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This is the coolest thing ever

This is the coolest thing ever

This was the first game shown in the edit for a reason

Thank you so much for playing! I am glad you liked it :)

This game has a lot of potential! Here is my breakdown:

*Graphics

The game looks nice, the water effects are good. The dirt texture updating felt responsive. The scuba mask around the screen is a nice touch, it would be cool if the main part of the mask had lens dirt or shines when looking at bright things to really sell the illusion. The UI was a little basic and close together, so it was hard to decipher it at first. The 3d models look good, and the fish animations are also very good.

*Audio

This game either has no audio or I experienced a bug, either way it is a game jam game so it is not that big of a deal.

*Design

The concept is very good! Powerwash simulator but underwater is an awesome idea. The underwater aspect lets you maneuver all around the object, and clean every side of it. The cleaning device rotating is an interesting way to incorporate the theme. The movement, is strange. Having most of the screen be a dead zone in theory lets you anchor your camera and focus on a specific area. This does work (even though moving the device around pushes you off the wall) although, it makes moving the camera very clunky. Like, to the point it is frustrating. Being underwater means I want to maneuver around easier not harder, because the extra dimension of movement requires more complex and precise movement to properly orient myself to clean. Maybe this movement style would work better in a game that has more traditional movement, but here I just do not see the advantage. Other games have had even more complex movement like rotation in the 3d space, that requires precision , and didn't need this camera style (like outer wilds). The ability to inflate and deflate is a nice quality of life feature, I quite like that. It would be nice if instead of pulling you up or down (which I can already do by ascending or descending), it was a binary where inflated freezes you at the current depth, and deflated does not affect movement. I think the generous win state was implemented to ease onboarding, because what if they miss a pixel of dirt somewhere, right? The thing is one of the main draws of games like powerwash simulator is taking up a task and meticulously seeing it to completion, and then admiring your work. If a pixel is missed somewhere, then I feel most people wouldn't mind hunting it down in the name of finishing. Plus, I saw you changed the dirt color to green, so it wouldn't be too hard to find. In the future you could also add a dirt scan feature, that highlights dirt for a second for situations like these.

Overall camera controls aside, I has fun and thought the cleaning was satisfying. Keep it up!

This game has a cool style! Here is my breakdown:

*Graphics

The visual style is very cool. Having models render only back-faces makes the characters look super unique, especially since the game is essentially 2-bit. It makes an outline effect that I don't think I have seen before. With that said, I feel like there could be some more visual clarity in some places, for example there is no way to tell there is a ledge without running into the collider.

*Audio

This game has no audio, but since this is for a short jam I don't think that is too big a deal.

*Design

The gameplay is a little confusing. I think I see the vision: spin wheels, get points, and until you get enough points to win spend them on invisibility to ward off enemies. The problem is, even though I really tried, I couldn't get it to work. I spun a wheel 3 times in a row like the description said, but I do not see a visual indicator of points. If the points are supposed to be added to the balance counter, mine did not go up no matter how many times or combinations I spun the wheels. I could just not be playing right, and if this is the case let me know so I can replay and rate.

Overall, I think this game is a good idea, with unique graphics, that could use some more time cooking in the oven. I still had fun though, keep it up!

I beat you with 2:38:190 :), see latest post on the game

I hold the world record (2:38:190), I did it by running from the IRS exactly like how I do in real life

This is so creative, this mechanic has sooooo much potential. Like others have said, I also have had difficulty casting spells. I think to help fix this problem, you should take the right approach. You have said that many people make "mistakes" like having the circle more close to the middle, and that makes the spell not cast. I think instead of enforcing the "correct" way to cast a spell, you make the detection way more lenient. The wow factor of the mechanic shouldn't be "wow I finally drew the spell perfect so now it cast", it should be "wow the game knew what my scribble was and I actually casted a spell just by drawing, I feel like a wizard". Instead of correctly people how to draw correctly, embrace the mistakes and let everyone be a wizard. Plus, not everyone naturally starts their stars on the lower right corner. I still enjoyed playing this a lot though, when things work it is very fun!

This game is TERRIFYING. Bravo. Here is my breakdown:

*Graphics

The graphics look amazing, the style is perfect for this type of game. The real star of the show here is the color banding though. Everything blends together to create this eerie, atmospheric darkness. This also helps the player identify the stalkers eyes in the darkness. The sound indicator is also a really helpful tool, I am glad it is included. The monkeys look very scary (even if they do not have fingers)

*Audio

The sounds are perfect. Simply perfect. They serve to create tension and also are closely tied to gameplay.  I could tell the 2 normal monkeys apart, and the branch breaking sound for the third is at a good volume where it is identifiable but not too in your face.

