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I'm pretty happy about being in the top 10% (although the two one-star ratings I got do still sting a little).

Jam comments can be a little weird, and it's not uncommon for them to mismatch the final scores. There's a lot more at play than just 'do they like the game?' Since people are churning through a ton of games they may only bring up one or two aspects that they really liked without mentioning anything else to save time, or they might be worried that an overly critical comment may invite retaliation (which is dumb, but still a possibility), or they may not feel the need to say anything at all (my game for instance had way more ratings than comments, and I doubt the one-stars were given by people who commented).

IMO sometimes the important thing is to look at what people aren't saying. Again taking my game as an example, almost everyone who commented had something nice to say about the visuals and the concept creativity, so I knew I would score well in those areas. But comments about the audio were very sparse and it ended up being my lowest scoring category.

I haven't been able to join a game jam (or really properly work on any games) for a while, so this was definitely needed even if my game was a bit mid at best. It was a lot of fun just working on something again (and a great practice run for the gmtk jam happening soon too).

The games I've played in this jam have been unusually great. I don't think I've ever given so many 4s and 5s in a single jam before.

Cool to hear you got 20 ratings on a download-only game. I'm pretty sure that's above the median, which is all that really matters (scoring wise at least, of course getting feedback from a larger pool of people matters in the long run). I'm pretty sure there are older versions of unreal that allow for web exports, I know I've played browser games made in unreal before. I don't know enough about the engine and its developers to know if those older versions are at all similar to the contemporary version (or even still accessible) though.

Incredible game, felt very cohesive and you got a lot out of the main mechanic. Well done!

Only minor gripes I have are that I would have liked some kind of cool-down indicator for gravity switching (something analogous to a bar, but ideally more integrated into the art style), and a way to zoom out to see the entire level (the telescope-like ability is a step in the right direction, but would often still leave a lot obscured).

Otherwise this was awesome. The puzzles were a lot of fun, the writing was funny very serious, the visuals are really nice, and the music is great.

This is such a fun spin on the top-down-shooter genre!

The pixel art was incredible too. Really impressive that the background somehow isn't distracting despite how insanely detailed it is.

I wish the shop worked properly, I would have liked to play this a bit longer with some upgrades.

This is so creative! Incredible use of the theme!

So hard to narrow it down to just my top 3, the games in this jam have been unusually exceptional (I don't think I've ever given so many 5s in a jam before), but my list looks like this right now:

1. Pivot Archipelago is definitely my favourite from this jam, and I'm starting to get worried it won't hit the median number of ratings. Please play it if you get the chance, you won't be disappointed.
2. Air Ambulance Simulator is also exceptional, definitely worth playing.
3. Sunset Twist has really interesting movement, great level design, and impeccable presentation. It takes a bit to get used to the controls, but it's absolutely worth it.

Definitely play these before mine if you're limited on time, they all need a lot more attention.

Any ship can see a highlighted ship.

More specifically, each ship has 5 raycasts that define its line of sight, those raycasts only collide with lit objects, and ships steer away from the nearest object their raycasts see.

Thanks for playing!

I was mostly struggling with getting the planets to connect with their orbits. My best guess is that they have to be slow enough that they're on their orbit by the time they stop, but it didn't seem very consistent.

I see the vision, and it's very interesting. I really like the idea of a game that gets harder as a direct result of your previous successes. But I struggled with figuring out exactly how to get a planet on to its orbit, I only got 2 and those were by complete accident. There needs to be more feedback with each attempt, so the player knows what they did wrong and how to adjust.

I have been outwitted... by soup... this will haunt me for a while.

I think the ideas you have here are interesting, and I like the presentation. This is a great first jam game (and possibly first game in general?), so congrats on that!

