itch.io

This is aggressively polished, nearly to the extent of an indie game release. The music is pleasant, the font and sprites were cool, and the concept was spot on. It even has interesting story elements.

I couldn't tell if it was intentional, but the enemies that shoot all directions at once (that kind of resemble bees?) still move when time is frozen.

There are also a couple of ways to cheese the gameplay loop... If you run into a wall, as long as you're holding a direction key, you will still stop time without having to actually move. And of course you can always spin in a circle if you need extra time to think without ramming yourself into a corner! It may be fun to have the game recognize when the player is trying these and to do something more interesting with it.

[Oh and obligatory comment that I submitted in the same genre, but mine is far more incomplete and amateurish.]

I love the visual aesthetic and the audio! The purple disco floor background and the fog of war around corners makes a great atmosphere. The level design was also simple, but well-done. It's just enough of a maze not to get too confusing but also not to feel too easy.

The enemies do seem to suddenly jump out way too close or just instantly shoot you. This works better when you can anticipate it by getting information about where enemies will be (something like the peeking mechanics in Invisible Inc. or Mark of the Ninja), when restarting is not that painful (like resetting the room on death in Hotline Miami), with more healing opportunities (as with Glory Kills in Doom), or even if they just don't instantly attack and shoot directly at you (enemies always miss the first time in Bioshock so you don't take a hit first in every single fight).

The waiting to reload mechanic absolutely massacres the pacing -- especially the right click shot, since the wait time is not cumulative. It can even soft-lock your ammo because the enemies appear so suddenly and move so quickly. If you don't fully reload after every encounter, you might accidentally accrue a following of more red squares than your ammo and health bar combined.

The music was nice, and fighting the intentionally obtuse controls and timing mechanics was fun. I think you left out an escape from the About overlay.

That's a good point -- I considered the idea of having it decay over time during movement, but ended up not implementing that. It could probably use an increase in difficulty overall, including that option and blocking you from hiding in the corners.

I. Love. It.

The idea of formulas as stats is by far the most unique game mechanic I've seen in ages. Gravity being normal to individual surfaces and the fact that this affects weapon functionality is a nice touch as well.

If there's anything that could stand fine-tuning, the ray-casting weapon pausing your character's physics is simultaneously very strange and at times can be a bit cheap; perhaps there's a way to make your character continuing to move while firing it change the weapon's effects?

Cool concept! Love the sprites and the music. The UI is a bit of an eye chart - perhaps playing obviously different sounds scaled to the number rolled would help so we don't have to read the small font at the bottom while we're trying to focus on the enemies?

Good use of the wildcard concept -- the core gameplay is quite a twist on the usual fishing mechanic. The music really fits the indie vibe, and the sprites are fun. A couple of bugs to iron out (either fish spawn in weird places or the hook catches things below the maximum depth) but otherwise well-executed.

Great concept! All the abrupt changes really added atmosphere and made it surprisingly tense. There were a couple of moments where it was unclear whether missing text and blinking controls was a bug or a feature, though. The music was simultaneously catchy and strange.

Yeah I definitely spend too much time bouncing around how I would add the "you fail to respond" option. I wanted it to capture the feeling of improv that isn't going well, where other actors you're not vibing with might cut you off, but I also wanted it not to feel like a bug (like you accidentally clicked or that it went on accidentally without meaning to). The stage manager cutting you off after 0.3s with two huge paragraph choices was supposed to be essentially a tutorial for that mechanism [and a joke], but going forward I'm going to need to add a visual indication that this is intended design without giving an explicit timer.

I also was considering randomizing the turn timer within bounds, like 2-5s, but I ended up ditching that and going with an overly forgiving timer (like 6s) for most of the replies because I hadn't yet come up with a proper solution to it seeming accidental. Thanks for the extra feedback!

There is more to it, though. If you surrender but change your mind and plug your keyboard back in, it resets to telling you how many devices there are.

I avoided checking the source code specifically to avoid spoilers, so I ended up spending about 10 minutes to create a vbs script to open the game and wait a few seconds for me to unplug devices so it could SendKeys for me, only to realize later that there's no code to handle that.

