itch.io

weird but cool

I’m really glad I could help 🙂

Also, your English is honestly funny in a good way, it adds charm, and most importantly, it’s totally understandable. That’s what really matters.

I knew you recorded the wind sounds with your own voice because you mentioned it under another post when I asked about it earlier 😄

And actually, it’s me who’s really looking forward to your next games!

The style is PHE NO ME NAL!

Visually, everything looks great and very cohesive. The music and sound design are also excellent, and the wind sounds recorded with a microphone are super funny part.

The dialogues are funny, the characters are nicely illustrated, and the world is presented really well.

From a gameplay perspective, there are a lot of cool ideas and interesting mechanics.

That said, gameplay wise the game is insanely difficult. From my own experience, when you balance a game by yourself, it’s easy to make it too hard because as the creator you know the mechanics inside out and practice them constantly while coding. It’s really worth having someone else test the game or making it a bit more forgiving, so players can experience the whole thing instead of giving up (like I did 😞).

The mechanics are explained through text. Personally, I love not reading text, skipping it, and then having no idea what’s going on. It would be great if the mechanics were explained more visually, for example with “Shift” written on a wall and an arrow pointing up near the green points.

I also got stuck once on the dialogues because I didn’t realize that Z skips them. That wasn’t obvious to me, since I don’t usually play games where skipping works that way.

I found one bug as well. If you slowly approach the edge where the camera changes position, you can step back after the camera switches, but the camera stays where it is. The player character is no longer visible, and it’s hard to tell what’s going on.

Overall, the game is fantastic. As a first game jam project, it’s almost perfect. The atmosphere is amazing and the game feels good to play. The only real downsides are that it’s too difficult and that it doesn’t communicate things to the player in an easy, intuitive way. Still, a great game!

Hey! I’d be happy to rate your game. I already tried to get into it, and the atmosphere is incredible.

Did you record the wind sounds yourself with a microphone and your own voice?

I only have one issue so far. The guy talking to us at the beginning gets stuck on “...”. I can’t skip it. I saw you mentioned using Space, but it doesn’t work for me. Do you know what I might be doing wrong?

Check out my game as well, and I’ll come back to yours as soon as you explain what’s going on with that guy, haha 🙂

https://itch.io/jam/brainless-mini-game-jam/rate/4187693

You definitely managed to capture the Seek & Destroy vibe.
The gameplay is simple.

Avoiding enemies was hard because you always shoot in the direction you’re moving.

In one of my runs, I flew somewhere far away and didn’t see any enemies for about a minute. Maybe they’re slower and I just outran them, but it made me feel a bit lost, like I wasn’t sure where I was going, why I was going there, and why nothing was happening.

It could be cool if we had to defend a specific point or objective.

The sound effects are really nice and do a great job of building the atmosphere.

Overall, a nice game.

Very polished game.

The idea behind the controls and movement is great. I didn’t like it for the first few seconds, but after a short while I got used to it and it started to feel good.

The game is really well made. Interesting levels, different enemy types, and interesting mechanics. All very solid.

Visually, the game looks great. The graphics are nice. The music could maybe use a bit more variety, though, as it feels like it loops in a very similar way.

The stone pushing puzzles were a bit unpleasant for me, mostly because the character’s movement speed made them harder than they needed to be.

The levels felt a bit too large. I often found myself wandering around and trying to figure out where to go. I’d either make the progression more linear (for example, always moving to the right after finishing a floor) or add a minimap.

On my first attempt, I got stuck behind the dragon statue, which was very frustrating. Having to restart the entire game because of something that wasn’t my fault felt really bad.

The atmosphere, the Pac-Man references, and the old-school game inspirations are flawless. Truly unique and very well done.

At times, the camera made me feel a bit dizzy. Something about its movement could probably be smoothed out, but that might just be me.

Overall, the idea is great and definitely worth further development. A very solid game.

Really nice game with a great idea.

I really like the fact that it’s not a classic turn based match 3, but instead happens in real time. It’s a fun and refreshing twist on the genre. The game is very well made overall.

I’m not usually a big fan of this genre, but I still found myself enjoying the experience. The real time aspect adds tension, which personally felt a bit stressful to me, but I can imagine it being exciting for players who enjoy more dynamic gameplay.

The variety of enemies is great, and each one has its own behavior, which keeps things interesting. The special blocks like bombs and the compass are also a lot of fun and add depth to the gameplay.

Overall, this is a well designed, enjoyable game with a lot of charm, and it’s honestly hard to find anything to complain about.

Thanks a lot, I really appreciate the feedback and the detailed info! I’m glad you liked the projectile combinations.

