itch.io

Thanks for paying!

This is now a rather old game I made some time ago, so very fun to se someone try it again ^^

Its not much, but for a short atmospheric linear "puzzle" game, it's not terrible concept wise, its just way to short to actually be anything special. Fun to it might inspire something better!

Good luck!

Thanks for the kind words! I am happy to hear you managed to figure it out :)

While the rocks where left as a clue, the taunting tone of dialog was not entirely intentional, but actually quite fitting now that you mention it to get ppl to continue trying. The focus was really just to make a game-short, while having some fun with the environment, characters and effects. Hopefully more will come soon in the future.

Np! Always fun to play and comment, but honestly its always easy to be on the side of the critic, as we are not involved in the effort making the thing, so do take my reply with a fist full of salt.

With that said, I feel it really depends on what you want the end-result to be, are you a board-game with strict rules? or a more free-flow "things-might-change-at-every-turn" type of game? or whatever in between.

As the mechanics are quite few and very tight right now, all new mechanics basically change the entire paradigm of how the game is played, with what tactics are better/worse etc. So while that can be exiting, it can have huge repercussions. That said, personally I am rather partial to seeing something more, as the game is a bit to "board-game-like" right now for my taste and does not make much use of the digital-medium (as-in, you could make a 1-to-1 copy of this as a cardboard game without much extra management). Maybe something that has do to with a turn-timer, like making a burn-effect take X-turns instead of instant, so you have to plan the timing. The same could be done with a type of flying movement maybe, that you can fly to point X, but it takes two turns etc. You get the idea.

I really like the thought of having environmental changes, as this does not change the games core, but makes you adapt to the environment itself of what you should do, which feels like a great direction to go in. It has potential to create a interesting single-player experience with levels that are continuously varied and challenging instead of just playing against an AI over and over again using the same tactics. I can already see like a Dragon-Slaying Knight as a hazard, that kills dragons close to it and maybe even moves randomly every turn.

A board editor is nice, if a bit ambitious, I feel that's should be in the "wish-list" pile of things, as for a level-editor to be useful you need a good player-base to begin with.

Cheers!

I gave it a try! A rather simple thematic variant of a match/control board game. It's really what you have described, and it works well. The theme is fun, if a bit bland, the drakes are cool and love there almost ball-like design, but the rest around is a very generic. The colors especially feels like they all have the same tone, making the game lack contrast.

The game really does what it does, it has its rules, and you try to win within those parameters. My only issue is really that: Its a digital board game, its no more or less then you get from ONE match. Especially as the moves you can make are rather limited (3-4 I think? Create a new dragon, Move a Dragon, Move a Dragon Uphill, Burn a tree). And while playing against others might bring some create strategic value, its a shame if you don't use the digital-space to create more content.

What I would love to see is the game taking a puzzle like progression, and its an area I feel you can expand the singleplayer experience without adding more features (as that would defeat the purpose of the elegant board-game-design). Have linear progression with "board-challenges" levels, where you play on strange board setups, maybe even the AI has preset pieces etc. still using the rules you have now to win.

A great example of this is Greed Corp, it has the game idea of using a "board-game" design space, but has several levels you progress within those boundaries.

A great one-clicker game :) Not that much to say about it. Like other similar good games in the same style I feel you nailed it, the amount you need to click, the progress speed, the tension between clicks etc. What I really liked about this however is the amount of times I felt "I can make it!" when there where a large color collection to make me maaaaybe able to just speed though a hexagon. It really tests your patients :)

A rather basic platformer with a fun gimmick. The idea of having a character die-and-repeat is not super new (Reminds me of the game "Life Goes On" and "The Swapper" (to a lesser extent)), but it always fun to see what can be done with it.

Its a 3hour game (I think I got it right this time) so there is only so much time to explore the design-space, you got the basics of it all down but would have been great to see the design more explored. For one, in this game I feel the "go-around-the-edge" part of the design is rather unnecessary, as it has very little impact on the "die-and-repeat" mechanic. There is even one level that does not even use the death mechanic because of it.

