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ESC does open the Menu, but you’re right there should be a button. The next build is full of UI improvements. 

Custom item priority is an interesting thought. We’ve been contemplating inventory slots or some other change in that area to allow both items and treasure to be used.  

Thanks for the feedback!

The difficulty is ever-evolving. I felt like the version Retomation played was too easy. At the very least, it was easy until 1-2, which is when you'd go on to win or get stopped dead and lose all 3 lives. When we added abilities, shields, and potions, that just made it even easier, so we had to ramp the difficulty significantly. It is probably too hard right now. I can beat it with some extremely cheesy tactics (because I know all the tricks),  but without doing that I do not win very often.

New people will never know what the older versions were like, so we're always trying to keep the posted version difficult enough. If it's too easy, someone will play it once, say, "That was neat" and never look at it again. The long term goal is to have progression unlocks (like most roguelikes) so that even a failed run will be worth it. 

What I love about your feedback is the specific examples. Anyone can say, "You should put in synergies," but giving us cool ideas for them is what is really helpful. Synergies, clan bonuses, and unit combining/upgrades are all on the list of potential features. Eventually you have to sit down and come up with them though and you run out of creative ideas. Those are all really creative ideas that are going in the idea bucket.

Here's a little secret (don't tell anyone): the minions are already divided into 4 distinct clans in the game code and have thematic stats and abilities: The Fiendish, The Enchanted, The Corrupted, and The Undead.

Thanks. Jack was definitely working correctly in the past, but it's possible he's getting reset now. Jack should definitely work the same as Vampy, and you should be able to make him go very fast. I'll check it out.

"Different types of pathing" is a totally new suggestion. Maybe you hold down the space bar to activate/deactivate your "alternative pathing" mode?  Good stuff.  Keep it coming.

As I've said a few times, we were completely caught off-guard by the influx of players from Retromation's channel. I'm glad people are commenting here on itch. I was scared we'd lose all of this engagement because we didn't have social media accounts for the project yet. We will probably start a Discord soon. I've never run a public Discord before so there will be a bit of a learning curve.

You were right! Speed kills! We just fixed it and posted a new build.

Thank you for the bug report! We have squashed a few bugs with keys left on the stairs. Whenever I see that, I’m concerned something is wrong. The pixies absolutely should take the keys down the stairs. Sometimes, it can just be perfect timing of a hit that kills them a frame before they descend… but if that were the case, you’d see a health potion there too. Sounds more like a bug the more I think about it. We’re going to look into it.

This was excellent.  Great sounds, both effects and music (I liked that it kind of came and went, so I wouldn't get sick of it).  Great use of visual assets.  Smooth controls.  Good difficulty scaling. 

Man, I usually like to come up with some sort of constructive feedback, but I don't anything but positives things to say here.  This is really polished.  Nice work.

Great job!  This is well put together overall.  My UnCurser gun would occasionally stop making noise if I held the trigger down too long.  Some of the games from this Jam have been too hard, but I think this one could use a difficulty bump to make it a bit more hectic/frantic when lots of furniture is coming to life at once. 

Very impressive for your first published game.  I was pleasantly surprised by the size of the overworld map and the procedural dungeons.  The difficulty ramped up a bit quickly on me.  Maybe toss the player an extra heart now and then ;)

Let's just say Momo will be very disappointed in me when he returns from the Abyss.

This was really well done.  I agree with some earlier feedback about the difficulty.  The timer almost felt unncessary.  I would have liked to take my time to read and examine the ingredients more closely.  Your idea of a static menu on the side is a good one.

I'm glad to hear you've added music.  It needs silly spooky music and sound effects.

Nice animations on those static assets.  Smooth controls.  The signposts were very helpful. 

Good idea with the campfires. It would be quite challenging to beat it in a single run, but you didn't punish me for dying (repeatedly), so I kept going until I finished it.

I found the clue, but was not able to solve it.  Maybe I need a sink with another clue in it!  I'm curious to see where you go with this.

Nice platforming physics.  I liked the curse variety.  The 'reverse' especially caught me off-guard.  Add some sound effects and you've got a total package.

Neat little physics romp.

Oh, you're right.  I didn't notice it always moving on its own because when I'm decisive, I'm pressing the key.

2017 was a beast for me.  I knew exactly what I needed to do, just couldn't get the pattern right in my brain.  I went back to it and got through it.  I will finish this game.

I thought of some actual feedback too.  So I played this because my jam partner played it and said it was his favorite also.  Looking at a jam with 200+ entries, I was probably not going to play yours on my own because the presentation was too simple (e.g. the title image).  It didn't draw me in at all, and I questioned how it was even going to fit with the theme.  I was judging your book by the cover and I was 100% wrong.  That being said, I have no idea what you should change because I think the aesthetic of your game is perfect, and anything too flashy would be doing it a disservice.  The minimal nature of the game is what makes it amazing.  How do you advertise the minimalism as a positive when surrounded by games where minimalism usually means "incomplete" at best, and "painful" at worst?

