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Thank you so much! This is really exciting news, I'm sure the whole team will be thrilled to hear it. And thank you for hosting the jam!

Ah, understandable. All of the puzzles felt very solid leading up to it, so I'm sure if you decide to continue developing it and rework those last couple they'd be just as good. 

But hey, I wanted to share a link of my playthrough of it. Ended up recording some games I was playing/rating the other night and yours was one (actually the longest! haha). Check it out for some feedback and/or entertainment. Your game starts at 10:27

Happy accidents are always the best thing about jams for sure! By the way I wanted to share a link. Your game was one of the ones I played the other night while I was making recordings for the jam, so check it out if you want to see me playing it. Yours starts at 59:39

Hey, glad to hear you made some updates. As for seeing how people play I hope this helps. The other day I ended up recording gameplay of a handful of games I played and rated and yours just happened to be one of them. Here's a link, yours is the first on this video so no timestamp needed:

I think it might have to do with developer/debug mode being enabled during building. I don't know how godot works, but in Unreal and Unity the file size of your build is increased if you have developer/debug mode turned on. I think it adds additional binaries/packages to the build that release builds don't include, thus inflating the file size. My main suspicion for this being the reason is that I noticed the title bar of the application said [DEBUG] after the name.

Pretty cool game with a very fleshed out backstory and lore. I liked the idea of giving away my powers to progress and it fit in with the concept of becoming nothing and giving away everything in order to traverse the depths of the nothingness/void. I was worried at one point that I got stuck and wasn't able to make it any further but I didn't immediately realize I could use the claw to get rid of the large blocks. 

Anyway, cool story, liked ringing that bell! I think I beat it because I turned into star stuff at the end, but then I was able to walk around and fell into an endless gray abyss? Honestly not sure if that was a bug or meant to happen.

Edit: Your game was one of the ones I played the other night while recording. Check it out if you want to see my gameplay and get some additional feedback/entertainment. It starts at 1:00:17

Hey, as a fellow puzzle person I just wanted to say well done! I picked up on how to complete the puzzles fairly quickly and how each symbol had its own purpose/created its own path. I was actually breezing through it up until the last symbol. It took me a lot of trial and error and by the final 2 puzzles I was kind of guessing as to the role it played in completing the chain, but I did end up beating it! I think my only suggestion would be to have a different set of puzzles for introducing the orange symbol because they make it seem like you need to alternate the symbol with another symbol but then the very next set of puzzles make it clear that that's not necessary. All in all though a really solid puzzler :)

Pretty cool experience! Quite unique and dark story. Had me guessing til the end on which one of us was going to make it out of there.

Edit: Wanted to share a link of my playthrough. Hope it provides some valuable feedback or at least some entertainment! Starts at 0:00

Nice and enjoyable short story experience! Congrats on completing it since you said it was your first time completing something to the end. It can definitely be tough, so well done. I liked the story that unfolded and the bite-sized puzzles and tasks required to advance it. The need to go around and feel the walls was really unique! I only wish there was some music/ambience and a few sound effects to really help you get immersed in it.

Hey I had a lot of fun with this one. I love deckbuilders so I got the gist of it really quickly. Everything made sense and the mechanics worked well with eachother. Only downside is the same thing that can affect all card games and that's RNG. I came super close to beating the boss but that RNG hit me bad with so many attacks of 25+ damage that I literally couldn't block anywhere close to all of it that they whittled me down just a bit faster than I could stick it out for. Would have loved to try again from the boss but unfortunately it would have meant starting over from the very beginning. Really solid game though, very enjoyable!

I think something that could help balance it is either getting an extra card to choose from after each victory, or the option to remove a card from your deck when you gain a new one (thinning out starter cards). Another option could also be cards that have a currency value when played and a shop you can visit in-between battles to either heal up or purchase more cards for your deck. Maybe even cheap but powerful one-time use cards or something! Anyway, just some ideas!

