Thank you so much for playing!
This was kinda a redemption comeback for me hahaha, I felt so bad after realizing a couple streamers weren't allowed to play last time due to the game being unannounced!
I haven't watched the stream yet, but if the bug you're reporting is what I think it is, that would actually be a weird quirk of the fact that the game accepts mouse inputs as well as controller and keyboard (if your mouse happens to be hovering over a party member, the targeting constantly snaps back to that character, preventing you from targeting anyone else!)
I did add a feature to disable mouse inputs in the settings, but I think I'll probably need to take more drastic steps to prevent this since it is a relatively common issue people experience. Thanks a bunch for the feedback!
Sawyer Friend
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This was a pretty pleasant puzzle game! I think the art is charming and the UI fits very well, and vibes in total work for the cozy Autumn feel you're going for. It's got some pretty tricky puzzles, but the star system helps balance difficulty by allowing players to get more or less ambitious, which helps with how open the system is. It almost feels like a puzzle game by way of tactical RPG, where controlling your character's movement is the big factor to winning.
It didn't run great in my browser, with some occasional lag spikes and choppy audio, but my computer isn't great so this doesn't mean it's gonna chug on all devices.
More importantly, this is a really difficult problem to address, but from a marketing perspective I think this game's appearance and title could be misleading enough to detract players who may otherwise enjoy it, or vice versa. The title "Forest Farming" combined with an isometric grid view immediately evokes imagery of a farming sim a-la Farmville or Harvest Moon, which the game most certainly is not. I could envision advent puzzle game fans passing this one by simply out of the game looking like a genre it isn't, which would be a shame since I'm certain fans of these types of puzzle games would really enjoy this!
Unfortunately, it's hard to come to a solid "fix" to that problem short of changing the name or aesthetics, but I definitely think it's something worth keeping in mind since "perceived genre" is a huge part of game marketing. Of course, if that isn't important to you I fully respect that, in which case I think the actual content of the game works fine!
In terms of puzzles, I think one aspect I would like to see is a way to tell easily which house belongs to which hedgehog, and how many steps "non-player" entities such as humans have, to make it easier to strategize without resetting. It'd be a minor quality of life improvement, but one that I think would help make the puzzles more "fair".
Overall though, this is very good at capturing the cozy and cute vibes it's trying to! The accessible nature of the star rankings helps improve the game's overall reach without dumbing down the difficulty, and it's pretty solid all around! Very nice work here!
OHOHOHO this game is very fun! But it's also TOUGH AUGH!
While the concept of a "record a set of motions and then replay them while you record a new set of motions" puzzle game is not entirely unique, this is the first time I've played one in which your previous recordings are an active hazard, in both a way that makes thematic sense and adds a ton to the gameplay. I found this super enjoyable, and quite challenging (I was only able to clear two levels after the tutorial before my head started to hurt hahaha)
I think the character graphics look very good, but one of my absolute biggest criticisms would be that the distinction between your "current" self and past selves is not super clear. My brain kept assuming that when I'm going back in time I'm returning to the start, when in reality you actually stay in place where you are, so even with the red indicator below your current self letting you know which you is you, I would frequently get tripped up unsure why my motions weren't registering properly. I think my personal recommendation would be to make the past selves more distinct, perhaps with reduced opacity or saturation, something to make it very clear that these guys are not the character you're controlling.
My other main critique would be the UI, which I assume is largely placeholders right now but nevertheless is deserving of criticism. The arial font text, grey blob buttons, and general underwhelming natural of the whole UX does detract a little from this game. It feels to me that when this game is in a more complete state, it would benefit a lot from a real stylish UI to sell the tone and add a premium feel, especially when the character sprites are, once again, very good. This game would also definitely be improved with some music (although there is a chance my computer simply failed to load any music, Itch games on browser take forever to load audio).
All in all this is a very creative puzzle game and one that I think has a ton of potential, especially with a mobile market which I have to assume you intend on catering to thanks to the low price and use of touch controls. If this were on Google Play right now I'd certainly shell out $2-3 for it in a heartbeat! I do think it could also justify a bigger price tag with a more substantial content loop: not just more levels, but more story and biomes to help it feel like more of a "full game", which could definitely justify a more premium price tag. Nevertheless, the game definitely seems to know what it is right now, and it does it very well! Super strong puzzle game you've got here.