I think that mechanic still needs work: I went through several variations on the mechanic and even the stage manager's tutorial of it, but I think it still doesn't adequately get the point across that interruption is always a hidden option in this game — which is why it's currently in the description. Also I was definitely too generous with mostly around 4 seconds for each timer after I decided not to randomize it between 2 and 5 seconds.

Thanks for the input!

Thanks! I enjoyed writing it in a strict timeline.

Good work on the concept and controls. Lots of really interesting ideas. Some of the ergonomics could use improvement (scrolling in edit mode with arrow keys is annoying), and the text is basically impossible to read. I enjoyed the pixellated low-poly art and the audio feedback! It's a fun challenge.

Certainly one of the better adaptations of the input manipulation games in this jam. It's a simple maze game with an excellent twist that upgrades it into an entertaining puzzle game. The minimalist visual style is actually really pleasant -- it feels a bit like solving a crossword puzzle with my keyboard. And I love that it's named "Okay." Because that's exactly what you say to yourself as you stare at the keyboard trying to figure out where the next input just went.

The watercolor art is wonderful, and the story is uplifting and charming. I'm extremely pleased with the narrative focus on the jam theme; where most games are about physical player controls, you've opted to make a narrative story specifically confronting the emotional and situational aspect of having things Out Of Control. [Also the quacking and honking in the script gets old, but who am I to judge when my game is filled entirely with grunts for voice lines?]

I was really hoping to find more easter egg websites that exist... especially inappropriate ones. But alas, that would've been against the rules. I love the use of vaporwave as soon as the soup can starts happening. It is also really fun that it's almost a sandbox game because the inciting incident only occurs if you intentionally do something that you don't have to do! The manipulation of player controls has been done to death in this jam, but your approach was uncommon and refreshing.

I had already played yours and I thought it was hilarious when I found a second 98-themed game!

I'm all about the art and music! The story really captures the feeling of being oppressively unaware of how to get around in a strange place with a language you don't speak, which is something I've probably done a few too many times in Europe... It was a little odd that I could still elect to leave when I was getting thrown in jail, though. Really great approach to this year's theme!

I love the snarky replies when you attempt to flee. It's very Stanley Parable/Undertale. As many have said, it desperately needs the option to read at your own speed (both faster and slower). Otherwise, good execution of the concept!

I certainly like where you're going with it. Obviously the 48-hour constraint left everybody wanting for more features to finish off a game. If you keep running with this idea I'd say it's important to cue the player a bit more.

The awkward staring was actually really interesting -- and I felt like it was intentional for the effect of parading around the fact that I sucked and also lost -- but at some point in attempting to reset, I managed to get to a close-up of the locket looping on character death [and making more grunting noises than my entire jam submission]. It just felt unclear whether I was supposed to do something else or I was supposed to be unable to do anything.

CAWWW!

Effective use of the premade sounds. The art style is really nice as well. As far as the core gameplay loop, a more direct implication of how your character can move would help - like flashing the keys up with the movement icons before you start playing. The overall experience is really great once you get an idea of what to do, and the delay mechanism is really tense!

I'm not sure if there's a way out of the death-spiral, though; once you lose enough moves, the game can become impossible and the fail state seems to be awkwardly staring at a motionless character. More to come in future updates, I guess?

Anyway, fun concept, and I enjoy that the mechanic that represents the Game Jam theme actually ties into the game's overall vibe, when so many games in this jam just include control manipulation as a gimmick.

Love the audio! The voice lines and the music are cute. I enjoy the randomness of the pawns suddenly deciding to sprint off in any direction -- sometimes it helps, sometimes... not so much.

Honestly, it's not a genre I'm much into myself. But within minutes of the prompt going out I was thinking Out Of Control plot meaning "deus ex machina" and therefore Greek Theatre, and I knew it had to be this format. Thanks for playing despite it being outside your wheelhouse!

The audio here is fantastic. The guitar is very peaceful and calming, which contrasts really well with the fact that everything is literally on fire. It's basically a pixel art version of the "this is fine" meme -- complete with burning animals.

The controls, as several have mentioned, are a bit clunky. They obviously also cause some of the issues you've mentioned on the game's main page, like scenario 2. The concept is definitely there, though. It certainly fits the theme, as you described it; managing a team of firefighters in an actual emergency is not supposed to be easy and go well. I'm sure with just a bit more time, you can bring the control scheme from overly punishing to pleasantly challenging.

