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God Dayum! This game is very well done. It does get a little overwhelming once there are 4 mirrors on screen but I love the concept!

Thanks for the tip! Here is my review:

• Thinks I liked:
  • The art and worlds look great.
  • I love the intro music. 
  • I enjoyed the worldbuilding including the reasons for the gate being closed and the fact that during winter all the frogs are in hibernation.
  • The dialogue was well written
• Things that could be improved:
  • It was not clear to me that you had to approach the doors after solving the riddle. I imagined that after lighting the correct orbs the game would inform me in some way like "You did it, now lets return to the gate!". 
  • This game had some great music in the beginning. It could definitely benefit from some music during the game.
  • Its a little weird that you are following Tilly but your character is not in the game. People act like they see you but you never see yourself. At that point why not make Tilly the main character and instead of talking to you you can just read his thoughts?
  • I would have liked to see more interactive gameplay elements. This demo displays walking around and interacting with orbs but not much else. The base is there but it needs to be expanded upon.

Idk if i am missing something but i can't figure out how to get past the first riddle. Can someone help?

The story was nice. The details on the game page help to set the scene since it is entirely a text based adventure. I appreciate the restart and theme buttons. Unfortunately I couldn't get the save / load feature to work. Still overall good work!

Neat game! Animating and crafting the movement for the frog must have been a challenge. Its cool that if you miss the lily pads the frog starts to swim. There were some bugs and shortcomings but you made a nice effort.

• Thinks I liked:
  • You did a pretty good job with the jumping / swimming mechanics.
  • Nice frog models.
• Things that could be improved:
  • You should include the controls in game. Maybe with popups like "move using WASD" or "press E to talk" and "Press space to continue"
  • You can jump straight up the mountain. No need to traverse the platforms to get to Cindy. Maybe check to see how steep the terrain is before jumping. 
  • The game bugs out at the end. When you finish the final conversation it just cuts back to you and you lose control of the frog.
  • Bobbing up and down can cause motion sickness for some. Maybe have the camera relatively stable while the character jumps.

That was a short and sweet story. Nice work!

• Thinks I liked:
  • Love the hand drawn art.
  • I appreciate the lesson being communicated through the story.
  • Never seen a text based hyperlink story before. Very unique!
• Things that could be improved:
  • I would have liked to see more branching paths in the story. I think there were only 2 different choices you could take (chat vs practice & duel vs friends).
  • If you are unfamiliar with valorant / LOL then many things in the story can go over your head. Phrases like "girls only play support", "you go to queue up", and talk about ranks would leave someone unfamiliar confused. Maybe find ways to say the same things but make it easier for others to understand.

Very well done! I thoroughly enjoyed the experience. The music, sfx, characters, and story all work so well together. I liked the look of the characters and their varied expressions. Great work!

• Thinks I liked:
  • The pixel art is very cute!
  • The conversations flow pretty well.
  • That twist was out of this world lol.
  • The music and sfx are great.
• Things that could be improved:
  • I would be nice for first time players to see the controls in game like "click to continue" inside text boxes or "click items to investigate them" when you are presented with the environment for the first time.
  • It seems like you can click down the mouse button and drag the mouse to rapidly select things in the scene. May be a bug.
  • You can click outside of the environment view and a white square still shows up as if you have the option of clicking in the black areas. May be a bug.
  • Honestly i feel like you could catch flies easier with a plastic bag than a can lol. But i guess the bag has no lid so u would need to tie it once you caught the flies.
  • When abel promises you the plushie and you head back to the car, if you click the plushie it replays the old dialogue where abel will not sell you the plushie. Only when you click the car is the plot moved forward.
  • The options screen has "always dash" and "command remember" but I am unfamiliar with those kinds of settings. Maybe add a description somewhere or mouseover text?
  • How do you leave the options screen? There is no back button? When i hit escape it just presents me with a "security error".
  • It looks like the player has HP and MP but they don't seem to be used. Is that right?

Was a fun little adventure. The environments and the music were nice. I would have liked to have more gameplay elements instead of moving from set piece to set piece but it still tells the story it wants to tell. Nice work!

