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Really rad design! I feel like it'd fit perfectly as the title screen background for a GB pirate game!

As someone who regularly makes rpg assets for game jams, I'm really jealous of how good this looks. Excellent work!

Jeez this is impressive!  I really like how the outlines of the prisms helped give them a luminous glow!

Cool concept! Though I have to admit that I was pretty thoroughly confused for a little while. I didn't even realize there was a tutorial until I hovered over the computer monitor, so I largely had to get by on guesswork at the beginning. Still, it was a clever concept!

I think the overworld-to-bullet hell aspect is very interesting and works well conceptually. However, I had a pretty hard time with the moment to moment gameplay of navigating in the bullet hell environment while accounting for drift and avoiding shooting the keys I was attempting to collect. I realize that type of difficulty was intended, I just think it went a little overboard. Otherwise, it felt pretty solid!

I always enjoy playing these low poly shooters! The gameplay was solid and responsive with good level design to support it. The movement speed was a bit slow, though others have ready pointed that out. Overall, the shooting felt good and offered some surprising weapon variety, which is a hallmark of those low poly shooters it harkens back to.

Thank you! I tend to start most of my projects with a Scrivener file rather than a gameplay sheet, so I'm happy that the story emphasis could be felt!

Thanks! I did take some time off work to make this so I'm glad it paid off!

Thanks! Phantasy Star 4 was an especially strong visual inspiration!

Thanks a ton! This project did somewhat start out with the question "what would System Shock 2 look like as a jrpg?" so you were definitely right about the inspiration!

the atmosphere was extremely oppressive and lonesome (and I mean that as a genuine compliment). The controls were pretty compelling to get a hold on as well!

Great controls! Everything felt tight and responsive, though I did find the third level to be a bit too difficult for myself.

It has a nice vibe to it and a simple, laid back gameplay concept. One minor frustration I had was the lack of feedback on the massage and wire minigames where I had to rub certain spots on the mechs. I couldn't tell if anything was actually happening for a little while, causing me to initially give up on it until I gave it a second try later.

The music was nicely chosen and lent to the game's relaxed atmosphere. The pixel art was quality as well, though as a pixel artist myself it did somewhat bother me how the pixels were of different sizes on the same screens, though that's largely a personal issue on my part. Overall, it was a nice, casual experience!

It took me a while to realize how to properly interact with the cards since clicking on them wasn't working. I didn't realize I was meant to drag them slightly upward until midway through. At that point, I'd pretty much ran past everything, which was a fun type of strategy in and of itself. I did accidentally completely blow up one of my mechs with a rocket when I figured out how the cards work though! 

It does feel like a rough concept, but I like the overall feel and the gameplay ideas work well! It definitely does remind me of Worms, which is always a great franchise to harken back to.

Very tight controls and a nice extraction type of gameplay. I found stage 3 to be a bit too difficult for me since my main strategy was primarily to rush around and try to get to the switches as fast as possible while leaving the horde to itself, eventually ending in me being overwhelmed. That said, the energy and ammo management added nicely to the game's overall difficulty and lent an interesting dynamic between choosing to fight or flee. The visuals and sounds were great as well!

I think this might surprisingly fit the description of "atmospheric platformer." Initially, I almost bounced off it due to the strange controls, but before long, they actually became the strongest hook of the game.

Unfortunately, I didn't see it all the way through to the end. I made it to the platform directly below the satellite, but couldn't figure out a way above. Despite the frustrations, it was an excellently atmospheric platformer with a compelling challenge. The presentation was great as well! It reminded me somewhat of the original Myst despite being of a drastically different visual style.

Very well put together! I think the normal running controls for the mech were a little too slippery, but the feeling of speed and the tightness of the drift really made it all come together. It reminds me a little of how Sonic controls in Sonic Generations. The Eva influence was nice to see as well!

Can you upload some download instructions? I downloaded PCSX2 and put the file in the correct place, but it's asking for the BIO now which I'm unsure how to get.

The visuals and animations were solid! The upgrade system did trivialize the game somewhat though. After I got the blades upgrade, it was easy for me to stand outside one of the enemy spawners and instantly destroy them as they came out while I spammed attacks at the enemies coming from the other direction. Still, it had a nice feel to it and the inclusion of upgrades at all made the gameplay surprisingly robust!

