itch.io

Woah, thank you for playing that much! In terms of this demo's scope, Lv. 8 is actually way into the lategame, kek!

I'd like an option to keep it [the auto battle feature] on between fights

I see... an unexpected request (these are honestly the best, because I wouldn't think of them on my own, even as the demand might be out there). Engagements are indeed kinda one-note at the moment, but permanent Turbo mode may not be the best choice in future versions, when at least some of the encounters, statistically speaking, will be bad matchups against your party. Anyway, I want player choice to be king, so I will add this as an option right in the next build! Each team will be able to toggle it separately when configuring a new game session and also from the party menu in between battles.

I also found a bug where I could no longer switch menus, caused by perhaps clicking through the skill menu and clicking training and clicking around that menu

I will spend some time with the buttons on that screen and see if I can find anything wrong. However, there's a chance you're referring to intended behavior -- when the Use skill or Training options are selected, I do lock down switching between party members and screens. I think this might be good UX; you don't wanna switch screens by accident while using a skill or reading through your training list. I think that clicking the relevant button again shall fix things. In any case, I'll be investigating everything in a few days (I'm currently out of town)

Why did you put Brad Pit in the game?

Other than David Bowie and crew, none of the other featured characters are actually hardcoded into the engine. Since the beginning of the project, I've been asking IRL friends to send me themed teams of four to use as sample characters in my game. Some did. I credit these friends in the Readme file. The same dude whomst created the team with Brad Pitt also submitted Ryan Gosling, a move which ultimately granted me the great honor of appearing on post >>493606630. If I ever get to monetize the game, I might have to send him royalties...
All in all, this is just a demonstration of the customization capabilities of the 18-28-38-48 engine. You can add any mugshot to the Customization folder and play as them in the game. This is ultimately a TTRPG, after all. I'm working on streamlining this customization process, so instead of using a strip of 16 characters and .ini files, you'll be able to drag a named 64x64 image into the folder and then be ready to go. I expect this change to be fully functional in DD60.

Can you get more party members? Is there equipment to find?

Currently, you can add more party members by pressing F10 in the party menu and typing a command in the console that pops up (there are templates for all accepted commands there). For example, "party\animal\Dog\8\F:Angelina" will give Brad a Lv. 8 bitch named Angelina.
However, as you might have gleaned from the greyed out "Communicate" option during battle, I'm still working on the feature that will let you recruit monsters and animals by bribing them with items and manipulating their emotions (Acceptance, Anger, Anticipation, Fear, Disgust, Joy, Sorrow and Surprise) through a mini-game. I'm not a good dev, but if I'm lucky, the final result has the potential to be fire (see "Reference - Communication.txt" if you have the time). Uh, you'll also be able to forcefully catch them with special items if you prefer. It's like... Shin Pokémon Tensei.
You'll be the first person to see the emotion icons. They're based on the Plutchik system.

The same goes for equipment; you may add something to your inventory through the "arms\*" or "gear\*" inputs. The citadel sells Lv. 4-tier equipment, but I can't remember if I put Lv. 8-tier equipment on the shops of other cities. I think I didn't; the code is a mess rn. But of course, as development advances, you will get more equipment as enemy drops and inside metallic or red/blue wooden chests as planned.

What are your plans for the single player game past this?

Well, the idea as of now is to spruce up the basic gameplay loop with Avellone/Obsidian-type sidequests that will introduce players to the canon cast and unique mechanics and locations every now and then; ideally so much content spread across the in-game world that seeing everything in a single playthrough should be impractical. We spoke of customization earlier... all quests are customizable via .txt files, so a time may come where someone else other than me is writing new quest modules and sharing them. A man can dream.
By the way, did you get to trigger "This Way Madness Lies" while walking around? I tested it from scratch once and fulfilled the conditions at Lv. 6. Um, it's supposed to be a bit of luck-based find and hit you out of nowhere, so... just curious.
I also want to make a walking simulator inside the game, accessible only when a single team is in play. GMS2.3 uses matrix functions and stuff (out of my expertise) to simulate raycasting, but one day I realized during work that I could just work on a 2D version of the dungeon crawler as I try to learn the ways of the blobber.

(I didn't read the manuals sorry)

NP. But give the Readme a peek in the next DD. Ur name will be there.

Dam. I mean, I remember you mentioning there being a previous Automon title somewhere, but I assumed it was a WIP project that you had merged into this one and I kind of phased out the fact. I didn't expect it to be a finished game, already released on Steam and all.

Well, do you plan Arena to be a sequel or spin-off/expansion (e.g. Don't Starve Together)? I guess there must be a reason why you won't add the multiplayer function as a patch to the original game. Whatever it is, success in your endeavors.

Pirate? Brah,

I'll play it... at some point.

Not letting you reject an Automon is also strange, I'm assuming the button is there but just doesn't do anything?

Yep. I forgot the exact wording, but I had options to catch and refuse catching; neither would respond.

I didn't dare to touch GM netcode, it's actually an external server that manages the whole game

That's impressive regardless.
I myself have a pipe dream of adding online multiplayer to my project. Probably can't do it though

is it really a game even?

it is a game... in my mind.....

players should be able to skip the text faster by pressing LMB

This is in the works. You see, in the previous build, you would get a crash when clicking the message box too fast and also while pressing RMB when presented with choices. Finding and fixing two game-breaking bugs such as these was a good enough job for a build which I only worked for two weeks, so I decided to leave the message system alone for the time being, lest I messed up something else so close to DD59. But this feature will be there in DD60, rest assured.

sometimes when i clicked with my mouse during movement below the character it tried to move to the sides instead

Mouse movement decides where you'll go by dividing the screen in a "X" shape. As you can only walk in the compass directions, the device will have to decide where you mean to walk to if you happen to click a diagonal point in the screen. In other words, if you click below the character, but just the slightest bit to the side (as the computer detects it), you move to the side. That's just how geometry works. The best I can do is adding a subtle visual effect that previews the direction you'll move to. I was already thinking of something similar purely as flair, but you made me realize that this is a QoL function that should get in at once.
There's a bit of jank when moving with the mouse that you don't get while moving with the keyboard... I don't know why that is, but I'll look into this when I implement your suggestion. And also stepping back by right-clicking.

