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I don't know how the tycoon would look like, but this was very cool to experience so well done

Thank you for playing Dev Pirates, and for your constant support! 🥳

I agree with the not liking frustration games! Thanks for your design choices! 

It did feel like this "run and attack and jump away", only the corridor was endless. Indeed, real life gets in the way of animations hehe

oh thanks! Hadn't seen that! Will try again now!

Edit: OMG I had seen it! But never pressed it lol... this helps a lot, got some nice useful cards there with 0 g!

Hello GameFavorites! Before I read and respond to your comment, wanted to say thank you so much for leaving these all around the competition! They have been a source of critical insights not only to the developers themselves (I find them SUPER useful), but also to players playing other games (as a player I find them super cool to see if your experience matches mine, as well as critically evaluate different parts of what I missed while playing, but also perhaps any areas that you have not covered that I could  comment on [very rarely this happens XD]).

Finally, as a person leaving comments myself, I am more mindful of how useful such comments can be and try to mimic or at least provide some more depth than I usually do.

Here I go reading and responding to yours now! 

1. Design: So happy the intro animation helps! I spent I don't know how many hours making each piece work, and being sucked in, might be of my favourite and most complex animations so far! Happy the boss feels a bit alive and the player flashing!

2. Fun Boss play: Wooohoo! So happy you figured out it was yarn patterns and that this was the whole aim! I wanted to update the big yarn ball to somehow have more patterns or vice versa with some colour, but it would be a huge mess to animate by that time... 

Happy the progression bars help! I think currently, visually they don't fill completely (although they do nicely turn to their "complete" version, once their quota is met). Glad it felt nice having them refill the bar!

100% on the one way platforms! There were so many cool things I could have done on the platforming (Coyote timer for a start...) and level design (great idea with the water! initially I wanted it to trigger the boss "unraveling" or becoming heavier so the player could descent and trigger the match 3. In the end, randomly dropping the yarn-staircase was the quickest solution to try and submit on time..)

3. Technical: you are right! Spent most of my time on the Match 3 (along with the animations hehe). Also glad the physics feel nice! Really happy how it bounces around hehe. Luckily the water was simpler than I thought with a shader (still fills like magic how these things just work after following a tutorial...)

4. Genre mashing: so happy you mention about keeping distance but also close proximity to the boss feels nice! I was debating to have even each bump hurt the player, but this way I think is better, sort of "playing with fire", but also allowing players to experiment and try to touch the dropped yarn for the first time, even if they might be scared. Glad the transition helps to communicate the process! 🥳👏

5. Polish: hehe I am delighted you noticed and mentioned the shadow staying there! Had to play around with different sprites and clipping but it worked! 

Thanks again for a great comment experience! Got to relive my whole development weeks!

Hello Shegi_4! Thanks for the comment explaining the confusion! (unfortunately most of my games I get comments about confusion, so you explaining which part was most confusing is helpful!). I believe I cause lots of confusion by assuming things. So maybe these are some assumptions I made:

Boss monster is created by swallowing too much yarn (this was the intro animation)

Player is stuck with them in a room [now here are many assumptions indeed! No explanation on my part this is the case (other than the fact there is nowhere to go but down I guess, but then begs the question, why was the player stuck up there in the first place?) ]. So Player has to escape/fix the issue. [Why do they have to do that? Not even an assumption here, I don't even explain it seems XD]

Boss moves erratically all over the place. 

Player gets to untangle the yarn by matching 3 types/pieces of yarn together [from other comments I believe this is another assumption on my part that I didn't communicate clearly]. 

Different levels are accessed (through boss's erratic movement, PRESUMABLY while you untangle them from the inside).

Boss monster is now cute cat.

Do you think these points help a bit? Which one in your opinion would be the one I should have communicated more clearly or the one that was missing?

Thanks again! And do let me know if there were other confusing parts so hopefully i try better in the future!

hey Rico! Thanks for the support! 

