itch.io

Thanks!  I think I just need to go through my excessive games library and pick a few games with wall jumping.  I wanted it to be possible to move away from the wall but maybe I make a button input to drop or something.

Yeah I think I just need to play a few games with good movement systems and make sure I know how they run their controls.  Thanks for playing!

I couldn't figure out how to start a game, so for now this is based on playing as part of GDKO and the tutorial and I'll give more feedback later.

Your tutorial worked pretty well, but I think if I hadn't already played it as part of GDKO I could have been a little lost.  I think having the tutorial show the relevant button to pick up, throw, interact, etc... during the tutorial could help get the idea across.

Generally speaking I think this game has all the right things to be the kind of party game that I'd sink a ton of time into with family and friends.  One thing you'll need that I don't think exists yet is computer opponents so that people can play either alone or with one person but still have the chaos of four players.

Big fan of your auto-tiler and how the layers look.  I agree with Malek that the character feels a little heavy, but it's also really hard to get a good gauge with a block, so it might be something that feels better when there's a character sprite.

Besides that I think there's a certain smoothness that's not quite there yet with the dash.  I can't quite put my finger on it, but I think it's maybe something with how the current speed is affected by dashing?  Also there doesn't seem to be a default direction for dashing if you just press dash without a directional input.  I feel like I'd need to play Celeste/Tower Fall again to get a sense for what they do with the dash to make it smooth haha.

In any case I'm excited to see more!  Your game identity document makes me really excited to play your game, and since we're both in the metroidvania/platforming space I'm sure we'll have good insights to share as we figure things out.

Sound effects and AI seemed solid.  The only thing I'd say with the enemies is what Malek already said: that the enemies coming at the player constantly seems like a better fit.  I think it depends on what you're going for with this one, though.  The "Last Stand" feel seems  to be aimed more at a wave survival kind of situation?  I think for a game like that you need the enemies to be constantly going after the player.  In a game that's focused more on exploration and survival it fits better to have enemies "patrolling" or even just chilling in a certain area that won't get aggressive until you get close, but I'm not sure if that's the case here.

As a player, I think it depends on where the game is going.  I could see this as a rogue-like where you have to explore some western areas fighting skeletons, or as a wave survival game.  Either way, I think more guns, some kind of power ups, some enemy variety, etc... is what you'd need if this game was going to be published.

Thanks!  That's good insight.  I'm definitely trying to make the controls feel as intuitive as possible so I really appreciate learning about anywhere that it feels off!

I would love that! Hopefully we'll both still be here next week but I'll for sure be back next year, too!

The problem I have is that I thought I had a solid top 5 picked out and then realized it was a top 6 or 7 that didn't include my own game so I have no idea how the voting is gonna go anymore.  This was genuinely a phenomenal entry and really smart use of the theme, and I hope you make it!  You've had incredibly creative games every round and you for sure deserve to be there.  It's just a bummer that no matter how it goes there will be final worthy entries that don't make the cut.

I wish there were some more instructions cause it took me a while to figure out how to do anything, but from a UI perspective this is really cool!  I liked building a drone, and the highlighting made it really clear what I could interact with.

It was super fun being in the quiz!  I also really like this art style a lot and the menus a lot.  I would love to play some kind of puzzle or hacking game that takes place with this kind of pixel art interface.

Excellent as always!  Crunkle has been a great series, and I love how all the elements work together perfectly.  Only complaint it I wish there was more of it cause it was really fun!  Wouldn't be at all surprised to see this in the finals.  Getting very nervous playing these cause I feel like all of them I expect to see in the final and there can only be five haha.

HOLY CRAP DUDE!  I know you've been worried in the discord about making it to the final and I haven't checked on your game's status in a bit so I didn't know what to expect, but this is legit one of my favorite entries to the round.  You nailed it!  The way the UI elements move around when you pause, the overall art style, etc... REALLY stand out.  Even the way your volume slider and music selection stand out completely from other games in great ways.  Wouldn't be surprised at all to see you in the final!

Absolutely loved the pixel style and effects you used here!  The way the words would shuffle through letters when you opened a menu, the binary background lighting up in proximity to the cursor, the trail and circle following, etc... were all super great touches.  This game is just packed full of polish!  Amazing job!  I'd be surprise if this didn't get you to the final!

This absolutely had the look and feel of a professional game!  I've been playing a lot of early access Hades 2, so I also appreciate the visual inspiration.  The hand, card effects, cards, speech boxes, menus, and everything just flowed together so perfectly.  Super strong entry!  I'd be shocked if you weren't in the final!

As always, an insanely impressive entry considering you did this in two weeks.  If you ever decided to do a course on visual design and setting up an itch page I'd pay good money for it.  Pressing the settings button on the tv was a great touch!  I think I managed to reset the intro video by clicking on the VHS while it was in the tv already cause I managed to make the intro video replay while it was still playing the game music somehow, but that's a minor thing.  Having a custom song intro and all the 80s cartoon vibes, even a freaking Wikipedia article, make this an amazing entry and if I was rating it you'd get all my stars.  Hopefully I'll make it through, too, and see you in the finals!

