Mysterious!
Sam Gorman
Creator of
Recent community posts
Really cute little puzzle platformer! The puzzles weren’t too hard, but they didn’t feel basic, either. I think you could get a lot more puzzles out of these mechanics - they’re simple, but work really well. I think the best part is the “two block rule”, which leads to some really interesting thought processes. “I can’t break both these blocks yet, because then I’ll be normal temperature and the spikes will come up…” You taught all the mechanics intelligently using level design, too, which was nice.
Nice work! I think this is my last game this year…
The art is beautiful and really adorable. So was the story! That intro animation was one of the best things I’ve seen this jam, I just loved it. It felt very storybook. (For some reason it reminded me of the storybook parts in Mario Galaxy.)
I didn’t really get a lot out of the gameplay though. I was just kind of moving through a maze, and I kept dying because the enemies were packed really tight. Then when I got to the stars, I couldn’t do anything! I hoped there would be RPG battles based on the description, or at least some more involved navigation.
Great job. I wish I could’ve seen the ending, the intro was gorgeous!
This is really fun - I might play some more after the jam when I have more time! The graphics and music are delightful and very Pikmin-esque. I also like the variety of tasks your Litterlings can do, which adds a lot of strategy to the game. It’s all super relaxing!
For some reason the game seemed really zoomed in to me, so I couldn’t see all the menus, which made it hard to play :( It’s probably just my computer, although I did try lots of resolutions.
Great work!
Awesome to see another music-based game in the jam! There’s a neat ebb-and-flow to the gameplay trying to weave between rocks in time with the music. It was fun trying to get my special move (not sure what it’s called) on the beat too. I also really enjoyed the collage aesthetic, and the music was super chill while still providing a strong beat.
I did find some of the hitboxes and timings a bit mean - you can only just make it through some on time, and some are really pixel-perfect. There also don’t seem to be any invincibility frames after getting hit, so you can take damage what looks like every frame - several times I lost all of me health on one wall in about half a second. I think adding those would make the game a lot more enjoyable!
Nice work overall!
The polish on this game in incredible. It looks great, and the storytelling and worldbuilding is really fun and effective. I love trying to decide for myself what I would do in this silly case before considering how to keep people happy. Feels just like being a corrupt judge, haha.
I ended up failing around day 10 because the peasants kept going down, while the other two were stuck at 100. I think that early on I slightly tipped the scales, and since the reputation system looks at everything at once, it just kept lowering the peasants even though I wasn’t doing anything to them. It was also difficult to fix because none of the cases changed stats by enough to do anything either way. (There also seems to be a bug where the wrong verdict can be selected)
But overall the game was still an awesome experience and one of the best narrative-driven games I’ve played. Nice work!
I didn’t have time to figure out the last level :( That one is so hard!
This game is great though! Super polished take on a block puzzler that reminds me a lot of Baba Is You. The puzzles are simple but deep, and the addition of the blue cube adds a lot of complexity. The level design is fine-tuned, especially for a game jam, and the aesthetic is clean. A great brain-teaser!
I just wish there was more!
The presentation on this game in incredible! The comics are super well drawn and full of character, and the puzzles look excellent too. The ancient Greek inspired music was a nice touch, too!
The puzzles themselves were fun, but I didn’t feel they brought much new to the table. I would’ve enjoyed some more unique mechanics that made them stand out from other games. Thankfully the delightful visuals, music, and story made it enjoyable anyway!
Great work!
I’m holding off on rating this game because I feel like my download isn’t working. I started off with 50 of all the ingredients I needed so I just did the first meal. After that I fought the giant angler thinking it would give me an angler fillet, but I just got a shark steak, which I started with 50 of. The game just let me cook the meal anyway with no ingredients. I couldn’t get them anyway because other than the boss there was nothing else in the world, which felt really odd. I stopped playing then because I didn’t think I was having the experience you intended.
It looks super cool though! Please let me know if I’m doing something wrong!
The aesthetic and atmosphere are really cool in this game! I like the sense of scale you were going for as well as the “ethereal” feel. Nice to see a tutorial as well, most game jam games don’t have that.
The actual gameplay didn’t really work for me. The random generation isn’t great at making fun levels, and there wasn’t too much platforming to be done other than navigating through the maze to the end. The game was also really laggy (I think because of all the cubes) and it was hard to tell what was happening most of the time :(
Good work overall!
