itch.io

Interesting game.

I was confused at first, because I didn't understand what the "11" meant and that there were buttons on the top right side.
Once I understood it, it was pretty good, I liked that interaction method.

I didn't really understand the plot but it's okay, I think feeling lost here is working.

Overall, I think I would have liked it to be a bit longer, to see a bit more of the plot, and more importantly, see how the system could be stretched a bit more.

Visually, it's simple yet effective.
And that shader is amazing, especially the moving distortion part.

Nice job!

Pretty cool game.

Good points :
-I really liked the use of loops to tell the story
-The designs are pretty effective, especially Poe and Billy in their simplicity.
-The "ah" when you change the sound or click on the menu was very funny to hear.

Bad points :
-A bit slow at times. For instance, the waking up animation every time you start a new loop.
-The torchlight has a very low range, and combined with the flickering makes it very hard to see things. Even more with the repeating set pieces. As such, it was straining for my eyes after only a few minutes, sadly.

Funny thing, I had some stain on my screen at the same height as Poe and Billy's eyes, so I scared myself multiple times thinking there was something in the dark only to realize it was just the stain.

Overall, I'm positive with this game, I liked my time with it, even with the eye strain thing.

Thank you for your comment!

It's funny to imagine the situation in context, that the character would go in reverse and just hug the entity because they messed up with their gear stick.

Glad you liked it in the end!
And yeah, we would have also liked to have more content, sadly two weeks is surprisingly short to make a game.

Thank you for your comment!
I'm glad that the objective was understandable with a test run, and that you had fun when retrying!

Thanks for your comment!

We had an ending planned, but it was scrapped at the last minute, because the generation took way more time and energy than planned out of our programmer.
So, we were rushing to finish and, and sadly couldn't add either the ending or a score, but the assets exists and it would be the first thing we do for an update.

Same as ApeHardware.
It felt a bit slow at the beginning, since it was mostly testing the mechanic with nothing happening.
It's a bit too much of a slow burn for my taste.

Thought, it was enjoyable to play.
I liked the framing device, and how it unfolded, even though the direction it was going was a bit obvious.

It was also nice to have an option to remove the VHS filter, which I found to be a bit strong, so the option made the game more enjoyable to me.

The only thing I really didn't like was the sound.
Notably the sound when you move the telescope around, which I found very grating.

Overall, nice experience, told in a cool way.

This game made me feel very dumb, as I couldn't find the 4th anomaly of day one after spending a lot of time.

So, judging with only what I saw, I liked it.
The concept is simple and works well.
The game is a bit too dark for my taste, but that gives a good use to the camera as a makeshift light, especially when wiggling the mouse around.

I would love to see a more complete version, maybe with a variety of interactions or puzzles to summon the entities ?

Fun little game, with a cool Slender vibe.

I found the visual filter a bit too strong for my tastes, and I think I would have felt bad if the game was longer, sadly.
And I think the game glitched when I tried it, 'cause I saw the creature after finding the first item, managed to outrun it, and then it never appeared again, even in the distance. So either it disappeared/had some issue, or I'm very great at that game, which would be surprising.

Thought, even with that, the ambiance worked pretty well.
I especially liked the shape of the small trees, because they looked like the monster, so I had some stress moments from seeing a sapling.

Besides that, it plays nicely, I had no issue doing what I wanted, and felt in control of my character, so it's pretty cool.

Overall, I had a good time, if a bit short.

Really interesting game.
I don't think I got very far, due to skill issues (played around a bit in District 4, made some deliveries, died a lot), but what I've seen is very cool.

Good things :
-Great ambiance work, with the use of colors, and the brutalist architecture.
-Gameplay is pretty cool. I had some difficulties doing exactly what I wanted, but you get used to it.
-Nice level design, I was impressed at the size of the map and the little secrets when I first tried goofing around.
-Seem to have quite some content, with the upgrades, the map, and I saw another map that i couldn't get enough money to open.
-I really liked the tv screen filter, and that it distorts when you shoot or get hit, it's a nice touch.

