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Awesome entry, I very much enjoyed watching it! The opening scene where the alarm sfx is synched to the cut to black and the character runs through the hallway one pose at a time is excellent. Such a smart way to "animate" the character given the limited time frame of the jam and is a great example of cinematography. The sound design in general is on point and makes the scene very immersive. Your artstyle is super charming and I was very impressed with your ability to convey emotion through a few wrinkle lines in the characters brow. Black and white in the dream/nightmare sequence and then switching to color in the irl part at the end was a cool touch too. The only critique is that I think you ended the cutscene 5 seconds too late (ha ha). You did such an awesome job of conveying the story/mood without any text or dialogue, and I felt that the ending text kind of betrayed the subtlety of your earlier storytelling. But that is a minor nitpick on an otherwise stellar entry. Keep up the great work!!

Thanks for the kind words, glad to hear you liked the visuals and sound!

(copied from another comment

Re: the ending. The irl sketch is supposed to be a marionette/puppet kind of thing that has been ripped apart from the strings. The idea is that the main character has finally reached a point where he can't pretend to be someone else any more and the opening of the curtain was showing him kind of escaping. The parents coming to talk to him are 5 seconds too late, as he has already made his mind up. I don't think I did a great job of showing this in the cutscene lol.

Funny scene lol, cool entry!! I really liked the transition to the battle scene between the bacteria and the immune system, it was a funny twist and a quite different take on the theme. I liked the style of the opening scene, all the 3d models look good, and the 2d sprite for the character's faces was a cool touch. I wish there had been a bit of opening dialogue to help introduce the characters and maybe show the sandwich falling to the floor to give the viewer some context of the situation. The sound design for the military scene was great and really sold the idea of combat well. The opening sandwich scene would benefit from a similar level of care towards sound design. Another area for improvement would be to have the special weapon look a bit more epic than just a rotating white square, as it is supposed to be the grand finale of the scene. That being said, I really enjoyed watching your cutscene, keep up the good work!

lol it was a bit too confusing and abstract I think. Glad you liked the art and sound, thanks for watching!

 I really dig the artstyle on your entry, the sheriff has lots of personality in his facial gestures and it makes the whole thing charming. The first scene has a great level of background detail that I wish the was also present in the later scenes. The spaghetti scene feels so full of life with all the props in the background and when compared to the last scene where it is just the characters and a table in an empty room there is a noticeable difference. Props for making your own music, the intro track is really good. I didn't understand the nails-on-chalkboard screeching notes after the lady gets shot, I found the sound at this point to be very grating and a bit out of place. Cool cinematography to show the camera from the sheriffs perspective after the lady gets shot as he looks down at himself and takes in the gravity of the scene and assesses what to do. Overall, I enjoyed the action packed storyline and unique aesthetic. It was a fun watch, keep up the good work!

Thanks for watching!!

(copy and pasted from another comment)

Re: the ending. The irl sketch is supposed to be a marionette/puppet kind of thing that has been ripped apart from the strings. The idea is that the main character has finally reached a point where he can't pretend to be someone else any more and the opening of the curtain was showing him kind of escaping. The parents coming to talk to him are 5 seconds too late, as he has already made his mind up. I don't think I did a great job of showing this in the cutscene lol.

     Very enjoyable watch, would be a great intro to a new Dick Storm adventure! The realistic environment + 2d hand drawn sprite artstyle is striking as always. Everything looks great; monster design is neat and Mr. Storm's run animation was fun. The music is awesome and the sfx are well-done. The candle scene with the camera cuts and different wind sounds worked really well. The screenshake and overall earthquake effect when he is first in the house I also thought was very well-done.

     Dialogue was a good read and the text message style presentation of it is immersive and unobtrusive. A small nitpick for a 3 day jam, but I do think the font could fit the scene's vibe better. I liked the cut to black to end the scene after hitting the tree, but I think the actual moment of the crash could have been a bit more epic. The scene where the monster first spawns is this awesome moment with lots of screen shake, explosion particles, etc and it works really well as a high tension moment. I think the crash scene could benefit from the same treatment. Maybe some particle effects, more sfx, screen flashing white, etc right before the cut to black could help sell the drama more. That being said there are many times throughout the scene where the level of polish and detail stands out for some special moments. The tree particles and rumble when the car speeds off and scrapes the tree line and the part where the monster leaps down from the air and lands with a thud and cloud of particles were a couple stand out examples to me.

