Hi Vexagon!

Sure, that would be aweseome. We would be honored! If you do, let us know so we can check it out.

Glad that you enjoyed the game and had fun searching for corn seeds ;)

Thank you!

I’m sorry about that. I needed to find some time to export the tracks from the game and upload them to SoundCloud. I know I can be quite slow at replying in general though. My apologies.

Hi! I'm flattered that you asked for a release. I've made an EP with the tracks here: https://soundcloud.com/vidarn/sets/mirror-city-ost

As for my game making tools, I'm using a little engine I've written myself over the years. It's programmed in C and uses OpenGL as a graphics library.

The art and music are also made using some tools I've written myself. They are quite simple but I find them nice to use since they are built directly into the engine and I don't have to export/import files to get stuff into the game.

Yes I did, so I’m happy you liked it 😁 And thank you for the comment.

Thank you!

Thank you!

Thank you!

Thank you for playing the game and for the great question! Sorry in advance for the long reply :P

This game was made for a game jam where the whole game had to be made in 48 hours. I love the improvisational nature of doing challenges like that with no planning in advance.

Before the jam begun I had no idea what I was going to make, and I had to work so focused during those hours that there was not much time to stop and think.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that I'm not sure I can describe the lore behind the game in any detail. It's more the product of a stream of inspiration than a well thought out design.

As for making a game inside a mirror, the idea came from remembering those children's play mats with roads. I remember they would have the same roads and houses repeated seamlessly several times and I was fascinated with the idea of a city like that, which repeated infinitely.

Later, when adding the spire I remember that my thoughts were about the nature of society and how we always strive to build more and more advanced things, to the point that we eventually start ignoring or even destroying the environment we live in.

I'm not saying the game is intended to convey anything like that. But since you asked, it was where my mind was at the moment.

If you had another interpretation when playing the game, I would consider that just as valid.

Sorry if the answer was more vague than you hoped for! Thanks again for taking the time to play the game and leaving such a nice comment.

Haha 😆 Thank you so much for playing the game!

Thank you! Great jamming with you too :D

I had a lot of fun playing this! The Slime Keeper guy was very... intense. I love that he keeps piling up the slimes you collect on the counter before him.

The FP system was cool and I felt it had a lot of implications on the gameplay, like the fact that moving was much more expensive after attacking.

It was fun trying to figure out how to best combine the weapons you got to deal as much damage as possible. The order in which you used them was very important. I guess you want to use the ones with low FP first and then switch to the ones with higer FP cost.

It would have been nice being able to switch weapons with fewer clicks I guess, since it was something I found myself doing several times every turn in order to maximize the damage. That's just a nitpick though. I think you did a really nice job on the UI. There's even a mini map! And the hover effect when moving or attacking made it easy to figure out how to play the game.

Maybe highlighting the weapon icon when in attack mode and the character portrait when in movement mode would be a nice little addition to make it more intuitive. It took me a while to figure out how that worked.

There's a lot of depth to the gameplay and I liked how the enemies were smart enough to move out of the way so their buddies could surround you, it made the combat more strategic and meant that you had to kite them into choke points.

Great entry! And super cool that you did it all in vanilla html5

Wow that's very kind of you to say, thank you!

I haven’t read that one, but it looks awesome. Thank you for the recommendation!

Sure, I'd be happy to! There's a windows build on the page now. I got it running on mine if I set it to use proton, I hope it should work for you as well.

There's a bit of latency on the sound effects in the windows version, and there's no anti-aliasing on the graphics. But the upside is that the game pad support I added during the jam seems to be working, which it didn't on the web version.

I could upload the html as a zip too I guess, is it easy to play downloaded html games on the steam deck?

Wow, I'm really impressed by the level of polish. The sprites look great and the intro set the mood well. Everything is so crisp and the animations are a nice touch.

The systems in the game are quite deep and I enjoyed playing it through to the end.

This was really cool! The introductory text was good at setting the mood and the whole game has a really nice atmosphere

There's a lot of attention to detail, like how the interface changes if you play in landscape or portrait mode. I also realized it works on a phone, which is awesome and I think fits the game really well.

I enjoyed playing through the game, it had a nice length and challenge level. I didn't have much need to use the time travel mechanic though, which is a shame since it's such a great concept.

I liked having to figure out the meaning of the symbols and I think you had just the right number of different objects to make it fun and interesting, but not too confusing.

I didn't understand the rules behind the movement of the enemies though. At first I thought they were just stationary (but rotating every other turn). But then sometimes they move. And do they move towards me, or do they mirror my movement? I'm color blind, so maybe there was some state in the colors that I didn't pick up on?

I also had some issues with the time travel menu. The scrolling issue was not a problem when playing in fullscreen, but the menu still behaved a bit strange. When going up or down in the menu it would sometimes close and move my character instead. And sometimes all the options would show the same turn I think? It was a bit hard to figure out what was going on.

