itch.io

ngl i never expected to find one of those games. i didnt think you had made them public. then somehow i found this one. gotta thank noobboi52 for that one. ill take a shot at finding the rest, but its not gonna be easy to find games, that seem to have been unlisted. i got close to azeroj, but am unfortunately 4 years too late. azeroj also looked like a proper game, with a cool mechanic, so im sad i missed it, but oh well.

yeah there isnt much to these early projects, but its fun to find them and to have a look.

SPIX and Bottle Rocket were featured in your video Unfinished Superpowers Games up to 2015. SPIX honestly looks like a fun game and it looks like it got pretty far in development. thats the game i want to find the most.

as someone who doesnt use social media, this was a pretty overwhelming experience. all the people and posts with such a hard time keeping track. it was pretty fun to find new # and @, but in the end it got a lot harder, not helped by the search function. i found all @, but couldnt find the final two #, as you cant search for users. the search function works in such a strange way, not showing what you want to see, but being able to find other things. i dont want to go down the rabbit hole again to find a user, thats what the search function is supposed to be for, yet it doesnt work that way for some reason. also just being able to click on users and hashtags to search for all posts with them wouls help a lot.

the questions also were such a pain for me. the answers are buried somewhere in one post out of hundreds. for most i just guessed the most logical answer, which wasnt fun to do, as you need to re-click the spot you want to change after every guess. it was so tedius, but better imo than reading hundreds of posts to find the one that hinted at the answer. like it took me ages to figure out, that sirpetersmalls played lorddefontaigne, even after guessing the answer and reading all his posts.

all in all, a good game. not an experience that i enjoyed due to the overwhelming feeling, but the posts were fun to read. all the different people were funny and unique, giving the game a sense of realism.

ha ha. i have found some non-canonical NotExplosive lore. i hope i can find SPIX, Bottle Rocket, HALL, colordrum and IDEAL, if they are out there in the web. azuroj seems to be lost to time. Azuroj by Buttsteam | Ludum Dare 30 | Ludum Dare seems to be the closest i can get to playing it. also Buttsteam? lol. 

also this game is so frustrating. movement is jank and falling is a full reset, as the game has no reset button. the charge attack stopped working, after i got hit or killed an enemy normally, idk. i finally got up after like 15minutes of trying, killed 3 enemies and was left with a pink blob, that cant be hit, but if attacked turns around???

oohh im so stupid. i forgot that i can get back up with walljumps. ididnt need to restart the page every time i fell. leme retry some things.

ok there is still the inescapable space void, but i can get to the stuff shown in then video, which also ends in the void.

uhhh what? i have no idea whats going on. the map is big and easy to get lost in. i randomly lost to the cultists with the spork.

so controls are a bit weird. you pick up items and enter doors with down. 

you can press down on people to figure out where they are going. people will try to pick up stuff. there is seemingly no way to take items from people. 

thats how i found the cultist. i camped the spork and adrian picked it up to take to kitchen. however after reaching a seemingly random hallway the game gave the cultist ending.

i then just took the spork and made it too 3 am, but nothing happened. i mean i did expect that. 

so all in all a cool concept, the layout needs to be more clear though and there needs to be more to do than to just grab the spork and "win".

uhh sir, this shi broken. like the final version just shows a white screen, v2 shows a white screen with black dots. the players ui is still there, but its invisible. v1 is the best version, but is still unplayable. the player ui is now visible, there is just one small issue: THE DIES FACES ARE ALL INVISIBLE. this has me so confused. like i dont even understand how the game is supposed to play, but how does something like this happen? how does more and more of a game get lost, the newer version it is? and why isnt there a playable version? 

honestly a fun game. the art is great, the sound is great and the gameplay is fun. i love the story of a turnip becoming a dj. the rise was beutiful. not sure if the game ended after the soundboard getting stolen, but for me the screen turned black. that was a bit sudden, but narratively it was a decent ending. the quicktime events were a bit weird for a game about becoming a dj, but they grew on me. they were pretty hard though, until i figured them out.

this game is confusing. simple in premise, but confusing in execution. the game just wont allow you to type certain letters, not allowing you to write certain words. this is also super inconsistent. some letters you can use once, except sometimes you can use them twice and whatnot. this will screw you over and makes the game unfair. 

and whose jack elmore? does he have some games i can check out? :)

ok, have now read the blog and know what sokomaker is. pretty impressive. also learned what a sokoban is. but now i gotta ask. where is twoel-ity? honestly duel-ity was great, a sequel would be amazing. or is this the somewhat sequel, or is sokomaker the sequel creator, not in that it will be used to create the sequel, but can be used to make games like Duel-ity? i beg for Duel2ity.

ok. its pretty rough, but for a short first project with sokomaker (which i have no idea what that is) its decent. the game works, there just isnt a lot to it.

there is no sound or music.

the ability is not explained. it is however very easy to understand from the first level. seems like a projectile, but it swaps you with objects that it hits. interesting.

possible inputs are also not explained. r to reset a screen, esc to pause and get a menu, wasd working for movement and space working for the ability. 

r to reset a screen and the players position is great. trying to understand the broken blocks i had accidentally softlocked myself and was glad that i didnt lose progress. 

screen transitions are weird. they happen on random parts of the screen, often in the middle. they reset objects.  they make the level feel a lot more klunky, due to them happening in the middle of the screen.

the green stuff is weird. it cant be pushed, but can be teleported. if teleported onto a switch it will keep it held for one action. if you move the switch deactivates. this had me confused for a bit until i realized i could swap it for a barrel. i legit thought it was bugged at first.

and then the game crashed and generated an error without a callstack.  since the game was short i replayed it and got the same error after entering the second circle. 

now i have a theory as to what is happening. there are three "chapters" going into the circle in the rig stage shows a black screen. if you attempt to enter an input the game crashes. now if you go to the ending chapter, its just a static ending screen. if you attempt to move it will also give an error. so the ending screen is bugged, if gotten the intended way. player inputs also are recognized by the game, but can not be executed, causing an error here.

all in all idk. the game has a theme, but no connection to it. there are rigs as obstacles and barrels as objects, but thats about it. the player is a robotic head that is collecting files. there are some sort of computer parts or something as objects as well and the circles have no thematic overlap with the rest of the game. the strange broken blocks that repair themselves look like ice or glass, but work opposite to that expectation. then there are the shields, through which you can push barrels. 

there is just no rhyme or reason to it. there are disjointed themes in the game that arent tied together in a narrative way. the objective is clear, but has no story to explain it. its just a robotic head collecting files, entering strange circles in a place with oil rigs.  so yeah it works, but thats about it.

now i dont mean to be that guy, but you seemed mighty proud of the "smart player ai" in your blog. now for the most part players are somewhat smart. there are just a few issues:

getting stressed while in no danger, because an enemy is at the top of the screen.

the powerup that gives aimbot not stopping the player from going into the line of fire, rather than camping in a safer zone.

and then, the smartest move. players will move into the boss and die. this isnt an isolated thing that happened once. every time the player will send it into the boss, even multiple times if they didnt die the first time. now this may not even be unique to the boss. other bugs just die too quickly for such behavior to be noticeable. this could have been done on purpose to make the boss unbeatable, if it even has health, but it just makes the player look kinda dumb.

