itch.io

Well, the jam is over, and now that I can, I’ve updated the build to fix the softlock.

Possibly could had scored better if I had caught it before the deadline, but it’s a lesson I needed to learn.

Yeah. I would had done more music for my project, but I ran out of time as well.

The Good: Wow, I must admit, each level did have their own way of solving them, and they weren’t too hard to work out. And it’s a well-polished Pico-8 game all around.

The Meh: I just wish there was a bit of music just to mix up the sounds of moving around.

Post-Jam suggestions: The only thing I’d add would be some music, and maybe an in-game timer for speedrunning.

Yeah, may need to tweak that for when I do possibly expand on it in the future.

Well, hopefully you’ll be able to enjoy the full game after the jam, due to, you know, the bug which has caused a softlock. But thanks.

The Good: For a game made in two hours, it isn’t that bad…

The Meh: …But I feel there could had been more time put into it, because it’s a rather bare bones incremental, just not in the usual way of “number go up”.

The Oof: It wasn’t clear that I had to click the dialogue to dismiss them, which didn’t help much.

The Wow: …Although at least after the main story is over, it becomes a more ‘proper’ incremental, just with negative numbers.

Suggestions: Put more into the story, and maybe have an alternative clicking command, like maybe space. Oh, and either allow the dialogue to be dismissed by clicking outside of it, or make it clear you need to click in it to dismiss it.

Aww, thanks, I did my best to make sure it worked out wll. And I did decide to not use the ‘default’ Pico-8 palette, but instead a palette which had a few colors changed out.

Yeah, I basically wanted the main menu to be like the way in in a sense. And it gives you a chance to try out the controls before entering the dungeon.

Yeah. I do have a fix ready to release as soon as the jam ends which fixes the bug by replacing the gate, adding a button where one should had been, and adding a sign making fun of the bug and giving a bit of lore reason why the bug happened.

After testing, that thankfully seems to be the only level which had a bug like that, so the good news is that the post-jam version should be completable up to Level 00.

Yeah, the token count can be tricky, but there are tricks to help optimize things, like grouping together variables. And yes, I know about that - I was just noting that at full fury, there’s no countdown until you get hit.

The Good: It’s an interesting take on the theme

The Meh: Not as many ways too automate the countdowns early game

The Oof: It feels rather light, and is kinda lacking compared to other incrementals I’ve seen in the past. Also, I would had liked some music to listen to… Guess if I play it, I’ll boot up YouTube and listen to that instead

The Good: I must admit, of the games I’ve played so far, this one is one I’d possibly come back to, as it’s well executed, and I do love me a good mystery

The Meh: Some of these puzzles can be downright tricky to figure out, so I have yet to 100% it, but I do like how there’s a skip option in the menu.

Post-Jam Suggestions: Maybe having a hint system in case you really get stumped, but it isn’t required.

The Good: Hey, another Pico-8 game! Which controls well and has some good SFX and the like! Also, nice menu.

The Meh: I do like the idea of the fury gauge, even if I’m not 100% sold on it fitting the theme, especially when at full fury

The Oof: I couldn’t get the hang of some of the actions.

Suggestions: If you have the tokens to spare, maybe add a back to menu option for the training area? Also, maybe convert the stats into a final score so it’s asier to see what is more important: surviving, or killing foes.

Yeah, the movement code can be a bit clunky, but it worked enough for me, and I can look into upgrading it once the jam is over.

Things to consider once I update to the first post-jam build. I didn’t want the character to move too fast though. And yes, I had the screen limits to deal with, as I was having each puzzle be a single screen so you can see it all at once.

Yeah, as I said, that level is the current end of the game due to me missing something. But hey, maybe lore wise it fits because the DM intended for you to fail?

The Good: Fun little concept, fits well, and a cute artstyle

The Meh: No real story, and audio is limited to SFX only, but it’s okay as is

The Oof: I’m on laptop, so I can’t use the middle mouse button, making some bits hard to control and cutting a bit into the enjoyment

Suggestions for post-jam: Alternative way to move and rotate the city without using middle mouse button, maybe add a bit of music, and maybe add a rating system based either on how quick you hit the goal, or how much you earn when time hits 0.

I had thought that Level 00 would be a boss fight of sorts when I was designing the game, but I ran out of sprite space to make the boss, and I didn’t have any ideas for how to do them. Also, maybe if I had ordered the levels I’ve done differently, instead of ordering them as I made them, it would had been easier, but I had decided to do most of the mechanics early so people can see them all.

Yeah, that was a bug which I missed until after the deadline ended, so I can’t do anything about it. But thanks for it.

Ah, I see what I missed in that room. I had missed the buttons I would need for that room when I was mapping this. Shame I can’t fix it during the jam because of the jam rules, but it is something I will do once the jam is over.

Just a suggestion, but could there potentially be an Android build in the future? That way I can potentially use it when on my mobile, even if the Android port doesn’t include features like automatic downloading of icons.

It is now, and managed to reach the EoC of that route.

There’s a bit of a bug with the song - somehow, after working on it enough, the odds of success suddenly becomes negative, and it requires a lower and lower drone score but remains with a negative success.

If I remember, the ESC menu mentions it - at least, that’s how I think learned about how to save them.

That’s good to know about. And I take it there may also potentially be a way to get the sprites from the NSC part of the repo as well potentially?

At least for now, I have imported the images I needed into a folder to serve as a temp way to load them in.

Have you tried pressing F12 once you’ve got things set up?

Well, Trials are the main part of the game, but I can’t wait for Investigations to be added in a later release.

She explains why you can’t do that. She needs to remain to rake in the visitors. But maybe I might add in a DoN mode - win it, and you get her. Lose, and you end up in her hoard~

The bug is now fixed.

Well, a download wouldn’t help. And in my testing, nothing like this happened at all. This is because there’s only one (load-game:) command, and that always runs before any saving of the game.

…Wait, the heck? That is very confusing… Oh, right, I think I know the exact issue now. It’s because of the redirect when you start a new game making the game think it’s a certain screen when it should be the main menu.

Just fixed that. Forgot to change it from the default settings.

By that, do you mean a title screen, or the main menu?

Bug has been fixed in the v1.1 patch. Thanks, Rob.

Because some questions might be often asked, I’ll note the answers down here.

Q) I don’t have the reward for a bad ending! Are they bugged?

A) You need to make sure you start a new game after getting the bad ending, and not load in a manual save file as that will override the checks which tell the game if you completed an ending. This may be why you don’t have them.

Q) Where are these endgame items I need?

A) There’s a total of seven of them, of which one can be seen easily close to where you start, and three more are hinted at if you have the Generator on hand. You’ll know if an area might have one if you look hard enough…

Q) How do I get past the keycard doors?

A) You need to find a keycard of the right strength to unlock it. They go, in order of strength, Grunt -> Executive -> Admin -> ??? - and you should be able to get each of them in order. However, some keycard doors can be bypassed through vents… If you don’t mind getting dirty and losing time from crawling through them.

Indeed. Still, not bad for a little game, and makes me want to see how things go when you decide to go above and beyond just a country of 100k drones, but decide to go further than that…

And managed to do both of the full conversion routes. The first time, I mistook what the final button would do, and ended up as a Bee drone, but the second time I knew what it does, and thus managed to select to become a Shark Drone.

Even though it’s not designed for mobile use, the only thing it doesn’t allow me to see are the tooltips. Everything else works fine so far - and I’m almost at the full conversion of the original route.