itch.io

The sword has a wide attacking angle, so that it's held to the sides when not attacking. It's supposed to mimic real swords, where they would sometimes be held to the side when ready to strike. Maybe this is not clear enough by the animation.

Interesting concept, but not the greatest execution. The jump felt too floaty, the audio was extremely jarring, the controls were awfully placed (dash with left shift? Q? It was a chore to dash using wasd for movement, and when i changed to the arrow keys I had to put my hand in an awkward position, Enter and x for dash, with x for jumping in addition to space bar, would've been a lot better), and the gameplay didn't feel polished at all. When using the blue/purple light the momentum wasn't preserved, instead it was flipped, which made it feel jarring and snappy, instead of a flow of movements we come to expect of games that play with gravity.

If I was to give a suggestion, it would be to polish a lot more the gameplay mechanics, to make it feel smoother and nicer to play. That is the main metric in a game, how well it can be played and how enjoyable it is.

An interesting idea, i believe, but the result was not enjoyable, at all. The audio was jarring, and the sounds from the building appeared out of nowhere, with no directional sound. The gameplay was basically nonexistent because I see no objective, no incentive to do anything.

And I believe that last is the most important part, this feels like it was done in a very short amount of time, if you want to invest a little more time in this idea, you can give it an objective. Something to do, maybe look for something, or take things from one place to another.

I don't know if it's a bug or I'm making something wrong, but I cannot for the life of me get farther than just outside the door, it just tells me I lost without even telling me why, I assume I can't let myself be seen, but it isn't explained anywhere, and I see no way of hiding before It tells me I lost.

Thanks, we did our best!

Thanks, originally we were going to make the player carry a torch, but we didn't make a player sprite and tested with just the torch. After seeing the torch wielding the weapons we decided to keep it as is. That later gave us the idea of the light being the player's health.

I'm glad you liked it! That was one of the main aspects we wanted to give it more dynamism. The change between the two states, the ships going out and attacking and then retreating and being able to orbit the main ship, was the main factor that made us choose this concept over the others we thought about once seeing the limitation.

An interesting idea, but the fact that the turrets stopped shooting made it not only too difficult for me to even get past the second level, it made it incredibly frustrating. I had no idea you were supposed to destroy the portals until I came to give a rating, maybe that could be made a little clearer.

Visually, it's alright, though the enemies look boring, maybe adding rotation or a different shape for the other type of enemy.

The game is better than many in the jam, but the difficulty and frustration it caused me definitely bump it down in my estimation.

Great game! Enjoyable to the point it can be addictive, and the visuals are on point. My biggest critique is that the shake feels a bit too strong, so at least an option to reduce it would be excellent. Also, sometimes i felt that the connections weren't being made despite there being no obstructions, could it be that the collision boxes are too small?

Regardless, one of the best submissions I've played!

Thank you! We were heavily inspired by games like Brotato (I know, surprising right?), so the shop was something we knew we needed. Though we weren't really satisfied with the UI, Fevimoon particularly has been working in that, along with a pause option and other tweaks. Anyway, I'm glad you enjoyed the game!

Nice little game, shows a lot of potential, especially being your first game dev experience.

First I'm going to review the game as it is, as anything less will be a disservice to a budding game developer, but stick to the end for more praise. The game just has too little content. While the concept has a lot of potential, and the gameplay is mostly there, there is not a lot to do (which is understandable). The movement feels jagged, not at all smooth, which seems to come from the camera moving at integer pixel increments, this can be a valid choice, but I personally feel it makes moving in a straight line feel like going up or down steps. It can get monotonous as the targets appear in the same places, and even if they did not, getting them can be done with the same steps: point in the general direction and send the soul there, realize you were off course and adjust the mouse slightly. repeat. Finally, the lack of sounds can make everything dry.

Other than that, the visuals are excellent. Simple but consistent, monochromatic pixel art has more potential than some might think. The soul's sprite looks almost like a fireball, but the idea is there, and with minor tweaking could be so much better.

