Thank you. The only things you should be selling are the rings, earrings, necklaces, and bangles you can find. Those are just to make money. As for the skills, I simply ran out of space in their descriptions to tell which stat affects them. The best ones by far are Intelligence and Personality, with Strength being the third most-used. And yeah, I get the pixels being an annoyance. I stopped trying to edit the sprites after four hours with no success (the version of sprites I ended up with was the best one, too). I have no idea why they do that, they look fine in the character preview screens and I even read guides on resizing XP sprites. I had to move on in order to have enough time for making the rest of the game, and I just didn't have time to keep fixing it when everything was finished. Not an excuse, but I had to start prioritizing and I decided the sprites were... mildly passable. Thank you for the feedback, though. Part of me wants to lengthen it so it includes everything I cut out, but it really is a jam-specific game.
Sith_Winchester
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Thank you for playing it. Like I told Phoenix, my favorite thing in older rpgs was to find all the flavor texts for examining everything (especially if it gave me the all-powerful Elixir), so I wanted to have that for other players. Give them little bits that aren't always story-dependent but are fun to read. I've watched/read a lot of murder mysteries (like Law and Order and Murdoch Mysteries) and wanted to keep a pace that was easy but still felt like it was moving toward something definitive. I'm glad you enjoyed the conclusion; it was probably the hardest part to write.
Honestly, Darkson WAS my wacky twist! He was a last-minute addition to the cast. I thought about how many different ways I wanted this to go, but in the end, the story felt like it needed to stay on an even route. I wondered what would be the funniest thing to do without disrupting the tone of the game, and the last scene was what I felt it needed. Enough humor to give a laugh, but not so much that it ruins the theme in any way. The clues were difficult at first, because I wanted there to be enough that there might be a red herring. But I made the list and went 'Oh, god, can I fit this together cohesively?' I'm glad you liked it, and thank you for playing.
Okay, this was short and sweet, and just to be a jerk, I purposefully accused the wrong person and chose the worst evidence to convict them. I like that you were able to give us enough clues to make the interrogation fun. I liked hearing what everyone had to say for each piece of evidence. I DO wish there were multiple endings for accusing the wrong person, or a different ending for choosing the wrong evidence (like the bad guy being able to get away with it). So, if you DO plan on expanding, one of the things you could think about is a multiple-ending route so there's more consequences for the player's choices. I also felt like it was a little too easy to figure out who actually did it. I know that for a short game, you don't always have the luxury of drawing things out, but maybe the character in question could use some tweaking to give more of a mystery to the end? That aside, everything else seemed really good. I loved the music, and the game taking place in a bookstore felt very chill for me. I also loved the writing for the employees because they felt easy to relate to. On a bad day, I am totally Elizabeth 100%. Good job on the entry.
Okay, that is definitely a game I'm going to keep for a little bit. Yes, it was short, but I think it was exactly what it needed to be; it COULD be another level if you wanted, but more than that and it would lose its charm. The ending is definitely worth every second, and I really love the voice acting. I'm assuming it's you, but whoever it is, let them know that they did a good job. :) To be honest, I'm not really sure I would change anything. I never ran into the bug Hawk found, but I also wouldn't get rid of it, because that was an amazing laugh and is a wonderful bonus. Good job, KV.
Okay, I can see that the story's a bit rough, but I like where this is going. I do wish it was longer, because I'm not sure I understand what the context for the game is supposed to be. It seems like there are some things we're supposed to know before the fight that we just don't get any information on. With that being said, the final fight was hilarious and I like the damage log on the side of the screen. I think the story needs polishing, but you've got a start to something here.
Don't be sorry. I've seen other bullet hells that do the same thing, so you're not necessarily doing anything wrong. It's just something I personally never like in any game like that, because I try to conserve bombs and special attacks for when things really get haywire. I learned about the suicide trick after a few tries; I normally only died because I'd crash into a straggler out of nowhere (I think they're the ones that hone in on you). But I did figure it out and used it in the later stages. That one's a good concept to keep.