so yeah. the ai isnt braindead and the smarter players play pretty well, but it isnt flawless. im sorry.

honestly a very fun game. the reverse theme worked pretty well. it just needed a bit more content. 

there is lack of variety in the gameplay. centipede is an instant bomb on all opponents. for all opponents you use the same strategy. two units at once is often too much, the small bug swarm is great to keep the meter in the flow state, along with the top left bug.

there is an uncontrollable variable that will stress opponents out: getting hit. if an opponent gets hit, the stress from a wave will massively increase, most likely leading to a bomb. now that makes sense. getting hit causes stress. the problem is the randomness and lack of counterplay. when facing a good opponent you need to send out stronger waves to get them into flow. these waves can snowball with a hit into a bomb. you have no way to bring down their stress by cancelling a wave or giving them a powerup. without a way to counteract the hit, there is a risk in each wave, one that you can not counteract. counterplay would be fun. you would have to react quickly to stress to prevent it, adding another layer to the gameplay.

greyed out icons make your units hard to differentiate. with a longer game there would be room to get used to them, but with three opponents there isnt enough time for that. it just makes the game harder to play for no real reason. also showing a wave size on the icons would be helpful. 

the final opponent is weird. we are introduced to them in a way that implies them to be horrible at the game. they are however the strongest opponent in the game, so what gives?

also can the boss be killed? like i let the regular pummel the boss, yet it didnt die. it wouldnt be good to have the boss die, but i could have seen it being a fail. like killing an opponent too early and letting them beat the boss is supposed to be a fail. so why not let us fail in that way? this could make for a harder opponent, one who you would struggle to get into the flow and one who you must strategise against in the final boss. currently the strat is just to start spamming, as soon as the boss meter pops. having an opponent use a missile at the start to weaken the boss and decimate spamm would be a great counter and challenge. strategy in the boss battle is lacking without opponent counterplay and without them being able to kill the boss.

all in all a fun game. the premise is cool. it is however very short and lacking in variety.

despite what the website would have me believe, i quite like this game. 

i loved the planning. making a rerolling started dice was so cool to see work. with speed modules and a 3 weight module i was able to gain crazy pips from just a starter setup. now idk if more weight modules would have been better, but i went with only one. maybe there is a more optimal setup with two of them, but i was happy.

an average die setup is not that great. you use 6 slots for rerollers and only have two left for a weight die and speed up. they are better than starter dies, but not by much. royal dies are way more worth it. they are started dies with better pip and scores. average 2.5x number of a starter die, not counting weight into the equation with 3x pips is op. the increase is insane and doesnt require a setup change, only a reroll of weight and rerollers. 

why reroll weighted die for 20, instead of selling for 8 and rebuying for 10? dont make sense to me.  the reroll die havs normal prices to make rerolling cheaper than selling and rebuying.

took me a bit to notice: build build auto roller. didnt notice cuz auto rollers are just worse rerollers. yes rerollers take up more slots, but they are so much faster that they have higher pip/h.

selling die also sells the attachments. i dont really like that, bit its a minor gripe. with more die it would be a bigger issue, but since you only really use two its not that big of an issue, just adds a bit more work and deletes more of your work than i would like.

i like that the die count expands the further you go. going from 3 to 11 die was great.

maybe not the games fault, but the audio, even though i liked it, started giving me a headache. i had to turn it down way low to make it less painful, but idk. its not like the audio is bad, it just hurt for some reason. didnt want to turn it off, as it was satisfying though so im a bit confused. i like the audio, but its giving me a headache. 

all in all a great game. lacking a bit more variety, but its still fun. it really is my type of game, which is why im confused at the audio giving me a headache. i play these types of games and normally have no problem with this type of audio. in fact i quite enjoy it and enjoyed the audio in the game so idk. may be in need of change. you were very harsh on yourself with this game. i would definitely not call it one of your worst games. in fact with a bit more content id call it one of your best. i love these satisfying games, especially with modules for optimization. yeah the visuals are a bit bare bones, but that never was an issue for me. the game didnt need fancy visual. the only visuals i would see benefiting from a change are the die. the cosmic and royal die look a bit basic. the ending visual was amazing though. i really dont see the dislike for the game. i think it was pretty nice.

math. i hate it.

brute forced my way to level 15 but gave up there.

the sounds are great. honestly the strongest part of the game for me. i love the completed graphs playing a sound based on their form. 

funnily at the end you can keep spamming skip, as the credits are just a visual and the level is still loaded in behind them. you will see the glowing ball go across the screen and re-trigger the credits. 

really not my type of game. i only had half of the stuff in school and it was one of my least favorite math topics. with the right knowledge this could be a fun game and perhaps even an easy game, but i dont have that knowledge and am not willing to learn it. maybe a explanation of the different methods could have been nice so anyone can understand them, but that would probably take more time than the making of the game itself. 

is the thing above the vents a volume slider? if so, i need me whatever you were smoking when you made that. it is a random part of the room, above a point of interest that makes it seem like its tied to the vent. there is no icon and it isnt even next to the phone, the most common place to be. instead its in the middle of nowhere. 

after the first puzzle i was stuck. i had no new leads and the old leads didnt help more. carl was somehow in the building, but what help was that to know? finally i called denise and had a new option.  

also the puzzle not needing every piece was a bit strange, and some solutions not being accepted was also strange.

and then the game kinda just ends. the "you win" clue isnt even added to the board.

the story is kinda good, but lacks an ending and answers. why is carl in the building under an alias that isnt known to people. why is there a lockdown? who is arlo? did arlo cause a lockdown to stop carl from leaving? what are the products for? why are people locked there to sell the products? are they free to leave aside from the lockdown? what does ascending to higher levels do? what does the text on the picture of the two people read? an issue i have noticed is certain text in your games appearing like a mouse took some bites out of them. paired with small text, i couldnt read the text. who are we in the hotel?

maybe due to a lack of time these questions were left unanswered, but idk. the ending leaves so much to be desired. 

hmm. kinda weird. movement and attacking works entirely different depending of if there are enemies or not. i do like it though. movement during battle is slow. being forced to move that way all the time would have been annoying.

the xp system is nice and the level up bonus of an extra move works in making you more powerful.

one thing i hate: turning. i will find a good combination, but a side effect will be a turn. turning is so annoying to reverse and legit was a bigger problem than the enemies until i leveled up enough to be able to undo the turn and still do stuff.

lost a chest cuz i didnt know they can only be collected in battle. -_- they do only give potions tho so not a big loss.

fun fact: during normal movement, if you attack and move at the same time you can hit yourself...

potions are op, but the game is so easy that they arent needed. my hoarding self never really used them and still breezed through the game. the tactic of stand in a spot and prepare to annihilate the first enemy in sight was too op to need help. i didnt understand how they worked though. they just use every card of that type on the field.

this highlighted a problem: stacked shields dont do anything. you would expect them to block multiple hits, but they just dont.

the necromancer boss is incredibly easy. all i did was range him down before any enemies could get to me. the room layout should be changes slightly to not allow this to happen.

the summoned zombie doesnt say how much health he has. he seems to only have 1 though. 

