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Sorry for the late reply! I was on vacation during the last couple days of the voting period, so I wasn’t able to be too active with responses.

Thank you so much! Really glad you liked the art style and the color-removal mechanic. That was the main idea I hoped would make the game feel a little different, so it makes me happy to hear it stood out.

Also really glad the tutorial helped. I spent a good chunk of time on it because I was worried the color-clearing mechanic might be confusing without some explanation, so it’s awesome to hear that it made the game feel more polished.

Happy you enjoyed the patterns and the leaderboard too. Thanks a lot for playing, and good luck if you come back to beat it! :)

Sorry for the late response! I was on vacation during the last couple days of the voting period, so I wasn’t able to be too active with replies.

Congrats on the clear and the #1 spot! Whether the scoring was deserved or not, the leaderboard has spoken lol.

Seriously though, thank you for such a detailed write-up. This is super helpful feedback. I’m really glad the coloring mechanic stood out, because that was the main thing I wanted to feel different from a more standard bullet hell loop.

I think you’re right that the enemies probably could have been more aggressive with applying color, especially in a harder mode. The coloring mechanic was honestly a tough thing to balance, because I wanted it to matter enough that players couldn’t just ignore it, but I also didn’t want people who were already struggling with the bosses to get completely overwhelmed. So I tried to find a middle ground where ignoring the color would eventually fail you, but keeping up with it would still feel manageable. That said, I definitely think it could have benefited from more fine tuning, especially for more hardcore players or a harder difficulty setting.

The blot feedback makes a lot of sense too. Funny enough, at one point in development I actually had it where charge shots could take out the blots, but I ended up removing it because I was worried it might make the cleaning side too easy. In hindsight, I probably should have kept some version of that interaction, or maybe made dash destroy them like you suggested. That would have made the blots feel less like untouchable hazards and given dash a much clearer utility outside of just avoiding bullets or cleaning the page.

Totally fair on shrink as well. I wanted it to work more like a focus / precision mode for tight patterns, but I can see how the power tradeoff made it feel not worth using unless the pattern specifically demanded it. That’s something I’d probably rebalance if I revisit the game.

And yeah, charge shot probably ended up being the star of the mechanics lol. I’m glad it felt overpowered in a fun way, but I agree that it kind of overshadowed dash for cleaning. Making the enemies color more aggressively, and giving dash or charge shot some extra interaction with blots would probably make those tools feel more evenly useful.

Thanks again for playing and for taking the time to write all this out. This is exactly the kind of feedback that helps me see what worked and what could be pushed further in future games.

Really appreciate the kind words! Glad the erasing canvas idea worked well and that the tutorial helped.

And yeah, the cute art style is definitely hiding a harder game underneath lol. Happy it still felt fun enough to want to come back and improve.

My wife gets all the credit for the art, so she’ll be happy to read this. Thanks for playing!

Haha totally feel you on just trying to make something work at all. I’m always surprised when I get anything out the door without one random line of code breaking the whole game XD

Yours came off really well though. It felt well built, even if you didn’t get as much time for level layout and enemies as you wanted.

Yeah, I saw what you were going for and it definitely works. It gave it a cool identity, and I always appreciate when a jam game tries to mix ideas instead of playing it completely safe.

Totally fair on having a bunch of games left to play. I'm in the same boat lol. If you do come back for the leaderboard later, I hope you have fun chasing it!

Congrats on the clear and the score! That's awesome.

Appreciate the detailed feedback too. The movement feel point is fair. I wasn't specifically aiming for inertia, but if it came across that way during precision dodging, that's definitely useful to know and something I'd pay closer attention to in future bullet hell-style games.

Good catch on the Kelpie safe spot too. That definitely sounds like something I'd want to look into, since I didn't intend for that attack to have a free safe zone.

The charge shot and dash feedback make sense as well. Charge was meant to be more of a timing/cleaning tool than pure DPS, but I can see how the early release punishment could feel clunky. My wife actually shared a similar critique lol. Dash distance/timing was one of the things I wanted to revisit before the final build, but it didn't quite make it in.

