itch.io

I hope everyone who entered the jam had a good time! I know I did. Was a bit stressful at times, but nothing I'm not used to in game dev.

Honestly, that's completely fair if you don't find the gameplay engaging enough. I know this game probably won't be for everyone, given I had only so much time to work with so I didn't have time for, say, dedicated difficulty settings or other such things that could've probably helped with appealing to a wider audience.

That being said, I wonder if you might be the sort of player I built the ranking system to be for. I tried to balance the game such that most people should be able to beat the game without too much trouble, for those who just want a simple almost Mario 1-ish sidescroller to run through while getting increasingly powerful in a power trip kind of way, but that getting a high rank is quite a lot harder and requires a lot more effort. Of course, the several endings thing and short length are both to try to encourage playing it enough times to start getting a feel for it.

Being tired could factor in too, of course. We'll see I guess! Feel free to share more thoughts if you play it again and have more complicated thoughts, positive or negative, afterwards. I'm definitely curious to hear more!

thanks!

It's also hard to actually confirm usage rights for literally any AI-generated assets, since it's been demonstrated time and time again that many AI generators actually just straight up will spit out somebody's copyrighted work almost identically if given the right input, and it's hard to confirm whether or not even stuff like Adobe Enhance was or was not trained on stuff without permission. I'd imagine that's another factor in why it's not being allowed, since if you can't actually be sure what you're using is legally in the clear, well... following rule 8 becomes almost impossible due to the "have the usage rights to use them" part.

The visuals in this are top notch, the sound effects are pretty good, and I like the music as well. I could see a game like this as having been an actual release on gameboy, so that's nice too. I also appreciate the way the music changes a bit based on what's going on, with minimal simple music playing unless stuff is happening, and when stuff is happening a more complex song plays, instead of just playing one song on loop the entire time. Nice touch!

The concept of catching the greebles is fun, as is the shaking a bunch of objects around to find them thing too. Really gets across the feeling of playing as a cat quite well, heh. Also, the usage of the theme here is quite good, the game definitely has the right atmosphere for it and manages to fit it into what the gameplay is quite well.

I dunno, the pouncing, it works well. The game feels right overall. That's a tricky thing to get right, and you got it right.

Also? You... you got that jumping mechanic working. That's impressive. A multi-layer system of some kind that allows you to jump up onto higher surfaces that as far as I can tell works basically without issue in a game with otherwise purely 2D gameplay. Yeah. Yeah that sort of thing is hard to get working at all, and it working with relatively minimal issues... not gonna lie, I'm kind of impressed by that.

...admittedly though, while I like the concept of the gameplay, and I'm impressed by the jump, and I do overall like the feel of the game...

...I think that the whole "flee onto another screen if you ever take damage" thing was the source of some frustration. Mainly because it's bugged and can softlock the game if one of the damage-dealing greebles manages to make it to the edge of a screen such that you take damage from a screen you're not currently on, or if you get hit a second time while fleeing on the same screen, which forced me to restart the game multiple times.

I uh, also ended up fleeing through a wall sometimes? And uh, one time I fled through a wall, into another wall, forcing me to restart once again. Yeah it's a really buggy mechanic as-is.

Programming is hard sometimes though, I get it. These things happen sometimes, and while it impacted my ability to enjoy the gameplay, it didn't outright ruin the gameplay. I mean, it's honestly mostly made up for by the in my opinion impressive programming on the jump mechanic. Almost.

I mean... I did almost give up when I learned there was a basement room and it was yet another softlock for me because it's another of the few screens in the game to start with a large greeble out instead of having it hidden in something, meaning you can't risk ever leaving the screen until everything is cleared out... but uhhh, I did ultimately finish the game and had a good time, so...

Overall, despite some issues, I still did ultimately have a good time here! Good game.

What do I even say for this one??? This is awesome!

A lot of things here that feel like a gameboy game, like the slight delay on the swing on the bat of all things actually reminds me of a specific gameboy game (a Star Wars licensed game) that I have the actual gameboy cart of, the visual style evokes the feel of gameboy quite well for the most part, the song that plays feels mostly gameboy enough, though I do have one slight gripe on that front: The particle effects feel a bit more than what gameboy could've done. Still, very small gripe on that front, overall it's evoking that feel well.

Gameplay is quite good feeling here, I can't think of another game off the top of my head with a jump as low as you start with in this game where the jump still actually felt good to use. (Of course, this being a Metroidvania, it gets higher over time. Still feels good.)

