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An aesthetically very charming game! I felt that this game had a better narrative and writing than most games I’ve played in this jam, where it struck a decent balance between being engaging while staying simple enough to not get in the way of the gameplay. The animation and facial details on the playable ball character is also a great touch; I love the dizzy face they make when they bounce on a mushroom after spinning.

Unfortunately, I can’t help but notice the similarity in premise to a 2006 game named Within a Deep Forest. While I doubt this resemblance is intentional, I can’t help but make comparisons against what this game is able to do with its ball-based controls, mechanics and level design - and unfavorably so.

That is to say, I think A BALLad TALE‘s current use of bouncing mechanics serves as a detriment to itself, as opposed to a strength. The fixed bounce height doesn’t serve to make the actual act of platforming much more interesting than if I held down a turbo button on a regular platformer, and in fact just makes it more tedious to pick up gems on the ground, to time jumps, or navigate around moving platforms.

Speaking of which, those moving platforms are in my opinion the weakest part of your level design currently. Waiting for vertical platforms to move closer to you, and waiting for them to reach the point where you want to jump off is inoffensive, albeit unengaging. However, because the player character isn’t simply able to stand on horizontally moving platforms, you have to keep moving the character manually to keep up with the platform, forcing you to pay the slightest bit of attention moreso than the vertical platforms.

This isn’t engaging; it isn’t challenging; it’s simply tedious, and even moreso when you fail a jump.

I won’t repeat the other comments made by other players, but I’d like to stress my opinion that a deep avenue for this game to explore moving forward lies in how you make use of the ball main character in your gameplay mechanics, and how your level design might best compliment it. I think the low bounce action you’re able to unlock has potential, for example, but rather than forcing players to constantly mash the X key, I think it might be interesting if pressing X let them perform a downwards slam attack, while holding X made the player character bounce lower while the key is held.

I see that you’ve mentioned that this is just a demo for a larger game; I wish you all the best adding onto your game’s currently strong aesthetic and premise, as well as its gameplay potential.

Thank you for playing, and for enjoying our work! After getting the first upgrade, I’d suggest going back to the left of the starting area to see what else you can access; as mentioned on another comment, the frog room path is unfortunately one-way only in this build.

A great premise (and wordplay) that manages to stick the landing despite stiff, floaty controls and overly sensitive hitboxes. I’m with everyone else on the Flash game vibes (in a good way).

It’s wild that the most emotionally gripping, most impressive and engaging game I’ve played from this jam so far is a 4-day project that’s honestly too hard for me.

I’m in agreement with everyone about the art, the chase sequences and overall difficulty. I just wanted to point out the sheer tonal contrast between the serene, almost delicate starting area and the first chase, then the return to serenity, only to bring out that sense of dread at the start of the second chase now that I know what I’m in for…

That’s nothing short of art.

I’ve played the game up to the end of the second boss and unlocking the Air elemental, and I’m unsure what to do next, but I’m of the belief that I’ve played enough of what is there (the game page does say “explore 2 carefully handcrafted zones”, after all) to give my two cents:

I think the game sets itself up for an unfairly bad first impression, between the zoomed-out camera and awkward combat. I know that these are things you mentioned will be addressed in future updates, so I’ll try to approach both points in ways that other people haven’t mentioned yet:

• You may want to think carefully about your level design and its scale in relation to a smaller field of view. Compare how New Super Mario Bros. Wii has longer levels with objects spaced out farther from one another to account for its widescreen display, compared to New Super Mario Bros. on DS, for example. I feel that similarly, there’s a lot of empty space in your level design currently, and zooming in on that level design as-is might make navigation much harder.
• Currently, I think the biggest issue with combat (and actions in general, like healing or shooting fire) is that it completely locks player movement, horizontally, vertically and on moving platforms. This means that trying to do any of these actions while on a horizontally moving platform can lead to the platform moving out from under the player’s feet! That being said, this has helped a little in stalling mid-air when waiting for platforms to come closer, and some other kind of mechanic that lets players do this might be interesting, like a spot-dodge action.
• Also, note that you can only attack once in the air before landing as of now. That should definitely be revised as well.

