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Thanks for your kind words! I usually draw all the pieces in Illustrator and put them together in Spine. Skeletal animation for most of it. Set up key frames, then space out those frames to get some nice timing and even fake slo-mo. I used bones to control the camera/text position, zoom, and stuff. Events for text and sound effects. It's on my list of video ideas for another day actually.  

Not sure what you mean by publish. You can share, blog, list on steam, sell etc. Especially if you think your game idea is really good and you want to expand on it. Just make sure that you don't charge our players to play your game in the jam otherwise no one will play it. And don't make a scummy game that has nothing to do with the jam theme.

Here here!

Thanks! Especially on the particle effects. I've been testing out the new particle editor and it's been working out very well. BTW, I always try to make funny cut-scenes for my games. I'll make an updated compilation video soon.

Thank you! I only wish I could make some better art.

Is my family next?

Thank you for playing! My son managed to beat it too, but he said it was really difficult for him. He actually found a few bugs along the way.

From what I can recall, it would show the window handle in the taskbar, but the game window would not show up at all. I'll try again today. Thanks.

It's true. libGDX wants the blood of all the first born children. And libGDX will always be there, waiting for their cut.

I don't see how you can consider it backhanded. I gave clear areas of improvement, opened/closed with how astounding and interesting it is. I even gave you a single improvement that would have made the game more enjoyable overall.

Ahh yes, another Hidden Sense. I wonder if there is a plot connecting all these seemingly unrelated games together. It's too bad that this one didn't feel like a complete product. I did appreciate having enemies to kill. It was quite cool to stagger the zombies with a few shots before finishing them off. Dracula was a let down for me though. For all I know, he was just chilling in his little closest minding his own business when some maniac with a fully automatic crossbow comes waltzing in and breaking all his shit. I too would jump out of the shadows to confront this man. And very much like this Dracula, I would have been put down in a matter of seconds with a hail of arrows as well.

This one is your standard affair with finding keys and opening doors only to find more keys and more doors. I've seen that so many times it truly feels uninspiring to me. Nevertheless, my son REALLY REALLY enjoyed it and forced me to play through the whole thing. I wish the level and props had the same visual style as the characters because that would have been a nice aesthetic. This way they seem quite out of place. Movement was so slow to the point of being unbearable. The player character is pretty cool though and I enjoyed the light humor of the grail being on the floor of a random restroom. The slow reloading actually created some tension and I wish that was capitalized on more throughout the game.

I really wanted this one to work out for us! Unfortunately, multiplayer was too hard for us to set up. It's really impressive to see any sort of networking in a jam game and here you basically made a vampire themed Evolve in less than a month! Everything looked very pretty except for the level design which seemed like placeholder textures. What a great menu you had! I have to admit I wasn't really paying attention to the rest of the game because I was too busy trying to setup the server during the video review.

The title of the game and premise of a Bloodsport makes for a great pun. But you did manage to make a game out of it though! I felt that the gameplay wasn't very balanced. I didn't get that urge to keep playing again and again which is what I want for an action/arcade style of game. It was pretty hilarious to see the character's body contort in weird ways while you strafe and run. I can sympathize though. Making a true top-down game with appropriate art is hard to achieve. As for the performance issues: I'm not sure how it works in your engine but typically games preload audio for short sound effects so the game won't pause the first time you try to play it.

As my son said in the video, this really is like a take on Astroneer in a jam game. That alone is pretty astounding and I'm sure the technical obstacles you had to maneuver around would have blown my mind. The camera control was pretty bad though and that cheapened the rest of the experience. If that was resolved, I might have ignored the mindless enemies, poor attack mechanics, and the weak implementation of the theme. Don't worry though, I too only make the games I want to make for jams and if the theme happens to line up with it, all the better. So kudos to you for making such an impressive work!

What a creepy picture you selected for the thumbnail! That alone caught my interest. People are often critical of using a pixelation shader (which is what I assume you used here), however I found that it worked well here. The enemy movement looked otherworldly with this effect, whereas it would probably look pretty hum-drum otherwise. It seemed like we missed the cue to pick up one of the candles before we proceeded. Maybe that's where the shader worked against you because it's so hard to see details like that. Anyway, gameplay sadly fell into the usual walking around, avoiding monsters, and searching for stuff that many in the horror genre try to do.

This game really channels some of the visual appeal of games from my youth. I really liked seeing a lot of that in this jam. We didn't get far enough to see some action and that might be worth considering in your next game. Think of an adventure movie with no incredible action scene to open with. Lord of the Rings without the assault on Mount Doom, for example. Anyway, I was mesmerized with the animations and progression. Good work!

The opening with the still frames didn't really resonate with me. I was surprised to find that there was an actual game after that. By all impressions it was just going to be another bad visual novel. So, the gameplay itself was rather samey. You walk around, find stuff, avoid monsters. Rinse and repeat. The setting is pretty cool and I can appreciate that you were building a team of plucky adventurers venturing where they shouldn't.

I found that this game was rather unique. You were really willing to take some risks here. The grass disappearing around your proximity was actually a pretty neat gimmick. Unfortunately, the enemies didn't behave in an interesting way. They just attack when you're close and you're pretty much screwed with no recourse. That made the objective of finding items annoying instead of captivating.

I enjoyed the animations and visual aesthetic of the game. Gameplay was lacking and somewhat frustrating. Adding checkpoints or making the levels much quicker with speedy restarts like Super Meat Boy would make it far more enjoyable. Movement was too jerky and really needed an acceleration curve to be effective. Attacking was not satisfying at all. Making a blood sacrifice was a good choice, however. I could imagine having some fun with level design when you can't attack because you're dragging a body. However, we didn't get far enough to see that.

