itch.io

I wanted so bad to add bosses but I think on the last day, my body was telling me to sleep... Thanks for playing!

Haha, yeah originally I had so many ideas floating around about how I could emphasize the need to build your units in a way that they scale to the late game challenges... but overscoping my old friend. Had to cut out a lot of ideas unfortunately.

Thanks so much for all the kind words!

Yeah I had some difficulties with scaling once I hit the WebGL build. Unfortunately my fixes were near the end of the last night so I had the feeling there'd be some issues... Thanks for playing!

Yeah for sure! I don't think the fourth level was actually harder objectively than the third level. I actually didn't have a big problem with levels being difficult, but rather them being tedious. On the third level, I'd spend quite a fair amount of time figuring out the puzzles (which were great!) and that had that nice sense of difficulty and problem solving. What made the level make me groan and want to close my tab was when I caught a stray fireball because I messed up a jump slightly. The same principle is what made me a bit offput to level 4 too. I actually got through first try, but the stress of trying to maintain my health so I wouldn't have to do everything over again as I was solving the puzzles took away from the puzzle solving experience to me.

But I don't think the death mechanic was all bad, not after seeing the boss level. Since the boss level had an air of "you can die here" and the puzzles themselves didn't take too long to do again and actually emphasized more the mechanics of movement rather than a long Rube Gobert sequence of steps, it made the action more enjoyable!

The finish on this game is honestly so good. The UI is snappy and the graphics are beautiful. I wouldn't bat an eye at seeing this on Steam or something. Anyways, a review for the actual game:

- The gameplay loop is a fun base concept! It had me occupied for quite a while, and it felt satisfying slowly getting bigger and bigger. It did feel a bit repetitive after a while.
- The game was a bit overwhelming at the start. You get these tenants with all these details, of which, I don't think I ended ever actually considering. There's just so much going on off the bat, and I think it messes with the feel of progression.

It's a simple game, but I actually really enjoyed it! Yeah there was hitbox jankiness at first picking up the clothes... but I eventually figured out the right spot to stand to get it, so it didn't hinder the experience really for me. Also don't think I didn't notice that little cringer who brought me underwear that was already the right size (I failed his order like 3 times before realizing...). It was a unique concept with a gameplay loop that scratches a nice itch once you get into it! I actually felt a bit sad when my business suddenly ended and I was forced to take a vacation...

At first I found it frustrating not having any relative scale for determining what size something was other than guestimating. A few orders in, I realized that the size actually matches the model of the customer quite well, and could be used to set the scale in my head. Not sure if that was intentional, but it was clever, and I liked it!

I think the game actually has a lot of potential for future features, challenges, and all sorts. It's a good baseline that I really enjoyed playing!

Really fun game! I really liked the core mechanic of the game, since it not only provided a good base for interesting levels, but it was also implemented very cleanly. Very nicely done.

A bit of feedback:
- The game does feel like it has a bit of an identity crisis in later levels. It starts off as a planned out puzzle platformer which was very appealing to me. However, continuing with the spikes and fireballs and all that, it felt kinda unnecessary. You spend all this time solving one half of a level just to misstep on a fireball and lose all your progress. It was a bit antisynergestic with the puzzle strategy aspect of the game. I also didn't find the core grow/widen/etc mechanic too helpful for dealing with such obstacles too.

Overall though, it was a very fun experience!

EDIT: So I went back and grinded out the rest of the game because I was curious how the mechanics would be used further (I stopped at level 3 before once I lost all my progress to ANOTHER FIREBALL LOL) I think my thoughts from before are just even moreso after seeing the rest of the game. I think you guys found two distinct and fun mechanics for this, a puzzle platformer, and an action platformer. Mixing the two however in the same level I feel took away from the experience. I found the purely puzzle platforming (First couple levels) and the purely action platforming (final boss battle) the most compelling levels. Levels 3 and 4 which mixed the two just made the experience frustrating. The final boss had this a bit but to a lesser extend in my opinion. I think one of the worst feelings you can get is having to repeat and go through the motions of a puzzle you already know the solution to. Especially if it takes a while to do so, and this was something present whenever you mixed the puzzle and action aspects together. Overall, I think the two concepts are both very fun on their own, but mixed together took away from the experience of an otherwise very good game.

This game is really sick! It's such a well-done and unique take to the scaling puzzle archetype of games I've seen! Everything is so polished and put together, it's very impressive.

I'm not the biggest fan of movement being the controlling factor in the actual scaling since it made things tedious at certain points, and didn't feel like it added anything other than just being a bit gimmicky. It's a cool idea in concept, but not something that I feel plays well in execution.

Unfortunately, I had to skip a level or two (level 3 was one) because my hitbox kept colliding with a wall, and I couldn't effectively move to grow and shrink.