     Overall, this was a very fun watch and a great way to set the story for a game. It immediately puts you into the action and shows enough of our hero's personality to get you invested in the outcome. The artstyle and sound design is on point. We need a Dick Storm 2 hour feature film, it would win a Grammy.  Awesome entry, and keep up the great work!!

Thanks for the kind words, I very much appreciate it. Glad you liked the mixed media attempt.  I had a lot of fun experimenting with it and I think there's a lot of room for improvement with some extra polish like you said.

I made all the sounds in the very early morning hours of submission day and felt like an absolute madman doing so lol. Cool to hear you appreciated the effort. The cinematography is definitely odd. I think I leaned to far into the indie film artsy fartsy realm and lost out on a more cohesive plot development. This did result in a pretty unique look, but I don't think the lack of story clarity was worth the trade off. I wonder if adding things like walls (like you said in the first paragraph) would help bring more reality to the overall presentation and bridge that gap a little better. Something to consider going forward.

I'm really glad to hear you've enjoyed my last couple entries. Without trying to sound too pretentious, I've been trying to make stuff that is more self-expressive and its cool to hear positive feedback on that. I will definitely keep grinding, I'm having a blast making stuff and GoedWare Jams/Community is as good as any I've come across on itch. I think learning some art fundamentals might make a good new endeavor.

Thanks again for the comment, and can't wait to see what Dick Storm is up to this time!!!

This was a really fun watch, awesome entry! Could see it working very well as an opening cutscene. The story has good pacing, giving each plot point enough time to breath without repeating itself of dwelling too long. The twist of the asteroid being 5 seconds further away than they thought due to the effects of space on light/time was super cool and a great take on the theme. The art style works and has a nice consistent minimalist vibe throughout. The voice acting was a nice touch. Like another comment said the dialogue presentation could be improved. It feels a bit rushed, and the font/colors/presentation don't really fit the rest of the cutscene. But it was still good to have subtitles. I also appreciated the slight screenshake when pressing the volume keys, fun detail. Keep up the good work!

Thank you for the detailed feedback and great comment, I appreciate it. More variety of sfx would be nice, I agree, its just kind of the bare minimum as is. Art is a big weakness of mine, so I tried the irl picture with badly hand-drawn 2d animation combo to try and mitigate my lack of skill lol. I agree it doesn't work all the time, its definitely an odd look. The only part I'm super happy how it turned out was the opening the door scene.

Re: the ending. The irl sketch is supposed to be a marionette/puppet kind of thing that has been ripped apart from the strings. The idea is that the main character has finally reached a point where he can't pretend to be someone else any more and the opening of the curtain was showing him kind of escaping. The parents coming to talk to him are 5 seconds too late, as he has already made his mind up. I don't think I did a great job of showing this in the cutscene lol.

The main areas of improvement I would suggest is to improve the optimization so that the scene does not lag and stutter so much, and maybe to have a more clear story progression as opposed to just shots of the scenery. Good entry though!!

Pretty fun little platformer level, great job! I really enjoyed the challenge of timing jumps and the obstacles felt like they had the right amount of difficulty. It was challenging enough and not too punishing, and the multiple hit health bar was a good design choice. Perhaps the hitbox of the spikes could be a tad smaller. The flashing character sprite after getting hit + i-frames was also a good addition. Sound/music would help improve the atmosphere. The art style is pretty neat, and you did a good job sticking to a consistent color palatte, pixel size, and style. The cohesive visuals help the overall experience a lot. The ending could fade to black or something to make it a bit more clear that the game is over, I found myself waiting for something to happen for a little while after it ended. I enjoyed my time playing your game, but it's too bad you didn't realize it was a cutscene only jam xD. Fun entry, and keep up the good work making games!!

It's a cutscene, not a game. It would not be a very fun game xD. And this is the Cutscene Jam btw. Glad you got a laugh out of it, thanks for watching :)

What an awesome entry, such a fun watch. The stop motion action figure style is rad as hell and the overall world has a pretty cool alternate reality Toy Story vibe going on. The overall aesthetic really worked for me, and I found the t-posing to be in service of it. I think the stiff movements of the characters fit the world better than smooth animations would have. The voice acting is a great touch and I found myself laughing on more than one occasion. The part where the guy t-poses up the stairs while yelling was hilarious. As fun as the voice acting was, it was a little hard to understand every word at certain parts, and I think having subtitles at the bottom would have gone a long way. Cool entry, keep up the good work!

