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I felt like your release was really well polished. I have difficulty with platformers so I did not get far enough in to see much connection to the theme besides the setting.

I really enjoyed playing this and at the end I got a little teary. I enjoyed the art style and the subtle changes in facial expression are what really set the tone for the game for me. Also the music established the playthrough for me. I suppose if there was one thing, Zoey's seek and find point and click is a mechanic I would expand upon more and utilize in other places throughout the story, perhaps at the end with the fruit. Thank you.

Note to players: This morning as I was working on the game I noticed a few hard coded score values left into the build I uploaded. After seeing the game as it was submitted and scoring it accordingly if you'd like to play through to find the ending you would have had were it not for my rookie mistake here is a link:  https://drive.google.com/file/d/1IcGq4yrii1HVxZgiCR87monahTwV8jJb/view?usp=drive...

Thank you so much for playing my game and helping me out by providing a comment. This morning I sat down to work on some of the bugs and play through some of the games. Anyway, I noticed that I had left in some hard coded point values I forgot to comment out. This meant that you likely did not get the ending to your playthrough that you otherwise would have had. If you want to find out how it would have turned out I packaged a build as soon as I found out with the hardcoded values removed. Here is a link: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1IcGq4yrii1HVxZgiCR87monahTwV8jJb/view?usp=shari...

Thank you so much for playing my game and helping me out by providing a comment. This morning I sat down to work on some of the bugs and play through some of the games. Anyway, I noticed that I had left in some hard coded point values I forgot to comment out. This meant that you likely did not get the ending to your playthrough that you otherwise would have had. If you want to find out how it would have turned out I packaged a build as soon as I found out with the hardcoded values removed. Here is a link: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1IcGq4yrii1HVxZgiCR87monahTwV8jJb/view?usp=shari...

Thank you so much for playing my game and helping me out by providing a comment. This morning I sat down to work on some of the bugs and play through some of the games. Anyway, I noticed that I had left in some hard coded point values I forgot to comment out. This meant that you likely did not get the ending to your playthrough that you otherwise would have had. If you want to find out how it would have turned out I packaged a build as soon as I found out with the hardcoded values removed. Here is a link: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1IcGq4yrii1HVxZgiCR87monahTwV8jJb/view?usp=shari...

You might try another run. I've found a bug where it doesn't work if you click the button before it loads in fully to the first window.

You might have a color change or some other indicator with the police that makes them go from not affecting the health to doing so. I know in my own country that has a long history of racial injustice protesting for issues that affect minority vs majority communities the police action is very different. Many protest movements plan around it. Back during the first term of glorious leader, before he lost and then won again, there were lots of reasons to protest, just as now. When we saw police dogs or other signs of militarized escalation the call would go out among the protesters to move white people and elders to the front. Then the police would scale back down. It was very overt and I didn't know it was a thing until I was in it and asked to move to the front. Seeing it first hand gave me a lot to think about as a cis white male. I know we are limited on time during the production phase, but if there are aspects that you see as important for others to know perhaps unique to the movement you are covering or the issue that make workable mechanics, they might be something to think about. I noticed a few spectators in those videos. There may be something there to consider as well, on the one hand those communities bear the point source pollution of the mines, on the other those are also the people whose livelihood is in that coal. 

I really appreciate the playthrough, and the review. You've given me a lot to work with.  You're right that there isn't enough content to justify the gigabyte. I think that's likely the result of me porting over to the newer UE 5.6 preview and I haven't taken the time to learn how to optimize for file size yet on the new platform. There isn't a gb worth of anything in my actual game, at least not until I do real character models. I'm surprised you were able to get 120 fps, or 30 for that matter. My frame rate cap must not have worked in your case. Their 30 fps is closer to the intended experience. I had capped the frame rate to max out at 24 frames per second to feel more animation like than a video game. 24 fps is animating on ones, 12 is animating on twos, but that is too slow for the mouse camera angle change to feel right. So the game is designed to feel like animating on ones. I was worried that the comic book style would chop up the screen in a way that would crowd the play experience into a tiny box. But it doesn't sound like that was what it did for you. That's a relief.

I liked the art style. Making most of the objects, the planet out of those jagged pieces of what look like found objects was really cool. I definitely think you should expand that to the inhabitants.

The prototype seemed workable enough. I did not come across any npcs. With how much your narrative prototype seems to rely on them that's where I'd go next is making sure you have a solid npc interaction system.

Good art and sound. Playable and promising. I don't know how big a lift it is to be able to rotate the camera angle. If it is difficult, be careful with your block placement. Some sites will be very difficult to place.

