itch.io

Thank you for playing, and congrats on your score! I'm actually not sure what the maximum possible score is, but 490 is pretty high regardless! 👏 👏 👏 👏

The arrows are supposed to give you a hint on how to move the boxes, but it seems they actually make most players confused instead lol. Thank you for playing!

Played through the game twice. Amazing level of polish - controlling the powerwasher was really smooth, transition between car washing/battles was seamless. Only flaw is that the attack patterns, despite good enemy variety, felt repetitive since you have to fight the same enemies over and over - I would see if it were possible to either add multiple patterns per enemy, or maybe to modify existing patterns in some way so that they feel different each time

Goon Rancher 👀👀
I don't understand how attack rate works, it was mildly frustrating when jackal trade attacked my goon 5 times to my 2, kinda wish there was a clearer way to tell whether a goon is going to attack or not (and maybe make it dependent on stats somewhat)

The first few stylish goons I made failed miserably, so I tryharded and minmaxed my last one:

• GOON-e2-H4sIAAAAAAAAA1NgYGCQYACBGGcGBh4nhgYmF4aG10C2OBA7ODEw9DiBpRsOOjM0LASK+UD4DA4ODAwPoPiAPQMcNNhDMBjAxQGsRFkSaAAAAA==

Couldn't burn the village, the lemonade stand, or the duck, but sure as hecc managed to burn down my framerate
10/10

https://wingedfox.itch.io/cycle-shifter - Cycle Shifter is a post-post-dystopian adventure game set several centuries into the future, where a newbie hacker tries to make a living looting ancient facilities.

Many centuries have passed since the downfall of humanity. War after war has taken its toll, and the few remaining humans - governed by a sentient AI state - are now considered an endangered species. Thirsting for loot and answers in equal measure - Crow, an inexperienced adventurer, delves into an abandoned facility hiding traces of an ancient conspiracy...

Made in about 10 days for the Bigmode Game Jam. Currently the amount of content is quite short - I'd love to expand on the game more if it gathers enough attention. Please give it a try if the concept and visuals look appealing to you.

I'll start by saying that I think the visuals are held back heavily by the inconsistency between background and sprite pixel sizes - the tilesets, enemy sprites and the boss turned out really polished and consistent by themselves, but the pixel sizes for backgrounds and dithering effects were all over the place and very noticeable, so it left a rougher impression overall.

Controls took some time to get used to, but it's not really a problem - though as Michael mentioned in an earlier comment I think replacing the instant acceleration of some actions, like turning and jumping, with a very short gradual acceleration would help out in making movement feel more responsive.

As for the positives - the game has a fun flash-era vibe to it, I was startled by and chuckled at the out-of-nowhere swearing when you die. I also liked how "bullet time" was quite literal, that one was pretty slick

A minigame every time you hack would get old pretty quickly, but a gadget or a mechanic that triggers it could be interesting 👀

I tried to make softlocks as avoidable as possible (e.g. being able to buy DP from Sherrie, making sure the crate puzzle is solveable no matter what etc.), but yeah, the nature of the game makes them impossible to avoid completely, which is why saving/loading is unrestricted. Glad you enjoyed it!

It's possible to solve the crate puzzle without the crowbar, it'll just require more moves

You should be able to find a recharging station soon - as long as you completed or bypassed the crate puzzle you won't need to use the Glove to access it

Really solid gameplay concept, very fitting for the jam - not too simple, with a good amount of strategy and tech you can use. Enjoyed it quite a bit - might come back for another run after the voting period is over!

Solid all around, just mildly lacking in the visual feedback, for example the strong kick should have different visuals than the fast one imo (maybe also slightly higher range so it feels more satisfying to use). There was also a bug with dash where I would get stuck in a corner and get softlocked, screenshot attached.

(P.S. our game is slightly below the median in ratings, would really appreciate if you could give it a try)

Thank you for playing and the last minute vote 🙏 Glad you enjoyed it, if I were to expand or reiterate on the concept I'd probably redesign the stages to have threats, as well as making it possible to lose/force a restart with checkpoints, which would feel too awkward if it were possible with the current iteration.

