itch.io

I had a lot of fun with this one, thank you for the epic submission!

Suggestions:

• the fact that after dropping the blocks there are already tools set that you have to first re-roll is a bit confusing; in each round I kept thinking what I could place where only to realize right, first I have to re-roll; those were just split-second thoughts and decisions, and I got used to it over time but did lead to confusion; I don’t have any idea how to solve this though, it works exactly like a slot machine would, only the tools drop out of the machine so it’s not easy,
• the shop rows are always: artifacts, tools, consumables - they could have different colors and labels for visual distinction,
• when an artifact kills the last monster, the game doesn’t finish, I can still drop the tools, only after that last turn it finishes; but when I kill the last monster with a tool, the game finishes; I would make this behavior consistent,
• there could be some indicators when swapping the tools, visually I don’t know which I’m swapping and which I’m currently hovering (well, I do but you know what I mean, I’m not certain which it’ll select and replacement is final), it’s inaccessible,
• when you use the twist tool before you re-roll the initial machine setting, you waste it - maybe it could be disabled or you can leave as is,
• artifact values do not stack, I wish they either would or if it would be too OP, then clearly say you cannot stack them in the description OR remove them from showing up in the shop if you already have them,
• after some time the music finished (20 mins or so?) - not sure if it’s not set to loop or there’s some bug,
• I wish there was a difficulty curve here but the game was really easy to go through, even the boss, and then the difficulty remained the same but I kept growing richer; that means replayability is quite low in the current state.

What I like:

• I really enjoy the glowing red eyes in the background that are animated, adds to the atmosphere of a creepy cave,
• I love the little squashing animation that makes the sprites come alive - it’s simple, not time confusing to develop, very smart,
• the synergy between “gives 1 coin when you take damage” and “heals 3 if you finish a turn without swapping tools” is great, kept me at 30 health and got insanely rich, then the cash register does OP damage (especially against the boss),
• love the mechanic and the overall concept, you are composing several mechanics into one and that composition is not something I have seen and heard of so far, it’s very fresh for me,
• love the VFX of the screen shake when getting hit, very simple but sells the impact,
• the pixel art is simple but polished enough for this to feel like a game and not a sketch,

I enjoyed it and I would love to see it being developed more with some underground map that affects the spawn probabilities, different “biomes” and more varied enemies.

Only one point where this game falls flat is the theme. It’s just one “place” so to speak, a cave. And more than “strange” I would say it’s “creepy”. I would really drive the idea home with e.g. more mushroom-like enemies and richer, “stranger” background.

Very solid game jam entry, and developed by only 2 people, congrats!

I cannot overstate how incredible game jam entry this is! Original core mechanic, enjoyable gameplay, polished look and feel. It fits the theme in an unobvious way. Great story about a medium that is writing the final testament of a ghost. The sound effects were on point, they were really building the tension as more and more time passed on the watch. Little whispers, the clicking of the typewriter, the sound of the rain created a really immersive environment. I like the menu music as well.

Some gameplay specifics… I like that with each written line, additional (disturbing) words show in random places and the true sentence moves from one place to another, sometimes overlapping another. This can mess with your head but poses a very enjoyable challenge.

The writing was smart (the varying lengths of sentences, the interpunction, that Ydskqnik) and engaging.

Not that this is necessarily a bug, more like a game quirk but I found since the ghosts usually start typing after you have finished the line, you can put the correction stripe immediately, turn to read the sentence and usually within that time the typing gets triggered. When you come back to the typewriter you have a clean slate, you only need to backspace. It’s a satisfying hack to speed up the progress once you know it, not necessarily something to erase from the game.

What took me some time getting used to is that the caret is placed right after the letter. But it should actually be before the letter. That would also fix the “have I put the space or not” issue. This is rather confusing and unexpected, definitely something to fix. Doesn’t seem to hard to do so though.

Really great mechanic of switching up the letters, it makes it more challenging as you go.

It feels weird writing this about such a thorough, interesting and polished game, made by obviously experienced developers but the nightmare sequence could’ve used more juice. I’m in a dark room, with great headphones on, playing on full screen and it didn’t really bother me. I think it’s because: the shadow looks too much like a gentleman than an ominous, malicious being. It’d be better if it didn’t have the hat, just vaguely remind us of a human. There are too many cuts, it should come faster. Maybe say something… The sound effects and music there doesn’t sit right with me either…

And like I mentioned, the “Start game” header nit. I do understand there’s the “Skip intro” that shows later but the first thing I saw is this. I feel that would be better as a checkbox, and have “Start game” button instead. And this is me being very nitpicky because that animation with the camera moving closer to the page on the table… So simple but so great!