The game was pretty and fun to play, and I love the concept of the little device.

Haha, thank you! The tag system was.. inspired by other games I like, so feel free to carry it forward. It would be interesting to see your take on it!

Thank you!

Thank you!

Thank you, that’s very kind! I’m glad you enjoyed the game

Hi! Thank you for playing the game! I afraid there's no way of modifying the walls, sorry.

The only way of getting a different layout is starting over from scratch, since the cafe is randomized each time you reload the page.

Thank you so much!

You’re welcome! Thanks for giving the game another go

Ah, I'm sorry about the confusion. It's not very clear, but you need to solve all the previous locations for them to arrive at the house. In other words, you need to get a blue spiral symbol instead of a red X at all locations except the rightmost one on the map. Then, the seed and the creatures will appear at the house.

I believe you have the lake left to solve? A hint is that the "shovel" is supposed to be an oar.

Hi! Sorry about that. I've made an "improved" version of the game. Hopefully, the keypad should be easier to understand now.

Thanks for playing the game!

I’m sorry about the puzzle being difficult to understand. That’s definitely a failing on my part, not on yours as a player.

I don’t want you to think that you’re bad at puzzles, it’s just that this one was not properly explained. I hope the solution in the game description was helpful at least.

I’m glad you liked the game. Thank you for the comment!

I appreciate the comment, thank you!

I'm glad you liked the game! Sorry for the gate puzzle being a bit confusing, good job figuring it out anyway.

Thanks for the clarification, that makes sense! I've changed the genre to adventure now. You're right that it fits better.

Your adventure system looks really cool! It seems like a system that is both expressive and easy to use. It's quite inspiring, having something where it's that easy to make interactions seems great. My current approach is a bit more involved. I will try to keep an eye on your progress with the engine, I'm interested to read more.

Wow, thank you! That is so kind, I'm flattered. I very happy you enjoyed the game. Thank you for the nice comment!

I honestly wasn't quite sure which category to pick, thanks for bringing it up. I'm not too familiar with the interactive fiction genre, but I thought that if I picked adventure, people might expect something like Zelda and be disappointed. 😅

Would you recommend me to switch the category to adventure?

The game is made in a little engine I've written myself. It's quite limited in capabilities but it works well for me and the kind of games I like to make. I like working with a simple system where I know how everything works. And I have tools for drawing graphics and creating audio directly in the engine, which means I don't have to switch to other programs and mess around with importing and exporting assets. Even if the tools are limited, I find that it helps me focus and not get lost in technical details.

SPOILER REPLY

Ah, I see what you mean. In my mind, the rule was "activate columns A & C and rows 2 & 3, but no other cells".  So all the four cells A2, A3, C2 and C3 are valid, and the puzzle is complete once you've selected cells in both columns and both rows.

It might have been better to have a separate button for submitting the code when you think you've entered the correct one, instead of it validating automatically. That might avoid the confusion you had?

But I'm not quite happy with the puzzle overall, the rules are too vague. And I guess the fact that you found it easy while others found it hard is proof of that.

I want you to know how much I appreciate the feedback though. It's very helpful that you describe your thoughts while playing with such detail. I found it very enlightening. It's so different designing a puzzle from solving it, and it's invaluable to have someone describe how they experienced it.

Thank you for playing the game, and for the effort you put into your comment.

Thank you for the comment! I appreciate the feedback and I think you are right on both points. It's very helpful to keep in mind for future projects. I'm glad you still enjoyed the game, thanks for playing it!

That is very kind! Thank you for the encouragement 😊

Thank you for the comment, and for coming back to finish the game. I'm glad you liked it!

That is very kind, thank you!

Thank you, that is a great explanation! I hope it's ok that I've added it to the description as a hint (with credits to you). Let me know otherwise.

Thanks for playing the game and leaving a comment, I appreciate it!

I've added a solution to the description page (click the arrow next to "Gate puzzle solution" to see it). Sorry for not providing it earlier!

Thanks for playing the game!

What a fun concept! I'm pretty sure this is the first game where I've ever played as a mosquito! The art was very cute and the game was easy to get into. I think you designed the balance really well, it took some strategy to figure out how to win.

I really like your take on the theme! The office space was well built and it was fun to navigate. The whole game had a good dose of humor, it was great how hectic everything got in the end 😆
Arigato!

Unique and fascinating art style. I like the iconic hair style of the main character. It's all very well drawn and I really enjoyed the cutscenes. The story was well told, and very creepy. Good jobcreating an eerie atmosphere.

This was a lot of fun! The graphics were great, and I love the little portrait of the DM!

The gameplay was novel and quite interesting. In the end I found the best strategy to just run straight to the exit of each level, ignoring the enemies and weapons as much as possible. It felt like a bit of a shame playing that way though, as the combat system was pretty cool; I really liked the idea of picking up different weapons with different attack patterns.

Oh and I love that the end screen was a playable level as well. I found it hilarious when the enemies started spawning. :D