why do i have to click begin turn after selecting the attack and selecting the target? it just makes everything even slower

This being a strategy game, the player might feel the need to revise the instructions they gave to their characters before kicking off the turn, in case they misclicked or changed their minds about something. But you can also always use the Turbo button to autofight as quick as possible, with auto-targetting and no confirmation prompts.
I shall add a new customization option that will let each team decide whether they want to see the prompt before starting the turn or not. Based on your feedback, I'll leave this option OFF by default.

also, selecting the enemy to attack is kind of finnicky, with the box to click on being smaller than it should be

Well, the character's picture is the hitbox. I thought that would be intuitive enough. But, in fact... there's a really, really old version of this game -- I was still using GameMaker Legacy -- where you could select any character from the large transparent border that you can see around the characters when a turn is progressing. The only problem is that the game window was only 480x360 at the time. We can work with something similar now, right? I'll do a few tests and expand the collision box if everything works out fine.

i hate to crab, but i genuinely struggle to see the appeal of this game.

Don't worry, fren. I still have a lifetime in front of me to add appeal to the game if there isn't any. It's my passion project.
Hundreds of people are running D&D this Saturday morning and even playing Dokapon on Steam at this exact moment... there's still hope.

You, have a great weekend and thanks for playing Journey Zero (18-28-38-48) again.

Max Stern's new game.
It's alright.
A very short demo but there's some nice polish on the main character. Fluid movement on the body and arms/weapon. Attention to detail is eye candy, always.

Playthrough: loaded up "Forest Night Fever", "I'm Every Reaper" and "Extinguished Flame" to listen while I played. It was over before the first song ended.

A beautiful virtual toy.

We are so deep into the vidya rabbit hole that it's easy to forget that they are but toys inside a screen. This is the literal definition. Sure, videogames can also serve deeper purposes -- teaching, uplifting us, making us think. They can also be used for evil, furthering Larry Fink's interests. We are seeing a lot of this lately. But in the purest sense of the word, they are just toys. Something you play with, pointlessly, endlessly. Machines of >fun.

I went 27 years of my life without knowing that Conway's Game of Life existed, and when I found it... it was magical. I played LifeViewer with the fire theme for hours. My Radslugs session was way shorter, given the circumstances, but almost as delightful. Needless to say, there's insane potential in this concept. I can't name another game with a similar premise off the top of my head, and I believe this market could be tapped into. Was just thinking how well this would work as a lightweight mobile app that saves our progress and lets us peek at our slugs on the go, or... what it'd feel like with the addition of RPG elements... sorry. Couldn't help myself.
Dragging a slug's infobox around smears slime on the ground, which has some intriguing implications.

Playthrough: 10-15 minutes. Tried each keybinding listed on the game page at least once. Saved a slug I liked to my PC.

As a 'Mon enthusiast and fellow GameMaker enjoyer, I set a 15-minute timer after reading the disclaimer on the title screen and vowed to just keep playing no matter what.

It was not the worst experience ever, but Automon needs a more intuitive UI ASAP. Clickable buttons and inactive buttons look the same, as far as I can tell, and adding to the confusion, similar buttons that are clickable in certain screens may not be clickable in others. Not that I could tell them apart, anyway. Buttons frequently became unresponsible while clicking the Sonnenrad Area, I mean, Wild Area map, for example. I had to let the timer hit 0 in order to let the game progress a few times. I eventually filled my team with Automons, but on the following encounter, the game wouldn't let me capture the wild Automon it offered me, or even refuse to capture him, or let me step somewhere else on the map. Softlocked, I restarted the clients.

On the second playthrough, I found out that you have to walk to the same map to pit a client against the other. This is  both a cool detail and a technically impressive feat (the GML netcode scares me to this day and I respect anyone who can make it work) buuut... you know, having a way to play without juggling two windows across the screen would be cool too. Probably much easier to implement.

Sorry if I sounded too negative about the UI. I like everything else! I didn't find that swole LORDbug over there during my run, but I do think he's iconic. Rock Polishing the Stone Edges and Lagging Tails, this can become a fun game to autorun! While I will always prefer the standard Pokémon experience and haven't played this one yet, maybe you can get some cool ideas from PokéRogue and adapt them into Automon. From what I've seen in gameplay videos and the rave reception it got, there may be something good to learn from it...

Playthrough: 15 minutes.

Glorious! Game is well polished and plays just fine. The last FPS I really got into was Soldier of Fortune 2, almost ten years ago, and the aesthetics remind me of it a lot (particularly the urban scenery)! I think games like these weren't even called "boomer shooters" back then.

It took me a few minutes to get used to the extremely mobile character, especially in the first two stages, which feature narrow passageways. However, almost like it happened when I played the companion game Cosmic Call (influenced by Nuclear Throne and featured here as an in-game placard), understanding what the game was going for made everything finally click. The stage clear screen and a painting lying around in the final stage make it clear: DOOM runs in this game's veins. Embracing a rip and tear style is essential to survive and thrive. My first impulse,  telling you to let us walk by default and only run by holding Shift? Trashed.

Maps are somewhat labyrinthine and require some effort to navigate, which is a welcome challenge. Stage 2 wins the level design prize, in my opinion, but 4 was also something else. Its atmosphere... the sunset, the liminal street corners... appropriate to the "Adding Some Atmosphere" update. As for things that should be improved... I believe unarmed combat can be tweaked a little in order to make it as fun and run 'n' gunning currently is. As it stands now, the spike is a high-risk, low-reward weapon. Also, enemy sounds are too goofy, lmao.

I must have found only one secret in the entire run (it was even the one spoonfed to us in Stage 2, kek). I mean, this is great. It means that the game is really deep and I haven't even scratched the surface despite spending considerable time on it. Unfortunately, I'm trying to marathon other demos now, so I can't afford to delve at the moment. As a finished product, though? Count me in. I'd spend some afternoons playing it, like I used to with SoF 2 back in 2015.

Playthrough: 90+ minutes, easily. Finished all four stages, with minimal secrets.

