Thank you for this thread! Here's out little arcadey type game!
https://itch.io/jam/shovel-jam-2025/rate/3733789
Any feedback or ratings are appreciated! 
A member registered Jul 21, 2025
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Another computer based game! The old PC aesthetic is always so cool to see how people interpret!
Anyways, a point and click puzzle game with a lovely, cozy art style! I love the little piranha plant! That being said I couldn't complete it. My laptop's trackpad doesn't allow for simultaneous clicking and scrolling. (Believe me I tried ;-;) But from what I did see, the presentation was super charming!
This hame jam makes me feel like I need to get a proper mouse...
Woah, a survival crafting game for a game jam!? As your first submission!? Woah... that alone has my admiration .
The pixel art is nice to look and and effectively conveys each resource! Nice having tinier icons for being a drop on the map compared to the larger icons in your inventory! After figuring out my inventory and reading the starting book, I managed to get quite far down the line of progression! Took me a while to learn I could get stone naturally though... and I didn't seem to be able to obtain the purple ore. Placing crafting stations also seemed a bit finnicky with having large collision boxes and no clue what was up with the placement range.
I admire the ambition and desperately hope you resume to expand upon the concept well after the game jam! There's great potential here and you've got the right ambitions for it!
Hey I get the feeling of wishing I'd done a touch more research before the event proper. I wasn't a coder for the jam, only an artist; but I'd never done pixel art before! I knew I agreed to help my friend with the game assets since he's not the best with making art himself. But I myself had never really done pixel art before! I've played a lot of arcade-type games so I felt I had a good feel of the "look" I wanted to go for but man was it intimidating actually getting into figuring out how Aseprite worked... I was familiar with digital art but woah making pixel art feels like an entirely new process compared to how I usually go about drawing! But regardless of the slight stress, I think I also managed to pull through with some decent designs in the end! Not my best work, far from, but enough to say I'm proud to have contributed!
https://itch.io/jam/shovel-jam-2025/rate/3733789
This is the game by the way! If you're curious, I helped make the items, the enemies, the bomb + explosion, and even the special encounter at the very end! ;D I definitely feel like we can improve on a lot of aspects of the game for a potential steam release! And same goes for your project as well! Even well after the game jam is over I bet you can polish up your project to improve upon it so it's in an even better state than this initial submission release! Or maybe even step away from it for a but so you can learn more and expand your knowledge so you can come back to it with a more experienced mindset!
But whichever you decide to do, be proud that you completed a project! Making a game is hard, I can barely comprehend coding and I doubt just making the art holds a candle to the entire process of game development. But this was fun to participate in regardless!
Quackers!
...What !? The Duck!? No like, wow! I wasn't expecting this! The simplistic graphics clashing with the shockingly high-res duck feels perfect for the overall tone of this game. A shockingly fun puzzle platformer with a hilarious narration to boot! Most of my deaths were from trying to collect the pizza hahaha... The controls felt really good too! A nice good speed with a comfy and not too floaty jump!
Some small feedback from me. Sometimes dying doesn't reset a few of the puzzle areas. But perhaps these could be used as speedrun strats? Also my laptop made it quite hard to click on the duck while airborne.
...Quack? Quack.
A fun take on a really forward interpretation of the theme! Not often you just see microgame collections like this! The fun trippy title card makes a good first impression for just how silly and simple yet complex this one is. With the mini-game changing every time you press it it's quite a funny first play through! Aiming for a highscore is good incentive to keep playing as well! The games might be a bit simple but the fact that all of them are stored within this single game is really impressive!
Good job completing the jam and a great first project too!
I uh... think that divorce ending might be for the best haha...
Oh man my laptop did not like this one but I tried my best I swear! It's hard for me to put into words exactly how I felt with the art style but I know I liked it! Like this weird combination of an old DOS game and a flash game. Honestly the whole game has a flash-game type of vibe to it! I might not be the best of it but I know there's something pretty special here!
