itch.io

Ask and you shall receive

Thank you for playing! I'm glad to see you got the true ending :)

Yeah, Umihara Kawase is a different beast haha

Thank you :)

Hi, I keep getting this error in the demo version of the game. It always happens when the timer gets to 0:00.

The game also restated a few times; I undestand from this thread that it is an intentional restriction for the demo(?) I though it was a bug until I looked through the forum :/

Anyway, the game seems cool so far. I'll have to give the full version a try!

Thank you! I'm working on it 😩

Do you mean you got to the 4 different endings? If so that's impressive!

Yeah the dialogs are nice. Both NPCs have a similar passive-agressive attitude, but they feel like different people and they're interesting to talk to. They don't talk for too long and aren't cringy. I have nothing negative to say :)

I agree that it is an interesting idea to explore, and I see how the library problem reflects real life in the sense that real life problems are "messy". I disagree that you can really switch completely to "real life thinking". If I had to solve the library problem in real life, I would at least try to have a useful discussion with the librarian (This could result in us filling the gaps of the instructions, or concluding that I should call Cutter). I would also look at books that are already in place, and that would probably be enough to figure out where things should be. The game does not give me a reason why I cannot do either.

The library problem also sticks out compared to the other ones, and the game never warns that this kind of misdirection could happen. The clearest hint is in the game's description (" Use your common sense in order to proceed"), but there's nothing in-game. I think a small scale, introductory puzzle similar the the library could have helped. Or maybe an NPC giving advice. Anyway, some kind of warning.

Some people might find the realization funny, but I think the library will at least be polarizing.

EDIT: The library problem also looks like it's possible to solve, so it's extra confusing. If it were obviously impossible, or that rules were clear and contradicted each other in a subtle way, I think I would have liked it more.

Turns out plants actually breathe... I was thinking of photosynthesis. I learned something today.

I think I found a bug(?) It looks like using the gray key on the downstairs door transforms it into an exit key.

I played for a little while again, looped a few times. I imagine there's a real ending somewhere and I haven't found it.

I did solve a few problems by myself, but gave up at some point. In retrospect most of the puzzles make sense, so I wouldn't be surprised if someone else could figure it all out without help. I couldn't :/ (I say "most" because I don't understand the answer to the "how do flowers breathe" question. Isn't the first choice the actual right answer?)

I'm a bit upset that the puzzle I spent the most time on is fake... I get the idea though, and I did try to call Cutter in my first session so it almost worked. I think that with puzzle games you have to be extremely careful about misleading the player, so doing it intentionally is like playing with fire.

I don't want to understate what I like though. The art, the audio(especially the librarian voice!), the overall mood, the variety and the dialogs... all great.

Oooh, so that's why I can ask people for spare change... for the phone... It makes sense. I'm curious to know how obvious it is for other players. Was it supposed to be a puzzle? 

I think maybe "Make a call" is a bit too ambiguous. Maybe the coin slot could be more obvious, or the character could make a comment.

I thought I tried every option with the greenhouse girl, but I'll try again later. Thanks for the help :)

I'm losing my mind in the library! I need some way to tell what I'm doing wrong or I'm will never figure it out. I'm guessing it is what I currently need to solve, but even that I'm not sure. Maybe I should be calling somebody? I tried calling Cutter but no response...

Here are my suppositions:

1. L should be placed in the bottom row so that you can "keep a close eye on underage readers".
2. L should not be adjacent to C or E, because they are "upsetting" and "unfriendly" to underage readers.
3. C and E should be as close to the entrance as possible, because they are "what people want to find in a library" and you have to "make sure the most demanded books are easiest to reach". They cannot however be both on the bottom row, because one would have to be adjacent to L.
4. H should be placed on the same shelf as the phone book.

I also think related books should be adjacent to "put related things together", but I'm not sure how to group them. I'm gessing: O and B / P and A / C, T and E(??)

The game seems good; visually it is very distinct and nice, and I like the mood of it. I also think it got very obtuse very fast :/

I just played the beta version and I like it so far. I wish it was longer, so it's agood sign! This is the kind of ambitious game that I don't often see on the feedback forum... I'm going to be mostly negative from this point because it's easier and I think it's what helps most, but all in all you did a good job :) (I also prefer to write here than fill out a form because, from experience, forms never ask about what I actually want to say.)