Oi, fren; thank you for the encouragement. I couldn't even update the game for the latest Demo Day, but I'm now scrambling to be able to add some new content the next time around. IRL, I'm currently waiting for news on a work arrangement that will allow me to work on both Journey Zero (18-28-38-48) and Cut Across the World Like a Star on a stable, frequent schedule. There's also this major GameMaker update coming in August, which I expect to improve my productivity a lot. I'll do my best not to let you down.

While gauging sentiment, I once came across someone saying that the UI looks like a spreadsheet, which is funny, because the buttons, dropdowns, checkboxes and scrollbars seen in the engine are remade versions of Visual Basic controls as they used to look back in Windows 95/98/ME. I literally used my version of Excel to study the pixel art for authenticity. Welp, in its current state, the project is more of a simulation software than a standalone game, anyway.

On the other hand, I'm left with... not much to go from there. If spreadsheet = bad, do I just need to add a brighter color scheme? Or different borders, font choice or size? There's probably some sort of UI etiquette I'm inadvertently violating... maybe I should get with the times and include tap and scroll touch controls. Customization has been an essential part of the engine since the beginning, so now I'll definitely include support for custom UI graphics in addition to characters and database entries in case it's just a visual issue. If it boils down to unsalvageable UI design, I've got some studying to do.

Thanks for leaving feedback, fren! Sorry for taking so long to write back; was sorting stuff out IRL.

Hey, thanks for setting some time aside to play and leave feedback for 18-28-38-48.

You see, I'm doing a lot of things simultaneously. System design. Programming. The manual. The tie-in novel. More recently, the future in-game quests and the logic that will govern them. My forecast is that, just as the various aspects of the project are in a similar state of incompleteness at the moment, at a certain point I can expect them to reach shipshape at about the same time as well. I hope.

Re: BAD – well, my main target audience is an intersection between hardcore JRPG enthusiasts who wouldn't mind even if the game were nothing but menus and combat (like Medarot Parts Collection, Mega Man Battle Chip GP or Pokémon Stadium) and TTRPG/board game players who'd like to try something different with their table. But more than a love letter to JRPGs, I want the project to act as some kind of apologetics for the genre too. Yeah, my vision is to have each player spend a lot of time on the battle screen (currently, other than fights, you can also encounter resources and treasure) but also to make it worth the while being there. Of course, as development advances, I hope to add more map events, questlines, characters you can introduce to each other and watch as they interact, and a dungeon-crawling mode that lets you explore the entire planet in first person (representing the basic world surface would take only 70 MB with .txt files; I ran the numbers before). For a miniature Planet Earth, there's plenty of inspiration available to fill in this world :D
Keep in mind that multiplayer is supposed to be a huge chunk of the experience, so, maybe...

Re: UGLY – yup, sorry, the battle system really isn't exactly in its golden age right now. Once the basic game engine is working more or less perfectly, I expect development time to be spent almost exclusively on it. My vision is to have an overwhelming amount of build options available and directly reward the players that try the most obscure ones out. There's a lot to learn from games with well-received combat in other genres too, such as the fatal hits and intuitive tells in FromSoftware action games. Translating these into a turn-based format is a challenge I'm taking up. In that regard, the manual and spreadsheet are sort of a manifesto of what's to come ;)

Thanks again for the sincere feedback; I can't go on without people like you. I'm just a lone man devving as a JOBBY in my spare time, but this is my passion project, on which I expect to work for the rest of my life. It's a slow ride, and I'm taking it easy; so, my plans could well be a couple of years away from implementation. Who knows if it will take me until 2028 or 2038 to finish the game? 2048, maybe? Time will tell

One of the two Goblorblikes released during DD56, JUMP GOB is nothing less than an inspiring ode to yesdevving. A competent reconstruction of the first four levels of the original Super Mario Bros. (1985) made in under two months by a novice developer, this demo is a wake-up call to all nodevs and brutally mogs the crabs. It's an honor to be witnessing this tale firsthand.

You know, though, that anons can be pretty cynical when it comes to the commercial viability of 2D platformers. Going forward, while I do believe that attempting to remake the rest of SMB wouldn't be the best route to follow (though an impressive feat regardless), JUMP GOB could still embrace the pervasive influence of its main source of inspiration and play the rest of its development straight, distinguishing itself by being either Not Mario™ With a Gimmick or a kaizo-style clone for hardcore players... but it could also follow some totally bonkers path, like unexpectedly having Worlds 2 and beyond each play like a different NES classic. Which warp pipe to take now is for TOPGOB to decide.

Bugs: it seems like running straight into a moving platform instantly propels you forward. This kills you in Stage 1-3. Super Gob reels around the flag pole smoothly, but Li'l Gob apparently updates his position instantly, making the screen clip to the side in a jarring way.
Suggestion: I'm not asking for fully rebindable controls yet, but please add a simple toggle for arrow key movement. Many late millennials like me grew up on emulators where the equivalent of A/B keys were assigned to our left hand and you'd move with the right one. Playing a NES clone with inverted controls was rather challenging.

Playthrough: ~10 minutes. Died on 1-4, but I'll try again someday.

Based on a true story (see post >>468262781), the Kirby-coded Goblorblike counterpart has successfully become a relic of Aggy culture since it was first announced a bit over two months ago. Gameplay-wise, Blorb has the lowest movement capabilities of any platforming mascot that comes to mind right now (not inherently a bad thing). A lot of the stages in the demo are based around building up some momentum before a long jump, mostly through the use of trampolines, and precisely, the most difficult section in the DD56 build comes from certain stage hazards that blow an air current at you, killing the speed you built up over multiple leaps.

Anons can be pretty cynical when it comes to the commercial viability of 2D platformers. Aware of that, I still believe that Blorb has a good chance standing out by further developing its low-mobility gameplay (of course, offering ways to let us accumulate speed boosts via specific maneuvers) and having constant checkpoints, kind of turning the frantic, high-difficulty precision platformer genre on its head. With its plot rooted in bona fide imageboard culture, the game's storytelling lends itself well to the inclusion of metafictional elements. What if it turns that Blorb is a younger Meta Knight in the end? Is Blobbos from Pokémon Clover related to him? You could go nuts with it just by adapting the shitposting the general alone provides.

