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That is so cool that you actually got to sail out there! Sounds like an incredible experience. Since you mentioned reading up on the history, I thought you might be interested to know there is actually an unused scene hidden in the game files. It features a plaque on the island that we copied to honor the real lives lost during the event. We really wanted to keep it in to pay our respects, but we unfortunately had to cut the scene due to time constraints.

Thank you so much for such an incredibly detailed and thoughtful review! It is amazing to hear that the immersion and polish landed so well for you, especially considering the constraints of a game jam. We were an international team of seven developers plus voice actors and a musician, so I will be sure to share your kind words about the art, music, and voice acting with everyone. I am particularly glad you enjoyed the suspense of the Morse code minigame and the little details like the burning food dialogue.

We really appreciate the deep dive into the mechanics and user experience because this is exactly the kind of feedback that helps us grow. You are spot on regarding the loading screens, as we implemented them mainly to ensure stability on the browser version. Regarding the UI, we missed how much the clipboard on the left dominates the screen compared to the target phrase in the Morse code game. As for the controls, the difference between the gear and kitchen games actually reflects my own learning curve during the jam. The gear puzzle was the first thing I coded, while the kitchen was the last, hence the difference in interaction polish. The stair navigation was also a known friction point that we originally planned to fix via a toggle in an accessibility menu, but we simply ran out of time to implement it.

I have to take personal responsibility for the cooking minigame since I have a passion for cooking and may have made the systems a bit too complex without enough of a tutorial ramp. I am also sorry to hear about the crash and the lost progress. We didn't manage to squeeze in an autosave system in time, but it is definitely something a full version would need. Thank you again for the full marks and for taking the time to give us such constructive feedback!

Thanks for the great feedback! We are really glad the voice acting and atmosphere helped you feel immersed. You are definitely not alone on the cooking difficulty, as I admit I made that minigame a bit complex. Good luck with the recipes when you jump back in, and don't forget your mise en place!

I really loved your interpretation of the theme here. The gameplay loop feels solid, and the mechanics were taught excellently in the intro sections so it was very easy to understand what I needed to do right away.

I did get more than a little frustrated by the fourth level, but mostly in a good way that kept me trying. The only real friction point for me was the delay after the character lands. On levels starting with a fall, waiting for the drop and the landing animation to finish before I could move felt a bit slow on restarts. The jumps also seemed to require a touch too much precision, though I admit I can probably chalk that up to my own lack of skill. Overall, this is a really solid entry with a great core loop. Nice work!

Thank you for the lovely review! We are so glad the balance between the mundane chores and the underlying tension worked for you. I will definitely pass your compliments along to our local musician friend and the voice actors.

We totally agree with your feedback on the polish. The stair transitions were tricky to get right, and we know they can be a bit aggressive. The UI in the minigames also could have used better visual feedback, especially for the ingredients in the cooking section. This was our first jam with a large international team, so we really appreciate you taking the time to play and share your thoughts!

I finally got the chance to sit down and properly play through your entry, and I absolutely loved the aesthetic and art style you maintained throughout the experience. The production value seemed consistently high, and the gameplay felt very smooth to match. The dodge roll was particularly well implemented and felt satisfying to use, and I thought the color select mechanic was a really fun and unique way to handle the different enemy types.

I did want to mention one minor technical thing I noticed regarding movement. It seems the player walks faster when moving diagonally (Pythagoras strikes again). I think just normalizing the movement vector in your code would smooth that right out and keep the speed consistent.

On a personal note, I am unfortunately lacking in the skill to make it very far and died after the big reveal about six times. I am definitely chalking that up to my own skill issue rather than the game design, as the difficulty felt fair even when I was failing. Overall, this was a super fun, well-executed, and highly polished entry. Great work!

Thanks so much for the detailed review! This was CyberSugar’s first Game Jam, and your honest criticism alongside the kind words really validates the effort we put in. We worked with an international team totaling seven people, plus three voice actors and a local musician we are friends with. The size of the team was a double-edged sword, but we are overall glad we participated.

To be honest, the last two-and-a-half days of development were all-nighters spent fighting a browser-breaking bug (that still persists). I was exhausted and wasn't sure if the stress was worth it, but seeing the final result and reading comments like this makes me realize how much we learned and the skills we gained. I actually checked out your entry via Git back in week ~2 or so, before the part after the satellite dish was even implemented. Playing the fleshed-out version now is a real treat!

Regarding your feedback on the gameplay, the Gearbox puzzle was actually the very first minigame I coded, while the Kitchen was the last. My understanding of GDScript evolved massively between the two, so the discrepancy in quality definitely reflects my learning curve. The "dollhouse view" of the lighthouse (as we called it internally) was a point of contention, but since our artist had already created the asset, we didn't want to waste it. We agreed the loop up and down can feel repetitive. We also played it safe for the HTML5 build with the loading screens, and as we play tested, we too realized how much time was sunk into waiting, but it was too late at that point. Luckily our artist made those animations to keep them somewhat entertaining.

The cooking minigame was a happy accident. We wanted to show Sutherland taking responsibility for his daughter, and since I have a personal passion for cooking, I took a leap of faith on that one. I definitely went a bit too hard on the complexity and it did need a more comprehensive tutorial, but I am so happy to hear it ended up being your favorite part once it clicked. The cooking minigame has received the most criticism by far, rightfully so. Finally, I'm glad you enjoyed the suspicious "American" character, our VA friend will be happy to hear that!

