Welp, it took more time than I'd like to admit, but I plowed the parking lot for ya! Really, really cool little proof of concept, and well-explained in the video. Thanks for sharing this with us!
OlManMumbler
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Just stumbled on this game looking through new and popular. Thumbnail caught my eye, and I love jam gams so I tried it out. Great presentation, great vibe, fantastic art and interface. This is just about a perfect little game jam game! Very nicely done, great job! Thanks for making us all a game to play!
I tried to figure out how to play this, I really did. It seems oddly creative in spite of itself, but I cannot get through the UI to upgrade or anything. Maybe it's a shortcircuit on my end, but the whole thing felt unintuitive and sort of confusing. The visuals are somewhere between terrible and fantastically trippy, so overall I'm left in an odd state of "that was cool, but I'm not wholly sure what it was." Points for creativity, though; I'm still not sure how to feel about what just happened to me here. Thanks for giving us a game to play!
I'm not entirely sure what to say here. I suppose it's entirely possible you made this purely for the enjoyment of your friends, but like the other review says, I have no idea how it fits either theme of the jam. From a mechanical side, just about every plot line lead to a crash screen, which is not entirely fantastic. Still you crossed the finish line, made something, and published before a deadline, so kudos...thanks for...giving us a ...game (?) to play?
Not a bad effort for a few hours, for sure! All the systems in place work as well as you would expect, though admittedly without much flare or oomph. The randomization of the runes falling caused me to have a full work area of runes by the end of the second order, but that's the nature of randomness lol. Charming art, and the music wasn't half bad either. Thanks for putting together a game for us all to play!
Actually not a bad little game! Reaaaaally hard at first, but once you get into how to move around, this was surprisingly addictive. I feel like the game is almost too fast in general for the point of view; I don't have enough time to really react to what's happening on screen and mostly have to go on faith that my motions will bring the projectiles in the right path to get me points and keep me alive. Sort of headache inducing after a minute due to the speed, but still somehow a lot of fun. Needs some unce-unce happening to really bring home the action. All around a fun experience, thanks for making us a game!
Hey, way to go getting a game out there! For a first publish this isn't bad at all! It did sort of feel like a fever dream to me, but just that you were able to get multiple animations blended smoothly, etc, is a wonderful accomplishment. I'm not entirely sure where the game was supposed to go after the boss-guy, if anywhere, so SOME sort of end would have been nice. Altogether, though, it's a playable submission, and you crossed the finish line. Congrats, thanks for making us all a game to play!
Thank you, I really appreciate that! Was there anything that stood out as "I wish this happened when I do X"?
And yeah, I figured I'd take the opportunity to solve the mystery of why they take our cattle: to give the rest of the universe I.B.S.!
-Message brought to you by Intergalactic Beef Syndicated
This is a cute, reaaaally short action-rpgish-platformer. Not a bad effort at all, but I think the focus should have been dialed in a bit on one element or another to bring home the fun! As a proof of concept it's not bad, and has all the needed parts to function and get the job done in an enjoyable way. The controls felt a bit heavy, and jumping is a bit of a pain being able to hold the space bar, but the visuals were endearing and when I got to the end, I was actually disappointed there wasn't more for me to play. Well done, thanks for making a game!
This game was sort of a blast, and sort of a groan of slightly janky controls and deaths that didn't quite feel like my fault (even though I know they were, realistically). Epic soundtrack, surprising platformer design for a jam, but certain parts like my character getting stopped on seemingly nothing overall caused me to stop my playthrough before I reached the end. There was some decent design here, like I said, but a lot of the time the room design itself felt needlessly inhibited by other obstacles. As an example, getting the F rune was actually a great feeling once I went "oohhhhhh, I know how to make that jump now!" but getting up TO that jump, I died more times on the wall spikes on the way than I did the actual jump. I know that was sort of the idea of putting them there, but I feel in those sorts of cases the environmental dangers should have taken a backseat to the rune-figuring. All in all, I really had fun trying to work my way through this. Thanks for the game!
This is an incredibly difficult game without a pen and paper, so I'll admit I didn't complete it. Once I understood the concept, I honestly got tired of trying to memorize all the symbols. That said, the presentation here is great, and the idea overall would be a wonderful puzzle inside a game, were it cut down in size a little. Perhaps only 3 columns and 3 rows, much less to memorize. Maybe even introduce two rows first, and then progressively build up to five as the player has time to learn the new symbols. All in all a really well presented puzzle game nonetheless! Thanks for making us all a game!
