Here is my feedback for your game too as well.

Overall this was a nice short puzzle game. I do wish I had known what influenced the ending I got though while playing the game. Some way to know that, or even a message about it after you get the ending to clue in the player would help a lot. Also I had a hard time seeing the plants in the fog so I lost more health than I should have.

As for suggestions: I kinda found myself wishing for a way to heal HP occasionally. Could make it rare as you do have the multiple lives too. Could even hide it in a secret. Or...did you and I just never found it? 

Overall though it was nice and short and a pretty enjoyable game, just needed some small improvements here and there. Good job on getting to the finals too in the IGMC!

I was one of the official judges this year, and now that the results have been made public, and I'm free to do so, here is my score and thoughts on this title:

Overall score: 8.5

Cute puzzle game about a cat. I feel that some of the jumping puzzles could have had the speed reduced a bit, or have it where you hit interact on the jump spot again and you can re-try a jump without having to move off it and then redo a bunch of jumps you maybe didn't want to do. The stealth section was nice, but I felt it could have been a little longer. The whole part where you're going through the doors and rooms was confusing as I couldn't tell where to go and was basically guessing the whole time, and taking damage based on bad choice/luck. All in all, a cute little game, however.

Hey there slimmmeiske2, I got your game for judging so here are some of my thoughts. I was in love with the artstyle you chose from the first moment, and getting to play as a cat was fun! Not knowing exactly what the kids were saying made sense since I was a cat, but I know kid reactions well enough to be able to guess what the girl said when she saw the cat. Finding the balls of yarn rewarded my exploration, and actually pushed me to do more QTEs (and fail once they got too fast) which was a clever move of your part.

I do wish the QTEs were a bit more varied though. Even if you stuck with the bar QTE, having the start point be different could have made things more interesting. Like when jumping up a cliff the pointer would start at the bottom instead of always at the top. I ended up abusing the night vision to get through the fog mazes since I was running out of time, but I did like that they could be solved with just time and exploration. 

Varying the QTE speed a bit more could also be a neat idea. After a few successful QTEs I would fail on purpose just to slow it down again, but if it the speed was a bit more random I may have tried harder to succeed since there would be a chance that the QTE still felt doable. That would have taken some time to get working right though, and with the contest deadline I totally understand why something like that wouldn't be possible.

Overall, great job! If you had more time I'm sure you could fixed up some of the minor issues, but they didn't distract too much from how enjoyable this game was.

Stray Kitten and the Magical Lantern

by slimmeiske2

Hey there slimmeiske, thanks for submitting a project to the 2022 IGMC. I was asked to judge your game in round two of the IGMC 2022 game jam. Here's some feedback about your project.

The idea of playing as a cat reminds me of that game Stray.

I like the opening music.

The tilesets and sprites used for this game are absolutely adorable and I love them.

The humans talking in windings is a nice touch. I'm assuming that you actually wrote dialog for this but put it in wingdings. I've seen enough wingdings to recognize words.

I'm happy that you've decided to include a lighting engine. It really makes games ten times more immersive.

There is nothing wrong with the resolution of the game, but have you considered making a game in a 16:9 resolution? It might add a bit more depth seeing as most people have 'widescreen' monitors with a 16:9 resolution.

I thought it was funny that if you pick the default name of "Stray" for the main character the 'no spoilers' says "Hmn, not very creative are you?" :sjoy:

Thank you for giving the cat multiple lives, I am bad at QTE and puzzle games.

I like the HUD, it doesn't take up too much space, but I do feel like it can still be improved. I don't think it needs a border and you can space things to the corners more. Also maybe the Stray icon doesn't need to be there.

It's not immediately clear which QTEs will damage you and which won't. Maybe I'm missing something.

I'm not sure if it's just random or if you are slowing down the QTEs when they're failed. If you are purposefully making that happen, then keep doing that. I think it's probably just going to improve the experience for your players.

Customizing the sound effects and adding some new ones in different events might make it feel more fun, depending on the ones you pick of course.

The Hansel and Gretal thing was cute.

The items that you pick up are missing descriptions. 

I like the paintings and effort that went into the artwork.

It doesn't quite make sense how the cat can jump through the bookcase and then it just disappears.

The game isn't clear on what will damage you but I guess since you give multiple lives that's okay. It just makes it a trial and error type of play style.

Good luck getting through the fog if you didn't get all the orbs and learn Nightvision. You might want to give the player Nightvision no matter what.

I find that the music selection for this game was really good, but the sound design could still be improved quite a bit.

I didn't really notice any bugs, just some design things that could be improved. I think you did a fantastic job.

What a cute little game you made, I liked it! The ending was a little subtle and unexpected, but it's a game jam game and it's okay if the game is really short.

Thanks for submitting a project to the 2022 IGMC, I look forward to your next project! :)

-Drifty 

I got to play as a cat, and it's a nice twist on a fairy tale! What's not to like?

Very lovely  atmosphere. It's great for a rainy day play to unwind. At first I was thinking: is this a horror game? Then it got too cute for that. :p It's hard to get scared when you are a cat. The sparkly trails are a nice touch.

I don't think I got the best ending. I think I'll give it another go later. :)

Absolutely lovely game! I love the mapping and the music choices that were made and I like that the jump mechanic isn't static -- but gets faster with each jump! There is a lot of attention to detail here that really brings this world to life! I also love that the cat is looking for balls of yarn. :)

Thanks for submitting this so we can play it and good luck with IGMC! (I also got the familiars ending.)