The thing to remember about puzzles is that the ones that do best are the ones that you can figure out in-game. Remember that a player is already working on figuring out your game. If they need to take a break and leave the game to go find information about a puzzle, that could make it more tedious for them. I do understand wanting to add fun lore in, and it's not a bad thing to do. But IF you do, the better part of valor is to find a way that the players learn that information naturally. It'll make the optional things more fun to try and it won't feel so jarring for the player. Hints are a good way to do it, but if you want to be sneaky, subtlety is the best! It's fun to think of ways to sneak in information that makes the player go "...WAIT A MINUTE! I saw this! I have to go back and read it!"
I think the reason it was so well-received is because it was a concept no one else went with. I don't think any of us thought about looking at it that way. That's the fun of these jams. You come across a bunch of different ideas that help you see new ways of looking at a specific genre.
It's not about the attacks being too fast or too strong. What I meant is that the game sometimes stuttered with the boss's attacks and that threw off the guard timing for me. I have no idea what causes it, or if it's on my end. I hope I didn't offend you. I just wasn't sure since it was both for guarding and for using power attacks that the game seemed to slow down a second and throw me off. As for the endings, that's actually good to know. I'll see if I can get the ending for defeating him.
I think this is by far one of my favorite games because this feels like something that we all can relate to in some way. You did a good job capturing what it feels like to be left alone and think no one will hear you when you need them. And I think the story gives enough for us to know what's going on without having to hammer the situation into our heads. The puzzles felt challenging enough that they were rewarding to complete without being frustrating to figure out. The enemies might need some tweaking; I was literally in front of one and it didn't notice me. All in all, a very good job. I love how the hawk WAS the central focus without actually being focused on too much - I think if he had been portrayed any differently, the ending wouldn't be as powerful. That was a really good choice.
A cute game but the battling was a bit difficult. I eventually figured out how to time my defense, but I agree with Berry that the reaction times can be janky. I also am not sure if it's possible to win against the final boss, and I kind of felt like it didn't really matter if I won or lost. Presentation-wise, this game is amazing. I loved the pixel art and the music was really intense. I thought the dialogue was concise with what you were going for. But gameplay-wise, I didn't really enjoy battling. I often found my guards being broken and there's no way to heal yourself when you're up against three opponents. Power attacks also tended to lag, so I'd often be attacked trying to trigger them, which would waste my attack and drop my power. I think it just needs to be tweaked, and an option to rebind keys would be amazing.
I like the concept of the anomalies, and I think for an RPG Maker project, you pulled it off really well. I liked the atmosphere of the levels and it didn't really stress me out too much to memorize everything. I DO think what you might want to consider is a tutorial to just explain HOW you deal with anomalies; it took me two or three tries before I remembered how Room 8 played to understand how I'm supposed to move forward. That aside, this is a solid entry that's just tense enough for you to want to keep going, and not so frustrating that you want to give up. Good job. I do want to know how far I need to get to get the cutscene BroodyGaming got; I got to room 8 and didn't trigger anything except for spider webs appearing more often. Is it random? I'll keep playing to see if maybe I just missed it or if I can get to the final area.
I... got frustrated with this game. I loved the interrogation and testimonies, but the bullet hells really got to me, especially with bombs going off automatically when I don't need them, which meant I never had them when I DID need them. I also could not get the safe to open correctly despite following every clue and needing to use google to look up most of the answers felt awkward to me. If there was a way to find the answers in-game, that would feel more cohesive (I felt like the library would've been perfect for this). I loved the writing and I want to beat the game. I might even come back after a little bit. Overall, I like what you were going for, but I feel like you were trying to cram two games at once, and it didn't always mesh together. I felt like the bullet hell could be optional and it wouldn't have changed the story much.
With that being said, I do understand what you meant about it being a fan game. I actually think you did a good job with what I've seen, and I love how you reversed the idea of the solving the crime, not by finding the murder weapon, but by eliminating every murder weapon until only one remains. Very good take on it.
Oh, I had to add that statue if Tymvaul's going to be there. And thank you! Unfortunately, being a writer is a double-edged sword. I look at game-devving as though I'm writing a story, and that means I want the world as fleshed as I can make it. That's GREAT for a long project, but it also means it's easy for me to go over the hour mark in a short game jam without realizing it. I never regret it, though. One of my favorite things in older RPGs was to find flavor text or secret items in bookshelves and cabinets, so that's why my games tend to have so much flavor text themselves. Show parts of the world that aren't mandatory, but allow the player to be rewarded with something for their curiosity.