Really glad the Cockatrice patterns and Kelpie bubbles stood out though. Thanks for taking the time to clear it and write all this out. Super helpful feedback, and I'm glad you still had a fun time with it! :)

Really appreciate the kind words! Glad the erasing mechanic was fun and the tutorial helped. Thanks for checking out the game :)

Thanks a lot! Yeah, the cute look is definitely hiding a little bit of pain underneath lol.

Happy to hear you found the patterns interesting. The bubbles were designed so you can squeeze through some of the gaps in a pinch, but moving with the flow is usually the safer play. So it's cool you picked up on that.

Also, really glad to hear the leaderboard gave you a reason to keep coming back. Thanks for playing, and good luck taking down that chicken :)

This was such a fun and inventive game. The hammer mechanic felt really unique and polished, and having the hammer be able to hurt the player while small was a smart move. It led to some really fun hectic moments. 

Also l loved the visuals on the game. The animations on the fairy looked good, and those arrows during the boss fight were super cool, and I loved the thumbnail drawing too! The SFX when landing a hammer on the fairies was really satisfying to hear.

I was also really impressed to see button remapping, and that's how I found out I could play with a gamepad. It plays so well on gamepad too. After multiple failed attempts on keyboard, I was able to beat the boss on my first try with the gamepad, so the controls felt really good once I got the hang of them.

The final phase was super cool too. I loved the shrinking ring visuals. The shrink theme was used in a nice subtle way throughout the game, not just with the player, but with the hammer and enemies too. The enemies breaking into smaller fairies was a great touch, and having them change their behavior made it feel even better. Really awesome entry. The whole thing felt creative and charming.

This was such an awesome idea. Having the sprint show the background screen was already cool, but making it connect to the shrink/memory theme was really clever. Super inventive use of the theme. 

The game was intense too. The regular bullet patterns already felt fun, but the boss phase was diabolical. It felt like the game knew exactly how far to push the chaos.

Also, I play on multiple monitors, and that centipede-like enemy actually traveled over to my other monitor haha. That was really cool. I love when a jam game surprises me like this, and this one definitely did.

I had a lot of fun with this. The devouring animation felt really satisfying, especially with the particles coming off after eating the orbs. I also thought the floatier movement and dash worked really well together. It made kiting enemies feel good without feeling too stiff, and the fights were fun in general. The enemies fleeing once they got shrunk was such a good touch too. That made the shrink theme feel more alive. 

I liked the sense of progression as well, especially getting attack speed upgrades throughout the rooms. Also, nice call with the respawn points; they really let me relax and enjoy the game. The sound design was well done. The impacts had a gentle but gross wet noise, and the music/ambience really set the atmosphere. The heartbeat sound when low health was also nice, along with the creature flashing.

Nice work. I'd definitely be interested to see where it goes if you do end up expanding it into a bigger roguelike later.

This was really cool. The shrink effect felt great and was super thematic. I especially liked the cinematic letterbox bars and the sound effects that came with it. It made the whole thing feel way more dramatic. 

The slow-mo aspect of it was also done really well. It had a nice bullet-time feel to it and reminded me a lot of Max Payne back in the day. Really added weight to the action.

Nice work, especially for your first published game. The shrink mechanic had a strong presence and felt like a real part of the game instead of something just added for the theme.

Very cool title screen and opening. The music helped set the vibe right away, and the rain visuals looked really nice too. It gave the game a strong mood before I even started playing. I also liked the UI and font choices. They were clean and fit the game's atmosphere pretty well. For a first game jam entry, that stuff already gives the game a good identity. Nice work getting something submitted for your first jam. I'd be curious to see how it feels later in your future updates.

I liked the art style and setup for this. It had really epic proportions, from the music to the tiny wizard animation with the wind flowing through the robes. It really set the mood. The shrink theme had a strong presence too. Shrinking felt deeply required to survive, which was nice. I pretty much stayed tiny most of the time and only unshrunk to confirm where the boss was. The bullet patterns were cool and challenging, but not unfair. It was also exciting to see what each boss phase would do next. Fun entry and nice from the whole team.

