itch.io

Fun game! The core loop of taking risks to increase your score feels great. I find myself dying a lot in the early game because I take risks too early, but I have the most success when I play it safe early on and gather some bubbles and then start taking risks. The bear functionality is an interesting twist, the first time they hit me I expected it to pop my bubble but it just pushes me around and disorients me. The controls have taken me a bit to get used to, the "floatiness" of them fits the aesthetic of the game. I've died more than once due to momentum, and have found the most success (so far) by moving continuously, even if I am just moving around in circles rather than standing still. That seems to make it easier to control, for me at least.

The music and art style are both on point! I was delighted when I first saw the cat's eyes moving up/down to follow my controls. The colorful ring that surrounds the cat and reacts to the bubbles and environment is very well done. And the title screen art is crazy detailed (in a good way).

Great job!

I played an early version of this, and loved it. Since then, a lot of bells and whistles have been added that make it an even more enjoyable experience. As others have pointed out, if you're a fan of Return of the Obra Dinn, then this game is for you. It's very much along the same lines, with a lot of sleuthing and mystery-solving packed into an interesting story. Try it out!

Added a new building to deal with dust, the Vent.

Ooh nice, this is exciting! My last playthrough I ran into a bunch of dust problems.

Ah, you are along the right lines (which I'm kind of glad about because that means some of the pieces make sense). There is a much simpler way to deal with the flames though. You don't have to put them out, but you can't just reach your hand into them. Look around for something that you can use to grab the wheel out of the flames. It should be nearby.

Thanks for the remarks! Glad you got that aha moment, that's what puzzle games are always striving for as far as I'm concerned haha. We will focus more on optimization in future jams :)

Oops, I mean I was able to deduce it! It would have been a miracle to snap the 2 pics correctly on the first try haha

Hey thanks! Glad you liked it!

This game is incredible! Unique idea that I haven't seen anywhere else, well executed. I would have liked the animations to be a touch quicker, there were times when I knew exactly what moves I had to make, but waiting for the words to swap took longer than I would have liked. Excellent game overall though, and I liked the ending.

Bummer! Thanks for giving it a shot though :)

Thanks so much for powering through! Glad you got to see the last puzzle, we spent a lot of time making it look good :) 

The last puzzle is difficult for most people, I'd like to spend more time making it clearer. Thanks for checking the game out! We first person-ers gotta stick together haha

Really cool idea, and I got it my first try! I wasn't quite sure what to do at first, but I figured it out kind of by accident - I had taken a picture and just happened to walk by one of the suspects. I also wasn't 100% sure I got it right my first try, so I had to play again and intentionally fail to see what the fail screen looked like. Maybe adding in the word "Congratulations" on the win screen would help. Great work!

Cool game and a good implementation of the theme! You designed the levels well too, there were a few tough spots but for the most part I was able to push one ball into a corner and leave it there while I focused on the other ball. An idea for a final level might be some extended control over both of them, just to really ramp up the difficulty haha.

Hey thanks so much for checking it out! I appreciate your feedback and playing it all the way through to the end! I saw it run poorly on one other PC, but it wasn't a beast (didn't even have a dedicated vid card) so I didn't anticipate it being a huge problem. I added in some quality settings at the last second, but didn't have time to tweak them so not sure they helped very much.

Also glad you got Myst vibes from the game, we definitely took inspiration from it and games like it.

Your polish is on another level! Seems like a full-fledged game, not a jam game. Great work! I agree with the others that I won't be surprised if I see your game in the top 20 video.

Simply amazing! Great job on the puzzle design. At first I was afraid it would be a clone of A Monster's Expedition but this is clearly its own thing.

This was my first thought as well haha, got a good laugh out of me!

Clever mechanic which I found it very difficult.

Great idea and well executed! Towards the end when you see yourself in 2 different planes blew my mind.

I am very impressed by the puzzle design, especially considering the jam was only 48 hours! You did a great job of building up the mechanics over time and utilizing surprising side effects of the core mechanic. I loved the stretch/snap back functionality!

Also won't run for me, as others have mentioned. I get the error "The code execution cannot proceed because Kinect20.dll was not found. Reinstalling the program may fix this problem."

Great game as always Le Slo! I wasn't able to finish it, I got stuck on level 6ish I think. Lots of same-colored stars rotating at 3 different speeds. I tried grouping by different speeds but that didn't do it. I will likely come back and try to beat it after the voting period is over!

Good post! Lots of people struggle with social media these days, and the pandemic only made things worse as it became the de facto method of staying in touch, and people had a lot more time to endlessly scroll.

Have you read the book Digital Minimalism? I listened to it on audible last year, and it's a great book that touches on some of what you talked about here. My core takeaway from the book was that social media has undeniable benefits, but it also comes with some costs. One of those costs is your sanity. You have to determine, platform by platform, if those costs are worth the benefits. One of the ideas the book presents is to take a month-long hiatus from all social media, and then slowly reintroduce it into your life.

I've never had a huge problem with social media myself, but after reading the book I completely bailed on a few platforms. It seems like you don't have a *terrible* relationship with social media, but it might still be worth a read!

Welcome back! Sorry to hear that life has been tumultuous, but happy to hear that you're largely on the other side of it. It's much easier to drop a project altogether and start a new one than it is to return to it after a delay. I'm impressed with your desire to return!

I waver between wanting to make the games I want to make and/or play and the games I think others might want to play.

This hits home for me. It's a difficult line to walk, making something you care about passionately, vs. making something that will sell. I personally have settled for making a game I want to play, treating myself as the "ideal player". If you can find others who like the same kinds of games as you, then you already have a small market going!

Looking forward to future updates :)

Wow, a dead drive mid-development. That's one of those things that they always warn you about but never happens. Sorry to hear it!

Very insightful post! One of the biggest take-aways, for me personally, was how you laid out level progression as it related to narrative. Linear puzzle progression does lend itself well to a narrative driven game. Great point that I never really thought about before.

Regarding the N-Gon idea, I love it! It's a really good idea and will be a nice reward after each level. It could be a good opportunity for some juicy animation too (maybe not mobile-game levels of juice, but something fun and exciting).

Out of curiosity, do you plan on having the N-Gon amount rewarded at the end of each level be variable, for instance if you beat the level in fewer moves you get a higher reward? I know there is some debate about "move counters" in puzzle games and how they can detract from the point of the game. I'm curious if you've thought about this for IGEO though.

Thanks again for the post, looking forward to more!

Really good stuff as always Nate! I didn't even get to the power ups until after my third death, and at that point the game got real good.

Solid, replayable gameplay, and the power ups just make me want to keep going and see how powerful I can make my guy. I'll often leave 1 enemy alive and collect as many coins as I can until they kill themself.

Nice clean art, and you did a great job with the UI portraying what was happening. I was never confused at any point. And of course, the music is great.

Picked this game up as soon as it launched and have been playing it a bit off and on. I haven't finished it by any means yet, which is a good thing because that means there are lots of puzzles. Really enjoying it so far though! The music sounds like an enhanced version of the first game, which I like.

If you're looking for a difficult yet relaxing puzzle game, this is for you!

Interesting update! Regarding #3, what mechanics did you throw away, if you don't mind delving into it? Were any of them present in the initial demo?