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Thanks for playing!

Papers, Please is a game I loved a decade (maybe more now) ago and I got pretty far back then, but I absolutely can't handle it now, so maybe it's not just you. It's interesting that you like how the star system/end screen works, because when Lucas Pope was creating Papers, Please he found that you really needed instant feedback. Maybe it works here because the levels are shorter and simpler.

There's definitely room to expand this, it'll probably never happen, but although there's a fair bit of jank in the code it would be pretty trivial to add more levels.

Thanks for playing!

I think I mentioned this on the Discord, but I did want to do some dice rolling mechanics early on. I didn't have time to get to it, though, and I couldn't figure out how to fit it in.

A magnification function would be a good idea, but it wouldn't have been a problem if I'd been more careful with the sizing. I personally feel I've omitted most of what made Papers, Please so special, but maybe I'm just being too picky about it.

It was very much a "throw everything in and see what happens" project. I have mixed feelings on the meta layer, and I'll go into that in the postmortem, but from the reactions I've been getting I think it did land more than it missed.

Glad you had fun with it overall!

Thanks for playing!

I've always felt it's better to make the game too short than to make it too long, especially for this jam (and it was made in a massive rush)

Minor spoilers ahead, though I'll try to avoid spoiling the dramatic twists.

The graphics and overall presentation are very MSPaint esque, which is perfect for this jam. Definitely feels very SBIG from the beginning. Pulling the username for the player name is a neat trick, too.

This is one of the few entries where the audio stands out, and unfortunately it's not in a good way. The music is irritating, and the engine noise is actually painful. It crosses the line into so bad it's terrible, it's more like what I'd expect from GBTK, and I ended up muting the sound for the last third of the game.

I don't want to spoil the narrative too much even with a warning, but I did really like the direction it went in. I think I missed a lot because I'm not familiar with either of the games it references, but I still enjoyed it.

I do feel the game is a bit too slow to build up- I almost quit out before the first hint, and again just before the genre shift. The sections after the genre shift are similarly too large for the movement speed. Having to endure the horrid engine noise I think contributed to this- it really wore down my patience.

I did really like the accelerate/run over mechanic.

GBTK has conditioned me, I was half-expecting it to delete files or something at the end. I don't know how I feel about the ending overall, it's definitely in line with the rest of the narrative, but it's pretty unsatisfying.

I chose the "regular" school bus. I don't know if choosing different buses substantially changes the game, but I'm not willing to play through again to find out.

This is bizarre, and janky, and exactly what I came to SBIG Jam for.

The intro is amazing, honestly it's almost too stylish for this jam, but I think it has just enough jank to slide over the line (the voice is very difficult to understand and the video is very slightly letterboxed). The game itself controls terribly, it feels honestly pretty awful, but it's weirdly enjoyable. The graphics are a bizarre mix of styles and feel hacked together, which is perfect. I'm not sure if the music is actually AI or not, but it fits the tone of the game and the overall jam theme well.

I do wish there were control hints inside the game and a clearer goal. I had to check the page to find the phone, radio dial, and third-person mode, and I was starting to think there was no end state to the game. It did take me a while to figure out that the track was a loop, but that's kind of me just being unobservant.

Reading through the comments and notes, it sounds like there are end states to the game, but even driving pretty badly I didn't get game over, and at the rate I was earning hitting a $2000 goal would require an absurd amount of grinding. It's a really neat game on initial presentation, but the gimmicks were already wearing thin by the ten minute mark, and frankly requiring an hour-long ultra-repetitive grind for a jam game crosses the line so far into blatantly disrespecting my time to the point where I'd be tempted to score against it specifically.

I'm not sure if the genre shift really lands for me, it really feels only arcade-y, Crazy Taxi meets Streets of SimCity, and it seems pretty open about what it is up-front. 

As an aside, the character models look really familiar. Are they made in a character creator, or a stock asset? Were they used in another game?

