itch.io

If you haven’t already joined both the Frogwell and Gamedev Graveyard Discord servers, do it now! In each server, you can connect with others in the dedicated channel/thread named “find a team”. Have fun, see you on the other side! 

This was really fun to try and figure out the best patterns/arrangements for the cutest village! The buns are my favorite sprite by far. I was a little confused at what the definition of "near" was, cause it seemed like sometimes I nailed the likes/dislikes and other times I was way off. I would have loved a little heavier favor on the luck of getting expansion pieces, but I did hit a high score of 17! Lovely game and incredible music that reminds me of the calm welcome of Rito Village from Wind Waker.

I hope cleanup wasn’t too bad. Thanks for playing and peeing!

Thank you! Much appreciated!

Yes chef

My theme ideas:

• On the Edge
• Calculated
• Minimize/Maximize
• Calm and Quiet
• Wet/Dry
• Powerful Force
• Just in Time

Hope this inspires the Pursuing Pixels crew! Feel free to share your feedback on these. What do you think makes a good jam theme? To me, it’s all about the sweet spot of “restricted room for interpretation”. 

Very cool! Short, sweet, engaging.

Very memorable game, especially the title art! I love the collage nature of it, really nails the theme in that regard. I do see some of that theme inclusion in the boss design as well, perhaps more so in the gator than the bee. I'm a pretty big fan of the on-rails shooter concept you put together, reminds me of AudioSurf! I was sorely missing sound effects, that would have added a lot to the experience. I can tell whoever made the music took a lot of inspiration from 3rd gen Pokemon battle themes! Pretty good stuff, but perhaps out of place in the posthuman apocalypse world you're trying to build. Really impressive 3D models in most parts of the game. The aquarium seemed a bit rushed or unfinished, as well as the Aligatron inhabiting it. I should have read the controls closer as I thought right-click was a dodge of some kind, but I see that it was meant to be a parry, so I probably wasn't using it correctly. Nevertheless, I managed to beat both bosses and that's actually one of the first games in this jam that I've been able to say I fully completed! There are some performance issues with the aquarium in and around the starting area - a pretty consistent low framerate - but this clears up after about 10 seconds and the fight is playable. The environment and boss art for the bee fight is incredible. Overall, good job!

I loved this way more than I anticipated I would! Great presentation. The simplistic art and dialogue is a joy to experience and makes the game very memorable. The only thing that wasn't very enjoyable was the second boss. Since the camera is locked to rotation around the boss, when the wizard teleported, it was almost motion-sickness-inducing with the view jumping around at an increasing frequency. Still, I got through it and was really digging the third boss attack pattern! Nicely done all around, just missing some music and SFX!

Amazing use of the theme, the whole concept of building custom-shaped weapons out of bullet shells is so fun and intriguing! Technically impressive for sure. I can see the mechanic being taken to new heights whether it's in this setting or not, so definitely hold on to that one. Unfortunately, the controls took a lot away from the experience for me. They feel a bit clunky, mainly due to the space and Z keys being somewhat oddly assigned. I'm very used to space being a jump key while any key higher than that would be a dash or something else, so having those reversed threw me off consistently. That's not to say the controls are objectively bad or wrong, but I did find them difficult to get used to and found myself pressing a lot of wrong keys when I wanted to do something. That said, the art and setting are really cool and exciting, the music is pretty good although feels a little underwhelming for the intensity of the fight, and the concept is great! 

Beautiful environment and character designs! I tried fighting the smaller robot four times before letting it go. I went in with different stats each time, even maxing out HP once, but two things occurred every fight: I'd miss both attacks I managed to get in before dying, and each one of the robot's attacks did 3/4 of my HP! Some balancing is in order to allow players to fully immerse themselves in the battle system and get through at least one encounter. The Mushroom Merchant is amazing! Love the character, well done. The mouse is super cute, although the rigid tail is a little distracting. I'm have no 3D experience so I can only imagine how difficult rigging/animating some of these things could be! I appreciate the sheer effort and time commitment that went into creating this game, so be proud!

I had a really hard time controlling the characters with a keyboard unfortunately. I wish there had been a clearer description of the controls either in-game or on the page, because I couldn't get the characters to do much besides move/jump/dash around. Once I mashed something (unknown key) and a spear came flying out at the boss, I saw the fight started... but then it almost immediately ended as well and what I think was a cutscene began to play, followed by the credits. Pretty difficult to tell what led to that scenario. Unique art style and the music is banging for sure! The gameplay itself needs a lot more focus before it feels more like a game and less like an interactive artistic experience. Despite all that, you guys did well for your first game. Congrats on getting something playable done and uploaded!

Really cool concept, impressive pixel art! I was unable to get past the first boss due to two things - not being able to shoot unless my ammo was full, and not being to suck in projectiles unless my ammo was empty. The second thing is a larger issue I think, because sucking up projectiles is your only means of defense other than evading the cans, which is pretty difficult. The game would probably be a lot more enjoyable and completable if the player could suck up cans at any ammo amount under 5. It could also be cool to be able to deflect incoming cans with your own can shots, as another means of defense. A good concept and good potential here, well done!

Thank you for the feedback and compliments!

Excellent! Well done.

Great reasoning! Keep it out.

Thank you!

I appreciate you giving it a go even though it’s not your usual thing! Glad you enjoyed it. 

Thanks so much for the kind words and feedback!

