I think I know what the letter is, but I'm not sure what to do with it. I'm worried that I'm missing something really obvious! :)

Cool idea, that's a really nice way to represent height, but wow that hurts my eyes!! I would have loved to see some softer colours.

I can't believe a one bit game can make me feel this sad. Thank you for making this.

Lovely colours and sounds, but I found it very hard to know when the input began, and kept starting too early or usually too late. Maybe the input could wait for you to hit the first key of the sequence before it starts timing?

I also wish I could try this out. Thank you for making something so ridiculously unique, in any case!

I really like the style and mood set by the manual, and that understand the purpose of the game and how each of the tools worked was up to the player. After a bit of experimentation I ended up with this!

I made a similar game, but I think yours is done more elegantly. The sensor is a cool way to make exploration easier.

I really like how you gave the game three levels of difficulty by including three different manuals. I tried Hardened Onyx and had a lot of fun with it! I'm not even sure that you need the five clues (except for maybe the direction of the arrow).

After some initial confusion (the detailed instructions were very much appreciated!) I got the hang of it and managed to catch a fish on my second and third attempt! I really like the multi-stage process involved in catching a fish, and I'm impressed that a game that only uses one bit of input and one bit of output can be this fun!

fixed a major bug that broke most of the levels. if you downloaded it before now, you unfortunately have the broken version

pen and graph paper strongly recommended!

Please visit the game page for more information about Gaussian Soldiers, including how to play!

I really, really like the visuals.

The visuals are wonderful. I especially like the jetpack!

Very trippy!

Great looking game!

Really great idea!

Great game. It feels like my eyes are bleeding.

I'm really glad this game made it in. Mind-breaking concept, I love it!

This game looks great, any chance we'll see a Windows/web/Android version?

Good lord.

It takes a little while for the coolness to kick in but once it does the game just keeps getting better.

SFS is a great unique idea. The oscillating made it feel hectic and out of control in a really good way.

Simply fantastic.

Simple but innovative take on the genre! My highest so far is 8.

Easily one of my favourites.

Amazing idea and execution. Well done!

Unept, I've done my best to reduce the lag. If it's still there you can download the standalone exe, that will fix it completely.

The "view" must be 160x144px, but the "room" can be much larger. So you can have a huge room with a huge background, so long as you only see 160x144px of it at a time.

For the first two questions, you can only use four RGB values. So for example you could use $f5f5d4, $96cf85, $4b6d85 and $352b31 (such as in my display picture). No other RGB values should ever appear anywhere in the game. For the third question, no one will know you started early but it is very strongly against the spirit of the game jam. You are essentially cheating, and given it is an online competition with no prize you are only cheating yourself.

This is a really great idea, but getting everyone to remain absolutely silent about their games sounds like a nightmare to organize and oversee! I wonder to what degree people would be able to guess the author of anonymously submitted games, based on style or theme interpretation. There are at least a few people I can think of whose games I would love to try to find amongst however many games were submitted.

I'm trying to compile it on my android device (Samsung S4) and I've run into a problem. the video library is missing (from a fresh install of APDE) and I can't work out how to install it.

overall
theme
innovation
fun
clarity

how do those categories sound? theme would cover how well the rules are followed. clarity would cover how easy a game is to understand, keeping in mind how simple or complex it is.

good idea, added!

right now the only category I have set up is an "overall" category. are there particular categories people would like to see?

really glad to hear it! I'm struggling to find time to finish my project, but I've liked having to try and make things clear with all the limitations in place.

other people might have differing opinions but personally I think that's fine.

I'm not sure I know what you mean by make the screen move, but I obviously have a few guesses. ideally you'd want to convey that the player is sprinting purely through the 1-bit output (for example, through flashing or blinking to give the impression of footsteps) but this might not be a good solution for you, depending on what else the game is doing. if you really want to give the player feedback to their input and there's no way to reasonably integrate it, then you certainly can, but it is bending the rules quite a bit (which is perfectly fine).

mac's gatekeeper does this for apps downloaded online which aren't signed, such as mine. you can read more about it here, including possible fixes: https://support.apple.com/en-au/HT202491

that was the idea, but if people started earlier there isn't anything stopping them. hopefully a full week will be enough time!