Overall, still a very fun game!

Wow, this game is ridiculously well put together. It feels like something that could just be a released game. Super well done, super well polished. Great mix of puzzles between planning ones and timing based ones. Only feedback is a little bit of jank on the physics that makes the timing puzzles a bit annoying sometimes. Great game though!

The game feels very nicely polished which is impressive for a gamejam. Everything from the visual to SFX to gameplay vibes came together very nicely! I got my controls mixed up a couple times, but that's not a huge deal.

Personal preference wise, I found the gameplay loop to be an interesting concept, but not quite for me. The best way I'd describe it is the context switching didn't feel very cohesive to me. I'd be getting into clearing a level, then I gotta wait for this wagon to fully go down and play Pokemon Snap for a while with mana collection... The two aspects felt distinct and fun in their own ways, but I personally would've preferred getting the time to invest myself in one.

Interesting game. While I do agree a tutorial would help immensely for this game since its overwhelming at the start, it's also a gamejam so I totally get the time crunch, and I figured things out eventually. Unfortunately what hurt the most were a few key bugs and UI things that made things difficult to play.
- I had tooltips going off the screen a couple times which made it impossible to read unfortunately. I ended up doing a bunch of research multiple days in a row to figure out what it does but still am not sure. Was it unlocking upgrades?
- Once I'd amassed a lot of resources for building monster, dragging it in the center one at a time was excruciating. It was cute with few stats but with a lot, it got tedious.
- Balance wise, temp work is kinda op just because of how quick it is comparatively to making guys. I decided to not abuse it to fully experience the intended gameplay loop, but this is more of a nitpick haha.

Either way, I still had fun! Nice submission!

Alright best game of the jam I've played so far, perfect ratings from me. It makes me so absolutely sad that the WebGL build is broken since I know so many people won't bother downloading the working version... cause this game is honestly amazing. Long review incoming:

What I loved:
- The gameplay loop is so satisfying and well done. It's a super smart way to implement the theme into a puzzle platformer, and it's executed so so so well. The use of non-grid based system in a grid-based looking world actually creates so many great interactions and sneaky ways to solve rooms that are a bit unconventional. It's great and I'd play a full release without hesitation.
- The game is so clean and polished. Like so so clean. I have no idea how you did this in four days, because man does it feel like a full complete game. There's a bit of jank here and there yeah, but it's nothing impactful.
- I wholeheartedly completely and totally disagree with some of the reviews I read here that the level design gets repetitive. I think it was a more than interesting variety for the length. For a full release, maybe some more mechanics would shine, but for its length, I think it struck a wonderful balance.

Because I loved the game so much, a bunch of feedback too:
- This game would benefit so much from hotkeys for resets and going back to the editor. I also didn't realize until halfway through there even was a "back to editor" button that didn't reset everything. I realized eventually though.
- I think a really good QoL for this game would to make the smallest blocks not have a hitbox when dragging them. I noticed for some of the later levels, not being able to drag bigger blocks through gaps (though they kinda looked like they could fit) seemed like intentional level design, but for the smaller blocks, it seems they were always meant to be able to go anywhere. It would make it so much smoother if I could drag those blocks without navigating whatever course I'd already made or walls or the sometimes janky hitboxes for tight squeezes. On the note above too, maybe for the gaps where it looks like a bigger block would fit perfectly through but they don't, making it more clear they won't fit would be nice too.
- Small blocks are OP. I know I praised the level design, but this point is a double-edged sword for me. Using smaller blocks to create tiny edges and stairs on each other was wonderful to me, and I feel the mechanic was introduced subtly well (I think it was the third level?). However, it did eventually get to the point where I was essentially just trying to figure out how I could make the most amount of these OP tiny blocks to clear levels. I think it didn't get repetitive because of the length of the game, but any more and I could see this OP solution making the puzzles fall flat.

Anyways, this was the best game I've played so far in the jam. Amazing job!

This was definitely my favourite take so far on the "scale things up or down for a platformer" idea! The ebb and flow and giving and taking struck a really nice balance that I think has so much potential.  Just a bit of feedback, not necessarily critique:
- I think being able to better fine-tune how much you give and take would've made the overall gameplay loop more satisfying. Playing through a lot of the levels, exact precision wasn't necessary for sure, but I think in this style of game, it would be really nice.
- Yeah there's some jank but hey it's a gamejam. It didn't take away from the experience at all for me.

I'm still taken aback by how finished and polished the game looks. It honestly looks amazing. The gameplay loop was quite fun, seeing these big armies clash! I think the game has so much room for expanding and potential. Just a nitpick:
- The targeting system where archers all targeted one enemy and thus missed the majority of their shots was unfortunate

Art is cute and clicker games are always tried and true! (also totally missed the chance to call one of the soldiers a lieten-ant hahaha ok i'll stop) Any feedback I had was already mentioned in other comments, but just to mention it:
- Early game is definitely a bit slow, lots of clicking for not much reward early.
- I think locking later game options until you've progressed more would make the curve overall feel more satisfying. Having some enemies spawn while I'm still making less than a food a second with no army made the curve feel a bit weird to start out.