The cutscene art is incredible! Impressive pixel art to match. I gave the Forest and Desert bosses a shot, pretty tough stuff! It was somewhat disorienting with both melee and projectile attacks based on the direction you're facing rather than where your cursor is in relation to the player. I think it may be the mouse control. If all of the controls were on the keyboard, the directional attacks would feel more natural. Many boss attacks between the two I played feel sudden and unpredictable, so consider making the telegraphs more apparent or doing some sort of "training" pattern before going into the larger waves of bullets. All in all, good job!

Really fun and challenging! I couldn't make it to Midas with more than 1 or 2 health, but didn't feel it was disproportionately difficult. All of these sprites and attack patterns are awesome. Part of me was wishing there was a dodge, the other part was glad there wasn't one just to spice up the typical format of the top-down combat genre. Well done!

Gorgeous visuals and great music! I love the filtering when the game is paused, nice touch. The simplicity of the controls is fantastic and are fun to use. Love the technical beauty of the bosses, but it may be a bit too abstract of an interpretation of the theme. I think if there was some sort of framing in narrative or gameplay to really show how the bosses are formed from universe scraps would sell it better. All in all it's a really cool game that I can tell could be addicting for any breakout or pong fans!

The art is quite impressive, and there's a lot of love put into the story and characters. I do feel like it takes a little too long to get into interesting gameplay. The weapon builder is neat, good job on that! Unfortunately, a combination of contact damage from the boss and no invincibility frames when you take damage was a deadly one, so the fun started to fade after 3 deaths that felt a bit unfair. Consider adding some balancing, and you'll no doubt have longer playtime from more players!

The art style is really cool and unique! I would have loved to get to the other bosses, but try as I did, I couldn't survive the last eye due to their speed boost. It seemed impossible to avoid being hit continuously, even with dashing. If you increased the dash distance, that might be enough to avoid that situation. The first part of the game that I experienced is pretty good overall and needs some balancing, but good job!

Incredibly polished experience! I am surprised at the quality of presentation for a game made within a month. The variety and flourish of the boss attacks are impressive, and your guys' implementation of the theme coupled with the custom nature of building your bot stands out a lot. Through all the attempts I made, it felt as though Thomas was a little too tank-y (and maybe that's intentional), and it sort of took away the fun for me after a few fights. I'm not sure if I was able to get a crate of parts right at the start, but I assumed I had to earn some sort of currency before being able to, so I went into the first fight without any attachments. No dodging makes the difficulty of the fight feel especially disproportionate, so you might think about adding clearer communication to the player regarding when they can get upgrades (or force them to interact with the shopkeep before going to the first fight). In the end it's a really cool game with a shocking level of quality, congrats on such a complete product!

WOW. Loved every second. Music was jamming, sound effects were clean and effective, controls were tight and made me feel like every hit and death was my own mistake, boss designs and patterns were wonderful...this game is SICK. I loved how you identified the phases in the boss health bar, that was genuinely motivating and something I haven't seen done before in this way. The chainsaw intro was so exciting and caught me off guard, nice touch! To you and your partner, very well done. 

The pixel art is excellent, and the 3D of the zombie boss is also excellent, but together they feel off. I had a hard time attacking anything without getting hit at the same time (usually the small zombies more than the boss), even when spamming the dash. This led to a lot of deaths before getting the boss to even 1/4 health, which I think is mainly a result of the craftable weapons not doing much damage. Crafting weapons from stuff that zombies might actually drop is really cool! It seems like the shovel and the bone did the most damage, but they were also getting me killed with how close I needed to be and the fact that I only had a split second to get one hit in before being hurt. The stone can only be thrown in 4 directions, which was unexpected since everything else on screen moves across all angles. All in all, there's a good concept here. Some balance in damage and health will go a ways, and consider evening out the mix of 3D and 2D elements (or consider going with one or the other).

Brutal game! Very cool art, especially on the bosses. I'm glad you took the time to name the craftable weapons and give them descriptions, though a couple of them weren't fully visible, like the Slime Rod. The first boss fight was definitely longer than I anticipated, but I did love the mitosis of it going into the second phase. Some balance is needed for the projectile weapons (chompers?), as they seemed to not do much damage. It would have been nice to be able to control which weapon slot was going to be replaced with a crafted item (I thought the upgraded chomper thing would replace the old one). I had fun up until the second boss, because I had the first chomper and the upgraded one as weapons, and they weren't much fun being so weak. Got some DOOM vibes from the music, it served the vibes well, great job!

Many thanks!

Excellent feedback, I appreciate the detail you’ve gone into! It’s great to know our game made such an impact. Thanks!!

The boss designs are incredible, very cool! I like the environment pieces as well, though I wish there was a bit of visual feedback when you destroy the red blocks. Unfortunately, CTRL + D is the bookmark shortcut for Chrome (not sure about other browsers), so this was regularly interrupting the game when I had happened to press the combo as part of regular gameplay. For all of the bosses, I had a hard time getting one hit in without getting hit several times in the same moment, so that was a bit frustrating and made me feel like beating them was unnecessarily difficult. However, with some balancing and improvements to the collision boxes of bosses, the game could be a lot more playable. Good job!

Thanks a bunch, I’m glad you had a good time overall despite the visibility issue! 

Agreed, Matt built some great palettes! Thanks for playing and leaving feedback. 

Fantastic micro-review, thank you so much! Thrilled to read about your experience. 

Matt’s spritework is unmatched! Let us bask in its glory. Thank you!

This is a big “no u” moment for me, I had a blast playing Chunky! Thank you. 

Mission accomplished for my music then, thank you very much for the kind words! Matt absolutely killed it with the art. 

Thanks GassyGills! Fun fact: the final boss music has its own callbacks to the previous boss songs as well. Callbacks on callbacks!

I wish for the same marshmallowy destiny. Thank you for the generous feedback!