itch.io

Bit late but happy to help!  Honestly my favourite part of jams is just playing games made by people and writing paragraphs, the best being when said paragraphs are helpful!  

An interesting concept, a bit simplistic but it fits and it's definitely a very different take on the concept.  A bit more general feedback would be nice though, like how much the timer was increased, how close it is to being over, when you mess up etc.

Obviously though that's mostly polish and otherwise it's a nice game.

An interesting take on the theme, especially since it's one of the few games to make difficulty change based off accuracy, rather than just "you miss, you lose" sorta thing.  Which is a nice change of pace.

It's also got some nice art, especially mixing it up for the enemies.  Though when the enemies overlapped it wasn't great, especially if you got some long word stuck behind one or two words.  Made it a little hard to actually get it.  Though that tended to be pretty rare.

I did run into a slight issue with the word "focusing" where sometimes when a new monster would show up it would reset the focus and lead to incorrect presses being registered.  I managed to replicate it a few times.  Not game breaking, but figured I'd mention it in case.

Overall though, a nice setting, some cool visuals and a pretty cool mechanic that makes difficulty go ABSOLUTELY crazy.

Side Suggestion from my chat:

• hittaus: "it would be cool to have a vertical line on screen saying "if the word crosses this boundary it's highly unlikely you'll have enough time to type the words""
  
  • Essentially giving more present danger and difficulty level shown on screen as the words get harder.  I think it could be interesting to increase pressure, if that fits the game.  As well as give some nice moments of "Yes! I did it" when you manage to get a word you very likely shouldn't.  Could also possibly give some sort of reward.
• neverite: "tell the dev to add hippopotamus"
  • I have no idea, but I mentioned it anyway.
• hittaus: "the game should have pulsing in it's spawning of words"
  
  • Basically giving little breaks between huge chunks of words similar to a rhythm game to make it a little easier to last could be interesting.  Personally I think there are pros and cons, the pros being it can help people play longer, the con being it does "lower" the difficulty, but obviously you can counteract that by making the "bursts" or "pulses" more difficult.

Well besides being confusing, it's relatively well put together mechanics wise from what II can gather.  Just lacking a bit of info on how to actually pull off whats being ordered.

It's got some nice audio though, and a decent amount of feedback which is nice.  Just a tutorial or some clearer text in the description would help a lot.

An interesting concept, a little simple execution wise, though it is a jam game.  It was interesting to figure out some of the timing on the NPCs, though it was relatively simple to just run towards the town hall.  Except for not knowing how long till the sniper would hit you of course.  That made it a little harder.  

The only real critique I'd say besides the difficulty is the visuals don't mesh the best, which to be fair for 3 hours makes sense, since you were focusing on mechanics.  But I figured I would point it out nonetheless.

Though the audio does fit relatively well which is nice, I couldn't tell if it was changing depending on the situation, or if I just had incredible timing.

Well this was a very leapy monk, a pretty nice game to throw together in 2 hours though for sure.  A nice setting especially, very calm and relaxing contrasting with it's difficulty lol.  I managed 10, just barely, but dang can it be hard.  But hey, it is insanely accurate.

Though a few things, it might be worth slowly increasing the distance between the poles the farther you go?  As well the player seems to move quite a lot compared to the thickness of the poles when even just pressing a direction.  Which isn't great when that can make you fall off easily, so might be worth having some sort of acceleration to stop that even slightly.

Overall though, a really interesting take on the theme and a nice follow through on the setting.

Had me wracking my brain for some of these puzzles, except the last one which seemed to bug out and let me shoot through some of the walls unfortunately.  Otherwise though, a nice simple way to interpret the theme especially the limited bounces was interesting. 

Though it could be cool if the walls that were colored lost collision possibly?  Would let some interesting puzzles take place I'd think.  Otherwise though, a nice little bouncing puzzle game.

Wow this was a challenging one, it gets you with those patterns for the cubes.  Especially with the different variations, almost feels like a tower defense game with the different enemy types and the reaction to them.

Those freakin purple cubes though I hate em, they're like camo balloons in BTD.  And later ones are worse but I will keep quiet about those.