Dude, wtf this is awesome!!! I still have a lot of entries to watch, but I suspect this will be easily one of my favorites from the jam, I loved every second. I have never seen an art style like that before, its iconic. The repeated lines technique for shading looks incredible and your balance of lines/empty space is stellar. The visuals hooked me on the very first frame and kept me glued to the screen for the entire scene. Sound design is equally well-done. The car engine rumble is great. The part at the restaurant with the background conversations felt very realistic and immersive. How did you go about creating the audio for that part? The story was decently emotional and I felt invested in the characters. I think one area of improvement in the overall story would be to show a reason for why she is unable to make the date on time. Maybe you could show her getting stuck in traffic or something like that. Overall, I am absolutely in love with this art style and think you have an excellent overall entry. Keep it up!!

Absolutely beautiful art, easy 5/5 for me! The hand-drawn look is super unique and lovely to look at. The font choice and limited color palette are both great fits for the overall aesthetic. I thought it was a cool choice to have the first part of the scene silent and then add somber music to the last part when facing the reality of the situation. Maybe some kind of rising, deafening, ringing in the ears sort of sound could have been a nice addition as a transition between the two halves to really show the pressure of the situation. I think some of the dialogue was a little heavy-handed but the overall story is a heartfelt one. The opening animation where the cut wrists blossom into flowers is absolutely gorgeous and a genuinely touching moment. Really great entry, congrats on the submission!!

Absolutely loved the sound design in this one! The squishy carpet footsteps, muffled rain, and crackling of the fire place set the scene perfectly and feel very realistic. 5/5 for audio imo. The visuals are solid, although the overall environment/props feel a bit generic. There were some cool camera angles and cinematography choices too, the zoom in on the fireplace was a really nice shot and looked super cool. As the other comment said, it could be a bit more optimized as the file size is quite large and the cutscene suffers from lag/stuttering quite a bit (I'm not familiar with Unreal Engine so not sure how feasible that would be. I'm not sure if I missed key scenes due to the shuttering, but I couldn't really understand the theme application. That being said, congrats on the submission, and amazing job with the audio! Keep up the good work!!

Lol glad it made you laugh. The visual glitch on the camera should only occur if you try to pan with the arrow keys and is only there to prove real-time rendering. Hopefully it didn't interfere with your overall experience too much. Thanks for watching!

Absolutely incredible game in such a short time frame, insane work from the team, you should all be very proud of yourselves! It's gotta be my favorite in the whole jam. Everything is super polished; the vignette, the snow particles blowing in the wind, the unique sfx for each interaction, etc. So many little details that add up to an amazing scene. Easily 5/5 on presentation. The music is also a bop and doesn't get old after the last 20 minutes of playing (I'm going back to finish the game after this comment, its so fun xD). The gameplay loop is great. Clicker + TD + solo combat vs the penguins, there is always something do to and the management of everything is quite engaging. And the automating stuff to upgrade other stuff is always fun as hell. Idk I don't really have any criticisms. Incredible entry, has the quality off a game made in 2 weeks not 2 days, great job team!!

edit: I thought of a criticism, keyboard shortcuts for the build and upgrade buttons would be better than having to click them with mouse. Very minor thing

yeah the cookie spawning could be improved a lot, thanks for playing!!

Pretty cool game, smooth movement and well-polished experience, nice job! The psuedo 3d perspective is really neat and an impressive feat in a 2d engine like GameMaker. It gives the game a really unique feel (especially when combined with the slightly trippy background) but can have make for some frustrating gaming moments as it is really difficult to tell when you can still shoot the enemy and when you will lose a life. The boss fight was a super cool addition and a very welcome surprise. The sfx and music fit the overall vibe well. I think having some sort of mechanic to prevent the player from just holding down the shoot button would have been a good design choice. For example, an overheating mechanic that requires the player to stop shooting for a bit to cool down or else they get locked out of shooting completely for a few seconds. That being said, your game has a very unique aesthetic paired with smooth movement and a cool boss fight. I dig it. Good entry, and keep up the good work!

Because I worked out if on it for basically a day and I'm not that good at gamedev lol. There is a 2 second grace period where the cookies wont hurt you after spawning to try and mitigate it, but definitely not an ideal fix. Noted about the collision detection. Score board would be nice too, I'll have to figure out how to do so one of these days. Thanks for playing!

