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Simple, but fun game, GigaElk! The idea reminds me a lot of the final scene in Men In Black where it does a zoom out and finds that giant aliens are playing with marbles that held different galaxies.

I saw that planet generator asset myself as well and thought it looked really cool. I don't really have a use case for it at the moment but I definitely bookmarked it.

Congrats on getting another submission to this jam. I've been meaning to join again. Unfortunately, this year I completely forgot. Only remembered a couple days back just to find that the jam was already about half over. So I didn't bother since I really already have too much on my plate at the moment. Hopefully next year will be different!

Thank you very much for playing my little game! And thanks for the feedback! I actually never even thought about them being too quick. Good to know! 

Hey, great work, guys! You guys absolutely nailed the atmosphere of the game. I love the sounds and aesthetic! The narrative tidbits were also a good touch even if I wasn't able to complete the game. Also, that pleasant track that played right when you finally can end the day was such a tension-release. Loved that!

Not sure that I was the biggest fan of the gameplay loop though, but obviously game jams are always going to have limitations. 

I was only able to make it to the third day myself (Sorry, Adesh!). For the life of me, I couldn't figure out how to do the wavelength mini-game. I assumed I needed to match them up? If so, then maybe a larger margin of error would have been nice to clear it.

Everything else felt fairly intuitive though. I had a bit of a problem in the beginning but that's only because I needed to learn the layout of the ship. Oh, one thing I would've liked is a simple way to restart the game from in-game. I had to exit and restart the application every time I wanted to give it another go.

All in all, this is impressive to have been put together in just a week. Once again, great work! Kudos to my friends at Studio HipSword! :)

This sounds interesting! Looking forward to future updates!

Hey! Nice to see you're still chugging away at this project. Making tools is something that I always think is super cool game dev's do. I haven't tried to do anything like that because I guess I'm not really sure what kind of tool I'd need or that I even have the know how to make something like that. Have more or less used Unity out-of-the-box.

Thanks for giving it a go! I really wanted to do so much more with this and it had actually been a different project before I stripped it all back. It took me an embarrassingly long time to get this done and I really just wanted to start working on something new. I think I was a tad jaded with it when I finally finished it but as I've looked back over it, I do have a certain amount of pride with this little game.

On a side note, you've just reminded me that I really need to get on playing Celeste. That's been in my "I should really play this game" list for a long while now...

MonoGame sounds neat...and also something completely out of my wheelhouse. I think I'm a pretty horrible programmer.  Honestly, it's one of the reasons why I decided on Unity over Godot because I knew I would be able to find a lot more resources/tutorials to help me learn. Basically, anything I know has all been self-taught through a few online courses, YT videos, and good ol' trial and error. Oh, and documentation when I can actual make heads or tails of it haha. 

Looking forward to seeing your new game then! I sorta fell along the same line of thinking this year in that I wanted to start trying to make my own art. So, I've been getting into using Aseprite for pixel art. I never really considered myself an artist and my stuff has a long way to go but I like the process and find that some of my stuff doesn't look all that bad. I would really like to learn how to make my own music as well but figured that will be a skill I attempt at another time. Only so many hours in the day after all.

I've been meaning to try this out and leave some feedback ever since our mutual friend shared your itch page with me. Sorry, it took so long! 

I definitely get not having enough time to fully realize a game for jam. I tried entering a jam earlier this year and ended up not submitting because I severely underestimated what I needed to get done for it. Good work never the less!

Before this, I had never heard of MonoGame before. If you tried Unity, how does it compare? Unity is basically all I know myself (and by extension C#). I tried Godot for about a week before switching.

Oh, and in my own head canon for the game, I imagined that John was beating up clones of himself. So the John theme was complete John fighting Johns in the John.  Looking forward to seeing what else you come up with when you find the time!

Thanks for this tutorial! It was really helpful for me. I had to switch the perspective because my dude was holding his sword in his left hand but the concept is all the same.

Thank you! Glad you enjoyed it! :)

Heh...well I wouldn't say I always know what it's doing when I code haha. But you're just about right with AI and coding. It is pretty circular. I remember I kept telling ChatGPT that a certain function within Unity's code didn't exist. It would apologize and then slightly changing the name of function...it literally was just making stuff up. Then after I correct it again...it would suggest the same thing it just did a prompt or two ago. 

Hey, great to see you make some progress with this! I definitely get not having the time though and about designing levels. I found the same issue with the little game I made recently. Level design is more of a chore than I originally thought. I mean...I think I still like creating a level that is fun but trying to come up with interesting and different levels is tough. I couldn't even imagine trying to make levels for a puzzle game. Especially since I don't really play puzzle games at all.

As for AI, yeah...when ChatGPT first blew up what...a year and half ago or so? I did use it quite a bit. More so as a crutch for programming. But I found that a lot of the time, it seemed like it didn't really know what it was talking about for specific things related to Unity. Sometimes it could at least point me in the right direction but it wasn't good enough to make entire scripts for me.

As I've grown as a programmer and feel more comfortable with troubleshooting my own problems in Unity and C#, I've been less reliant on using ChatGPT. Usually, I go to documentation and forums first before even bothering with AI.

