itch.io

The intro, the skill tree, the crunchy sound effects, the health indicator with the liquid animation... the game genuinely looks so good, it's clear that you've put a lot of effort into the presentation of the game. I personally think that the gameplay is a bit weak though-- before the ritual, every enemy that appears seems to be outpaced by the player, so even when you put on the mask, so long as you run in circles there really isn't that much of a threat. Consequently, there really isn't an incentive to collect exp and expand the skill tree until you trigger the boss fight. Nonetheless, amazing game!

Graphics look amazing-- the game looks like a high-resolution rendition of early 3D animations. Gameplay wise, attacking feels a bit clunky since it's a bit hard to gauge the range and it briefly stops you from moving which may prevents you from dodging enemy attacks during that time frame. Also, killing those spectres felt almost impossible until I realized that my attacks barely outrange the spectres' projectiles, then it became impossible for them to hit me, and the first part of the game became like a chore. Nevertheless, playing the game was enjoyable. The boss was relatively easy to beat, but it still took me 3 tries (for the second try I managed to deplete all of the dragon's health, but then proceeded to not pay attention and die to the QTE lol).

If you're gonna continue working on this game after the jam, I think you could consider adding enemy attacks like a sweeping attack that force the player to hover, because I've barely used the hovering mechanic throughout the game (at most I've used it to run away from the dragon's attacks, but I didn't need to hover above the ground). Good luck!

Charming pixel art and dialogue with a simplistic but fun gameplay! Feels like game that would be on the DS (except for the fact that well, this game isn't dual screen)

For all the submissions I've played through so far, this game feels the most complete. Not only are the UI and combat system intuitive, although the levels aren't necessarily detailed, the fact that each part of the levels feel unique makes the experience traversing through the levels fun and rewarding, especially when you manage to progress through a part of the level that you've kept dying at before. I do think that it would be nice if there were checkpoints in between levels though-- missing a jump near the end of the level and having to do all the platforming and fighting all over again just doesn't feel that great lol

The art direction is awesome! The scratchy analog horror-esque monotone art gives the game a creepy atmosphere. The difficulty of the game is a bit unforgiving though, and coupled with the fact that the difficulty never changes or there aren't any variations to the gameplay as you progress really makes the gameplay feel a bit tedious. Also, being able to change the input map would be nice, I personally would prefer WASD and arrow keys over 1234 and HJKL .

Thanks for the detailed feedback! Because I was the one who made the game, naturally I knew that the black dots were not interactable until the resizing mechanic was introduced, but I did not consider how much this would confuse new players-- that was an oversight on my part. I also have little experience in the audio aspect of game design (my last entry to GWJ, which is also my first ever game jam entry, basically had no audio), and I did try to compose some BGM but couldn't finish it in time (in retrospect I should've use a royalty free BGM instead). As for the visuals, I agree that there should be a high contrast mode, and as for fullscreen mode... I just realized that you could enable that in the settings :> Will keep that in mind when I publish more games on itch.io in the future.

I'm glad you liked the game! When I was making the game, I felt that the game was a bit too easy puzzle-wise so I intentionally made some levels that required you to be intentional with the placing of the mask. In hindsight, this also made some levels easy to softlock as you've described...

I'm glad you liked the art and sound effects, because I won't say it took a lot of effort, but it did take time for me to design them. I did have more mechanics in mind, and I initially also wanted to do friendly ghost, but in the end I ran out of time 🥲

Fun game, the dimension shifting mechanic really spices up the platforming! However, I do feel like the controls feel a bit unresponsive. Because it takes time for the player to reach max running velocity after holding left or right, it makes it hard to steer the player, which makes it hard to do precise jumps. Also, I've noticed that attacking locks the player's controls which made a lot of awkward moments when I would fall directly into a pit after hitting the boss. It also could be that I'm simply a terrible player lol, because the estimated playtime is 5-10 mins and my playtime is 40 mins 💀 Even saying so, the levels were genuinely well made and beating the boss felt a bit frustrating (especially with no checkpoints) but I still enjoyed my time.

