itch.io

I wish more people had rated your game.  It deserves to be in the top ten, at least.  

thank you for the feedback; it’s so helpful to know which puzzles are too difficult/easy for players.  I added a hint system for the later puzzles, but I probably should’ve added hints for that one too!  :-)

after polishing it up, I would love to publish it, so thanks for the encouragement!

thank you so much for the feedback!  You’ve definitely encouraged me to keep working on it. It seems like audio is always the last thing I work on, and it doesn’t always get the attention it deserves.  I really like your idea of adding static or something - it would fit the vibe of the game.

Thanks again for your encouraging words!

this is an amazing game!  SO polished for the amount of time in which it was made.  it totally takes me back to playing Zelda and Metroid, both of which were among my favourites and both of which share a similar vibe to yours.  i have no suggestions at all, because it's basically a flawless example of this type of game.  very, very well done!

side note:  i'm also so impressed that you've taken the time to make playthroughs of the other submissions.  it's a great example of supporting other developers and making the jam a super positive experience overall.  A+++

this a great little arcade game!  the visuals and sound effects are perfect, and i really like how you've been able to create an impressive variety of enemies with unique patterns of movement.  i noticed one minor issue that might only be an issue for my browser (firefox) : on the Game Over screen i wasn't able to restart by pressing any buttons.

wow!  that's a huge difference.  thank you for letting me know!  i will definitely upgrade to 1.64 as soon as i start my next project.  cheers!

wow - this is SO polished!  the visuals, the sound, the controls and the concept are top notch!  i'm still figuring out what to do with the parts i collected, but i'm going to keep playing because i'm curious to see more of the game.  very impressive work!  A++

oh, and the voice acting/recording is superb.

this is an interesting concept for a game, and it looks and sounds good.  my main suggestion would be to give the player a clearer reason for picking one card over the other.  i'm wondering if there's a way to change the odds based on the type of card you play; e.g., picking a higher card might increase the number of coins you can flip, giving you better odds (with two coins against one [medium card vs low card], there would be an 87.5% chance of winning or tying, but with two coins against three [medium vs high], the odds of winning or tying drop to 50%).  assuming my math is correct :-)

one other suggestion: on my browser the whole viewport moves slightly when the cursor moves.  this effect is a bit jarring.

overall, i think this has the potential to be a really fun game combining strategy and luck!

having a limited number of jumps is a great idea for a platformer - it forces the player to be so much more strategic in the way they play, which is refreshing for this type of game.  i also like the idea of switching gravity, but i wasn't able to do it (pressing S didn't do anything).  Is that something that becomes possible later in the game?  because i couldn't flip, i wasn't able to get very far, but maybe i'm missing something.  i'd love to play a little farther into the game because the concept is so appealing.

this is a really impressive game!  it has a very professional look and sound, and the depth of the game (in terms of all the upgrades and abilities, not to mention that incredible character creation system) is surprising for something created in a short time.  A+

now that i've tried the game, i can give some feedback:

- although turn-based strategies are not my forte, i can tell that the game has a lot of depth and will be appealing to TBS fans.  

- the graphics are nice - i like the retro look.  

- i encountered one issue with the controls:  pressing TAB didn't seem to do anything for me, but it also didn't seem necessary in order to play the game.  

- at first, i wasn't sure which character was 'JP' or 'Penelope' but I figured out by looking at the image in the circle; i wonder if there's a way to make that even clearer for the player by making the association between the name and the image even more obvious.

- i also noticed that the 'camera' movements feel a bit disorienting.  i wonder if there's a way to smoothly animate the camera movement rather than jumping from one angle to another.

- one last thing.  as JcupDev mentioned, the game initially gives the impression of being something a bit gentler, so maybe title screen could include some of those undead characters to let the player know what's in store.  i like the idea of seeing the enemies creeping up on the cute teddy bears.  :-)

- overall, i'm very impressed by what you accomplished in a short time period.  keep up the great work!

i think it's awesome that you're making this game as an anniversary gift for your girlfriend!  i really wanted to try it out, but unfortunately, the window isn't large enough on my browser to read all the text or click any buttons other than 'start'.  have other users reported issues with seeing the whole window?  it looks like the previous commenter was able to play, so it might just be my screen resolution settings.  i'll try changing them...

UPDATE:  yes, when i changed my screen resolution to 1920x1080 and played the game in fullscreen mode, i was able to see everything.  i'll give it a try now!

i really like the mechanic of using bumpers to change the colour of the ball.  i wasn't able to get very far because i'm not very good at this kind of aiming game. i'm wondering if you could create an 'easy mode' where the shots require slightly less precision or the guide line is longer.  this might help less skilled players like me enjoy a few more levels.

over all, very nice work.  the physics seem quite realistic and the graphics are nice.  well done!