I like the ideas you described that could have been added (the eye thing really fits the character design!), but feel even smaller things like: a limited death allowed, limit the amount of corpses at one time, or have them simply dissipate after a while, Just simple things that take the entire "I leave my old body here" into focus and something I need to balance. At the moment it just becomes a mechanic that forces me to replay the same level several times without much timing or skill needed.

Just a side note, love the hat and its animation! Would have loved to see more with it as the focus. maybe after your death the hat stays where you died, and you will die permanently if you don't have the hat on you, forcing you to first collect the hat before dying again.

Overall, I feel just a platformer in 3hours is nuts. So great work :)

I have to admit when I'm wrong. The bomb strategy you described was something I did not even consider, and I also completely miss-played the game! I think that's a first I have made such an error. Completely missed the orthogonal movement freedom, I was just so used to the limitations of match-3-games that I did not even think you could move more then one step at a time (Strange, as I did play it for quite a while.)

So with that said, I can differently see now the strategic death that it creates, and the bombs make perfect sense now. Was way more fun, great work!

Its a "match-3" game, not that much that I can comment on that design. If anything, extremely impressive to have it finished within 3 hours! Feels ambitious :O

The goal is rather strait-forward with the point barriers and like the bonus move intensive you have with the crystals. The point-balance seems fine if, even if I find it difficult to see how anyone can reach the higher scores. However, I do feel the explosives are way to punishing. 1000 points feels like its a lot and it often felt the screen slowly got covered in the stuff, making the entire higher point gain all down to luck. Luck is unavoidable in mach games, but combined that you can get punished rather harshly just felt quite bad.

I also would have liked to see a bit more variation to the art of the rocks. all the rocks have a very similar color pallet, making you almost have to squint at times to know what needs to be matched. If the rocks have small gems stuck in them, why not use more variation on there colors?

Awesome, feels like I have fallen into a strange alternative dimension and testing out a odd digital toy reminiscent of a Tamagotchi or Game-&-Watch.

Everything together makes it a great audio/visual experience: the small screen format and low rez, the strange words, the odd screens that seems to have no point, but everything still has a function, creates a really odd "retro" feeling to it, but something that still feels "off".

Love that things (buttons etc.) have functionality with no really point to it more then to progress the game.

Played and finished! ) Se you really like your negative-space games ;)

A solid concept! Seen similar ones before, and most the the levels also shared a lot of classic elements with moving "around" the screen to connect to the right side.

I can see that the idea most likely was that BOTH characters where suppose to enter each of there doors, so I will judge it on that (otherwise the mirror world is rather pointless), taking that in account the levels are relatively challenging as you go along.

What I did miss was just something more to flare out the otherwise rather simple levels. Its hard to create that in 3-hours, and honestly just the amount of levels is impressive for that time (+ the transition, love it!), but just something that adds to that mind-bending-feeling I want from these types of games. I think the grey blocks was a great start, but only the loop-around-level really used it to any effect. I would have loved a feature/mechanic that's similar to the glitch transition effect.

A fun play :) Make more and take it to the next level!

Like it! Great effort for 3 hours. The instant death is an awesome feature in this format and can be expanded so much (parts mentioned in the missing-features).

I do feel the game with the instant-death features of ONE mistake lends itself better for a more puzzle-like play-style, where every step needs to be calculated, however the long level with just makes you want to walk FASTER and mistakes instead happen basically just because of impatience instead of a planning mistake.

I feel more effort could have been spent on getting one enemy or another puzzle mechanic to flesh out the gameplay and leaving the level more or less just screen-sized.

A awesome effort for 3 hours :) A classic concept with a clear visual obstacle.

If there is one criticism that fits that time is that thing is that the camera is static, i feel either the level should have been completely strait or you should be able to rotate the camera, as the limited view when going sideways became the more difficult part of the game.

So many thanks again! Loved it. While its a short game, and also quite old-design, you make some great points! If I remember correctly the visuals where really a result on the time constraint, as I started quite late in the week with the game, but still am really happy with the result it gave.

