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glad you liked it! thinking back, the swarm scene and the final train ride / metamorphosis scene both stick in my head as the sort of "essential" pops of the story; that is, the moments that I felt like needed to be really perfect to carry out the whole image I was going for. Knowing they both worked at all is still really assuring, especially like, a year after originally posting it. Thanks for the comment~

Absolutely wonderful post. Love to see everything here done so... comprehensive. Taking a minute to shill Twine as an option, as well: it's primarily just HTML, CSS... a dead simple "engine" for text-focused games and stories.

then die i guess

I really loved the concept, even if I ended up getting really sad whenever a sheep ended up getting hurt :x

The controls were good, but I would make the blur an optional element. Like Stusse below, I'm pretty sensitive to that sort of thing. 

With that said, the mechanics here are really fun! My main issue really comes down to what everyone else has mentioned the whole "sheep getting stuck on walls" thing. 

Wanted to highlight the mecha-wolf design; loved it to death. 

Had a good time with this one! Good job!

I only just realized you did Absurd back during the Scream Jam, too! I was meaning to follow you forever now, glad to actually get around to that haha. Really really happy to see you here as well! 

God, I adored the art and music in this. The pixel art of the various mechs are so wonderful, and I'm a sucker for the pieces that accompany you digging through the world.  Just a deeply relaxing game to me. I would have liked a bit more feedback while digging, personally; like, noises of going through the dirt and rock and stuff, very minecraft-y sound design, but that's a minor nitpick when the rest of this looks and feels as good as it does. 

I literally can not hype up the art of this enough. Amazing job, everyone involved!

I'll admit that I haven't been able to get someone else together to play this with, so I can't fairly give it a rating *just* yet, but what's here looks wonderful. It's clear you've put a lot of thought into this, the flavor of it all is amazing, as Drexler mentioned. The rulebook is really easy to parse, and even without playing I have a great idea of how the game plays.

I mostly wanted to comment cause I know physical games tend to get a bit overlooked during Jams like this, and I always found that pretty unfair. I always found games like this really interesting, and I'm always excited to see making them, yknow? I'll try to get someone together to play this by the end of the night, and I'll rate it then; thank you and great job for making this. 

The writing is nice, and as the central point here I feel like focusing on that was the right move. I get a pretty good idea of the character between Guy and Minerva, and capturing that well within a limited time frame is pretty impressive in it's own right. Would have loved more in the way of art assets; backgrounds, UI and UX elements during the VN sections, more portrait art, but as is it definitely gets the essentials across.  More in the way of audio design and music would be great as well.

The 3D sections are rough, admittedly, but as a proof of concept it's very neat. Having the combination of VN and FPS gameplay is neat, and would love to see it expanded on.

I'm not a fan of AI art in general (consider it moral grounds, haha), but for a solo dev it's understandable; having it as a sort of blueprint-y foundation works, and in a game jam game I understand it, but I would love to see actual artists giving a take on Minerva.

Overall, I like what you're doing here, and would love to see more in the future. Good job!

Definitely felt bad for all the mech employees; kinda saw them all rising up and beating up the big bad mecha-tycoon as its own sort of win-state, haha. 

Movement was nice and snappy, there's some good humor here, the animations are wonderful... I have some issues, mainly stuff like the Money Gun both firing too slowly to really counteract things fast enough, and being a bit hard to aim at first, and the overall difficulty of the game being a bit high. Definitely felt like things snowballed fast; once a mistake popped up, two more took its place. 

Still, a really fun concept that feels pretty great to play. Great job!

Very fun! I agree with some of the posters here that some additional feedback on things like enemy damage and your own weapons could nice, and having better ideas of how damaged buildings are would help let the player prioritize things a bit... But you have the feel of flying a Gundam style mech around, and I really can't complain about that. The moment-to-moment control is great, and I have absolutely no complaints there. Loved the spectacle of the swarm of flying enemies all darting right at a single building; it's not only cool to see, but helps keep the actual gameplay a bit less chaotic and manageable.

I did have the issue of an enemy getting stuck in a building; I was able to get them with the splash damage of the rocket, but it was a bit worrisome at first, haha. 

Had a great time with this one. Thanks for making it! Great job!

Rest in peace to our brave Lizard fighters...