Once the dash and fire shot is unlocked, I think the game opens up and displays more of its potential. I like that opened doors persist after death; I think the boss battles are interesting and engaging, although they could be a bit better telegraphed for first-time players; I like that the signs around the maps start incorporating more gameplay advice; and I think that generally, the level design is able to make more clever use of players’ abilities now that there’s more to work with.

There are definitely a few things I’d suggest still, though:

• I think your player controller needs a bit of acceleration and inertia. Without this, platforming feels actually too loose and imprecise in my opinion.
• You may want to think about how to map all your different actions onto a controller; I noticed that there is no way to open the map, or switch to the Null/Air elementals on controller, and had to use my keyboard for those functions specifically. (Additionally, right/left on the D-pad currently does nothing, and up/down makes the player move right and left for some reason.)
• Making the fire shot and wall breaking abilities cost energy is a bad idea the way it’s currently implemented. If they’re required for progression and puzzle-solving (which they should be), I think they should either not cost energy, or restoring energy should be easier, besides using a new checkpoint or landing hit combos on enemies.
• On a similar topic, I think letting checkpoints restore energy (and maybe health) whenever they’re touched might be player-friendly, no matter whether the checkpoint has been activated already or not.
• Is there a reason why the Fire elemental has to dash through vertical fire pillars to not be harmed, but it can stand in horizontal ones just fine?
• You may want to think about how your gravity and momentum works as a whole. Moving platforms in particular seem to apply vertical movement velocity onto players and objects placed on them; this leads to jumps being unusually high or low depending on whether the platform you’re standing on is moving up or down, and crates will bounce at the peak of a platform’s movement (and are generally way too affected by momentum, ironically).

I know I’ve outlined mostly ways that I think the game can improve, and I hope it doesn’t come across as an attempt to be overly critical. There’s a lot of areas in which I think the game already demonstrates potential and competence, and as long as you’re looking to continue development, I figure that it’s important that I mention these points, rather than to brush them under the rug and assume that you’re already aware of these things.

Though, I should say: that song for The Ashen Forest is quite good! In general, I think Area 2 does a much better job setting up atmosphere through its music and visuals than Area 1.

I wish your team all the best throughout the rest of the rating process, and onwards as you continue working on this game.

There doesn’t seem to be a lot here right now (three rooms, two enemy types, no objective/interactable objects), but what is here is pretty solid! The camera moving dynamically to focus on things of interest is a very cool touch. The camera does glitch out on the lowermost path in the lowermost room, but I’m sure you’re aware of that.

I like the bounce you get from attacking enemies from above (ie: attacking downwards)! I think playing with momentum from that could be fun. It’s nice that the dash is multi-directional, too! Also, given the attack’s short horizontal range when used from the ground, I wonder if a slightly taller hitbox would be worth considering? It’d let players fight more safely, from a position one tile taller or lower than the enemy they’re fighting.

There’s not much more that I can say besides this given how little is in the game right now, unless there was something in the path with the glitched camera that I wasn’t able to see or access.

Thank you for reaching out! I’ve sent you a DM on Bluesky.

Sorry about that! Here’s the new link to the soundtrack.

Thank you for enjoying Feather Park!

Hello, everyone! I’m a music composer going by mellorine. My music has been featured in a handful of projects before, including Feather Park, the Cozy Autumn Game Jam 2022 runner-up. (soundtrack here)

Below are some of my most recent tracks - this is a dynamically updating portfolio, so it might have something new the next time you check!

I’ve also included an older demo reel below: I have a newer one available here (and on my website), but that one caters more to action games in my opinion.

