I'm glad to see these posted here after having my own am I stuck or am I missing something moment.

Theme is strongly incorporated in a fun way. The visuals didn't initially attract me, but the specific framing and movement of the character(s) shows unique charm, and overall the game has a Bird Week-like aesthetic to it, especially its backgrounds, which grew on me. 

Basically, playing it for the compo took me from passively interested to extremely interested in the game, and I'm excited for what you two grow it into, as well as what you follow it up with.

Love the visuals, as I've mentioned before. Will definitely be coming back to this one for future co-op. Also, rad screen effect to and from title screen. 

It could benefit from an additional mechanic or two though. Personally, I'd suggest:

• Something for a quick boost of speed (maybe once per wave or earned in another way); and
• Some type of collectible wave between enemy waves for some risk/reward (keep my ship close to guard the tanks or go get the coins/whatever).

You could even kill two birds with one stone and have items that spawn between waves to regenerate the boost.

Oh, and the only reason I knew there was a 2-player mode was from previous discord conversations. Combined with the fact that streamers seem to read Tarmac, the default stage setting, as part of the title/introduction text, restructuring to a more traditional title screen (1P/2P start followed by stage select) might help.

All that said, what's there is really well executed.

Extremely fun for new learners and casual players. The decision to just make the snake short instead of take a life or something makes the game very playable. It opens the game up to cooperative and assistive modes of gameplay, even if unintended originally.

The charm and style are excellent, especially in the portraits. It does what it does very well, even if what it does has been done often before. The decision to focus on polish over scale is a strong one, resulting in a solid and very enjoyable experience. 

I've been super excited for your work since you've started sharing progress on your other projects, am glad to see another one come to fruition, and eagerly looking forward to more. :D

A cute and charming start. Whether this continued or your next NES project, I'm looking forward to it.

I'd also love to see a digital implementation of your physical game, Ascension, btw. :)

I dig the themes and visuals. After digging into puzzlemaker myself, I can appreciate the deviations you've worked into the base engine. One of the biggest I would suggest (and I'd probably say this about every puzzle maker game, and thusly is more a criticism of the engine itself) is having a unique filled-hole metatile (in this case probably a mound of fresh dirt over the grave). I know puzzle maker re-uses the same code for clearing collectibles and clearing holes- so that's a hurdle, but I think the graves/boxes and holes just disappearing is visually jarring.

Oh, and I really dig your 8x8 font in this. Chunky, quirky, and still heavily themed. That's not an easy task. :D

Graveyard Dude was thematically more interesting, but this one seems to be a more interesting showcase of customizing puzzle maker. That said, I think having both in the compo may have harmed each other, as playing them back-to-back (well, within a short time frame of each other) was (just a bit) exhausting. 

This game (and its early stages in particular) sold me on puzzle maker, and its use case for making games with very simple goals for younger players, and I'm now using it to do the same for my own kid.

That said, the biggest potential for improvement here would be to use a different palette for the eggs and the stones. They're very similar in terms of both color and texture. I eventually saw that the outline distinguished them, but my kid—who felt more like the target audience—couldn't. Plus, it's a good habit to increase visual clarity of objectives.

Love it. I like the idea of having info carts like this and would definitely check out a follow up. Would like to see a passive mode where the entry changes automatically after a reasonable amount of time, something that could be left on idle in a room.

The compo game I keep wanting to come back to the most. I haven't played its most obvious inspiration, but have seen videos and I prefer Tactus' specific visual aesthetic to it.

Crazy adorable presentation. Could benefit from a bit clearer in-game feedback/instruction; but one I'd love to come back to when I have some like-minded folks available for multiplayer.

Has a strong aesthetic direction and sticks to it. It's definitely the most Superjail-esque NES title in existence. I also really enjoy the palette customization option, and the surprising fluidity of some of the sprites, such as the ant. Plus, manual and packaging are all excellent. 

By the way, twitch user (and previous year's compo contributor) Link_7777 has put in multiple long gameplay sessions for this. They helped a lot in terms of showcasing what the game's like for someone who's got it under control:

https://www.twitch.tv/link_7777/videos

An extremely polished game that makes me want to see more of it, but with a steep entry barrier that I don't think I'm going to be able/willing to overcome.

A few things that could help:

• Unique thruster animation for going in reverse. My first two attempts at playing it, I legitimately thought both up and down propelled the ship forward because jets were coming from the rear of the ship.
• Current mission coordinates displayed on the screen, as the first handful of plays, I was so engulfed in trying to get the hang of the controls that I forgot the destination. (and after having twice previously experienced the lock-up mentioned on discord where I couldn't exit the mission briefing-only restart it with select, I definitely was not looking forward to sitting through the mission briefing text again.)
• Some way to prevent the player from getting too far away from the first destination (?)

