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Bear19's got your back

haha amazing, i wasn't sure anyone would find that.. I just pushed an update for you and any aspiring adventurers :>

For your first game you two should be proud, making a game isn't easy and you executed an interesting idea in two days. The rating number isn't important and ultimately pretty questionable, especially this single metric of "Overall". Most other jams have category based voting for like audio/art/gameplay/theme etc. But even then, I'd urge you to focus on having fun and aiming to learn something whenever you do a game jam rather than placing too much value in how your game is rated. You're off to a good start, so keep jamming and you'll keep improving. Maybe do your own little post-mortem together and think about what you think could be improved, what you could have done better, what you'd like to try next time.

That said, you asked for advice, so here are my thoughts about your game.

What i like:

I think you scoped well for a 2 day game jam, and your first ever game. You didn't bite off too much so as not to be able to finish the game in time. The player can play all the way through, there's a lose condition (more or less) and a win condition. Seems bug free too which is good.

The idea is funny and subversive, I had a good "hah" moment as soon as the menu fell, and I immediately understood what you were going for and what the game was going for. I especially liked when you flipped this on its head in the small platforming part. It felt like you were playing around with ideas. 

The game is clear in what needs to be done and how to do it, which is imo, one of the hardest and most important things to get across. Many games struggle with being easy to understand so you've done well in this regard.

Nice touch having the buttons being pressed in while the squirrel is on top.

The UI elements are nice and all fit together well and the SFXs included fit perfectly.

While I agree there could be some more levels I think shortness is something that can be embraced. Don't have your game drag on too long, especially game jam games where people are trying to play as many as they can. Leave them wanting more or satiated, which you did!

What I think could be improved:

Visually, I think it could have had a bit more cohesion. In particular the green background looks cool but ultimately kind of random. It could potentially be improved by having a more normal-looking UI so that it felt like you were placing the buttons / starts etc into an actual UI and not just into some slots in the void. This lack of cohesion is accentuated on the platforming level, where now there's some random squirrel on screen. The squirrel could have had a little animation and flip its sprite direction when moving left/right.

I don't find level 3 very interesting. I'm just clicking around at random until I get lucky and find the right button. I don't really need to think, it's just busy work.

I'm kinda torn on Level 4, I like that its subversive and you really want to click on the button but can't, but the gameplay is "do nothing", which imo, is not very interesting. Maybe could have had the cursor trying to move towards it and you have to swat it away or something.

The music grinds my gears, though I've been sitting listening to it on loop while writing this so I've probably heard it now more than everyone who played it during the voting period lol. Oh, small bug. If you lose on the DONT CLICK button the music doubles up.

I like the SFXs that are in the game but some feel missing. Namely placing the UI elements back in their slots as well as the squirrel jumping and collecting the acorn. Could have had some kind of fanfare for finishing the game.

There's a slight jank when pressing Start on level 1 and Next on level 2. Seems that the scene is transitioning or your removing the actual UI and placing new objects on screen with physic bodies, these new objects are not in the same place as the UI was that is clicked on. Small thing, but could be improved.

The QR code should have been a rick roll ;D

Final thoughts:

To me there's really nothing major to complain about. It works, you can play through the whole thing and you had an interesting idea based on the theme. Keep jamming!

Lol funny game, I wasn't really sure if the bar was actually doing anything when hammering the stickers? But despite that the idea is cute and the art and sounds are great

Awesome visuals and cool idea with swapping out skills based on what you need, makes for some interesting puzzles though I did find it a bit annoying to need to go back to the station to swap the skills. The default walk speed was also frustratingly slow after a while, which lead me to always have speed on and very reluctantly remove it. Otherwise though a well made game!

Nice work, clear goal and fun to play, made me think a bit of Super Crate Box and took me back to the Flash era :>

Looks really nice and I dig the static cameras that can be swapped between. I couldn't figure out what I was supposed to do unfortunately. I was looking for something to highlight but couldn't find anything. Oh and nice key art! One of my favs in the jam

Super visuals and interesting idea, unfortunately I couldn't figure out how to get points. In your description you wrote that you didn't finish in time, so that made me wonder if the game actually works. That said, great work for a first jam!