Though one thing I will say is that the gun and the crosshair gave me the impression that I was going to hit in a line towards the cross hair, that was very quickly answered, but still a bit vague.  Otherwise though it's got some nice feedback, some crazy patterns and somewhat a feel to try and get you to speed up.

It might be worth adding a timer possibly?  Since technically you can just wait to get all the cubes whenever you want.  A timer could make that less viable.

Overall though, a way funner game than I though it would be, and some really surprising patterns in it.

Well I definitely didn't expect to be shooting fish out of the sky from a bush, so that's something.  Though the background is more than a little distracting personally, the waves I could understand them moving, if a bit slower.  But the bush is a little crazy.

Otherwise though it's a nice simple game, pretty hard depending on how crazy fast the fish decide to move, but relatively understandable and quick to hop into.  Also there is a decent amount of feedback on hits which can be nice, if a bit weird on the actual audio for me, but I am also not one for audio.

Overall though, a nice simple to understand target shooting game, with an interesting art style.

Ah okay, that's allg.  That's probably the fact that I added in a small grace period and made it too long.  I wanted to make it so you weren't instantly punished for hitting their vision cone, but I set the default too high most likely.

That difficulty spike around 30-40 points in is crazy.  An interesting setup though, taking the good ol' dino game and making it as covered in ads as Youtube lol.  A fun way to do it, with some pretty interesting popup designs and as with all of these a lot of fun references throughout.

Though the fact that the right click and hold feature was surprising, but it did get me out of a lot of jams once I found out about it.

Overall, an interesting take on definitely not dino game, cube edition.  Although I will say the ads had a bit of a fundamental flaw in that they don't cover the bottom of the screen, and since the spikes are very different compared to the floor, they stand out even with a tiny pixel.  Meaning I basically just ignored the ads.

An interesting take to do a, essentially, point and click story game for this theme and it sorta works.  Though II will say some sort of indicator on what was interactible would definitely have helped, but also it somewhat gives it more exploration if it doesn't.  Some feedback would be nice though, some sort of text box on things that don't work etc.

It's a very well put together scene though, too bad that my character is unfortunate a ghost within it though.  They can't do anything besides interact with electronics, and lay in bed.  Sounds very boring.

Overall though, a dang good setup and story for 3 hours in a jam, and a very well put together level.  

Well this has a very elaborate setup, though it's unfortunate it's not really in the gameplay at all.  It does also just immediately drop you into the thick of it leading me to being very confused for a bit.  Trying to understand the mechanics etc.

Though once I understood what the goal was and what I was doing I managed to figure it out which was nice.  Though a bit of a primer on how it played would definitely help a lot.  Also I do have one weird question, which, is, why is there a row of "notes" that goes STRAIGHT through the camera.  It led to quite a few misses due to not being able to see for me which was unfortunate.

Besides that though, it has decent gameplay, if vague, and some good mechanics.

A monk, fighting video games, cash and hearts.  That was not what I was expecting when I saw distractions as the theme.  Though it's surprisingly well done with a pretty nice art style throughout.  Pretty consistent visuals and clarity in the enemy health.

The only thing I would say is it's a bit weird that there's not a score counter and instead it's levels, which seems to work as a score counter.  And also there's not full clarity on what happens when the concentration meter goes down to zero.  Combined with how fast it can tend to go back up early on, leads to it being pretty simple.

Overall a very surprising take, that was kinda fun.  And very difficult when it gets going.

A nice take on the general ad/popup focused distractions I've seen, having it be about co-workers messaging you rather than crazy scam popup ads is a nice spin and there was a nice art style to them which is all the better.  The same goes for the whole game.

Though I will say the popups were a bit tiny to interact with, which once they start going crazy makes it a bit harder, though maybe that gets easier in full screen or it's just hard.  Although obviously having it like that can also be a perk for making it more difficult to deal with so, could be a design decision.  I figured I would mention it nonetheless though.

Overall, a nice visual style, a very polished typing game with some nice fitting audio and a cool setup.

Well this was an unexpected setting, and an interesting interpretation of the theme, though a bit annoying with how much it leans into the TikTok, it does fit with the idea of the game so it makes sense.  I do have to wonder though, are they actual tiktoks or just random videos?

