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I had implemented a HUD bar that filled up and the token spawned very predictably every 7 high fives or something. I changed the calculation on purpose and removed this bar. I wanted it to feel a bit more random and the player to be able to focus on dodging, and then having to plan and improvise when the token spawned, I wanted this feeling of "when is it coming?". Also I did not want a hud bar just for this system, so it was a win-win for me. Currently, each high five that doesn't spawn token increases a chance of spawning by 4%, and when it spawns, the chance is reset to 0%. Sad to hear you didn't like this unpredictability, and thanks for bringing that up. Maybe it is still something to look at and study in future playtests and feedbacks if I keep working on this game. Maybe showing some kind of visual aid when the chance is high so players can manage the expectations better can make this system feel better too.

About the counter-intuitive part of the player's body. Yeah, that's a bummer, I didn't factor this would be such a friction. Still thinking about how to make this part smoother.

Thanks a lot for the feedback

Yes, it was a solo project. Thanks for the kind words!

Thanks a lot! Glad you liked it :)

Thanks for the feedback! Well, it looks like it is not for you then, unfortunately :( i personally found it fun while iterating and built everything around it. It does take a bit of adjustment though.

But your comment was helpful to show this might be a common point of friction if i wanna keep working on it, thanks a lot

Understandable! And that's the nature of a game jam, right?

You're welcome! And good luck on sanding these bugs off the game

The game is fairly easy to understand and the base mechanics is fun to interact with. The charge the depletes and the polarity has a lot of potential.

I was having fun, and was imagining it would be interesting when the two colors of projectiles were mixed. But when it happens it has A HUGE spike in difficulty. I instantly died with no clue and felt like was not my fault. I think the game should start mixing the two earlier and delay that hard wave to much later.

In these kind of survival endless games, the pacing is very tricky to get right. This game (like mine) would benefit a lot from some quick playtests to tweak difficulty. I was not able to do this this time, the my game also turned out to be quite hard.

Other than that, the game is solid and interesting. Great job!

The game is gorgeous, but unfortunately was too much text for me. I can see a lot of effort, specially in writing, was put into the game. Congratulations on the submission!

I really felt like it had too much text, though. Maybe the game is just not for me, so take this feedback with a grain of salt haha. But the lengthy wall of text before the first gameplay interaction ever was a bit much for me. After a while I was just skipping everything, making the gameplay itself feel kinda meaningless when it finally came.

I feel like the game did not have me invested in it enough to show me text after text. Maybe the pacing of the experience could be reviewed. Starting with some gameplay a bit earlier could help.

Again, this might be just a issue I felt because I'm not usually into visual novels. Take it with a grain (or maybe a lot) of salt haha. I hope this sincere feedback helps the project :)

Congratulations on the submission. I see some similarities on games like mario vs donkey kong, but more physics based

The level where there is a full grid of possibilities was a total turn off for me. The physics aspect is not very fun when you have to test, watch, fail, and retry with just a small increment of knowledge each time. It makes the puzzle feel more like work.

If you go the 'physics' route, you can make more open ended levels with more room for experimentation and remove the frustrations of having to retry and reset the level. Maybe you could automatically load the last setup and also allow to remove tiles from the world. You can also make the simulation a bit faster and add a shortcut to start the simulation, like pressing space (or maybe rerun the simulation automatically on loop, and the player can iterate on the level on the go? Kinda removing a 'fail state'. In this scenario, two or more characters could be simulated simultaneously with a small delay between them, but would not interact with each another, and the first one to get to the flag makes you succeed on the level)

Otherwise,  you can go the 'puzzle' route, with more predictability and precise placement to succeed, like the first levels of the game. In this scenario, the game would feel more like mario vs donkey kong, where every spring makes the character jump the same height every time.

Mixing these 2 I think won't work. I was having fun until the last level

I hope this feedback helps the team :) good luck!

I'm sorry, I could not play. The alarm sound was too loud and too sudden it made me kinda sick, idk, triggered me in a really bad way. Closed instantly and came here to give this feedback ><. Maybe a sound warning text could help

Great job! A refreshing (pun intended) twist on sokoban haha. The objective makes sense and is intuitive with the mechanics, puzzles are well made and uses many interesting interactions. Amazing game, congratulations!
If the team keeps working on the game, I would suggest invest on a undo feature (which I know is a lot of pain) because it makes these kind of games much less frustrating.

Thanks a lot! Glad you had fun :)

Glad you had fun despite the difficulty! Thanks for reaching out <3

Thanks for the kind words! It was very intense 3 days. Fingers crossed to get an award haha

Thanks! <3

Thanks for the feedback. The shield color is the worst explained mechanic, should have made it clearer in the tutorial, at least. But ideally, a better in-game feedback when you collect with the wrong entity would help. Also It could be a bit easier, yes haha

Thanks for the message. Does it lag on specific moments or is it laggy all the time? Is your machine high end, does other webgl games laggy as well for you?

Thanks a lot!