It's an interesting concept, and the name is very punny. It definitely feels more like a proof of concept than a proper game, though. In particular, the lack of a clear goal (does the game have any winning condition in its current state?) makes it feel incomplete. The pixel art is pretty good, but suffers from not all being scaled the same.

For a first game, this is great, even if it is unfinished.

Well, I wasn't expecting that. I won't spoil it, but it goes in a somewhat predictable yet totally crazy direction.

I didn't really enjoy the gameplay, though. I had to get a calculator for some of the math problems, and when the genres did shift the gameplay was pretty barebones. I really love the concept, but the execution felt lacklustre.

I like the retro vibes, though I feel it's a bit halfhearted and the stock assets cheapen it a bit.

It's a really interesting concept, but I feel it's too obtuse for a casual puzzle game player like me. Which is the point, and maybe some players would like it, but I basically ended up hitting random buttons. The first level wasn't too hard, the second I trialled-and-errored my way through, but the third level I had no idea how to even approach.

I recognize the background music, it's low-effort, but honestly that fits with the jam. The art, I don't know, it's very cute, although it's also low-effort (are those Kenney assets?).

There are two games in this jam about cooking for the devil, which is a wild coincidence.

It's insanely unintuitive at first- I couldn't figure out that I had to catch ingredients and then hit the pots until re-reading the instructions, and I still have no idea what the bonuses actually do- but once you get the hang of it, there's a nice flow to it. 

Is it SBIG? I don't know. The genre fakeout is pretty neat, and the gameplay is suitably bizarre, but it still feels largely like a "normal" retro-style game.

This is wild.

It's an incredibly intense first-person shooter. Honestly, I had no idea what was going on half the time, it's extremely hectic and fast paced, but it's genuinely pretty satisfying to jet around, unload some firepower and watch the carnage. There's no time to figure out what the specials do or where those bombs are coming from. Some variations are definitely more fun than others, but I think the only truly bad one is the one that lags horribly (whether it's real or artificial, the end result is the same).

The whole thing oozes style, too. From the first logo hit through the gameplay and the interludes, it's got a bold, brilliant visual identity. The photosensitivity warning is no joke, and the visual loudness may be too much for some- I can handle it in short bursts only- but it has a very distinct look and goes all in on it. The audio isn't quite as standout, but still very good, and meshes well with the rest.

It's not exactly what I'd expect when I think of SBIG Jam, but I think it does hit the right notes.

From the screenshots and the description it sounds like there's more to this game than initially appears, but I'll probably never see it. Realistically, there's no way I'm going to get one ending, let alone both endings. Each round is pretty long and insanely intense, I played three or four before dying but by the last one I'd already decided I was going to stop after finishing that one if I hadn't gotten game over. The minigames are pretty obtuse, maybe if I was more genre-savvy I could solve them, but I don't have the time or energy to trial-and-error my way through them.

I think that's the one major flaw with this game: it asks a lot of the player. It requires the player to be decent enough at shooters to pass the levels, to know enough or have enough patience to figure out the minigames, and to have enough endurance to charge through visually harsh and extremely hectic gameplay multiple times. I personally feel that's way too much for a jam like this that isn't genre-specialized, has a wide variety of participants, and 62 entries for a two-week rating period.

If nothing else, this is crazy impressive for eight days, even at that crunchy pace. From a technical and visual standpoint, it's probably the most impressive game in this jam I've played so far (although a few others are pretty high-effort as well).

I have no idea what happened, but I was able to play through part of this game once, accidentally fullscreened it, then my browser locked up, and now every time I try to go to the page it breaks horribly. I tried it in another browser, and that worked, but the page loads horribly slow. The game worked fine though.

So with that bit of weirdness out of the way. It's bizarre, janky, and definitely has that SBIG feel to it. The art style is absolutely perfect for this jam. I loved the bouncy little animations as well, and the UI manages to be polished while feeling more SBIG than less.

There isn't really any gameplay to speak of, so the experience sinks or swims based on how the humour lands. Unfortunately, for me it's a bit of a swing and a miss. I got a few chuckles out of it, but it never rose to laugh-out-loud hilarious.