*Design

All the mechanics in this game are closely designed together. It requires quick thinking and engaging with all the info you have been given. I will say though, the crank being the only spinny thing is a little disappointing, I do wish the jam theme was more directly involved. I also got lost a lot. If this was intentional, great, but more often than not I felt frustrated because I wanted a map so I could know where I was. 

Overall this game is an absolute thrilling experience, scary monkey.

There is nothing that I can say that hasn't been said already in another comment. So, I will just say this: I am coming for that WR.

This game is super addicting! Here is my breakdown:

*Graphics

The graphics look really nice! The Juniper model is funny, and the strut animation looks good. The enemies also look good, although sometimes they glitch out and the textures render as a solid color. I do wish there was a visual indicator that a fidget spinner has spawned though.

*Audio

The music is goofy, but it works well. The sfx are satisfying, no complaints there. I am glad that the game has sound settings, not many jam games have that!

*Design

This game is a Megabonk clone, but that isn't necessarily a bad thing. We talked about a few changes that could improve the game, and they are as follows. Spinners should heal you to max. Magnets should pick up everything. Enemy spawn rates should scale properly, past 30 minutes me and other people have noticed that it feels like enemies do not really spawn that much anymore. Spinners should scale how much exp they give, so late game they still have a purpose. Other than those I can't think of anything else.

Overall i enjoyed this game a lot and can pleasantly say it captured the addicting essence of Megabonk.

This game is very clean! Here is my breakdown:

*Graphics

The art is nice, it communicates what it needs too.

*Audio

The music is subtle and relaxing, not bad.

*Design

This game is very stressful despite the relaxing music and setting, making the clothes before the timers run out is tough. i would like if the washing machines had buttons so I don't have to keep switching between keyboard and mouse. I would also like if the clothes got clean in one cycle, that way I can interact more meaningfully interact with the mechanics and not just spam clean. I still had a lot of fun though!

Overall I enjoyed playing this, keep it up!

This game is quite challenging! Here is my breakdown:

*Graphics

The graphics are great, I can tell a lot of time was put into the art. I like how the steering wheel is a fidget spinner! The controls being the inside of the car while the actual game view being top down is very creative, I like it a lot. The little Juniper sprite at the bottom of the main menu is a very cute little detail.

*Audio

The game music is subtle, but good. It being more in the background lets the car sounds shine. Speaking of which, the car sounds are very immersive. The sound of the wheels and engine, are very responsive. I especially like the detail of the car door sound on the loading screen, that is a nice little touch. The main menu does not have any music, but that is completely fine because this is a jam.

*Design

Like I said, the design of the mixed perspectives is great! Having to actually turn the wheel and ignition gives the game a tactical feel most driving games don't have. I do have a critique though. The wheel being sensitive for difficulty is fine, that allows for skilled and precise gameplay to be rewarded. The part that I don't like, is the wheel still rotating a lot even after I stop moving my mouse. This means if I turn precisely, I will still crash into a wall because of the spin momentum. That means to turn correctly, I need to predict how much extra spin will happen, which is extremely hard to do. I am basically just guessing. On top of that, If I leave the wheel for a second to turn the ignition or use a powerup I will crash into a wall, because the wheel is still spinning. I like the idea of having to multitask, but if I turn the ignition quick and then grab the wheel and I still crash because the wheel still spins even if I grab it, that does not feel good. At least make it so when you first click on the wheel it stops. Regardless, I still had a good time.

Overall, this is a game that I found challenging but still enjoyed playing, it is a very unique way of controlling a car. Keep it up!

This game is super entertaining! Here is my breakdown:

*Graphics

The pixel art is good, it communicates what it needs too. For hits, I like the hit-stop a lot, and I think it would be even better if the person getting hit flashed white or something similar. Other than that the graphics are enjoyable.

*Audio

The games music makes the game have a very whimsical feel. This suits the game well, especially because the combat is a little goofy in nature. I do wish there were hit sfx though.

*Design

The combat is absolutely amazing. It is so simple but it has so much room for skill expression. The upgrades can help you lean into certain playstyles, making each run feel different. For example one run I did all speed, and another I did all damage. Both of these played differently, letting the player lean into how they want to play. Dodging enemies and trying to get hits is tough but very rewarding. The sword has long reach, and the axe has a wide hit, both have their purpose. The spear to me seemed like the less of both, less reach with less width. Perhaps it does more damage or is lighter so you move faster, I couldn't tell. If a stats difference was the case, it would be nice for the game to tell you the differences. The combat was so good I was sad with how short the game is, it only has a handful of levels. The story was also interesting and I would like to see where it goes, the dialogue about the prince made me think the prince was going to be a boss lol.

Overall this was a very fun and whimsical serious game, you have something special. The controls are so simple, this would probably do well on mobile. Keep it up!

Thank you so much for the kind words!! I am glad the surprise worked, thank you for playing! 