Two words for this game. Holy. Shit. Berry and Honeynut, you seriously did great work here. I loved the trial and laughed myself silly during a good part of it. Great job. I wish there was more to it but I also know this is a prototype. The fact that you left me really wishing for more speaks to how great this is going to be when it's fully fleshed out. I loved that you presented just ENOUGH of a challenge that it wasn't hard to figure out, but it wasn't "this is so easy a dummy can do it" either. As someone who loves Ace Attorney and who likes piecing together evidence during murder mysteries, this did a very good job of relieving that itch. Seriously, good job. I'll be shocked if this doesn't make first place in at least one category.
You've got a cute concept going for this game, but I'm running into a consistent bug where the pictures for the notes will not disappear no matter what buttons I press, and I can no longer see what I'm doing. This has happened twice on both of my playthroughs, and reloading the game doesn't get rid of the pictures. Is there a way to manually save the game so I'm not constantly having to restart the game from the beginning every time I try to use Camille's phone? I'm not sure what's causing this, but it's consistently whenever I try to look at the notes I've collected to figure out what I'm supposed to do next. The furthest I've gotten was collecting the clues from the first four areas, but I can't do anything beyond that and using the phone isn't really doing anything that I can see. I'd like to finish the game, but I'm not sure what I'm supposed to do or where I need to go and I can't look at any notes without running into this bug.
I'm going to be honest. I really love the look of this game. I love the graphics and the music is spot-on. But the difficulty level is insane. I even played on Fledgling and had trouble with this. I think the biggest problems I faced were the knockbacks (which often threw me into water and caused additional damage) and when the big enemies stunned me (I had at least four stunlocks that killed me in the mines alone). I can see you did amazingly on this game, but I was frustrated by the time I made it to the third bench. I'm not sure if that's just me being bad with platformers or if the game is just that difficult.
Okay, this was the first game I played and I absolutely loved it. This was a ridiculously hilarious concept. I think I needed this just for stress relief, and though I'm not GREAT at shooters, I managed to do just fine until the final area. I will say, I did run into a bug where I died right as I killed the final boss. The end result was, I got a game over RIGHT before the ending played for my "winning" the fight. Thank you so much for such an enjoyable game. I'm keeping it because I will definitely want to play this again.
Thank you so much, Phoenix. :) I honestly loved the concept I came up with, and I really enjoyed trying to write a murder mystery. I'm glad you enjoyed it so much. I was really nervous about how it would come across, because I condensed the story as much as possible while still giving enough that it didn't seem unfinished. I'm glad you loved it.
Yeah... I know it's really over the time limit. Believe it or not, I thought cutting down the actual number of days to kill customers would keep it to an hour; you were originally supposed to get an entire week of customers before being railroaded into Hell. But when my own playthrough for three days went to around half an hour, I had to cut down on the number of days so the plot would be finished. I'm glad you decided to play through the entire game. :) Originally I planned for two endings, but then I realized that there might be people who only do a tiny bit of the main mechanic and would still be getting the best ending, so I thought "eh, a few more cutscenes won't hurt me" and used the endings to let the players know how well they did.
Unfortunately, I have to review based on what I saw last night; I've run the game three times and it's crashed all three times, saying that there's a fatal error causing the game not to run. But from what I've seen, you guys have done a fantastic job. I agree with Phoenix that this game fits the horror aspect the best of all of the entries. I actually was very freaked out when the poltergeist came after the player, and not many of the games have been able to actively scare me yet. The atmosphere was also perfect. Just enough light to be able to see, but just dark enough that I can't see what's coming next, and the sound effects were brilliant.
Again, I'm very sorry that I can't actually play the game. I'll keep trying to run it but I don't have high hopes. My laptop's not too old (it's about two years, maybe three?) but it's definitely not a gaming laptop.
