[x/p from thread] There's some impressive things here including an online scoreboard (though I think one was wrong lol) and I liked that boxing had some movement to it. It could use a bit more freedom or play as many of the games are a bit static (swimming, for instance, could've used some mix-ups). Oh, and sound, I thought the banality of normal life could work but objects needed to feel more poppy.
OMG, those faces. This is a bit subjective of course but the humor hit with me, I thought it was great. The gameplay was pretty interesting: running had enough of a balance, dancing was hilarious (but a bit easy to get stuck), and long jump had some good results but maybe a bit too simple (air direction could've helped, maybe?). Oh, good use of sound, too!
[x/p from thread] Damn, just another awesome Harold Krell game out here like it's no big deal. I don't know if this is my favorite of Krell's gameplay-wise but it's gotta be up there in narrative and in playing with a mechanic. I did have some issues figuring out the [spoiler]wind mechanic and how the sign went higher[/spoiler] but I eventually got it. Great game if you like the ol' SA Jam classics.
[x/p from thread] No casual coin flipping here. This is another one where it does what it does well (a few neat animations) and kind of lives and dies by it. I'd be interested in hearing if it was always so straightforward!
[x/p from thread] This one is really hard for me, I think it really sets out what it does (being minimalistic, clean with a bit of pop, and very mobile friendly) but personally I thought it was a bit [i]too[/i] much of that stuff. I don't think I ran into a single puzzle that I had to stop and think about, and what you see by the third level is what you'll see in all forty. Maybe if it had some build up or some more interesting mechanics (kind of weird there's multiple deathtraps that act the same way) it'd be a real showstopper, because most of the aesthetics are there and it's very intuitive. As it is it's an immediately appealing game which hit probably all it wanted to do but that unfortunately I found too rote.
[x/p from thread] Not quite there, but an interesting concept. I liked how the goblins kind of stayed as objects so you could kinda interact with them while throwing more, but I do think that the pixely graphics hurt the feedback involved with learning and experimenting with angles (too static when there were significant subpixel calculations going on).
[x/p from thread] Very imaginative little game. It seems like it'd be interesting to learn but unfortunately the controls and lack of direction really make it too unapproachable. There seemed to be some difficulty problems (opposite team was really too good at catching outs. A good strategy seemed to be defensive walls but it wasn't very fun) and oddness of control (trying to get the ball going in any specific direction, especially on the fly like that with the camera bouncing, just wasn't happening). Besides that, there seems like it would be a neat little old-school baseball game with a trippy setting if the systems could be iterated out. I'm definitely impressed with the amount of systems involved! Oh, I also noticed that the audio seemed to jump between whisper quiet and loud?
[x/p from thread] Love that title song, also I'm pretty sure I've heard some of that music before lol. This is a fun one, quite a bit of content to it! There's some pacing and balance issues (teleporting pretty much trumps everything, just eating it to a saw doesn't feel very fair) but it's fun trying to learn the systems. I'm not sure if all the graphics/audio meshed for me but I did like all the playful touches. Overall I like this one, as a toy it's satisfying to mess around with.
[x/p from thread] Fairly fun and interesting, this one does a good job (particularly in the beginning) of selling you a game. There's some cracks here (more of an experience than a fine-tuned simulation) but it's good for its runtime. If it was a bit more of a gamey game I'd put it up there personally! Oh, the ending screen seems to be bugged somehow (takes the input from the text before and exits?) and I couldn't catch it.
[x/p from thread] WEEP, FOR THERE IS NO FIELD GOAL. Go play it. I missed these, classic HitlersaurusChrist AwfulJam. Oh, I did get a consistent crash at the beginning video but somehow got passed it (either by Compatibility settings or by lowering the quality).
[x/p from thread] Neat aesthetic here! The slight oddness and weird audio cues really help sell this one. There's some boundary jank (clipping through the barrier/walls or unexpected reaction of the middle bumper) and it's probably slightly stacked to the front player due to the camera, but besides that it seems pretty decent. Not a groundbreaking entry but the parts of it it wants to sell it does so well.
[x/p from thread] Very prototype-y, the "game" aspect isn't there yet and it's a bit confusing just being thrown in there with all these event zones and stuff. I'm not quite sold on the jump/windup system but maybe I'm overlooking something. But the ragdoll thing is cute!
