itch.io

That I can't tell ya.

first time working in the genre, so i agree, it's a bit ad-hoc, and i could definitely fit things better to the rhythm. i like a funky control scheme, and yghj worked good in my head (and in my practice) with both thumbs on the spacebar and both index fingers pressing keys, but that is toooootally not obvious, huh?

I think RoboZero just set the screen size wrong. You can see the whole thing here: https://html-classic.itch.zone/html/15292635/The_Source_V0.1/index.html

a challenger!

Theme definitely drew me in. Rules are fairly standard, but the capturing of dice and the teamwork in the final scene are a big heap of sprinkles on a vanilla ice cream cone. I'm liking it. There's no definite player count--do you think the Final Scene gets unbalanced for extreme cases? I imagine the captured dice mitigate this, but I don't know how to do the math.

I like how thorough the planet creation is--really scratches my astronomy itch. I almost feel like the research in the gameplay loop could decide the planet's characteristics, in a "we don't know where we landed" way, but that would be a different game. The news portion helps seed the pearl of roleplaying, which is something I feel too many GM-less games lack. Was it meant to look like a postcard? "Greetings from Solivago--wish you were here!"

I know it's a joke, but as a guy with a penchant for picking up trash, I'm charmed. Collectable aspects are a strong way to gamify behavior, from what I've seen. Make that TrashDex! Some other frequent types I find: clothing (new type: APARRIL?), car parts (new type: VEECLE?), pipes and other construction equipment (might fall under METALLO), advertisements like business cards and signs (might fall under PAPYR, but could be its own type).

GAMEPLAY: The story is strangely worded and a bit too dramatic for an arcade game, but the thought's a good one. Controls are hectic, but that actually fits in with the wave-like nature of gameplay. Everything else, however, goes too slowly. I got bored of things before reaching Level 2, and found it too hard to die even on purpose. There is something here, though.

VISUALS: The blue and red color scheme doesn't play too nicely, especially with how dark the whole thing seems to be. I can clearly tell what's going on, though, which is a plus.

AUDIO: Aside from the dramatic intro, the music you picked out was peppy and fun. Bubbles popped when they needed to.

THEME: You say that the bubble shrinks when you die, but since I found it hard to die, I didn't end up seeing it. The bubble bouncing-boundary was good, though.

GAMEPLAY: I frankly don't have the motor skills to get good at twinstick spacecraft games (are they called that?), but I definitely see what you're going for here. The physics of the ship feel very space-y, as they should. The 'how to play' section was vital in picking the game up, but didn't say as much as I'd like--I dove into a star thinking it'd help somehow.

VISUALS: I'm really impressed with how well you built an environment out of the shapes given. Most of that hinges on the particles--the ship's thrusters, the glow of the suns, the noise of the background, all good stuff.

AUDIO: For something named after music terms, I didn't hear much. Piano's nice, but god is it quiet. No sound effects for thrusters makes the game feel a bit flat. I would also appreciate proximal audio cues when I'm near things like the edge or the teleporter.

THEME: As above, I did not get far enough to see the 'big crunch', but I'll take your word for it.

GAMEPLAY: You say it's a test, and personally, I do think the concept holds up well. Not many games explore the physicality behind controls like this does. It definitely needs some fine-tuning to stop being frustrating, though. The ship is as big as it needs to be for visual clarity, and the movement speed inside of it is both precise and reactive, but the environment is far too cluttered and fast-paced to make navigation possible. I did not understand how shooting works in the time given, and even if I did, it seems too slow to be useful. Pure navigation may be the better call. A score would also be a nice touch, and 'time alive' is a simple one to add.

VISUALS: Nothing too inventive with the shapes given, but clear and serviceable. The fire behind the meteors was a nice touch.

AUDIO: No music, sad. The sound effects are retro where perhaps sci-fi would fit better, but not bad.

THEME: Putting the theme as the title is pretty cheesy, maaan. It's a toss-up: you're literally limited inside the ship, but the ship can go anywhere it pleases.

First of all, I'd like to thank my mother, blah blah blah. Thank you! I don't use Discord publicly, and I'm fine going without the role. You can reach out at my attached email for the rest.