I’m actually surprised you felt the difficulty curve was too low. For the first ~40 seconds it definitely is, but after that I felt like it ramps up pretty fast. Based on my code, I honestly thought the game would become almost unplayable after around 6 minutes. The best player I tested it with usually died after about 4 minutes, so you must be some kind of keyboard god, haha.

Do you remember what high score you managed to get?

Give me a moment, I’ll upload a Linux build 🙂

Oh, got it! I didn’t realize there were alternative control options, that’s on me for not reading it properly, haha. In that case, all good 🙂

I still think WASD + Space would be great for one-handed play, but the current control scheme definitely makes more sense than I initially thought.
Your game is super fun!

Thanks a lot, I really appreciate the support! 😊

Super fun game!

It has a lot of strong points. The style is great, the visuals look really nice, and the sound effects are solid. Everything captures the retro vibe perfectly and fits the game jam theme really well.

The level design is very good. It teaches mechanics in a natural way without the need for a tutorial. For example, level 2 teaches you that you can wrap around the screen edges to the other side. The slow introduction of new enemies is excellent. It’s a simple game, but with each level something new happens, which made me want to keep discovering more.

The enemy variety is great. They look good, are well designed, and each one brings something unique to the gameplay. I really liked how enemies blink before shooting to warn the player.

Swallowing enemies and spitting them at others, and then watching enemies bounce off each other and eliminate themselves, was super satisfying.

The only downside I noticed was the control scheme. I really struggled playing with A, S, D for movement, X for shooting, and Z for jumping. I’d much prefer jump on W and shoot on Space, or jump on Space and shoot with the mouse or something similar. It felt very uncomfortable and hard on my fingers to control everything with one hand.

Overall, a super fun game that offers a lot of enjoyment and can be completed fairly quickly. An ideal game jam project!

Glad you liked it! I wasn’t sure about it at first since it’s not a classic button-based menu, so I’m happy it worked out the way it is 🙂

Thanks a lot for the review! I’m really glad you liked the idea with the changing controls and that the overall vibe worked for you 🙂

Thanks for the feedback, I’m really glad you appreciated the idea and the effort!

I’m a bit surprised that Unreal surprised you, to be honest. I always thought it was one of the most loved engines out there, but I guess I might be living in a bit of a bubble, haha.

Thanks again for taking the time to play and leave a review!

Thanks a lot for the quality review and for the ideas on how to improve the concept. The idea of collecting points around the map is great and will most likely be added if I continue developing the project. I experienced the same monotony myself at the early stage, just waiting in the center of the screen, and simply increasing the difficulty didn’t feel like the right solution. Your suggestion actually solves that problem really well.

Showing the score during gameplay does make a lot of sense. I was worried that it might hurt the clean, simple look of the game, and even more that it could interfere with visibility, especially with enemies spawning from the top of the screen. Still, I think it’s probably worth sacrificing a bit of visual simplicity so players can clearly see their score.

I’m thinking about expanding this idea in the future and possibly turning it into a game focused on learning keyboard typing. If you have any more ideas, feel free to share them. I really like your approach and feedback.

Thanks again for the great review!

I’m really glad you appreciated the idea. It was the most important part of the game for me, so it means a lot that it stood out to you.

Visually, I intentionally kept things simple so players could focus on the gameplay rather than the presentation. I also wanted to use only assets and features available directly in the engine, and I managed to stick to that approach, with the exception of the music.

As for the gameplay, I agree that there are definitely a few things that could be improved.

Thanks a lot for taking the time to play the game and for leaving a quality review!

Very cool game with a really nice idea.

I’m impressed that you managed to make a solid 3D game that runs well in the browser. The concept of having to fly a plane while playing at the same time feels fresh and interesting. Gameplay-wise, it reminded me a bit of Five Nights at Freddy’s, obviously not in a scary way and overall very different, but that multitasking tension felt similar.

I saw some people complaining about the lack of a tutorial, but I personally didn’t feel that was an issue. I managed to pick up the controls pretty quickly.

One thing I really didn’t like is that you can’t control the Pong paddle with A and D. Switching between the mouse and the arrow keys feels awkward, especially since both are usually used with the right hand. To me, that feels like a poor design decision.

I’m also not a big fan of how the game connects to the jam theme. Yes, it’s Pong, but flying a plane at the same time doesn’t feel “simple” at all, haha.

The idea itself is great and definitely worth developing further.

The thumbnail and the title encouraged me to click.

I expected a simple game, and that’s exactly what I got.

The spider twist is a nice touch. It’s great to see something added to the classic Snake formula.

