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Thanks very much for the detailed feedback!  

I wasn't super thrilled with the score UI myself, but it was one of those (many) things that after playing around with it for a bit I just said "it's good enough for now" and never got to go back to it as the deadline approached.  And I went back and forth a lot on whether to remove Theo from the title screen and the screenshots for exactly that reason, but ultimately I decided everything looked better with him in it.  (I then thought about cutting the joke because, as you rightly point out, it's completely spoiled before you even start the game... but I just didn't want to cut it, haha.)  And believe it or not the tutorial was originally even longer than it is now, but thankfully I thought back to the most common piece of feedback I received during my last game jam ("improve the pacing") and tightened it up.  I did consider tightening it up even more for the reason you suggest (jammers want to go from game to game quickly), but I also wanted to teach the player how to play (and deliver some adorable exposition, haha), and I just kept drawing blanks on more efficient ways to do so.  (I think my personal goal for my next game jam will be to try to start the player right in the middle of the action without having to read through dialogue, since I don't want to get too dependent on text-heavy games.)

And wow, nice score!  (Better than I ever did while playtesting, if I'm not mistaken!)

Thank you so much!  That's a great score!  :)

Thanks very much!  And that's a good point!  (I was playing around with the colors for the text and the textbox and eventually just decided on those two, but I probably should have tried out a few more!)

Thanks so much!  I'm glad you enjoyed the game, the atmosphere, and the ever-increasing sense of frenzy!

Thanks also for all your detailed feedback!  Those are definitely fair critiques, and ones that I'm not entirely surprised to hear.  As I just mentioned in response to another comment down below, my main goal with this jam was to get the atmosphere right, so I made the music and the art first, but I didn't leave myself quite enough time to actually make the game part of the game.  This meant that I had even less time to test the game part of the game, which led to some pretty severe balance/fairness issues, which you rightly point out.  

I tested the game a little bit before uploading and never got too overwhelmed by the decorations or the ghosts because I never actually went for particularly high scores, but below is a screenshot of me playing it earlier this evening, and I mean... yikes!  You're not kidding when you say it's impossible to get the cookies!  :)

I also thought about switching it from "one press one move" to "hold down to move," but I had already coded it as "one press to move" and didn't have time to test out how things would be different if I changed it.  (Fair to say my overall lesson learned here is even if the main goal is to focus on atmosphere, always leave enough time to design and test the gameplay, haha.)

And those are some impressive high scores!  (Probably better than my scores were when I play-tested before uploading, but not quiiiiite as high as my 555 number in the screenshot below.  ;)  )  Thanks again for playing and for your thoughtful and thorough feedback!  :)

Thank you very much!  Glad you enjoyed it!

Thanks so much!  The music was my favorite aspect of this game (and the aspect I created first when I first joined the jam), so I thought it would be fun to play around with it in Godot and see how it sounded at different speeds/pitches.  (Turns out I liked it no matter how much I sped it up or slowed it down!)  And that's definitely a fair point!  I originally had other plans for the wand and for Autumn, but the whole game kinda went through several different iterations in my head over the course of the jam before I finally sat down and started implementing one of them, and by that it was far too late to add several of the features that I had considered.  (My main goal with this jam was to get the atmosphere right, so I made the music and the art first, but I didn't leave myself quite enough time to actually make the game part of the game, which is a lesson learned for next time, haha.)  Thanks again!

Thanks so much!  Yeah, I wanted it to get progressively more hectic as time went on and the screen filled up with decorations... but I may have gone a bit overboard, haha.

This game displays a mind-boggling level of visual and musical polish (especially for a game jam game), so amazing job there!  It's positively brimming with atmosphere and cozy autumn vibes, so much so that when I first started playing and thought to myself "Is this entire game literally just going for a walk with no other objective?", my next thought was, "Because if it is, then I would be okay with that, just to take in these beautiful sights and calming atmosphere."  My only constructive comment is that I think a bit less back-tracking might have made for an even more enjoyable experience.  (Walking the trail once was an absolute delight; walking it three times was a little too much.)  But please don't let that one nitpick suggest that I was anything other than blown away by this one; you did an awesome job!  :)

This game appeared simple on the surface but was deceptively deep and nuanced, making it easy to pick up but extremely hard to put down!  (Plus it has achievements, which will always draw me in, haha.)  Great job!  :)

If I had to come up with a genre for this game, I think I'd call it a "vibe simulator," and oh boy, does it give off cozy autumn vibes in spades!  I'll echo a few other people's comments on the hitboxes on the moles and the timing on the notes in the rhythm mini-games, but I think the goal here was to evoke a feeling more than anything else, and in that you definitely succeeded!  Great job!  :)

This game is overflowing with coziness and adorableness, so awesome job nailing the theme/atmosphere!  I think I might have benefitted from a bit more direction on what exactly I was supposed to be doing early on, but I got the hang of it!  Great job!  :)

Thank you!  I just played yours and enjoyed it, too!  :)  (Sorry it took me until the eleventh hour to do so; some things came up and I haven't had a chance to play any jam entries until now!)