The theme was definitely a bit of a stretch, the goal was to reach at least 3 stars for it without compromising on style, you're using your S-Ball to strike at the horizontal goals but they don't really give off a conventional soccer vibe I must admit

The visual style is very polished. In fact, the game's cover art gives a false impression - the art on it looks pretty rough, but the in-game ui/assets are well refined. I suggest replacing or refining the cover for this reason.

The gameplay was okay, but it was really not convenient to use the camera, so I didn't get very far in terms of score - the game already lets you control the distance using mouse wheel, would be perfect if it let you move the camera around like, for example, in Spyro: Reignited Trilogy or The Hat in Time.

(By the way, our submission is low on rates as well, would appreciate if you could give it a shot)

Радостно слышать, что игра так понравилась! Первый трек можно послушать на странице композитора здесь - https://cybershroom.bandcamp.com/track/earth-prime (второй трек ещё пока никуда не выложен)

Насчёт темы - тут да, внезапная и очень специфичная тема джема нас повергла в шок. Уже упомянуто в комментарии ниже, но создавать генерную футбольную игру совсем не хотелось, поэтому пришлось подтягивать элементы дизайна в надежде, что хотя бы на 3 звезды сгодится

Thank you for your feedback. Glad you enjoyed most of the aspects so much! Firstly, the default controls for keyboard are actually the Arrow keys + Z/X, WASD is an alternative for people who prefer it. You can remap everything as you want.

For the theme - a generic soccer-like type of game is not my style at all. While the setting is sci-fi, the main character wears a soccer-inspired uniform and uses a ball in a vaguely sport-like setting, the rest is up to player interpretation. This is about as much as I was willing to compromise with how specific the jam theme was, the intention was to make it at least worth 3 stars in theme, it's fine if you don't agree.

"Nobody is going to play 10 minutes all over again" is valid criticism for this jam in particular, but in general - this isn't really true and strongly depends on scene/genre. It's actually on a very low end of length spectrum if you take shoot 'em ups, for example. Online leaderboards would be great, wish it were possible.

You cannot die, but some score bonuses are lost if you take hits. There are no threats until the boss fight begins, so having the player die and lose the run only during it would make little sense. I don't think it makes the game more boring or more fun, since the objective is not to survive, but to make precise shots to take down as many enemies as possible for higher multiplier.

I think that having permanent upgrades that carry between playthroughs doesn't fit the game well considering that the objective is to earn a high score. The game size is also quite large considering the scope and simplicity - using Unreal seems like overkill. If your goal was to practice with the engine then it's fine though

Получилось набрать 1459. Геймплей интересный, особенно после того, как повышается скорость и усложняются траектории. Чем-то напомнило старые игры на сотовых телефонах. Единственное на что стоило бы обратить внимание - иногда мяч начинает лететь вне экрана, и в ворота прилелеть может только в конце траектории, на что вовремя среагировать будет просто невозможно (как раз на этом мой забег и закончился)

Ещё бы предложил опцию замедления персонажа, т.к. дефолтная скорость показалась слишком быстрой. В некоторых играх для этого дают зажать Shift

Honestly - good effort for a first published game, with such a tight deadline no less.

I didn't really understand how to get a high score because it kept resetting to 100 and I couldn't figure out why. As for survival - it's extremely easy to just keep the ball in air with fast drags until your "energy" is depleted, then kite the players away and land somewhere safe to replenish/collect items. Even with this and the general lack of polish - the game would totally go hard if it were made during the Flash era

Got a score of 711 after a few tries. I like the concept, though the random nature of each trap spawning means it's mostly up to luck if you're going to be able to get big scores per goal (some setups, like a box right in front of the goal, will make it impossible to score in a single kick). Some traps would also stack up or spawn in places where they are completely useless. Not asking to remove the luck element completely since it's impossible because of the way scoring works, I just wish the traps would be more fine-tuned to spawn in more relevant spots, and maybe avoid some others as to not completely screw your run over

I like the theme interpretation and how it's "in-season", and the gameplay, while simple, had a surprising amount of strategy to it. Really wish you could use another key for kicking, like Z, since Enter feels really weird to use together with arrow keys - I would totally try a few more times for the #1 spot otherwise

