Ridiculously clever concept, I love how it's balanced and I could easily imagine this game having a ridiculous skill ceiling. Great tutorial, excellent visual effects, I'm a bit unsure of how I feel about the auto-aim since it kind of takes away from the chaos and ability to pick your targets but it does also prevent you from wasting your time as often. My only other mild complaint is that movement feels just a bit sluggish, I felt like it took a long time to get to where I wanted to go, but I get that that's kind of necessary to keep the player under control. Excellent work!
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Fight against fate, o tyrant, as the days count down to revolution.
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Absolutely adorable! Very stressful also, I felt like there was never any downtime even with just one Bomugotchi and throwing away gunpowder was kind of finicky, but the idea was excellent and the art was so good that it didn't really matter. It was also a bit confusing to have a toilet that never got used? Or at least I couldn't figure out how to use it...
Absolutely adorable game! My favorite art I've seen so far this jam, the colors are lovely and the animations are all smooth. I honestly just wish we could see more of the elves, they're so cute and silly! As for the gameplay, it was simple but still fun. The explanations were mostly solid, though it could have been more clear where the timer was supposed to be stopped on the second minigame (honestly that could be on me, I didn't notice the timer on the tutorial at first), and it wasn't immediately clear to me that the third minigame had a timer either (again, could be just down to me being inattentive). Each minigame was fun though, the first was a great warmup, though I almost wish the eggs came in time with the beat. Other than that, though, my only real complaint is that the "try again" button is above the "continue" button, because I ended up accidentally clicking it a couple of times when I wanted to move on. Those are all pretty minor though, excellent work and I can't wait to see what you do next!
This was so much fun! The art is all cute, the gameplay is fun, the concept of actively losing abilities rather than gaining them is inventive, each level felt long enough to be engaging without being overwhelming... oh! And the music gaining an extra track when in combat was genius! I loved that so much. It would have been nice to have some sort of indicator of where enemies are, as well as where enemies are going to spawn, since I got hit a couple of times just because of that. The notes were also a bit difficult to read (even if they were cute and the cutscenes were nice), and letting the player progress whenever they want rather than tying it to a set time would definitely have helped. I do also feel like the mechanic of losing powers as you go deeper could have been explained a little better, and honestly I was kind of overwhelmed by the number of options I had at the start. (Oh, and the wind powers weren't very useful during the one level they were available, so I kind of didn't even notice they were gone...) My only other complain is just that the ending was underwhelming, I loved the boss itself and its design, and the attack patterns were great (excellent choice to keep the damage low on the projectiles too), but I figured there'd be a phase 2 wheere I could start attacking back, or even a cutscene explaining how it was defeated, rather than a cut to the end. Those are really my only nitpicks though, the game was a ridiculous amount of fun and there's a crazy amount of content here for only four days! Far and away the best game I've played so far.
I'm a sucker for element-mixing games, so this was a very welcome surprise. I liked the core mechanics of the game a lot, even if it took me a bit to get used to them (I couldn't seem to find the tutorial). The highlight of the game was absolutely the writing for me - all the little quips on the battle screen and the comments for each element were a ton of fun to find. I honestly wasn't too keen on element-mixing since a lot of the combination elements didn't seem super useful compared to the free 3 Armor of Earth and the healing of Water, though I found a few that I liked, like Magma, Static, Frost, and Clay. The hunt concept was cool but did feel as though it wasn't as stressful as it could have been, since enemies weren't exactly blocking much of the path and I could easily maneuver around the map. That said, though, perhaps I was just missing something strategically, because I couldn't make it further than around the three or four star enemies. Health management was a particular problem, because I just couldn't kill enemies quick enough to avoid taking significant damage from each fight, and healing seems really sparse without any elements to mix for proper healing (that I found). That said, because the map was so open and unblocked (in my first run I found a path straight from the start to the final boss with no enemies in the way), I suppose I could have easily gone and found an inn between each fight (especially since the hunt was so slow), so maybe that's on me. I think that this game could maybe use a bit of balancing (or perhaps I'm just really bad at it lol), but I adore the concept and I think it has an absolute ton of potential.
Thank you so much for the feedback! There is some lack of proper information at times, yeah - we tried to fit some of that explanation in the tutorial (for instance, running out of gold means you can't spend it on choices anymore and the nobles will get upset), but unfortunately it had to be thrown together pretty quickly so a lot of information was left out. Were there any cases in particular you felt were confusing?
Thank you so much for playing, and thanks for the feedback! The tutorial was a very last-minute addition, haha, I'd love to add a more natural one later once we have more time. The timing is definitely something we'll play with too, it's meant to be a bit of a slow burn but it definitely might be a bit too far as-is.
Really cute slimes and a really fun twist on a racing game! Unfortunately, I feel like the controls really hold it back, I felt like I was barely in control most of the time. The hitboxes of the track were also pretty confusing, and there wasn't any indication that WASD cause you to move. I think that this game has a lot of promise with some polish though, I can imagine all sorts of fun mechanics and twists! (The jumping track did feel a short, but I get it.) Also, MASSIVE props for including volume sliders, and for using Godot for 3D. I've been meaning to learn that, myself.
Really fun idea! I love the strategy that goes into the movement combined with the playing toward victory, even if I'm probably not smart enough to figure out how to actually make use of all the mechanics, haha. Very clever to show off the main mechanic in the title screen, and the tutorial wave is nice, though I would have liked more feedback to show when I lost, even just a little jingle, and the left- and right-clicking was a bit unintuitive at first. I also wasn't able to tell which piece was which at first, and I couldn't tell which of my pieces had moved on a given turn. The music was nice, though! I think the last and second-to-last stages of rot were also a bit hard to distinguish, which made the game a bit trickier. I do love the logo and the color scheme, as well as the wavy font. I think that, with a more robust tutorial and some clearer graphics, this game has a LOT of potential.