It was also interesting to see some in world dialog, at least for the first bit, since it gave it a bit of a clearer storyline.  Though it was a bit weird how it switched to how to attack quite quickly and didn't fit the earlier storyline at all.  Which makes sense, but since it established that it's a "story" or "dialogue" before, having it suddenly become a game tip or tutorial was a bit jarring.

Otherwise though overall, it's a cool take on the theme, just not that much content which to be fair makes sense since it was only 3 hours, so the amount there is interesting.

Was not expecting to see a bullet hell boss for thsi theme, but it's an interesting idea.  Though I don't really see the theme in it, it is a cool mechanic to make the focus be on staying in a certain area while avoiding the bullets.  Though obviously the bug makes that a little less useful.  That and the difficulty is SUPER fast in how it ramps up which had me surprised.

Though I did get somewhat used to it, was still VERY surprising when I landed the first hit on the boss and the huge difference in it's attacks.  Overall though a bit vague on the theme but an interesting setup and a pretty cool boss fight throughout.

Well this definitely had me distracted with the control scheme, though it felt like the people were a bit inconsistent with whether or not I would "get" them.  Though I'm not sure if that's just me feeling that or not.  The colours do make things relatively clear, as well as the shapes helping with that which was nice.

Although the "people" counter being top left was a bit out of the way which mean that I almost didn't notice, it, which to be fair, is pretty easy to do when it's just a counter.  So not surprising.

Overall though it's an interesting way to use input method to follow the theme, since you're having to balance good ol mouse control and keyboard shenanigans

Definitely wasn't expecting to see a mermaid themed game for distractions of all things, though it makes sense based off the legends of sirens and stuff so it's an interesting way to approach it.  And it's  pretty nice game loop, it was quite difficult trying to balance all the ships in a circle, and also trying to avoid them going all the way across the screen sometimes.  Since that was a death sentence a lot.

My general strategy ended up being flinging them back where they came from, so a LOT of people probably were very confused when they landed back at their start point after hearing some very nice music.  But hey, they were alive.. only to uh, come back and die.

Overall though real nice for four hours, especially the art style being pretty consistent was nice.  Along with the fun of spinning all the ships.

facepalm How did I not think about the fact you can leave the level.  That somehow didn't cross my mind at all, but yea the levels overall aren't great, I pretty much threw them together in the 10-20 minutes.  I spent a bit too long trying to do the arrow mechanic and make it aim at the mouse with an indicator and everything else, which uh, probably shouldn't have done.  Since i scrapped it all realizing I just wanted the arrow to go a set distance.

As for audio yeaaa I was hoping to get something in for the arrow, or the arrow itself, but I know basically nothing about it so I ended up stalling too long in the three hours.

Well I'm happy about the door part, it won't just be me that missed it hopefully.  As for the rest it was 3 hours, which this is crazy for.  I mostly just look at it is a game, but I get better at clarifying that I'm not like expecting a masterpiece, which tbf I think this is pretty fun.  But 3 hours only gives you so much time.

I'll definitely be very interested to see any postjam updates.  Cause this was a lot of fun.  I'm happy my feedback was helpful.

A nice take on whack-a-mole.  Though I was a bit confused at first because I assumed red vs green was the whole mole, not the bandana.  Once I noticed that though I managed to get some relatively good scores, and the animations were kinda nice on the moles showing up.

Though it was a bit surprisingly when I hit my first green mole and instantly lost, since most of the time this concept or arcade-esque games tend to focus in on limited mistakes and high scores.  Which seeing a game instantly make you restart with a high score, is a little bit of a let down I guess, since it means that you have to play perfectly to try and get a highscore.  Leading to a lot more precision needed, rather than strategy for a high score.

That combined with the timer makes for a bit of a weird choice as well, since it makes you focus on manically trying to click as many as possible, but then also immediately punishes you by making you restart if you click the wrong one.  Which to be fair, whack-a-mole is based off of, but being a bit more lenient might make it a bit more enjoyable.

Overall though, it's an interesting take on Whack-a-mole and a very different interpretation of the theme than I was expecting which is always cool to see.