Suggestion: faster Blorb respawn and invisible checkpoints.

Playthrough: 40+ minutes, maybe, over two sessions. In the first one, unlocked all secret stages up to the snow level (exclusive). The game didn't save my progress, so I used the cheat to unlock the bonus snow level and play the remaining normal stages on the second session.

TOTAL EMMY VICTORY

According to all known laws of aviation
Impeccable spritework and heartwarming attention to detail in the iyashikei-as-a-videogame vein pioneered by P.A.T. (this one features toads too!). I'd like to commend the sound design here; the SFX selection in the game hits all the right spots. My favorites are the sounds of the small flowers filling up the score gauge at the end of the level (the sound the wilted flowers make when there are a lot of them is even better, but you have to sacrifice a perfect run on a given stage just to hear it), the clinking glass, and the spiders being hit and scuttling about. As much of a standout as the art.
Game plays like a not evil version of Flappy Bird. The twist is that crashing against the game scenery is actually the goal this time. Along the way, elements that alter or hinder your flight abilities are introduced and due to this, certain parts of the game feel like graceful puzzle sections. Wind levels are kino; my personal favorite was Stage 13. I thought thorn levels were sadistic until glass panes were introduced. It's exactly the kind of game that grips you by making you wonder what the next mechanics will look and behave like.

Just a few things I wish were there:
- a button to "lock" the big flower (temporarily prevent interaction)? This may seem trivial in small or linear stages, but would prevent some frustration when you're exposed to the flower all the time in "open-world" stages like 16, or in the ones that require frustrating maneuvers, like 20 and 25. I understand, this is something that directly affects game difficulty. It's probably part of your vision anyway. It's just that -- touching the flower is currently the only way to get a game over, that is, if you're going for the 100% but end up inadvertently finishing the stage beforehand. Well, I wouldn't even bring this up if the game wasn't marketed as chill-out media.
- show the stage number when a level starts? It has to be an intentional part of the aesthetic that there are no numbers on-screen except on the stage select menu, eh? I don't think showing the stage number real quick would compromise it, though.

"Yes, there are two paths you can go by"
Re: "Question of the day". If you wish to keep things peak comfy, leave it like they are now. Getting hurt already takes control from the player in a game in which you have limited control over the main character, so I believe it's punishment enough. A downside I see is that you might need a larger amount of content (with decently spaced additions along the way) if the player cannot die. If you went the Nintendo Hard way, giving the character a traditional health system, you could get away with less stages, at the cost of the completely chill experience. Only you can make this call, but I actually think that Bumbly Bee would stand out more by leaving us with infinite hits; I'm biased towards it. A certain hit game released last year doesn't even feature player health or lives. Seems to be a trend the market will follow.

Fun fact: on stage 5, I bumped at a certain point on the level where there were a bunch of spiders nesting around a token. My screen went red. I thought that hitting the spiders enough times did that but it turns out I had actually double-clicked outside of the game frame (I was clicking frantically to break through the tangle of spiders) and accidentally selected the area (selected elements are highlighted by red on that page).
Download version when?

Playthrough: 100%. ~1 hour (about 45 minutes spent on stages 1-24; like 15 minutes to clear stage 25 alone).

Literally says so in the project page that you don't need to read any of the PDFs before playing.

So... you tried fighting a cobra instead of retreating and it destroyed you? Just like it would play out in real life? It's called an "immersive RPG" for a reason :)

My screen is 1366x768, by the way.

A text field is indeed visible when the executable first boots. This time I tried typing a longer string and could see the text after a few keystrokes -- as I said, though, the leftmost part of the window is cut off and attempting to move it will take the text box out of view. Also, I can't resize the window or switch to fullscreen (tried "F", "F4" and "F11"). Any commands I should try? It will probably accept them even if the input line is not visible.

Hello, sorry for the late reply.

This is what the executable looks like for me. It does not respond to the TAB key. The screen also starts cut off to the left of the display, but I moved the window to take the screencap.

Got around to trying v1.1 today. v1.2 is still my favorite version... yet the earlier demo is something else (heh). Each of the builds encourage a different gameplay style, highlighting different slices of the project in different proportions. The labyrinthine v1.1 maps where you can take cover from bosses who spit bullet hell patterns at you were what I imagined the game to be like at first, having only the screenshots and .webms to go by. In v1.2, the wide-open, mob-focused killing grounds where you must be quick or be dead lends itself best to the game's chaotic, Lovecraft-infused theme.
Why choose only one of them, though? Unless there's something behind the scenes making this endeavor impractical, I don't see why you'd have to toss one of these two perfectly viable game feels aside. You only have to decide whether one of them needs to become a completely separate game mode (think of The Binding of Isaac: Afterbirth's "Greed Mode") or if there's a way to mesh them well into a sole campaign. But please, give us the best of both worlds in v1.3.

Some other suggestions -- changing the way you show which ammo type is used by the current weapon: red text, besides being not very visible, gives the player a sense of urgency that would better be reserved for warning when the ammo count is running low. Transparency? Thicker outline? When picking normal ammo crates, giving the player a trickle of ammo for the weapons they hold other than the one currently in hand: switching weapons mid-battle just to be able to refill the correct ammo is... well, it doesn't suit a fast game such as this, in my humble opinion. This change wouldn't negatively affect players who'd want to take that risk, but would increase survivability for everyone else. Also, with an ammo trickle coming in, players wouldn't be sitting ducks if they decide to swap weapons and ammomaxx.

Playthrough: ~30 minutes. Completed a 4-map loop after some tries. Bosses fought: Behemoth, Shoggoth, Twin Pillars, Harut, Bartholomews.

Pal, thanks for taking the time to give my demo a try. I don't think I'll forget what was my very first feedback and who wrote it so soon!

Yes, 18-28-38-48 is a Dokapon-like, only toning down the luck-based elements and mean-spiritedness of the interactions between players a bit. I was watching some videos of the recent Dokapon Kingdom Switch port, though, and I couldn't help but notice that screwing other players over has the streamers in a frenzy. So, there IS a demand for all that mean-spiritedness. You see, I have this feature in the works... ngh, I have no one else to tell this, so I'll have to dump it on you, OK? I have this feature called "Reality Bend" in the works. These are toggles that change the core game rules in a session, but you must unlock them beforehand. In the future, then, I'll add something like, uh, "Discord Mode", which will allow players to go full Dokapon on the others. Contracting a hit, sabotaging cities, changing other players' names, going Darkling... I even have an unlock condition planned already: slaying another player in PvP once.