Now, to give some inspiration, the game could be improved by adding a simple story. Reading the description, I feel like something inspired by Return to the Obra Dinn, where the player finds sort of like memories of the past, could benefit the game greatly. Maybe write a story about this person and have it be revealed one piece at a time as you find this lights. One could bring a memory of the school they went to, a pet they used to love, their parents, siblings, lost ones. It could have a lot of the same gameplay, maybe with smaller additions like the terrain changing with every light found, or the soul being able to bounce and the player pushing it farther once out.

Overall, a good idea executed however you could, and it looks finished, even if there's so little to do. That's the greatest accomplishment starting game dev, actually finishing something no matter how simple. It shows potential for the future, and I hope I can see a game like this better fleshed out, because honestly I kinda want to play it.

Charming and a bit enjoyable, though I found it a bit boring after the second attempt. There is a point where it stops ramping up and it just becomes a test of endurance, which can be fine but to me this instance it was boring to the point I dissociated and went into full auto pilot.

I would've liked to see more ramping up, and maybe a list of future presents so that farther on we could go faster. I didn't really like the controls, I suppose it's meant to give a more kinaesthetic feeling in where you feel like the robot by virtue of the buttons being different hands, but I personally have trouble keeping my hands in certain positions and having to keep both index fingers outstretched and the rest still exacerbated that, I would've liked for it to be simple arrows or "ad," but that's a personal opinion.

Other than that, I initially didn't understand how the game worked, I thought the pointing did nothing until i failed on purpose. More feedback would've helped, I thought I was supposed to sort incoming presents, not send them in the first place.

Overall, nice game!

Thank you for the feedback! There is no sound, there was just no time. It's our fault really for choosing a game jam in Christmas eve, but we did our best. There were so much stuff we wanted to improve, sound being one of the main ones that we had to cut as we neared the deadline (Imagine wanting to do sound design a couple hours before heading to a Christmas dinner). If we decide to continue development we will definitely give more love to those aspects, the shop being one I want to rework from the ground up. Really, I'd rewrite the game from scratch, but we have to see if we'd not rather move on to a different project.

Anyway, I'm glad you enjoyed it!

Thank you for the compliment! The lack of tutorial is a compromise that had to be done because of the time limit, we preferred to focus on the shop and making more ships and satellites. I hope  you liked it as much as we liked making it!

Really well thought out game, an amazing use of the limitation. Many games find a way to avoid the limitation, but I've always found working around it to be better, like this. You saw the limitation and built a game idea from the ground up to use that limitation as its core, creating a unique and interesting game concept.

Some minor problems I had, besides the ones already mentioned like not seeing the people's path, I found that the area to click the icons of the troopers is too small, though it appears to be accurate with the sprites, I would've liked for them to be bigger so I don't have to click the exact rectangle of the sprite.

This submission is really solid, probably the best one I've played so far! If you end up making a more fleshed out version, I'll definitely check it out if I find out about it.

Nice idea and it shows a lot of potential. The movement was really good, in that it didn't take away from the puzzles and the overall experience. I don't feel like it fits the limitation though, the rock may be immobile, but the limitation is "You are immobile," not "something is immobile."

Other than that, the puzzles felt easy and not really inspired, it didn't feel like they explored the mechanics a well as they should. In a vacuum though, it felt polished and well done in general, other than the puzzles being easy and the moving platforms not really adding difficulty, but making those parts more tedious and not very enjoyable.

A nice idea with a pretty presentation. While I don't personally think it fits within the limitation, this is less obvious than others to the point that it could be just interpretation. I can't go into too much detail because the game got locked every time when i was about to reach the area toward the south-west of the core, I don't know if it is an issue with reaching far, time or the way I built, as i noticed most of the time it happened I was trying to build far from the player.

I love the game concept, and it was enjoyable enough that you nearly made me bust out my drawing tablet to see if I could beat my pb with it, (in the end laziness won, smh),

The only real complaint I have is that the music was too, lets say, invasive if that makes sense. While it didn't take away from the experience, I felt that it didn't quite fit.

Other than that, there's the inconsistent pixel sizes, which is a strong negative in my opinion, along with the ugly UI. However, these oversights are understandable when working in a game jam, so it's not too bad.

The working with the limitation, while it technically fit, and better than some I have played, feels sort of like avoiding it rather than working with it. I'll admit that is somewhat minor, but I wanted to say it anyway. 

