itch.io

This game is pretty fun. I found myself playing for quite a while. The environments and music were great, and there were plenty of fun little details to notice. Excellent work there. The balance, too, felt nice.

I like how you had to collect your gears before you could fire again. It kind of evokes how, in most fishing games, you have to reel in before casting again. Not sure if that was intentional or not, but I liked it.

I can only really think of two critiques, and both of them are only about polish.

One: for the pixel art, it seemed like every asset used different sizes of pixel, which led to a lack of cohesion in the artstyle. This is a very minor thing, and doesn't really matter much in a game jam, but I figured I'd mention it anyway.

Two: The opening dialogue/cutscene felt unpolished/tacked on. I think the biggest reason for that was how it didn't follow standard video game dialogue conventions, and thus didn't behave how I expected it to. Namely, 'skipping' when dialogue is happening usually only skips the animation of the current piece of dialogue being written, and doesn't skip the entire cutscene, and dialogue usually doesn't clear and move onto the next section until the user has given some sort of confirmation that they've read what's currently on the screen and are ready for what's next.

Other than that, though, excellent work. More animations of all the characters/fish would've been nice, but that's a bit of a big ask for a game jam. You should be proud of what you've made here.

I really like it!

The main reason that I decided against making this kind of game when I was considering my options for the jam was that I didn't think I'd be able to make a good security placement/route planning UI in the allotted 48 hours. It looks like you managed to get around that issue by finding an alternative that didn't need you to make a UI like that at all, which was a super clever way of saving valuable time.

Had I made this game, I probably would have made it so that, once the guards and cameras were set up, everything was AI controlled and happened on its own. I think that, had I done that, my game would have suffered from it. It was really nice being able to control the goons and have something to do while the agents were attacking. It probably would have been kinda boring if all you could do was watch, and I doubt I would have realized the source of that boredom in time to fix it before the jam ended.

Overall, I think you did a great job. You made a fun, engaging experience better than I probably would have. I don't really have anything negative to say. Well done!

This game is so good. I have no idea how it has this few ratings when it's this good. The inversion is super clever, and how things keep on escalating is excellent. The mechanics are introduced wonderfully, everything makes sense, and the difficulty curve is well-executed. Juggling all the different weapons, and all the enemy types, and protecting the food is difficult but not insurmountable.

The only real issue with this game that I see lies in the 'hub' world.

Either you should've committed to the using the mouse as your input and let the player click where they wanted to walk, or you should have let the player use an 'interact' button to enter the levels when the prompt popped up. Using the arrow keys to move, but the mouse the enter the level feels a bit weird. It also would've been nice to have WASD work in addition to the arrow keys. Both the arrow keys and the mouse (at least in the case of right-handed people like me) are on the same side of the keyboard, so I naturally use the same hand for both of them, when it would be nicer to use both of my hands for control, as is the case with WASD.

This game has so much potential. The time-looping mechanic looked super smooth. It was a bit hard to understand exactly how it worked, but I was able to fumble my way through the first few levels. Unfortunately once I got to the level with the box, I was unable to figure out how to interact with it. I assume that I was supposed to be able to push it somehow, but it didn't seem to have collision.

The art in this game is pretty decent, and the lore works well. The pirate sought immortality, but became trapped forever in a loop of slaughter.

It would've been nice if there were greater stakes, even if that only came in the form of a 'high score' that you could lose when you die.

Even if there were a high score, there would be nothing stopping the player from repeatedly dying to try to get their preferred character. Perhaps the more powerful characters could only start spawning later into the game, so that you need to actually try if you want to use them in a run.

When I try to open the .zip file provided in your download, I get an error message "An error occurred while loading the archive". I don't see anyone else mentioning this, so it might just be an issue on my end, but I don't think I'll be able to play your game

:(

The presentation on this game is excellent. The visuals were great and the music was also pretty nice.

Balance-wise, it felt really easy. It could've used some more mechanics that applied pressure or needed me to think more. It also felt like there wasn't much reason to make units, as the archer towers seemed to be good at pretty much everything on their own, and were pretty cheap. It would've been nice if we could see what each portal was currently making, and how long that'd take, because they felt really slow, and having that information available might've helped.