Great GBC aesthetic! I really love the character designs too!

Nice, snappy Smash Bros-like gameplay and a very impressive GBC visual style! I found the gameplay was a little bit too spammy once I found a winning formula as Yeti, but despite that it was pretty compelling and functioned great! Pulling off a second hit felt especially good whenever I could pull it off. Also, the woman with the eyepatch is definitely my favorite of the character designs!

Excellent work again! The design was sound and planning around enemy and projectile movements was compelling! It was an interesting deviation from the last Blastingbot as well since this sequel allowed for more guesswork but offset that by having more active enemies. Great entry!

Score: 219,300

Initially, I thought the game might be overly simple since the shooting was automatic, but the unique rhythm of the shots of each weapon ended up giving the gameplay a lot of depth around timing and positioning. It really grew on me as I continued playing! The simple Pico-8 aesthetic made it easy on the eyes as well!

I really liked the aesthetic! Both it and the overall design reminded me of the original Metroid 2 for Gameboy.

I think the physics of the jump could be a little frustrating since walls could seemingly stop horizontal momentum, making it difficult to jump up when next to them. It did add a little bit of difficulty to it though, which was fairly interesting to work around.

Also, I think the text tracking actions in the UI was quite nice. Really solid work considering the brief amount of time it was made in.

That probably is the reason. I'm using rpg maker 2003 for this, which I believe is initially only Windows compatible.

I did replace the .exe file with one that should hopefully be mac compatible in the newest update. The new .exe did change the graphics options to be accessible with F1 and the characters positions on the battle screen are unfortunately shifted, but everything should be the same otherwise.

The new .exe has a green icon next to it. Let me know if this one works for your system!

That's okay! I probably should've written something in the download instructions.

The application should be just below the "title" folder. It's called "DetectiveWolfandMinatheSuccubus". The game should start once you click on that.

Let me know if that works and thanks for the interest!

Thanks! This was somewhat of a proof of concept to myself to see if I could mix detective narrative/gameplay with an rpg structure, so I'm happy it works on that level. I might try something like it again in the future if I have the chance!

The game's physics and interactivity made for some great moments, like the patient tragically transforming on the nearby table while I frantically toss books and mushrooms all over the place. It reminds me a lot of Octodad in that way.

The 3D visuals and ambience were nice, though the typos were somewhat distracting. Overall, it was solidly fun!

Thanks! I'm happy the character portraits turned out so well! I can't take credit for creating the music though since I was using rpg maker 2003's included bgm (which is all generally great music).

Posting a guide of where the important clues are in case anyone gets stuck:

Living Room Area

1. Debrah's body
2. Downstairs couch
3. Nathan's body
4. Downstairs PC (only after upstairs bedroom has been searched)

Kitchen Area

1. Trash can

Upstairs Bedroom Area

1. Bed
2. Vase on table next to bed
3. Upstairs PC (only after vase has been checked)
4. Dresser at the far left wall

Upstairs Lounge Area

1. Book on table

Basement Area

1. Bookshelf with bloody footprints in front of it (only after the downstairs PC has been checked)

After all of that, there should be dialogue between Wolfe and Mina stating that they've found all of the clues. Speak with Meredith in the living room to begin the ending sequence. 

I strongly suggest using the shop you can access when speaking with Meredith to purchase some Hi-Potions and 2 sets of boots to equip Wolfe and Mina with before beginning the ending sequence since the boss can be pretty tough.

I hope that helps anyone who might get stuck! In retrospect, I definitely should've done something to make the necessary clues more obvious.

Posting a guide of where the important clues are in case anyone gets stuck:

Living Room Area

1. Debrah's body
2. Downstairs couch
3. Nathan's body
4. Downstairs PC (only after upstairs bedroom has been searched)

Kitchen Area

1. Trash can

Upstairs Bedroom Area

1. Bed
2. Vase on table next to bed
3. Upstairs PC (only after vase has been checked)
4. Dresser at the far left wall

Upstairs Lounge Area

1. Book on table

Basement Area

1. Bookshelf with bloody footprints in front of it (only after the downstairs PC has been checked)

After all of that, there should be dialogue between Wolfe and Mina stating that they've found all of the clues. Speak with Meredith in the living room to begin the ending sequence.

