Criticism - For a game that requires precise movement, having a player that has uneven acceleration that flattens off at a high speed is somewhat annoying. It would've been a bit nicer if there was a consistent acceleration and deceleration so the player could plan out exactly how they want to move much more intuitively. It also would've been nice to have an explanation of why getting the black dots is bad because it was a bit unclear.
Support - After understanding what all the dots did, it became very clear how the game fit the theme. The game also has a sort of tacticalness to it as you have to decide what dots you are going to get first in case you accidentally grab a black dot. The gameplay kinda reminds me of The Worlds Hardest Game.
Criticism - Some of the sound effects are a bit too loud. Gameplay-wise I think the meter fills up a little too fast, making it decently easy to survive if you get your timing right. It would've been nicer to see a slower filling bar so you would have to make more quick time decisions.
Support - The art style is cute and simple, but it works. The gameplay and relation to the theme are also very engaging and innovative. The gameplay is also very intuitive and easy to grasp.
Criticism - The mouse sensitivity was a bit strange, despite the mouse settings to alter it. I could really never get a grip on the mouse movement. Also, in the webgl version the mouse sometimes teleports and looks somewhere else, completely ruining your flow. Figuring out how to fix the mouse movement and make it a bit more precise would definitely help this game.
Support - The art direction and implementation of the theme was amazing. The combo system made total sense within the theme and felt very important to the gameplay.
Criticism - The sound design is a bit weird as the voices are super loud and hard to understand. The combat was also a bit confusing as I never knew how much health I or the ghosts had.
Support - The idea is super innovative and is an amazing take on the theme.
Criticism - During my playthrough due to the player's squishyness and fast loss of food, I tended to avoid combat altogether. I think the combat is an interesting part of the game, but it could use some incentive to stay and fight rather than run away.
Support - The whole atmosphere of the game was amazing with how the music, sounds, and visuals all came together to create a polished experience.
Criticism - How the game ties into the theme is not really that obvious. Also the cutscenes could be a bit better as they 1 - moved too slow and 2 - moved sometimes before I read them. A solution would to be make the dialogue change based on player input.
Support - The game feels like a fever dream, but in a good way. The story is very interesting and captivating because it is so confusing.
Criticism - When the plants grow up the water balls sometimes roll away which makes them harder to find.
Support - The gameplay, implementation of the theme, and the idea itself were all super neat and super calming, and satisfying. I liked how there were water tanks placed far out so you have to make decisions whether or not to risk leaving your plants to die to get more water.
Criticism - After a little while, the tileset started to look extremely repetitive. If you had more time for art I would suggest making more tile variations.
Support - The idea is insanely innovative and the splitting enemy design really helped the sword mechanic shine. Overall the concept and design behind this game were great!
Criticism - The game definitely would benefit from a tutorial as it is confusing when you first start out and it takes some time to understand the controls. Also, I felt like people died a bit too fast as it made it hard to keep track of who lived where and to match people. Also it was a bit confusing when I could buy houses and matchmake, making those actions a bit more cleat would help.
Support - A very interesting take on the theme that I haven't seen before! I also liked both tracks of music, especially the less is more song.
Criticism - Some of the interactions between the cards allowed for a bit of cheese here and there, which made some levels super easy. Also, the last level was an absolute nightmare, and while it was interesting design it was way more stressful than it needed to be and took way to much time to finish. I think adding an undo button would've helped this game immensely.
Support - The art direction was amazing, like always, and the story really helped tie the theme into the gameplay.
Criticism - Once you play for a little bit some events get extremely predictable, so more variation would help, but I understand that there was limited time. The art design could've also been a bit nicer and a bit less bright.
Support - This is a super innovative idea, it really gives me Reign vibes which I really like.
Criticism - Due to the fast paced nature of a shmup, it made it very hard to understand and decide what powerups did and decide which ones you wanted to keep.
Support - The gameplay was fun, with it being a shmup and all, and I liked the different enemy patterns.
Criticism - The levels lasted way to long, it would've been much more fun if you made shorter levels so you could show off a wider variety of level designs. Sounds and music would've also have been nice to see.
Support - The idea is very interesting and the art looks nice.
Criticism - The artstyle leaves much to be desired, particularly the black lines breaking up every chunk of flooring, but everything else far makes up for it.
Support - The narration was amazing, hilarious, and made me play the game a second time just to finish listening to it. Initially I was going to say how you should've placed more of an emphasis on the getting less points part, but I think that you made the right choice to make the points relatively unimportant as it allows players to focus on the truly great part of the game.
Criticism - At the beginning in the story, I would suggest splitting up the words more into smaller chunks so people don't skip the reading because it looks like a lot. Also when the code thing first came I was very confused about how I died on how to avoid dying, so maybe in the tutorial emphasize more that the cursor is your player.
Support - The concept is super innovative and out there, and the visuals are reminiscent of old operating systems which I like.