GAMEPLAY: The controls were overexplained--I can grasp "WASD - Move". The concept of oxygen being a limited resource in a maze is both a reasonable expansion of the genre and an interesting dynamic. The zombies didn't seem to add much, though. This is entirely personal, but I'd prefer a proper maze without enemies.

VISUALS: Being consistent with pixel size isn't vital, but having a 5x difference like with the controls menu (not to mention the anti-aliased font) throws things off a bit. So does the lamp not being pixel art at all, seemingly.

AUDIO: The constant zombie groaning, while on theme, got tired quickly. I appreciate having a hit sound for when sucessfully attacking.

THEME: Oxygen being a resource and being able to pick up and attack with almost anything certainly fit the bill.

GAMEPLAY: I do appreciate a game like this having a thorough how-to-play, even if some people don't. I also appreciate a game without time pressure, which wasn't the obvious route for a game with time as a resource. The base mechanic is a nice one, and it was a bit puzzling going through my files for what fits (or sorta-fits for extra points). I think it'll work best with a broader task pool, though that's very much a scope thing.

VISUALS: The UI is wonderful, on-theme, both pleasant and informative. The icons are... crunchy. It looks like the default icons were upscaled, making the lines all wobbly. The style's fine, it just needs cleaning up.

AUDIO: The clicks are old-school and satisfying, but I'd expect them for every click I make. While I like the choice of no background music for the setting, it did get boring after a while. I could see an expansion on this having other desktop apps for things like turning music on (having it be off by default).

THEME: The computer space feels a bit limited, but even attaching my computer's kernel is out there enough.

GAMEPLAY: The tutorial was quick and unobtrusive. Fighting was a touch confusing at first, but the button prompts helped me learn what everything did, and I was off fighting right and early. Once I died, the timer stopped, but everything else kept going, and I had to reload the game to try again.

VISUALS: The jagged edges of the pixel art seemed unskilled at first, but leaning into it being a stylistic choice could really pay off (which it seems like you're almost there). I don't know why my enemies appear to be rabbits, though maybe that's just me. The animations for the enemies are really well done and fit the atmosphere. Do demons like broccoli?

AUDIO: The dialogue blips not ending at the right time miffed me a bit. I adore the music choice--it fits perfectly for an underworld thunderdome.

THEME: I can pick up weapons off my enemies, but for how barren the Underpit is, 'everything' is too bold a descriptor. Still, you can get very resourceful in there.

GAMEPLAY: No menu, no nothing, just straight into it. Having a basic description on the bottom is handy, but do make sure it's correct (I notice the note about triangles changing incoming shapes). I thought the strategy seemed basic until I realized squares drain points as well (could also use a tip on that). It's too late tonight for me to piece together a proper strategy, but it seems like there's one, and I'll take that. I'll agree with everyone here, it took a while to intentionally lose because of the spawn rate of octagons. They might be a problem entirely, though I'm not sure what to replace them with.

VISUALS: Cohesive and clean, and basic graphics works well for abstract strategy. Anti-aliasing on the shapes would help smooth things out (man it sound stupid when I say it like that).

AUDIO: This is waaaay too hardcore of music for something adjacent to 2048. The bashes on clicking shapes are maybe also too hardcore, but I wasn't upset about that one.

THEME: Just because a game is very limited doesn't mean it feels like 'everything' gets used. It does empirically, but I just don't get the sense of it.

I checked out Blue Ice because of this review, and now I'm a little obsessed with it, so double thank you.

GAMEPLAY: Very slick menu! J and K to jump and run feel odd to me, but maybe I'm just not familiar with the genre. The controls were immensely slippery for a puzzle platformer--combined with my poor reflexes, I struggled less than a minute in. There were many walls that were not wall-jumpable, and whether this was intentional was not communicated. I ended up quitting pretty early on due to the controls, which was a shame, since the concept of exchanging them for shortcuts seemed interesting. (Not in a snarky way, like I wanna get rid of them 'cause they suck. Like, actually.)

VISUALS: The pixel art is good, but a mostly black screen ends up boring. The effects during a sacrifice are a nice touch.

AUDIO: While the music's well done, it seems very out of place in a game about a hooded figure in a dark testing facility. Too... spunky? It ended up being a distraction to the point I took off my headphones.

THEME: I like a bit of out-of-the-box thinking, and sacrificing controls qualifies nicely. 

