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I think titles are the art of it's own. One of my favorite writers is Jason Pargin. He's next book is titled "There Are No Giant Crabs in This Novel: A Novel of Giant Crabs". He's obviously a big source of inspiration :)

As for getting 3 or 4 of the same in the row- I totally implement balancing this. I meant to do a "deck of cards" solution. Once a minigame is used it's out from the deck (until the deck is empty, then all the games are reshuffled again). Since implementing this would take about 10 minutes, and would require no balancing at all, I totally wanted to do this... but I forgot, and remembered this only when I read your comment :D

As for the time- if you think about it, all the basic things in this game are very simple. Only one level with simple layout (which works in this type of game, because I don't want player to spend time on learning the level). Movement code was less than 30 lines. Spawning patients was even less (wait a random amount of time between 6 and 8 seconds, and pick a random free spawner). Other game elements (patients and doors) basically are "wait this long, then change status".

When you're starved for time keeping things simple is the key. Actually, keeping things simple works if you have too much time too :)

Thanks for playing! 

Originally the stakes would escalate every minute. First minute, would be pretty much like it is now, but slightly slower. Second would have medical rooms being randomly taken by other medical staff (for... private reasons). Third would be the most hectic (the medical staff appear as patients, having contracted some disease from each other). In the end we had less time than we originally thought, so that got cut.

Thanks for noticing the graphics- I'm passing all those positive comments straight to my graphics guy :)

I was going to write a devlog about making a complete game in 20 + 10 hours, but I literally have no time :) Last weeks were totally hectic, like all random stuff that normally would happen over the course of several months decided to happen in two weeks.

Glad you like the game!

Thanks! This is pretty much what we aimed for!

Glad you liked it!

2d + 3d is our signature style! Glad you liked it!

Every time when I put something little, like the "love story" in my game I wonder if someone notices.

Thanks for playing, glad you liked it!

I'm serious. Every once in a while you see a jam game that could be spun into a bigger project. I think you managed to do better than that. You could release what you have now to steam next feast, and this would easily be better than 90% demos there. Sure, it needs some polish (blood can hang in the air, whatever), but I'd gladly pay for a 100 levels of this! And post launch DLC. And achievements.

As usual an ambitious game! The problem- it's a bit difficult for me. I defeated the first wave, and a couple of guys form the second on my best run. The other villages were useful as bait, but they all died too fast :( That's a pity, because coming behind bandits to attack them from the back was pretty fun! Combat was cool- especially when I managed to hit multiple bandits with a single attack.

I guess, like the theme says, I couldn't save them all.

I think you overscoped. For example- you didn't need a huge terrain, if the only action takes place in the village. My usual workflow for game jams is planning the development for half the days available and leaving the rest for bugfixing and polishing. It's sorta what you did in "Limited space in space". By cutting additional game modes you kept focus on the main one.

So yeah, that's my advice I guess :)

This game needs a tutorial, or at least some instructions on the game page. I clicked at random, but don't really know how to progress, gameplay-wise.

Generally the game needs more polish. Some music would be nice. A way to tell which elements are clickable. Things like that.

Fun idea, but I think the game needs a bit more work and bugfixing. I never managed to finish the game- fell under the island each time :(

For some reason there are multiple games with os-style gameplay in this jam. Yours is the fastest paced so far :)

It's difficult to judge graphics and sound. It looks like an early 2000's windows, right?

What I liked the most was your take on the theme. Not only I couldn't save them all. I got a list of stuff I didn't save at the end! Bit funny, bit sad, all very cool!

Congrats on making your first jam game! I was intrigued by your posts on discord and now finally I get to play it!

Gameplay was really good! Fast paced, instantly clear goals- this is what I expect from games like this! There is only one thing I'd add. Since the game is about getting as far as you can it would be cool to compare scores with other players. Online leaderboards! With gameplay like this you'd have some people trying to beat each other scores!