Pretty cool game, snow ball fight puzzler is a great take on the theme, nice entry! The level where you had to get the right angle for the snow ball to build up enough momentum and jump over the trees was really clever design, and the way the ball grows in size as it goes was the cherry on top. Very cool moment. The levels overall had a satisfying difficulty curve, but some of the ending ones felt too hard. It could be a skill issue but they felt more frustrating then clever to solve (as opposed to that early jump level which felt great to solve even if it took multiple attempts to get it). I also found it odd that the ground pound skill didn't drop the snowball straight down but instead at like a 15 degree angle to the right, felt a little weird to control. The voice acting is a nice touch and the background music adds to the vibe.  Overall, I had a fun time with my play through. The concept and theming is on point, and the core puzzle gameplay is engaging. Snowball upgrades after each level was a nice touch and the halfpipe level was stellar. Keep up the good work!

appreciate the kind words :) thanks for playing!

Really cool concept, and the drawing mechanic works well. Having left and right mouse button act separately, almost as if the player is controlling unique left and right hands was a good choice. It's pretty satisfying to scribble around the screen, and has a pretty neat etch-a-sketch vibe going on. The intro letter was a great way to set up the lore but there definitely needs to be some kind of gameplay intro/tutorial and some more player visual feedback. Am I supposed to use both left/right ribbon in a symmetrical manner? Can I draw the ribbon however I want as long as I hit the specified vertices? Do I get a higher score by using the least amount of ribbon as possible? Some clarification on these game mechanics would go a long way in the overall experience. It could also use some sfx, background music, and some Christmas-y visual flair. That being said, I think you have a truly wonderful prototype here and there is some real potential in the drawing mechanic. As a GameMaker noob (a little over 1 year experience), I'm super impressed at the unique mechanic you were able to develop in just one day. Kudos! I had fun messing around with your game, and if you do continue developing it, I would be curious to see where it ends up. Keep up the good work!!

edit: You should check out this jam game called SEW-Tastic https://mech-mind-games.itch.io/sew-tastic with a somewhat similar sort of core mechanic to maybe get some inspiration for your own game, if you want

thank you for the kind words, glad to hear you enjoyed it

Really fun clicker game, I enjoyed my playthrough a lot. The power progression feels really smooth and there is a good balance between having to click in the early game to buying enough elves for your passive income to take over in the late game. At one point I was getting 9.4 Trillion/second and started having integer overflow errors and getting into the negatives for total money lol. The core clicker gameplay is pretty addicting but the presentation of the game leaves a lot to be desired. Variation in the click sfx, some background music, and cleaner/prettier UI would help take it to the next level. The snow particles falling in the background were a good touch of juice and more things like that would be great. That being said, I found the core game loop super engaging. Cool entry and keep up the good work!!

thank you for playing and the kind words!!

ahah, what was the tactic? thanks for playing!

Super charming entry, lots of little details that work really well, nice entry! The Act 1 text and camera zoom out was a really cool way to introduce the world, and reminded me a little of Paper Mario: TTYD when you enter a new region. Santa's note was a fun bit of environmental storytelling, and was a great way of explaining the world without feeling forced. The snail animation is super cute, but the movement is wayyy to slow (ik its a snail so it should move slow lol, but still). The slow movement, combined with large stretches of either just walking forward or doing some super simple platforming makes the game feel kind of boring after a little bit. Which is a shame because you created a really interesting world feel and environment that is worth exploring, but the slow movement doesn't make me want to explore too much. The different candy cane NPCs were an awesome touch and made the world feel very immersive. I loved the way the their text scrolled onto the screen as you stood near them, it was very pleasing to the eye for some reason. Also, I appreciated that the platforming was fairly forgiving and that as long as part of the snail made the jump it didn't cause the player to fall.  Overall, I enjoyed my time with your game and think you have a really cool world built up through some well-done environmental storytelling. Tweaking the movement to feel a bit faster and more satisfying would take it to the next level. Cool entry, and keep up the good work!!

lol thanks for playing :)

Adorable artstyle, everything has a consistent aesthetic and overall cohesiveness that is really pleasing. The color palatte fits the cozy vibes perfectly. The click and fill gameplay was pretty engaging and I enjoyed trying to get a perfect 3 stars. I think it could be an awesome starting point for a North Pole coffee shop manager mobile game kind of thing with the touch and hold control scheme. My only critiques are the lack of content to do time (needs sfx/music, variety in drinks/customers, win/lose condition, etc) but I totally understand running out of time in a tight jam window (happens to me too almost every single time lol). The stuff that did make it into the game is high quality and super charming. I think the game has potential if you choose to pursue it. Cool entry!!

