Having played roughly 50 jam games here are my top 10 picks for innovative games with great mechanics!
1)-Sunburn- Truly a masterpiece of a game with beautiful visuals and a core mechanic that is incredibly impressive.
2) -Shifting Dungeon- Amazing puzzle design, amazing mechanics, all round an amazing game that fits the theme perfectly!
3)-Hardwired- An outstanding mechanic with great graphics and overall well polished experience!
4)-Torchure- Extremely well polished with great visuals, and while there is an element of trial and error, it feels a lot more fair due to there being subtle things to look out for that reveal the traps locations!
5) -The Oeuvre- The best implementation of dynamic difficulty that I personally have seen while rating games! Joint with GhastlyWhich is an incredible puzzle game with an awesome mechanic and really good pixel art!
6) -Evolution- Amazing level design and has great progress through each death (eg new areas you can reach)
7) -Wizard of Chaos- Absolutely beautiful pixel art with dynamic difficulty that has options
8) -Ideas- One of the best narrative interpretations of the theme!
9) -PrismGrid- A really great concept of reversing a tower defence game that is implemented very well!
10)-Snakefice- A great movement mechanic surrounded by great puzzles which fit the theme perfectly!
Special mentions: Don't Get the Job!, The Land of the Unskilled
There were loads of other games that were amazing and I really struggled to narrow it down because there were so many outstanding games this year!
Thank you to everyone who joined in on any of the live-feedback streams too!
What are your favourites of the jam? Leave them underneath this post for others to see!