itch.io

I'm mostly looking for collaborators to fill out the skill areas I'm not so good at, things like art, music, sfx. But I am open to working with game designers and programmers as well.

I'm planning to do the jam in a pixel art style, with a 24x24 sprite style, but if there's time I can swap out my graphics pipeline for something that's more suited to your art style.

I do all of my games from scratch in a custom engine of my own making. I've released a few games this way. I just wanted to state that upfront because it has a few consequences for things like being able to integrate with their score library. I *might* get to that, but it's not the highest priority for me for this jam.

I'm mostly interested in using the jam to discover some interesting new gameplay. If you're into that, we'll work well together.

For what it's worth, I'm thinking of using this jam to introduce a falling block themed game that's taken from an old project I've pivoted. For me it's just an opportunity to play some games, give feedback and get feedback.

Pure unadulterated ridiculousness. My favorite part is the upside-down text

Thanks for the feedback :-)

Someone's always playing corporation games. Who cares? They're always changing corporation names.

Marconi plays the mamba. Listen to the radio. Don't you remember?

Overall an engaging card battler. After playing a few rounds and reading the instructions, I eventually got the hang of it. 

It would be great to play a version of this game where you don't have to read the instructions to understand how to play. Imagine guiding the player through a series of easy battles, demonstrating how everything works, card by card.

Other similar games in this genre do a pretty good job of that. Hearthstone comes to mind.

This game was made during a game jam so there probably wouldn't have been time to do that sort of thing with the level of detail required for it to be effective. But it seems like the obvious next thing to do make this game better.

Some consistency of design would also help. You have to drag some cards onto an enemy to activate them, while others need to be double clicked to activate. Hearthstone lets you drag an "effect" card on to the battlefield to activate it, and having that option seems a little more consistent. 

Allowing both the double click and the drag for effect cards makes sense, and then you don't need this extra yellow/white border design contrivance to try to communicate the difference. Cards "just work."

I didn't understand healing out of the gate. I think a stronger design involves cards which help you heal. That way the healing feels more like a strategic decision instead of something you get for not doing much.

There is a kernel of something interesting at the core. Once I read the instructions and could understand what is happening, I was able to get into a bit of a groove.

It would be nice for first players to have some sort of play tutorial so they understand the game without having to read.

I noticed I could shoot through enemies while they "phase in". It would be great if you could make the distinction between partly phased-in enemies and fully phased-in enemies much more clear.

The alpha blend had me guessing, and I was frequently wrong. I spent ammo on enemies I couldn't hit.

I recently updated this game to make the earlier puzzles more approachable. Let me know what you think. How far did you get before you hopped off the wagon? I'll playtest your games if you link on this topc
https://tedbendixson.itch.io/cove-kid

Try out my 2D puzzle platformer, Cove Kid. I recently updated it. https://tedbendixson.itch.io/cove-kid

They are a great team. Super grateful to work with them

Cute and unique idea! I found it easy to understand how to control the player character.

Some listing of the controls would be useful for people who can't figure it out right away.

Because the world is procedurally generated, it is possible for it to generate levels which are unbeatable. It would be great if you could modify the algorithm to present the player with a subset of levels which are guaranteed to be beatable.

I wanted to get further into this game, but I got stuck on the first floor. It seemed like the original area was a shop of sorts. I think I purchased or picked a sword. I'm not really sure. 

The first floor didn't have any enemies on it, and there wasn't anything to interact with. I couldn't get back to the shop area, so I had to quit.

I wanted to play this, but I wasn't able to figure out how to place a building. I did get into the building menu, and I did click on some specific buildings. I even pressed 2 to place the building, but I ultimately didn't get a building down.

I love the audio in this game. The sound effects are crisp, and it just feels great to kill fish and collect money.

You also get extra gameplay points for trying to do something new with the idea of it getting darker as you go deeper. I don't think I've played a game that does that.

This game did confuse me slightly when I started it. The very first thing it told me to do is "Press Z," and I complied. This brought me into the store to purchase things. I hadn't yet moved around or shot at things, so I had no idea why I would be purchasing stuff right away.

I think this would be better if you introduce the store later on, perhaps after the player's first successful deep sea run.

This game has really nice visuals, and the audio I did get to sounded great! 

Unfortunately, I couldn't figure out how to progress past the first area where you unlock the stair set by pushing the boulder onto it. 

I did see the controls mentioned briefly at the start of the game, but I couldn't remember them. The controls are not listed on the game's containing webpage.

I would say put the game's controls at the top of the webpage, first thing. Most people don't want to read about the story or the background for the game. They just want to play, and they need the controls to know how to play, so that always goes first.

I wanted to play, but I didn't want to download a RAR extraction tool for Windows 10. Can you upload this game as a .zip archive so we don't need to go download an extra tool to play it?

This game controls quite nicely, and it presents me with a challenge that doesn't overwhelm. 

I wish I had a constant map overlay or some way to see myself in relation to the bigger objectives. The game does present a preview of the course, but the rendering at far distances is kind of grainy, and it is difficult to get a sense of the full course.

I'm also bad at memorizing maps, so even if I do see the full course before starting, I've usually forgotten it by the time I'm playing.

It's space invaders. Excellent execution on the concept. 

I was looking for something more original, but oftentimes game jams are a good way to get programming or some other kind of experience.

I love metroidvania games! This controls quite smoothly, and you gave me some time to get used to the controls before fighting monsters.

It would have liked to aim the gun upwards to hit enemies, like in Metroid.

I also would have liked to see something more original. It's one thing to be inspired by a game in a specific genre and another to copy it. I think you would have gained more experience in game design had you decided to take elements from Metroid but ultimately make your own thing.