all in all a decent game. not really my type of game though. there is a endless and level editor mode and just looking through it there are a bunch of creative levels you can encounter in endless mode. i just dont jell with the match-3 combat system. its not something that i particularly enjoy playing. a complaint i have is, that the game was too short and doesnt explain much. now most things are intuitive, but traps and potions i only understood, after multiple uses and encounter, by which time the game was over. i literally only learned how potions work mid boss fight. so yeah 3 range pots at once wasnt the smartest move. i think the game should have been expanded. there are so many levels that are not in the campaign. why they arent is a mystery to me. like why make levels exclusive to endless mode? that doesnt make much sense to me. so yeah, a guy that doesnt like the games combat mechanic is complaining about the game being too short.

there seems to be a steam version, but whenever i try to go to it, an error tells me that it is currently unavailable in my region. i dont know much about steam so idk what thats about. the steam version looks like it got more polish too, so its sad that i cant check it out.

it also reminded me about the non existent way to gain the currency that is next to your hp. the steam version seems to have it implemented and and a shop for it. 

also the website mentions something about "the classic qualifier in the title", but doesnt elaborate on it or the game. i have no idea what that is about. it made me wonder, why is classic in the title? why is that special enough to mention? why not want to talk about it? 

nowhere but here is classic in the title. not in the trailer, not in the devlogs post game jam, nowhere. how did classic get here? what is it doin in the title? i believe it to just be because the steam version got more updates, but this version for some reason didnt so its the classic version. why that is special enough to mention over anything else when you dont want to talk about the game idk. it makes it seem like the classic title had something to do with why you didnt want to talk about the game. at this point i have spent more time trying to figure that out, than i spent beating the campaign. 

i was very excited going into this and the game did live up to expectations. 6 videos, 5 of them being post game jam had my expectations through the roof, and i was not disappointed. the game is so great and i love to see you go back after the game jam to polish it into the great game it is now.

i didnt understand nodes at first and was confused why my production wasnt increasing from me making one long root. but once i got the hang of the game i got hooked and went overboard. the win condition is a 400/400/60 fruit. i currently have 2300/4680/0 and counting. yeah kinda went a bit overboard on production and storage. 

did start to notice the game having issues with that. first of all going above 1000 of a resource will make the last digit fall down a row, so i constantly have a 0 in the storage bars. also those neat little black lines that separate your storage into fractions start getting out of hand the higher storage you have. then at 2300 something strange happens. all the lines are gone. what i think has happened: the game started compressing so many lines, that they started merging into one, as they got too small for the game to recognize. but the lines didnt just disappear, they started merging with the storages color, turning it darker. like at a certain point the black lines gave way. the original storages color turned into the lines and a new darker color, i assume a merge of the black lines and the original storage color, took over as the storages color. the lines then went in reverse, decreasing in number, until none were left and the original color was gone. this cycle repeats every 2300 storage and will seemingly keep turning the storages color darker, until it eventually becomes black. now im not crazy enough to do that, but id guess it happens at around 15000 storage.

broo sunlight boosting leaves and nodes is such a cool detail. idk why it took me so long to realize. 

light criticism, but flowers dont say, that the increase pollen storage by 10. now there is nothing else that increases pollen storage and they are the only thing related to pollen so its kinda the only thing you would try to increase pollen storage, but still.

another small issue i have is water production. energy gets nodes and then leaves. water production only gets nodes. now there are water bubbles, but they act like sunlight, which energy production has. it is also worse, as water bubbles are limited in number and only last for a short time. an idea would be to have them periodically spawn in in a wide radius to encourage making a wide root network to catch them. right now the best root network is a straight line with a bunch of nodes on it. but hey, im begging for increased water production while sitting on over 4000 water with +50-100 water production at most times.

the sound design is so nice and the music is great. transitioning between underground and above ground music is such a nice touch. thank god for the slider though, as i put that to the lowest possible setting. my volume is set at normal and yet anything above the lowest setting is too loud.

why there is an option to not toggle fullscreen idk. it was literally unplayable without fullscreen for me. the storages were off screen and so was the information on the different growths. 

the hotkeys were amazing options. they made expanding so fluid, it was so relaxing to use them.

the screenshot option at the end is nice, though sadly the game cant zoom out enough to capture my plants full glory., i.e. a water storage root about 3x as long as the screen can zoom out storing 7280 water. also i couldnt find the screenshot so rip.

and then i thought of something: "hey what if i make a cursed plant that has roots above ground and leaves below ground. im sure he hasnt thought of stopping me from doing that"... you did. cant grow stems below the ground. but then i tried it with roots. i was expecting the same error message of not being able to grow roots above ground, but the game let me. and then i realized: " oh my god you can grow a second plant" its obvious in hindsight that that could be possible, but that blew my mind, that the game recognized what i was doing and switched from roots to stems. now it is a bit wonky, as as soon as a root goes above ground, the entire root turns into a stem, even the below ground parts. the nodes dont though, or else the below ground plant could have become a reality. it does create the cursed stem with root nodes though and does allow for stems to be below the surface.

all in all a great game. this was so much fun to play. the gameplay felt smooth and there was lots to do. the fruit is easy to get, but that is pretty much a side objective. the real fun comes from making the plant.

have to say this being the origin of the legendary ouch sound effect is so cool to learn. i really should have been reading the blog along with these games. 

uhh. not really sure what happened:

Error

system/window.lua:549: attempt to perform arithmetic on local 'index' (a nil value)

Traceback

system/window.lua:549: in function 'bringNextWindowToFront'

system/window.lua:572: in function 'close'

apps/settings.lua:25: in function 'onEnd'

system/timer.lua:14: in function 'update'

nx/update.lua:13: in function 'update'

[C]: in function 'xpcall'

this kinda just happened once and then never again so idk what that was about.

interacting is pretty jank. i couldnt figure out archery at first, as the game wouldnt let me shoot the bow. when i clicked it, the window would just flash. idk why and it then suddenly started working. still the final shot was so hard to figure out. 

and then the game kinda ended. three keys, the red, the black, the blue and then it was over. the game closed after i opened up the browser. now i was kinda expecting more, mostly due to there being 4 devlogs on this. it seems like the first two are what we have here, yet the second two are from a version that hasnt been released. i love the concept and the ideas for the extended version seem really cool. sad that that version never saw the light of day. it even featured hall, an old project. would have been cool to see that also krill or be krilled. using games that you made, that didnt have much to do in them, to make one big puzzle browser game is such a cool idea and would have been so cool to see. so yeah, the game was good, the amount of videos about it just had my expectations high. i was expecting the extended version, but that doesnt seem to have been released.

reading the blog confirms this. lens 2 is an idea, one that has as of yet not been able to be made. kinda sad, but i get it. the perfect game is hard to make and trying to will lead to no game being made. lots of creatives, be it art, game development, writing will try to make their dream creation. in their minds it is the best thing they can make. this leads to wanting a perfect result, one that is most often impossible to achieve. in many cases this leads people dedicating everything they have to their dream, without being happy about the result, or they stop creating altogether, as they cant create their dream. im glad you were able to move past lens 2 and have been able to continue creating. while i would love a lens 2, reading the blog, i realize that that probably shouldnt be attempted to be made. that can only do more harm than good. 

the music is amazing, and so is the art. bro the wizard has such a cool design. the witch being a different color scheme is also sooo cool. afterwards the game kinda bricks. you cant really do anything and there is no opponent. seems like thats the game. god damn was that a fun experience. the art style is just too cute and the music is so amazing. glad i found this.