A fun little short experience! Remember to kiss your wife!
A fun platformer with a really neat premise and some fun movement options to boot! A bit punishing in the starting areas where you're just trying to learn but fun nonetheless! Unfortunately I don't think I was really able to properly play this as my laptop's trackpad doesn't allow for easy simultaneous use with buttons and keyboard presses. It's dumb but we carry on! The character animations were nice and the whole world slowing down to accomodate for your dash is a really nice QOL touch!
My only really small nitpicks is that I wish the background had a bit more to look at. And that the player character moved just a little bit faster. And the aforementioned punishing learning phase.
This seems really fun to speedrun though! Great potential for this to be its own fully expanded project as well!
I might be dumb having spent the first 5 minutes just clicking and dragging around the birds before I realized I could move hahaha...
Ohmigosh this was so cute! :O The art had a super dreamy aesthetic, the music was catchy and didn't get too repetitive after a while, and the gameplay loop was really engaging and versatile! I lot of my thougths feel like they'd just be echoing others but this was soooo cute! Good job!
A few small bits of feedback, the wand seems most effective at melee range which made projectile size feel kind of obsolete. But also a lack of contact damage made it easy to get in the face of enemies and knock em out quickly! Also enemy hit boxes seem deceptively big unless there was something damaging my ship that I just wasn't aware of.
Really good, really really good! This was a blast can totally see this being expanded upon into its own thing!
A charming little experience I'll be it definitely in need of some polish. The character you play as is pretty cute! And the premise of completely starting the world anew is actually really fascinating to me. One I haven't seen explored much elsewhere either!
That being said, the game still feels just a touch hollow, regardless of the state of the world. Using mouse to interact with things is a bit awkward and there's no indicator of what you can or can't interact with in the over world. Items have this though so that's good! Combat isn't bad, just a touch repetitive. The wind up and punch collisions could use some work.
But for what's here? This is a pretty promising start to a rogue-like type game! Good job!
There's quite a bit of subtle charm to this! The shooting animation, the slight sarcasm of the starting sign. For a first platformer it's a pretty good first project! Not to mention the slightly more complex things to code like fall damage and coyote time! All really impressive!
Although there's a bit that makes the experience a bit tough to properly enjoy. The enemies move way to fast for the player's fire rate. And once you're against a wall they rapid fire instantly KO you... The jumps, while feeling nice to control, are a bit tough for being the first thing you encounter in the game.
Overall, good job completing this for the jam! Would love to see it a bit more polished up!
While short and simple, this is a pretty good start as your first platformer! The controls felt nice and the jump was satisfying to use. I was even surprised there was a wall jump! Not many try and go for that right off the bat! The enemies moved a bit fast and the sword seemed ineffective but it wasn't too hard to dodge them! And the sprite work itself was also simple but effective! Could immediately tell what was an enemy.
A few bits of feedback! Allow for movement while using the sword, or at least keep the stop as brief as possible to not disrupt game play. A few bits of scenery decor couldn't hurt either! Also the screen transitions seemed to revert any extra health I had back to the start.
A good first step! Good job and completing it for the game jam!
Mike, The Review, Please!
Okay so I left a comment when I first played this but some authentication problems made it get sent to the void I think?
So to summarize, I love the presentation and and humor within the premise of this game! Plus all the cute art and references made me eager to keep playing! A few minor bugs here and there but overall I really enjoyed this!
This is just like that dream I had...
Woah! A speedy, starry platformer that makes a pretty good first impression! The dreamy aesthetic is really charming with prominent theme of stars. Although it was a lot of white and left a bit to be desired. The controls are a touch awkward at first but once you get used to them it's pretty fun to try and navigate the level as fast as you can! A few wall collision issues here and there but nothing that got me completely stuck!
Lots of potential with this! And for being made within the game jam time span? You should be proud !
More of a bard than a squire myself haha...
