itch.io

I have to say this is a pretty creative game. Some clear inspiration from portal. A mouse sensitivity setting would have been nice. I have a lot of trouble in Fullscreen mode. Not much to say on this one

The art is great! Aesthetically your game is quite pleasing; however, the gameplay is a bit lacking. All you do is press the spacebar repeatedly. I would recommend adding some other element to the game. Maybe you have to last to the end of the round and then you can spend your points on upgrades, or maybe the shield only defends, and your tongue is an attack. When designing a game, it's important that the player feels like they have something impactful that they can do, and adding decisions like upgrades is a great way to encourage the player to engage more.

This small and simple runner is very basic. That's not to say that's bad, just that there's not a lot in it. I might in the future recommend adding some obstacles like traps or making multiple paths to follow. I think the character felt a bit too floaty, so playing around with the gravity settings might be beneficial. A suggestion I have is not to have the track float down into place so slowly. I wanted to immediately try again after I died, and waiting around felt monotonous. One final suggestion is to avoid having long stretches where you simply go straight. This is where traps could help, but without them it feels like waiting for a loading screen. I hope this opinion is helpful to you. Take care and God bless bro!

I have a few suggestions, and I think it may be because I've made games that looked and felt almost exactly like this when I first tried making games as a hobby. 

For the character, it feels a bit stiff and, as others have pointed out, would really benefit from some "coyote time". I'd also recommend adding a little bit of velocity or drag to the horizontal movement to make it feel a bit more organic. You want the response times to player input to FEEL instant, but they don't always have to be Exactly instant. Otherwise, things become pixel perfect, which a lot of my old games suffered from. It helps a lot when the player needs to make small movements.

Another thing I'd suggest is to put some decoration in the background, even if it's as simple as a couple layers of clouds. Having multiple layers can increase the perception of movement in the environment as it creates depth. It also helps the levels feel less flat. You only have a few platforms here and there so most of the screen is empty. 

I was initially impressed with the title screen and thought it looked good, but the rest of the game felt like it didn't match that artistic quality. When it comes to menus and UI, it's important to have responsive interfaces. When I hover over a button, it should respond to the player either visually or auditorily, or both preferably. For example, many games have a slight click or tick sound and change color or size just a bit when hovered over or clicked on. It really helps polish the game. 

I also would suggest changing the music in the level. It felt a bit too sharp and discordant for little guy climbing through the clouds. Using a lot of strings or synthetic pads might be a good way to create an atmosphere that reflects the visual tone of the game. 

I hope this gives you some helpful perspective, and I wish you luck as you continue your gamedev journey!

A very small, but well polished game with cute visuals. I would have liked to see some objectives to work toward, like some other bugs that are locked behind a requirement such as "x number of ants to unlock". It gives a sense of progression rather than just aimlessly adding more bugs. Still, my daughter loved watching me play (she's 2), so points for that.

As others have mentioned, there's a lot going on. I Think some additional UI to remind you which button is inventory etc. much like you did with the QWE attacks. Generally I'd say this is well polished. Dynamic music, solid menus and cards, moving backgrounds, but it does look like you ran out of time and had to use filler art. I saw the shop and was a bit confused why it just looked like a box. However, it's a game jam, so not a big deal when it comes down to things. I thought it would be worth mentioning that it broke my immersion for a moment though. 
Like Atomion, I also started just spamming my attacks. I like the idea of the combo system, but I could never remember what those combos were. Maybe a key on the screen during battle, or even a system that shows the different combos you can create as you're typing them. For example, you might type WQ, and a graphic pops up with 3 options: WQWE WQQW WQEW, and as you type the ones that don't fit disappear.
Another combat related suggestion I have is to make the ! icons a bit bigger. I had some trouble noticing them, especially during the first boss fight. You might simply be able to scale them up, but maybe a small particle effect could help identify them visually.

