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A jam submission

Neurolink (Bitter Sails beginner's game jam)View game page

Short emotional puzzle game
Submitted by Ciel_Morgenstern — 16 hours, 7 minutes before the deadline
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Neurolink (Bitter Sails beginner's game jam)'s itch.io page

Judge feedback

Judge feedback is anonymous.

  • simple connection puzzler done well. aesthetic was interesting, story was a neat addition. theme thoroughly hit. controls simple. playable, if a bit easy. well done!

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Comments

Developer

Thank you for your feedback! 🙃

Submitted

Wow interesting experience. Somehow the story and the music reminds me the Disco Elysium atmosphere. Very nostalgic

Developer

That‘s big praise for a small game 😅 Thank you! ☺️

Submitted

love this game, I really like these kind of puzzle games where you have to connect colors, great job!

Developer

Thank you. We‘re happy, if you liked it. 🙃

Developer(+1)

To anyone wishing for a drag-option: 

We‘ll have an update after jam as soon as it can technically be done. Our programmer just couldn‘t implement it in two days‘ time (which is technically how much they actually had due to late joining). Will keep you posted.


Thanks a lot for your kind critiques. 

I can’t speak for the others on other parts, but as far as art is concerned: I technically *am* still an amateur artist 😅 So I‘m very happy if the attempt to intentionally let the style devolve even more, in line with the chapters,  _on top of that base fact_, not only saved our deadline there, but actually is as fitting to the narrative as I hoped it would. 

I‘ll think about how to make a banner in the same style as soon as I have recuperated from the last run-up. Didn’t want to take one of the ingame pieces outright due to potential spoilers.

Though I guess I could‘ve taken a detail out of one? Simply didn’t think of that in time; so thanks for that. 😉

Submitted(+2)

Wow...This game was a real treat for me. The puzzles were engaging and tough at times, but I managed to complete all 5 chapters. Around the 3rd chapter I started to really get invested in the story and couldn't wait to read what happened next.  I goes to show how much that can do for a game. 

It really embraces the theme of building connections so good job on that too.  I loved the music for what it was trying to convey and the sketchy pictures when salvaging a memory were nice too.

Thank you for the experience.

Developer

Thanks for playing and your kind words!

Submitted(+2)

I love these kinds of puzzle games and was hoping at least one of the teams would interpret the theme this way, so I’m delighted that you did! I had a lot of fun with Neurolink and played it to completion. I breezed through the first few levels but then quickly started getting humbled by some of the puzzles in the third chapter and later on. The difficulty was perfect, though: the pacing felt natural, and though some of the later puzzles presented a real challenge, I never felt completely stuck. The presentation here is great, too: the art is really charming and complements the narrative very nicely, and the music sets a bittersweet tone without being too distracting. My only suggestion would have been to add drag controls for the connections since undoing long lines with the mouse click can get a bit tedious. Overall, this was very nicely put together and I'm glad I got to play it! (Also, I’d definitely recommend using some of the game art for the Itch cover because it’s so lovely.)

(1 edit)

Thanks for the kind review! :-)

We tried to implement a drag feature, but couldn‘t get it to work reliably in the given timeframe. But there might be a respective update soon (it kinda itches me (no pun intended) to correct that specific inconvenience).

Submitted(+2)

It made me shed a tear.
Gameplay isn't new and aligns with Jam's theme. I liked how different colors are made into different brain parts. Also, I fond of the overall 'Memory' theme.

Story and atmosphere are touching. Ambience and art style are just so immersive. Especially sudden tone-shift after compleating the series of puzzles and unraveling the storyline.

Artstyle reminiscent of old flash games making me nostalgic and comfy, though it consists of dull cold colors, except for the cozy chair. Drawings has many (professional) errors but they are working for the whole nostalgic feel, looking like amature art, sending me back to to the times when I was the only kid who could draw descently in my class.

I liked it.

Thanks for playing :)))