Incredible concept! I'm almost a little mad I didn't think of "down" as in feathers. The concept is simple yet charming, a lot of the levels are really clever, and the core mechanic is both intuitive and really fun to play with. I appreciate the fact that you can still jump without down, just not flap. I would have appreciated a bit more in the way of signposting on where to go, like perhaps coins showing the direction you should aim for when the next platform is off-screen - there were a few arrows, but they weren't always the most helpful. The audio balancing was nice and the visuals were really cute, so massive points for presentation. I was especially impressed by the title screen you put together! It was a bit frustrating to have to redo some levels when I died at the end, but none of them were so long that it was a major dealbreaker - perhaps a checkpoint could have been nice for the Flappy Bird level, though? (Genius concept, by the way.) Great work, I had a lot of fun!
I love the concept, the aesthetics are on point, and the main theme is a banger. I love the juice on the collisions too, the shake adds so much. That said, I was also having some serious issues with the arrow blocks. For some reason, they started moving inconsistently, sometimes moving every turn instead of every other turn, and their hitbozes caused me to die even when I didn't collide with them, which was really frustrating. I wanted to play more, but I'm not sure I'm able to. Some of the tutorials were also a bit long (the arrow block tutorial taking five whole moves felt a bit overkill), but I suppose it does help with making sure the player knows what they're doing. Great concept overall, I'd love to give this game another go sometime!
Very cute little concept. I liked the countdown on the menu, that was a nice touch. I was also confused about the lack of a web build when I started playing, but the fact that the game closes itself means that wouldn't work, would it? Honestly I did find that a bit annoying, but I get what you were going for. I was a bit confused on my first playthrough because the signs were hard to see, but I figured it out eventually - though I couldn't figure out the last step once the fuel rod was in the reactor. The jumping physics were a bit messy, which made the platforming tricky, but honestly that kind of added to the stress, which made it more engaging. I would have liked more platforming and less just running in a straight line, even if the time pressure did still make running back and forth kind of engaging, just because it felt like I wasn't really interacting with the game much. There was also a bit of jitter on the movement, but props for making all the sprites yourself, I thought they were really charming! A title screen background would have been appreciated, but I get that the time limit makes that difficult.
This was a really cool concept! I went in expecting more of a deckbuilder or card game, but instead I got a really neat little puzzle! They definitely got me thinking, though I wish there were a few more. Some other thoughts:
- I do feel like the audio balancing was pretty rough. Even a basic backing track would have gone a long way, especially since there was a lot of thinking time in silence, and the card selection noise was a bit loud and distracting.
- The visuals worked just fine, I think.
- I think everything was explained fairly well, though I don't see the point in the player having HP if every enemy attack is going to kill you anyways.
- I feel like some cards had more durability than they really needed. Cards like Patch Up only really seem valuable for their break effect, so the two attack before that felt a bit unnecessary to me. Perhaps more cards with effects beyond their break effect, or puzzles where you don't have Cascade as a major damage-dealer, could solve this?
- I think the difficulty progression was solid. The first puzzle in particular really stood out to me as a great way to get the player in the right headspace for the game as a whole.
I'm excited to see where this idea goes next! I'd definitely play a few more rounds.
Nice work! Here are a few notes:
- The title screen is full of charm, the loop is a bit choppy but I love the art and how it looks. The start button took a few tries to get working, though.
- The controls are a bit hard to see on the screen, I'd recommend upping the contrast and also making itmore clear that you can glide.
- The music is hilarious!
- The sounds you can make are also hilarious, and I love the core concept and how your voice and your need to glide interact. Really fun concept.
- That said, I think gliding is really awkward because of how long it takes to get going - I'd recommend having the player start to glide earlier in their fall.
- The art is all pleasing, even if Poly looks a bit out of place - I LOVE the thumbnail you made, though, it's funny and absolutely full of character.
- It wasn't immediately obvious to me that each key was one use only - perhaps color each key and key door a different color, or play a sound to note that the player is out of keys?
- I unfortunately kept getting stuck after running into walls while gliding around (always while going left for whatever reason), which kept me from getting very far - I could still make sounds, but I wouldn't rise into the air.
Because I got stuck and because the process of moving up to glide down was a bit tedious, I didn't get far, but I think you have a solid start here!
This game is really good! Really, really hard (or maybe I'm just really bad, ha), but also really good. I was only able to make it to the first green biscuit room, where I was eventually forced to accept defeat, but the game is so tight that it got me to stick around through some much tougher gameplay than I'd normally be used to, so I think that speaks to how satisfying everything feels and how good it feels to succeed. Some notes:
- I love the title screen, and how it's connected to the game itself! Love it when games do that. That being said, it took me a bit to figure out how to actually start the game - perhaps a faint control scheme fading in if the player doesn't get it after a few seconds might be helpful.
- The visuals are excellent, simple but so clean that I could eat off of them, PERFECT for the aesthetic you're going for and very pleasing, albeit maybe a touch harsh to look at for long periods of time due to the high contrast.
- The control scheme is interesting and the main character feels responsive to control, albeit maybe a bit TOO responsive -having to constantly tap in a rhythm just to go in a straight line hurts the wrist after a while, and with how hard this game gets, a difference of milliseconds can screw you over. The obstacles do a really good job of forcing you to keep moving, though, keeping the pace fast and forcing the player to think on their feet and take advantage of momentum.
