By the way, I released a video on How we made it. Insanity of game jam experience and deep dive into game design - all is there!
buday
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Thanks for playing our game! Your kind words really motivate me to continue creating cool stuff!
I'm still unsure about the future of this project, but after the jam I found a game with similar mechanics, if you're interested: In My Shadow
(P.S. sorry for delayed reply, I didn't realize YouTube was removing my comments)
Thanks a lot! A small post-jam patch is coming soon, and then I'll estimate the possibility of expanding this game with more puzzles and content.
Keeping object's positions is important for gameplay flow, as trial and error in both real and dream world is required to solve a puzzle. I'm glad you liked this mechanic!
Thanks a lot for playing! I'm glad you enjoyed our game! Yes, I had a smart kombo of 9-slicing, layering and masking in mind to make combined shadows look like one outlined texture, but we ran out of time to do so. And for almost every piece of art, there was no time to update it, so first version had to go in. We prioritized playability and bug fixing and I'm glad we did, it feels like the best version we could possibly deliver within the deadline in the end. I'm noting all pieces of feedback to improve in the future though! I'm glad it turned out as enjoyable experience. Thanks for the review!
Very nice game! I can't say I'm fully convinced it fits the theme perfectly, bit I like to see new inkman every fight, with a new name, and then get a chance to use it. Mechanics feel very intuitive, having a very specific set of actions with spawning inkmen, salvaging ink, collecting a deck and using abilities. All that creates an enclosed gameplay loop, quite complex and deep, but manageable and not overwhelming. I also liked the style and visuals, very consistent, creates a very strong atmosphere. I would appreciate a bit more variety in sfx. Otherwise it's a well polished game all around, great job!
I like this game a lot! Very clever puzzling mechanics, introduced gradually in smart ways, level design is good, difficulty curve feels balanced. I like minimalistic style, however adjacent blocks of same color looks like one, I think there should be at least a line between to distinguish it. Overall - great game, one of my favorites this jam actually!
This was satisfying to play, but maybe a bit too satisfying. I did not feel any pressure; difficulty, if it ever increased, was always too low, most of the time I played with one hand as I run in a straight line anyways, just holding W and pressing jump occasionally. I like movement implementation, it feels great, smooth, intuitive, but this movement system is not put to the test at all. I would greatly appreciate a more complex level design, with having to turn, jump up in spirals, run off ledge without jumping to not hit and obstacle above, etc. If you go for scaled difficulty, it must be expressed more clear. The incentive is too vague, there's no visual marker on finish of any kind, and I didn't understand what percentage on the screen means.
I find visuals very nice, style is solid and consistent, creates very strong atmosphere along with music. You could add some SFX and sound cues to movement, that would also help with feedback on movement system. Overall - cool game, I enjoyed playing this, good job!
Alright, this idea is super cool actually, and very promising. There is certainly some more polishing needed though. Since the game seems to focus on puzzle-platforming with eyes-closed mechanic, it must be enhanced in all possible ways to feel good for the player. Going in full blind is not fun, instead you could add sound cues to step, jump, landing, that would help "measure" reality before executing the trick, planning it, and having some feedback in the process. I would also appreciate more checkpoints after each complex trick, especially in a context of a game jam. The quality of visuals is fine, but there's no consistent style to it, that's the biggest problem. You could probably go for all black-white color scheme with super simple silhouettes of objects and character for better result, considering it fitting your atmosphere and narrative. Aside from that, you made the game, I liked it and completed it with joy. Great job! Good luck in your future work!
Nice game! I like gradual increase in pace and difficulty, as you need to manage bigger mazes to gather more resources. I like the visual style, a combination of pixel-art and caustics works unexpectedly well. Overall with all the narrative and atmosphere, this creates a cozy but at the same time intence experience. I think you can make fishscales pickable by default, without having to press E, as there's no penalty and you would do it anyways, and there are situations when fishscale is close to gate and you may unintentionally buy it. Also, I didn't get how to deal with grown-up fish, there's just a chance that upon gate passage I will be immediately eaten and seemingly nothing I can do about it. Aside from that, I enjoyed my time in nice looking game. Great job!