I don't think the controls (input) are as big of an obstacle as the consequences of losing control are. Like, it's way too easy to be flying around space all willy nilly within seconds of playing, and far too difficult to reach the destinations (in terms of regaining control, dealing with other enemies/distractions, and even just psychologically seeing the coordinates, how far away I am from the destination, and how quickly I'm getting even further away). Unfortunately, I think these hurdles are going to cause a lot of players to bail pretty quickly and miss out on most of the game.

That said, there are some very cool things in the game. The big old claw that grabs you and the asteroid shower were both rad, and I'm very much looking forward to either where you take this game, or what you do next. :D

It seems that CDBaby's policy for permission granting on individual videos requires action on the video creator's end instead of the artist's, but it is possible. Perhaps reaching out to the compo streamers with this info, and permission of course, could be a middle ground. https://support.cdbaby.com/hc/en-us/articles/209496166-Rights-and-permission-on-...

Aye. That's quite a bummer considering that your work is only a small portion of the multitude of games featured in these streams. Seems disingenuous to defend a decision that would garner you full monetization rights over these videos due to that.

https://m.twitch.tv/videos/1651732300 

https://www.twitch.tv/retrophiletv/video/1643627283

https://www.twitch.tv/karma_dragoness/video/1640878310

feel free to add any you find/do.

It looks like CDBaby *might* have made a monetization claim on a youtube stream of compo titles. (We had a similar problem with Project Blue through its soundtrack distributor). I would hope that's unwanted behavior, and if so, you might want to opt out of that feature: https://support.cdbaby.com/hc/en-us/articles/209494806

Game's awesome, btw!

I put this spreadsheet together to compile voting between multiple team members; am sharing in case it's helpful for anyone else. This sheet's set up for a team of 3, but can easily be adjusted for varying sizes. If anyone wants to use it, and wants me to change it for team sizes, just ask.
Team Judging Spreadsheet



One cool thing is that Sheets automatically updates references to different sheets/tabs within the file; so you can rename tabs with contributors' names and the formulas still update.

Thanks! 

When Volume 4 was first in the works, it was planned to be twenty-ish titles, and I was illustrating yearbook-style portraits for the cover art. When the scope of the game grew, it became clear I wasn't going to have time to complete those and opted for the design seen on the volume's final packaging and cover art.

Below are the few portraits I had already completed  and colored before making that change:

I'm setting up a project page.
The price set for the project is, for example, $10.
I have "bonus" downloadable files set at a minimum price of $15.  Bulk download keys will be generated to give a group of people access to these files.
I want to have an unconnected physical reward, let's say it's set at $20.

In the above situation, if a user has a download key valued at $15, and they try to purchase the physical reward, will they be able to retrieve it for only $5, or would they, like anyone else, need to pay the full $20?

Looking to take full advantage of the Promo Images features:

Can anyone post examples of places where itch.io uses the separate logo image (i.e. what exactly are promotional modules?), or exactly when the 21x9 "wide cover" image is used for projects?

Yet another postcard illustration for the Homebrew Player's Competition. This one depicting Shiru's Lawn Mower as a stand-up arcade game, with some arcade Punch-Out! influence in the display. I hadn't realized how many of these illustrations were actually from Action 53 Vol. One games.

Another postcard-sized drawing from 2017, this time depicting Joshua Hoffman's Forehead Block Guy, further illustrating my tendency to indulge in overly narrative interpretations of graphically minimalist games.

Above is an illustration depicting characters from Streemerz as 3.75" Hasbro-style action figures (or Lanard-style if your childhood had more The Corps! figures than G.I. Joes, like mine did). The illustration was created for a series of postcards supporting Orab Games' Homebrew Players' Competition.

Above is an A6 (postcard-sized) illustration that I made of Memblers' Munchie Attack (the 11th game in this volume).
This was inked traditionally and colored digitally, in the spring of 2017, as an independent exercise.
Below is a screenshot of the game, showing the subject matter being represented:

Good find on that Easter Egg. :)

Full release of the game and assets is postponed until I can make the time to produce them to the quality level that I want. Hopefully it'll be in the near future though.

Glad you enjoy our games, btw.

Initially, the game was planned to have a medical theme, and as such, the game's working title throughout development was "Doctor Grunio".

That's okay. The demo is the first 12 stages of the full game. Download the full version and enjoy if you haven't played it yet. :)

"The Great Cavy Rescue!" subtitle was added retroactively after titling the game's sequel.

Although the first Gruniożerca has been ported to many systems by a number of different developers, the internal plan for the Gruniożerca  series (if it continues past what's been produced) is:

• Each numeric sequel follows a different gameplay structure.
  • Gruniożerca  (arcade-style catch-the-falling-objects)
  • Gruniożerca 2 (sidescrolling, block placement puzzle platformer)
  • Gruniożerca 3 (overhead, block destruction puzzle game)
• Main entries starting with 2 would follow "The Great Cavy _______!" naming structure.
• Spin-offs that retain core gameplay component would share the same number (Street Fighter 2-style), but have a different subtitle (such as Gruniożerca 2: Dzidzia's VR Playground)

A significant amount of work was completed on a spin-off called Gruniożerca 2: Dzidzia's VR Playground with a visual themed inspired by Metal Gear Solid VR Missions.

