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Well done! Some particularly good games this year and many that could have won prizes in an alternate universe so congratulations just for making something and entering, which is most of the fun anyway.

Great news! Congratulations.

That's really kind of you to say - thank you!

I don't know what was going on or why I needed to press keys but I appreciate that the game was reasonably forgiving of my inability to draw in straight lines. A bug I noticed is that during the practice(?) sessions in round two the clock seemed to freeze on 30 if you made a mistake. As many have mentioned, the buzzer sound is rather loud and harsh but that aside the sound/music design is really good, as is the art.

I like this a lot. I don't know if I just had bad RNG on my first attempt but I didn't even come close. On my second attempt I got the other bad ending and then on my third attempt I succeeded. It feels almost like Cluedo. I'd love to see this expanded with more ways of obtaining clues, plus a method for making notes (even just ticking or crossing off info) in the actual game but I realise that was a time constraint problem. Well done though!

I did not like that I didn't know what I was supposed to be doing or, especially, how the health works and I eventually had to go to the comments to find the answer. Once I understood that the game became increasingly easy (putting aside the fact that you could theoretically farm the first wave of the first level indefinitely). I didn't even bother with paying attention to the blocks and just killed enemies until I was able to start unlocking the permanent perks, which then let me focus on the optimising the blocks and maximising a run. I also tried different kinds of wave perks and it didn't really matter, it just meant slight strategic changes to a level at times. I very quickly got to the end and maxed everything.

So, clearly it needs a lot of balancing and an explanation of the health in the beginning would be very helpful. However it's definitely a good prototype for a more complex game and more challenging enemies, plus perhaps wave perks that start to cancel each other out or work in opposition to each other so you have to strategise. It would also be interesting to have the grid expand or contract sideways in some sort of mechanic because you can't really use those end columns in the later levels. Also, and maybe this is a positive, you can actually use hearts, with certain perks, to help to clear low numbers off the grid so being hit can be advantageous if you know how to use it.

The music, while not bad, had a loop that was too short and so it got repetitive quickly but I like the art and overall feel.

I didn't see the escape pod the first few times and was just walking around picking up stuff and wondering why it kept resetting and then I read the description (I hadn't because I didn't want spoilers) and realised what I missing and kept an eye out for it.

On the planet itself three of my four stats zeroed with no consequences and it was only when the last one hit zero that I died. Sometimes, also, the text said I got a stat gain but it didn't reflect in the stat bar.

I'd like a little more narrative info as to how to raise sanity because it seemed the most arbitrary of trying to manage the four stats.

The "eat", "drink", "heal" options aren't particularly noticeable, especially because you can't put this game into full screen (that's a setting you need to change via the page "Edit" option on itch, which is accessible via your Dashboard) so the itch links on the top right of the page are partially obscuring the game area.

Having said all of that, narratively I really liked this.

I really love the art. Well done on distilling the theme into something so simple, yet not easy.

All fair points. I just didn't have time to add the rest of it, including more complicated and interesting endings (and story indications of what you could be aiming for). The tradeoff was to have at least something - in this case a good ending and a bad ending - so that there is a complete story loop for the player rather than a broken jam game with no ending. I had also planned a basic game of nine plants/planets (three easy, three medium, three hard) but only had enough time to add two easy and one hard. In a not-jam game I would add even more, of course.

I have a couple of random events in the game that can negatively or positively affect your resources but I had intended to add a lot more plus some probability things you would know about and could anticipate/try to plan for.

In reading about Midnight Staircase I came across Aaron A Reed's description of it for Fallen London, a game I play, and, honestly, the Midnight Staircase aspect of that game is the most boring, grindy part of it (it's also a significant part of the game) so I had that in my head as I was designing my game, unfortunately. I also, as I mentioned in another comment, lost a lot of time in the beginning because I had planned to make a game in Bitsy and then had to pivot when I realised I couldn't make this theme work in it.

I do feel that I've got the basics of a good game here but it needs time and work outside of the constraints and pressure of a jam so I've put it in the circle-back pile (although that pile is getting bigger every year). If/when I get back to it I'll definitely take everything you've said into account as it's very helpful. Thank you.

All those things are always on the list but I didn't even finish adding all the plants/planets and story/stat randomisation elements that I wanted to include, nevermind people and plant art, which were something I'd also intended to do.

I had actually planned to make a Bitsy game because I've done so many Twine games in the past, especially for the SA Game Jams, but the theme, unfortunately, didn't suit Bitsy, which has a far more simplified, and somewhat cumbersome, way of handling variables and state transitions. I lost a lot of time trying to figure out if I could do something in Bitsy and eventually gave up on that hope and moved over to Twine to do the best that I could do in the time that I had left.

If you're interested, I'd recommend looking at my Twine games The Mischievous Thievery Of Jessica The Cat and You Will Not Live. Jessica is a long term project where I am able to work at my own pace and I'm using it to experiment and test stuff (it was quite an accomplishment getting the audio working), as well as work on narrative writing. YWNL was a 2021 SA Game Jam entry, which I still don't know how I managed to do in three days but I was just in the zone that weekend (excuse the bugs).

