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Hi Dave, Thank you for playing the game! We're happy to hear that you had fun with it.

In the maze, there are two types of blocks: movable and fixed. Fixed blocks form a grid-like layout, while movable ones fill the gaps in between (similar to Bomberman). The movable maze blocks are moved based on shadows. Yes, the black squares are the shadows :) and they represent the passage of time. For the future, we could create smoother animations for the shadows (using real lights), where the shadows move with each step, but the objects shift only every five steps (as it works now). I hope this would make the mechanics clearer for players.

If a shadow covers an item or a movable wall, it can push it in its direction. There’s also a percentage value that defines the likelihood of objects moving. For later levels, this percentage should be reduced. Currently, it’s set to 80%. :)

Another idea to make the maze clearer is to increase the distance between fixed blocks. However, for the purpose of this GameJam, I thought a more chaotic maze would better align with the theme. Everything Changes feels more chaotic to me, but yes, there’s a clear system behind it, which we should strive to make more intuitive for players.

Thank you again for your feedback, Dave. I’d love to experiment more with this game, and your comments have highlighted some weak areas with interesting potential.

Thank you for your feedback and for playing the game! :) 

We have developed various parameters to control the difficulty of each level. For example, we adjust the number of generated movable walls and their probability of changing positions, as well as the number of generated items for each type in each level (e.g., drops, waterfalls). In the end, we decided to make the game more challenging—and sometimes unfair—to the player. Luck plays a significant role, and players might find themselves trapped if it isn’t on their side.

More control is a good idea. For instance, a system of collectible items could be a potential solution. If the player gets trapped, they could use these collected items to activate special mechanics.

The primary goal is to collect as many drinks (or "drops") as possible. Players must locate these in the level before they really need to pee ;) That’s why I don’t quite understand the suggestion that not moving is pointless. Also, keep in mind that the maze reorganizes itself based on player movement. Sometimes it’s actually beneficial to walk into walls to regenerate the maze layout. There is a system inside chaoss which can be recognized by player :) 

Could you please elaborate on your findings in more detail? We'd love to understand your perspective better. Thanks a lot.

Thanks for playing the game, and congratulations on your victory!

Here are some strategy hints:
- Always try to avoid having unutilized employees.
- Use experts to optimize your investment in training.
- Put experts back on their slots if you are not using them ;)
- When you're training, make sure to fill all slots with employees to make it more cost-effective, as you're paying a fee for training.
- Try to avoid using employees with a level that’s too high for the project requirements—it will reduce your income.
(Later, this situation will lead to training where less skilled employees can upskill by learning from seniors on the project ;) I haven’t implemented this mechanism yet. This should simplify the game a bit and reduce the need for heavy training investments.)

But you're right—this isn’t a typical tycoon game where you'll get rich (and sometimes bored) quickly! It's more of a simulation of running a challenging business, especially when investing in training for incoming digitalization—where change is necessary. :)

I like the concept of the empty grid in this tower defense game and how it visualizes how many enemies will come in each row. The remaining blood also gives me a sense of how successful I was, which is really inspiring. However, it might be an issue on my end, but I haven't been very successful, typically surviving only 3-4 waves so far. I'm missing the ability to rearrange units after a wave or to earn a bigger income to build new units.

Overall, a very fun game that makes you want to try again and improve. Great job!

By the way, there's a small lag with the particles during the initial loading. It can be fixed by preloading the particles before the game starts (or in the background of the loading screen). Also, it's great that you used Godot for this!

The concept of the game reminds me of Trine or the classic The Lost Vikings, both of which I really enjoy same as your game. The ant theme and the necessity of cooperation are great elements here. In both games I mentioned, all characters need to reach the end, not just one, which reinforces the idea of helping each other. This could be a valuable addition to your game as well. 

I also like the constructor character; within the ant theme, it brings to mind the image of ants forming living bridges. Perhaps your game could incorporate a mechanic similar to the old Lemmings game, where the goal is to build a path and minimize losses. You could have a bigger number of ants and the player could give them orders to build bridges, dig tunnels, or fly around. Just the idea about possible development of ant theme and your great game ;)

Thanks for sharing your experience! :) It was a bit of an experiment to see if the game is intuitive enough for players to navigate without any onboarding. Therefore, your feedback is really useful.

Fireing is also option :) The next step in development will be to measure how many employees you fire. This will affect your karma, reduce the pool of potential hires, or lower your score at the end of the game. :)

Glad you’re enjoying it! :) Maybe try to challenge yourself by playing without experts at the 10th level, and then try it at the 5th level. You can even try avoiding employee layoffs. :)

Done through the ko-fi ;) Thanks

And, no I am not from BR ;)

Hi seems interesting, I would like to support you but get error:

• Stripe doesn't currently support application fees for platforms in US with connected accounts in BR.

Do you know how to solve it? It seems Payment mode should be switched  from Direct to Collected by itch (global) payment.

Thanks

The game has an interesting concept with ghosts and controlling multiple characters in a puzzle game. I really enjoyed the ability to pass through walls. I wouldn't change that aspect or limit the ghost's capabilities later on. The game reminds me of my favorite game - Lost Vikings. Shifting between characters is smoother there compared to ghost travel, but it’s different, and I see the potential in the ghost mechanics too.

