Wonderful, surreal level design as well! I enjoyed not quite knowing what would show up next, and you played around nicely with perspective and size. 

I got stuck at first in the room after you exit the first area. Didn't realise that walking around the pillar in the middle would give me a new opening to go through when I looked back. But it was a cool effect once I figured it out, so I wouldn't ditch it. 

A little more interaction/gameplay beyond walking would've been the cherry on top, but I really love what you put together here. A very well-crafted experience! 

Cool atmosphere and a fun/tense time trying to navigate the house and grab all the objects before time ran out :D 

Sweet, will hopefully not take toooo long until there's something to share (famous last words). You should've received an email you'll need to click 'Confirm' in to make sure you're added to the list.  

Awesome! Please check your email, there's a 'confirm' button you need to click (sorry I don't think this was made clear enough on the landing page UI)

Fun concept, I had a good time trying to figure out what item would be best and tossing it up was a nice way to control that action (as opposed to just clicking, which I think would be a bit boring). Sometimes it got stuck to my cursor or to another object, but not too much of an issue, was pretty quick to resolve. 

Nice job, team! 

Super well-polished game! I'm surprised to see you were just a solo developer on this one, well done! 

I think the concept is really cool, it's quite innovative to combine deckbuilding and dice throwing - it feels like something that should have existed for ages but this is the first time I've seen that mechanic. It's a double dose of randomness but never felt unfair. 

There was a bit of confusion at first. I wasn't sure what to do when clicking on cards and clicking on dice didn't do anything, then read the description to see that dice need to be dragged onto compatible cards to play. An in-game instruction there would've been great. It also wasn't clear at first whose health/stats were whose, as there's no visual distinction between the opponent's health and mine. Last critique: my fight with the Leech felt a bit too long, I think they got lucky with high d20 rolls that took me a while to chip away at their health. 

Overall, though, this really impressed me! Very nice work! 

Well done on your first game jam! I like playing around with time as a concept, and you used it to create some cool puzzles using a variety of objects that behave differently under different time circumstance. I think you were successful in onboarding me into what each component does, so I was never confused about how anything would behave. 

I struggled a bit with some levels. Level 3 and 4 and 7 were my biggest hurdles because of the very precise timing needed. Level 9 took a while to figure out what I needed to and I nearly gave up there, but I'm glad I didn't because the ending sequence is really well executed! And I also then found the levels I struggled with the first time were easier on a second playthrough, so it seems like the precision platforming is something that you get better at the more you play. 

Nice job making it all from scratch, too!  

I'll be working on a full release of the game and want to email its early fans when it's ready to try out. If you're interested, I'm gathering emails here: https://barrielake.com/propup But no pressure at all, I can always come back and find you here :) 

Great improvement! And thank you for being a repeat player, it's very encouraging for me to see :) 

I am going to turn this into a fuller game - leaderboards, jokers, and more! If you would like to receive an announcement when it's ready to play(test), I've started gathering some emails here: https://barrielake.com/propup. No pressure at all, though! The fact that you've played and shared your fun experience with me is more than enough :) 

Thanks again for the encouragement! I am going to expand this into a fuller release. Not sure how long it'll take 😅 But if you would like to get an announcement when it's eventually ready to play(test), I've started gathering some emails here: https://barrielake.com/propup

No pressure, of course! 

You were one of the first to really enthusiastically love this game, and that lifted my spirits in the hours after I thought I'd submitted something that wasn't very fun. 

Thanks to you and other encouraging people, I'm going to go ahead with that full release! If you would like to be in the loop when it's ready to play, please consider signing up here: https://barrielake.com/propup - but absolutely no pressure!  

I have to start by thanking you for your player-friendly checkpoint/respawn system! This allowed me to experience your whole game without the frustration of starting a level from the beginning. 

This is a really impressive entry in the jam, a very polished level and great visual style. I never had a hard time figuring out where to go next, and enjoyed the process of unlocking the gate by navigating to different levers. Well done, team! 

Unfortunately the game's graphics glitched out on me so I couldn't play this one. After I start I end up in this strange area with an intense black hole thing. But seems like you've made a good game based on comments and screenshots, so nice work! I've left it unrated to be fair. 

