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Thank you for playing my game! For your notes, the main menu took 18 hours straight to code and was a nightmare. I wanted to include arrows keys but it became too complex. I should have accounted for them from the start and built around it, that was my lack of foresight.

You are not alone in not knowing that you can control the bullets. I should have been more clear on that, and it stems from the game changing direction. (You used to be able to only control Doki) and should have had more thought.

The idea was between the sponge texture and gamer knowledge that it was a play on bullet sponge. But you are right I should have added clearer indication, my apologies for the confusion.

It was explained about the buttons actually, though I could have done more this is true.

I did include a short tutorial into the dialog, but my code was too rough to implement anything more. Pictures for tutorials sounds marvelous though! Most people are visual learners, so I will keep this idea in mind, thank you so much!

I have since revisited it. No need for a map anymore, as my character not sliding across the screen, triggering multiple overlapping transitions, means I can actually navigate cleanly. It plays like a game! Smooth and without issue, solidly! So I got all endings in pretty short order, thanks to my expertise in horror games. My only real issue is that mint does not remind me of mint in the overworld. But otherwise especially for the time limit, making a horror game is EXTREMELY hard. Well done indeed! I give high marks on ambience, it is spooky and the environment well drawn. Dialog seemed to struggle when I had an item selected, doing a weird double-play or no dialog at all. But the core game and story is a taste of horror that I am quite happy to have received from this game jam! Fantastic work!

Speaking from my own experience making a laser aiming sight in my game, it is only MOSTLY accurate. And I noticed the same thing in your game, where sometimes it is just SLIGHTLY wrong and the bullet goes in an entirely different way. One idea I had to fix this, I don't know how well it would fit in your game by comparison, is if you re-aimed off the wall for each ricochet. Allowing you to kind of control the whole thing. Then saving the angles and playing it all back for the player so they can see all they did in a level. (This was before I added magnetization)

As this is my first game jam, I am curious to hear how do you all find each other to form a team? Friends already? Or is there some kind of "looking for group" that I never knew about? Your insights are very interesting to me, thank you for sharing!

I know I already commented here... But if you have time, I would love to hear the process of how this game was designed. Like, how you settled on this concept, things that had to be changed, how coordinating worked, the process of it all. It is such a solid game, and my personal favorite to win with the upcoming deadline, and so I am curious if you have anything you all want to share.

That is the hugest compliment. Thank you! I sunk an enormous amount of time into it haha.

I am glad you liked it! It was supposed to be "shoot one bullet and make a chain" but magnetize was added and was TOO much fun. Thank you for playing!!

A very well constructed little game! Don't get me wrong, I love the game. For feedback on it, I see you reused tiles to quickly create rooms, very smart! Though it did leave me feeling like there was a large lack of variety between areas. (All the rooms felt the same.) The controls felt really restrictive, perhaps you were trying to emulate NES games, but moving a direction to aim in said direction felt really awkward. Story is simple and good! And I see you put a lot of effort into presentation, and it looks very nice! Though I would have at least zoomed into the TV, because I found myself squinting at the screen a lot. A fantastic entry!

As this is my first game Jam, I find myself questioning how much "made from scratch" is supposed to be here, as I thought it was to be entirely made from scratch? I thought they said the only assets were the provided ones, and didn't think we could use any premade music or assets or code, even if free. Regardless, a top contender!

(Edit, perhaps because you are more experienced, if you have time, you can explain more about what is and isn't normally allowed? Thank youu!)

Very fun game for sure! It took me a while to figure out the controls, even after they were explained. The hitbox for putting tomato into the engine seems really difficult, but once I got it I was good to go! The boss has odd timing, like by the time you get a tomato, put it in the engine, shut the engine, the boss has gone invulnerable. I would have the tomato spawn sooner, personally, so that you don't immediately waste the attack. A well made jam game!

Very fun! If there is a way to avoid the boss's full lane-wide attack I did not figure it out. I only won by hitting them hard enough that they didn't get to do that. Haha! Fantastic!