Speaking of PvP...
BUG REPORT: dam, there's one that I've never got before. Going by your description, there were three groups fighting each other on the same tile, right? Well, I call this feature multi-PvP on the devlog, and there, I warn the player that the function is currently unstable. The code governing it is being held together by spit and chewing gum; I still haven't had a chance to refactor it since migrating to the new GameMaker version. I decided against locking it out of the engine because other kinds of problems might have arisen if I did, and I honestly expected to fix that sooner. Here's hoping I can patch it up by DD56.
However, I've just remembered something. When you defeat a team in multi-PvP (even monster troops) but there are other parties present in the engagement, "< Back" really isn't supposed to appear. You have to click the "Change" button below the name of the opposing team and pick another party to engage. Only when there's a sole surviving party in the tile you're given the choice to leave the battle screen. Maybe that happened to you. But I'll take another good look at this feature and >go back to the drawing board ASAP.

FEEDBACK (UNEXPECTED): welp, boi... not gonna lie, visiting the engagement screen once per in-game day is a big part of my vision; if not to fight, to interact with resources and treasure chests. I can't and won't ignore your feedback, though. In fact, you've just given me two new Reality Bend ideas: a mode where you can freely opt out of all map events (you can already do this normally, but you need a whopping 80 Search) and another where the monster-infested areas are predetermined and tagged on the map. I think this may answer grievances a player might have against fighting every day. I'll have to do some planning first, but I think I can implement this soon enough, right in the first wave of Reality Bends.
By the way, judging from the bug you've come across, it seems you were playing a game with multiple teams on the field, am I correct? The optimal single-player experience is deploying a single team for yourself. You can even fill the team with companions if you wish. If you were trying to manage four teams before, then you will have eliminated 75% of clicks between in-game days :)
Noted the feedback on the dice animation and battle speed. I'll add an option to play them at 2x or to skip the dice roll completely.

FEEDBACK (EXPECTED): yep, the game will have story content and quests... soon. I want to perfect the engine before focusing on that, you know. The same goes for shaders and music (I have an idea of what the battle theme will be like). Verily I say unto you that I've already completed an importer/parser script for .txt files since submitting the DD55 build. Together with an interpreter, which I'll be working on, this feature will handle all of the text boxes in the game, allowing players to make their own custom quests too. It will also help me with localization woes. As I refactor the dialogue system (jank), I'll be integrating this new storyline handling paradigm at the same time; this is kinda high-priority rn.

Peace out, godspeed. WAGMI.

Max Stern's game.

This is an auteur-type game. You're dropped into the map informed only of the game's key bindings and then you have to figure everything out by yourself. For me, this was the project's greatest strength, but unfortunately (or not), you just know... this will filter multitudes. I'm not afraid to admit: my first response to the twin-stick control scheme was frustration. The same goes for the axe mechanics. But you know what? These episodes lasted for a few seconds only. The frustration went away in a flash, with clarity. The developer has a technical understanding of gameplay loops. It's now clear to me that he deliberately fine-tuned every aspect of the current demo to have a certain purpose. And I have reason to believe that he intentionally wants to filter certain kinds of pEopLe. Letting these enjoy your game may line the pockets but deflates the soul.
I avoided discussing the gameplay mechanics until now because they're a spoiler unto themselves. Players do themselves a favor by going in blind and working stuff out on their own. The level of polish in this demo is an assurance that the developer's design decisions, though they may look counter-intuitive at a first glance, were all measured and intentional -- the aforementioned axe mechanic being the most prominent example of this. Connecting the dots and making sense of the progression is a bliss. Finding out how to sleep for the first time is such a joyful occasion! One only experiences it once. So far, this the DD55 game I've played the longest in a single session.
I don't even have anything to add or suggest. The developer obviously has the next steps of his project figured out. And that terrifies me. I know we're getting a Husk mutant that eats your thorn bushes somewhere down the line.

Playthrough: Fortnite (14 days). That was probably 90+ minutes IRL. I was afraid that a save system hadn't been implemented yet, so I just kept pressing on with the session. As expected, my progress was wiped when I reopened the executable. Heart-rending. 30 Water secured by Day 15.

Lmao! Now that was an unexpected experience. This is top-tier usage of the Mini-style sprites and also my first Where's Waldo-like. You can take the project in so many different directions from here it's crazy, especially if you're willing to implement randomized and/or procedurally generated content.
It was an extremely short demo but it was enough to let your sense of humor come through; the gags and even the premise of the game itself had me grinning throughout its duration. Looking forward to experience more of the lore (kinda FromSoftware-like in its expository style, tbh). You'll probably make many changes to the cutscene system along the way, but for now, try pinging us when the scripted sequences are over -- maybe by turning the HUD off while they're playing and then back on when they're over.

Playthrough: ~10 minutes. Clicked everything on the functional maps and took a gander at the dummied ones.

I had tried that. It opened a console window I couldn't seem to interact with. Incidentally, I had CMake installed on my Windows PC, so I tried to run the folder through it. No dice; it compiled successfully but there was no executable for me to launch anywhere in the finalized folder (disclaimer: I've never compiled with CMake before and only downloaded the software to use it inside GameMaker as an extension; might have set things up all wrong).
If it turns up the problem was not on my end, I'll be waiting to try S.O.D. on the next DD.