This was fun! I'll say though, the music was nice, but it made the whole thing feel kinda sad, yknow? 

Only real issues I see if that the aiming is a bit inconsistent, since the shots don't really align with the crosshair well if things are close to, and the movement speed was really heavy, but in a pretty floaty, irresponsive way. 

Otherwise, I think you did a good job! Thanks for submitting this!

Really enjoyed this one. Your team has a really nice grasp of what makes Armored Core-likes fun, honestly; there's a good feel to the movement itself, and the guns themselves are very satisfying. Loved the audio and the overall look of the game; my issues mainly come down to stuff like polish. Would've loved to see more feedback from taking and giving damage, aside from the UI changes and fire on the enemies. Adding some animation to the guns would do wonders in making them feel stronger, or at least feel a bit better. Still, this is a great lil' game, and I appreciate y'all creating it! Good job!

As mentioned, the worldbuilding here is fantastic, and I'm always happy to see another Twine user in these things, haha. You really have a way of painting a picture; it really makes me wish there was more time to really jam out even more background info on the setting, or at least get more time with the characters... eh. Game Jams, Cest la Vie. 

The RNG mechanics do add a bit of spice to it, even if I routinely got pretty bad rolls. Having that layer of uncontrollability to it can be a risky proposition, but the way you leverage makes it work great.  The button mechanic took a bit of getting used to, but totally works, so absolutely no complaints mechanically. Great job there.

Aesthetically, I wish there was a bit more time for sound design, music, art, even some varied font choices or more use of color, but with the writing being the central thing here, I really really can't blame you there; the most important aspect is what was focused on, and it shines for that.

Would absolutely love to read more of your work in the future, and it's great to see such great writing from a solo dev. Can't say it enough, great job!

Oh my gosh... This is exactly what I hope for from a Mech Jam. It's absurd how well this comes together, it has so much of that wonderful Mechwarrior energy running through it that I can't help but adore it. The look of the game is simply to die for;  it has a bit of the "chunkiness" of MechWarrior 2, but focusing on texture work did so much to elevate the style here. 

More than anything, you really nailed the *feel* of piloting a mech; cumbersome, heavy as hell, but with this really smooth feel of control to it all. Mechanically, all I could ask for is a bit more of a gradual increase or decrease to the throttle, cause from holding forward down for a second, you start *zooming*.

Aside from that, the sound design is really impactful and strong; seeing you sourced a lot of it from freesound, excellent use of assets. 

I can't praise this enough. If I had to pick a winner, I think it would have to be this one. Amazing, fantastic job.

the only "update" was uploading the untouched .zip file so people could easily download the game if they prefer. There's no explicit rule against that, as it's still entirely within the realms of the project being worked on within the jam. A few people have done this because it's not against the rules to make slight alterations, or in my case, literally just posting an alternate play method.

Loved the Space Harrier take on a mech shooter, and the designs of the Mekjam and the enemy ships were fun! Gave me some Gummy Ship vibes from Kingdom Hearts, haha.

Still, I had some issues. I think the way the mech aims is very unwieldly; if you aim anywhere but dead-on, wherever the mech is situated, you're bound to miss most of your shots. Doing it closer to how Space Harrier handles aiming could benefit the game, personally, but that's just one way to handle it.

Otherwise... Audio had a way of playing overtop of itself, which leads to some really overwhelmingly loud moments, like when levels start. Oh, and during the final level... the initial zoomed-out build to the boss is nice, but you tend to just... fly right past it, rendering the boss unbeatable. That's on top of the fact that the bosses across the board don't really... do all that much.

Still, there's so much here I enjoy, and the fourth wall breaks in the story are really fun! Definitely something I enjoyed going through, and I'd love to see more of your work in the future!

The feel of the game is so good oh my god. While there isn't a *ton* there, depth wise, oh my god it feels stellar. Seeing more depth to the combat would be amazing, as would some variety in like, enemy encounters and the like, butttt for a game jam project I don't care, it's so cool omg

Admittedly I guess you could call it like, a narrative exploration game, or even just a straight up visual novel. Like, as much as wikidiving is a touchstone if the games design, there's just as much DNA from stuff like Her Story in the mix. 