The visuals in this game are quite nice. It's a cute little bunny town. I think this was quite a lot to bite off for a jam. You somehow managed to fit a lot of the elements usually found in games like this, but I do have some suggestions. 

My number 1 suggestion is to change the collection system. Failing to collect a resource because of a minigame can be quite frustrating, and it gets old fast. Imagine how different Minecraft would be if you had to play a minigame for every block you collect. If you do elect to keep the minigames, I would suggest changing it from not getting anything, to getting a smaller amount. The player should still be rewarded for their time. 

Another gameplay suggestion I have is to put an indicator for where enemies are coming from during a raid. I ended up just waiting for them to show up at my base because I didn't know where they were coming from unless a warrior was near me during the raid start. 

Visually, I'd recommend adding a border to the minigames to make it feel less flat. Right now, it feels like it's just a canvas that didn't scale properly. I know it's a lot to ask for a high level of polish for a game like this during a game jam, but these are for learning. I might suggest trying to scope down for the next one, so you have time to commit to improving a smaller number of well balanced and polished mechanics, rather than having a large number of mechanics.

Actually, I was surprised by how often I had to replay levels to try and figure out the most optimized score. It's clear you put some thought into the level design. I thought it was funny how you could get a score beyond 100%. I would suggest you make the player sprite different somehow, either through color or design, because I would often start a level unsure of which one was me. The other suggestion I have was more personal. I found the music became grating to my ears after a bit. While I think the chiptune type is a decent fit for your vibe, when I'm thinking I don't want something that's difficult to tune out. Peaceful and subtle aren't often easy to find in chiptune music though. Overall, I enjoyed playing this game. Nicely done

Well polished. It took me a bit to realize that I had to match the enemy colors with mine in order to stop them. It would be nice if there was a goal to work toward other than a high score. I'm not one for matching games, but I did like the twist to this one

Thank you! I’m glad you enjoyed it. I was originally going for a vibe similar to Monument Valley or Chants of Sennar with the simplistic look, but I’m thinking about theming everything to look like a mountain. Just a little green on top with maybe a few blocky trees and shrubs. What do you think?

Well done! This might be my favorite submission so far! It's polished, fun, creative, and it's a puzzler that's actually challenging not just as a platformer, but as an actual puzzle to get you thinking. You obviously took some time to make the levels play well, not just be playable. The mechanic is creative and both serves the theme well and creates a unique challenge for the player. I have nothing negative to say about this one. You should expand it after the jam!

Creative puzzle game. Really got me thinking. I actually couldn't figure out level 8 after several attempts. It did feel like a bit of a skill jump after the last few, but it was also the equivalent of a boss room. lol.

Not bad for your first jam. I had some trouble with telling what part of my ship counted for collisions and ended up colliding with things a lot when I thought I wouldn't. 

Not bad. A little short, but a unique concept. The dust as a bit hard to see and I ran into a lot by accident. I applaud your use of the TV to create dynamic changes in the level while adding another element of speed while trying to get through before it turns off.  The character felt nice and responsive.

I think you have a pretty creative concept here. The lock mechanic makes for some very dynamic moves you can do. Unfortunately, I felt like much of the potential of this game was left untapped. The levels feel like they were just made to be playable, rather than puzzling. Most of the levels felt like more of a simple checklist of "hit these buttons" or "make a Mongat bridge over this open space". I think it would have been neat to have a limit on how many could spawn in each level, thus forcing you to manage your resources in order to complete the level. Without a limiter like that, it doesn't really feel like a puzzler, just a platformer with a neat mechanic. I'd also say that there were a couple spots where moving became difficult such as the level where you have to jump over another Mongat in a 2-block high corridor. One thing I would have appreciated is a zoom out function for when I needed a wider view. I think it was level 5 that was rather open. I will say I liked that the character movement felt responsive. While I would have liked the jump to be a little higher to prevent having to stack a million guys (it gets tedious) I understand wanting to keep movement snappy. I think with some finesse you could still pull it off.