EDIT: Just wanted to add a link. I played your game while recording and uploaded some of them so the devs can get some better visual feedback. Your game starts at 31:03

Very cute and well made visuals. Great style! I think the mix of mechanics and having to switch back and forth to accommodate his hunger and wellbeing worked pretty well for the most part. I could easily see this being expanded on to where there could be multiple veggies or even cooking to combine them for a super hunger boost or something. Having more types of games to play would be great as well, but of course its beyond the scope of the jam so not a criticism or anything. I also like that you could buy humans to feed him, I only wished they staved off hunger loss a bit more as once day 8 or 9 hit it felt impossible to keep up with the hunger even after feeding it a human and rats and veggies! But very cool game with a solid foundation that I could see being built into something bigger.

Edit: Just wanted to add a link. I played your game while recording and uploaded some of them so the devs can get some better visual feedback. Your game starts at 16:53

Thank you for the kind words, our team worked quite hard during the course of the jam. Also I'm happy to hear that you found the pacing and length good, puzzles are very difficult if not impossible to balance for everyone so I think that means you're pretty much the target demographic for this level of difficulty haha. 

Oh and thanks for the feedback about the pause menu. This was something we added post-submission and I think the cursor bug just got overlooked. I assumed it was a web browser issue but I've since confirmed it also appears in the windows version so I'll have to ask our programmer to take a look at getting it fixed so thank you for bringing it to our attention.

Thank you! I hope you end up making it through to the end. If you need any hints you might find some here in the comments or you can just message and ask :)

Wow that's amazing to hear that you two stayed up just to finish it! Really happy that our team could make an experience that you enjoyed.

And thanks for the feedback about the note. I did notice the typo on one of my playthroughs but forgot to fix it before the last build. I'm adding it to my to-do list!

Thank you for the compliments, our team worked really hard on this one so we're thankful to hear it.

Really solid dungeon crawler. The tutorial setup was really well done for introducing the player to all of the mechanics. I thought the flashlight illuminating the true paths was a pretty creative twist on its use. Although I'm generally not a fan of flashlights and batteries in games, especially if combat is another concern, so I have to agree with @OzMaister on this one because I too often was wandering around without any flashlight battery left. It became both necessary to use in and out of combat between all the enemies and the constant hidden paths, and then it flickering as it got low made it even more difficult.  I also encountered an unkillable 'doomfish' during my playthrough that ended up stopping my ability to progress any further. I ended up having to respawn as a new character, run from the doomfish to find a battery, kill my previous self, figure out where I needed to go, kill more enemies all while still running from the invulnerable doomfish so I ended up in a scenario where I would end up in a loop of doing this and dying over and over again making more and more enemies lol. Hopefully you can figure out what bug is causing that invincible doomfish because I'd really like to be able to make it to the end!

Thanks! Hope you enjoy it and feel free to ask me if you need a hint or two.

Ohhh gotcha! Thank you, I definitely need to take a look at the colliders for that then.

Hey thanks for playing and the feedback! 

I had no idea about those bugs but it sounds funny, at least the first one. I'll see if our programmer can get those fixed. What item were you able to get through the bookshelf by the way? Just so I know what to take a look at for the colliders.

Hey no worries, it's definitely difficult to design puzzles and find a balance between too easy and too difficult.  Thanks for playing it and trying. If you do end up giving it another shot make sure to look closely at the bookcases themselves and not to get too distracted by the books 🙂

Wow, what a unique and creative game! Loved the old DOS FPS style of real image based sprites. I found it hilarious and great that I couldn't open gates at first because I didn't have hands! I kept trying to walk through hedges too because it seemed like they were meant to be, and it wasn't until acquiring the candle that my suspicions were confirmed. I think I beat it? Honestly not sure. I made it out of the maze through a narrow hedge and walked into the fog and it faded to black, so it seemed like that was the end but then it immediately restarted. Any way, really cool style and unique experience. Kudos!