This was really well done for your first game ever, seriously. The sound design was balanced nicely, and it was fun to play. The background looked good, and the color palette worked well. It didn't interfere with enemy bullet readability at all. The boss fight you added was fun too, especially as a surprise once the score got high enough. The enemy explosion animations looked good as well. Also, nice job getting a few difficulty modes in there. Balancing three different modes is not easy. Really nice job, especially for a first game. Hope you keep making more.

Wow, thank you so much! This seriously means a lot to read.

I spent a lot of time trying to make the balance feel challenging without being unfair, so I'm happy it was appreciated. The color-clearing was a big thing I hoped would give people that "one more run" feeling.

And yeah, the tutorial took quite a bit of development time, but I felt like the game really needed it. There were enough unusual mechanics going on that I didn't want players to bounce off before the fun parts clicked.

My wife deserves all the credit for the art style too, so she'll be happy to read this. Thanks so much for playing!

Thanks a lot! Happy to hear you liked the page-cleaning mechanic. I wanted there to be something extra to manage besides just dodging and dps, so it's awesome to hear that felt visual and fun!

Totally fair on the shrink theme too. I tried to make it matter through the focus movement and tight bullet gaps, but I can see how the coloring mechanic ended up being the bigger star.

Really appreciate you playing and the feedback!

Thank you so much!! The Lisa Frank-inspired look was my wife's idea, so she'll be really happy to read this. Really glad it gave you that nostalgic feeling too. That means a lot. Thanks for playing!

Thank you!! Really glad the whole vibe came together for you. We had a lot of fun making the visuals and music fit the mechanics, so that means a lot.

Thanks for playing!

Wow, thank you so much for such a detailed comment! It seriously means a lot that you played long enough to beat it and still felt that "one more try" pull. That was exactly the feeling I was hoping the difficulty would hit, so hearing it didn't feel unfair is really encouraging.

The heart barrier attack is good feedback, too. I can definitely see how that one could feel rough if the gap moves a little too far between waves, even with the dash. Honestly, I wanted to tweak that specific pattern more, so I definitely know what you mean.

I'm also really glad the shrink and charge felt useful without adding too much mental load. Autoshooting was a big choice for that exact reason. I wanted players thinking about positioning, cleansing, and survival instead of constantly managing a fire button. Making the player shoot manually would either add another button for charge or force them to tap-fire so they don’t accidentally charge, and that felt like extra input noise.

And yeah, totally fair on the controller/menu support and leaderboard duplicate scores. Controller gameplay was important to me, but I didn't quite get the menus fully there in time. Same with the leaderboard; definitely something I'd want to improve.

Also, I love the "am I the bad guy?" read lol. The wizard definitely makes morality a little gray ;)

Thanks again for taking the time to play it so much and write all this out. Really happy you had a fun time with it :)

An hour?? That honestly means a lot, thank you for sticking with it that long ≡(ᗒ﹏ᗕ)≡

Really happy you dig the mechanics and the art. My wife put a lot of love into the artwork, so "made out of love" is probably one of the nicest things we could hear. Also glad the controller support helped! I really wanted it to feel comfortable for people who prefer playing that way (I, for one, am one of them).

And yeah, the wizard is just out here committing vibe crimes lmao. Thanks so much for playing and for the super kind comment!

Thank you so much! That really means a lot. I'm especially glad the painting mechanic came through that way, because I wanted the theme to show up in more than just the player physically shrinking. Also, really happy to hear the bullets stayed readable with the aesthetic. That was something we were constantly trying to balance with the art style. 

Thanks for playing, and good luck if you come back to beat it!

Thanks a lot! Really appreciate you giving it a shot. I know it can get tough, so I'm glad the mechanics still landed for you. I was hoping the color mechanic would make the theme feel a little different, so it's really encouraging to hear you enjoyed it. Thanks for playing!

Fellow press-button-to-srink devs unite lol.

Thanks a lot! Really glad the balancing act came through. This was one of the trickier parts to design around because I wanted it all to matter without making it pure chaos. Also, really happy to hear the tutorial was appreciated. I spent a decent chunk of time on it because unusual jam mechanics can get confusing fast. 

Thanks for playing and for the kind words!

Very cool game. There were some really nice visuals going on here. I especially liked the particles coming off the sides of the play screen when the screen expanded. I also liked what you did with the music as the boss advanced. It made the fight feel more intense as it went on, and the little ghost version of the boss near the end was a great surprise. Things really got heated by the final stretch.