Criticism - I understood that some enemies duplicated due to me using up my attacks, but I never actually understood what was going on with the enemies duplicating. Also, if you use up your attacks and you don't kill any enemies, then you've practically lost cause you cant gain health or attacks back
Support - The art, music, and sound design were all very solid and helped tie the game together.
Criticism - The game design was a bit strange as the levels got easier the more enemies you killed as you could see more of the level. I think it would've been a bit more interesting if the lights got darker the more enemies you killed so you have to memorize and plan out where to go and kill enemies. Also there were some audio bugs and I think the music started playing multiple times.
Support - The art was very nice looking and polished.
Criticism - The difference between the highlighted and unhighlighted walls was very minimal, making it hard to tell them apart. To fix this maybe you could make the highlighted ones a different color. Also, the importance of not having many bounces didn't come into play that much for me as I got more at every flag and completed most levels in a small amount of bounces.
Support - The visual style is very nice, I liked the post processing. The concept is also very innovative, I just think it would need a bit more tweaking to make the theme feel more relevant to the gameplay. I also liked that you could turn on and off walls mid play which allowed for more fun paths.
It is very easy to get hit by some of the enemies twice in a row, meaning that you die near instantly. It would've been nice to see either checkpoints or more health to mitigate the problem. It would've also been nice to see more cutscenes sooner in the game to emphasize the cutscenes with no dialogue idea.
Support -
The art style is very interesting and visually distinct from other pixel art games I have seen. The music is also pretty chill.
The game is wayyyy too hard. A good rule of thumb for game jams is to make your game too easy rather than too hard so people can play them easier and have more fun. Also, it was a bit unclear what the overload mechanic does.
Support -
The art is very nice and I like the small number of colors used, it helps make things easily readable. The sound effects were also nice and helped make actions more satisfying.
I'll mention audio, but I know you said you didn't have time to get to it so I'll move on. The main thing is that I feel like you should've integrated the theme more into the moment to moment gameplay/combat. Making the theme tie closer to the gameplay would give it a much stronger connection to the theme, but what you did is still pretty good.
Support -
The art was super nice and so was the boss design, I liked how every time you had to approach the boss differently because you had different/less items.
It was very unclear how this game fit the theme. If you didn't have time to do an explanation in-game, that is understandable, but an explanation in the page description would've helped. Also, I saw in the description that there were credits for sound and music, but I heard none while I was playing. Maybe a bug?
Support -
I liked the simple art style and flat colors, very appealing to the eye. The level design was also very challenging and fun to play.
First thing is that I didn't really understand how the game fit into the theme at all. If you didn't have time to do an in-game explanation, it would've been nice to have an explanation in the description. Also, there were very few minigames, which made the game feel repetitive, and the choke game was near impossible.
The main mechanic - the less collectibles the "more fast" your speed - didn't come into play too much as most of the puzzles only required you to have one collectible on hand at any time. Introducing more puzzles earlier surrounding having multiple collectibles at a time would have really helped cement the game as part of the theme. Another minor nitpick, the player and the background clouds being the same color made it hard to track the player at times. I would suggest making the player a different color to stand out against the clouds.
Support -
Other than the minor nitpick above, the art style was very pleasing to the eye, and the music fit the casual, calming nature of the game.
There could have been a couple more sound effects and an indicator of where certain pieces can go/capture you from when clicking on them would be a nice addition as I sometimes found myself making dumb mistakes because I forgot how certain pieces moved.
Support -
The game was extremely innovative and creative, chess is definitely not the first thing that would come to mind when hearing the theme. I also liked the puzzle elements and the design of introducing each enemy, it really helped explain how each one worked in the context of the game.
The sounds are a bit broken and there is no music, but I know you already know about that so I'll move to some other criticism. My main criticism would be that it was a bit hard to locate the fires not knowing how many are left. I think a counter telling the player how many fires they have out of the number of fires present would be very helpful.
Support -
The 2d vector art was very pleasing to the eye and the gameplay was interesting and fun, especially considering the neat controls.
When inside the toxic clouds, it is a bit unobvious why you shouldn't be in the clouds, so maybe some flavor text explaining why would help.
Support -
The art is amazing and fits so well. I loved the small details added in with the floating objects that you can move around. The music was excellent and gave off that spacey vibe. The level design was very nice and I like that you added directional arrows. All around, great game with lots of good polish!
The first criticism is that both the music and art were pre-made/taken from online. I know that is completely allowed and allowed you to focus more on other aspects of the game, but I still can't ignore it. My second criticism is that two of the main 4 artifacts, namely the Cloak of Life Siphoning and the Belt of Stabilization had very little to do with the theme.
Support -
I LOVED the enemy design and the combat, it felt fresh and engaging and it was fun to have to balance your health and damage output. The level design was also great and allowed for discovery and exploration moments.
