itch.io

A pleasant experience. The game was nice to look at, and I am a fan of the Gameboy aesthetic. I had a hard time getting past the menu at first, though. On keyboard, it isn't clear what buttons are used. Enter and space didn't do much for me. Ended up switching to my dualsense. 

I also almost completely missed the ending. Because the pumpkins aren't visible in the field, I was under the impression I had nothing to do and the game was unfinished. If it wasn't for someone's comment on cider, I would still think that. But I got there in the end. 

I understand you used some tools for the first time for this project. In that context, it's impressive how much you were able to accomplish in the time limit. Thanks for the game. 

A delightful little game. Short and simple, but sweet. The lack of an end goal had potential to be an issue, but I think the context of collecting firewood and mushrooms made me quick to figure out the purpose was to chill rather than accomplish anything specifically. 

The screen effect from eating the mushrooms got a chuckle from me. It went on a little hard and long for my taste, but I think it's a great visual gag. 

Still not sure what each mushroom does, though. I feel like only so many  actually got used in the bowl? Or maybe I wasn't paying attention and missed something obvious. 

Either way, a pleasant experience. Congrats on a jam well-done. 

First and foremost, the art is solid. The title screen in particular feels beautiful and professional. And the story about a slime getting out with its friend is pretty cute. 

I know I'm not the first person to say this, but the final level is unintuitive. I was moments away from giving up on it completely, especially when failure meant restarting from the beginning. Eventually, I thought to try sending one of the bigger slimes into the final gate so I had more to work with and was able to beat the game. But the game doesn't teaches you to consider slime size beforehand, so it feels arbitrary in practice.

Even when I figured that out, my setup still required me to avoid at least one bat in the final level. But until that point, bats were a positive object that enabled the player to solve the puzzles. I felt like the game was breaking the rules by making the last one into an obstacle. 

Also, I don't think this game fits the theme. I take it you took it into account because it's on the title screen. The gameplay revolves around dividing into multiple slimes, and the last level requires me to put the biggest slime I got through the door. The mechanics imply "more is more" instead of what was originally intended. 

Still, I did enjoy my time enough to see the game through to the end despite my initial confusion. Finishing a jam entry is an accomplishment in-and-of-itself, too. Congrats on seeing the project through the end and thank you for the game. 

The lack of mechanics and clear goals is a little frustrating. I felt a little lost for a while until I realized there was nothing to do but take in the environment. Which is fine, but I wish that was communicated to the audience beforehand so I knew what to expect. 

But as an art project, this is some solid work. The pixel art's great, the background art is pleasant, and there's plenty of visual detail. You are clearly a talented artist. Good work. 

First of all, it goes without saying, but this is a beautiful game. The artwork is pleasant, polished, and soothing. Really hopes tie the whole thing together. 

I particularly enjoyed the premise of  an immortal sage just chilling in a coffee shop. So many stories of immortality are grand in scale. So dialing it down to the day-to-day lives of individual people is an interesting change of pace and relatable. I would love to see the story of this being and the people they meet continue. 

I also enjoyed the nice mechanical twist. I was particularly excited about the coloring. But in my personal experience, I had a hard time selecting colors and spaces to fill in. I think there might have been some technical issue. 

Overall, an amazing entry for the jam! Congrats for a job well done. 

I enjoyed my time with this game. The pixel art is top notch, and the whole presentation hits those cozy vibes just right. And it is always fun to see some numbers go up.

 I'm a little disappointed that there was seemingly nothing to do after getting all of the upgrades. In particular, I got most of the multiplication back to back at the end, then suddenly had no purpose for the tiny army I just acquired. I found myself wishing that maybe the man behind the stall needed some cash, or that there was some other milestone to achieve now that I had the full range of upgrades. It felt bad unlocking all of my potential and then having nothing to put it towards. 

Navigation also felt iffy. There's no good way to know what sized pumpkins are where, and there's no real way to orient yourself in the space. I wouldn't say I got hopelessly lost, especially given the scope of this game. But I found myself wishing I had more information so I could make informed decisions on where to go while I was waiting on pumpkins to process. 

Overall, solid jam entry that accomplishes everything it needed to. Congrats to the team on a job well done. 

I'm honestly really impressed by this game. Storytelling in games is a topic near and dear to my heart. But I wouldn't have thought a 72 hour cozy jam would be the place for it. You guys showed my a tone and style that never occurred to me for this kind of project, and I'm actually a little jealous. 