True for the retro! I wanted to have a bit of "Breakout" and was going to include "Pang" or "Buster Bros." game elements of shooting the ball for it to break, but thought people might be confused if it still constituted one Boss entity (also, lore wise, what happens with the cute gas cat at the end? Divides itself to freedom? I still need to think about that...)

Sorry for the confusion! It seems this will always be an area for me to improve! Please do let me know what was the most confusing thing, maybe I can try and address it in the future (mayyyybe hehe)

Thanks for dropping a comment Static Leap! I wanted to allow for this bumping and bouncing :D Glad it did feel fun!

I was debating to add the reflection or not, wanted to communicate descent through the levels, and now its the end, but also compromising my pixel integrity XD ... I guess I yielded 

Hey CrudeForge! Thank you for the detailed feedback! Really appreciate it man! Helps me respond in kind hehe

1. Design: XD hehe glad you think so! I wanted to communicate "here is cute creature. Ate more than it should. Now monster. You disentangle it. Win". I believe you knowing the "hidden stuff" behind is a nice "lore bonus" maybe?

2. Fun boss play: glad the animations were nice!

3. Technical complexity: true, true

4. genre-mashing: Wanted to communicate the "disentanglement" of the yarn, by climbing up to it when it dropped its tentacles, and then "by matching", to sort of feel like tidying loose ends. I now see that extra steps were needed for this to be clearly communicated (just as I am typing my response hehe). Thank you!

5. Polish: Nice! Happy it reads like that! You probably noticed I didn't get time to revisit the sprites as you had suggested in the comments... :|

Sidenote: Thanks man for the constant support, advice and ideas! Glad there was a bit more game this time around. And yes, it seems I have a habit of leaving things a bit unfinished. Could have communicated the "yarn-staircase" drop as an invitation to approach more clearly for sure XD

hehe I also just chickened out and just attacked! ATTACK was always the fastest and easiest option, therefore never an incentive to try throw :D

The Boss felt really intimidating, both design-wise and due to the "old god" intro. The animations really nailed this effect!

Of course, as comments mentioned, choosing the RPG elements was fresh, and loved it even more when the boss blew them up!

Thought the "running" inside the boss to attack was nice! However, since it all ended after the second jump, would have liked something there instead of an empty corridor. E.g., a big mechanical heart? Similarly, when the boss changed states, especially the last stage, it felt a bit out of place running in a corridor when the boss was not just bare bones.

Another amazing entry to the Crunkle universe! (love he didn't need to even introduce himself this time XD)

Finally, I wanted  to thank you for being forgiving and allowing transfer to the ATTACK stage mitigating damage, I escaped so many times in fractions of seconds hehe

so many cool effects! But in my ears, its the machine-gun sound that popped the best!

Was cool to see boss slime changing expressions, so sad it had to be vanquished... 

Great to see your card packs being used again! They are always a treat.

EDIT: wanted to add how cool it was to see the boss mess around with my cards!

liked the frontline/backline gameplay of defending/gathering resources! Was taking my beautiful time playing minecraft while not realising I was being destroyed for 2 waves! (maybe a prompt "press Q/E to jump to the action" would be useful, although you did say READ THE TEXT). 

Similarly to move the gears with CTRL, I was just shooting flares at it to try and collision bump it. 

Was nice to get to play the game after seeing the videos! The mining operation did feel really clunky when trying to move freely, maybe grid based movement would have helped? On the other hand, I found it nice how you overlayed the dirt above a living-gear-world that moved and did things, felt intriguing to explore and dig (so I guess I am countering my own ask hehe). Also, regarding the mining animation, I would have liked it not looping constantly, but rather just go "WHOOOOOOOOOOOOOSH" and return to normal once I stopped pressing the mining button (vs the "WHOOSH-WHOOSH-WHOOSH" that is now if that makes sense).

The bullets felt SUPER SATISFYING TO JUST FIRE, with the gun shells flying all over, the turret looping etc. It was nice to have seen the drones fly off, and then to actually see where the bullets went (and how quickly these were spent) was cool

Great addition of the "BOSS" button, really helps in game jams!

Love the overworld addition! Its great to see you further and further develop this!

