itch.io

Lovely little game! I always love when a game perfectly matches its aesthetics, and this does that incredibly well. The level design is simple with only few things changing between levels, but with a slight different and new challenge as each one passes. The game is never particularly difficult, nor does it stretch your mind a whole lot, it's just a very straight-forward platformer.

The aesthetics then follow suit with this. With the simplicity of the game's design comes simple visuals and audio. Nothing crazy, flashy or busy, just good, clean art and sound. It's all wrapped up so nicely, it felt very appropriate to be wrapped in a blanked while playing this haha!

I will also say the small bits of difficulty here all end up making sense:

• The slippery physics creates a slight challenge as you get to manage your air speed based on how fast you were moving on the ground, which makes certain areas on outer-most layer of the circle feel fluid while still requiring not going too fast. 
• The tight spaces of the inner-most layers of the circle creates some tight jumps that did take me a couple tries to get over here and there. It also helped that the variable jump height made certain jumps possible without gaining too much momentum, making it feel good to control the character.

Overall, a solid, feel-good platformer that I'm happy to see any day of the week. Well done!

What's impressive about KILLOVER is how it is a game about the player screwing themselves over. This is a really hard thing to accomplish in a game randomness is often something that will immediately give the player something to blame when they lose. In this game, the only thing random is the spawn location and how your gun shoots, but even then, they were locations that the player spawned and ways that the player's gun shoots, meaning the blame cant fall on the game but relies solely on the the player remembering each loop enough to avoid their own mess. That combined with the tried and true difficult thing to add to a 3D game, aiming, makes for a truly challenging game of memory and accuracy that I'm sure has plenty of strategy that can be built off it.

One more thing though, I love the art style. It doesn't necessarily fit a niche that the game was going for, its just fun and different. Sometimes, that's all a game needs to stand out, but pair that with an amazing game design, and you've made a fantastic game!

Something that makes Rhythmetric quite intriguing is how high the skill ceiling is. When I'm playing, it feels very difficult and I often don't feel like I have the time that I want to make decisions. However, it does feel like the proper push from a game about rhythm, and it almost wouldn't work as well if it took you out of the beat, even for a second to make a choice. It makes for a system that can let the player either help themselves massively or detriment their run, which arguably is not very healthy game design, but I think fits well in this case since it is a rhythm game and when you look at other rhythm games like Dance Dance Revolution, it follows the same design concept: easily explained rules and mechanics that require immense amount of executional skill to master. With a few tweaks, this could easily be another addictive rhythm game like DDR!

The thing that makes Circuit Breaker special is a detail that really isn't rooted in one aspect of the game, but rather the game as a whole: Its tone and pacing. The game is presented as a 2D puzzle-platformer that meets the requirement of the theme "Loop" by sticking you in one roundabout level. This can be daunting for the player, as the thought of spending an hour (that's how long it took me to beat the game) on the same level can overwhelm them pretty quickly. However the game fixes this by presenting the player with certain "motivations". Clues that work not based on vaguely worded messages but images of the level the player has gotten to know so well, straightforward hints towards new controls that give the player better access to the level in some way, and backing the whole game with an ethereal soundtrack that allows the player to contemplate and think without getting stressed and rewards them upon finding a new area or control by altering the music to match the feeling. All these factors help shift the perspective of the player on the level, either literally or figuratively, reinforcing the player's conviction to complete the game if ever it gets low. It allows for the tone to be set as slow and contemplative while allowing the pace of the game to quicken the more you understand it.

Another interesting thing about the game is how well contained it is. It doesn't feel like the game needs to expand a whole bunch to be more fun or to complete an idea, its just fun as it is. For a game jam project in particular this is very impressive, as it is pretty easy to make a piece of something that you wanted to make but ended up not having enough time to see it through fully. It has just the right amount of depth to start and end satisfyingly. Truly amazing work!

Oh my bad! I meant that the way the music was composed, there were gaps in the sound, and when you put an ability (jump, dash, or punch) into a slot that would activate the ability on the same beat as the gap, it would make the sound of the ability louder and made me feel good when I heard it. Basically, the music in combination with the gameplay was just very well done. Hopefully that makes a bit more sense haha :)

If you've ever played Uncharted 4: A Thief's End, you'll remember there are a lot of points in the game where Nathan Drake is writing stuff down in a journal, making sketches, collecting important objects. It's a very interesting detail that gets explored to an extent in that game, but Curse of the Amethyst Skull takes it and says "but what if the player was actually doing that?" The answer to that question? You make them feel like a full-blown archeologist! I cannot emphasize enough how interesting it is to actually be drawing out a map and writing down notes in the middle of a game all about puzzles and mysteries. Sometimes, a game might make you pick up a pen and paper to try and figure something out, but this game hands them to you and gives you direct ways to use them. It's so refreshing after playing so many games with a minimap in it to have some more interaction to it then just placing a couple markers here and there.