This is a super cool take on a collectathon 3D platformer. The physics-based gameplay is awesome and leads to some really cool tricks. It’s just fun to play around in. Plus the world was huge, varied, and had a crazy sense of verticality to it. There were lots of cool moments and discoveries I made, like launches out of pipes or the giant halfpipe in the back. The game has a neat atmosphere to it as well!
I would say the character was maybe a bit too slippery, and there wasn’t any air control. This meant it was very hard to recover from mistakes, and big jumps and narrow paths were super challenging. But I still had fun and got pretty good at it.
Amazing work! Wish you had more ratings!
The beach photos as visuals were a neat idea, and the game had a nice calming atmosphere. I got through a bunch of the puzzles, but mostly through sheer luck - I had no clue what was going on mechanically. There was no consistency to how my actions affected the level and the only way to progress was literally clicking on every square in the level until something happened.
Good work though! I think I could enjoy it more if I knew how it worked.
I love the calming experience this game provides. It’s really meditative building all these towers to classical music, and the aesthetic + inspiration are really unique and charming as well. I felt like I could keep going for hours!
The points system worked really well, although I’m still a bit confused by finishing towers - there were a lot of numbers, but I didn’t know what the game considered a “tower” or not. It seemed that I could place multiple roofs on one building. I also found myself wishing there was a little more exploration of the physics idea.
Nice work!
Super sleek game. The visuals and ambient SFX build an awesome atmosphere, and there was some great gameplay here about trying to remember what I’d seen before. The opening and closing windows helped a lot with that. The story was minimal, but it got me wondering about what these people are suspected of, or where this pandemic came from. I’m a sucker for detective and mystery games, so I knew I had to play this when I saw it, and it didn’t disappoint! Such a unique and mysterious little game.
I loved the detective gameplay, although I had to guess a bit at the end - there seemed to be two men in black who could be person B. (Also, how does person A smell like smoke if the smoker is in another building?) As much as I enjoyed the minimalist story, I also would’ve really liked a little bit more of a mystery to solve.
This is a great little experience and had a really unique vibe. The mysterious and quiet atmosphere was the standout to me. Nice work!
This is a really cool take on a collectathon! It’s really neat how the collectables themselves affect your abilities. The stack-jumping ability reminded me a lot of Unbox, if you’ve played that game. This is super ambitious for a game jam too. I liked all the different areas and especially the optional newspaper stories revealing some funny story details. There was also a great sense of progression slowly getting higher in the city and finally scaling the massive building.
I think the platforming itself could’ve been a bit more interesting. There weren’t really any hazards, and there wasn’t any point where I felt challenged. Besides, with lots of staccoons pretty much everything could be skipped anyway. The camera also felt really janky to me - I think it was a bit too zoomed out, and it was super sensitive. It also kept getting stuck behind walls.
Overall though, excellent work! Very impressive for a game jam - I don’t see a lot of open world games!
This game is so cute! The animals are all delightful and I loved the story. The ending was adorable. I enjoyed just how lively the ocean felt with all these characters - I felt kind of guilty gobbling them up!
I thought the gameplay worked well for a short relaxing experience, but there wasn’t a lot to sink my teeth into. I would’ve liked some more in-depth ways to interact with the sea animals, and maybe a bit more of a challenge.
Nice work!
This game is top tier! I love the gameplay loop and how varied it is. Fishing minigames can often be boring but you made it into an action segment really revitalized it. The scaling sections were also deceptively challenging! My favourite part was unlocking new upgrades and getting to explore the ocean more and scale the fish a lot more easily. The aesthetics were also delightful - I loved the little characters, and the big fish were really impressive spritework!
My only minor critique is that the fishing hook has a really wide turning radius, which can make it hard to catch the fish, especially early on when you have very little time in the water. Maybe elt you turn faster or lock on to the fish?
Either way, great work! This game was really addictive.
The concept is really funny and I loved the intro cutscene. There was also some great pixel art and some solid gameplay! I found pushing the trash around a little frustrating though, since it was so slippery, and it kept getting stuck in corners. Some of them also seemed to spawn inside walls. I also think the game was just a little bit lacking in gameplay depth.
There’s a lot of potential here, and the game made me smile. Good work!
First off, I love the Weakening Cycle and the music, which was excellent and super unique for a video game. I also like the idea of building up your attacks, kind of like a deck builder, and playing little songs for each one was really fun.
Unfortunately, other than picking spells, there wasn’t really a lot to do but choose the one that would do the most damage and wait. Oftentimes I died before I could heal because I simply couldn’t do enough damage in time, and there was nothing I could do. I think it could really use some other mechanics - maybe items you could use, or a way to block attacks - to keep the player engaged. Another note is that there was a huge amount of UI on the screen, and it felt really cluttered. I would suggest trying to clean it up and only show what is necessary!