Well done to you and your cousin for completing this in 24 hours, and all from scratch. The art is cute, and it's a fun time. A health bar or some lives for me and the cat would help to show how much damage we've each taken and how much health there is left to go. 

Very nice visuals and a creepy atmosphere. I wanted a bit more gameplay as I felt a little bit aimless navigating the maze and collecting things. Would have appreciated brightness and mouse sensitivity settings but understand that is a bit of a luxury in a game jam setting, so that's fair. Otherwise it's a nicely polished experience and I think delivers the horror elements very well. 

Very nightmarish game (in a good way!) with an unsettling scenario, I hope I don't end up roaming around that house in my dreams tonight. I think it would be improved with a mouse sensitivity setting or something like that, as moving the camera was hard (picking up the mouse repeatedly to make a turn) which made going back and forth in the house more difficult. 

I think you've done really well with the scenario, you have a solid premise/story and establish an excellent scary atmosphere in the game. It just needed a bit more in the gameplay department, as the game loop basically involves walking back and forth between the same places repeatedly. More distractions, doors you can lock, traps? I know it's a lot to ask when there's limited time in a game jam, so well done on delivering what you have here. 

Loved the art style, immediately made me interested in playing even just seeing the screenshots. The gameplay was a bit thin, just walking around collecting things, so needed a bit more to do there. But lots of potential and well done for creating this :)  

Awesome game! This might be one of my favourites. I managed to get four cards (I also love the choice to make the collectables relate to Chinese New Year). You had some very clever puzzles and great level design. 

To make it even better:

• Improve the crate physics
• When there are lots of the same colour portals on the same screen, it is hard to know the relationship between the portals. For example, there are 4 blue portals on a screen and I step into one. I don't know which of the other three portals I will go to. This might be intentional? I wonder if having more colours would work, so there are only ever 2 of each colour portal on screen. It might still be a good challenge. 
• It would be good to know how many cards I haven't collected yet. For example if I could see four cards at the top and two empty card slots left, I would know I still have to look for those two cards. 

You have done an amazing job!

EPIC intro! Was about to report an "infinite falling" bug so that was an extremely pleasant surprise. Very original level design, and I think your audio was excellent, really sets the mood. Gameplay-wise, I felt like I was roaming a bit aimlessly without a good sense of where I should be going or why - but I suppose such is the nature of the mind, or something like that. Well done :)

Well done on your first game jam, I think you've done a great job overall. I like the polish a lot - the custom Godot splash screen is such a great touch and gives a solid good first impression. The visuals that followed it did not disappoint either! 

My two pieces of constructive feedback: 

• I would have liked a way to move the camera and look around a level. I looked away from my screen during the intro to the first hole, for example, so missed where the flag was and could only check by taking a shot in a random direction or resetting the level. 
• Keeping in mind I haven't played disc golf before and just have mini golf as a reference, I think this could be even more fun with either smaller levels or a much farther maximum throw, plus add more ricochet/bounce physics to all the borders. In my mind, every level should have hole-in-one potential, so I was a bit let down when my strongest throw can only go so far. Perhaps its accurate to the physics of the game, but I say screw physics and maximise fun! Let the strongest possible throw be overpowered. I want to see that disc flying far, bouncing on walls (pinball sound effects), nearly getting to the hole (me: "ooooooh") but hilariously hitting a tree ("aaarrgh s##t!")

Still, you have made a really impressive game in a week and should be proud! Nicely done :)     

It's an interesting concept, playing around with music and dialogue choice which impacts the mood of a person and the decisions they make. Really loved the main menu visuals and the overall art style. One UI issue I had was that moving my mouse around on dialogue options would change the music as well - I think those needed to become non-interactive when dialogue options were up. 

Ooh, great job! I like games like this and had a fun time. The mechanic of taking words from the level and watching them disappear and enter your clipboard is really innovative and well executed here (with nice SFX to sell it as well). Fun visual style as well. I think playing a few levels like this with different word categories and increasing difficulty would make a nice full game. 

