itch.io

Incredible concept you have here! The mechanics are very polished and intuitive, and very enjoyable. You really have to adapt the way you play depending on the enemies you are facing, giving it much more depth.

I would have preferred if everything could be done with the gamepad (navigating the menu, ...), but it is always nice to see games supporting them. Also, I think the info and tips screen before a level stays displayed a bit too shortly, maybe it would be better with user input.

I don't have a lot of time right now and I kinda suck at it, but you can feel that this is the kind of game where you can progress and get the hang of it very quickly. Nice job!

Thanks for your review! I didn't know Pokemon Ranger, but I can definitely see how fun this kinf od gameplay would be on a touchscreen. I've also noticed this behavior with shapes a few times, and I have a pretty clear idea of how to fix that in a v2.

Oh, nice update! The interactive elements of the tutorial screen are way more visible now. And we got the good boy back ❤️❤️❤️

Clever way to keep the art and avoid any confusion!

Oh yeah, now that I gave it a second look, I can see how it could be confusing for some people, and I definitely would have been part of them, so thank you x)

Thank you for your feedback and kind remarks! I would have loved to do more (separate the tutorial from the main game, make the corridor longer, ...) but I started this jam halfway through and didn't have enough time. I plan to keep working on it to see what I can achieve by polishing it, and yes, my first step will be to revisit the inking mechanic to make it smoother and much more enjoyable.

I am currently considering a few different options that I'll try out, but I am wondering if you had a specific idea in mind when you said "adding a bit more squash/stretch or extra movement", in case it's something I didn't think about yet.

OH MY GOD! I just noticed I got ripped off! Where did the good doggo calendar go?😭

Yes! I suppose it depends on people. I don't mind background music, even if it is repetitive, but I have a harder time with sounds like this. But adding the option to control each volume and putting this option immediately in the main menu was a great idea!

Oh, my bad for the play modes, I was too fast ><'

I love this font! The aesthetics is warm and cute, it is exactly what I was looking for my game jam https://neressea.itch.io/poulp-ink). Thank you so much!

I loved your game! I really like the hand-drawn style (can't wait to see how you'll redraw the Warren and Wilderness!) as well as the adorable little blobs with their cute little mutations, and how they pile up! The atmosphere created by the music and sound effects is really cozy and relaxing.

The mutations could maybe be a bit more visible, it was sometimes hard to differentiate blobs in the Warren and the Wilderness. Also, the blobs were displayed below the bushes, which made it hard to follow the action. And I think the UI could also be a bit more intuitive (less clicks for a given action), but I don't know how exactly.

What I loved most was the core mechanics, the breeding of blobs. It is so fun to see our little army of cute monsters grow, with more and more mutations each generation! And while it is easy to do (you just select two blobs), it is a bit harder to get what you want. You have to take into account their relationships, their individual characteristics, their mutations... There is a lot of combinations you can try!

But I must admit, I got pretty lucky and got this little guy quite early ^^

Really loved this game, the level design is fantastic! I also like the art style and the music very much, everything blends together really well.

It is really polished, I like the fact that you can choose your character and swap the tile colours. Also, I didn't get it on my first try that the butterflies are collectibles, but it wasn't a bad surprise, it made for a fun second run ^^

Frankly, the only thing I regret is that there aren't more levels, because it was just so much fun (and like, it's impressive to make that many levels during a game jam in the first place!)

What a wonderful game you made! With its nice music and SFX, it makes for a nice and chilling puzzle game (I just turned off the ambience sound, it was driving me crazy).

I also liked the tutorial screen, but it was a bit hard to tell the difference between the tutorial parts and the clickable controls. I also thought the hard mode would be a somewhat different puzzle, it could be interesting to indicate the difference between the two modes on the selection screen.

I'm also fond of the popping animation and the recursive search. The puzzle itself was great, not too easy nor impossibly hard. And I really  reaaaaally love the art and the story (stories?), it really gives soul to the game. Congrats!

I love the idea of the cat hiding into the void x)

The movement could be a bit faster, and sometimes I fell like you don't know exactly how far you will push a table. I also misclicked Z once, but maybe that's just me.

Otherwise I also really liked the level design and the difficulty curve. Great game design, it's easy to understand what you have to do and how you can do it. Plus, nice cat!

Very nice dungeon crawler! Especially in such a short time, it's awesome! The music and graphics go really well together and set a nice and coherent vibe.

Like others, I had a bit of trouble with the camera, I think the mouse should be less sensible. And I would prefer if the mouse did not influence the direction (but that might just be me). 