• In the "Controls" menu, holding down the left mouse button on the "change input" switch toggles it every frame, so it's very hard to use.
• I find some of the vector art(gamepad, game logo and keyboard keys) to look low quality compared to the rest of the game. The flat colors + hard black outline look really clashes with the art style.
• The fire noises in the cave got annoying fast. I wish they were more subdued.
• I generally don't like when a game takes controls away to slowly show me something. It's kind of frustrating. This game does it at the start to show the mountain and I didn't like it. What I found strange is that, right after, it pans up again to show it a second time. This time though, it doesn't take controls away!
• My fps visibly dropped in the misty section.
• I found the audio transition between the outside and the cave to be a bit abrupt. Some ambient sound just start instantly.
• There's no sound for that HUGE rock falling from the ceiling to block the way out of the cave?
• I didn't get stuck for too long, but it took me a little while to find that I could interact with the cave rock with a symbol on it. From the start of the game to this point, there's a few rocks with similar symbols and I couldn't interact with any of them; I didn't think the one in the cave would be different.
• Pressing E to push is a bit awkward, especially when you're trying to walk with D at the same time. (I know playing with a gamepad is recommended, but if m+kb is supported might as well do it right.)
• I personally didn't get the story from the beta. Maybe it's supposed to be unclear(?)
• I didn't find any "Close" option on the end screen. Do I really have to Alt+F4?
• I think music is a big part of creating a cinematic experience, and it really felt missing from the game.

Hey Olmoc!

I really liked it! I wish it was longer :) When you say it is in it's testing stage, does it mean it isn't finished?

The art is great and fits with the audio perfectly. The puzzles are good too. It's a very atmospheric and interesting game. I did note a few things I think could be improved, but the whole thing is really cool:

• For the mirrored path puzzle, I think having "mirror" written in the world is a bit on the nose. I would have liked a more subtle hint.
• I don't understand why my walking speed is different in both "worlds".
• I pushed the level first thing after going through the portal and I have no idea what it did.
• Probably a rpg maker restriction, but I feel the game would look much better at a higher resolution.

I'd suggest adding some screenshots on the game's page to make it more interesting.

I'm not really advocating for a visibility feature, but I understand what you mean. I also feel uncomfortable when I see my statistics. I don't completely know why. I think knowing people are interacting with my projects makes me anxious. Fear of being judged or something like that...

Oh my god... I can't beleive I did not try that! I even wrote "lock" once... I think it's fair, but you do break the pattern of solutions having to do with "20".

Also now I can't tell if level 5 is bugged or if it's supposed to be empty :|

This looks good, but I can't get past level 4! I tried writing "ten", "two", "zo"... can't write twenty... I don't know what to do! :(

Thank you! You're right this would be perfect as a phone game. I'll have to make it work on phones next time I return to it.

Thank you!

I agree it feels unfinished at the moment. I'll probably update on a later date. At the moment I'm already burned out on this project... The development was not as smooth as I hoped.

I didn't totally get the connection with the theme after playing... then I finished reading the description 0_0

Thanks! :)

I got to the second level with dividing collectibles. Funny stuff but I feel like I'll go crazy if I try to complete this game :)

hey thank you :)

Once you upload a banner image, the name should disappear automatically.

Looks interesting :) I'll try it later.

I can't access the feedback form though. It says I'm not authorized.

I agree with this!

Browser games have a "Support this game" button which is way less obtrusive/confusing. I wish downloadable content had something similar.

Contrary to what you seem to believe, my replies were well thought out and I still think they stand.

I guess I wouldn't mind it being implemented if I could disable the feature for all games. A bad feature you can disable is still a bad feature though.

I think you're clinging too much to the interest a person gives when it downloads your work. If they don't decide to keep tabs on you after downloading, then I think it's better to let go. From what I gather, you want to employ an "aggressive" marketing strategy I disagree with and find kind of disrespectful.

I don't mind Itch having my email, because I trust them to handle it carefully. Allowing the feature you're asking for would at least damage that trust. I've played a lot of games here. I don't want every dev to have a direct line to my private email.

I don't think that's it. I could not complete the game, sorry. I got past the first boss at least.

I can say that gravity is very strong compared to other platformers. It makes shooting at bees difficult and feels weird. 

Also from what I've seen the variety of enemies is nice.

I don't think this is a good idea.

If someone wants to be updated about your work, there's already plenty of ways to do it. The follow feature is one of them. I don't see how  "this is itch.io's building their relationship with their costumers, not me" makes sense. Your followers follow you for news about you and get notified about your work.

