itch.io

This was a rather unsettling, nightmare-like story. The strange mutability of dreams does come across in the strange visions that Cassie and Josie find along the way. The text could use some revision though.

That was a pretty fun little adventure, with some exciting action to carry it in the middle. I think it could stand to develop Kit's character a bit more though; in the beginning, it's hard to tell why exactly they just ran away like that. Perhaps some more specific examples of what they're going through would help them really come alive. Also, referring to the three bad guys by their footwear is great while they're still being seen from under the bed, but after Kit gets up and sees the whole of them, at least some cursory description of these characters would be nice to help set the scene more. But otherwise, it's a nice story.

I'm a sucker for dreamy, Sandman-esque stories. Loved the description of the library. It would be nice to get to know our protagonist a bit better though, that would make their struggle and its eventual resolution connect all the better.

A nice twist on the classic story, with the wolf's and woodman's roles reversed. Can't say the twist particularly surprised me though, lol, it was rather telegraphed from the beginning. It takes a bit much to get going in the beginning, especially since we already know what the story is. And it could certainly use some revision and some cleaning up of the prose. But it's alright as a new spin on a well-known fairytale.

Sounds like a very interesting alternate-reality world. I'd love to know in which ways it differs from ours, and what this strange society is like... though it would be nice to see that through a longer story. I'd advise against dropping sudden exposition dumps though, it's always much more pleasing when the information comes naturally, within the regular flow of the story. Also, if you're looking to turn your writing into a profession (or a serious side gig, as it were), I'd advise you to find someone to revise / edit it, as a fresh pair of eyes always helps us catch mistakes we hadn't seen before. But great start!

A light interlude, as the title indicates. It does a nice job of portraying the two characters, and their conflicted interaction... But it could use a bit more in terms of plot. I'd love to see these guys actually going on an adventure and doing stuff!

A short, but very interesting and thought-provoking story. I just wish it got to explore the dimensional travel more, now I'm curious as to how the worlds diverge from one another. And there's certainly room to explore the idea that the reality you go back to isn't necessarily the one you left, as was hinted in the end.

Love me a time travel story, even though this one doesn't get much into the ramifications of the travel, lol. But the ambiance of the lab and the team were palpable, you can get a good feel for how all the characters relate to one another. The time travel scene itself was very tense; the descriptions of the character's sensations were really vivid, I could really feel myself in there. The text itself can improve somewhat, but that's part of the journey. Nice entry!

Thanks a lot for the response!

Okay, this was very, very good. I can tell you put a lot of effort in the worldbuilding, and it feels really deep, like there's more to explore beyond the text. I also enjoyed the Rashomon-style POV change midway - you could tell in the first part that Syrol run'Pror was very biased and even prejudiced, so it was nice to see the situation from another perspective that we got to compare it with. 

As far as criticism, the beginning felt a little hard to get through as the worldbuilding came in hard and fast. But, as the plot fell into a groove, it all started to feel natural. Syrol run'Pror was a bit annoying, but I get the feeling that's intentional, and the other POVs certainly do seem to validate that. The text would, of course, benefit from some editing (wouldn't any?) but there wasn't anything that bad really. 

All in all, an interesting glimpse into what's clearly a very deep and well-developed world. Great job!

A short, action-packed story that leaves you wishing for more. The only issue I had with it is that Sally's motivations concerning the Purple Crane weren't very clear to me. Why was she so determined to get it against every difficulty at first, and then suddenly decided to destroy it on a whim? That left me puzzled. Still, I'm intrigued to see her further adventures.

Thanks! Will update in the morning.

Hello there. I realized (partly due to feedback from other participants, thanks a lot!) that my game has a couple significant bugs, including ones that prevent the game from being finished. I'll fix it anyway, but I'm wondering if I'll need to wait until the ratings period is over. The rules are different from jam to jam, so I thought I'd make sure. I understand if I need to wait until it's over, after all, it would only be fair to judge what I did submit on time.

Thanks in advance!

I'll be honest, I think this genre of game isn't really for me. I understand that it's going for gacha game tropes, so I don't hold that against this entry, but it's kinda too much stuff going on at once for me, lol. Still, a very polished battle and equipment system, it seems like a more finished version would provide endless hours of entertainment with lots of strategic depth to your choices.

A lovely story of high adventure! I especially appreciate how well you established Talia as a villain. The backstory was very engaging, and did a great job of characterizing the two fairies, as well as Queen Esperanza. Valeria's character does come alive as well, throughout her (his?) interactions with everyone. 

Speaking of which, one thing that was rather jarring was Valeria's gender. I don't know if the constant gender flipping was intentional, as a way to establish this character as genderfluid, but if that was the case, I think it could stand to be more clearly spelled out. As it stands, it sounded a bit confusing. 

But overall, the story was very exciting and entertaining. With some good editing (I did catch a few typos/mistakes), it has the makings of a classic!

Thanks a lot! While this isn't necessarily planned as being part of a series, it does fit in a larger body of work set in this same fictional world (although not with the same characters). The main book I'm writing (I've posted a few chapters online) is "The Heplion Contingency", but there are a couple other stories I've written in this world here and there.

Got it. I'll have to take a look at that as well. Like I said to someone else, I still haven't had the time to playtest through it all, so I'm finding out about these bugs through players... I'll add that to the tasklist!