[x/p from thread] This one has good juice and timing to it (it's a funny game!), and I love that minimal style. Also, a ton of modes here which I find really impressive. It's just downright fun whipping around a space capsule. I did have issues with the controls, besides the gamepad not working I did seem to have some key ignoring even w/o holding too many keys (same with the kickoff, could've been timed cleaner). I think the mass of the space capsule is just too much and that especially becomes clear when you botch a slalom, maybe for more wacky hijinks the charge shot could've been a counter-thruster? It doesn't really feel like a team game but it's still cool there's different enemy types and all. And while I did like the graphics the font is a bit hard to read. But besides my griping it really is a fun, juicy little game!
[x/p from thread] Neat, I thought this was one of the funnier ideas I saw in development. No nostalgia veneer here, this is straight-up grungy hacky sack. I did think it was going to be a bit more QWOP-y or at least... wacky? Grotesque? I was thrilled when I saw it was updated to add team mode, I always love that extra effort. Oh, I think it may be a bit too incentivized for playing too safely, maybe a target mode or some bonuses for wacky shots would've helped with that.
Oh, I'm definitely impressed with this one, I don't know if that came through! It's unfortunately easy to overlook just how limited the time-frame of the jam was. I don't think any other jam game was just chock-full of stuff as this one!
Great! I'm interested in where you came up with idea for it, as well. More for my own curiosity sake then anything else because I know it's sort of a "genre" but not anything I really know about!
Just wanted to mention that I did catch the stream! I kind of dig the svg drawing and the spotlight motif, gives it a neat starkness to it. I'm curious if you tried any other animation for the instruments? Oh, it took me all stream to remember the name of it, but as a similar program I wanted to recommend you look at Sid Meier's C.P.U. Bach for the 3D0 if you've never heard of it https://youtu.be/IbGO0a5P0M8?t=81 (more info https://hg101.kontek.net/cpubach/cpubach.htm).
I'm a bit surprised there weren't more pet simulators! Some interesting graphics here (neat background) and I quite like the music choice here. Mechanically, it did feel a little empty (even splitting happens immediately so there's nothing to wait for or any objects that they interact with) and the Pet button thing personally didn't hit with me. I have a feeling this one has talent but hit the time-length limitation pretty hard (and it's certainly not the only one). But there is something appealing to it overall which I'm glad to see!
Let's start with the good! First, I think that's a pretty interesting music choice, kind of gives it an ethereal feel to it that I dig. And, while the game is really simple, I do think something about the game setup does lend to sort of a meditative focus which is easy to kind of put one "in the zone" without being complicated enough for distraction. However, I have to be honest, I do kind of think the game isn't in the spirit of what I would consider an input optional game. We could argue about the multi-axis input, but I also think that really there's an implied losing state to the whole thing. I just don't feel like this game is no more input optional than a regular game (a simple one, yes, but nonetheless). And, of course, that's not to say it's without merit! So, a simple game with some good choices but I think it needed more consideration in design to really fit the jam style.
Oh, a little cellular automaton-like game! I'd say it's fairly captivating, so good job on that. I think this one could be top-tier if it had things like genetic mutations (who doesn't like rooting for a unique thing?) or if cells had visual indicators of their state (they die for a reason, right?)... anything to give it more readily apparent feedback. It's a bit hard to tell why something or why something isn't happening and it's not great to have to rely on the text under the program to kind of guess what's going on. Oh, and the visuals are a bit mixed I think, the tiled background kind of clashes with the circular food and especially the cells which don't move very grid-like. But overall for what it is I'd say it's a solid job.
Pretty silly! I do like the menu framing and the song is pretty ponderous which fits for the most part. I wasn't sure if it was a bug or not but the Yum! button needs feedback. Similarly, I didn't get a good feeling that my responses were actually changing the results at all which made it feel random and disconnected (maybe the ML just isn't there yet). I can't decide if it's a good thing that it's just text or a bad thing (bad because it's really static as just text, but good because even just a descriptor of food feels oddly visceral). I'd say that while it needs some specialization it's a fun start!
Okay, this one *is* barebones, but I will say there's an awful lot of random, funny little jobs and such, much more so than you might figure at first glance. I sat at it for awhile and was still finding new ones to chuckle at. Oh, and I like the slight screenshake! For criticism (if I had to give one for a "last minute" change), I'm not sure if I like the background because it feels good going by fast or dislike it because it's a bit of a mismatch (and it might've been fun to watch things stylistically go by). Job: Electrical Gamer. Fetish: void* s.