For what was basically a horizontal walking sim, that was surprisingly fun! Atmosphere was on point, loved the bgm. I would have loved to have a little more at the end; a datapad I have to hack with a little minigame, a little more exposition on where the monsterthingy came from, etc, but in the time given for a jam it was a tense little narrative. Thanks for making us all a game!
I tried to get into this one because I can see where it could go, but there were a few direct problems that made me click away after a few minutes: Since the UI is the sole interaction I have with the game, it really needs to feel satisfying to push buttons. Confirmation sounds, denied sounds, etc, with some light anims to round out the good feel of pushing a button.
When I DO push a button, I also need to see a little hospital, or even a colorrect representation of one, pop up somewhere. I gotta visually see that progress, it's a big part of any city-builder type game.
Mechanically I couldn't really tell what was going on, how much of what I needed, etc. I may have missed some UI in there, but that stuff needs to be right in my face conveniently if I need to see it, or I don't know it exists.
As your description says, I realize this is a project in super-early development, so you've probably already considered everything I've listed above. I just like to try to give feedback, I hope you don't find this disheartening. As a game jam effort it was a good one, and one of the more original attempts I've seen, but just too large in scope to land in this sort of game environment. Nonetheless, thanks for giving us all a game to try out!
Cute translation/Where's Waldo game. Trying to play it in such a tiny window (did I miss a fullscreen button somewhere?) was sort of difficult as I don't have great eyesight, but I got through it in the end. Catchy little retro ditty to go along with it, no major complaints here. I could have used a little more oomph overall, a slightly longer gameplay loop, and to be honest I'm not much of a fan of translation games, but in the end it all ran and worked like I think it was supposed to. Well done finishing, and thanks for making us a game!
Not a bad little walk-and-avoid-the-mobs game. Really short, and not much action to speak of at all, but it plays and it's a functioning game! I like the exposition for the runes you collect, cute little stories, I just needed something to do while I was grabbing them (a little sword-action, etc) rather than just avoiding the mobs. Music was very well done, and I didn't encounter any bugs throughout. Overall, you made a functioning little game and crossed the finish line, well done! Thanks for giving me a game to play!
Basically Vampire Survivors in space, honestly. Not a terrible game, not particularly compelling. I wanted to feel more powerful, watching my powerups blast their way through relentless waves of enemies with epic fist-pumping music in the background while I ponder my next rune combination. I need more boom, more pow, explosions. More action. Like I said, not at all a bad game, and you MADE A GAME! Way to go, you crossed the finish line! Many didn't! Well done, and thanks for giving us a game to play!
This seems like it was quite the effort to make. Always a gamble going this type of game in a jam, and you've always gotta cut some corners somewhere. In this case, the controls were really lacking for the type of game. An action game has to feel responsive, and I often found myself mashing on the button to put away my rifle, things like that.
Also, I couldn't quite tell if the game was over when it said "SURVIVOR", but I assumed it was since nothing really seemed to happen after that moment. That said, an impressive little piece of work for the time given, reminds me somewhat of the old PS1/2 style action games. Thanks for making it!
I NEARLY finished plaything this. NEARLY. As a tech demo it's actually really cool. I love the procgen world, it's really something else for a game jam game. My problem is the requirements to build the ship being so high coupled with there being no background sound, music, nothing like that, quickly turned the experience into a nightmarish slog of searching for resources. I could not cross this finish line, unfortunately.
One other gripe that would go a long ways: make the player capsule skinny. Like, very skinny, or activate a second collisionshape on jumping and and a wider one when falling. Jumping upwards is just...not fun at all.
For what it is, though, it's a great little demo. As a longtime minecraft player (I used to play a lot more than I do now) I found myself getting to scratch that old itch for a second. It was nice. Thanks for giving us a game to play!
My main problem with this game is also my main praise for it, in a weird way: the visual style is pretty creative but sort of hard to look at, and the gameplay is essentially a walking sim in a maze. Having a visually abrasive art style inside a game where the only thing to do really is look around is...not a fantastic combination.
That being said, for what it is it was a mostly soothing (other than my eyyyes, my pooor eyyyes) short experience about wandering almost blindly in a maze. Kudos, and thanks making a game!
