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The atmosphere was surprisingly immersive. Being in the butcher room and hearing those footsteps was one of the anxious experience I had yet for this game jam. Good work all around, this game definitely hit a oddly nostalgic cord for me.

I have no idea what I just did.

After an intense battle with the Pitmaster, I was surprised to find myself teleported to the first area with no escape. I liked the sense of adventure in the game, where each of the worlds correlates with each of the characters. Using the freeze to find secrets, and to cheese the teleport puzzle was also a fun aspect of this game. One critique would be to separate the moving and aim direction to a more twin-stick shooter kind of control scheme. Also, while I am a fan of the visceral sensation of mashing a button (and the action of doing so is largely my fault alone), I think it might have also been more "ergonomically responsible" to have the fire button map to a hold command as well.

Making the water visible as also the ammo system is a fun reductive way to incorporate the design with UI... which sort of contradicts the rest of the UI elements which I felt was a bit overbearing (though I wonder if that was intentional to hearken back to those older online multiplayer games). Was the entire city handmade? If so, that is incredibly impressive from a modeling standpoint! I feel like city's design also complemented one of the strength of this game, which was actually not doing the objective itself, but rather going away from the main paths to find and uncover those question marks. Overall, I can see ambition behind this game!

Absolutely, personally I think that sound design/music is just as important as visual design (if not more at times). Which is a shame that I completely dropped the ball for it for this game jam. I think this might be a good chance to use this as a learning experience, and build a library of stock sound effects beforehand. Glad you enjoyed Jambon's area, I had a lot of fun thinking about on how to make a secret lab/factory.

Glad the finale was able to leave an impact! It was something I had in mind in the early stages of development, but in the end (in game jam's fashion) I found myself frantically working to complete it only on the eve of the submission time.

Thanks! I like to think that being able to "break" the game is just another form of player expression.

Ha, I also realized that you technically reach the end game without the boost, but I didn't realized that it would also prevent you from getting the Blunk. I am currently working on a new patch to make boost power-up mandatory, and also adding some instruction along with it. Just a note, the goo can be frozen with the chicken, my apologies this was not explained anywhere in the game, I will also try to resolve that with the patch.

Hi VincentSIFT,

My apologies, it seems like you had a rough time. Talking to Squandrick is optional, so don't worry you didn't miss anything. The not being able to jump temporary after dialogue appears to be an odd intermittent bug tied to Taxxie, I uploaded another version with the hopeful fix. There is only three power-ups so you got them all. I included a text in the final cutscene that gives more direction on what to do next. Truthfully, I didn't have time to finish the game, so after the final cutscene you didn't really miss anything thereafter, so consider that a win. Thank you for the feedback!

UPDATE: the bug with the dialogue should be fixed in the most recent update. The issue was cause by a bad logic when speaking with Taxxie where the player would trigger to enter dialogue with Taxxie at in invalid time, making them stuck in dialogue mode, locking them out from certain inputs. If you are playing an older version, the issue is caused when speaking to Taxxie when they are turning back to the straw. To fix the player input you can speak to Taxxie again, but do no mash the interact button after the final dialogue. Again, this is fixed in the latest version!

Hi wujak, I noticed a small bug at the end of some dialogue, so I replaced the file. The download link should be back now!

It was definitely fun writing and developing the maids with their own personality and goals. Just curious, was there a particular maid that was your favorite?

Definitely! The overall utilization of the echolocation was simplified for the sake of finishing on time for the game jam, but hiding small Easter eggs was a must!

That's good to know, since I am open to accepting down payments in advance.

Thanks! Trying to make characters that leave a bit of an impression was a focus of mine for this project. It was a first for me using shape keys and animating in blender, so I'm happy the effort seemed to had paid off. 

After seeing your game "Trick Hunt", I really need to step up UI utilization for next time.

Ha! Solveig was originally planned to have a more faithful design to the original concept. Glad so many people were shocked with the slight redesign! Designing characters in general is one of the funnest aspect of making a game for me (and the interaction between them). So thank you for enjoying them!