Also, the ending got a good chuckle out of me.

Great entry you have here.

btw: Encountered a weird visual bug where if you press a button during the opening cutscene, the title screen text flashes again. Nothing huge, but worth a mention.

I don't have much to say, this is just really good at what it set out to do. Also, the soundtrack really helps add to this, I feel.

The production value on this for a gamejam game is frankly insane. While there are a few things that still make the rushed production time somewhat obvious, they're also the sorts of things you'd sometimes run into on an actual gameboy game (stuff like the dialogue occasionally clipping slightly outside the box due to being very slightly too long), so like... I mean... at least the few very small things feel pretty authentic.

Like... what do I even say to a game like this, where the music is this good, the sounds this well done, the visuals this charming, the game just this overall fun and polished for what is, again, a gamejam game?

...well...

Let's see.

The idea of a dash as a Metroidvania progression ability is fun, especially in the context of how floating works. I actually kind of like that taking damage lets you kinda damage boost to places you aren't "supposed" to be with your current abilities yet, I actually think that sort of thing can make a Metroidvania better, and while it's probably technically a bug, it's probably worth keeping that sort of thing in mind for the finished game since it can actually potentially be better for the game for it to have quirks like that.

The floating around is definitely a pretty unique feel for a platformer and a Metroidvania, in a way that works really well for being a ghost, and mixed well with the aforementioned dash.

The soundtrack helped really set the mood of this, kinda a bit lighthearted but a bit spooky at the same time, a thing the writing fit well as well, as did the visuals.

Oh yeah, I appreciate that the first attack you get in this (currently the only one) is fairly weak but serviceable enough for the kinds of things you're thrown against, I imagine that later on there will be better attack abilities to work with in typical Metroidvania fashion, and making sure to start the player feeling weak generally helps make those later abilities feel great to use to finally take out those tougher enemies in a more satisfying way.

Also, the way you wall off progress until you get the dash is pretty effective, I like that you can see the whole path from above even before you have the ability so you can properly scope out what kind of ability it is you're going to need later.

...I do also have a few more thoughts on the gameplay that aren't quite as positive, but for what it's worth, the good very heavily outweighs the bad.

Obviously, since you're playing as a ghost, the movement feeling float is on purpose, so while I have a few tweaks I'd potentially suggest, they're hard to articulate and pretty small overall and I won't linger on some very very small nitpicks with that. However, what I have a feeling isn't intentional is... some of the, uh, bugs? To name one example, I kept getting told that I was back at the start on screen transition after a certain point, not entirely sure why. Not enough to be game-ruining or anything, but it's something worth a mention.

I can only imagine though that the bugs are just a side effect of being a gamejam game that didn't have time to work out bugs like that and will likely be fixed in the finished game some day.

However, it's still worth a mention given that if not for those bugs and some other nitpicks I have with the gameplay, I probably would be awarding this game a literally perfect score right about now in literally every single category.

...yeah. I liked this one, suffice to say. I really liked this one.

Sometimes, simple is effective. Some optional sound or some more visuals or such would've made this a lot better, but the gameplay loop works pretty well so it's fun to leave up in the background. Not much to really add.

It's really unfortunate that this game didn't have time to be finished, what little is here is quite nice visually, if a bit, uh, more than 4 colors on display at once. A problem that likely would have been fixed in some way had the game actually had time to be finished, if I were to guess.

If you ever find time to make the game you planned to for this jam, I think I'd wanna see what that'd be like. As is, I'm still glad you submitted what you managed to get done before the jam was over.

I'll start by saying the visuals in this are quite good, I like the spritework of the enemies, the way the player's bullet patterns move, the general choice of color palette here, there's a lot to like on that front! Very charming stuff.

I like the core of the gameplay here being focused on power ups and going for as high of a score as possible. Has a rather nice "just one more try" feel, which is very gameboy era video gaming. And like, I do especially like how those power ups work. Again gonna mention how satisfying the way the player's bullets move with certain upgrades gets.

And I really like that every few seconds you get to choose one power-up and potentially have to risk a slightly inconvenient position to go for said power-ups. That's risk-reward! That's pretty good design!

And the reward for getting those in feeling significantly more powerful over time? That's good payoff. Oh yeah, also? I think the inability to aim up and down actually makes the gameplay better, since it means you have to be more careful about how you move about, and makes getting those power-ups that much trickier to do yet that much more satisfying when you do it. Surprisingly clever choice there.