Wooo a stealth game!!!  The rare occurrence that happens in a game jam once in awhile, so nice to see one.  Especially since this was a super fun one, and very similar to the idea that I sort of settled on, but with way better level designs.  That comboed with the bouncing of the lures lead to some interesting corner peeking.  Though the regen sort of made it trivial if you wanted to go super slow.

I will say though for a maze I had a relatively easy time finding my way through the levels, even with the samey walls etc. the view plus the camera effect and the layouts made it relatively easily to figure out where I was, and where each direction would take me.  Which was super nice.  Though, I did somehow completely miss the door for the first however long, so I died a lot to that lol.

Besides that though, it's an interesting way to do a stealth game, if a bit iffy on the clarity of the AI, mainly their view range.  Which to be fair, with the standardized wall sizes wasn't too hard to figure out, but it was a bit confusing at times.  Especially when they rocket after you quite quickly.  Though I do like that there's not a super easy way to counter them when they do so because that would make the best strategy to just sprint through spamming lures.

Which to be fair, I did do a bit, and it does somewhat work.  But I'm happy it's not a super dominant strategy due to the recharged time and max lures.  Though I do wonder how it would play if the lures were more a blind/stun grenade, or something, that you can pick up and reuse, hence having to pick them up.  Rather than just waiting around to get them back.  That would likely require some more clarity on where they'd land possibly?  So it may be more work than it's worth.

 Just spitballing with that though, overall it's a really cool concept.  Executed quite well with a nice clear art style, simple to understand mechanics and a relatively clear goal if you don't miss the glowing green block (entirely on me).

A very different setting to the other ad centered games I've seen in the jam so far which was nice.  Especially having asteroids to dodge, with that name on top of it as a little bow.  Also some realtively nice art for the main games assets, and some interesting bits for the ads.

I also liked the little touch where the ads would start moving around to increase the difficulty, not sure how much they end up moving, but they got me when they started moving for sure.  Had me a little bit surprised that my WinDOS windows would start randomly moving, I guess they got possessed by ads.

It definitely gets kinda difficult later on, which makes sense, since you are dodging the ad-stroids.  Overall though a nice gameplay loop, with some cool ad references and a nice difficulty curve.  

An interesting setting along with the theme, it does sort of fit it since obviously there's a lot of distractions in theater when trying to perform.  Especially when people are trying to get you to do stuff.  It's also a nice visual touch that lends itself to a bit of extra gameplay with the "dance" mechanic.

Although it just being a button prompt, especially when said prompt can be blocked by the text bubble is a bit more of a "expected" distraction I guess, leading to it feeling less like a distraction.  Since it's always the same, which to be fair, it was within 3 hours, so that makes sense, but it does lead to a bit of monotony.

Which is then helped by the "enemies", other actors not sure, that come from interesting directions with some varying speeds which is nice.  Not just a horde moving from the side etc. which makes it require a bit more focus on where they're coming from at any time.

Overall though an interesting setup like is aid to put it in a theater, and to have the distractions be crowd interference.  A bit more variety obviously would always help, but it is a jam, and it's 3 hours, so this is pretty cool.

A relatively polished pretty simple gameplay loop.  With a interesting concept, of just annoying the absolute heck, out of everyone in your class, and do it entirely realistically, AKA, the teacher is blind when they look at the board.

It's also got some simple controls that are well explained.  Though it would be nice if there was a punishment, outside of the teacher seeing you, or if the teacher seeing you didn't affect annoyance.  Cause it's a bit weird if it does, though it makes sense to have just one stat for clarity and within the time limit.

Otherwise it's a interesting concept that could have some cool expansion, weird stuff you setup to annoy people, or tools to do it with, or other people annoying you back, etc..  So overall, pretty good.

Also the comments were great, especially the menu.

This game had me for the first few sets of trees.  Was thinking it was just flappy bird, but without the flapping.  Then I got hit with winrar, the call from mom and a captcha.  All hilariously timed and definitely accurate to real life.  Had me laughing at every new error, ad etc. that I ran into, which some great audio for them all as well, it was a fun surprise.

