itch.io

The progression of going deeper is a nice touch! I can see why you did that ending but it also feels out of place in a chill game.  Overall, quite a cohesive and enjoyable experience.  Noice!

Wow! Crazy good.  I really enjoyed the 2 sword rooms, but honestly they all have great, unique vibes, and its entertaining throughout.  Amazing work to all involved

Thanks for playing! There are instructions on the games page

Thanks CryptRat! Yeah after the first week I definitely started worrying more about making the game look good vs authenticity, I mainly stuck to 3 colors per sprite, but went to 4 a couple times. Smooth scrolling animations, the night time effect and too many sprites are probably the biggest offences, resulting in it feeling a bit more Mario world than Mario 3. I appreciate your kind words

Very cute graphics with nice approachable level design!  I don't love the timed curse as a mechanic, but it was still fun to play.  Nice job

Very cute! Starts a bit hard for my taste, would've been nice to start with fewer, smaller width lasers to help me get the swing before it cranks up the difficulty.  An air dodge to stall in mid air would be cool too.  Nice job!

Incredible graphics, audio and NES feel! It's hard to imagine anything topping this.  I found the fights were a bit too easy, and I didn't feel super engaged by the dice based movement, but with some tuning/refinement, I could see this being a lot of fun.  Incredible work!

It took me awhile to figure out I was supposed to climb the trees!  A little rough around the edges, but charming.  It'd be cool if you could fire on a different trajectory while crouched, or charge to change your trajectory.  Nice job

Very cute pilot quest like,  I really like the enemy graphics and the shield throwing mechanic.  I think you tuned it to play a bit slow, after a 15 minute play session I hadn't found a second mushroom, and only had enough resources for 1 helper, not enough for any upgrades.  I think killing the boss wasn't rewarding enough. Nice work overall!

I really like the style, audio and design! It took me a bit to understand that I needed to block left and right for the early attacks, but once I did, boss 1 was easy.  Boss 2 on the other hand, too hard for me I'm afraid.  Was a fun challenge though!

A nice and simple bomberman clone, well implemented and fun to play.  Would've been cool to see a twist or 2 straight away.

Many unfinished jams have bad aesthetic and are unplayable.  This looks and feels good.  Shows promise! Nice work

Amazing aesthetic, sound and puzzle design.  Definitely the most cohesive and polished entry I've seen.  Feels like something namco made for the gba!  Reminds me of chu chu rocket in the best way possible.  Amazing work!

Fun idea, turning it into an adventure game! I didn't quite finish it as I started seeing repeated elements, but I enjoyed what I played.  Great aesthetic and sound

I like the mechanic of using your score to unlock powerups, though it'd be good to know what I am buying so I can make more strategic choices.  The aesthetic is simple but effective.  I think you should've made vulnerable enemies more distinctive from the blue ones.

Fish pacman devs unite!

Feels a bit unfinished, I wasn't really sure if I was supposed to play story mode or endless.  The music is nice!

Very unique game mechanic! Would be nice to stick to either mouse or keyboard only for such a simple game.  It felt a little too luck based at this time.  Might have been nice to have a first level with no enemies to help the player get used to the controls.  An ability to go invincible for a few frames to dodge enemies as you land would be nice to bring back a bit more skill.

Very cool submission

Great aesthetic, very interesting bringing in the guitar as you pick up dots.  Proper input handling makes it feel good to play.  Overall, great work

Game feel and aesthetics are great! Loved the camera moving around and the map looping visually rather than just wrapping around.  Completing a quadrant to kill an enemy completely is a good mechanic.  The shooting feels off because it seems to take more than 1 shot sometimes, but its not clear why.  I'd prefer a focus on dodging skillfully and clearing quadrants to lower the threat. 

Overall amazing work, I think its my favourite of the jam.

A nice twist! Having to click multiple times to change arrow direction makes it hard to react quickly.  it'd be nice if we could use the arrow keys to set the direction, then click to place the direction.  Instead of having to remove tiles manually, having them automatically disappear after a ghost or 2 moves on them would be nice to keep the pace up.  Sometimes the player gets stuck in a corner, which is a bit odd.

Aesthetic is good, but music is a bit harsh.  Nice job overall

I found the sword, took a look around to see if any enemies were close before I took it, and one was right behind me! Good jumpscare.

Excellent aesthetic and sound design.  Would be nice to know how much gold is left and where its at. Great work overall!

This one has the most potential as an interesting pacman like! The aesthetics are top notch, love the different enemy designs and jump scares.  The biggest problems are that the game is too slow, and that the player has no ability to outrun the monsters, and they chase the player through intersections.  This makes the ai too deterministic and the gameplay feel tedious.  If you want to keep the chasing and equivalent movement speed, make the centre area a safe zone and remove the power ups that let you kill demons.  This will keep them feeling threatening and leave the player with retreat as their only recourse.  You could implement some cornering and make the monsters slightly faster than the player, creating tense retreat moments when the player runs into a monster.