This is a decent game but it needs to be reworked so that players won't get frustrated as they try and figure out what they need to do next. The Library of Knowledge is good for in-game lore but I found that it didn't help me in the slightest when it came to figuring out what I needed to do. I think what WILL help will be making tiles that hold items sparkle or do something to stand out so that the player doesn't have to resort to pixel-hunting to find something they need.
The combat actually isn't too bad. I was able to defeat the small demon by strafing it, and I got rid of the harpy by randomly running and spamming attack. But I will say that lining enemies up perfectly when they're constantly moving can be difficult, especially if they need to be a space or two away before you can hit them.
I haven't finished the game yet; I currently only have the Harpy Wing and the Crown (along with two keys, which I've already used), but I haven't found any other key items and I've combed the castle twice. All in all, the game just needs a bit more polish. You've got a good beginning. It just needs to be worked on a little bit more.
No need to apologize. Remember that one of our jobs as reviewers is to point out what we think could be a problem for other players, and that jams are how we learn what to look out for. :) If you make another game with this level of interaction, this is just something for you to keep in the back of you mind for next time.
I'm going to be honest. The puzzles in this game need more guidance. The maps are really well done, but I had a very difficult time getting through this because several quest items you need give you no clue as to how you're supposed to use them. Most of my time was spent going through rooms I'd already picked through trying to figure out what I've missed, since I had no idea what to do after a while. The puzzles also need some explanation in order to solve some of them, otherwise the player won't know what to do. The only way I was able to figure out the book puzzle was because I saw the game streamed and remembered the answer. If you come back to this after the jam, I really recommend putting in different descriptions for some of the items, at least to help the player figure out what it is they need to do next.
Despite that, though, I want you to know that the atmosphere and setting are really good. The lighting was a great way to pressure the player, and the insane amount of blood and skeletons really let us know that something's really off with the manor. Good job.
Oh my god, I laughed so hard I fell right off my bed playing this. That was absolutely hilarious. My only question is: WHAT DID HAWK DO!?! How did his writing go so awry!? Lore isn't needed, but I HAVE to know what happened.
Also... :P You're right. This took me maybe five minutes to play, whereas mine took me over an hour with each... playthrough... to test...
Good job. I needed something really amusing today. Thank you. :)
I do like that you chose to use cats, and the gameplay was actually fun. I agree with Hiddenone that the camera angles gave me some VERY close calls, but I actually didn't mind it because that added to the challenge of getting through the maps. I liked how the tension between maps kept rising, as the maps seemed to get hazier/darker as you passed through each level and the music became more distorted. I wasn't necessarily scared, but I did feel more claustrophobic as I got deeper and deeper through the levels.
The only problem I had was that the jump lagged for me on occasion, but that's not necessarily anything you can control, and it DID allow me to test if a Mario Bros stomp could kill anything... which it didn't. :(
Overall, I had a lot of fun with this one. I feel like the biggest strength in this game is the atmosphere. You're not timed and the enemies don't follow you, but you're still feeling pressured to get out as soon as possible. Well done!
Oh goodness, I'm so sorry. I'll definitely fix that one up. I didn't think of the flashing lights as an issue until I got feedback saying that I should put a warning in for them in the intro to the game. I threw up the warning... and forgot to dim the flashes.
Thank you for the feedback. :) I hope you enjoyed the game. I definitely worried my game wasn't creepy enough because it wasn't scaring ME, but I'm glad you found it entertaining.
I... had a lot of trouble with this game. I really liked the dialogue and it did feel like a humorous Castlevania. But the movement was really laggy on my end, so I ended up running off of cliffs when I was trying to climb the ladders and a lot of my shots lagged instead of hitting the enemies. I did make it to the end boss but I have no idea how to defeat her. I can't do anything to her and she insta-kills me no matter where I go or what button I press. I've tried numerous times and I'm still not sure what the pattern is supposed to be, or how to stop her attack before it kills me. I'm assuming there's a way to beat her, but I just have no idea what it is.
What I definitely liked were the boss battles. Those were creative and, while they weren't hard, they were enough of a challenge that it didn't feel like it was a joke battle. Ironically, the goat boss was the easiest for me. Probably because of how many Castlevanias I've played before. :P
Okay, definitely one of my favorites so far. In a hilarious turn of events, I ended up getting the good ending. I don't know how. I don't know why. But it was glorious and you both did a fantastic job. The ending was all worth it!