Having three options to choose from added a nice layer of strategy to an otherwise straightforward genre. Really clever implementation of the theme, especially with the window itself shrinking as part of the challenge. Also, congrats on your first jam entry. For a first jam game, this is a really creative and polished idea.

This is a really cool idea. Having to match the size of the target added a slight puzzle/strategy layer to the fights, and the snake boss was super cool. The SFX on bullet hits was a good choice too. It made it easy to tell when I had chosen the right bullet size without needing to stare at the health bar and take attention away from dodging. I also really liked how the camera switched to follow mode when you got super tiny. It really sold the scale change and made the map feel way grander. 

Also, thanks for the gamepad support, it played really well on it! Fun jam game, and really clever use of the shrink/grow theme.

Really great-looking title screen and UI, with a great transition between screens. The way the control hints switched from keyboard to gamepad was super fluid too. It also played great on gamepad.

The game is amazingly polished. The art is beautiful, and I loved the brush style used for the background art. The cherry blossoms looked amazing. The color palette popped, but was saturated just enough to not conflict with the foreground.

The Kitsune was drawn really nicely too, both during gameplay and in the portrait/dialogue representation. The bullet impact feedback was communicated really well, especially during the Hunter fight with the red flashing and the fire effects. Even with all that going on, the boss tells were still easy to read.

The gameplay was fun too, with a nice variety of skills available. I can definitely see this being the first level of a full game. The sound design was balanced nicely as well. Pretty much all the sounds were ear candy, especially the pickups. The music was super fun too, so good job on composing that.

This is a really polished and beautiful entry. Finished with 704,380 :)

Really cool particle effects. They made the sun look spectacular and bright, and the particle effects coming off the asteroids looked good too.

The health pickups were a nice addition as well. I definitely needed a few lol. I also liked how the theme revolved around shrinking the sun. It had a natural effect on the difficulty scaling too, since the sun became harder to hit as it got closer to being destroyed.

Nice work, the sun shrinking gave the fight a clear sense of progression and made the theme feel built into the goal.

Very clean title screen/UI, and it was awesome that you included button remapping. That was really helpful since my wife and I played locally. 

The game was intense for sure. The polish on it is amazing. The sound design was balanced really nicely, and all the sprite work and animations looked great. I especially liked the background art. It created a strong sense of speed without being intrusive or making the bullets hard to read. The player character animations were really nice too, especially the turn animations. They were smooth and helped make the movement feel fluid. 

The formations were a great addition and added a lot to the chaos, especially the one that shoots all around the player lol. That was definitely my go-to XD. The bosses were really well done too. I liked the detail on the space boss that showed which direction they were moving, because it helped me lead my shots. 

Really impressive jam game.

This was a lot of fun. You had quite a variety of bosses here, and they all felt very different from each other. I managed to beat them all, and they were tough little fights. I'll rank them from least to most difficult for me:

1. Druid
2. Faker
3. Ice Wizard
4. Take Shrooms

The Ice Wizard gave me a tough time for some reason haha, but I managed to beat him too. Fun fight though. Really, all the fights were fun and had a good variety.

The gameplay was cool, and the fireball felt good to land. It had a nice impact with the screen shake and bassy boom SFX. The shrink was super helpful when I was in a bind too. I ended up using it as my emergency "get the heck out of this area" move. The condensed/shrink fireball was strong, but felt balanced nicely since you still had to commit to using it well. The music was fun and epic, and the pixel art looked good too. I especially liked the boss art. 

Fun entry, and the cowboy wizard idea is just a great setup.

Very nice looking how-to-play screen. I'm glad you included that to ease me into it. The color palette was really nice too. Everything popped, and the stage looked very pretty. Good job on the models as well; they were really well done. The boss was absolutely horrifying and a thing of nightmares. I'm convinced that thing is an eater of dreams lol.

Also, great job implementing variable jump height and getting the shrink mechanic working. For a first game made in UE5 Blueprints, this is genuinely impressive. There's a lot of potential here, and it's cool seeing an artist-turned-dev start putting these ideas together.