I wasn't able to replicate that bug, but I believe it stems from a miss export on the floor right below the door. There is a little chunk missing there when I separated the tower from the main building to add the dithering effect. I guess I could also just re-export the main building with that floor restored, or add a little platform collider.

Thanks! Seraphina's personality from the original concept image really carried most of the weight. As for the design, it actually underwent a few changes during the initial 3D modeling stage to what you see now. Glad you enjoyed it.

Love the different attack patterns for each of the characters, really help distinguish them from one another when they do their combo string. For some reason, I was getting Jiangshi vibes from Mary's idle stance, was this just a coincidence?

Echoing everyone else, the finishing cinematic were all absolutely amazing (seriously, the creativity and cinematography could even give some AAA gaming company a run for their money)! From the tonal shift of Walrus Gemby and his hogs, to the outrageous spectacle of Mt. Crushmore (the very subtle camera zoom when the golem stands adds so much). Definitely not biased, but having Seraphina put on essentially a blindfold, reading her opponents moves with her echolocation, to then pouring an endless supply of tea over their humiliated body definitely takes the cake for me.

I think the game mechanic can benefit by having persisting logs on every new run. It would cut some of the repetition out, especially when a game is as cryptic as this (plus having to constantly worry about the timer). I do like the idea that you are piecing clues together of different characters by hearing the gossip they have about one another.

I think there is something interesting about balancing the dynamic between pressing the right and wrong buttons, and having these two polar actions contribute to a single win condition in a rhythm game. It really capture the feeling of freestyling that comes with rapping. One suggestion I would make is to continue to lean into that concept a bit more, and really showcase it. Highlight the words where the rhyme can change, and maybe make the input button icon glow or something to indicate that the input can be wrong to throw off the rhyme intentionally.

Other than that, I did enjoy the simplicity of the game, and I always appreciate a rhythm game that has the world change around you as you play.

Was it a switch pro controller? If so, unfortunately you may need to run it on steam as a non-steam game to align the control scheme.
https://help.steampowered.com/en/faqs/view/4B8B-9697-2338-40EC

UPDATE:
I just added some keyboard control if needed.

Keyboard controls:
WASD - movement
E - Interact
R - Skip dialogue buffer
F - Echolocation
LEFT/RIGHT ARROW - Camera control
SPACE - Jump
SHIFT - Check quest/inventory
L - START

Hi wujak, thank you for the heads up. I will try to upload a version with license-free music, or a version with no music altogether by Friday.

For a precision based action 2D platformer, I would recommend incorporating some of these key principals in your jump mechanics going forward: jump buffering, coyote time, and jump height based on button press. This will strengthen the feedback response the player has when using a jump, and will feel more snappier in return. Without having these functions implements, it is very common for players to feel like their jump command was "eaten".

Overall the style of the game was quite fun (albeit, very punishing). The sprites were nice and colorful, very reminiscent of a GBA game. I hope you continue to lean into the sentai-esque aesthetics, as it would help add an extra level of flourish to your game. Good work!

The mecha designs are fun, they kind of gave me a Gurren Lagann vibe. In terms of gameplay, there was actually a good sense of speed and readability from the incoming bullets that helped me stay engaged from start to end. I hope that you continue to build off of this idea and concept, and maybe pull inspiration from other games such as Sin and Punishment which utilizes both range and melee attack in a similar fashion to incorporate onto your design.

On keyboard, you will need to press "E" to advanced the dialogue first.

Thanks for the kind words. When it came to completing this project for the Game Jam, I bit off a little more than I can chew, as a result both the start and the DSD segments are a bit unfinished, so don't worry you didn't miss anything. (If you reached that final area of the DSD segment, consider that a win!)

Glad you enjoyed it. Thinking about how to even draw some of the sprites was part of the fun in making this game.

Thanks! A little tidbit, the Schippie Dues boss fight in this game was actually inspired by your Schippie Dues boss fight when I was playing through your game.