Heya! Thanks a bunch for playing!
I'm really glad you liked the story. One of my biggest concerns with this demo is that it takes too long before the "real" game starts, so this feedback is really helpful to know what the game's hooks are! The full game is very story driven and I feel that's one of its bigger selling points, so this is great to hear.
The battle system is mostly unique to this game! It does take a lot of inspiration from many other games, and the core "skeleton" of the turn based combat is just standard JRPG fare, but the unique mechanics such as equipping cards and the EP-balancing special attacks are a wholly unique feature!
It's great that the game over screen in the tutorial made it easy to jump back into things (I forgot that it's even possible to get a game over there!) but I don't think it's ideal that there was confusion about which character you're playing as hahaha. I assume since you were accidentally attacking yourself, you must have been using the mouse to play (since keyboards and controllers default to targeting the enemy), so I should look into seeing if I can make it more clear which character you're controlling in that scenario.
Save files do persist in browsers, so feel free to continue playing if it strikes your fancy! You've only scratched the surface of what the demo has to offer!
I am aware of the music issue, which occurs due to very long load times for audio on HTML. Different computers seem to load the music faster or shorter, but it's really unfortunate you couldn't hear the music at all! This is a problem I'd love to fix (although I'm at a loss for how I might go about that), although the full game is a bit too big to host on Itch's browser, so while I don't want to treat this build as an afterthought, I would consider it somewhat lower priority to other issues for the time being.
Once again, thanks a bunch for playing, I'm really glad you enjoyed it! Please let me know if you have any additional feedback if you end up playing more!
Thanks a bunch for playing!
I'm not necessarily ashamed of the engine I use, but we all know the stigma that's carried with it, so it was pretty important to me that I created a game that doesn't visually evoke that stigma. I'm really glad it paid off!
It's really great to hear you played longer than you expected, for a jam like this I sorta consider that to be the highest honour possible so it means a lot to me! As for the aspect of getting lost, I think I could definitely add some green arrows to the cafeteria for sure. I don't think it's a huge deal if the player has to explore that area a little since there's really only one way out, but I know the intro is a little lengthy so any way I can reduce friction is very important.
On the subject of the intro, did you feel it was too long? I know there's a lot of ground to cover in the beginning, but it's like 4 scenes back to back so one of my biggest concerns is that players might get worn out from it all before the "real" game starts.
This was very nice to read, it really helps knowing the game is moving in the right direction! Thank you again for playing, and I appreciate the feedback!
I never knew that about Jigen! It was something that didn't even cross my mind, but it makes me happy that so many people saw this interpretation before it was solidified in canon.
The queer experience is something I don't spend much of my own time thinking about, so these sorts of things often go under my radar and I think it was very important that I read this so I could get a better understanding of that blind spot for me! This was very cool, and I think it goes far beyond our relationship with sexuality and gender identity in fiction but towards the broader relationship we have with fiction as a whole (not to discount the importance of the queer lens that this is presented through, of course).
Thanks for giving me a new perspective of things I hadn't considered! Before this was a matter I simply didn't care about at all, but now I think it's a very important part of how we engage with art!
Hello hello!
I've compiled my notes during my playthrough which you can read here!
SO! This. Is. AWESOME! I love it!
I love the robot, I love the oppressive atmosphere, I love the collectable audio logs with actual audio, I love the combat, it’s all really really cool!
This game is occasionally a bit slow, but it has that survival horror energy that I think allows some leeway for pacing, and it works really well! This is super lovingly crafted and I cannot wait to see more. Instant wishlist, instant follow, instant Discord-join! I will be watching this title with great enthusiasm!
I found very few bugs (mentioned above), although I feel I only scratched the surface of what this game has to offer. I may return later to finish the demo, although I feel a little disheartened after losing so much progress because the save point was so far away.
