itch.io

Ha, that was fun! I liked the change in mechanics in space. Have you considered adding keyboard support?

Aw man, I wish I'd been able to get Final Dungeon Quest to work on my setup. I think it's the only one I didn't play, and only because I couldn't.

Thanks for putting this together, and I'm glad I was able to take part! And thanks also to all the other participants: your games were great and I enjoyed playing them. I was honestly impressed by how silly a lot of the entries weren't - my whole approach was "how do I make the most Ultra Serious thing possible using these assets, which seem very much weighted towards the silly", and then other people just... ran with it, and it somehow ended up working really well.

I should also mention: I really like the way the rat and snake are both super chill and friendly with each other, right before fighting to the death. Great comedic effect.

https://itch.io/post/16032570

Hello yes I have finally actually looked at these comments and seem to have sparked an amazing level of discussion, thank you both so much for reading so closely and putting so much thought into this!

I don't want to place my own interpretations over those of readers - it should speak for itself, and anything you get out of it is valid. That said, here's what was going through my mind as I was writing:

- Mother definitely abusive, more definitely so than the king, but still rooted in a misguided sense of "fixing" the kid

- Kid most probably autistic, but: leaving open the possibility of shutting down / avoiding eye contact / &c. purely as a trauma response to abuse and/or because of some other neurodivergence

- Also leaving room for a queer interpretation

- Ending intentionally vague, but I was definitely going for a hopeful vibe (I can see where the suicide thought came from, and tried to minimise it without completely ruling it out) and for that hopefulness being related to the mirror, ie, to recognising the autism / mystery other neurodivergence / queerness / whatever other trait the mother is fixating on fixing; thus, to realising the [trait] is a part of themselves, not inherently monstrous or bad. So, the ending is vague and open to interpretation, but could be along the lines of running away, finding [trait]-specific supports, transitioning, calling support services for help, etc.

I pretty much just went through the assets and picked out everything I thought wouldn't look/sound out of place in something super-serious, then built everything around those and tried to really make them count.

And, uh, yes, that was absolutely intentional. Definitely. For sure.

EXACTLY what I was going for, both with the neurodivergency and the "surprise hard-hitting emotional thing based entirely on assets from a silly, silly jam".

The animated gifs are absolutely great.

Ha, always nice to see a Dopefish out in the wild.

My fingers object a bit to my breathing too much, but it's a fun mechanic!

I have learned some sad facts about my ability to survive being shot at by bandits.

Yay for petable cat, though!

KNIFE-RAT!

I am the richest T-Rex ever. 

I really appreciate the "healing and weapons are the same thing" mechanism - makes for some interesting gameplay!

Super cute, spooky and yet heartwarming!

Thanks for pointing that out - should be fixed now!

a! musi ni li suwi mute mute, li pona! pona tawa sina!

Thank you!

Turns out the real villain was a nightmarish screaming skull monster dripping with blood.

Who'd've thunk it, indeed. Great job with this one!

I enjoyed this quite a bit! I appreciate the colour-coded "hotspots", and I'm very relieved about what happened (and more to the point: what didn't happen) with Shadow.

One thing I would've really liked would've been an explanation for why acquiring blood from the bath isn't an option, or at least a unique message acknowledging that it's something one might think of trying. Overall great, though!

To be fair, it's a lot easier to clean by just clicking a button than by, you know, actually cleaning. ;) Thank you!

Thanks for the feedback! Making the links coloured only on hover was a deliberate design choice (trying to get that 'searching for things to do' feeling across), but in retrospect maybe not the best idea. Will definitely think twice before doing the same thing again .

Definitely agree - if there'd been time (and music people) to spare background music would've been the top priority to add in next. I'm glad you liked it!

Thank you! :D Only details will change, but I tried to give it a cohesive feel regardless of what order you do things in.

Having the links coloured only when hovering was an active choice - we were hoping it'd get across some of that 'searching for something to do' feeling - but I do see why it'd be a bit confusing, so maybe not the best choice. Thanks for the feedback!

Thank you! The order's actually pretty much irrelevant, but a few small details do change depending on what you do first. I'm really glad it got that atmosphere across. :D

I'm glad you enjoyed it! Going straight for the mirror seems to be a common reaction, which I didn't really expect - I'd probably have designed it a bit differently if I had (and also had had time to second-guess myself).

This has been fixed!

I love that bubble explosion animation in FPS mode.

In terms of gameplay, as others have said, increasing enemy difficulty would be nice; but in terms of Art Game About Proper Pandemic Procedures, it really struck me how easily the viruses could be held back with one upgraded sanitizer and proper social distancing - and how quickly the infection got out of control if the social distance wasn't there.

(By the way, I experienced the same bugs as others did - both the cash bug and the negative enemy numbers.)

I honestly really like the visual/sound design of this one.

Aw, this was really cute!

Whoa, this mechanic is really cool.

The human immune system is an amazing thing, and that's never been clearer to me than trying to win against it single-player using two hands. It's amazing how uplifting it can be to lose!

(Not sure if the arrows are intentionally hard to differentiate, but my brain kept trying to think of the "right" and "left" arrows as pointing diagonally upwards.)