...all of this is to say, I don't think wiki game is a real like, genre or anything, but it's a decent descriptor of what the game is, lol

The aesthetic and look of this game are top notch: the art direction really does cover that whole PS1 aesthetic well, and that nice pre-rendered animation of the mech at the beginning, oh my god, so perfect... And the music is wonderful as well, honestly!

But... the game definitely has issues as far as bugs goes. The most prominant of which probably has to be some crashes when enemies spawn in while you're locking on; it seems to consistently crash the game, which is a bummer...

Mechanically I have some complaints; the health system, as mentioned in other comments, isn't very clear, and the fade-to-black with no animation gives you very little feed back to when you're dead. I can't even tell when I'm grazing against shots or getting hurt by them, honestly.

The element of bullet-spam is nice as a "final upgrade" sort of thing (think how like, CAVE shooters handle upgrades and the like), but from the start it does feel a little... I dunno, spammy. Still, it *feels* good, and that matters more imo.

Only other issue I have is the explosion sound issue, as mentioned by Studio Lemi. Really had to turn the game down cause of it... which is unfortunate, cause the music is really nice ;;

I'm being a little harsh, but only cause shmups are important to me and I know you're doing something really cool here, just something that needs more time with. I would be beyond happy to see you work on this more, honestly. And of course, good job for making this in the first place!

ayyyy vn gang lol

Love the aesthetic; the music and look of the game really contribute to this dreamy vibe, as Drunk Sylvari said. My issues mostly come down to proof-reading issues, typos and the like; stuff that's totally excusable in a game jam. 

In hitting a feeling, you knocked it out of the park! Would love to see you expand on this, and I'm looking forward to seeing more of your work in the future! This was super cool!

I enjoyed giving this a shot. I ran into a similar issue to JetDungeonDragon, in that it's relatively easy to break combat. I had some slight questions: namely, with the merchant, it tells you to roll a 2d6 despite only giving 6 options total. I sort of assumed it was a type for 1d6, so I just went with that.

I think having more variety in events could have made this  really special: I think solo games work best as a way for the player to build this character they create in their mind, make some sort of story out of it, and that just doesn't really happen here. 

Mechanically, the central loop of it all makes sense, and works well. I commend you for making a game like this general within the timeframe.

Would absolutely love to see this expanded on, maybe given a bit more variety in encounters if possible, things like that. Still, I think you did something neat here. Good job!

There is a really nice idea here, and the art is pretty great all things considered. Would have loved some sort of sound or music, but with the limited time frame, I get it.

I had some slight issues; mostly stuff like the pilot's attack being very stiff and clunky, the overall slowless of handling the mech... With so little feedback, audio or otherwise from everything, it just ends up feeling pretty unsatisfying. 

Still, the central mechanic here is neat, and I'd love to see it expanded on. 

Good job!

Yo, I really enjoyed this! Great work!

I have some minor critiques here and there; stuff like certain weapons being... well, Not Good (the shotgun 💀) and occasionally not being able to aim as high or as low as necessary to hit some targets, as well as the levels being a bit too... sprawling, I guess, but overall there's a lot here that's great. The sorta PS1/Early 2000s PC game aesthetic is really wonderful, and the overall feel of the game (i.e, movement speed, how the guns handle, etc) feels great. You did great, thank you for making this!

Really enjoyed this one! There's so much here that feels very well designed; I get some of the complaints with movement speed, but the way that that effects combat itself, with the huge focus on positioning (and the risk that gives with the turrets) is really satisfying. With that said... having the ability to dash up and down would be nice! ;;

I get what you meant on building an atmosphere with the movement and slower pace of the game, and I think you did a great job on that. With that said... maybe leaning further into that atmosphere with the music or, I guess, feel of the game could do something neat? I'm not entire sure, but with the resource management and everything, there was a part of my mind thinking of some sort of survival horror-y squad based thing in this style that could be absolutely amazing... But that's just me rambling, haha.

Also wanted to bring up the sound design, the *feel* here; you did an amazing job in that regard. The sound of the massive footsteps, the puff of smoke and sparking from boosting... there's so much that carries the feeling of piloting a mech, and you captured that so well.