Overall, a strong submission, among the best I've played so far this jam! Sometimes simplicity is best, and picking a simple concept and flushing it out is better than trying to do as much mediocre things as possible, this game is a demonstration of that.

The visuals are nice, and I like the animation. The concept is fine, I didn't notice the light going off, so I guess I just went too quickly for that.

The game doesn't fit the limitation at all, which is important in my estimation. And aside from that, the feel of the movement, which is the most important part for a platformer, is not good. It feels too floaty and with little to no feedback, as well as bugy.

I would've put a lot more time into the movement, make it more impactful, with stronger gravity and a better jump. There's an amazing talk over at the GDC channel about using math for a better jump, and it lets you polish the jump by thinking of it in terms of height, distance and time instead of force and speed, while having gravity very present, that shift in perspective is valuable. Movement is one of the main points in a platformer game, and I personally would rather the game has a better feel but worse visuals than the other way around, though that is personal preference.

Other than that, I think more feedback would've been beneficial, like bouncing off enemies to give a better feel on the stomping. Overall, really good project, it shows a lot of potential.

A nice game, though I personally don't think it fits within the limitation as the player moves quite explicitly. I don't know if I just didn't get it, but the code was impossible for me to solve, even with the clue in the comments on the page. Is there a button I have to press to enter the code or is it supposed to work automatically? I don't know what I didn't get.

All that aside, it shows potential though there's definitely a few rough edges. Visually, the colors are too jarring. and either the lack of contrast or shading makes it difficult to distinguish some parts like the icons in the buttons of the elevator. The music was fine but got old fast, the third or fourth loop I got tired of it.

I will be more reserved on the puzzles as I'm not much of a puzzle enjoyer, it takes a specific kind of puzzle for me to really like it and this is not it. However, I can appreciate the effort put into this and if people are liking it then I guess they're fine, though I felt something off I can't quite put to words.

Very interesting take, entertaining and not too hard, I'm pretty bad in this kinds of games but I managed to complete it after two tries. While short, it gets the point across and shows potential, though I wish it had more dynamism in the different direction, because they can get mixed up, maybe a more visual indication that they are in the particular direction, like the arrows' position being shifted to the side.

In general a good submission, with a solid take on the limitation. One can even argue that you are building a connection with the wolf and so it fits the theme as well :)

It was fun and enjoyable. The use of the limitation and theme is among the best I've seen yet, and it does it while remaining fun in general. The execution was, as is common in these kind of games, a bit lacking as the marker sometimes bugged and didn't let me mark enemies, but that's not catastrophic.

I didn't loose, and I didn't feel like taking too long was too fatalistic, so the stakes were low throughout. but that's not necessarily a bad thing. It's a good thing the game is so short, because with the content it has it would've gotten boring had it lasted more, as once you fall into the rhythm of marking the strongest enemies and then shocking them all at once there doesn't feel like there is anything else to do. Maybe it's that it's easy enough to allow sub optimal strategies and if it ramped up more I would've had to develop a better strategy, but it didn't feel like it.

Anyway, it was among the best I've played so far.

Very well done game, though it has its problems like everything. I like the use of the limitation, though it was a tower defense game, I feel it was a bit more inspired than most. Its frustrating mostly in a good way, in that I wished I was better at the game.

It is a bit hard, and the enemies and defenders don't always react the way I would expect, for example, when putting a defender some would always target it, to the point that i put several shooters in a row and one enemy kept targeting the new one even if the older ones were closer. I have found that the bombers don't always explode and the blockers aren't that good at blocking, with the enemies deciding to target defenders further in. I assume the shooters are doing damage because the enemies are dying, but there's no indication it is happening, or rather, there's a little indication that it is taking damage, but not what is doing the damage. The basic is the most baffling, it damages by contact? Then wouldn't it need to make the enemies target it more? Is it a blocker with less health but dealing damage?

Visually, the game is stunning, you picked an aesthetic and stuck to it, and it shows. Everything being geometric is a good way to give a good look fast, and the glow effects give it more life. It is always important to get a consistent style and this achieved it.