GAMEPLAY: What's here works well, and does give an interesting dynamic, but it gets boring after a while. My mind first springs to including a full map: players know where to go, but with this little light, they have to figure out how to get there on their own. The glow of the rat's eyes is a nice touch, though if it were me, I would've picked some spooky-monster-thing and went typical horror. Rats are cute. I also had issues in the web version where upon replaying, the camera was offset and I couldn't move.

VISUALS: I'm getting conflicting messages here--most of the game is pixel art, but the UI and player character seem to be vectors. The pixel art itself is fine, but could use extra flair. Landmarks would also be useful for navigation, or at least variety.

AUDIO: The howling wind sets a good uneasy atmosphere. The flame sounds and rat squeals fit. Not much more stands out.

THEME: Jamming skulls into my flashlight is resourceful, but nonsensical. A literal torch would make more sense, and campfires could then be recharge points as well as rest stops.

GAMEPLAY: Fairly linear--I hold the right mouse until I see someone (or they shoot at me before I see them), then spam the left mouse until they're dead. I like the vacuum concept, though, and could see it being quite fun on a larger level with more options and item variety (like what you've done for the ice bucket). That may be outside your scope for this jam, but I could see you taking these mechanics and expanding them later. I died a few minutes in from being shot during an elevator transition, which made me quit the game entirely. Normally, transitions like that give a bit of invulnerability, though you could also try to place enemies to avoid that being possible.

VISUALS: Don't be too hard on yourself--while this certainly isn't professional pixel art, it's got character to it that I like. There's a few odd things: the dialogue isn't fixed to the screen, the font makes 3's and 8's look alike, objects don't fall when partially sucked (the player has gravity, just put some there).

SOUND: Another victim of forgetting to loop music (specifically the menu and tutorial). I almost did this, too. It's a hard one to catch when you're speeding through playtesting, but fortunately an easy fix. Love the choice of noir-style jazz. Not bad choices of sound effects, though maybe I just giggle too much at offscreen glass shattering. I see what you're doing with the vacuuming sounds, which is a good idea, but there seems to be a large gap between "starting" and "continuing".

THEME: Sucking various objects up and spitting them out fits the bill, but you could definitely go further. I was itchin' to hurl a table at someone.

GAMEPLAY: The concept's not bad at all. I got a little lost at first, given how all my beads were basic, so there wasn't much reason to place them in any particular way (so I thought). This isn't much of a hindrance to play at first, but understanding what materials do is rough without a tutorial. Your rules written out in the description are good, but adding them to the game through the player's first bracelet would be helpful. Once I understood how making beads worked, I got interested. Once I understood that buying the same materials over and over was an easy way to up my mult, I got less interested. Rewarding variety instead of similarity would be more dynamic with how the shop and draw systems work.

VISUALS: For a game that's mostly UI, I'm glad you did a good job there. The beads seem sad--maybe up the saturation? The terrarium is a little tacky with the varying perspective (overhead for everything but the sand), but the animations for building a bead are well executed. I like the rotational flourishes in the bracelet segments.

SOUND: The main theme is unobtrusive, and the insect noises fit the theme. Some sound effect ideas: wooshes on playing a bead, jingles on counting total points (with flashier ones for higher multipliers), weaving sounds for the caddisflies, click on pressing shop items or buttons.

THEME: "Everything can be a resource" may be a better way to put it, but it still fits quite well.

GAMEPLAY: A bit of a tough time on browser, but since I had to gut my RAM not too long ago, I'm not surprised I can't keep up. I can't tell what to do by looking at the screen, but it's surprisingly easy to pick up once I start punching buttons. Just as fun as Pachinko is known to be, though man, am I bad at it. The different shapes of the objects add some dynamics, but I'd like to see different physics, too, or at least some bounce on the tyre.

VISUALS: The UI is clunky--some fonts are too big, some are too small, and the boxes are all different styles. I can enjoy some simplistic models, though.

SOUND: The music sounds very royalty-free and a bit soulless. Classic arcade sounds are good, but don't work too well with the visuals. I gotta at least hear the cat meow when I bump it.

THEME: The quirkiness of the bumpers plays into this theme, but they don't feel like 'resources' so much.

