I burned out and went on hiatus about a month after releasing the prologue. I'm planning out a rework of it on the backburner while I slowly get back in the swing of things, so I wouldn't call the project dead, but... Don't expect anything for a very long time.
This is absolutely amazing, thank you so much for making it. It's so good to see Minesweeper being reimagined like this, and I think this is a whole lot of fun!
Thank you for this reply, it's so cool to see someone who really "gets" what I was going for with those stats? Have you checked out the Design Document in the files? It offers a lot more info on every detail of Full Bloom, including both gameplay and narrative info! Also, if you have RPG Maker XP you can go through the project files yourself and do whatever you want with it!
If this were any other week, in any other context, I'd be giving this game a 5. The art is really good, the use of pre-existing audio actually worked well I feel, and the story is some good visual novel fun. You did some great work here, especially for 48 hours, and I don't want to detract from that.
...But the GMTK jam can't be just about aesthetics and story to me. Game design is in the DNA of the contest, and in that regard it's just a normal visual novel. There isn't an exploration of the concept of being stuck together, the idea of cyborgs isn't explored through interactions that let the player engage with it, and when I decided to split up the party it had a likely better outcome than if I didn't. The actual interactions manifested as "pick whichever choice seems interesting or right to me and see what happens," which would be fine if this was a visual novel jam or one focused on story, but I just can't give it full marks here.
This feels like it easily could have been a mid-2010s Flash title, and I mean that in a really good way. The mechanic's versatile and interesting, and the animation's fun enough to make it work. Just the way the little skull rolls around before picking up a leg and being able to jump is super neat, and it's something I wouldn't have thought of. Good stuff!
First Run Thoughts: Holy ---, Holy ---- what is this game, two ships at once, it feels like I'm playing Sin & Punishment, I'm bad at this but I'm kind of in love!
Second Run Thoughts: Okay I kinda wish that the enemies firing had a louder sound effect so I could spot them quicker, but this is clearly meant to be a visual game. I can't seem to collect upgrades though...
Third Run Thoughts: OH okay so when I'm joined I can collect upgrades, I skimmed through that opening text, lemme do it and, wait, I GET BIGGER? This is amazing, it's like Bit.Trip Void, one of my favorite games ever! The sprite resizing does lead to some awkward resolution mixing, but if I'm comparing you to some of my favorite action games, you're definitely doing something right! Great stuff!
Hey nice, I like this! You mentioned on the Discord it's your first jam game and I gotta say this is a better work than what I put out for my first. Good stuff!
Yeah, my priority with this game was making it as approachable as I could, with simplified mechanics, proper tutorials, etc. I originally wanted to make 4 levels that would ramp up in complexity, and if I had more time I definitely would've, but I knew that if I wanted to polish the levels I had by doing tutorial and dialogue writing, I'd need to strip it down to 3.
I'm really glad that everyone who's left a review has at least liked the game, I remember previous jams getting the "I don't play tactics games so I don't understand this" review, and I put a lot of effort into specifically avoiding those reviews. (including rewatching Mark's video on Complex Games lol) And while even my playtesters who didn't normally play SRPG's could get into it more easily, I'll have to save full development of the mechanic for a later fuller version :P
There is an unfortunate glitch in Level 1 where the mage necessary to beat the level sometimes doesn't appear. I mistakenly set the mage to appear "at the end of the enemy phase, if exactly 3 enemies have been killed" so it's possible to kill two enemies in one turn or for an enemy to die from Onyxia's counterattack and bring that 3 up to a 4 before the enemy phase ends. Hopefully this doesn't crop up too often, but if it does, just try again. I hope you enjoy this game regardless.
I like this one a lot! The game has a really good gamefeel despite being so difficult to control, and the levels are always fun and enjoyable even when they're kicking my behind. Great job, easiest 5 stars of my life!
This is a very fun game but carried almost entirely by its presentation. It's a very simplistic game but I feel that works to its benefit, especially for this jam where I can only play a game for like 10 minutes. I enjoyed this experience a lot, thank you for making it.
It's a bit poorly telegraphed what part of the dialogue is or isn't gameplay-relevant at the start so I had some problems with the opening of the game, but aside from that I had good fun with the game! It's well-designed in that puzzle-game way and uses the theme in interesting ways. Great stuff!
Extremely overwhelming and I barely know what I'm doing, I'm going to try a third time and see what I think.
Update: Yeah this all plays out way too fast. There's a lot of depth and thinking but it's too much to take in and work with at one time, I never have time to heal or orient myself and that makes the whole thing fall apart very quickly. I hope everyone else has a better experience with this than I did.
This game reminds me why I use Maker engines, because programming is overwhelming and I am an idiot. I love this game, and I'm going to play it more after the voting period's over 'cause I wanna give it the proper time of day, but I've already rated it very highly. Great game!
I like this game! The controls are weird and it's difficult to get a hold on everything, it feels like I have to use my all of my brain, hands and eyes. It also feels like the game's hardest at the start because you can barely take any hits, whereas getting further in the game means I could tank more hits and not care as much about dodging. Either way I like this game, it's good.
This is a really good and simple concept that's still very cool and well-done. Some of the level design is a bit messy (I stopped at Lv 7), but I still liked playing it and seeing all the cool ways this design can be used. Good job!
This is a nice game! I like how arcade-style games serve as a fun timekiller without expecting you to get to the end. Well-done, I hope to see more from you.
I like this game a lot, it's a really funny comedy game and the mechanic is fun with good level design to take advantage of it. Well done, I hope to see your work again!
First of all I want to say I'm really impressed that you managed to make this within 48 hours, as someone who tried to make a tactics game from scratch this is an amazing feat. It's a cool mechanic too that fits right in with the theme. The main problem I feel is that it's not a tactics game that lets you do what you want to. It feels more like you're doing what the game wants you to do. And normally that's okay, but here it feels inorganic. I'd like to see this fleshed out to give the game more depth, and I'm still going to rate it high, but those are my thoughts for now.
This game's got a pretty cool opening and some neat level design, but bogged down by weird controls and unclear hitboxes. It's a good jam game though, and you did a good job making it.