Audio was simple, but juicy. It gave me clear picture of what was going on. As for the graphics- at first I thought they were too simple, but when I noticed the explosions (simple but cool) and cool looking progress bars, I got the atmosphere. This could be a minigame in a Deus Ex like cyberpunk game. What I'm saying is that in the end the graphics were ok :)

The thumbnail on site? The way I see it own style beats AI art. Pair up with an artist- there are always some that lurk on the discord before the jam.

The use of the theme is... ok I guess. I mean "you can't save them all", but there's also no point in doing it here. After a couple of levels I was surrounded by an army of drones that obliterated every threat. Sure, sometimes I saved more, if they happened to be on the way to the white cube, but I didn't care about it much.

Over all- good game. For a first timer- great game :) My advice is to focus on the theme more next time! 

Ok, man, you messed up. What you did here, is you made a jam game TOO good, and now we expect a steam release. Like, I don't know if you have job, school, family? Because this is all gonna have to take a backseat. We sort of wanna play 100 levels of this. And a post launch DLC with harder versions of some of the levels.

Now you might think- "oh this is the guy that makes all those dry jokes on the jam discord, writing a joke review". You'd be only partially right. Because right now I'm the guy who makes all those joke posts on jam discord, who's growing frustrated, that jibblets isn't on his steam wishlist.

Normally I go on with my opinions on audio, graphics, what have you, but let's be serious. Reading that would take away your attention from researching how to add achievements to a unity game (we also want achievements).

Brilliant work.

I really liked your game! I failed both of my attempts (i got 31%- so close!).

This game should be an example of how to do a game that's simple but very effective. But let's go through all the parts :)

Gameplay. Once I saw where the fire station and hospital is the gameplay mechanics became instantly clear. One thing- I think I failed my first run, because I figured that the ambulances must return to the hospital. But I guess that's on me :) It was cool, that I could assign multiple cars to one event (it's not explained in the instructions, but I tried it, it worked, and I was happy). The game is fast and a bit difficult, but in a fair way. The city is designed in an interesting way. Sometimes it was more beneficial to reroute a car that was already in the city than send one from the base, which made me feel like I was thinking on my feet. Bugs? I guess sometimes a car stopped in the middle of the city, and once the ambulance parked in the fire station. Nothing game breaking, barely noticeable really.

Graphics and audio. Graphics were much like the gameplay. Seemingly simple, but very clear. In the game, where you need to cover this much ground you need to know what's going on at all times. And thanks to clear graphics, icons, and the call sound I was aware at all times. One thing I'd add is some sound when the car ended (or failed) a mission. Again- not really a problem, more of a nitpick on my part :)

Use of the theme? I'll be honest here- I think making a game about saving lives under the time pressure is the absolute best way to interpret this theme. That's why I made a game like that :)

Over all- I had a brilliant time playing your game! Keep it up!

I don't think that the Diary of a Wimpy Kid was an inspiration to my graphics guy, now we see the resemblance :D

We toyed with some ideas for what to do with the skeletons, but in the end we decided, that you should just leave them in the morgue. That way, you have a chance to catch the next patient while they are still alive, and recover the lost healstreak!

Thanks for playing! The 2D in 3D is our team's signature style, but this time we went with a bit more "paper" style. Mostly due to time constraints :)

I thought, I found all the places where the player could end up levitating :D I guess, I'll do a post-jam update.

As for the minigames- the bandaid one happens twice as often as the other ones. When I started the development the games were longer, but I discovered that it could mess up a good run, if you got a difficult one all of the sudden. The bandaid one is the fastest, so it stayed :)

Thanks for playing! 

This is one good looking game! There's a lot of detail in the characters and backgrounds. It all fits really well together. The sound on the other hand should be more developed. There's only music (which fits the atmosphere), and one attack sound. Could be more.

I didn't expect a boss fight game in this jam! The gameplay was cool, but I'd like to see it pushed a bit more. Like- it would be cool, if the boss had more than one (two, with the double tap) attack. Or if the main character had more attacks (it felt like she had a heavy attack, and another heavy attack). What I'm saying is that gameplay-wise what's there is really good, but more would be better :)

I liked the take on the theme. I'm always a sucker for the plot, so the narrative choice at the end felt really cool to me!

Over all it's a good game, that's just a small step from a great one. Good job!

