"This met the theme but felt slight. All mood from music, rain ambiance was not effective." - Professor Roberts
Video Game Development Club at UCI
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Rock N' Roll With Abraham Lincoln! jam comments · Posted in Rock N' Roll With Abraham Lincoln! jam comments
"I gave five stars for theme relevance because it was so clever and fascinating, but I didn't see any incorporation of 'multiple camera.' Even so, I've never seen anything like this, and if there's a special award for technical achievement, this title deserves it; it's one of the most creative and inventive game jam entries I've ever seen, and having been on the Internet since the early '90s, I've never seen anything like this done with a browser window, so congratulations on that; truly incredible and that made the experience very fun, engaging, and enjoyable. All it needs is some visual flair, perhaps animated backgrounds (which would increase the challenge as visual interference), and some indication of score or even if you hit the note accurately or not, perhaps changing color to red or green. I hope you continue working on this, it was really something special." - Professor Denenberg
"The game is a good idea: the robot is endearing, the visuals and music set the scene nicely and selecting cards beforehand then executing are a clever mechanic. It was sometimes hard to tell which way the robot was facing even with the backwards lettering, and after numerous attempts I was unable to progress past the second screen, so something there was not intuitive to me. However I can see with the introduction of new cards and new movement mechanics this could be a very fun and challenging game." - Professor Denenberg
"Outstanding, every aspect of this was top notch. 'Skip Tutorial,' is a great name and the character is hilarious; really conveys the detached manager trope perfectly. The minigames, while I think impossible to do in any reasonable way, were very clever and responsive and even seemed logical as to why the player was doing them (at least in Skip's eyes), and the whole idea really makes a good metaphor for soulless office work while sticking completely to the theme. Well done." - Professor Denenberg
"Was this inspired by Carrion, which has the same mechanic? This is a game that had to grow on me, but once I understood the controls, which weren't immediately intuitive even with the instructions, it became easier and the slingshot mechanic of having to move the mouse backwards to move the creature forward became enjoyable, if cumbersome. Additionally, once I ate the first red fly, I still couldn't reach the upper block, so I was not able to move past the starting zone." - Professor Denenberg
Rock N' Roll With Abraham Lincoln! jam comments · Posted in Rock N' Roll With Abraham Lincoln! jam comments
"Incredibly clever, with a strong implementation of the movement mechanic. I also have to give kudos to the exceptional audio design. My only gripe is the nose job interface was unintuitive, and I ended up creating a nose that was impossible to finish the game with, but the idea is genius. Very enjoyable overall." - Professor Denenberg
Hello, this is a private game jam hosted only for UCI students and alumni, so you will not be able to participate. If you are affiliated with an University or College, you are welcomed to join our game jams that is hosted for University or College students (usually happens in both Summer and Winter).
"I'm so sorry, I could not really figure out how to play this game!! The game itself or the Itch page really need instructions for the controls. I figured out how to chop down trees to get wood and apples, but that's about it... I couldn't figure out how to plant a garden, eat anything, or escape the ghosts. I do really like the concept, and I think the sleep avoidance concept makes sense with the "don't blink" theme. Feels like Don't Starve. The art is the biggest strength of this game, although I think the environment could have been used to tell us a little more about the main character." - Professor Reid
"Cool concept, feels like Iron Lung to me! I unfortunately could not figure out the wheel task at all. I think this could use a little bit more iteration on how the game could be giving the player feedback as to whether they're getting closer to success or not with a certain task- I only really realized the wheel task was probably a balance thing because of the comment on the Itch page. I think there could also be more tension in the game if there was a time limit to getting the tasks right, even if long. The environment art could have been used to tell us more about the story, even non-linearly, and give us something to care about: do we have a family to live for? Treasure to find? The connection to the theme with the blinking lights is fairly clever." - Professor Reid
"I enjoyed this! There were some small issues; the X on the instructions was partially off-screen, so I couldn't close the instructions and view the mirror in the top-right corner of the room; and it felt weird that the "that's all i heard" button was activated just by hovering over it instead of clicking it. I wish the room told me more about its inhabitants: who lives here, or used to live here? What do they care about? Still, a solid little hidden anomaly game overall, and I enjoyed playing it. Also, excellent execution on the theme." - Professor Reid