I feel like there's something special here. Leaves on the wind is evocative imagery for travel and change. So the idea of it as a framing device for a collection of stories has a lot of potential. If the team had a mind to, I believe this concept could be expanded and lend itself nicely to the style of games like Journey and What Remains of Edith Finch. 

The moment-to-moment play could be frustrating at times. The leaves looping in the wind look graceful and all, but it makes the player controller feel unresponsive. The stray leaves weren't exactly easy to hit, either. I often felt like I couldn't go where I wanted to and that my time was drawn out by little jerks of RNG. 

I'd love to see more meaningful decisions in this game, too. I assume that the story the player gets depends on the order they pick up the leaves. Which is fine in the context of a game jam. But I found myself thinking it would be cool if points of interest stood out somehow and the following story reflected that. For example, you could put wisps of smoke on one leaves trail that initiates a story involving a camp fire.

Overall, a solid entry that should be getting more attention. And one I hope that you follow up on. 

I am indeed using Chrome. And yes, there was heavy visual and audio stuttering while in full screen. 

I'm admittable not as tech savvy when it comes to computer hardware as I should be. But I believe the answers to your questions are  NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 Ti and 1920 x 1080, 60 Hx.

If you suspect the problem's with my machine specifically, then I think it's also worth noting that my C Drive's been a little cramped and I've had trouble freeing up space. 

Top marks on the coziness. This is a cute game and not bad looking, too. It's particularly impressive for a 3D game made for a jam. I enjoyed figuring out the different recipes and putting them together. 

Figuring those recipes out was a struggler, though. There are only so many in the book, and your creations don't have a 360 rotation like the orders do. Sometimes it's hard to get a sense of how well your creation matches up, or what ingredient leads to which kind of result. But once I did, I had fun saying "oh, well, there are berries and whip cream in the picture, so that goes in". There was at least one recipe I found that didn't seem to work right, though. I seem to recall a muffin with nuts or something that didn't make anything if I put the muffin in first?

Little disappointed by the lack of a proper ending, and there's doesn't seem to be much impact to choosing money. But I understand the team ran out of time. It happens. I had the same problem the last jam I was in. 

Overall, a solid jam entry that manages to be wholesome and engaging. With a bit more polish and time to implement the features you had to cut, this could be special. 

This is a solid jam entry. The art fits the cozy feel just right, and reducing noise is a novel interpretation of the theme. The premise itself felt amusing and relatable. And I particularly enjoyed the escalation from closing the windows to telling your duck cult roommates to knock it off. 

I think player feedback could be improved. Specifically, sitting in a chair waiting for the next interaction is awkward. I get that's the whole premise of the game, but every other game trains us to be more active. I felt like a little confirmation (whether it be through sound effects, HUD, or whatever) that sitting in the chair was the right thing to do would have been nice. 

Some of the noises also confused me. Both in how they would reoccur and what they even were in the first place. Like, who keeps putting the kettle back on the stove? Is that a pile of hay or gold? Why is it making sounds? And what the heck are the sounds coming off of the boat? Are they coming from the boat? I have many questions. 

Overall, probably the most polished and enjoyable entries I've played at the time of writing. Good work, and my congrats to the team for a successful jam. 

A very pretty game to be sure. The use of billboards for the character sprites makes them stand out in a nice way. I also really enjoyed the premise. Wet wings are a natural way of conveying limited jumps and a cute concept to play with. 

The performance of this game is interesting. I first played it in full screen, and I experienced frame drops, audio cutting out, and precision demanding jumps. I ended up restarting the game to grab the coin instead of going back to it because it was too much of a hassle. But the fact that I finished the game anyway is a testament to how much I enjoyed it despite these issues. 

I went back to check on something, though, and found these problems were greatly reduced without full screen. Audio didn't chop out, the game maintained consistent 60 fps instead of choppy 30 fps, and jumps were easier to make. It's not a complete improvement, though, as text boxes are enlarged and even partially out of frame. 

The lily pad in particular was really rough for me. In full screen, I couldn't land on it half the time. And when I did, my character jerked around and straight into the water. This was much better in the browser page, but I still noticed that hint of jerkiness. I suspect there's some issue with the player following a moving platform? I don't know what engine this was made in, but whenever something like this pops up in Unity, a common trick is to make the player transform a child of the platform while they're riding it. Helps to avoid janky physics interactions. Maybe something similar could help here.

Most of what I said might have been critical, but I really did enjoy my time with this game. Obviously, technical issues are going to pop up in a game jam like this. But if you have the mind to polish this up later and address some of the performance, I think you could have a nifty little title on your hands. Props to the team for a solid jam entry, and thanks for the delight. 

