itch.io

You can submit games in ANY format as long as they are free

It means "to be announced" the theme is still being voted on

Yes

I wanted to make a youtube video for each jam, but my life keeps getting in the way. Right now there really isn't a place that showcases games.

Yeah I messed up. I think its changed now.

I think I changed that setting, they shgould be able to rate now

Yes, there is someone who has been submitting physical RPGs to the past two jams. You may not get many testers or useful feedback though, since most people are looking to play and test digital games.

Yes, as long as they all follow the rules.

Congrats to the team behind it:

 https://miracula-works.itch.io/puffs-fly-n-dive

I will be sending out the steam key prizes for the top 5 later today.

Congrats on to the Rogue Tournament team for winning the jam! I have sent prizes to the top 5 games. I sent emails to those who left emails, and discord friend requests to those who left Discord usernames. If you won and don't see the email, check spam or search "Minigame a Month".

https://discord.gg/btCF9d75wq

Very polished game, but I find the default controls to be really unintuitive (mainly wasd representing 4 vertical directions). Maybe if it was bullets flying in from four directions and you had to press WASD in those directions it would be more intuitive.

I couldn't figure out how to get past the spider fight, but I was liking what I was seeing up until then

Interesting idea, I think there should be an endless mode where you can just keep matching and matching. I also think it was a little easy, I got 60% on pretty much all my matches, maybe limiting the player to only picking 3 colors or something would make it harder.

Also it seems that a new music track starts playing everytime you start a new game, and the music starts adding up and getting really chaotic. Kind of cool, but way too intense after a while.

The theme voting for next month's jam is live here: https://strawpoll.com/wby5A0YxByA

Also here's the link to next month's jam: https://itch.io/jam/minigame-a-month-january-2024

Vote for the optional theme of the jam here: 

https://strawpoll.com/wby5A0YxByA

Hey, I'm starting a personal game a month challenge for this December and seeing how long I can go. I've started a jam so other people can join in and play each other's games. Here is the itch link: https://itch.io/jam/minigame-a-month-0

The game is still not listed on the itch calendar, I think because its not associated with a group. If I want to get it listed consistently would it be better to host the game through one of my local game dev groups?

This is mainly a test post to see how to jam community works, but I'm using it as a way to also share some ideas for what I'm going to work on.

If this notifies a bunch of people let me know as that could be annoying, but I think it won't

For this first jam I'm going to try making a pinball game. I want to make something I can easily play/Demo on the arcade cabinet I'm making and pinball is an easy fit. I also want to tie it into my monster catching project so I want to try and incorportate that somehow. I'm gonna divide my month into four segments, and I only have to complete the first two segments for it to be complete.

Segment 1: Pinball logic and mechanics

These are the mechanics I need to impletment in order to have a decent pinball board. These are the kind of generic pinball pieces I'll need to build a board.

• Ball
• Flippers
• Circular Bumpers
• Slingshots
• Ball Launcher
• Basic Points System
• Gameplay Loop
• Basic Main Menu

Segment 2: Art pass

Once I've coded all the basic parts I'm going to create sprites for all the pieces and try theme them all around my monster catching game.

Segment 3: Monster catching or battling

Here is where I try and do something similar to pokemon pinball and incorporate the monster catching/battling. Monsters will appear on the board and you have to defeat them by hitting them with the ball. You can them catch them and add them to your monster dex (or party?). I'm not sure on these mechanics yet, I want to first focus on making a decent pinball game.

Segment 4: Polish and sound pass

A couple days before the jam is over I'm going to stop adding new features and just focus on adding sound and music to the game + Polishing and cleaning up the mechanics.

Didn't have much time to work on Ikumon the past month or so because I have been updating my first game PictoPull to get it ready for a switch port.

Looks like keyboard input was not working, the player should move around with WASD or clicking on the screen. Also did you have a controller plugged in but weren't using it?

Great as always. I'm using your buildings a lot in my game. For the next one could you try and do an urban environment with tall buildings like Rustboro or Saffron City?

Hi I'm trying to DM you on twitter to ask about some commissions/collaboration but your twitter says you can't receive DMs

yeah I spent too much time making the systems and only did the level design in like 4 hours after the tutorial was done. The goal was to create an open area arena where you could shmove around and use all the mechanics organically but I was rushed in the design so its pretty random.

enter a name less than 6 characters. I forgot to put that restriction in the enter name window. I'll change that now

Cool idea, I didn't like how there was constant background static though, maybe that's to add some challenge. I think there should be some more feedback for when you successfully dodge a shot and try experimenting with a low volume background track instead of the static, I could see someone getting into the groove if there is some basic beat and really nice sound feedback for your actions. Good prototype.

A major improvement would be to display potential damage you deal, or how much defense/protecttion you will have when you hover over a spot while holding a piece. Currently its difficult to predict how much damage you will take. The new fire emblem game did this, it let you see how much damage enemies would deal to you much easier and what their intents are based on where you move. This made the game arguably easier as you no longer had to keep track of enemy damage and ranges as much, but it made the game much faster and much more fun to play by reducing the amount of calculations you had to do in your head.

yeah next step is tutorials and clearing up ui. This is mostly just a proof of concept right now

Have you played Life Goes On? Its very similar to this concept. Good work this is very well-scoped and doable.

I feel like the range from which the player can push the sun should be increased, it felt like I was doing a little too much chasing. Also, having to move the sun from room to room is very frustrating, especially if its hard to see the hallway you have to aim for through the fog. Maybe add the ability to hold the sun if it stays still for a certain amount of time. The combat feels unique and the aesthtics are good.

I wanted to put it on private until I had an actual build uploaded so random people don't come across it when searching. Also I assume that when the game is "released" officially it will show up as a new itch game so I want to have content before it appears like that.

Password to view the page is "scribe" no caps

- 1 is a good idea I'll implement that

- I didn't do 2 because as you start going past 5 letters there are thousands of possible words and I have to store those somewhere. I couldn't find a comprehensive list for 6-8 so I just copied the 500+ most common 6-8 letter words and used those for keys. If I could find a list I was happy with I'd do it.

- the combo word thing has the potential to be very laggy and inefficient. I might try implementing it if I can find good lists for the 6-8 letter words. Its just easier for me to allow jumbled invalid entries. The 6-8 words were a bit of an afterthought tbh

I uploaded a new build on the main page a few days ago that fixes this problem I think If you downloaded from the devlog post that might be the old build. Here is the main page: https://josfeld.itch.io/word-game