Thanks for playing and for your comments.

NetFlorist is an absolute hack. The Extrasolar Botany Association is the real deal - and it doesn't make offensive radio ads or spam you with marketing messages either.

(Although, actually, I've made a note of that for my list of possible extra things to add if I do a game revision in the future.)

And sleep.

I really like this - the art is particularly good but the whole idea is great.

I couldn't get past Chapter 4, however. I tried about five times and closest I got was 16 points away. I'd like to have a preview of what unit is coming next, which would help with strategising. Also, the font on the scroll is a bit small (even at full screen).

I've just noticed there's a typo. It should be "receive" in the first line.

I did. I have the confirmation email from 31 August 2024. (Also, that's the link for the contributor copy, not the agreement.)

These are some really great adventure seed ideas.

I love the art. I love the design. I love how you managed to get so much information onto one card. Well done!

I have some ideas. (I'm also open to ideas.) I don't know if I will take it further, though, as I like this as an intriguing one-off, rather than the start of a world building project, but I am very tempted to do the other Burgundy Knight, which is similar, except it's lost one of its eyes.

This is a very creative idea. I like it.

(CERAMIC Strict is new to me. I've got a couple of cards that qualify so I will have to update their pages when I have a moment.)

One I use is Carlito (https://fonts.google.com/specimen/Carlito/), although I don't use it that small, but you can try Neue Helvetica if you have access to it or Nimbus Sans L (https://www.fontsquirrel.com/fonts/nimbus-sans-l).

Sorry - yes. Wasn't trying to argue either. I got my first two packs on Friday and when the cards print well they are so cool so I want everyone's cards to print well!

Sans serif typefaces work better at small sizes. If you want to put white/light text on a black/dark background the rule of thumb is to step it up a size and/or boost it slightly with a thin border, although that border trick won't work well with a serif font when it's too small because it'll just turn the letters into blobs. Increased leading also helps but, of course, then you lose physical space.

I love the art for this. Useful tool, too.

I don't know what the font sizes are because I have an older version of Affinity Publisher and can't open your file (are you on V2?) but the front of the card is pushing the boundaries of the smallest. The back is going to be too small with its font size and leading (and the dark background), except for people with extremely good eyesight.

(I say this as someone with decades of experience as a print journalist. Nevertheless I voted yes because I really like it.)

This is very cool but I don't know that it's going to be legible when printed as  bridge card. I suspect the font is too small.

The genre choices made me laugh!

I got a copy of this card (two, actually) in my Tiny Library packs and I thought it printed really well. Looks good!

Thank you!

I upgraded from Build 721 (AFAIK) to v0.0.851.

I was outside Harrowdus, visiting for the first time. I went in, investigated the whole town, talked to NPCs, etc, then tried to leave and got kicked out with:

Error

Moonring v0.0.851:

actor_manager.lua:3484: More than one creature exists with ID: 1

Traceback

[love "callbacks.lua"]:228: in function 'handler'
[C]: in function 'error'
actor_manager.lua:3484: in function 'checkCreatureIDs'
state_game.lua:15291: in function 'saveCurrentWorldAndChangeWorld'
state_game.lua:14685: in function 'zoomOut'
state_game.lua:7780: in function 'fixedUpdate'
state_game.lua:2724: in function 'update'
main.lua:1275: in function 'gameUpdate'
main.lua:1295: in function 'update'
[love "callbacks.lua"]:162: in function <[love "callbacks.lua"]:144>
[C]: in function 'xpcall'

Thanks. I appreciate the feedback.

Thank you!

Thank you so much!

Indeed, and thank you for noticing. Sometimes a graveyard just has your ancestors (or someone's, anyway). Occasionally there's a magic sword. Often there are just really beautiful gardens. (Probably not so much in this case since the groundskeeper is neglecting his duties!)

I've seen other people use similar images (I made these myself during last year's jam) and it adds a graphic element that helps to break up the text so that's why I do it.

I hope you play it and enjoy it!

The music machine eventually leads to a nighttime dance parties.

Appeasing the spirits eventually leads to friendly spirits in the graveyard at night.

Giving tribute to the ocean shrine eventually leads to dancing mermaids appearing in the ocean. If you don't you end up with angry mermaids and lose gold.

This is beautiful work!

Ok, cool. Got it. I understood the intention, just not how the mechanic worked with a die.

So are you saying you first need to roll a 1, then, once you do, you need to roll a 1 or 2? Continuing, once you roll a 1 or 2, you need to roll a 1 or a 2 or a 3? (And so on?)

Question: How do the filled circles increase the odds of the favour being granted if it's based on a 1d6 roll?

(BTW I'd suggest "agree" instead of "obey".)

In Afrikaans, "meer" means "more".

That is an excellent point. I would like that kind of party.