Basically, all of this. A good upbeat western theme would've really pulled it all together, and not being able to see far ahead -- especially as a switch came at the same time as a new engine -- made some deaths feel cheap. But a real clever take on the theme!
A little less graphical than a some of the other matchmaking games, but the mechanics are solid and the simplicity makes it easier to jump between people to make a couple.
Teapot got my only complaint, basically. The puzzling reminded me a lot of Half-Life/HL2 puzzling, which is fine, but not having fine control made it a little fiddly. The art/ambient track/atmosphere was very good, however!
This would be an absolute banger of a mobile game. Slick and tricky and the challenge ramps nicely. It was a little finnicky using a mouse to get it to stick, but I feel a touchscreen would make it shine.
Criminally underrated game. Good gameplay, fun music, finnicky puzzles (but in a good "I need to get better to solve them" way). Deserves way more attention!
This comment nails it all. A little more direction within the level would've been good, but overall extremely good for a first game! Keep up the good work!
Cryptic Space Clue! It melted my brain a little, not gonna lie, especially that last level. But I nailed the first two with no problem. A little more instruction would've gone a long way, I feel, but your game page said you ran out of time, which is understandable. Still, definitely a hidden gem.
Cute little puzzle game, and I really appreciated the music tracks being tied to their particular realities. Nothing too terribly hard, but I feel it could definitely be expanded on if you ever wanted to add more levels.
Clever little puzzle game. Didn't realize at first that there were two different ways to connect them, so figuring that out was a nice surprise. If I had to suggest a tweak, the biggest one would be adding a wil-e coyote frame or two for jumps. Level 2 gave me more trouble than any of the "harder" levels, because I kept sliding off the long lateral jump, because I fell the second I was off the block. Made that particular jump feel finnicky.
This basically sums up how I feel, too. I had less of an issue getting it started spinning, but unless I could get the released ball into a horizontal path, it was far harder to usefully destroy shots compared to the attached ball. Very neat concept, however, Touhou + a flail.
Honestly some of the more fun ball & chain mechanics I've played this jam; was able to get a good, strong swing consistently. The enemy spawn can be very unforgiving, though, as my first time through I had two spawn right outside the hole I'd just made, and they nicked me right off the bat.
An original idea, but woof. It was not easy. The sheep seemed to go into anxiety shakes when a dog came even slightly close to it and bombs could remove land/rocks but not dogs, which meant a misplaced dog (that could happen seemingly randomly if the trajectory on bottom hit the top of the screen -- but only sometimes) was there forever.
Enjoyed the time travel shenanigans, and glad to see someone use twine! It's a versatile little system. Someone mentioned adding little side items to do in the past to influence the future in small ways, and I agree, that would be fun.
Really clever concept on it, and while it was tricky in more than a few places, I feel the coin placement was perfect for guiding us through the levels. I liked and hated that it forced you to commit to your movements -- no tweaking up or down, since you're far more likely to ram your head/feet into a wall, then. My only issue is that in the web version, if you died a lot (I did), then eventually the SFX would get a bit buggy and static-y.
Took me a moment to figure out the mechanics in the second map -- sat next to a column with no gem, pressing E, until it clicked that I was taking/replacing gems, not just "activating" columns. After that, it was off to the races. Good puzzle design, nice graphics, and chill music.
Extremely dang cute! Level 3 hung me up a little, but once I got the jump timing down, it was all good. Would've loved a few more levels or twists, but enjoyed what was there anyway
Really fun. Hated the charge weapons at first, but I figured out in the right combos they could be really great. Yellow + Red, for example, was a great way to disengage from a large group safely. Some of the SFX got real bass-y, to the point that they were bottoming out my headphones, so maybe tweak those in a QoL update.
Impressed that you made it without an engine, and the gameplay was fun and engaging. Not a whole lot to it, and I'm still not positive on what all the pickups did, or why only the green slimes counted towards waves ending, and not all slimes... but was fun nonetheless.
I like the mirror concept, forcing you to keep track of both characters' safety. My music was getting pretty glitchy after a few loops, unfortunately, since it was a good, pensive track that fit the puzzle-solving mood.
Has a little jank in where it allows me to click/cut, but the biggest props for making a pico-8 with as deep of mechanics as these. Really good! I had to switch off pico-8 for my initial idea, because I wasn't comfortable enough in lua, so I'm just so pleased you got it to work!
I'll straight up say tower defense is not my usual genre, but the expanding map gave a good wrinkle to the gameplay, and the fact that you banged out all the assets in the span of the jam is really impressive!
The movement/dash weren't bad -- made me tap into my Enter the Gungeon muscle memory -- but the enemies were just the worst kind of bullet sponges. I finally just turned down the volume, equipped the automatic grenades, and did my best to blast through. Made it to the second wave of the third area before I got too hemmed in on a spawn to dash away.
You did an absolutely brilliant job ramping up the difficulty on this. I even forgot about jumping three or four levels in until it was necessary. Just really clever. A couple were a little easy -- I finished one 400kg over -- but still good design.
It's an interesting game that I think speaks to each player's playstyle. For example, I found the web useless, so I didn't use the mage very often, but the knight's dash was very useful in running down ranged damage dealers. Good concept and execution!
Was trying to pull the blue ball under a green block for the momentum -- it bounced off my red ball as it was shrinking, and then my ball just never went away when I clicked a second time.
Yeah, like others have commented, it's a tough game. I almost think having it as a split twinstick would be better. One with WASD one with either arrows or numpad. The art and concept were fun, though!
I was stuck in the high 80s for a while and finally got a game of 95.
Kudos to the artist, all those little portraits were great! Like other comments have said, an easier restart and the "good match" feedback would've been great... but after a few games I was hooked enough on the mechanic that I didn't mind it.
Fun mechanic once you get the hang of it. I did run into one bug where it kept a small, red ball on screen and then let me spawn in a second, and both were attached (which just sent the blue ball into a nosedive off the screen. Screenshot attached.
Happened to me, too. But! Until then, I thought it was really nice. And special shout out to whoever animated that little "carrying the block" animation!
Fun mechanic once you get the hang of it. I did run into one bug where it kept a small, red ball on screen and then let me spawn in a second, and both were attached (which just sent the blue ball into a nosedive off the screen. Screenshot attached.