Though I will say, I worry about that first bit where there's nothing happening, it makes sense in terms of difficulty.  But also it means that if people don't get far (which to be fair they should, but I think I either was surprised, or got some absolutely terrible luck) they won't ever see the hilarious errors exist at all.  So might be worth having at least one, early on.  Just to give something.

Overall though, a freakin awesome interpretation of the theme, with some great art, some hilarious references and a cool gameplay loop.

An interesting simple game loop.  Though a bit weird in how you interact with it since I'm not entirely sure what the limiting factor on the hammer speed, and the "cooldown" on the red block is.  Since it, to be fair, felt, somewhat random, but more likely was just a hidden timer.  Which definitely made it a lot more difficult to try and strategize due to not knowing when anything was going to happen or be available.

Besides that weirdness though, it was a bit unclear as to what to do, besides obviously trying to distract the bull, there's nothing making it clear, at least to me, that the point is to make the bull go backwards.  I had a few runs where I just placed the red block in front of the bull, expecting it to get mad at it and stop for a second, which was not what happened.  That was my own assumption there. 

Though once I figured out that I just had to put it behind it, it became relatively simple, almost too simple, since I was also clicking the same place, and pretty much just at the mercy of the timers.

It is a nice setup a very good art style though, especially for less for than 3 hours of dev time.  Voxel stuff is no joke and it has a fun reason for the game loop as well.  Well, minus the giant hammer, but ya know every game has a giant hammer.

Uh.. so I'm not entirely sure where the list of groceries is?  I can't see anything on the left of my screen when I start the game.

Yea in my rush to get the second level in I seem to have messed up the collisions lol.  What was the issue with the enemy vision though??

Definitely a relatively collaborative experience with the fact that you have to focus on aiming the opposite of the enemies.  While also trying to mine, which could be sort of intense at times.  Also the fact that you can't control your own upgrades and you don't get your own experience.  Was an interesting twist for sure.  

The enemies weren't that dangerous though I will say, at least if you kite them.  Since they don't have any range or any variety in their attacks to make them more difficult to dodge.

Though that would work some what, the problem is there's also not that much variety to the gameplay on top of that.  It's mainly just running around hoping for crystals to upgrade the AI, so that it can auto aim some more with some.. somewhat interesting upgrades.  But mostly it seems to just be that they add in the possibility to shoot a random other bullet.  Which was unfortunate.

I would've rathered if it was switching the entire weapon to somethings else to add a bit more variety to the gameplay depending on the weapon you choose.l  Like say, stuck with a sniper, then you have to try and get to range, or deal with the slow fire rate, but every enemy dies in one hit.  Or bomb, you have to sort of roll it into the group since it's like a grenade and it isn't super sure where it'll actually go off, but it'll take out a group etc.

Also the fact that the AI picks your upgrades but there's not that much feedback on what they did pick, is a little annoying.  It seemed like maybe they were doing something, but the only indication I had was the commentary from the AI that I was sometimes able to see in the midst of all the either red zombie not zombie things.  

Which I mean, they were decent lines and they add some character, but they don't make it super clear that anything has happened, and I never really felt like anything had changed significantly on either side.  Which sort of made the upgrades feel more like a chore rather than a actual buff to do.

Not sure if that's just how much they upgrade, or the fact that there's no real juice behind them or what.  It's just something I sort of felt when playing the game.

Overall though, an interesting executed idea with a somewhat cool leveling mechanic where it's shared.  Plus a bit of an empty level, which to be fair  makes a bit of sense, but it's not the best of finding your way around or finding resources.  I'd be interested to see more variety in the upgrades different playstyles though for sure.

Well there's an interesting concept here.  It's got a nice setup and a decent UI design for it, with what seems to be a high score setup. Which could be good.

Though I'm not entirely sure how to go about well, getting that high score.  Since it's relatively vague in the game as to what to do, after the first few robots.  It just sort of, tells you what to do for a bit, and then leaves you to figure out the rest.

But since it's relatively hand hold I wasn't entirely sure where I was supposed to go after I was just left without another prompt.  It wasn't pointing out what I needed to look for with each prompt which was unfortunately.