The constructive feedback part:

• The clipboard takes up a lot of the view when it's open, getting in the way of picking words sometimes. I'm sure you're aware and might have tweaked it with more time. 
• Slight confusion, not major: I solved the character with the yellow info box first, and knew it was correct based on the sound cues etc. But then after solving the character with the green box correctly, I felt a bit unsure for a second looking back at the yellow box. Green = correct, yellow = caution? Then realised that each character has a different colour. Just something to be aware of, with certain colours having such strong pre-built associations. 
• I really loved the metaphorical layer of your theme interpretation, and that feeling of being in a strange place between what you do for a living and what you dream of doing is very relatable (especially for us hobbyist game devs!) That said, I think a few extra/larger windows showing the diner underwater would have really sold the more surface-level theme. I didn't notice the current underwater window background at first. 

The game was so enjoyable! One of my favourites, I think, especially since I love the genre. You've worked well with the genre while introducing a new innovation of your own, so really well done!   

This looks really good! You definitely created some strange places, judging from the main menu and first level. 

I did not go past the first level. I fell a few too many times and don't like run backs (especially in a game jam setting where there are a lot of games to get to). But that's potentially a skills issue on my part! 

This is a critique of a lot of games, even some of my favourite AAA ones: it often feels like the speed I go when holding down shift key should actually be the default. I end up with my pinky finger locked on shift most of the time. 

Otherwise I think you've done a great job putting this together in a week, and it looks like other players with better 3D platforming skills than mine seemed to enjoy all the content hehe! Well done :) 

I made it to my office, yay! 

Picking an anomaly game for a 3D game jam project (especially with "strange places" being the theme) is an excellent idea! Really loved the extra polish on this one - like the main menu in the elevator transitioning into the game. And thank you so much for inclusion of a mouse sensitivity setting. 

Excellent sound and level design. I also think you balanced the difficulty just right. There are enough objects to make it feel like a real environment and also scare me a little like "oh no, how am I going to remember exactly what all of these looked like?" I was worried that the anomaly might be as subtle as a coffee cup on the wrong table, or a missing file from the shelf (your "How does this fit the theme" description set me up for that). But your anomalies were actually very fair in the end, (and one was genuinely scary) so I had a fun time and only failed once. 

I am not sure if the weather adds to the gameplay, but at least it adds to the weirdness of the place. 

Really well done, team! 

Haha the speed button has received lots of love, understandably so! 

And rules are definitely unclear in-game, so that's my bad (ran out of time to add a little "how to" or tutorial). 

The aim is to build apartments that have at least one bedroom, bathroom, kitchen, and living room in them, and you then boost multipliers by having as big an apartment as possible (fill up the row) and any double+ sized rooms (same icons next to each other). Penalties if your apartment is missing one of the rooms (icons). There's a bit of an illustrated guide on the game page which might make more sense. 

I would've loved to do something more with the score. Originally wanted more levels (different building layouts) you could unlock if you met the property value target, plus a leaderboard for each. I plan to add those to a future full launch of the game.   

Thanks for playing and sharing your feedback :) I'll definitely look to add some strategic control over the randomness when I start working on a fuller release.  

Thank you so much for your detailed feedback - I know it takes time to write so I really do appreciate it. 

I recently started on the Art of Game Design but haven't gotten that far into it yet. Very interesting game design challenge, I'm looking forward to reading more. 

Holding the speed control button is a great idea. 

And yes, I can't tell you how disappointed I was in myself when I ran out of time to do something more meaningful with the score! 30 more minutes and I would've had a "Your high score: " above the total; a few more hours, I would have had a leaderboard; an extra day, I would have had a couple more levels (different building layouts) you could only unlock if you met each one's target price. I thought the game was a total failure without a use for the score, until the first few positive comments started coming through and lifted my spirits :,)

The good news is I'm planning to expand this into a full game, so it can get those features and more in its next iteration. 

Thanks for playing, I'm looking forward to trying your game out too soon!  

Great visuals and solid execution of your game concept. I loved the transition going from the intro into the game itself. 

I felt that the combat could be tweaked a bit. It's really hard because each enemy takes 3 hits, and those 3 hits take a while to perform via the slow stabbing motion. The enemies' collision boxes take up so much room that they are quite hard to get around - especially in a corridor. Outside the corridor, out in the open, there are too many of them to really kill any without being taken out yourself. Needed more gradual enemy waves and an easier way to dodge and evade them. 

Otherwise, I do think it's a really polished game and there's a lot that's impressive here, so nice job! A great start for your first jam, you should be proud :) 

Oooh this is a very cool concept you've delivered here! I haven't seen something like this before - very innovative ending! Visuals and atmosphere are all great too. 