- Speaking of, the level design - in all honesty, a lot of this is probably just a skill issue, but you mentioned you might have overtuned the difficulty, and I'd personally be inclined to agree. I had to give up on the first green biscuit room after about half an hour of attempts. Which was really frustrating, because your level design skills are, in general, REALLY GOOD! You introduce mechanics well, you build on challenges well, you make things tough but not completely absurd (in theory) - I especially like the screens in the magenta region where you have the option to go through the moving obstacles or put your rhythm skills to the test and try to squeeze through a smaller gap and avoid the obstacle. That said, the rooms get way too tough way too fast, in my opinion - so many rooms have gaps that are nearly impossible to squeeze through, some have multiple in a row, and with how difficult the main character is to control in a consistent manner, this made things very frustrating at times. That being said, I basically never felt like a death wasn't my fault - the controls are all skill-based - it's more that the game was asking so much of me at every turn that a complete mastery of the movement by the start of the green area felt like a necessity, and I just don't have the timing skills to achieve that. I can think of a few ways to alleviate this, if you do want to make the game a bit more accessible without dismantling the great levels you've crafted - the most obvious, I think, would be to shrink the player's hitbox by about a pixel on each side, or moving the walls just a bit further out literally everywhere, just to give a bit more leniency when trying to squeeze though gaps only about as big as the player themselves.
- Alternatively, if you want to preserve the difficulty of the levels, you could instead maybe double the number of checkpoints, or potentially even go for a checkpoint-per-room approach. On the one hand, the feeling of actually having to traverse the area a bit each time you die is kind of nice, really makes things feel connected, and it really makes getting a biscuit feel satisfying, but on the other hand, having to travel ten full seconds just to get back to where I died in the first green biscuit room really made it difficult to actually get good at the room's challenges. Maybe I just wasn't using the warp enough. I've been told in the past that, generally speaking, having a checkpoint immediately BEFORE a major challenge can be best, since you'll be dying a lot there and having to go all the way back can add insult to injury - not sure if that fits your vision for the game, but maybe it'd help.
- On the other hand, everything else about the respawning I enjoy a lot. The sound effects and visual effects are solid, quick and curt and not ear-piercing, respawning itself is really quick even if the travel time can be an issue, and needing to press Z before you start falling is really nice quality of life.
- The music made putting up with the difficulty a whole lot nicer, because MAN is it good! Having a song for each area is REALLY nice, especially with the sort of buildup as you move into the magenta area. That said, having the song constantly reset as I died in the first green biscuit room and got sent back to the white zone got pretty grating.
- Valdor IS so cool! His entire sequence before the magenta section was hilarious, well done to whoever wrote and voiced him,
All in all, this game is very frustrating, but it's also super addictive, and it makes me want to keep playing - I can't right now, but perhaps one day I'll return. It's clearly not made for me, since I have bad reaction time and bad timing, but it's still fun regardless, so take that as you will. If the game does end up a bit rebalanced, I'll definitely be back, but I'll probably play more regardless eventually. Great work, sorry I couldn't experience more of it!
Woahhh, fellow bug game maker! Another "betting on silly bugs" game, even! You love to see it. And it's a really fun idea, too! Some notes:
- I love all the art, it's all so charming! The models are super high quality, and the 2D graphics are adorable. I especially love the eyes on the ant model.
- The menus are all easy to maneuver through, which is nice, but having some music for the menus and maybe some button sounds would be awesome.
- Honestly, the lack of sound effects in general was a bit disappointing, but it wasn't a dealbreaker, either.
- The camera was the biggest problem for me - it swapped so often that I could hardly tell what was going on, and not being able to see my ant for most of the race was a bit of a bummer. At the very least, having something like a minimap to show where each and is would be nice, but perhaps zooming out the camera in general or even letting the player manually swap which ant they're watching would be a major help. It might also be nice to help distinguish the ants from each other somehow, like making them different colors or giving them funny hats!
- I'm not sure if this was just me, but it didn't feel like the upgrades were making my ant much better. I was still performing just as poorly in the Biscotti Cup after buying half a dozen upgrades as I was at the start. That said, I love the flavor of the upgrades! The image of an ant with earpods in and holding a sippy cup rolling around on rollerskates is really fun. (On a second playthrough, this was probably just because my ant was REALLY slow the first time - 6 speed or something - my second run's ant was much faster.)
- The end of the game bugged me a bit, too, because there was no indication that it was coming up. Also, I got both the win and loss screens popping up simultaneously, and neither "Try Again" button seemed to work. Maybe I just got a weird score, and that broke things? On my second run, I got no ending at all.
-Sometimes ants would escape out of bounds, but I assume this is just a part of the game after they complete the race? I'm not sure.
- I love the names of the ants, very silly.
- The music was well-chosen, I just wish there was a bit more.
I really liked the game, reminded me a bit of Chao races but still with its own unique flavor. The camera makes it a bit hard to follow, but if it was easier to tell what was going on then I could definitely see myself coming back to play often!
Really fun idea! I had a lot of fun playing, though I messed up a couple of levels on my first run and nuked my score because of it. Some thoughts:
- The core concept is really clever, a high-score game where you buy downgrades in exchange for more points is really fun. Spending points to gain points becomes a risk, and I think that works pretty well even if I didn't buy a ton of downgrades.
- The aesthetics are really nice! Simple, charming, fun. The colors you picked were nice, the icons on the bricks weren't super obvious but I figured out what each one did pretty quickly, the font you picked was nice. My only thoughts are that the play button and exit game button could have also fit the color scheme and aesthetic style better, and the in-level UI not using the 8-bit font was a bit of a missed opportunity (though the UI being easily readable is nice).