ha i found it. you have no idea how long this game has been on my mind to find, since its not on your itch creator page.

astonishing how you turned bouncing wine into an actually fun game. not much to do, but fun to play. might as well bow down to the king with a score of 11043. aint no one goin higher. 

the voice acting is once again on point. love it.

ayy the line is finally accurate. funnily enough that threw me off at first, as i was used to compensating for the inaccuracy. 

the game is still loud af and i had to turn my volume down a lot.

the level that say "sometimes you need to change the wind direction more than once" can be beaten without changing the wind direction more than once lol. 

i love that you can see the previous arrows flight paths now. it is so helpful. 

for some reason the line stops when it goes into a yellow surface, despite the arrow being able to go through it, as it is just background art.

quick shots are a interesting, but seemingly useless feature. why there are two types of quick shot idk. 

balloons can still be cheesed, although all the new balloon stages are either way too hard to reasonably cheese or just straight require using the wind to beat.

in "reach for the skies i somehow hit a target on the side and it counted.

the editor at the end is a fun little thing to mess around with as a bonus for beating the game.

all in all a fun game. you certainly had more room to work with than in gale 1. id say its definitely an improvement. the levels feel a lot nicer to play, with lots of chances to recover. im starting to think you like math, with how many levels had math names.

hoh the music is amazing. not even done anything and im already lovin it. the gameplay loop is very nice. i love the little details of the dots going from the cards. hotkeys are an amazing here and make the game so much smoother. 

one card has confused me though. the onion. it puts a random rare in the discard. then the next round i get to use that card. but not every time? like some cards it gave me are now a permanent part of my deck, others i get every few rounds. im confused. i cant plan around specific cards, when they only show up every few rounds. are the cards it gives permanent? are they temporary? idk it seems like a 50/50. some cards stay, others go. i think its a fun card, as it spices up the deck and surprises you with different cards, i just cant figure out why im losing and gaining some cards.

now the ending. hmm. kinda torn. i like the story of a golem making another golem to make an army of golems eventually. i just have questions and problems with this. the pumpkin is the only legendary that you can get from the kohlrabi. so then why bother with the kohlrabi? why make it an extra step that takes an additional round to get to? also the pumpkin should kinda also make it clearer that it is the ending. i knew it was important, as it had a special grow condition and talked about making a golem, however i tossed that up to it just being a legendary. i always thought the ending was restoring the wasteland. the condition of sacrificing 7 plants also wasnt severe enough for me to think it was the ending. i could have chucked all my plants at it, however i was still playing it safe, as i wasnt expecting the game to end. do you know how little of a cost 7 plants is? i could have beaten the game like 20 minutes before i did with that knowledge. in my opinion the goal of making more golems should have been stated at the beginning, as to show that the pumpkin was the ending, instead of eluding to a goal that we are working towards. making the pumpkin cost like 20 plants would have also made it more of a challenge. like whats the problem with sacking half of your cards, when that beats the game? its not really a challenge to grow the pumpkin. its more of a challenge mentally, because its not obvious that the game will end, and as such that you can sacrifice anything you want, so you will be cautious, not wanting to sacrifice too much, despite that ultimately not mattering. so yeah story wise its a great ending, gameplay wise it undermines a lot of the work you put in, as you will most likely get way more cards and spend a lot more energy, than ultimately necessary to win.

like fully clearing the wasteland costs 1000 energy for the max upgrade and 5500 energy in total. the pumpkin costs 500 energy and a few of your cards. and what do you get for clearing the wasteland? NOTHING... like wha? i was expecting something for all the extra effort. it makes no sense to get an ending from spending 500 energy and sacrificing 7 cards, but getting nothing from 5500 energy. there is also no point to get the last like two wasteland clears. due to collard you only really need a useable 3x3. anything else is extra. starting at the 600 energy upgrade that is already  always a given. clearing more wasteland doesnt help you in any way.

also with enough cards the card shuffle noise sound starts to get a bit overwhelmed. but other than that it seemed to handle it well. i was very much expecting some issues when the game tried to shuffle my deck of 252 cards, but it went pretty smooth.

also for some reason the game still detects inputs, even when you are in another tab. the game doesnt save meaning that you cant do anything else on your pc unless you close it and lose all progress. its a short game, so its not much of an issue, but it was a bit annoying having the game do stuff, while i was doing something else in another tab.

maybe a bug. watermelon is able to water unusable soil, turning it useable.

also i found a way to completely lock your game out of the ending. the kohlrabi can only be used once to get the pumpkin. now im not sure, if just having the pumpkin on the field or having it grown to the max is necessary. then ironically using the anti softlock with the pumpkin planted will delete the pumpkin from your deck with no way to get it back... I WENT THROUGH 220 CARDS TO FIGURE THAT OUT.

so all in all a great game. good vibes and a simple gameplay loop. im a bit unhappy about the ending and the gameplay loop that collard promotes though. as the base plant and easiest to get plant it promotes a boring way to play. the most efficient play is to plant 8 of them in a circle and then to plant everything else inside. that makes the game slow. other plants either just work in that configuration or can be saved for last. im not sure, what a better plant would look like, but making the game revolve around collard did pretty much ruin creativity. this was not helped by the lack of another plant to build around. when the most efficient way to play is to plant one plant at a time in the same spot, then there is a problem. but that aside the game was fun to play. 

ah ok ty. that clears things up. and most of your friends have already been on my list to check out. andrfw was the one that sent me down this rabbit hole and now i have 20+ tabs of game devs to check out. but ill gladly add joespacio to my collection. and yeah i do plan on playing all your and your friends games. a combination of ocd and love of these types of games have compelled me to do so. i am very excited for your best works, though your other games certainly werent bad. seeing the videos turn from 2-5 minute videos to a 1 hour dev commentary for explorem ipsum has got me very excited at what awaits me there. wasnt really expecting a reply, as some of these games are pretty old, i just like to write down my experiences and share them.

pdvrq lvqw wkh rqh wdnlqj frqwuroo ri wkh nhberdug. wkh shuvrqw wdnlqj frqwuroo ri wkh nhberdug zdqwv wr wdon derxw pdvrq zlwk gdulr. kh zdqwv wr khdu hadfwob zkdw kdsshqhg ehwzhhq gdulr dqg pdvrq. kh zrxog nqrz li kh zdv pdvrq. gdulr dovr lvqw irxqg lqqrfhqw. wkh mxub ilqgv klp lqqrfhqw, exw wkh mxgjh kdqgv grzq d jxlow yhuglfw. wkh wkhrub derxw wkh pdunhw ehlqj dq diwhuolih lv lqwhuhvwlqj, exw wkh nhberdug zulwhu wdonv derxw lw iurp klv shuvshfwlyh, lpsoblqj kh zdv wkhuh. iurp zkdw l jdwkhuhg kh lvqw ghdg wkrxjk. qrz l eholhyh klp wr kdyh nloohg sdxo, vr wkdw frxog hasodlq klv suhvhqfh lq wkh diwhuolih zlwk sdxo, dv kh zdv wkh shuvrq wkdw eurxjkw klp wkhuh. l ilqg lw pruh olnhob gxh wr wkh nhberdug zulwhuv zrugv krzhyhu, wkdw wklv zdv wkh lqflwlqj lqflghqw ri wkh vwrub, dv kh wdonv derxw sdxo "gldvdsshdulqj", dv li kh nloohg klp.