The transfer of information from one life to the next also plays out very well. Because of the torches you light and the drawings/notes that you make, you get a consistent source of information that you can always lean back on when you forget the way. On top of this, there are a few interactions that have a permanent affect on the world, such as unlocking a door or putting out the green flame shooting lantern, making going back to previously locked or difficult to get to sections easier when you go through it the next time. Put all this together and it always feels like you know a little more about the dungeon each trip you make through it. It generates an incredible sense of progression that keeps the moment to moment gameplay feeling fresh and fun!

It's very nice seeing a game that takes player-led design and tries to add difficulty to it. While I'm sure there were other ways of doing it, the use of music in Song Runner feels like such a cathartic option. By creating a situation where the player has to correctly time their button inputs so platforms can be in just the right spot, it means that there's never a moment where the player feels like the don't have an idea for a way forward. You always have the full picture, and when something doesn't work, it's just as easy to switch perspectives.

Despite giving the player such control over the level's layout, there is also still a pretty well handled difficulty curve. Increasing tempo in a rhythm game is always the first thing you can do to make it more challenging, but the good thing is that the tempo never increases too drastically between worlds and doesn't get too fast by the final world. On top of this, the game's hazards are all pretty well crafted, with each of them creating a new challenge for the player to overcome, but always having a clear way to interact with the platforms that they player creates.

One side note as well, the sound design is pretty phenomenal. Between the different themes for each world, the muted music when in a "No Music Zone", and the ability to listen back to the song you've created throughout the level with some extra tracks added on top, the amount of detail is very highly appreciated and is a great example of how to add depth to a game about music! 

In a game about rhythm, the most important thing to get down is good sound design. VoodLoop definitely succeeds in this area. All the sounds are distinct and help the player in some way to understand when in the music their action will activate. In a lot of cases, the actions can even add to the music, and however unintentional this may have been, I found that the music would occasionally fit the abilities that I was holding with rests in the music where ability sounds could be heard and have more emphasis. 

Something that I wasn't expecting though was the attention to player agency. In a game where the player's actions are fairly down to the timing of the music, there were still mechanics, such as the option to hold onto an ability and bring it with you until you wanted to use it with your cursor, that made me feel as though I wasn't just throwing myself at problems without having some sort of option in how to approach them. There were only a couple movement-based issues I could find in my playthrough, but overall, this is a very solid and enjoyable experience!

Night O'Clock is a game that is extremely impressive in terms of graphics for a game that was only made in 96 hours. The designs are unique and lively and the only thing I found to need a bit more TLC was the animations, but that didn't really draw away from the game that much.

The gameplay is very simple, but is the beginnings of something that could be expanded upon a LOT. Maybe add checkpoints, could be like those found in Big Tower Tiny Square where crossing the checkpoint activates it, giving the player some form of agency over where they spawn? Or perhaps add some more advanced puzzles that the player can't just guess what the code for something is to complete the game through guesswork, which would enhance the feel of being a detective? But importantly, the game's basis gives way to all these possibilities, making it an extremely solid start for a game design on top being a well crafted game visually already.

The level design of this game really stands out to me. Each mechanic is taught well initially and the diversity of the puzzles is truly incredible, with each one challenging the player's knowledge of these mechanics with increasing difficultly (and with an increasing amount of dopamine upon figuring each puzzle out, some of the later ones felt sooo good to finish. Stretchier and Not Not were two of my favorites).

However, this game really stood out with its interesting methods to keep the player playing the game. Levels are each separated by the level selection area, a free-roaming space that acts as an extension of the puzzles of the area and what they represent. In the tutorial area, you get a simple, open space and a lock system that keeps you out of the next level. As you learn about each of the 2 apple types in their respective levels, you also get access to them inside the level selection area. This acts as a way for the player to test out the apples on their own and learn about it outside of the pressures of a level. This extends to the main area with all of the other puzzles, except instead of trying to teach the player or let them learn through trial and error, its trying to make them solve puzzles, which is reflected in the level selection area as the player is solving puzzles as a way of unlocking the big puzzle everything is contained in. In this way, the game constantly gives you feedback for getting better at the game; each time you complete a harder puzzle, you solve a piece of the whole game.