I really like this one just because it circumvents my expectations of what I expect the usual submission to be. Okay, it is kind of ugly and buggy (the run animation for instance) and there's a lot of grouping which makes it feel spotty. But there's also a good bit of weird little references and overall earnestness that nudges this one into the spotzone.
Overall I do like how striking and clean this one is, and in particular I think that you're getting a lot of mileage out of the lighting. I will say that even though you hear waves the scene is a bit oddly static (you don't get the feeling of wind even though things are moving) and its a bit of a shame there's not more to show off the interesting lighting. But I don't think either of those are easy problems. I also might have noticed some distracting clipping? Still, I wish I had a tropical drink on hand! You had something to show off and hit it very well I'd say.
(Download version). I think I love everything about this one! I love the startup, the parallaxing, the ZX Spectrum-influenced palette with color shifting, the neat tech things I didn't know about (raster bars and attribute clash), that it comes with music but that it also accepts custom songs. I would have liked a little more obvious influence of the music and more objects in general (and staggered so you still get a surprise now and then) but that's all right. I kept this one up for awhile!
Neat music and some really good spritework, definitely a consistent developer strength! I'm in particular love with the little icons, just feels so comfy. I did encounter some bugs with the selector (odd jumping around) and timer (occasionally started at 0?) and would have liked a unique final product, but that's understandable with the scope. That brewing screen is just flat out lovely with its effects!
(x/post) A Castaway sneaking game. I see what you were going for, but mechanically there's a lot of problems. I had trouble picking up items that were next to me (I almost quit until I figured out it needed to be a distance away), the invisible walls and some of the forest felt pretty bad, and the actual stealth part needs work (in most stealth games, for instance, enemies tend to have an exaggerated turning mechanic partly to help mitigate parts where they path backwards instantly and spot you. Wilson in particular seemed to cause them to jerk around which made it a poor distraction item). But I do have to give props for attempting a stealth game as they're so tricky! And I know firsthand that it's beatable, so good job on that too. I definitely feel like you're getting better through these jams (especially considering this is a quicker one).
(x/post) Try to appease an AI with procedurally generated Tom Hanks movies. This was cute! I think it worked better than some of the other ones I've played like this before and the shop added some nice incentive and atmosphere. The Peek tool is especially neat because so often in these types of games you're not exactly sure what went wrong. Pretty comfy and worth a look.
(x/post) A somewhat barebones point-and-click adventure game. Seems to work well, just needs more content. Nice touch to include an in-game option to toggle music, although I liked the song choice. Loved the wacky running animation.
(x/post) A fun exploratory puzzle-platformer! Damn, another must-play Krell game! A lot of aesthetical charm here from the simple but appealing spritework, to the funky music, to the bitcrushed vocoder-alike, and on and on. Lots of nice touches such as the (spoileranimated dancespoiler), or the title screen, or the narration. The puzzles are fairly good for the time frame as well although some abilities feel too much like one-hit wonders. Give it a go!
(x/post) Snake, with danger zones. Short but worth a chuckle. There's some boundary vagueness and I can't imagine getting much past 1:10 even with memorizing zones. Also, not super apparent that it's not just cardinal directions. But until then it's pleasant and most of the clips were well-picked.
(x/post) A pretty charming JRPG w/ UnderTale-influenced aesthetic and narrative! I enjoyed this one a fair bit and was always interested in where it was going. It also had a fairly good challenge and length to it. It could've used some UI work (hits and turns were hard to see, some battle backgrounds would've been nice even with the UnderTale influence, selecting stuff was somewhat cumbersome) and I thought the last part was a bit weak both story- and gameplay-wise but not enough where I'd change my mind on giving it a recommendation.
(x/post) Jeopardy with Tom Hanks questions. This game has some impressive sound work going for it at the beginning and end. The gameplay was fairly functional. There's no AI or accurate rules or anything so it's pretty much straight trivia. I had some weird question pop-in with the graphics. But as it's fairly quick it's likely worth playing. A lot of the trivia is pretty bizarre, too. Strong start! Oh, I also wish the losing ending had more work put into it as it takes a long time to get.