hmm not starting off strong. in the 01 version, qwerty 1, there is seemingly supposed to be a voice, based on the text, yet there is none. then the game crashes and returns:

Error

nx/game/actor.lua:76: setPos was given no arguments

Traceback

[C]: in function 'assert'

nx/game/actor.lua:76: in function 'setPos'

trijam/char-columns.lua:41: in function 'update'

nx/game/actor.lua:233: in function 'update'

nx/game/scene.lua:369: in function 'update'

main.lua:16: in function 'update'

[C]: in function 'xpcall'

onto v01 qwerty 2.

well the voice works. i forgor to turn my volume down from the first version, where i thought my volume was just to quiet to hear the voice. that jump was on me. then unfortunately: 

Error

nx/game/actor.lua:76: setPos was given no arguments

Traceback

[C]: in function 'assert'

nx/game/actor.lua:76: in function 'setPos'

trijam/char-columns.lua:41: in function 'update'

nx/game/actor.lua:233: in function 'update'

nx/game/scene.lua:369: in function 'update'

main.lua:16: in function 'update'

[C]: in function 'xpcall'

onto v01 final, not to be confused with version final 01. yay, it works. legit a helpful game. i type with two fingers. i started to trust my muscle memory of where keys were more and more, instead of relying on seeing the keys. if i was unsure i could look at the hands for help. well except for y. aint no way you are supposed to use the right pointing finger for that. oohhh wait. the start made me realize something. my y key is below as. my z key is above gh. it seems like you expect them to be the opposite way around. is my keyboard weird? 

maybe this game will motivate me to train typing. i have started writing this comment like that. its working well, but its still slow going and sometimes the wrong finger types a letter.

the messages have gotten a bit weird tho.

version final 01 is pretty much the same. 

now to the story... i am confused: (caeser 3)

wkh yrlfh(brx) lv gdulr. wkh whaw/wbsh lv ???. wkhb zdqw wr wdon derxw pdvrq. gdulr glgqw whoo wkhp derxw vrphwklqj, dq lqflghqw zlwk pdvrq. gdulr eodphv lw rq pdvrq. wbsh vdbv pdvrq lv orrnlqj iru gdulr. gdulr vdbv khv jrqh. frxog phdq pdvrq glhg lq wkh lqflghqw dqg wkh orrnlqj wbsh wdonv derxw lv pruh olnh d yhqjhixo vslulw. wbsh iru vrph uhdvrq dovr zdqwv uhyhqjh rq gdulr. pb jxhvv lv, wklv zdv d jurxs ri iulhqgv. dq lqflghqw kdsshqhg ehwzhhq gdulr dqg pdvrq, ohdglqj wr pdvrq ehlqj "jrqh". gdulr kdv ehhq klglqj iurp wklv lqflghqw dqg iurp wbsh, qrw whoolqj klp zkdw kdsshqhg. 

wkhuh lv vrph lqirupdwlrq wkdw nlqgd frqixvhv ph. wkdwv sdxo dqg vdoob. qrz sdxov vwrub lv wrog iurp wbshv shuvshfwlyh. kh phw sdxo dw wkh pdunhw. kh glgqw kdyh d idfh dqg sdxo frxogqw uhphpehu lw. wkhq wbsh vdbv "qr rqh zloo plvv klp zkhq kh glvdsshduv". OLNH ZKDW. zkdw glg wbsh gr wr sdxo?

wr ph lw vhhpv olnh wbsh lv hylo. kh glg vrphwklqj wr sdxo, dv sdxo glgqw "orrn dw klp" dqg vr glgqw uhphpehu klv idfh. wbsh vhhpv wr zdqw shrsoh wr orrn dw klp. qrw grlqj wkdw vhhpv wr pdnh klp yhub dqjub. pdvrq pdb kdyh kdg vrphwklqj wr gr zlwk sdxov ghdwk wrr, zklfk pdb kdyh ohg wr wkh lqflghqw ehwzhhq gdulr dqg sdxo. l eholhyh gdulr irxqg rxw derxw klv iulhqgv fulphv dqg wkuhdwhqhg wr uhsruw wkhp, ru kdg d glvdjuhhphqw ehfdxvh ri lw. wbsh vhhpv wr kdyh ehhq devhqw gxulqj wklv lqflghqw. wkdw frqiurqwdwlrq vhhpv wr kdyh ohdg wr pdvrqv ghdwk, iru zklfk gdulr lv ehlqj sxqlvkhg.  kh vhhpv wr eh klglqj iurp klv idwh, lq wkh hqg qrw txlwh dffhswlqj lw, exw dw ohdvw zdonlqj wrzdugv lw.

vdoob lv wkh "duelwhu ri wuxwk rqh gdb". zkr vkh lv, lvqw hasodlqhg ixuwkhu wkdq wkdw. dw wkh hqg wkh duelwhu dqg mxgjh "frph nqrfnlqj". gdulr vdbv kh zloo vhh vdoob vrrq, ehiruh dqvzhulqj wkh grru. vdoob fdq eh rqh ri wzr shrsoh. vkh lv hlwkhu wkh mxgjh, exw l ilqg wkdw wr eh xqolnhob. vdoob vhhpv wr eh frqqhfwhg wr gdulr. l eholhyh khu wr eh gdulrv zlih ru jluoiulhqg. vrphrqh frqqhfwhg wr klp zkr kh zloo vhh "vrrq", pdbeh lq wkh diwhuolih. 

wkh uxolqj ri wkh mxgjh vhhpv wr eh lq wkh fdvh ri gdulr. wkh fdvh prvw olnhob lv wkh lqflghqw zlwk pdvrq. gdulr vhhpv wr kdyh ehhq irxqg jxlowb eb wkh mxgjh, wkrxjk d mxubv yhuglfw wkdw wkh uxolqj vhhpv wr jr djdlqvw lv phqwlrqhg. pdbeh wkh mxub uxohg lq klv idyru gxh wr ilqglqj rxw derxw pdvrq dqg wbshv fulphv, exw wkh mxgjh iru vrph uhdvrq vwloo jdyh d jxlowb yhuglfw. 

elw ri d luo sureohp khuh. brx hlwkhu kdyh d mxub ru mxgjhv yhuglfw, qrw erwk. qrz wklv pdb eh iurp d gliihuhqw mxglfldo vbvwhp, exw lq prvw wkdw l nqrz ri lwv hlwkhu rqh ru wkh rwkhu, qrw erwk, zlwk wkh mxgjh kdylqj wkh ilqdo vdb. zkdw zrxog eh wkh srlqw ri d mxubv yhuglfw wkhq?

qrz vrph hyhq pruh udqgrp vwxii wkdw l frxog qrw rughu lqwr wkh vwrub:

wbsh udqgrpob vdbv " kh kdg d qdph wrr". li wklv lv uhihuulqj wr vrphrqh xqnqrzq, ru pdvrq ru sdxo, wkh vhhplqjob wzr ghdg shrsoh lq wklv vwrub lv qrw fodulilhg. lw lv yhub udqgrp. hyhubrqh lq wkh vwrub kdv d qdph. wkhuh lv qr xqqdphg ylfwlp wkdw wbsh frxog eh uhihuulqj wr. wklv olqh frqixvhv ph.