I was so enthused with this title that I rushed over to the demo page in hopes of giving it a positive review. Unfortunately it looks like the demo doesn’t have its own page, but please let me know if that ever changes so I can give you a thumbs up ASAP!
I do think it is important to make clear that the gamepad issues with Steam Deck are really worth fixing. I almost didn’t play this title at all because I thought it wasn’t going to work with my current setup, and I am so glad I went through with it but I was split seconds away from giving up! It’s a very easy fix, so I highly recommend looking into changing your Gamepad settings!
Other than that, this is a glowing 5 from me! Definitely an awesome title, both for Feedback Quest and out of the games I’ve tested overall!
This was charming and short! I found it very difficult, but the strategy I ended up employing was just bringing a whole lot of cargo and one extra fuel tank so I could make the journey. Ended up pulling through with 26 cargo left!
I think without any fuel tanks at all, it's impossible to win. I tried making a beeline but it just wasn't happening. Shields are also hard to justify in exchange for more cargo, since the shields going down could leave your cargo vulnerable anyway. I'm also not sure if there is any way to maneuver around the turret fire; I thought maybe I could weave past missiles, but they seem to hone in on you which really means defence is the only strategy there.
I found the music pretty haunting in a good way, and the atmosphere was solid even with the primitive graphics. It was an overall cool look! Cute little title!
Heya! I've just played a solid 90 minutes or so of this, and compiled some notes as I played which you can see here!
SO! Overall, it’s really cozy. The vibes in this game are off the charts, it’s very reminiscent of trips I’ve gone on in the past, and quite nostalgic. The music is GREAT, super duper uber fantastic! If you ever put out a soundtrack release, please let me know! The art is also really good.
The story, though… it’s… well, okay, this is gonna sound mean, but the story is really boring. One of the very first lessons in writing I was ever taught is that a story must have conflict. While some of the scenes in this game have conflict, such as not being able to find a place to stay or falling asleep on the bus for too long, the overall plot is devoid of any real conflict and even the small issues Zinnia runs into are resolved within a few minutes. So far, very little has happened at all, and if the story is leading somewhere more substantial, I think that should be foreshadowed a bit better.
With that said, I think it’s possibly okay that it’s boring. It’s somewhat meditative and grounded, and it is a nice vibe especially with the music. I’m far outside the typical demographic for a game like this so it’s possible that for people who are into this sorta thing it’s perfect. At the very least, I didn’t get sick of it and turn it off after an hour or so of playing which is pretty great for what it is! Overall, this was very cute, and I had a good time enjoy the atmosphere.
This was super fun, what a great way to start the jam!
The gameplay concept is extremely cool! It's fast paced without being overwhelming, the movement feels very cool and intuitive, and learning to utilize the gravity physics was very engaging. It's got some neat powerups as well, although I think the POW block might be a little too strong, I got some cheap shots off of it a few times.
The UI is very slick for the most part, but I find the fonts and button shapes to be a bit uninspired for how good the rest of it looks. I also originally clicked the Online Multiplayer button only for it to softlock the browser build; a back button would be very nice to mitigate that.
The graphics are pretty good! The art seems pretty consistent, and while the zooming effects do lead to some jaggies, it's nothing that I feel looks terrible.
The music was also pretty strong, it has a lot of energy and it's nice that it's randomized on each round. This is definitely a neat little game, and I think the additional gameplay modes will add a lot of appreciated content for something that would otherwise be a pretty short and sweet deal. Maybe if I can get some friends in on this I'll provide some feedback on the online as well.
This is a fun little title! It's definitely a little undercooked but it doesn't treat itself as anything bigger than it is.
The jumping physics did feel a little weird, I would sometimes just fall straight into a pit after jumping a few times, though I'm not sure if perhaps there's some sort of mechanic preventing you from jumping for too long without landing on a platform?
My biggest criticism is the UI. The menus appear to only be activated by clicking (I could be mistaken for reasons I'll elaborate on in a sec), and the game stopping dead in its tracks to ask you to type in your name for the high score was pretty irritating. The gameplay loop on this is super fast and short, and when I die I want to get right back into it, so the entry window appearing halts all momentum. If you click cancel on that window, it inputs the name entry as a blank instead of just skipping entry altogether. Since this window appears in the browser, it also means you have to click back into the window to take control of it again (hence I might be mistaken about the UI requiring mouse input).