P.S: I noticed you have the FPS displayed at the top left corner? I imagine it's left over from testing. Not an issue at all, but I wanted to point it out regardless. 

The presentation was pretty good. The shifting trees and stars moving in the background gave this surreal but tranquil feeling that I enjoyed. Very nice. Sets a good mood. 

I found this game has two main weaknesses: communication and agency. It's not immediately clear what you're supposed to do from the game itself, nor are there any instructions on the game's page other than controls. If it wasn't for the fact that this is a game jam and I wanted to give everything a fair shot, I would have given up long before I realized that those numbers represented some sort of pressure plate for the leaves. 

I also found myself frustrated with no clear idea of how to proceed even after understanding my goal. More often than not, leaves would spawn too far away to get where I needed them. I found my only way to get closer was to hope another one happens to spawn closer so I could shift to it. Between having little control over which specific leaf I jumped to and waiting on RNG to make the levels doable in the first place, I felt powerless and passive. 

I feel like there's a good game here, but it's held back by a lack of guidance and an excess of random happenstance. 

P.S: I did like the idea of having different points for different color leaves. Autumn leaves come in many different colors, and that system took advantage of that fact. 

The artwork in this game was stunning. My compliments to the artist who helped put it together. 

I had a similar premise for my game, and I thought having 360 degree aiming would be nice to have. So I like seeing that work here in your game. My only real complaint is that I felt the ending could have been more satisfying. The end goal isn't immediately clear, nor is there any way to mark your progress. So when you turn in the final item, it feels a tad abrupt and understated.  

P.S: I really like the header and stary night background on the game's page. It's pretty and sets the mood before I even hit play. Nice stuff. 

That makes me very happy to hear! Thank you so much!

Sorry about that. Still have a thing or two to learn about the audio mixer in Unity, I suppose. But thanks for playing our game

I've only managed to get to wave 5. But the controller support makes this game feel much better in the hands. It's an appreciated addition. 

Hey, thanks so much for playing the update!

I remember worrying that the tail sprite wasn't clear enough during the jam. But, hey, I was just getting most of my visual assets from game-icons.net and trying to make the most of it. Guess that's how it goes. I do like a cool scythe, though. 

You know, when I was thinking about different ways to interpret "reversing roles", having characters swap roles midgame did come to mind. I'm glad to see someone explore this idea with such success. The game was both mechanically and visually easy to understand and enjoyable. The music felt repetitive after awhile, but was also really good. I particularly enjoyed how the game made use of swapping back and forth for verticality. I felt clever doing things like giving the platforms hops so they would be underneath me when I swapped to what I needed. The way the game pauses when swapping gives me the same feeling of doing something cool when I use bullet time in Tears of the Kingdom. 

My hand did cramp a bit while playing it. Probably because I was trying to do everything with just the one hand (WASD, X, and Z are all keys I'd use my left hand for). But once I was using my right hand for swapping and abilities via J and Spacebar, I was a lot more comfortable and had an easier time controlling my character. In hindsight, I imagine that might have been the intended control scheme from the get go.  Oops. 

This is a well-rounded entry that knows what it wanted to do and executes on it. Congrats to the team for what they've managed to accomplish here. 

A well-executed game. The idea is intuitive to understand, but the twist of essentially being a walking target makes it novel. I particularly like the dual purpose upgrades served; they made it easier to take out hoards of enemies, but also made the arena more dangerous and pushed the game to a conclusion. Visuals were clear and controls were responsive. I don't know if the leaderboards at the end was smokes and mirrors or actual  updated player scores, but it did nudge me to play the game a few more times. I enjoyed my time with this. Congrats on a job well done. 

If there's one thing I would consider changing, it's how you word the game. To quote from the games page: 

"Hordes of enemies are coming after you, and all you have is a turret. But it's shooting at you?!A twist on an arena shooter, where your gun shoots at you instead."

Reading that had me going in questioning whether or not this game hit the theme of Roles Reversed. Obviously it fits mechanically, as you are the target rather than a shooter. But this framing throws things off a bit. If this is my turret, and my goal is to take out enemies, then aren't I essentially playing the same role but in an unorthodox way? 

I feel that the turret shouldn't be framed as your own. That you should be painted as someone invading a space instead of someone improvising a different way to do the same job. Obviously this is a very minor detail. It doesn't even make a mechanical difference. But minor details can add up, and simple framing can change how something feels. 