As expected, this game was fantastic.  Lots of polish, and I loved the creativity and humor in having a game that's really meta about starting the game.  Excellent job!  I bet you'll be in the final!

Yeah i should've given a more generous for the hurdles haha.  There's a technique of using index fingers to run and pinky to jump that helps get enough speed, but without that even I struggle with it.  Glad you liked it!

Tons of great stuff here!  Great look and sound, nice use of pressing the right button over button mashing, etc...  Only thing I wish is that there was a way to access all the events from the start since the pace got a little slow.  Great job!

Man I just love this art style so much.

Your art and music go together super well.  Love this style.  I also liked taking the events and making them completely original!  Great job!

This was fantastic as always!  The use of pseudo 3D with the GB graphics felt great, and luckily as someone who also made a hurdles event with a bit of a button mash strain, I was able to get the technique down.  Great job!

Your Otter series has been really great.  Sorry you only got to make one event!  Would've loved to see an Otter swimming version of hurdles

Always a sucker for a good old tv style haha.  This was really cool!  Loved the use of Olympic Rings, and like most good rogue-likes the game felt broken in all the best ways.  Good job!

Yeah I tried to make the events hard enough that it would be a challenge, but I think I think I overshot it.  Thanks for the advice!  It's good to remember that being able to play through the whole game counts a lot more than having a difficult challenge in a game jam.  If you want to give Hurdles another shot, there's a bit of a cheat where if you mash left and right at the same time it'll count as if you were mashing but with less finger strain so you can go faster for less effort and keep your left hand free for hitting the jump while you're running

Would've loved to see where this went.  As always your art style is just insanely good.

Excellent job!  You took the original concept, put a good twist on it, and had a BUNCH of polish.  For sure one of the top entries this round!

Really loved your use of retro style and pong!  The WarioWare style of switching games was really fun, too.

Loved seeing this little throwback to your last year entries.  It's a bummer you lost stuff.  I would've loved to play more of this game!

Well take all my stars I guess haha.  Not gonna lie after the comments in discord about only having a few events and being worried about submitting there was no way I was expecting this.  Holy crap.  The amount of polish is completely bonkers.  This to me feels  like an official version of Track and Field.  You make me wanna get into making my submission pages nice cause the arcade setting is an incredible touch.  Would've loved to see more events but what exists is quite frankly WAY too good to dock any stars.

Dude this was rad.  I liked the chaotic style and the twist on the original.  Great entry!

This was delightfully silly.  Excellent entry and great take on the original!

thanks for the suggestion! I definitely got a little caught up in the little details of the sounds and crowd and animations and had to rush the events. Sounds like I didn't get the balancing right for hurdles. Thanks for playing!

Oh no! I had a hard time adjusting the hurdles to were it felt the right level of hard. I tried to make the so the line before the hurdle showed about where to jump.  Hope you liked the rest of it!

thanks for playing! Thanks for letting me know about the hit box. Hopefully it didn't make the game too annoying to play! I tried to make it so that the lines before each hurdle showed roughly when to jump

Yeah I made almost all of the stealth art and code hours before the deadline so it was pretty rushed haha. Making one big game definitely worked out for me this round where I was sick and time limited but your games have always been super focused on the task and that works out great, too!  I'm actually probably going to make new games every round next year haha.

Got stuck in the exact same place haha.  Turns out if you barely touch the trap activator square near the top, you can keep touching the square without getting killed by the arrows.  As long as you don't move off the square and it stays lit up it won't shoot again and you can move past.

This was great!  I feel like the environment was top tier, and the way things would time up with the music was a great touch.  Overall phenomenal entry.  My only complaint is that there was a spot in the green area that felt a little too confusing with getting past the arrows.  Looks like Spoonsweet got stuck in the same spot.  I feel like sometimes the mechanics slowed the story down a little bit but that might have been my preference for the difficulty.  Great game!

As always, love your art and style.  I keep going back and forth on if i think the story/gameplay are too obscure or just the right level of obscure.  Certainly a fascinating game to explore!

Loten's back with another take all my stars entry haha.  Dude both this year and last I feel like you do horror so well.  Based on your space deck builder last year I went in expecting something Cobalt Core but the realization that it was a space horror story was very satisfying.  Having things to hide in built the tension really well.  Great job!  You told a very compelling story with minimal cutscene, mostly just through environment and gameplay.  Really killed it for this round.  Only complaint is I wish there was more of it!

You've always done great with Crunkle but this one especially I really loved.  Having the player choice impact the story was a really smart move, and it was REALLY satisfying to get different endings based on what I chose instead of just a pseudo choice.  Based on the other comments I think there's a general consensus that the intro cutscene moved a little fast and I'd agree with that.  I felt like I was struggling to follow.  Some of your cutscenes had a button input to progress them and I think it would have been good to see it there as well so the player could progress once they felt they understood the current scene.  No critiques besides that, though.  Great game and great entry!