Yeah it's such a delicate balance to strike haha. The jank is part of the fun, but getting the jank to still feel good is the big challenge. No 2D games immediately spring to mind (i think a lot of them were older neopets and newgrounds games that arent currently available) though I'm sure at some point while I'm in the middle of a totally unrelated task I'll randomly remember some older ones I used to play on the web that had the good goofy balance of jank and reward for overcoming the jank, but I did think of how some 3D physics based games have been handling something similar.
Of this jam, Nuclear Mayhem has the "jank as a feature" and games like it. The struggle to control things properly because the weights and collisions are off just enough that you can't beeline it from point A to B but it's still doable, while antics ensue in the middle. I think in their comments, some people mentioned Fall Guys, which has a similar thing going for it.
Something I think could elevate the absurdity is possibly character reactions to the failures, like maybe an icon of the character in one of the corners that looks just as perplexed as the player probably did that something failed in the way it did, but also provides slight validation to the player when they overcome it. There's loads of different things you could do tbh.
As far as the mop goes, I do think it was specifically Unity handling mouse input a little too overzealously because the web build was SO ready to chuck the mop the second you got any momentum at all. I think you guys are on the right path and with some testing and time you'll get the wonky controls to that "just right" state so personally I'm not worried about it at all. If it ends up continuing to be an issue while you're working on it, I think having a setting somewhere to control mouse sensitivity might help.
While I was typing this I was thinking about how poorly Joust and Joust 2 played but how they are probably some of my all time favorite arcade games because even though they control like the hottest garbage on the planet, they are so fun to play thanks to the little things like killing an enemy or even your friend with your ass because they ran into you too fast while you were turned away.
The most incredible part of this is how easy it is to balance all of the minigames. Idk how you guys did it, but you figured out the perfect balance of down time and demand for attention each game required.
It can be a little rough keeping track of everything going on as you start getting into 20+ panels but it's nice that there are so many ways to organize them despite this. Love all the systems in play, this is a game that's strategy goes deep and the final presentation is insanely impressive for the amount of time we had.
Fantastic job all around, great idea here and great execution.
Ah man I wish I had gotten to play this one during the official voting period. What a neat game. The AI is a little silly in its choices but the further in I got the more stressful and strategic the moves I had to make were, and it was really fun.
Nice job incorporating multiple interpretations of power and having such a polished version ready for the jam!
Really comfortable game all around. Sometimes, the classics just work, and it's always fun to replay them with a slight twist. Looking forward to the final games to be added and for there to be a final win condition for the story!
Love to hear it! It's funny because while developing the mechanics, I really couldn't think of anything that would work quite the same as light bulbs, as the core game was "a game of chance incorporating electrical power". Other electronics can absolutely be overloaded and fried, but I think light bulbs have the most visual appeal in the long run haha. I think post jam when I go to refine it and add what's missing, I'll sit down and see if we can come up with other things that may fulfill the same role.
Really appreciate you trying it out and giving feedback on it! It'll definitely be getting some more work put into it down the road :D
I feel like the confusion does entirely come down to the presentation of the game up to this point tbh. It's one of those things where I'm just gonna have to let future builds put all the pieces together for the player, since I'm sure on the surface the lightbulbs don't seem like much, but every ounce of the game was built around figuring out how to create a game of chance with electrical power at it's core. The blackjack part came as a direct consequence of the lights!
We'll see how things go in time haha. Some things obviously won't end up working out in the end, but I deeply appreciate you giving it a shot and providing feedback!
And heck yeah... This is a Godot appreciation zone. All my homies love Godot B)
Ooh that's a huge compliment haha. I don't think it could ever get that big, but some day it would be fun to see if I could get an online vs mode functional. Fingers crossed
Yay! I'm glad you mentioned playing with a friend, because something I absolutely want in a future build is a local vs mode.
And tragically, the controls were mostly just an issue of time. I do have mouse only controls mapped out and just wasn't able to fully implement them before I had to submit it. You know the struggle XD
Thank you so much for the feedback and checking it out!
Exciting play was all I was hoping for in the end, so I'm glad that was achieved!
Unfortunately wasn't able to get the controls up to par before the submission deadline, but rest assured there's comfortable plans for keyboard only, mouse only, and controller control mapping so it wasn't an oversight.
Thank you for the feedback and giving the game a go! It's much appreciated
Yeah, definitely ran into the accursed deadline while trying to work out the tutorial and the final control scheme haha. Thankfully we have store pages for the time being.