Liked the idea, but there are some things that frustrated me, so I'll try to give some constructive feedback if you wanna continue this project or expand the game :)

The colors yellow and blue didn't ring any bell to me, didn't tap on any common knowledge that would help me learn which of them make large or tiny, so I kept using the wrong projectile, shrinking when I wanted to scale and vice-versa. I think green to grow and red to shrink would make it easier to learn and the game more readable. Green is commonly 'good' in games, and 'red' bad, so good to grow and bad to shrink I think would make more intuitive. But ideally, the guns could have different shaped guns and projectiles, like a "+" and a "-" for projectiles and like a big crossbow for "+" e a tiny laser gun for "-", this would help a lot too.

On the first level with a box, there were no clues that the box would also be affected by the projectiles, so I kept trying to stack the two boxes on the starting size, and it was really janky. Got so frustrated I almost quit haha but I ended up completing that level stacking the box, to later learn that the box could also scale and shrink. The physics with the boxes are a bit janky. The box slides and it always moved more than I intended to move them, and many times I had to reset the level for tiny mistakes that I didn't feel was  my fault.

I did not finish the game as I ended up a bit frustrated, sorry. Maybe I'll try again later

Despite these details, I think the game is cool, there are some cool puzzles with these mechanics. Solid game, great entry and congratulations!

Yeah! You are the first to use the keyword 'metroidvania' here in the comments, I think! I pursued this experience intentionally, really glad it worked for you! Thanks for playing and for the kind words.

I'm probably not going back to expand it in the future... But there are indeed opportunities for new mechanics, so who knows :)

Yeah, the boss in the center of the hub was an important design decision, intentionally put it there so you would feel the progression hard when you kill it.

Glad you liked it! Thanks a lot for your time

Great! Good to hear that, hope you liked it!

Thanks for pointing that out! I didn't think I would happen, will try to work on this detail when possible. Thanks for playing!

Thanks for clarifying, maybe I should make the enemy interaction clearer. For now, I can give tell you how to advance: when you put an enemy inside a bubble, you can grab them with your tongue, and that's how you defeat them. I can make create like a hit if players get stuck, thanks for bringing it up!

And if you didn't grab any enemy, you only got one gum item, so your tongue was still short. If you are willing to play again, I'd love to know how your experience goes with that new information about how to defeat the enemy. But don't worry! I know you might have other stuff to do and other games to play!

I also uploaded a full gameplay video on youtube to maybe help players who got stuck (as we cannot update the game itself haha)

Again, thanks for the time.

Simple yet elegant and interesting!

The only reason I didn't finish is because I pressed 'q' and for some reason the game just froze forever. I had cleared like 10 levels or so? Idk. But if it was not for that, I would have kept playing.

Some points that made my experience a bit frustrating:

• When small, you cant see much of the board

This sells the scale experience  in some way, but it is very frustrating to retry a level, forget some part of the layout and have to collect some idols just to be able to see a part of the map, and then decide: ah, I have to split to go there, let's go back and redo.

Maybe add some way to inspect the level when you are still would solve the problem

• You don't know where the carpets will be placed until you collect the horn

This is interesting at the start on easier levels with less steps, creates things to process in the mid of the level, but on harder, where you play for 1 minute to collect the horn just to realize that you should have done things differently and was not your fault, was a small point of frustration to me

• The logic behind where your smaller version will spawn is a bit cryptic

I sense there is a sequence of priority directions, but I cannot tell that, and sometimes you just expect to split a certain way and It doesn't, and then you see only then that you have to plan your path again

But look, I took the time to write all these feedback because I really liked the game! I wanna see it get better in the future. It is a know genre, but the twist is welcome and charming, and the project well is executed, with simple but clean and readable graphics, a great atmosphere with the soundtrack, sound effects and style of animation. Great entry! Congratulations!

Great! Good luck with the project :)

Oh yeah, it is totally valid on my view too! I just don't 'feel' the theme very much, if that makes sense haha, idk.

But again, just minor complaints! Very impressive and good game!

Thanks! Haha, so glad you liked. I did put a lot of effort (considering the time limits haha) in the pacing of information and challenge to make a smooth learning experience. Happy it worked out for you! Thanks for playing and for rating :)

Thanks a lot! Really glad you appreciated it ^^

Thanks for playing and for taking the time to give me some sincere feedback! :)

What do you mean with "the same problem"?

The bar looking half full is not a bug, but it was a bad choice of the visual design of the hud, you're not the first to point that out, thanks a lot! Might be the first and easiest issue to fix.

About the feel, does having a bigger tongue made the interaction more interesting?  Like after collecting 3 or 4 gums on the level. Did you manage to finish the game? And does shooting a bubble gum ball feels bad for you too? If you have the time to elaborate a little I would be extremely grateful!

Again, thanks a lot for reaching out and taking the time! :) I appreciate it, and even if I don't return to update the game, I can learn a lot from these feedbacks.