Bad things (more nitpicking thought) :
-Some typos here and there, and it's a bit annoying that your font doesn't have apostrophes.
-The sound when a drone appears is way too loud and was quickly giving me a headache
-Having the screen presentation every time you go through a temporal door was not necessary, I think.
-Sometimes the jetpack drone thingy that's strapped to you gets on the way of seeing things, especially when trying to look up.
-The cinematic are a bit slow to my taste, but it fits with the mood, so it's okay.

Overall, I really liked it, and will probably give it another go later, to at least try to see the other level.

Oh, damn, many thanks for the comment!
Don't worry about any etiquette, I love hearing people's thoughts on my game, and your post really made my night after a bad day!

It's very nice to know that this little game managed to touch people's heart (maybe heartwarming, although not really given the vibe, but you get the idea)
And I'm impressed by the efforts you put into replaying it and all, I wasn't expecting anybody to care enough for more than one quick playthrough, so thanks again, and I hope you can get out of your own dead end, toward something nicer!

And I love your alternate comment, those thoughts are very interesting, and it's making my head gears turn, thinking about them!

Thank you for the kind words!

Yeah, for a normal and non shifting maze, the method is to always follow the same wall, and it will lead to the end, since the very structure makes it so (except if there are places where the path is cut by something that isn't a wall, then it can makes things more complicated).
But this one is a mazetaphor, which is way more evil!

Emo tuft is friend shaped.
Okay, all of the tufts are friend shaped, but especially Emo!

It's not exactly what I was going for, but an interesting interpretation nonetheless

Many thanks for your comment !

Your interpretation is pretty spot on too !

Thank you for the kind comment !
I'll try making the characters more recognizable next time.

I see.
Well, not really, but I'll review the detection system to try and understand what went wong.
Thanks for the video, that's really helpful.

The second part is not a glitch, that's a conscious design.
I wanted the rewind to be a full reset of the enemies, including their chase mode, because it's annoying when you have a monster chasing you and it never stops even after losing track of you. Kind of like in infiltration games, where if you hide, the enemies will end up going back on their scheduled way.

Glad you liked it, and sorry about the collider. As already said on other comments, it'll be fixed this week end.

Rated and commented. The world needs more puns.

Rated and commented, good game.

11/10 for the animations and the intro.

On a more serious note, it's a funny little game, but it feels kinda amateurish due to some classic mistakes :
-The camera is a bit jittering when you jump or change direction, which gets annoying really fast.
-The physics and hitboxes seems a bit weird, which made the game kinda frustrating to play.

But keep going, the music was nice, and the stylistic choice was a good idea.

Loved it, mostly because of the changelog pun.

The only thing that I didn't like was the "12 coins to move through certain walls".
Because it's the only mechanic that feels like a mechanic instead of a random glitch that happened.

But the whole concept is really cool, I'd love to see a more fleshed out game with this idea.
And again, great pun.

Yeah, somebody else already said that there is a problem with the last collider.
I'm not really sure what cause this problem, but it'll be fixed in a small update after the jam ends.

As for the theme, we wanted to take a different approach than the time or tape rewind, since everybody would go with this. (not that it's a bad thing, it even made some great games, but I personally like twisting themes).
That's why we went with the robots, since rewind originally meant "wind-up again".
Though I concede that it's a bit of a stretch.

Many thanks for your comment, I love this kind of detailed feedback.

Rated and commented, really nice work.

Great game, and an amazing job from your team.
Lots of contents, and with some nice polish.

I had some small problems :
-The jumping sound was pretty low in volume compared to all the other sounds, which is a bit weird.
-That fact that you can't shoot behind you makes shooting and moving pretty stiff, which is a downer.
-The "shooting range levels". (and overall the fact that there is quite a focus on the enemies). I don't understand, since your game works way better as a puzzle platformer. Precise moves and shoots seems to be neither the focus of the game, nor a good match with the controls. So, those levels were disapointing for me.
-Okay, this may seem weird but I feel that the game ends "too early", or have too much content. What I mean is that your are still teaching new mechanics even during the last levels. (spoiler if anybody is reading this before finishing the game) :
For instance, the self rewind comes in pretty late into the game. The revive with a delayed orb is only used once. Or the fact that the shots go through objects that don't have a previous state, which is only used for the penultimate level.
I understand what you're going for, but it's not that great to teach new things to a player up to the end, since it makes these mechanics feel underused.