(also I really liked the game's sense of humour, especially the book titles)

cool escape room game!  i love the retro look and sound, and the controls are easy to use - although it would be great if there was a way to speed up the cursor movement, especially when moving the cursor to the sides of the screen.  the puzzles seem really challenging, which i like.  i was only able to solve one puzzle (relating to the bookshelf), but i'm intrigued enough to keep trying.  the game reminds me of the Cube Escape series, which are some of my favourites.  nicely done.  (i'm fond of point-and-click escapish games; in fact, my game is one too!)

this game really impressed me - the story is compelling, the artwork is beautiful and the writing is very original and poignant.  my choices often seemed to be 'wrong', but i think maybe that's the point - life doesn't usually go the way we planned or expected, and mistakes are a big part of being human, so it makes sense for the choices to be less important or meaningful than the outcomes.  i DO wish i had an option to stay single, though ;-)   A+

this is such a cute game!  it's even a little philosophical, which i like ("am i shaping the egg or is the egg shaping me?" is a great line).  after getting one of the four endings, is there a way to try again, other than refreshing the browser?  it felt like an abrupt ending.  anyway, i think you've created something special - it definitely has potential!

This is a top notch game - the idea is REALLY clever; the controls, graphics and level design are great. There's room for improvement with the audio, but other than that, it's amazing how polished your game is.  Very well done!

thank you so much for your comments!  😊

I debated whether or not to call it Key 2.  It’s the sequel to a game called The Key, but the first game has a lot of bugs so it’s not currently available on itch.

The first game was actually a loose remake of an older game called The Key which ended up being renamed Shift.   It’s available on itch as a download.  The second puzzle in Key 2 (‘pick a number…’) came from that original version of The Key.  

Here’s the link if you’re interested.  (It’s actually quite a bit harder than Key 2, I’m afraid.  Maybe too hard.)

https://waldorfhammer.itch.io/the-key-2024

wow.  i love the look of this game!  you've captured the vibe of playing in the snow so perfectly.  i had a little trouble with the controls - i had no problem moving around, but the E button didn't always seem to work with Poodle.  the controls for Omelette were fine, but sometimes it was hard to read the light-coloured text against the snow.  the game is a bit buggy at times; i was able to leave the play area at one point, and i got stuck in limbo with the camera really high above the character!

but mainly i just had fun walking around, throwing snowballs and enjoying the visuals and the cinematic camera angles.  i'm going to keep playing and see what else i can discover.  very well done!  (especially for a solo project with time constraints.)

i've played a few games in the visual novel category, but i think this one is the best i've seen.  it's the very definition of a visual novel - it's visually stunning and the writing is as strong as any novel.  some of the images will stay with me for a long time.  very well done!

UPDATE:  i played the game a second time, and the flashing box didn't appear, so it might just be something to do with me refreshing the browser; i'm not sure. one other note, while i think of it: the sound effect that plays when text is being displayed is a bit loud compared to the rest of the audio.  you might want to adjust that because those sounds can be distracting.

i forgot to mention this before:  i really liked the colour palette you used in the game.  it completely enhances the mood and suits the setting (time period) very well

this is a beautiful looking game, and the story is very sweet - i wanted to see more, but maybe you can continue the story in a future version.  keep up the great work!  (and i'm very impressed that you created the engine.  the only minor bug i encountered was a flashing box in the top left corner whenever the scene changed.  it probably has something to do with the screen size/resolution).  A+

the idea is very simple, but it's executed very well, and i found it addictive.  (i think 90% was my best score)

i keep thinking how cool it would be to expand the game to include other visual attributes, like contrast, brightness, shape, scale, rotation, etc.  nice work!

cool game!  it's a very original idea, and the execution of the idea is excellent.  i liked the pixel art a lot, and the atmosphere of the game is perfect - even the humorous details (e.g., posters that say 'poster', pizza progress bar) make the game even creepier when the disturbing stuff starts happening.  and the writing is excellent - the dialog feels very real.  i'm super impressed, and i hope you keep working on it.  i'd love to see what happens next!

one other thought:  the current title of the game doesn't do the game justice.  it deserves a title that conveys the magnitude and 'twisted' logic (pun intended) of the task ahead.  i'll see if i can come up with an example of what i mean....