I do, however, have my issues. I ultimately like this game, actually I really like it even, but it's a bit flawed, and I may as well get into what I mean a bit since hey, maybe some of this can get fixed after the jam. (The first issue or two I mention in particular feels like a rather good candidate to focus on fixing, if nothing else.)

The big one is that, as far as I can tell at least, there is a complete inability to reset the game after dying without rebooting the game entirely. This does detract from the potential of the gameplay loop, I feel, since it feels like a "just one more try" kind of game, yet makes it weirdly inconvenient to give it that one more try to get into that kind of flow of trying over and over again.

A very minor one is that having the game track your best score in some way would also be nice, to have that further encouragement to push for a better and better score.

Also, lastly, due to exactly how you've gone about using your 4 color palette, combined with the sheer number of objects on screen at once, this feels a lot less like gameboy and a lot more like gameboy color, so while the color count never technically is more than 4 on screen at once, it's worth a mention.

Anyway! Thanks a lot for reading this and, if you're the dev of the game reading this, for making this game! I'm glad I sat down and played this one. If I didn't have more things in the jam to be playing, I'd probably be trying to sit down with this and play it more, actually... I feel like that's a good sign you're actually really onto something here.

Heck, to that end, genuinely, consider making a larger version of this some time if you ever find a chance. Not like, significantly so, maybe just something like, adding in a soundtrack and such, just generally polishing up and cleaning up what you have here more. I know I'd play the heck out of it myself. That's ultimately up to you though, of course, I don't blame you if you'd rather move onto other endeavors!

The concept art of this is awesome, and the soundtrack rules. Sounds like something almost more like what I think a lot of people would've wanted Metroid 2's soundtrack to be, as opposed to the more purely atmospheric soundtrack that game ended up with. A nice mix of melodies and atmosphere make this soundtrack one that would likely be quite fondly remembered in a gameboy game, so it really has down the "feeling like a gameboy" thing down well too, as well as the core theme of the jam.

The soundtrack also reminds me a lot of Gargoyle's Quest, honestly, which to be clear is a very, very good thing.

Also, I love me a good Mega Man inspired game, so the idea that this all would be playing for a game inspired by that series? Yeah, you can bet I'm on board with the idea.

I do have some thoughts on the proposed gameplay ideas that I'd like to get into, since everyone else is already going into how good the soundtrack is, and I've already gotten into the soundtrack about as much as I reasonably feel I can. Also, I feel the gameplay ideas are worth talking about since they seem interesting, though I think it's hard to gauge how well it'd play in practice.

I think the idea of having a long list of spells with highly varied abilities on a shared magic meter in a run and gun is interesting, but I do wonder if it'd potentially make the game feel overly clunky in practice if not executed well. You have to either press select to open a menu to change them, or the alternative is that select might cycle through. Either way, it's something the game would have to account for carefully, which in fairness, the Mega Man games had to account for their boss weapons carefully, so, nothing new there I suppose, even if these abilities sound pretty different from those in practice.

That being said, it's one of those things that you can't easily gauge without actually playtesting and fine tuning it, and were it made an actual game, no doubt that such playtesting would be done to fine tune it until it actually does play well. Since like... it's a concept that can play well, to be clear! This is more something to keep in mind should you ever pursue finding a way to make this game concept a reality. One of those "this is good, but look out to make sure this doesn't happen since it could if you aren't careful" kinds of things, if that makes sense?

I think it's an idea worth giving a go, as somebody who thinks it's worth doing things in game design even if there might be obstacles to pulling them off well. It's just worth trying to identify and remember which parts of a given game concept are the parts that might require a closer, more careful look to pull off well while designing a game.

Oh yeah, also? I actually really like the idea of fitting a parry into a game like that. That sounds like it could be really fun if implemented right, especially since it'd probably help balance out some of the issues with managing a long spell list by giving you a difficult but consistent, reliable way to deal with some things even when you're still figuring out what spell you want to use for a given situation.

Overall, I'd be very intrigued by a game with those gameplay concepts if it were ever made real.

Definitely would be a concept with potential, which, when combined with visuals like that and a soundtrack like this? Yeah, I think a game like that would probably be very, very fun to play, suffice to say.