Thank you! I considered a couple ideas before this one, but in the end I decided that this one was both interesting, and something that I could reasonably pull of in only 48 hours. Glad you liked it!

Thank you for the feedback!

I added the physics drag because without it, you could get the asteroids moving super fast when you threw them which made it too easy to hit the AI before it could react. However, I probably could have made the throwing feel less sluggish while still having a speed limit if I had used a more custom solution (Maybe no speed limit outside the arena, but immediately slow the asteroids down as soon as they enter it? Maybe only apply drag above a certain speed?). If I had more time to playtest, that is something I would have experimented with.

Thanks for the feedback!

In regards to the asteroid dragging, I needed some way to enforce a speed limit, or else it would be too easy to throw the asteroids too quickly for the AI to react to. I used built-in physics drag, but I probably could have made things feel nicer to throw while still having a reasonable speed limit with a more custom solution.

In regards to the sounds, I tried to pick a sound that wasn't too obnoxious, but sound was one of the last things I added and it was like 5AM before the deadline, so I was super tired. I probably could have done a better job with the sounds if I wasn't so tired. Usually, I'd try to record my own SFX instead of using other audio packs, but the time limit got in my way.

I had no idea what to do playing this game. The first time, I walked into a room, and then the door disappeared and I was stuck, and had to reset. The second time, I walked into the purple bubbles next to the stove, an image of what I think might've been pixel art fire (not certain, though) covered my screen and I couldn't do anything else. I assume that I might've been killed by fire, but there were no audio queues to support that, nor any way to reset, so I'm not sure.

I assume that things may have made more sense if I had played the [legally distinct inspiration material] before, but I haven't, so this game didn't feel very accessible to me.

Also, instead of the UI being a HUD, it seemed to be a 3D model that was locked in position relative to the camera. As such, it existed in the scene and could visibly clip into objects. It would've been nicer if it was either a 2D image on the screen, or, if you wanted to keep it 3D, it was always rendered in front to avoid clipping (much like how FPS games renderer held weapons).

Thank you for the feedback! Yeah, spotting the new steroids is definitely an issue. If I had more time to playtest, I might've made them bigger or a different color.

I’m using Firefox

This game looks super interesting, but for some reason whenever I try to launch it my whole browser drops to like 0.2 FPS. The first ~half second of the main menu is fine, and I can see the animations running smoothly, but after that it gets so bad I can barely close the tab. I have no idea why.

I don't see anyone else mentioning this in the comments, so I have to assume it must be some weird interaction with my computer specifically? I'm using Linux, not Windows, so maybe that has something to do with it?

It's a shame, because your game does look super interesting and I'd love to play it.

Thank you! Getting it working to any significant level was a challenge. I still would've liked to push it further, but I'm glad my efforts weren't wasted.

Yeah. The small ones especially can be quite hard to spot, and that's something I'd improve if I spent more time refining this game.

Thank you! yeah, the difficulty in grabbing the small asteroids is definitely an issue. If I were to refine this game further, I'd definitely want to resolve that somehow. Maybe by snapping your grab to the nearest asteroid within a radius when you clicked, or something like that. I'd also have to make the tiny little things a lot easier to spot.

Using the big asteroid as a plough to shove the smaller asteroids is clever. The best way to overwhelm the AI is probably by using as many asteroids at once as possible, and that's probably one of the most reliable ways to do it.

Definitely a neat idea on this one. I can see

My biggest critique is that it felt a lot more like I was just 'spawning' the objects instead of properly 'shooting' them. Some extra muzzle velocity would've been really nice, as it was very easy to shoot something out and then accelerate into it, which didn't feel good. Some of the hitboxes also seemed a bit off

But I like the game loop and how progression naturally increases difficulty. There's a tradeoff between trying to spawn as many things as you can in the time limit to maximize your score, and not spawning too many that you get hit and lose.