I'm really pleased to see the options to pause or turn off the scanlines for people that might find that difficult to deal with. It's a nice touch and probably will earn you brownie points from GMTK who always advise for adding accessibility options when able.

Also, bird screeches on point. I can really appreciate kitschy voice acting!

Yeah, lots to learn still. Saturday was basically a crash course. Thanks for playing!

Extremely clever take on the theme! Not a lot of narrative games in this jam -- it's nice to find another. I really enjoyed the soft reset concept; it reminds me a bit of "legacy" board games where you make permanent changes for subsequent play-throughs.

I see that you opted for a timer mechanic for responses just like I did. We should discuss further how to refine these because while mine suffers from being invisible and a little too forgiving, yours may be a bit punishing especially for slow readers. The added pressure of a visible but ambiguously long timer really adds some intensity to the game!

This game is dripping with style. The concept and the artwork fit neatly together as a theme. The core gameplay mechanism is equal parts intentionally infuriating and eventually rewarding as you start to get used to mapping the controls on the fly.

There are times that it's hard to tell whether something is an intentional part of the challenge or just accidentally frustrating, such as the mouse seeming to repeatedly refuse to grab a wire as the timer ticks down.

The concept and visuals are really good, and the complexity of the rules is great. It could really use an intuitive GUI so you can understand the rules immediately without having to read a lot. Would greatly increase the pacing and make it more exciting. Some timer rules or rules that reduce your score instead of giving you damage would be intriguing as well!

Such is the way of the Greek tragedy. Thanks for playing!

I'm so glad you picked up what I was laying down. (Did you also see that other characters can cut you off as well, if you hesitate for too long?)

Side note: does anybody ever root for Zeus, though? He really is the poster child of being a huge prick.

Thanks! It was a bit last-second, but hopefully at least my eagle voice lines were worth the effort.

Glad I could give you a laugh or two! It's my first ever time developing a video game and doing a jam, so I ended up reducing scope a lot during the last 12 hours, but I'm pretty satisfied with how far I got.

The enemy voice lines are hilarious! Could use some volume balancing, though -- I turned it up to be able to hear Hilda then blew out an eardrum when 5 monks spawned on top of me all simultaneously screaming.

This game is too good. The way this adheres to "Out Of Control" is pretty typical for this jam -- losing movement/attack controls -- but it is still easily one of the best executions of that approach that I've seen. The developers took the idea and ran with it by focusing on the creative and interesting directions that a single mechanic could go, and it resonates really well.

Additionally, the music, sound effects, animations, and art are really pleasant and have a strong stylistic theme that simultaneously ties in with the jam theme and establishes the mood. The GUI has a couple of elements that make it a little too spaced out; there's a significant amount of text happening on the side that I am 100% never going to read (in the middle of trying to flying-kick a poltergeist before it eats my controls), and the health bar blends into the periphery a bit.

The controls are extremely refined; I love that the flying kick locks onto the nearest thing so your character has some last-ditch directional control even if the entire D-pad is possessed! I did find myself wanting diagonal controls for projectiles and ended up almost exclusively using the kick instead. Maybe it's possible to shoot diagonally and I just didn't figure it out?

Thanks! Honestly the experience here might be more immersive if you aren't familiar with the mythology, since you're thrown into the situation with as much experience as the protagonist!

To expand on that first point, if the icon changed to a pair of downward curving left/right arrows situated above, it would make for a slightly less ambiguous GUI.

This is easily one of the most unique takes on the prompt. It's refreshing to see something introspective with visualizations of how things actually feel.

The core game mechanics are exactly the kind of effects I wanted to see from this Jam; the player character fighting against the player adds a layer of humanization often lost in video games. Whereas struggling to get a protagonist to do what you want usually rips you out of the role of the character, in this case it actually immerses you by forcing you to feel exactly the way they would feel. You aren't just pretending to be them; you are being their mind for them.

It's overwhelming and fascinating all at once. Also, the text input mechanic is perfect. In fact there are several technical aspects like that which are essentially what I was going for in my submission but don't have the programming experience to achieve in 48 hours.

Thanks so much! Yeah, I figured when I came up with the idea it might be one of very few in the entire Jam due to the theme. Hopefully worth some cool points for originality or something.