Enough people seem interested that I'll work on a Windows port once the jam ends--I got too confused by the process in Godot to do it during, on top of everything else. Hopefully I can fix the shader, too, but since that's the one bit I didn't write, I won't make promises.

I know I've done well in my atmosphere when a bug feels like another layer of the puzzle. Thank you!

I'm honestly surprised how few people go to point'n'click in jams, it's fairly easy to set up. Thank you so much for the words on design, that's the part I took the most pride in.

No one expects the in-game devlog! Thank you for your words.

With me having resolution issues with other games, I've been finding out my monitor is perhaps a weird size. Even being an experience p'n'c player, I have to turn to walkthroughs sometime myself. It's a sign of a good game when the response on reading one is "oh yeah" and not "what the hell", so I appreciate you saying that.

I've kept playing through the game, it's remarkably fun. I'm also surprised how many fish variants you got in here--circular arenas, bouncing bullets, HUGE bullets. Swarm encounters helped the pacing of the game, and kept things interesting after seeing all an area had to offer. I'm terrible at aiming, so the early game was rough, but Fang and Green Bag help alleviate my troubles. I was going to say I was tired of rods until I got to the Dish. That's a good Dish.

Couple minor notes: the "magenta" tag on the Glass Horseshoe and Shotgun Shells doesn't work, the rods in Rod Fields have layering issues with the shadows, Coffee Beans just say 'Speed' (I laughed even if it wasn't a joke)

I don't know if that easter egg was worth the effort, but it did get a smile out of me.

I eventually did have to take off some upgrades because I started to break things. The bullets got so big, we went into seconds-per-frame territory.

GAMEPLAY: I was hoping the TV would give me a bouncy, static-ridden tutorial, but not so. I threw my line out, waiting to see what'd happen, and literally went slack-jawed when the fishing game turned out to be a shooter. Pleasant surprise, and it got me excited to see where else it'd go. Wouldn't have known to hit tab without reading the description. There were occasions where my bobber landed above me when I aimed below, or when it left the map entirely, but it largely worked as intended.

VISUALS: Not many games start with letterboxing, I'll say that much, though given how the ocean texture stops, that might be an issue with my resolution (recurring theme this jam, huh?). The pixel art looks good, but seems a little inconsistent with its lining and shading style. I quite like the tab UI--creative without being overwhelming, and gives me all the info I need (especially that preview). Excellent line and bobber animations, I'm impressed!

AUDIO: Very fitting music, cutting gun sounds. I'd like a little 'triumph' jingle when I hold a fish in the air, but what you have in FX is very nice. The different music cues for different fish help me know what I'm getting into before the fish start shooting, which I do appreciate.

THEME: Breaking fish down into component parts does help sell things, but surely I could've scavenged the guy's dead body, no? Barring desecration, "using every part of the fish" fits well enough.

What I've got so far for the rules (feel free to put these in the description or whatever):

• The number in the upper left is how many other cards you need to discard to play it. If there's teeth around it, you instead spend [eye points], which you gain from other cards.
• There are two "species" types, plant and animal (also denoted by the shape of the upper left, rectangle for animals and diamond for plants). You can only play one card from each species per day. Some cards, like Eelgrass and Rat, reduce costs of a species.
• There are three "enviro" types, land, sea, and sky. These have no inherent meaning, but some cards, like Red Crab, grow stronger with certain environments. (Others, like Cat, grow weaker, so pay close attention).
• The squares present at the bottom, [mind] in grey, [eye] in red, and [power] in green, are resources that are gained when you play a card and spent when a card says so. These only happen once.
• Some cards have other effects denoted by other symbols beneath them (like Eelgrass and Rat again). These are continual.
• When hovering over a card, you can see how many stars and drawn cards this card will net you at the end of each day. The total across all played cards is shown on the right. (This is pretty pertinent information, maybe put this on the top of the card?)
• There's a maximum hand size of 10. If you go over, you'll have to discard before your next turn.

GAMEPLAY: There seemed to be a lot of "unspoken rules" that made the game hard to learn. I still don't fully understand why I can't play some two-card combos in a day--I think it has to do with plants and animals? The discarding rules also seem strange, but I think the white rectangle is telling me something to do with that. At one point I had 17 cards in hand (so many they went off the screen), and I have no idea why. A full tutorial would likely break the atmosphere, but a dictionary of symbols accessible from the side or hover-over tooltips would be useful. While there's a lot of potential with the different card types, they don't interact with each other as much as I expected. I'm a big card game fan myself, and I could definitely see myself getting hooked if I knew what was going on (and once you add those extra cards like you said).