I'll be honest here. It's pretty late, and I was supposed to finish jamming a while ago, but then I thought "just one more". I was not in a headspace to play a puzzle game, so I was pretty glad, that yours was pretty forgiving. Of course forgiveness went out of the window, when at the end the game goes "you could've saved at least this many more". We'll... I guess that's some points for encouraging replayability :)

This is also a nice play on the theme. You can't save them all, but you are encouraged to do better. For a game with graphics this dark, it's an optimistic message.

The game looks and sounds nice. The art has a nice style (reminded me of Limbo a bit), and the sounds the squares make were appropriately cute.

As for the gameplay. I liked the "forgiving puzzle game" thing. It would be nice if more games did this- to pass the puzzle you have to be this good, but feel free to look for the perfect solution if you feel like it. The thing I liked less was platforming. This was not a big deal- the game didn't require too much precision, but the jump was a bit too fast for me. I'd go with slower falling speed, with more control. It would make the parts where you nudge the boxes that are bit higher than you easier.

Over all- I enjoyed this a lot, and it's pretty likely I'll try to beat my score!

I have mixed feelings about this one.

First of all- the game looks and sounds great, and I admire the ambition of making a full multiplayer game for a game jam. There is obviously a lot of creativity and effort here.

But here's the deal- the gameplay completely didn't land for me. Take shooting. Aiming slows you down to a crawl and by the time you shoot your target isn't there anymore. If you manage to shoot in a direction of another guy the bullets are slow enough to easily dodge. If you get hit, you get barely damaged. Since combat is so difficult you just keep running around and collecting green dudes, and because there are no time, or point limited rounds the one highest in the leaderboard is the same as the one who's the longest in the game (which, ok, in the olden days, when there were TF2 servers with 24h time limit that was also the case).

The way I see it, the game needs to be either faster or slower :) 

There was no way I wasn't gonna play the only game with a title longer than mine. Seriously, "Swallow This Watch Before Sunset, or Do Not Linger. Post-Modernism Has Corrupted Everyone's Kneecaps" sounds like a lyric from a Mars Volta song.

The game feels like "Emily is away" had a car accident with "Disco Elysium" (I mean it as a complement), but where those were pretty much straightforward, "Swallow this watch..." messes with your head a bit more. What was with the photos between the days? And were the anachronisms (9-11 mentioned in 1999, and I think one of the girls mentioned playing with her phone, which in 1999 would be beige, possibly with the rotary dial) on purpose.

Either way- this was definitely something else!

So far I played two rounds. First one I played more spontaneous and got 7 points, second I tried to be more strategic and got only 2. I liked the idea, but the difficulty ramp up is too fast. In the end there's just too many balls to aim them successfully.

The presentation was really nice- the models are low poly, but high quality :) I was on the fence about the sound for a second (is it good? How good is it?), but then one of the balls fell into the wrong pot (cauldron?) and the glorious farting sound made me laugh out loud :D

The Theme use was ok, but I feel like there could bo something more to it- in the end it's mostly normal pinball with a bit of a twist. I like the idea (and the execution) but the twist could have been more... twisted I guess.

That's nit picking though! I liked your game. Hell, I'll probably take one more shot at the leaderboards! Keep up the good work!

Yeah, I cut A LOT from that game, and escalating conditions were one of the things that I had to drop. I wanted to gradually ramp up the difficulty. After a first minute the other medical staff were supposed to take some of the medical rooms for themselves, and in the last minute they would appear as the patients (because they infected each other). This, as well as procedurally generated patients, powerups and overtime mode (even if the timer ran out you still played as long as no patient died in the lobby), got cut due to unforseen circumstances that took from my development time.

Thanks for playing!

I got three endings- the bad, the disappointing and the best.

Wait... it the way to get the best ending is to take people without kids? Heartbreaking. I like how this theme got totally different interpretations, but this one was a total gut punch!

As for the presentation- well, it's rpg maker- ok pixel art, and decent music.

The gameplay was simple, and getting the different endings was a bit of a numbers game, but it works in the context of the theme.