On a side note, it is equally impressive how the game departs so extensively from Snake Game, a pretty clear influence on at least the game's aesthetics. It basically turns everything that Snake Game is on its head; from a high score chasing game requiring quick decisions in non-stop gameplay where one touch means death, to a slow paced puzzle game that wants you to think about a situation as much as possible and encourages failure through trial and error. It allows for a fresh take on a familiar experience and is a truly amazing feat of design.

A fantastic game! Gives me strong lethal company vibes with both the visuals and sound design. I do have some issues with gameplay clarity, as a lot of the side objectives weren't very intuitive and I ended up failing pretty quickly. I would like to have a bit more impact on the world you see out your window be visible as well to give a real sense of impact on the planet, and it'd be cool if there was a sprinting option so that when the computer says "Run to the O-Zone Station!" you can actually run to it, but these are more nitpicks that could be worked on at some other time. Other than that, the storytelling was somewhat there but I think it could have been exaggerated a little more so the player has a real sense of impact in both the positive and negative directions (the scene that plays out when the player loses is a perfect example of the exaggeration I'd like to see more of, as it pauses everything to make the focus on the main console, very well executed on that).

Hello! So I'd like to provide feedback in the structure of 1) explaining my ratings, and 2) providing feedback based on specific questions from the developer.

Firstly, I'll explain the ratings. Easiest to explain are the 5 stars for Call to Action and Aesthetic/Art/Sound. There was a clear attention the specific issues and solutions that exist in relation to the climate crisis on Kiribati. The art really helped to deliver further on that, as it gave a sense of the island life in a visual sense as well as creating its own unique and colorful world. Some more SFX would've been appreciated, like some more sounds of crashing waves or seagulls, maybe some more distinct beeps or boops when clicking on something, but overall the music was very calming and fitting. I gave 4 stars for playability, with the one issue being that I didn't really understand the controls at first and there wasn't any really visual feedback for hovering near an area with an object in it, but realistically it was fine aside from these nitpicks. The 4 stars for Use of Themes was based along the idea that the island theming was very nicely done, but I still would like a little more SFX to support it as I mentioned before. I said 3 stars for Likely to Release as it seems like progress is only about halfway through, which, considering the time remaining, getting the full game out might be a little tricky, but maybe with just 1 more level of the remaining 3 to make I can see this being a pretty decently full experience. I only gave 2 stars for Compelling Gameplay/Fun for a couple reasons, the first of which being that I don't tend to play these types of games, and the experience didn't attract my attention as much. Despite this though, the main issue I found with the gameplay as that there wasn't much compelling feedback for the player upon finding an object. Getting a text wall, while good for explaining, isn't always fun, and it can end up turning the experience into a search for information that could be found on the web. The visuals definitely aid in making this interaction more enjoyable, as it seems to be a more art-centric game above anything else, but giving the player more feedback, like starting an animation , playing music or SFX; anything that can relate to what you're trying to tell the player about the issue/solution represented by that object. (Ex. When you click on the bucket in Saltwater Intrusion, have it spill over to show the brackish water.)

As for answering some of the other questions, I'd say the game was pretty easy to play in the end. I didn't have too much trouble finding the objects but I did still have to look for them. The hints were helpful but not in certain cases like  with the Mangrove Roots and the Te buibui, as I kinda just ended up clicking on the entire area with no rhyme or reason and eventually finding it. This created another issue where I found a lot of the objects were out of the way or in the edges of the image, which meant my eyes weren't really drawn to any of the objects as something that stood out among the rest. An example of that done right was the Water Tank, which had a red spot to separate it from the others. The UI/UX was not too intrusive on the view of the image and was easy to use and understand. As for the text bubbles, I did mention them before but I'll say something else about them. They were pretty informative, but didn't really have much personality to them. Having it be straight-up information is kinda tricky when that's the main reward for playing the game. I'd recommend that, without doubling the length of the text boxes, try to make the speech more colorful. Add some punctuation or explain how cool something is, whatever can get the player to feel more deeply about what you're telling them.

All in all though, this is a pretty interesting game. The art is really a big strong point here for me and I'm very happy to see it be implemented so well. With a few tweaks, this will definitely be a pretty fantastic game!

Just in case, here's the link to the One-Page Design Document