Ya, I usually don't care to much about the surrounding area for the game as I kind of think the game is whats important in the end, but what background its pasted on, but in this care with-out the possibility to go full-screen I can really see the issue with just having a standard-white scree. Will make a greater effort on my later games to actually improve the first-time impression of the thing.

Thanks for playing! Was for a small jam, had a blast making it, and will continue making more hopefully just as fun games :)

Thanks again! Always so fun to see someone live playing the game :)

Thanks for giving it a go!

Ya, its a odd game, basically you play as a very incompetent detective, so some things that should be suspicious are not and so on :P It's also meant to be very easy, as I wanted character cards you could solve, but I only managed to finish one right now.

Clues can be found on the card, with the 3 interaction buttons, the one you missed was just talking to him I think.

Not really-ish, is auto-generated then I edited the result a bit, so cant take full credit for it. Even-so, it adds something, and happy for that.

Thanks for playing! Great to hear that this as a base seems solid to continue on, was what I was mostly hoping for. Am personally quite found of mixing styles and will most likely experiment even more with 3d/2d stuff later on.

I do agree that there are some very big balancing issues at play, the shooting enemies take something like 15 hits, don't know why I thought that was a good idea :P but that stuff comes with testing. Nice that you noticed the shielding! Might have to add a bit of a hint of how it works, but wanted a system that not just "health" and think this regenerative "health" works well in a space-shooter setting, and as you say, changes the way you play depending on the shield status (able to take more/less risks).

A had a very long wish-list of stuff I planned for, spent way to much time thinking up stuff. So power-ups etc are very much in the works :) Was even thinking of having direction ship-upgrades (that changes the ship), in-between missions etc. but we will see. Love the idea with branching paths, now that you brought it up I think I have seen it before in other top-down-shooters, will look-up some examples of this. Would differently add both more repeatability and make the levels themselves more interesting.

Also, great score! The Super End was really there, as you mentioned, for me to have a somewhat of true "ending" to the whole thing :P So added extra spawners that made it basically impossible to continue for long after a while.

Thanks for your thoughtful comments! Hope to update this in the coming weeks.

Thanks! Rather happy with this one, was a experiment and I think it turned-out very well.

A classic avoid-the-walls maze game! A bit basic, but was quite a few interesting extras that elevated it, the visuals are not bad and has a pleasant music score that fits the pace of the game. With that said, I do feel there are a few issues.

First of, I am not a fan auto-rotation of the ship. The game-type is about precision movement, its then very jarring that the ship auto-rotates (even worse that the rotation is instant) making me feel less in-control and afraid every time the ship turns that I will make a mistake (even if the hit-box remains the same, its about player perception). Secondly, the issue was made worse with the shooting mechanic, as the ship only shoot in the facing direction that I cant control myself. When I got it the first time, I missed the rotation location, so I ended up having to move blindly to find the spot that turned the ship in the "correct" direction, it felt very odd. If you use the auto-rotation as a mechanic, then there must be clear indicators where that happens, especially if it actually effects game-play and is not a purely visual change.

Also, another small side note on the shooting: why introduce a shooting mechanic (with text even to explain how it works) to then never use it again on another level after? Usually when a mechanic is introduced you expect to use it for a few levels after. It got especially confusing as the next levels introduced a enemy that I thought I was meant to shoot, but no, I was suppose to run away.

Continuing, I was felt the level-design overall was sadly lacking. Not that the level themselves where to difficult/unbalanced, they just felt a bit uninspired. All the levels are completely linear, with ONE path and one path only, and almost every one is a tight corridor that moves in a wave pattern. Would have liked to see a bit more diversity, use different patterns, have levels with multiple paths with a shorter but "harder" path, or other with a open area but moving asteroids etc.