I kid you not, those tallgoon bullet sponges took like, 4 hours straight to make look right. I have it all on my art stream. I am so happy you enjoyed the game! I put in an enormous amount of work to stand a remotest chance against the 5 man teams haha!

Thank you! I am somebody who played a lot of RTS games with edge-scroll movements. So it came naturally to me, and I did not consider that it might not for others. I will be sure to take my own skill into account next time I make a game!

Your own game is IMO the most relaxing one I played all Jam. I wish you luck for your game too!

Yeah, perhaps I could have been more clear on that. I have a lot to learn as a game developer! But when I added the magnetize button early on, it was so fun that I based the whole game around it.

I personally consider it a "Puzzle Action Game" and it is very chaotic. I am so happy you enjoyed it!

I am so glad you enjoyed it! Sorry that the final boss bugged, I have YET to figure out whhyyyy it does that. (The pain of programming.) And as for the first part of the boss level, I really shot myself in the foot with how my game system is designed. I unfortunately didn't have time to create an alternate start position after failing an attempt, even though I wanted to. I worked extremely hard on all of this~ I take your feedback to heart, next time I make a boss it will certainly have faster re-try's because it DOES suck even if the level is simple, you are right. This has been an important study!

Just myself and an excessive lack of sleep made this haha. Gotta do that to come anywhere close to the 5 man teams level of quality.

Finally got the time to play on easy mode. I would say this is vastly more fair and in-line with the difficulty of the rest of normal mode. What I would have expected it to be like. I would make the game boot in easy (as the new normal) by default, yes. I think making normal into "hard" will absolutely temper the expectations of players that is a great idea! Right now the default difficulty feels like an EX boss. Haha!

I am happy to provide detailed feedback. I study game design and theory, and what's the point of studying if I don't share the knowledge? This game is one of the top ones in the jam I am sure of it. Not trying to critique to be mean, just want to share the understanding I have. I wish thee the greatest of luck in the jam!  ( I am still pleased to play a mute character. They may talk a little in the end that I didn't see before, but appreciation is still there! )

My reason behind "if you can't beat your own game", is that a developer will have skill beyond that of average players. If they can't beat it, average players can't either, and they are the target audience. But if you have your heart set on the difficulty then by all means go for it. And I do hope this game goes far! It's really cool! Though, please refrain from calling a players hours of frustration funny, that is quite hurtful.

Its more an issue I think of difficulty spike. I beat every other character first try, without issue. But suddenly, this final character introduces a new mechanic that isn't fun and additionally has lofty expectations of players. That some people managed to beat it once (can they do so reliably?) does not change that the difficulty spike feels like a difficulty cliff, and is far too great. I would still say the same thing had I managed to beat her. An easy mode I was not aware of, and I will circle back and try it when I have time. Though I still advocate that if you can't beat your own game, it needs rebalanced. I do love it, and without the fakeouts I feel the difficulty would go back in line with the rest of the characters and have a natural progression. That way it doesn't go from training you to "hit it as fast as you can", to "hit it fast but also don't, but also do" so suddenly. That some people have beaten it, or the existence of an easy mode, does not warrant or justify its difficulty.

But don't get my detailed critique wrong, it is an amazing game concept and its going to go far. I do really enjoy it, and want to see it shine bright as it can. As somebody who is disabled (mute) I very very much love getting to see or play a mute character. The art is immaculate too! Sound design superb! I do believe that the boss is the only thing hurting the game right now, and deeply at that. My main suggestion is, if not remove the fakeouts, is to make the fakeouts come in a predictable pattern. Every 3 shots for example.

If you do want to make adjustments, as per jam rules "You should only make tweaks and bugfixes for problems that heavily impact your game's performance or playability" you can adjust the boss if you desire. As "heavily impacts your playability" is an understatement, and people have made adjustments for less.