I remember this game from early on in the jam. Honestly, it doesn't seem like much has changed outside of perhaps some performance improvements? I was hoping to see some love given to the UI appearance, but I also understand that wasn't entirely the point of making this in your case. I appreciate the little rage game to play!
Crazy Taxi delivery game on an alien planet. This game is alright, but it doesn't feel like I'm working towards anything at all. Even just giving me a goal at the beginning, simple as telling the player how much money they're trying to rack up, would go a long way. After a minute or so of playing, I realized I was just sorta following the road to the next marker mindlessly without really knowing why I was going there.
It's impressive in the size of gameplay area that was pulled together here, and the visuals ALMOST work perfectly together. A lot more love to the craft controls and how it interacts with the world; all I'm going to be doing in your game is flying the craft from one place to another, so it needs to feel good! A world with a few obvious landmarks, some shortcuts to learn, and a goal to work toward. Either way, impressive for a jam effort, for sure. Loved the bgm too, had me doing little head widdlies with the keyboard solos. Thanks for making us all a game to play!
What to say here. It's a game, anyway, and it functions. None of the minigames were particularly inspiring, mostly because they all lacked juice and polish. I need feedback; I need to see the wire extending while I drag it, or watch the target cursor pop when I click on it each time with a satisfying "boop" sound. There's nothing outright wrong here, it all works, but there's nothing thoroughly compelling either. A great effort for a jam, but perhaps a case of trying to do too many minigames in one experience. Focus it in and polish those few minigames that really work. Make solving them fun for me. Thanks for giving me a game to play!
This is a sorta fun little experience, and an obviously great effort in the time you left yourself. The visuals are endearing enough, the cutscenes are heartwarming. My primary issue is that the platforming itself doesn't feel tight enough for something I'm gonna spend a bunch of the game doing. When you make platforming a mechanic as much as it is here, it's gotta feel really good or it just turns into a slog to get through the game. Instead of worrying about how Eviler was going to save the world, I was worried about controlling his floaty jumps and not getting zapped by the upcoming laser (some sounds from the lasers telegraphing when they were active would have been a huge plus as well).
That's not to say it's a bad game. It's got a cute story, fair enough visuals (though it's definitely lacking in the juice department there), and most importantly, you finished it in an incredibly short time and it's playable. Thanks for giving me a game to play!
Thanks for playing! I'm interested to know more about these bugs, I am considering following up and bugfixing after rating has ended. When you say the aim was bugged in the second level, what do you mean exactly?
I've seen a bug a few times where the shooter moved and aimed incredibly fast, and thought I'd squashed that. It did seem to be occurring around the third level for me as well, though the level itself actually shouldn't matter with how he scales. Thanks for reporting that, something to look into for me :P
Thanks again!
This game is SUPER impressive in it's linguistic complexity, and honestly that's my big problem with it. If this were, say, the end-puzzle in a game like Outer Wilds or something, I'd be so deeply invested in the universe I'd enjoy deciphering a message or two before getting some epic ending. In the context of a game jam, I just don't have the time to invest 20-30 minutes flipping through a dictionary memorizing symbols, or jotting down notes. It's too much investment for me in a jam with 30 other games I'm trying to look at.
That being said, I really, really, really like the vibe overall. I'm a pretty big fan of Subnautica/Outer Wilds, etc, and that's just exactly where the whole feel here brought me. I can't help but thinking how this could have been a prototype for a final puzzle for one of those types of games. If it is, you've hit the nail on the head here. I did not come anywhere close to finishing it, but the presentation is spot on. Thanks for giving me a game to check out!
Addendum: I would have loved to be able to get up, walk across the room, and refill my coffee...somehow having to sip from my coffee every so often really added to the whole thing, sincerely.
Alright, this one is a little rough to review, honestly. I immediately love the oldschool nes-style graphics, and was actually looking forward to getting into this one for some fun, simple combat, but I mechanically cannot figure out how to play this game. The amount of controls is overwhelming for what looks (amazing presentation, for the record) like it's going to be a straightforward old Gameboy game. My brain was not prepared for the complexity at all.
It does pain me to write that, for the record, because it's also apparent that a TON of work went into this, and there's a ton of stuff just on the edge of being epic. A game jam just isn't the right venue, usually, for this type of game. In the context, folks here have about 30 games to choose from in just a few days. Give me a game, make it simple to interface with, and teach me how to do so within the game as much as you can. If I have time to sit back down with this before the jam ends I definitely will, it has a promising look but too much overhead to get into. In the end, you finished with something I'd like to revisit, and that's a point of pride I hope. Thanks for giving me a game to play!
