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I just encountered a similar bug!

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Thank you! Would it surprise you to learn that the chat mechanic was originally much more convoluted and confusing?

We've fixed most of it, and there's a new version with about 80% of the fixes implemented on the Itch page, but we may need to encourage people to check it out after the jam. Thank you once again!

We've fixed most of it, and there's a new version with about 80% of the fixes implemented on the Itch page, but we may need to encourage people to check it out after the jam.

We're working on a huge patch of fixes that should allow you to see the whole thing and make combat much more engaging, if you want to check it out again tomorrow!

The two types of attack being required was more satisfying than I anticipated! However, I found the mouse controls pretty frustrating, because moving the mouse around with each little shift in player position was not fun, at least with the mouse and keyboard I was using to play. Great job making something, and if you work on it more after the jam, let me know!

Oh, who did the writing? I forgot to call this out specifically in my earlier comment, but I thought the "marriage proposal" reference was integrated very cleverly. Also, I'm stunned at how many unique assets you guys managed to make!

Ohh, I think I may have completely missed that mechanic!

It's the tag rendering, yeah, and also how the words will sometimes jump across a line break once completed. Also (I think this is something easily changed manually) there's at least one point where there's more text in the balloon than usual and so it starts scaling down the typeface, which is a little awkward.

I agree that "slop maker simulator" might have been taken the wrong way, hahaha.

Thank you for taking it in the sentiment I intended! Visual novels can be such a personal thing in terms of preferences.

Yeah, I think that would really help! Again, I'm not averse to checking it out if you want to make some tweaks.

Oh, I didn't mean to sound as if I were accusing you of anything. I agree we must have had a similar thought process! I was just noting how I found it interesting and how it affected how opinionated I was about your implementation of those ideas. I'm glad you're content with your game and your contributions to it. That's the real prize in this jam, in my opinion.

You're so welcome!

Yeah, I think the issue for me is size + position of the window combined with the activity. I think my best comparisons are to film/TV. It feels kind of like a movie violating the 180-degree rule and jumping across the axis of action, or a TV show using a bunch of quick cuts in an action scene where the intended focus leaps around the screen.

I have a possibly bonkers suggestion which might be terrible, but might be interesting to try. It occurs to me that if the window were somehow linked to the cursor position, it might feel a bit better? As is, the flow is: eyes on cursor -> flick to Crowki View to time -> flick back to screen and locate cursor and change position -> flick back to Crowki view. The Crowki View having a consistent relationship to the cursor might help? I agree that in lieu of that (or some other approach) an accessibility feature might be a welcome addition.

One of the games I was looking forward to playing most! Insanely polished entry and a type of gameplay I find very engrossing. I only pulled myself away from playing it because I have to look at other games. I did find some of the stat associations to be a little abstract or not quite clearly signaled, but not enough to really effect my enjoyment. And props for fitting in more references than just Mint. Even though there wasn't a lot of dialogue, Doki felt like Doki (the pixel art really helps with that, too). A great, effective take on "Princess Maker" management sims. If this had a story or conversation mechanics in it I'm not sure I would have been able to pull myself away from it quite so easily. I'm not saying that to complain that you didn't make a different game, but to illustrate how great the core gameplay is and how I think it could be part of something bigger if you wanted to continue tinkering with it after the jam. I think my only real concern about the game kinda has nothing to do with it. (I find the chosen username of one of the contributors kind of alarming, but I guess it might be ironic.)

Quite a few of the sounds/music tracks reminded me of things I couldn't quite place. I'm not sure if they were direct references or if the music just nailed the style so much that it felt as if I'd heard it somewhere else.

Great game, plenty of polish, something you should really be proud of, and let me know if you do any more with it after the jam.

This is maybe an odd note to give, but I was expecting a bit more of a satire on react content and wouldn't mind if it were present.

I'm not very familiar with the genre, but I gave this one a go till I became confused by the different currencies and menus. Fun!

I do want to note that some of the sounds and music are a bit harsh on my speakers, and obviously the dialogue system is a little rough. I enjoyed the shamelessness of making the character a chain. One of my favorite approaches to the theme that I've found so far (and maybe a little similar to the theme my team's game has, or will have once the bugs are fixed).

Yeah, there may not be an elegant solution to mouse capture for 3D browser games.

Yes, your destruction effects were really funny! I like that it goes from generic cubes to horses being smashed into pieces. Again, I think there's great core movement here and it could really be something addictive if you decide to keep tinkering with it.

This was a fun, simple little entry with excellent, distinctive spritework and music. I'm not quite sure how it fits the "chain reaction" theme? Some of the hitboxes feel a little wrong, but Doki being hit by them is very funny, so that's not a big deal.