This was one of the better entries in the jam. The introduction with voice overs was well done and adequately creepy. It's just that the game ended abruptly. There was so much potential! Finding keys and opening doors is a tired trope in the horror genre, I should say. The graphics were well done and make up for this.

So, I can't actually play the game again to review it more thoroughly than when I did while recording the video. It's bugging out after I start the game. I remember that this game had some nice visuals and some good story telling (though considerably excessive). The goals in the game seemed a little drawn out. It's not my cup of tea, but I can appreciate that this is exactly what some folks are into.

I really liked the action of the hands extending and all the chaos you can create just stabbing stuff. We really couldn't figure out what to do, but in hindsight it's probably because I was too tired to see the solution. Anyway, fun little game with a lot of potential.

Having a chance to test the game again, I really feel your game had quite the cinematic opening with the music and animations. Very impressive what you achieved here with so little. Though, I have to say there is still a bit of non-uniform pixel sizes and you didn't give me enough game to really rate it well.

So here is my review while not under the pressure of finishing a video. I really get the feeling of a tortured artist here. Though it seems you didn't have time to complete this one, there is quite a bit of nuance to catch. For example, you had a working light system. The candles were animated and given an appropriate particle effect. You've drawn a lot of unique assets and created a character that matches the theme in a unique way. With some polish, this could be considered quite the art piece. You remind me of my style, but you're actually good and not a faker like me. I hope you're not discouraged from game design. You've made some memorable moments in past games for sure.

The inconsistent art styles really broke immersion for me. There was a lot of reading and this is not a format where I can enjoy it like I would with a real book. I suggest a more abbreviated story to complement this visual novel approach. Adding more choices, even if it only gives the illusion of choice, would keep me more engaged. Logical puzzles would be a lot of fun. Even roleplaying and just including the possibility of strategy would be helpful. A positive ending can only be valued when its weighed against the challenges it took to get there.

The aesthetic for this game is amazing. It really achieved the effect of a PS1 game. All you would have needed is poor texture mapping and it would have been indistinguishable to a game from that era. The jumping part of this game was bad. Maybe that's a callback to its roots, but I just felt it was worse than the dream sequences from Max Payne. Reloading is slow, and as a consequence the whole blood mechanic was tedious. I do appreciate that this was a rather unique take for this jam. Fully realized, it would have made for the perfect game.

This one was frustrating to me in that I wanted to see more of the game, but it's poorly balanced. A straight up fight a machine gun baddie is impossible. You're forced to cheese them around corners and that really robbed the joy of it all. It's a shame because it's quite a feat to complete an FPS for a jam. Of what I seen, your game didn't really capitalize on the theme. I like the box art that you created.

This one was actually one of my favorite games from the jam. There is quite a lot of polish, and I can see that the team behind this one is really talented. The gameplay with the cards actually left a little bit to be desired, but it was unique and fit with the theme. All the illustrations were beautiful and the cute little animations when you travel from space to space got me going good. Overall, a good game that takes awhile to find its pace.

We don't usually enjoy games like this that have a lot of reading. Nevertheless, it didn't feel excessive and you did include a lot of dialog options to keep us engaged. The animations were pretty good too. Surprisingly, my son really enjoyed your game. So, good job!

The inconsistent pixel size and zoomed in camera view make this game difficult to enjoy. The gameplay itself was not challenging and felt buggy. Z order of sprites and bounding boxes need to be considered for your next game. You did include key elements of the theme into your entry and you did ship a playable game, so kudos to you.

It's nice to have voice over in games. With the way this game was structured I really wished it was skippable though. I am forced to listen to it all over again when I die. Gameplay was not obvious to me and I really feel like it was not working as intended. The vampire inclusion felt a bit contrived. Despite that, I'm glad to see that someone attempted a FNAF type of game this time.

This game turned out well. I set a goal and achieved it rather well. My teammates were very agreeable, talented, and just as fast as I am. I actually consider it one of my best games. Nevertheless, the other comments do make some great points. I always talk about integrating tutorials and this game is lacking that greatly.

Per my son, "Story: there is no way of telling us what this game is about. And it's weird that it was so easy to kill dracula. I was going to be so happy to be doing stuff. I can't put that feeling back in the bottle. As you know, it's never scary. What a great way to end our play of the jam. Gameplay, presentation, creativity, theme, A+ All pretty good!"

Per my son, "Gameplay was amazing. Definitely a lot of cool stuff. Why would you put a holy grail into a bathroom? Why does he need it anyway? Story: I like the story plot. Presentation: The menu and the ending was pretty good as well. I like the voices. And the enemies are actually weaker when they start hugging you. The theme was amazing too. The horror: ahhgghhghghhhhhh gah gah gah oga booga wadalama bing bong."

Per my son, "Story: not good well there wasn't much story to begin with. Horror: not scary at all. Gameplay: pretty good! Presentation: I like it. Creativity: pretty good. I think it was creative to make a game like this. Theme: There was a lot of vampire things, but I don't really think vampires can really turn into mist. He is just a man that flys with little sparkles. But, still pretty good."

Per my son, "Horror and story: bad. But the way I would improve it, maybe you could tell us in the beginning of the game where we are and what we need to do. Why are we in the pit and why are there monsters. Theme, gameplay, creativity: overall pretty good! Presentation: we don't need to talk about that, okay?"

Per my son, "The story *raspberry*. The horror *raspberry*. The theme pretty good. Presentation *raspberry*. Creativity and gameplay, pretty good! I would improve the crystals. Those could literally be anything, not blood."

Per my son, "Creativity, not very good. Horror, not scary. Gameplay, presentation, both amazing! Theme: you followed the theme very well. You got bedonked, bro (I have no idea what he meant by this)."