The music is pretty nice, and the sounds work for what they are. It is a little barebones and gives me the vibes of a student project, but it all works for what it is.
The graphics are very mixel-y, with lots of pixels of different sizes occupying the screen. The mixels make the game look especially amateur and unpolished, and the lack of animations on the playable character adds to this.
With that said, the core gameplay is very fun and it's relatively easy to get the hang of. I especially like the warnings on the right of the screen telling you when a bomb is incoming! This was very fun, but very unpolished.
Eyyyy I'm glad you liked it!
Yeah, the map movement was mostly just a response to previous jam entries, people seem to get uppity when you can't move your character even if it adds literally nothing to the game hahaha.
As for the lack of action sequences, that was largely done for the sake of brevity (the game already goes dangerously close to the 45 minute point if not exceeding it, and I think if every skill had an animation it could quickly go over the edge). Nevertheless it's not an element I take great pride in, and I had to cut quite a bit of content already just to make it short enough, so really I think the lesson I learned this year is that the fighting game format probably isn't a great fit for Harold Jam hahaha
Nevertheless, I appreciate you playing and enjoying the combat!
I was more excited for you to play this than anyone else just because you're pretty much the only person on the planet that gives anything approaching a damn about Tefka stuff hahaha. I think in a way with Paragon Lucius, the soundtrack (and what Tefka does to it), and the Tefka story culminating here, I probably subconsciously made a lot of creative choices hoping you in particular would see them hahaha!
Thanks a bunch for playing, and for coming back to participate this year!
Thanks a ton for playing! This was really good feedback.
I know you had to cut short before finishing so you could rate the game within the 45 minute mark, but I am curious if you were able to play any of it past that point? If you enjoyed everything up to this point, I would love for you to see the climax of the game even knowing it won't affect my score!
Thanks a bunch, I'm glad you had fun!
So, after 45 minutes in real time, and then 45 minutes in in-game time, I made it to the final boss, but I couldn't defeat him even within the time limit based on the in-game clock instead of real time. It was a massive difficulty spike, the dude was basically dealing 80% damage on a single party member each turn.
Anyway, the biggest issue with the game here is bloat. It's a pretty great full length RPG trapped in the body of a Harold Jam entry, and thus in my opinion gets hurt in both directions; it has to rush itself in order to meet the criteria of the jam, but it also has so much content that it can't meet that criteria at all.
There are, like, 100 different weapons (all of which you must scroll past every time you want to equip the new item you just found), five party members in battle, at least 9 different playable characters which I'm certain I didn't even find all of them since I randomly recruited RATD Reid while I was trying to find where the game's easy mode was located, and the sorta Hearthstone FTB system the game cultivates kinda necessitates enemies be needlessly spongey to facilitate the procedural growth that occurs between turns. This all wraps together to make a game that feels like it's way too much. It was very overwhelming, but in a way that I think would have been easy to digest if the game had more time to breathe and be a game instead of a jam entry. The fact that 90 minutes appears to be the expected runtime of the entry really speaks to this; I gave a pretty generous pass last year when the game nearly doubled the time limit, but after seeing it happen again this year it's really difficult for me to reward a game that can't seem to control its own scope like this, even if I did have a lot of fun.
The combat is excellent, this is a system that I would have loved to see in a 10-20 hour RPG easily. I hear this every year and you probably do too, but I would love to see this system expanded on in a future project of yours. However, this system is really held back by being in a jam, and its attempts to compensate for that end up hurting the rest of the game within the context of a jam. There are a bunch of enemies, each takes 5-6 turns to kill seemingly by design, the bosses take *eons* to slay, and even just navigating menus filled with so much fluff eats up a ton of time. There's also the prologue where you play as Reid, which, while very cute, really overstays its welcome and lasts a solid 10 minutes when I honestly think it could have been cut entirely without really affecting the game much overall.
