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The long-hinted Basin Lake fighting game is here!

The fighting does feel a bit clunky currently, and the AI pretty basic, but I'm sure those things are on the agenda to fix up. It's pretty thin at this point, but the art, music, and general presentation are on point, and I'm excited to see where this goes next.

For only 72 hours of development there's a lot here already. It's only the beginning, and it's missing the minigames, but it's a promising start to the story.

It's a small thing, but I hope the protagonist's facial expression gets tweaked for the next version. For the most part the art is very good, but there's something about his expression that makes me laugh and totally takes me out of it.

No idea why that happened, I don't remember anything like that showing up in testing but it's been a very long time since I worked on this. You may have to load an even earlier save game, or just open the console (~) and use Noclip.

For some reason this game took a long time to load and appeared to be unresponsive... it did eventually load and I'm glad I waited for it. It's a beautiful game, in many different ways. I didn't like how open the endings seemed to be at first, but the more I dwell on it, the better it sits.

This was a very sweet little VN. Overall the story is well written, very relatable and full of feels. I think I know that song about the duck and the grapes. The art is very nice, but in particular I liked the idle animations a lot, it's just a little thing but it adds so much personality. The music cues fit perfectly, too.

It's short but sweet, and I absolutely loved the art style. It didn't really resonate with me (I'm neither transmasc nor a parent), but I think it will for a lot of people.

I wasn't expecting to see a puzzle platformer, but this is a really creative one. The swapping bodies mechanic is a brilliant idea that I haven't seen in a while, and the graphics are delightfully retro, reminding me of an old DOS game.

I struggled with the isometric movement and the puzzles in general- I think I am just not good at puzzle platformers, though.

It's stock RPG Maker assets, but they're used well here and the environments are pretty good. It gets across that weird dreamlike feeling where things are sort of realistic but also weirdly out of place. I think the music is pitch-shifted? That also contributes to that mildly uneasy, dreamlike feeling. The art shift at the very end makes a ton of sense for the framing device.

Random encounters are my pet peeve, and I can't help but feel they just kill the flow of the game here. I was enjoying the mystery and exploring the strange environment, but running into a random enemy just yanked me out of it every time. I found it really tedious and annoying by the end. I think if it factored into the story it would feel more worthwhile, but it seemed to just be there.

Overall, I enjoyed it. There are some bugs and weirdness, but nothing game-breaking. The ending is abrupt, but I think it works.

I went into this blind, without playing the first game. That probably wasn't the smartest decision, but I didn't have too much trouble picking up the story. The art style is distinctive and I think that's what got me clicking on it in the first place. It's a short and sweet feel good story, but I think that's perfect for this jam.

I love the idea of this, a dress-up game plus, and the art is very cute. I found some of the sound effects a little harsh, but the music is really nice.

I do kinda wish that the game gave you a defined set of scenarios and scored at the end instead of being endless, but that's getting close to "I wish this was a different game" territory. I also have no idea which clothes go with what situation, but I think that's more on my lack of a sense of style than anything.

It's a small game but I really liked it.

I've made other magical girl games if you want to check them out, though only one other has a trans character.

Thanks for playing! I'm glad you enjoyed the story.

The whole thing is pretty janky, I'll admit. Honestly, I think trying to do a sidescroller with the narrative sections was a bridge too far for the time I had, but I really wanted gameplay of some sort over making a bunch of cutscenes for those story beats.

Thanks for playing!

It's kind of a repeat of Shattered in that way, where I came up with the narrative first and then had to figure out some gameplay for it, though I actually started working on the gameplay first this time. It was definitely a bridge too far to do both with the resources I had and the gameplay really suffered, but I needed story for this jam, I did want some gameplay, and I really wasn't feeling like making cutscenes for all those critical story beats.

I've done way too many origin stories in general. I think literally every story-driven game I've made in the past few years that wasn't a sequel has been some form of origin stories. It's an easy narrative that's comfortable to me, but I'm definitely running out of variations on it and I really ought to do something else next time.

Thanks for playing! I was definitely focused on variety this time, and I'm glad you enjoyed it. The motorcycle section was definitely a swing and a miss; I think the "sideways" controls just didn't work out.