Haha funny thing... I originally had the makings of an online scoreboard but my NETcode broke... Thanks for playing though!

Are you the cutest because you're hamster or are you hamster because you're cutest?

Ok but actually this was super cute and fun! The puzzles were nicely designed! The movement is a bit slow which sucks when you reset but it's not a huge deal!

Loll short and sweet. I think I got all the endings... ngl I was kinda clicking around searching for any hidden endings after combining everything. Love your vibes.

I really like the core concept of the game, and it was fun slowly building your way up! The game plays well!

However, there are a couple design decisions I just can't get behind that hindered the experience for me. Only being able to hammer one thing per round felt tedious and unnecessary. Maybe the vibe was to try and make do with what you could each round, but I really liked the idea of finnagling and editing your structure as you get new blocks, but that's not really possible with such limited editing each round. Misplacing a block felt really punishing, especially since you lose all your blocks between rounds, so you can't just wait to destroy something next round.

I still really loved the concept and ended up playing for quite a while despite!

Ok I spent so long playing this game holy. This was actually just so much fun! The early game is slow, but once you get ramped up, you get to just be a big ball of death and I'm here for it. Could it maybe use some sound effects and a bit of polish? Who cares, this was a blast. Great game!

Just a really nicely polished and well executed game! The gameplay loop was fun, and progressing each stage felt super satisfying! I didn't actually end up getting as far once I realized how bad my foundation was...

Some personal feedback:
- I did enjoy the core gameplay loop, but the randomness of the block heights does feel like it takes a bit of agency away when planning. Something like a hold function would be super nice when in the early game you're really trying to meticulously get a strong base.

As a Pokemon snap enjoyer this game really scratches that itch nicely. It's really fun and well executed with cute models! Honestly just a really well done game!

Thanks for playing and glad you had fun! Yeah for difficulty it was definitely the hardest thing to adjust. Any roguelike veterans seemed to find it quite easy, and I didn't have as much time to tinker with specific numbers as I'd have liked... thanks for the feedback!

Glad you enjoyed it haha. All hail big starch

Thanks for playing!

This was ridiculously fun and well done! Music theory and listening tests would be so much more fun if it was all themed like this...

I'm gonna call it cope and say I'm too tired from the gamejam to play well, but man I can't get hack the first ship lol. I'll come back to try again, but the game looks super pretty and feels polished. The controls are definitely hard to get a hang of, but I don't know if that's a point of critique or just a skill issue.

As a lover of all things rhythm, this game somehow captures such a natural groove it's amazing. The game's vibe is just so absolutely sick. Took me a few plays to get a feel for the game, but it's great!
Some quick feedback: It'd be nice to not have to do the tutorial bit every time, but that's really minor.

168 deaths... I hate you for making a game with the vibes of world's hardest game. (jk) For real though, was super fun and super creative of a game. I totally just cheesed the last level though by swinging the bottom floor up super fast and I somehow clipped through. Not sure if that's the intentional solution but... we take those. I think my hand was actually shaking during some of the precision sequences.

Some feedback:
- The bounciness of the "forced jump" when moving the bottom is a bit unpredictable, and the physics is definitely a little wonky in a way that doesn't seem intentional. In a game that's high skill and precise like this, it can be a bit frustrating.

Ok that was silly and fun. It gave me vibes of those stupid mobile game ads you sometimes get, but was an actual game with a cool concept!

I quite liked the game! A fun take on a platformer! Maybe it's the completionist in me, but I loved the little bits of extra challenge you added in! Lacks some polish, especially with blue zone mechanics on the later levels, but what gamejam game doesn't lack some? Good god though some of those jumps were tight. I think the final jump on the last level gave me Mario Kaizo PTSD. (I'm into it oops)

Some feedback:
- More clear indication  of what exactly a death zone is would definitely be good. I did have a bug too where the death zone didn't trigger and I got stuck, but that happens. I think it was level 2, but I couldn't quite tell that there was ground near the bottom of the screen.
- I think some more guidance for some of the mechanics would be good in the level design. On the final level, I was just spamming grow and shrink to get past the blocks above you in the blue zone. It took me a lot of trial and error to figure out how to build momentum to clear that consistently.

Well I'm biased cause I love lil' guys. Anyways, fun and cute game! The puzzles were all fun and intuitive, with some taking a couple tries to figure 'em out. I think the game strikes a good balance of not coddling the player too much, but also giving the right amount of guidance. That's hard to strike, so good job! Lil' guys are also so them.

