itch.io

Wow guys. I knew whatever yall were cookin' up for the jam was gonna be a treat, but this genuinely floored me. The Art, the sound, the presentation, the gameplay that mixes enemy zero and fatal frame with classic style Megaten movement? I'm in LOVE! Once I understood that the record button is a TOGGLE and not an action (bc im a big dumb idiot who cant read) I had a ton of fun trying to outmaneuver the ghosts. The last little gauntlet at the end where BOTH ghosts come at you was incredibly tense and SO MUCH FUN! I'm having a hard time thinking of things I'd change. Maybe add a big "REC" on the camera screen when the recording mode is toggled? I missed the red light on the UI and got myself killed trying to toggle it on and off again lol. Amazing work fellas, pat yourselves on the back! 

I'm kinda at a loss for words, guys. This is such a clever and fun idea that I cant say I've ever really seen before. The puzzles are designed in such a way that the first area eases you in as a sort of tutorial before dropping you into the REAL stuff with the time limit is a really nice touch, as I know many have trouble with tank controls, and I'm sure the unique perspective wouldn't help to one who may struggle with such a control scheme. The way the cameras are intricately placed, and the room layout so meticulously thought out really ties it all together. When I figured out how to get the key in the bottom left, I had an "OOOOOOOOH!" moment when my brain connected the dots between the other scenes to paint a picture of the environment as a whole. Using the 9 screens at once was such a great Idea because it makes you flip all around looking for traces of yourself to grasp onto. I ended up getting out with about 3:30 left on the clock. If I hadn't noticed one of the cleverly hidden numbers, I don't think I would have gotten out on time, lol. KEEP IT UP!!! 

Sometimes you don't need your roguelike to have 20 insane ramping difficulty levels, Sometimes all you need is a nice, simple laid back journey- and rocks. lots and lots of rocks. 

This game is a short and sweet roguelike that was a treat to play! I love how you went all in on the stick figure art style and the trick or treat theming. The gameplay is about as simple as it gets, but IMO that makes it really fun to min max. On my True final boss run, i played the warrior and went heavy into rocks. by the end I had some lucky rolls and had maxed out king size (BRILLIANT rarity rating system, btw) rocks that made the final boss a breeze.  Some sort of marker to show where you are on the map would be extra helpful, and personally the SFX was a little too much for me, but thankfully there was an option to turn it down. Sick stuff dude! 

Like many others, I got to the Euth room dialogue and got locked out from there. I love the idea and the framework of having to livestream surgery on tiktok... a framework with a ring of truth to it for sure.  The 3D models weirded me out at first... but I quickly realized that's the point, a very unique style i haven't seen before. I'd love to play more, if there is any!

This is an experience that somehow unnerves me despite intentionally having nothing. I feel like this is a place i've been in before, but I know I haven't. Also, a lot of chicago apartments kinda just look like this so that's probably part of it. There's certainly something captivating about the living room, with the blue TV glow... Dunno why or how to put it. One quick note, idk if its just me but the mouse sensitivity was CRAZY high, which made it a little hard to navigate but i made it work lol. 

Such a neat concept! I really like how the game doesn't seem to take itself TOO seriously, sort of as a homage to classic spoooooooky creepypasta stories about EVIL haunted games that KILL YOU!!!!1! Big Whoop. We've all had an evil game try to kill us, steal our soul, ETC. 

First round, I got a few unlucky shots and lost my first go but won the second. 2nd round, My ball got stuck in the top left corner. I had to exit out to keep going, but then kept losing round 1. The pinball physics do feel a little floaty, but for a play field with only a few objects it makes sense. I think a mechanic like table tilt would make getting the required amount of points a lot easier without sacrificing challenge. I heard you all talking about this at the speed meet, so I'm glad it came to fruition 

GODDDDDD I WANNA PLAY THIS SO BADDDDD I was a big fan of atmosfear, so this is up my alley. Hope I get to give it a shot!!! 

I JUST WANTED MY CHEEEEEEEEEEEESEEEEE 

For a game that, when boiled down to its basic elements is pretty straightforward, there are so many little genius design choices that I cannot help but applaud. The controls are intentionally a little obtuse at first, perhaps "easy to learn, hard to master" is apt, because my second go-around I was kinda zooming through the rat tunnels at a satisfying rhythm. Even so, I had to be careful because If i got TOO excited, I'd just alert the rats. It's sorta a delicate dance between movement and stealth that is satisfying to get the hang of. 

  I love how the map is in the corner of your eye most of the time, which makes it so I don't have to constantly pull up the map to orient myself silent hill style. I also love how the map has to be toggled between pickups and enemies, meaning you have to sacrifice knowledge of one thing for another at any given time. For such a simple premise, you added just enough spice and complexity to make it something genuinely replayable and tense. Fantastic work! 

