So, I watched the video, and it seems like good advice to me. I'll definitely look at the smaller YouTube channels you mentioned, and see about contacting them and making a trailer for my game, in addition to contacting that larger YouTube channel I had mentioned earlier.
I'll make sure to give this a watch! I'm already planning to send a demo of Peng Wars to a YouTube channel that's offering to play games you send in, so I'll watch your video for advice.
A solid metroidvania for the jam's time constraints, with some surprisingly detailed pixel art and music given the Nokia's constraints. Initially, I found it pretty cumbersome to get around with the snow effect blotting out the screen, but once I got the lantern, it started feeling much more manageable. The small screen size did occasionally make it hard to react to enemies or hazards when I was falling, but that's a minor nitpick all things considered, since dying and reviving is such a quick process.
You did a great job on this game. It's simple to pick up and play, yet engaging with its unique control scheme, and the variety of enemy and level types keeps things interesting as you progress. I like how the bosses test the skills you learned in the levels, like the second boss making you move through the gaps in its attacks, just like how the walls made you move prior. There's no real criticism I have to make; the closest thing to it would be that the bosses take a long time to kill without a shot speed powerup, but that gives you more time to choke and make mistakes when fighting them, so it works.
I got a score of 1170 points on my second try, after I had figured out the game's mechanics and controls.
I got a score of 1145 points on my first attempt. This is a pretty fun endless-climbing game, and the pixel grid/Nokia intro add something to the aesthetic. It would be nice if there was a greater variety of hazards, since there isn't too much that can actually kill you if you're watchful for spikes — failing a jump doesn't kill you, after all.
EDIT: I just reached level 5003, beating the game. There's a bit more variety in challenges later on, like the blocks that cover up your vision, so that criticism isn't as strong as it was when I first played.
Thanks for playing my game. I was interested to see how players would react to that twist, but also a little worried that the sudden change in game genres would feel jarring. Good to see that that's not the case, though.
Thanks! Making the vertical movement faster in those parts of the game would make sense, since the swordfish start coming really fast after a while. I'll make sure to check out your game when I can!
I'll make sure to give this document and your video a look. Your commentary about wanting more intro stages to grind EXP on is fair, since the adult seal on level 6 is pretty tough. I'm nerfing that level in the next release for sure, but do you think it'd be better for the first few stages to just give more EXP, or for there to be a fast-to-clear stage added that lets you grind EXP easily?
I’m still working on it, but I took a break over the Christmas holiday. I’ve been wanting to work more on it and release chapter 2, but I’ve been busy with work at college. Though, I should have some more time to work on it soon! Thanks for asking, and I’ll try to put in more work on the game.
Excellent work. This game is genuinely scary, especially towards the end, and comes with a great visual aesthetic to boot. The minigames weren't anything too special, but they added some extra interactivity to what would otherwise be more of a visual novel than a game.
I got the ending where your character ends up getting turned into a mermaid and returning to the depths, wondering if their blood on the deck of the Coelacanth will be enough to convict Ray.
This was cool. It went in a pretty unexpected direction for a horror game, and once I figured out what was going on with the story, it felt really immersive. It wasn't too terrifying overall, but there were some unsettling and scary moments — in particular, that final scene with Ray (in the ending I got) was chilling.
I wasn't able to beat the game so far, but I wanted to keep my promise and review it before the jam ends.
Visually, your game looks good — it doesn't quite look like a Game Boy game, with the message boxes having a higher resolution than the rest of the game world, but the pixel art and environments look good and convey a decent amount of detail despite the low resolution. The lack of any sound is normally something I'd give 1 star for, but considering the game's focus on its environment and puzzle solving, a background music track would probably just be distracting, and the sound of your main character's footsteps works well for the game's needs. However, my main problem with the game is its difficulty curve — two of the puzzles in the first set are quite easy, but the one to the left of where you start is quite challenging, and stonewalled me until someone else got the solution. I also didn't like that you have to start the game over every time you open it — the title screen gives you the option to load a save, but you're never able to in the game itself.
A simple, but fun time-waster that feels like something you'd find on an older 90s-era computer. Moving around the pieces feels mostly fine, but I do wish there was an option to swap the positions of two pieces — currently, you have to move one piece to another position, then move the second to the position you want, while just having the two pieces swap positions would be faster and easier. The lack of sound is unfortunate, but not too bad considering that it's a jigsaw puzzle game and so doesn't really need it.
Like others have said, this game doesn't really feel like a 90s-era, 16-bit platformer — it reminds me more of a Flash game, or maybe an Amiga one. It's good that you explain the controls within the game, but they aren't explained fully — you're not told that you can use arrow keys to move instead of WASD, or to use space to jump, for example. Retto's movement and jumping feel okay, but they feel pretty floaty in the air — and they also tend to slow down on walls, and I don't know if this is an intentional wall-jumping mechanic or not.