I'm surprised how much you were able to get done in a mere 2 week timeframe. I thought it was funny how all of the animals were just guys dressed up in suits. It's a cute and funny little colony sim. I quite liked the little quirks you gave the people

Thank you! Glad you liked it! It seems a lot of people have made the Monument Valley connection. I should play that sometime

This game has an interesting and surprisingly difficult way of balancing your team. You're forced to choose between health, attack, and attack speed based on the number of units you have in each line. I seemed to do okay all the way up until the last fight. It was difficult to really get a grasp on which techniques worked best, but I thought that was a good challenge

This is a fun little concept that puts an interesting spin on a "mob defense" game. Throwing the guys at the enemy was an amusing concept. It's a simple game what's you've made pretty well. I think I had a glitch where unless I was shielding my character always led the group to the upper right corner, which made movement a little more difficult.

A neat concept well executed! I thought the art was quite nice and the tutorial was helpful, although admittedly I had to restart because I kept going faster than the help text. Lots of interesting mechanics like the weight system make for some interesting applications. I have to say, using the corners to merge through a wall definitely feels like a genius "bug turned feature" mechanic. I'm curious if it was.

I like the concept, but I think there are a few things that could be improved upon. The player movement feels a bit sluggish, and the varied pixel size made everything feel a bit disjointed. With pixel are in particular it's important to keep the size of the pixels consistent in relation to each other. I also felt like the levels were very flat and empty. Because the walls and floors are just different shades of grey, there's not a lot of contrast for visual interest. I'd recommend using the Adobe Color Wheel if you need help with picking color schemes.
Color Palette Generator – Color Wheel Tool | Adobe Express
That being said though, I loved the animations for the character. It's obvious a lot of effort was put into it with the idle animations and the animation for it going down the drain. I think it would be cool for you guys to pick it up after the jam is done to polish it up a bit. Some UI might be nice too. Maybe a split indicator to show which ones are split, like a pie chart in the corner that you can click on to select which split you want to control. That way you don't have to cycle through all of them to get to the one you want.

Thank you! I tried to work a little more on polish and user experience with this game. I'm glad you enjoyed it

Thank you! I'm glad that you enjoyed the game! I would love to learn to use FMOD or something like that because I agree, having sounds while sliding makes a lot more sense than just when you grab or release a peg. It's nice to hear that it was a peaceful and calm game for you. I was hoping to create a vibe like that and I'm glad it eased the frustration with the difficulty jump. I rushed level design because I was running out of time. I'll probably redo them once I have some more of the game cleaned up and polished. I wanted to add an undo/redo system, but I couldn't work out the kinks. I think it would also be good to put in an outline system for the people and blocks so you can better see what's moving. If you have any other thoughts, I'd love to hear them! I appreciate the high praise. :)

Thank you! Honestly I wanted to stick to a similar minimalist style, and it did help me focus on other aspects, but the more I built it the more I felt like it needed some color. I'll probably add grass and trees and such later.

Visually it was nice, but there really isn't much engagement for the player, which is the main purpose of a game. I think that maybe adding some upgrades for the people, or instead of having one person join per day, maybe you can budget extra food to exchange for more followers. I also found that most of the time some followers would follow right behind another instead of looking for food individually, which killed efficiency. Either marking a food source as "being collected" or having some stationary food sources that could be worked would have helped mitigate this issue.

This is your first jam? Dang I was I was this good in my first jam! I very much enjoyed this. It's creative, polished, engaging, and simple. I have no negative things to say about this. Well done!

Simple. Addictive. Polished. Competitive. I actually played through a few times until I got on the first page of the leaderboard. The way it's designed the sword attack is OP when you keep upgrading it. It's the fastest way to afford the nuke. I had it attacking so large and fast that I wiped the board of enemies.