Nice way to let us explore the controls in a safe environment first. It's always nice to be eased into things before the real chaos starts.

This was awesome. I loved the pure survival focus of it. After I picked up a gamepad, I was able to survive for much longer, and the controls felt really good that way. The movement was really responsive and the dash cooldown was generous, which was really helpful when standing on the portals. 

The patterns were very inventive and visually stimulating, and I liked how the theme played into the arena/space changing. The third phase was definitely tough, but it was also really exciting once everything started getting more intense.

Did you make the music too? Because it was awesome and fit the game really well. Very addicting game.

Short, simple, and effective. Really unique gameplay and take on the theme. It was really fun and I finally beat it after 11 tries. The patterns were very easy to read because of the contrasting colors, which was especially helpful once the screen got super small. I also liked how the pattern changed each time it hit the wall. It kept the game feeling tense even with such a simple setup. The sound design was nicely done too, and helped sell the classic arcade feel.

Really nice-looking sprite work. I loved the animations on the neckties. Also, it was super charming that the bullets were, what I think, swear words. Definitely been there, so I understand the struggles of job hunt hell lol. It felt really good once I got a steady stream of bullets going and was able to destroy everyone up to the end. The jump from barely shooting to suddenly becoming a verbal machine gun was pretty funny and satisfying.

Really cool look on the background. I liked the staticky effect, and even though it was blue and moving a lot, it didn't interfere with the readability of the enemy bullets. Shooting syringes was also a fun idea lol. I liked that shrinking disables shooting too, since it makes it feel more of a defensive choice. Since you mentioned it wasn't fully completed, I think there are already some cool ideas here. Nice work getting something completed.

Love the unique perspective you went for. It felt really fresh playing something from that kind of curved/orbital view, and it made the game stand out. I also loved the rush and risk/reward of having to expose yourself as the pilot to grab pickups. That was such a cool mechanic; you really had to commit yourself to going for them and making yourself vulnerable. 

The game was very stylish too, and the sound design was balanced nicely. Did you make the music as well? It sounded great. Also, even though it's just a vessel, the Shellriser is super charming!

This game nailed that retro bullet hell look from the heyday. The pixel art visuals were really nice, and the background looked great without being intrusive. The ship movement felt good too, with the turning animation helping the movement feel smooth. The explosion animations looked really good as well.

The voice work was an unexpected but nice surprise and gave the opening a lot more personality.  Also, great job on the music, it was super fun to jam along to. The shrink moment was a cool highlight as well. It gave the game a nice payoff, and it was a nice way to use the theme. Fun little space adventure. Nice work.

Love the visuals on this. Simplistic, but very stylish, with some really nice polish on the effects. The enemy deaths, bullet shots, and "blood splatter" on the ground were all nicely done. The subtle screen shake on bullet impacts and enemy kills helped give everything more weight, and made each kill feel satisfying along with the sound design. The transition screen was a lovely extra layer of polish on the UI too.

Impressive how much you still got in despite being sick during the jam. The game already has enough here to feel fun and satisfying, but I definitely would've been happy to play even more of it.

Solid one-room bullet hell. The slow-mo felt cool, and I liked how it almost felt like it slowed the music too. It made the shrink/slowdown mechanic feel more dramatic. Having to run around to grab XP drops helped keep the fight engaging. I also liked that enemies had a spawn warning. That was really helpful, especially when a pickup was sitting on a spawn point, so I knew to rush in and grab it before things got dangerous. Fun entry. The upgrade loop made it satisfying to keep surviving a little longer each run.

What a well-polished game. What a fun way to introduce the mechanics in the beginning, and the office-culture theme works really well for a bullet hell. I was cracking up the whole time. Even the way some of the player's metrics were communicated at the water cooler was clever. The gameplay felt like true bullet hell, but everything was themed so well, which made the patterns really stand out. The data-related attack was especially really thematic and fun. 

The music absolutely shredded, and all the changes fit and flowed together so well. I also really liked how each boss/enemy section had its own office-flavored personality. Also I'm really glad you let us see it through to the end with infinite continues. I definitely needed them lol.

Really impressive entry. Funny, polished, and very creative.