A simple, yet charming mining game with a funny twist at the end. The core play loop of mining materials to upgrade your tools and time kept me hooked until the ending, despite how simple the mechanics were. I did find the controls a bit clunky to deal with at times, like when you're trying to jump or mine two columns of blocks at once, but those are minor nitpicks. The graphics and sound also look just like what you'd expect from a Game Boy game, so you earn extra points for that.
Once I got the hang of the controls and the crafting recipes, this was a fun little survival game. You don't see many games go for the style of old 80s computer games, so it's cool to see a new game in that style, and the graphics sell that aesthetic well. The sound effects are funny, especially the little "MINE." when you pick up an item. My main complaint is that there isn't too much depth to the gameplay, but that's excusable for a game jam game — there's only one enemy type that you can easily kill once you've made an axe (until it breaks, anyway), and the foraging is a pretty straightforward way of trading satiation for a chance at resources. If you pursue this game concept in future, I think it'd be interesting if the foraging became a tile-revealing game a bit like Minesweeper, letting the player get hints as to what's located where. Still, this has potential to be a fun retro game with a relatively unexplored aesthetic.
Also, I'll never live down the guilt from killing and eating dozens of my fellow sneks...
I'm not sure what to think of this game. The potentially emotional messages scattered throughout the level are muffled by the fact that you don't get much time to stick around and read them, since you're desperately running from the rising lava. The controls are fine as is, but since you don't get introduced to the level objects like levers and chains in a safe environment, you need to spend a bit of time figuring out what they do on your first playthrough — time that you can't afford to lose. Also, I know that it's supposed to look like an NES game, but the graphics don't really reflect that — if anything, they look more like what you'd see on an Atari game, or maybe a fantasy console.
Also, this doesn't really factor into my final score, but I don't like how you don't get an option to walk away from the ledge you're asked to jump off of... well, outside of closing the game then and there, that is. The emotional impact of the ending would be stronger if it was your choice, and if you could have chosen to keep living despite the hardships your character suffers.
This game has an awesome concept in building your own programmable powerups. Initially, it was a bit frustrating since I didn't know what each one did, but got more fun as I learned about the different parts and what they did — maybe you could include a manual with their different effects if you pursue this project further. The different enemy types provide a good variety of challenge, and the randomly-generated arenas keep things interesting, though there were times when I got stuck in parts of the arena that were too deep for me to jump out of.
One thing I am confused about, though: what do you mean by the game's era being the 2000s? To me, it looks a bit like a Pico-8 game.
A bizarre, yet fun game. I really like its glitch art aesthetic, and the ways you can experiment with the world around you — it's fun to try and find the different possible endings with the limited options you have available. The use of sound is minimalistic, but it works. I don't really have much to criticize here.
Thanks for your feedback. If I pursue this project in the future, do you think it'd help if enemy attacks were delayed until you were finished moving a tile? I don't know if it'd be feasible to let you keep matching even as an enemy attacks, but then you wouldn't get stuck in the middle of matching a tile, at least. The UI for this game could use some improvement, so I'll take your suggestions for the battle menu into consideration if I decide to extend it into a full game.
My main complaint with this one is that it doesn't feel too much like an NES game, with the sprites being at different resolutions and using more colors than would be possible. Other than that, your character controls well, and I like the concept of finding different spells inside the dungeon to progress deeper into it.
Normal mode is a good way to get used to the controls, and then hard mode becomes a delightfully evil precision platformer in the vein of Super Meat Boy. I like how it remixes the levels, turning the huge stretches of empty space they once had into lethally unsafe ground. The short level length and tight controls make what would otherwise be a frustrating game fun to master, and the very small sprites, while they'd be hard to see on an actual Game Boy, also remove the issue of screen crunch common in many platformers of the era. I was originally going to give you a 2 for sound due to the lack of background music, but hard mode made me bump it up to a 3 — the grim 8-bit ambience in the background is oddly fitting for watching a cute blob die a thousand and one deaths through being impaled on spikes.
The graphics on this one look great and perfectly fit the NES aesthetic, and your character controls well. The lack of background music is regrettable, but understandable for a jam game, and the silence does a good job of setting the ambience you want. Unfortunately, the game is entirely too easy; the bug enemies will only hurt Kreena if you deliberately crash her into them, and the boss is functionally identical to them, just requiring more hits. If you do decide to pursue developing this game (which I'd encourage), I'd suggest adding more threatening enemies more quickly.