GBTK pedigree had me worried. I did play this one when it came out for MGGJ9, though, and I remembered it was decent but didn't remember much else about it. The art isn't my favourite style, but it's well executed. It has just enough story to draw me in, the movement is solid and the attacks are satisfying. I'm not very good at it, though, and died to the first boss.

I'm waiting for the full devlog before rating. I'm very curious as to how this went from a GBTK entry to a more polished, serious experience.

I read through the devlog and it's pretty minimal but it covers most of the points. I do remember seeing the updates in the Discord as well. It's interesting to hear that you kinda lost enthusiasm for this one, which is fair. 

This one starts slow and does a lot of telling rather than showing. I know these are both conventions of the genre, but I'm not personally a fan, and I wish there was something- an animation, a minigame, a choice- to break it up a bit. Similarly, the writing is pretty good, but too dry for me.

The limited colour art style is striking and works well for the tone of the game. The music is well chosen but I wish it had more variety.

It may be your first ever devlog, but it actually hits the mark pretty well. It explains what decisions were made and why they were made. I think the only thing that I found wanting is the timeline.

Getting a little philosophical, I just can't agree with the approach being taken here. The main takeaway I got from the devlog is that you're writing a story, not making a game. It talks about the plot, the influences, the story, but nothing about gameplay or presentation. I'm not sure how to disclaim this: this type of visual novel is a valid approach, it's just one that I'm totally uninterested in. I want to see some sort of gameplay intertwined, and some cinematic presentation. I'm not interested in a book with pictures that I have to click through. The length target is also wild to me: 15-20 hours may be the norm for what's it's really going for, but that's insanely long for a little indie game.

In the end, I think there are some good bones here, and the devlog covered the points well, but it's just not for me.

Sorry, but given the rating criteria of this jam, there isn't really anything I can rate on without at least a cursory devlog.

It's simple but it works. The graphics are oldschool and minimalistic, but it's clear what everything is supposed to be, the animations are cute, and the "reflection" effect is really neat. I struggled a bit at first until I figured out the timings and your attack range.

The only thing that's really missing is a lives/health indicator- I made it to Wave 3 my first time around before getting sent back to Wave 1 but I wasn't sure if this was because I got hit too many times or if that was just the end of the game until I tried it again.

It hurt my eyes and broke my brain, but that's not your fault, I just don't get on well with bullet hells. So with that disclaimer- I think this is not technically a bullet hell, but even Zombie Driver was close enough to break me- out of the way...

The bosses seemed much easier than the actual level, but maybe that's just because of the above. I also had trouble telling powerups apart from projectiles and telling terrain apart from the background, but again that could just be me.

I think this really did nail the arcade aesthetic. It really looks and sounds like a sidescroller you could see on coin-op machine back in the 80s or 90s. It's hard to describe this but some of the designs and audio cues just clicked.

It is pretty prototype-y at the moment, with only one level and a bunch of "press this key to fix this specific issue" at the main menu. The bullets also come out of a point just behind the player sprite, which is weird.

I haven't rated this yet, because the devlog doesn't seem to exist (unpublished draft, maybe?).

Thanks for playing!

I do touch on this a bit in the devlog, but deep lore and worldbuilding has basically just been kicked down the road again. There's really not a lot to try to be consistent with, but feel free to message me if you need clarification on anything.

There are definitely bugs and shortcomings. This is something I sort of cover in the devlog, but development was rushed and it was really shoved out the door with minimal testing.

While it's cut down from the original concept, I'm happy that I was able to keep the globe-trotting feel intact, as well as trying different gameplay ideas. I don't know if this is going to be the last game in the series (I'll get back to this in a bit), but I was trying to treat it as Gina's last hurrah.

I probably should have switched up the controls in the motorcycle sequence. I think all but one of the people who tried it have been thrown by them.

Was it the hospital scene that was "too real"?

This is the first game where you can only use magic with one-handed weapons. It's a compromise between the previous games which either allowed you to use magic all the time or didn't have magic at all. It also makes animating the weapons slightly easier. This definitely could have been explained better, I think there's only a mention in the ingame help.