EDIT:  for some reason, I just thought of 'Plug and Pray', but that might be a little too much.  :-)

this is a super clever concept for a puzzle game.  i absolutely love the strategy involved in planning all the cable routes based on length of the cable and the proximity of other cables.  a simple idea with increasingly complex solutions.  the physics work really well, especially the way the cables hang and wrap around obstacles (not to mention each other!) so realistically.  the level design is very impressive and clearly very well thought out.

with some aesthetically appealing environmental details and maybe a very simple plotline (offering an explanation for why you need to plug in all these cables - other than opening doors), this could easily be a steam game that I would consider purchasing.  very, very impressive for a solo project done in a limited time.

i didn't encounter any bugs (unless you include the enemy bugs!), but I only played for a short time before i died.  i love the old arcade look and feel of the game.  and the 'vibe' system is so much cooler than the usual health meter.  :-)

very inventive little game!  i wish i could see more levels, but like many of the commenters here, I found it difficult to get particularly far.  jumping on bubbles is a very cool mechanic - i just wish the bubbles lasted longer!  but i know it's meant to be a really hard platformer, like Celeste, and i appreciate that you haven't oversimplified it.  (maybe an Easy Mode with longer-lastings bubbles would encourage the less skilful of us to go further...)

the graphics look great and the levels that i saw were very well designed.  well done!

i like how serene this game is.  and the way it encourages players to remember their own childhood and to bring a little bit of that childhood playfulness into their adult lives.  also, it's a perfect example of 'stopping to smell the roses'.  nicely done!

wow, this is a unique gaming experience!  it took a little while to get used to the interface; I had to repeat a tutorial to understand the clicking order but I didn't mind that.  my eyes were completely overwhelmed at first but it was interesting how i was able to gradually distinguish the overlapping patterns.  only one suggestion:  this might be hard to accomplish, but it would be great if the two pieces in the shift puzzles lined up a little more cleanly.  the funny thing is, there's a puzzle in MY game where tetris-like pieces have to be rotated in order to fit together, but it was easier for me because the pieces were solid colours, not patterned.  and i avoided the issue of moving pieces altogether by having the player 'paint' each piece onto a blank grid, according to its shape and rotation.

all in all, i really enjoyed your game!  my favourite puzzles were the scrolling ones - they were easier on the eyes than the Shift puzzles and, for me, a more satisfying challenge than the Kaleidoscopes, which were aesthetically pleasing but fairly easy to solve (which is not a bad thing at all - i'm just a fan difficult puzzles).  :-)

This is super appealing concept for a game, and the execution is impressive!  I like the stem mechanic; it feels very natural and smooth.  (I kept getting too close to the top of the screen, and then I realized that I had to slow down the growth by moving sideways!)  I wasn't sure what all the icons represented, so it required some trial-and-error to figure out what was harmful and what wasn't.  Also the icons on the Garden screen were somewhat unclear to me; I didn't understand the benefit of clicking the hand and the bag of money.  

I had never played an incremental game before, so I was a little confused about how to 'beat' the level, but after I tried a couple of times, I figured out that it's a gradual process and realized the importance of the upgrade tree.  I agree with the comment below; the Return button could be renamed Upgrade (or something along those lines) to make it more clear to the player that they need to upgrade in order to progress.  The message "don't worry, hero, try again" led me to click 'play again' instead of clicking 'return' and spending my meteorites on upgrades.  

Aside from being a bit confused, I was very impressed.  It's a really interesting and different kind of game, the look is fantastic and the depth of the upgrade mechanic inspires me to keep playing.  Well done!

thank you - that's so nice to hear!  it's interesting that we both used techniques that created a retro look (my 'dithered' images and your amazing replication of the VHS look), and some of our story elements are similar.  (I'm being nonspecific to avoid spoilers.  :-)   I admired your game for treating its subject matter with so much thoughtfulness.  Mine only uses it as a plot device, but yours is actually very insightful.)

the retro look was partly achieved out of necessity - i was trying out some software with a very limited colour palette and my graphics, when imported directly, looked pretty rough.  it was suggested that i could dither the images before importing them, so i used a website called Dither It which allowed me to specify which colours I needed.  I still don't fully understand how dithering works, but i love the look!

cool!  i was a bit shocked myself when i scored 35 (my prior best was 22).  

by the way, I think Sukima would do really well on Steam, if you're thinking of doing that.  it's the kind of game i would definitely purchase, and I'm sure others would too.

this is one of the most original games I've seen.  i love the concept of drawing your own pathway.  i found the game very challenging because of the time limit and the darkness.  i'm wondering if the first level could either be fully lit or un-timed to give the player an easier introduction to the game.  the game could gradually increase in difficulty that way.  overall, it's very impressive for a solo effort and i think it has great potential!

thanks!  i'll check out Fabled Footy right now - it looks impressive!