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Greetings, fellow team Downcula! I see that we have not only the same name but also the same narrative framework! :) Playing through this game has been a joy. It’s elegantly designed, with smooth gameplay and great aesthetics. The music in particular really hits the spot, well done! Having the “countdown” not in actual time elapsed but in the number of moves has felt refreshing. Gave me Sokoban meets Baba Is You vibes, and incidentally I found myself wishing we could undo individual moves rather than restart the whole level. I’m pleasantly surprised that with all this you still had time to design actual brain teasing puzzles as proof of concept. Overall, I’m impressed by this game and I wish you the best of luck!

Hello there, fellow Downcula folks! This was a fun game to play through. Good choice of music too. I don’t see any VFX assets credited, so assuming you made them yourselves, well done! I have a soft spot for turn-based combat, but I’ve also had some pain points here. I think it’s generally a bad idea to start a new player out with 17 abilities. I suppose your “countdown” interpretation sort of requires this and it’s a bit of a cursed problem. I also noticed that I never had to use different approaches to defeat different enemies, and I didn’t have much reason to care about their attacks. I was very much making meaningful decisions throughout on which ability to use next though (and which ones to give up each turn) thanks to the cooldown and shield/armor/health system. Overall, a worthy contender and a cool double-interpretation of the jam’s theme!

Had a good time playing through this. For a game made only in 12 hours by first-timers, very good effort!

I’ve enjoyed this one very much! By far the best ambiance out of any game I’ve played for the jam. Commendations to the writers and the actor for that. The music is delightful, especially the intro theme. The abilities are easy to understand and interesting to use. The whole thing left me wanting more. If you have any inclination to expand on, polish and publish this game, IMO the obvious area of improvement is the level design. More levels with less obvious solutions would likely make the experience that much more satisfying. I had a chuckle at the last level after a couple resets when I managed to trigger both endings simultaneously and become trapped in the tower in the process.

I’ve enjoyed this a lot even though I thought I wasn’t going to at first. The gameplay works quite well, and the narrative left me wanting more. The ending caught me off guard too. The beautiful music and the cool art does a good job building up an atmosphere. I found the interpretation of the jam theme a bit dry. Overall, a worthy contender. Well done!

Who knew topping the lists could be so easy? An interesting experience, maybe a bit too short, but one that’ll stay with me well after the jam for sure. Great entry!

I’ve enjoyed this one, looks very polished and visually pleasing too. I love word games, but the countdown-themed twist in this one somehow didn’t speak to me. Still played to the end and found it satisfying. The host is delightful with those antics, really adds a lot of character. Well done!

Pretty cool game! I wasn’t able to hand in the propeller, but the game has been quite enjoyable otherwise. You’ve established the game-feel well, and that seems to be the game’s main strength. The boat and the submarine, and the water ripple effect were especially delightful. I was skeptical about the crafting minigame at first, and though I eventually came to enjoy it, I still think it feels out of place. The writing seems neglected and rushed. I appreciated how central the countdown mechanic was, though the time limit was rather quick to outgrow and easy to stop worrying about. If you’ve budgeted a polishing pass after the jam, I hope you can take a look at these areas. I’d love to see this game refined and published!

I’ve really enjoyed this one, it’s quite a-peeling! A delightful interpotation of the countdown theme. The aesthetics seem on point and the gameplay feels satisfying. I especially loved the sprites of taters in various stages of peeledness. Wasn’t a fan of the font though. I thought peel costs for upgrades in general scaled too permissively (might be for the best in the context of the jam tbh). I got ‘em all peeled up in 6:10 freehand, then 4:13 with a 100ms autoclicker. Thank the potat gods that these are only game potat or they would’ve already started to brown.

It was difficult to figure things out with no tutorial or gradual introduction of mechanics. Had to power through feeling a little overwhelmed, but I did manage eventually. I’m not sure how much luck played a role in me defeating the serpent. The game concept in itself is great, and the mechanics feel nice and deliberate. Love the minimalist art too, and the UI as well. I wish there was audio, but oh well, happens in short jams. I found the connection to the countdown theme a bit tenuous. A cool entry overall, well done!

I would’ve played through a hundred more levels if this one had them. Great little game, such delightful music and art! It gave me Baba Is You vibes, and I don’t know if it was because of the association, but I wish there was a mechanic to undo single moves once you know you’ve made a mistake, rather than restarting the entire level. I found the connection to the jam’s countdown theme a bit tenuous. No matter. I think, if you’re so inclined, you could add a few more block types, make 50-ish levels, give it a polish and get this game published :)

A charming little game. Fits very well with the jam with the countdown being so central. I found the memory game and the jigsaw puzzle a bit too easy. In contrast, the block stacking game was frustrating because of the controls. The music speeding up is a nice touch. Well done!