Aspects of the gameplay could improve, and I feel it ramps up too quickly. Some tower defense games like to let you build slowly and others lean heavily in reaction to destruction like this one, hell, my favorite level in Kingdom Rush Frontiers does this. I just feel like there should be a faster way to build, as moving the mouse so much between the shop and the level isn't quick enough. Maybe with less, stronger defenders that could get better, as there would have to be less moving the mouse around, or a lean in hotkeys so that the mouse never leaves the stage.

Over all, I think this is the best game I've played so far this jam, faults and all.

A nice little game, though I don't understand how the limitation is being used, as the player can absolutely move, even being able to roll up the platform. I don't understand why this couldn't have been exported to play in the browser, but I have basically no experience with Unity so I don't know.

The idea is fine, but the execution is a little lacking in excitement. I liked the idea of the platform tilting so you can't linger on one side, but again the execution doesn't fit within the limitation as the player is able to move by itself up the platform. Had it been the platform that was tilted by the controls, it would've fit right in, but the way it's played is different enough from that that i feel it takes away from it in the context of this jam.

Barring that, it's fun for a little while, and most importantly it's a finished project, which is the greatest accomplishment you could ask for.

A fine concpet I suppose, though it doesn't fit within the limitation at all, which is "You are immobile." Maybe you didn't see it, and got stuck with the theme of connections, which arguably this concept can fulfill, but this limitation is mandatory.

It was a fun little game, enjoyable which is really all you could ask for in a game made in such little time. Aside from the obvious things like the text, the game felt a little too easy, with only one enemy type and one fighter, and of the five towers, the town hall seems useless and the fixer isn't clear on how it works, but if I understand it correctly is not necessary as very little damage was done in my play through.

I can empathize with being busy, We were too to some extend, and being alone as well makes it an even greater accomplishment to have finished a playable game at all. If you want to update it, I would personally add a couple more enemies and at least an extra defensive tower, along with a use for the town hall, or maybe I just didn't get it?

Anyway, props on finishing the game.

Thank you for the feedback! The explanation of how to play is definitely something that could be improved, we felt that as it has few controls it should be easy to pick up, and it seems it isn't very hard, but corners had to be cut for time. I'm glad you enjoyed it!

What I meant with bouncing off course was while moving. As it is, if you launch and encounter a rock, the player can slide along the side and snap back into the original line, and that feels jarring and unnatural. It's not only rocks, when encountering corners it happens too, though it's the only thing making getting over ledges not too difficult as the lack of momentum makes it harder than it should be. It's as if when throwing the yoyo you draw a line and make the player go along it at a steady pace, but when it encounters an obstacle not too steep to make it stop, it slides to the side and continues at the same speed along the line, but the speed along the surface of the obstacle increases, so the player's actual speed goes up, and when reaching the other side, it slides back to snap to the initial line.

Having control over the player's movement is not necessarily having the movement be 100% cut and dry. Take Getting Over It as an example, in that game the movement is everything but dry, it relies heavily on physics and is very dynamic, and yet the player is fully in control, if they know how to control it.

The rest of the game is really good, but this one aspect bothered me somewhat as it is supposed to be the main point in a platformer, and yet here it didn't feel like it. Maybe I have different priorities, but I would've rather the game be shorter, and with less cohesive drawings, but a better movement overall. I'm sorry if I sound aggressive, I really don't want to, in the end is your game, and everyone involved should be proud, it's among the better games I've played in this jam!

Really cool little game, enjoyable for a few minutes though not much more. I really like the idea that to beat the enemies you have to push them off screen, tough I would like for them to fight a little if it's not hit squarely in the middle.

A somewhat minor complaint is the interpretation of the limitation. Though I understand that it would feel dry for the player not to move, recoil is technically a way to move.- It doesn't really matter, so it isn't the thing holding it back. Other possible complaint is the enemies pushing you off screen, but the limitation is "you area immobile," not "you are immovable," so I don't particularly mind.

The main thing holding it back is the lack of scaling of difficulty, one moment playing feels like the previous one. From what I've played it seems like if you take the points off there would be no way of telling if the game is several minutes in or it has just started.

