Just wow! One of the best gamejam games I've played in years, period. Playing this made me feel both inspired, if not slightly envious of the skills on display. It's this close to feeling like a stand-alone game, rather than an entry for a jam - Bar some bugs it's short but a worthwhile experience. From the get-go the setting and mood make a lasting impression, reminiscent of late 90s adventure games and visually cohesive, each element feeling worthy of addition. From the short but well done intro to the first time you step outside. The narrative unfolds itself bit by bit, but the opening dialogue makes you feel like this world was already alive before the player enters it. Some of the best music I've heard this jam too, fitting neatly with the setting yet not the most obvious choice either. Models and textures were very good, giving the characters a lot of... character. The simple repeated animation of catching snow never bothered, and was always fun once someone stuck their hand out. The world felt believable.
I've written down some feedback while playing, please view this in the context of all of you doing an amazing job already, but I honestly believe with a little bit of tweaking and (slight, it doesn't need to be very long) lengthening this can easily stand on its own feet post-jam.
Obviously you know already about the mouse-controls. At first I attempted to play with a trackpad, big mistake haha. Sensitivity never quite felt like what it should be and looking around always 'dragged' a bit, a little too much smoothing applied for my liking. If you're going to make a game about precise mouse controls, you're going to need a setting in the menu for changing sensitivity at the least. I'd even go so far as to say a short 'calibration' intro to make sure everyone's mouse speed is where you'd expect would be worthwhile, rather than the player having to figure out what the intended mouse-speed is (aka 'Is it just me sucking or is it the game?')
Moving around in general feels a bit awkward, exploring this small world is a joy, but it's not the kind of game where I feel like walking on narrow ledges I can fall off is a necessary part of the game and I'd have been happier with slightly bigger staircases, walkways and hidden walls stopping me from falling.
In regards to the rest of the world, I'd have been more than happy to zoom in with left click on posters or statues and learn about them, though the mystery can also be part of the charm.
On first glance I'd have thought cooking, the core mechanic, might've felt like a minigame, but it doesn't. It deserves your full attention and it's easy to become invested and even feel pride in your work. I felt myself improve with each session, working on technique or trying different ways to flip / sizzle. Despite some control awkwardness it feels close to well-balanced, with a few exceptions: With too many eggs or fish there's a large chance of things overlapping, which is fine if you can shake 'em loose, but other times I could not. Once I had two fish on top of each other and couldn't even notice, another time I had proudly flipped 4 eggs in a single flip, only to find one egg was slightly overlapping onto the other and wouldn't cook.
Once you lose control of your pan, it's hard to get back and it feels like physics 'accumulate', often meaning you're throwing an omelette 5 feet high. It'd be good if there was a certain maximum to the player input, as to avoid flipping one to Narnia. Possibly it'd be nice to follow an item falling out of the pan with a camera, there was a moment I had failed but was uncertain why.
The scroll wheel was never used on my part, nor do I think it's necessary. The controls are better the simpler they are, in my opinion. Movement on it's own is already a lot to master. I discovered the movement keys also moved the pan, but I'm not sure why I would want to use this. I'd also have liked to tilt the pan with the mouse in all directions when dropping items, as 4 eggs in a row almost always meant some overlap. A small shadow would help indicate the drop point to the player, rather than guessing.
Egg physics could be slightly better - I want my egg to flop over the edge, rather than keep its shape. I know, I know... But it'd be so fun. ;) I also managed to land an egg on its side twice. Sometimes fish would fall out of the pan after popping out of the can immediately and sausages could clip through the pan at times.
The difficulty curve could use some work. After the tutorial you ideally just want to do a one or two single eggs to feel more proficient before the challenge ramps up. I also tried to burn an egg in the tutorial, to see if it would, but it didn't. This lead me to assume that they simply don't, until it happened in-game.
Despite rarely needing to click fast in the game, it was actually the one game in which I was continuously button-mashing! Failing means having to listen to the dialogue again, entirely, which very quickly becomes annoying. Luckily one can skip through it, but lines with "..." would still hang a bit before progressing, as well as sometimes empty dialogue lines at the start not making it clear one needs to click. For a game like this, an instant-retry option is a must! I'd even like a way to trigger it without failure, if I think it's a lost cause.
Dialogue was solid and really helped with the world building, but a few times there was a little too much 'fuck yeah' and 'dude'-like lines that bordered closely to cringe for me. It never went there and to each their taste, but a bit more finesse wouldn't hurt, especially in contrast to the rest of the dialogue being on-point and only making you more interested in the world you're in.
Similarly, it'd be helpful if characters had indicators when hovering over them, to distinguish not just characters who have dialogue, but also whether you've talked to them before. In the end, I had missed one person and I had to sift through every bit of dialogue in the hopes to find the one I had missed, when an indicator telling me I had already talked to someone would've helped a ton here and saved some frustration.
Every now and then approaching someone from a specific angle and engaging dialogue would turn the camera in an odd direction, putting the camera far away (opposite side) of where I was. Similarly at times the cooking shot would place me outside boundaries, making it look like I was cooking whilst floating in the sky.
Visually, the font could be a little clearer. The amount of aliasing applied made it seem low-res than the rest of the game.
For being told to 'go make me some money', I sure didn't feel like I was making any, especially when asked to cook food that wasn't mine to offer but theirs to have (including the mention of rations). The last character also never acknowledged I had actually completed my 'orders', repeating the same line as the first time I met him, before transitioning into the credit scene. Since this is the moment the player feels the biggest accomplishment, it'd be nice if the game acknowledged that a little more, including a change to the text rather than '0 hungry left'. Another thing I wondered was what happened to all my failed eggs, I'd have been curious to know how many I messed up.
There was a part of me that really wanted to control the spaceship at the end with the same control scheme while credits flew by. It also made me wonder about what happened to the character, will it forever only be able to walk and cook and no more? The game restarting also didn't match so well with this ending, it'd make more sense if the escape would fail and it'd restart - But let's be real, who puts their attention on the end of a game-jam game when you know not everyone will reach it :)) Good & simple trailer, too!
Theme implementation could be better. ;) It never quite felt like mode, more as actions and was rarely referred to. The only thing in the way from an all 5 rating.
Please work on this game post-jam! Changing the difficulty curve to start slower and give the player some more confidence would already lengthen it enough without the need for more things to cook and it's a worthy game for release. Be proud of what you accomplished!