Pretty fun arcade experience, nice entry! The thumping bass hits you right away and fits the frentic nature of the game perfectly. Add in a countdown timer, generous screenshake, crunchy sfx, particle tail, etc and you have a successful recipe for a high score chaser style arcade game. The online leaderboard is a very nice touch, and the mechanic of speed multiplying your score is a great design choice to keep the player engaged throughout. The presentation was well-down but I do think your entry is lacking a bit in the Christmas theme, it feels more like a traditional high score arcade game with some sprites of Xmas trees thrown in the background, than something with a real Christmas-inspired spirit. That being said, I had a fun time with the gameplay loop and you achieved an impressive amount of polish that makes everything feel nice and juicy. Cool game, and keep up the good work!!

edit: As others in the comments have said, it would make an awesome mobile game!

Combining an idle clicker with a TD is a brilliant design choice, can't believe I haven't seen that before. Spamming click to generate income works so well with the natural down time of a TD where you are waiting for waves to finish. I really love the concept and had a fun time beating your game. The layout of the map is solid and the background decorations bring everything together well. Game feels well optimized and my not-so-great laptop ran it smoothly, even in the end game with lots of bullets, towers, and enemies. Kudos for that. Background music and sfx would help the overall atmosphere a ton. More visual feedback for the player would help a lot too, as it is tough to decipher what is going on (e.g. tool tips on hover for tower abilities/cost, text pop-up on screen every time you click to show how much joy you generated, etc). I think the headquarters building increased the range/damage/fire rate of my bullet towers, but there was no real way to know. That being said, I think you have a very fun proof of concept with some real potential if you decide to pursue it further. Great entry, keep it up!!

Really fun game , nice job!! Core mechanic is great and the unlockable upgrades are a good touch, the present cluster bomb was very fun to use. Slingshot mechanic feels intuitive and responsive, with great bits of juice like the way the present tumbles through the air and the slight screenshake when hitting something. UI could be improved but its only a couple day jam so totally understandable (I didn't dock you points for it). Great entry, fun core gameloop, keep up the good work!!

edit: high score of 61. Also, like another comment said having to wait for the "no score" text was a bit annoying as you want to get right back into throwing a new package with the slightly different angle that is "definitely going to work this time". Maybe skipping this transition part when the player clicks and drags to initiate a new throw would work?

     Pretty fun little escape game that does a great job meeting the theme, nice entry!! The auto shooting mechanic was a cool design choice and I enjoyed being able to focus on moving around the room and searching for the exit while my potions took care of the baddies. Being able to quickly restart a run was nice too and helped me stay motivated to keep searching for the exit. The background music fits the intensity of the game play and the art assets work well in the environment you set up.

     I think adding more levels or puzzle mechanics would help improve this game even more, but the foundation that you have already is a pretty fun idea. Another minor thing is that the secret door had a visual glitch that made it stand out from the rest of the room. I'm not sure if this was intentional or not but it made finding the exit fairly easy. Also, the UI doesn't really fit the aesthetic of the rest of the game and could use some improvement. Your interpretation of the theme was good, the limited size of the room is key to the gameplay and finding the exit out of this one room was fitting. Overall, I had an enjoyable experience with your game. Keep up the good work!!

edit: I also had the resolution issues that others in the comments did, the game window size is huuuuge.

Glad you liked the puzzle mechanic. Adding background music would help the overall vibe, I agree. Thanks for playing!

thanks for playing!

Yeah shoot me a reply when you put an updated build up, I'd be curious to check it out!

     Very interesting game, unique and engaging Tetris-adjacent puzzler, cool entry!! The path-finding of the ball is super satisfying to watch and I found myself rooting for the lil guy, even thought it was just a simple red circle. Kind of neat how much emotional investment was created in a game made of only simple shape sprites. The presentation works well overall, the limited color palatte and shapes puts an emphasis on the gameplay and has a nice arcade feel to it. The animation/effect when deleting one of your blocks was a good addition of juice. I think some more moments of particle/animation stuff in this vein would help polish things up even more.

     The core game loop is satisfying, and is a spot-on take on the theme. Top-down Tetris with an escort mission fits the theme perfectly and I thought your interpretation was super cool. Something like different challenge levels (use only t-shapes, pass a level using 10 shapes at once, etc) or wacky upgrades (merging shapes together, blocks that allow the circle to pass one way but not the other, etc) would help at some more depth and replay ability to the whole thing imo. The background song was super solid and all the sfx feel like they fit the world well. I think the readability of the UI/text could be improved. Overall, I think you have a very solid core game mechanic and one of the best theme interpretations in the jam. The art works but there is room for more polish. More levels or upgrade variety could help flesh out the game to a longer experience. I very much enjoyed my time with your game and think you have a very well-done entry. Keep up the great work!!