I definitely don't want it to come off as this game being a waste of time; it is not, I had a ton of fun exploring the systems and seeing these characters from different games I love (it was really cool running into Reid only to discover it was MY Reid!) However, as a jam entry, I feel it didn't *respect* my time, in the sense that it kinda just ran as long as it wanted to without consideration that I may be in the middle of a voting queue, playing several entries, or simply playing games in the jam expecting concise, casual experiences. It's a really great game, but not so great as a jam entry, if that makes sense.
I know this probably came off pretty negative, but time is one of the most valuable and difficult to manage resources in a jam, both as a dev and as a player, so seeing this game spend its time so flagrantly kinda rubs me the wrong way. I still really like it, and I *implore you* to find something to do with this system in a future project, maybe after Moonfell or something. But, like I said before, it's a great game trapped in a jam's body. It needs a little room to breathe.
This was a very good entry! You know me, I'm a sucker for Game Boy shit, and I think compared to RATD you completely beat me at my own game! This FEELS very aggressively Game Boy, you nailed it.
Music is obviously best in jam, I think I miiiight contend against it with Crueldown but it's a close one. The battle theme was very good, final boss theme was a nice use of Theme6 as always!
The story was... fine? Admittedly it didn't really do much for me, but it worked well enough and I thought David showing up at the end was a surprisingly funny payoff for the setup earlier.
The jokes... also mostly didn't land but you and I have different sense of humour. I did GREATLY appreciate the little effects you pulled though like character names updating in real time as you learn more about them.
The gameplay was pretty hard for me to feel out at first, it wasn't clear to me that this was basically an elaborate puzzle game (the tutorial made me think it was more of some sort of combo mechanic, like blinding enemies would make them easier to hit with coconuts or something) but I was able to figure it out more or less by the end so it worked out okay.
Overall, fantastic entry! It's not my number 1 fav but it's definitely in the upper echelons, and I'm a little jealous how well you pulled off the GB vibe here. This genuinely felt like it could have been emulated on a Game Boy! Bravo, homie!
This was a very strong outing!
It's got some very nice custom art, a surprisingly cool and interesting battle system with the utilization of two hands as separate "actors", and was one of the few entries this year interested in telling a more serious story. Definitely a sleeper hit, I hope more people try this one!
I felt the ending was a bit abrupt, but understandably so as given the amount of custom art and game mechanics, I have to assume you were very pressed for time. At the very least, the twist at the end, as well as the writing all around, was pretty solid! There was a nice Chekhov's Gun moment that I really appreciated near the end with the scroll!
This was a bizarre absurdist romp and it really delivered for me!
It was almost Yume Nikki-esque in the way it constantly played with my expectations. I never knew what was going to happen when I clicked on something!
Also the eventing was weirdly genius? Like, I somehow feel like I learned a ton of clever tricks for improving cutscenes just from playing this.
This was very well executed for a Harold In game, and probably my personal fav in the series so far!
the island exploded
This was pretty cute! It was a nice change of pace to get something a little less combat heavy, and I think it had some nice character moments.
The gameplay was a little tedious at times, especially the final dungeon. This took me about 20 minutes to beat, when it easily could have been a 10 minute entry. There were also a LOOOOT of spelling errors, you might do well to write your scripts in a text editor with spell check just to be safe.
The music was great! This David friend of yours is very talented! I would have liked a little more music throughout the game but I understand that in a jam environment like this that's not always doable.
Cute entry!
Well, it was effectively what it said on the tin, but what I'm more surprised by are the areas where a molecule of effort clearly went in. ATB mechanics and slightly different battlers instead of just throwing in RTP and calling it a day?
I will not call this entry good but it slightly exceeded my rock bottom expectations. See you next year!
This was uniquely tailoured to my particular sense of humour, so while I cannot in good faith give an entry like this an especially high score in other categories, this one had easily the funniest writing in the jam.
I'm faced with an ethical dilemma: do I give this game a 5 overall because it would be funny, or do I hold firm to my morals and ensure that my biases do not lead to an inflated jam score, hurting the voting experience for dozens of other participants and creating a cascading effect which leads to the fall of modern democracy and the deaths of hundreds of RPG Maker developers and players?