- The gameplay is solid, obviously it's just breakout but it's pretty well-implemented. I did notice the ball seemed to "curve" sometimes, but I'm not sure why (was it a powerup? M for Magnet? Maybe it'd be nice if there were explanations for what each brick does somewhere after all).
- The sounds are really nice! Normally I'd complain a bit about the lack of music, but for the style you're going for, music wouldn't really make much sense - and besides, the sounds were all solid. My only thought is that the lack of a loss jingle or effect kind of made the jump back to the upgrade screen jarring.
- Speaking of, the decision to forgo lives and instead advance the player to the next stage whether they beat it or not was GENIUS. It keeps the game from getting frustrating or stagnant, while also punishing players who mess up by giving them fewer points! The levels getting harder as the player buys downgrades is interesting, too - not sure if I entirely love it, but I suppose it would feel weird otherwise.
- In terms of downgrades, smaller balls was the one that felt the least troublesome to me, so it's the one I picked up the most. That said, I may have found a bug with the smaller balls where they'd sometimes get "caught" on each other or on the paddle, bouncing a whole bunch against them before getting freed? I'm not sure if it's related to the smaller ball downgrade or not, but it did save my run a few times so I'm not complaining, lol. I did also notice one case where a point item got stuck floating in mid-air, not sure what caused that.
- The tutorial screen is really well put together! It's not overwhelming and easy to grasp (though maybe the controls and the steps could be a bit more separated to make it clear they're two separate sets of information). My only thought is to include the fact that that up is used to start the ball's movement, since that took me a second to figure out. Thanks for allowing for both WASD and arrow keys, by the way!
The game was simple but really fun overall! Really neat twist on an old classic. Obviously high-score games aren't super popular these days, but I love a good one every now and then, and this really scratched that itch. Solid work!
Thanks for the reply! On the topic of stakes, that's definitely fair, though I feel like there has to be some way around making the early game overly grindy - perhaps having a more variable early game, or simply allowing the player to carry something between playthroughs to make future playthroughs go somewhat faster. This may just be me preferring a proper game over to an unsalvageable run, though. I just feel like, for a game like this, not having the threat of losing something irreplaceable significantly takes away from the tension.
As for the tutorial, yeah, absolutely fair that the jam's time limit would make things rough. For the record, I think that the tutorial mostly does the job really well and achieves what you were looking for, and I did in fact pick up on mechanics beyond that over time! It's just that, because I wasn't entirely sure which informational box was referring to which part of the UI, I was confused for some time.
Your explanation about the dice makes plenty of sense - especially in terms of wanting to keep the tension in the roll and wanting to mimic analog games, I think that makes a lot of sense, and I think the game definitely succeeds on those points! That said, regarding the variable dice faces I don't personally think that needing to hover over the dice is necessarily a bad thing? You could even have a permanent display somewhere if you wanted. I would totally understand thinking the exact opposite, though, especially since it's not a mechanic immediately explained to the player. I really like the idea of spaces with unique effects beyond those caused by the die placed on them, that definitely sounds intriguing.
Excellent work on the game! You say this was your first game jam, and I say you absolutely nailed it. I had a ton of fun! Here are some notes:
- The title screen is really nice and well put together! The background is satisfying to look at, the buttons are well placed, it's all really solid. Really, all the menus are really nice! Sliding between menus is awesome, the ability to easily return to previous menus is helpful, and the sound effects just make the menus feel nice to traverse.
- The controls are super simple but very well-explained - I'm not entirely sure why there are two punch buttons, though.
- The UI assets are all well-positioned, the teacher's countdown timer is a bit hard to see but it's not super necessary with the clock anyways so it's fine.
- "Do not FIGHT!" as a countdown was GENIUS.
- It's a small touch, but the selection of different tracks for different parts of the game (main menu, loading, main gameplay, game over) was an excellent touch, and each song fit well.
- Obviously the star of the show is the character designs, the characters are ridiculously well-drawn, the designs are exquisite, and of course the facial expressions are the absolute best part! The "busted" screen and Mr. Z's glare really feel tense, too -incredible work on the art, your art style is incredible and I want to siphon your powers.
- The sound effects that are here are nice, but I do think the game loses a lot from not having combat sound effects, win/loss jingles, or any sounds associated with Mr. Z (a tea kettle sound effect that rises in intensity as the timer counts down? Some sort of a droning sound when he's staring?). Even just a few more stock sound effects would REALLY elevate the combat. More sound effects regarding the timer in particular would let the player focus more on the combat itself, which would be massively appreciated, if only because I want to look at the facial expressions more.
- I'm not sure I really have a solid handle on the combat. In the end, I just sort of mashed buttons - having the ability to put more thought into it might be nice. Also, I can't tell whether each character has different stats (it doesn't seem like it?). I think a small bio for each character could really elevate the flavor, if you felt like it.
- The K.O. screen is a bit underwhelming, but I assume that's just down to a lack of time. I'd love to see more to it, even if it's just a single-panel graphic of the knockout blow!
All in all, while there isn't much to the game, it's still REALLY fun -the visuals do a LOT, and the game is just funny. You're ridiculously good at visual comedy and facial expressions. You mentioned wanting to work on things more if people were interested, and yes! Yes, I'm absolutely interested! Please keep working on this game, it reminds me of old Flash games in the BEST way and I'd love to play it again sometime!
Great work on the game! I had quite a bit of fun playing,even with just this demo. Some notes:
- Including a list of things you weren't able to finish in time was actually really nice, helped me to set my expectations and focus more on what you did get done.
