I see where this game is going, especially after reading your post. Sadly, I’m not quite in your target audience, but hopefully, I can still give some useful feedback (though I didn’t finish it, haha).
I love how the game tells me exactly what I forgot to do—and the brutal consequences that follow.
The sound design is great, and I really appreciate how clearly the ship status is communicated. At all times, I knew whether I needed to worry about something or not.
Some thoughts:
I’m not a native speaker, so the wall of text next to the command modules was a bit hard to understand—especially with the alarm blaring in the background 😅. Not sure if that was intentional, but a more intuitive console UI or simpler, more focused tasks would have helped me a lot. (I know, that’s a lot to ask for in a one-week jam!)
A few small bugs: wonky physics when my storage was full and I tried to suck in more shapes, and my timer froze for about 2–4 minutes until I paused and unpaused the game.
I didn’t love having to press R to start pointer mode. It would be great if the game could detect when the player is looking at a monitor and automatically adjust LMB behavior or something like that.
Please don’t get me wrong—I really liked the game and appreciate it for what it is. The complexity of the systems you built in just one week is seriously impressive! I had a fun (if stressful) time with it.
Your post is really interesting! I think the key difference is that you intentionally designed your game in a way that challenges players who are looking for a more casual experience.
I, on the other hand, thought this jam would be the perfect place for my game. I mean, the jam is all about sharing game design, and my game is all about sharing level design.
Don’t get me wrong—the feedback I’ve received has been really flattering! But I genuinely expected players to be more engaged in creating stuff.
For this jam, I created more of an experiment than a traditional game. It’s a simple 2D physics platformer with a level editor, but with a twist.
The Rules:
Every player participates in the same Run, which consists of 4 levels.
After completing the Run, players vote: Was it perfect?
If they vote No, they must create a new level and replace one of the existing ones.
The new level becomes part of the Run for everyone to play, vote on, or replace.
If 3 players in a row vote Perfect, the Run is archived, and a new, blank Run begins.
So… was the experiment a success?
NO. Sadly, not quite.
Only a handful of custom levels were created and added to the active Run. Most players voted Perfect—even for the rather boring default levels.
Why?
Good question. I think it comes down to the nature of game jams. Game jam games need to grab players’ attention immediately. There are thousands of games to try, so if a game loses momentum, players might just say, "Okay, quick rating, next game."
My game, however, is a bit too complex for that format.
The intro cutscene is long and unskippable, making the initial explanation feel slow.
The level editor is somewhat tedious, and designing a good level takes time—more than just a few minutes.
One user even spent over an hour creating a level! But many players likely preferred to submit nothing rather than upload a rushed or bad level.
The Numbers:
40 players in total.
3 Runs archived—with only 4 custom levels added.
After completing the Run, players could create levels just for fun. 9 "just for fun" levels were made… almost all by a single dedicated player (huge thanks to Ratzmagah <3).
Final Thoughts:
I aimed for 70-90% of players to contribute levels. In reality, it was around 10%. Even though the experiment didn’t fully succeed, it was still an interesting experience!
The jam isn't over yet. if you want to take part you can do so here
Before uploading, the creator has to finish the level 2 times in a row. That's how we make sure a level is beatable.
Also, every level in a run can be skipped after 20 seconds, so if someone created a very hard level, the player can skip it and finish the run nonetheless.
Hey. loved the style of that game! nice artwork. the gameplay was nice too! Losing boxes felt a bit janky but that adds to the fun i think. Some more levels would be winderful :)
Really polished game! the Player controller feels so good. and the mario 64 moves are spot on. felt like the old days :D I couldnt finish it. after falling down the 3rd timr for the last gear and spawning at the very beginning i quited :D
I think TTP was the first level actually created by players 😂
The backend is Php and MySQL, and communication are Post requests.
Buttons work with physics too, so you really have to push them all the way down to trigger 😅 that also means you can activate them with every moving object, bot only from the top.
Hey. very appealing visuals. live the parrot sprites. however i didn't quite unterstand what to do. and at the end, when my ship finished its journy nothing happened
