Pretty interesting, controls are sometimes a little confusing.

Mitron - cool website, will take note for future GJs thanks!

inventroom - thanks for playing and recording the video, it's cool to see how people approach the game blind

Hey randomphantom - thanks for your feedback!  I replied on my page but guess you won't get the notification there, so I'll copy paste the bit about the music since you ask the question here too ;)

I used FMA for the music, no software involved :p  http://freemusicarchive.org/mu...  

The author is professor cliq, I really like his music and his tunes can be used with attribution.  Also... listen to "Bust this Bust that" from him, that's the music from... Flop Rocket!!! :)

Played your game here, it was fun~

Yes the time and effort spent on the sound effects shows, left it to the last and was totally sleep deprived so was just eager to push things out and the only recorded sound (the splat) sounded totally inconsistent and wasn't loud enough. Used bxfr which made it sound too arcady with the pew pews. Apart from the first circle the rest are randomly spawned but not having much to work with due to limited time meant little procedural content later on. Thanks for the criticism and hoping to improve on my audio skills further (btw audio in your entry was really fantastic, what program did you use?)

Haha, I love that you just end up killing yourself if you jam the shoot button!  An amazingly fun & complex game - love the mechanics.  Go gun ho and end up in bullet hell.  Go stealth and have a hard time dodging things around.  Brilliant & unique!  Art style is simple but neat, visually impactful, and the game is nicely polished.  Transitions between  circles is super smooth.

Some criticism now, because someone has to! :)  The music is moody which suits the game, but I'm not too keen on the sound effects.  Maybe they sound too arcady if that makes sense, it's hard to explain why but I feel they are a bit off!  Also the levels don't seem random either, which impacts reputability (not that I was able to finish the game!!).

But overall - this is a gem of a jam game.  Bravo for coming up with the concept and polishing it off under 48 hours!  If there were winners in this jam, I think it'd be a gold medal for you ;)

@merlin4 @radHABiT that was high praise, made me teary eyed reading that! Glad you enjoyed it! 

That was great!!
Loved the expansion into the next level, excellent effect.
Fun and challenging experience.

Lovely take on Circa Infinity's concept! The karma-mechaninc where you can choose different ways to finish the levels - shooting or dodging - knowing that shooting might come back to haunt you later in the form of blood drops, is great! Great feat of programming with the zoom-in for each level as well!

I just five-starred all of the rating categories. This is a truly a tiny masterpiece. From the moment I accidentally killed myself with my own gun (I didn't realize the bullets come around full circle, beautiful) I knew this was something very special. I love discovering the way the wild world of 18 Circles functions, it's truly a perfectly difficult learning curve. Another aspect of this game that is really incredible (and somewhat hard to describe) is that unlike most games in which the dangers are obvious (enemies/pitfalls/time limts/etc) 18 Circles has a rare and amazingly unique environment in which, while there are traditional hazards; the fact that you create the most dangerous situations for yourself. In a way, you are your own worst enemy. I absolutely love that. All-in-all this is incredibly polished, fun, replayable, beautiful. Thank you for this most excellent offering.

Best game made for Shenanijam IMO

Thanks for playing and your kind comments! The concept might start to wear thin for a full game and given it was made with the temporary GMS2 license I'm now locked out of it, but might try putting this in unity which I'm more familiar with. 

@OverHook Games - yes the challenge was a little over the top there

I love the concept! The idea that if you kill enemies they'll make the game harder is really innovative! Well done!

Nevered fired a shot, that was my trick to get to the 18th level. Once I got there, it was a bit too hard. I loved that you end up rewarding pacifism in the next circle, really cool 

Got to circle 11 without firing a single shot :)

Great concept, I really think you should flesh this out and release it.

Reeeeally good game, congrats for beeing your first jam game alone! polished, fun and not too hard nor easy.

thanks, yours was pretty fun (not to mention that amazing bgm!)

yoah, this looks fab!