Overall, a really unique entry. Nice work!
The intro is amazing, I’m always impressed by full-screen art! The game is pretty fun too, it’s like a new take on Angry Birds. It was fun getting to totally wreck the giant ship, and I liked that the planets merged together as well.
I did feel like the game was missing a bit of depth - it really is just launching planets until the ship is destroyed. It could also be a bit frustrating because I couldn’t see the ship while I was firing and kept going too high or low. A zoomed-out view could help, as well as maybe some enemies or more interesting hazards to avoid!
Nice work!
That makes a lot of sense! I don’t recall an ending cutscene, but that definitely would’ve tied everything together.
The nonsensical Wonderland thing could totally work! I like the idea of progressing through a series of unique puzzles. After all, the original Alice in Wonderland doesn’t have much of an overarching story at all, and it’s a classic. All it would really need is some sort of through-line to tie a bow on the experience :)
First off, awesome visuals here! The models, animations, and effects are all superb. This is also just a really fun physics simulation to play around in. It’s super fun to see the pinball bounce around orbit wrecking everything. I’d love a more robust score system, or maybe some other solar systems with some more “pinball” like mechanics!
It was sometimes kind of hard to actually get the planets into the sun though, and I ended up picking a lot of them off one by one. I think it could be a lot more satisfying if your hits had more knockback and the planets could ricochet off of one another. The rockets also got a bit irritating by the end.
Overall though, really nice work! Awesome juice in this one.
This is a really in-depth puzzler! The mechanics are simple and work together nicely, and the level design was really impressive for a game jam. I really had to think creatively on a few of them. Nice graphics too! The only real critique I have is that it could sometimes get a bit tedious waiting for the vine to grow, but it wasn’t too bad. Really nice work!
*Note: The game window seemed to be slightly zoomed in, which clipped off the edges of levels and text on the menu. Nothing I did on Windows seemed to work, so it could be the game? Might be worth looking into.
This game was so chill! It looks and plays like a picture book and it’s just delightful. Everything about the game works together so well to create a tiny world that I wish I could live in. The gameplay was super unique too - it’s like an evolution of an I Spy book. I liked that what each sense revealed made logical sense, and I found myself trying to remember what I’d seen before and what sense I used to see it.
I just wish it were longer! I finished the whole thing in a few minutes :( This one level looks like it took a long time to put together, but I would absolutely love a few more environments to explore. If there’s ever a post-jam update I would love to play it.
Really lovely looking game! The first room in particular was really striking when I first opened the game. The colours and surrealism and animals created a very unique atmosphere. (There was so much going on that I had some pretty bad performance issues at first… I figured it out though!) I really enjoyed the Alice in Wonderland-esque setting and the cute characters. As a musician the music puzzle tickled me as well, although I imagine it could have been very difficult for some people.
I do think the game is a bit unfocused. It has so many mechanics - a piano, platforming, solving a maze, upgrades from the witch, etc. - but none of them really go anywhere, and they don’t work together. I think you could make a really neat puzzler about helping a witch in a magical forest, but I think you would need to decide on a vision for what you want the game to be.
Good work overall though! I’m always impressed by nice 3D graphics in a jam.
I love the art and sound design, and it is incredibly cool that you made a full level editor within the jam! The whole game is very clean and polished, and it has this lovely peaceful feeling to it, especially with the lighting effects.
I really like the idea of using light to interact with moths as well. Unfortunately the moths never seemed to go where I wanted, and I felt like I was fighting the game at some points. I wish I could’ve played more, but I got completely stuck at the first shard. I simply couldn’t make the jump no matter what size the blocks were. The tutorial sign said to roar, but all that seemed to do was reset the blocks, which didn’t help any. I think you have the bones of some great gameplay here, but it needs to be a little easier to control and a little better explained.
Impressive work overall!
The concept of this game is so funny, and the little goblins in the menu are adorable!
There’s a really nice core gameplay loop, and a nice resource management/combat fusion! I liked all the different things you had to keep track of, and trying to figure out the best goblin configuration for the situation.
The game is supposed to be frantic, but I found that the enemies came at you so often - and swarmed in from all corners of the map - that I never even had a second to shuffle my goblins around before dying. I eventually just picked one setup and stuck with it, which is a shame because I stopped interacting with the main mechanic. I might just slow the enemies down just a little bit.
Nice work!