In the editor, you would take on the role of Grunio designing Holodeck / Danger Room-style simulations for Dzidzia to play. In the games users, players would have controlled Dzidzia, in an attempt to solve the room puzzles.

This possibility is not entirely off-the-charts, but we have removed it from our priorities for the foreseeable future.

Oct. 7th
During development of Gruniożerca 3: The Great Cavy Clean-up!,  the decision is made to retroactively add the subtitle , The Great Cavy Rescue! to Gruniożerca 2

Feb. 6th, 2019
Gruniożerca 2: The Great Cavy Rescue! is released on itch.io

Thank you. We're glad you like it.

Mar. 8th
Revision  1  officially released.

• Improved transitions…
  • when an object is destroyed under teetering.Grunio.
  • when entering Cavyvision..
  • when exiting a stage.while pushing a stool.
  • while falling from a portal.
  • when a block is placed in front of teetering Grunio (Try it!).
• Improved Input freedom…
  • allowing Cavyvision to be entered while falling.
  • allowing switches to be triggered while sitting.
• Corrected occasional crashes caused by BGM changes.
• Revised SFX code.
• Revised design for room 9.
• Removed unused code and data.

Mar. 15th
NESDev Coding Competition results are posted. We barely managed first place with a score of 44.612, edging out the excellent Project Blue's 43.716.

Feb. 7th, 9th, and 13th
Problems arise during production of auction carts. Crises averted. Working carts constructed and shipped to auction winners.

Feb. 16th
I am interviewed for The Assembly Line podcast regarding the development of Gruniożerca 2.

Jan. 2nd—5th
Łukasz adds even more sound effects, including squeaky sound for hammer. ^^
Archon provides voice sample used for Gramytatywnie version of game.
Discovered and fixed that starting a new game after viewing ending will crash the game.
Briefly consider going a kickstarter route for an extended version of game. Eventually decide not to, and let game stand alone as it is.
Bug discovered and fixed: passwords causing crashes. A side-effect of a recent bugfix.

Jan. 6th
Gramytatywnie auction winners' custom ROMs are sent to Emunes.PL.
Decision to enter NESDev competition is finalized. Work continues on branched-off version to get game back into 64KB restriction of competition.  These include: removing voice sample, removing one music track, Through the Sewers, Łukasz trims remaining tracks, additional 
Discussion begins on a MGS:VR Missions-inspired level editor based on game engine.

Jan. 25th
Box art for auction carts sent for production. 

Jan. 31st
Competition version submitted for NESDev Coding Competition.

Dec. 17th
Actively acknowledge game is not reflex-based, and use that to inform decisions of what to cut and what to leave, in terms of features. Ultimately resulting in a game with essentially no timing-based mechanics, only planning and and execution.
A crash-causing glitch exclusive to NTSC hardware arises late (as former testing had been done on a PAL machine), and corrected.
Added a push-back effect for placing a chew toy in an area only partially obstructed by Grunio.

Dec. 18th
A lot stages get revised.
There is some pressure to finish game from outside sources for Christmas. Eventually decide that a polished game after Christmas is better than a rushed one before.
Increased freedom of which player-modes when player can perform actions from.
Teetering unexpectedly pauses explosions.

Dec. 19th—23rd
Room order decided.
New room designed to replace a subpar one.
Ending animation created.
Google Drive creates major troubles with its handling of conflict copies.

Dec. 26th—30th
My wife completes a full playthrough of the game. Stated intent to kill me at a couple of the difficulty spikes. 
Further room revisions.
Room titles and game dialog revised. Łukasz finishes translating game text into Polish.

Dec. 31st
Initial track listing proposed, all from Shiru.

Title & Ending: Spring Thing (Same as we [were] using [before])
Rooms 01-06 (Mustard): Lost in Hyperspace  Lone FIghter
Rooms 07-12 (Brown): Lone Fighter Encounter
Rooms 03-18 (Teal): Through Sewers
Rooms 19-24 (Pink): Intruder Alert

(Strikethrough text denotes initial contemplation. These tracks will be used for Gramytatywnie release.  Alterations will be made later to fit into competition size restrictions.)

Jan. 1st
Final in-game credits made. Some additional text characters added to chr file.
Google Drive's method renaming of conflict duplicates proves to continue to be an issue. Seems less and less likely maintaining current workflow will be viable with it.
Heavy bugs from BGM arise (music sometimes playing at wrong tempo, buzzing sound instead of tracks starting sometimes, etc.)
BGM issues fixed.

Łukasz 
hm, by debugger, it seems music change gets interrupted by vblank. So while driver is making preparations for starting the music, it gets interrupted by nmi code-which also makes changes to famitracker RAM. Makes sense it would randomly and rarely glitch out. Luckily, there's an easy fix.