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Hmm, I like the idea of having a high score of how far you got, for replayability's sake.

Neat idea! I like the story elements along with the math. I also like having options for which attack you'll use. Also, the eggjam health icon is very cute and fun!

(Speaking as someone who didn't follow the theme at all, I think I can say that) fighting with numbers is a pretty comical way to use the theme :)

Very fun!

The intro animation with the falling letters is really neat.

Three classes? In a jam game?! And upgrades? Very impressive.

It feels like maybe the game is a bit too easy right now, with the upgrades and everything? I made it to level 17 on my first run, which seemed crazy far.

When I'm at a point (after upgrades) where a three-letter word is worth nine points, it feels a bit odd for a six-letter word to be only worth twelve points. Maybe have an extra bonus for a six-letter word?

I really enjoyed the main mechanic, especially having to strategize about when to use words, and having to remember words you've thought of but want to save to use for later.

I love the character art. Fighting with a pen is great!

I could imagine this being really fun as a daily game where everyone has the same seed. This isn't something I would want to sit and play for a long time, but I would play it daily (if the games were typically shorter than 17 levels.)

What a great, polished jam submission! It really feels like a full game. I did find some bugs, but they didn't detract from my enjoyment:

Bugs:

• Somehow, I was once able to submit the same word twice? (See used words in screenshot below.) I was only able to do this the one time.
• When I did the +5 health upgrade, it didn't show my new health immediately (but it did after my next move).
• Somehow, I got into a mode where hitting "enter" was functioning as "backspace" if what I had typed wasn't a submittable word. It was only temporary.
• I got the same set of letters two levels in a row. It seems like there are only a small number of letter combinations (I later got other repeats, but never twice in a row). It felt weirder to me having it twice in a row than with some space between.
• Somehow after I ended the game (I hit "quit" instead of starting a new game), I was able to resume my game, and I still had some health left.
• It also seemed like I was able to get in an attack after dying (before hitting "quit").

This is an interesting concept!

Even with the tutorial, it took me a while to understand what to do. After I played the game, I read the description text, and that was much more informative (fortunately by then I had figured it out). Even the tutorial didn't make it clear that I needed to end my turn. Perhaps the turn could end automatically once the player has done both moves?

I like how the menu has you use the game mechanic to pick main game or tutorial ... but I did sit there for a while thinking they were all buttons and unsure about what the difference was between "main game" and "play" was. Maybe have the "play" card animate a bit every few seconds to encourage clicking on it?

I couldn't figure out if the colors were relevant or not. Do words with the same colors get more points when attacking or defending? Or is it irrelevant?

I think it would be neat if there was a bit more strategizing to do (or maybe it was there and I just missed it). Like if you had some idea of what sort of sentence was coming up next, you might have a better idea of what words to hold onto instead of using them to shield?

Anyway, I enjoyed exploring the concept, and hat tip for actually using the jam theme! 

Neat! I can't sightread without shapes, but it was fun to try. I definitely would like to be able to hear the notes. And how fun that you made it in PICO-8!

It's very interesting how my gameplay changed over time. At first, I was running towards all the beings. Then, I decided they were "better off" if I didn't change their paths, so I started trying to avoid them. Then, near the end, I decided to try once more in case maybe their behavior changed. Sadly, it hadn't. 😔

Took me a minute to realize how to push the boulder (instructions were hard to read) but once i got the hang of it, it was fun.

it's fun! i managed to get to 19. it would be nice if you had a high score tracker. i noticed that sometimes the carrots spawn where you are, which is fine but unexpected. thanks! i enjoyed it!

Movement is very fun! I like trying to survive. It would be nice if you could restart without having to go back to the intro screen.

this is fun! i played through all the levels and would have kept playing if there were more!

Thanks for trying it out, and for trying out all the other entries too! I hadn't thought of the Rorschach test comparison, but it's totally true!

Nice! I really liked the music. And the (I assume) procedurally generated names were a nice touch to go along with the procedurally generated islands. Well done!

Neat! The rotation tool is really cool! I don't think I've seen that before in a map generator

Neat!

Neat! Looks like it would be neat to knit as fair isle too, as well as weaving.

Very cute! Music fits great, and there's good game feel with the bubbles dropping down a little when you fall on them.

Heck yeah! This is great! 

For some reason, it took me a while to realize I could rotate the pieces, even though I saw that you could rotate them in a screenshot you'd posted earlier XD

I loved the little "infinite loop" note :)

I liked the unlocking difficulties.

If you feel like it, I think it would be handy to have a level reset button that either resets the same level or gives you a new one. Just something to do if you know you're gonna fail other than needing to place the remaining tiles.

Nice! I love games with simple controls. Movement felt good.

I really like the visual design & audio!

i did die in the desert 

i expected to be able to interact with more stuff, even if it ultimately didn't do anything.

i really like the minimalist feel: not sure if that was intentional or a result of the jam timeframe or both, but it was cool

i found a secret, i think ;)

I really liked the bumpers! 

It took me a while to realize that I could jump. Usually I read the instructions, but I totally failed to. So that's on me. But regardless, I prefer to jump using the up key over X. But that's just personal preference.

The sound effects messed with my ears, but I think that's a me problem. I've had a lot of games do that with super repetitious sounds.

I really liked all the different gates, power ups, and the bumpers. Well done!

Great polish & game feel! I loved the sound effects, music, and animated star field.

For some reason I kept forgetting I could move forward & back, even though the tutorial taught me that I could. That made avoiding enemies difficult, for sure :D

I'm not a big arcade game player, but I enjoyed it anyway!

yeah, i am on a high dpi display. i'm happy to help test if you'd like. you can message me on the WGJ discord; i'm mapsandapps there as well.

interesting take on the theme.

i liked that you had the controls listed in the game and below the game, but the text below the game didn't mention that you use arrows & WASD to move, and you have to jump to see the text at the beginning that tells you what controls you can use to move. so maybe move that text down a bit, haha. at least they're standard controls, so it's pretty predictable. anyway, not a big deal since so many jam games don't even list the controls at all, haha.

i liked the "trap".

super neat game! i played through all the levels.

cool twist on the theme!

some things i'd like to see if you continue to work on it:

• i'd like the game to be larger (instead of having a big black border around it) and fullscreenable
• a hotkey to release the current thumbnail (without having to use it) would be handy
• a level selector and star system where you would get three stars if you solved the level using the fewest thumbnails possible
• the audio seemed quite loud to me. i changed my system volume so it was no big deal, but having audio settings would be really nice if it were a longer game, where i might be dipping in and out or listening to something else while playing.
• definitely more levels! i really enjoyed playing the game :)

ooh, yeah, i like the rhythm idea!

very cool game! i played it for an hour or two and even managed to win :)

i like the mouseover highlighting of red & green. the lock mechanic is really neat too. and the core minesweeper-ish mechanic is super engaging.

i didn't really mind having to figure out how the game works, but other people might feel differently.

i did find a couple bugs (or what appeared to be bugs), but they didn't really hurt my enjoyment of the game:

there's a bug (i assume) in that you can use the telescope multiple times when you get it.

there's a square you can hit that makes the locks go away? but it looks like a regular square both before and after you click it?

so yeah, just some stuff to look into if you feel like it. but i think it's super fun as-is. thanks for making it! :D

it made me smile :)

Happy to hear it! Thanks!

It's fun! I love the visual design

The art style is super cute! The combination of keys triggered some things to move around on my screen, so I'll second the idea of changing the fire key.