Any plans for a native Linux-build, perhaps?
Tried the game using Wine, but some of the graphical elements are glitched unfortunately…
BTW - Don’t know if you’re aware of this, but your account seems to be flagged (most likely by mistake).

It was an experience, allright! And surely had it’s fair share of memorable moments.
I really liked it. 🐁
BTW - I have a issue/bug to report, which unfortunately forced me to quit the game towards the end… Too bad there’s no save- or checkpoints!
When I arrived to the second(?) playable 3D-segment with the directional arrow controls, the game suffered such severe frame-drops and glitching graphics that I couldn’t proceed. I could make out a skull on a monitor-screen and some lamps(?) from all the flashing and choppy mess, but that’s about it. Couldn’t find a way to progress in that state.
I was running the Linux-build on ancient hardware so that might have something to do with it. There’s probably something in that particular scene that fried up my potato! 🥔
The earlier dungeon-crawling scene didn’t seem to cause any issues tho.

That was fast, cool!
Not sure if this is intended or not - but when I tried to replay Sector 4-6, after destroying all the enemy pieces nothing happens after that.
Ps. Would appreciate a native Linux-build at some point if possible. The game is perfectly playable through WINE, albeit a few graphical glitches and flickering here and there.
Cheers!
Welp, I managed to get to the finale in the end. Hooray!

The freezing/save game-issue I reported earlier made me intrigued so I decided to poke around the registry. Apparently making duplicates of the data is quite straightforward after all. You learn something new everyday, it seems!

When comparing the dumps I noticed that whenever the game froze there was always something around 200 lines added to the save data-values. It seems to always happen if I try to access the SILICON.ZNE (Sector 4-1) too early when I don’t yet have the bishop. Here the player is forced to go back to the zone-selection screen and gets stuck forever when the data gets messed up.
You might want to get yourself a roll of duct-tape and a lot of bubblegum (or consider overhauling the whole save system : D)
Another bug I encountered was that if you jump around from different zone-maps to another, they sometimes start to overlap together. For example I was able to enter to the forest-zones from the marsh-map etc.
The inventory also got a little janky towards the end when it started to get full.
I think that’s all for now. This was a fun and interesting experience in surprising ways!
I’ve experienced at least one issue, so here’s my report!
Whenever I encounter an INFINITE LOOP CASCADE and return to the .ZNE -selection screen, the game freezes to a black screen with only the logo visible. The only button that works in this state is Q which lets me quit the game.
It’s quite frustrating since the game saves itself to this state so the only choice is basically to start a new game. And since it seems the game saves the data to the registry as HEX-values I don’t have the option to keep a backup save either (at least not very easily :D)
PS. I’m a Linux-user and I’m running the Windows-build through WINE, so that might have something to do with this issue (or not).
Wow… Now, THIS is my cup of tea, so to speak! Found you guys from @wf__games ’s Twitter-feed after checking it after a long time.
Tried the game using Mednafen and I think I used 3-4 hands.
Will definitely return for some more later!
I appreciate you returned to play it again!

The keyhole is hidden in the secret attic of the house, which you can access by jumping on the furniture and climbing the lamp. There’s only a rudimentary end-screen when you open the lock, so there’s not that much to see.
In hindsight I should’ve added a picture of the house in the speech bubble as a final tip.
That was only one of the poor design-choices I made in a hurry, and I’m not surprised you found a glitch I overlooked, so sorry about that!
Don’t know if you noticed BTW but The Moon stops talking if you attack him, and you can actually kill him! (That slightly alters the END-screen graphics)
I had a lot of bigger ideas for the game, but there’s only so much one can implement during a JAM.
Thanks for playing!
The hint system was one of the last things I implemented in a real hurry, so a whole colony of bugs wouldn’t really surprise me!
Nice to hear that you enjoyed the experience. I had a lots of bigger ideas already during the jam how I would go about expanding and improving it.
We’ll see if it ever goes anywhere. It’s entirely… …possible!
This was really great!
It’s quite important to keep the mechanics consistent when creating a Metroid-like, and you really nailed it. Very polished stuff, especially if this was your fist time doing something like this!
The sense of progression and the abilities offered felt quite natural. Really loved playing around with the mushroom-bounce and dash! I guess the vine-powerup was the one that felt a bit underwhelming, since you didn’t get to really use it that much.

I think I spent half of the playtime stumbling around until I found the final area. Kinda wish there would’ve been a visible counter how many spirits I’ve collected when playing.

