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Loved the voice lines, thought they were performed well. Great art and overall I think the vibe is consistent throughout the project.

 For gameplay it kind of got repetitive quickly for me. On the active play side of things, I very much felt like I was doing the same thing over and over. The time it took for reload was a bit long, and the difficulty of the game was repetitive. Either I had enough bullets left to kill the bat or not, not a whole lot of other choices I was able to make. 

I think with a few tweaks it's easily one of the strongest entries for this jam.

I think Schorscho said it perfectly, honestly.

I do not like gory stuff and this definitely made me uncomfortable. Not complaining at all, I think its cool to try something different and I think you did the job you set out to do. 

The one thing I didnt love was the view, specifically at the bottom of the screen it made it a little weird to know how things lined up. In traditional Snake it's "completely overhead" and the little camera tilt made it a bit weird for me.  Also wouldnt have minded it being a little more zoomed out, just felt crammed a little.

haha. what a crazy little idea :p. I was pretty stoked to play this because I kept seeing people talk about it in the discord. I think I saw you mention you didnt know if it was a game at one point, and I'm all for making non-game games. I think it's a really cool little piece of work. it's one of those "I dont know what to say, but I like it" moments.  I will think about it when I lay down to sleep tonight.

Hey Thrsty, you have a good way of building atmosphere and from what I have seen really like to build a whole world in your games. Super cool and I think you have a nice vision.

It took me a few tries to figure out. With the fog "being over top of" or at least seeming like it was over top of the UI, I did not see the lens and fuel bars my first few attempts and didnt realize why my light was sucking :p. Once I got it figured out I was like "oh this could be a cool fast paced little management game".  After going back and playing it quickly now while writing this Im thinking "how tf did I miss that initially?" which I think goes to show 1) how blind players can be 2) how hard it can be to teach properly. 

It felt like a good early mobile game in a good way. I remember having a first gen ipad and loving some of the games and the mechanics brought me back to stuff like that.

I did get bugged and stuck in between the wall and the stairs on one attempt and couldnt move. 

hey pharland. 

it definitely took me a second to figure out. When all of the buttons were green upon opening the emails, I just assumed to click all of them. It wasn't until I was fired that I took a bit more time and realized what was going on. No big deal and a probably a little bit on my end on not reading carefully enough, though it probably could have been a bit more clear.

I feel like this could be a smaller part of a larger management type game where this is maybe one of many tasks you can/have to complete. 

Hey pharland, thanks a bunch for saying all of that. I learned a lot about visual art doing this as I'm not a very practiced visual artist, but can produce a unique vision in my mind. With some more practice I'll be able to emulate what I see in my head a little better and hopefully can line things up better in future projects.

I kinda figured some people would hate it and some people would really dig it, so I'm glad it brought some nostalgia to you and it seems like I managed to get the point across to the types of players who would appreciate it, which makes me really really happy :).

I definitely come from an artist/music background first so tackling some of the UX and game design elements aren't always front and center in my mind so thanks for the comments and I'll try and iron my next experience out with it all in mind. :)

happy game development!

Hey TammerTheHammer, always a great experience to see other peoples visions in these things. I think during the stream Zackavelli mentioned the problem being there was not "cost to entry" with the roads, it just feels too open. That said, I can see where something like this could go.

Different types of cars, exclusive seating modifiers, even different road types could be cool. 

I would say don't be afraid to  experiment with the art if you wanted to take it further. I actually really like the spectators as they are, but adding little bouncing and moving around effects could add a lot. Maybe going with this super simplistic visual approach is the start of style?

hey, Zackavelli. I had a lot of fun playing this. I watched you stream a lot of the development so I feel like my view going into it wasn't exactly unbiased as I had a lot of info I wouldn't have had as a first time player.

That said, one of the main things the sticks with me a day after playing is that I dont think there was any distinction between invasive species and native plants? I know a little bit about invasive species and native plants so I was able to distinguish but I was confused. Are these brownish plants invasive? wilting? And extending on this idea, I was unsure why I would pick garlic mustard seeds, it felt like a dirty decision. I basically always chose milkweed and was never sure if that was the intention or not.

I loved the idea for the butterfly quiz but I think like someone said in the stream there just weren't enough species to keep it interesting, however, Ill be damned if I cant identify a tiger swallowtail irl now! :p

 I'm very new to game dev and always feel weird giving feedback..   I read below comment and I was definitely not as focused on the NC during my play through, hardly even noticing it, probably influenced by all my time on Idle Idol Isle. What I wanted more out of the game was more of the 'teaching elements' you talked about during stream. Could add plant ID as part of the quiz or a separate quiz altogether, and then host plant/butterfly type questions as things progress. I don't know if those things are exactly *BAM* gameplay hook sticking points, but for a player like me (or my gf who is studying  restorative ecology) they would go a long way and make me remember this. 

ThrstyMnd, the initial reaction I had to this when opening the game up was BAM. I love how it instantly sucked me right into it's world and then never proceeded to let up. Vibes were big on this and I definitely appreciate that kind of thing.

I haven't played a lot of idle/clickers, none at all really before this jam, so I'm not very familiar with genre norms. That said, it took me a little bit to find the 'Click' button. It didnt stand out from the rest of the screen.  

The scoring system wasn't necessarily intuitive to me. I did see the two things I was to be balancing (sorry Im forgetting the names now out of the game), but the rate at which they moved seemed off to me in comparison to one another? I eventually pushed the click many times past being in the red and although it seemed like it should be bad, I was still making money. I wouldnt have minded the punishments being more negative I guess.

I absolutely loved the text corresponding to the different numbers. One of my favorite elements from any of the jam games I've played. Little stuff like that is super memorable to me and I think you nailed the direction you wanted to go with that. 

