Love the aesthetic, the pixel art and palette are downright gorgeous. In terms of gameplay, I enjoyed trying to solve a winnable strategy for each level. Originally, I had tried to keep 4 segments open at all times, swapping between them as needed, but this often led to a prisoner escaping with seconds remaining, which set me back.

Eventually, I found my most consistent strategy was to open as many walls early as to drop the ventilation, before going on the defensive on the latter half of the progress meter. Experimenting with different level layouts kept each run enticing, as I'd have to consistently think on my feet.

Overall, I'd like a bit of leniency introduced to the game, rather than the all-or-nothing win condition that is currently being employed.

All together great work!

Alright - I finally got around to playing the game. Here are my thoughts.

First of all, the way you did the theme was really cool. I had a lot of ideas when starting the jam, but never would I have dreamed of the idea that you are the room. Nice job there.

I'm not here to just say what is good, though. The gameplay could use a bit of work. The core gameplay idea seems quite good, but each room felt quite long, with very little margin for errors. a lot of the time it felt to me like I would be doing a level for a good couple minutes, and then I would make a single mistake and one of the prisoners would escape and I would just be back where I started. That feeling wasn't fun. Perhaps instead you could have done a score system, where as long as, say, half the prisoners did not escape, you would win the level, but each time a prisoner escaped, you were given a score penalty. That way, it would feel a bit less strict. Even so I was able to beat every level except for the challenge level so maybe the difficulty level is alright and I am just being nitpicky

I kind of wish there were more things you could do other than destroy walls, like interact with things inside the room. It could diversify the strategy a bit, which could be nice. For the first half of each level, things always felt a bit slow, so you were just kind of sitting around and occasionally reacting. Having a bit more to do there would be nice. I understand that this was made within 2-3 days though so that is asking for a lot. I am quite impressed with what you have done.

I loved the music. If you were the one who composed this, I applaud you for that. The same goes for the artstyle - I was really impressed with the presentation of the game. Even if you weren't the one who made the assets, I am impressed with how well they have been used - that takes some skill, especially for a slightly unusual game like this.

Overall, I think the concept of the game is really cool, and the core gameplay loop is pretty interesting. The gameplay feels a bit too unforgiving for my taste, but at the same time the polish that comes from the art and music makes this game feel really good.

Nice job!

This is well rounded for a game jam!