Also, was I supposed to get here? Good thing you added a boundary down there. Was afraid that I’m gonna get myself soft-locked poking around!
The three “levels” had nice color-schemes and own varied personalities to them. Music was pleasant, and those particular arpeggiated chords reminded me of old Gameboy-Zeldas. Would’ve been cool to hear own themes in the different areas, but that would understandably be a lot of work for a jam-game.
(My own entry had literally 90% less area to explore than this, but I went and produced three tracks of music! I guess that was a bit overkill!)
Would be interesting to see a zoomed out map of the game area. It’s always fun how the sense of scale feels so different in games like this when you’re offered only a small perspective when playing.
Keep up the good work!
Nice little experience, although now I have the infernal MIDI-violin loop stuck in my head forever!

I found it strangely funny how every text-output ended with an exclamation mark(!) It felt like it was presented by a silly and manic narrator.
Appreciate that one could actually interact basically every part in the room. I think what took me the longest was finding the stone since it was barely visible. I wish I could’ve get to use the computer!
My older Lowrez-game from two years ago featured a white dot venturing a similar minimalist top-down interior. That was probably the reason why your game caught my attention.
Keep on jamming, folks!
This was quite fun!
I always like to see unique approaches to the old platforming format, but I think I got myself a moderate case of carpal tunnel syndrome already! (It would be interesting to have a keystroke-counter on when playing)
My older game for LudumDare45 had a similar dilemma. The controls relied on tapping and felt like a “fundamental” part of the game, but it still would be necessary to add alternative control-scheme for players who don’t have iron wrists!
I guess in your case it wouldn’t detract the experience much if applied properly.
But yeah, keep up the good work and keep trying new stuff!
Surprisingly nice survival horror!
The atmosphere is quite on point and it seems to have a lot of content.
As the previous commenter has said: the controls are a bit clunky/broken in some parts, but one gets used to them after a few tries.
The things that I think need some work are…
The display/lore screens: You can continue shooting and openings doors even though the overlay is visible. Also the buttons are a bit small and it would probably be nicer to scroll a whole page with only one click
Opening doors: You can enter through a door from a distance and still walk around while the screen is fading
Receiving damage: I think I would want a bit more feedback from the game when I get hurt
I still didn’t beat it, but I plan to come back for another shot at it.
BTW, this resembles a game my friend made for LowrezJam2020. I think you might want to check it out.
Keep on jamming!
Nice little old-school horror movie homage!
I don’t know whether I have anything meaningful to add to what others have already pointed out in the comments.
The opening “cinematic” and closeup-scene did a good job in setting the morbid mood and tone.
My main annoyance was probably the hitbox of the character (something I usually botch myself, so I’d know!)
The boss battle also felt somewhat superimposed compared to the rest of the game, but it provided a decent challenge.
The story didn’t exactly offer much substance or real resolution, but I guess that wasn’t the point here either. Gotta love ’em ambiguous horror-mysteries!
I guess some elements distantly reminded me of my old Lowrez-entry from two years ago.
Keep up the good work!
You probably mean the picture-alingment puzzle in the forest, in the very beginning of the game?

You’d have to combine four instances of the same picture.
Some of the combos teleport you to different “levels”, some of them (unfortunately) don’t do anything at all…
It’s a very experimental jam game made in the span of one weekend, so that explains some of the obscure elements…
Hope this helped!
Hey, Ismael and friends!
Greetings from LudumDare (I’m familiar with a some of your earlier games from past LD’s…)
Very impressive work. The game feels good and polished already in this state. Having much fun with it!
What I think it would benefit from would be an auto-zoom feature when you start to aim your shot, especially in segments where you have to smack far away. Sometimes it felt a bit awkward when you had to press three different buttons to shoot, aim and zoom.
Moving around while zoomed out would’ve also felt very nice and natural, so I thought was there perhaps a technical reason you restricted it?

I also softlocked myself on the first try when I hit the little guy inside the cliffs!
Made it to the room after the teleport on the second run. Still didn’t finish it but will surely come back for more later.
Keep up the good work!
I’m glad you liked the game!
I agree that the engine I use isn’t the most ideal one for a 100% “purist” Lowrez-entry. But I think the fundamental limitation is still there, and most importantly it’s an element that enforced the creative process.
SPOILY-TIME
After you get the climbing power-up, you can climb the lamp in the house and open a lock to finish the game.
I guess I should’ve separated the talking/shooting elements lol. I don’t know if you noticed, but uhh… The Moon only has 5HP… 🌚
Thanks for playing!
I like the style you have drawn the ghosts, and the way they go “angry mode” before attacking is a really fun element. It makes them appear quite lively.
I think it took me at least ten times until I at least somehow got the hang of my flashlight. Apparently I waved the light around too fast when trying to scan the area for ghosts and lost control.
The highest score I managed to get was 13 and I think I saw two ghost types. Whenever multiple entities spawned at once I knew I was doomed.
If you’ll ever expand the game some BGM would definitely spice up the already quite nice atmosphere.
Keep on jammin’ !
Heartwarming little game! 🦀🌱
Appreciate the live(ly) keyboard-music. The Pixel-art is also nice and there’s a lot of different creatures. The vultures have cool animation!
Improvement idea: You could easily bring variety to the levels with some palette swapping. I could also imagine the desert night slowly falling as you progress?
Keep up the good work!
Thanks! I’m glad you found our experimental little piece.
Originally there was supposed to be two possible outcomes in all of the mini-games, but so far you can get “cursed” only in two of them.
It’s possible we’ll work out a “full version” some day, but don’t go holding your breath!