(edit: Oh and I know that there is the draw mechanic, but on doki sometimes even though it is red, the sound played, and I reacted in time, the game tells me "whoops you fired early that's a strike!" and I am pretty sure that is a bug)

I am a writer, I love doing it. I just wish I picked a game to design where I had more chance to do writing lol. That said the barrels have a glitch that I can't figure out. Sometimes, they just flat out never spawn. Ever. It happens less on the downloadable version but I still don't know why it happens because I can't reliably replicate it. T_T

I do really like the design, the art, the sound, the story, all of that so so so much. But the final boss is downright unfair and stripped all the fun away the moment the fakeouts began. I want to beat the game but its been hours. Multiple successful passes to win is rough, and fakeouts during that is brutal. I was at 7 successive shots I think it was, on the third phase (too many) when I lost at one point. I have no idea what causes it to let a shot through or not, because I have gotten one (by accident) by accidentally hitting the button when it was on screen for less than a couple frames, and it just triggered a chain of shots instead of winning.

Everything else, the sprite work the poses the theming the shading is absolutely gorgeous! I do really like the game, but that boss needs an overhaul. Overall a wonderful job! Very nice! 

I like the art and the theming so so so very much. The music and the wild west with some neat character introductions before battling? Wonderful! Their sprites are vivid and well drawn. But the last boss is clearly not just Dokibird though, it is the Christopher Robin of the game jam. Absolutely broken, extremely unfair, ESPECIALLY the fakeouts, very not fun. I want to beat it, but can't. The rest is great, but that fight immediately takes all the fun away. Needing below 0.3 second reaction speed while also having to check if its a fakeout is crazy expectations to put on a player. 

My suggestion is to do it in a pattern. Maybe only at the start, or once every 3 markers. It would be more like reading her intent, because at random is exceedingly punishing and not fun.

Also, randomly getting a strike when an active (not fakeout) marker did, in fact, appear is quite frustrating. Keeps happening on the Doki fight.

Awesome to hear! I haven't played your game yet so ima stop by soon! Thank you soooo much for the time of day! My first jam has been so fun haha!

You are the one (of five) who made that other awesome game!! Thanks for checking mine out! Like I said in your game, your concept was my same concept until I added a magnetize button. It was too fun, I leaned into it haha. 

ANYWAYS the boss you need to wait for barrels to drop and focus on surviving meanwhile. I wanted to write more banter, but didn't have anywhere to put it. I am so honored that you liked my game!

Please tell your team I am legit rooting for you to win. I would be quite satisfied if you did. You took the concept I had and didn't stray like I did. Good luck!!

Awesome! Again sorry that I tuned it to my spam click. I am sooo glad you like it! The boss all he is, is waiting for barrels and surviving. Wanted to do more but no time sadly.

I feel a kinship with this game because I was originally trying to make nearly this exact same thing. 

• The spritework is amazing. Lots of charm and character!
• The level design is great! (Up until the multi-hit dragoons came in at least.)
• The audio is amazing, masterful even.
• The controls are responsive, But the bullet does not always travel the way it says it will.
• The levels get seriously unreasonable, and it feels like you are just aiming randomly by the end and hoping things work out instead of using any kind of logic.
• The egg bots especially hurt the fun, because trying to make the bullet come BACK to them is really not as fun as "ok and the line connects through them, onto the next one." and it drastically reduces options and fun.
• The final boss is not the same in this way, as the multiple hits actually feels good here. But they also have way too many enemies to clear out in addition to the boss, that its to the point the boss isn't even the goal anymore.
• Your story writing is fantastic, art direction fantastic, setup, ambience, and humor are perfect.

Beyond a few issues like I mentioned, everything is truly absolutely amazing. I think I found the favorite to win the jam. And I have no doubt in my mind that you will place highly, so at bare minimum expect a prize!  As a catgirl Vtuber, I greatly enjoyed the catgirl part! That was my favorite~ Absolute gold~ Here is hoping you place first!