From the outset, it doesn't feel like a so bad it's good game at all (I will get back to this). The graphics are way too nice, the game honestly looks lovely. Kevin's character design is slightly funny, but his walkcycle is genuinely good. The music is good, but I wish there were more sound effects. The narrator is no Amelia Tyler, but it's still a very interesting element to have.

The gameplay is... fine. I do wish the double jump was a little less finicky and the movement a little less floaty, but it's not horrible. Collisions seem fine, attacks land as expected, no jank or weirdness here. It feels very standard. It's not exceptionally good, not horrifically bad, not stunningly unique.

So far all this is what I'd expect from an earnest attempt at a normal jam game, with none of the weirdness that I'd expect from an SBIG entry. There is a bit of humour, but not enough to give it a strong SBIG feel.

The shop is literally a waste of time, and the joke is just not funny enough to make up for it. Fortunately, that section of the game is not that long.

The difficulty ramp is insane. The first level is fairly easy, but then it really starts leaning into using platforms you can just barely reach, and introduces kill spikes and moving platforms. I found the tower particularly problematic, and really struggled to get the jump pads/accelerators to activate. Not sure if it's a bug, if I'm missing something, or the timing is that tight. I'm not a fan of the backtracking, either. 

I think platformer fans will enjoy it, but the problem is that not every player in a jam is a platformer fan (I don't get on with them well) and this game is on the very edge of being too difficult for casual players. The worst part is that the difficulty ramp happens before the twist, meaning some players will never see it.

Yes, there is a twist, but it comes way too late in the game, and it's not unique or dramatic enough to pull the rest of it into SBIG territory. Honestly, it's one of the most expected twists you could have in a story like this. It also brings in one of my least favourite mechanics- enemies that drop on top of you and can't be avoided. Other than that, though, we don't get any gameplay changes, nor does the visual style significantly change.

I also don't really get the ending. Spoilers, so I won't post it, but it just kind of... reverses the twist?

There was no way I was going to replay the whole game to see if there was an alternate ending, but I did try turning the narrator volume all the way down and replaying the final level, which made no difference.

All in all, I think this would be a good entry to most jams, but it just doesn't hit the right notes for SBIG Jam, or at least doesn't hit them hard enough or fast enough.

Spoilers ahead, unsurprisingly.

Well, that was not what I was expected. The fakeouts took me by surprise, and the first one especially had a pretty neat transition effect. For three days, this is really good. There are three distinct gameplay sections, and all of them are largely complete and surprisingly polished mechanically.

I'm not personally a fan of the ending, but it's quite consistent with the tone of the rest of the game. The only possible issue I had is that the first section of the game goes on a little too long with seemingly no progress, and I was about to stop playing and write up my comment when it jumped to the next segment. I'm glad I waited, but I think some people will miss it.

It does look a little too nice for an SBIG game. Not exactly a bad thing, I suppose.

Spoilers below.

This game feels like it's made for mobile devices, which is an interesting choice. I think there's SBIG potential there, but I didn't really enjoy it. The minigames are... cryptic. I eventually figured out most of them, but I still have no idea how the variant of the flying bug minigame with the hotplate is supposed to work. It also feels more like you're being penalized for doing badly at the minigames than rewarded for doing well, like the battles are balanced around doing perfect at the minigames.

The humour did not land for me, at all. I do recognize the style, I do understand what you were going for, but it's just not my thing. The references, similarly, flew over my head.

Honestly, the biggest hangup I have is that the game simply overplayed its hand. It's enjoyable for a while, but super repetitive and its quirks go from fun to frustrating fast. The janky controls and irritating minigames have a lot of novelty and cool factor, but once that wears off, it's just janky and irritating. There's also a bug where tapping the movement control teleports you to a location in the middle of the map, which was funny the first time and annoying the fifth.

The last three battles were three battles too many, and for some reason I didn't regain HP between two of them, making it a lot more tense than it should have been on top of being just tedious. Not getting an ending after those battles was really a punch in the throat.

