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Very interesting setting a game within a historical event. I think I am going to try and remember to read up on what really happened to the lighthouse. I actually got the chance to sail to Fair Isle many years ago, what a unique experience that was. There were puffins everywhere.

I feel like learning how to go slow at will is almost the key sign of sailing mastery I've noticed from playtesters. Thanks for checking it out, and your kind feedback

Really interesting concept. I love being a P.I. I wanted to accuse everyone and everything! The roomba did it! Confess, you robotic bastard!

I think the feedback I would like to offer is some of the fantasy here feels maybe a little bit incomplete. Like, I'm a brilliant detective, but am I... blind? If I'm blind, how can I read all these notes? If I'm not blind, why do I have to follow a noisy and suspicious roomba around to see anything? Can I not click my tongue or something for some echolocation? Am I a mute too? Am I writing the questions I ask the suspects on a notepad or something?

Now that I write this out, I guess this sounds pretty nitpicky or absurd. But it was really what I was thinking about most of the time here. I guess that's because the experience is rather novel, and I was trying to justify why I was stumbling around in black rooms looking for a clue that implicated that evil cleaning robot.

Wow! Thanks for the this super in-depth feedback. It really helps me to understand your perspective as a player. I'm glad you had a good time!

Reminded me of Inscryption and also, perhaps somewhat obviously, Oxenfree. I'm really glad there was no monster, or I might have been spooked out of the experience. The whispers alone sent shivers up my spine. I like the choice to go Grayscale with the fat outlines, the style felt all its own. Nice work!

Added a rating now too that the embargo is over :)

Really made me feel like a villain, I despised this plucky arrogant hero by the end and had to kill him. Nice reversal of the Survivors genre. My only instinct would be to go bigger. Way bigger. Hundreds of enemies (allies?) getting mowed down by flying buzzsaws and whatever nonsense from the horrible heroes. :)

Surprisingly enjoyable! My healing wave basically turned into an uzi by the end. Balancing out the pros and cons of upgrades made for some nice push and pull. I loved the end of each round where the stupid skeletons all lined up to die hehe. I'm just gonna share what I hoped this game was going to turn into but it never did - Paladin knight allies versus these undead - where you have to carefully heal your allies while also blasting the undead hordes back. Just an idea, I suppose.

I am compelled to check out these boat games. This felt like Dredge meets Firewatch. Nice little vibe, the audio logs are essential to keep things interesting. I couldn't tell I was catching fish at first, I didn't notice the counters or SFX, I expected to see the fish on the hook when successful. I enjoyed my time :)

Cool game! I liked the in-depth tutorial, and the soundtrack, and the feel of zipping around my little corner of space to defend it. The SFXs are great, but I think a little bit more juice and VFX would really elevate this experience. At least a little throttle trail coming out of my ship, you know? But I guess we can always say such things, now can't we. All in all, the game is fun and that's what matter most :)

Actual Sailing and Discovery were two "pillars" I had in my mind, so I'm glad you picked up on that and had a good time out on the water. Good critique points here. I was aware that the against the wind sailing also featured that difficult camera angle, but I sort of thought it seemed appropriate for sailing close-hauled like that. Besides, also throwing in camera rotation on top of boat rotation AND sail rotation and keeping track of the wind, I thought it was probably doomed to be totally overwhelming for jam players, probably riding the edge of that as it is.

Your first impression was the correct one, there are some shortcuts in the level, but you have to get the wave timing just right to clear them (hint: backwind your sails to slow down), it's not easy but can shave serious time if you master it. And on the last point, I think I agree. I did it that way to prevent the player from getting stuck when running aground and because it makes me laugh, but I think it is indeed probably a bit overdone with a few days hindsight now. Thanks for the in-depth look. I just had a look at your game too, I'll leave my review over there :)

I would also love to see it as part of a greater pirate adventure game. Only time will tell. At least there's no hostile jellyfish or seagulls coming in to ruin the day. 👀 JK of course, your game was one of the better wave shooters I've checked out in the jam so far ✌️

We pirates have to stick together. Your game had me really wishing I had invested in a progression loop, but choices had to be made. Thanks for checking it out :)

A nice little mobile phone time waster. I think your juice and gamefeel is really on the spot here, each sfx and screen effect really work together to elevate the experience. I must say I believe the concept would be greatly elevated by a progression system. You could have a choice of upgrades every once in awhile, things like, increase ball orbit speed, increase firing bar window length, area of effect arc of damage emitting from the ball when firing, autofiring turrets, freeze bombs, two balls, radar warning of incoming comets, etc etc, while stacking on more color rings until it becomes beautiful chaos. Nice entry, I enjoyed playing it.