wbsh dovr zdqwv gdulr wr " uhwxuq wr klp". wr zkr wbsh zdqwv gdulr wr uhwxuq wr lgn. hlwkhu pdvrq ru wkh mxgjh. lw fdqw eh wr wbsh, hyhq wkrxjk wkdw zrxog pdnh pruh vhqvh, dv kh zrxog kdyh vdlg " uhwxuq wr ph" lqvwhdg.

now im not confident that i got the story right. i can make a cohesive narrative, but not every piece fits. l eholhyh wbsh wr eh hylo dqg gdulr wr eh prvwob lqqrfhqw. wklv lv gxh wr wbshv fkloolqj frpphqw derxw sdxo. wklv pdnhv wbsh vhhp ohvv olnh d yhqjhixo sduw ri gdulrv sdvw dqg pruh olnh d wkuhdw wr klp. wklv krzhyhu fodvklv zlwk pxowlsoh sduwv ri wkh jdph. zkb zrxog gdulr wkhq rshq wkh grru? zkb zrxog wbsh jxlow gdulr derxw klv lqflghqw zlwk pdvrq, li wbsh klpvhoi lv d pxughuhu? l grqw nqrz. lw vhhpv olnh wkhuh duh wzr vwrubv. rqh zkhuh wbsh lv hylo dqg gdulr lv lqqrfhqw. dqg rqh zkhuh wbsh lv wkh ylfwlp ri gdulr dqg pdvrq, wkrxjk lw zdv pdvrqv idxow dqg pdvrq vhhplqjob glhg wrr? exw wkdw fodvkhv zlwk wkh sdxo vwrub. wkdw lv pb sureohp zlwk wkh vwrub. lw vhhpv olnh wzr vwrulhv duh ehlqj wrog dw rqfh gxh wr vhhplqjob frqiolfwlqj dffrxqwv. rqh olqh pdnhv wbsh d prqvwhu, wkh qhaw frxog pdnh klp gdulrv ylfwlp. wbshv uroo lq wkh vwrub lv wkh prvw fuxfldo sduw wr xqghuvwdqglqj lw. prvw whaw pdnhv gdulr rxw wr eh wkh sureohp, wkhq wkh sdxo vwrub eorzv wkdw qduudwlyh dzdb. prvw ri wkh jdph vhhpv wr sxw wkh eodph rq gdulr, hyhq wkh hqglqj. wkh sdxo vwrub krzhyhu frqwudglfwv wkh ixqglphqwdov ri wkdw. iru gdulr wr eh jxlowb, wbsh qhhgv wr eh lqqrfhqw. wbsh fdq qrw eh lqqrfhqw gxh wr wkh sdxo vwrub. vr gdulr pxvw eh lqqrfhqw. wkh vwrub krzhyhu hqgv zlwk klp zdonlqj wrzdugv klv idwh, rqh wkdw fdqw eh fruuhfw, dv kh fdqw eh jxlowb. wbsh lv wkh prqvwhu, qrw gdulr.

really love the hands opening the eyes. type thanks you for typing with him at the end. then the hands get fully shown and open their eyes. type did want dario to look at him, as dario doesnt seem to want to look at type. i think this was a nice touch. also the game closing by itself was a great final touch.

also the link for WYATTOs games is your website? am i missing something?

fun game. i did not realize barking would force me to solve the puzzle. i was not prepared. 

also the evidence is torn. bill fetch is definetly innocent and there isnt much evidence against amelia flouf. its really between holly and scraggy. both have the means to steal the bones. tracks of both were found at the crime scene. there is a connection between them so im starting to suspect it was both. the one with connections to them all however is...US. before i answer this i put out the theory that it was us. we are connected to them all, yet our character handwaves that away every time it comes up. we have the connections to be able to know about the stash.

ok so answering gives you more answers. like how was i supposed to know the scarf wasnt evidence. you need to give me that beforehand. also only some evidence isnt able to be presented. like hollys connection to scraggy and as such her access to the map wasnt an option. also the bone having a hole in it from something that didnt look like a bite mark i saw as evidence of research done on the bone. and so my nr.1 suspect went up in flames. 

and then the game kinda ended. like im still not sure if scraggy did it. all that was revealed was that maybe he buried the stash. like what? the ending legit left me with more questions than answers. 

what i think happened: fluffys grandpa made a mistake and thought scraggys stash was his. scraggy took the stash on his walk. fluffy, who thought from his grandpa that it was his stash thought someone had stolen from his stash, when it had never belonged to him in the first place.

all in all the game was fun. the ending kinda ruined it for me though. the evidence fuffy gives to discount evidence should have been available through other means. you literally have to guess the thief, as you are missing crucial information in the case. fluffy gives more evidence, than anything in the room. also the ending was so confusing i wasnt sure what had happened to the stash.

the rain sound is very oppressive, but it feels intentional. the sound design is amazing. the first thing i did was make a little rhythm based on the different sounds of bumping into different objects.

the ouch sound is wayyy too loud though. kinda hurt my ear. i had to turn the sounds down a lot because of it, which was sad.

i like that death is a part of the puzzles. its a creative way to solve the puzzles.

the visual style is nice and also obscures details in a puzzle. i think thats a good thing, as the puzzles are simple, you just need to find all the pieces.

that grappling hook felt very familiar. 

such a fun game. also giving me another dev to check out, yay.im guessing its Squires - itch.io, but there is also Drunken Squires - itch.io, and Studio_Squires - itch.io. guess ill check those guys out too.

very excited for this. it it literally your face here and on yt so it has got to be good.

the amount of resets at the beginning is insane. you make zero progress most of the time. its almost as if the cards arent put in a way for the game to be solvable every time. the amount of resets i had to do on level 3 was insane. i got so frustrated that i used the cheese described by playrix to skip level 3. i would suggest using this cheese starting from level 3 as rng is super harsh in the early levels. games are pure rng, so they arent solvable. the amount of points you need is hard to reach without amazing rng. you dont have enough upgraded cards to combat the rng. i like solitaire so i dont like cheesing the game, but after failing a level 5+ times due to bad rng, i would cheese the level. 

i also found out that the bug is a lot more powerful than playrix described. you can grab a card from a stack, right click, revealing the card under it, then let go of the left click, which will put the card back on the stack. you can use this to reveal all cards on the field. it is a bit inconsistent tho, idk why. sometimes the game just wont let you right click. i used this a lot more than the points cheese, as it felt a lot more fair. i was still playing the game, though with an advantage. one that i felt canceled out the rng of early levels though.

starting at level 8 you need to clear the board. i feel like from here on out you have enough upgrades to start playing legit. the game becomes very strategical with how you use your upgraded cards. it feels like the game is very balanced at this stage. the upgrades and rng cancel each other out. 

upgraded cards dont automatically get stacked. in later levels i could imagine this getting a bit annoying. its super satisfying to have a chain of cards fly onto the stack. upgraded cards break that chain.

bit of a complaint. the game seemingly can not be muted. it is a pretty long game, so you may want to do something else in between. closing the game also does not save progress. saving would be a nice feature. id love to just be able pick up where i left off. solitaire is a game where you play a few rounds and then put it down for a bit, only to pick it up again in the future. its a game that you can always just play a round and then leave. here because of rng and upgrades the game only really became fun after 8 levels. i also didnt get to experiment with all upgrades. having the game as an endless run that you can continue whenever would be fun.

all in all a fantastic game. the early game is heavily rng based, but the bugs with right click kinda bail you out as you can just skip those levels. starting from level 8 it is such a fun game. the strategy with the upgrades is insane. you can use them to always make a move. the lack of saving is really my main complaint, as it hinders the game from being something that you just continue whenever you want. solitaire is fun, but i can only play so many rounds at a time. yeah i can beat the game in a sitting, but the endless mode is where its at. thats when the game starts getting good. its when rng becomes a non factor and when the upgrades start being a more available tool with multiple upgraded cards. would the game save, im sure i would eventually get to level 52 to have only upgraded cards. with saving, i could see the game being more than "your okayest work".