Did you suggest a title when I was soliciting those? That might be the reason for the special thanks, either that or for testing it during the first jam.

Will this be the last Outliers game? I do answer this in the devlog, but I'll paraphrase it here: I don't think so, but it'll be the last one for a while, and it might be the last big one. I still have a lot of ideas in my head, including of course what the epilogue could lead into, but I also really don't want to take on another project like this any time soon.

It's ambitious, but it's pretty rough at the moment. I absolutely love the concept/key art, but the game itself feels a bit bland and very empty. The premise is potentially interesting, but there isn't enough story in the demo to really get into it. I have mixed feelings on the mazelike maps- they're annoying to navigate, but do contribute to the dreamlike feel. Voice acting is always fun to see, and it's too bad it's not complete here.

I am excited for what this game could be, but it just doesn't feel like it's there yet.

The devlog is thin but gets the point across. Ultimately, I don't want to come down too harshly on this game, because I've been in slumps before. Sometimes you need to step away for a while and come back later, and that's okay.

As someone who can't multitask, including in games, the premise of this game made me really nervous. I ended up really liking the gameplay, though. The attention indicators really helped, and overall it struck a good balance between being chill and having some challenge.

I really love the art, it's so cute and goes together nicely. I do agree that the protagonist looks a bit sad. The sound, music, and overall presentation is great.

There are a few bugs. The  I won with knowledge, and got a weird "you won, but the script doesn't know why" message. I played the web version, maybe the desktop one is better.

As per your request, I have refrained from rating the game. I still would have loved to read a devlog, though.

I'm split on this one. I really like the art, the style, and the overall presentation, but I'm not so hot on the gameplay.

I found it really confusing overall. I don't really know baseball, so I can chalk up being confused about the scoring to that, but I'm really not sure how the timing is supposed to work for either swing and catch. I tried to time it so that the circle matched the size it was initially shown at, which sometimes worked. I'm also not sure what moving the target does when pitching, or how to hit the ball so that it is or isn't caught. I did win the game, but it felt like I stumbled into it.

The magical girl transformation is an especially neat touch.

The intro just goes on and on, and the text isn't skippable, which was pretty frustrating. If the game was longer, it would be less egregious, but in that case I still think it would be better to spread things out a little.

Not much to say about the devlog, it's pretty minimal.

Also, for some reason the itch.io app can't download this game. That's probably a bug in either the app or the website, though.

This is one of the games I shortlisted to try during MGGJ10, but unfortunately I couldn't get to it then. It's definitely one of the longer entries to that jam, and I played a good chunk of it but didn't finish the whole demo this time.

An 8-bit style feels uncanny in an RPG Maker game- it's hardly the first, but something about knowing what tech stack it's actually running on throws off my strange mind- but it's very well executed here. Weirdly, it feels more like some kinda DOS shareware than a console game, but maybe that's just my own nostalgia talking.

I'm surprised by how much I like the story, because I didn't really think it would be my thing. Usually I like my stories edgy to a fault. But I love the humour and the use of speaker names like "Winston are you sure about this".

I don't love how long it takes to get to any gameplay section. There's Story Skip for people who've played it before, but as a new player it feels like a bandaid, and I wish there was some integration here with some minigames, or introducing some of the mechanics before the story, or something.

It's a long, gently paced game overall, and that's something I have mixed feelings about. It's not a bad thing, and has a depth to it that a shorter game wouldn't, but these days I just don't have the time to dive deep.

Mechanically, it seems pretty conventional in general, but I do like the explanation of where items come from, and the skill tree system.

I lost the first team fight, but it continued as if I won, which was weird. I did see in the devlog that there are concessions to this in the demo version, though.

I never played the original version, but I was kinda surprised to see how many of the things I saw were new additions. It feels polished enough, and I remember the original screenshots looking final enough, that I kinda assumed it was mostly complete from the beginning.

I really like that the devlog has both regular updates (though I didn't keep up with them) and a concluding entry that sums them all up. It talks a lot about what was added, and why, which is great, but I do wish it got into the process more, the challenges in creation, what went well and what didn't.