I’m playing on a 2K monitor and I’m getting gray borders. It’s a shame the game doesn’t scale and seems to be hardcoded to 1920x1080.

The sounds are okay.

The visuals are simple.

It would be nice if the game remembered your high score.

Overall, a classic Snake with a nice twist.

Simple game. I like the idea, but I don’t think it was executed in the best way. Maybe if the aiming reticle for the ball rotated more slowly, you’d feel like you have more control over how the ball moves.

The sounds are nice, and the visuals are simple but sufficient.

The “Next level” button didn’t work for me.

Overall, a nice project. Since this was your first game jam, the next ones will only get better. Looking forward to them!

Nice mini-game.

The atmosphere is great. The background looks nice, and the fact that the on-screen buttons are pressed in sync with the keys on the keyboard adds a lot of charm and really shows that the creator paid attention to small details.

The music and sound effects fit the vibe well and are pleasant to listen to.

The gameplay is simple, and it’s probably meant to be that way. Personally, though, I felt like something was missing. For me, gameplay is the most important part of a game, and here it wasn’t the strongest element.

The thumbnail looks really nice. It’s what made me click and try the game, and I don’t regret it.

Overall, a very solid game with a unique, hard-to-replicate atmosphere.

Simple game, but extremely hard.

I feel like the developer might have overdone the difficulty. While developing the game, you naturally learn the mechanics, so it probably feels manageable to you. But for a new player who’s not familiar with it, the game is brutally difficult. My best score was 173.

It would be much nicer if the difficulty ramped up the longer you play, instead of being super hard right from the start, which often results in runs lasting only a few seconds.

The idea itself is good and the game feels nice to play. The visual presentation is great. The game looks really good, the menu feels complete and polished, and everything comes across as very professional. The music and sound effects are also a big plus, and the overall atmosphere works really well.

I’m missing a way for the game to remember my high score. With frequent restarts, it’s hard to keep track of your best run unless you actively write it down or remember it.

I really appreciate the thumbnail artwork. It caught my attention, and that’s the reason I decided to play the game in the first place. It really stood out from the crowd.

Overall, a solid mini-game with very good polish, but simply too difficult.

Super funny idea for a game. I like that you’re tapping into current trends, that’s definitely appreciated. I actually played it because the theme is trendy.

The vibe is epic. The emojis that pop up during streaks, the music, and the glittery visuals all work great together.

The game itself is quite simple, but that clearly seems intentional, so that’s totally fine.

Now let’s talk about the negatives I found:
The background appears as a white-gray checkerboard. I’m not sure if that’s intentional, but it looks like a missing texture. If it’s meant to look like that, then it doesn’t really work.

When the streak reaches double digits (10 and above), it stops displaying in the correct position.

There’s also a glitch that allows you to earn points for free. By making a very small mouse movement, the bottle slightly jumps and counts as a point even though it didn’t actually flip.

In the end, it’s a funny idea that’s fun to check out and fits the trends well. You absolutely nailed the overall vibe.

Hey, check out my game! I know having to download it can be a downside, but I promise there’s an interesting twist and a high level of polish.
I’m mainly interested in honest, critical feedback, not in praise, haha.

https://itch.io/jam/brainless-mini-game-jam/rate/4187693

Hey, check out my game! I know having to download it can be a downside, but I promise there’s an interesting twist and a high level of polish. https://itch.io/jam/brainless-mini-game-jam/rate/4187693

Hey! I rated your game and tried to give the most detailed feedback I could.

I’d really appreciate it if you checked out and rated mine as well. I know having to download it can be a downside, but I promise a cool twist in the controls and a high level of polish.

https://itch.io/jam/brainless-mini-game-jam/rate/4187693

Very funny game.

The physics and upgrades are super fun, and the look of the player and enemies adds a lot of grotesque charm. The stones that block the sword are a nice touch, and the chunky enemy doing clumsy dashes is the second to last cherry on top. The thing that really stole my heart and added the most fun was the upgrade that makes the ball bounce around the screen. Very creative take on the theme.

The upgrades motivate you to keep playing, and the introduction of new enemies does as well. I just wish the progression was a bit faster. There were moments when I was already getting bored and only then a new enemy appeared. I’d probably introduce all enemies one round earlier.

The visual side is where the game struggles the most. The player and enemies are fine, but the background feels boring and I wish more was happening there. What’s the road in the middle for? I was missing a car driving by that could potentially run you over.

It’s a cool idea that’s definitely worth expanding with new levels, new enemies, and more upgrades, though of course I know game jam time is limited.

One more piece of advice would be about presentation. I’d rework the screenshots, add some text, and try to make them more clickbaity. The idea itself is interesting, but nothing really hints at that on the game page. You don’t feel like clicking at first, but once you do, you’re positively surprised.