M-M-M-MATH!!!! oh noooooooo.

putting it all together took my brain out. like i had no idea what was going on. i had to research that stuff again. even then i couldnt figure it out. from what i gathered its ((x-2)^2+2)/2 , yet that isnt possible to make.

i gave up and started skipping through levels as math is not fun for me. the end credits are way too big and are unreadable as most text is off screen.

this game was amazing. simple, yet fun gameplay. but man those spiders were scarry. the sound that played when they started chasing was great. also hearing the sound of them crawling around added to the fear of them. they werent too much of an obstacle though. 

this game could use a bit more content like different enemies and some more visual indications of ones surroundings. 

accidentally found p to skip level while trying to pause.

forgot about one thing: you can quit out of a game to the title screen, but your game doesnt save. you can only load a new game.

i loved this game. it was a lot of fun to play. every contract is unique and leads to some fun builds to maximize sp(summoning points). i do have some feedback though:

movement is a bit wonky. it takes slightly too long for your character to start moving and slightly too long for your character to stop moving. in the small spaces this makes movement clunky. you either hold down movement keys and have really imprecise movement, or you slowly move one tile at a time.

i couldnt figure out the tutorial at first. it looks like you have to only use the items found on the floor. turns out you can get extra candles. that took me a bit to figure out. that could have been mentioned as a possibilty in the conversation, not only when you bring the guy and not the spellbook the candle.

the language in the game is a bit confusing. adjacent had me looking up the definition. next to would have been a bit more understandable. other than that i really like the items functions. they are very intuitive and you can make some devious combos with them to gain massive sp. the only item condition i was ever unsure about was the empty empty circles condition. its a bit of a weird way to put it, but to be fair i cant think of a better way. it requires empty spaces next to it that a circle from, for example a skull candle, is on. i was able to figure the condition out pretty quickly, but it did have me thinking for a bit.

managed to get a 4725 sp combo. combos can really get out of hand in this game. the setup that i found most powerful was a dagger with a voodoo and a sheep, a teddy to repeat the dagger through both. random level points added to the final total. the combo alone however is enough to get 4200 points and is independent from the nexus. that is absolutely busted. dynamite could replace the dagger and teddy in the combo and allow for only using voodoo and sheep for max points, but it is bugged. it says it destroys items, and sheep and voodoo activate upon being destroyed, but not when destroyed by dynamite? this would be the mathematical best combo, if it worked: one dynamite and 3 voodoo and 4 sheep. that would come out to 12000 points from a base combo, without using any of the levels items and without being dependent on the nexus. technically 4 voodoo, 3 sheep gives the same points, but factoring in map items the multiplication would ultimately give a higher score. i would have loved to use this combo, but oh well. the theoretical max points would then depend on the rooms. they have a set layout an set items, but the chests contain random loot. the room with the most chests would be the best, as the highest point items are sheep and voodoo and the chests could theoretically all have them. i would go and check the numbers for all rooms, but i refuse to do so until dynamite is fixed. i dont see the point in spending more time finding a theoretical cap, if the method is bugged.

a gold bonus for going over the contracted sp would be nice though. like a gold per 100 sp over the contract would be a fair reward. getting high scores is fun, but you arent rewarded for going the extra mile and optimizing every summon. that optimization however was the most fun part of the game for me. doing it for no reason when i could be done did hamper my enthusiasm to keep optimizing all summons.

a way to reroll the shop for like 10 gold would be nice. i spent forever after beating the game trying to get items for an optimal combo, after i threw my daggers into the void for bugged dynamite that is useless.

the max sp in the tutorial is 280. not really useful, just fun to find the max.

carpet nullifying summoning item affects is a very cool mechanic. shame it is only explained by talking to a coworker in the lobby. carpets are the main inhibitors in the game and so them not getting mentioned in a non optional way isnt great. you either talk to the coworker or learn the hard way in a mission, what carpets do.

blue lilys still work on carpet.

pot of greed says its + 2 gold for every empty connection, but its only +1 ? its better that way, as a free 16 gold is busted. 8 gold is more reasonable.

birthday candle says its +25 aura when connected to nexus, however it only gives +10.

dont know if you are supposed to be able to grab items from tables. it looks like you should be able to, but you cant. they are such a tease when playing. for some reason you can grab items out of some boxes. you have no idea how long that took me to find out. i beat the game before i found that out.

the final dialogue seems to bug out. i dont know if thats intentional, but it works fine for a bit and then the text is suddenly in size 120 and is going across the entire screen, unrestricted by the chatbox and so i could only make out a few words as the rest were off screen. 

you can also just cross into a seemingly infinite space, if you ignore the teleport. again im unsure if this is intentional, or if the player isnt supposed to be able to go out there.

beating the game seemingly does nothing. like the game knows i won, as a teddy i put into the teleporter showed up in the lobby, but idk. maybe you were supposed to get a 5x5 teleport space as a bonus as thats what you use to get back from the board to the lobby, but that doesnt work? idk the ending? had me more confused than anything. i wasnt sure if i had beaten the game or not. everything continued as usual and i was still able to gain promotions, even though i had been promoted to the top by management?  the levels also reset, so i was re-doing summons that i had already done.

all in all a fun game. i spent way too much time with this. it is in need of polish, but the gameplay is fun. my biggest complaints are the ending being poorly done and dynamite being bugged, stopping the optimal combo from working. why you list it in " your okayest work" is a mystery to me. i would put it into your best work. it is miles above the other okayest games. i havent played your best works yet so this has heightened my expectations of those games, if this game is ok in comparison. 

ok, heres how the game works, since there is no explanation:

movement is done through the arrow keys. you start by moving up or left or right. if you move left or right you can move up without hitting a bug. after that you must hit a bug to redirect your movement. you can move back down, which will keep the attempt going, but will reset the point bonus from consecutive bug kills.

highscore: 19000. i killed all but one bug in one life, which was tragic. i couldnt even kill it with my final 3 lives. this is pretty much a perfect run. points seem to stack, the more you kill at once so this is pretty much the best you can do. the only way to beat it is with a perfect run, or a near perfect run that gets the final bug, unlike me. getting a perfect attempt will be very hard and rng based though so i shall take my crown as the bug samurai

also a little thing i found. pressing "clear save" in the broken tutorial freezes the game.