Great! Thanks a lot for the feedback! ^^

If you have the time, can you elaborate on the glitches you found? I know of some, but if you can help me find more stuff to fix I would be extremely grateful! Thanks a lot, and I'm really glad you liked the artstyle

I liked it a lot! See a lot of potential

Some problems I felt: the controls on the right seems buggy, sometimes it was hard to change between mode 1 and 2, you need to drag in a rather strict manner to get it right. It would be a lot less frustrating if a single click worked, like in the vertical lever. Also, took me a while to realize that the vertical lever was also an element i had to interact with, maybe it was because, before you interact, it is not super clear that is a lever, and if you compare with the mode switch visually, the mode switch is clearly ui in the way we are used to, and the lever is like a super detailed sprite, it is quite a huge contrast.

The second problem I felt is the difficulty and complexity. You have only one upgrade at the start, and after you buy it you unlock like 10 all at once, with the game running. It was hard for me to try to manage the movement and also try to plan my build reading everything super fast. After reading them, I also felt that some of the options were not that helpful, so it looks like it is just creating noise and making the choice less fun. When I focused on the upgrade that allowed me to gather resources on mode 1 the game became a LOT easier, with other upgrades first I lost every time.

Also, the upgrade cards could use some icons for the costs. It ends up making artificially harder to parse the information, because on the right, there are no names for the resources, so you have to understand the icon, read the upgrade costs to see a matching name, and than understand the cost (I thought the water was some kind of gasoline? Haha). If the cost line were like [wood icon]x 10, I would have understand the information much faster. One test I would also make is to bring the controls and resources to the left and move the upgrades section to the right (swap the panels). I think it would feel more natural for left-to-right readers. My stuff is on the left, future stuff is on the right.

But I took the time to write all this because I really liked the concept. It has a very simple control scheme, but can create some tough decisions and dramatic moments. It is a bit unbalanced rn, but with the right balance and some improvements to usability I can see it becoming really fun and immersive. Congratulations for the entry! Very impressive project

Cute game and visually interesting. Love the bill cipher reference at the end haha

I didn't find the main mechanic very 'good' to use though. It is a bit buggy and finicky, and the game seems to require specific weird interactions to advance. Like in the one you just gotta keep bumping him up with different speeds until you accidentally solve. I didn't find these parts very fun because it is unpredictable and you just gotta keep testing and spamming actions until you get it right for some reason. It could be fun in a more sandboxy and experimental environment, but in a puzzle game it ends up being a bit frustrating for me.

Also, I unfocused the game and the soundtrack seems to have disappeared, don't know what happened, but seems like a bug.

But very solid entry anyway. Again, visually very charming and stylish. Congrats

Cool game (pun intended). Very polished and complete for a jam game, pretty impressive.

They main complaint I have is it is a bit hard to see the spikes (fire and ice on ground), they are very hard to spot before they activate (and maybe they could be more visible while active too). So sometimes I would plan a path and start, just to be caught off guard by a sneaky spike growing under my feet when i change state. The frustration is even bigger in ice spikes glued to ice blocks, where you don't have much contrast to differentiate a thing that kills from a thing that you need to be near.

One improvement that would make the mechanic easier to understand is to have a different visual for each temperature 'level'. When you light up on fire, you can melt 2 ice blocks, but you don't see any change in the state of your character midway. Let's say when you are in full fire, you have the current visual, but after melting one, you get a bit smaller and more red than yellow, and then, if you melt another one, you become a regular stone again. This would communicate better the 'resource' of temperature, and usually these kind of feedback are very welcome in puzzle games, makes the mechanic easier to understand and easier to read at a glance (now you gotta memorize: "oh, I already melted one block, so in the next, I'll be back to stone")

Another tiny worry i have is that I don't feel the theme of the jam in the game. Sure, thermometric 'scales', but you don't even see a scale in the game or anything like that

Other than these small gripes, the game is great! Gorgeous, feels nice to play and have some cool puzzles to solve, with well presented mechanics and twists.

Good to hear that! Do reach me out again after completing the game with any feedbacks :)

Nice litle game!

It is not super original to change boxes sizes, but limiting it to three sizes and having different properties like the small one being pushable was interesting.

There are some puzzles that ended up being solved in very weird ways because the physics allowed some strange interactions. Also the camera is really slow, it stays behind a lot, specially when you fall down.

Other than that great game, good length for a puzzle game too, nice work!

Before I forget: the non full screen game is unplayable because the left ui panel stays in front of the game

The game is hard to understand. When you lose you have no clue what happened and what you could have done differently. This is a very important pillar in game design. If we do not understand what are the consequences of our decisions we don't learn and end up just confused.

The idea of assigning the characters to objects and being able to organize them in a board is nice, you can end up creating layouts for your convenience. I did not reach a point where I would 'scale things up' though. Maybe you get new workers? 

I just felt like micro managing two units to be able to survive with some unclear rules to follow. It did not create that kid of fun of managing many units, creating strategies and allocating resources in interesting ways

Thanks a lot! Will take a look at your entry too :)

A follower enemy stayed around your respawn position? I didn't understand exactly what happened.

Could it be a bug? Did you manage to finish the game? Was it a bit easier after the start?

Great <3 it is the 'Gumvania' subgenre I just created haha! Backtracking required

That was the goal! So cool that you felt that way. You explore and struggle and the payoff is having like a giant gum tongue

Nice to hear that! Is it still  your fav? Haha, lots of great games