itch.io

Glad you stumbled upon it and are enjoying!

Wow, I did not expect that. Honored to snag 2nd place amidst a host of great entries! Thanks for all your work organizing the jam, and thanks to all the judges who took time to play through these entries - not a small feat!

Simple but effective! I was definitely engaged to see where the story was going (and the multiple endings function works well). I think the rooms between the sneaking sections might benefit from more of the story/memories unfolding, rather than the exposition at the end(at least I assume it was an actual end since credits rolled). The gameplay itself was a bit less exciting, sneaking was straightforward enough and works, but a bit repetitive. Overall, definitely interesting conceptually (and impressively made given the time crunch)!
n.b. the excession save files in the browser version (did I miss a big twist? or were those just left in by accident?)

Thank you! Your video highlights that I need to clarify how the dice rolls work (e.g. the goal and challenge are separate options often mutually exclusive, all vs. each die, etc.), as well as polish some of the dialogue choices. Very helpful to see what what was confusing. Very much appreciate the comments/video.
I'm not very active on discord, but I'll definitely check it out, thanks for the invite!

yeah it was the older one, glad to hear it's fixed!

Thank you for the thorough comments, all feedback can be helpful, but I'll admit it's always more pleasant to get positive feedback. Glad this resonated so much with you. It's definitely the most personal project I've made, and a bit niche in narrative, so wasn't sure how that would work out.  I've been lurking in a bunch of your streams, but missed this one, so I'm happy to see the VOD. There's definitely some polish to apply still (and so many typos to fix -- I am a terrible proofreader), so this feedback and the video are extremely helpful.

And yes, I made all the graphics for this. A few pieces, I modified/referenced from existing tiles I had previously made for past projects. I've never worked in grayscale before this, so that was an interesting challenge figuring out how to work without color(mostly) and hopefully convey what objects were (also it's a janky tile set made up of just A5 and B layers...). Had a ton of fun working on this, but it was grueling, so I'm excited to sit back for a bit and see/play a bunch of the other games folks put together. Some stiff competition! 

Thanks for judging!

Thanks for the excellent write-up. On the record, I can neither confirm nor deny that there is a message to this game. Off the record, yeah, not subtle! Loved reading about the other games too; nice to be reminded that there are still places outside the corporate internet where people are writing! Look forward to digging around further there. Check it out folks!

A cute, fun game with a slightly unexpected twist. I had fun with this, even though there's not a ton to do. And so I put together a 15-minute first impression video, with some additional notes on a few bugs I encountered (or maybe they were intentional?!), should that seem helpful:
https://youtu.be/4SNBb_Q1xhU?t=2065

I didn't play a ton of this, but I think the basic tactics rpg mechanics work well. I dig the art style (although the actual gameboard was a bit illegible, as other have mentioned). The music didn't work for me, especially with the repetitive nature of it. Intriguing overall, nice work!

If you want additional comments, I put together a 15-minute first impressions video of my time:
https://youtu.be/4SNBb_Q1xhU?t=1009

I love the atmosphere and art in this game, and I think the music works pretty well (although a little repetitive as it goes on). The story was a bit opaque, which works to a point, but I ultimately got stuck after getting into the staff room and couldn't really figure out what to do (nor was I ever entirely clear what my aim was). Overall, I still enjoyed this, and it's particularly impressive as a first game!

I made a video with my first 15-minute impressions of it, should you want more commentary:
https://youtu.be/4SNBb_Q1xhU?t=3010

Really enjoyed this and got most of the endings. As others mentioned below, the scene select screen was bugged in the version I played, so it made it difficult to get all the endings, but still had a great time with this.
Here's some video of my first 15-minute impression, should you want more commentary:
https://youtu.be/4SNBb_Q1xhU

Amazing art and atmosphere! It was a pleasure to just walk around and take it in. The positives of this game are pretty obvious, but I'll offer a few critiques, in case you decide to develop this further (and I think you should):

Minor things you probably just ran out of time on: Some sort of ambience/music during battle (it seemed a little silent); at least one of the combats used default assets, which really stuck out compared to the beautiful hand-drawn art; the black orb doesn't seem to do anything?

Thanks for playing/reviewing! Yeah, I'm not sure this has the broadest audience appeal, and definitely a fair amount of RNG - it might need a bit more tweaking with how various items can influence rolls to help reduce this. Appreciate the feedback!

