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Hey all good man, I know it can be hard to make progress sometimes, what with real life and all. And thanks for the encouraging words regarding the Steam release, the store page should be going up any day now, I'll be sure to update the devlog when it does.

Would be 10/10, but the racket's strings are white instead of brown. 3/10

Thank you! It's always cool to hear someone enjoyed the game! Aristotle once said "Tennis would be much cooler with violence" and I have always tried to live my life by those words.

Hello everyone!

Now that the jam is over, I'd really like to thank everyone who commented, rated or played my game. The whole game jam experience is very new to me, and it's been really cool reading all the comments and hearing people's feedback, as well as seeing people's reactions to it live and watching them enjoy the game and improve their skills. That said, on to the announcement:

Many of you, like me, are tennis fans, and I'm sure that like me, you've been shocked at the misinformation spread about the game by popular "tennis" games such as Tennis World Tour or AO Tennis 2.

These games would have us believe that tennis is played on a "court", hitting the ball over something they call a "net".

Nonsense! Trial of the Tennis-Lord is for those who appreciate tennis for what it really is! A high octane robot-slaying bloodsport where the stakes are high, and a single mistake can cost you your life! On that note it seems right to announce that Trail of the Tennis-Lord will recieve a full commerical Steam release.

Of course it would be silly to expect people to pay for 48 hours worth of work, and so I intend to add a ton of content, different balls and modifiers, combo systems and multiple enemy types, while staying true, as best I can, to the pleasant simplicity of the game as it is now. I really appreciate all the feedback I've recieved from other devs such as Ducc and BadPiggy, and this has already help me sketch out a roadmap of where I want the game to go, but if you have a moment to spare, you will recieve my genuine gratitude and a free ferrari if you give the game a try and let me know how it could be improved: https://itch.io/jam/mix-and-game-jam-2020/rate/822062

So if any of that sounds interesting to you please follow my itch.io account to get any devlogs I release, let me know what you think of new features, and help me make this the best possible game it can be, thanks :)

Congrats man, it was certainly deserved!

Haha so much for hidden gem! #4 in gameplay! Congrats dude.

Your game was indeed criminally underrated, the core concept is really solid and inventive, I'll keep an eye on this one for sure :)

Thanks for playing!

Wow, we had such similar ideas! The enemy AI is actually really impressive, almost felt like I was playing against other players. Really slick gameplay and graphical style, very cool game.

Thanks! I'm definitely planning on releasing this as a full game, and making the enemy balls consistent / having your own ball be able to damage you are definitely things that will make it into that release, either as optional modifiers or as part of the core gameplay. Really appreciate the constructive criticism by the way, I'll certainly need it if I want to bring this game up to a professional level of quality.

Wow, high praise when coming from the creator of the bullethell masterpiece Bullet Cove :) I appreciate the feedback about slow mo, and will definitely make it clearer when slow mo is active in future versions of the game, perhaps a fade in around the edges of the screen or bumping up some post processing effects. Thanks for the kind words and good luck beating your high score!

Thanks! I love adding little bits of polish and small touches to my games, it only takes few moments, and can really go a long way towards improving the experience.

Really good game, polished, addictive and well designed enough to keep me playing for 40 turns.

Haha, no shame in 38! Ducc certainly got much further than I was expecting anyone to manage. Thanks for playing!

Thank you! The sound effects were made in Bfxr, a really useful program originally made specifically for game jams. https://www.bfxr.net/

This one was surprising fun, it took a while to figure out which song was for which plant but it was very satisfying once I finally started turning a profit. I would recommend adding a way to remove seeds from the furrows or a bin to put unwanted plants in, as sometimes the demand for the crop would time out and I would be left with a plant I didn't need.

You can build castles and listen to a killer 8 bit version of Space Oddity, the controls are funky and the hitbox is weird but I'm sold.