Looks great. Plays fine. Gunplay feels satisfactory, gibbing has punch. The game engine seems ready to ship in my untrained eyes; just add a progression system and round up the content, I guess. I was about to speak up on the difficulty, but I soon noticed that the gameplay loop is more of a Nuclear Throne-like rather than a DOOM reskin: clear the perimeter (interestingly, you don't have to kill everyone on the floor to make the portal spawn) and the occasional boss while conserving ammo and health, look for the stage chest and then head for the exit; die a few floors down unless you've mastered the items and weapons you've happened to come across in the run (and there's a time limit to boot). What you do with what you've got is your CALL now. I'd continue playing this as a more grounded boomer shooter just for the art and the monster design, of course, but I'd be all the more hyped if the game continued in the path it seems to be following: a first-person take on the stage-based roguelite shooter as first popularized by the genre-defining The Binding of Isaac.
The portal compass is excellent. The stages being small, I guess it doesn't need to point you straight to the exit with an arrow (the portal being a bright beacon visible from afar certainly helps), but maybe reconsider if you plan on adding larger killing arenas later. PLEASE consider making the hitbox to open crates and collect weapons and items larger, much larger, and also making the flavor text for pickups linger on the screen for a while. Maybe boost the damage of explosive weapons too. I preferred to play with pistols and revolvers, since these feel like the punchiest weapons in this build.

Playthrough: 40+ minutes on v1.2. Furthest I got on a single run was 5 floors down, but I didn't stop trying to go further. Might try v1.1 later; I hear it's way different.

I had to reboot the game a good ten times before the character stopped blinking out of existence after one frame. Any idea of what could be causing this? Curiously, the game still lets the player scroll the screen when this happens.

I... really love the 2.5D graphics. This is a very early build, I'm aware, but for me, the models are already on point. Comfy textures and color scheme too; the blue light lining the underside of the platforms, particularly, is pure aesthetics. I heard some anons say the protagonist needed a color change, with which I mildly concur. You probably don't want a blue main character, kek, and considering he uses a blade, I think a pastel red would fit him and the rest of the ambience well (I'm not a color guy, though. Don't mind me).
The enemies are literally the Pantheons from Mega Man Zero, lmao! The boss battle, though a bit rough, was engaging enough. Its angled punch attack is hectic! I can already see it as a solid intro stage fight, continuing the Mega Man X tradition of pitting us against a huge but easy boss at the start of the game.
The animations, on the other hand, will need some work. As I've said before, the models are amazing, but the rigging alone can make or break a 2.5D platformer. Try looking into the intricacies of CAPCOM's spritework on the various Mega Man entries and translating that into 3D! Also, though I know you'll likely let the player rebind keys at some point in the future, I'd suggest you let the player attack with the keyboard in these early builds too. How about it? Personally, it feels a bit strange using the mouse only to attack when there's no directional aim or camera look function that makes use of it. I'm used to play Mega Man games on the keyboard already (and I couldn't do this on a gamepad to save my life): Z-dash, X-jump and D-shoot in the SNES games and A-dash, Z-jump, X-attack for the GBA entries. It's ultimately your call, but consider grouping the action keys together if you ever do this :)
There are also a few clipping/physics issues common to early builds of platformer games present, but I think you got this covered. READY! Do what Mighty No. 9 couldn't!

Playthrough: ~10 minutes. Beat the boss.

I'mma be real with you, chief. I'll admit to real lad stuff right now: I haven't played Vampire Survivors yet. That's it. My feedback thus may come off as completely out of touch with the genre, or the LORD willing, somewhat valuable on the virtue of being unaffected by the expectations set forth by the bullet heaven gold standard; I'm leaving it here either way.

Sweet fireworks. I must say this is pretty much what I expected the VS-like genre to be from the many descriptions and scattered gameplay footage I might have seen through the years. More seasoned anons may mock me for my inexperience or not mind what I'll say at all, but I wouldn't mind investing time into this game as it plays right now if the greater content variety expected of the genre and the QoL features I felt the game was missing were already there.
The first of these QoL features could take one of many forms: a pre-run map, a compass, minimap or pronounced landmarks. A great positive in the current HUD is its tidiness. EXP bar on top, health, coins, and timer below. Just the right amount on information, allowing the player to focus their attention on what's going on in the game scene. The game currently plays fine without a mini-map or other orientation tools such as that, which may risk detracting from the experience. However, it's easy getting lost on the map, and one is powerless against this circumstance. During my first runs, I was convinced that aside from being timer-based, enemy spawns also varied by area. Further plays have shown me that this isn't quite the case, but even then, this could well be a feature in the future. Giving the player a way to find their way back to the center of the screen (or elsewhere) would be neat, be it by showing a map of the entire room before a run or in the pause menu so the player could grow familiar with its layout, using recognizable landmarks, or, more discreetly, with a compass pointing at the center of the room, maybe at the press of a key or only in the pause menu. I believe something like this is crucial when the Summoner arrives. I wandered for a good two minutes looking from him in my first run. I knew what to expect from the second run on, so it took less time. Still...
The masteries system befuddled me for a few minutes, but I figured it out in the end. I was expecting it to be some permanent RPG-like progression system, but it's more of a bonus picker for the girls with a few special rules in place. I believe the interface could be improved by making it clear which of the skills are available or locked before and after spending a given amount of skill points, and also by showing tooltips when hovering over the skill icons rather than some image you must open and close. I think there's enough space for that on the screen! BTW, there was no Help button on Bomber Girl's page. I bought her final mastery on my second playthrough even though I didn't know its effect. Looking back, considering what the icon looked like, I guess her bombs really were exploding in eight directions during my second playthrough...
Having a health bar for the hundreds of enemies onscreen would be jank, obviously, but again, I guess the Summoner and any other future bosses deserve a health bar that's as unintrusive as the EXP meter on the top of the screen, or at the very least, indicators that you're past a certain damage threshold on their sprites. Before I forget, speaking of damage and sprites, the girls need a more conspicuous way of showing they're taking damage. The stage on the demo is very chill with just a regen upgrade or two, but in future content, with increased difficulty, a player may want more feedback on damage other than the tiny flashing sprite in the middle of the massive enemy hordes.
The only balancing/gameplay complaints I have are: the Bomber Girl's secondary attack being a bit unresponsive and some issues I spotted with the Ice element. Fun fact: I only noticed there was secondary fire on my second playthrough with the first girl, the third overall. The first time around, I thought: "Bomber Girl would be top-tier if she could chuck the bombs". After discovering Main Girl's ice projectiles, I went back and tested Bomber Girl again. Well... at first I thought I didn't like that the bomb had no friction or that it never blows up on impact, but the real problem is that the kick doesn't connect well with the bomb. You have to hold the button until the animation reaches a certain point and you have to be in a certain position in relation to the bomb when that happens. It all kind of makes timing the bomb's explosion a chore. This may be by design, I know... but there's no reason to use the kick at all instead of just spamming bombs if that's so. My opinion is that allowing the girl to kick bombs she has just placed, without needing to move, or just any bomb her sprite happens to connect with, improves that move by magnitudes. As for the Ice element, it seems underpowered in relation to the other two, at least in my playstyle. I guess the Ice aura might be fine (didn't have many chances to pick it, more on that later), but this is especially apparent in Main Girl's secondary attack. A huge windup only to deal a fraction of the damage the blazing fast Fire skill does. All it needs is a good DMG multiplier. I'm sure you'll find the perfect value for it. :)
One more thing: the three elements being Fire, Ice and Lightning shows respect for the classics! Props for going with the definite JRPG elemental trio. I'm all for it.
I feel like the 10-minute timer is an improvement over the 30-minute one I hear ascribed to Vampire Survivors. Just as balanced as the HUD.
(I've noticed there are two regen bonuses offered by the game: a 0.5/s and a 2/s one. One of these two bonuses has a tooltip that mentions the Ice aura, and I remember getting a prompt to activate the real Ice aura only once. Sus. Try checking if this is unintended behavior.)
As a final consideration, want to boost this project's crack potential? Show us the variables. I wanna keep track of what Level my girl is and how many gems she has collected. I wanna check out how many Lightning strikes I have, the size of my flame bullets, my movement speed. The numbers! Show us the numbers! (But always keep the HUD clean. I guess the only thing I'd want to see at all times during play is the character's Level; the rest of the stats can be relegated to the pause screen or to a toggle from the options menu, like The Binding of Isaac's "Found HUD".)
Art is peak appeal and rich in personality. Bomber Girl is CUTE and DUMB!! I am utterly powerless here and my words may even be marketing poison; please forgive the insolence and scratch everything I say if you must, but I implore you not to make the future characters ultra coomerbait. Girl #4 is enough. Your art shines bright as it is; it doesn't need to up the ante from there.