Well hey, one game jam is better than none, so congratulations!  :D  I just gave it a play/rate/comment, and you did a great job!  I realize the voting period ends in about an hour and a half (I had some things come up and didn't really have time to play any other jam entries until now), but to the extent you're rating games in the final hours of the jam (or just feel like playing more games even after the voting period ends), feel free to check out mine!  https://mycousinjimmy.itch.io/bear-with-me

This was really cool, and the level of visual polish here is staggering!  I'll echo some other folks' comments that I was a bit lost for a bit at first and that some sound or music would have made it even cozier than it already is, but no other comments here!  Great job!  :)

Really cool idea, and I loved the framing of it at the beginning!  (I really wanted to hear Grandpa tell his grandkids about the pumpkin pie!)  Great job!  :)

Here’s mine—titled “Bear With Me”—if you have time to take a look!  I’ll be sure to rate yours, too!

https://itch.io/jam/cozy-autumn-game-jam-2022/rate/1714924

Here’s mine—titled “Bear With Me”—if you have time to take a look! (Seems like you’ve got quite a few others to check out already, haha.) I’ll be sure to rate yours, too!

https://itch.io/jam/cozy-autumn-game-jam-2022/rate/1714924

Very fun idea!  Here’s mine—titled “Bear With Me”—if you’d like to take a look!

https://itch.io/jam/cozy-autumn-game-jam-2022/rate/1714924

That sounds really cool! (Even without Gameboy link cable functionality, haha.) I certainly hope you finish; I’d love to see the finished product. ☺️

I’m not sure it would work if it was used as the only multi-use mechanic, as that might be seen as kind of a copout, but I think it would be funny to acknowledge it as long as the game had an actual gameplay-related multi-use mechanic.  (But it would be awesome if you could somehow tie the two together—like a Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Ages / Oracle of Seasons type deal where each game can be played on its own, but they change into something else if you play them both.)

Unless I’m mistaken, VimJam’s requirement is “multi-use,” so if you think about it, using the same game for multiple jams is EXTRA appropriate. :)

Following up on this:  I've uploaded a Windows build, if you still want to check it out!  :)

No worries!  And thanks, I saw and responded to your comment!

Thanks again for the congratulations!  And lol that’s the spirit!  (Honestly I’m guessing a major part of the rankings is just the luck of who happened to play and rate each game, so I’m trying to keep my own excitement in check with that in mind lol.)

I feel bad just copy/pasting my reply to other messages, but it applies equally here, so here it is lol:  Thank you so much!  (And thanks for playing and rating, which I’m sure helped it get to third place!)  I couldn’t believe it when I saw it!  I was blown away by how kind and supportive  everyone was in their comments, and I’m so glad people seem to have liked it!  :)

I feel bad just copy/pasting my reply to another message, but it applies equally here, so here it is lol:  Thank you so much!  (And thanks for playing and rating, which I’m sure helped it get to third place!)  I couldn’t believe it when I saw it!  (It really was incredible!)  I was blown away by how kind and supportive  everyone was in their comments, and I’m so glad people seem to have liked it!  :)

Thank you so much!  (And thanks for playing and rating, which I’m sure helped it get to third place!)  I couldn’t believe it when I saw it!  I was blown away by how kind and supportive  everyone was in their comments, and I’m so glad people seem to have liked it!  :)

Thanks very much  for the feedback!  I agree, my biggest issue with the game is definitely the pacing, but I didn’t have enough time to add a skip option or trim the text in a meaningful way.  (But lesson learned for next time!)

And thanks, I couldn’t believe it!  And no worries!  I didn’t rate yours until pretty close to the deadline, so I figured you might not get to it in time.  I appreciate you leaving a comment on it after the jam ended!

Very cool idea and fun game!  One suggestion I would make is to add checkpoints for each room; in a game about intentionally respawning over and over, I would have preferred not to go back to the beginning each time I respawned.  But overall I thought this was a really good game!

Thanks for your interest!  I don't really know how to upload a Windows build without running the risk of it replacing the HTML build, and I'm afraid to mess around with it this close to the end of the jam, but I'll definitely look into it once the jam is over!

Oh my gosh, thank you so much!  (I'm certainly glad you didn't scratch looking at it, haha.)  Having just played "Pink" myself a few hours ago, I know what a huge compliment that is!  And 3 times?!?  I'm flattered!!!  Thank you again!  :)

Ah, so I thought it might have been a bug, but I didn't want to say that in case it was just me being bad at puzzles, haha.  I was able to work around the bug and solve the first few puzzles where it showed up (it definitely increased the challenge, haha), but I did get stuck and had to give up on one level because of it.  (I forget the level number, but I think the name was something like "Take a walk (in real life, too).")  But it definitely didn't ruin my enjoyment of the game, which I thoroughly enjoyed regardless!

Thanks so much!  I really appreciate the compliment!  (I do quite a bit of writing in my day-to-day, so I'm glad to hear my writing skills are up to snuff, haha.)  I wish you a good day (or night) as well!  :)

Thanks so much!  I'm glad you enjoyed it!

Oh wow, thank you so much!!!  I'm glad you found it relatable; I was hoping that at least a few people would be able to relate to it, but I was a bit concerned that maybe it was just a me problem, haha.  And you're right, even after the game is done, the self doubt keeps nagging!  (I actually tried hinting at that with the last little exchange with the devil at the very end, haha.)  I'm honored to have had you review it!  Thanks again!  :)

Thank you so much!  I've always been a big fan of meta narratives, and I've also always been my own worst enemy, so when I saw what the limitation was the idea came to me almost immediately lol.  I'm glad you enjoyed it!  :)

Thanks so much!  The default visuals had actually grown on me, too, by the end of it, which is just one more reason not to listen to that pesky devil:  the "improvements" that he suggests might not even be improvements at all!

Just played and rated!  Here's mine, if you have a chance to check it out before the deadline!  https://itch.io/jam/mini-jam-111-colors/rate/1634851

Such a cool concept with such a simple execution!  Short, sweet, and very fun!  Great job!

Just played and rated your revolutionary new game!  (Didn't come close to 200, though.)  Here's mine, if you have time to check it out before the deadline!  https://itch.io/jam/mini-jam-111-colors/rate/1634851