The stage in the game sounds like it should be a tutorial stage, and I didn't even make it halfway. It definitely feels like a Song of Morus game, not just because of the difficulty but the graphics translate well to 8-bit. It's a shame about the technical issues, as everything seems to be working well except for that one unsolvable problem.

I finally got to trying this after having it saved for months. It's definitely a stand-out entry.

Some of the sound effects felt odd, but that's the only flaw in the presentation I can think of. The mixed graphics styles weirdly seem to work. It looks good overall.

I'm not sure if picking different options doesn't matter, or if I just got lucky, since every approach seemed to be effective. 

I did not get far, though. I struggle with bullet hells to begin with, and the difficulty ramp was just too much. I could manage the first two avoidance stages, but the third with combined attacks was just too much.

Healing feels pointless, since you have to do the same avoidance stage as far as I can tell, and you don't gain enough health from it to catch up if you're falling behind. 

Between the avoidance stages, negotiation mechanic, and overall themes it feels reminiscent of Undertale. I wasn't personally a fan of the gameplay, but I think it's a strong combination. The description hints at further depths, but I didn't get far enough to see them.

Finally got to playing this one. It's rough around the edges, but it's explicitly marked as a prototype, so that wasn't unexpected.

I like the idea of the story, but it dumps way too much lore way too fast. It falls into the fantasy worldbuilding trap of heaping a ton of capital letters in-universe terms on me all at once, and none of them mean anything to me. Less is more here, we don't need everything up front.

Like I said, I do like the concept of the story, and I like how things are revealed to you as you advance. The image of the Mother slowly revealing itself was a simple, but neat trick.

The gameplay I'm not sold on. Auto-targeting means you're basically just hammering the mouse button and avoiding enemies, which is pretty dull. Maybe more things could be added to change things up. Judging by the (debug?) buttons in the corner, it looks like more was planned.

I think this might have received more attention if the game page showed some screenshots and talked about the gameplay more, but it's two months too late for that.

Thanks for playing!

It shouldn't be possible to end up in the water at any point in the Jungle mission, so there's definitely a missing invisible wall somewhere.

It's possible to kick Sakura out of the way. Usually. IIRC that level ends once the bad guys are dead, though, even if you can't make it to the end.

There actually is supposed to be a save point between the museum and the forest, so that is a bug/oversight.

Not a Vox Machina reference, just named by scrolling through synonyms until I found one suitably foreboding and fantasy-sounding. I suspect their process was similar.

Katya is a character that I wanted to do so much more with. She's the hero of another story, but in the end it was reduced to a brief appearance in the final level and two brief dialogues.

I love the concept and the art. Hali's design is great, and I especially like the little laundry-pod emblem detail.

The gameplay is really clunky, though. It's both very difficult to avoid damage and to tell what can damage you and is damaging you. Movement is okay, but feels very floaty.

I loved the visuals and concept of this game, especially the character designs, but I could not get a hold of the gameplay. I'm not great at this type of game to begin with, but for whatever reason I found the split control scheme even more awkward.

It's a short and sweet little VN! There's lots of great art in this one and I really liked the style.

I do think the writing could be tightened up a bit, and the story felt a bit rushed at times, but it still gets its points across, and I definitely prefer keeping the pace fast to getting bogged down.

The shooting minigame is pretty clunky, but I don't think I've ever seen a Ren'py minigame that isn't, and having that bit of gameplay is definitely appreciated.

Finally had a chance to give this one a try. I was really excited for it, and overall I did enjoy it.

The style is unusual, but surprisingly compelling. The environments are surreal and oversized, but combined with the grotesque enemies and eerie music gives the whole game a creepy, foreboding vibe. The bright, cheery magical girls and UI clash with that, but I think that's the point. I wasn't expecting story coming in, but I was pleasantly surprised. It's kinda cliche, but reminiscent of some of my favourites from jams past and works well enough to drive the story.

Ultimately, it's heavily let down by the gameplay. It's so, so clunky and unsatisfying. Movement is slow and strafing kills momentum in a way that just feels awful. Nothing has any weight or impact, not the floaty damage-on-hit enemies or your hitscan weapon or the bosses with more complex patterns. Having to farm kills from respawning enemies gets old fast, and everything just clips through most (all?) of the walls. The bosses aren't really difficult- basically circle strafe and hammer LMB- but some spawn you right in the middle of enemies, which just eats your health before you have a chance to react.