This game is super cool! Here is my breakdown:

*Graphics

The pixel art is cute, it communicates clearly what it needs. I like the detail of the character staying seated after a jump until you move again, it is a very charming detail.

*Audio

The music is good, but a little loud. To be fair audio settings are not to be expected for a jam, so this isn't a big deal. The jump sound is also pleasing, along with the door sound.

*Design

This game is designed very well! On top of the written controls on the itch page, it also has an in game tutorial. Not many jam games do that! The character is also pleasant to control. You move at a good pace, and the jump feels good. The level designs are the highlight of the game. Despite the simplistic art (not a bad thing), the levels have a good amount of depth and actually requires proper planning and thought. One thing I will say, is that there are skips. For example, on level 4 you can jump from the start and then rotate, skipping the entire level. If you want the player to be able to force their own solution this is ok, but if you want the player to figure out the intended solution then this could be cleaned up. It just depends what kind of designer you are. The game did bug out once, but considering I can select the level I want to play from the title screen this wasn't a big issue. One thing that did bother me though, was the Q and E buttons. For my brain it would make more sense if they were swapped, but of course not everyone functions like that. It is sort of like up and down in air plane games, some people like it inverted and others not. So, I think the option to have Q and E swapped should be available. The last issue I had with the game is the players momentum during rotating. There were times were I would line myself up with where I wanted  to land when I rotated, but the momentum from pre-rotate made me land somewhere I didn't want. This is frustrating. I suggest freezing the player during the rotation, and then when the rotation done the players momentum is reset. This way players can be much more accurate with rotations. This could also allow cool levels, like where you need to grab a rotation coin and then immediately rotate mid air, very cool but not possible currently because the momentum during rotations displaces you too much.

Overall I thought the game was really neat, the puzzles are great!

This game is awesome! Here is my breakdown:

*The Graphics

The graphics look great! And they didn't melt my computer too. I did crash, but I read a comment that says it is a known issue with one of the enemy types. The style is very gritty and serious, definitely suiting the theme. The main menu is untextured, but that is not a big deal, it is a jam after all. The signs lighting up per collision is a nice touch that I appreciated. The collisions could have used some more vfx, but again it is a jam so I wasn't expecting anything crazy. The beys could have visually been distinct, if there was not enough time for a different model then why not a recolored texture? I get focus mode is meant to show you which is yours, but a simple different texture would suffice, and I will talk more about focus mode in the design paragraph. I hope that in future versions of the game, the individual parts will have unique models because half of  the fun of building [REDACTED] as a kid was the visual identity's and combinations.

*The Audio

The music is good, no complaints there. It suits the game, and helps elevate the action. The collision sfx could use some variation as it is one of the only sfx you hear over and over. The tutorial was hard to understand what he was saying, but simple subtitles could fix that. That is my only critique with the audio.

*The Design

The gameplay loop is very fun. Building your own personal beys and facing off other beys is done well. There are some problems though. First off, focus mode. Focus mode slows down time and shows you which bey is yours. The latter could be solved with a texture, but the former also has issues. Battles can take a while, most times I wanted to speed time up not down. I could want to slow down time to better time an ability. This would emphasize tactical skill instead of mechanical skill, and this emphasis is definitely in the spirit of [REDACTED]. The thing is, holding shift takes a whiiilllleee to slow down time, meaning to use it to aid me in using an ability I have to start hold shift wayyyy before when I need to use the ability, and the format of the game does not lend you such foresight. The general pacing of battles also is strange. For the majority of the gameplay you are not doing anything, just watching and cheering for your bey. This is especially true for early game, since at least for me it takes a good chunk of time to get an ability. This makes combat pretty much stats vs stats, which is fine. The problem is, while I want to be cheering and enjoying the action, the action is sparse. There are many times where the beys will miss each other, or approach very slowly, I even had a time where a bey corpse made the active beys spin in place for the rest of the match. (speaking of which, dead beys should despawn, them being active only slows down combat and creates wonky interactions). A potential solution to this is manipulating time. You already have the infrastructure for time manipulation because of focus mode. Time could be really fast, but slow down heavily when beys are near each other or a wall. This will speed past a lot of the fluff of battles, and dramatize the hits and wall interactions. Time manipulation is not the only solution, but doing nothing while nothing is happening does not feel great. I still had a great time though, and everything around building the beys is great.

Overall this a great game with a lot of potential, I had a lot of fun! Very spin, keep it up!

This game is great! Here is my breakdown:

The fact that this game has character customization is amazing. It wasn't necessary for a jam, but it makes the game have so much more charm. The trivia is great too. I played for a very good long while, and while some questions did repeat, every once a while a question I haven't seen before pops up. The stacking part is very interesting. It adds layers of mechanical skill and tactical skill on top of the trivia skill needed for the questions. This makes the game much more interactive and adds depth that most trivia games do not have. The title music in the game slaps, great job to the guy that made it. As many others have pointed out, the visuals are the main thing that draws people to the game. Vippori is an extremely talented and experienced artist, and she does not disappoint here. The polish and style is industry grade, simply incredible. All the elements together feels like a cohesive experience, like everything was designed with everything else in mind. Now, for some the parts that could be improved.