Thank you! Yeah, the floatyness of the controls is a bit much. It's tricky to balance having snappy controls, while also enforcing a speed limit on the asteroids so that the game doesn't get too easy. The current implementation just uses physics drag to enforce the speed limit, but a custom solution (Maybe let the asteroids go as fast as you want outside the arena, but slow them down upon entry? Maybe keep a speed limit, but not limit acceleration?) would most likely be better.

This is what pops up when I try to download the file, both when I first tried it and now.  Only this game has given me this error and I have no idea why.

I don't have any parental limits on my computer or network, so I have to assume it's just some error. I assume most people have been able to play just the browser version and haven't needed to download the Windows build. I'm curious if the issue is unique to me, or if other people trying the download would have a similar issue.

I liked it. A bit of a challenge, but a nice one. The level design was cool, the 'enemy' variety was also pretty nice.

At first I noticed that the enemies didn't drop anything, and that there was nothing stopping me from just running past the enemies without fighting them. Then I realized that that actually makes a lot of sense, progressing without fighting.

Excellent work!

Thanks for the feedback!

Yeah, finding and grabbing the asteroids is definitely one of the weakest parts of this game, and something I would have improved if I had more time to playtest.

I was not expecting an asteroid game with lore. Cool! It looks great, and there are definitely some interesting ideas with the slingshot bouncing mechanic. The AI isn't bad either, and I know how hard those things are to make.

There are a lot of really nice touches is this game. The backwards text, the player's silhouette... It shows the thought that you put into this. The AI isn't bad, either.

If anything, the sound queue for when the next asteroid is available to throw was a bit quiet, but that no doubt would've been fixed with more time to playtest.

Pretty fun! It took me a while to realize I could spawn the smaller asteroids I'd been gathering, which helped quite a bit. The difficulty scaling was nice, with it getting quite hectic towards the end.

Cool, we both made reverse Asteroid, but your goal is to prevent asteroids from getting hit while mine was to use the asteroids to hit the ship.

It was pretty easy to defend one asteroid, but really hard to defend two. Maybe a larger arena with more room to move and more time time to react to shots might make things easier, but you could also add more asteroids to compensate.

No way, we both made almost the same game of throwing asteroids at an AI controlled ship.

The idea of having a 'heart' that you have to protect was a good one, it's a nice way to add a lose-condition and keep the pressure up. The fact that's it's vaguely heart-shaped is also a nice touch.

Other asteroids being able to hurt your heart felt a bit harsh. A better way to add difficulty might have been just letting the ship shoot more.

I love the aesthetic and the feel of mystery of this game. The level of polish is excellent, and it really got me invested. I wish I found out what would happen next.

I really liked how you gradually introduced the various mechanics as the game went on.

I found that just creating a bunch of parallel lines, and then collapsing and expanding them each turn with the gems seems to get you far enough into the game that the levels start repeating themselves with no added challenge. I'm not sure if discovering that was an intended strategy or just a cheese. I would've loved for the game to keep on going instead of getting stuck in that loop, it was fun.

I'm assuming that the end goal is to fill up the board, but I'm not sure how to get past the repeating levels.

I don't seem to be able to play the game. When I launch it, I can see the background of the main menu, but there aren't any buttons to press. Looking at your thumbnail, the black box with 'start game' and 'quit to desktop' is missing. I tried both download links.

This game looks like it has so much potential. I love your description of the game, and the gameplay looks really interesting.

Unfortunately, there's a bug on level 2 which holds everything back. Instead of slowing the hamster down, the mud reverses the hamster's direction, which makes it apparently impossible to beat that level.

I would really like to give this game a higher rating because of how interesting the idea is and how much potential I see, but it just isn't in a playable state right now because of that bug.

This game was pretty fun! The music track was really fun and felt like it fit well. The animations of the characters were also pretty great.

The level design worked well, with intuitive mechanics and a good introductory ramp-up, and I imagine that things would only improve further if you had more time to make new mechanics and levels.

