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The art style is very clean and cohesive!

Enjoyed the gameplay, too, understanding that it's something that had limited time for development. Had the same <null> thing happen before I could get my harpoon upgraded enough to make further progress.

Generally agreed about the more player input component: would be nice to have sort of, idk, balance bar or mini-game-styled element for completing the catch of a fish. Two ideas that come to mind are from RPGS, e.g. a bar that you have to move to match the movement of the fish (Breath of Fire III) or a button mash kind of deal where you have to hit the button fast enough before the fish pulls away from your line. Or maybe button combinations?

Either way I think it's a good starting point!

Cool concept! Big fan of the art style and the passive cooperative elements.

Probably wouldn't mind as a player some sort of beginner element that might spare you the first death (idk, some animal pops up that provides you with a bit of aqua or the tiniest raincloud hovers over you briefly lol), just because I felt my few runs always ran into a barren patch that I couldn't overcome before I got to more involved elements of the gameplay. 

That said, if I owned the game or considered owning it, I'd give it a few more tries; just hard with limited time to play so many submissions to power through. Overall, though, a neat concept and really solid ambience of art style and the music.

First thing that comes to mind is Toejam and Earl 2, where they've got to can and collect the humans and ship them off the planet. It would be cool to see this concept expanded with maybe, like, a weight station at the end where you have to see how much trash you gathered? Right now  the portions of the game (collecting, shooting) seem a bit disconnected.

I think it needs above all something of consequence, e.g. an oxygen tank where you can only swim for so long, just to provide a sense of urgency, but there are some solid starting points here!

thanks! Great name drop with read only memories -- 2 Mello's stuff is great

ha I'd guess you'd like that one! "Haber" is a killer guitar player and works a lot more with mixing + modern synths, so this track definitely evokes more of his style

thank you! Ha yeah I don't think I've got the chops to write classical jazz, but I figured a sort of hip-hop + pop + jazz fusion thing might work. Thanks for listening!

ha thanks! yeah he felt like the right angle to go given the character's nature. figured at least few folks would know him!

dang, I don't think I'll ever learn lol. this tends to happen when I do chip stuff and I'm always teetering on whether to use a pass filter and certainly seems like I should. thanks for the feedback and appreciate your adjusting it to be able to give it a proper listen!

Needless to say, the mixing is incredibly well-balanced: the heavy parts sound like top-tier metal tracks out there today, all done within nine days. The combination of powerful guitars and synths all wrapped together give me a Guilty Gear vibe in the best ways. Great work all around!

I think my favorite part of this project is a more cohesive connection between the theme, game concept, and music. I feel equally guilty of doing it, but many projects come off as concepts slapped together after the fact to explain the music somebody made. Your project feels more intentional than that. I agree that some of the tracks could use a "swell," if you will, to complement the soothing main hooks. That said, I think you did well to come with something more holistic ans I can appreciate that!

Can only reiterate that it's a good starting point, but needs some complexity and depth!

Impressed with how robust the skill tree is for such a small game! Really enjoyed the "digital dashboard" kind of aesthetic as well. A shame there wasn't any music or anything to add to the experience, though!

Naturally, it's only a starting point, but I would say that it feels kind of tough to get started enough to earn the fall power necessary to buy skills that'll prolong your playtime. Could just be I was unlucky, but maybe as a tutorial stage / beginner's section, you could make the blocks not randomized to start so that the player can build up some fall power and better adjust to the controls?

A cool starting point, I'd say! I think it lays solid groundwork for a more puzzle-like game where you have to get to the can of beans in the fewest number of leaps? Reminded me (very) loosely of Intelligent Qube on the PS1 with its aesthetic.

Areas for improvement would be more obstacles / challenges and something to tie to the bean-collecting together with the falling lol, but I do get that it's hard to develop features fully in a short jam. Overall cool entry!

Yep yep, that makes sense. Think I overlooked it while posting. Will update shortly. Thanks!

haberchuck.music@gmail.com or follow us on Twitter and we will follow back! (Or both lol)

absolutely! Ideally just credit us where appropriate and be sure to share the project with us so we can share it with others when you're ready. Reach out if you need anything else!