Some feedback:
- I think a display or button to remind the player of controls would be super helpful. Something like grow is a mechanic that has it's key given early on, but isn't really used till later, and by then, I kinda forgot what the key was. I had to restart once just cause there were a lot of mechanics introduced at first and I couldn't remember the key bindings.
- Not much else, cute little game!

Love the comic aesthetic! Props to the artists on the team! Game feels polished and something I could see released!

Some feedback:
- The gameplay loop is fun, though I'd definitely love to see more variety in the puzzles. Basically every level was easiest to solve by just making something big and dropping it on top. A couple times I tried to stick things against walls tightly (like with the eraser) but they just fell every time, so I went back to make bridge fall go brrr
- A speedup button would be super good for this kinda game, maybe after you try clicking play once and have to restart?

That was a really nice experience! Great job on your first game jam! The graphics were nice and music was a good vibe. Gameplay was fun and a good take on the theme!
Some feedback:
I think the level design could definitely be more interesting based on things like your starting position. Starting near the top left corner allows the player to skip through a good chunk of the design of many of the levels' dice lower down. I think it's super important to consider stuff like that when designing each level to make sure your placements of platforms and stuff are meaningful each level.

To me some of the levels felt a bit same-y with a similar strategy of reaching the top with high numbered dice near the bottom. I think there's so much potential on how to mix up the levels, and perhaps introduce different challenges slowly through the level design!

Overall I had a lot of fun and I think the game has a lot of potential!

Wow this is a super original idea and core mechanic! I loved it! The gameplay was unique and fun, even though it took me a little while to figure out what exactly to do, even after reading the instructions lol. The sound design was super satisfying, and the art was really nice! Everything felt super polished! Overall really really good! Some feedback:
Not a huge thing, but I think it should've been really exemplified somewhere what exactly the player is trying to achieve. I think I missed it a few times before realizing I needed to get the dice to land on skulls by slowing it down.

I honestly don't really have much else lol, it was really fun and a great game!

I thought the game was super fun! The concept was funny, and the gameplay was suuuper satisfying. I loved the super heavy guitars going as I'm just devouring everything in sight lol. I kinda felt like I was playing COD zombies again with some of the enemy training I was doing.
Some feedback:
Not a huge thing, but I thought the milestone were a bit long. Maybe if there was more ground to cover, but eventually I kinda got into a rhythm of just hitting up the same places over and over.

I don't think the RNG/dice element really affected much for me. All I really ended up knowing was that I was spamming out projectiles like crazy, and the actual RNG/dice element felt a bit separated and didn't feel super impactful to me.

Overall though, super fun game! Loved it!

Lol this game was really silly and premise had me going alone for quite a while. I also really enjoyed out pure personal bias for enjoying rhythm games and enjoying typing speed tests... The concept was super original and funny and I enjoyed the gameplay a lot as well!
Some feedback:
Me personally, I would've liked it if a beat wasn't skipped after every word. At higher speeds it might get a bit overwhelming, but I was thinking if the beat wasn't skipped but the next word was showed to the side somewhere, I'd feel like I wasn't pausing awkwardly after each word.

I think the dice mechanic didn't really do much for me. I loved the gameplay itself, but didn't really feel the integration of rolling the dice while playing.

While I enjoyed the gameplay a lot, I felt that the losing vs winning didn't feel super satisfying. For one thing, making a mistake then having to play the rest of the word in shame with no way of saving it felt kinda bad, and also going a win-kill streak didn't end up feeling super satisfying. Maybe the vibe was to go for the delaying the inevitable which matches the theme, but I think there's something to be done to kinda make the game feel more juicey and satisfying when winning (Especially when getting a perfect 6 dice!)

Oh man that was a chaotic experience to start, but overall it was fun! I used to play tons of diner-dash style games and this gave me a nostalgia sweep. I really liked the music and design of the game overall! I thought the mechanics were fun, and I played for quite a while before noticing...

As for feedback: Like some other have pointed out, switching between keyboard and mouse inputs felt a bit un-intuitive at times. I think hard committing to one or the other would have been better for sure.

Given more time, I think the game would've really benefited from a tutorial. This would totally help with some of the confusion people had with the controls as well. With this type of gameplay, it's super easy to be overwhelmed initially. I'd say even something like a ramp-up period (longer timers, fewer customers) to start would make the experience more friendly as you start!

Is the gameplay kinda janky? Yeah of course, but it's a 48 hour gamejam so we ain't expecting perfect platformers. For what it is, I enjoyed it! It was a cute and silly experience that was fun overall! Obviously, I think the game would be even cooler if it had time to be fleshed out, such as getting the movement down, having some more UI elements, a tutorial etc. Overall though, I had fun with it!