- The how to play screen does its job, but a title screen using the thumbnail you made would have been really nice. I'm sure this is coming later, though.
- Exquisite work on the bait names. Exquisite work on the things you can catch, too - I had a ton of fun just reading through all the things I caught!
- The art is all fairly simple but charming, it all does its job well - I know you used a tileset, but you still did well in building out a nice little scene. The camera is also handled really well. I do wish I could see all the things I've caught, just because some of them sound so funny, but I get that would have been a lot of work
- The sound effects that are here are nice, but one for selecting your bait and another for when the exclamation points come up would have made things even better. (Also, the excalamation points could have maybe popped a bit more, like being slightly bigger or having a dark outline.)
- The catching mechanics are simple but effective, but I do wish there was more feedback about what was going on. It seems like holding down space before releasing makes the line go out further, but there was no sound or visual cue to tell me this - that would have been nice.
- The slight delay between hitting space to reel in and starting the fishing minigamemade me screw up the catch the first few times, I'd either have the minigame start immediately after the player starts reeling in or have MORE of a delay so the player isn't caught off-guard by the start of the minigame.
- I assume the randomization will fix this, but the game does feel very easy right now. That said, missing the yellow bar by even a bit makes the catch dramatically worse, so you might want to improve the yields of the orange area a bit to compensate when you make the game trickier.
- The jackpots were fun, but they almost felt TOO strong - one jackpot gave me some $100,000 and plenty of bait, and basically removed all tension for the rest of the game.
- It's a small thing, but maybe coloring bait differently in the catch log could be nice, so the player knows how much extra bait they've reeled in?
- I like the bait selection menu, but I do feel like the font (while readable) was maybe a bit small and not as cool as it could have been.
- Being able to lose by running out of bait and money adds just enough tension to make the game engaging without detracting from the relaxing nature of a fishing game, so great work on that! Of course, it's real hard to lose if you don't mess up your first few catches, but I assume the full game will add more to the mechanics.
All in all, I enjoyed this game more than I expected to - the music and sound make it relaxing, and it's fun to see all the weird stuff you can fish up. Great work, I'm excited to see where you take this game from here!
I like the idea a lot, and once I started figuring a few things out, I started to really enjoy the game! However, some notes:
- The title screen is nice, but could use some music.
- Maybe this was just me, but even with minimum sensitivity, the game's mouse sensitivity still felt really high.
- I like the idea of the game - a risky trading game, needing to build up reputation to win - but I think it currently struggles a fair amount. Not being able to see even my rough odds of success means I'm essentially playing randomly and hoping for the best, and the relics are hard to use effectively because of that. Having to constantly go back and forth between tables and the altar was also a bit annoying.
- Being able to just... run out of things to trade, and not even being able to tell immediately that you've lost, was pretty frustrating. Combined with the fact that you can't know your odds without a specific relic, it kind of just feels like the strategy is to bet everything immediately and hope for the best, rather than making any sort of plan. A game over screen would also be nice if you've run out of things to trade, though just having more ability to affect or at least see your odds would be really nice.
- The music and models are good! Great work on those, I think they look and sound solid. The sound effects are also implemented well.
- The menus are easy to understand and maneuver, but I think the font (while fitting) is sometimes a bit hard to read. In particular, E and F look kind of similar, which is annoying since you need to use both keys.
- Sometimes relics can get stacked on top of each other, and it can be kind of hard to tell.
- I get the idea of losing reputation for a lost trade, but with so few items to trade and so little information to go off of, I think it just makes the game unnecessarily difficult to win. I was able to put together a bit of a strategy using the candles (and a lucky orb of chances), but sometimes you just kind of get screwed by the items you have available, and you can't even really know that you're getting screwed because you don't know the rarity of your items, the odds of success, and you can't even control what you're trading for. I think either giving the player more things to trade with or allowing a reroll at some sort of cost might be worthwhile, or even just having multiple tables to trade at.
- A tooltip for the object you're trying to trade for would be nice!
Again, the concept is really fun, and I think you have a strong core here, but the balancing is a bit off right now -hidden information can be fun, of course, but I feel like there's just a bit too much hidden for the player to be able to make meaningful decisions at all. With a bit of balance and polish, though, I think this could be a really solid game! Great work, and I'm excited to see where you take this next!
Nice foundation! Some notes:
- I think a thumbnail and some screenshots would really help draw more eyes to your game - they don't need to be anything fancy, but having things to look at is always nice to have.
- Marking the options button as not working or greying it out would have been nice.
- The basic idea here is cool, but some explanation on how to play would have been appreciated.
- The sprites are pretty cute! However, without a background, it's hard to make sense of where you're moving, where you're going, or even whether you're moving at all.
- I'm impressed with how you managed to make the gun track, but I'm not sure it opens up the most advanced gameplay - mouse controls could work better, or if you want to keep the lock-on, at least having the player fire manually instead of automatically would be nice.
- The lack of sounds or effects does hurt a lot, honestly - any sort of feedback for hitting the enemies would be nice, perhaps some damage numbers, a bit of knockback or screen shake, a sound effect, a particle effect, anything would go a long way.
- I also couldn't tell whether I was taking damage - I assume health hasn't been implemented yet, but some sort of a sound and/or particle effect would help a lot.
- You mention a tilemap, but I don't see anything here that requires a tilemap - is your game perhaps broken? All I'm seeing is a big gray background.
I assume this is VERY heavily work-in-progress, and I don't know where you want to go with the gameplay itself, but hopefully these can at least give you some ideas on where to take the game from here! Good work getting this far, I hope you keep developing this game and make it into something you can be proud of! (Or, if you did more and it just isn't showing up for me, so sorry about that!)