Got a win on my second try after figuring out how the game works. Really polished, plays very smooth, though gameplay-wise I mostly just clicked the ball instead of holding it like the bots do, which resulted in much stronger strikes with greater control. Also, the AI kept shooting itself in the foot - the enemy team self-goaled twice and my team kept shooting towards our goal repeatedly, which was very silly and kind of in contrast (presumably) to the experiences of other commenters

By penalties I mean the fact that you don't get the no-hit bonus if you take a hit, and the fact that your position gets reset, which might be an inconvenience sometimes

Thank you so much for playing! Indeed, it's not possible to die in this game (though there are still penalties if you get hit), the primary focus is on scoring, which is already quite tricky even without a bullet rain pouring down on you haha

Hi, are you still looking for a team? I've sent you a friend request on Discord (I'm @wingedfoxdev there), would love to chat with you about it!

I liked the idea with the visual and sound changes as the "tutorial" progresses. I couldn't figure out a way to get the progress bar to 100% (if there is a way at all), so the end of a run felt rather abrupt. You could totally expand on this with a wider range of effects if you ever revisit the idea, thanks to overall simplicity there seems to be a lot of room for cool stuff in there

The game itself seemed to have lacked strategy since spamming as fast as you can is best for points, but the visual effects combined with physics interactions are quite pretty (do the particles have their own gravity? there was that one time when a particle was orbiting another particle and it looked cool). You can probably expand on this with more advanced effects and smoother gradients if you choose to revisit this

Visually very polished and interesting - lots of interactive elements, was surprised to see that this is made with RPG Maker. Mouse controls didn't feel very responsive - nuts wouldn't get picked up or fed immediately on click, not sure if it's just my computer or a bug or rpg maker being jank. Still, really well done pushing through all the RM quirks and limitations.

Cool as a concept. Not very polished, but still had some nice touches like the Earth zooming and camera shaking, which enhanced immersion. Could do with some sound or visual effects for when the Earth is saved/lost as a finishing touch

That was hilarious, felt like just the right mix between Bartender and The Town with No Name. Lots of unexpected twists that make you laugh out loud. Thank you for brightening my day!

So pretty... Figuring out how to use the shadows well was satisfying. Some levels seemed slightly longer than 20s, but not a problem - on the contrary, I wish the levels were at least a smidge longer so we had more time to take in the scenery...

The music was pleasant and relaxing, I think it turned out well - no need for you to worry about lack of experience. I'm sure you'll get even better as you keep experimenting.

Nice amount of juice. I didn't fully understand the scoring but somehow got over 2k, would be great if there were an in-game glossary of sorts that explains how to get each medal and its value.

Interaction between the paddle and the ball is not like in other Breakout games I played (Blasterball 3, Super DX Ball...) - in those games, the ball gets deflected in a different direction depending on which part of the paddle it hit, while in your game the ball stays at the same angle unless it hits the very edge of the paddle. As a result, it feels very difficult to control the ball. More often than not when trying to redirect, the ball would deflect at a horizontal angle and become unable to escape gravity, ruining the run. I wish there were more ways to control the ball, e.g. hitting it with your bomb would launch it forward with force.

Other than that, a couple nitpicks is that the gate is covered by UI, so it took me a while to figure out that you're actually supposed to get the ball in there. I also couldn't immediately figure out what the firing button was - an in-game tooltip would be ideal, and I would advise against hiding the controls like you did on the game page. It saves space, but someone quick-scanning the info may end up never noticing them or the fact that the dropdown arrow is clickable

Cool twist on the Super Hexagon formula. Very polished, I especially like the grazing effect when you're really close to the obstacles. Could work with more difficulty options and more obstacle patterns if you ever decide to expand on this

Simple concept, but pretty interesting - fits the 20s theme like a glove. Some "objectives" were quite clever and took me off-guard, like the person with a game screenshot for a head - it was fun to figure that one out. Too bad you can't stare off the bouncer...

The movement was pretty fun, you could probably build upon this easily with mechanics like dash or wall-jump if you decide to expand on it.