Here’s some fresh additional I I R O -content for your enjoyment!
Very nice work as usual! ✨
I always find the atmosphere and storytelling in your games captivating.
BTW I found an actual bug / a trigger you forgot to disable.
When entering the school for the first time you can talk to the kid even though he’s invisible.
I noticed that when I was trying to examine the sink. 🚰👀
I suspect that you clicked somewhere else on the page when the game was loading, and it resulted the game screen to be out of focus. You could try clicking on the screen and see if it activates the intro-sequence.
It’s a pesky issue and I’ll try to fix that if we’ll publish an updated version at some point.
This is really impressive.
I could imagine fitting a dynamic story such as this in a Gameboy-ROM requires some skills at optimization.
Love the constant pressure you feel when making decisions, and they actually make a difference here.
SPOILERS AHEAD
I finished my first run living in the squat and finally even got kicked out because of my MAPOTA-addiction :D
One could also argue that I might’ve been a WOLF wearing sheep’s clothes, since I was very actively helping the MAWA-party and yet I ended up voting the WOLVES just on a whim.
I was excited and terrified to see if someone will find out my true vote! :D
Really looking forward to the full release!
I saw this entry on the bottom of the Unrated-list.
Putting a jam-game behind a paywall is generally unheard of, and not including proper screenshots whatsoever would seem like a major red flag to most people.
Who in their right mind would pay actual money for this?
…uhhh, well… You ought to question my mental state from this point onward then.

Mr.BALL is the first entry in a series of games starring the titular Mr.BALL.
Telling a story of epic proportions, it conveys the whole human experience in heart-wrenching ways.
When firing up the ‘New Unity Project.exe’, it was immediately clear that we will be traveling into unfamiliar territory.
The player assumes the role of a black dot with red outlines, who has to jump over a mean looking spiky rock guarding a pyramid in order to advance.
Not an easy feat!
After reaching a red wall in the distance, things immediately get even more intense.

Next you’ll have to navigate a complex series of grassy platforms in order to plunge yourself into something that looks like a gray loudspeaker. The background graphics and overall design is jaw-droppingly unique and inspired in this part of the game.
But one of the aspects that I find the most ambitious is the dynamic change of seasons.

You rarely see realistic simulation of natural phenomena in games, but here it’s in fact so well conceived that the player won’t even notice when Mr.BALL is suddenly about to perish in the harshness of winter.
To make matters worse, the mean looking spike-block army has gathered all of their forces to stop Mr.BALL reaching his final goal: Himself.

I’ve got to admit, when I first finished the game I was literally speechless.
The thing Mr.BALL was searching for all along… …was himself.
You rarely see video games tackle philosophical questions like this in such depth and elegance.
Seeing Mr.BALL get reunited with his own self is such profound imagery that it has the potential to bring a grown man to tears.

I’d say it really is worth the investment, and I hope more players will allow themselves to experience it.
The game really didn’t follow the set resolution limit of the Jam, but who really cares at this point.
Mr.BALL rules!
Such a strange experience.
A janky Metroid-clone with funny-ass elevator-music. I love it and hate it at the same time! (The song is still playing in my head)
A checkpoint or health-items would be nice. I never could get to the red room without losing almost all my health to the bats.
After multiple tries I managed to get the Morph ball but couldn’t get past the Metroid with only one health.

I don’t know if it’s because of my browser, but I could sometimes see the collision-box of the character, and the backgrounds were missing at some segments.
@yes’sn’t
Heh, strange.
I’ve had the experience that Z and X are default buttons in plenty of games, especially when it comes to emulators.
But yeah. It’s always the best scenario if there’s an option for the player to configurate a preferred control-scheme. I’ll be trying to make that a standard in my future projects.
@MrPouletBZH
Actually I use QWERTY, but I still like the idea of Z as a “default” button :D I guess it all comes down to what you’re accustomed with.