As a newcomer to the world of visual novel development but an experienced musician nonetheless, I’m eager to work with a team that’ll let me demonstrate more of my musical range (hard exceptions being games featuring graphic violence, adult content or being otherwise inappropriate for a general audience). Ideally, I’d love for it to go somewhere past NaNoRenO, but I’m not worrying about that right now.

I can, and most likely will proofread the scripts of whatever team I end up working with as well. I’m also technically a native Korean speaker, but I’d rather not guarantee any translation duties.

If you would like to contact me (for NaNoRenO or otherwise), please note that I don’t check my itch.io notifications too often. I can be best reached through Bluesky or my contact form!

Video reel and portfolio below! You can check my website as well.

Hello, everyone! I’m mellorine, and my goal as a game music composer is to show what I love about the world of video games through my own music.

I’ve participated in a few game jams, as well as some other video game-adjacent projects in the past. If you’re interested in working together, I’d love to work on making your project sound great!

That sounds great! I know I might have sounded a bit more critical than I actually meant in my first comment, but I’m genuinely looking forward to the update and the soundtrack release.

Hi everyone! I won’t be able to participate for the Winter VN Jam Meet & Greets, but I’m still definitely interested in looking for a team to join the jam!

I’m a music composer with some SFX experience; I’ve also sung (English/Korean/Japanese) and done voiceover on small personal things if that interests you! Additionally, I’ve proof-read on some pieces of writing, including a Twine game.

I’ve done a variety of styles for a variety of projects ranging from 90’s-inspired platformers to contemporary choir arrangements, but something I always love doing is cozy, warm acoustic soundscapes like the work I did for Feather Park, the 2nd place entry in this year’s Cozy Autumn Game Jam. Maybe this kind of vibe is something you’d like to work with!

Besides that, though, I’ve done a lot more music, and I’ve picked up a lot of styles as my projects called for them. Here’s my 2021 music reel for reference:

If any of this interests you, I’d love to chat. Maybe we can make some art together this game jam!

It’s incredible to imagine two people got all this done, especially with all the music, in just two weeks. I handled just music on this jam and barely managed to get a soundtrack of two tracks and two fanfares done, so I can’t help but praise your work ethic.

The balance meter is an interesting idea - it comes across to me that you intended it to be a fair, forgiving way of handling failure in rhythm games, but I’ve seen other people perceiving it as an overwhelming additional element to simultaneously juggle alongside the rhythm gameplay.

Unlike some other games I’ve seen this jam, I am a little skeptical about whether this game concept could be increased in scope and scale. The concept of “keep getting good at the gameplay loop to add additional game time!” as seen with things like endless modes in puzzle games or E-102 Gamma’s gameplay in Sonic Adventure is solid in theory, but I think it’s hampered in this case by the fact that the songs are of fixed length - no amount of increased skill will make them take up less of your finite time, even if the reward money compensates for that. In my personal experience, it makes me feel like how much time I have left is out of my control, regardless of the ability to buy extra time.

I’m definitely glad to see this game exists in the state it’s in, though. It’s an excellent exploration of a bunch of ideas that feels really authentically PS1 in spirit. I admire the soundtrack’s bolder approach to messing with sound compared to what I’m normally used to. I’d love to see a download of it!

I thought this game was pretty fun once I got the hang of it! The Ape Escape-esque soundtrack really helps, too.

I think the game has a bit of a problem with conveyance, though. There’s a bit too much sitting around scrolling through text that I think players might get bored, skip the text and miss out on both important tutorials and lore. Spacing things out by having more optional NPCs that talk about the world and opting for more visual and environmental storytelling would be really helpful.

I imagine there’s a lot of detailed inspiration behind the world of the game that I didn’t pick up on, seeing as how there’s three writers behind the game who I’m sure have had a lot they wanted conveyed through the game script. I hope we’ll see this game and its world elaborated upon!

The movement feels really polished and rewarding! It took me a while to really get the hang of the combat, but I can tell a lot of effort was put into giving it a lot of depth.