Though it did seem like it pretty much boils down to each robot having one specific part that is always broken that your place.  Which, I mean it can work, it just makes it a lot simpler to just look at the shape of the robot and go from there.  Rather than having to analyze anything specific about one robot on screen.

To be fair though that would work well, assuming that the game was built around how fast paced that would go, but the problem is the.. animations?  Or audio cues that go off when you actually repair robot mean that you can  never get in to speedrunning the repairs.  Instead you're waiting for quite a while between every repair to be able to do anything else.  Which is a little unfortunate.

Overall though an interesting base for a sort of high score game that would be interesting to try at a higher speed I think.  It's got an interesting concept like I said, could lead to some cool situations if done right.  As well as if the game was explained a little better.

An interesting concept with a relatively simple gameplay loop that leaves a bit of strategy available  Like trying to abuse how long the AI takes to paint to clean some frames, or using the fact you can move while it's painting to stand right next to the person who wants the painting, etc.

Though I will say the hitboxes and the areas you can click are very vague and they're not super responsive throughout.  Which is unfortunate cause if they were then it would be a really interesting high score sort of game.  It just gets bogged down when some of them decided to not take the paintings.

Also the tutorial, while not bad, did make me think it was interactive, which was surprising when it wasn't interactive, considering how it was setup with you running around the level.

It sort of makes sense, but it had me very stumped for a moment as to whether or not something was very very broken in the game.  Had to restart and then go play the game straight just to make sure.  

Ignoring that bug though, overall it's a relatively nice high score game with a good incentive to not fail, no one wants their cute little robot to die of course.  As well as some relatively expressive NPCs, at least at times, though it seems like they mostly are only expressive when VERY angry.

The only real "mechanic" suggestion I'd make is to add a bit more juice, mainly meaning showing number when you get money, to give a bit of nice feedback on it, or a bit more feedback on when the painting will be done.  Would make the game feel a little more rewarding throughout mainly.

A bit of an interesting take on top down shooter when you get into it, not super clear as to how on the page though which is unfortunate.  But being able to program your AI is an interesting twist, if a little bit buggy, which to be fair, makes sense during a jam.  But was a little unfortunate when trying to setup some more complex behaviours.

I will say though the background just being, at least what looks to be a noise texture, combined with the relatively bright emission and the absolute hail of bullets.  Makes it a little hard to figure out what's important and whats not.  It'a b it of overboard in terms of what's on screen at a lot of times.  Also the emission, at least for me (now this is probably just me), but the contrast felt a little hard on my eyes

It would probably help to maybe add some sort of landmarks and turn down the contrast between the background and the foreground a bit, though obviously you want to make it clear what in front, it's just a little jarring, at least to me.  

There is a really interesting base for a block programming sort of thing here though, a little bit QoL and user experience tweaks and there's a relatively easy to use system that could be used to make some probably god tier AIs.  Which could be very fun, though that would probably need some upgrades I would assume?

I'd be really interested to see the AI system with a bit of those QoL changes, mainly icons and colors denoting the different types of blocks.  As well as some sort of indicator of when you've received blocks would likely be helpful.  Though that's a bit much to ask for a jam game, I'd mostly just be interested to see what other crazy combos might happen.

An interesting concept I'm sort of surprised that there were a few games that went with the idea of a AI pretty just murdering you.  But uh, this was handled well since that was the goal.  It was definitely annoying and I never wanna team up with saaas again.

ignoring that though, there's some relatively simple puzzles that were nice, as well as some fun text throughout some bits and a bit of nice colors, though a little too heavy on the rainbows for my taste.  Especially that final level going crazy with the colors on the walls.  It was.. sort of a victory lap, but it was more just a color splash that was there for a few seconds.

Definitely a nice little bit of a puzzle game with some interesting challenges trying to work around the AI.  Or just trying to do everything without them, which I tried to do, and I sort of managed in the areas it was possible.  Diagonal movement is quite powerful.

So overall a relatively well done puzzle game, with a... very.. nice AI.  That I definitely did not try to push off a cliff more times than not.  With some relatively challenging puzzles and some interesting implementations of the AI.