It's far beyond the scope of this jam, but fully painted box art like Atari games used to have would be a perfect fit for this game.

Wow.  Wow.  The first level is really clever and totally makes up for the lack of instructions. 

Sprites and animations: Great.
Music : Great.
Sound: Great.
Difficulty: Perfect.  The addition of the blank spaces is brilliant.
Controls: Good.  I'm not sure if it's supposed to continuing to move on it's own sometimes or if that's a bug.  Either way, I adapted.

I am stumped on a level and I'm leaving that browser tab open until I figure it out.

I sincerely hope you win.

Wow.

Ha! I have a feeling there was a reason I left Mother in there, but it escapes me now.  Probably a 2 AM decision.

We were focused on being web-playable first and foremost because that's what we prefer.  We had no idea people would prefer to download the game, or want to run it full screen.  We didn't give much thought to desktop resolution (except to pick something that wouldn't be to large for most monitors).  I'm glad it has some built-in full screen capabilities (thanks Unity).  It is now obvious to me that a Windowed/Full Screen toggle is a required feature next time.

The starting letter issue is definitely a bug to work out.  We're going to make each starting letter unique, which will limit us to only 24 attackers at once, but then we'll make up for it with speed and word length changes.  That will also help with the late-game clutter when you have so many attackers you can't read anything.

Thanks for the feedback!

Thanks for checking it out!  It was exhasusting to test at times.

What you've got so far looks and sounds great.  Keep going!

OK, straight up: everything about the ghost's "spook" attack is amazing.  I love the animation, the sound, and the angry speech bubble.

Next step is to make the gameplay slightly more forgiving.  Maybe let the explorers steal a few pieces of gold before it's game over :)

Great job on your first Jam.

10/10 would spook again

Great job sumbitting to your second itch Jam!

My advice is to look at the UI of other 3D games and practice making something similar with your toolset.

Keep at it!

This played really well.  Controls were good.  Physics felt good.  Music and sound effects are a plus.

My advice is make sure you fully explain the gameplay mechanics to the player.  You mentioned movement and jump, but you left out the double-jump.  I got pretty far before I realized I could double-jump.  Also the stomping on zombies.  I was fell down in that deep pit before I realized I had an attack I could use.

Great job though!

This was really good use of the theme.  I had not looked at the screenshots before I started.  When I saw the first jump, I said, "Oh you've got to be kidding me."  And then I landed and said, "OOOOOOH!"

3D platforming is definitely not my strong suit, but I got through the jumping phase.  The Reset key was a good idea, but you should reposition the car facing forwards each time because.. uh.. I got it pretty stuck :)

Good idea having the items drop randomly each time; that adds to the replayability.  The physics felt pretty good once I got the hang of it (only blew up a few times).

You should add the option to play with WASD because I'm a left-handed weirdo that prefers that over arrow keys.

Great looking menu screen and music.  As first I was concerned when I couldn't see any graves through the fog, but then they started showing up.  Nice work.

Thanks!  We tried to go a bit outside the box on the theme to stand out.

Thank you!

Shnookerdookies! I... I... I hope she's OK!

"Difficulty" was definitely something we struggled with overall, but you're right.  We were mostly focused on speed and quantity of enemies, but in retrospect ramping up the words would have helped too.

I really liked the transforming concept!  Good animations.  The hitbox on the player is a bit large, making it really difficult.  Maybe go easy on us at the start (give us more transformations) before ramping up the difficulty.

Don't tell me what to do :)
You've got a good start here.  Get that left-right movement more fluid and keep going.

Visually really good.  Loved the music.  Movement controls were good, but the aiming was a bit awkward.  The camera occasionally got stuck on the landscape.

Good looking animations, sounds and UI (even has functional volume sliders).  

Good looking, map, controls and sound effects.  You should find an action-packed soundtrack to go along with the shooting!

I was scared a bit by the menu screen, but the game is a cute little platformer.  I loved the bouncing spiders (and then I shot them in the face).  10/10 would bloop again

I couldn't find any items.  Is that the curse?! Oh nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

Theodore the Detective Chicken solved the mystery.  Loved spookydesk.  Love the humor.

I had weird input lag issues when clicking on things.  Had to click several times for it to register.  Also it's just unfair that monsters can walk through walls when I'm so careful to close the doors behind me ;)

The bouncy physics were good.  I'd make the curse selectable with the mouse instead of typing the number; I kept trying to click them.