itch.io

You managed to capture the RTS experience in its purest form - useless allies. :D

Really fucking well done. It took me a while to get the hang of it, but once I did, it was very satisfying popping out massive tank stacks and wiping enemies out in one attack. It's actually a bit TOO easy once you understand how to eco quickly.

Minor criticisms: Would've been nice to have a way to change all Command HQ waypoints with one click. It was sometimes tedious to move them all individually and also occasionally difficult to find them when the screen gets busy.  Resource counts should have been visible at all times imo rather than having to hover over a building to see them. Finally, the game was a bit tough to grok. The tutorial was good at getting the player started,  but resources like Network and CPU weren't explained, and sometimes it seemed like things weren't getting built and I didn't understand why (is it a resource shortage? Do I need more of this Network resource to make sure my supply caravans are delivering goods where they need to go?)

Once I understood the mechanics though, it was satisfying exploiting them to pop out massive armies within the first minute. I found that building everything tightly packed and spamming mines/sniffers early before progressing to ides and compilers seemed to be the best strategy. I'm still not sure where resources are transferred from when they're delivered to their target building (I assume from the buildings that generate them), but the closer everything is together, the sooner they get to their destination. 

Awesome work. I spent a good chunk of time with this one and might play another game or two before I call it quits lol

Fantastic vibes (it was like playing a screensaver or somethin), clever central mechanic, and satisfying powerups. The game was frustrating at points, but I think it was in the good way that motivates you to overcome the challenge and (mostly) not the bad way. Awesome job. Fuck the farfalle starship swarms.

The only minor criticism I have is that your ability to handle the later levels seems to depend a lot on how quickly you're able to get the jump powerup. Considering how fundamental it is to the gameplay, I'd suggest making it available from the beginning but maybe putting it on a cooldown or giving it charges or something. That way I still have to be judicious with it, but I'm not totally fucked if the enemies swarm me before I have a chance to grab it (and sometimes the powerup comes in a lane that's already swarmed to hell, so there's little hope of getting it). I also wasn't sure which of the projectiles WAS the powerup at first, so it took some testing and dying before I realized it.

Really excellent entry. Nice work!

Marvy, you dog

Goddamn. Of all the games I've played so far, I think this one deserves to win the most. Not only does it manage to evoke Nintendo-esque nostalgia (music plus gameboy plus all the "Pokemon trainers" whose levels you have to beat), it's also like... the Dark Souls of Nintendo games with its central mechanical idea. The credits rolled way too early on this one, especially with all the little character seeds you planted throughout.

A real fuckin gem. Congratulations on the excellent work.

Phone is unfortunately a bit buggy. I had it crash on me a couple times when I pressed F to open Snake before the game prompted me to do so, but was eventually able to complete it. The artwork is clean and polished and the premise is clever.  Congrats on your submission to the jam!

P.S. It took me a bit to realize the MC has a squid on her head, which is why one of the characters refers to her as Tentacles. That's a nice detail :)

Sadly doesn't seem to be functional - I just get a gray screen when I launch. Enjoy vacation 

Many thanks to everyone who has played so far! I'm glad people are enjoying it 

Jonic the Hedgehog? BOOM? I giggled at many of these, thanks.

Omg I actually managed to win. I wasn't a big fan of the gameplay, but loved the art and the weird vibes. Awesome work! 

Gigabrazil undefeated

Very original idea. I felt quite engaged trying to balance both games simultaneously. Unfortunately seems to crash after reaching a certain snake length. Awesome work!

Awesome animation and vibes. Great work!

Excellent vibes. One of my favorites so far - great work!

(I managed #6 on the scoreboard on my last playthrough).

Awesome job! Game felt solid, and I liked how I had to be careful with the dash (sometimes I would dash twice and accidentally end up on the other side of an enemy in their sight cone O_O). It felt satisfying to learn the pattern for clearing a room and do a rapid series of dash kills. Main criticisms are 1) the sight cone sprites didn't quite match up with the actual hitbox, and 2) it didn't really seem to have an "ending" (seemed like we were there to save someone at the end?)

Thanks for sharing your work! Well done.

FANTASTIC job for your first game jam and only a week of gamedev experience. The best thing about the game is the aesthetic imo--I loved the art and the general vibe. The gameplay was fine, but I would've liked a little more guidance on what the goal of each level was (though I was able to figure it out pretty quickly). It was kind of annoying having to repeat the first level before proceeding to the next level you unlocked.

Well done and congratulations!

Definitely one of my favorite submissions this jam. Congrats on your fantastic work. 

I made it to wave 6, but the towers at the end of the course glitched and were unable to shoot incoming tanks. Otherwise, nice simple tower defense game--great job! I liked that you added the option to speed up time. That was a nice touch.

Great work for your first jam! The art is very good. The game definitely needs a rebalance imo. Campfires are effectively useless because you never know if they'll blow up on you and wipe out the rest of your energy. The best strategy seems to be sticking around the tent and spamming E since every time you enter the tent, you gain a little energy. I was able to face tank enemies and stay topped off this way lol.

Good luck to you as you continue your gamedev journey!

Played it a second time to see if I could get different endings (and I did!) Very on point with the theme. Nice work!

Instructions unclear--still can't pay rent. (Loved this concept. Great job. Also awesome work on the introductory comics!)

Love the art and the music and the nonsense mumbling when the characters speak (reminded of Celeste). It looks like the heart meter maxes out a certain point--it would be nice to get a popup letting you know that you've "won" the game or something like that. Great job!

The music makes my ears bleed. The platforming is wonky and cumbersome. There are many bullshit jumping puzzles. I hate everything about this game so much. You have captured the essence of the rage platformer in microcosm--well done!