I think why the levels bother me is because they don't feel built with the space esthetic in mind, the levels feels like they are designed as a cave systems, rather then a asteroid-field. They are all too tightly packed and to tidy, with every asteroid is neatly stacked in a tight pattern outside the corridors. It ends up looking very stiff/unnatural (that all the asteroid animations are in sync also does not help).

With all that said, Its still a fully functional game, and I did have fun playing it! Hope my comments may be of use. Cheers

Thanks for playing! Glad you enjoyed it. Completely agree about the music, but it was that or nothing, and I felt it was just quite without anything. Actually planned for even more enemy types, but then I did the smart thing and cut them out before I wasted all my time on design :P Will continue building on it and see where it takes me.

Thank you! I try, for whats there It does function in the way I wanted, so small victories. Wanted to have it as a complete experience with a boss and everything at first, but ya, time :P Will however continue working on it, so will aim to add all the things I had on my wish-list!

Am I doing something wrong? I like the idea and it's actually a very solid base-concept for a TD-game. However, the start seems way, way to slow, starting with 100$ affords me: one blue tower... That has super slow projectiles and a useless range, so one side of the planet will get hit (or even the same side, the tower aims directly at its target, making 80% of the hits miss if its not right next to it or if the meteor is directly above it), I did not even have another 100 after the third wave, and then I always die, as it is. the game is unplayable.

This would not be a issue if you stared with more cash, so I'm guessing the low starting value is just a bug/mistake?

Other then that (even if it is a rather big issue), it has potential. The placement of the towers is very satisfying, and as mentioned from this base you can add so much content. Would have loved to have some more sound effects however, and some smaller details (like the heart icon on the planet pulsating or similar, a moving background etc.) would have been great to make the game feel a bit more alive.

A good entry!

This is one of those games that I feel should not be so fun as it is. At first, the visuals/presentation and sound feels like nothing that special, and the game-play itself is just a "move-towards-the-mouse-and-shoot" like many other jam-entries have done, but after playing it I feel you have really managed to create a very fun experience, with some nice solutions/mechanics to some common issues. The game really grew on me as I was playing. I am Impressed.

As mentioned, at first I thought the visual/style just felt a bit out of place, but when you take a closer look there is a surprising amount of details there, and its a style that grows on you (or at-least for me). Also like that the very strong neon colors actually made it clearer to play, especially because the game is rather fast. Also like the color-coding: green/yellow is good, and red/purple is bad, so it was clear what to avoid and what to collect.

The collection mechanic was a strike of genius honestly, the building of the ship is very satisfying, as it is INSTANT and you get a very clear result of every piece you collect. It helps give the player a direction/in-game-goal of what to do etc. Also, that you could even get a shooting upgrade made you feel more powerful (especially the backwards shoot, that really helps as you cant make any strafe movements with the mouse only controls).

Lastly, I think what sealed the game for me was the speed. Its fast (and short) and it needs to be, it does not overstay its welcome, it plays quickly and without nonsense, I get a great build-up of power even during the short play-duration as I play and a goal that's easy to understand.

If there is one thing however, is that you should maybe have had a hint of where the "exit" was, as its at the moment just a item that looks different from the rest. Also, you can open that things really fast, maybe make it a multi-layered door? so you need to collect at-least a few parts to get in.

Overall, a surprisingly fun game for such a simple concept.

My favorite game so far on the jam, you nailed it. The style is great and really consistent, love the mix of a old-game feel with newer mechanics, and just the quirky nature of it all just floating in space FIST-FIGHTING aliens, how can one not love it? (also helps that its a mix of some of my favorite games, love the old-school first-person dungeon crawlers). Reminds me a bit of the indi-game: FIGHT KNIGHT, an equally odd setting where you are a fist-fighting fantasy knight.

Honestly, just at the top of my head I cant really think of any improvements/changes I would like to see, maybe there could be a place for a story-line? that could bring a bit more context too the hole thing? Maybe being able to meet some characters and interact with them etc. also, the goal itself could be a bit clearer, as your kind of just thrown in without as much as a clue at first on what to do. But really, as a isolated experience its already great.

Will test your other games after this!