VISUALS: I got intrigued right from the start with the atmosphere, which helped push me over the learning curve. Bonus points for using Kablammo. The light grid and atmosphere effects kept things interesting without being distracting. UI could use some help--centering the hand, clarifying the meaning of symbols, nudging the action buttons into alignment, and removing the tangent between the cards and the text all come to mind.

SOUND: The music doesn't loop perfectly, which should be fixable, but the heavy lo-fi-ness adds to the atmosphere. Card thwips could be a touch better, but I like them as is.

THEME: I don't personally see it, though maybe because I've played other card games this jam that went further with the cards themselves (like eating them for bonuses). 

GAMEPLAY: Dragging was hard to nail down, with the worm's butt following the mouse and the pivot point being somewhere around its face. Extra notation, like a thickening arrow showing the direction and strength of the fling, would be helpful. The spaceships were far more pressing than any of my worm's dietary concerns (which is likely just a tweaking of numbers to fix).

VISUALS: I really love how the spaceworm looks, something about the shading and texture of it. UI could use some touching up--the font's nice, but faster transitions, boxes, a titlecard.

SOUND: A lack of music is upsetting, but all the blips and bloops of the spaceships are... un-upsetting. Pleasing?

THEME: You can consume just about everything on screen. Props to that.

GAMEPLAY: Great intro tutorial-not-tutorial. While the controls were interesting and tight, having to pass items between up to three claws was frustrating, especially when the floor opens up. dumping my items and kicking over my sandcastle. I ended up just seeing how many grannies I could kill before I ran out of energy--accidentally flinging one through the ceiling and into the machine.

VISUALS: Not the most stugging pixel art, but I was charmed nonetheless, especially on the mechanical parts. More diversity among the items would be great and fit the recycling theme.

SOUND: I like how ploinky the music is, but with that short a loop over this slow a game, it only adds to the frustration. Mechanical sound effects on the arms would be a good touch. 

THEME: You put it best yourself. Even granny...

GAMEPLAY: It took a while for the game to take control of my pointer, which is an issue I've never seen before. While the smithing segment went off without a hitch, the halls lagged like hell (seemed to be largely the enemies' fault as it cleared up the further I went). The tight corridors and awkward controls made it difficult to see where I was shooting--perhaps one-way walls or a translucency on models close to the camera. I should've expected it to take a lot of bees to kill a man, so my bad. I didn't think they could block a doorway, though.

VISUALS: The models are cute, clean, and have a cohesive theme across them. Animations are smooth and fit the atmosphere. Good work!

SOUND: The tune was great, but it didn't loop. I spent my gun-smithing time in silence. Seems an easy fix.

THEME: While not quite 'everything', resourcefulness being a dominant theme still gets a point in my book. Perhaps a stronger approach would have you finding the items in the room before assembly, though that may have overscoped things.

GAMEPLAY: I struggled to grasp the core mechanic at first, mostly because the dialogue didn't appear for unknown reasons. Once I got it, it was a clever take on a puzzle-platformer, the tab part especially. I struggled with jumping off the moving hearts, but I think that's my fault. Of course, falling through the volume slider is a problem--I don't have any advice, as I don't make physics games, but do look into it.

VISUALS: With the UI flying around the screen, I definitely appreciate minimalism. The only complaint is the tiny bit of shading on the player box. Maybe some one-line eyeballs would work better. And be cuter. :3

AUDIO: None :( This would definitely be a good game to go full chiptune on. Do appreciate there being a slider (mechanics aside), not enough games do that. Even if there's no audio to slide. Keep that 'round.

THEME: I always appreciate some outside-the-box thinking in jams, and turning UI elements into platforms fits that well.

GAMEPLAY: I got miffed that I only learned the exact requirements after using up another one of my actions. Some dialogue also seemed misplaced--Sharkface started saying the AI's lines after a while. Scrap fishing is slow, parsing everyone's wishes takes a while, and the arcade machine seemed endless (not to mention easily cheesable by sitting still and spamming shoot). The concept's not bad, but there's definite refinement to be made.

