itch.io

Great game! I love the art and music, they reminded me a bit of WarioWare but with their own unique flair. As others have already said, the game going out of focus on itch was a bit annoying at times and the anger meter also filled up really quickly, but honestly those things can be forgiven considering that this was made by just one person in 4 days. Congratulations on getting such a polished game out by yourself for the jam!

Really fun game! I'm a sucker for these kinds of pipe puzzles and I was delighted by just how difficult they were even on normal mode. The art was super charming and the whole game reminded me of the sewer section in Machinarium (which is one of my favourite parts of that game). My only issue is that the timer felt a bit short in my playthrough since I had 2 leaks remaining when I drowned, but then again I did get really stuck on one early on so it's probably a skill issue on my end. Great stuff!

I'm not a huge fan of turn-based games, but this might be one of the most polished games I've seen submitted to the jam! The art style is so unique and visually pleasing, and I'm quite frankly floored by the amount of different enemies and classes you were able to add in only 4 days. I did find the turn order a bit confusing, but other than that, the gameplay felt really intuitive and has tons of room for depth. Excellent job!

Thank you and Michael for both responding! Yes, I was also a jam participant, I did all the art for Mechtronome, which I would describe as a top down, rhythm-based, 2D action shooter where your guns degrade. Feel free to check it out and let us know what you think!

Kudos to you and your team for all the work you guys put into the game as well! I share your same confidence that you all can create a truly unique game if given just a bit more time. From here on out, I'll talk about my experience playing the game in detail and what I got from it:

In terms of the story, again, I didn't really understand what was happening but my initial impression of the game was something akin to Papers, Please but with a more surrealist, eerie and dreamlike tone. What I did grasp was that you were some kind of operator for a machine designed to bureaucratically sift through requests from these strange entities known as encounters and either "Resolve" or "Dismiss" them based on some piece of information like what they said or what their waveforms looked like, and if you didn't get through enough in time, there would be consequences.

I didn't understand what the slider on the right did and how it related to everything else, but I knew the knobs in the middle had something to do with either dismissing or resolving the encounters and only the Dismiss button would flash green and let me click on it when I messed with another dial. I didn't get the difference between "Resolve" and "Dismiss", and I just assumed they did more or less the same thing (delegate the task of dealing with whatever encounter was on the screen to someone else further down the line) but that didn't make sense to me at the time either.

I think the manual is a clever idea in hindsight, but in the moment I found it a daunting read because of slightly awkward page cut-offs, the general length of the text and the ticking time limit. I also think the pages detailing what to do depending on each encounter could have been their own separate UI element (like a poster, or a spreadsheet or something) rather than being all split up near the end of the interface's manual.

Finally, I wasn't sure who the green person in the top left was meant to be either, since they just seemed to write vague messages independently of what I was doing, so that confused me. I thought they were either the voice of the protagonist or some kind of virtual assistant from the interface that would guide me through the first encounters, but it didn't seem to be either so it had me thrown for a loop.

Anyways, apologies if this was too long! I just found the experience really captivating and I thought I would offer all I can to help. I hope for nothing but the best for you and your team!

Really fun! The gameplay loop is very satisfying and the story is simple but still a very creative interpretation of the jam theme. My only complaint is that getting resources feels a bit aimless since there isn't really a set goal to aim for other than "Get as many as you can!", but I still enjoyed the game a lot.

Cheers! Thanks for checking our game out.

I loved this game's aesthetics and I think it set a really eerie tone, but unfortunately the build I played (Windows) didn't seem to work fully as intended, since the countdown finished and nothing really happened, I couldn't change the settings or the language in the main menu, and I could only dismiss encounters. The audio did feel like it cut off really abruptly at times, but I think it fit the vibe excellently. I'm not sure I fully understood the narrative of the game, but maybe some things flew over my head or got lost in translation. Still, I applaud the creativity on display here and I only wish you could have been able to iron out more of these issues, because I love the idea of this game!

goofy ahh game fr no cap but team was kinda cooking. I loved the lighting effect on the main menu and in-game. The actual gameplay itself, while a bit tedious at times (bro's house is massive), still managed to feel surprisingly tense near the end when you realise you're on a timer and start panicking to avoid certain doom. Honestly, quite an effective horror game!