Ah man, I hate it to say but it really hurts my eyes or something. I can't really play it. Maybe if the waves were a little slower, or didn't show up if you are looking right into a wall? I got a few levels in but it's just too uncomfortable. Idea looks cool, and maybe it's just me here, but I reacted poorly in a physical sense.

I like how you packed it into a cute miniconsole. Always fun blasting a horde of zombies. I think a textbox may have popped up at one point, I couldn't see it because I was busy jamming the shoot key which also dismissed it. Soon after the game became very laggy and was no longer playable, unfortunately.

Thanks for checking out my game. I just had a look at MadMan. I liked the pixelized bloodred aesthetics and how it feels like an old school boomer shooter where you go super fast after you get a few upgrades. I was basically superhuman by the end of it. I dig the drum & bass soundtrack too. My strategy was to play it very safe at the start of a wave, essentially just running around like a shepherd dog corralling the zombies into one big mass. Then I would take out the runners using my trusty boomstick. After that, it was basically mopping up, the rest of the enemies weren't much of a threat except when spawning in. Some critique points:

- May have been a bug, but I think the enemies should only spawn from the map's edges so they can't spawn on top of the player.
- Due to the franticness of learning the game and the beginning of the waves, I didn't actually pick up most of the weapons until about Wave 3. Maybe they could just be automatically grabbed by walking over them.
- It would have been cool to move between some different areas. That would also give a chance for more exploration and health pickups which eventually run out.
- The boss encounter was a bit buggy, he teleported around and clipped halfway into the floor for me, and my healthbar disappeared for some reason too




All in all, this is a pretty fun retro shooter! I imagine our hero is furious what his hometown has become and is just too angry to die.

https://lanyard.itch.io/renegatta

Check out my little pirate game! I'm trying to decide if I can turn sailing mechanics into game mechanics. Does it work?

I'll have a look at yours tonight!

You just happened to be in my queue today, but I wanted to check out your game anyway! Check out my entry when you find the time :)

Wow. VERY good. The most innovative Match-Em-Up I've played in a long while. The game design comes together very smoothly, upgrading color types balanced against the increasing challenges from new enemy types. That Plants vs. Zombies sense of oncoming doom. The soft pastels in the art style are very nice as well, and I enjoyed the story and theming.  I think you cracked upon some very interesting gameplay here that you should develop further and get into the hands of mobile players. Excellent work, a jam favorite for me.

Really good. Style is effortlessly charming. That you have to crabwalk to your final destination is such a nice touch, adds another second-to-second question, doubleback or press on? It's one of those jam games where the main question is "How would you expand this further?" In my opinion, that's a really good place to be.

I like that you weren't afraid to challenge some of the assumptions of the Survivors genre, like going for one upgrade per chest and just leaving the upgrades by location instead of being awarded by XP. I like the little swimming animation for the shark too. I agree with the other commentator, definitely make time for audio next go around, you'll thank yourself.

Making circles as engaging as possible, nice work! This format has become an instant classic. Love that little stretch in the direction of travel, my fave touch here. I think the upgrades could roll in just a little faster, I kept getting overwhelmed. 

Netherlands simulator, nice. I liked the Yellowness of it all, nice aesthetic choice. I wouldn't want to be a pump worker in this world 🫡thank you all for your sacrifice. Would've been interesting to see the same concept on an island, where sometimes the waves come from different sides and there's some strategies and choices that derive from that. Nice little city builder game

I liked seeing a bit of Filipino folklore. The characters and costuming stood out to me. I lost when I couldn't find where the last enemies of the wave were, maybe a minimap would alleviate that concern.

I loved the feel of this game, the texture you created by breathing some life into those old fashioned nautical maps of a lost era. The story had me hooked, I was definitely going to find out what happened to dear old dad. The final push through the frozen North had me tense, sails reefed, watching for any gust of wind that might blow me off course. Great work! I bet someone had a lot of fun drawing all those sea monsters. :)

What, you couldn't get Keanu Reeves for this??

So cool. Love the Boom-Boom Box Gun and the low poly pixel texture retrowave aesthetic. Did you write these songs?

I totally got into a flow by the end that reminded me of Vampire Survivors. I thought it was interesting how the charge ability starts off as a bit of a flair touch but becomes an essential strategic tool by the end of the game. The only bug I experienced in WebGL was a harsh audio loop when the scene was loaded, otherwise ran great.

I wonder how the experience would be affected with a bit of a level design, like as one example, if those pulsing volume bar walls had some depth and extended inward into the play area, some columns extending upwards out of the grid floor and raising and lowering on every second downbeat or charge fire or something like that.