VISUALS: I'm impressed that you've seemingly made a lot of paintings for the game--must've taken for-e-ver. The UI's a bit slapped-on--I'd personally reduce the font size and paint out some boxes to make it fit the atmosphere.

AUDIO: Groovy and space-y, I like it.

THEME: I don't really see it. The 'resources' were there, but certainly weren't 'everything'. Leaning into scrap more could be useful--maybe all the items are hashed together like the fish oil, instead of getting a navcube as an arcade prize.

GAMEPLAY: Not often you get word games in jams, so I was intrigued. The example in the main menu was very helpful--I got excited at a tutorial, which I never thought I'd say. With how the rotation scheme works, I'd appreciate tooltips as I hover over hexagons, or at least an undo button. I kept hitting one over par because I clicked the wrong hex--and when I got par, it didn't update my best >:(. I also couldn't go back to the menu, which was unfortunate, because I wanted to play more. Hard to find an original take on a daily word game, but I think you hit it.

VISUALS: I'd almost want it to go more minimal. Screw the gradients, screw the background. I really shouldn't be complaining, though, it serves the game well as is.

AUDIO: The mechanical take is a bit odd for a minimalist word game, but I do appreciate a few clinks as I rotate the pieces. No music, but something Wordle-esque shouldn't have any.

THEME: Hardly fits at all, but in a way, I don't see how a word game could fit the theme more.

GAMEPLAY: The tutorial's wording was a touch confusing, but jumping into the game wasn't too much trouble. I'm not sure what the point of the meter is, since I can move the bobber around freely. It took a long time to figure out what 'smushify' actually entails and how to use it, since my menu seemed to be stuck on "? + Pufferfish". Turns out, each smush is a set combination that's revealed once you fish up the right fish, which was not explained. Once I got past the first rod, things certainly picked up, and I got interested in seeing what fish were out there.

VISUALS: The artwork is pleasant and works remarkably well with the near-rainy day the sky shows. The rod's animations aren't the cleanest: the bobber should dip and splash into the water, and the fish should have weight once out of the water. Things look tacky without gravity. The animations done by hand were lovely, though--I especially enjoyed the 'chow down'. I also quite liked the fish sprites (with all their quirky details) and the way they move through the water.

AUDIO: The music's nice enough, but got boring after a while with the only sounds breaking it up being reels and splashes.

THEME: 'The fish you pick up' feels like a loose definition of 'everything', seeing as most games only have the one intermediary step of selling fish, but it still does fit the bill.

I ought to mentioned I was very stunned when I fished up an entire Kraken. You certainly got the size right.

GAMEPLAY: The lack of in-game tutorial was a bit of a problem, given how you die in five seconds or so. A tutorial fight against a training dummy would be ideal, but even under a time crunch, putting the 'how to play' text from the homepage into the game itself would be useful. Picking up and throwing was executed well, and the variety of items (each with action-movie-esque flavor text) was a treat. I got rather upset that the boss charged on me and killed me out of nowhere--some sort of wind-up animation is customary, even if he's just tinted red for a bit. Outside of the charging, it's remarkably easy to circle him and toss items at him. Very fun.

VISUALS: Not 'gorgeous' pixel art, but 'fun and lively', which fits the tone. It's still a bit janky in places, but forgiveable. The arcs of tossed-in items is a nice touch.

AUDIO: I got hooked from the title music. The meaty smacks and the voiceover all scream 'arcade fighting game', which is exactly what you were going for. Good work!

THEME: I can excuse not picking up the cars. Practically everything gets used as a weapon, which is exactly what was asked for.

GAMEPLAY: I'm very charmed by how the concept was introduced, even if it seems lifted from "There Is No Game". Clicking repeatedly gets annoying after a while--would have appreciated an index of sorts to pull from so I don't have to keep crafting algae.

VISUALS: Not my favorite pixel art I've seen so far, but not bad, and definitely conveys the point. I quite like the icons in particular.

AUDIO: While I like the music, maybe I shouldn't be jamming so much. Something this lively is distracting from the merge puzzles.

THEME: Picking apart the title, the map, practically everything? Nails the theme as far as I consider it.