Anyway, great work, man! Keep it up. Only way to realize the dream of full time game dev, right? 

Thanks! I definitely liked the idea but it could have been a lot better realized. I think the simplicity of the game paired with my own inexperience made it hard to think how to use the gameplay mechanic in interesting encounters.

And yeah, I tried to imply in the beginning text that you could siphon more than just the one time, but I figured it might still be a problem. I wanted to have the key hold down instead of constantly pressing but I couldn't figure out how to do that with Unity's new input system. I suppose I could have just used the old GetButtonDown function.

Having better feedback to let the player know is definitely a good idea though. I hadn't thought of that. Although, I don't plan on doing anything else with this game. I felt I spent way too much time on it and I definitely would like to move on.

Thanks for playing it and giving me some feedback! Oh, and Happy New Year, GigaElk!

I played through the demo and managed to beat every level but the last one on the Standard difficulty. I know that high difficulty tends to be a trend with your games (at least for me), so I don't really know if dialing it down would make much sense. One thing I didn't care for was how fast the last enemy or two would spawn out projectiles. I learned that you could slow down the tooth with the paste but it did feel really difficult to do so. I got into the strategy of chipping away partial amounts of plaque on each of the last teeth so that it would take me as long to get them clean.

I also felt that more feedback when an enemy was spawning a jellyfish in that one level would have been nice. I did eventually notice the animation but sometimes I felt like I'd be in the thick of the teeth only to get hit by a surprise projectile. 

Overall though, this was fun! I liked the chill nature of cleaning the teeth and then the tense action in between. And the early levels to introduce the player to the mechanics and the eventual combat gameplay was really well done! Great work with this and looking forward to trying it again on release!

I didn't use this tileset for my levels but I did use some of your characters! Thanks for your hard work and allowing us to use them for free. If you want to see what I did with them then you can check out my game here: https://stealthyshiroean.itch.io/dont-let-the-lights-go-out

Thank you for the tileset! I used your free version in my game here: https://stealthyshiroean.itch.io/dont-let-the-lights-go-out

I definitely like the look of the updated visuals. I'll keep this bookmarked for now and if I have need of it in the future then I'll grab it with the completed animations.

Thanks! Glad to be back :). Kyoto this time though. Last time we were living in Kumamoto. 

That would be great to see those implemented! But yeah...hardly any time at all. For myself, I thought I'd have something for the game I was working on by now (3 months was my estimate...ha!) but it's been so long since I've touched it. Got new ideas on how to change it and better coding practices that I think it's going to be a back to the drawing board for that one.

Hey, so I know this is super late, but I wanted to provide some feedback. Meant to play this ages ago around the time of the jam. But, for the same reason I didn't join the jam this year, I was caught up in preparing myself and family to move back to Japan. Only just remembered this when I was going through my Itch.io accounts I follow.

Anyway, great work. Completely understand not having enough time to put everything in just in circumstances that don't have distractions. Then throw in other obligations, family, etc., and yeah, it gets hard.

Would have loved to see this with the mini-games you described for each need. As it stands, my needs obviously dropped to zero rather quickly so I constantly needed to evade Death. Which funny enough was pretty easy, I eventually let myself die after a while. I was in great health but everything else was spent...so I guess it's a bit morbid in a way that he just decided to give up because he couldn't handle all the stresses of life...

Good job with being able to get out a submission though, GigaElk! Hopefully I'll be able to participate next year.

I think if you play it from the download it felt better. At least for me, it did.

This was really cool. Love how this changed rather drastically from John's initial concept. Tarodev really wrapped this up nicely though!

Great job with the entry! Not quite sure what I would be able to put together in an hour but I know I wouldn't like the time crunch. So kudos for pushing yourself.

As far as the game goes, obviously it's rough. But it's made in an hour so what can anyone expect? I think the one thing I would have liked to have seen is having a bit more vision ahead of me. Maybe zooming the camera out or something. Instead of being reward for making my jumps, I felt like I was punished for not having clairvoyance.

Wow, I have to say this has kind of opened my eyes as to how to lower the scope of a metroidvania game. I always think too big I guess, but it's given me ideas to maybe try my hand at a small metroidvania one day. 

As far as the game, I liked the level design. Some of the platforming was particularly challenging but spaced out in a way that it didn't feel too frustrating. Although, I do think the game could have benefited from "coyote time".

I liked the art for the robot guy, he was pretty cute. And your music you put together is pretty impressive for such a small amount of time to put this game together. Great work, Olive!

This was a pretty cool re-interpretation of Snakes to the game jam's theme. I'm pretty bad at snakes but I liked this idea and also the incorporation of seeing player's failed attempts to sprout a tree. 

I really tried with this one. Played every day for the last week for roughly about 10 - 15  minutes. Wanted to be able to provide some feedback but I just wasn't able to make it past stage 2. Although, I want to emphasize that I don't think it was because of bad game design. I've watched your devlogs and I know the painstaking thought your put into each encounter. This is just a matter of lack of skill on my part and not wanting to devote any more time to it.