Oh, this is quite fun! The door switches were a little confusing for me at first (I think partially because there are two sounds triggered, so it makes it seem as if two things are happening). I also found the street/building distinction a little awkward, but I adjusted to it. I loved the art and the music and sounds so much. You did a great job with the colors: they were vibrant but not harsh. I'd love a version of this game with more elaborate mechanics or something, but as is, you have managed to create a polished game that incorporates the theme and stays neatly within scope yet is creative and different. The "retry" screen is very funny, and you even managed to make a game based on the game jam trailer!

A very impressive entry, and team members, feel free to let me know what you're working on next.

Unfortunately, I didn't really vibe with this entry. I appreciate the ambition, and the idea of using Dokibird as more of a supporting character to these extremely dysfunctional lesbians is interesting, but it didn't really feel like it had much to do with Dokibird or captured her personality. The humor seemed like it was trying to have it both ways in regards to how "random" it was. Because there's so little input expected in visual novels, little things like "number of dialogue screens till the next location" can make such a huge difference, and this game didn't quite have the right balance for me (though maybe huge obsessives about the genre would disagree).

I think this is a really fun core idea for a simple cozy clicking/management game. I did find it a little confusing at first, but I enjoyed the planting and seeing the dragoon just vibe. I wasn't quite sure what the player is meant to be working towards exactly for that week other than "tomatoes," and if you go wild and use what you have on hand at the farm the first day then there isn't really much to do on the farm after that. It's also kind of rough that a misclick can eat a farm/market session. I'm not sure if you made the music yourself or not, but I enjoyed it.

I thought the vibe of the game was fun and liked the art and sounds, but I didn't really enjoy the gameplay. I didn't realize until returning to the submission page and seeing your note about it that not aiming correctly results in the dragoons splitting. I'm not sure what the purpose is of manual reloading in this game, but maybe there's something about the gameplay I wasn't appreciating. I'd be happy to play this again if you decide to work on it more. I appreciate that you had such a specific reference in the background (to Doki's "No Matter What" cover video) and the Doki/Mint bickering in the sketch on the Itch page is very enjoyable.

This is a game that I think would really benefit from procedural levels or something! I agree that chain gun game fun.

Well, you nailed it. There's a chain and things are reacting to it.

I want to say, first off, that this is currently the game that I've most wanted to keep dicking around in even after I reach the moment where I realize what it's going for. It's so extremely fun just to go "vrooom" in this one! It reminded me of games such as Donut County or Katamari Damacy.

That being said, there are a lot of things here that are technically not great game design, and tweaking them could take this from a fun "wheee" game to something with more depth. For instance, I actually didn't realize there was a whole shoot/retract mechanic for the chain till after a couple sessions. I was just dragging the chain around and steering it into things. I actually think that's very funny and how I enjoyed the game most, but it does mean that, for me, it's maybe a different game than the one you intended.

I agree with the feedback about progression and rewards and the grapple mechanic being confusing. My first thought regarding the grapple was that if I increased the jump and grapple enough I could quickly reach more areas with more stuff to smash, but it doesn't seem like the player is able to launch the spike ball into a rock face and then pull to it.

I found the mouse capture kind of annoying, but you deactivated it during menus and things, so it wasn't too bad.

One thing I'm not sure anyone's pointed out yet is that Doki seems just as able to smash things with her face as she is with her chain. Arguably she's more able to do it, since the player has more direct control. This is extremely fun, but perhaps could use tweaking so that the player is encouraged to use the chain more.

The seemingly inexplicable hostility towards horses was very funny, but I think there's an opportunity to add more references by including different objects and creatures.

As I said, this is probably the game I enjoyed the most when it comes to the actual gameplay. I think it could be something extremely satisfying if you were to work on it more, and please let me know if you do.

I'm not sure if there were some bugs that affected my experience, but I didn't see any projectiles or AoE indicators for the dragoon's attacks, so it was difficult to judge how close the dragoon needed to be to the enemies. I also am not sure what the purpose is of representing damage with so many decimal places, or why a "cracked ground" effect follows the player around. I think progression for the first couple player levels should be quicker, because otherwise it's just the player waiting until they can make their first actual strategic decision, if you see my meaning.

(I see from reading other comments that those quick green orbs were experience points. I thought they were some type of bullet attack!)

Moving around in the game was very fun, though, and I actually had the most fun just going "wheee" and zooming past the enemies in a straight line across the field. If you decide to develop this game more, I'd probably check it out again, because the movement was very satisfying.

One note: the tutorial screen uses some abbreviations and technical terms I'm not quite familiar with, not having much experience with this type of game. I know you were trying to keep it concise (which is appreciated!), but it's maybe too concise.

Your team's premise and approach actually has a lot of similarities to what my team made (we have Mint as a bartender, for example, and Dokibird has amnesia and isn't sure of her identity, and there's some dialogue and idle conversations).