I wanted to play, but I didn't want to download a RAR extraction tool for Windows 10. Could you upload this game as a zip file so I don't need to get a separate tool to play it?

I played this longer than I expected. At first, I wasn't sure why you can't control the fish between tiles, but it's still an engaging challenge.

Like Tetris, the game gets faster as you progress. I would have liked to see it speed up more quickly. There was a period of time where I was kind of bored while waiting for the action to pick up.

I like the sound effects and 8-bit aesthetic. I was able to figure out the controls and how to fight the enemies after reading up on it.

Two things.

1. It would be great if you give the player some time to get used to the controls. I was thrown right into the action, and frankly I was overwhelmed.

2. I ran this game on Windows 10, and it opened inside of a postage stamp sized window. You should make it so it opens in a bigger window by default. I eventually figured out you can increase the size of the window, but my guy was already dead by then.

It feels so good to play this game. It is easily one of the best games in the jam. The characters are dripping with personality, and the combat is satisfying but challenging.

I love how the first battle is the tutorial, and although we are thrown into it, we're also given all of the game's controls so we never get lost.

What a wonderful little morsel of boss rush goodness!

I appreciate that the game gives me some time to explore the world before being thrown into battle and having to figure it out. The sound effects are crisp and clean. It's very satisfying to fire the cannon and hear the sounds.

The combat is very challenging, perhaps more challenging than I would have expected. You can never just stop and fire for a little while. You always have to be moving, and that makes it really hard because if you're moving, you're pressing WASD while pressing the arrow keys to aim and the space bar to fire.

I don't know about you, but I don't have three hands. I was stumbling all over myself the whole time.

I think this game would be better if the combat were less punishing. Can you find some ways to incorporate strategies that involve firing without moving? 

Wait really? Yeah that would make it much easier to get around the world, probably quite a bit more fun too!

This has the core of some fairly interesting gameplay. There is a strategy to when you need to throw the ball to get the dog to run away from the enemies.

I did find it difficult to time my sword swings to avoid getting hit the by the enemies. I also noticed that if you throw the ball outside the bounds of the world, the enemies will still go after the dog but you can't get to him to fight them off.

The art would look better if it were more stylized as well. Some of these programs do this anti-aliasing thing, and it makes colors less strong. The text in this game would look better as solid colors.

What a great idea for an educational game. I hate to admit that I don't know or apply many of the less common binary operators, and this is a nice way to familiarize myself with them. That's pretty sad as I am a programmer by trade.

I also hate to admit that I had to save this game for later, as it is kind of late and my brain is definitely too low on juice to properly play it.

I am wondering if a progressive series of tutorial challenges could help people get used to thinking this way, especially with colors.

lol, probably a bug. Thanks for playing!

This is not meant to be a knock on the game itself or the creative vision, but I deal with so many username and password forms in my daily life that I kind of sigh and shudder whenever I see one, even if it's in a game and a part of the world you're building.

This game does have a horror element to it, so maybe the username / password form is a part of that atmosphere?

The computer rebooted on me. I saw the username and password form. I decided not to continue playing because it's too much of a reminder of annoying things I have to do in my daily life.

I gave this a higher gameplay rating because you're genuinely trying to explore a new game idea. 

This one falls into that funny territory where it mixes puzzle and action elements and ends up doing both half as well.

Each level did ask me to do something new. I enjoyed the thinking part of it, but I didn't really enjoy the action part of it as much. I would like to see the same challenges but untimed. 

I would say either focus on this being a great action game or a great puzzle game. Lean really hard into one specific genre and it will end up more focused and better overall.

I wanted to play this on Microsoft Windows 10, but when I ran it for the first time, Windows warned me that the game is trying to make changes to my system. It's probably doing something innocuous, but none of the other games I have downloaded for Windows 10 gave me a similar warning. I'm guessing that's because the files are neatly contained inside of a single folder and they don't need to modify my system.

I'll happily play it once I can run it without getting that warning.

This very well could be the best game I've played in the jam. I'm tied between this one and Golf Sunday. It is a flawless execution of the concept, and it fits so nicely into the 64x64 constraint.

The creator recommends you play with a game controller, and I agree. The experience is much better with one.

This is nitpicking, but I wish there were more of a strategy to avoiding enemy fire. I never quite figured out that part. The projectiles fly sideways, which makes it hard to avoid them if you don't have much room to move on the opposite side. If two bad guys fire at you from the left and the right, you're pretty much screwed and just have to take the hit.

I settled on trying to trap the enemies but I couldn't avoid enough damage to not die eventually.

I wanted to get more into this, but I had to read several paragraphs of text explaining the controls, and I gave up a few paragraphs in. That's unfortunate because it seems like there could be a fair amount of strategic depth to this game. I just never got to it due to the steep learning curve.

Maybe you could move more of that learning into the game itself through an interactive tutorial so we can learn by playing instead of reading a bunch of text.

Handily one of the best games of the jam. I love your choice of ergonomic keyboard controls. I would guess you're the sort of person who prefers to use vim as a text editor.

It plays like A Link to the Past and appears to draw quite a lot of inspiration from it. The enemies are similar, but you get to try a few different strategies for fighting them. I like that I could do both melee and ranged. Both were fun and easy to control.

I also like the idea of having to go back through the level and escape with the artifact. It reminds me of Dungeon of the Endless.

The only thing stopping me from giving this all fives across the board is my desire for a totally new kind of gameplay.

Nice visuals and the audio has that fun 8-bit chiptune style. 

The main battle mechanic presents an essentially meaningless choice. Since the odds of any coin flip are 50/50, it doesn't matter if you pick heads or tails. You could just pick heads each time, and over a large enough sample of coin flips you would get the same success ratio from a statistical perspective.

I think the game would be better if the battles had more meaningful choices.