This was a somewhat rough entry to get through! Lots of mazes, no real explanation for the story until the very end, random encounters galore, and a bit of a lack in strategic depth. I've certainly played worse entries, but there's a lot that can be learned from here, so I'd like to leave a bit of constructive feedback on where you could improve going forward if you don't mind!
1. I think it'd be great if the story was presented throughout the whole game, and used as an avenue to explore the protagonist a bit more. Davina's presumed vice based on the title and ending is laziness, but that wasn't conveyed at all in the story; I think some dialogue and good stage blocking, as well as better characterization in the gameplay, could really improve that aspect!
2. The dungeon design could use a lot of work! This sort of dungeon hasn't really been treated as acceptable since the 80s, and we can certainly do better in 2024! My recommendation is to study up on dungeon design a bit; if I recall correctly, you've been playing RPGs for a very long time! Take a look at some of your favourite games and try to break down what you like and dislike about their dungeons!
3. The combat was a bit uninspired, although it was on the cusp of having depth. A bit of thought went into enemy design, with insects sucking your blood and trees healing themselves, but there was little for me to really play around here; no active healing abilities, nothing to defend against strong attacks, so it became a game of merely attacking and using my single target skill if I have the TP. Try to break down battles as an open ended puzzle: what is the "obstacle" of a fight, and what tools does the player have to interact with that encounter?
Definitely keep working on this stuff! RPG design can be difficult, but it's super fun if you know how to research and learn!
This was surprisingly good considering the heavy use of AI!
The humour was actually pretty good, it got more than a few laughs out of me!
I have to admit that the game was mostly not very fun. The encounters were mercifully easy thanks to the overpowered weapon you're given, but that only lended to increasing the tedium as you walk back and forth in this sci-fi world.
The AI art was definitely used in a humourous way and it's clear to me that you are definitely not using this game to tout the strengths of AI. With that said, due to the ethically dubious nature of the art, I still have to give it a 1 in the graphics department. I assume, based on the rhetoric of this game, you probably weren't expecting a high rating in that category, and rest assured that it didn't hurt the rest of your ratings from me!
This was pretty funny, and it's a solid entry in spite of itself!
This was a cute entry!
The gameplay was fun for the most part, although the presentation of the encounters felt a little stale. I think the idea of static encounters interrupted by cutscenes and shopping works just fine, although the leadup into them was a little jarring.
The story was a bit odd, it didn't go anywhere too crazy but it was often weirdly horny, and it dragged just a bit for me near the midpoint. I also felt the art does have a lot of room for improvement: shaky lines, strange proportions, and soft shading all lend to looking a little off, but I understand that you're growing and improving as an artist and this is a perfect environment to do so! Keep up the good work on your artistic journey!
There's a bit of depth to equipment and some cool strategies to employ in battle! I think this is a great use of FTB, especially with how basic attacks cost more than support abilities. The combat was definitely my favourite aspect.
This was fantastic! I loved every fight, and the music (discounting my bias for the track I wrote) was all very good!
The dodge system felt a little jank to me, and healing in the heat of the moment was difficult. However, the presentation here is top notch, with great graphics, music, and gameplay! One of the best entries of the year, hands down!
This was a very neat title! The artwork was great and the combat had a decent amount of depth! I liked most of the fights, although the battle with TML and the guards was BRUTAL and honestly so unfair that I had to dock a point in Gameplay. I was unable to get past them within 45 minutes of repeated tries, so sadly I didn't get to see the rest of the game.
Of what I did play though, I had a fun time with it! This was a very good entry, just bogged down by some balance and encounter design issues.
This ended up as the funniest entry I've played so far this year! The comedic timing is great, and the gameplay (while a bit unforgiving in my opinion) is fun to master and has a decent amount of depth! Of course, the ending was top tier, and whoever drew that weird flesh worm during the musical sequence must be a very handsome man.
This was a cute and odd little title! I liked the theming of controlling little drones, and there was a bit of depth to the combat.
It felt a little short and I was a bit confused by the story. I actually am not certain I didn't take a wrong turn somewhere, the credits just suddenly kinda rolled.
Still, pretty neat entry!