The ending was slightly unclimactic to me visually. Loved the last line being inputted for me in all caps, it built so much tension but the animation was underwhelming.

Hopefully the constructive parts of my feedback turn out actually helpful. Overall, this game is a fantastic way of spending the time, I don’t regret any minute. It took me 3 tries but after I got used to the mechanics it went like a breeze.

I would seriously consider addressing the concerns, polishing and potentially releasing as a game on Steam. Would buy and play, gives me that Inscription vibe!

These thoughts may sound random, I wrote them down while playing…

The graphics are on point. From the twinkling star to some chemical substance being heated on the desk, to the animated face of the scientist as he speaks to us. The use of differently colored letters to put an accent on certain words. And that moon is absolutely beautiful! Amazing job on the pixel art.

The game idea fits the theme perfectly. Definitely, LHC, LIGO, and IceCube Observatory are WEIRD places. Being on the edge of scientific discovery is exciting but STRANGE at the same time.

This really could’ve just been me, but I stuck to the right edge of the LHC level because I didn’t bother to read all the instructions, and I’d been doing Flappy Bird for like five minutes only to realize that must not be how long that level is, is it… So I pressed pause and only then realized - no, you’re also supposed to move to the left. Maybe an additional indicator could be helpful for little dum-dums like me e.g. left arrow signs that are lit up in the background?

The difficulty curve is not quite right. The LHC level is hard. The LIGO level is pretty punishing. The IceCube is very easy.

Very funny writing! The scientist switching up our name, repeating “Strange” to really drive the idea home. And that peanut butter sandwich, a really fun way to break the gameplay only to ramp it up with the plot twist! The boss level was very nice, I love how you combined all the elements from the previous levels. And it was a good idea to add the countdown there.

The music and SFX choices were great, not too distracting, very fitting for each level as the background music, and perfectly cued for what happened e.g. hitting the laser.

Overall, I didn’t find any bugs, I played it from beginning till end while really enjoying it, and you did it developing it alone? Fantastic work, keep it up!

It’s 5 all across the board for me. Fantastic visual, audio, really relaxing gameplay, addicting but in the greatest way! It’s very satisfying to place the blocks, to unlock the new passive skill. That change from the day to night is a great mechanic to mix things up and allow for balancing the harvesting and production. There are so many layers to this game I cannot believe it was made by one person in a game jam!

I didn’t unlock all 3 endings so I’ll definitely be looking at this one on Steam!

Developing this game all on your own and you finished with something that works and is actually enjoyable? Kudos!

I love the vibe, that camera shader adds to the ominuous setting. I like the theme where you have to gather cubes for the cat, definitely strange. The only thing that would really drive the idea home is different portals but I’m sure you have planned it.

As others mentioned, the camera pitch is a little too limited and so it’s hard to get items laying on the floor but once you get used to that you just stand further away. While gaming I was thinking how could the gameplay be improved and I think that if you dropped the inventory and instead just allowed auto-apply when you enter into the food/drink, that would be great. Limiting ammo as well, you’d have to pick it up. It would allow you to really get into the groove, Diablo style, and focus on getting those cubes.

Again, really enjoyed this, thank you for all the time and effort!

Hehe we could’ve foreseen more games being named like that. It’s the first thing that popped to mind when we came up with the idea, and we just ran with it!

If you enjoyed it that’s what matters for us the most :D

Thank you so much! A lot of heart and time went into them :D

Awwww thanks so much for the superb review! The art and music synergy we got going on is definitely strong.

I only just got into pixel art less than a month ago, it’s the first time creating 2D game assets for me. And you’re on point with that band animation. I got way into the hot dog man and could’ve used that time to animate the band and the foreground instead!

Thanks for raising the bug about the long notes, I noticed that during the testing and hoped it’s a flake on my part, apparently not. I’ll debug the code.

Fantastic review, glad you had fun and I’ll definitely check out your game, preview looks great!

Oh yesss, I was bopping my head all the time while developing and testing it. Glad you enjoyed it! :D

If rhythm games is not your thing but you enjoyed it then we must’ve done something right! If only there was more time to animate the band it would improve the look and feel, definitely :D Thank you!

Wow, what a nice review, thank you! Will definitely check out your game! :D

Beautiful main menu art! I love Axy’s character, it’s distinct and cute. I appreciate the contrast between his personality and what’s happening outside. Great assets and backgrounds. That throwing arm mechanic is definitely strange haha

A bug I found is that in the beginning you can run off the screen on the left and cannot jump back on the platform or restart. I had to reload the game.