Really fun concept! I liked the combination between strategic city-builder and frantic physics puzzler. The art style was really cute too! I also enjoyed the random events to spice things up.
I would have liked a wider variety of buildings with more interesting effects to add some more depth. I found myself caring a lot more about weight and usually just spamming whatever showed up in my hand - it would be good to encourage some more strategic gameplay.
Really nice work!
This is a really cool game. The gameplay is an interesting fusion of Snake and Sokoban, and the aesthetic is very unique. The colours and line-art style are gorgeous, as is the ancient Chinese inspiration. There’s a layer of polish and sheen to everything I really enjoyed.
The story was also a neat addition - I love the idea of escaping from an underworld-type area, and the backstory had a very epic tone. I wonder what happened to that man the dragon mentioned… I actually don’t mind the voice acting, as although it doesn’t particularly sound like a dragon, I think it adds a neat personal touch.
In terms of gameplay, I really like the mechanics you introduced, and I wasn’t too bothered by the real-time elements, although I was never stuck long enough for them to become a problem. I would’ve loved some more challenging puzzles - even the last one wasn’t very difficult, and several I could just kind of walk through.I I think there’s still a lot more you could get out of this concept.
Really nice work!
Really unique gameplay! I love that it’s simple to play, but has a high skill ceiling. The game reminds me a lot of Downwell with an interesting twist. (I got to Deepness before those shooting enemies got me - no idea how far it goes!)
I did find myself getting stuck on platforms a lot, and the controls were tricky to master. The later levels were especially tight, and I often only got through by rotating in ways that seemed to strain the physics system. But I was still learning the controls! Maybe a slightly slipperier character would make it a little smoother.
Overall, awesome work! I can see this being a pretty addictive rogue-like type.
As a musician and pianist who dabbles in jazz (and who also made a music game) I got a real kick out of this. Nice little backing tracks and a really funny story. I love that the evil piano player gets a happy ending after straight-up murdering a man in the venue. The dialogue and note made me wonder if you could make some sort of music mystery game with this concept…
It was very disconcerting trying to play using the keyboard keys - I kept forgetting what did what, and it was very cramped. But it works well enough for the game, which I think could be a fun educational tool. I teach piano lessons to young children and this reminded me of the silly game we let them play :) If you added some more mechanics and a more in-depth exploration of some of these musical concepts, I think you could take it a lot further. As of now it’s fun, but mostly just shows you a few scales in order. (Note names would be a good start! So would exploring some different styles of jazz.) I also agree with Oli that MIDI integration could make it a lot smoother. I’d love to play this with a real keyboard.
Anyway, this got a smile out of me. Nice work!
*Note: I’m actually glad you didn’t get a scoring system in because I don’t think there’s any way you could judge an improvisation that would feel fair.
Such a cool entry. The idea of moving tower defense is awesome, and the art, music, and polish is impeccable. I loved how ridiculous the town looked by the end and how satisfying it was to mow through crowds of crabs! This is a really insane product for a game jam, it really felt like something I’d paid for. Amazing work by all.
I was a little bit confused when I started the game as to how to upgrade the city and what I was supposed to do - I didn’t realize you upgraded every 30 seconds so everything seemed to be really random. It can also be really easy to get overwhelmed by crabs and get stuck by trees and lag until you die. I also got a heavy lag spike on one level, and when I died I lost all of the crabs I’d gotten the whole game :(
The web version is obviously extremely laggy but I was still able to have a lot of fun with it. This could make for a super cool full release with some more mechanics and fleshed-out gameplay!
This game is so cute! It reminded me of a blend between something like Cut The Rope and Art of Balance, if you’ve played that. I think this could make for a really fun mobile puzzler.
The art is clean and adorable, and I absolutely loved the adaptive music from level to level. The mechanics are also really solid and allow for a lot of freedom in how to solve puzzles! If I were to give some advice, I think the level design was a bit confusing at points - I often felt like the only solution was something that felt hacky or unintended. (That could just be me though!)
Awesome work guys! Nice frog puns as well.
I managed to get the resolution to work for me!
I love the style, the handrawn art is adorable. The music was awesome and jazzy too, shame it only played on level 1!
I love the detective gameplay but unfortunately the dressup part didn’t work for me. A lot of it boiled down to spamming until I got the right item, and sometimes I thought I’d fulfilled the prompt but it didn’t go through. It took so long to restart each time that I didn’t end up finishing :( Shame because I really wanted to see the ending!
Really lovely work though, and the dialogue and mystery were super solid. Good work!