itch.io

This was super fun! and dangerously addicting....

Haha, thanks! I like your take on the idea. How did you implement your drink maker if you don't mind me asking? Shaders?

Hey, nice job! The artwork and music were really nice, and the overall vibe did feel pretty chill and cozy. Some small quality of life things:

- I think SmartNet, collect rubbish, and probably confirm could have been the same button. Just makes life a bit easier, and pressing 'E' while swimming right with 'D' was a bit awkward.

- I think it'd be nice to have the timer stop during dialog and typing. I get that having the timer during typing adds a bit to the tension, but I feel like for a cozy aesthetic, just having it for the background/exploration part is plenty. But that's more of a taste thing.

- Another preference thing, but I think the movement might have felt a bit better as tank controls (move forward /backward with W,S and change pitch with A,D) but can't say for sure. it's the type of ting that you might want to try a few different configurations and playtest to see what feels best.

But overall I really enjoyed the experience. The world itself is very pretty as you encounter more fish, and you have a nice core tension with multiple things to collect in a limited time.

Of course! Hey it was a really good game for your first jam! (definitely a lot better than my first lol) It's a learning experience and you get better at noticing things the more you do it. Feel free to hmu if you ever want someone to playtest!

Absolutely! And I hope my comments don't come across as an attack, just wanted to give my honest thoughts. I know a lot of things in jams often come down to time, but I like to just point out what I can if only as a reference if devs ever want to go back and make adjustments

S tier concept

Hey! Really cool idea and aesthetic you have going, I love the PS1-esque retro vibe. I think you have a really interesting foundation for a game, though it lacks a bit of direction or stakes imo.

For example, I think there's a lot of opportunity to have customers rolling in asking for like a "cheesesteak sandwich" and you have to put the stake and maybe like "toe cheese" or something weird to make  it, leaning into the puns you're using, but having them as a puzzle element rather than a punchline after the sandwich is made. Combine something like that with a timer, a customer queue, or some other pressure, and I think you have something really fun and engaging. Right now, the more freeform model doesn't quite do it for me, but it's really close. Some kind of tension and/or direction would add SO much for not that much more development.

Some more nitpicky things: 

- The character movement feels a bit strange. There's a long acceleration, high top speed, and instant stop, coupled with a really long camera lerp, it just makes movement feel clunky. For something like this, I think a much shorter acceleration and a limit on how hard the cameras lerp can lag behind the player would make it feel a lot better. 

- You can probably get away with making the player slower by making the space smaller. There's a lot of open, unused space that can be condensed, to make navigation tighter. 

- If I'm pressing A and W and let go, I think the character should face the direction of the key I'm still holding, especially since in this, direction is important for picking things up.

But this is a really cool world and concept and I don't think it would take that much to elevate it a lot further! Hopefully you got something valuable out of all that :D

Hey! Awesome job with the game, especially getting it done well before the deadline! You make effective use of the theme with having to figure out how all of the elements affect you since the instructor is unreliable. It might be interesting to have those effects change on each run so every time you play is a different ruleset you have to figure out.

I do think the hits to health can be a bit unforgiving, especially with how large the player is, how close together flowers can spawn, and how close to the ground the flowers are. I found myself dying right away for the first few runs, and didn't get a decent cadence going until maybe 3-4 attempts in. I think a smaller character/hitbox and making the flowers just a little higher up + further apart would likely solve this, but overall more margin for error would be great!

Some little nitpicky things: the game elements continue to spawn after the player dies, not a problem but should probably stop. The "Play" button in the beginning could use a bit more feedback for hover/click. I find that UI elements should be pretty high contrast and obvious. The pollen/health bar doesn't start all the way up, which I found a bit odd.

Overall, it's a really cute game and pretty fun to play once you get the hang of it! These are just some thoughts, so do with them what you will. Hope you enjoyed working on it!

Thanks so much! Glad you liked it :)

Hey there! I appreciate your detailed review :) The click and release interaction was not intended, but it does seem to be a "happy accident" that people that people enjoy. I think it's a good medium between individual tile clicks and hold+drag to interact with tiles (which I feel would trivialize the game).

Yeah we found the menu glitch after the jam ended. Very quick fix, but alas, didn't see it in time.

I am curious what you mean about the text streaming, because I am using visible_characters rather than updating the actual label text. Perhaps there's a setting I am missing? Feel free to dm me @chriqqq on Discord if you'd be willing to explain further! (Edit: yes, seems I'm missing the visible_characters_behavior, I'll give it a shot. thanks!)

With the multiple fauna bug, I'll have to look into what's going on and put up a fix after the jam ends. The music trigger logic was very last minute, so it could definitely be better, haha.

But thank you so much for playing, and I'm glad you enjoyed it! :)

This is such a cute game! I love the Ghibli-esque romantic view of all the mundane items we see and use in everyday life, and using them as swappable parts for the robot character is such a fun idea! the whole visual design of the game supports the romantic view of the everyday world, and the music is so warm and comforting! I listened to it loop for a while, haha!

One UX note, I don't tend to read the Itch descriptions before playing (which I probably should) but I didn't realize it was point and click at first. I find that exaggerated custom cursors are good to signal point and click mechanics, and you could also make the character walk with arrow keys, while interacting with items uses mouse. But otherwise, really well done!