Nice idea for the "centipede" boss, fits with your previous theme (I was wondering how you were going to pull it off this time).

I would like to thank you for making the receptionist the only person in the little hub, it took me a while to realise I had to leave the place to go and find the monster (that was easy enough with the exclamation mark!). But I was worried it would be the tournament arena again and I would be lost for days..

was going to mention about the audio cues in such a thematically audio heavy game, but I see you are having this discussion in the comments already :)

As people mentioned, love the art! The animations really bring this to life, especially with the intro and when losing! I was wondering if you had any thoughts of other genre's you were thinking of matching with a rhythm game?

Another game full of personality!

great boss design for such a puzzlish game, it communicates the "patrolling robot" vibe perfectly, matching with the open/close door mechanic. I also wondered how you would use the batteries (nice that you get slowed when holding). Congratulations on submission! GDKO can be very very hard especially as it moves over all these months! I wonder how I managed to submit something this round to be honest...

Super cool art also, with the doors and switches popping out

So so cool in all aspects! I always find myself in loss for words trying to comment after reading GameFavorites' ones, because I mostly agree fully hehe

So I guess I will try with my own words: the wold fit thematically with both the game styles, the ART (phenomenal!)

All characters involved (even the training dummies, the tree, the ornaments etc) fit perfectly! The Cat with the horns and the mouse with the scarf 😽

Love the tutorial (although it was hard for me to get through the cord grapple for a while (felt like the Cuphead journalist XD)

Loved the stealth mechanic as well, with the cat following me as I moved. Everything made the boss fight even better to experience! Top marks from me on this one, such a unique experience with amazing delivery!

loved the idea and the long title made sense hehe

As comments mentioned, 3D was way easier to just spam attack, and the game ended very quickly, so couldn't figure out why 2D would be a reason to stay there. On the other hand, I did get to see the boss!

same, just FPS'd the rectangle off the map XD

Very cool game! Was fun to have the pawn to converse with, great tutorial and depth with the power ups and the risk/reward of shooting vs matching!Took me a few runs to figure out that the monks heal, and as mentioned in other comments, they all died super quickly, so when stuck with the monk upgrades, there was no point to even look down there. As many people mentioned, I never made it to the boss, fought 4 times, 3 waves before the boss was the furthest I got. Will play the other games and see if I can come back. 

Was a superfun experience! Completely annihilated everything with this build, didn't seem to use any magical spells I think. The combination of the genre's did feel that they matched well with each other!

It was nice to see the boss beforehand and get a feeling of what is to come, but as mentioned in some comments, it ended up being a bit underwhelming. I guess the nature of the "left/right" tower defence does limit the options....  Perhaps the boss could mess around with one of the items in my equipment?

if it helps, for all my Godot submissions I tick these boxes on itch, and it does help with the fullscreen

My game screen stopped playing at the end, this is the "chest softlock" I see GameFavorites mentioned perhaps.

Was a superfun experience! Completely annihilated everything with this build, didn't seem to use any magical spells I think. The combination of the genre's did feel that they matched well with each other!

It was nice to see the boss beforehand and get a feeling of what is to come, but as mentioned in some comments, it ended up being a bit underwhelming. I guess the nature of the "left/right" tower defence does limit the options....  Perhaps the boss could mess around with one of the items in my equipment?

if it helps, for all my Godot submissions I tick these boxes on itch, and it does help with the fullscreen

My game screen stopped playing at the end, this is the "chest softlock" I see GameFavorites mentioned perhaps.

Amazingly polished! The explosions, the breaking of the wall, the pacing of all the little enemies before the boss, I loved it! Similarly with the forgiving checkpoints and how they were beautifully integrated with the player just walking over the previous obstacle!
I was expecting something more "distinct" for the game genre competition part, but I guess they mashed well together? Still on the fence on this criterion, will come back later after compared all the other games. Super cool stuff!

EDIT: came back for the genre-mashing criterion, many games weren't as distinct as I would have thought. I guess now, after having played all games, Xanderwood's rule could be interpreted both ways of seamlessly matching them or having them completely separate...