I did see myself getting a little better at times, but then I'd slip up and not be able to clear the second encounter of stage 2 again. I'm sure there's something great here for a fan of these kind of platformers and I want to remind anyone reading this that I'm not the target demographic for the game. I played it with the intent of trying to give a fellow game dev some useful feedback. So to that end, sorry I wasn't able to provide much haha.

Looking forward to your next project!

Okay, played a bit more today. Got up to stage 4 and ranked 22nd on the board. I feel that's fairly respectable. Not much to add though. I can't really find any criticisms with it other than maybe better player onboarding than the little slides we get from the question mark. But for a game of this scope I think that is forgivable. Once again, awesome stuff, man. Looking forward to seeing what you cook up next month!

I showed it to my wife because she's really into chickens. She ended up getting farther than me. Up to stage 4 I think. Was 12th or 13th on the leaderboards at one point. I've been thinking of giving it another go. If I have any more feedback to share, then I'll be sure to share it with you.

Haha, I am so bad at this game. Tried it half a dozen times now and I can't get myself past stage 2....maybe I made it to stage 3 once.  But this is pretty fun though regardless. Keeping yourself to a month to make the game really seems like it allowed you hone in and focus on creating a really tight gameplay mechanic. 

There's a good amount of strategy in such a simple mechanic, which adds to the complexity just in the one-hit, board destroying attack alone. Then add in the power-ups and that you can only one that you most recently picked up. Yeah,  it's good. Really made for some thinking on what I should do next. I also like the art you put together for it.

Great work with this!

Thanks! And for sure. Maybe on a game jam sometime.

Heya, first I want to say that I'm humbled by your interest in the game and glad that you spent some time with it and hopefully enjoyed it. Unfortunately, I haven't worked on Last Stand in about half a year at this point. I decided shortly after I made the last update that I would stop development. I still have my blueprints for for how I wanted the game to be expanded, but I don't have any plans at the moment to return to this project. 

However, I haven't stopped game dev! I'll be releasing something very soon. Hopefully by the end of February or into March. If you're interested in knowing more about my game dev journey, some insight to my process, or are curious to know what I'm working on then please check out my YouTube channel from the video linked on this itch page. Alternatively, you can follow me here on itch as I'm planning my next release to be coming to Itch's platform.

Thanks! And I'm pretty sure I removed the source after I updated it since it wasn't representative of what was playable anymore. 

This is definitely a good start. I think sound design-wise, it did well enough to create a creepy atmosphere. 

I wasn't able to complete the game due to a couple bugs. First was when I was in the Parent's room. I walked to the right and fell off into the void. 

After restarting, I got further, but got to a point downstairs where the darkness engulfed me. It tried to reload me by my last checkpoint but every time it did I was immediately engulfed by the darkness again making it stuck in a loop.

As far as gameplay goes, perhaps this is from only 15 minutes or so of playing, but I felt that the battery in the flashlight goes out way too fast. I tried to use it conservatively to ward off enemies but by doing that I got killed by the darkness. Alternatively, when I was using it, I found that my battery burnt through so fast that I didn't really have it for enemies or to traverse the downstairs anyway. Although, again, take the time put into the demo into account when looking at this criticism as it may not be entirely accurate. Was just the feeling I had.

Anyway, I think this is a great start. I really like the concept. It reminds me of Among the Sleep which followed a similar concept of a child experiencing horror and how it might be rationalized in there head. I'll definitely be following the project and will check back in another update or two!

Wow, 90 more levels?? Have you considered reducing the scope at all?

Yikes, sounds like a lot of redone work. Good on you to keep at it despite the obstacles! I tried out the demo and I like the changes made.  The camera rotation is a nice touch. 

I didn't have an issue with not having a direction indicator this time around but maybe it's because I had already been exposed to the game's  directional controls in your previous demo. Great update and keep up the good work!

Of course! Looking forward to seeing more updates. :)

I just played the demo. Personally, puzzle games have never been my thing but I still thought what you made was pretty clever. A few things I wanted to point out. 

First, on the main menu, I actually had a difficult time trying to start a new game. I tried clicking on New Game and nothing happened. Eventually I figured out that spacebar did the trick but unsure if that was intended or not.

Second, I think there should be an option to rotate the camera. Specifically, on level four there was an instance a couple times when I was trying to determine my steps but I couldn't see the number pickup that was behind my block. I think the ability to rotate the camera or have some type of transparency on the character when its blocking a pickup would help with that.

Finally, I think having and indicator to show the block's facing might be a good idea. What I mean is some sort of arrow pointing where straight forward would be. On the last level specifically, I kept going the wrong way or falling off because for some reason I kept thinking backwards meant coming towards the screen when in actuality I needed to go right. I think it may have been because the angle of that level had been a bit different from the other levels and because it was a lot larger.

But good work! Seems like you have something solid here. 

This is great! Glad to see you still working on stuff! Looking forward to more updates!

Thanks for the feedback! I think that is a good idea too. I'm in the process of completely redesigning the levels for a better sense of progression and for some more story elements to be interspersed throughout. I wanted to create a few "boss levels" so I think that will be a really good idea to maybe slow down the death animation or something for the player to savor the moment of defeating the challenge.

Sounds great, man. Looking forward to it!