The level design and pace are both great and I liked the progession through the three different  steps (traps, platforms and puzzles).

A very enjoyable platformer! I really like how intuitive  and easy to grasp it is to use the slimes to jump and attack.

One improvement could be to show some sort of slime counter, it is sometimes quite hard to keep track of how many you siphoned, especially in levels where there are so many (like the last level).

Also I didn't immediatly understand when I was sent back to the first level after losing my three lives, maybe adding a sound effect or an animation could make that clearer.

You can feel the care that went into the level design, and I had a lot of fun clearing them all.

Impressive game! I love your art style, the graphics are juste incredible! The music is also stimulating and immediatly draws you into the game.

I liked the idea of the map for choosing your progression, but it was a bit confusing at times. The character was sometimes below the map markers so I couldn't see where I was, and I also had a bit of trouble to understand where you can go. Maybe highlighting the entirety of the possible paths would help.

It also wasn't clear to me during my first run that weapons are cumulative and that I wouldn't be able to go back to the merchant to heal between fights- which led me to take some radically bad decisions x) 
But that may be because I am not very familiar with this kind of games, and it felt natural on the second try.

The game is incredibly well balanced. The battles are extremely enjoyable and challenging, without being frustrating. And there is also a nice choice of items and weapons, which make it fun to play it again.

What a wonderful, charming puzzle game! I adore the art style and the concept is really well executed. With the music and sound effects, the mmod is immediatly set. I'd dare to say it is the perfect marriage ( :p )

As others have pointed out, sometimes it is a bit hard to know what you've collided with. But I think it would be a shame to put a grid over this art, so you could maybe change the size and/or color of the element we collided with to make it stand out?

I think the difficulty curve can also be a bit steeper as you progress through the levels. And I would also love a little animation when the characters meet! 

Doing that game in 5 days is very impressive! That's typically the kind of game I wouldn't mind paying a few bucks for once it is finished.

(As a sidenote, this is the second time I play it. I didn't have any issues the first time, but today, the tab often freezes with both Chrome and Firefox. I don't know if there was an upate of the web build, but I saw that there is a downloable build. I'll check that out when I am home.)

Oh ok, phew! I misunderstood, I thought there was also an issue with normal movement.
In that case, it would be the same with a gamepad. It's due to a poor choice on my part, which I identified too late, I'll try to make these controls smoother in a future version.

Excellent game! I really like the combination of the word game and turn-based fights, with a lot of different bonuses to try out. Well done!

An incredibly fun and complete game, with solid mechanics that evolve cleverly through the levels. I also love the design of the little patchlings and their animation, as well as the overall retro vibe!

Wow, your game is awesome! The pixel art, music, sound effects, and gameplay mechanics all come together perfectly. I also love the presentation of the rules as an employee handbook, great idea!

It is challenging without being discouraging, and there is a nice learning curve. After a few tries, I doubled my score, and I am usually not very good at this kind of game. You can tell the level was carefully designed to be as enjoyable as possible.

I really loved the art, the music and the dialogue with the characters! Their strong personalities really shine through in the game.
However, I wasn't sure if I should try all the options for each sub-dialogue, because the buttons appeared to be disabled but were still clickable.

And even though I understood what I was supposed to do in the journal, I didn't really know which pieces of the puzzle to put together, especially the ones involving two characters.

I couldn't find the solution, but I had a lot of fun and would love to play this game again with a bit more guidance for the parts I didn't quite get. Also, it's a small detail, but I really like the idea of the dynamic main menu that reacts to the mouse.

I absolutely love the idea of a detective duck! It's a shame we can't see how well Ducky will conduct his investigation, but it is an ambitious game. The design of Ducky and the town is also lovely. Plus, there is cake. Who can say no to cake?

Thanks for your feedback! I was too focused to notice it during the game jam, but losing control of the direction when you're inking can be really frustrating when you try to close shapes. And when that's the game's core mechanic... I'll work on that for a v2 to make it more enjoyable.

But you also felt that movement was challenging even when you were not using ink? Could you please explain why, so I can try to improve that? And did you play with a keyboard or a gamepad?

Thanks for your feedback! I'll probably work on a v2 and tweak it a little once the jam is over, to see where I can go with it. I think I understand your point about the movement, but just to be sure: the problem is that when you draw a line, you lose control over the direction, right? That makes it hard to close shapes, which is the core gameplay mechanic. Or is it something else?

Thank you! Drawing is really not my forte, so it took me quite some time ^^