One note is that the speaking sound effect was clipping a lot (don't don't know if that's the right word - it's the sound glitch that happens when you're trying to play more than one sound at once).  

To everyone who's shared their games so far: I guarantee I'll play them and provide feedback as soon as I can, though it may take a while. I've enjoyed seeing the creativity so far and I'm looking forward to playing the game I haven't got to yet!

To everyone who replies after this message: I'll do my best! I've managed a respectable 44 ratings (with comments) so far since voting started, but I'm sadly not going to have as much free time over the next few days. Keep 'em coming, but sorry in advance if I don't get to yours. <3

Going forward, I'll be posting feedback directly in the submission pages without replying to each person here as well. 

Hehe I sound so formal but it's just a game jam. Fun times ahead! Thanks for playing and sharing so far ^_^

Thanks for sharing :) I've left feedback on your page.

I really loved the visuals, gave me an immediate good impression even just seeing the screenshots before opening the game. It's a cute game full of charm. Reminds me of old "choose your own adventure" books. 

I personally prefer games that have a bigger focus on gameplay, and if not, the story has to have a really strong hook - like a mystery I'm dying to get to the bottom of. That's not very constructive feedback, though. 

One thing I could suggest is to make each location as unique as possible. One village had two goblins I traded with, then the next village I encountered had the same. I know it's a jam so time is limited, but a quick win for example: the second village you could remove one goblin from the art and give a new opening line like "Did you meet my brothers at the trading post down south? I miss them." A little extra detail and variety added to your world with not too much effort. 

But the bottom line is: you've made a really lovely game here! You had a clear vision and you've achieved it well, I can appreciate that and still enjoyed my time with it! Nice work :)  

Rated and reviewed on your page :D

There is quite a lot here for a week-long game jam, so well done for getting so much in! I liked the move options available at the start: defend now, buff later, attack and heal or attack and do maximum damage. Well thought out! The pool setting was really unexpected after I read the story description on your game page, though I guess that surprise only emphasises the "strange place" connection to theme. 

I did find a couple of cards confusing, possibly because you get to choose them quite early on. One was prickly shield - "if you block 100% of damage, inflict 0 (DEF 100%) bleed stacks" - why would I want to pick a power that inflicts 0 stacks of bleed (or would it inflict more if my DEF was higher?) 

Another was "if this does attack does more than 10 damage, [some kind of buff]" but then the damage shown on the card does 3 damage - so I guess that base damage is increased by levelling up attack strength? It might just be a case of ordering or could just be me misunderstanding.

Nevertheless, you've made a fun Slay The Spire-like game in an impressively short amount of time, so well done! 

I find strategizing goes out the window after a few floors, then I'm frantically just trying my best to fill rows and will only occasionally make a choice that stops me from missing rooms. I'd definitely like to do a deeper dive into the system to ensure strategy is noticeably more rewarding. Thanks again for playing :) 

Thanks! I also thought that might be a nice way to do it - a bit more realtime feedback on how you're doing would be quite appealing. It just seemed like that route would be more challenging, and I didn't want to risk it during the short jam. But definitely something I'll experiment with if/when I expand the game into a full release.

Thanks for playing! I've just played and shared feedback on your page :) 

A challenging but fun game! It felt like I was moving too fast sometimes - but then again, you want it to be fast and snappy, so it's kind of a tricky balance to get right. It was quite hard (impossible?) to grapple onto things while falling, so missed out on that feeling of "phew! saved myself" as it always ended with me on the floor (skills issue, I know). 

But it's a really cool movement mechanic and you've presented it well with good polish and visuals. Nice work!  

Thanks so much! Just rated and commented on yours too :) 

After a few deaths, it felt great to finally get into a groove and see all the creative environments - glad I didn't give up early, otherwise I would've missed Ancient Greece - Sock Edition. It's not groundbreaking gameplay, but by sticking to a classic formula that works, you freed yourself up to deliver a complete game with fun level design. I would've loved even more levels, but obviously that's quite greedy when there's a limited time to make it all. 

Haha I felt I was very undeserving of a leaderboard placement during my first failed runs, so maybe that should've been a Top 50 cut-off - but thank you for the multiple honours anyway! 

Fun game with lots of personality shining through! Well done :)