Only other real complaints are with the teammate AI: when it comes to turrets, the way they go after enemies tends to just get them killed, which is, uh. not the most fun. Otherwise, there's stuff like teammate aggro messages popping up multiple times as they go in and out of range, which ended up being a bit annoying...

Otherwise though, fantastic work! I really, really enjoyed this one, as I said. Hoping to see more from you in the future!

Thinking about this a tiny bit, the transition there is on a time trigger to match up with when the in-game typing ends; hypothetically they should still progress, but you'd basically just be sitting there for as much as half a minute 💀💀💀

I'll... Think of something, lmao

I really, *really* loved this one. One of my favorites of the Jam.

You really got the "mech-feel" down; I know some people had some issues with it, but the inherent "clunkiness" and weight of a mech is what really sells the whole giant robot thing, and you nailed it. On a feel level alone, yours goes a bit above and beyond. 

The... weapons, lets say, all feel pretty good; I feel some audio feedback would be nice; the topping gun is a good example, having that big, heavy grenade-launcher thud to it. Having that with the Cheese Gun and Sauce Gun would be nice, especially since they both have great animations behind them (especially the Cheese Gun. I love that thing so much)

Only other issue I had was some collision issues here and there when dropping the pizzas; I lost a couple to the Oven Void. I could really see this expanding in fun ways if that's where you'd wanna take it; even if not, it's really wonderful as is. Great job!

Admittedly the transition was made with kinda waiting things out in mind: I'm not surprised it kinda breaks if you skip past it, but I guess that's on me for not designing with that in mind! Without a bit of testing, I'm not exactly sure how I'd go about fixing it right this second, but it's something I'd definitely want to figure out -- Especially since you're not the only person to bring it up, haha.

I am really glad you liked it though! In general, the Ceresian side of the story was written by me, and the Vega Hawthorn/UETO line was written by Woodaba. I was a bit concerned with the length being a bit "much" for a Jam game; a whole hour-plus story *is* a big time investment. But... well, jeez, "best entry" makes it feel all worth it yknow? So thank you ;;

And yeah, I was really happy with the art and music here; of the three artists I've worked with, I've respected the work of two of them for a long time (to the point of working with at least one of them before, ha), and the graphic designer we got did really wonderful work... Even with the couple issues I have with this game (mostly just not having the time I wanted to proof read lmao), I'm still beyond happy with how this came out, and I'm ecstatic that people like it as much as they do.

Loved this one! Would have loved some sound, as mentioned, but the story didn't necessarily need it. Really nice to see another game in twine as well, haha. Really adored what you were going for here. Wish I had more to say, but... loved it! Great job!

I adore the idea here. The game looks great, the music fits... I wish there was more prominent sound effects, but ah well. 

My main issue with the game comes down to the handling of the mech. To be blunt, without any sort of "make up" mechanic like rubber-banding, you crash one and you might as well give up. Combine that with opponents more-or-less immediately lighting you, and it's a bit of a mess. With some polish to the game feel of it all, I think this could be great; I just think there are some pretty prominent issues here.

I adore the idea here. The game looks great, the music fits... I wish there was more prominent sound effects, but ah well. 

My main issue with the game comes down to the handling of the mech. To be blunt, without any sort of "make up" mechanic like rubber-banding, you crash one and you might as well give up. Combine that with opponents more-or-less immediately lighting you, and it's a bit of a mess. With some polish to the game feel of it all, I think this could be great; I just think there are some pretty prominent issues here.

I adore the idea here. The game looks great, the music fits... I wish there was more prominent sound effects, but ah well. 

My main issue with the game comes down to the handling of the mech. To be blunt, without any sort of "make up" mechanic like rubber-banding, you crash one and you might as well give up. Combine that with opponents more-or-less immediately lighting you, and it's a bit of a mess. With some polish to the game feel of it all, I think this could be great; I just think there are some pretty prominent issues here.

I know the game itself isn't finished, but there's so much here I genuinely enjoy. The overall feel of the basic movement and jumping feels spot on, the the overall look of the game (yknow, very voxel heavy) is really wonderful to look at. The monster design is fun, and there's a lot going on with the style of the game as a whole. 