Over all- simple, but pretty effective! Keep it up!

This is heavy! I could expect that from the theme like this, but man, that last level took a surprising turn. So yeah, when it comes to the atmosphere you did it.

Same goes for the sound. Having made one game featuring a helicopter I appreciate that you kept the sound quiet, bringing the breathing to the front. Most of the jam games have sound effects. Some have music. Your has a soundscape. Kudos.

The graphics are good. If I were to nitpick I'd say that no matter which direction you move the flight stick moves the same :)

Returning to the theme. It was really cool that you went with this interpretation. You could almost feel the guilt. When I discovered that there's no point in going to the buildings that have less than half health, because there will be no time to save it I started to try to save the "heathier" buildings. Then, the theme hit me even stronger. I started my comment with this, but it's worth to say again. You really did a good job on the atmosphere.

For a first time making a narrative experience, this was actually, pretty great!

I like pretty much everything about the plot. How you made a bunch of little stories, showing the enshitification from different perspectives. All of the stories felt warm and human. Nothing was over the top. Just a bunch of different people unknowingly sharing the experience of being boned by a global corporation.

It's difficult to judge the graphics and audio in a game like this. The game looks and sounds like an operating system. Which was the point.

The theme was used well. Maybe it could be pushed a bit more. Like- do you save you conspiracy research or photos pre-divorce? Then again- maybe it would take away from the atmosphere?

Over all- this was a very atmospheric experience in a way I didn't expect from this theme. Looking forward to seeing more narrative stuff from you!

Chef's kiss!

Starting from the theme use- this is how I think this theme is supposed to be done. You can't have a "perfect run" there's simply too little time. Instead, you try to do as good as you can, on two levels- planning, where you try to figure out the perfect route ("do I go for this one gut that's slightly out of the way, or is it a waste of time?") and execution ("DASH DASH DASH CLICK CLICK CLICK").

The gameplay! Very fast, very intense! I'm almost jealous- I was going for a fast paced game with leaderboards too, and your is faster! And more intense! :D

The presentation is at the level we'd come to expect from you- seemingly simple graphics, that are elevated with subtle lighting, nice use of post-processing and camera-juice. Do people say "camera-juice"? It's when the camera movement adds juice. You get it!

Sound is great too! Music is intense, sfx are crisp. Nothing to add, nothing to take away.

Now- not all is gold here, but my nitpicks are just user interface based. First- when I end the level, I don't see my points at the leaderboard. There are there, but I need to move to main menu, and click on the level selection, and then "e". This is also a thing- I'd rather have just a "leaderboards" button with level selection.

And lastly (and this is my totally nitpicking)... I actually think you have too many levels. Instead of focusing on getting a first place on a leaderboard I'm at a place where I'm first on this level, second on that, and somewhere on the other. 

Or! You could have one leaderboard for ALL the levels!

Over all- I remember playing "unappeasable" a couple of months ago and thinking "holy crap, this guy's GOOD". Normally I end my comments with "keep it up", but you obviously are :D

Made it to day 7! Also made me think if I'd ever return to a restaurant where they gave me beef, when I ordered shrimp :)

I had a lot of fun, although the game seemed a bit difficult for me. I managed to deliver the 100% correct orders only at the start, scrambling to deliver anything at all towards the end. The only real gripe I had is that when I canceled the first order (didn't have the right ingredients) the game picked the same dishes for me to make :(

The graphics were nice! With pixel art you could end up on player reading the names of the ingredients instead of looking at the icons going "is that lump of pixels supposed to be a shrimp?". Not in this case. Ok- maybe the lobster looked a bit like an octopus to me, but hey, at least it's seafood :)

Music was ok, and fit the gameplay nicely, but the game could benefit from some more sounds. Maybe some pops and clicks for the ui, or the squishy sounds of food being added to the dish?

As for the use of the theme. I got that I lost the food because of the rats, but it never was near the center of my attention. The game was about making food, and keeping the right one safe was a bit of an afterthought to me (maybe that's why I only made it to day 7 :D ).

Over all- very entertaining game! And seeing as it's you jam debut I see great things in your jam-related future.