tutorial was a bit confusing and lacking. cancel to continue is a...choice. and one that took me a bit to figure out. colors arent explained well. they are mentioned, but not explicitly. i tried to revisit it, but the tutorial didnt work a second time. i had no idea what was going on in the first date. what was interrupting? how to avoid that? what color am i matching to? what color are my cards? how do i get cards? what is the meter in the corner? how good is each play? is matching color or number better?

this is what a tutorial is there for. i should not have fundamental questions about the games mechanic after exiting the tutorial. it should answer those questions. im being thrown in the deep end. i did figure most of this out in one round, but still. why have a tutorial, if it isnt gonna teach me how to play?

damn the game is hard. maybe im not understanding something, but sometimes i dont have any options to respond and have to reset by just playing a card.

chelsea was pretty easy, alec had me losing my mind, i got super lucky with amelia and got two 4x plays which gave me the win.

ultimate alec. oh boy. first of all i dont understand the meter. playing 2x plays wouldnt increase my meter. i had him to 70%, then he just kept talking. i had to interrupt him at 30% cuz he just wasnt stopping. and then i just couldnt gain meter no matter what. i tried again and the second time he didnt even give me a chance to answer before my meter ran out, LIKE WHAT. HOW IS THAT FAIR? i never got a chance. what rng fest is this? so you need to hope for perfect cards for 4x plays and need to hope he stops talking at some point, otherwise you lose.

on my third run i finally got him. it took some good luck, with him never talking for too long, and me often having a color and number match to gain lots of meter.

on another note. every other person sends one message that can be viewed. upon losing to ultimate alec he sends you 2 messages, you can only view one. upon winning he sends you 4 messages, you can only view one. kinda an odd detail to have a message count, have only one character send multiple messages and also not be able to view those messages.

pretty good and fun game. the tutorial needs some work, as i am still unsure of some mechanics. the game is pretty rng heavy, especially ultimate alec, which leads to vastly different experiences. alec was a hard match for me, as i couldnt get good plays. amelia was a pushover due to getting perfect plays twice. luck determined more than anything the difficulty. but still, the strategy of playing the right cards fast enough was fun to learn.

sounds are a bit too loud, especially in v2

sometimes it feels like im hitting the target the intended way, the arrow just wont stick. i will try again and then it magically works. really frustrating for harder tricks, when i think i got them and then the arrow just bounces off.

the balloons are a cool mechanic, though they are exploitable. they reset if you shoot an arrow. so in stage 14, where you are supposed to send your arrow backwards i gust shot two arrows, before one hit a balloon. you can also do that on the final level...lol.

the line that shows the arrows path is imprecise. your arrow shoots slightly further up from what the line shows. this means you can miss a taget, when the line tells you that you would hit it, and tight gaps are hard to aim through.

also that level 16 stupid. in the other version it was also bad, but fine. there the screen wasnt restricted. here i keep hitting the pot or floor. the arrows movement is restricted so much through those that the target is nearly impossible to hit.

all in all gameplay wise they are the same game. v2 is just a visual and auditory touch up from the void of v1. the game was decent fun, but it was mostly frustrating due to issues mentioned.

you had me so scared. with no description i thought this was gonna be big game all over again after the narrator appeared and started talking about not being done. i was fully expecting esc to close the game.

made it to wave 46 heres some issues i encountered:

enemies can spawn on top of you. thats what killed my run.

if you upgrade the bomb, it bugs out. at least i think its upgrading that bugs it out. the bomb may just be bugged, though i was able to use it normally when i hadnt upgraded it. after upgrading the bomb will stop spawning. sometimes a bomb will then just appear out of thin air, but doesnt explode? stuff gets wonkey when you upgrade the bomb. thats bad, as thats one out of 4 tools to deal damage. you are missing an entire weapon because of that. its also a aoe weapon, which is crucial in a game like this and missing from your arsenal. the cleaver is good, but it has a limit. 

thorn aura seems kinda bad. the times it triggered on skeletons it couldnt kill them. with limited health i was expecting it to kill at least skeletons, as you can only get hit so many times. when you get hit you are in a bad situation (or an enemy spawned on top of you). the thorn aura needs to be a last resort, giving you a pocket and hopefully a way to recover, if it cant kill skeletons, the most common enemy than it cant help you. yeah it can be upgraded, but putting resources into a last resort will make your offence weaker, leading to closer situations. it needs to be good on its own and worthwhile to upgrade to be worth it. otherwise offense wins out.

all in all a fun game. if the bomb worked it would have been a lot more fun. the game is limited with only 3 enemies and 4 damage abilities along with two assist abilities, yet it is fun to play.

the beep n zap universe. 

man im going ever deeper down a game dev rabbit hole. from andrfw i have found like 5 different game devs who keep sending me down more rabbit holes of game devs to check out. i will never reach the bottom, which is kinda a nice thing.

i may have fed the worm like creature a drink of pure salt out of malice, but hey he liked it.

and thus my favorate combo was born: motor oil to poison, veinberry to cover the oils taste and ocean kelp to hurt peoples taste buds and to make them thirsty, so they drink the entire drink. funny part is, most dont complain about the poison, but they all complain. the drink combines so many traits that everyone is bound to dislike one part of it.

... NOT JIM. damn right i tried to poison that man. all he complained about was the drink being mushy. i hope the poison kicks in soon.

on the second go around i got the perfect drink for beep: copy bean, ocean kelp, motor oil.

the red guy just wants a drink of purely chemical b.

insane uncle jim lore. he grows drugs. also likes the funny herb paired with copy bean. also he hates his girlfriend and gave a gift of hers away. lock that man up.

the definitely not three kids in a trenchcoat want jellyfruit, ocean kelp and veinberry...

robber: mushroom, motor oil, wobby booger

zap: copy bean and ice dragon tooth

and thats it a part of the game i dislike is that people are on a rotation. they follow a set completion order of worm(get oil), Beep(get chemical b), red guy(get funny herb), jim(get jellyfruit), trenchcoat(get wobby booger), robber(get ice dragon tooth), zap

the order in which you encounter people is beep, zap, worm, red guy, jim, trenchcoat, robber.

now theoretically thats not bad. you can satisfy everyone in three rounds. the first shows the characters, the second allows you to complete most and the third is for zap. however in practice it doesnt work that way. because of the set order. there is only one way to progress. if you mess up the order on that person, which is likely as customers will not talk about their opinion of all traits of a drink, just a few traits, you will have to go through the entire cycle without being able to progress. yeah you can probe the likes and dislikes of the others, but it just turns into a slog. like i dont know how many times i saw zap in my first playthrough. the game would benefit from being able to retry a customer. why go through all characters again, if you can only satisfy one?

all in all the game was nice. the characters were fun, but after encountering them like 7 times i was exhausted. removing the slog would make the game more fun.

jam edition:

the tutorial is good, just a bit quick. lots of stuff starts happening and the chat box gets cluttered burying helpful advice.

the queuing as damage dealer option was hilarious. i was confused at the option at first. should have known better, seeing as you love to give the title screens some "functions".

the game is hard. it took a few tries to beat floor 7. it seems like there is an endless mode afterwards, but i instantly died. 

festival build doesnt seem to work. idk if im doing something wrong, but it doesnt want to open for me.

pretty fun little game. im sure i didnt play optimally and that you could find a way to go on forever, if you find a consistent way to keep the tank alive, but i wont do that. i had my fun.