I’d love to see this go on into a full game, but if you plan to, I’d have to ask you if you can find a way to make combat more important. Right now, most enemies appear to be able to be bypassed by just maneuvering around and past them, which means that there feels like there’s little point to fighting other than if you just want to.

Besides that, though, there’s a lot of attention to detail here that I really admire. Even having a ledge grab is one major detail that I think has this game stand out amongst the rest!

Hi! I know I’m a little late, but I finally got to play your game. Sorry I didn’t run across it during the voting period!

I liked it! It reminds me of a more peaceful Pikmin in how you’re exploring an alien planet (which is actually Earth), going through day-and-night cycles and occasionally bringing a pumpkin back to your ship. There’s so many things I can see going into a concept like this, many of which I’m sure you’ve already thought about but couldn’t implement in time. Yodawg was a surprising but cute addition, too.

I like how you’ve implemented different levels of brightness for the time of day; the rain, which is a really nice touch to add extra atmosphere; the roundness of the map, which really helps make it feel like a tiny planet; and I enjoyed the voice acting and sound effects for when you pick up a mushroom.

One thing I’d like to bring to your attention a little is the sound and music, though. I think for a game like this, having a bit more ambience in the form of gentle wind and/or rain could really help make the world feel more alive with relatively little work. As for the music, I actually found it becoming the most repetitive aspect of the game over time. I think something less constantly present, a bit more minimalist like the Animal Crossing soundtracks, would actually complement a game like this, especially with additional sound design as I’ve mentioned.

Still, though, it’s definitely cozy, and I liked the ending too. I think if I’d been able to rate it during the rating period (keep in mind I tend to be a bit picky 😓), it would have been:

Overall: 3.5 - I don’t know how I would have voted for it between 3 and 4!

Cozy: 4

Fun: 3

Creativity: 4

Theme: 3 - The pumpkin is a good touch, but I wonder if more autumn colors could have helped?

Aesthetics: 4

It’s really impressive that you managed to implement all this in two weeks! The art is great and perfectly evocative of Game Boy classics, and so are the minigames.

Besides sound, one thing I’d like to ask if it’s possible to implement is to let the main character walk freely, like in Link’s Awakening, instead of being restricted to a grid like in the Pokémon games. I feel like it’d make getting from place to place feel more convenient if you could move diagonally, for example!

Short, simple and sweet. I’m impressed at the quality of the audio given how much time it was completed in!

It’s really cute! I loved the art a lot, and while the writing could use some proofreading for better flow, I think the overall mood of the game absolutely fits the cozy vibe. I went with the Theo ending first, but I liked both routes and how their dialog choices naturally lead into the drink at the end.

I’ll second the sentiment that the experience would definitely feel a lot nicer with some audio. I’ll have to look out for an update down the road!

Quick edit: Is the title of the game “A Latte Love” or “A Latte of Love”? I personally prefer the former!

I really enjoyed this! I’m usually bad at these kinds of games, so between the looming winter, five-year timeframe and information overload I was really anxious at first, but finding out it was more or less turn-based and didn’t really seem to have a fail state let me relax and have fun feeding the rabbits (and other animals).

Thank you for enjoying the game and soundtrack!

I know this might be a silly question, but have you tried holding down Space when controlling the drone? It’s what lets the drone hover.

The bubbles say all! :)

Thank you for enjoying my music! I've sent you a Discord request; I'm looking forward to talking with you too. :)

Hi, everyone! I'm looking forward to the game jam, and if you've got some room for a composer, I'd ideally love to participate in it too!
I'll keep it brief and let my work speak for itself: I like acoustic (live and sampled) soundscapes combined with that charm that melodies from 90's video games exude. If your project might gel with it, I'd love to chat! Even if not, I'd like to get to know creators anyway.

Best of luck, and I hope you all have fun with the game jam!