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Thanks for playing our game and for such a thoughtful breakdown of feedback! I'm so glad that our intentions were conveyed effectively. It means a lot to hear that you'd love to play a full version! We're definitely planning to upload a finetuned version of our jam submission but are also in talks about adding all the other features we dreamed of expanding on. Once again your feedback is super appreciated!

Thank you so much for taking the time to play our game! I'm so glad you enjoyed it :D 2.5D games are super fun and I hadn't even considered it until looking into some others out there

I appreciate what you say about the time loop and optimising the action budget. We'll be looking into all of the game's aspects when we finetune it for the post-jam release so we'll be testing the mechanics more as well. Thank you once again for the feedback!

That's so nice to hear :') I've actually never heard of that saying before but it feels so in line with Albert being a cat too lol! It's absolutely food for thought, especially at my current point in life too where I'm faced with loved ones who are struggling, and unfortunately the furthest I'm able to help them is to give them the tools to help themselves. Our perspectives will be everchanging in tandem with our experiences, and that's exactly why we grow and change as people. I agree that it's just as important to periodically reflect on these stages of our lives and how far we've come. A lot of the games in this jam have been very thought provoking for me as well, which must mean they're definitely getting a strong message across. I'm touched that this contributed to that!

Hey, thank you so much for your thoughtful feedback! I'm so glad you had an enjoyable experience with our game :) 

That's genuinely such an interesting perspective of our characters, and I really appreciate you sharing (love the made an abyss reference, now that you mention it I can kinda see it lol!) You're actually not entirely wrong about the NPCs taking advantage of Albert, though I'd say it's very much an unconscious reliance on him on their part. (Spoilers ahead for those concerned) Since the NPCs rely on your help to solve their issues, there are options the player can take to either help them directly, which will technically only be a short fix as they'll end up relying on you again the next day, or you can choose to be generous in ways that encourages them to be more self-sufficient and provide them with a long-term fix (or encourage them to pay it forward), which ultimately sets off a chain reaction of kindness. In this game, the latter is seen as the true generosity, to tackle our friends' problems at the root rather than loosely patching things up.

The darker vibes are something I never considered but feel like they could make sense, given our use of Cult of the Lamb as inspiration. It's an interesting side of the game to explore for sure. Thanks once again for playing, Chris!

I've just given it a go! I really like your interpretation of the theme, thank you for sharing :D

Very atmospheric. I like your take on the theme as well, sometimes helping one can also harm the other and vice versa

This was an enjoyable experience! Very cute vibes, thanks for sharing :)

This was so cute and enjoyable! the chomping sound made me smile :') it was therapeutic to play and I love the idea of this predator potentially gaining a bit of an emotional attachment to these cute ducklings. Love this one!

Thank you for sharing! I absolutely loved your game, amazing graphics and atmosphere. Also love the little guy in your pfp!

I really enjoyed this! Absolutely love what you did with the art and atmosphere. The lighting, the detailed pixel art, the colours and mood are so cohesive. The level of polish here is impressive, I would have loved to see what you did with this had you more time without your sickness. Hope you feel better now at least!

Thank you for trying our game! Yours was super cute too, I would love to see the finished version!

Oh I see! That makes a lot of sense, I guess you could say it's generous of you to still reward the player despite it being necessary lol, I'm looking forward to seeing the endings and how the generosity impacts each possible outcome! (I thought I should also mention since I forgot, there were a couple of places where I ended up getting stuck and having to restart the game. I think it was near the walls of some of the miniature rooms of the npcs!)

Yes so true! I haven't had a lot of time to check too many but the games I've come across so far have all been fun and there's some very interesting takes on the generosity theme. There's something so euphoric about being among likeminded creatives and celebrating each other's works :')

Nice little game with a cute premise! I love the mini people. I know it has yet to be completed but it would be nice to see what the purpose of the generosity meter is and how it contributes to the gameplay and story. I also think that there are some quests such as helping the chef or weaver that may not fully count as "generosity", since you're helping them to gain something from them (the information to find the character's mother) and progress the game, as opposed to the other two who seem completely optional. Therefore, I would suggest only the latter two NPCs' quests being relevant to the generosity meter. Overall though it's a cute game that has a nice whimsicality to it and I would love to see what it becomes when finished!

Hey there! We would really appreciate if you find the time to give our game a try too :) for most of us it was our first ever game jam. I'm happy with how it came out despite not having the time to implement some stuff: https://ratprincelucius.itch.io/not-too-much

I'm slowly working my way through others' and look forward to trying yours too!