The implementation could be improved, as others have mentioned. I think the biggest issue is that some of the challenges can be rather vague (see the aforementioned ego-obliterating soup), and that the dance floor is way too small (I can't keep pressing WASD that quickly for so long). It's not as much of an issue but I also think that there should be a different connection between the world switching mechanic and the theme. A roulette wheel doesn't really add anything to the mechanic, and just makes switching worlds a bit tedious if you have poor rng. Maybe you could do something like spinning the other way (ie, WDSA) enough times  to open a portal for you to use?

Still, the concept is solid, the puzzles seem interesting, and the presentation is great; so overall I think this is well made. Great work!

Really incredible game!

Visuals and music are peak, and the theme use is somehow both very direct and creative.

I feel like the controls could probably benefit from some adjustments, they were a bit difficult to get used to, and I also found I could cheese a lot of levels by essentially hugging the walls since I'd never lose speed doing that. But controls aside the movement mechanics are really interesting, and the levels made great use of them!

I thought I was fine at 25, but I've been watching the mean (and presumably median) steadily climb towards that the past couple of days and am starting to get a bit nervous...

https://itch.io/jam/theveryseriousjuniperdevgamejam/rate/4708308

Fun little puzzle game!

The physics felt surprisingly responsive and consistent for the most part*, which I know can be a challenge in physics based puzzle games, so great work with that!

*The first obstacle in level 5 felt a bit luck dependent, but everything else worked great.

Very fun with incredible presentation! I especially appreciate that you resisted using rotated pixels.

I think the core gameplay and concept is awesome, and about as good as you could expect from a game jam. There's a couple of things that could be improved though, namely finding enemies can be a bit challenging (I saw someone suggest adding a minimap, I think that would be too intrusive though so maybe just add pointers indicating what direction the enemies are in), and that it wasn't always clear how to avoid taking damage (sometimes ramming wouldn't damage me, other times it would, I have no idea why). Otherwise this was great!

Sometimes ships near the edge of the screen 'mysteriously' vanish. It's not technically a bug, I deliberately programmed it that way since managing collisions near the edge of the screen isn't fair to the player and I needed some way to handle it (and all my less immersion-breaking methods didn't work, so I just brute-forced it). I tried to mask the edge of the screen with fog so it wouldn't be obvious, but I guess I didn't do it right so now from the player's pov ships sometimes pop out of existence with no explanation. Surprisingly no one's brought it up yet though.

I also slightly messed up the timing of pirate cannons, and now cannons can reload a little before their particles are ready. So if a ship sails by a pirate during this narrow gap the cannon still 'fires' but it looks like the ship simply sinks itself out of fear.

There's a few other minor things, like some lighting and sound management bugs that came up, but those aren't nearly as fun.

Here's a link to the game if you're interested.

At least the boss knows his products work.

Really fun presentation! The voice acting was great and went amazingly with the visual style.

I kinda wish there was more going on mechanically, since the floors started to feel a bit repetitive. Even just increasing the odds of a bad effect when reloading could have been interesting. But I can't really fault the game for it given the time constraint. Otherwise this was great!

Really impressive game! Everything felt very cohesive, which can be challenging in general but especially for game jams.

The music was very well made, and I appreciated how integrated it felt into the world and player actions. I also liked how none of the upgrades involved any sort of automation, most of them just lowered the skill barrier needed to use with the main mechanic. It felt very creative.

Only issue I have with this is I feel like the theme integration could have been done slightly better. For example, if the QTE bar was a circle instead with the input bar spinning around it, or if the planet slice was obviously circular (it might be circular, it's just hard to tell with the camera angle) so it looks more like you're orbiting a planet, then this would have fit the theme a bit better without changing the gameplay that much. I still think it fits the theme really well, just that there were a couple of places where the theme could have been seamlessly integrated and it wasn't.

Fun little game! The shop prices seemed a bit steep, but otherwise this is solid.

Really cool concept with incredible presentation! Amazing you made this in a week!

As it stands, I found it quickly got monotonous, but I strongly agree with what others are saying that this could the be foundation of a really incredible game. The style is already there, working with minimal information can be a lot of fun, and looking through the parascope to see a massive warship right on top of you is genuinely terrifying. If there was a progression system of some kind with scaling difficulty and significant stakes (which, granted, is a bit much to ask of something made in a week), this could be an exceptional game.