Big fan of tower defense, so I was delighted to give this one a shot. I played it a total of 3 times, once where i was getting the hang of things, a second time where I just did what came natural, and a third and final time where I went in with a strategy and ended up winning, which felt REAL good. I think one thing the game would greatly benefit from is a title screen, being launched right in was kinda difficult especially when you don't know what does what. That being said by the end of my first tun I had a pretty good grasp on what does what, and by the end of the third go around I was nigh untouchable. The art is charming, and the enemies certainly have some nice... colors.

...What? Did you think I gonna say something else? 

Anyway! Only other thing that really stood out to me was that some of the tower selection hitboxes were kinda small, and I ended up placing something I didn't want- especially frustrating when you mean to put an attacking tower but place a barrier or fountain instead. I'd love to see more, maybe with more enemies and towers. Great stuff!

I really love the idea behind this game, playing as a farmer who has to protect his farm from wolves, then an unknown entity (entities?). An evil farming game is RIFE with possibilites should you continue to keep working on this. Like many others have stated, I'm impressed that you were able to implement two distinct styles of gameplay! I'd have loved to have more things to work towards, since at present money only serves to buy crops. I think a cool dichotomy is having to budget to be able to grow crops, but also having to budget for defense sections by maybe buying traps and better guns. Nice work! 

Gonna echo pretty much everything Chawls said here, Insane visuals and chilling yet oddly calming music. The first time I bumped into a cult member and saw their eyes in the corner of my vision gave me a genuine sort of scare. I understood my goal pretty much instantly, but I had a hard time figuring out the controls. Once I got it, I ended up having a blast. Great work! 

A Short and sweet 'lil crash bandicoot style obstacle course with surprisingly deep movement! Once I got used to the glide, ground slam and upward dive I found myself getting into a groove. I did have a lot of trouble with the blue platforms, because it felt like you had to be tooo precise to stand on it. I was a little confused as to what the timed segments were for, as well as what the overall theme was before reading the game page description. I'd love to see more from a character with this move set! 

Neat little game with a fun visuals and a fun premise. I feel like if y'all spent some more time on this it could really shine! I will say I had a really hard time figuring out where I was going, what I was doing, and what anything meant. With enough trial and error I was able to figure out where to go more or less. Played until a copy machine somehow killed me through the wall, and kept killing me over and over and not letting me respawn. I think one hit kills with no checkpoints are a little much, Even giving the player 3 hits to "experiment" with what routes to take would make a world of difference. I feel a pop of color, or a trail or something to maybe guide the player would be a huge help too. Lots of stuff you could do with this! Good work!

I'm so glad I got the chance to try this with you! We talked in call so I'll keep my feedback here brief, but I really loved this game, and would LOVE to see it played in person, head to head. It only took me a single round to understand the way both styles of play work, and I feel like the balance is pretty fair between the two styles of play, which is often a point of contention in other asymmetrical multiplayer games. Only thing I would maybe add or change off the top of my head beyond what we already discussed is making the goal a little more clear. I Had a bit of a hard time understanding what exactly a servent (Servant?) is, especially since it's tucked away. I think maybe some sort of map would help? But also I feel like part of the fun is having to be cognizant of the map internally so that you can sorta plan your route, being warry of the cameras and learning their placement. Who knows! Regardless, I'd love to see more! 

Unfortunately, I don't have the means to play this as intended, but I'm in love with the idea SO MUCH and think it would absolutely kill in a showcase setting. I love alt control and weird peripherals, so a game like this is riiiiight up my alley! 

Good to hear! 
Honestly, I’d keep at least SOME of the references. IMO they were super charming, but I can see why people would maybe raise an eyebrow at a point LOL.  

Good stuff dude!!! 

PLEASE tell me this is just the beginning, because I WANT MOOORE! Fun art, REALLY great writing, and overall a cute, brief experience that leaves you wanting more! The little cutscene at the end is what really got me, I'd love to see more of that should you do more with this world/characters.