With just a bit more love I think this could be an amazing game, great work!

Loved the retro aesthetic, but definitely needs better key handling.  I know its part of the aesthetic, but the music was very harsh, too many sine waves with too much attack for my taste.  Some twists with the power ups would've been cool for some variety.  Otherwise, a solid submission!

Neat idea for a twist! Left mouse button for planting is an odd choice.  Grid based movement would be another easy win.  Frustrating to start the whole level over when you die, 3 lives per level might feel more fair.  Nice job

Great presentation, though I found the walking sound a bit harsh.  It was a little easy to get stuck on corners.  Would have been nice if there was a "cornering" feature like in pac-man.  I'm not sure I understood the twist, it seemed like a pacman clone with random powerups and levels.  

Solid clone! Art is cohesive and attractive, nice that the maze is made of different components for more variety.  Maze felt a bit large for the movement speed, I prefer when levels are cleared faster.  Some music during the game would have been a nice touch.  Nice job

Simple, but still interesting for a few minutes trying to trick the AI.  Smoother framerate and audio would be a nice addition. nice work!

Amazing game Gary! Once you understand the flow around how to use the different abilities, it really clicks and its a lot of fun! I got 372 on my 4th try, but I suspect I can do better with a bit more practice.  Very well polished, my only note is I think the arrows shouldn't block movement.

Simple, but fun! I think it could ramp up a bit faster so you don't have to spend so long waiting around each time you restart.  Nice job!

Lovely idea and implementation! I think the pacing of the puzzles could have been smoother, and it's annoying that i can't retry a puzzle without replaying the whole game.  I'm not sure that it makes sense as a score space submission since there is a max score possible, and it's not too hard to achieve.  Overall, a great game, nice work!

Very cute! Easy to get started, and fun to kill all the different snacks.  I like that the enemies are visually different and each have slightly different behaviours, though it would be cool to be able to redirect projectiles at foes.

Nice job!

Thank you very much! I tried to draw attention to the tips in the description that explain that you don't need to press the arrow keys to wall jump but hasn't helped as much as I had hoped 😂

You're a legend wrong way games, this is the most in-depth feedback I've ever received in +10 years of participating in game jams.  I agree with balancing on the easier side for jams, and appreciate all of your thoughts, very kind and flattering. I enjoyed your game as well, and look forward to checking out some more of your portfolio :)

Did I get to the top? Alas, I did not, but I had a blast trying! 

I had a similar idea for my game, something akin to a rage platformer, where the unluckiness manifests from how much your are punished for a mistake.  I really like your interpretation, though it is a bit hard for my tastes.  Well done!  

Thank you!! You don't need to press arrow keys to wall jump, just push against the wall once to get started, then hit jump repeatedly!

You bet, happy to return the favor 🙏

I appreciate your thoughtful response! If you're free to give me a deeper analysis, id be grateful ☺️

When you mention wall jumps being slippery, I suspect you are trying to use the arrows to wall jump, but there is no need. You can simply start sliding on a wall and jump repeatedly until you get to the desired height

When I mentioned the velocity reset on landing, this is exactly what I meant when you said you felt "bogged down".  It's meant to encourage you to take your time and focus on precise jumps instead of running and jumping constantly like Mario.  I feel if I tone this down, I'm essentially trying to make it more Mario like, but I'll experiment with it.

Here's a version with a toned down velocity reset.  Makes running and jumping feel less heavy, but I'm conflicted about if its objectively better: https://dwhiffing.itch.io/waltermelon-postjam

Oh I specifically mean that there are a lot of texts that straight up tell you how to defeat a monster.  I would prefer you didn't tell me and I figured it out by trying whatever is intuitive.  Even on something like the window, let me figure out I need Windex by failing with water, don't tell me upfront that I can't win the fight until I find windex, give me a hint after I fail.  I think this was only for the first few fights, can't recall all of them.  I just think the fun of a mechanic like this is discovery, and if you tell me before I can discover, I lose that

A unique concept combined with a charming and polished aesthetic!  I enjoyed seeing all the different enemies and cleaning them up.  Though I found it a bit patronizing to have each monsters weaknesses explained up front, robbing me of the chance to figure it out myself.  Impressive all the different content you managed to squeeze in, excellent work!

Always impressive when games can run on real hardware! I like how you put a new spin on blackjack that feels properly distinct from the original.  As said by others, I didn't love the cursor, but understand it was a technical limitation.  Charming art on the coin guy, and very nice music!