Thanks for trying out our game! I've been seeing a potential hardlock mentioned but wasn't sure of the specifics, thank you for pointing it out, we'll be looking to fix that ASAP. I'm super glad you enjoyed it nonetheless and your feedback is much appreciated :D

I know I've mentioned it before but it was my first time too! Not my first jam overall (I did take part in an animation one during my uni days) but I feel like surprisingly I was much more on top of planning out and completing the tasks I'd been assigned/assigned myself. It truly has been an invaluable experience and I got exactly what I wanted out of it: I learnt many new things and gained some more experience in collaboration and game production pipelines! I got to see my art in an actual game for the first time!! It felt surreal and rewarding. As per a recommendation from an industry friend too, I introduced a project organisation structure (user stories and agile) to help us keep things on task which helped us out a lot in the end. One of my mentors told me that it made me seem a bit like a producer lol, and that we were pretty much functioning like a small studio.

I also got to understand what it's like creating art to be implemented in games and understanding the production side of their design. Like drawing foliage and assets in perspective for a 2.5D top down camera, but then later realising that because it's still being placed in a 3D plane with a flat ground, the bottom of the objects needed to be drawn flat instead of rounded like you would see in regular perspective!

Overall it was a challenge, I'm sure I bit off more than I could chew but I also wanted to test myself to see how much of a workload I could handle and how much I could realistically complete in the timeframe we were given. Suffice to say I think we did well, there are some things we didn't get to implement that I regret since they really would've enhanced the experience and conveyed our intentions better, but such is the nature of jams I guess. I'm definitely getting some well earned rest and taking the time to celebrate other people's hard work!

Wah that's so kind of you, thank you!! I'm so happy people enjoyed the characters, Stella seems to be a bit of a popular one ;w; I'll be checking out your game soon, very excited to try since the premise sounded interesting!

Thank you for playing our game and for the feedback! I agree, many of us give without remembering to give back to ourselves after. It's incredibly important to maintain that cycle of replenishing the energy and kindness you expend on others. The circular mask was a feature that we enjoyed a lot when our programmer showed it to us, but now that you mention it it would be fun to explore some other ways to see through the trees! 

We have some mention a softlock that doesn't seem to be the ones we've intentionally added, which we will be looking into when continuing, and hopefully this isn't the one you're referring to. But I hope you're able to beat it on your next attempt. Once again thank you for kind words and suggestions :)

Thank you so much for your feedback! It was indeed our intention to have one day that only progresses to the second once all the neighbours have been helped. Since our initial idea involved a timeloop, we chose to give it a more metaphorical connotation to contribute to the notion of poor Albert's repetitive and exhausting daily life (our programmer, Pingu, also making a great point about the trial and error aspect meaning that you're eventually giving to the NPCs without them even needing to ask for anything.) Regardless, hearing the wide range of perspectives our creation has given players has been invaluable insight to us!

We do also have themes around encouraging self-help, as that is one of the primary messages of our game intertwined with generosity itself, but well... that would involve playing to the end to find out, as I can't spoil ;)

Ooh noooo same ;w; I managed to play it on one of the weekends because I forced myself to take a break after crunching a bit lol.. I'm going for phainon too!! Wait do you have a place I could maybe dm you to talk about the game? :o if you have a discord you're welcome to add me! It's watersthancred 

Thank you so much!! I played yours not too long ago and pretty much had a religious experience, it was so beautiful. Thank you for sharing it! 

HOLD UP YOU'RE A STAR RAIL PLAYER TOO?? thank you so much I feel so ;;w;; it's definitely my proudest piece to date! And don't worry, I have every intention of playing I promise! Catch me in your comments tomorrow :3c

For me, it was mostly my choices in the character designs that I enjoyed doing! Our silly little Stella came about after Lucius doodled her in his UI mockup with floppy ears and an "airheaded" look, which we decided to run with, so I thought making her a sheep would be a great idea. The celestial theme feels self explanatory given her name, but I wanted to give her cloud-like hair to really drill in the fact that her head is somewhat always in the clouds, so to speak :')
I also really like the idea of her horns looking a bit like a crescent moon submerged in the clouds. At least I really hope it gave those vibes

After that I got a bit invested in Manuel too and was playing around with themes of the emotional baggage he has to carry - originally he was going to be a donkey for that reason but I wanted to be more creative. He became a little cactus guy, prickly because he has his guard up around others when feeling so vulnerable already. I don't think it fully made it into the jam's final version but after helping him, you see him regain some of his vibrance and his flowers begin to bloom again! But of course depression can't be "fixed", so the 'scars' caused by his mental health remain. Cacti are known for enduring harsh weather though!