Oh yeah, if you ever get a chance to make a game... since I'm here, I do wanna give a tip: Make sure to get playtesters when you can! On a tight time constraint like a gamejam, it isn't always remotely feasible, but I'm speaking more-so a hypothetical full scale non-jam game or such.

There's definitely potential here with some nice visuals and a spooky atmosphere. Just wish there was a bit more to it as-is. Though, that being said, the mood is enhanced by how there isn't much going on, so, be careful to strike a balance there, since it sounds like you're planning to update this more in the future.

I definitely wanna see where this goes!

Well dang, that's quite the compliment there! Thanks! Also, honestly completely fair that it doesn't feel very gameboy-ish.

I did choose a palette resembling the Gameboy Light more than anything else, which is probably fine on its own... and then chose to use a dark background when a lot of devs on gameboy didn't really do that, whoops. Combine with a simplified character design, and... yeah I kinda get what you mean.

Such is the sort of thing that happens when one makes something in an almost stream-of-consciousness way due to limited time to work with I suppose!

Oh yeah, absolutely. It's kind of a reference to a thing I actually remember doing at times when I had issues with sleeping and waking up a lot throughout the night as a teenager though, so I figured, well, it's not technically unrealistic, regardless of whether it seems realistic at least, so may as well!

An interesting idea, but it's really, really hard to actually defeat enemies in the game with how short your range is combined with how fast everything moves, not helped by the lack of diagonal movement.

Pretty neat art style though that integrates the theme of spooky quite well, even if not one that reminds me much of gameboy.

Couldn't really get past level 1 admittedly, which is probably partially a me problem, but I'm still glad I gave this a shot for a bit.

...also, the trailer is hilarious. If anybody sees this comment and wants to take away just one thing from this comment, it should be this: Please, please watch the trailer. It's a great trailer.

A short, charming, fairly fun game which feels reasonably enough like a gameboy game that loops pretty quickly and has nice visuals. Wish there was some sound though, but ah well. I feel like this could've done more with the theme of "spooky" but it does enough there to get the job done.

By the way, I want to point out and put some emphasis on how, I actually rather like that it loops! A lot of old games actually kinda looped at least a time or two, and sometimes looped infinitely, so it actually genuinely makes it feel more like a gameboy game that way. Nice touch!

Thanks for making this!

Well, first things first, congrats on managing to make a game in a limited span of time! It's hard, so I feel like it's worth starting with that.

The art is pretty well done for the most part, especially a fan of the art on the download page. It's pretty clear some talent did go into this thing. I'm a fan of when character's faces are covered in shadow, it's a nice look, and this game absolutely pulls off the look well.

The game has an interesting enough premise with an honestly kinda neat plot twist near the end, so the story, while pretty basic overall, gets the job done, if you ask me, which is like, y'know, pretty good.

The game felt a bit glitchy, but... uh, I think that's actually on purpose considering the game's plot, so congrats on pulling that off actually. It can be a fine line making a game feel glitchy on purpose without actually being broken in a way that prevents progression or something, and this game manages to avoid that. I was ultimately able to find my way through the game. (...I think, anyway. I'm not... entirely sure it's supposed to end like that actually, but I'm going to assume it was given the story. If it wasn't, well, I mean, it wasn't an unfitting ending. I'll take it.)

I did appreciate the attempt at variety and I actually did kind of like the whole like, setting up the table bit in particular, kind of an interesting idea.

Anyway... unfortunately, I did have some problems. And unfortunately probably more problems than positive things to say overall actually, so while for the positive parts I tried to be wordier to be more precise, for the negatives I'm going to try to get the list out of the way as quickly as possible.

Long story short, you didn't stick to the resolution because of the way the text boxes work, the choice of a fourth color that didn't fit the color ramp and was instead yellow was a bit odd, the fades break the color limit as well, and the game also boots at a size that makes the text unreadably small, and fullscreen and maximizing the window seem to be a bit broken. This unfortunately makes the game fail to meet the jam's requirements on resolution and color usage, as far as I'm aware. Kind of a bit of a fatal flaw to have, unfortunately.

Aside from that... the lack of music combined with the honestly ultimately rather empty in practice levels did make the actual gameplay a bit boring despite the attempts at variety, and it kind of wasn't doing a good enough job at feeling spooky. I also did notice a few too many grammar issues to even begin to list them all. I appreciate the attempt, but...

I was feeling the idea of this a lot more than the actual execution.