This was a really solid title. It's simple, but very clean. The sense of humor is right up my alley, too. "This game makes you feel like you're trying to touch a flag", by IGM. Perfect. 11/10 

Honestly, I don't have a lot to make constructive criticism on. I suppose that simply picking your poison doesn't necessarily capture the idea of game dev as much as I would like. But other avenues probably wouldn't have been achievable in a game jam. So I feel like this is a solid entry that gets the most out of the idea in the time allotted. Well done. 

Totally agree. I had plans, like a escape mini-game whenever the trainer threw the Pokeball equivalent and a finale where you, now tamed, helped the trainer catch a shiny variant of yourself. But time limits, you know? 

No problem.  Thanks for conversation and insight! 

This game is absurdly cute. The visuals and music are on point. But I think it's the little details that impressed me the most. I've seen a few teams put out some stuff that looks professionally done and/or is mechanically polished. But I was shocked when I realized this game had hit stops and the trainer reacting if you attack her. Those kinds of little details help make a game feel alive, but aren't prominent or easy to do under strict time constraints. So seeing stuff like that AND that the game is also polished makes this one of the most impressive jam entries I've had the pleasure of playing. I actually had a Pokemon-like myself, and this kind of inspires me to go back and do the things I couldn't see realized before the jam ends. Excellent job. 

Oh,  no, I can relate to being pressed for time. I also exhausted myself trying to get my own game out, and it still wasn't close to what I wanted it to be. I apologize if I gave the impression that I didn't think you guys worked hard, because all that effort you put in does shine through. The last thing I wanted to do was undermine that.  And I did enjoy the game when it was all said and done. 

As for the dialogue options, you're right that the cost correlating with more nerve-wracking options flew over my head.  I kinda got that sense in the start, but I guess I completely forgot that as I went on. Like I said, the absurd premise of the narrative made me more interested in the more extreme options, and ideally I would have like to replay it to see alternate choices. 

The game is a big accomplishment and the team should be proud. My intent was to give the kind of feedback I myself would like to receive, and I apologize for anything I said that came across as undermining your efforts. Best wishes for the rest of the jam. 

The premise of the game might be a shitpost, but the artistic skill on display is seriously good. One of the prettiest games I've seen so far in the jam. 5/5 for the presentation and music, seriously.  You've got some talented people on this team.

I feel that the inclusion of Flappy Bird didn't push the theme hard enough. Sure, you play as the pipe in the dating sim, but when it's time to make a choice, it's just normal Flappy Bird. I would have liked the app to get the roles reversed treatment as well.

I ultimately enjoyed the game and was impressed, but it worn out its welcome for me REALLY quickly. Mostly because earning points for choices, while interesting, conflicted with the context and needs of the game. This is a jam entry, and we're all playing several of them. It's also a parody. The points undermine these two things by drastically extending the time the player spends with the game, especially with how extreme the higher choices are. 

The player doesn't necessarily need to see everything on offer, if chunky games like Hollow Knight have taught us anything. But because the options are presented to them, the player DOES see what's there. It's just a matter of accessing it. And this is a dating sim where you play as a pipe pining for an exaggerated hot boy personification of Flappy Bird; of course I'm going to want to see the most absurd choices possible. So it seems counter-intuitive for the game's entire punchline to be locked behind a 40 point streak.

This is a solid entry overall. An absolutely absurd premise with professional-level presentation. And obviously it's not meant to be taken seriously. But poor pacing only kills the joke, especially there are so many other entries to rate. 

She sure did! I remember one run I was trying to heal up while she was the only enemy on the field. Pretty sure she took me down all by herself anyway, if I recall correctly. 

It's still a really impressive game, though! And to be honest, I'd think balance and fine-tuning is where jam games struggle the most. So I wouldn't get too hung up over it. 

Oh! That means a lot coming from you, because I was thinking the same about your work. I remembered enjoying Tower of Dice from last year's jam, and figured I was in for a good time when you came back for 2023. And I was right. Thanks for the kind words. 

I LOVED this game. Might be my favorite entry so far. Having different actions cost you more turns fits the feeling of "generic big boss battle" very well, and was an inspired touch. The game is quite pretty and polished, enough so that I played it multiple times. You guys did a really good job. 

This would be the part where I would offer some constructive criticism on how the game could be improved, but not much  sticks out. Especially in the context of a game jam. I suppose some visual feedback of how many turns you're inactive for would be nice. It wouldn't change anything mechanically, but I think it would make what's happening easier to understand, make it easier to keep track of how many more hits you're about to take, and give some tension as your waiting for that number to hit zero so you can act again.  