At the risk of being a huge hypocrite, then, I think the game had too much dialogue at the start (and if you click to continue the game after restarting the level, you have to click through all of it again) and a lot of it was aimless banter, which can be fun, but not really at the start of a game, and I didn't vibe much with the exact style of humor being deployed. It felt kinda "Rawr XD, glomps u," which is not a sensibility I really associate with Dokibird (at least since her redebut), and the dialogue attempts to patch over the limited assets of a game jam game instead of working within that scope, which is awkward, and leads to really complicated events or actions being conveyed through text on a black screen.

I also found the battle system a little confusing regarding inputs and timing.

I did really enjoy the art and the concept of having some of Doki's friends or collaborators having "Dragoon-sonas." It was fun to see Dooby and a train.

Since there are some similarities to my team's game, I obviously think there's potential in them. But I also obviously prefer a different take on them, since my team made a different game! So I'm sympathetic but opinionated/biased. No harm, no foul, and if the combat system were to be polished and the dialogue streamlined, I'd be happy to take another look at the game, because I do think it's interesting as a "developer" (I put it in quotes because I don't know what the fuck when it comes to programming) to see a game with such specific similarities to your own project but also a lot of differences. I'm curious how your game's story unfolds compared to ours!

This game has fun vibes but could use some polish. The platforming (to me) felt awkward and kind of like a generic template. The hacking system was extremely opaque and trying to parse the more complicated tutorial diagrams was comically (mildly) frustrating and so I didn't really see the "chain reactions" element, although I think I know what you were going for, maybe.  I know it's often theoretically more "elegant" to incorporate the tutorial part with the gameplay part, but I would have preferred some text boxes just flat-out telling me what I was supposed to do and what various parts of the level were.

It feels like your team had the concept and a bunch of ideas but didn't do much early-jam trimming. Believe me: I extremely sympathize, and I am more impressed by a game with ambition and promise than by a competent game doing nothing but what I've seen other games do before. I actually think a game with this premise, mixing platforming and "hacking" puzzle elements where you deal with enemies indirectly and then there's an auction house system for your loot, is really intriguing, and if you kept working on it, I'd be happy to come back and try it again. (Maybe if you're spotted by dragoons or a camera, it decreases your take from the auction because the goods are riskier to handle?)

One note is that there were a couple of ugly, scratchy audio things when first starting the game. I'm not sure what might be causing that, but wanted to mention that as something to look into.

The art and level design is fun, even with the placeholder elements, and major points for recruiting a composer instead of using stock tracks. The music ruled and really fit the vibe of the game and encouraged me to keep trying to work my way a little further into the tutorial level even with the rough edges of the platforming and tutorial diagrams. It's also very funny that you kinda leaned into things Dokibird is, let's say, not known for as a streamer (hacking knowledge, platforming, money management, being stealthy and sneaky without a gun in hand). I'm happy to see a game that takes the "thief" concept of Retro Doki and uses it for vibes and gameplay. It's an obvious choice (and, given the nature of a game jam, potentially a pragmatic one) to go "chain reaction, shooting, Bounty Hunter Doki" and I respect that you wanted to do something different.

I agree with the previous feedback. I like the concept but found the implementation of the map a little confusing, there are some "QoL" issues (if you choose the tutorial and then retry the level it plays the tutorial again, and it has really slow text speed), and maybe I missed it, but I didn't see anything that told me about the current "status" of the chain reaction or when it was being activated.

That said, this is very impressive as a solo jam effort and I think (if you want) has the starting pieces of a game that could be really relaxed and fun.

Obviously a game from this developer would be pretty polished and appealing, and I enjoyed the concept, but didn't quite love the way it was implemented.

I'll start with my issues and then follow it with my praise.

Personally, I thought the "Crowki-eye" view was too small or positioned weirdly in the UI, and found it frustrating trying to split my attention between it and the aiming view, which (at least in early stages) is less important. I think this is the kind of thing that is easy to address (in that there's nothing inherent to the game that makes this a problem), but is difficult to actually adjust (because people are different and so many little tiny tweaks can make a huge impact on experience). I didn't personally find the gameplay to be that interesting, but that may simply be about the frustration of the screen-juggling/my personal preferences in puzzle games and I'm not docking points for that or anything.

This one made my computer fan go "VRMMM," but, as the page indicates, you're aware there are some spikes.

Okay, the praise part.

The ambience is great and it's clear that the developer just "knows" the kind of humor or style that fits well with VTubers in general and is coming at this from a fan perspective. It's very game-y in a fun way because it's approaching things "gameplay-first." (Why shoot at barrels instead of just running toward the dragoons and grabbing them? Because that's the gameplay! It's a puzzle game!)