I can't believe I almost accused the very obvious red herring lol

Personally I think that making an accusation should hold more weight in the game (maybe making a false accusation leads to a game over or just deducts your health / morale) to discourage players from just randomly guessing suspects, and there could be a more of an ending to act as a payoff for solving the mystery, but overall the game was an enjoyable experience. The clues and testimonies given were not so obvious that they forfeit the mystery at the first glance, but if you examine them carefully they give a clear answer as to who murdered the victim and why. Good job!

Very unique concept! Although this game isn't really particularly challenging (the challenging part is finding how to activate the mask (kinda spoiled myself by reading the comments but in the end still found the hint), the map design and sound effects make navigating the game worlds a soothing experience. Did hope that the narrative element of the game was stronger though, but I think it's a  good thing that this game left me longing for more.

It took some time to figure out, but if I am not wrong, do the scan effects linger longer with holograms?

Anyway, considering every object is static, there really isn't that much of a challenge after you've figured out how to differentiate between holograms and "normal" objects, but the scanning mechanic is really interesting, and even though the ui and models are generally very simplistic it also gives you the feeling that you're a mech ransacking a city.

Neat game! The gameplay is simple but well executed, and the art is not only charming (like those old flash games but with more polish) but also fits the (I don't know what it's called, Victorian?) aesthetic.

The 3D graphics are simple yet beautiful. A bit unfortunate that the gameplay aspect is a bit lacking (guessing its because of time constraints) so for now this game feels more like a tech demo. Would love to see the game fleshed out though!

The spritework and music are nicely done! The gameplay is also fun and engaging, but also to me frustratingly hard. I think the movement speed and dashing distance could be tweaked because the enemies and projectile move pretty fast so it's really hard to dodge them. The fact that you cannot control in which direction you attack also means that you could potentially knock the enemies into yourself.

Hey! You guys stole my idea!

Jokes aside, its nice to see that somebody else shares the same idea as me for this game jam. Personally, I think that this game would benefit from a bit more gimmicks besides blocks that reveal or hide themselves when masked, because you can only make so many level variations with 2 mechanics which makes the game monotonous. Despite that, the levels were still well-designed and the masking mechanic was smoothly integrated within the gameplay.

Also, not sure if this is intended, but sometimes I could lift up the mask over blue tiles while the player character is on it to instantly push me to the top. I think there's room to explore the interactions between player and masked/unmasked tiles, like perhaps you could push the player with tiles to launch them in a certain direction.

Very fun and unique game! The color mask mechanic is genuinely cool. The story is... interesting

I'm sorry that you had to encounter that kind of game-breaking bug! I think I know exactly what caused the bug (literally just forgot to unfreeze the player on reset). Making games is hard man

Very charming game! Balancing between serving coffee and making counterfeit bills really makes the restaurant management sim gameplay much more fun. This game inspired me to make counterfeit bills in real life

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I'm glad you liked the idea! It seems that a few other submissions also implemented some kind of clipping mask mechanic.

Thanks! I initially felt like the idea for this game would barely fit the theme as well but I really wanted to try making the masking mechanic.

The game, especially the pixel art, is very charming! I also like that there there is a subtle storytelling of a monster bursting out of its tank and consuming all the humans on board, which adds on to the "consume" theme. But I find the movement and controls to be a bit frustrating. For example, it is hard to make turns precisely with only the left and right arrow keys. Personally I find the gameplay to be a bit boring, but I'm not the biggest fan of simulator games so there's that.

Kinda depressing that the humans get killed immediately as soon as the little roomba approaches them.

Very Roblox inspired game lol

I love the semi-creepy atmosphere! The comedy aspect is also entertaining. If you could crank up the unnerving vibe a bit more this could make an amazing horror-comedy game.

Amazing game! The game mechanics and storytelling blend in really well. Although, when I'm playing the game I do sometimes feel a bit overwhelmed by the amount of stuff that I have to keep track on, though I'm aware that the design is intentional. Also, I think the controls could be improved because its easy to accidentally touch the death zones or overshoot/undershoot while dashing. Though I may have struggled a bit trying to solve the puzzles, I still enjoyed the game. The story really resonated with me.

Glad you enjoyed the game! Honestly the reason why the thumbnail is what it is is because I have no ideas for what to set it as

Thanks for the feedback! The game is very rushed so there are many bugs that I couldn't patch in time.