Holy smokes, this is an incredible first jam game. Everything from the music, to the levels, to the gameplay, to the visuals was a joy to play through. I really hope this wins!

The person that periodically appears is absolutely bone-chilling, great game! I like that the vibe is spooky but not scary (so glad there weren't any jumpscares), cool art style too!

This game was very cool! I enjoyed the way you switched up the gameplay for every shard by just swapping the colours around, it genuinely makes you look at the level through a whole new perspective each time. Sadly though, I got stuck before reaching the third shard (the climber grabbed a red wall with their right hand and just wouldn't let go) so I wasn't able to finish it, but I really liked liked it otherwise!

This game is awesome! I love the art and music so much and I liked fighting all the new enemies for each of the chores. Much like Kob I also encountered (probably) the same bug on the last level where the player just vanished, but I still really enjoyed playing this!

Thank you!!

Wow, well done on balancing both colours, that seems tricky (especially with the tile constrictions)! I like the contrast between both halves a lot and the feather feels very retro, good job!

Thanks, thinking of alternative uses for the tiles was probably my favourite part about this jam! I used the goblin ears tile so much in this piece lol

Thank you! I'm happy you liked it :D

Aw, thanks! I really wanted the piece to feel alive so I'm glad I could achieve that.

This is a very sweet piece! I love the little sprites for the characters, I think they're very cute c:

What is the thing on the left supposed to be by the way? I have a hard time seeing it as anything other than a silly face, but I'm curious to know what it really is

I'm very glad you liked it, thank you!

This looks awesome! Great narrative usage of perspective, too, it fits the story for the knight to be looking down at us and the criminals since they're searching for them, love it!

This looks beyond incredible. I hope you can get it under the tile limit in time because it would be tragic if such an amazing piece didn't make it to the ROM. Great work!

This looks stunning! I hadn't even realised that it was one big cosmic yin and yang until now, stellar job!

You either pick being a magical girl or having a healthy sleep schedule but you can't have both! Very funny concept and so cute :D

Very clean design! The laurel (?) leaves on the corners are a nice touch as well

Oh wow, took me a second to see but that is lovely! Drawing white on black is really hard to do as well, so great job!

tysm!!

I love the ink painting vibe that this has along with the manga aesthetic, great work!

I'm glad Hana has made a reappearance for the spooky season! Excited to see the vid when it releases, you're a huge inspiration :D

I am gobsmacked that this is only 44 tiles, that is some incredible optimization. The most amazing thing is that I wouldn't have even realized unless you had pointed it out.

Speaking of which, I've only just now noticed that the hair tiles are used for the greenery at the top, that is awesome!!!

Great dragons, they look so mischievous!

Wow, this looks sick!! I really love the texture you achieved on the robes and on the  trees, well done!

Oh you know I'm gonna be that guy who only has one kind of Fidgey plate on his board. Why win when you can have six different MP3 Fidgeys all playing tinny, bit-crushed audio?

Very fun game mock-up, I really like it!

Awww, the little button eye is such a cute detail, I love this so much!

Now all that's missing is a big yeti chasing them! (Whoops, I'm thinking of SkiFree, nevermind). I like the rough texture on the snow near the board, it feels real and lumpy

The absolute pinnacle of structural engineering! so many memories of floppy bridges...

I like the composition a lot, it feels like the box art for a retro game! I tried out the demo and it looks promising, much luck to you and the team

This looks fantastic! I'm impressed with the amount of detail and texture you were able to get on those buildings, it feels dense like in a real city, great work!

Thank you!

Great design, you really nailed the face!