Very cool puzzle! Simple rules, complex consequences. You managed to make a very gradual introduction of mechanics and difficulty increase, feels nice in flow to play. I like level of detail in visuals, effects and animations, it feels very satisfying to watch the squares pop at the end of the level, enhances the experience a lot. You did a great job, congrats!
As for today, I have a lot of games to rate, have to rush and don't have time to test all levels for too long unfortunately. If you're willing to develop this game further, 1). you aren't tied to the theme anymore (though focusing on +/- helps to stand out above other sliding box puzzles a lot), and 2). you really need a proper testing team to tweak and arrange that many levels, with trailing mechaincs and concepts in consequent levels and gradual difficulty increase. Sadly I don't think I'm the best candidate for that, with all my own projects and busyness.
As for my short playthrough, the moment with "-" sign deleting part in the middle, and moment with using L shape to complete a level was "WOW" moments for me, good experience. If I ever find time to play more and have more feedback, I'll let you know. Good luck!
It's an interesting problem to solve, and implementation in a form of a minimalistic videogame is decent. I like that the fact that the scale is broken can be derived from gameplay itself. It's lacking QoL like drag&drop, some effects and sound, but it does what it does. The most important thing to me is that it works - both on technical level, and mentally, creates an appealing, challenging but certainly solvable puzzle. Good job!
One of the best games I've seen so far. Simple ruleset and emergant complexity makes the best puzzles! I like this level design technique when you shove an obvious but wrong solution into player's hands at the start of a level so they learn mechanics of why it doesn't work the hard way, and then look for intended solution. I also use this, and I see this a lot in your game, in very fitting scenarios and contexts. Visuals are very simple, but game looks gorgeous, animations and effects across entire screen makes it very satisfying to watch. Tutorial is introduced slowly, difficulty rises gradually, all in a mix with narrative, I feel the flow of the game and it's great! There are minor bugs you metnioned yourself, and on one level there's a hitbox of a wall sticking out more than it appears (maybe wrong tile sprite is applied, idk). Aside from that, great job! Keep on making awesome games!
Alright that was pretty fun. Bizzare and chaotic, bear lines are fun to read, the whole context of the situation is hilarious, CUCUMBER cuz why wouldn't you add a cucumber to the game, and phase 2 with delicious white wolves meat. Cool. I would greatly appreciate mouse sensitivity option. Also, in a game like this, it's crucial to add sound cues to telegraph the approaching of the wolves, otherwise a lot of players will be disappointed of dying for seemingly no reason. Same about anger meter, close to full it must telegraph the danger with sound as well, it's impossible to keep attention on all elements of screen at the same time. I completed the game and enjoyed my time. I wish you keep improving and keep making awesome bizzare games!
One of my favorite games, I'm not joking. There are a lot of similar platformers, but you made your idea super simple, at the same time broke the limits by expanding the scale range to fractals, and you pumped insane amount of pure fun into the game. Screw complex puzzles, I want to become the size of the map and I want to squeeze into tiniest holes, all within seconds! I feel like mechanincs and physics of movement is polished very well, it's somewhat finicky, but that adds a fitting foddian vibe to the game. Visuals are simple but nice, maybe some more polish to make style more consistent would work. I like this game a lot, great job!
Cool game! Mechanics are simple but intuitive, works very well in scope of puzzle and platformer. Visuals and overall style is cool, consistent and charming, I especially like implementation of shadows and background ambient animations. I find this game quite difficult, once you've realised the puzzle solution, the platforming part keeps you from progressing for a long time. I'm not sure your control scheme is best, you use arrows for movement so could as well used up arrow for jump to keep all controls it in two tight islands on keyboard, and using D for upscale and A for downscale seems more intuitive to me. Also I would appreciate highlighting exit before it appears, as now I don't know where exit will appear when I start a level. Aside from that, great take on the theme, nice game, good job!