Still, maybe with a bit more time you could take this and turn it into something pretty cool, so I might suggest like... updating the game a bit after the jam? Outside the jam the color limit issues don't matter much, but you might be able to fix up issues like the grammar issues, the lack of music, and, if that was the ending, then making it more clear that the screen fading in and out in a pulsing pattern is in fact the ending, and if that... wasn't the ending, then fixing whatever it was that went wrong there. I feel like that must've been really close to the end either way mind you.

Anyway, best of luck on future projects!

...no way to go fullscreen properly, huh...?

...no matter, I'm not one to let something like that stop me, even if it makes it harder to play and see what's going on.

Okay. So, if you just want the short version:

- The short version -

This is a neat concept with a lot of potential, amazing visuals, and a great soundtrack, but it's held back heavily in gameplay by some pretty big problems that I'll be getting into later that make the customization mechanics of the game less cool than they seem at first... and also, as I already said, it's a bit hard to see since you can't go into fullscreen.

Now... the long version.

- Why a long version at all? -

The reason the rest of this is so long is because there's a lot to talk about here I feel like, since there's a lot worth talking about here since this game is actually pretty interesting to me. I don't anticipate writing nearly as long of comments on other games here, by the way. I need to ultimately play more games here, but since this is one of the first ones I'm playing, and most people couldn't even get past the first fight, I feel like I should probably try to leave more detailed feedback myself to try to help make up for it if possible.

- The things I like! -

As everyone else has already said, the music is absolutely phenomenal here.

Also, while I have to dock points from the visuals over the lack of ability to go fullscreen making it harder to see the visuals, the spritework is ultimately pretty well done, fitting the theme quite well. This also really does feel pretty spot on to a gameboy game, I'll also add, aside from the use of some sample-based sound effects that sound closer to something the gameboy color would've done, not the gameboy.

Like... this does actually basically feel like it could've been a real gameboy game, so, y'know, nicely done on that!

The visuals are moody, the monster designs are neat. I like that the backgrounds are different in each fight and fit the foe you're up against, it's a neat touch that I can't say I expect to see in what is, I would like to remind, a gamejam game. Each foe in the game also has a unique sprite. That's neat!

Also, the idea behind the gameplay is neat! Customize a monster and then send it out in a turn based RPG battle? The customization is a bit limited due to not having more parts, but I mean, having that mechanic at all in a gamejam game is unexpected, it's pretty neat to see here.

So far as the visuals, the presentation, and the concept goes, nicely done! You have something good going here.

In fact, overall, despite where I'm about to be going with this, I actually like this game overall. So, please don't take the criticisms I'm about to give the wrong way. I just kind of want to see this game or a game like it live up to the raw potential this has on display better, and without proper feedback I worry that it might be hard to make the improvements which would be needed for that to happen.

- The things I have slight gripes with but which aren't a big deal -

Before I get into my big issues I had with this thing... slight gripe with the sound effects and music: The sound balance doesn't seem fully consistent, especially the victory theme which I think sounds a bit louder than everything else. Not that I uh... expect perfect sound balance out of a gamejam game mind you, so, no biggie, just thought it worth a mention.

- The part where I start talking about the gameplay and how it's fairly ambitious to try to do something like this in a gamejam and I have good things to say about the concept but still need to lead into the next section which isn't as positive and oh no this section name is really long for some reason -

...unfortunately...

Things fall apart a bit when it comes to the actual gameplay.

I understand this probably happened due to a lack of playtesting. It's hard enough to explain a battle system like this when you actually have time to work with, and you uh... didn't have very long given the constraints of a gamejam. I respect the attempt to even attempt something like this at all in the time constraints of a gamejam, it's quite ambitious.

So, for what it's worth, I want to, before criticizing... uh, a fair bit... about the gameplay, just say that I am still pretty happy that you put this out there at all in that time, and that honestly I wanna see the issues with this fixed some day because there's definitely potential here, there's a vision.

To reiterate something I said earlier: The idea of customizing a monster and sending it out into battle is a fun one! I like that much. It's a good concept for a potentially really good battle system. I want to see that idea done well, and I'd love to see you do it some day.