The theme of chain reactions is incorporated very simply but quite thoroughly, which is harder than it sounds, because making a game jam game about "chain reactions" could quickly become much more unwieldy than desired. I would be a little surprised to learn that anything major was cut from the initial vision of the game to this. It seems scoped cleanly and neatly.

I know a lot of the assets (music, models) are third-party things, but I thought they were chosen very well. The main menu theme is a great find and all the pieces are used in a way that coheres.

This game has my favorite implementation of a reference that I've yet seen in the jam (working my way through the queue) and for that alone I think it deserves a medal. It's a very simple, elegant joke deployment that made me smile.

To summarize: I thought the game was nice, nailed the brief and a particular sense of humor, and was quite polished, but personally didn't vibe with it much, possibly because of some UI issues or possibly because it's just not my kind of puzzle game.

Interesting concept! The idea of making strategy out of the order you click things in is nice. I found the randomness to be personally off-putting, but I'm not a big roguelike player. I saw on your page that you had to submit this one early, and I think it's very impressive how you made a cohesive visual style and concept with that constraint.

The "attack chaining" is an interesting variation on the genre staples! In general, I think more polish could help this one (for instance: the background being a static color and making navigation feel a little strange).

Our game features Mint prominently, too (just not as a player character), but Doki and Mint are such a classic content pairing that I didn't even think to ask the organizers about that, hahaha. So I'm glad you guys did!

I'm focusing on working through my queue and then checking out some of the other games, but I'll come back and try out the alternate control scheme.

A really fun "Flash-style" puzzle game! Even the "programmer art" of the NPC dragoon is really endearing.

A couple notes: I found the music kind of bland and a couple color choices seemed pretty harsh on my screen. I also found the green arrows a little confusing at first in terms of appreciating what they were actually directing, but I think if I'd played it earlier today that part might not have been an issue, hahaha.

Your game's in my queue so I need to rate it, but my computer or browser or something didn't vibe with the build and so there wasn't any way to move Doki after the first splash image, so I didn't make much progress, sorry! I'd happily return to the game and score it more properly if you're able to fix that issue.

I really like how the numbers concept encourages more strategy in kiting and enemy priority (and it's a fun reference to Doki's legendarily bad grasp of numbers in general). I think it could be tweaked to be deeper, but for a game jam it's solid, I think!

I agree with some other comments here: the "ouch" sound being compressed is extremely funny, the big score amounts are satisfying (as is seeing a big chain pop off), I found one music track a little grating (could be my speakers!), and clicking to fire every bullet is kind of tiring, and a possible accessibility issue.

I think some of the visual communication could be handled a bit better. It's a little hard to parse enemy hit counters when they begin to swarm, and it's also a little less "instinct-based" trying to focus on the number on the enemy instead of something such as the shape or color. I also think that making the weaker enemies faster would mean a player had to make a bunch of different tactical decisions instead of one decision repeatedly (chip away at the big numbers till they're low enough to be set off by each other with a shot). I also could have used some more Doki references, but I appreciate that it's more difficult in this type of game than in (say) a visual novel, where you can reference something by just writing another line of dialogue.

If you decide to keep working on this one after the jam, I'd welcome the opportunity to play it again and see what you cook.

I've mentioned some of this in the server already, but a game with a veritable "supergroup" of Doki fans was bound to have something special in it. First, it's astonishing how polished this one is. Second, the art is lovely (no surprise). Third, the way the game nails the Doki/Mint stream dynamic is very pleasing (and something I want to achieve with the writing in my team's game).

This isn't meant negatively, but I thought adding Mint as a gameplay option was interesting. It's something I didn't even consider for our game (outside of a scrapped "escort mission" thing) partly because I think I was focused on Mint serving as a friend/comedic antagonist. Switching between their perspectives also switches who holds that position for a given player. It's an interesting "ludonarrative" consideration, and I'm not saying there's a "wrong" answer to it here! I think it's neat that your game provoked this more theoretical question.

I did have some issues with the controls. I'm not sure how to describe it exactly, but the mouse capture is very aggressive and kind of unpleasant to manage if I want to scroll down on the page to check something. And while the "hold right click, then left click" is a good example of kind of abstractly translating a physical action into a control input, it's very cumbersome on a trackpad! I think an alternate control option might be useful.

Thank you so much for the feedback! I'll let you know when we've fixed it, if you like.

The game's very broken at the moment (my fault), so I'd appreciate if you take another look in a couple days (if you have time).

I think that one screen or even just a bit more leftward room before a zig-zag path begins would help with that! (It wasn't clear to me that the trees on the left are a boundary.)

Thanks for the feedback! I believe I accidentally assembled a build of obsolete and new code, so I take some of the blame here. I'd love for you to check out our game again once we address these issues!