• Thinks I liked:
  • I really like the music. Was it recorded live?
  • I enjoyed the pixel art and the depictions of the frog lifecycle and metamorphosis through each stage of life. 
  • The environments were well done. It was cool how you could swim in between sea grass strands and that you could hop along the tree branches in the forest scene.
• Things that could be improved:
  • Would have like to see something like "click to continue" in game intro to let the player know what they have to do. Also it tells the player that the beginning is not a cutscene they sit back and watch.
  • It would help first time players if in game it would tell the player the controls like "use WASD" to move and "press space to talk".
  • There is no real clear direction in the first level. I didn't realize that the goal was just to survive. Even the fish at the beginning wasn't a threat as i could swim up to its mouth. So i guess it wasn't suvival so much as it was just waiting for a bit.
  • I think the frog animation for moving left is reversed.
  • Would have liked to see more game mechanics. In this story no decisions were made, obstacles avoided, puzzles solved. You could move around and talk to others but the player did not gain any insight from the conversations that would help them during the game. For example the frogs warn you of the snake but it turns out the snake was not a threat so you can just walk right past it. There weren't any obstacles from the start.

Yeah i guess conversations don't typically have a hub. Some games that do have hubs usually just have the questions there not the same line said by the other character unless its something like "Is there anything else you would like to know?"  I feel that a better way to handle this would be to reveal other dialogue options when other previous questions have been asked like in this example: 

This game is AMAZING! The amount of effort put into the art and level design must have been massive. Loved how cute the story was. The character designs were on point. I did not expect the "combat" scenarios but the move names were very fitting. The game has the polish of being made by a professional team. Again well done!

• Thinks I liked:
  • The art is really well done and the animations are great as well.
  • The music is great! Love how the soundtrack changes with each area.
  • Really like the ability to name the frog.
  • Its cool how many different areas you managed to create for the jam!
• Things that could be improved:
  • You should include information about the controls in game like "press enter to continue" in the dialogue boxes and "move using the arrow keys" in the bedroom.
  • I wish I could play the game at full screen or maybe increase its size a bit. It looks like the game runs at a fixed resolution.
  • It looks like I didn't have to collect 3 coins to drop three coins in the wishing fountain. I just kept speaking next to the well and managed to keep throwing in coins.
  • During the frog fights. I would have liked to see the other frog's health bar. It was difficult to tell how well or poor I was doing.
  • Sometimes the text does not wrap and goes off the textbox screen. Then I can't read it.

Love these kinds of point and click adventures. The art was wonderful. The story was well put together. And the twist was great as well! Interactions with the environment were satisfying. Would have liked to see more things being done with the spells in the game but you guys have done a very good job!

• Thinks I liked:
  • The pixel art is amazing!
  • The music and setting blend well together.
  • Love the twist at the end. Freaked me out for a second. Well done!
  • You have done excellent world building through the dialogue. Especially the dialogue that isn't about the main story but more the character describing things in the world.
• Things that could be improved:
  • There is a bug where you cannot use the ring of wood on the spider web even when the spider is gone. It seems that you have to collect the spider leg first before you can use the ring.
  • Given that there are variations in what dialogue you can choose, I would have liked to have seen alternative endings. It seems that you can only reach the "good" twist ending no matter what you choose. That seems to me like the choices I make when speaking don't really affect the outcome of the story.
  • Would have loved to see more things done with the spells and spell crafting in the story.

Interesting concept and good execution! Never seen a game like this before!

Thinks I liked:

* Love the inclusion of IRL elements like the physical book, drawings, and audio 

* Very impressed with the length and complexity of the story.

Things that could be improved:

* The rock dodging mini game feels a bit too easy. Maybe you can increase the speed or quantity of the rocks.

* If you click your mouse while inside a game it will start the dialogue at the end of the mini game close the mini game.

Short sweet and to the point! I would be interested in seeing this concept being carried out on a larger scale. Love how the game sets a creepy tone.

