When your string is near the bottom of the level, and your UI meter at the bottom of the screen is red, let go and you launch at the boss and do damage to it.
Still pretty far in development as playable experience. Nice job.
"you have to fulfill some things like upgraded shops or specific shops"
Ah... I had to rows of unique shops and fully upgraded them. I didn't realize certain shops would spawn more customers. Also isn't clear why you'd want one shop over the other except that presumably, the more expensive shops will pay out more.
And also go download Google Antigravity. You also get free regular tokens just for that, and it is even more powerful.
You're missing out if you haven't tried Antigravity / Codex / OpenCode / Devin / Cursor. They all give free tokens and the AI can directly edit your files instead of writing the whole thing back to you every time.
Overall: A cohesive theme, a good looking main area, and solid fundamentals throughout, but missing the tension and game juice that would make you want to keep playing.
What Worked Well:
Title Screen: Good hover states and cute music.
Main Game Area: Looks great. The theme is well thought out and cohesive across store names, art, copy, and UI elements.
Characters: The little characters moving through the stage and up and down the ladders work well. Their wobbly movement is a nice touch.
UI and Menus: Everything works correctly without issue.
Audio and Animation: The crowd sounds are nice and the closing shop animation is clear and satisfying.
Areas for Improvement:
Distorted Slot Graphics: The graphics placed in empty slots are getting squished and distorted. Needs fixing.
Upgrade Mechanic Not Communicated: I accidentally discovered that clicking a shop and then clicking build lets you upgrade it. I assumed building was only for empty slots. That distinction needs to be articulated clearly.
UI Polish: The spacing, padding, and layout across menus and UI elements could use a polish pass.
Static Crowd Count: It always seems to be the same number of customers walking around. Having that number grow would add a sense of progression and life.
No Tension or Win Condition: There's no win or lose state, which makes it feel like a functional cookie clicker without the hook that keeps you clicking. Some game juice, the kind slot machines and freemium mobile games use, would go a long way.
Shop Payout Stopping: After about 20 months the old shops stopped giving payouts and it wasn't clear why. Keeping slots fresh seems to be the mechanic at play, but the implementation isn't communicated clearly enough.
Overall: In its current state this is unplayable, and the submission shows very little effort.
Areas for Improvement:
No Thumbnail: Not even a cover image was uploaded. That's the first thing anyone sees on itch.
Shrill and Glitchy Audio: The sounds hurt my ears and glitch out throughout. In the title screen and game over state the bouncing sound fires repeatedly and doesn't stop.
Game Starts on Title Screen: The game is already running while you are still on the title screen, meaning you can die before you even choose to start playing.
No Restart: You have to refresh the browser to restart. There needs to be an actual restart button.
Glitchy Visuals: Green squares appear all over the screen constantly that shouldn’t.
Impossible to Play: Even if you refresh and jump in quickly, you die within a couple of seconds. There's no window to actually play the game.
Overall: A solid visual foundation with a functional 3D world, but the game balance needs work and a potential softlock is a critical issue to resolve.
What Worked Well:
Title Screen: Good to see hover states on the menu buttons.
Visuals: The 3D world works well. The plane baseline, firing sprite, and enemy plane all look good.
Areas for Improvement:
Hitting the Enemy: It was very tough to land a hit. The hit detection, hitbox size, and projectile firing needs tuning.
Running Out of Ammo: I ran out of ammo without finishing the enemy. If there's no way to recover from that, the game is softlocked. That needs to be addressed either with ammo pickups, a reload mechanic, or some way to reset the encounter.
Overall: The jelly physics are fun to play with and the audio details show some care, but the game loop is too thin and too short to feel like a finished experience.
What Worked Well:
Audio: The mine explosion sounds and the low pass filter to make them feel underwater are nice. The stretchy sound when directing the player is good too.
Visuals: The red UI arrows when dragging are a quality touch. I like the color palette of the assets.
Areas for Improvement:
No Consequences: I touched the bombs and nothing happened. If the mines have no effect and there is plenty of time, there's no tension and no reason to care about anything on screen.
Fling Mechanic: Releasing to fling the player doesn't seem to do much, especially since you can just drag across the screen anyway. The fling needs to feel distinct and purposeful.
Too Short: I touched all the jellyfish with a lot of seconds left and had nothing to do. The experience feels like a physics demo more than a game.
HUD Getting Cropped: The SCORE and TIME LEFT elements are cropped off screen.
"Time's Up" Screen: The end screen text and UI haven't been given any graphic design treatment. It should match the design language of the rest of the game. Text is also being cropped off screen.
The chat button being the only hoverable thing made it feel more like a static image than an actual phone with apps.
If all the apps could be hovered, then presumably you'd be able to click on them too... and that means something would need to happen when clicking them all as well which would be a bunch of unnecessary work.
So, I dunno. Maybe there is another way you can get into the app that is more convincing world building? Like you are actively in some other app, like playing a snake game or something, and it pauses and the AI app notification scrolls in from the top?
Overall: Genuinely impressive technical ambition and some standout production moments, but the pacing drags and too many interactions feel like going through the motions rather than playing a game.
What Worked Well:
Intro Video: Using video for the intro is potent and not something I've seen done before. You've now used it twice across your submissions and it works. The music starts with a bang and is catchy. I'd like the MP3 download.
3D Character: The 3D model and voice of the guy in the intro were top notch.
SOGO Dashboard: Nice graphic design, and the voice sine wave looks really nice.
AI Character Integration: This is the first time I've seen someone wire a real LLM into a live game. Chatting with Stephanie (and SOGO) as an actual AI is a genuinely cool mechanic and a real differentiator.
Performances: The emotions and performance from Stephanie were pretty good. The boss too.
Plot: I approve of the AI saving the birds as a plot point. I think we're going to see something like that actually happen after the Singularity.
Areas for Improvement:
Being Frozen While the Character Talks: Not being able to move while he talks to you at the beginning, and the boss later was frustrating.
Computer Desktop: The desktop with the chicken feels too much like a flat image rather than an interactive OS. A hover state on the icons would instantly fix this, especially since Nextflix is the only thing you can actually click on.
Missing UI Sounds and Transitions: Screens appear instantly and without sound throughout. Basic navigation sounds, hover states, and transitions would go a long way. The SEND button in SOGO really needs a hover state.
Nothing You Type Matters: I typed "blah blah blah" every time in the first SOGO response sections. If nothing the player types has any effect, it isn't really gameplay.
Returning to Desktop After Every Clip: Every time a video clip ends it drops you back to the desktop instantly. Staying inside the Nextflix app with proper transitions would feel much more coherent.
Unclear Progress Trigger with Stephanie: I had no idea I needed to chat with her enough times to unlock the "click to continue" button. That needs to be communicated clearly.
Exiting Apps: There's no button to exit Sleck or Nextflix, which had me clicking around feeling stuck.
Video Clips Feel Random: The clips were random enough that watching them felt like a chore. Nothing changed after watching them all. The footage itself was pretty impressive in places, but it needs to connect to something that matters.
Pacing: The game moves slowly and I wasn't having fun. I was just trying to finish it. The real LLM mechanic is your most unique idea and many players might quit before they ever reach it.