Great work for something made in a day! The death/game over shader is really nicely made.

This was quite fun once I got into it!

Spamming out gears in small rooms is hilariously overpowered and really fun to watch, and it was pretty fun to try to find those areas and lure enemies to them.

The visuals are nice too, I really like the background and that there's a unique sprite for when the player takes damage.

The only bits of criticism I have are that navigation felt a bit tough, it felt like I only got to the final boss because I accidentally picked the right direction, and the start of the game is rather punishing since you're in an open area with only 5 gears. Otherwise this was solid, great work!

Nice job making your first game!

I actually really like its vibe, great work!

I ask myself if the game's subject matter is serious, without any regard for the portrayal of said subject matter. For example, today I played a game about russian roulette, and another where you're a tornado. The first had a very 'serious' presentation, the second was rather lighthearted and cartoony, but both featured something generally considered serious so both got 5 stars. I've rarely gone below 5 stars in this category.

I'm curious to see what the 'serious' ratings will look like once the voting period ends, whether people generally considered it an ironic category or not, or if the range of perspectives on that category is so diverse that the ratings are essentially random.

The NWS would still only call this an EF4.

This was pretty fun, especially the mid to late game section. Visuals were really nice too, there's an impressive number of 3D models for a game made in a week. Great work!

The purple box. The one placed under the moon. I know it is my objective, but I can never reach it. It sits there, taunting me, knowing it is the sole key to escaping fiscal responsibility. Yet, it may as well be an illusion. Every time I leap for it, I fall back to earth, and am immediately confronted by my poor financial choices.

Very fun, and also very stressful (in a good way) as the game progresses. I somehow won on my first playthrough despite making some very dumb gambles right at the end. It reminds me a lot of Buckshot Roulette.

The sound design is great, and I like the visual style too. Character models for each player would have been nice, but I can understand why they wouldn't have been made given the time limit. Different coloured pills is a great workaround though, since it's easy to remember which one's which!

Adept Octowhirl is a great little idle game with some incredible art! Only has 12 reviews as of writing this, it definitely deserves more.

Closed Eyes has impressive visuals, a really interesting core mechanic, and a great hook for its story. It's not technically finished, but if you don't mind a cliffhanger it's a lot of fun in its current state. It's at 10 reviews now, definitely needs more.

Penny Farthing is the funniest game I've found so far. The gameplay is solid too. It has 18 reviews currently.

Spinski is a fun little skiing arcade game. There's a bunch of routes so it's decently replayable too. It's at 11 reviews right now.

Air Ambulance Simulator is best left unspoiled. It has 14 reviews now.

Slot Fever is alarmingly addictive. It also has 14 reviews.

Pivot Island is a masterpiece. It has some issues with communication/telegraphing interactions, but is otherwise flawless, incredibly unique, and loads of fun. I couldn't recommend it more. It's at 16 reviews right now.

I know you said submit one, but there's too many great games for me to pick.

I've done about 20 game jams now of varying lengths, this is a list of things I try to keep in mind:

1. As others have mentioned, keep the scope manageable. What kind of game are you trying to make? Now, what's the simplest possible way to make that game? How much can you cut the scope before you even begin writing any code? With this in mind, try to come up with a plan and priority list that would leave you with a finished game about 70 to 80% of the way through the jam. That way when you over scope anyways you'll have a bit of extra time to finish everything.
2. Determine what your minimum viable product is, make it, then export and upload it immediately. Then you'll at least have something submitted and you won't be scrambling at the end of the jam to upload while dealing with server issues too. Plus, you'll have something for people to playtest and give feedback on well before voting starts, which should help you determine what to focus on with the remaining time.
3. Don't burn yourself out. It's very easy to spend 12+ hours a day, as many days as you can, working on your game (or even a single aspect of your game). Don't do this, take breaks, factor it into your scope and plan. And if you're really pressed for time, rotate between different aspects like code, design, art, sound, etc. so you don't exhaust yourself by staring at an IDE or art software for hours without a break. As an example, a couple days into this jam I realized I was spending way too much time on code and decided to switch to making some of the assets despite not having a fully playable prototype yet. In any other context this would be a poor use of time since assets aren't as important as functioning systems, but I was able to work faster overall as a result and probably wouldn't have finished had I not done that.