I absolutely loved playing this game, it's ridiculously well put together! It's haunting and tense in all the right ways, and the risk elements are super well thought out. Some notes:
- The concept is flawless. Space is terrifying, especially the idea of only being connected to safety by a flimsy tether, and this idea only amplifies that fear.
- I ADORE the atmosphere of the title screen already, and that haunting title screen theme especially. The color scheme is perfect, not pure black and white but just SLIGHTLY tinted blue was a genius move. That said, the thumbnail is so clean that I'm genuinely sad it's not used in-game.
- Really, the atmosphere of this game is just flawless in general. The music is haunting and keeps you on edge, the darkness is overpowering, the character being so small makes everything more overwhelming. Genuinely professional grade stuff.
- The gameplay loop is also simple but effective, needing to march forward to get scrap, never knowing whether you'll be able to make it back or if a few bad rolls will screw you over, with everything being a literal roll of the dice - it's so good.
- That said, I do feel like the game is currently missing one big thing: stakes. Maybe I was just getting lucky, but it never felt like there were stakes on the "macro" level - sure, I could die at any time, but that only costs you a bit of scrap, and you have infinite tries to regain that scrap as far as I can tell. There doesn't seem to be a lose condition, and that made the prospect of a failed run much less scary, and the idea of evading risk (like, say, putting down that last die with no bullets in the chamber) much more palatable. Perhaps wracking up enough of a "scrap debt" or failing to reach a quota could completely end your run, so you can be forced to play even riskier out of desperate measures? I like that dying doesn't end your run, though, because I think that would just make people play safer. (If this is already a thing and I just never noticed, forgive me!)
- The upgrade system is really nice and well-paced, and does does provide some incentive to build up scrap, but again, I don't think it provides quite enough incentive to go for big plays on its own since you have unlimited tries.
- The tutorial was pretty good, but because of how simple everything is visually, I still got a bit confused - adding arrows to the text boxes or specifically highlighting which die/mechanic is being talked about would be nice. Also, corporate's lending box was something I missed for my first few runs.
- I'm a bit split on the tile dice, since on the one hand, like I said, the dread of having to roll and then being forced to place down the die to live with your roll is fun, but then on the other hand, I think it kind of kills some of the tension that slowly moving could give - since you HAVE to play and immediately move onto a die you place down, it functions exactly the same as if you only found out after moving, except you replace all of the tension of the movement with the feeling of "ugh, now I have to deal with this" - which can be really cool in its own right, it gives you a sort of sinking feeling that you're screwing YOURSELF over by placing that die even if you're being forced to ("you made this mess, now sit in it"), but it can also just sort of spoil the tension ahead of time, and the way things are set up gives a false sense of being able to do more about a bad roll than you actually can. This could be solved by either placing down a die and THEN having it roll, or by perhaps being able to do something to a die with a bad roll, like placing it on a non-adjacent open tile at some cost. That said, I still do think you'd be losing something in the process, so your call.
- Being able to see the sides of each die is nice, but in my experience at least, they're all the same - having the sides of each die be a bit different might make the risk assessment element of the game a bit more engaging. (I notice colored dice in the screenshots - I'm not quite sure what those do since I haven't encountered any, but if they fulfill this function, then ignore me.)
- I really like the revolver spin animation and effects.
- The results screen is super well-done and keeps the empty feeling going super well, and kind of funny in a dry, dark humor sort of way - I like it a lot.
Overall, I absolutely ADORE the core gameplay loop, and I definitely plan to keep playing - while I think the stakes could be a bit higher (a lose condition, and maybe a more concrete goal to work towards), and there are a couple mechanics I feel could maybe be fleshed out just a bit more (namely, placing dice), the gameplay itself is already addicting enough as-is. This is an incredible game, thank you so much.
Thank you so much for the feedback! I’m glad you enjoyed the visuals, I was a bit unsure about them so it’s nice to hear people liked them. As for the issue of betting organs, we’ve definitely received a lot of feedback about that, and a downside for betting each organ is definitely one of the first things we’re adding - thank you so much for bringing it up, it’s really nice to know where to improve.
Thank you for your response! Sorry, I may have worded my feedback a bit confusingly - I am aware of the fact that there are three turns per round and 2 actions per round (and I like the system in general, it really helps with preventing the number of dice from getting overwhelming and keeping one player from running away with the game), I'm just confused about why you only ever have two actions if there are three turns, since it means you're always passing on the third turn (and there's never a reason to really pass on the first or second turn, that I found at least). I'm excited to see what the post-jam update will have in store!
Excellent work on the game! Some notes:
- Obviously, all the art is phenomenal. The shading is on point, the texture of the table is great, the background is flawless, and of course all the cards (but especially the cards with characters) are phenomenal. The visual effects are also solid, like the movements of the cards. My only note is that the animation of the opponent feels... incomplete? The jump back to them having a cigarette in their mouth and the drink jumping from their mouth to back on the table was a bit jarring, but the fact that you animated the opponent at all is already massive.
- The music is also flawless, and the sound effects that are there are all great - I just think that it would have been really nice to have more sound effects, like one for boosting stats, or one for dealing damage (the cat-fighting sound playing even when nobody took damage seemed odd, too). A victory or defeat jingle would have also been nice.