You have something special on you hands, man. That Intro alone had me SEATED, and then seeing the 3D RPGMAKER ASSETTS was a moment that had me floored. Visually, you knocked it out of the park in almost every area. Only thing I'd say stuck out to me was the Blur/grain. For the most part, the grain was fine and served its purpose to add to the mood. Other times, especially in the VHS sections, there was so much blur that I had NO clue where I was going and what I could interact with. It doesn't help that the movement is a tad clunky at times, but eventually I got a hang of it. The VHS sections themselves are sorta the star of the show, as the little scraps of narrative are trickled to the player through them, and I'd be lying if I said i wasn't interested to see what the whole substance and dream bits mean! One thing that stuck out to me that I love is how you wear your influences on your sleeve. Dr. Ito, Dr Sunderland, The opening mirroring SH2's pretty exactly, the substance... THE DOG ENDING... I can tell you had fun with the ideas you had kicking around.  Good artists borrow, Great artists steal and all that. One thing I'd love to see in the full version is more puzzle elements tied to the VHS segments. As it stands, the VHS segments serve to just give you a key that wasn't there before most of the time which is cool in its own right, but is only the beginning of what crazy stuff you can do with the concept.

All in all, this is a great proof of concept with a lot of fun ideas that I can't wait to see more of! Great work dude! 

Absolutely in love with what I got to play! The visuals are equal parts charming and off-putting while managing to scratch an itch for 90's PC game aesthetics that I've been dying to see more of. Just as things started to ramp up with the introduction of the knife, there's some sort of bug stopping me from going any further. I know there's more under the surface here that is inaccessible due to this unfortunate bug, I'd LOVE to play it when the wrinkles are ironed out! With some sound implementation as well, you'd have something INSANE on your hands! 

Thank you so much for your time and feedback! I'm so glad to hear that you enjoyed it! The response to the way the player has to move their hand from mouse to keyboard has been incredibly informative and intriguing. If this is a game I continue to work on in some form in the future, I'll definitely be doing a lot of playtesting regarding this aspect of the design. Thanks again! It means the world to me that you checked it out! 

Thank you so much for your time and feedback! Im sure it’s probably no secret that hackertyper was sorta the “inspiration” so to speak. I love pulling it up on people when they leave me alone on their computers to this day 😈

Woah, I’m the one critiquing a game made by David and Mike? (And also Sean! Hi Sean!) Man, how the tables have turned…. 

In all seriousness though, you got a really cool game here. I know you guys have a special controller planned, so take everything I’m about to share with a big ‘ol grain of salt. I played with a dualsense controller instead and it worked pretty well. I’m also assuming you have some sort of special vertical monitor/display, since the game didn’t seem to play well with my monitor, with full screen having the classic Unity 2D blue background and windowed being cut off at the bottom. Not the end of the world, but I figured it was worth mentioning. 

The game itself knocked it of the park in the art and sound departments, with the art being fleshy and gross in the best way possible, and the sound being squishy and also appropriately “gross” to match! 

Obviously part of the fun/difficulty is gonna come from using the special controller, so I can only speak to the experience so much, but what’s here is simple but effective due to the plentiful feedback in terms of sound and visuals. One thing that confused me a little was that it wasn’t immediately obvious that the blue fruit dudes were the one you had to press. In my mind, it makes a little more sense that you’d wanna squeeze to juice the big ones, so I found my wires getting crossed. The spiky fruit was pretty clear to not hit, though. I was also confused whether I wanted to squeeze the batteries or not, because at least when I ran the game I couldn’t see my score/timer at all. The bottom left of the screen was completely blank. I restarted the game a few times to try to get to the bottom of the issue but the score and timer were both missing. Didn’t impact my experience THAT much, but I figured I’d also mention! 

At the end of the day, you have a fun game when it’s being played in optimally, so I can’t wait to see it played properly with the right controller! I really hope this gets into the pop-up arcade so I can pick your brains about the controller, I’m sure you know I’m a big fan of games with alt controls! Great work guys! 

Thank you so much for your time and detailed feedback! The whole 6/n-key rollover thing is something I had absolutely NO clue about till you mentioned it, so big ups for the explanation!  I’ve been toying around with the idea of an updated, more robust EX version with more content, maybe a story mode, ETC. If that’s something I decide to try, I’ll definitely not only take the keyboard issue into account, but I’ll also have a look at the mini game balancing. Great analysis all around! 

Thank you so much again!!! 

Thank you so much for your time and feedback! I’ve been toying around with the idea of making a more robust, EX version with a few more minigames, and the whole mouse/keyboard split was something that was giving me grief, so these are some awesome ideas I can toy around with! Thanks again!!! 

Who up playing with their orb

I dunno what it is, I've always loved games where you roll a ball around. marble blast, marble it up, MONKEY BALL THE GOAT! Something about them just hit different, and I can see the influence here super clearly. While I think you have a great start, there is some missing oomph that I think you could add to make the game really shine. 