Reminds me of Slay The Spire for how the dungeon system is laid out. I surprisingly found myself playing through the whole thing. I would say it definitely needs some rebalancing (not that I expect a jam game to get that right the first time) because I waltzed through everything until the boss battle one shot my 3 melee units and got curb stomped by my one archer and healer.

I have to say this was a very clever mechanic for a puzzle game. Despite having to sacrifice your alien brothers the music feels quite lighthearted, which provides and amusing contrast. It's quite a challenging puzzler, as it also combines elements of a precision platformer.

I quite like the way that the menu animation was done. It has a certain charm to it. Unlike many others in the comments, this is very much not my type of game, as I found it to be too simple and lost my interest. Still, I have to take in account that you only used half the time. What's here is pretty polished and honestly I think the choice of music was smart as it's catchy enough to keep people engaged. My suggestion for future games is to use a different pixel scale that allows for just a little more clarity and definition when it comes to the font. I found it rather hard to read.

This was a surprisingly good game! And by surprising, I really mean I was surprised. The first couple rounds I thought "oh it's another one of these games where it's super simple and you can just circle the mouse around" and then the enemies started dodging my mouse which was a welcome surprise. The game as a whole is very polished and the fast pace of the rounds keeps you from getting bored. The only thing that truly bothered me was that sometimes the text was a little hard to read with the combination of font type and the speed at which it moves.

This is very well polished, but I was hoping for some progression or any form of evolution from the game. What's here is quite well done, but it just feels so small for a 2 week jam. I played for a little while to see if it was just taking a while to progress, and the enemies increased in number slowly, but that was it. Maybe adding a small powerup system, levels, or other enemies. Any of that would have added variation that I think would have made this feel much more meaty. Even just a score system to see "number go up" would have been a small but impactful way to engage back with the player.

You did a good job making the soundtrack feel very dystopian. It feels cold and lonely which fits your description. It does, however, feel more dystopian than it does robotic or cyborg-like. I think that much like my own, it would have benefitted from some more synths

I quite enjoyed the way you blended orchestral elements with synths. It's a good way to make it feel grand. This soundtrack reminded me of the soundtrack for Planet Crafter at times. Overall I thought the composition was well done, giving a sense of movement while remaining cohesive, although I'd agree with the others that the mix is slightly off. As someone who's not great at that myself, I'd have to defer to what the others say.

Overall I thought this was a generally good submission. My biggest issue was that it felt like I was listening to two different soundtracks. Some songs were very orchestral/cinematic (which I'm a sucker for) and others were much more synth-coded, which I think works well for the theme, but them blending together more rather than feeling separate would have made the album as a whole feel more cohesive. The staccato stacks in the main theme were well done and were probably my favorite part of the soundtrack

I think you did a good job here sticking to a very cyber punk/synthetic style. It really fits the vibe. The mix is well put together, and the tracks do a good job of keeping to a consistent feeling without getting monotonous. 

I appreciate the more detailed analysis! 

I agree with you, I should have made the synths a little less of an undertone. I was hoping to get at least one or two more songs done, but I stretched myself too thin with other jams running concurrently. I just finished a game jam last night. Maybe I'll get around to at least finishing the Automaton theme. That was much more synthetic. I think you're right about the main theme. I was kinda going for a similar vibe to the main theme from The Outer Worlds, but to your point, the motif for that starts immediately.

I'm glad that you and several others seemed to enjoy it overall though! Evacuate was the first one I made and is also my favorite. I think it turned out the best of all of them.

Thank you so much! I don't share my music often so it's very nice to hear!

Wow! Thank you! The mix is definitely my weakest point as a composer/producer, but I've been working on that more recently. I need to find a good YouTube tutorial or something. If you know of any or have some advice I would gladly take it!

Thank you! Your words honor me! I wanted to make at least two more tracks, especially a theme for the Automatons to really help it feel more connected to the theme, but I split myself too thin with other jams. I just finished a game jam and am trying to catch up on listening through other submissions