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I get the feeling you were never supposed to win this game long term! I was shooting something every bullet, but mommy still got me! The game built up extremely well though, and that tension leading up to the final kill was excellent! I also appreciated the rising tones of shooting the pie cravers. 

Going forward, since it's a tower defense game I'd really love to see the enemies split into waves, with a shop between waves where you can improve your defences, buy powerups, and progress the force of your gun long term! 

I do think the mommy eating the pie could have been scarier too, like maybe instead of a zoom out she just scoffs the pie from underneath, or jumpscares into the frame to eat the player?

Great game. Lots of fun!

That intro animatic was stellar. It really set up the game well, but I couldn't work out what to do inside the pond. I thought there might be something at the bottom, and loved the way it got darker and darker, but couldn't figure the answer. 

I feel like leaning on your storytelling skills might be the play here. Maybe he goes down and discovers a hole at the bottom of the lake, and carries on into more and more horrific scenes as the place gets darker sort of like The Descent, or a moody indie game! Whatever the plan was with the fish and minigame aspect, I feel like it would have distracted from the great mood you were able to setup. It put me in mind of frog fractions a little bit, and I'd love to see what the story of the rest of the game is!

I sort of understood the concept, like you're trying to hold a door open but you also have to make sure time doesn't run out? But I feel like there's a lot of ways the concept could have been conveyed more clearly to the player. Maybe some simple pixel art images to represent people waiting, or some kind of door that's slowly closing?

I also wasn't clear on if you were supposed to hold the button to keep the door open, or click it rapidly? I think this game could be made a lot more compelling with graphics behind it to tell what's going on. I couldn't visualise all the data on screen about people waiting, or how long to the next person, and as a result I had no clue where I should be putting my effort or resources as I played!

I did like the UI though, and the name is great! It sort of reminded me of Keep talking and nobody explodes!

Really fun concept for a game. I loved the little godot bullets that were being fired at me, and the way the character reacted whenever actions in game happened. The sound effects and music also worked very well, and it made me want to go back and play some classic arcade shooters!

I found it really difficult to make it between checkpoints though, as when I took it slow I ran out of time and going fast just overwhelmed me with the bullets. The plane was just a bit too slow compared to the bullets, and I think maybe having a clear point hitbox ala TouHou would work better with the bullet patterns from the enemies.

I think having more fuel would be useful, because you don't get a lot of slack in reaching each checkpoint as it is right now. or maybe a boost powerup that gives you extra speed for a while!

I think some animations for the bombs would have been good too, but with all the features in the game it's impressive how much you already did in a week!

I did also like that you gave powerups at the start to show what they did. Great way to teach the player how to play <3

It's certainly creepy, and I liked the vibe of the game. But I felt like I had no idea what the goal was, or how to attack properly. 

I think with some more telegraphing in the game it could be pretty great! Like opening with a general guide of what to do whether that's just killing things, or searching for Santa. Also, having an attack without needing to use the mouse would be great. 

Well done!

No spoilers, but there is a way to collect every timepiece ;)

Thank you for your kind words! It was amazing fun to make.

Great concept, unique playstyle, and I loved the way all the extra characters just threw extra stuff around! Took me a second turn to understand there were multiple hiding spots, but got the 1850 anyway! Artstyle is great and fits together great.

I did get stuck on furniture a few times, and on the first game a partygoer threw a bottle where I couldn't pick it up. Another run I was able to pick up the wine because it was too close to the bottle maybe. Also in my winning run there was like 1/4 of the time left and I had to just wait. 

That stuff is all minor though. the game is excellent and really works well. The dialog is good too with the multiple endings based on performance!

For improvements I think music would be top. Are we hungover, or panicked, or just frantic? Music would go a long way to adding drama to the situation. I also feel like you could build some mixups into the game. Maybe the parents call a second time if the player is doing well to say that they took a shortcut, or if the player is lagging a call to say they're in traffic. Also we don't see the parents(maybe they just crash through the wall)

edit: Oooh also I thought for a second that hiding the cigs in the plant damaged the plant. Maybe limiting the number of times you can use a hiding spot could add some more mixups.

Loved the game. Loved the art. Loved the concept!

This game was so good I followed you and want to see an extended cut!

Really great set of minigames. Impressive that you got so many done in the timeframe!

They were all easy to understand, and they all played pretty well, although It wasn't clear to me on the lights game that you couldn't click the same bulb twice, and I ended up in a scenario that I had one bulb left and 2 dimmness levels to go!

If I were to think of improvements I'd say more integration of the sound and gameplay. I can't help but hear warioware sounds in my head as I bonk things and twist the lamps out, and along those lines I felt like an intro cinematic screen rather than just the time bar for each game could have set the mood.