Overall, great job on the entry! :D

The reason we didn’t publish the web build is because of Fmod limitations. Thanks for your feedback!

Oh, that’s a shame! :( Thanks for reporting. Once uploads are unblocked, we’ll upload a slightly more polished, more advanced version of the game with separate downloads, including macOS Intel and Apple Silicon-compatible exports.

+1 Exactly, I just discussed with my partner after she played that the inventory slot could’ve “shaked”. That would be very easy to implement but would give you immediate recognizable feedback that inventory is full.

And the “crash” sound is also a good idea!

Does depth have any effect on anything?

Gameplay-wise, unfortunately not :( There were plans like spawn probabilities, checkpoints, depth upgrades, and potentially a “goal” at the max depth. We focused too much on the game feel and not enough on the game loop. Lesson learnt!

Thank you for your feedback and we’re very happy you had fun! :)

1 time for the small trash, 3 times for the large trash. It could be your inventory was full! There is SFX for each hit but there’s no VFX which definitely makes it harder to understand if you hit something or not.

Appreciate you taking a look and leaving the review, thanks! :)

I really like the music, the pixel art is very charming and a unique style. I appreciated the little details like the snowman on the house or the absolutely not natural rocks. It took a bit exploring but the story is interesting and definitely fits the vibe! For a first time doing pixel art, animation, amazing job!

It was fun playing it, even without the sound! I like the synergies ideas and the art of the cards. I wish there was a mechanique like special powers on cards that I could leverage. Something to mix things up! There’s a lot of potential here and I love it. Great job!

Ah, of course, repurposing the heroes for modern day jobs! :D I love the idea! The game is very pleasant, you can play for a long time. There’s a lot of potential for great graphics here with the theme. The music is fun, a bit repetitive, I wish there was a longer loop or several tracks. I had a ton of fun though, I played it for a long time and I’d look forward to playing some more. Great job!

The art style is amazing, love the parallax layered background and it's amazing how small the character is in terms of pixels but how well you showed the movements. It's really satisfying once the climber gets high and quickly flies till the end. The dialogues are a bit too long and with that font it quickly gets tiring to read but I love that you put the thought behind the story and showed it through the interaction. The game gives me the Papers Please vibe and I like it! Great job!

Great non-alcoholic idea of using an egg carton for a "beer pong" game! I love how much fun the blonde girl was having but I don't think she was quite in the right place. It was fun to walk around and examine the surroundings. I threw all the balls but then nothing happened and I couldn't restart. Was missing some "reset" button or a "game over" type of screen. The music was really pleasant. Great job!

The game is super funny, I laughed at the weather report but why am I watching an alien weather report and then a bunch of aliens attack me? Explain that. I had a lot of fun, boxes are OP and great job!

Love the logo, it caught my attention immediately! The music fits the vibe and makes you want to progress. There could be more variety of enemies but I loved the angry robots. It's also not clear you have to "go through" the gate and it pulls you up immediately in the next level. The main character is epic, awesome hair! Great job!

So simple and so addicting! Love the variety of monsters and skills. You nailed the theme and the  wildcards. Audio was not too distracting, it fit perfectly. Some of the assets didn't quite match but that's fair for a game jam. I like the "overheating" mechanic, it makes you think about the action you have to take. Great job!

I had so much fun playing this! You had me really focused there on the level 8 and it felt good to win. If there was a hardcore mode I'd be gone for the day. Also, nothing a mic and some vocal strings can't do! Love the SFX. It fits the theme in an original way, it works from the beginning till the end with no issues. Great job!

A unique way to look at a difficult topic. I loved the art, the sound, charm of the game and the funny writing, had me chuckling. It had you think carefully about your choices (there was no "undo", I read there was no more time for implementing it) and even surprised you where you thought something was an obvious choice but it didn't work out well. Love that you took the time to also include the leaderboard. I had tons of fun! That "undo" / "fixing a mistake" was mentioned several times but that's really the only flaw I saw.

Great job!

Reuploaded!

I really like the rat model, it looks cute. It'd fit an action-adventure type of game. I like the crafting system. After reloading, it didn't lag for me anymore (likely cache?). After crafting arrows and crossbow I couldn't shoot it. Not sure why, should I have pressed some button to load them...? I loved the music! A smoother transition between the 2 tracks would be nice. Also, after some time the music just stops playing, is it set to loop?

Great job on the game! 

No, you're not doing anything wrong. The files I submitted for Windows don't have FMOD DLLs inside and it breaks the game :( I opened a support ticket with the Godot Wild Jam organizers to have it reuploaded but nobody reached out to me yet.