I was surprised to see a combo tactical/action battler concept like this working as well as it does. I think the game would benefit from its tactical and action-y bits at least partially separated. Something like alternating sections where we can fully take our time to strategize / play out a visceral battle under time pressure. I had quite a bit of fun playing, even as I was frustrated by the game loop. The duck helped too! :)

I’ve had fun playing this! The mix of dungeoneering and simulation-y crafting was strange at first but enjoyable once I got used to it. The most immediate areas of improvement could be onboarding for the game’s mechanics and telegraphing for enemy attacks. For instance, I didn’t even realize I could attack at first. Cool art, cool levels, looks surprisingly polished in some areas. I like how the enemies have distinct movement patterns. The connection to the jam theme is a bit tenuous, but the game itself has potential if you were planning to expand on it.

Happy to hear you’ve enjoyed it, and thank you for your kind words!

Thanks for playing!

Glad you kept at it despite the initial confusion. Hopefully we’ll be able to do something about that after the voting period. Thanks for leaving a comment!

Thanks for playing and for the encouraging comments!

Thanks for giving it a go :)

Glad to hear you’ve enjoyed it, and thanks for leaving a comment! We are hoping to patch the game after the voting period, which should make the game run more smoothly and the gameplay more fluid.

Thank you!

I’ve seen a few entries already using the player’s previous action sequence in a timeloop to automate characters, but this one has the best implementation yet. Played through the stages and enjoyed it quite a bit. I thought the movement felt a bit sluggish, but overall very cool game, well done!

Thanks for playing!

Happy to hear you’ve enjoyed it. Thanks for your time!

Thanks for playing and leaving feedback!

Thanks for leaving a comment! We wanted to add a how-to-play but had to settle with written instructions in the game description as we were running out of time. If you’re willing to try again, see if you can capture the sun in relaxed mode in case we overtuned the difficulty.

Thanks for playing! Indeed we’ve had to cut some corners and leave a few bugs in to be able to meet the deadline. Appreciate you taking the time to leave a comment.

Been a lot of fun to play through this one. It looks and sounds great, plays smoothly (some relentless hitboxes though!) and generally satisfying. I would like to watch a practiced speedrun of this. I appreciate the main gimmick but I think it could have been more prominent. There are no puzzles or such that require or encourage the use of previous lives. It’s a just a thing that exists, feels a bit glued on top of a classical platforming experience. Overall, very cool game. Well done!

This one was short and sweet, I managed to get a victory in five tries. It’s an interesting concept and generally well-made. I only found myself wishing the controls were a bit more responsive, which may have been a side effect of the web player. I’ve enjoyed the art and the music quite a bit as well. If you are planning to expand upon the game later, I think adding some variety of levels and arenas would be well worth it. Good job, team!

I’ve played up to level 12 and had quite a bit of fun with it. The concept is simple and the gameplay works. If there’s an opportunity to expand upon it later, I think the easy pickings would be to improve the level design. The difficulty ramp felt a bit inconsistent to me. Twice I have reached the solution in only two steps from the scrambled state, one of them after a level that stumped me for 50+ steps. Overall, a nice little game, well done!

A well executed game, but I don’t think the concept works in terms of gameplay. In Pong, the strategies for optimally catching the incoming ball and optimally sending it off can be different, which makes this game eminently cheesable. I was able to stay in the middle 3rd of my lane, and consistently send balls to the upper 3rd, so my opponent never got any better at catching balls as the generations went by.

One of the better designs I’ve seen among the games I’ve perused, and the longest I’ve played! I’ve enjoyed the track turning mechanic, and I appreciate that the choices are meaningfully diverse. There’s a point to be made about pacing: It’s not a set-and-watch tower defense, but the rate of new distractions are pretty uniform and fast. There’s often no time to stop turning and browse through upgrades. Telegraphed waves of distractions and longer pauses in between might work better for this concept. Overall, promising, and could be a good starting point for a commercial game. Well done!

I managed to beat the 5 levels. An interesting concept, but the execution could use some work. The core was always something along the lines of face-and-shoot, and I’d be curious to see what other kinds of puzzles could come out of this framework. Maybe having a constant number that we can set among our input signals could allow us to use comparisons more deliberately, and open up design possibilities. I’ve enjoyed the introduction quite a bit too. Well done!

This has been a pleasure to play, having the comfy gameplay of a classical shmup. The aerial tank controls take some getting used to, and probably make the game more difficult than it might have been for those of us used to orthogonal movement. It’s possible the player’s slow linear speed is working to the game’s detriment, and a more agile player could mesh better with this concept. I’ve reached a high score of 7230 but never managed to beat the boss. Overall, a fun experience!

Took me a little bit to get how the timings work but it’s been way more fun than I expected once I managed. A simple concept and it does seems to tickle the mind. Managed to break 50 seconds in my short trial.

It’s a fun game! I think it might benefit from having fewer options, with more meaningful differences between them, and a more conservative cap on power. The early build I’ve played has felt in need of tuning. I’ve found it trivial to save up a whole lot of gold with miners early game, then invest in big guns, softlocking myself from purchasing any more wagons but also never needing to purchase anything again.

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