• Thinks I liked:
  • Love the absurd creepiness! Laughed at the part where he said he wanted to eat the souls of the tortured.
  • Like the aesthetic you have created with the chiptune audio, the desktop appearance, and the distorted voice.
• Things that could be improved:
  • Would be nice if there was a reset button whenever the virtual frog dies so i wouldn't have to close and reopen the app to play again.
  • The drag and drop mechanic is a little iffy. If i move my mouse too quickly the fly gets loose from my mouse pointer.
  • I think it would have made more sense to have the x button close the window instead of the entire top bar acting like a button that closed the window.

Interesting story. The bar scene / sound effects were really well put together. The art and animations were great as well. Good job!

• Thinks I liked:
  • I liked that you could give your own character a name.
  • Nice artwork and animations!
  • Audio made me feel like i was in a bar.
  • Love the mix of 2D and 3D set pieces.
  • Like how characters in front of you fade in and out the further you get away from you. Solves the issue with things in front of the camera nicely and adds to the feel that you are walking through crowds of people.
  • Love how many options you can get for character dialogue. However when the list is so large half the screen is covered maybe you should trim it down lol!
  • I found the conversations humorous at times. Nice work.
• Things that could be improved:
  • I think you could put controls like "Press space to continue" on the text boxes or in the game itself
  • Mapping keys to escape for a webgl game can make things difficult for those that play in fullscreen.
  • When you advance the dialogue, the game flashes between the game view and the conversation drawings. It makes me feel like im bugging out the game.
  • When i choose dialogue options (like with the snake for instance) it keeps circling back to the same question and giving different responses. Because of that it doesn't really feel like i am having a conversation. Its more like talking to someone that has amnesia.
  • When i talk with "Kat" at one point when i say he can play the keyboard he says "sounds like a plan." Then when i ask the follow-up question of whether he wants to join he says no. Very misleading conversation system.
  • The game ends with a blurry screen of the band playing. would be nice if there was a button to retry or return to the main menu.

That was a nice little demo!  Would have really liked to see more gameplay like adding things to the scrapbook. Wish you guys the best in your continued development.

• Thinks I liked:
  • The pixel art looks fantastic!
  • The moving and hopping animations are nice.
  • I like that the speed of the dialogue varies like when the character pauses with "..."
  • Its nice that you are able to quickly click through the dialogue if you don't want to wait for it to be written out.
• Things that could be improved:
  •  I would have liked to play the game full screen or have the option of resizing the game window. I feel that the game window is a little on the small side.
  • Would be nice to include a "click / press a key to continue" message on the first dialogue screen so the user isn't left wondering what to do.
  • The scrapbook icon appears at the very start of the game. It looks like you can click on it but clicking it does nothing. Maybe add the book to the UI when the user is actually able to click it.
  • Instead of the prompt memory game begin, maybe you should say "memorize the path of the butterfly" to re affirm the task.
  • The lower right and upper left of the map have a bridges that you cannot cross. Instead of having an invisible wall maybe add some barrier sprites so that the player is not mislead / frustrated.
• Additional notes:
  • The game page looks great!

Very cool!

Thanks for the feedback! I got similar comments about the movement from my family as well. Will have to remember that for next time. Glad you like the dimension switching. Sorry about the audio.  sound mixing is one of the skills that I need to work on. There is actually a sound effect for when the player takes damage but I guess it gets drowned out in the middle of combat. Yikes I hoped that the unity collision would push the player out if they teleported inside an object. I guess there needs to be another method for handling that case. I envisioned the robots to have projectile weapons that the player would dodge and weave around but we did not have enough development time to flesh that one out. So we just turned to making them a much more imposing slime enemy but I guess we overdid it lol. Glad you enjoyed the game!

Oh cool! Didn't know about that. Thanks again for the developer insights!

OMG the Y position switching is so simple yet so genius! I had so much trouble activating and deactivating objects since I was working within the confines of a single tile map at the same position for all dimensions but now I won't need to Thanks! Btw are u using cinemachine to follow the player? In another game jam I had a space ship that would teleport when crossing the boundaries of the play area. The cinemachine camera would be jumpy when that happened so I had to set the damping to zero as it got to the boundary. Did you guys do something similar?

Very Funny! I would have never thought that Multiverses could mean "Multiple Verses" In a song! also loved how you guys literally put the words "Untitled Game Jam 62" into the game! 

