itch.io

Thanks so much! Please remember to rate the game if you enjoyed it, and feel free to check out my other projects!

Hi, I was also going to ask about a discord! I find being able to drip feed progress, and see everyone else’s progress, as the most exciting part of a jam! Plus, having a place to discuss jam entries would be really nice.

You have no reason to trust me, so I won’t be offended if you turn down the offer, I am happy to set up one up if you’re too busy, (although I don’t have the time to commit long-term to moderating it, so it would be locked-down at some point after the jam is over)

That’s so kind! I’m glad you liked it so much!

Thanks so much! I prefer a short polished experience than a long entry that is a little undercooked and out stays its welcome!

Thanks so much for the playthrough! All your feedback is super valid, especially regarding the ramps.

R.e. puzzles, i very intentionally challenged myself to make a less puzzle focused entry this year, since I naturally fall into a space of “building escape rooms”. While it’s clearly sharing DNA with my entry from last year, I didn’t thick of it as a sequel, and more just an aesthetic I’m comfortable with. My “style” if you will. That said there are 3 secrets you missed, all of which you could loosly call puzzles!

In terms of the accusation of “playing it safe”, i think that’s very fair. I’m trying to get the highest ranking in the jam as I can, and realistically just 1 low ranking will damage my position greatly. I know lots of people will turn a jam game off as soon as they get frustrated, so I really focused on having as low friction as I could, even if that meant making the game easier and less risky in design as it could have been

Better window sizing is fixed in the version i’ll be uploading as soon as the jam’s over! The resolution itself is an artistic choice, but i agree it being a tiny window in the center of the screen isn’t ideal. Its particuarly bad on apple retena displays…

Thanks so much!!! Don’t forget to rate!

The randomization that you have some control over is a really fun idea, although I wish you’d incorporated that into the slot machine better. For me, a slot machine is an unclear visual symbol to use when you can pay for up to 5 random outcomes (each with three options).

I really liked the health animation! The sloshing when you heal was so fun. And the settings menu was surprisingly high effort too!

The amount of content you packed in was impressive, but I am not sure If felt that it added a lot? And, as others have said. the use of AI art felt very apparent and did hold back the submission visually, since everything had that uncanny sheen and slight lack of conformity.

“YOU’RE WINNER”

Good job submitting something for the jam! I saw you mentioned that you felt you had bad time management, but it’s always great to submit something! I agree with the others that the textures and the weapon – what’s shown in screenshot of the cover – create a great vibe!

I hope next year you submit again and have time (and time management!) to create a longer experience with more content!

This look great!

Glad you found it fun!

That’s actually exactly why that initial area exists so players have a small space to understand what those downwards slopes look like.

I’m sorry you didn’t enjoy the curviture effect. Maybe a setting that replaces it with fog, to keep the view distance equitable?

I’ll give spoilers on the secret ending after the jam, but about 15% of players have found it so far!

I’m glad you enjoyed it, thanks for your kind words.

To be honest, I got the lazers working in a way that felt fun and fair and chose to stop touching anything in case i broke something!

Glad i didn’t dissapoint!

I’m a strong believer that devs knowing they have minimaps makes games have worse maps.

I tried hard to steer players through the level, and make sure each are looked distinct enough that if you go in a circle you know you’ve gone in a circle. Could I have done that and sti had a minimap? Of course! Would I…? Maybe not.

Plus, think of all the times in games with maps and/or quest markers where players ONLY look at the map and ignore the world that’s actually been built.

In my next entry (it’s been on my todo list for both years i’ve competed) i want to experiment with diagetic maps of the space in the world on a wall or something…

Hi,

I’m sorry there was some confusion and frustration in your playthrough! The few playtesters who tried the game during the jam told me (unprompted) that the range felt natural, so perhaps i didn’t give it as critical thought as i should have.

To be honest the save points were a bug-turn-feature, because i wanted to avoid save scumming. But you’re right that that final boss save point should always function. I’ll fix that in the post-jam update.

I’m glad you had fun with it in the end. I agree that my musician (and his flutist!) did a superb job!

Akchtually it was a sub-moon not a moon 🤓

Thank you for your kind words, I’m glad it all seemed to click for you! Good luck finding those 5 more upgrades (I promise you’d have beaten the boss in less than 4 attempts if you had them all!)

Thanks so much!

PS1/n64/dreamcast was really what i was trying to hit in terms of game feel and graphical style!

I’m glad you appriciate your shields! Lets pour one out for the, like, 30% of people who fight the boss without finding any shields!

I’m so happy that people are figuring out the secret ending, i was worried no one would think of trying it!

I appriciate your kind words, and i’m glad you enjoyed it!

I did check the player analytics and it looks like you’re the only player to win without deaths, so i think you might just be a god gamer.

Thanks for the feedback!

I considered a more complex final battle, but its a pet peeve of mine when final boss’s use brand new mechanics in games!