Immediate oldschool vibes, MOTHER/Earthbound, SNES-era, which I adore. Kudos on the art style right there, for starters. The music almost fits what's happening, though for a mellow walking moment it's a little too excited, perhaps.
As far as the dialogue goes, since in this type of game telling a story is really important...none of it is really compelling at all, and the translation is...not...great. That's not a knock on you at all, for the record. I only speak one language, so I'm not one to talk...but for the sake of honest feedback I have to say: get a friend, a stranger online, someone, and pass them the writing for a one-over before using it in a narrative experience. It's just too important not to.
Only other feedback I have is I could not tell if I'd reached the end of the game. I talked to the octo-thingy, travelled the spike path, and then boop, returned to the main menu. I tried this several times assuming I might be missing something, but I found no indication.
Overall a really cute, if not too short experience which would have benefited greatly from leaning hard on the story-telling side. These graphics coupled with a great story could be an underground success. Keep at it, thanks for giving us a game to play!
This is a fun game, though I admit I didn't get very far in it. The interface wasn't really explained to me anywhere in the game, so I just found myself plopping runes in the middle slot and hoping I'd survive an encounter. Most times I did not.
In a turn-based game, the complete lack of audio honestly sort of brutalizes the experience; one unifying theme across every great rpg I've ever played is a killer soundtrack, something to keep my brain busy while I this-or-that my next move. Super important in this genre.
The art on an asset-to-asset basis is pretty great. Vibrant colours, mostly cohesive style (the runes feel somehow out of place. Looking at some screens I took, I think it's the difference in pixel width in the outlines compared to scene elements). Overall, though, the art is wonderful.
As a summary, not a bad jam entry by any means, just lacking in the "juice" department in a lot of ways to keep me playing through a turn-based game. Thanks for giving me a game to play!!
This is a surprisingly unsettling 1-bit platformer with randomly assembled set-pieces. Very well done. That BGM is going to be with me for a while. Somehow the simplicity and haunting disagreement in the music and visuals make it feel like there's a much deeper story here than there likely is.
I accomplished a high score of 24 for my efforts. Thanks for giving me a game to enjoy!
To be honest there's not a whole lot for me to say here. Everything I experienced in the game seemed to work just fine, but none of it was particularly compelling. The lack of audio made for a fairly flat experience, even just a bgm track would have made a huge difference. The platforming itself felt alright, but I honestly only went through one character as I found myself drifting mentally while looking for the last coins (I think, I couldn't tell without a coin counter).
As far as a game jam game goes, it's not bad at all. Just seems like you might want to scope your ideas down a bit in the future and concentrate on getting just a single mechanic looking, feeling, and sounding solid before expanding. I got the feeling a bunch of the map was drawn before mechanics were quite working, and then the ideas those mechanics were based off of were abandoned as the deadline approached (I assume the chests were supposed to open, etc). The nature of game jams is to abandon ideas as the deadline rears its head, but you really want to nail that one mechanic down, make it feel juicy, and then build out from there to keep people playing.
All said, you finished the jam with a playable little platformer, and gave us all a little game to enjoy. Thanks for making us a game!
While there might be some questionable content in between the action, the game itself was alright. On more than one occasion the children appeared outside of the playable area, forcing me to frantically run around blindly swinging hoping I could get them. I could have done with a bit more feedback in the action itself, some knockback on the kids, some screenshake when I get hit, iframes, etc. The usual juice.
The art was nice, though overall a bit disturbing in that the game is essentially about hunting down and maiming children.
Audio was functional but not really polished enough to be impactful; the ambient soundtrack had a real distinct loop point and pop. Look into Audacity as an example of a free way to cut and paste audio bits. Super useful.
I want to say I liked the game, but it was a little bit on-the-nose while the loop itself didn't quite work thanks to the out-of-range children. Still, I had a decent time playing it, thanks for making us a game!
Adorable experience. That reminded me of the old Sierra Quest For Glory games a bit, but fruit-based. Other than the lack of music, a pretty fantastic experience. I do wish there'd been some sort of crescendo of action. Not necessarily combat, but perhaps a chase scene or a small amount of platforming between dialogue. I can't really complain, though. The characters were cute, the writing was good, and a few of the jokes got a chuckle out of me. Well done, thanks for the game!