Thanks for playing! Glad you enjoyed  it :)

Hey, thanks for checking out the game! There are multiple endings, there are 4 main endings, plus a bonus post credit scene if you take certain actions.

I appreciate all the feedback! It's always good to learn where player pain points are so I can fix them and improve next time. I like the suggestions and I'll spend some time trying to incorporate them in the game!

If you'd like a key for the Steam version of the game, feel free to get in touch privately and I'll send you one! Thanks for playing!

Thanks! Sorry, there was an issue with DigitalOcean shutting down our server because the activity was "suspicious." I guess they don't expect usage to be so low. If you ever want to come back to this, you can always host your own server and/or play over LAN. But I appreciate you checking us out regardless!

Thanks! Yep, that was the inspiration for the title, haha. I'll definitely try your game!

Wow, this is incredibly impressive! A really lovely take on the cozy game genre, and turning it into a collaborative community effort is a great interpretation of the theme. The mechanics are simple, but effective, and I love how you can see everyone who nurtured all the plants. My only small nitpick is that the trees can get in the way of the camera, making it hard to see sometimes, but other than that, this was very well executed! I will definitely be returning to nurture the forest. Great job to all of you!

Thank you so much Chris! I'm glad you both enjoyed it, and I appreciate your patience as I worked through getting the new build up. I had a great time exploring this concept and think there's a lot more we can do to develop it further. It means a lot that our little game touched on so many great points for you, that's why we make games :) Cheers!

Awesome job! The audio and visuals were very calming and atmospheric. I loved cute and simple world/character designs. The story and premise were also well executed and very fitting for the theme!

I will say I wasn't a huge fan of the tank controls and the static camera, especially for the platforming parts. It was a bit frustrating and took me out of the world, but not a huge deal in the grand scheme. If you add a moving camera and move the character relative to it, I think it would feel a lot smoother, but that's just my preference!

The puzzles were interesting! I like the concept, though it got a little repetitive toward the end. Good call adding the hint button, especially for a jam! Not sure how you guys are checking the puzzles, but I think I got this one in a different way than intended and it didn't solve (or maybe I'm blind , haha). I also think a reset button would be a good quality of life add. 

But overall, really good job! Very cozy and well executed game.

Very unique concept! I feel like it's rare for the microphone to be used as an input device in games, let alone for  pitch matching, so kudos for creativity! I do feel like the singing mechanic got a bit repetitive, especially since I didn't know who I had to sing to, so I just did everybody. Maybe adding simple melodies would help give a bit of variation? Or maybe the creatures you sing to can help you spread light to others in some way? Idk just some thoughts!

The world is very pretty. The environment had a nice mystical ambiance, and all the creatures were very cute! Though the world was a bit dark for me. I get the point is that the world starts dark and lights up as you sing to creatures, though I had some trouble navigating, so maybe bump up the lighting just a bit.

Overall, great job! Love the experimental nature. It's always fun to see more unique entries.

Hey all, I submitted The Subtle Art of Giving a Duck https://itch.io/jam/tgcxcoreblazer/rate/3626296, a multiplayer game that requires 4 players. This was a design decision we made early on and ran out of time to allow for more flexible group sizes, so currently you cannot access the game with less than 4 players. 

I feel bad that people who want to play can't because they don't have a large enough group. I didn't realize there was no Discord server for the jam, as I thought people could coordinate on that. But without one I realize it's nearly impossible to get a group of strangers together.

Would it be okay to make an update that makes the game work with fewer players? I can mark it as not part of the jam or something. I wouldn't change any other game logic, just allow the game to start with fewer players.

Thanks! If you want, you can connect to the public server instead of hosting yourself! It may be a little finnicky, but if you get a group together, I doubt anyone else will be using it.

Hey! If you'd like to get some friends together for a multiplayer experience, check ours out! https://thescaredycat.itch.io/giving-a-duck

If you want one to play with friends, give ours a try! https://thescaredycat.itch.io/giving-a-duck

Fun little game! The style reminds me of doing Flipnote Studio animations on the DS. Some of the vertical platforms were a bit too close together, imo, which made it kind of hard to jump up without getting caught on the corners. But still, good job!

Thank you! It's 2D, I made all the art in Aseprite

Haha, well there's no time like the new year for an existential crisis 

Thanks! I appreciate the suggestion. I'll look into it for my next game :)

Thanks! Glad you enjoyed it!

Thanks, glad you enjoyed it!

Haha thanks, I'm glad you liked it! I like the idea, I may add it if I come back to this. Good luck on your next fishing trip :)

Thanks, glad you liked it! :)

Thanks! I agree in hindsight, I'll keep that in mind in the future. Thanks for playing!

Despite the similar name and concept, our games are very different, haha. I like the low poly aesthetic. The performance issues made it a bit difficult to react to the fish in time. Also a bit more direction on how to play would be great, even on the Itch page. But nice job!

I love the sound design! The environment and atmosphere are really well done. I feel like you could add some sea creatures/monsters and make a neat horror game out of it. Overall nice job!