A big challenge, but it looks like it can become something really beautiful.  I'm excited to see what this looks like when there is something playable.

Your hidden objects prototype works bug free and is manageable to manipulate. More than I can say for my own prototype.

Cute artwork. Made me want to see more.

Ok. So I was super skeptical of tower defense as a mechanic for a climate game, but then I saw what you were doing with direct action protest and a police at a coal mine,  and knowing  the history of police/military/pinkerton confrontations at industrial sites I was like yeah this could work really well even without knowing the specific protest movement you are referencing. Mechanics I noticed that I think mimic reality well:  1. your protesters disappear when they get too many others moving into them (crushed?). 2. A protester that gets surrounded by too many police disappears (arrests?, beatings?). Along the lines of what we know from history about these types of confrontations in general you might consider AI behavior changes  in more challenging levels as the clock gets lower or your protester number gets lower (increased defender aggression, increased speed etc) to mimic the devolution into violence.  Before spending time making your art/anims (which I think will make or break your game in terms of hitting the right note with your call to action) I would definitely make your levels bigger relative to the number of characters, add streets, building obstacles etc. Having that "map" up for a moment before play begins is also a good idea.

Well done on making a playable prototype friends. I inadvertently rapidly killed everyone multiple times over before I was able to figure out what was happening enough to do something about it, so in that way it is very like climate change. I was able to see some of the things that you're tracking on the side, they are exactly what I'd think are good things to output to the player. Well done there. Also your prototype having a no hope button definitely conveys the sense of urgency.

Is Kiribati's overarching plan still called Migration with Dignity"? I remember hearing that several years back and really being struck by it in a lot of ways. Also, I think you could hit a lot of emotional notes really well with this approach. I can't imagine what "Find your kid's favorite stuffed animal before leaving home forever" would feel like in a game.

Yeah. What I see isn't a projectile. It is as if the end of the gun stretches out to touch the wall or whatever. Like a distortion of the vertices at the end of the gun.  It is really neat. Is that not the intended behavior?

I really like the idea of the dialog interactions you have determining what the particular spot on the map does.  I remember loving sim city and at a certain point I was left thinking "Well what if they don't want me to bulldoze the coal power plant. Somebody works there. They could start a petition..."

Your level blockout definitely conveys the feeling of your world. The fire mechanic is interesting. Instead of a projectile are you moving the vertexes at the end of the gun to the end of that line trace?

This is a really good concept. I'm excited to see where you take it. Have you done visual novels before? Your idea of subtly changing the color pallette as the tone changes is something I really appreciate in a visual novel.  I think using your conservation expertise is a great idea. It is good to see another bio post grad who makes games.

Creator Note: Hit significant snags in dialog production due to late noticed bug. They were subsequently overcome, but game is incomplete. Dialog for characters besides Alan Rhodes is written, but not loaded in the new format. Will attempt to overcome in next sprint.

I had similar feelings, cool art style, wanted to check out more of what was going on. Mouse seemed to revert to center when clicked.

I actually had a lot of fun playing around with this. The underlying mechanics are solid and you get a sense that the hero is progressing in scope as the game progresses. My favorite part, blocking traffic alienates only twice as many people as my poetry. Accurate.

Fun concept. If you've ever played Spore it reminds me a great deal of that. Rather than shaking the drop as it moves you might play with scaling it up and down miniscule amounts so it looks like it flows and flexes rather than jitters.

Ok so this could be great. Like really great. It needs art. Like in the buttons perhaps a transparency could fade in and then out of something related to the action when you click, but the concept nails the jam, it is fun, playful, and you can learn something playing... and perhaps feel empowered to do something... now that my comment is complete I shall go to wallow in misery.

It is a really neat idea using the Miyawaki method to increase carbon capture. You might want to add some mechanic to show growth, starting with a couple tiny existing patches to see the pattern or some other indication to more unfamiliar players as to what provides increased carbon capture. As an educator I could see this having applications in my classroom education setting.

The voice, of the write comes through very well and you do a nice job of setting the scene in a way that doesn't feel forced. It would have been good to see the recipe assemblage mechanic, whether that is wrapped into the text or is something separate will change a lot of the feel for what the player is doing. Music works.

Yeah, I have to add locked doors on the houses to prevent entry excepting the ones that will be occupied by NPCS. As far as playable area reduction, I was thinking to reduce to 1/2 and 1/4 and see where the balance point is between the feeling of expansiveness of landscape I am going for and the cost to render. You're right though, as it is now it is needlessly large. The empty space between the houses is accurate to the region the area is based on (I took a little field trip) so I probably don't want to change that for authenticity sake.