 I enjoyed lyrics and how words flowed from the character. I thought it was neat that sounds from the words persisted in the air and you could hear them as you ran beside them. The rat enemies seemed a little out of place given that you are fighting another rapper at the end of the game who doesn't seem to be linked to the rat epidemic. Also the challenge of the game was a little lackluster. I don't think you take enough damage for any of the enemies to present a real threat. Also, just a small critique but the main menu should also have music since it is a music focused game!

Overall had a lot of fun playing through the game. Well done!

BTW In the future you should think about releasing WebGL builds for your projects. I think it makes the game more accessible since it is available to others regardless of the platform. Also some like myself are a little unnerved about downloading an unsecure program onto our computers.

It is difficult to make a 3D puzzle platformer but you have done it exceedingly well! Congratulations! I am enamored by the visual style and the universe switching mechanic. The fact that you can take items you pick up from each dimension blew my mind lol. 

The following are some notes I took while playing the game:

• The switching between dimensions mechanic is very quick and seamless. I also love the sound effect. Its pretty awesome that you can take boxes with you. I found that after switching the boxes would sometimes start spinning. You may be able to fix that issue by manually setting its rotational velocity to zero.
• I like how you can stand on the cubes. It makes it easier to to place items in hard to reach places. 
• The first turret I encountered was not very threatening. It would aim towards me but shoot the floor in front of it. Idk if that was a bug or not.
• In the middle of playing the game i had to exit the screen but when I came back and tried to resume I could no longer control the character. The game was not frozen either since particle effects were still playing but using the mouse and keyboard did nothing.
• I am loving the 3D art style. It makes me feel like I am in a lab experiment like the portal games. I also like the inclusion of items like cars and medieval knights. It makes me feel like I am traveling through time. 
• I think that the platforming combined with the universe switching could be a fully fledged game by itself. You have a great concept on your hands.
• I appreciate you including the pink ghost platforms to help but I feel that it takes away from the challenge and also the charm since the game is all about discovery as the player switches between universes.
• I think the game experience could be improved by some background music. There are a lot of websites out there that offer royalty free music. I have a spreadsheet that could help https://gamedevelopmentwiki.readthedocs.io/en/latest/community/assets.html
• In the last level with the 3 buttons, the buttons are close enough so that 1 box can rest on 2 buttons lol.

Overall Well Done!

I wanna start out by saying the the pixel art, animations, and background look amazing! The movement also feels very responsive as well. Good work!

Below are some notes on the game as I played through.

• At the start of the game, dialogue appears explaining the controls. You should probably include somewhere that you have to click your mouse to continue. I was stuck on that "Move using A or D" sign for longer than i would like to admit lol.
• I think it is cool that the game requires the the player to shift dimensions right after jumping or in midair. It forces the player to think on their feet and I feel it makes the game more exciting. 
• I think you should map your jump button to the "W" key or Up arrow. This would allow someone to more easily control all the movement keys with one hand while using the other to press shift to jump dimensions. Either that or offer a menu to allow the player to set their own keys to suit their preferences.
• You cannot shift dimensions if you are standing in an area that would have spikes in the other dimension. I think you should allow the player to shift and then die in this manner. I think it would add to the challenge and increase the importance of memorizing what the other dimension looks like. 
  • Addendum: at one point I did switch dimensions and it instantly killed me so the mechanic is a little inconsistent. However when it killed me i didn't have time to see what actually killed me because the game teleports you back to the start on death. If you were to include death by switching dimensions you should probably have the death screen linger a bit so the character can see what killed them.)
  • Addendum: I realize this mechanic is also a double edged sword. I like to switch dimensions right after I jump and I suspect the game delays the switch until I am clear of the spikes which is nice. However a couple times I tried switching while jumping from a platform that had spikes in another dimension and the game never switched over causing me to land and die in a pit of spikes.  I suspect it might have been because i tried switching too early and the delay between switching and clearing the spikes was long
• At one point, I had the character 1 level next to a ledge that had spikes on it. While the spikes were on a different level if my character pushed up against the ledge they would die when I expected them to just run up against the  ledge safely since they were not in direct contact with the spikes. Maybe you could reduce the size of the player's hitbox or the size of the spikes hitbox at the sides of the spikes. 
• At one point i jumped above the top of the screen and switched dimensions causing me to remain up above there. I think you may have some leftover platforms in the ceiling lol. 
• When the buttons are introduced, I don't think it is made clear to the player that they have to push a button before they stand on the exit pad. Maybe include some dialogue to point the players in the correct direction.
• I think its pretty cool that some of the buttons exist in one dimension but not the other. Makes me paranoid tho to think I  could be accidentally walking past one lol.
• I ran into a bug where if you teleported while jumping into the side of a platform your character's feet got stuck inside the platform. I thought it was funny at first but it actually caused the game to get softlocked since I couldn't escape no matter what I tried (And that was on the last level too :((( ). Maybe you can add a pause screen or a reset button so that the player can restart the level if they want to.
• The sound effects are good but I think the game could really benefit from some music! There are many websites that offer royalty free music. I have a spreadsheet that can help you find them https://gamedevelopmentwiki.readthedocs.io/en/latest/community/assets.html