Wow that girl really likes to talk! Haha, on a serious note it was nice and creepy. I especially liked the part where the cadaver followed you around and the little whispers were a nice touch. I do think that the audio on the recording was a little too low, I struggled at points to understand what was being said. Also it was a lot to take it all at once with one long recording that never stopped. But anyway, nice and unsettling story, very imaginative!

Very unique and expressive work! I really enjoyed the DOS style dungeon adventure aesthetic. I ended up playing through a couple times to experience the different paths. The sounds complemented the visuals and text descriptions nicely. I was a little disappointed I didn't come across the symbols like in the images on the page, not sure where they were but I was looking forward to trying to decipher it, but maybe that's a result of the randomization? Like I said I tried it a few times but only ever had a few options, so I might have to give it another try and get lucky.

Really interesting entry and take on bullet hell. I liked the introductory story with the mysterious traveler. The gameplay itself seemed fairly rough though, so hopefully you can flesh it out a bit more. I think some things like having the character rotate to face the direction they move along with making the bosses not be stationary and defenseless would go a long way towards making it more engaging to play.

Hey a fellow "Echoes" game, nice! Really liked the ability to pick up and use any object for combat, and that they all had different values for breaking. Game design was pretty good as there was generally always an object or two nearby an enemy for when your current one broke, so I really liked that. The ability to throw things was cool too, definitely killed off at least a few of them by tossing little jars at their head! That said, I kind of feel like the throw mechanic could be polished up a bit as sometimes it felt like there was some input lag or things didn't go as far/fast as you felt they would. Visuals were nice and hit that retro-pc vibe quite well! Audio was well done too! Although there was one part in the corn maze where it sounded like I was walking on metal for some reason, not sure what that was all about haha. Nice entry though! I managed to make my way to the end and see the light at the end of the tunnel :)

I gotta say you really nailed the style of the PSX era third person horror games. Even the controls were slightly frustrating when the camera angle changed just like back in the day lol. I only ended up being able to walk around and read notes and then woke up from my nightmare. I read on the game page that you ran out of time to implement things, so hopefully I managed not to miss anything in my playthrough. If you end up developing more story and gameplay let me know and I'll come back for another go!

This one was a lot of fun! Really charming game with a mechanic that is simple to pick up but difficult to master. Well, I say simple to pick up but you'd be horrified if you saw the first 3 minutes I spent while learning to play haha. Managed to beat all the levels even! It's funny, I was saying to myself "I wonder if there are going to be traps or something" and the very next level had lasers! The broken shelves and objects tripping the lasers added a fantastic element of difficulty and challenge. Well done!

Hey just wanted to let you know that we made some of the changes you mentioned! The first puzzle is no longer broken either :D Just a heads up the sensitivity option is very crude at the moment, we need to refine it a bit and add an in-game pause menu but right now it's better than nothing. Hope you can go back for another attempt now :)

Hey, thanks for playing! Super happy to hear that it ran smoothly for you, we had some issues trying to get this massive game working properly in a web player.

I designed all the puzzles so I'm glad you enjoyed the first one, and to be honest I'm actually glad that the 2nd one is a challenge haha, although I do hope you end up figuring it out. I'll give you a little hint for if you go back and re-attempt it: make sure to check the front and back of everything you inspect that relates to that puzzle :) There are only 4 symbols that you need to pay attention to.

Thank you so much for the feedback, I hope you get to experience what lies beyond the gate! (Oh and I'll let our sound designer know about the fmod error, thank you)

Thank you for all your feedback and considerations, it's very helpful. I've been talking with the team and we're already at work on getting some sensitivity options implemented because it seems like it varies a lot between everyone who has played and even between playing in-editor and in the build, so it's a top priority right now. Once we get it implemented I'll be publishing a new build, so I hope you'll come back and give it another try :D

Thanks! Yes everything you see we made for the jam, a ton of work was put into this game!

