Thanks....!  Your watchfulness might be rewarded slightly if you keep checking... ;)

I didn't make the ARG too deep as a) wasn't sure folks would be into it... and b) didn't want people to be working on solving it for too long instead of making a game!

Happy new year !

I really liked the idea. Everything has been done well. The demos were enjoyable. The assets were cool.

The only thing I didn't like is the use of one graphic page for the custom font. I would prefer all the pages with sprites.

Thanks for this good jam.

Happy new year to everyone!

This is my first jam experience and I must tell it was a pleasant one. The assets were spot I mean.. I saw entries with flying cheese, combined sprites and all kind of genres were implemented. This is nice.

The backstory was a nice touch. I did solve one of the mysteries, but then I felt I was investing in it too much and proceeded with the actual production.

The only thing that I couldn’t get was how the entries were added to the launcher: a couple of words in the jam description could be useful next time. Anyway you were very supportive and that was nice too.

Thank you for the jam and hope to join to the next ones ;)

I jumped in late to the jam but still wanted to code a fresh submission. I was intimidated by the number of rules on the jam page. I think many people (although not me in this case) just want to join game jams simply to submit things they've been working on, for exposure and feedback, which they don't otherwise have a venue for. This was my experience running another literal no-effort jam over the holidays. You might get more submissions and random enthusiasm if you made the rules more minimalist. However, then submissions might feel less relevant and thus undesirable -- not sure how you'd feel about that possibility.

This being said, I think the rules all make sense, and synergize well with the provided code/assets/theming. I plan to continue to use the democart as a reference point. My suggestion would be that, while listing the rules against a bright red [delightfully festive!] backdrop, add lots more pictures. Pixel art is one of the best languages around, I find. Add a blown up image of the spritesheet on the jam page, "ONLY use THESE SPRITES," could do the same for the soundwaves ("ONLY use THESE COOL TRACKS by THIS COOL PERSON!") -- then potential jammers see they have an opportunity to use really awesome assets from a supporting community, instead of feeling like are prohibited into following rules. 

Positive psychology! Holiday cheer! Fine print can always go lower down on the page :)

Another thought -- I don't do many jams, but maybe themes weren't necessary? I think a more elegant solution would be to let the sprites and assets guide the theming. It felt like they really wanted to! Sometime prompts are inspiring, but this jam had so much goodness that I just found myself trying to make my code fit one of the themes at the last minute.

But now I'm not entirely sure of these suggestions. The jam seemed to want to appeal to both new programmers (being in P8 and having lots of easy-to-start assets) as well as more experienced ones (given the complexity of some of the code and associated community). In this sense, I think it succeeds very well. The assets, mystery content, and retro appeal definitely bridge those two groups. Maybe put even more links to PICO-8 communities (Discord, BBS) on the jam page? With big PICO-8 style pixel art buttons that beg to be clicked?

All that said, this jam was really fun to follow and incredibly well thought-out in its metagame and theming. Would be great to see it get bigger and/or better next year

🎁

I have participated in few jams in the past and I must say this one was one of the best or at least the most special one for me!

THINGS I LIKED:

• Premade assets & 2 weeks of holiday time was perfect! Some of us have a limited time and having assets ready with that jam duration it allows us to participate. And what a better time than through the holidays.
• Usually jams are not that limited but having Pico-8 as an only options was a great choice in my opinion because entries and the whole jam have a coherent theme & feel.
• Mystery of the jam is one of the things I loved the most! I wasn't expecting new assets after solving one so I was positively surprised. In the future I would love to see more layers added to the mystery and with it more secret assets.
• Big plus for constant feedback from your side and for being active on Twitter & Forums! It feels great to see Jam host being active :)

SUGGESTIONS:

• The only thing that could be improved is the jam/rules page. Overall there was just too much text and after reading it some things still weren't 100% sure. Maybe more visual examples would be good (eg. what kind of sprite changes are allowed etc.). Less text and more visual presentation?

Overall, ToyBoxJam Jam made my holidays even more special because it touched the kid in me with the whole Mystery & Toys (available assets, Pico-8 tool) things.
Really good job on your first Jam as a host! Looking forward to the future ToyBoxJams ;)

Thanks for all the input, Palo!

Palette Anims: I understand the palette changers seem high-maintenance.... The rules stated that you could copy the sprites and change them in any way that PAL and PALT could change them, so even if you didn't animate them that way, you could store out the frames and change them as if you did.  This was all based on trying to cram all possible games into ONE spritesheet. If/when I do the next one, I will just provide more than one cart for the assets, but that was the artifice.  It got like a dozen more other variety sprites from that. Also, there weren't that many palette animating sprites, really. More of "a variety-based thing to try if you want".  But I totally get they may have seems daunting and/or impractical.

Too detailed: Yeah, I tried to strike a balance between representational or monochrome/recolor me sprites, also just used ones I had lying around.  I decided to focus on a main character with TONS of animations, to see all the different ways people might use the same character.  Some uses were great, but one problem with that is platformers can be hard to make!  So then that's half a sprite page that a few people used. Will have more characters next time.

ARG: The mystery is VERY LIGHT (some people solved it within an hour) and just meant for interest. The added assets aren't that much really. Again, tried to have it as an interesting facet. Some folks dug it, some didn't.  But it didn't much affect the games, really.  I will probably do it again, I just like little mysteries.

Music: okay, I barely understand music, but if other people do and have ideas how to change it other than "have more available", I'm all ears.  But that was just generosity on Gruber's part.  Lafolie made a bunch of sounds.  I think actually the sounds were too limited probably.

Outside of Pico-8: was intending to do that, but ran outta time. Also, I kinda really like having a launcher, so we'll see!

Outreach: Yeah, that would be good. I wanted this first public jam I ran to be cozy so it wouldn't be a ton of maintenance, and well, I could make mistakes and learn before I did a BIG jam. I did try to advertise it a bit myself and such, but any bigger and it might've been too much.

Anyway, thanks again, for the input, will think about it all for next time!

I really liked this jam. It's the first game jam I've seen that's focused on using the same pre-made assets for everyone who enters, which makes the jam pretty unique. I thought the variety of the assets was pretty good. There's just enough variety that you have a choice of either using them the way they were most likely intended, or combining them and picking apart the assets in interesting ways. The functions available in the carts were also really helpful.

I personally liked the mystery and the rewards from it, which gave me new ideas for what to make (although I ended up not having enough time to use them).

I think instead of multiple themes, there could maybe be one theme based on the mystery itself, so how much does a game reference or build off of the mystery. Just an idea.

The rules could be a bit more clear on what you're allowed to change after submission, like if game-breaking bugs or typos can be fixed.

I'm looking forward to seeing another jam like this one!