itch.io

Thanks! The instructions below the game mention the grimoire can be opened with "ENTER".  You can find all the recipes in there!

Wondering sound and art! I struggled getting past the first floor because the first enemies move around a bit too much.  Might be nice to start with something that moves, then stops, so the player can get used to the controls and see more of the game before losing.  Overall, awesome game!

Beautiful art! Was fun searching for feathers and jumping through the obstacles.  The jump sound effect is cute also.  Nice work!

Made it out! Lovely art and music.  I found reading the books a bit tedious but it was fun platforming and exploring.  Good job!

Great music and art! I had a hard time getting any monsters in town, but it was fun balancing the different graves.  Would be good to get to confirm my upgrade choice, as I often selected one by mistake.  Nice work!

Very well polished, love the game feel and effects!  Crow is super cute, and feels good blasting enemies and boxes

Very cool game! A little unforgiving but very engaging once you get the hang of it.  Great art and nice minimal sound

Love the art and music, game mechanic was annoying at first but I could see it being a fun metroidvania style game with upgrades and a map to explore.  Nice job!

Absolutely! Chokepoints through different parts of the world and achievements for entering/completing certain percentages of countries/continents is something I want to focus on

I appreciate the feedback! I'd love to keep the money moving through nodes, but it just isn't scalable.  My vision for this game is for you to have enough nodes to cover the globe, and it simply won't scale to have state for every node.  There might be another game concept where you more carefully manage the graph as you're describing, but it would need to have a much smaller amount of nodes to manage, so it won't be this one.

Nice job, and thanks for playing! I'm making the post jam version computationally much more simple so hopefully will be easier on your lap ;)

Thanks for the feedback! I'll use it for the postjam version :D

I think the black text on grey background was a safari light mode issue, not sure what your setup is, but it should be fixed for you now, it was always supposed to be white text ;)

Thanks for the feedback! In the post jam version I'm removing the money moving through the nodes, and having it go straight to your home node as long as there is a path.  

I wanted to lean into the graph more for the game, but the bottom line is at global scale, the game will have awful performance if I keep that mechanic.  Instead the focus will be on careful growth to avoid FBI detection 

Thanks! I'll add some zoom buttons, appreciate the feedback.

I Think so! I'm working on changing up the mechanics to make it more focused on rewarding expansion rather than the clickfest it is right now.  I'll post in the discord when it's ready

Strange! Might be the itch embed/your browser.  Are you using a mouse or trackpad? Which browser? Can add zoom controls to the UI, but curious to resolve the issue you're describing

Thanks, I appreciate it!

Thanks for the kind words ☺️

Scrolling should do the trick

I really like this one. Right on theme, well paced for the duration, and lots of fun unfolding.  Great job!

I ran out of development time so the progression isn't very well balanced.  

When your suspicion maxes out, the FBI will disconnect one of your nodes.  

It probably isn't possible to truly hack the planet, but I hope you have fun anyways!

Great game! Really enjoyed the progression, the level design was solid and helped me understand each spell as I unlocked them.  Really impressive game design in a short amount of time!

Thanks!! When I was a kid, gameboy emulators always used Z/X and arrow keys for input.  Pinball games on gameboy used this scheme to emulate the "feel" of a pinball machine, where your hands are on either side of the machine, but it can be counter intuitive for some. 

Wow this feels like a winner to me! Outstanding on every metric, especially the game design!  I really enjoyed doing the timed rolling jumps on the desert planet.  The music was a treat on every planet.   Beyond all that, it feels just like a gameboy platformer.  Great work!

Amazing!! I didn't manage to complete it but it's obvious there's a full game here and it feels very authentic.  Love the music and the menu has some nice touches.

Music is nice, Graphics look good! Gameplay is too basic, but sounds like you ran out of time

The music and graphics are nice!  The gameplay is a bit confusing, but I like all the vibes

Very nice atmosphere! I got stuck at the statue part but love how you created a hook to make the game more intriguing right away and some very authentic music!

Very nice and simple gameplay! Love the use of purple to make the important elements pop.  Sound is nice too.  I'm not sure if it feels like a gameboy game, but it is awesome!

Love the chunky feel of everything! The graphics and sound are awesome.  The asteroid destroy sound in particular is very nice.  I thought the gameplay was solid, nice job!

I'm excited to see what you come up with! So many amazing entries this year

It is technically in the requirements, it's just often misunderstood what the requirement is.  Your game isn't upscaled from a gameboy resolution, it's using a modern resolution with sprites that are low resolution.  It matches the aspect ratio, but you aren't just doubling the existing pixels to get the result. The rules are trying to say this with the examples they provide, but they could be clearer. 

I don't mean any of this to criticize but to clarify what the restrictions are. I just think since the resolution is the primary restriction it goes against the spirit of the jam to interpret it this way.

I appreciate you saying my game is authentic and I don't intend this to be an attack of authenticity :)

understood, but your physics engine is rotating things in ways that wouldnt be possible on a Gameboy. You'll notice it most clearly on your asteroid sprite.  It rotates smoothly rather than being locked down to the resolution of the Gameboy. I used a sprite sheet of different angles to have a rotating ball without breaking this rule for example.

This is a common oversight with low rez game jams though, people often use opacity and break the color pallette rule as well.

It looks and plays awesome! Love the graphics and the sound.  I think your game isn't technically 160x144, but it still feels retro.  Pinball fans unite!

Hey there, Thanks for playing! The controls are explained in the description.  Apologies that they are specific to western keyboards and not convenient to you.  I'll avoid using z in the future.

Cool game! It looks and sounds amazing, though the control scheme + gameplay were quite unintuitive for me.  Once I got it I started to make some progress though. Great work!!

Neat gameplay mechanic! I love your palette and the pixel art is amazing.   It isn't as addictive as tetris but it is fun.  Great job!

The story seems interesting and the graphics are nice, but it was a lot more reading than I was expecting. Based on the screenshots, seems like there was a lot more to the game.  I think a smaller first map and a bit more focused dialogue would have kept me invested.  Overall, great work and intriguing world building for a gb jam game!

I didn't end up playing past the first level, but I enjoyed watching you play to the end! and the music after the 1st level is quite good.  I love the mood of the different levels and the simple charm of the game.  Great stuff!

Very minimal and meditative.  I've thought of a concept similar to this before but wasn't sure if it would be fun.  Well, its fun!! Good job, and nice level of polish for a jam

Thanks for playing! I spent awhile trying to make the flippers more consistent and never teleport through, but physics engines are sadly rarely as consistent as you would like.