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Unfortunately I don't really take to hypnosis so most of those interludes were kind of lost on me. But the concept of hopping, and the way the story was structured around the player having an actual objective was very cool. I think it's something I would love to see further gamified, where the player can plot out routes, find hints, and work their way towards the target on their own.

As a leather freak, I do very much appreciate the inclusion of the bootblacking scene.

Thank you! I love getting feedback from people into shmups.

SFX is generally my weakest area, I'm usually grabbing them from "8 bit" sound packs and they were added pretty late. And I'm sure that meshes oddly with a soundtrack that's using real instruments. I didn't have a target era, but I'm mostly emulating Cho Ren Sha 68k.

I honestly didn't expect this to reach anyone who knows what tate is, lol. Cutscene panels would be lost, but I'm sure Godot has an easy way to rotate the viewport. 

Y'know I ended up making it a little narrow just to give more room for the artwork on the sides. But now that I'm looking at it again, I could probably shave a few pixels off for that extra space. I'll definitely consider that for the post-jam updates!

The thruster movement mode feels pretty darn good especially with the animations to go with it, I think it could ascend a little faster maybe. Love the chunky armor and overall style, would love to see more.

A lot of our graphic designer's work unfortunately didn't make it into the current version including the big WARNING screen on boss approach, and indicators when enemies were approaching from behind or the sides. The level 2 song was written but not recorded in time so it plays level 1's song again. The intro was going to transition from the backstory with the slow theme into a more intense cutscene that plays with the main theme, but the art wasn't finished for that so the main theme just plays near the end of the backstory. There was going to be a powerup called BRACE Mode: The ship's wings would be bound up, the player would become invulnerable and grazes would delete bullets, allowing you to build up the Impact Drive risk-free while also clearing the screen. The ship was planned to have a voice done via vocaloid, and just say things like "checkpoint, impact ready, warning" during the course of a mission.  And finally, there was more lore, but I like keeping the dialogue short and sweet.

There were some things that I already knew weren't going to make it in when we started, and that's scoring and a TLB. Scoring is kind of a big part of shmups for serious players, but I've never been that good so I've never studied what makes a good scoring system. I am planning to add a true last boss to game that will reveal additional lore, but as usual it  will require playing start to finish without using a continue. 

Thank you! I’m glad you enjoyed it. I honestly have no idea how to structure shmup scoring, I know it’s a big part of the genre for serious players. But this was mostly inspired by ZeroRanger, which is super accessible and story driven and I absolutely fell in love with it.

Yes, lol the Impact Buster it is 100% an impact play pun. The stars really aligned on the theme cuz I had this melding with the ship idea cooking for a little while, I was so glad to hear that was the theme. 
It being a jam game I really didn't want to make it bullet hell hard, I was mostly going for it looking intimidating. I do want to come back and make it more of a challenge later, but still accessible for people who mainly want the story.

Thank you! I had so much fun with the soundtrack. Orion did a great job running with the religious zealot vibe and BourbonDiablo knocked it out of the park with the player art.

Yeeeeaaaah sorry about eating your quarters, we had designed indicators to warn where enemies would appear from the rear and sides, but they didn't make it into the levels in time. Eventually I do want to update everything and make it a more solid and structured challenge for the real shmup heads out there.

God yeah, sound management has been a nightmare! I'm absolutely planning to refactor my audio code later and give some of the bullets sfx too. I'm so glad you enjoyed it though, thank you!

Visually is was very cute and I like the little jingle when a screen was complete.I unfortunately also called it quits early, I don't think this sort of smooth acceleration and deceleration really meshes with the level of precision the game is asking for. A quadrupedal character sprite makes it hard to tell where she's actually going to land during a jump, which is unfortunate cuz I do love playing a horse.  It is particularly exacerbated by the legs outstretched during the jump animation though. If she cast a shadow that shows you her collision box at all times, that would help a lot I think.

The wall hang mechanic felt really good throughout the game. I think the vertical section felt a little long from its checkpoint, that one had me locked down the most. But damn the sex scenes were so well done! I love some carefully rendered pixel art porn. And the little jester creature is very cute I would love to see more!