I think your art is rad for this concept and like that layout you've got setup on the left there. Also I was driving the other day and saw a sign for akzonobel. Their logo has the vibe you're dancing with in a different mono palette. Might be a vibe to play with.

Masking the total environment resilience is a great idea, very true to life. As well as your shoot the moon mechanism of flipping the scoring mechanism if the threshold is reached. 

One other thing you have going for you is that monochromatic art style. You can use it to give the player visual feedback on their progress or effect by shifting the hue on a gradient. If you did the art initially on a greyscale and then applying color based on impact or score, maybe between red and green or whatever then brightness or contrast based on money or whatever. 

I'm also curious if adding a random element like the cards payouts and penalties are on a range with a dice roll. Things to think about .

Yeah, sorry about that, my bad. It exists but I had to submit early due to some unexpected travel restraints and forgot to include it.

I like that you are already thinking about action connectivity.

I support your bad decision. Most decisions are bad, at least yours looks fun and takes stones.

Just out of curiosity how much of a stickly stickler is the youtube these days? Like if you hum a tune, or sing it but get all the words wrong does the algoman come knocking on your door or do you have to pretty clearly be trying to rip someone off? Seems like you'd be someone who knows this on account of working in youtubistan and all.

I saw that keyboard, mice, and controllers are good as inputs, is microphone fair game as well so long as we play kindly with whatever you stream/record with?

I see you are playing around with a lot of shader effects. One of the nice things for you all is that your scene is really static you don't need to worry about visual artifacts when you rotate it. I played around with a lot of the same shader stuff you are looking at a while back for my own interest and had a hard time because a lot of the things that looked good replicating what paint does in real life had a hard time looking good when in motion. But you don't have a lot of motion, so I say lean into it and blend between the effects you are playing with based on who is talking, how the conversation is going etc... afterall different people see the world differently, and you can represent that visually really well if you have a few of those effects down

Seeing as my last game in a game jam was about being a crow stealing nuts from squirrels I can't not rate this one. Ok so things you might consider. Not sure where you live but where I do there are three types of squirrels. Fox squirrels are big derpy and gentle. They are adorable, clumsy, and definitely not "with it" I honestly love them but I have no idea how they survive. Red squirrels are small, passive, and wicked fast, think Piglet, but as a squirrel. Then there are Grey squirrels, they are the rogues of the squirrel world, they push around red squirrels, take their stuff, and will readily throw down with other grey squirrels over nothin. They are resourceful medium built and will readily shout at you if you are on their turf, from a distance of course. What type of squirrel do you want your Main Character to be. He sounds like a fox squirrel to me, which would be the most fun honestly, but that may not be everyone's impression of a squirrel is what I am getting at, so be sure to differentiate your MC somehow early on.

Next, I love the concept of having good stuff vs junk stuff. You might consider rethinking Noggins. Especially if you want to make your MC a derpy squirrel. See there is an opportunity here. If you wanted to you could have the player know something about Noggins that your MC doesn't. If you have your MC telling the player and everyone else he thinks Noggins is doing this just to be mean, he's imposing capitalism, a villian, a complete jerk who steals nuts etc. BUT then you have the "good" items Noggins wants be litter... he wants bottles and trash bags, smashed juice boxes, and in general all the trash that humans junk up the park with... He doesn't want people's phones, their jewelry, their wallets... All of the sudden Noggins is a very different character to the player... and your squirrel has no idea. To your MC squirrel Noggins is the villian, he took the nuts. But to the player he's training squirrels to help cleaning up the park. Then the more your MC complains about Noggins he looks like he doesn't get it Noggins is totally playing him, and it is much more interesting.  It makes Noggins both the villian and a "good guy (kind of)." It would be one heck of a twist.

I think this could be fun, I wouldn't sweat the difficulty of the maths portion for yourself, it is going to boil down to summing up how much and in what way the love interest likes the songs, then adding those up and deciding what mood she put the love interest in. Ultimately the part that is going to get sticky is deciding how to key your character in that a certain song will make the love interest feel a certain way, do you do this with clues, does she get some shared interactions where these are in the background, and those go good or bad (an "our song" kind of thing) what drives those numbers and how to communicate them and give the player some choice in how they happen. That's where I'd spend my time.  Maybe circle in on the key sequential moments and start working through those. Also, did we call it lofi in the 90s? Did I miss the boat on that one?