The idea has merit, and I like the art style overall and think it makes the game stand out. I particularly liked the feel of the spider's jump. Going from the slime, to the spider, to the psychic kid also felt like an interesting progression of power. 

However, I do feel like some clarity was sacrificed for the aesthetic. Personally, I argue text legibility should come before a unique style every time. Not much point in trying to achieve a particular style if that style can't be (or is tough to) parse. 

I also feel like this game could have done away with any kind of traditional health system. Trying to be damaged is an interesting twist, but not if the game only  requires the player to just sit there. I personally found the best way to die to the blue kid was to get on his head and jump every so often. Rinse and repeat. If it's too easy to take damage, and the player has too much health, then the game becomes a mater of grinding easy hits with little interesting decision making or reaction. 

This is a pretty inspired idea! I haven't played much of Vampire Survivors or other games like it, but controlling a mob is an interesting concept that stands on its own. It's like you're coordinating a swarm instead of the "main character", and I dig it. The pixel art was appealing, and I was engaged in chipping away at the vampire's health. This is a pretty solid and polished game jam entry. 

I will note that pressing keyboard keys to place objects on screen was a little awkward. I kept thinking "I have only two types of units; why can't I just left-click and right-click when I'm already using the mouse to aim?"

I also felt that I struggled to create a distraction with the knights as intended. I eventually figured out it's best to place them farther away and the vampire will prioritize walking to them. But his attacks felt too erratic, far-reaching, and unpredictable to make any meaningful strategy around this. Though maybe that just speaks of my unfamiliarity with these types of games?  

Anywho, congrats on the successful entry!

An interesting concept, and well presented at that. I feel like I would have enjoyed a bit of interesting decision making, as there aren't many obstacles present. I know the enemy ai would probably help if they worked in the build like they do in your editor (can totally relate to that), but it could be interesting to somehow have the player pick and choose what resources to gather or what to use for bartering when they do get to the heroes. 

I saw in a Discord server we happen to share that you were learning a new engine for this. Honestly very impressive with that context. And the end text got me to chuckle; very relatable. 

Oh, I see.  I'm afraid I'm unfamiliar with that game. My apologies. Congrats on a solid entry!

Cards were a novel way to present this kind of game. Maybe I didn't understand what I was doing, but it seemed like I had to play my whole hand to make anything happen. And then no cards would return to me. I feel like I didn't know how to tell the game what I wanted to do or how to get resources back. The color palette and pixel art were very pleasant to look at.

I felt confused by the controls at first; I didn't realize that I was supposed to be placing cars instead of playing as them. But as far as game jams go, the presentation, enjoyment, and over all polish is among the best of what jams can offer. 

My only real complaint: I'm not sure how strongly this game adheres to the theme. It's excellent in its own right, yes. But when we ask "why did the chicken cross the road", we aren't speaking from the chicken's perspective; I didn't feel like I was playing a different or opposing role. 

The artwork alone is absolutely stunning for a 48-hour jam. I suspect we'll see a lot of people interpret the theme with "playing as an NPC", but framing it as an agency was a fun framing device and an inspired touch. Rushing during the loading screen was charming, and the chicken was a nice continuous thread.

If the game got more polish, I would like to see stronger player feedback. The hero's arrival always felt sudden. I eventually wondered if the music kicking in was some sort of cue, but it was too abstract to be sure. Consider adding footsteps or some visual element foreboding his entrance.

Similarly, I struggled to understand how well I was doing. I eventually concluded that the hero became purple when I picked the right choices and red/orange when messing up, but I feel that's not strong communication. His dialogue helps, but it's still hard to know when you do well because an adventure has all sorts of ups and downs. I felt a little caught between trying to roleplay as the NPC and figuring out how to massage the hero's ego.  

Overall, this is an amazing accomplishment. My congrats to the team. 

Thanks, that means a lot. I was a little harsh on myself because the game isn't close to what I wanted it to be, but remembering that this is the game jam has helped put things in perspective.

I really liked the idea, but I think my poor understanding of rolling dice really hurt my ability to progress. I couldn't fight anything without using all of my dice, and I didn't get how finding them worked. But I was invested enough that I wanted to see what I could find and kept trying for a good while.

The game is beautiful, and the tight resources make this a very tense experience. Great work all around. 

Oh, I totally get it. I get the sense it's a common pitfall jam entries fall into.