Thanks for the feedback about sensitivity, I'd like to add an option for it because for some of us it seems perfect and others it seems too high so it's interesting to hear that for you its too low. BTW you can zoom in on things you inspect with scrollwheel. It should be listed in the controls at the menu but I'll be adding the controls to the itch page as well. Also thanks for the feedback about interaction, I'll probably disable the ability to interact with all of the books and only the ones that are needed at some point :)

Thanks so much for the compliments! I am the art director and lead environment artist on the team so it means a lot to hear that. I hope you were still able to have fun despite the wonky controls lol. That's something we're already working on addressing for the next update.

I'm an artist and not really a developer/designer but I've still learned some valuable things this jam. For example, having your core mechanics nailed down early is a big one. I also found out that working with a big team isn't as scary or chaotic as I initially thought, as long as everyone is managed well and knows their responsibilities it's actually pretty rewarding getting to see how much can be done in such a short time with enough manpower. It can also have its downsides though, like trying to manage everyones schedules so we can still have regular development meetings. On a more positive note though I learned just how many assets I can crank out in a short time when I have a good workflow set up and a solid vision of the project - that was very rewarding and I definitely impressed myself with regards to that for this jam.

Thanks for playing! Yeah we've received a bit of feedback about the controls and have already decided to adjust how the pole-vaulting works. In the next build a vertical vault will just be a regular button press and the forward vault will be a press and hold. That's an interesting idea about the grapple boosting you up, maybe we'll experiment with that!

Interesting spin on the flappy bird style of game! It took me a while to get used to how the fish bounces up and down and goes off the wall but I eventually got the hang of it. The core of the gameplay is well done and it looks nice. If I have one criticism it would be that the difficulty curve could use some work, for example it might be better to have fewer streams of fish early on, and more spaced apart or slower and then do a gradual build-up to more fish that are faster. All in all though it was a pretty fun little game!

You can check out my gameplay video playtest below for some more in-depth feedback:

Hey, pretty cool concept for a game! I wish I could've made it all the way through but it was getting late and my mind was not sharp with all the math. I like the element of suspense with having the coworkers walk by and needing to switch. Sometimes it felt like they were coming by too often though and made it a struggle to read through the lore of the company. I really like the overall concept, but I think it could use some tweaks so the player is spending more time on the company portion than the actual 'work' portion of the game. Perhaps just reducing the overall number of clients you're assigned to each day would help balance it out. The menu and UI elements were nice and polished, well done on that! Overall it was a fun experience, even if you did make me do a bunch of math after I got home from work lol

You can check out my gameplay video playtest below (although I saw you already saw it on my youtube channel haha, I uploaded it before I went to bed and didn't want to rate+comment on a tired mind so I saved it for the morning):

Super fun game! Really enjoyed this one. Simple premise but very well executed. The constant worry of the lava catching up to you and the obsidian veins that slow you down is a really great combination. The visual aesthetic is cute and colorful, and the music is fun and doesn't get tiresome after a few loops. But please do everyone a favor and get rid of whatever awful loud sound plays after you die! Lol I thought my ears were at risk of bleeding after I first heard it. I don't know if it's a bug where an effect plays a ton of time or what. Anyway, super solid and fun game, very well done! Just wish there was a little more use for the jetpack, considering the name of the game - but to keep with the theme I understand the limited use case for it :)

You can check out my gameplay video playtest for some more in-depth feedback and initial impressions (also my reaction to the loud sound after dying is probably worth watching alone 😅)

So glad to see I'm not alone in the 45 degree walls not bouncing how I expected them too lol.

Had a lot of fun with this one! The premise is pretty basic but it works well, especially for being made in such a short amount of time. I don't see any connection to the theme though lol. If there's one criticism I have it's how the ball bounces off of angled walls: it doesn't make sense from a geometry standpoint and it made it impossible for me to guess how the ball would bounce when going off it. Some of the levels I could see where things would go and strategize, and those were great! But others quickly devolved into me just trying out a bunch of angles until it worked. I think with a little more time and tweaks this could be a really fun puzzle game :) Great job overall!

You can check out my gameplay video playtest below for some more in-depth feedback!