Also, I actually did like experimenting with builds for a bit to figure things out at first... until I stumbled into what my biggest issue is:

- The unfortunately rather long explanation of why I don't like the battle system as much as I wanted to -

Due to some things that I'm pretty sure are oversights in the battle system, as far as I can tell, there's meaningfully only one strategy that can actually particularly work in the first fight, and the other two fights are actually easier from there since basically the same strategy wins those too. (Technically there's a few part combinations and attack combinations that work, but they don't feel like they actually impact the approach taken enough to matter. More on that later actually.)

Now, I will say, this is probably partially because, as far as I can tell, robot repair appears to be bugged and seems to do nothing, making going robot body instead of monster body a bad idea. If not for that, it's possible there'd be more strategies that could actually be useful, and one of my biggest gripes would at least be a bit less of a problem. I'm not sure though, given I don't ultimately know what that ability is supposed to do.

As is, as far as I can tell, the best build is monster everything except monster arms (go robot arms instead, it is necessary from what I can tell). In fairness, on paper, you can use either leg set, but one of them has an attack and the other doesn't, so it doesn't really change gameplay much outside taking away an option from you that, while not necessary, is helpful.

To explain why I use this build: This build gives you a powerful attack (thanks to robot arms) while still being able to do anything after attacking (thanks to having access to hammer head), making progress possible to make since, far as I can tell, you need both.

For a game focused on customization, I'm going to note it's usually a good idea to try to make it so the different choices provide different pros and cons. Not just hypothetical stat changes that technically change things, but ideally ones that require you to think about how you play the game differently. I feel like this game's combat would be a lot better if there were more things that worked more like that.

For example... Imagine if the salvo attack reduced your attack power after you ran out of uses for it, meaning you needed to be careful to not use the second use of it until you know for sure it'll win the fight. It'd add more risk-reward to figuring out when to use it. Or what if using "exist" enough times let you restore a use to a move that has a limited number of uses, making it meaningfully different from null? Things like that would help make battles feel more dynamic than they current do and incentivize experimenting with builds more.

There's potential here, that being said, just in case I haven't made that clear already.

Anyway... a lot of luck seems to actually be involved here, in trying this more than once. Enemy attacks seem to kind of just randomly hit a lot harder sometimes and it kind of just makes you lose even if you use the right strategies. Not entirely sure how to feel about it, but ultimately it honestly doesn't change my verdict much.

To reiterate: I do ultimately think I like this game despite not liking the gameplay in practice. I want to be clear on that. Hopefully this comes across as intended as an attempt at constructive criticism.

- How to win, since a lot of people seem to find the battle system confusing -

So, that being said... what do you have to do to win, given a lot of other people sound like they weren't able to and may need to look here for help...?

Use hammer head twice on the weaker enemy so you take less damage. Then, finish off the other with two salvos followed by spamming hammer head. (If you want, you can also use steeltoe shatter before the salvos, it does seem to improve the odds a bit, but it's not necessary).

Fight two can then be won by using your salvo twice and spamming hammer head, potentially using steeltoe shatter before both of those, or after the salvos and before hammer head.

Fight three actually seemingly requires monster legs, since steeltoe shatter seems to need to be used as part of your strategy to win that one, so basically just do the fight two strategy again but now you have to use steeltoe shatter at either of the two points I mentioned for max possible victory odds.

Hope that helps anybody who wants to see all that the game has to offer!

- Final... verdict I guess? Why is this so long oh no how did I write a wall of text this long here -

At any rate... I really liked the concept here! I just wish that it was executed better. That being said, I wanna see creativity like this more, so uh, hope you don't mind if I keep an eye out for any future projects you may make because I do wanna see what you do next from here!

Okay! Let's see here... so, first off, this looks pretty spot on to like, say, a minigame on gameboy. Which makes sense, seeing as how it... is a gameboy game. Like this is actually a gameboy ROM. Suffice to say, you're winning points from me on the "gameboy soul" thing, outside the lack of sound this feels like a minigame I could actually end up playing as part of a real gameboy game.

(Running on actual gameboy is just a small bonus for me on that, to be clear. I'd be giving a pretty good score on that category here either way.)

...does bring me to an unfortunate issue: This game has no sound at all whatsoever. Which, for what it's worth, is probably better than particularly grating sound, and I do understand that like... I mean you made an actual gameboy thing here. That's not as easy. Y'know? I get it.

Gameplay... is functional. It's a basic game of whack-a-mole ultimately, but hey, it does work for what it is, it's fun enough. The visuals do have a slight mood to them and a vaguely spooky aesthetic that gets the job done but feels more-so like a reason to award well in graphics than a reason to award well in theme.

