itch.io

The level of polish here is bonkers for a one week jam! Y'all did a great job overall.

Since you're developing this game beyond the jam, I'll go into more detail about the parts that didn't work for me. The pattern that I fell into during the shootouts was: leave cover, spam left-click to fire all of my shots into the nearest enemy asap, get back into cover, reload. Reloading took longer than the other steps combined, so I spent most of the game sitting behind cover and waiting. However, I don't necessarily think the reload should be shorter! I think there were a few other factors that were pushing me towards playing that way.

First of all, the enemies would usually chill and let me do this, so I didn't feel pressure to try a different strategy. I'd be interested in seeing a version where the enemies flank you, flush you out with dynamite, and/or shoot at your cover to damage it.

Second, it seemed like it took multiple shots to kill each enemy (except for the rat bullets, which seemed to be a 1-hit kill). I could be wrong about that - maybe most of my shots were actually missing - but regardless, it felt easier and more reliable to empty my whole gun, especially because I knew I could safely reload in cover. This took away from the fantasy of being an accurate, coolheaded gunslinger, and it also made the bullet effects less important because my plan was to hit each enemy with everything I've got.

This leads into the last issue I noticed, which is that there wasn't enough incentive to be strategic with the bullets in combat. In the planning phase, there was a bit of strategy (e.g. putting 'lasso' just before 'buckshot). 'But once I was in the thick of it, I didn't think it was worthwhile to wait until I could damage multiple enemies with a single 'arcing' or 'piercing' shot, or hit a fast-moving enemy with the 'ice' shot, or move in close before using 'buckshot'. It was faster and safer to shoot everything at whatever enemy I had a good angle on than to plan each shot out.

Ok, that was a lot of criticism, so I want to stress that I do like the game! I'm looking forward to seeing more of it!

The aesthetic is on point! You really nailed the old-school everything-can-kill-you vibe, while avoiding the old-school frustration that normally comes with it thanks to the save system. The music is also very fitting.

No negative self talk, Scrumbo! It is genuinely very hard. I've played Baba is You for like 80 hours and when I got to this couch puzzle I said out loud "this is impossible" after a couple minutes of staring at it lol.

What you said in your post is 90% of the way to solving it, you just need to do one more thing!

This is such a clever idea! The sequencer aspect is unique and super cool. It gives you a nice sense of progression as things fall into place. On top of that, it's also really smart to have a sokoban game about rearranging furniture, since it naturally explains *why* thing X needs to be in spot Y (and also contributes to the sense of progression, since the room does look nicer when you're done)! Oh, also, I like that the game forces you to use the undo or reset feature as part of the tutorial.

Wow! This is really well done all around. One aspect I especially like is how the items are differentiated from each other by more than just art and raw stats - like using a bottle as a weapon after drinking the contents, cutting the river with the knife, etc. I died quite a lot at first, but I wasn't frustrated since I got to see new interactions each run

Solid game! It does a good job of introducing concepts gradually and building on them

I love the idea behind this game. Having themed decks for different locations gives you the sense that it's a globetrotting adventure - it reminds me of parts of Eldritch Horror, in a distilled form. Krampus getting dismembered and put into different gift boxes is both a fun visual and gives you a clear, obvious goal. The 25-day countdown is a nice touch that reinforces the theme, and again makes the goal + stakes very clear.

The biggest issue I found was that there's no penalty for leaving a location, then immediately returning to that location. Because of this, you can keep reshuffling until you have the right cards to immediately gain a clue or item. By itself, that's not a huge issue - if it's clearly an exploit, I can choose to just not use it. But it also seems impossible to beat the game without doing some amount of that, and there aren't many other options on your turn, leaving me unsure of whether or not I was playing the right way.

Still, overall, I enjoyed the game and I'm impressed with what y'all got done in such a short timeframe!

Big props for originality! I also liked the role reversal in the second half vs the first half.

Entertaining concept! Both the art and the mechanics sell the idea well. I really like the contrast between the unhappy, suspicious adults and the happy, oblivious kids. The good ending also made me laugh out loud. I wish the timer were a few minutes shorter, though, because it gets repetitive and easy once you get the hang of the mechanics.

Neat concept! I didn't get a chance to try it with another player, so I played solo instead. The visuals are perfect. I also appreciated that it didn't need any setup to work out of the box with two monitors.

The visuals were charming, especially the graffiti and the HR request denied animation. It was frustrating getting stuck in a loop after dying, but it's not too hard to restart when that happens.

True, and thank you!

The art is top notch, and I dig this crafting system (pun intended) but I feel like I'm missing something. I crafted the knife, wood strips, bowl (put water in it), and pebbles, then couldn't figure out how to progress beyond that point. Also, no monsters spawned - maybe I was supposed to get certain components from them? Whatever the case, I liked what I saw, just wish I could see more of it!

Reminds me of One Finger Death Punch or Iron Snout, trying to juggle threats coming from both directions. I will say that since the same enemies always come from the same direction, it's too easy to get into a rhythm - shoot left twice, then right once, repeat. But still, it's complete (even has a main menu!), fits the limitations, and looks great (nice lighting effects), which are good boxes to be checking for a game jam. Nice job!

Nice game! I had fun trying to come up with memory tricks to keep everything organized (e.g. these ones are red so I'll put them really close to the track, because red=danger). 

hmmmm

Thanks!!

Thank you!

Thank you! And true, a bit of music would have gone a long way.

I agree on both the audio and the text - bit of a headache as it shifts around.  Thanks for playing and for the feedback!

Thanks! We wanted to make it so that you're pretty sure Levi did it, but leave some room for doubt.

Ahhh, that's my biggest regret with the game right now - you're supposed to be able to just wait for Levi to leave the confessional booth if you want to spare him. Unfortunately we made the timer way too long (15 seconds) and there's no signalling to the player that this is an option. Def something we'll add if we come back to the project. Thanks for playing!

Thank you! I agree, music would have added a lot. Maybe soft organ music or similar.

I really like this interpretation of 'underground' as something secretive! I also appreciate that you made lore for this world to motivate what the character is doing.

Wow! Slick interface, good music, and feeling of the characters really comes through in their songs and animations. My only complaint is that the difficulty really spikes up on the robot battle - took me 10+ tries while the other fights took one. 

It's also really clever how the final screen shows that everything still took place in one room, while giving you a little "I Spy" experience trying to find all the characters.

Plenty of humor and charm, easy to pick up and play - what's not to like?

My first all-fives rating for this game jam! For me the stand-out quality of this game was clarity. Since player characters and enemies follow the same rules, and the interface tells you the attack/defense of them all, it feels like you can start making tactics decisions right away. Yet there's still a fun sense of discovery as you figure out exactly what the different ultimates do and get a sense of how far away you can keep your squishier allies. Nice work!