Feels like an excellently-made hybrid of Ninja Gaiden and Castlevania. Your player character controls well, and rushing through the levels feels fun with how fast they move — though, I do wish you could control how high you jumped by holding Z for a shorter or longer period of time. The levels are well-designed, balancing tricky platforming with enemy-focused challenges and separating the challenging bits with parts where you can rush through and acquire spirits. I found level 2 to be the hardest, especially with its tengu boss, though the Kirnos in level 3 are certainly the toughest regular enemies in the game — and the boss of level 4 makes up for the level being slightly disappointing in difficulty. The background music for each level is good and fits the Game Boy aesthetic perfectly. Overall, a great entry with only a few minor flaws. If you extend it, make it more difficult, and release it as a full game, I'd be interested in buying it.
It's rare to see a game that goes for the style of "port from a more advanced system", but I feel like the graphics and sound convey that well. Plumley is well-animated and usually controls fine, though not being able to turn around on water is annoying. Unfortunately, with ports to a handheld console comes screen crunch — Plumley moves a bit fast for how big the screen is, so sometimes, you can't see spikes until it's too late to react to them. As others have suggested, you could have the camera pan so it's ahead of you while you're running, artificially extending the screen size like some other GBC games did.
I was able to clear the rooms below and to the right of the starting area, but have no idea what to do for the scrambled tiles one on the left, even though I revealed the phrase. Once I've cleared it, I'll give this game a rating.
I'd really like to see you develop this into a full game, like you did with Chico. Catching an Osmu is pretty tough to start with, but once you do, it's fun to fly around and just explore the landscape at top speed — a true hallmark of well-designed game mechanics. The Osmu jousting battle in the demo was pretty fun as well. My only major complaint is the movement physics for the player — it's fine for the Osmu to have slippery movement to balance out its high top speed and flight, but it feels a bit awkward for the player to have the same sort of movement. Still, that's a minor complaint, and I'd happily buy and play a full game-length version of this demo!
Thanks for trying out my game! I'll make sure to play Osmudo next...
I tried my best to fix any major glitches, but this is my first time coding a puzzle game, so I wasn't quite able to get the falling blocks to work properly. I was initially planning to let the player charge up more matches for a stronger attack, but eventually decided against it to streamline the gameplay loop and prevent any balancing issues — though, if I ever revisit this idea in a future game, I'll see if I can make it work without being too powerful.
Okay. Later, I'll try redownloading the game, and if the turning speed is fixed, I'll update my rating to a more favorable one. And I'll make sure to check out the creators you used the assets of!
This was pretty fun. The graphics are simple, but they work — I like that everything adheres to the 3-color limit of the NES, and overall, it does a good job of feeling like an early-era NES game. The 3 levels you have are easy once you figure out the controls, but are still fun, and the boss is a good challenge. The controls for shooting are a bit annoying to deal with, though, but that's my only major complaint.
I like the concept of this game, but the part that annoyed me the most was the controls. It feels like your ship turns by a huge amount if you tap the A or D buttons even once, so making sharp turns through the various racetracks was really difficult. Aside from that, the graphics look fine, and I like the background track, but the controls really made me struggle to enjoy it, unfortunately.
I like the game's gimmick of flipping between two different states whenever you jump, kind of like some of the levels in Super Mario 3D Land. The controls are generally fine, but the wall jump sometimes felt weird — if you press the other direction from the wall a bit too early, you'll fall off and won't jump. The game being short is understandable due to the time constraints, but I do wish there were a few more level segments to introduce elements like the walking mushrooms in a safe environment.
This one has a pretty unique concept, as a slower-paced take on a shooter. It almost reminds me of the 3DS game Monster Manor — you have to use your slowly regenerating energy to block at the right time, then fire when the enemies are vulnerable. Aside from the addition of sound effects, I do wish the enemies had more notable tells to when they were about to attack or shield, since it took me a while to figure out what the giant eye ships do.
Thanks for trying out my game. It would be nice if you could shoot bullets at the enemies in kind, but I'm not too good at pathfinding to have them dodge — and I wanted to have battles fit the "Fast and Slow" theme of the jam, with slow RPG decision-making punctuated by intense bursts of dodging. I have seen a few players say that the Laser Orbs are too tough to dodge for how early they show up, so if I come back to this game in future, I might tone them down.
Maybe ones like missiles fired up from the bottom of the screen? Though, those would only work well if you also gained the ability to move left and right. Bullets fired by anti-air guns could also work, even with the current movement mechanics.
Absolutely wonderful. The graphics and animations on this game are excellent, especially considering the limited screen size. The concept of the boxes that change the flow of time is a solid mechanic, and there are some interesting challenges with it. My only complaint is the short length, but that's understandable for a game jam game — and if it gets extended later, I'll absolutely play more.
Another simple but fun, arcade-style game. I feel that entries like these are the most authentic, since they feel like a game that would actually come pre-loaded on a Nokia phone. I do wish it had a bit more complexity to it, though, like other obstacles you had to dodge.
