Just staying as a jam game for now! 
I've got a very busy 2021 planned, so as much as I'd like to expand this I unfortunately won't have the time. 
Thanks for checking it out though :)

Awesome feedback, thanks for checking out the game!
There is definitely a few bugs here and there, and some balancing to be done. Getting all the info to the player via the UI was definitely the biggest challenge. 

I'd like to do more updates on this, but 2021 is looking very busy for me so far! We'll see how we go :D

Thanks! :D

Approved :)

Super adorable! But I found this pretty hard and got stuck quickly, the difficulty ramp-up was very sudden. The room restart helps, but could be really improved with a proper 'undo' action.

Fantastic experience start to finish! Audio and graphics are absolutely top notch, and the gameplay is super polished and fun to play. The axe throw mechanic is great and there's even a multi-hit combo for the slash! So cool! 

Fun take on old-school point-and-click adventure! Very solid art and audio. You did a wonderful job of fitting all of this into the limitations :)

Thank you!
And thanks for catching this, I might do a quick update after the jam voting ends :)

Thanks :)

Thanks!

Yeah this art style gets very pixellated at such a low resolution. You might prefer the look of it with the quality option set to 'high' ;)

No problem, and thank you! :D

I used GameMaker Studio 2. I'm not very experienced with 3D dev at all, so it was not really an option for me. I've been wanting to test out the sprite stacking method for a while now and this jam was a great opportunity to do that :)

Absolutely delightful experience from start to finish! Really enjoyed my time with this one :D

Adorable little concept. Feels like a really good Mario Party or WarioWare minigame!

Perhaps could use a little tightening on the controls. Might be better on a gamepad, but the rotation felt like it needed some acceleration ramp up/ramp down. And the liquid's response to vertical movement of the blender was a bit too sensitive/unforgiving for my liking. 

The graphics were great, very cute aesthetic. Music and sfx were on point as well. Overall a very "juicy" game :D

This was a very good time! I was a little directionless at first but with a bit of experimentation I was able to figure it out and eventually beat the game :)

Very polished entry, the graphics are very cute and the audio is fantastic. Simple and addictive little gameplay loop, and the ending was a wonderful touch! Good job!

Absolutely fantastic! Really captured the spirit of the films through the low-rez art and nifty chiptunes. Super addictive gameplay and the powerups are rad! My high score is 232. 

Is it possible to kill Jason? That guy is TOUGH lol

Great puzzle gameplay! Really intuitive tutorialization of the new heroes as well. Unfortunately I got softlocked on a level where there was no available use for Shockwave :(
Could use a quick restart button perhaps?

The only real negative was the sound effects, they gave me a chuckle at first but grew annoying pretty quickly. Overall a really fun game, good entry :)

Beautiful animations in this one! 
I felt the gameplay was a little slow-paced and things like collision could be tightened up a little bit. But throwing stuff is always fun, and the 'return' mechanic made it even better. Overall a very neat little Zelda-esque dungeon puzzler :)

Super addictive but wow do I suck at this game haha
Very neat concept and the items add a ton of variety! 
I think I would agree with other commenters that the gray-on-gray for incoming pieces can be a little hard to read, but other than that, the visuals are fantastic and very juicy :D

This was super fun to play with an incredible variety of minigames! It really kept surprising me.
Awesome use of such limited assets as well. Great job! 

I found the gameplay a little difficult to figure out and couldn't progress very far :(

Very good graphics and a cool aesthetic, but I think it was giving me a bit of motion sickness after a while lol

A very interesting concept that I think can be developed further.

Very nice and simple graphics, easy to read. The meta-maze idea is very cool but in it's current incarnation has some flaws. My immediate thought on seeing the full maze was "oh sh*t this will take hours", and upon clearing another screen I thought "well how do I even remember where I'm going?". Perhaps a pause/map screen would alleviate this. 

However I think instead of a traditional labyrinth maze the concept could be tweaked into a more straghtforward non-linear map, like a metroidvania or zelda dungeon. Reach different areas to open up new ones, etc. 

Thanks for catching this! Just uploaded a quick fix :)

Hi! I assume this is through the itch desktop app?

If so, I am unfortunately unable to provide an up-to-date installer package as I no longer have access to the game's project files. As an alternative solution, you should have recieved an email from itch with a link to the bundle list on purchase. If you use that link, you will be able to search for the game by title and direct download from there :)

Really sorry about these issues guys. I have been informed that I'll need an installer package for it to run through the itch desktop app, however the file I've included is a single runtime executable. After some digging, I've unfortunately found that I no longer have access to an up-to-date build of this project and am therefore unable to provide said installer package :(

As an alternative solution, you should have recieved an email from itch with a link to the bundle list on purchase. If you use that link, you will be able to search for the game by title and direct download from there!

Note that steam keys are not available if you recieved the game as part of the Bundle for Racial Justice and Equality.

From the bundle page:

Not sure what you mean. Are you referring to a Steam key?
The itch version does not require a Steam key to run. Also note that if you purchased the game as part of the Racial Justice & Equality bundle, steam keys are not available.

From the bundle page:

https://cosmiccrystal.itch.io/hellstar-squadron

Thanks Chase! <3

Really awesome! Love the GB colors and sound :D

Got a ldjam link so I can rate?

Okay I have uploaded an additional build titled 'HellStar_Squadron_v1.01_altSync.exe' with a fix that should hopefully resolve this game speed issue. Thanks so much for your patience while I hunt down this bug! Let me know how this version goes for you :)

One more quick question, is your monitor refresh rate greater than 60Hz?

Steam keys should be up now!

Steam keys should now be available to all itch buyers! :D

Thanks for the heads up and the video! 

Just a couple of questions, are you running the v1.01 build? And what OS are you on?

Thanks! I am in the process of requesting retail keys for itch buyers now! Will update when available for users :)

Terribly sorry! I had uploaded the wrong build. Should be working now :)

Trailer

Description
The year is 207X AD. The galactic government entity known as Paradise is at threat from a terryfying, demonic rebellion! Join the HellStar Squadron on this epic adventure as you dodge wave after wave of bullets, shoot the demons back to hell, and save the galaxy in this fresh, retro-inspired arcade shoot 'em up/bullet hell experience! 

 - Three playable characters/ships to commandeer!
 - Eight cosmic stages to blast your way through!
 - Big bosses with heaps of bullets and explosions!
 - Retro arcade experience including CRT shader and TATE mode options!
 - A jammin' chiptune soundtrack!

The galaxy needs you. The HellStar Squadron awaits.

Links
Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/843740/HellStar_Squadron/
itch.io: https://cosmiccrystal.itch.io/hellstar-squadron

Screenshots

Fantastic game with a beautiful style. One complaint/feedback: I messed up my first slingshot in the tutorial and couldn't access another ghost :( It might also be worth considering putting the ghost jump mechanic on a separate key to jump as I also accidentally used my ghost numerous times and had to backtrack to get a new one which was a little frustrating. Overall I loved it though!

Awesome mechanic and style! Needs to be longer :D