I strongly suggest using the shop you can access when speaking with Meredith to purchase some Hi-Potions and 2 sets of boots to equip Wolfe and Mina with before beginning the ending sequence since the boss can be pretty tough.

I hope that helps anyone who might get stuck! In retrospect, I definitely should've done something to make the necessary clues more obvious.

Sorry about that. I started my new job midway through the jam, so I rushed it toward the end of development to make sure I wouldn't be thinking about it during work. I did test it enough to be sure that it would work all the way to the end, but I didn't include any signifiers of where all the points of interest were, so that's probably why you got stuck. In retrospect, I definitely should've included some type of "anti-needle in the haystack" mechanic so that the final clues would become more noticeable after a certain number were found.

I am glad that you noticed the effort I put into the lore and dialogue! They were my major focus, so I'm glad those came together well.

I had a bit of a hard time with this one. I quite liked the movement controls for the ship and the difference between in-vehicle vs on-ground movement, but I had some difficulty getting any wyrms to spawn so ended up driving in circles in the canyon for long periods of time without much really happening.

Still, I like the aesthetics and I think the gameplay being somewhat unintuitive (like the ship controls being deliberately difficult instead of a 1 to 1 with normal directional movement) made for a nice throwback to retro games as well as being additive to the challenge. I believe that some additional clarity would be nice to have in the game, however, since I didn't come across much over the course my running around. I might've just had some bad luck though.

Thanks! That means a lot!

The color palette changing in each different area was a nice touch and lent it some visual variety despite the 1-bit limitation. It also had an interesting appeal in its simple design similar to the first Zelda game. Since nothing was explicitly spelled out, finding the ending became an intriguing mystery, even if the narrative surrounding it was fairly simple.

I do feel that the recharge time for attacks/dodging was a bit too long, but the length of time did help give the bullet dodging elements time to shine, so I feel they would only need a slight reduction in charge time rather than anything drastic. Overall, it was nice to go through!

This was excellent! The transformation mechanic and how it evolved in different ways and with relation to the turning of the tower was fantastic!

One quirk I noticed is that transforming back into the mage after jumping with the frog still allows access to the double jump, which allowed me to sequence break getting some keys (or, at least, I think that's what happened. There was a portion of stage 4 I didn't even interact with since I was able to get the key early with that extra jump method, so I assume it was unintentional). Even if it is unintended, however, I still enjoyed pulling the trick off, so I would consider it to actually be a feature!

The music and artwork were both great as well! I really enjoyed it!

Balancing the development of a society through a simple, randomized card game worked well and offered some compelling resource management! I do feel it would have benefited greatly from some ambient music, since the clicking of the cards can feel somewhat lacking without a calming track underlying it.

I also liked the art style of the society displayed in the center of the screen and found the UI of the cards and interface to be easy to grasp after a first run attempt. Like with the audio though, it did feel as though it would benefit from something else being added, such as the movement of villagers walking around from building to building or other animations.

I did feel that the game had a solid challenge and some quality balancing in its progression. A solid entry!

A really great entry! I especially liked the color differences between the above ground areas and the below ground areas. The brighter tones did a great job of simulating daytime while the darker palette helped sell the mood of the underground. The mystical-sounding music added a lot as well.

The game also felt surprisingly good to control despite the simple control scheme. Digging as a caterpillar felt especially good in terms of movement speed and orienting direction! Great work!

The GB resolution and overall pixel art came together very well! I also liked the gameplay element of shooting through walls to reach distant enemies, though I'm a little unsure if that was fully intentional. It did manage to lend the game some decent strategy!

I did feel it was too easy to just walk past most enemies though. Including some areas with a "defeat x amount of enemies" requirement would have helped in encouraging more gunplay. Still, it was a nice, simple game (I do feel bad about leaving those cats where they were at the end though)!

Very cool concept. I liked typing out commands as both a retro throwback and as an expression of the need to be precise with my actions.

I do feel like it needs to have more holding it together in terms of context or an extra gameplay element (maybe enemies patrolling who can only be fended off with certain crafted items). The atmosphere was surprisingly good despite the minimalism though!