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No clue how they're doing it. We wonder if it's some type of out of bounds or code exploit. I have the game up on speedrun.com but so far I'm the only one who's submitted a run. Best legit run that we know of was right around 10 minutes. I think there's still lots of optimizations left to be discovered. 

There are plans for a steam release once we complete the next version. We can't wait to share things with you once we have something more substantial. 

Yummypotato and I are hard at work on the next iteration of crank. We want to take things to a whole new level. Hang in there and I promise we won't dissapoint!

I remastered the main soundtrack to be a bit higher quality and posted it to our youtube channel. 

To those who burn bright with the fire of competition, submit your best run at https://www.speedrun.com/Crank and make your mark on the early history of this game. 

Are you a die hard player who has improved your runs several times over? Maybe a newcomer who is interested in giving Crank a try for the first time? Either way our game is now officially on speedrun.com and accepting video submissions. I am personally a big fan of the speed running community and have dabbled here and there over the years. After seeing several players coming back and submitting better times on additional playthroughs I thought it might be a fun way for us to push the game to its limits! Anyone who thinks they can do better please don't hesitate to give the game a try. I currently hold the second best time on the crank leaderboards https://jackjiang871.github.io/crank_highscores/. There is a first place time by "Kiznaiver" at 2:56 blowing my 11:02 out of the water. My dev partner and I have a pretty good idea of how they may have achieved this time, but haven't been able to replicate it ourselves. If the person who set that time happens to be reading this, feel free to come and take my #1 spot off of the new official leaderboard at https://www.speedrun.com/Crank. Glitches are completely allowed and we'd love to see people break the game. 

This game being snail approved is helping keep motivation high!!!

Congratulations on your run. We actually just managed to get approved for a page on speedrun.com If you ever fancy another go at your best time feel free to upload it at https://www.speedrun.com/Crank

Definitely a love it or hate it game genre. We appreciate you playing even if it wasn't your cup of tea. 

As with others I appreciate the creativity on the audio/visual front. I did however struggle with the music portion and had no clue what I was doing. You could definitely attribute that to user error. 

Yes! We have some truly shocking times on the leaderboard with 117 submissions and counting so far. The current WR time is believed to be an out of bounds glitch but we haven't been able to recreate it yet. I even got Crank set up with a page on speedrun.com so we can see video runs soon.

I agree on the part about the skillcheck. I think the main gameplay loop would be a lot more tedious and boring if we didn't have a second little action to keep things fresh. 

The crank may be fun to turn, but we all pay a price (our joints and muscles). 

Totally get it. I try my best to get through every game I review and give it a fair shot, but it is a game jam after all and these games aren't gonna review themselves. 

Comments like these are what keep me hungry to keep grinding on the game. Huge appreciation to you and everyone else who loves Crank!

Took me an embarrassingly long amount of time to realize I needed to press E on the bibles. The items weren't exactly intuitive but you could view that as a feature in exploring the game mechanics on your own. What really threw me were the book that wanted me to "multiply the digits by their values". Quite frankly I have no clue what that means and couldn't figure it out. Art style was solid but I wish there were some sounds for the game as I think it would've added a lot to the experience. 

Love the art style in pumpkin defense as well. Hope you turn it into a full TD game at some point. I'm a sucker for the genre. 

You discovered the engine. >:)

Thanks man. You too!

I know it is optimized for a downloaded version but there were some issue in the web browser that made it quite difficult to play the game. The flashlight would occasionally stop moving or the game would freeze and knock itself out of fullscreen. 

We never intended for the visuals to get so crazy on the tether but I'm glad it happened. It almost hypnotizes me when it gets up to higher speeds. 

The leaderboard was something we really wanted to add. Super glad we managed to get it pushed even though it was a last minute addition! Your game was also excellent. Thanks for the review.

Amazing sound design. Maybe the best sound effects and ambient track I've heard in a submission. The newtons cradle looming over the arena space and signifying round switches was a masterstroke. It added tons of style and visual intrigue to the environment. This should definitely be made into a complete game. 