I did like the graphics, and the music while it lasted. Alas, the music doesn't loop.

That was... not what I expected (though what can I expect when the modifier is genre fakeout?)

There's a few issues with the game. I actually didn't get to the twist the first time through, because I got wrecked by the guy with the rocks just before it was supposed to happen. The movement is glacially slow and horribly unresponsive, and the attack is super unsatisfying. I have a lot of nitpicky complaints about the game after the genre shift- it's honestly a pretty disappointing implementation of what it's supposed to be on so many levels. There's no endgame screen, it just kicks you to the main menu, and the game doesn't fit in the window it's supposed to play in.

To be honest, though, I think the biggest problem is just that the game overstays its welcome. There's no dealbreakers here, but I wish it was just a little bit easier, paced just a little bit faster, and had a definitive ending (or, if it does have one, had one that came quicker). It leans really, really hard on that shift as a punchline, and I feel it would have been best to laser-focus on that instead of trying to also have some length to the game.

It's pretty interesting, rhythm games are super not my thing though so I struggled with it. I found it really hard to coordinate the fighting part (moving, choosing attacks) while keeping on beat. The use of stick figures and the overall style is very reminiscent of 2000s flash games, which I love.

Well, the twist was spoiled for me by the submission page...

There's a lot of interesting pieces here, but the game didn't want to work for me. I was able to get to the point where I had an ooplet, but nothing seemed to happen. The only action I could have taken was to trade my last cow, but I was worried that would leave me backed into a corner. It's not super clear how cows generate manure, although it did start coming in later in the game.

While there's a pretty handholdy tutorial, it's advanced when you click anywhere... and it's a clicker game. I ended up missing a lot of it.

I also really wish there was audio.

The first time I played, I accidentally clicked on the submit page and couldn't get out- I chose randomly and got a C. The second time, I chose what I thought was the best choice, and still got a C. It also says I need to be quick, but I took my time and nothing seemed to happen. I feel like this game is pulling a fast one, but I'm not sure what the punchline is. I wish you could retry without reloading the game, but at least it loaded quickly the second time around.

The first time I tried, I got stuck in the opponent. The second time, I made it through the game with 0/2 friends. I think there's another path, but I honestly have no idea how to get it. Other than a vague hint about hugs in the description, it doesn't seem to be signposted at all. While it has the SBIG feel and the, um, graphical style, the gameplay is pretty unfun (the enemies don't fight back, so it's basically tap o to win) and the music got annoying after a while.

Mixed feelings about this one. It's absolutely a solid entry and hits the right notes for SBIG Jam, but it just didn't click for me. It's a surprisingly solid platformer, but I'm just not into platformers. It copies a core mechanic from Undertale that I hated in Undertale. Even the humour kind of fell flat. If nothing else, though, there's definitely a lot of work and a lot of love that went into the project, and that comes through in the finished product.

It's an interesting concept, but I just found it way too difficult: I kept getting lost trying to find the keys, and then caught trying to navigate my way back to the door. I might give it another shot later, but the sort of horror the game actually goes for really isn't my thing.

The twist was as brilliant as it was unexpected, though.

I'll try to avoid spoiling the major shifts and twists, but some are probably unavoidable.

As always, the scope is impressive! I can see why you said it was cut down a bit this year, but it's still got a lot of content, quite a few unique features/mechanics, and a solid amount of gameplay.

I don't know if it's the weakest one so far, but some of the design decisions I don't feel go well together. I really wish movement was faster and more fluid, especially since the map is so large. I generally like limited weapons, but ammo is extremely scarce and I kept getting bullets for guns I'd tossed away, compounded by ammo getting stuck under weapon pickups. With the wide open arenas full of snipers, half the guns are almost useless in that section of the game.

The AI is a bit buggy, but hey, it's SBIG Jam. If anything, it's a benefit to nerf what could be very nasty enemies. I also got stuck on terrain once.

The first twist was kind of expected, but I wasn't expecting the story beats toward the end.