So you’re the one 4 that stopped me from winning last year! (Kidding!!)

I’m super excited that someone found the secret ending – so far you’re the first, including playtesters. Interestingly, I actually added the ending after i discovered the challenge was possible, rather than planning it from the start, so it was more a reaction to the low difficulty than cause.

Difficulty is hard in jam games (at least if you’re gunning for the top spots!) because, frankly, if one player finds it too hard and quits and votes me a 1 i’ve lost my chance at top 3 instantly. So with that in mind, I feel pressured to thread the needle of something that feels challenging without actually being at all punishing. People’s patience for friction is so low for jam games…

Thanks again for your kind words, and for (right now) being the world’s #1 Captain Raygun!

Thanks so much for giving me the honor of being the first jam entry played on stream!

I am really thankful you played all the way through, and I am so impressed that you beat the boss with only 4/10 upgrades! I am going to put a warning in after the jam as you approach the boss if you are under leveled. As always, what playtesters miss real players will find immediately!

I hope you have time, after you’ve got through the other entries, to see if you can find any of the other secrets. Still no one has found the secret ending…

Thanks so much!

Congrats on finding 6/10 upgrades and 1/2 endings! (I’m guessing, if you managed to do 5/10 upgrades and 2/2 endings I’ll be very impressed!)

That dead pixel was mostly to annoy my GF. I thought it fit into the themes of the game.

How do you know if there is or isn’t breakdancing when you didn’t find all the secrets, hmmm?

Lastly, would you believe me that last year I DID implement input queueing but actually removed it because it honestly made the game feel less responsive to me. What Zero Atmospheres and Raygun do is queue one input, but if you change your mind, it overrides that queue. If you’re in a fire fight, and you press “Strafe Left” the immediately “Shoot” then you will get your shoot queued and will fire as soon as you finish strafing. BUT if you press “Strafe left”, immediately press “Shoot”, but then half a second later realize strafing puts you in harms way and press “Strafe Right” to me it feels better to have the shoot be dropped to respect your latest input as fast as possible? …I guess next year I’ll put it as an option in the settings menu since people always ask about it….

Thanks for your kind words! Better to leave them wanting more then leave them bored! Luckily for you, if you’ve not played it already, my entry from last year (https://kaisalmon.itch.io/zero-atmospheres-dungeon-crawler-jam-2025) is similar in a lot of ways. If you enjoyed this then I hope you’ll enjoy Zero Atmospheres too! (But maybe play the entries in this years jam first!!)

Hi Sloth, thanks for the kind words!

I think the boss is very hard if you don’t have enough power-ups! During playtesting the players seemed to have an easy time at it, but when I saw @captaincoder ‘s playthrough they found a route where they only acquired 4/10 upgrades. After the jam I will add a warning before the final corridor that says “Woah, you’re underlevel’d AF, go back and find more upgrades” (Maybe in a more lore-friendly tone!)

I used this skybox in my gamejam entry Captain Raygun on Planet X.

The skybox works so well, and it took such a long time to find a a skybox which was stylized AND could be rotated 360 degrees!

I loved these so much I used them in another game! https://kaisalmon.itch.io/captain-raygun-on-planet-x

Siiick!

Dm sent!

I’m not saying I will, but hypothetically how much would you charge to commission/sponsor a 5th 32x32 pixelart texture pack? Perhaps with a post-apocalyptic/wasteland theme?

Assuming you could retain the rights to sell it on here (I have no idea how popular & lucrative your packs are, but I love them so I’d like to imagine very!)

As a representative of Apple Inc. I must demand you take this shader down immediately. (Jokes aside, this looks sick, good job)

Are there any videos or gifs? (Sorry if i’m missing something obvious!)

I don’t think the thought bubbles are working for me, it just says 0 for everyone? I think?

I used these in my PICO-8 card roguelike, Demons of the Great Beyond. I love the set, so expressive and so evocative!

Had I more time in the jam I would have added some diagetic maps on the walls (got that in my back pocket for future jams), but in my view the navigation is really one of very few pieces of actual “gameplay”, which would wash away if there was a minimap!

Thanks so much for playing, hope you had a fun time!

Thank you, you’re very kind!

RetroTechFun stumbled upon this game when playing some Pico8 titles, and humiliatingly triggered a soft-lock. I’ve fixed the softlock, introduced softlock detection (dying twice within 0.1 second will now cause you to warp back to the start – consider this a valid speedrun tech if you can get it to work!)

I’ve also removed some spikes on the second screen because they are a holdover from an early vision, and is not appropriate for the direction the game ended up taking.

Hi, these pages are 404’ing for me

This happened to me to! My first black cat scratch card had two black cats and I guess that it’s gameover for me! Had fun while it lasted, though, good luck!

Seven over par, I’ll take it!

I used to be a professional escape room designer, so that makes sense!