The hip-hop feel is off the charts: not sure which I like best, but figured dig the new jack feel of no more stars and that piano + drum mix in Dr. Starstealer. Nice work!

Thank you kindly! We knew we wanted to make a fake chip to play around with the tracker,  but once the lore started to be written it spiraled out of control ha. Appreciate your kind words!

Too kind -- thank you! Glad you enjoyed that track. Definitely had the right feel for a happy shop theme.

Thank you! Definitely get the feedback about the repetition: kind of a balance of "old games used to loop a lot" and, well, just time to add more that felt like a good addition to any track instead of just a tacked-on extra theme. Thanks for listening!

Why thank you! That track was actually the first, hence the attention to detail, but thank you for all the kind words!

Far too kind, but much appreciated!

Really enjoyed this! Think Typhoon was my favorite thanks to its turbulent nature that still felt held together musically. I also like that your tracks seem to have their own identity since, I feel, orchestral tracks can off get swept up in a similar aesthetic that you hear over and over. Nice work!

Not somebody who can write orchestral myself, but I can certainly appreciate the magnitude of that sound profile and how it matches it up with the theme here! Feel like the heavy use of piano and strings provided your tunes some real weight behind them, appropriate for something story-driven. If you do another composing jam, I'd say just aim for one track that maybe deviates from the main motif more? Otherwise don't have much else constructive to add!

Think you have a good concept and a lot strong core ideas. They just need some expanding! Totally get how tough it is with time constraints, though. That said, would love to hear a couple of these tracks with a counter-theme to strengthen the main loops you've written.

The big orchestra sounds really do seem to capture the grand and epic feel that correlates so closely with the theme, I would say. A lot of different instrumentation going on, too, which provided the songs with a lot of depth and variety. Nice stuff! Definitely couldn't manage orchestral stuff like this myself.

I really enjoyed how you leaned into the classic RPG feel — absolutely took me back those days. There's a particular whimsical motif, well supported by the orchestral instrumentation, that graces each song and ties it all together. Really good work!

Thoughtful use of different stars as your starting points for each track! Also, enjoyed that each theme had a second half, so to call it, to provide some variation to the ambient vibe. Feel like often times this kind of music rides top long on one motif, so thought that was a good choice on your part!

dang, sorry friend. I legit put the pass filter on for that purpose — the stuff never seems to bother me, but suppose I oughta tamp those tones down more heavily in future jams. Thanks for listening!

Ha thank you! Pingudroid mentioned that bass and I found out that the one bass channel (I split it to zero in on highs and lows) got pushed to the left only 😑 ohhhh well. Thanks for listening!

Really like the idea of mixing break beats in with a more electronic sound!

I think my favorite section are the muted, low-key jazzy and retro sounding sections like in Smoke and Mirrors + Now It's Personal. I know break beat music is so focused on rhthym, but I think I would like as well a couple melodic lines to cut through those droning sections. That said, overall nice work!

so I just listened again and there is some bass in the right, BUT I ran two bass channels to nitpick at the highs and lows instead or EQing one complete channel and I'm wondering if slid the pan (instead of the volume) slightly left on the low end when trying to adjust volumes!

the panning was probably me accidentally hitting a slider before exporting lol. Definitely not intentional! I don't what the hell happened. Appreciate the kind words though!

Definitely dig the lo-fi feel throughout, esp with the choral voices in the first track. Gave me Ghost of the Shell vibes!

Actually listened before reading your description and what struck me was the ominous tones in building your songs and also the lofi drums in the first track + the horns in the end, so based on your description it seems like you nailed your vision!

Liked the use of those jazz / noir elements to maybe get away from the often exclusively electronic, "throbbing" feel that cyberpunk elicits (I say this as somebody who approached tracks like that lol). Good work!

As others said, definitely think you nailed that cyberpunk sound! The sub bass in particular really stood out for me.

Nice work! The synth bass in the title track set the tone appropriately, I felt.

Honestly, I dug the distortion in the percussion, but I listened to them on my earbuds. Maybe on a stereo setup I might not like them as much, but I was certainly fan in what I heard.

Thanks, friend!

Gotta give it to our friend Brad who we collaborated with — he's got a great feel for those synth sounds!

Always dig your 16-bit sound profile, especially on the funk-heavy stuff. Keep up the good work!