Amusingly, it's possible to flip the camera all the way around so everything is upside down and backwards, and the mouse look is so sensitive that I managed to do that by accident within 5 seconds of starting the game.

It does have a weird naive charm to it. It feels like a first person shooter re-derived from first principles without reference to anything else. At the same time, I think it would have been much more fun to play if it had avoided the mistakes it made.

This sounds like damning by faint praise- and yeah, it kinda is- but I do appreciate that the game doesn't overstay its welcome. I think parts of it could be fleshed out a bit more, but in its current state it's concise enough that the flaws don't get too grating and the game doesn't get frustrating. 

I'm a sucker for first-person shooters, and I'd be impressed just to see a functional one, but this is more than just functional. Even though the weapons are basically jokes, it feels surprisingly good. Movement is fluid and the tilt effect  

I'm not sure if I really like the visual style, but it certainly is unique. It's an eclectic mix, with picture of a hand, a bit of pixel art, bold environments and dramatic shader effects, but it feels retro overall.

That being said, I don't think the super dark environments where you can't see three feet in front of you without using your weapons as a makeshift flashlight were a good choice. They just made my eyes hurt, and were frustrating to play. The platforming section in the dark in Chapter 3 kinda broke me.

The minimal sound design is another thing where it's distinctive, but I don't know if I'm really into it. I think I'd personally prefer music and more sound effects for doors, enemy alert, etc.

Of all things, it almost feels like a weird DOOM WAD, and I'm almost surprised it isn't given how much it nails the 90s style.

Are those June's non-magical friends we finally saw?

The art is beautiful, the music and sounds are spot-on, and it feels very polished overall. I do like the comic/manga art style and the story sequences work very well.

The combat was... meh. It's not awful, and I did get used to it, but it never stopped feeling clunky. The hitboxes aren't super clear, and once you start attacking, you're committed. I played on Easy, and I think the difficulty is right where it should be.

The game was shorter than I expected, and the ending was maybe a bit abrupt, but it packed a lot of explaining both June's background and the world in there. I haven't been following the development, but I think this was probably a more sane scope than some of the previous titles for a jam game.

World Tree is the next big installment that's been hinted at for a while, right?

Well, that was... a thing. I managed to get all four endings without too much difficulty, and I think the length and amount of branching is just about perfect. It pushes you to explore every path but doesn't stick around so long it gets stale.

I absolutely love the visual style, sound design, and and overall presentation of this game, and it feels so perfect for SBIG Jam. The weird, backwards parallax sky is a particular highlight.

The humour, to be honest, didn't land for me personally- in particular the sarcastic "you suck" after losing the fishing minigame just made me not want to play- but I think others will love it. 

There's quite a bit of game here, and despite (or perhaps because of) the frustration factor I think you could amuse yourself for a good while, but I think ultimately its length will work against it. I'm not even sure how to get to the boss lobsters, and getting all the upgrades feels like it's  going to take forever. I'm speculating, though, because I didn't have time to play more than a few minutes.

I still have never played Vampire Survivors, but I've played a lot of clones. This one was pretty fun and definitely hits the right notes. I think the brevity works for it- there isn't a ton of depth here, and the simplistic graphics and silly sounds might get annoying in a game that drags on, but in something short and sweet they stay amusing.

It's an interesting concept, though I'm not sure if it really fits SBIG Jam. It really feels more like a kind of experimental art game than something so bad it's good.

As for my experience, I didn't make it past the first minigame. The bullet hell battles were my least favourite part of Undertale, and the version here seemed even more brutal than those.

I can immediately tell this is an instant-classic SBIG Jam entry at a glance. The art style, sound design, and overall jankiness hit the perfect notes.

Honestly, I think the length and complexity is perfect as-is. It sticks around long enough to be a good bit of fun but not so long that it starts to drag on, and the difficulty hits a solid balance of having some challenge and tension but not devolving into a tedious chore.

I think my one criticism is that the modifier implementation feels weak to me. I see what the intent is, and while it's certainly extensive, it doesn't really cross into excessive territory in my mind.