Yeah, that looks like the case. Thanks for sharing (and playing)!

Congrats winners! Loved Ouroboros, so glad to see it got all the recognition it deserves!

Thanks for judging! Great thorough feedback, definitely like the idea of simplifying the switch mechanics. I'm still not sure why I decided to make a puzzle game, because I don't usually like playing them myself haha. But I'll definitely come back to this post if I decide to revise this after the jam.

Thanks for judging! And I appreciate the feedback!

Thanks, good feedback! if I make any revisions post jam I'll come back to this!

Ha, I completely missed that. Good to know!

Nice puzzle game! Here's a first impression video if you want more comments, and can suffer watching me struggle embarrassingly hard with the first bridge puzzle: https://youtu.be/J1bVm9xyxJo?t=2735

Very cool game, I'm particularly impressed by the time mechanic. Here's a first impression if you want more comments: https://youtu.be/J1bVm9xyxJo?t=1566

Good start here! I made more comments in this first impression playthrough, although I didn't get very far... if you want to watch:
https://youtu.be/J1bVm9xyxJo?t=761

Very cool little game. Here's a first impression playthrough (apologies for the clunking noises in the background... my upstairs neighbor decided to have a dance party or something...) : https://youtu.be/J1bVm9xyxJo

Good parody! I made a first impressions if you want some rambling comments: https://youtu.be/9B0oTw-x41Y?t=3102

Great entry, really enjoyed this one. I recorded some first impressions if you want further review: https://youtu.be/9B0oTw-x41Y?t=1013

Solid game here! I made a first impression video if you want further comments: https://youtu.be/9B0oTw-x41Y?t=2060

Good effort! Needs some polish still, but a lot of good concepts. Here's a first impression video if you want further comments: https://youtu.be/9B0oTw-x41Y

Appreciate you giving it a go, and thanks for the review! Ironically, I don't really like puzzle games myself, so I'm not sure why I made that my core mechanic... I'm glad they didn't end up being too frustrating/difficult. I'm also happy to hear that their was some emotional payoff to the story! Thanks again for playing!

Beautiful work! I recorded first impressions playing if you want more comments: https://youtu.be/nan4TdbjLNY?t=1936

Intriguing entry! I made a first impression video playing the start of this if you want to check it out: https://youtu.be/nan4TdbjLNY?t=2860

Fantastic work ! I made a first impression video playing the start if you want to check it out, but I'm looking forward to finishing this one: https://youtu.be/nan4TdbjLNY?t=887

Nice work, Caz! I made a first impression video playing it, if you want to check it out: 

One of the things that is great about these competitions is getting feedback, so I'd be glad to get some on https://rubescen.itch.io/rejuvenationspa (puzzle/light action). I'm also running through games, making first impressions videos. So having a list of people who want review is nice (otherwise I just pick ones that look interesting to me), so I'll reference this too! Good topic, thanks! :D

Thanks for playing/reviewing - was fun watching you go through the puzzles!

This is a good recommendation. I just thought I'd add a couple links on the topic I've recently been looking at,  since I've been thinking about this for the game I'm working on too:

https://caniplaythat.com/2020/12/09/its-next-gen-and-flashing-effects-are-still-...

https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/Accessibility/Seizure_disorders

Hey, sorry it didn't work for you. Thanks for letting me know. I don't have access to chrome os, but I'm not sure why that would cause it, since it should run in the chrome browser. I'll take a look and see if I can find a solution.

Maiden can be pretty tough! As you probably noticed, the trunk heals her while it's active, taking that out first then burning her down before it recovers was my go to playtesting strat. Alternatively, you could try exploring some other areas to get some buffs and then head back. If you mostly avoided fighting getting to her, she'll be rougher. Thanks for playing!

Thanks for the feedback and judging!

Thanks for playing. The first boss is definitely a bit of a gate check. I am planning to tweak the success/failure formula significantly to feel less random, since getting constant negative results is frustrating (I also saw a playthrough, were they kept getting all successes, so a bit too much RNG). There are other items that will cure each status effect, and they should drop pretty regularly from monsters who deal it, but again RNG, so I'll look into that. Money is pretty slow coming early on, and I think I should just have all traders allow you to sell, since it's mostly just annoying to find a trader and not have enough to purchase anything.
In any case, thanks for the feedback!