I love that each of the endings very nicely explores how  they would continue to play out in the future. Also the way they expand on the world and are connected to each other. 

Feeling really normal about the armor, might have to explore that.

The sprite style and simple animations are very nice. I've never played this kind of idle game before so I wasn't really sure what was going on with all the numbers. Just kind of running around exploring was fine, but not knowing how stats worked was confusing, I kinda got it after they started to ramp up more. Haven't found a use for the kinks yet though.

I actually really liked slowly learning that each mechanic existed without knowing at the start, felt like actually learning with the character which was cool. I also liked how you could specialize in the different mechanics, I went really heavy on rain. The only thing I wasn't big on myself was how active of a clicker it was. But I think I just personally prefer fiddling with more passive tickers.

I love this crew, the cook was my fav!Definitely a bit challenging mainly because of trying to interpret some of the instructions like inner/outer or distinguishing chest and nipple. I think just a little longer on the timer and it's perfect. Also loved the goofy slime creature just holding all of the items at once.

Generally I agree with what others have said about the pacing and time it takes to complete. I do love the 3D pixel style, and it does nail that nice indie horror vibe. I really like the pov when you get grabbed, that was pretty hot. I also really liked the ending, though I had my fingers crossed for some... corruption let's say. But I'm a monster TF guy so I can only hope. 

Critique aside from pacing: I think the map is too bright. I kept getting flashbanged when I would pull it up while hiding in the dark. To be fair, I shouldn’t have tried to play this with a migraine, oof ouch. And it’s a small detail, but I would avoid calling it a wendigo. The term is generally misused and misappropriated, and you wouldn’t really be losing anything by omitting it.

Thank you so much! I can't  really promise that much more content, but in the future I would like to update it with a bit more for the shmup enjoyers. Scoring, power-ups, extra ship drops, WARNING, and a TLB were all planned but didn't quite make it in for the jam. 
Also I would like to make it harder at some point 😈

"Fuck yeah" is exactly what I want to hear when someone plays this, thank you!

The blending of the unit command with direct combat is very cool. Left-click drag, and right-click move made the controls flow extremely well for me. Being able to do it from the map made it feel like an entirely different kind of playstyle. I could imagine there being progression that would allow you to specialize in active combat or RTS. But even as is, I think it’s really impressive that you’ve got both those systems working seamlessly with each other.

As simple as it is right now, I think 3D interactivity is a great idea for a clicker game. It's like I've got a little puzzle box to play with.

There’s some nice attack patterns here, and I think parrying in a bullet hell is a great idea! But player movement is a little sluggish and the parry comes out a little slow. I think everything could be sped up a little to make combat feel more energetic, faster but less dense attacks, faster player movement, and a parry that starts sooner. I did enjoy the challenge enough to beat all the fights though. But I do wish there was some incentive to win.

Had a couple of crashes, I ran it with the debug console on my last try and got:

ERROR: FATAL: Condition "slot_count == (1 << 24)" is true.

   at: add_instance (core/object/object.cpp:2296)

I'm a sucker for evocative microfiction, so I thought this was really cool. Using the title and preview image like that was also big brain. I did get stumped for a minute because, like one other commenter, I wasn't paying much attention to the status and I would reset every time. But oooooh I love when an idea is just vague and juicy enough to make you think.

Yes that is as far as it goes right now

I really enjoyed the count to 50 ending. I'm not super susceptible to hypnosis so the repetition was a little lost on me, as were some of the visual and audio effects. But I do think they were well done! The snaps were nice and resonant, the variety in the spiral designs was very cool.  And I'm thankful for the options to turn individual effects off. 

The writing here is intensely satisfying, and I have come back a few times to find a new ending when in the mood. Also the species specific language is a  very nice touch, it really helps keep the immersion.

I wasn't familiar with  this type of puzzle so I was struggling for a bit, but eventually it started to feel pretty good! The tension of the game meshed really well with the struggle of the character, very fun!

The card battling system in this is very engaging, and the dialogue did so much to communicate the ideas behind the mechanics. Flowing back and forth in your mental state to throw off an intruder was so well communicated through the mechanics. Thematically I like it a lot. 

