This is addictive! This had a really satisfying engine-building system. There is some luck to it, but it seems like most runs can still be reasonably successful if you adapt to the options you're given. At first the wisps didn't feel worth it, but once I got a good run with a lot of machines I realized I never would have kept up otherwise lol. I like the washing machine spin cycle and the world exploding consequence for the theme. The music set a good vibe for the game and the dings from the washers were a good fit. I really enjoyed this.
If I had to nitpick, a couple rounds I accidentally bought washing machines and forgot to place them before going on to the next round and then they were just gone. That's definitely user error, but could be worth considering a check for that and popping up some kind of "are you sure?" message as a protect the player from themself kind of thing.
owlzio
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This was fun to get to try! I like the introduction, graphics, and the variety of power-ups. I'm not sure if it was a skill issue or if the game may be too hard - I tried a few times and I think my best was about half of all the trash, even though I'd gotten a speed boost and an hour rewind. It might feel better if you respawn where you'd left off after the spinner - I sometimes used a lot of time getting to where I was or got a bit lost.
This was fun! Also surprisingly intense, while anxiously watching and hoping to get just enough light in time to avoid a collision. I'm not sure if I've seen this kind of real-time turn-taking / selective moments to move before, it's really creative!
I noticed levels would end with a win once the first boat reached a dock, which differs from the how to play description, but might have been an adjustment for difficulty.
This got started right away with a very serious story!
I like the idea of getting random combinations of boss abilities, and giving the player a say in the difficulty by deciding how many abilities to spin for. Sounds like you also left the game open to support more abilities in the future, that should pay off if you choose to continue to expand the game! I did find the fights challenging (one of the rounds the boss had the flying ability and it took a while to find openings to deal damage), but this was fun and is a nice start to a potential larger game with good fight mechanics and the framework for the game loop already in place.
The art, music, and story are all charming! (I'm also a little biased towards owls lol). The larger items counting for more is a good way to encourage trying out new, potentially risky arrangements to fit in more, and the levels progress well with increasing sized regions and the number of items to consider. This was a fun puzzle and optimization game.
This was fun! Having a rotating tower is a good, thematic spin on classic tower defense. It took a bit to get the hang of the timing so I was glad for the healing items! The visuals and effects for hitting the targets were pretty satisfying. I was able to make it to the end and was happy to get the serious rank :)
Thanks for trying the game, and for this feedback! :)
I think that's likely an optimal strategy, and it still works fairly well even if you're like me and sometimes need to go back and forth a couple times to be sure which one changes. Ideally there'd be a little while where tracking everything feels overwhelming and then it'd feel like more of an achievement to come up with a process for managing it, but it sounds like it's often too easy to quickly arrive at a good strategy, and then the player misses out on that.
It's interesting to think about what could be added to give the game more depth - one thought is if multiple people were guilty and you had to match them up with what artifact they stole, which would lengthen it but maybe not add anything completely new. A separate second phase with a different puzzle might be more satisfying.
I think it'd also help if I'd added audio, which shouldn't be too bad even in Java. I think it would have been fun to find a lofi or non-intrusive instrumental song that it could play normally or in fast forward or reverse depending on the clock settings being used. Just didn't make time to find a song or add in the code for it yet.
Thanks again!
Thanks!
I think that's valid. While sometimes a really obvious fake shows up without watching for it, for me I mostly have to watch one object or one actor at a time and go back to check the others, and it also would have been too much for me to keep them all in mind (except maybe on the slowest speed, but then I'd almost need notes).
I'd originally wanted to add some settings for difficulty scaling, and I think a really good option would have been to to allow changing the number of objects and/or actors.
Wow, this honestly feels like a complete game, and is really impressive for a quick game jam project. It was such a cool realization that the spinning tiles not only impacted navigation but also interactions between the types of tiles. The puzzle difficulty felt well-tuned and escalated at a good pace, and the enemies provided a good amount of danger without being too threatening or unfair. I also like the frogs a lot :) (and the art in general).
The only negative thing that came to mind was sometimes I'd dash in the wrong direction and have to go back for another charge or reset. I'm pretty sure this was entirely user error (I think the dash goes towards your cursor and I had it on the wrong side), but you could consider whether it would work well to base the direction on the movement direction or their position on the tile (but that might break other things or not feel as good as the current implementation, so I think it's also fine as is).
This was fun! It's an interesting challenge trying to drift with the bus so that it efficiently picks up the passengers without running them over. The sound effects for the bus and the people were pretty satisfying. I'm not sure exactly what the end condition was - maybe just time or something to do with the star ratings since it would sometimes end with people left. An end screen could have been helpful, but it's still functional and lets you go back to the menu and play again.
I played the first time without having read the instructions on the page and intentionally ran over everyone, which was enjoyable too lol
I enjoyed the talking rock - I think a unique character pointing out concepts was helpful and worked better for keeping my attention than if the tutorial was delivered without a character or narrator. You had a lot of good ideas for the various tablet actions and it was cool that they had bug and animal themes, bringing in a bit of an Inscryption vibe along with the Balatro inspiration. The art for them was simple but looked good and fit in with the game's visual style. Nice game!
This did a good job of capturing the Katamari feel while also being its own game. The graphics were cute and movement was good, and the game ramped up nicely. It was interesting trying to run from the tornado too, in a reversal of roles and vibes from the first part of the game. The circle was pretty helpful to help keep track of where the tornado was coming from and how far it was pulling.
At least for now, I'm on the leaderboard after I got a well-timed bonus for wider pull and built up a big combo at the end. Even if I wasn't on it (and even though I'll probably get beaten as the jam continues), it's cool to have that support for competition and tracking high scores!
This did a good job of capturing the Katamari feel while also being its own game. The graphics were cute and movement was good, and the game ramped up nicely. It was interesting trying to run from the tornado too, in a reversal of roles and vibes from the first part of the game. The circle was pretty helpful to help keep track of where the tornado was coming from and how far it was pulling.
At least for now, I'm on the leaderboard after I got a well-timed bonus for wider pull and built up a big combo at the end. Even if I wasn't on it (and even though I'll probably get beaten as the jam continues), it's cool to have that support for competition and tracking high scores!
This was a lot of fun! I like the design of the character, sword, and especially the enemy robots! I like the way the wizard squishes when he takes damage (and maybe other times too - one time I lost and he squished at me to establish dominance and it was great).
I'll echo what some others have mentioned that the game was pretty hard, with the snowballs from offscreen and sticky enemies being the toughest parts for me. I struggled with the parry mechanic but eventually kind of got it :) One thing I was a bit confused by visually was the way the enemies you have to parry carry their shields to one side, so I thought I just needed to swing from the other side, like Wii Sports or Skyward Sword. I'm not sure if there'd be a different way to draw their shields, or make them resemble the practice parry target. I probably should have figured it out since it was right after that tutorial, and I was only confused for a couple tries, so not a big deal either way.
I also liked the tutorial for movement and attacking built in as you progressed through the first level. I think that's a good way to do it!