I might further fine-tune my thoughts as time goes on but for how short and simple the game is I'm kind of surprised I was able to say so much about it, so suffice to say I think you probably did something right here. I had a good time!

(tl;dr it's fun for the visual charm, but has no sound and the gameplay is just ok. I had a good time overall.)

Thank you! Glad you had a good time

Dragon

Thanks! Also, don't worry, you probably got through the scary head sequence exactly as intended. Confusion on what to do is actually part of the intended reaction from the player there. (On an unrelated note, I need to actually sit down and play other people's games in the Jam when I get a chance.. a lot of them seem neat and I wanna try to play as many as possible starting as soon as possible!)

beautiful. amazing. the best thing i have ever.

In all seriousness, this is pretty silly but actually a decent way to pass a few minutes of time, the mechanics are simple but actually decently well thought out and the silliness of it helps a fair bit too.

You'll probably be happy to hear I'm currently working on a sequel. It's admittedly changing some things up, but I'll say this: A lot of it is an attempt to address the flaw that learning all the attacks is basically the end of the game, and other things like that which I've had pointed out to me.

I've... had a lot of time to think about how to attempt to solve all that. So hopefully it'll actually work out, heh.

just tried the latest patch, and uh... got a bit sidetracked by how the new toggle climb doesn't seem to require you to actually have the climbing gloves to use, allowing for some very funny speedrun strats that let you skip trading in the duster.

i kinda hope it remains in as a newgame+ mode or something, but it might be worth fixing it for normal play all the same.

oh nice! a sequel that fixes those two things has a lot of potential for a future crust jam, that's something to definitely look forwards to next jam then! also looking forward to that possible post-jam update.

oh, i adore brutally difficult hardcore puzzle games. i'm just bad at them! the tutorial did kinda help as a thing to reference back when i didn't understand a mechanic at all admittedly, so there is that for what it's worth. just uh... yeah, definitely one i'm gonna need to more-so go back and play on my own time after the jam probably.

Amazing title screen with a very good MIDI and very nice, crusty visuals. Pretty silly concept, and though the execution can be a bit janky there's still a lot of fun to be had here. Pretty solid game! Had a good time finishing it.

This game is pretty hard, so I admittedly haven't been able to beat it so far (hit about 10 deaths so far, put the game in the background so I don't have an exact number since it's including those that happened while I had it in the background, ah well), but I actually have had a lot of fun with the patterns here! I'll try to remember to actually finish this later, I'm having a good time with it though.

This is another one I'm playing here that's simple, but as I said last time I played one I mentioned was simple, simple doesn't mean bad! Though, I do admittedly wish this was a bit crustier, it plays pretty well. Not a very original concept though, there was a minigame in New Super Mario Bros. that played pretty similarly... but hey! This still takes that concept and ultimately does it well, and I think puts a few new spins on it too from what I've seen here.

So, y'know, pretty solid overall!

A simple game, but simple doesn't mean bad by any means! The sound cues in this, as the other comment has already mentioned, are actually quite good, taking a simple concept and making it actually quite well designed overall. Also, very crusty.

Quite crusty, quite goofy, not the most involved game but I was amused.

Okay, okay, the ending caught me off guard and got a chuckle out of me. I wasn't honestly fond of the rest of it myself, but eh, the ending made it worth it.

Vury cresty!

Jimothy.

The intro cutscene is kinda funny, but the rest of it before the boss is... pretty much just circle strafing around the same enemy type in very slightly increasing quantities on each new floor over and over again while button mashing...? I'd suggest adding a few more enemy types if you ever expand on this, preferably some with increasingly silly concepts. Also, a crosshair would make aiming easier.

Oh! And it is appreciated that you change up the music for the last few floors. Which I reached without taking any damage by the way.

Also, I actually reached the boss without taking a hit. Unfortunately, due to the mashing involved in the game, I was only really able to give the boss one real shot, in the interest of being able to potentially play any more games in the jam before time is up, but it's probably the best part of the game that I saw at least. No idea what the ending is, but I don't think it'd ultimately affect my score much, since most of my issue here is in the core gameplay.

It's... fine, I guess. Kinda.

Eh.

If you do improve it I'll be curious to see what it's like then more, admittedly. So at least there's that, you do have at least potentially have my attention for a future version of it.

good

Exactly what it says it is!