The pacing felt a little slow, and I think it's because of how separated stepping and balancing stats is. I actually really like the movement mechanic, but I'd love to see cards that adjust your stats and position at the same time like: cower to step back +despair, saunter to step forward +lust, intimidate to push opponent +fury etc.  Offensive cards could also be a little more common, near the end I was cycling hands for a while waiting to deal the final blow.

Though all that being said, this pacing kinda makes sense for essentially a high stakes boss fight, and would make for a good boss rush if you wanted to expand the story to just a few more opponents. I think the tone served the tension in the beginning, but the hopelessness of the endings might be a little heavy handed. I do also always advocate for a horny payoff for winning and not just for losing. Maybe you turn the tables and quell his rage to make him docile. Or just fuck him like you're trying to fix him.

Great pulls for the music, the battle theme definitely added to the tension.

Showed up to the game jam wearing the same t shirt, lol. A two character puzzle stealth game is  such a banger idea, it's wild to see that working so well with the camera splitting and giving them specific interactions is such a nice touch. I'll have to give it a try with the bf later. Love the interactive takedowns!

 I was losing my mind a little on level 3, I think tossing a few random decorations around as landmarks would maybe help keep oriented. Maybe having the camera zoom out when you're split up so you're not losing so much of your horizontal vision. But I did finish and I love the toys hidden around as an exploration bonus!

I love a TF magic fight, and having the mechanical effects so well matched to the flavor of the potions is really doing it for me! The clinking glass sounds are so juicy, and I love the art and the way the characters are put together. I keep restarting the first round until I get one that looks like me, thank you for the curly hair.  Also gathering a witch polycule as one of the witches is such a cute and refreshing framing vs the usual harem building vibes.

Most of the criticisms I have are the same as what's already been said on the game page comments. But this is genuinely one of the games I'd  most like to see expanded on in the future, because being able to more deliberately explore some of the mechanics absolutely would keep me coming back. Cowbell starter deck, I beg you.

Same brain cell

Honestly I would love to tighten up the game to where speedrunning becomes really satisfying. I've already had friends joke about adding a timer while we were playtesting.

I love a gambling game that's got just enough complexity to get you thinking (while you can think at least.)

I mostly ignored the dealer's roll though, he showed a lot of 1s on a d2. If he showed the higher roll,  it might encourage more risk taking by giving a higher floor that needs to be beat. Showing whatever was rolled first, or maybe saying what size die is hidden might also just get the player thinking more.

Now low INT gambling was where things really started to get interesting. I love tangible consequences and increasing risk.

Oh I do enjoy running around to solve a little mystery. Keeping track of so many new names is tough though, maybe because I haven't played the previous ones. Loved seeing the chaos ensue!

I'm in agreement with Kerfuzzle's points on the controls. I actually think going point and click would be pretty smooth, but that's if your engine supports it.

love the styling of the characters and their varied shapes, especially the subtle wobble they have. 

I did get a character stuck in the slowed state by switching while they were slowed.

Thanks for the feedback, you're not alone in struggling a bit on the last challenge!

I added a difficulty option in the start menu that makes them chase less aggressively for now. I'll look at organizing them so there are just fewer on easier difficulties in the future.

All my years of Diner Dash have trained me for this moment. A perfect genre fit for a drone game. Waiting for an interaction to finish felt a little sluggish, but once I found you could just move them vaguely towards interactions to get them both in motion, multitasking brain started to go  brrrrrr.

 On behalf of the service top drones (all twelve of us) thank you for the big dumb blorbo. I wish a bright future for him, delivering gently distorted one-word commands for the benefit of labor.

One behalf of the drones who regret getting a business degree... *sigh* like yeah... I guess you can call it that.

Was there a particular section or maybe an enemy behavior that you found too  difficult to deal with?

I'm considering ways to adjust enemies for easier and harder difficulties.

Yeah I realized pretty late that the pathing is gonna need an overhaul, grid based is a little rough for this kind of game.

Really glad to hear you enjoyed the characters!

Currently it runs at a fixed resolution

I ended up just removing the option 🙃