I do wish that the controls were made more clear in-game, rather than only on the Itch page. it took me a bit to figure out that I needed to use space to destroy the blocks.
The slanted block was also quite glitchy with the little carrots. Fortunately that wasn't in a place where it really affected gameplay.
And the smallest nitpick of all, the big carrot was controlled sing WASD, but the menu used the arrow keys. It would've been nice if both controls worked in both situations.

But overall, what you have is really fun. Excellent work!

Thank you! The spawn rate does increase as the game goes on, but I definitely should have increased both the initial spawn count and the rate at which it increases.

I feel like this game has so much potential, and everything looks so well polished, but it's held back by trying to be too many things at once. Some games are designed around learning the rules, but a lot of the design decisions in this game seem to go against that.

With the way that the game is currently set up, I get punished for taking the time to experiment with a certain kind of enemy. If I want to figure out what the green enemy's AI is, the best way to do that is to spawn only one green enemy and see what it does. However, the game does not provide a way to do that without detriment to the rest of your run.

Your game is trying to be two things:
A) a puzzle game where the puzzle is learning the rules
B) a puzzle/strategy game where you need to cleverly apply known rules to win.

Either one of those would be fine on their own, but currently the two goals go against each other.

Ideally, you'd either make the game specifically about learning the rules (maybe by removing the whole score system and implementing a progression-based system instead, where the player physically cannot progress until they learn the rule), or provide the rules to the player, and have the puzzle be figuring out how to best apply the rules rather than having the puzzle just be learning the rules.

Thank you for the feedback!

All of your critiques are definitely things that could be improved, and I definitely would have if I had more time and playtesting. The difficulty in spotting asteroids probably could have been resolved by making them bigger and maybe even a different color. The dragging physics probably also could've been made nicer with a more custom solution rather than relying on built-in drag to enforce a speed limit. The AI does take into account multiple asteroids, but I probably should have spent more time tweaking how it weights them all and decides what to do.

The particles and sounds were the last things I added. I finished most of the mechanics, and I was like 'this needs just a touch more' so I added some particles and sounds because they're pretty quick and easy for the amount of impact that they deliver.

I've seen a couple submisisons that attempted to make a quest-giving game like this, but this is the first one I've seen that actually succeeded. Well done!

The art all looked great, the storylines and characters were all interesting, and overall everything fit together really well. The level of difficulty in interpreting and distributing quests felt just right, and I loved seeing the same characters come back and develop there stories (the paladin ordering beer after going on the quest with the dwarf was *chef's kiss*). The tutorial system with the first few days of quests being super easy to assign, but then getting harder was also great.

I don't really have anything bad to say, and I can usually find something. Excellent work.

Thank you!

Asteroid throwing is definitely one of the things I'd tweak the most if I had more time.

I was unable to play this game with an off-brand Xbox controller (The B-button minigame worked, but the D-pad did not register anything).

It's important to note that requiring any input device other than a keyboard and mouse is technically against the rules of this jam, as was stated when you signed up for it.

What I did see of your game looked pretty good, but I was unable to play very much of it.

Thank you!

There's a reason not a lot of games used AIs. Making that AI took me most of the second day, so I wasn't able to add quite as much polish as I would've liked because of it. Glad you liked it, though!

Thank you!

The way asteroid spawning works is by spawning a new wave of asteroids after the last asteroid of the previous wave has been destroyed, which each wave slightly larger than the last. But you're right, I should have increased the size of the initial wave, and probably also increased the rate at which wave size increases.

Wonderful! I found your game from you comic, and this is definitely one of the most well-polished games I've seen so far. The art looks great, the music sounds good, and the gameplay itself is engaging. The non-gameplay portions with the dialogue are also fantastic.

My critiques are pretty much all nitpicks, and could probably have been resolved had the time limit been longer than 48 hours.

It did feel like a lot of actions were missing audio feedback, but that's probably just because of the 48 hour time limit.

The length of the game is also a bit long for the amount of variety it has. This length would be fine if there was more variety in player abilities, enemies, etc., but as-is it kinda dragged on and should've been shortened to half or less as long.

But again, those are just nitpicks. You did excellent work!