My real issue comes down to some issues with combat; namely, the basic attacks are agonizingly slow, to the point of defining the entire feel of the game over the movement tech available to the player. A lot of the game as is relies on hoping these slow, *slow* animations connect, and against bosses like the squid-guy, it's just hopeless. Making the animations snappier would be a start, as would adjusting hitboxes for attacks from both the bosses and the player, but there's definitely something good here. Nice job! 

I really loved the art and music of this game! Really stands out in a very visually pleasing way. Also, the bunnies were cute.... maybe not *gangsta*, but cute...............

Mechanically, the game is a tiny bit messy -- As xenological mentioned, you can basically trivialize gameplay by just mashing options over and over, so you can more or less get infinite hits in before the enemy can get a single one. It's just not very satisfying without some sort of limit to what you can do before an enemy reacts.

Also, to be a bit blunt... the tutorial could use some work if you plan on building on this game. Sure, it's basically rock-paper-scissors, but the tutorial image used to convey that is really busy >_>

Still, love so much about this! Would love to see more work from you in the future, and again, the art is so good omg

I'll be blunt that there's a ton of issues here. Enemy AI is borderline non-existent, the game is sort of broken in half just by kicking once and punching over and over, the training mode is... kind of pointless *and* broken on a mechanical level? That and while I get using AI art to hit the deadline, almost none of the art comes together in a pleasing way. Plus, the hover-over audio for the main character is... a little weird, if I'm being blunt?

I'm being harsh, but it's cause the idea of a mech-based fighting game is an absolutely wonderful idea; I just think with a bit more time in the oven, there could be something really nice here.

Loved the overall aesthetic of this! I have a handful of nitpicks with it; mainly stuff like the buzz-saw basically being pointless (or at least really quirky regarding hitboxes; I'm not sure), there not being a lot of feedback from damage across the board, and... maybe the fact that the final boss can just be shot at the second you can see it, meaning you can kill it without it really having any chance to fight back.

Overall, there's so much I liked here, though. The visual look of everything is, to be really blunt, sick as hell - I loved it. The color palette is a *bit* static, but given the time frame and everything, stellar style without a doubt.

One last thing though; the flash from the guns is a nice touch, but it definitely is a bit harsh on the eyes; While I was streaming it, I had someone mention that an epilepsy warning *might* be a good idea? Totally up to you, but worth considering.

Either way, good job! Amazing work!

Great little puzzle game!  The central mechanic is really fun, and the sound design of it really adds a lot of Oomph to every shot; makes the whole thing really satisfying. Would love to see more experimentations with what you can do with the concept; the whole ice gimmick in the last half is a good idea, I just would love to see more.

Good job!

Playing through this, I was rather mesmerized. Absolutely wonderful as an aesthetic piece; the backgrounds and artwork are killer, to be blunt. The writing as well is wonderful, brutal and merciless while having this erotic pulse running through it that just drives me crazy. So fucking good. 

I'm glad to hear this was as uncomfortable as I was aiming for! I was worried about how well it would connect with people, especially with how short the work-time on it was.  I'm really happy to hear you enjoyed(?) it though! Thank you for reading!

thank you! Honestly.... It kinda was the same for me lmao. I guess when given the prompt of "do something scary", just using all my phobias is an easy out lmao... I'm glad you enjoyed this, though!

Now that this is all said and done, thanks to everyone who played and rated the game! Seeing as "Story" and "Horror" were the two categories I was gunning for above all, placing top ten in both (4th and 8th, respectively) is honestly really nice to see! 

I guess looking back, I'm seeing the consistent issues with Twine as an engine starting to bite me a bit. Whether by it's reliance on next-to-no graphical elements, or the fact that based entirely on technical issues, essential parts of the story (such as music) might not load... I'm wondering if sticking with it is a smart option, going forward. Guess it's time to experiment, a bit!

This is also the first game I truly collaborated with someone else for, in this case the wonderful ConeClvtist on music. More than anything, his involvement not only made the game great in a way I could not, but it shows how essential a team is in the grand scheme of things... I am clearly a writer, but to step beyond that, well... I'll need a bit of help, moving on. 

Well, that's basically my huge take aways, now that the dust has settled... Again, thank you everyone for playing! I hope you enjoyed reading Neotrogla as much as I enjoyed making it! 

Considering these results came in at 5am my time, I'm going to get back to sleep... Thanks again, and congrats to all the winners!