All in all, a cool little experience, I'm glad I popped in to check it out. 🎧

Nash, man, really good to read your review. Kinda feels like one I was subconsciously "waiting for". I spent the first half of the jam getting the water, wind, and ship movement all really tuned in and slick as possible. I realize now that I was trying to answer the question if I could make Sailing on the wind an actual core game mechanic. Your review gives me some insight that I might have succeeded and there's something to explore further here. So thank you.

I agree the game is somewhat light around the sailing, but I am curious to ask you, if it were more substantial, a larger project let's say, where would you see that meat on the bones being added? I have my own ideas and fantasies of course, but I'd like to hear your thoughts if you can offer any.

Thanks Zahkros, yeah, I've wondered for a long time if sailing mechanics could translate into game mechanics. Really just the tip of the iceberg here with ideas such as voyage provisioning, dead reckoning, anchoring and exploration also making me wonder. But only so much time to build in one month, so when I saw the theme I thought of Tides and then Points of Sail was the most interesting thing to try and unpack. And then, yeah, wrap it in a pirate theme so its recognizable and there's a little more of something to do than just move. Can you be more specific for me about what you found to be repetitive?  It would help me think about how and where this game design might go from here. Thanks for the review.

Had to pop in and check out this other pirate game after watching some of your progress in the Discord channel. We even picked some of the same free music! Haha. Anyhow, the part of your game I liked the best was also the part I didn't include in mine at all, the progression system. Having to choose between permanent upgrades and crucial voyage supplies (like repair hammers) made for a very engaging time in port. You did especially great work with the pixel art there too, each location in the port has its own charm and character. It was fun for me to compare how we handled things! Come have a look at my entry as well if you wish. 

Nice work! I knew you could do it, King 👑 I had to show that first image to all my friends 😂 Hilarious 

Pretty straightforward little game. I liked the changing color palettes after some time. I think the sine wave could've maybe changed its intensity more rapidly/often, or done so with some sets kind of rolling through like ocean waves, giving you little hills and ramps to kick off more often to break up the monotony, plus I'd suggest ramping up the difficulty once the player gets the hang of things. Man I'd love to have a hoverboard though. Ever since Back to the Future.

I love a good game of scramble, got to flex some of my two letter word knowledge here. Seemed maybe a little stingy with the points, I felt like I should have been earning me for some of my absolute criss-crossing weird word whoppers. But I guess life always feels that way, now doesn't it? 

Thanks for intensifying my imposter syndrome LOL

I renewed the beacon! It just had to be done. I liked the lore intro with the little cutscene touch at the start, really got me in the zone. Really nice how the beasts telegraph their path when they're about to attack too, great touch. Turn-based land-focused tower defense... I think you're exploring pretty interesting territory here. Cool little project! Got me thinking.

Pretty fun! Felt like a throwback. I liked the color scheme and weaving through the asteroids. The little lore bits were a nice add as well. Why did you decide not to allow autofire if the player holds down Spacebar? Or just have it autofire all the time? Maybe I'm getting old but spamming spacebar constantly for minutes on ends takes a toll after awhile. Overall, thanks for this, I had fun :)

Somebody has been playing Ball X Pit. Nice take. It was a little confusing to figure out what some of the upgrades actually did (Gravity Well?) but overall the ramp up in power was satisfying and I did get into a flow state there before the boss crushed me with his yellow spheres of despair. Fun game, glad to see it here on the top of my queue

Basically sums up my thoughts. Great work here, and what starts of as pretty simple becomes a true test of mettle by the end! The art gels together nicely and I liked the narrative beats woven throughout as well. If I could offer a pair of developer criticisms for your own improvement, I would've liked to be able to just toggle my weapon to stay on, Vampire Survivors style, even if I needed to aim the radio waves still, my old fingers start to ache. Secondly, a little more feedback / juiciness would take your combat to another level. There were times an enemy spawned on me and I took a hit and didn't realize it without a SFX or a bigger effect onscreen, then I died soon after, sending the entire universe into peril! Overall, great work, and I was surprised to notice in your description afterwards that this was your first gamedev project! Keep it up and you'll go far.

In the end, it was my own Greed that consumed me.

Great concept, brilliantly executed, really enjoyed the simple loop.

If you're open to another writer, Unity developer, Low-Poly artist, poet, and/or ex sailor to perhaps join this project, that is me, and I'd love to come in and collaborate on this. If nothing else, hit me up for a play test. Best of luck in your pursuit on Steam. ✌️

https://discord.com/users/311208356373331968