OH! I just thought of something! As of of the ingredients you could have had a jar of Goed Jam. With a logo on the jar... I'll see myself out :)

Pretty fun! At first I thought that this is gonna be a pretty standard top down shooter, but you made it work. First of all- I like how you could buy upgrades depending on people you save. I ended up looking for specific occupations in groups of survivors, which was a nice touch. Secondly- the intensity ramps up fast! I thought the game was a bit slow at the start, but soon all those upgrades are put to the test! Gotta say- the gameplay is pretty fun!

The graphics could be better. They are readable enough, that I always knew what was happening, but some better character art, and a bit variety in the environment (maybe a street and a sidewalk instead of the same ground everywhere, a car wreck, or some bushes) would benefit the game.

The sound is ok, but like with the graphics could be improved. Some background music is always nice and works wonders for atmosphere!

I liked what you did with the theme. As I said- I took who to save into consideration each round!

Over all- good, intense game! Keep it up!

I started with "why is this guy a naughty wizard" and ended on "ok, I get it" :)

The gameplay was good. There were some minor bugs (I could pass through the first platform in the first place with moving platforms and I'd prefer if the player would move when standing on the platform), but I did enjoy the puzzles. The last one made ma pause, and I had to restart to figure it out (especially, when the other puzzle tells you that you have to restart, and the last one doesn't), but it's cool that the last puzzle was a bit harder.

The audio was ok- some background music would be nice for atmosphere. Check out https://mobygratis.com/ for the next jam :)

The graphics were ok too. Some elements could use a bit more work (fire animation comes to mind), but I liked the pixel art. I don't love the AI title illustration. Pixel art has it's charm, but AI style sorta always looks like AI style.

As for the theme usage- I noticed, how I always had make a choice about what spirit to save, which was on theme. I figured that some of the puzzles would have different solutions depending on them (I wouldn't be able to burn the crate without the fire spirit), so it's cool that the game can be played multiple times.

Some of the elements would benefit from more polish, but over all it's a cool little puzzle platformer, with a bit of a twist at the end! Keep up the good work!

I checked it out. 

Firstly- I think it would work best on a touchscreen. Drawing circles with a mouse was a bit slow, but doable.

The other thing- I think that five minutes is a bit long. The game gets good, when there's a lot of souls at the same time, and the beginning is easy. Ramping up the difficulty faster would work well here.

It felt cool, when one drawing made multiple symbols disappear, but chance of this happening was relatively low. To have this happen more often you can consider new souls to have symbols based on those already on the screen, or not having to do symbols in order.    

Wow! Thanks for playing one of my first jam games, especially three years after I made it! How did you even find it?

Anyway- I'm glad my old stuff still gets played!

Whoa dude! The presentation is really high quality here! The models and animation are nice, and the soundscape really fits the mood, but the best part is the camera work- the camera setup creates interesting picture, but it readable all the time! Good work on that!

One thing I would change- the shader used to "burn" the paper looks more like dissolving than burning. Maybe some smoke particles would help?

The cutscene itself looks like something from a middle of the game, or a part of an ending. In that context it looks fine, but seeing it by itself leaves questions. Who is this guy? What was on the piece of paper?

Over all- definitely one of the best looking submissions!

Oh man! I read your comment, and making the car crash more visceral is a great idea! The ending actually went through 3 different versions, and I was pretty happy with how it ended up... until now :)

The monster design... we discussed a couple of different ones and ended up with the one, where you don't need to animate legs :)

One last thing- I was about to write that Grammy is a music, not movie award, but actually got a better idea! If I ever get to making a full sized Dick Storm project (which is bouncing around my head for some time), I'll definitely commission an artist to write an original song for it :D

Thanks!

I absolutely love your idea with the dialogue change!

Thanks for watching!

Thanks! Glad you liked it!

If I got more time, I'd definitely love to make a full-sized game with Dick Storm as a protagonist!

Thanks for watching!

I should have added a warning about texting and driving- I'm very much against :) The animation file played, after Dick is caught texting is literally called DS-drive-text-shame :D

Glad you liked it!