Difficulty scaling could help with the monotony, and having enemies get pushed back less when hit on the side, but if hit squarely in the center getting pushed way back, would give it more oomph, that could be accomplished by letting them fight back the push instead of spinning and floating off screen. Other enemy types would also help, maybe one that is faster, but moves in bursts, one that resists push a lot more but is slower and lingers at times, one that moves erratically to try to dodge your attacks. All of these enemies could be more frequent the longer the player has lasted, that would give it more spice.

All in all, a good submission to the jam.

I really like the drawing style, and the music is relaxing and overall a good fit for the game. I can see the inspiration from games like Getting Over It, and the idea is sound in a vacuum. However, I don't feel like it fits with the limitation very well, as i interpreted it as the player is unable to move or be moved, though I can accept this interpretation.

While the aesthetic and music is really well done, I feel like the gameplay isn't quite there. The difficulty itself is good, if not amazing, but the way it's played doesn't feel as polished as it should. The lack of momentum alone makes movement feel too jarring and unintuitive, and when encountering obstacles the player keeps moving at the same speed along the original vector, making it jump around and then snapping back to the line, instead of changing course or stopping. It feels as if the movement was the least looked after aspect of the game, when it should be its most polished. With a game such as this, a platformer with its main goal being its difficulty and satisfaction, movement is key, and each failure should feel like the player's fault thoroughly, but this game's movement feels like it was coded in an hour or two and left like that.

That being said, the rest of the game is really well done, with special mention to the music and drawing. To give some tips, I would like for the movement to receive more love, adding momentum alone would give it a better feel, but using acceleration and deceleration, along with proper interaction with the world could give it spice and make it feel much more polished. Thighs I would've liked to see are bumping when colliding with objects, sliding off smaller obstacles like rocks to bounce you off course and momentum along with acceleration and deceleration.

These are just my opinions of course, other people may disagree with me and they would be right in doing so, that is perfectly valid. I still stand by my words.

All in all, a solid submission, and better than most games I've played here, if tainted by bad movement.

I like tower defense games, and though this was short that is understandable. I'll start with the bad stuff, the music was too jarring after the first loops, the only reason I didn't end up muting it was because I finished it before i bothered to, and the tower selection, though fine at first, leaves a lot to be desired, especially in balance, with the enchanted lantern being the only one really needed, the ballista being close to useless, and the holy water gun being inconsistent with its firing to the point that I saw it aim toward a spirit without firing and letting it pass all the way through.

However, It has promise. I liked the concept itself, the idea of being a spirit medium, and better polished it could end up being a good all around game.

Some tips I would give is making towers shoot where the enemy will be instead of where it is, this is especially necessary with the ballista as it misses constantly. Maybe give less damage to the enchanted lantern, or a type of enemy that is immune to it. With such a small selection of towers, it's important to give every one a legitimate use, and make using only one very difficult if not impossible.

The concept seems fine, and i would have enjoyed playing a couple of minutes, if not for the fact that it was barely playable, the mouse moving with too much delay. For how simple it is, its amazing how slow it runs, I opened task manager and it told me that it was barely using up CPU and GPU time, and it was consuming 2.4+ GB of RAM!

I have never used Unreal so I don't know if it's an engine issue, but at least I would say that it is not the best choice for a game like this. I would love to be more fair with the gameplay itself, but i just can't run it well enough,

For reference, I have a laptop with an i7 7300k and a 1050, it really should run smooth.

Good concept, but it has very little feedback, which can impact negatively to the feel if the game. The scaling is both too fast and too slow, in that the money grows so fast that in a couple of minutes you can have so much that it no longer fits inside its box, the earnings/s and add satellite cost in particular clipping behind the box to their right. But it is also slow in that there's so little to do you feel like you finished it in five minutes, so you just wait around waiting for things to get done.

As a whole, for being your first game, and especially having been done in 6 hours, it's really good. Have you spent more time, I would've loved to see more feedback like actual satellites orbiting the planet, animations for the other planets, maybe a different one for when they are connected, a line connecting them in a web maybe. Just making the planets bigger and cutting the numbers with "k," "m," "b," and so on would be an improvement.

Again, for the time it took and being your first game it shows promise, and I really like the planet animation.