"I was able to play the game with my partner! It's pretty cool that you got multiplayer working during a game jam. You shouldn't really rely on people knowing how to look up their own IP address, but hey, still cool that it worked! I liked the clear themeing and music. I think the environment could say more about the characters inside it: who are we really? Creatures? Toddlers? Whose room is this, and what do they care about? I wish there was UI showing me the number of pillow hits I was getting on the other players while the game was running, before the end. I think the theme and world building was effective, but only tenuously related to the "don't blink" jam theme." - Professor Reid
"I enjoyed Glorp's Heist! I think the take on the blinking theme is creative, and although line-of-sight mechanics aren't unheard of, I haven't seen a game implement them quite like this. It was almost rhythmic. The escalation of difficulty- from one enemy, to multiple, to multiple moving enemies, etc,- was also satisfying. It also had the perfect sneaky soundtrack. The alarm sounds got quite annoying to play with for more than a few seconds. I enjoyed that it was clear that your tech artist knew what they were doing with the lights and the glowing and the alarms. I did get through a level or two just by running through it rapidly though, which sort of seems against the point of this mainly being a planning and executing kind of puzzle. I think it's a solid foundation for a game, and just needs more testing and iteration on the level design to shine." - Professor Reid
"I truly enjoy this kind of puzzle game - I wish more attention had been paid to making the levels navigable and usable - the color tone and selections make it very difficult to parse some objects in the space. I also think there are deeper possible puzzle solutions that could have more strongly brought out the theme - that would be how I would explore to progress this project. As is, the die to live idea is solid but could use some depth." -Roberts
Overall Rating: 4
"Well, this was unique. I couldn't figure it out at first, but it was surprisingly well paced, challenging and creative. Don't know how I feel about the theme, but it worked in the same way many of the challenging platformers do. I was surprised at how many times I tried to get through some of the levels; it was weirdly engaging. A level reset option may help in the future, but - and I can't believe I'm saying this considering the theme - I think this has real potential." - Denenberg
Overall Rating: 4.5
"I appreciate the aesthetic wholeness brought by the visual black and white theming and how that directly relates to the themes, however, the complication of it did not reinforce those themes in playable ways I could see. The game also has a steep difficulty curve and very little onboarding or training, making it hard to see as a repeatable experience. With playtesting and tuning, this could be great." - Roberts
Overall Rating: 4.25
"REALLY creative interpretation of the theme to inspire an interesting story and gameplay mechanic. I love seeing games that can successfully turn themes into mechanics. Only took a point off for fun/engagement because the first level was way too hard- there should definitely be some ramp up of difficulty to let the player get used to the side-switching mechanic. I bet a bullet hell enjoyer would love this. Great job!" - Reid
Overall Rating: 4.75
"Really great idea, control was challenging and ability to get in and score hits was challenging. Reminds me of the old 1979 Vectorbeam game Warrior, and the older console-based bullet hell game Ikaruga which had the player switching between black and white. During the initial instructions, it didn't say 'Press space to continue' so it took me a while to figure out what to do, and it shows those same instructions on every restart." - Denenberg
Overall Rating: 4.5
"I rated this highly on worldbuilding for the excellent amount of polish in the VFX and cutscenes. I liked the way that the magnetic ball rotated the 2D trash sprites around when it picked things up- I found that charming! I gave it a 3/5 for fun/engagement because I think the gameplay isn't quite as relaxing as its primary inspiration (Katamari) but also not engaging enough based on challenge alone, which it seems like it might want to be based on the water obstacles. Although that could be improved with more iteration, I'm overall super impressed with this as a game jam project! Great job!" - Reid
Overall Rating: 4
"I really enjoyed this, and was especially impressed with the intro and music. A take on the gameplay of Katamari Damacy, and the controls were learnable (I got better as it went on) and increasingly involved levels. There were some control issues at screen's edge, and I'm assuming that it is actually possible to collect all trash in the time allotted. For the future, it would be good to see a boost or powerups that increase attraction radius, speed, etc. Great job." - Denenberg
Overall Rating: 4.2