What I understand is that you want a direct way to contact people who tried, but didn't like your work enough to follow you (or subscribe to your mailing list, discord, etc.), which is absurd. Downloading something does not mean you will like, care or support it. Most of the games I download on itch I get just to see if I'll like them. Giving away my private information is absolutely not a commitment I'm willing to make just to try something out.

I get that demanding feedback instead of money sounds great, but I don't see how it could be enforceable. I think the best you can do is ask nicely. 

Is it just me or does jumping not work sometimes?

No problem! Seems like you know what you're doing :)

Hi Josh!

I played a few runs of your game. I got to the last boss a most times, but never won. It's very promising :) It kind of feels like those card games that are popular at the moment, but different! I have some critisism of course, but overall I like it. Here's some things I noted:

• Going for low rez graphics seems pointless if there's going to have misaligned pixels everywhere.
• Colors could be more contrasted. The title for example blends perfectly with the background. It's also kind of ironic that a game about color looks so desaturated.
• I think using a more limited palette would look better. You're using a lot of useless micro variations of the same colors which make the game look blurry.
• The text is difficult to read.
• I read ALMI's comment before playing so I knew to look for them, but the colored points below enemies really are very small!
• The wording of some item descriptions could maybe be clearer. For example, "45% to poison target for 3 turns" made me think I had 3 turns at the start of every fight to poison enemies. Maybe my reading comprehension is just bad...
• The game looks a bit confusing sometimes; some information is shown very briefly and is not too obvious. For a few runs, I wasn't sure if I was taking or doing damage when I did a critical hit. (there's critical hits right?) I was also confused whenever I triggered a column/row attack. I saw that everything took damage, but wasn't sure why. Now I see the weapon pops up, but it's subtle.
• I really liked figuring the game out and finding strategies, but I feel like randomness overpowers strategy most of the time. Maybe some kind of clue about probability would be good?

Anyway, good prototype I say. Worth an enhanced version for sure!

I see! Honeslty, I don't think I would mind losing diagonal movement if it meant I didn't need to precisely and quickly click on squares.

Or if you're keeping the mouse,  you could use the angle from the cursor relative to the character's position to determine where to move. It would require less precision.

I didn't play a lot; my highscore is 24. 

I really don't like the controls. It's odd in a frustrating way. I was wondering if it's because of some restriction by the jam.

Project Pink Hook

Hey xicx,

I just completed a run and all in all it's I think it's good. There's a few things that aren't clear to me, like what's the purpose of money and the big gray skeleton, but I'm assuming they're still works in progress. 

What hit me right as I started is that the field of view is extremely small and the huge UI covers a lot of it! I was constantly shooting in front of me while I was walking, because I never knew if an enemy was going to jump on me. The enemies are also similarly colored to the ground tiles, so they're hard to see even on screen. I never used the dash for these reasons; it just seemed suicidal. Additionally, I got lost a few times even though the map is not that big. I just couldn't see where the paths lead to and my memory is mediocre.

No problem!

To clarify, I'm not saying that simply removing the gun without changing anything else would make the game better. The game definitely would have to be redesigned around that or it would most probably make it frustrating. I was mostly trying to give some food for thought :)

Hi Tuskat,

The less unexpected roadblocks there is for the players, the closer the playtime estimate should be.

I've completed the game after about 45 minutes and now that I know what to do, 10-15 minutes is around the time it would take me to complete it again. I think to give better playtime estimates, you have to get better at finding unclear elements of your game(s). For example, there's two important things that could be communicated better: 1) You have to use the environment to kill most of the enemies 2) A button stays activated if anything touches it. Once I understood these two things, the game became a lot clearer/easier.

I know there's some text that hints at the first point so maybe I'm just slow, but I still think it could be better. One reason I think I was confused, is that the first time you encounter an enemy you are required to kill it with your weapon without the environment. Also why would there be a shotgun upgrade if I'm not really supposed to use my gun? Why is there even a gun? It seems like a crazy question, but if the game is focused on using the environment, why not go all in! If I was forced to use the environment, I would have had no room for confusion. Anyway, all I'm saying is the design could be tighter.

About my second point, I think just changing the button's sprite or color when it's pressed could be enough. Generally I find it's better if things change visually according to their state.

Finding the unclarities in your work is definitely a difficult task; I know I always leave some in my games and it's mostly what gets people stuck (that and difficulty spikes). You will get better with experience though. Getting feedback from people is also a big help. I don't know exactly what your friends told you, but maybe you could ask them to be more specific? I find you really don't need many testers to find the most obvious problems.