Overall I thoroughly enjoyed the game! 

Btw I had a question. In order to switch between dimensions did you have 2 tile maps or did you do it using some other mechanism? I am wondering what method would be the most efficient for that kind of effect. In my game I had a 2 isometric tile maps (one for walls and one for the floor) and to switch between dimensions I swapped out the tiles based on a dictionary map. 

P.S: I noticed that on the game page under the "More Information" section Robinaksen is the only listed author. If you want to add additional authors to the game, Robinaksen can do the following:

1. Go to the dashboard and locate the game
2. Under the "more" dropdown click "contributors"
3. Paste other itch.io accounts to add them as admins to the game page
4. Once added click the box next to their name that says "display as contributor"

P.S.S: In the future you should think about releasing WebGL builds for your projects. I think it makes the game more accessible since it is available to others regardless of the platform. Also some like myself are a little unnerved about downloading an unsecure program onto our computers.

Managed to get a high score of 2475. This was a great game! The music and SFX were on point. The multitasking really stretched me to my limit. It starts off simple at first since you can see the enemies coming, but once you have 3+ enemies in each quadrant any semblance of a single plan goes out the window lol! I love how the different enemies each have their own unique mechanics. I began to analyze the difficulty of each so I knew which screens to focus on and which i could ignore for a short period of time. Also when that massive ship with the super laser came in I thought "Oh snap, It's about to go down!" I also liked the screen tearing effect as the ships took more and more damage.  One think I think would improve the game is if you allowed the character to aim with the mouse since I am used to that kind of moving and aiming style from other games. You could have it so that the mouse on one quadrant would cause the ship in that quadrant to aim at the mouse and then all of the other ships would fire at the same angle. 

Overall Very Well Done!

Overall I thought the game played very well. After playing the game for an extended period I have a jotted down some notes:

• I am very impressed with the size of the labyrinth you designed for the easter egg hunt. Well done
• The music and sound effects were good and mashed well with the visuals.
• I thought it was pretty cool that you could respawn at the last easter egg you  collected. I think it adds a layer of strategy like if there is a fork in the level the player can make sure to collect an easter egg before exploring each avenue and spawning back.
• At one point you have to fight through a tunnel of spiders. However since the screen is cutoff you don't really know if you have killed all the spiders or if more will walk out of the right side. You can risk going to the next screen over but you can be caught by suprise and hit a spider as soon as you walk over.
• Some of the platforms are at the top edge of the screen but when the player stands on them the screen doesn't shift up so the only way i can see them is by their feet at the top of the screen.
• It is clear that some characters have cooldowns. The warrior has a cooldown between dashes and the angel character needs time to recharge in order to fly high. If you try flying immediately after flying previously you will not go up as high. (I also find this mechanic very annoying since I can't predict how high i will get unless i just leave the game running for a minute until the angel is fully recharged. I think it would help the player if they could see these cooldowns in the UI somewhere.
• In the tutorial section. When you are asked to choose the angel character, I ended up choosing the character on the right since I associate angels with more of a light blue color. I didn't realize I made the wrong choice until after the 3rd time trying to complete the tutorial. I think it would help if put the titles of "Warrior", "Ghost" and "Angel" in the character select screen and in the tutorial force the player to become whatever character you want them to test
• In the tutorial, you can softlock the game if you choose the wrong character. If you kill yourself, you are asked to "choose where to spawn" but neither the door or flag buttons work so the only way out is to close and re open the game.
• Killing yourself while in the character selection screen also softlocks the game and pressing any of the character images does nothing.
• In the tutorial even when you choose the correct characters, when you touch the final door nothing happens. The only way to get out of the tutorial at that point is to close and re open the game.
• The resolution issue was unfortunately very annoying to tackle. Even in the downloaded versions the screen was cropped unless I made the window full screen and even then I felt that I was not seeing the whole picture. I think some of the issues can be fixed by using a canvas scalar component, pick scale with screen size and set a target resolution.