However, the implementation of the controls, specifically the fixed length of steps, detracted a bit from the gameplay. It was sometimes hard to be precise in movement, especially when two characters needed to change their positions. I really appreciate the UI and UX, including the sound setup, level selection, and the brief player onboarding.

Great job! Thank you for the game.

Hi, based on your comments I researched better matching fonts. So far I found this. I just wanted to share it with you and thank you again for your feedback.

The game is nicely unified and polished compared to Game Jam standards. I really appreciate the nice logo and UI menus, which are inspirational to me. Maybe the logo doesn't reflect the pixel art or the content of the game, but I don't think it matters that much. For example, the logo could include a TV screen or beer. 

The pixel art is well done. Just one small detail, I would suggest changing the bottle design to vertical, which is more pixel art-friendly than diagonal and the bottle will be more readable (or use a glass of tap beer).  When I tried full-screen mode on the wider screen, the dialogue menu didn't scale properly and stretched the character on the right.

The sound is perfect and creates the expected atmosphere. The music is nicely composed, but in one part I found the melodic line a little repetitive, which can frustrate the player.

The gameplay and the idea of double vision is great. I found it a bit challenging - especially on the 6th level, but I managed it. I also experienced a small bug during cutscenes where the character was moved outside the game's borders during the narrative.

Somehow didn't like the blood particles and character dying in combination with people laughing. But that is the individual, just like a taste of humour.

Overall, a perfect Game Jam performance. Congratulations on a really nice and playful game.

Thank you very much for your comprehensive and detailed review. We are very pleased that you enjoyed the game. Thank you for pointing out a small performance issue with the light shader. We noticed it before submitting, debugged some control issues, and also reduced the number of yellow companions to improve performance. Seems not enough.

In terms of visual style. We had a colleague who happened to join us online for the jam, but he gave up on Saturday. So we ended up using less polished placeholder visuals. Personally, I like the contrast the visuals create. The cold reality (light, shadow and texture) contrasted with the warm and colourful geometric abstraction of the characters. It just happened in a natural way, like a jam in music, when some of the jam participants are brought together. But I definitely agree with your comment. I look forward to designing visuals for the further development of this game. I like your suggestion to keep the visual style simple. We had the game "Thomas Was Alone" as a visual inspiration in our moodboard :) and I think we want to continue that way.

Thanks again for your review and also for your great game!

Great, you did it brilliantly! It is funny and challenging and also reminds me of my favourite game - Dome Keeper. Just funny is, that in reality, it works the opposite: mushroom is a product of mycelium, and your concept is more like a flower. 

Thank you for your feedback. I am happy that you like it ♥. 

Soundtrack from PlagueInc is a good direction. I was looking for something long-lasting and relaxing with elements of growth and casual, irregular beats reflecting the demolition and falling down of the buildings of the old city. Inspired by your comment I did this in the morning https://soundcloud.com/kurilluk/jam-fungineer .

Sorry, there is no working winning condition implemented :( . Seems that we somehow didn't set priorities well. We were in a team of two people only and didn't manage to implement the idea and music/sound fully in time. 

Anyway, we want to continue working on it to finish it. We will upload the project here = https://kurilluk.itch.io/fungineer-afterjam , if you are interested later.

Thank you for your review and playing the game.

There are some successful games based on frustration. For example, Getting Over It by B. Foddy. In our case, I feel that you can really practice it to master it without frustration. Then the changes in the game should even develop your brain (improve its plasticity) because you are doing things differently.
We have tried to set cooldown to make the game a bit harder and to avoid drinking position continuously. I also found cooldown frustrating at the beginning but later it made sense. Anyway, thanks for the comment, we will discuss it. Final-tuning of the difficulty it really "watchmaking work".

Definitely, we recommend using controllers. The Xbox controller buttons even match the potions' colours ;).  When the potion effect changes in different parallel worlds, then it is easier to be oriented to what are you pressing.  For WSAD combination it is also possible to use num lock numbers, or we should maybe map numbers to 7-0 instead of 1-4. The truth is also that many notebook keyboards don't have comfortable arrows to play.  Also thanks for this comment. 

Also sorry for the initial freezing - it was particles, we already solved it (not in Jam version).

Thank you for your comment.

1. As we mentioned in the text "Water is no longer water,  poison is no longer poison, and what heals you can kill you now." This is the reaction to the topic of authenticity.  The effect of the potions also changes during the game based on environments - parallel worlds/realities. Maybe it was not clear. We hope, that we decrypted it better in controls now. Thanks for that.

2. No, grey magic has to be defeated ;) (we know about the possibility of cheating in the corner, but more fun is to practice and try to master the game. I did more than 1k this morning and it was fun and great brain training for adaptation. We also lowered the difficulty of the game for better practising, but it can be really tough if needed.)

3. You can shoot other fireballs which are trying to hit you.

Thanks for playing it!

Sorry, we knew that. We weren't able to solve this issue during JAM time. It seems that particles or sounds are loading in the game, which causes this freezing for a few seconds or less. After that, the game is running smoothly and you can enjoy unlimited times of beginnings without any freezing.