I definitely wasn't expecting to see some of my own art in this game! I was like "that tower looks familiar" and then "wait, are these whiteboards from TWAT?" I'd completely forgotten that I released an art pack for TWAT. Overall, the graphical style, sounds, overall jank and the shift from the intro into the game itself fit very well for the jam. The meta-references raise a lot of questions, but I think the Enygmatic Cinematic Universe is a big ball of timey-wimey stuff at this point anyway.

It's an interesting idea, but I found it way too finicky to be enjoyable. I have no idea how toss velocity is derived, but I could never get a handle on how far I'd have to drag to fly a certain distance. It also wasn't super clear what the ultimate goal was- do I need to collect all the coins?

That was weird and janky. Short, but definitely on point for SBIG Jam!

That was, uh, really something. This comment will contain major spoilers, so if anyone is coming across this who hasn't played yet, you might want to skip past.

When I started out, I was like, "well, the volume slider randomly being there is kinda janky, but this art is way too nice, is this a GMTK entry that got lost?"

And then the actual game loaded and I burst out laughing. Yup, that's what I expected from SBIG Jam. It's hideous, janky, throws curveballs at you and shoves weird jokes in edgewise.

I do feel that some of the jokes are overly drawn out. I love clickers, but this one takes way too long to reach the goal- although after a while I realized I could skip the whole thing by watching four ads. The ad mechanic was funny the first few times, but quickly wore out its welcome, especially since they seem to be truly random and you can get the same ad several times in a row.

Speaking of those ads, I keep going back and forth between "these can't be real" and "you can't make this up". Seriously, some of those are unhinged.

I do wish the ending wasn't so anticlimactic- it was super unsatisfying after suffering through so many ads- but maybe that's the point. Satire, or just trolling.

A surprisingly strong entry overall.

That was... kinda bizarre, but pretty neat. I really liked the graphics and overall presentation- part retro, part mspaint, all adventure. The music could have gotten annoying in a longer game, but it's short enough that it works. The ending isn't super clear, but I think I figured it out, and if I'm reading it right, I really like the concept.

Thanks for playing! You've definitely caught one of the inspirations for the game. I love doing something meta for SBIG Jam, and I haven't since I think 2021, so this one was a lot of fun to do. Make sure you read the spoilered text on the game page if you haven't already.

Thanks for playing! That's the idea ;)

Thanks for playing, glad you liked it!

Thanks for playing! Funny enough, this game in part came from my own struggles with the game it was inspired by.

Thanks for playing!

I think there's an implicit assumption here that the combat and progression is inherently compelling, but I usually find it to be the worst part of the experience when it comes to RPG Maker jam games, and this one seems to be as barebones and stock-standard as it gets. That I ran through this one avoiding combat is no accident. That's why I'm saying you focused on the wrong thing here- sure, we have some monsters that we can kill and level up, but I can get the exact same thing from a ton of similar games, and it's only tolerable at best. Focus on what makes this one unique!

I do get what you mean by a smaller dungeon feeling overly repetitive. This is probably one of those places where you want to rig the dice, so to speak, to avoid excessive repetition at the expense of true randomness.

Also, yep, sometimes a project just doesn't go as planned, and you realize after the fact that you swung and missed. I realized today there was a very obvious joke with the title of my game that I should have put in, but had never occurred to me.

Wow. Despite being a relatively short game, the scope of this one is insane. Voice acting, original music, extended cutscenes, and it's practically three games in one. I have no idea how you did that in 9 days.

The style is very familiar, and it almost feels like a culmination of the Ned Reid experience, maybe because there's a lot that's reused or at least references previous years. It's definitely "so bad it's good"- high production values clash with extreme jank and bizarre blobby graphics.

Was the devil meant to look like meat?

If there's one criticism, it's that the game isn't challenging and victory feels like it's granted because the AI is useless, not because you played well. In particular, the second level was brutally difficult because of the control scheme and distorted CRT effect, but it's not timed and the computer plays horribly so you pretty much win by default. That being said, it's always better to err on the side of too easy than too hard.