Thanks for playing and for your feedback!

Thank you so much for playing, we really appreciate your feedback!

Thank you so much for playing our game and we highly appreciate your feedback!

Thank you so much for playing our game!! We really appreciate it.

Yeah, Smith's known to do that. What a scoundrel. Thanks so much for playing and for the positive feedback! And yeah, in browser the game crashes at the end instead of going to credits but you did finish it - thanks so much!

Really fun and adorable game. The art and color palette are amazing! A fantastic base that could be expanded more and more. I didn't want it to end.

Thank you for playing!

The concept is here, and with some more fleshing out, I think it has potential. My issues are the gameplay, which is mainly just standing around and waiting. Energy production is probably too high, or should be off during the night. I had all towers at max level before the second wave even occurred. Once that point is reached, you cap off at 100 energy before night 2 is over and then have nothing to do for 3.5 minutes while you watch a countdown timer.

Really cool aesthetic for the interpretation of the jam!

Really cool interpretation, I could see this really being fully fleshed out into a full game with obstacles and leaderboards, etc!

Love this idea! Love anything that makes me think of, or let's me talk about The Punch Escrow! I hope that was inspiration for this! 

Thank you!

Yes, we absolutely could have used more time to implement more informative tutorials. The vanishing 'E's is by design, there is a small '?' button in the top that toggles them on and off, so they are meant to go away after the first time you use them, but should turn back on. As the for music slider, I believe that's because of an HTML bug that we were tracking and never managed to eliminate. The end of the game on HTML only, spits an audio bus index error on js, so we took a hatchet to the audio buses in an attempt to isolate the bug, but never readded the Music bus back to the game.

I'd love for your feedback! And we'll be sure to play your game as well ASAP.

https://cybersugarstudios.itch.io/solais

Thanks so much for playing!

As for the morse code, the target line at the top has segments highlighted in green. That segment needs to be completed in one go. So for the .- at the beginning, that would be one quick click and then a long hold click. Then when you let go, wait a moment for the letter to appear. Short clicks are '.' and longer-held clicks are '-'. Each letter has some space between it, so you only need to worry about each highlighted segment at a time. I hope that helps! And don't hesitate to reach back out, the tutorial system was made in a hurry near the end of development, and could definitely use some fleshing out!

Thank you so much for playing our game, it means a lot to us! I definitely would like to make a more thorough cooking tutorial and edit the audio a bit more after the jam. Great feedback - thanks!

Thanks so much! At the moment the browser version is playable to the end, but the ending credits won't roll due to a bug we're still wrestling with. For the best experience, download it! Thanks again!

Really love how creative and original this is. I'm shook by how much you managed to accomplish in such a short amount of time and when this is fully released I will 100% be playing it.

The art was super cute and I really love that it had a character creator in the beginning. I found the gameplay a little confusing but eventually got the hang of it. A tutorial would have been really helpful. In addition, I wish there was a bit more sound design and music throughout. Overall though - keep working on it and I look forward to seeing how it develops!

Yeah I'd love that! Also, if you're ever interested in just making audio for a game, I really love your audio vibes. Excited for what you do in the future - I'll keep an eye on your page!

Super fun! Maybe look into two separate Area2D colliders, one for enemies and one for trash, to make the game feel a little more forgiving! Overall awesome submission.

I would like to see this project developed to completion. I personally was unable to complete the tutorial sequence as after the phantom died nothing else happened for over 2-3 minutes. Getting the game to play at all was challenging as well, I clicked on the story first, and trying to play just looped through the story from that point forward. Refreshing allowed me to play up until wave 4/5 in the tutorial.

Thanks so much for playing, we greatly appreciate it! And yeah haha, the ingredients have to be added at certain times at different heats - a more thorough tutorial would have been a good idea. And that's a bummer you got stuck!! It seems to not do that when downloaded. However, it just rolls the credits after that so you pretty much finished it!

This is a super cool idea! But holy, I need these songs on Spotify.

This was oddly addicting! I could see myself playing this regularly. It would be a great mobile game.

I love the vibes and look of this!

Merci d'avoir pris le temps de jouer à notre jeu et pour vos commentaires ! Le bug qui vous bloquait sur la lettre a été corrigé quelques heures après la publication.

Thank you so so much for taking the time out of your day to play our game and give us your feedback. It really means the world to me that you enjoyed it.

Thank you so much for taking the time to play our game and comment on our page. And thank you so much for your input, I totally agree and would love to implement some changes to pick up the pace and make the gameplay smoother.

Thank you so much, I greatly appreciate you taking the time to play and comment on our game!!

Was really fun, the lack of a true tutorial made it feel a little dissonant from the narrative as the player is supposed to be already a really good radio operator. Once I got the hang of systems though it was really fun, and makes you feel like a spy. The different signal types and protocols could use some clarity as some signals look really similar to one another. Overall really fun and on theme!

Thanks so much! It's out now and we'd love your feedback.

This was super fun - after about 20 minutes I was wishing the levels were a little harder and that objects could intersect but otherwise it was fun and I loved the music choices.

Some of the controls were a little funky and/or non intuitive but I could see this being a fun mobile game with some more development!