There is an extreme jump in difficulty between the three parts of the level which could frustrate the players since there is very little opportunity to learn the movement beforehand. The timer emphasizes this - I think an option to toggle it off, as well as adjusting level design for a more gradual difficulty curve could work well to make the game feel more fair

Thank you for playing! Just updated the game - you can now pause and exit to main menu as long as the timer is not active (before your first move)

Congratulations on your results! I didn't have enough time to write a detailed comment, but I did leave a rating some days ago.

Lots of creative enemy designs as always - gameplay progression felt a bit slow to me, but discovering the new enemy types was fun, and the screen-eating effect reminded me of a very old screensaver or joke program which I can't recall what its name was... Only real complaint is that the permanently obscured spots prevented me from looking at some enemy designs. It's nice that you had an option to toggle them off, though I still kept them on. Overall I had lots of pleasant vibes for the old internet/shareware era, it was a really neat experience in that regard. Congrats again!

I vibed with the aesthetics a lot. The game itself is clearly unfinished, but the melancholic feel given off by the color scheme and your choice of music makes it feel special.

Your game has a lot of mechanics, which was a bit confusing at first because it doesn't feel like each tool had any specific role to fulfill. It appears that picking one weapon over the other is a matter of preference - I went with the Ricochet and kinda broke the game, earning an insane combo on every level and never losing the chain even upon dying or falling. It felt interesting to use, but most of it came down to just pointing it in the general enemy direction and trying to dodge bullets (optional). It feels difficult to write any kind of feedback on gameplay, because it is so chaotic that I can't form an opinion - I'm simply not sure whether any specific element was designed intentionally or you just had no time to flesh it out properly.

Despite this, I had a good time. Of your gigantic library of games, so far I only tried this game, H.A.V.E.N. and Gamble for your Life, and the style of each of them really speaks to me, even if the gameplay itself may not have a defined "structure" in certain cases. I would be really interested in trying a more complete experience, I only played a few but your games seem to have so many interesting ideas that it makes me curious what a bigger game of yours would feel like.

Not sure what else to add. I think this game works pretty well as a seedbed of ideas given that you only had 3 days to spend on it. The visual style is really inspiring. Congrats on finishing the jam!

Bnuuy spotted. And a Bnuuy of Chaos no less... Dang.

Took me 3 attempts to get a no-hit. Very polished, very clean, solid take on the theme. Very reasonable scope for the jam. Nice pattern variety with solid use of the core mechanic. I honestly can't think of any serious flaws - only complaint (not really) is that it didn't feel like I had to let go of the focus button at all, though the wide shot was sometimes useful as destabilizing more parts of a pattern at once made it more likely to create a gap. The fact that the player's hitbox was the head and not the center of the body required some getting used to, but never became an issue.

Very well done. Congrats on finishing the jam!

Very creative take on the theme. I'm a real sucker for y2k/old windows/frutiger aero aesthetics, so the game was very attractive to try in that regard.

The presentation and lead-up to the gameplay were lovely. Unfortunately, I didn't enjoy the patterns and the boss fight at all. There were a few reasons for this:
- The gameplay feels very slow. Every pattern continues on for an extremely long time, and the boss itself is super tanky. It would be way more fun if the boss switched patterns more often, and had more variations of attacks.
- The previous point is made even more painful due to most patterns being cheeseable. The pattern on your page's gif as an example - you can just stand in the same spot and not move and you'll be safe. And then the pattern keeps going for like half a minute? I would accept it if the pattern only took a few seconds before switching to something else that requires player action, but as is, it just felt very boring. You could make the bullet spawner rotate ever so slightly, shifting the safespots and making the player move, and it would already be an improvement.
- The massive performance drops on higher bullet counts were not pleasant, but again, you can just stand at a safespot and not move until a different attack happens. I don't think this issue affected my opinion on gameplay as it doesn't happen all the time, but it definitely clouds judgement.

Overall - I think the idea is cool. I can't think of a single bullet hell or a shmup with this aesthetic. I think it needs way more time, adjustments and playtesting, as well as a more robust way of rendering bullets (though you seem to have already fixed the performance according to one of your earlier comments). You don't need to change anything about presentation, but I would look into adjusting text spacing, icons and ui element sizes to make them more faithful to the old windows style. Understandably, it is a challenge, considering how different our modern resolutions are to the 4:3 of back then.

Congratulations on finishing the jam!