Okay, this was a very interesting game! Very innovative in its combat system, love that. It would be nice to have information on how much damage you're doing, how many HP the enemy has left etc., although I understand it's hard to make this sort of thing work in this way without plugins. The story was a bit too abstract to understand at first, but eventually I got it, and thought it was cute. Very short, although of course that's part of the assignment. Great job!

Oof... I didn't have time to play through all the game, and didn't catch that. I might have accidentally made one of the lamps in the area a parallel process in the first page (all fires are parallel when lit). I'll have to look at it, this area is part of the critical path walkthrough...

Oh, okay. Yeah, I did notice that followers block "Event Touch" enemies from hitting... but, since in my game there's only one follower, I didn't think that was such a big issue, lol

Oh yeah, just remembered another suggestion I had. It seems like your "enemy" events are set to Player Touch, which means the combat starts only if the player actively runs into them. I would suggest setting them to Event Touch instead, so that combat also starts if the monster runs into the player. Unless this is a deliberate design choice, of course...

Glad you liked it! Yes, I did wonder at the enemy density, especially in more cramped maps. Well, at least you can try and get around them (except for the bats, which are too fast to dodge), and they stay gone once you fight them. So I'll keep that in mind and, after some more playtesting and opinions, see if I might adjust it.

Thanks a lot for the kind words! I'm glad you enjoyed the game. One thing I was worried about was players not realizing the characters were getting too cold and that that has negative consequences, since there's no visual indication of any sort (not without plugins anyway), but I'm glad it did come across after all.

A pretty simple game, but really fun to play. Love to see RPG Maker used to make diverse genres of games! Could really use some more levels, just as I got the hang of it, the game ended...

As the other reviewer pointed out, the game is bugged - the Hit1.png animation asset doesn't load (it might have been accidentally cut out from the package when the game was readied for upload). However, it is still possible to play and even finish the game if you exclusively use magic to defeat enemies (you can't meander too much though, since there's no way to recover MP). Other than that, a slight issue I found was that going back to the starting cave activates the game start event once again (possibly because it was made without a second page).

That said, the game would benefit from some more variety in how enemies work (strengths/weaknesses, special attacks etc.), and maybe some extra character options like equipment, TP skills etc. to go with that. The story is pretty basic but is enough if you just want to blow off some steam by burning up everything in your path >:-)

Thanks!

This was a very fun little game. I would've liked a couple more options in combat, but given the small scope of the game, it isn't really much of a problem. I especially like the gorgeous map design and the puzzles.

I'm still going to post my game! I've just finished it, I'll have to upload it tomorrow evening. Making full use of the time limit here!

Thanks! The story is set in a world with a very specific premise (Cyberpunk / Space Opera with low-tech and psychic powers taking the place of technology) I've been writing other stuff on, which hopefully comes across in some of those crumbs. But I didn't want to get too much into that in the description or other ancillary materials, since after all the story is supposed to be accessible to anyone that hasn't read the other stuff.

Yeah, I suppose the core idea is pretty old hat... But hey, it's still worthwhile to play in a familiar playground sometimes, right?

Thanks. Yeah, I thought a static logo before the game proper begins might be in the spirit of the jam, which is why I asked. But nothing from outside the RTP in the actual game (pictures, animation etc.), no.

Hello there. I normally put a splash screen with my logo at the beginning of the game (using the plugin that comes packaged with the MV RTP as a standard). I know it's something made outside of the game, but since it's not quite a game asset, I thought I'd ask. Is it okay to put such a custom splash screen in this jam? It's okay if I can't do it, it's just that I'd rather keep my visual identity consistent, lol.

Okay, yeah, good enough for me!

It is indeed a world of lesbian kissing. The game delivers as promised. Although I think I saw some dudes in there, and who knows what's the sex/gender situation with the slimes. I don't think that detracts from the experience, but some might say this prevents the game from earning a "gold star"

This is literally the reason I'm in the jam in the first place, lol. Saw this book randomly on itch.io, thought it was really cool, decided to look further into what was behind it. Love the vibes and the new campaign resources (Fugu, boat rules).

Really good! I especially like how you managed to weave together the 3 disparate inspirations into a single, cohesive whole that feels natural. To me, that's the gold standard in the Inspiration criterion. Very well-written adventure overall.

Those are some good points. With the layout thing, I tried to stave off the worst of it, but didn't have the time or page count to keep everything as neat and not broken-up in the end. But I can see how that may be rather inconvenient, yes. Thank you for the thoughtful review, those are some important things to look out for.

A short adventure, but pretty interesting. Makes great use of the inspiration, Grover as an eldritch horror is just too good. The rival schools are a bit reminiscent of the gangs in River City Ransom as well. Like the cult politics and intrigue involved.

I agree there needs to be an island map! It was the next thing I was going to work on, but there wasn't enough time. Oh well.

Solid entry overall. The Rock-Snorters certainly do have the right vibes of Renegade enemies. Seems pretty gameplay-ready, and fun to boot.

I'll be honest, I don't really see any Dr. Mario or Mickey Mousecapade on this... The content feels a bit thin as well, though I understand that might be down to time constraints. But by far the positive point is the vibes, this really has that nostalgic 8-bit feel to it, including the illustrations, lol