Woah! This was your first dive into game jams? Really impressive stuff this! The pixel art style is really well made and each character having multiple dialogue portraits is also quite impressive! The writing as quite hilarious as well! I knew after that sticky note joke I was in for a treat. The music, while simple, gets the job done and helps bring together this charming little package!
A bit of feedback. The camera was a bit dizzying to use at times. The directional movement plus the motion blur was a bit much and discouraged me wanting to run.
The dialogue system seemed inconsistent when I was able to push the button to proceed and when I had to click the arrow. (Which itself got a touch monotonous after picking up several consecutive berries.)
The combat itself is a touch repetitive but gets the job done for essentially being the tutorial intro of a full game.
But overall there's a LOT of potential with this one! There's a great art direction and sense of humor that makes me eager to see if this becomes a full project in the future!
Good game and good job!
It seems a lot of my thoughts would mostly be echoed by prior comments. A cute intro and outro cutscene! Though the gameplay leaves a lot to be desired. But hey as a first submission it's a pretty good benchmark moment!The intro was cute, but the rest of the visuals left a lot to be desired. The jump was also particularly janky to handle, and having to backtrack for each part in a ship where every section felt relatively the same.
Congrats on completing the jam though! Best of luck with whatever you strive to make next!
Mo mo fight the power! ... (Am I saying that right?)
A cute little take on making sure your job gets done with the added pressure of crippling failure! The little robot character is adorable and fits well into the cute little factory space! And while it took a bit of getting used to, the system for sorting and organizing is pretty quick and intuitive and helped a lot with the game flow !Which is good for a type of game like this where you're in a constant rush to ensure everything gets on the line right! And the little personality in the comments on winning or losing a level were also a nice touch
Only a few small nitpicks with this. For one there was a few times when it was failing to pick up the machine in front of me. (Though this wasn't too often, the indicator just gets kind of flicker.) That, and I feel like there's probably a better way to tutorialize this without a large wall of text. Although it was smart to let the player experiment with controls on their own in a safe environment!
Cute and quick little game with lots of potential! Good job!
Okay my laptop might not be the best for playing this but from what I was able to play this was quite an experience! The voice acting surprised me, and the low poly rusty aesthetic kind of reminds me of Iron Lung! I wasn't quite able to finish it as it was going quite slow and my laptop really didn't like me trying to play it, but a lot of god work went into this!
Only small nitpick is what I think was a glitchy noise trying to indicate an enemies' presence only worked sometimes. A few times I think it helped me avoid them but sometimes I opened a door and then enemy was right there with little warning.
Good game, good atmosphere!
A fun platformer with a satisfying yet punishing basis. Your movement is quite fun to use once you get the hang of it! It's just a tad awkward with how the current controls are bound. But the way the level design progresses is actually really creative with how it starts making you combine the upgrades you've been given! Not to mention the music adapting as you get further in? Love that! Also the small touches of the ninja slightly bouncing and his eyes and scarf reacting to his jumps are a wonderful little touch!
A few nitpicks for me personally mainly consist from the awkwardness of the controls at time. The dash feels like it goes a bit too far for certain sections, the wall jump could be a natural part of your kit as opposed to being locked behind dashing, and the sword is charming but feels really awkward to use in the middle of platforming. Again the controls are the biggest set back here. Both S and Spacebar being used made it quite confusing to get the hang of.
Overall a SOLID entry though! This is a first entry? I'm impressed! A little polish here and there and you've got something really great!
A really good first step into making a game like this! The controls, and especially the jump, felt really nice to use! And being able to just mash the gun fire with enter and shift was really satisfying to me personally! A neat leveling up system to allow for a bit of customization and multiple weapons to choose from all made for a neat little package!
Only a few nitpicks from me, like jumping into the side of walls had some weird interactions. Using the mouse to select level ups is a bit odd. The worms looks cute but a touch out of place. And perhaps adjusting the level design to be a bit less backtrack.
But overall a great start! I could see this being expanded upon into something really fun and engaging!