This is perhaps one of the best games in the Jam. Ironically, this was the same initial idea as my OWN jam game before "follow the fun" made it what it currently is. I am happy to see the original thought polished to such a degree. Truly, if you don't win outright, it will certainly be top 5. I will leave my full thoughts in the submission page, truly well done! Well done indeed!

I would suggest a guide, as I can not really seem to figure out how to play the game past the purple keycard. I want to rate this but I also want to be able to play it properly first too. Please let me know if there is going to be an update or something. I will happily come back because I love horror and want to play and rate!

Unfortunately I can't seem to figure out what to do. I got the purple key card, found the purple door, but controlling the character is so difficult and the layout seemingly changes at random. With my character flying at light speed through rooms switching them seemingly at random, it is very hard to tell what is going on. Additionally, level objects seem to be overlapping character dialog, which stops it from being read at all. I am really hoping this gets fixed because I was not expecting a horror game and love horror games so so much!

(edit) A lovely little horror game for the game jam! Since you fixed the bugs and I can play it cleanly, it is charming in its spookyness. Well done!

If you have time, please check again the stamina in my game. I have made an adjustment for people who are not arthritic like me who can click faster and I hope this makes it more fun. Let me know what you think~

If you have time, please check again the stamina in my game. I have made an adjustment for people who are not arthritic like me who can click faster and I hope this makes it more fun. Let me know what you think~

Thank youu! I am working on uploading a different version that is easier, while also keeping the old version that is harder, for fans of the management aspect. I am honored that you enjoyed it!! Thank youu again!

I would love to have an explanation as to how to do them. For anybody interested in doing a speedrun if nothing else.

Actually to that end, do you know if I CAN update it for that? Just about remove the stamina? I would love to if its allowed, but I don't have a discord to like, ask with...

Yeah it got up to nearly 9k points. Each run was a half hour or more though haha. Might I suggest card packs that focus on other cards too? Like I notice the primary drops are just dragoons. Building a deck out of any other card type leaves you with hundreds of unused dragoons. I had one mint card compared to my 6 blue eyes in the deck.

Ah so THAT'S how the speedrun is so short already. Nothing like a good speedrun glitch hunt haha. And no problem for me playing! I am honored to play such a fun game!

Forgot to praise the animation. They all move in such an endearing yet chaotic way. I love it!

I do apologize about the stamina system. I was going to massively lower stamina cost so that people who don't have arthritus (like myself) can spam more. But I fell asleep at the keyboard after 18 hours awake. It would certainly probably have been even more fun without had I the chance to make change. I plan to either massively change or remove it the moment I am allowed to post-jam. You are not crazy haha! And thank you soooo much for playing the game! It is an absolute honor that you gave it the time of day! And if it was allowed I would have absolutely already modified the stamina. Thank you for bearing with it!

Yeah I was adjusting the stamina bar but ran out of time. I have arthritis and so it rarely affected me, and was worried it might hit other players who enjoy magnetizing. I want to replace it as energy for special abilities. (Such as a ghost toggle that your bullets ignore hazards but it drains energy.) I am absolutely wanting to polish this as soon as judging is up. Thank you for playing it!!

My tommygun got a buff lets goooo! And I am honored, and I hope the team enjoyed the video! Hahaha! My own game entry has no neat community speedrunning setup like yours. It is legit cool for real!

I have played this for hours now. It is exceptionally fun! The art is cute the design on the site is cute the chain reactions is exactly what I would picture for this jam! The main issue is the speed at which big combos are triggered, and the time it takes to get new cards that actually synergize. Beyond that, absolutely gold. Wonderful!

I ended up making a deck of pure long neck dragoons and blue eyes white dragoons. The animations take forever but the combo and chaining is literally perfect. I also want to appreciate how you set up the side to be the perfect color for the backdrop of the game too. Like it meshes perfectly and feels like it is all integrated. Also the sprites on the edges are adorable and all adds to the experience. Well thought out!