Solid work!

Hey, check out my game!
I know having to download it can be a downside, but I promise there’s an interesting twist and a high level of polish.

Great game!

The game is so relaxing that when I launched it for the first time and closed my eyes for a moment while listening to the music, I woke up an hour later. Normally, someone falling asleep while playing your game wouldn’t be a good thing, but in this case I think it’s actually a plus, haha.

The music creator did an amazing job.
The artist who made the backgrounds is a genius as well. They are absolutely beautiful. The fishing rod also looks very nice.

The buttons, HUD, and the fishing animation could be a bit nicer visually.

Something feels off with the balance. After the first day, I managed to buy a multiplier of 75735.0 and upgrade the fishing rod to level 3, which resulted in earning massive amounts of points. After the following days, however, I couldn’t afford any upgrades in the shop at all.

If I had to nitpick one more thing, it would be the sound of pulling the line. It would be nice if it played when I actually click, instead of always starting from the beginning of the animation, but that’s a very minor detail.

Overall, this is a super chill game. I love the atmosphere you managed to achieve. It’s one of the more interesting vibes I’ve seen at this game jam, and it’s also nice to see a relaxing fishing game, which really stands out among the other entries. Once again, I’m genuinely impressed and looking forward to your next games.

Thanks a lot for playing! With games that have to be downloaded, it’s always extra nice knowing someone took the time to do it, so I really appreciate that. Thanks for the kind words 🙂

Also, wow until now only one person had beaten my high score, and I tried many times myself without success. Do you remember what score you got? There’s a chance you might actually be the current world record holder in my game 😮

Logic games are always a win in my book!

The core idea is nice. It’s not super original, but it’s enjoyable.

The puzzles could be a bit more developed and complex. Puzzles were enjoyable, and with more development time I’m sure the difficulty on next levles would naturally progress. I also appreciate that the difficulty wasn’t pushed too far. A lot of game jam games end up being overly hard because the developer learns the controls while programming, which often leads to difficulty being overtuned for new players.

The dialogues really irritated me. There is technically a skip option, but you can only press it once the whole dialogue finishes loading. In a simple puzzle game, the story didn’t really interest me, so I just wanted to skip it. Waiting a few seconds once wouldn’t be a big deal, but when you restart a level and have to wait again for the same dialogue, it feels like forever.

Next time, I’d suggest allowing skipping from the very beginning and not showing the same dialogue again after restarting a level.

The projectiles could also move a bit faster, so restarts feel less annoying.

Visually, the game isn’t anything special, but for this type of game it doesn’t really hurt. The music is fine.

The hardest logic puzzle in the game was actually the menu. I clicked “Play” and nothing happened. Then I clicked “Click me” and some options appeared that I wasn’t interested in. After a while, I realized that you’re supposed to click the cannon and make it shoot, which is a cool idea, but poorly executed. The whole menu screen is hard to read because the cannon is brown and there are the brown dots everywhere (which turned out to be houses), whats more there are a lot of random elements that make it difficult to clearly understand what’s happening on screen.

Overall, it was nice to see a different approach, especially since I hadn’t seen a puzzle game at this game jam before. The idea definitely has potential for further development, and I’m looking forward to more puzzle games from you in the future!

I have a hard time rating this game. On one hand, it’s extremely frustrating. On the other, the ability to buy extra time using hourglasses encourages you to try again and again.

At some point you want to stop playing because the cost of buying more time becomes too high, but then you’re already close to reaching the second stage and you get curious about what comes next.

Unfortunately, the difference in controls between the first and second stage, combined with the lack of time to adapt, made me give up. That’s a shame, because I think many players might quit at this point, and since it’s a game jam game, it would be nice if more people could fully appreciate the work that went into it. A possible solution could be a checkpoint after the first stage.

I also have mixed feelings about the visuals. The pseudo realistic, ugly models are kind of awful, but at the same time they add a weird, funny charm. I honestly can’t tell whether this effect is intentional or not.

The text animation that plays after death also bothered me. I know it only lasts a second, but I really just want to skip it and jump straight back into the game.

I also thought it could be interesting if the obstacles were placed randomly, but at this difficulty level, learning the pattern is clearly part of the game, and it probably wouldn’t work without that.

What’s surprising is that the overall effect is still positively addictive. It doesn’t feel like an intentional psychological trick by the developer, but rather the result of many small elements coming together. Somehow, it works really well.

I’m honestly impressed that this is your first game and it turned out so well. It’s a simple concept, but very well executed.