😅I am just another lost internet person, so happy it was useful! 

Oh wow! You are tenacious indeed! So happy i managed to put a "winning" screen, wven as rudimentary.

Wanted to say thanks for seeing it as balanced!
Also, super congratulations on getting there! I didn't playtest a lot, but it must have been super tedious to get there! Great work on finding that was the progression chart, was not very obvious with it hehe. 

loved the style and world building with the snow and darkness vs the fire spirit!The walking in the cold animation was nice! (I got tired of it after the 6+ time, but I assume if you had more time you could have had some other ones. Yet even tired, I kept trying to analyse it, and feel the cold, so I guess it worked as intented in world building.)

I found interesting the narrative path you went for, the cryptic symbols and later rewarding your training for choosing beneficial paths, but after 2 "next areas" I kept spamming the "click next" button without reading much (thank you for including the quick option! I would have given up way earlier!)

amazing game, loved the changing art due to the choices, nice round of "pet, feed, sleep". But yeah, the art was WOW! I kept staring how cool you made everything! 

Tried a few combinations! (Really sad you missed the opportunity to type "eggselent")

the tactile buttons were the highlight for me! Nice usage of "Start >>>" to start hehe
Loved the art in this, the different characters (and ofcourse the buttons!)

Couldn't see all the "RIP +1 Speed +2 Strength", did they add up behind the scenes? Also, I just spammed THUNDER as much as I could when outside of cooldown, that was my OP strategy

thanks for playing Benim! hehe thats how I will market it from now own, "confusing is part of the package"

loved the "knocked-out" animation XD

Came to play tamagotchi, played pokemon instead. Great use of instructions and clear guidance!  

was so funny seeing the Deity asking for an apple XD

Fun game! Played it till the end, great variety of stuff! The zombies with the big clubs just SMACK were my favorite. Once I got access to snipers the game became a lot more streamlined. Also loved the options you offered. I put my little short king to sleep even while he was full hp, got to keep your majesty fresh

very creative mini-games! My favourite was the one you needed to balance on the pole. I also liked the bubbles one.

However, after a while, I just defaulted at spamming things. The training gave the cat points regardless if I trained the skill it advertised it would train, and then I managed to keep playing with 0 and 0 in hunger and happiness. This included the grid game, it didn't really seem meaningful whatever I did.

That being said, its a completely different point than what you made here, which is an amazing feat! I guess "balancing" is what I am commenting on :D I guess the level of amazingness you have created, made me wishing for more meaningful choices.

the SFX were so fun to hear and spam! (especially the "waba-waba-waba")

When the planet changed from one stage to the other it felt so cool! Had to reload a few times to try and play around, the art gets me every time, so cool (+ wabawabawabawaba)

I had no poop to clean in this game however, i guess dropping meteors does have this effect

3:02 was the rumblest time I managed, those fights were sick! I liked how you kept the actions limited, with the automatic feeder vs the hand-dropping of the weight! The changing of the sprites and size was cool to see as well (but those enemies at the end just going ham was cool)

EDIT: Completely forgot about the egg at the start! That was amazing buildup!

I spent so much time playing this! Such a creative approach, such a solid game! The idea of having many windows, resizing them, the automation thingies that helped manage the chaos, and ofcourse the idea to use emojies for everything! Genius

(I agree, that shadow remaining on one side also felt cool for me)

my squashy friend is crying, yet still jumping around.

really cool art and juicy animations! Was so nice to have the little fellow just jumping around (Edit: Its been 2 days and its still jumping, very tenacious fellow)

dragging the bodies and feeding them was the part I mostly liked! Great usage of all the corpses and plants! 
Loved the different progression pathways and the visual/attack changes, you nailed it with the skilltree! (loved the top scoring pet name hehe)

This is a great discussion, thanks both for sharing! My debate as well, glad you went all the way and fully committed to your project! 

And cool how with that mindest you managed to have some Tamagotchi-theme things in there, as well as different pathways to receive the creatures!