However, these are all really minor things.
Again, your game is great, and these critics are merely to point at the details that could be improved to make it an even more awesome game.

I'll try to play it but can not promise since I'm alone.
Will try a solo play to at least see the mechanics if I can't.

Great game, had a lot of fun playing it.

A bit sad that the rewind doesn't seem to do much (though beint a way to save yourself is still nice).

But other than that, really nice game.
Loved the spherical level and the fact that you see the shots following the curve.

Here is my game : https://itch.io/jam/brackeys-4/rate/723467

Will try to play yours during the day.
Edit : Done, great game.

Cool game.

Was a bit apprehensive that it would need to know/understand ciphers, but thanksfully it was way easier than that.
The audio was really good, with some great work on the ambiant sound , even with the different styles.

The only thing that I didn't like was that there is no real point to listening to the tapes. I mean, the dialogues are funny, but once you understand that it's onyl about the hidden messages, you can fast forward through everything as a way to speed up and get any slowed down word, and rewinding when you hear something that seems reversed. So, it was a bit of a letdown, that what seems to be most of the work can be safely ignored.

But overall, really nice game, I liked playing it.

Here is mine : https://itch.io/jam/brackeys-4/rate/723467

Currently downloading yours.

Hi again everybody.
We still need two ratings, to get above the necessary 20.

So, that would be great if anybody could give said rating to us, in exchange for a review, of course.

Thanks in advance.

That's the spirit.
And the game after the next will be even better.

Rated and commented too, great job.

Really good game, with quite a lot of levels.

I had two small problems :
-Some background objects felt like they were part of the level, which created some confusion. Like in one level you have a vertical grey bar that seems to be blocking the access to a keycard, but it's only background.
-The walljumpy/wallsticky thing felt pretty bad. It wasn't useful in my whole playthrough, and its only function was to make me miss some double jumps. I don't really understand this mechanic.

Other than that, great work, lots of content, good idea.
Quite the nice game.

Rated and commented.

Done, rated and commented.

Err... What ?

I understand wanting to make a serious game (even though you missed a lot of what's making this year fun).
But, how did it fit with the gameplay ? What's the link between a blob dodging spikes and a recap of the current year ?

Anyway, as for the game proper, it didn't feel great to control. Mostly because of that jerking move of your camera whenever the character changes its direction. You should make this movement waaaaay smoother.
And... Well, I don't have much more to say, this game confuses me.
But it seems to be your first game, so that's understandable.

Keep going and improving.

Well, 3GB was quite a lot to download, and i'm not sure the ultra realistic visuals were necessary, though it makes the game pretty.

I don't have much to say about the game, it was fun, but a bit short.
I didn't really understand how it fit the theme, until I looked at the submission page.
There is a lack of indications as to what can and can't be shrunk, but it never got too much of a problem.
And I laughed a lot because of the music. Like, calm down orchestra, I'm putting rocks in the trash, not fighting thanos.

So, overall, pretty good, though I'd like a longer and a bit uglier game rather than having something that big for only three short levels.

Okay, tried it again and updated my rating.
It feels way better when you know how to shoot.
The bullets were a bit small, and hard to see with the VCR effect, so be careful with that.
The checkpoint mechanic felt pretty weird. Any reason to use this "closest check" rather than classic checkpoints that needs you to touch them ?

And again, take note for your next games, don't try hiding keys from your player, even more when they need them to play.

But hey, when you know the controls, your game gets kinda good, so nice work here.

Rated and commented, loved it.

Great game, loved playing it, and hope there'll be more of it.

Some slight problems :
-I didn't like starting the game, 'cause I was vibin with the menu music.
-There is a bit of jittering when a text starts.
-Some spelling errors but not a lot though.
-The hint menu got pretty annoying. First because it moves too slowly, which makes finding two hints that are far appart a bit frustrating. But mostly, the fact that the menu closes every time you try to match two hints. When you want to try a lot of things, it gets really annoying. Though I guess it's linked to the fact that it triggers a dialogue.

Other than that, really good project. I loved the fourth wall breaking, though you should tone it down a bit, since it's a kind of humor that has a fast decay when used too much.
Overall, it almost felt like a demo for a "real" project, instead of something made for a game jam.

Again, great work.