Thanks for the feedback. I think the roguelike sweet spot for me (Hades also does this) is a mix of random upgrades earned throughout a run and purchasable, persistent upgrades. The random upgrades keep runs varied and interesting, while the purchasable upgrades provide a sense of progress and further mix up gameplay. I think this game would definitely have been improved by adding a random upgrade element--will definitely keep that in mind the next time I have a chance to make a roguelike.

Thanks again.

Thank you, and thanks for playing!

Thanks for playing! I had someone else tell me the UI was a bit too busy and the font needed to be bigger. Obviously there's always a bit of a learning curve with a new game, but that could definitely be smoothed out with better UI design. Appreciate your time.

Interesting concept. Having worked on projects that require robust pathfinding solutions, I respect that you were able to complete this within a game jam timeframe. Pathfinding is no joke lol.

Biggest complaint I have is that there wasn't really anything preventing me from reaching the goal except for the time it took to draw the right cards. As far as I can tell from a single playthrough, the enemies don't really do anything except attack your hosts. One of them wandered past my unguarded infection site at one point but didn't pause to attack or otherwise hinder my expansion.

All said, this is definitely a place you could build from if you wanted to expand the game. Creating more hindrances to the parasite's expansion, allowing deck customization/some form of meta-progression, procedurally generated levels, etc. would all contribute to making the game feel fuller and more rewarding. 

Congratulations on completing the game jam and keep up the great work!

Thanks for your feedback and for taking the time to play.

Thanks for playing! I agree it definitely could've been clearer.

Thank you!

I don't like Stuart

I liked being dropped into the game not knowing what to do, but slowly piecing together the objective by just messing around. My specific path through the game helped to make this possible. My initial explorations took me from the amoeba pool to the cabin to, finally, the woodlice tree. When I tried using the research bench but was told I needed certain lengths of woodlice and amoebae to complete the next research tier, I made the connection that the missing ingredient must be in the other salient object in the world--the tree. 

I like it when games are structured in such a way that they give rise to situations where you make connections of this kind. It's essentially how puzzles function. While the game is ultimately a resource collection and "crafting" game, the early parts of it felt more puzzlish to me as I figured out what I was supposed to be doing, and that ended up being the most interesting part. There isn't much game here, but for that briefest of moments, there was something there.

Congrats on finishing the jam last minute!

I enjoyed my time with this. The enemy possession mechanics were interesting, and I liked that you could use them to approach problems in different ways. The flying enemies definitely trivialized the rest of the platforming... it probably would be a good balancing idea to put them on a timer. Voiceovers were adorable. Congratulations on completing your second GWJ, and great work!

By far my favorite submission so far. Excellent level design, simple but interesting mechanics that integrate the theme and a wildcard. Dash resets reminded me a bit of Celeste. Very nicely done. 

Scientist when spamming vials at me:

Scientist when possessed by me:

Love the alien animations. Possess mechanic seemed a bit buggy--my minions wouldn't always attack, and they didn't often (ever?) draw fire from enemies.  It's very VERY easy to get overwhelmed with enemies in this game, largely due to the fact that 1) enemies have collisions, and 2) you basically only have access to melee attacks. Biomass perks were a great addition (it would've been nice to have some icons in the corner or something showing which ones you'd collected).

Fantastic work for a jam game! 

Vibes are fantastic and gameplay is solid. I was able to beat the game by just defending a single satellite (it's difficult to defend all of them given how quickly AI drones spawn over a wide area). Love the music. Flying through the tutorial to get to the play area is awesome.

Sound effects broke for me on my second and third playthroughs. If I had to guess, some signals didn't get reconnected when a new instance of the level was loaded in.

Great work--3D no less!

Awesome concept. Controls were a bit of a pain--it would've been nice to have a slider to control aim sensitivity and for mouse movement to only control pitch and yaw, leaving roll to Q & E or some other pair of buttons (that's often how games with similar control schemes handle omnidirectional movement like this).

 Congrats on your first game jam, especially going for a 3D game! 3D is no joke lol

Edit: My high score was 10.82 seconds. Pretty decent.

Having to balance between your health bars and the parasite's health bar is an interesting concept. The water deposits ended up feeling like the bonfires in a Souls game lol. There were a couple times where I was close to the brain but had to run back and was afraid my thirst meter would deplete before I could get back to my "bonfire" to replenish.

I was a bit confused about the win condition--at first I killed the host right away, but didn't immediately realize I'd lost. It would've helped to have a "you lose" screen or something to make this clear.

Great work, and congrats on finishing the jam.

Concept is a great take on the theme and a unique game idea.. Win condition appeared to be bugged for me, unless I simply failed to understand it. When I destroyed enough trees to deplete the anti parasite's health bar, it showed the anti parasite victory text. The only way I was able to win was to go directly for the anti parasite flower and consume it, which seems to be the easiest/quickest route to victory. Camera movement was a bit wonky, and sometimes horizontal movement seemed to get stuck. AI is indeed pretty inept. It would've given the game some more replay value to introduce difficulty levels, where each difficulty increases the speed at which the anti parasite plant expands.

Great work, and congrats on completing the game!

Really nice job! The transition into the sewers was a lovely twist, though I agree with another commenter that it's a bit hard to see. Loved the flickering lights. The super jump mechanics was great and well-used throughout. Game is a bit buggy, and I had one soft lock I had to reset for, so it would be nice to be able to skip the opening. Great that you had an option to turn off blood.

Great work! (googly worm eyes were great)

Screw that one train car in particular (you know the one). Nice work! Love that you jump on the horse's back after taking damage (and that it throws axes when you feed it an apple). Good luck with the last six months of your make-a-game-a-month challenge!