Gee, I wonder which meat themed platformer protagonist inspired this? :)

Thanks! The basic idea was to keep it very simple so I could polish as much as possible. After playing Garden Rogue though, I see it is somehow possible to include a ton of content and polish it to a high standard, you'll have to teach me that sometime. :)

I'd love to hear your thoughts on mine. https://quail-watcher.itch.io/trial-of-the-tennis-lord

Glad you had fun! But yeah the difficulty curve is definitely one of the game's biggest flaws at the moment, I am planning on working on the game after the jam though, so hopefully I'll be able to make some improvements then. Loved Tactical Fussball by the way, very clever.

The animations are a pleasure to watch and the game has a great sense of style. It's a real shame there wasn't time to add player damage or this would have been a really strong entry.

Much appreciated! Can't take credit for the excellent music though, that honor goes to the talented composer at BoxCat Games. https://freemusicarchive.org/music/BoxCat_Games

I like the aesthetic and the sense of impact when you are damaged, but a few small problems hold the game back. I often struggled to see the the mouse cursor or the enemy projectiles, both of which are white on a pale blue background, simply change the colour of these to something distinct and the game will feel much better.

It's very satsifying to line up a shot correctly and smash through everything in the room, also Alphonse's spinning animation is pretty funny. I would certainly make the doors wider though, sometimes it was frustrating not being able to get through.

Wow, I'm actually flattered to hear that. If you're really into it, you might be interested in seeing Ducc (the Dev behind Normal Golfing) set what was then the world record, with an incredible score of 71. https://www.twitch.tv/videos/805075256?filter=archives&sort=time The run starts at 4:12:47.

Thanks for playing! I'm glad you enjoyed the small touches and polish. Sun Tzu once said "I fear not the man who has made 48 games, but I fear the man who has polished one game for 48 hours".

Wow, this has to be my favourite of the jam. There were so many tense moments where the lava was closing in and I thought I'd trapped myself, just rapidly searching for a solution, only to find it at the last second. Really clever, underrated game that forces you to scan your environment and think creatively.

I was very confused at first as to what I was supposed to do, but when I understood the course of the track and that my bullets could slow green down, it actually became quite fun.

Game is fun and has an interesting upgrade system, but is very clunky. If nothing else it's worth checking out for the hillarious character descriptions "He was still a child when they invented rocks".

Very original, striking art style and simple, responsive gameplay. This is what a jam game should aspire to be!

Went into this expecting a lighthearted, whimsical shooter with a fun gimmick. Came out a nervous wreck with a pathological fear of corn. Seriously though, good game.

Thanks! :)

Sorry to hear you weren't able to finish, always a shame. At least we get this physics arena to mess around in for a few minutes, admittedly hitting the robots is very satisfying.

That's a bummer to hear about the mixup with the time zones. But I think you may have accidentally created the best horror game of the jam. Wandering around this seemingly abandoned prison the last thing I expected was for a naked t-posing blue dude without a face to creep up to within an inch behind me and stand there in total silence. Suffice to say the whole household was woken by my screams and this is why I no longer play jam games at night.

I like the premise, the idea of catching projectiles to stop them destroying the platforms you're standing on, but the game feels quite clunky. Personally I would increase the radius within which you can grab a ball, make the level over a bottomless pit, and stop the platforms from respawning. But I like the general presentation and background art. I think with better controls and more polish, this idea could really come to something.

Very smooth controls and it feels natural to move in time to the beat. I do think that the game would benefit from a failure state though, feels wrong that the enemies can reach you and and there are no real consequences. That said, very cool game.

One of my favourites in the jam, simple, satisfying and with lots of polish.

Wow, this is a real hidden gem. The different attack patterns force you to think tactically about where to hide when your turn ends. Displaying the movement grid visually makes it easier to tell which squares are safe and which are not. The art style is unique and looks really cool. All in all really fun game that deserves more attention.

Also fyi to the dev, it's very rare to have a jam game come with an installer. Honestly that probably turned a lot of people off who would have really enjoyed what is otherwise an excellent game.