After playing for half an hour I could only manage to collect half of the eggs. Do you think you could post a walkthrough video? Overall after working through the quirks I think this concept has a lot of potential. Nice Job!

Thanks for the feedback! We had planned for the player to collect multiple weapons and for there to be a variety of enemies across the different dimensions. We were pretty ambitious but as the deadline for the jam closed in we realized we had to sacrifice the complexities of the levels, weapons, and enemies.  Definitely would add those features in an update. 

Sorry forgot to mention it in the instruction. Each level lasts from 12AM-12PM so you can look at the time on the upper right side to see how long you have left. Oh no I didn't see that issue in the final build.  To get around it you can just hit the pause button 'p' twice .

Fun game! The strategy I found to work is to find find the largest numbers for the multiplication operations and then quickly hammer out the rest. Great job on the art and sound!

Awesome job! Loved the introduction cutscenes! The art style was very cohesive and the character designs are cute and fun as well. The puzzles were also great at encouraging the player to explore new mechanics without explicit guidance. Well Done!

The game looks and sounds great! The main menu with the camera panning through the different rooms was also one of the most impressive menus I have seen in this jam. The art, sound, and particle effects are on point. You guys did a really good job designing the house interior. There were a couple minor issues like having the room dark as you enter a new room. I think it would have been better if the match were to auto light since the transition from lit room to complete darkness is a little jarring. I also found that I could walk through the pool table in the game room. The pool table is also very tall so it made me feel like my character was more like a child. Aside from those minor issues the game plays well and feels great. Excellent Job!

Btw I only saw POGStudios-Steg under the author section for the game. Are Zach, William, and Will working under that account or do they have separate itch.io accounts?

P.S. I would also advise the next time you submit a game, add a thumbnail, add screenshots, and customize your itch.io page with art and banners. You guys have put so much quality into this game and its deserves a good looking webpage as well!

Thank You!

The music, sound effects, and visuals blend together to make this a very relaxing experience. I admire the quality and interactivity of the UI as well. The audio was so good that it hurt to hear the level end sound getting cut short by an audio glitch. I hate to say it but I do not think the core mechanic of the game (puzzle solving rotating tiles) suits the theme of "This Is Not Real". Some of the levels include an unnecessary amount of rotating blocks. While this looks visually appealing I think you could accomplish the same effect by introducing environmental elements with the same shimmer effect instead of adding rotating tiles. But aside from those nitpicky details I believe this is one of the most impressive games I have played in this jam. You guys have done a fine job!

Thanks for the feedback!

I loved the art style, the animations, the particles, and the sound effects. The visuals all fit together endlessly. The floating asteroids and debris in the background was also a nice touch. I would say there are 2 thinks that I think could improve the game.

• The camera can be a bit jarring at times. I think the camera is programmed to make sure all of the enemies are in frame. This has the unfortunate side effect of zooming in on the player when no enemies are around and then suddenly zooming all the way out when enemies spawn in. Additionally i feel a little stressed out when the camera zooms in on the player since it prevents me from spotting any enemies in the distance (even though by the camera's logic no enemies have spawned yet)
• I feel that the player should be able to slow down instead of move at a constant speed.  This would add a bit more strategy to the movement and also make it a little less awkward using the arrow keys. I have the habit of pressing and holding a key to move in a certain direction even though if i release the key i will continue travelling in the same direction. 

Aside from those points I feel that you have made an excellent game! Nice Work!