Loved the limited color palette. Pixel art was superb. Story was interesting and held my attention all the way through. Combat was satisfactory and achieved its purpose. Not too hard or too easy. Loved the setting and religious vibes. 

Fascinating submission. Feels like I was being studied in some sort of psychological experiment. I wonder if prompt responses and wishes are being logged somewhere in a SQL database. The flat mountain landscape texture looked like Appalachia. 

The 2.5D style is really solid and underrepresented in gaming. Something I always enjoy whenever I come across it. 

Vibes were immaculate. Dripping with style. This level of atmosphere and immersion is something I hope to emulate in a game one day. Can't think of a single way this could be improved other than making it longer. 

Herschel from the Walking Dead simulator.

Bullet hell gameplay and art style remind me a lot of Realm of the Mad God. Hardcore game with a nice flair of being based around a little platform. Solid concept and execution for a game jam. I think the damage mechanic with the projectile could be slightly tweaked to be a bit more satisfying to use. Maybe increasing projectile speed and adding some type of animation to it. 

I'm not sure if the grass texture for the ground being gigantic was an intentional design choice. But I was kind of vibing with it. I know this was likely a very rushed game but for such extremely simplistic building blocks the environment didn't look half bad. Main issue is how incredibly slow and unthreatening the monster is. 

Excellent spin on being chased by a monster. The jumping tiles and limited light source make it super high stress in a way that freedom of movement wouldn't. Don't think I've ever played anything with that particular type of chase mechanic. With that being said I think being able to look around while retaining the tile jumping would be a good improvement. That way you could look back at the monster approaching you as you desperately try to jump tiles in the correct order. Also I do think the initial difficulty at the start of the game might be a bit much. 

I really enjoyed the sepia color shift over all of the pixel art. Made me feel like I was on some alternate reality original gameboy that used amber instead of green. The actual monster and environment designs were great. I loved how every new encounter shifted into place like a card. Managed to finish the game on my first attempt by guessing what mechanic to choose based on monster design. The main thing needed for this game is just additional content/mechanics. Very solid foundation for a cool game. 

My cat fell into a bucket of goo :(

Great environment and art direction. Not sure if there is some issue with the optimization but I was really struggling to run this bad boy in browser and my PC is pretty top end. With that being said I really liked the idea of overlaying the green boxes as if you were some sort of AI image detection software. But I think it may be a good idea to limit those boxes to areas within your line of sight. The barnacles were a very unique thing to search through for fuses. 

Nice. I think I might have to go in for the sub minute run at some point.

This feels very close to a completed game that I would expect to see on a storefront like Steam. Pixel art is top notch, sound design is satisfying in almost every aspect. Sounds that need to feel chunky and impactful are and pickup noises and dashes are pleasant to the ears. Projectile speed on the crossbow was solid. Slow enough to require some aim and leading but fast enough to not feel cumbersome. One aspect that confused me slightly was the ghosts in the graveyard zone. I assume they're only meant to be seen once they enter your smaller sphere of light but the way they popped in and out felt somewhat strange or unintended from a visual perspective. Maybe a more gradual phasing in and out based on opacity or gradient would make it seem more natural to my eye. Other than adding additional upgrades and gameplay elements I don't have much else to critique. 

Thanks! Would love to see a global leaderboard for laptimes in Witches Cup at some point! 

Control scheme is absolutely bonkers but I managed to wrangle my keyboard quicker than expected. I am a huge fan of the arcade racing genre and I'm super glad I finally found a solid submission for this scream jam. Would love to know what kind of laptimes the devs are putting up!

All humans being pulled away from earth into some hellish battle royale is an amazing start to a game and immediately hooks the player. The gameplay was puzzle based and fun enough to hold my interest. But I wish there was more info on how everyone got to this place where they were forced to fight or die. Some more world building could greatly expand upon the narrative.

Loved the cover art you chose for your game. Very melancholic and haunting filter. The stalker influences are also felt through the writing and description of locations that the player moves through. The first thing that could greatly enhance the playing experience would be some type of visual accompaniment. Even basic photography with cool filters applied could add a lot to the vibe you created through storytelling.