Big thing, I couldn't move the camera on keyboard, and I could only move the camera with a controller. Unless I messed something up (Very real possibility, mind you) I couldn't find a controller configuration that DIDNT block me from using a certain aspect of the controls. Beyond that, I feel like the game was lacking in the sound department. having even just a sound for when the ball is rolling normally would do wonders for the game feel and really tie things together. I feel the ball moved pretty responsively and had a pretty solid feel and weight to it, which made navigating feel pretty good, which is honestly the hardest and most important part to get right. Seeing how the scene is static, the skill ceiling is pretty low, which makes it sort of a hard sell as an arcade experience. I think maybe a bigger, perhaps procedural course might make things a bit more spontaneous and lend to that arcade-y feel more? Just spitballing at this point. 

Anyway, you have a great start here! If you iron out some of the kinks, you'll have something even cooler!

This is gonna sound like a crazy comparison, so bear with me here. 

Y'know how google sometimes does games for the google doodles? usually around the Olympics or Halloween if you click on the google logo it'll take you to a fun little game you can only play that day. I feel like this is the kinda thing google would make centered around the "no internet" dinosaur. The visuals are surprisingly polished, and there's more depth than meets the eye. I dabble in touhou, so the graze mechanic is super welcome. Its a really fun way to implement risk and reward. Do you play it safe and focus on getting through the obstacles? or do you go for style points and try to hit graze for some insane mult? If you're anything like me, you'll go to graze and bonk your head on the underside of a dinosaur, ending your run. Oops! One thing I would have liked would be some sort of visual indicator of what the graze range/hitbox was, since I found myself constantly thinking "I'll totally slide under here" and ending my run because I couldn't tell exactly where the hitbox began and ended. Touhou, for example, has a "focus" mode where you can see the exact hitbox of any given character, which makes grazing a lot easier since you can see exactly what counts as "just barely hitting you".  The perspective of the game makes it a little more easier said than done, but Id bet there's a solution somewhere. But yeah! Lots of cool stuff here. Online leaderboards are a super nice touch, and I think with just a little tightening up, you got something really special here! 

I like to think I know my way around a shmup, I dabble in touhou and I enjoy games like border down, zero ranger, et cetera. I feel like those games, while great, are kinda a game you have to be in a sort of mindset for, and are for a certain type of people. I feel like this would be a great primer to more intimidating shmup/bullet hell games. Id argue that this one leans a bit more towards the easy side. I think it would be cool if you maybe the speed up a notch  There also came a point towards the end where I had like 10 specials and pretty much nothing could touch me. Id love to see the game maybe get faster, or some more variety in bullet patterns, touhou style. All in all, solid stuff! 

Super, super interesting idea here. I'm enamored with the idea of your highest score becoming a platform itself. It's a super unique way of doing a leaderboard, and almost poetic in a way. The visuals are top notch too. Playing this got me looking into the works of Lui Shou-Kwan, so you're definitely doing something right in that department! The gameplay is simple, but I will say the grappling mechanic isn't immediately intuitive, and it took me a bit to figure out. I had some trouble with seeing the platforms higher up, but I feel like that may have been intentional to maybe help strengthen the idea that your best attempt is the way forward next time? Maybe i'm reading too hard into it- but nevertheless you got something super sick here!

Honestly, if this were a mobile game or something I'd totally download it! You have a really fun puzzle game here with some super cool and fun ideas, and some pretty solid level design to boot. I wasn't quite sure how the boost function worked, but I seemed to be able to get by without it for the most part. Only thing I would urge you to change is to remove the lives system! I get that there needed to be a leaderboard function and such, but I found myself getting a little frustrated because I'm a dumb idiot and would fail a lot, so I pretty much only had one or two chances to complete the highest level I made it to, or Id get sent back all the way to the beginning which was super discouraging. Especially for a game that leans more toward the puzzle aspect of things and less into the arcade aspect of things, I think encouraging trial and error may be the way to go. You should totally release this as its own little standalone game without the lives, and I think you could have something really cool on your hands! 

A cute little game that I think could be great with some tweaks. 

I think your game excels at being super easy to pick up and play, and it sorta reminds me of something you'd see in Mario Party. I think the next step would be to add some sort of complexity, like maybe evil moths that take away score, or maybe an active reload for the camera or something. As it stands its pretty easy to get by if you just mash to take pics and be sure to reload the camera every once and a while, so anything that adds even a little more complexity can elevate this from good to great! 

I think you have a great foundation that you could build upon, not to mention a catchy title and some nice art! keep it up!

Thank you so much for your time and detailed feedback! You bring up an especially great point about the keyboard lmao. If I get in the showcase, I’ll DEFINITELY be bringing in a “throwaway” keyboard LOL! 

You bring up some really good points! Thank you so much for your time and feedback!