I did have one bug and it could have been on my end. I went to go to the hallway after the second to last step and it teleported me from the store front to the storeroom. Certainly not game-breaking but it did confuse me until I realized where I was. That was the ONLY bad thing I ran into. :D
This was just awesome. I know it was unfinished, but you did an amazing job. I think there was only one thing that did confuse me, but I'm pretty sure you're going to expand upon it if you keep on going with this game. I'd love to see it if you do! Overall, I can't think of a single thing in this that I didn't like. And you used the theme amazingly well, even as you dumped the concept of demons on its head. Very, VERY nicely done.
Also, I love how you get new party members. I took every one I could get, and managed to get one that I just adored. He pulled me through everything! Keep it up!
That was a cute, simple game. I wish there was a little bit more about why we're fighting the cult or why they're summoning Satan, but I also understand that that lore isn't really needed. I felt like the gameplay was really simple, but I did like the battle sprites. I also love that you can choose your own character.
One thing I did NOT like were the mazes. I'm glad that you kept them very short and somewhat linear, and I did like that there were treasures scattered all over the place. That made the mazes feel less tedious. All in all, you did a good job. I can see some potential here if you ever want to expand the game in the future.
Okay, I just loved this. It's true that there wasn't TOO much horror, but you still kept within the theme, and honestly, this is my kind of speed. I find the horror subtle and it's presented in a way I hadn't expected. I think using Buer's Book was actually a clever way of keeping with the theme of the jam. It's not overt and we don't NEED to use it necessarily, but it's still right in front of us. Sadly, I think I did things backwards; I got the bad ending first, and THEN I got the "ran outta time!" ending. Both made me laugh. But now I need to figure out how to get the good ending! I'm probably keeping the game just to play on the days where I need a pick-me-up. Good job! Let me know if you update it.
:) I'm very glad to hear that. I actually do plan to polish it and make it into a full game at some point, but I'm taking my time with it, especially since this was a huge experiment for me. Thank you so much for your kind words and I'll take what you've said into consideration as I start extending the game (I'll definitely take out the softlock, and I think I know exactly where it is) and adding in everything I'd planned and left out. I think I started to get way too ambitious and my ideas far exceeded my ability to implement them in time for the jam. :P That is what I get in thinking 'hey, I can make a Final-Fantasy-size game in a month! Yeah! I can do it!" Anyway, good luck in your own jam!
Oh my goodness, I'm sorry for the bug. I tested the game extensively just for the possibility of returning to the old bakery (I ended up copying and editing the maps so they were "remade" to make it easier instead of just creating new maps) and never once caught that one. As for the second part... well, the story seemed incomplete without it because the main character wanted to find out why the manor was cursed at all. And I really wanted to portray what Cuppy really was meant to be.
The "Add ingredients" part was actually very hard to get to work; again, I tested that for over three hours and found SOME way to get it to work. The variables are SUPPOSED to clear if you don't have all of the ingredients so it doesn't duplicate anything, and it looked clear when I got it to actually work that way. You DO keep the items afterward, because they were meant to be used for other parts of the story, but I simply did not have the time to implement those parts. Clearing the evidence was supposed to change some of Heathcroft's and the guards' reactions; I did not have time to implement that, so for now it does nothing except give some flavor and allow the player to be a jerk if they wanted to. I'm not trying to excuse the mess, and I hope I don't come across that way. I simply ran out of time to make either of those things do anything.
Thank you for pointing this out. All I can say is that I'm sorry I didn't catch those bugs, and that some of what I had planned was cut because of how long my playthrough for it was becoming; I left in clearing up all of the evidence because it makes you wonder, a little bit, if the main character even understands what Cuppy wants him to do or if he's genuinely that clueless.
Thank you. :) Some of the enemies are purposefully stronger, and both the Menacing Statue and the Evil Doll are two of them. They're not random encounters (you'll only find them by interacting with an object), but I did put in stronger monsters to help grind for more experience or gold if the player felt adventurous enough to fight.