There is a bug where if you press space multiple times a few seconds before the run restarts many unintended things happen. Multiple questions can pop up at the same time. The results screen after that round can display the incorrect results. The results screen can even be frozen, forcing me to quit and reopen the game. This could be solved by instead of running the "start next run" code on if space was pressed, make the code execute only once regardless of how many times space is pressed after that, via a boolean or any other means. That was the only bug I found. Design wise, there are some problems. Firstly, powerups are much too scarce. I played for a good long while, and only got a powerup twice. I can imagine someone out there could play for less time then I did, get their fill of the game, and leave without ever getting a powerup. The stacking itself is very fun, but unfortunately my best run was not rotating or moving the objects at all and just dropping them all in the starting position. Since they all drop at the exact same place and basically all the objects have their center of mass in the middle, all the center of masses line up making the most consistent strategy to not interact with the stacking mechanic at all. This could be fixed by making the starting positions random or adding more asymmetrical objects. The VA did great, and I enjoyed the quirky voice lines. Some of them did get repetitive after a while though, but that is not too big of a deal.

Overall I immensely enjoyed this charming game and I am looking forward to see what this team makes next. Also Luke goes to UT (go longhorns), congrats from EGADS!

Hmmm, I think it is probably a UI scaling issue, sorry about that. What aspect ratio and resolution is your monitor?

Thank you for playing! You can hold space to skip the cutscene, the game over screen says that. Although, there might be a bug where the game over screen does not show up, did it appear for you?

This game is amazing! Here is my breakdown:

*Sense of space

Even though the visuals are just circles, because of the way it is designed you get a real sense of space. The inner circle feels like home, it is where you buy upgrades, and maneuver around the ring the easiest. The close in camera also creates a sense of coziness and intimacy. The farther away you go, the more it feels like you are venturing out into danger. There is more unknown elements in the farthest ring you have unlocked, and enemies have the biggest chance of getting past you. each of the outer rings feels like a place too. At first they don't, but then you realize "ah, this is the stardust ring" and "ah, this ring has meteors, therefore it has its own way I need to approach it". This game makes you feel like you are going out into the wilderness and collecting resources to bring back home, all with super simple visuals. Speaking of which: 

*The visuals

The visuals are super simple, just some circles and arrows for the enemy's. This is not a bad thing. For one, the simplicity does not take away from emersion, as shown in the previous bullet point. In this game you can go really really fast, and at such high speeds you need to be able to see clearly you and your target. If the visuals were super complex art, it would muddy up the clarity and mess with your precision. The art is very sharp and professional feeling, dare I say serious. I liked how the background grid interacted with the position of the player, subtle but very tastefully done.

*combat

The combat is mostly great. Separating the enemies spawning into phases  is a great choice, It makes sure that combat and resource managing don't interfere with each other and creates periods of restful preparing and action. Mid-air kills are super satisfying, and the text that pops up when you do it is the cherry on top for a big dopamine hit. My big gripe with the combat, is the enemies never feel threatening. If they reach the inner circle I never felt like I was in danger of losing. I move so fast in the inner circle they will only be doing damage for a second, and what difference does 6 damage do to a pool of 180? The sun out scales the enemies too fast. A potential solution is to make the sun have a separate mostly non replenishing health pool, something like 10. An enemy simply reaching the sun and staying a little bit would deduct one point. As the game progresses the enemies get more tanky and become more threatening, simply because you would have less and less points.

Overall I liked this game a lot, it was a lot of fun. Keep it up!

I LOVE BEING A SOLO DEV RAAHHHHHHH https://themidasdev.itch.io/to-be-bizarre

I enjoyed this, very fun. I will say it probably needs a more lengthy tutorial text,  because it took a long while for me to figure out how the game works, but once I got going it was great. Keep it up!

Comment what you thought!

IMPORTANT: there were bugs with the gameplay as noted by the comments below, but they have been fixed now.

Thank you so much for the kind words, it means a lot! The gameplay part has been fixed and expanded, sorry it was broken at first.

Key inputs have been fixed and fleshed out now! Sorry about the first build being broken, but I think it is worth another play now. It is a little tough though...

yeah the quick time events were not working, but it has been fixed and fleshed out now. It is a little tough, maybe worth another go?

Thank you for playing! The gameplay has been fixed and fleshed out, can you beat it?

Hey guys please go the games page to read the tutorial as it's not in the game

This game has so so potential, at the moment it is truly something special. Please keep developing for it, and no matter what keep the atmosphere.

wow very cool, keep it up