- I really like the core mechanics of the card game! They're simple and easy to pick up, but still provide a lot of options for mechanics - I assume that there were a lot of neat cards I just never got to, but even with a basic deck the game was fun. I'm almost jealous I didn't think of it myself. I love how the dice played stack up over time, and not knowing exactly how much damage you'll be doing or avoiding with each die makes each play feel risky, even if there's generally one obvious play to make. The dice manipulation cards were also very fun to play around with, though in the case of the rerolling ones they didn't seem all that valuable unless you just didn't have another card to play another die of that type. I really appreciated the 1d4 damage and healing cards, too - less risk at the cost of less reward is a fun way to handle things, and the direct damage made handling high defense possible and kept the pace of the game from crawling to zero.
- That being said, though, the lack of... anything leading up to the first match itself was really jarring. Not even a placeholder title screen, no options, and most importantly nothing explaining how to play or the rules of the game. I think I was able to mostly figure it out eventually, but it took me a good while before I actually really understood what I was doing, and that was a bit frustrating.
- The UI is generally solid, and I especially like the little totals for attack and defense off to the side, but I do think the Pass button and the Actions counter could be better positioned and pop out a bit more.
- I do have to wonder why three turns specifically, when I only ever had two energy and all cards seemed to cost one energy each (without even an indicator for energy cost, at that). I'm assuming the plan was to implement different energy costs, or perhaps there are more expensive cards/energy bonuses available after I stopped playing? Either way,it did feel weird to have a turn that just involved passing.
- While it took me a bit to figure out what was going on, the fact that the dice and hands reset every three rounds is a real nice touch, to prevent one player's dice from getting out of control. That said, I did still notice that one particular enemy gave me a really annoying time by just constantly playing defense-boosting dice, which kind of made dealing any damage past the first turn impossible. The1d4 damage card thankfully helped out with that somewhat, but it was still a bit frustrating and made the match drag on for ages. I assume there are other cards later that help with that, though.
- I do feel like you could have definitely pushed the "risk" element a bit further - perhaps betting something like giving up one of your turns in exchange for bonus damage dealt and/or taken (essentially declaring, "I think my dice are so good that there's no way my opponent could block my attack or breach my defenses with their next roll"), or some mechanic like that? The dice determining your attack/defense gain is good for sure, it's just that at some point, your rolls can get a bit too good to overcome.
- The pace of the game itself was really good, in terms of how long the effects and calculations took - I never felt like i was just sitting around waiting for things to resolve, and things never dragged on. This is something I've noticed other turn-based games struggle with, so I wanted to point it out and thank you for that!
- The pace of each match did feel a bit slow, since there's not really any rise in tension as the game goes on since the board resets after every few turns, though maybe that's just because I was never really in any dangerof losing to the first few opponents.
- Obviously creating any more art than this for a one-week game jam would be asking a lot, so I'm not going to complain about the fact that every enemy and background was the same, but it did make each match blend together just a bit. I think some sort of an intro to the match itself would help.
- The roguelike aspect of the game (from what I played) was basic but overall entertaining -an extra card is a nice reward, though I still didn't feel like I was "progressing" much, either - again, perhaps because of how the player just jumps into the next match.
- I do think the fact that the player's health resets at the start of each new match is a bit of a missed opportunity, since it meant I could play as risky as I wanted to during each match without having to worry about the consequences. Maybe later matches are tough enough that full health isn't enough, but this does still make the early matches feel a bit pointless, I assume even more so on a new run.
All in all, I really enjoyed this game conceptually! I think there's also a lot of room to expand it into something even better. The main issues I had with the game were all things that I assume were caused by it just being a game jam demo, so I'm really excited to see where you take it from here!
Thank you for playing and for your feedback! I'm glad you liked it. The bugs' AI is actually the same for the player and the enemy, and the organs the enemy chooses are randomized, but maybe we should rig things a bit so the enemy doesn't pick super strong organs in the early rounds. I hope you enjoyed the jam and get a nice ranking, as well!
Thank you for the feedback, very glad you enjoyed! We've definitely noticed the issue of just betting everything being a very powerful strategy - we're looking into ways to polish that up and handle the issue. Of course, if you bet all your organs and lose then you're just out of luck, but especially in the early rounds it's not enough of a risk to worry about it without some sort of downside to betting in the first place right now.
Thank you for the feedback! While your idea of growing and mutating bugs sounds very interesting and exciting, that kind of sounds like a completely different game concept. Perhaps more stat modifiers could be interesting, though. The reason for betting human organs was primarily because it sounded like a comically over-the-top thing to bet on something as random and pointless as bug fights. As for the slowness of the fights, we're looking into a way to perhaps speed things up a bit - we've gotten a decent amount of feedback about that. Thanks for taking the time to review!
Thank you for the feedback, I’m really glad you liked the game, fellow bug game maker! We’ve definitely received a lot of feedback about some fights dragging on, hopefully we’ll be able to find a proper solution while keeping the tension high. For the record, by the way, the lungs only put you on a timer if you lose them, not if you buy them - no organ has a downside just for owning them, so you don’t need to worry about that (although actually, that kind of sounds like a fun mechanic…) - that could probably be communicated better, though, so thank you very much for bringing that up!
Glad you enjoyed! Yeah, the issue of fights dragging on a bit is a bit of a problem - we were considering maybe nerfing some of the healing organs a bit, and a round timer could also be nice (though there's an organ that puts you on a timer if you lose it so we were worried about overlap there). It's definitely something we'll play around with! Thanks for the feedback!
WOW! What an amazing game! I almost skipped this one since I'm not a huge fan of horror games and this looked like one, but I'm so glad I didn't, because this is a ridiculously well put together game - maybe the best I've seen from the entire jam, and that's saying something. I have some notes, but it's mostly just me gushing about how polished and well-thought-out everything is:
- The artwork is all absolutely incredible! The backgrounds are gorgeous, they look like paintings, the animal portraits are SUPER well-done, even the logo is super cool and striking with that bright red against all the greens and blues and blacks of the background (not to mention just how cool it looks!).