The last one is just a silly one that I wanted to test if anyone noticed or not, but we implemented moving clouds to float overhead for that extra dynamic atmosphere with the shadows on the ground. I actually drew a couple of clouds in the shape of Albert and Hektor to see if anyone would notice, but I think it's too subtle in the end

I'm extremely passionate about character design and the ways we can communicate a character's story through their visuals, it's such a fascinating concept. I'm glad I got to explore that in ways I usually wouldn't in this jam! I've been really intrigued by your game and will be playing it tomorrow, I'm excited to experience the music system you've crafted for it :D

Hey everyone, congrats on submitting your entries! It was my first ever game jam and I had so much fun taking part

We all worked so hard on our games, and I think each and every one deserves recognition for the love we put into them. I know a few people have made these posts already but it's a bit hard to keep track of for me so I'm making my own - my team plans to get together this week to celebrate everyone else's submissions so please share yours with us so we can try them!

And while you're at it, please do check ours out if you haven't already: https://ratprincelucius.itch.io/not-too-much

This was a really heartwarming piece. My ADHD brain immediately got sucked into all the interactables appearing before me and the satisfying sounds they made, so I definitely think it served its purpose in that respect! The visuals are also very pleasing and contribute to the warmth of the overall concept. While I do think the incorporation of generosity is much more subtle in nature, it's a unique and personal one. I believe this game could go very far with some more development like some extra interactables!

This was such a wonderful experience! I love the concept you've chosen for generosity, there's also this touch of combatting nihilism with hopefulness and it's a trope that I absolutely adore. The sound and music really contributed to the atmosphere and I enjoyed the puzzles too, very fitting. With more time to work on this I would love to dive deeper into this beautiful world you've created!

Thank you so much!! I have to admit I was quite proud of Stella's design and she's a bit of a favourite between us and some friends for being The Silly. We really appreciate you checking out our game and I'm glad you enjoyed it, thank you once again for your feedback! (also love your Jinx pfp :D)

I'm so glad you enjoy our game, thank you Aurora! Lucius loved creating Hektor and we're all obsessed with him too. I think I agree with him when he says he's "very skilled at designing blobs!"

Hey axl, thank you for coming to check out our game! I'm so glad our efforts to deliver a more polished game paid off :D If I'm understanding correctly I've seen one other person mention this softlock too so we'll definitely be looking into that for our final version, as well as discussing finding a suitable way to offer a little more player guidance while still encouraging them to explore. Once again thank you so much for your feedback!

Thank you so much rabbytt! I agree, we originally had 5 NPCs and were planning on having multiple tasks for each of them, but unfortunately with the time constraints and our responsibilities outside of the project it wasn't the most realistic goal for us. That said, I'd really like to work on the other NPCs and add them in our final version if we decide to go ahead with it! It just might mean giving poor Albert a bit more stress :')

Thank you so much for taking the time to write such passionate feedback! Even seeing your reply to Lucius, it really means a lot that our little game had such an impact on you. For most of us including myself, this was our first ever game jam. I'm very happy to see it's leaving the mark we intended it to! While I was less in charge of the mechanics and logical side of things, I know we will take your (and everyone else's) feedback into consideration to make the final version the best we can, so I really appreciate your suggestions. We were originally wanting to have extra maps for the houses so that's something I'd love to work on for sure!

Thank you for your feedback! I'm really glad you picked up on that, COTL was our main inspiration for the visuals! While it was indeed our intention to encourage exploration (and a bit of trial and error to add to the notion of Albert's exhaustingly repetitive routine), we could potentially find a way to establish this more clearly. We are discussing releasing a more polished version of the game later on so it's definitely something to note. 

Hey there! I just wanted to say I'm so glad to see a game touching upon South Asian heritage as a South Asian! I absolutely cannot wait to play it

Here is our game! It tackles the concept of "generosity burnout" and remembering to take care of yourself without giving too much. Even though we ran short of time to add in all the extra fluff to emphasise that I hope the message comes across nonetheless. I'd love to hear your thoughts :) https://ratprincelucius.itch.io/not-too-much

Very satisfying to play! I ended up getting a bit addicted the more I went on, but I also agree with the others that there could be more to do between places especially when taking a longer flight between destinations

I can see this being even more enjoyable if given the chance to develop further, and I look forward to it if you do! :)

Surprisingly therapeutic to play! Once I got stuck into it I found myself playing for quite a while

Hey, congrats on submitting your entry too! Here's our entry :) for most of us it was our first time doing a game jam so we'd really appreciate your thoughts! I can't wait to give yours a go too :D https://ratprincelucius.itch.io/not-too-much

Here's our entry! For most of us, this is our first ever jam so we'd love to hear your thoughts. Looking forward to trying yours out too! https://ratprincelucius.itch.io/not-too-much

This is such high praise, thank you, it truly means a lot!

Thank you so much! It means a lot :)