Thank you so much for your time and feedback! 

Honestly, If you told me this was a game you could go out right now and buy on steam, I'd believe you. Incredible work in such a short timeframe. The idea of having words you can only type with your left hand is GENIUS, and don't get me started on the parry mechanic! It felt so insanely cool timing my shots so that I destroyed an enemy with a parry shot while destroying the turret that shot it! For a game with so many moving parts, I figured surely there would be some jank somewhere, but Im genuinely struggling to think of what I would change. Great work, and well done! 

Very interesting game you got here! I'm a big fan of the low poly look, and the music got stuck in my head for the little bit after I played lol. The Controls took a bit of learning, but I got it eventually. To be honest, I think the controls themselves are great, but they might not be the best for a game like this. For a game where it feels so good to soar high and fly fast, you're sorta expected to take it slow and stick close to the ground, so the game almost feels at odds with itself. That isn't to say I didn't enjoy myself, though! I just had to sorta train myself to play a specific way. I think the mechanics of flapping, gliding and diving themselves are surprisingly intuitive, and its really smart to make it so you have to land on the fish's hitbox from above or below so you cant cheese anything. All in all, a really solid package you got here! Keep up the great work! 

Really fun, really charming game! I think you struck a really good balance between timing and movement mastery. Great art and music too. I'm a big fan of how you still have a little time to recover if you go off screen, it rewards the player for being able to "read" the playfield so to speak, and I like that a lot. It's pretty challenging, but I think that makes the game more fun to try and master. Great stuff dude!!!!!

I don't think I've laughed this hard at a game in a long time. the Dave Matthews Band Incident mention made me laugh so hard I almost threw up. Insane game you got here. Absolutely in love with the 3d modeled train and the expressive and impressive sprite art- and that's not to mention the awesome sound design. The game was super neat and interesting too, of course! I love the idea of being able to pick you attacks, and the gameplay itself had a Mega Man battle Network-esque flair to it, which is MASSIVE bonus points in my book. I played 3 rounds to try all of the different attacks, and I will say I think the game would benefit from some sorta energy system to prevent you from spamming attacks (one step from eden might be a good reference), because otherwise you can sorta just stay where you are and mash one of the two buttons and get through every time with a decent score. I'm not sure if you can even die, since I never seemed to be in danger of dying once. Regardless, you guys have a super fun game that you should be proud of! 

I think it says a lot about what you have here seeing as you found a way to find a way to turn a controller as mundane (for lack of a better word) as a keyboard into something wholly unique and genuinely exciting. It's like finger twister! Although it seems its designed for only one player, i could totally see this working and being just as fun with 2 or more with no changes. I played a few rounds, and each time the music helped enhance the frantic energy. I should have recorded a hand cam, because the way my hands were jumping and contorting by the end made it look like I was trying to do bad Naruto jitsu hand signs or something. My brain and hands had this disconnect, sorta like real twister, and I find it so cool and interesting that your game elicited the same reaction. This game goes to show that sometime, less is more. Well done! 

Yeah, I tried to attach an image but i guess it didn't attach for some reason. Im getting like 2 VC runtime errors and then some other errors too, im Scrumbo in the IGC discord, if you want send me a dm and I can show you the errors 

Seeing as this was the first submission, I've messed around with this one quite a bit and I think you have a SICK idea and an awesome start. I think your tutorial area is genius, teaching the player the fast fall mechanic pretty much instantly. Honestly, more games need a fast-fall mechanic like this. It really does feel good to SLAM down onto a platform and start flying. The drum sound really does wonders to amplify the game feel when you hit the fast fall just right, great stuff. The controls are slippery, but like juuust the right amount of slippery? IMO part of the challenge came from feeling out how long you gotta press the keys to make the ball go where you want, and after a little while I had it down and it felt good being able to chain bounces together. One thing that sorta confused me was the shooting paddle mechanic. The fact that it hurts you if you touch it when you go to shoot the diamonds dissuaded me from really using it at all, so if there was ever the option to go around the platform with the diamonds, id just go around. Especially when I realized you could screen wrap, which is a really smart design choice. I also encountered a few weird issues with some of the platforms stopping my upward momentum when I hit the underside which would send me falling to my doom. Idk how intentional this was, but when I started to get up there in terms of score, I saw less and less platforms, which I think is a super smart way of subtly increasing difficulty, but there were a few instances where I was put in situations that were pretty much unwinnable around the 8k mark. But also, I am dumb so there could have totally been an obvious out that I was missing, so take that with a grain of salt. 

All in all, you got something cool here! Idk if something was stopping you all from working on it more, seeing as it was submitted almost two weeks early, but I would love to see more!