The game feels really good to play. Just two buttons, yet a lot of fun. A nice, skill-based arcade game.

It also looks great. The visuals fit the game jam theme perfectly, and the music is well chosen and matches the vibe really nicely.

The red block is funny in a cruel way. I’m already happy that I managed to land somewhere, and then it kills me. It really messes with your head in a fun way.

The game reminds me a lot of the kind of mobile games I used to play, where the goal is to score as many points as possible and then restart. Since it only uses left and right controls, it feels like it would be perfect for mobile.

I’m waiting for the phone version haha and looking forward to your next projects 😉

Strong visuals and a unique style.
The music is great, and the camera angle is unusual but works really well. Enemies have nice, enjoyable animations, and I like that they’re based on simple shapes. It fits the game jam theme perfectly.

The gameplay is simple, but combined with the atmosphere it feels like it has real potential for further development into a full post game jam game. Personally, I could even imagine it as a roguelite, but that’s probably just because I’m a fan of that genre.

The special abilities feel like they have very little impact on the gameplay, and it’s not always clear what they actually do.

Special mention goes to the menu. Breaking the fourth wall there is hilarious. The different visual style compared to the main game works really well, and clicking the buttons is oddly fun.

I found a small visual bug that doesn’t affect gameplay. When I shoot downward, the projectiles come back from the top as if they were coming from my camera. I’ll link a short video once I upload it:

Overall, a very solid game with one of the most unique visual styles I’ve seen so far at this game jam. Really enjoyable.

Edit 1: P.S. 
There’s a fullscreen issue. The blue Unity button works, but the Itch.io fullscreen button overlaps it and doesn’t work properly. Disabling the Itch.io fullscreen option could probably fix it. Cheers!

I completely fell in love with the atmosphere of this game, the sounds of insects, water, fire, and birds create a super chill vibe. It kind of contrasts with the intentionally frustrating gameplay, haha.

I really like the visual effect applied to the camera.
The comedic aspect with the signs is also great.

This is clearly a game that’s meant to be frustrating, and it does that well. I get that the goal is probably to learn how to operate in this environment, but there isn’t much motivation to push through. I wish the game was a bit more forgiving at the beginning.

There’s a problem I’ve noticed in my own games before: as a game dev, while programming mechanics, you learn them deeply and understand them perfectly from the ground up. Then someone else plays the game and gets hit with a reality check. It’s definitely worth having other people test the balance.

As for the ragdoll, the camera and hand controls irritated me a bit something felt imprecise. I can’t really describe it well, and I know it was partly intentional. Gang Beasts handled this really well and I had a lot of fun with it; here it worked a bit worse for me.

Overall, nice game  especially considering it was made under stress between three exams, haha.

Banger

Nice game. I really like switching eras between levels, and it’s great that we get different weapons and abilities on different levels.

Enemies don’t differ that much from each other, and the boss on the first and third level feels pretty much the same mechanically. The boss on the second level, though, is great.

There were two gameplay things I didn’t like. First, enemy bodyblocking, when a few enemies surround you from different sides, there’s basically no way to escape. I’d probably remove player blocking by them entirely.

Second, when boss #2 pushes you while you’re against a wall, it feels like you lose control, as if the push vector keeps pulling you while the wall blocks movement (that’s how I’d diagnose it). That didn’t feel good either.

I saw some people complaining in the comments about the screen shake on the first level, but I actually liked it.

Overall, a solid game.

I love the idea of switching between 32, 16 and 2 bits.

I love the music and visuals...
Maybe I would change two things: in level 3, I would rotate the player towards the mouse cursor and rotate enemies to show where they will shoot. In level 1 I would change colors so enemies, the player and projectiles would be distinguishable. I’m rating the presentation 5/5, so don’t worry. I understand that you might not want to add these changes in order to stay as accurate to the original style as possible.

Man, this game was irritating at some points. I felt frustrated in level 1 because everything blended together. Level 2 was too hard. It would be nice if checkpoints were at every sub-level, instead of having to repeat the entire bit era every time the boss kills me — especially when I don’t like that era.

Connection to the theme, presentation and creativity are your strong side.

P.S.
I think your request to finish the game before rating is too much. Rage-quitting or stopping a game you don’t enjoy at a certain moment is completely natural, and as a game developer, you shouldn’t push players into these decisions.

I think you could design the game backwards, so it becomes simpler over time and shows your best skills at the beginning. That way, everyone might be happier.

Thanks for playing! 🙌
Do you have any tips on what I could improve next time, or anything you didn’t really like?

Fun game! The controls feel really nice and responsive, and everything looks great.

The concept is simple, but it’s executed really well