Figured it out and beat the game!

I knew it had something to do with the lava tiles, but it was super easy to miss the frogs eating the flies. Maybe you could have an animation of them shooting their tongues out to catch the flies and increase the range for this interaction to happen?

We have the technology to build this today

Really interesting concept! The art style and sound design are nice too.

It did seem a bit buggy unfortunately. I got stuck in the second area with the coin and guy guarding it. I'm pretty sure I'm supposed to move forward a couple of hours so the guy disappears while the coin remains, but I tried that and the opposite happened. The guy was still there and the coin was gone, but the dialogue didn't reflect that change, so I'm assuming it's a bug.

Not really a massive issue considering this is a jam game and it still gets the point across effectively, but I'd love to play a fixed version of this at some point.

Really like the character design and light-hearted style!

The platforming is decently solid too.

Only thing I'm not really sold on is the theme use, I kinda wish it was more than "the player is a top" since it doesn't really impact the gameplay that much. Maybe the player could have to spin to interact with some objects?

Really nice pixel art, and I found the game pretty fun too. I liked the detail of the devil being visually damaged in your fight with him. There's a couple of things though that I feel are worth suggesting:

1. I feel like there needs to be some way to influence the wheel, especially if this is the basis of a rougelike. Maybe there could be a shop where you buy things to put on the wheel (eg, card effects, new numbers, etc.)? The shop could also sell additional cards that may synergize with low rolls rather than high ones.
2. There should probably be a bit more communication on what cards will do, given the wheel roll, beyond just the product of the card and wheel numbers since this doesn't always reflect what effect the card will have (especially the attack cards).

Overall though, this is still solid. Great work!

Nice idea for a clicker game!

It could get a bit rough on my finger though, a few more upgrades that automate things a bit quicker would be great.

Otherwise, this is pretty solid. Great work!

Neat little game. I think it's a strong foundation, and there's a bunch of different directions you could take it. For example, it could be interesting if the blade spinning affects the player's fall speed or acts as a double jump, since it already kinda looks like a helicopter.

I have to agree with IcyZ1ne about removing the timer; it's not really necessary but maybe you could replace it with a stopwatch and leaderboard to encourage speedrunning.

Good job on completing your first game jam!

A lot of good things here. The spritework and animations are exceptional, the core gameplay felt really fun and intuitive, and the theme application was very creative. Great work!

A stirring capsule is a funny way to implement the theme, nice thinking!

This was pretty fun, I managed to get to the last boss fight (though I couldn't beat it). The upgrade system is a nice touch too.

Incredibly well made game.

The only two points of criticism I have are that it wasn't immediately obvious that the frogs would destroy the wheat (maybe mud could appear in wheat tiles when a frog tile is connected to it?), and that frogs didn't seem to drop anything in the first quest that required them to (though I may just be missing something).

Otherwise this was essentially flawless. It felt really fun to play, the mechanics were intuitive, the puzzle design was great, visuals and audio were really nice, and the theme use was fantastic.

(also another game with a lighthouse!)

It's a neat idea, I'm curious to see how far you could take it with more dev time.

The visual style is great, but I feel like it goes a little overboard on the pixelation and the readability suffers a bit as a result.

Overall, still a solid entry, and very impressive for 7 days!

Fun little game!

Mechanically, I thought it was generally intuitive and nice to play, but probably could have benefited from a way to decelerate quickly (or maybe I just have  a skill issue).

Art looks great too.