- The opening "cutscene" is simple yet super effective, I love the text crawl, the fades are clean, everything is well-positioned and the information is all succinct - it's ridiculously good! All I can say is maybe save the "choose four animals to accompany you" bit until after the crawl, since it's gameplay information and not story information?
- Each animal seems really interesting and unique! Each and every one seems valuable. The Cow seems like maybe the best of all, with that attack bonus being SUPER helpful and its deliciousness being so high, but then is it worth it to sacrifice the cow and lose all that damage? Each and every one seems valuable. I'm an absolute sucker for RPGs where you build your own party, and this REALLY scratched that itch. The only ability that kind of felt awkward was the dog's Bouncing Jump - given it's more of an attacker than a tank, redirecting attacks to itself usually felt like a bad call in the long run (especially with how precious HP is). It's a great idea, it just feels like one that doesn't make much sense on the dog specifically.
- The party selection screen is REALLY well put together in general, the colors are nice, everything is informative, it's relatively easy and intuitive to navigate... my only complaint is that some ability names don't have all their words capitalized properly,there's one typo I found (the Lizard's regrow tail ability says "Tale" instead of "tail"), and some ability names are just a bit awkward ("Grows a tail" could be "Tail Grow" or something, and "Lays an egg" could be "Egg Lay" or even just "Lay Egg"). But those are SUPER minor nitpicks -the screen as a whole is ridiculously well put together, and so is the roster.
- Being able to name your animals is a super nice touch! Really makes it that much harder to sacrifice them.
- The battle system is basic but really, really good. Stacking buffs and debuffs feels valuable since health is so precious, and the enemies feel threatening but still surmountable (at least with the cow). You really do feel like you're getting worn down over time!
- I do think the stun is a BIT frustrating, but it does make slower animals like the cow feel a bit more balanced - maybe it could be used a bit less often, but overall I think it's a strong inclusion.
- The zombies increasing in number (at least for the later nights) if you take too long makes sense in that it makes things more difficult and adds a feeling of dread, really making things more challenging if you don't finish them quickly enough, but it also feels like it can really just make things impossible to control if you're not doing well enough by that point, in a way that feels sort of frustrating. My last animal ended up getting literally stunlocked and couldn't do anything as the zombies kept coming, which felt fitting in a way but also kind of disappointing. Perhaps if it was just a lower chance, or if the stun didn't happen so often?
- I love the limited uses of each move, it really forced me to think twice about every action and avoid overusing moves that would have otherwise saved me - it was a really strong balancing factor, and really added an element of strategy I never would have considered, making the later rounds feel really stressful.
- Sacrificing an animal to eat is a BRILLIANT way to introduce insane risk - losing an animal is HUGE, especially when a single animal can hardly stand on its own (and two animals can't do much better), but it's the only way to really restore much health and keep your other animals alive, especially after a particularly rough battle. Maybe the most ingenious mechanic in this already amazing game, and that's saying something.
- That said, honestly, most of the other night-time abilities don't feel quite valuable enough to only be able to use one a night - the stat buffs all feel pretty small in the long run even if you have 10 of them over the course of a run, and treating an animal even if they have super high friendliness is still kind of underwhelming. Maybe I just wasn't using it enough, and I assume this could get SUPER out of hand if left alone, but I have to wonder if allowing the player to use two night-time actions (perhaps at a cost, or as the ability of a specific animal) would be okay.
- The audio is SO GOOD. The music is all fun and haunting in all the right places, all the sound effects are well-placed, well-balanced, and fitting, and the "eating an animal" sequence is both haunting and darkly hilarious in a way with how the food appears so well-prepared. I love it so much.
- The battle UI is really nice for the most part - seeing which animal each zombie is targeting adds another layer of strategy without feeling too powerful, and being able to see the turn order is nice. That said, being able to hover over the status icons would be nice to be able to tell what each one does, since some of the icons are a bit vague (namely the attack up/down one).
- The game over sequence is a bit underwhelming, but it gets the job done well enough. I can't thank you enough for skipping the intro cutscene when you play the second time, though - that's super thoughtful and really makes playing again that much more appealing!
In my run, I used the Dog, Cow, Chicken, and Cat, hoping to stack attack/health buffs at night, use the cow as a free heal, and use the chicken to spawn more allies, but the cow ended up being so valuable that I sacrificed the chicken early instead (since it was almost dead). I figured out a bit too late just how powerful attack drops were, and playing conservatively with my limited-use moves early on helped me later, but it also did force me to play with only three animals for most of the game. Ultimately, I delayed sacrificing another animal to heal the rest of my team on night 8, which led to me losing on day 9 when my animals finally got overwhelmed even with all the buff-stacking, but I feel like if I just played a little bit better of got three-zombie fights just a bit less I could have gone all the way... it's frustrating and difficult, but also addicting. This is a ridiculously well-polished game, super well-balanced and engaging, and I'm honestly shocked it's free, something that was made in a week, and only has 3 ratings so far. This is absolutely incredible, and I'm definitely coming back to play again (and spreading the word while I'm at it). Great job!
Glad you enjoyed! Yeah, there's not a whole lot of incentive to not just bet everything since it can give you such a big advantage - we were planning to perhaps have some of the debuffs for losing an organ (or at least tamer versions of them) apply during the match the organs were being bet in, in order to force players to give it a bit more thought, in a later update. That, or perhaps some other limit or cost to playing too many organs at once.