Yeahhh maybe it's a problem with game jams, you aim for short play time because there are a lot of games and peopley play and rate it very fast. I played almost entire sheet 1, then used "jam cheat" and took a sneak peek at some later levels. But still got a feeling that there's a general lack of +/- signs Now I see it's quite abundant.
You did incredible job of adding new mechanic, it fits perfectly and works very well. I may reconsider my rating, however me not finding all those +/- levels must be a feedback on its own. I would wish these signs to appear early and never leave, and all temporal and death blocks to be introduced later on top of that.
Also, how do the locks work? Do I need to collect all plus signs? Or do I need to become a certain shape? I would clarify that part a bit more as well. This game and it's mechaninc is incredible nonetheless, I liked it a lot.
I liked this puzzle a lot! I'm not sure if it's an existing type of puzzle or you made it up, but this design is brilliant. The game in general is also polished very well, all the menus, stars, animations and SFX, works perfectly together. And you cooked 45 levels, what??? The only concern by me is very low inmportance of +/- signs, as it seem to be the only connection to the theme, and most levels completely misses it. Overall great job, thanks for making this game!
Congrats on submission! It's an interesting idea that can be expanded further. Right now the game is very simple however. If the whole idea is to expand the dungeon, you definitely should not place an incentive to never leave starting area with firerate bonus, you should instead place incentives to explore new areas and go deep into scaling dungeon. Visuals are nice and simple, I liked that. I hope you continue to improve and make make more awesome games in the future, good luck!
Very nice game! I like the visuals, very solid and appealing style. Sound desing is awesome, well-balanced and abundant. Idea is nice, simple but very ambitious. I feel like it lacks some mechanic to get more control over the guards, like being able to place them in fomation with mouse between waves, or give commands to gather or scatter, or something else. Now it's kinda possible with bumping into rocks, but it's certainly not intended. It feels important because cornering the enemy from different sides feels essential and powerful, but there's no much possibility to do so in a controllable way. Aside from that, I really enjoyed my time playing this game, great job!
This game is very fun and easily enjoyable. It's simple, it's appealing to play, it provides challenge but player controls the difficuly themselves by choosing to combine movement and go fast or not. It also looks very nice, simple but solid style. Minor issue is how physics and gameplay is not polished enough. In a game like this, you really need to add sound (and maybe visual) ques to express movement in an intuitive way, sound of jump, landing, screen effect to express speed, everything that helps a player feel where they are and where they go at every moment. And man, you NEED air control. Good job, I hope you continue to improve and develop awesome games!
I enjoyed playing this game. I like simple puzzle mechanics and emergent complex gameplay, level design is good, mechanics are various but all intuitive, and visual style together with music and sfx is solid and very appealing. I think that If you went for the theme, you should've considered making environment more green to convey feeling of micro-electronics (if that's the legend), as now it feels more like human-sized robot fixing mech-tech facility. Despite that, great game, well implemented, very well polished, great job!
Cool game! There is no complicated graphics or action, but the legend is delivered so well and beliveable that you feel the athmosphere. That's very nice. I like how it's short, and pretty much everything you need to know is right in the gameplay, tutorial is short and you learn connections and possibilities gradually by playing and reading descriptions of items and planets. And the items are so different, it's more than just gradual growth of efficiency, it's rock-paper-scissors choosing of best option for a mission, that's so cool.
I softlocked myself by spending too much and there was no going back, at least I didn't see the possibility to recover. That seem to be the only part I'd like to see fixed. Aside from that, great little game, thanks for making this!
The idea is there, and it's quite promising. Did I get it right, there are 2 battles, and enemy portraits didn't happen to be in final build? I want more of this :) There's some QoL lacking, like snapping to nearest cell in drag&drop and being able to move placed blocks without resetting whole book. And that powerful attack from enemy must be telegraphed, possibly through log text, so it's reaction to gameplay and not meta of knowing what will happen. There's not much graphics, but UI is made very satisfying, I guess it's vanilla engine UI but you did good job picking colors, fonts, sizes and offsets to make it look good. I wish you good luck with your future work, good job!