Playthrough: 4 runs, 2 of each with the first two girls, so easily 1+ hour, considering the time spent in the menu and fighting the Summoner. Saved 80k coins; will unlock the final two ladies l8r.
P.S.: noticed there isn't a save system in place yet. Lost my coins when I closed the game.
P.S.2.: noticed the game gives you 10k free coins each time you access the character selection screen. Welp.

Disclaimer: I might not be this game's primary audience. Bahamut Lagoon and Kamidori Alchemy Meister happen to be among my all-time favorite games but I've never been that big on the SRPG genre as a whole. I don't care for FFT or P5T, and my only experience with Fire Emblem is that GBA game which has a girl named Lyn in it. Don't think I cannot appreciate what you're doing here, though. Taking this plodding, story-heavy, character-driven genre and creating a breakneck, procedural roguelite take on it is a noble undertaking. To be honest, I'd sooner play a completed version of West Marches over any of the nu-Fire Emblems (I'm vaguely aware of the many controversies surrounding the recent entries in the franchise).
OK, let's talk about the demo... five seconds in and I'm already softlocked! The "Load" button was clickable so, naturally, I clicked it. Apparently, when there's no save file, the game just hangs on that screen. I've also experienced softlocks after having all of my units die or loading a save file where all characters are dead; the game allows you to continue, but without anyone on the party, the game freezes sooner or later when accessing certain menu options. One last, more obscure softlock I got: after having used a certain unit to "Trade" with another, and getting dupes and items popping out of nowhere on my inventory, the first unit's menu was gone on subsequent turns and it was stuck copying what I believe to be the actions of the last party that had acted. This party was stuck with the "Attack" command once, and there were no valid targets nearby, making the game stop responding. Mission: eliminate such occurrences!

Some other pointers for you to begin working on until DD 56 comes:
- the attack preview screen could be transparent, or change position so as to let you see which character you're currently targeting. Yeah, I've noticed that you can still scroll between targets, but not being able to see them makes you feel lost, not good UX;
- permadeath is uncomfy asf (this is a personal opinion). From what I understand, some of the Fire Emblem entries have permadeath (this is a controversial feature, I gather), and moreover, permadeath is a staple of the roguelite genre. You're pretty much contractually obligated to have permadeath in your game then, but on the other hand, the cast of characters being "generated" means that we can be more comfortable in letting go of them than we would be in a game with a fixed cast. What I suggest is making it so that replenishing units is quick and not costly. So far, I found this "Sellsword" dude (cool name) who wanted 80% of the party's starting money to join us (I had already spent the cash), and two recruit events (rare and you have to spend an entire turn doing this), not nearly enough in my opinion. Having a way of mass replenishing fallen units for money would be self-balancing, I believe: if you lose many units, at least you won't be permanently doomed down the line, but you also won't have much money to spend on other stuff, such as splurging in mini-events, buying old women lunch or improving your surviving fighters;
- kind of related to the previous point: you could implement some kind of scaling or unit cap on the enemy army according to the size of yours. Once the game generated me with three units and, though I skipped all of the combat mini-quests, I was tasked to defeat 11 troops on the final map. Well;
- generally, combat mini-quests shouldn't be just as difficult as the final quests. From my limited understanding of RPG balancing, the initial battles of a game are supposed to be stepping stones to your characters. Aside from improving the characters' in-game stats, they give the players themselves a chance to grow familiar with the combat mechanics and even makes them question whether or not and when they're ready to take on a more challenging level -- rather than being thrust straight into one;
- keep in mind that even our starting troops are randomly generated, so I believe you really do need easier challenges or even curb-stomp battles until you can take greater control of your party composition, at least on the mini-quests;
- bowmen are overpowered, they can shoot through walls. On a more serious note, the assassin is easily my favorite unit; love his movement, dodge rate and frequent double attack. Too bad they're quite rare;
- the player could use a money display during mini-quests where we're prompted to spend cash;
- mixels, rixels, dixels, sneexels. I don't care about these at all, but some anons make a big deal out of them.
Other than that, focus on UX and bugs, I'd say. You can still interact with the menu while the dialogue system is active, for example; this may lead to problems. Also, don't forget to look into the Trade bug I mentioned earlier.