That was... not what I expected, either what was initially presented or what it became after the shift. The humour is pretty great, and I kind of appreciate the "no or no but actually yes" choices. I do wish there was more of an ending, and the story was a bit better rounded out.

The gameplay at the end was... quite challenging, and pretty frustrating. It would be challenging under ideal conditions, but I wasn't playing under ideal conditions, I was playing inside Windows Sandbox at about 15 FPS with malfunctioning mouse capture. I wish it was a little more forgiving.

I don't know how "So Bad It's Good" this feels. Mostly is just feels more experimental.

The central mechanic of the dungeon being randomly connected frankly isn't fun. It could be made interesting, but I ended up just wandering aimlessly trying to find something that would advance the story before re-reading the description and realizing it might not actually have an ending at all. I'm not willing to keep poking at it to find out- there really needs to be something to give a sense of progress and keep you pushing forward.

There's a lot of typical "first RPG Maker game" issues- huge maps with little interactivity, a lack of music. It does at least avoid padding the game out with random encounters, and some of the dialogue is pretty funny. I can't say whether "overreliance on battles that aren't that fun" is an issue or not because I avoided combat entirely.

I do feel like the wrong parts were finished- it would have been far better to have a smaller dungeon with fewer maps and no overworld, but more stuff in each section of the dungeon and an ending. Alas, hindsight is 20/20.

It feels like there's a LOT going on in the background that I don't understand- I'm not sure why my teammates are taking damage or why they attack when they attack, and I didn't figure out what most of the powerups did until the very end of the game. I still don't know why stamina was suddenly a problem in the final battle when it was basically a non-issue before. I also don't really feel the described genre fakeout- I was promised a ninja game and that's what I got. Overall though I think this game is leaning hard on a few specific references I just don't get.

Overall, it feels like classic Fistmaker, and it's pretty cool that you have such a well defined style year over year that's very apparent even in wildly different genres.

The ending is funny but it feels like it's missing a line. It technically has a punchline... but it needs a denouement or explanation to finish off the joke.

I love the humour in this game, it's bizarre and surreal but absolutely what I was looking for. I don't want to spoil any of it. The graphics and audio don't really scream SBIG as loudly, though the occasional mixing of styles does feel suitably janky and weird.

There's no indication you're carrying an artifact, and I thought the game was bugged or incomplete before eventually realizing I had to grab the artifacts one by one, returning to Fabio each time. The game isn't long enough for it to be a huge issue, but the excessive backtracking was more tedious than funny.

I do like how the ingame credits are on the tombstones. It's a nice touch.

I really like the concept of this game. Post-secondary post-traumatic stress? Deliberately making people hate you? Sign me up! Unfortunately, unless I'm missing something huge, it seems to be in a very unfinished state. You only really get one interaction with each teammate, and only one per playthrough. There are three endings, but all of them feel like failure states or bonus endings (crab rangoon, anyone?).

I can see where you were going with the art style, but I actually think it looks rather nice. And while I love the idea of a "hating sim", I don't know how much of a genre fakeout it is given that it's clear what it's about from the beginning.

I love the concept, but it's so tedious in practice. It takes absolutely forever to get across the street, the movement speed is glacial and the difficulty is insane, and for all that you only get three crates worth of items. Taking the radio helps, but the first time I played it disappeared from the game, and the second time it didn't work consistently enough to keep me from being wiped out. It seems like you can only restock once per day, so I'm not sure the game is winnable even if you play perfectly.

The look, feel, and overall presentation is spot on for SBIG Jam, though. The sound effects deserve a special shoutout. And having a picker for jam/post-jam version is pretty cool.

The minigame is funny the first time, but it's excessively difficult, kills the flow of the game, and is relatively easy to avoid once you know about it. The rest is... yeah, it's janky and bizarre and definitely fits the idea of SBIG Jam. It's pretty thin overall but works well enough.

I do love the animated graphic on the submission.