The first time I opened the settings menu, I really loved it. Again, I thought that was perfect. As someone who's just starting out with this stuff I have a hard time balancing "awesomeness/ux", ya know?  I loved the menu loading like that, and I would love designing something like that, but then having to wait that long each time you want to adjust the volume is a little clunky on the user end so it's a design decision.

Overall cool dark glitchy vibes and im down with it. 

Wow, thank you so much for taking the time to write all of that. I basically agree with everything that you said. My biggest struggle in this project was edging that balance between being a game and being "things happening on a screen".

I am pumped to hear you liked the music, and specifically the mention that it didnt get boring during a long session is awesome. I was listening to a lot of afrobeat for my inspiration for that - driving hypnotic rhythms with short sections of melodies and stuff like that, I think leaning into the forms of that genre really helped me because those old Fela Kuti tracks are always like 20 mins.

I am beyond excited that you pointed out some of the flaws in my technical process with the visual art, its definitely given me a good perspective on things I could have done better that really wouldnt have taken any more effort, just a little more experience/information. Also, I will tell you a secret - there is actually no y-axis scaling or anything like that in the game. Idle Idol Isle is actually 3d and the depth is real so the perspective is just things getting farther away from the camera.

I am sorry you experienced that feeling of "what to do next?" at points. There are some of those newer games like 'Tiny Glade' or some other cozy games where you just build a room and there's no goals or points or anything and I was trying to bring in some of that "just hang out in this cool place and do whatever" vibe. 

Again, I am really really thankful that you were willing to write all of that (especially constructive criticism) as I am seriously thinking that after this game jam I am going to start a project based on what ive learned here and try and do an actual release.  I'm also probably going to send you a picture of scene view of my game (on discord) so you can see how I built it in 3d just because I think it's neat. 

happy game development!

hey! Really cool - first I think its pretty awesome that we both chose some kind of world rebirth theme for this. Great stuff.

Really beautiful, I love how the mana breaks into the particles, it looks perfect.  Reflections on the water look really cool and I appreciated it. 

I felt like I didnt want to stop playing and definitely let me mana build up while I cooked lunch and came back and spent afterwards so I would say you got me in terms of enabling my idle drive. 

I think this game is a good example of being more than the sum of it's parts. Either of the two game views/modes would be cool standalone but something about them working together makes for a good time.

I do agree with below commenter about ambiguity of the mana sessions length. Especially on the first few times through it I was still trying to hit a button or anything I needed to do to proceed.

calgarytrainwreck, I truly and greatly appreciate you taking the time to write so much about Idle Idol Isle. I am particularly tickled to hear that you liked the lil kangaroos (rix) as they were some of my favorite art to make for this project. I really love this project and want it give it the respect that it deserves so I'm very thankful that you took the time to give some feedback - I am keeping a notepad with all of the feedback and plan on doing a good final clean up after the game jam finishes and its been played and tested a little.

happy game development!

I watched during the stream and when  you were explaining some of the things that werent apparent I was like "oooooh thats sick". I really like a lot of the ideas that you had they just werent clearly stated. Otherwise, its a cool game with a cool concept.

Nice game Zoek. excited to see what will come of it if you continue development. played these games with my 15 year old son and this was definitely one of his favs

I did not beat it. I played three times and timed out each time. When watching the stream today I couldnt believe how fast Zachavelli got good... it was hard for me. I have never really played anything like it

literal lols while im playing. 

I really value creativity and I love the concept you came up with. 

The controls were fun, unique and challenging, somehow almost making me feel disoriented in a good way. 

It was a little buggy(things getting stuck in baskets, salt not being able to be picked up).

Super cool, felt like a single player party game.

Cool game. I saw in comments you said you want to go back and tweak compulsive mode later on. I definitely think it would be worth it, I think its a cool idea and am glad you left it in. With some tweaking I think it would be my favorite of the two modes. Maybe something that forces Bernie to run directly towards objects so you have to time jumps?

Played these with my 15 year old son, he said levels of increasing difficulty or some kind of obstacles or antagonist other than the clock would go a long way.

I appreciated the "And Bernie..." setup line in dialogue.

Completely agree with vex on the art. It is killer, love it, really solid choices.
It was fun, I love how effective but simple the game design is. Played all of the games with my 15 year old son, he thought the controls of this one were specifically good. 

pretty awesome

good job Zoek. cool concept for a game and Im sure setting up all the cameras and sets took a lot of effort. It did take me a few goes to understand what I was supposed to be doing but once I got it I liked it. Lots of ideas you could implement that would make it super cool if you keep working on it after jam.

Cool little game. Had fun with it for a sec this evening. Tons of stuff you could implement that would make it sick. Love the art. Good job. Also wanted to mention I did play Doodlepipez too awhile back and thought that was cool as well. Fun little puzzle game, definitely had fun getting frustrated at it for a second :p

thanks for the well thought out feedback. Completely agree with everything you are saying and will keep it in mind moving forward. Thanks a bunch

!

hey, thanks so much for playing and commenting. This is my first game and I’m so so so beyond thrilled that people are playing it, and even more so that they are giving me feedback. I do agree about the first Cutscene, I wasn’t exactly sure how to handle it because tbh I didn’t love the idea of putting a title menu before the cutscene. It felt kinda cool to just drop right into the world. Before I had the cutscenes it just started at level 1 and I wanted that initial cutscene to act as a guide on how the game was about to go down. Do also agree that the initial one may be a bit long.

Glad you had fun, not sure exactly what Rasterized is, and also glad to be learning and absorbing the feedback!

Really inspiring as someone who hasnt made a game yet. Thought it was sick, good job.