Playthrough: 1+ hour. Completed three main quests ("!"), but not on the same file (because of the soft locks and all).

how do i open game,

COMBAT DONE

As a turn-based battle and dungeon crawling enthusiast... I appreciate what the game seems to be going for. I made sure I visited every available event and menu screen. I really liked the dialog system; it's easily the highlight of the demo. Bro, the hypertext-based lore popups? As I don't play AAA games made after 2010 -- one of them certainly must have implemented something like this since then -- this is officially the first time I get to witness this personally, on my own rig. It's such an incidental little detail but it goes a long way. Nice call on including it. Being able to chat up the crewmates from the menu is absolutely neat and has unlimited potential too.
Unfortunately, the severe UX issues detract from the experience. Accessing the option screen from the main menu locks you in there unless the return button is at a certain position on the screen. The battle system... whew. Trying to click every single interactable object in sight got me farther than trying to follow the tutorial; it's not too helpful as is. I figured some stuff out, such as moving characters between sectors. I figured out that only red skills damage the enemy, which apparently leaves some of the characters as pure support units/sitting ducks. Is it a good idea having a sole character with 100 HP and the rest at 10 HP, dying in a few hits and unable to kill enemies (this is more of a balancing issue, but it's greatly amplified by the UX)? How do I revive my dead teammates (there seemed to be an option to do this on a certain screen on a certain town, but I think I needed money, which I never made in the entire demo)? What do any of the items do (I still don't know, but I enjoyed looting them on the dungeon)? HP values on the characters currently go below 0, by the way. I won two battles (apparently) but it did leave me confused and my JRPG itch unscratched. All of the other battles? COMBAT DONE. Implementing a battle log, I think, would be enough to clue the player in on what the h*ck is going on without having to change too much from the way things are now, but I believe things need to change from the way they are now. I say this as someone who despises casul handholding.
Finally, I liked the dungeon crawling system too, but the UX issues followed the team in. I wish I could access the menu and heal fallen allies, or understand what was going on with the lockpick system. Having no apparent button to close the lockpick and loot interfaces forces us to figure out that we have to click the left third of the screen by ourselves; this could be handled better.
Aesthetics: I like the art and the character designs. Very bande dessinée. Music was OK as a placeholder. Please revise the game's script. I would also suggest making buttons/clickable interfaces more obvious.
TL;DR: the only thing that needs to be improved ASAP is the UX. The rest is pretty solid.

Playthrough: 30+ minutes. Got to the "Demo done... for now" screen (which softlocks the game)

Aw right, I'm gonna be honest: I am testing this from a literal third world laptop. Please ignore the speed-related feedback on the following paragraph in case it does not apply to a better PC.

Let me start with what I believe to be the most pressing issue: mouse look. I think I get the picture: the mechs are supposed to be heavy and slow; it follows their combat style has to be slow-paced too -- but the speed at which the player looks around is anxiety-inducing, especially when there are active threats in the room. Cranking up the mouse sensibility on the menu doesn't fix this, also making the aim noticeably zig-zaggy in the process, and the "Shift + Backwards" maneuver to do a 180 doesn't seem to work for me. I personally believe having the robots turning around quickly (at least the player, if no one else) doesn't compromise the vision I believe you have in mind as long as they keep their slow movement speed. Maybe the current mouse look behavior should be tied to "Fortress mode", allowing you to look freely when it's not enabled (sort of like the focus mechanic in Touhou).
I got used to the controls with time, but integrating them to the tutorial with more instances of in-game text rather than/in addition to memorizing the list of keys before starting the tutorial would certainly make it all the more intuitive, as would having some text quickly pop-up when switching weapons and turret items ("Minigun", "Railgun", ...). Having "Q" and "E" switch the weapons instead of the numbers wouldn't do any harm too.
The rest of suggestions all have to do with polish, which I think you're already working on. Shooting at the ground leaves tiny and huge bullet holes on Arcade and Tutorial, respectively. Healing while in Fortress mode stops the bar from being updated until you try healing with it disabled. Looking forward to the spinning minigun and particle effects for the firearms and explosions in future versions of the game.
Your HUD is a big plus in my eyes. Have you ever tried to integrate the three elements on the top of the screen (the "M", 殺 and high score counters) to the robot model? They're fine where they are, by the way, but you could always go all the way in emphasizing the unique points in the project. I get the impression the radar has to stay where it is (it's the most life-and-death HUD element, after all; you can't have that bobbing around), but its range could possibly be increased, the game being focused on ranged combat and all. The character portraits, of course, are cute and the story behind them is simply heartwarming! Good luck and have a great time, the two of you, going forward from here.

Playthrough: 30+ minutes in two sessions; finished the tutorial a few times (it seems something was trying to kill me in the final room, but I powered through towards the exit; later I found out it was a boss behind me; smacked 'im); goofed around a bit on Arcade mode and found the [SPOILER].

"I don't like the devil"
- Eric Barone

Rushing into enemies with the shield up feels cathartic. But I'm an old man, way past my prime, and I think the game gets hardcore too fast. Then I panic and die. The ranged powerup activating more frequently or more reliably (like every n kills), not to mention having other powerup types (a wider shield, a more durable cross, invincible dash, faster shield regeneration) would help some in the future.
I also really like the particle effects and the theme song (especially the fast bars)

Playthrough: 20+ minutes, high score 37 (goal: 33, Jesus' age)

Hands down the most iconic game in the entire jam. The small details make the game: the way the characters react to each other's presence, the ingenious ways you are prompted to sacrifice some of the fairies and how carefree they look when it happens; it all never failed to bring a smile to my face. This is pretty much iyashikei in game form -- something I wasn't aware I needed until now. Even though there's conflict, the antagonists are just as lovely as the cast of heroines. Needless to say, I can't wait to meet the rest of them.

Playthrough: 1+ hour, Fields/Coast 100% ("Coast: Rise and Shine" had me joggin' the noggin), up to Test-3 (tried to drop the toad on Test-4; couldn't; figured it was time to take a break)

Oi! Thank you so much for the comment! It means a lot to me.