Cool idea based on the theme! Lacks some QoL and polish but the core idea is solid, can imagine it fleshing out really nicely

Thanks for the great font. I used it for my latest game jam project: https://petpumpkin.itch.io/kaputt-knowledge

Love your work ToffeeCraft. I used this pack for this game jam project: https://petpumpkin.itch.io/kaputt-knowledge

Thanks for the cool pack, I used it in this game jam project: https://petpumpkin.itch.io/kaputt-knowledge

It's like a fast paced shooter version of that fall guys level, cool idea. Though I found the best tactic (cheese) was to just stand still :P

Nice, 10 iteration, 0 restart win :D (after 2 hard restarts mind due..)
Awesome work, fits the theme well, well executed, solid mechanics with polish and a cute story to go with it, what more could one want

Great game, a pleasure to play through completely in one sitting. I really like that every fight is its own little puzzle and how you get stronger with each battle not through a complex stat system but just by giving you more materials to allocate. Really dig the music and how it nicely fades into the battle music. Gave me a nostalgia blast and reminded me of Metabots

Cool idea connecting the parts of the world together. I found it a bit confusing at first as to what I was supposed to do, once it clicked though it was interesting trying to puzzle it together. Unfortunately the camera bugged out on me and moved to the next section but left the character behind, I couldnt seem to jump up to the next section. Had to reload the game but got stuck again. Art and music give off some nice dark vibes.

I really like the interpretation of the theme yous came up with, a unique spin on the idea of player controls being broken. It's satisfying figuring out what combination of cards you can use to get where you want to go. It's a bit like a sprawling puzzle. I like that with each run I knew a bit more and acted differently accordingly. Audio and visuals all fit together really well, all around great execution!

Thank you!

What system/browser do you use? I haven't been able to reproduce the game crashing :<

Oh dear, what browser/system are you running? I've played through the game in multiple browsers and haven't been able to reproduce it crashing :<

And thanks! ^_^

Genuine lols were had, good stuff!

Robbers hate this one trick..

Slick, simple and satisfying, great work!

idle game potential? :>

Oh man, humans kaputting everything. Cool game! Unfortunately bugged out on day 7 and couldnt continue, enjoyed it up to then

I like the idea and the implementation is nice, using the broken character controls to get past the obstacle was cool

Solid idea with nice gameplay, simply to play but hard too master, nice one!

Yep that's allowed, the overview page states:

Deadline: We recommend submitting early to avoid accidentally missing the deadline on Sunday, March 16th, at 7 PM. You can still update your game after submission, as your project page is independent of your submission.

Hey Quexaxi followed you on BSKY, can't DM you, you'll have to enable DMs from everyone / followers

As with all game jams on itch, once the jam has officially started, a button will become available to submit your game. You'll see this on the Overview page, where the timer is. You'll then have a dropdown selection with the games in your library. Note that the game must be public to be visible in the list.

Just a simple mechanic and enough challenge to motivate. Not too hard and I was able to finish up all the levels in 5 mins or so. Recommend for anyone who likes platformers, it's a nice bite sized challenge. Also I really like the spinny heads, trippy man.

Hey Turamin, I like your cartoony drawing style, if you're interested in doing art for a small game based around launching a rocket into space, get in touch on discord @petpumpkin

beautiful!

Some strong Overcooked energy here, I like how it was split into two phases, struggle to build the car, then struggle to drive the car haha. I also liked that although my trash car could drive, it was gimped by having the wheels placed off kilter.
I can image this idea working pretty well if fleshed out. An Overcooked-like where you travel the racing scene, building cars then racing them. Different vehicle types, obstacles in the various workshops, some customization options so if you want a fast but hard to handle car you can, could scope creep this idea big time!

Go for it :) no copyrights to worry about

Oh wow that's interesting, I've never seen that before.

The fonts are available as free to use online, are embedded in the project and were originally sourced from dafont.com. The links can be found on the game page. 

We're super hyped that our little game got picked up by speed runners Bloupeuh & Senen for AGDQ - Awesome Games Done Quick, a speed running charity event.

If ya wanna come watch along it'll be live at https://www.twitch.tv/gamesdonequick or https://gamesdonequick.com/ shortly :D. It's been a great event and they've already raised over 1.5 million dollars :O!

Our game Handshakes is a simple sokoban puzzler where you have to control two hands towards each other so that they can, you guessed it, shake hands :D. Push boxes, press buttons and even cut off your own hand to achieve your handshakey goal!

Hope some of you make it over to AGDQ and soak up the event and see some awesome games done quickly :D

The Enhanced Version will have a level editor :) we're excited to see what others can come up with!

Thanks for your detailed comment, recommendations and wishlist! All very much appreciated :D. The rotation block is something we've got planned, it's a tricky mechanic but I agree, it will open up a plethora of puzzle potential