I saw you mention that the level combination code was unfinished, but I can see how you can tweak the levels as you go to have shorter time and more difficulty. That would have been great, and I hope you implement it post Jam!

Excellent job <3

Yup. That's the winner.

I was blown away by the humour, the way all the visual, audio, sound and narrative pieces fit together. As an adventure puzzle game there were no moments of 'how the heck do I do this', and the character was speedy enough to get everywhere fast. There were even hints when you drowned of what button to press, so I knew right away I could jump!

The only two minor things I can comment on are that you can enter the tree tiles sideways, but not from the front. If this was intentional then great, but if not it allowed some shortcuts in the water jump section.

The other thing was that jumping when you slightly overshoot the lily was a bit odd. You still jump but not so much. But on the other hand the fact you have a grace period before drowning was stellar. Colours were vibrant, characters all read as their roles. 

Alright, for the sake of having any criticism whatsoever, the game screenshot has mixels :p

Seriously impressive game! I would love to get a look at the code and see how you managed it all, but I'll let you keep your magician's secrets <3

Really cute game with graphics, sound and gameplay that all fit together in a perfect aesthetic. 

It was instant to pick up, and that's great. I did feel like the gremlins were way too easy to dodge and that the game sort of stalled once I had been going for a minute(final score was 340). 

I'd have loved to see some more presents, or holding multiple presents, or a powerup, or multiple enemies with different patterns later into the level. I found that I settled into a pattern of picking up the present, waiting, dodging round the gremlin then going straight to the child over and over.

Great game with a lot of interesting potential for expansion!

Loved the character and animations, but I feel like the tileset didn't fit with the aesthetic of the character being quite rounded and sketchy. I feel like It might have been interesting to have a hand-drawn map to go with the character portraits.

I got speedups now and then but couldn't understand why. Regardless I found the taverns and had fun!

Excellent little game! It was instant to understand how it works and what happens as you fall, it fit within the theme, and sounded great! 

The thing I had trouble with though was being able to control my descent. I felt like some green balloons were impossible to reach, while the reds were occasionally unavoidable. The blue baloons had way too much of a downward force and cooldown which meant they were nowhere near worth collecting(as the risk of hitting a red near the bottom of the screen was too great!)

I expected the non green baloons to be worth more than one, and with the blue I'd expect it to be at least 3 with the risk you take!

Excellent that it was also in the pico 8! <3

Calling it as the second game I've played: this is my favourite! The levels are well designed, the wall jump mechanic appeals wholeheartedly to my action platformer blood, and the graphics work great!

The character feels great to move around with. I don't think I've played a game that has this much horizontal movement and feels so good. It doesn't have the unstoppable momentum of meatboy, but also gets you further than your typical MegaMan/Hollow knight jumps, and the way the camera is setup seemed to work very well with the movement you went with.

I'd love to see what other kinds of platforming this movement could lead to. Actually trying to connect the feeling to past characters they felt a little bit like Kirby and Jigglypuff from Melee, though not quite as floaty.


In particular I want to give props on the character animation on death and finding the bomb, and I want to say I felt like a true GAMER for completing all three levels. 

As far as points of improvement, I think the addition of sound would go a long way to boost the feeling of this game. Some swooshes when the character jumps from a wall or lands, or goes fast enough to disturb the air as they leap over gaps would feel amazing.

The death plane on level 3 felt a little bit unpolished. Whereas on spikes there's an animation, when you fall off you get the game over before the character has fallen out of frame or there's any indication that you hit the bottom. Maybe a sonic style death bounce could work there with some of your excellent animation. 

I did also feel like the spike death animation was a bit slow. The character hits the spikes, but falls over like they've fainted/lost conciousness. A more sudden or reactive animation might sell the damage more. Prince of Persia 2D comes to mind, but you probably don't need to be as gorey. 

So yes. Excellent game, especially as a solo effort. My improvement points are all minor, so the game is major-ly well done! <3

I understood the concept of collecting groceries, and I love the top down 3D, especially bopping the wee shopping trolley! But I couldn't understand after gathering ingredients how to actually finish the game.

I thought maybe it's back at the start, or that I had collected groceries in the wrong order.  I feel like 3D games are a lot harder to make than 2D so I have to give props for the effort! In terms of the theme though I struggled to connect thyme with time. I'm assuming it features the herb thyme and was intended to have a time limit, but I couldn't see that in the game itself!

It may be my setup, but I also found the graphics to be mostly white and hard to tell where everything was. Maybe with a dark floor and larger consumables I'd have seen things better, but as an old boomer it was challenging!