Thanks for the feedback! I'll pass the art compliment on to the artist :D
The deadline is always the killer haha. Thankfully we've got all the time in the world after the jam :)
Pip was probably my favorite if I had to pick, but Fluff's ability really drew me in. I think the potential between Fluff and Roy's powers specifically can lead to a lot of very interesting puzzles down the line and while it's a shame you couldn't work more on Roy's puzzles before the submission deadline, I like having the anticipation of what could be in the future
Picked up some boots and zoomed out of control straight down a pit. Shpoobo is truly untameable, Shpoobo is truly unstoppable........
Very cute quick and simple game. There were some hit box peculiarities but it's very playable, fast paced, and fun. Hopefully our hero never falls to the same corrupting influence of those who came before u_u
Simple and fun! Couldn't find many use cases for the dash so I just kept all my dumbbells and became the strongest duck to ever live.
There's a few peculiarities with the collision, it was easy to trap the sharks on the geometry if they were away from the wall and there were a few times when I would get stuck on a corner as well. Definitely look to make objects move and slide against the walls so they don't get trapped to prevent a break in the momentum.
Absolutely my style of humor from the get go. Sorting through a gods trash because they dun goofed? Hell yeah man let's go
Left shift as a dash or other movement option is always really rough on my hands, so I was never able to fully get into the groove of the combat. Very much going to be one of those games where controllers are going to elevate the experience by so much its absurd.
Generous of the hands to catch me as I kept leaping to my doom while they were info dumping on me, I do wonder if I'd get hit with more sass if I kept it up haha
Amazing work in the time frame we had! Also always gotta show my appreciation for Linux support
Fantastic visual polish! Super straight forward game, good idle time killer. Some of the fields don't seem to work as intended so I'm not sure if there's something happening in the background that I'm missing out on, and sometimes I run into an issue where there's too much momentum in one direction or the other that doesn't get cancelled out fast enough to avoid obstacles. With a little bit of testing and additional polish, this is basically a complete game. Incredible work in the time frame :D
I like the idea of having to pickup/drop powers like this and I like how you can decide where you're dropping the powers when you need to swap things out to figure out how to get from screen to screen.
I'm sure it's something that the deeper you get into the game, the more useful it may become based on however the levels are designed, but for the early levels the momentum based movement doesn't feel very good. The lack of visual cue for how fast you're going results in me never knowing where I'm about to stop. I also kept accidentally dropping my powerups when I was trying to move left or right because of where the S key is located haha. I would recommend remapping that to a different, less easy to accidentally press button.
The actual puzzles are designed well from the ones I got a chance to play, and the overarching concept is very good. Having to unlock more slots within each screen for what powers are available really makes you sit down and think about how exactly you're going to navigate the puzzle and where would be ideal places to drop off certain items and powers.
I can only imagine how clean this will look and feel once the final art is implemented and the mechanics and movement get some polish!
The "you died" screen got me real good. Punching to move is so stupidly funny to me I spent a lot of my time just punching around the arena without even trying to reach the objective. Reaching the objective was even funnier than that. 5/5 presentation, hilarious game, gg
My favorite part of drunken fisticuffs is tearing up the dance floor post blood bath. 5/5 presentation
Would have loved either a dodge/parry option or the ability to pick up and use an item in some fashion, be it as a weapon or shield or just to walk around with for no reason in particular
Pretty solid base to build off of. The enemy's behaviors all seem to be synced up, which makes it a little too easy to predict attacks and barricade with minimal strategizing necessary, so I would very much recommend desyncing the shots (i suspect theyre all pulling from the same action instance instead of having unique versions of that instance upon spawning).
It gives me the same sort of vibes as an old Madness Combat game I used to play all the time(huge compliment) and it's a lot of fun idle entertainment once you do get into the groove. There's a lot of good potential here, so I hope post jam you're able to go in and tweak enemy behavior a little and add additional stuff for the player to do as the game progresses.
Great job in the time frame you had! Keep it up :D
Ms. Goobo, a nail gun is not NEARLY enough to be defending myself amidst my janitorial duties tsk tsk
Once I was able to get the game in motion, it really was just a continuous onslaught and it kept things reasonably tense and exciting. Controls were well, camera felt so good and fluid, music was fun, and visuals were Real Heckin Good.
Heads up though, the Linux build is missing its pck! Thankfully the exe ran fine and I didn't notice any issues with performance at all.
Just want you to know I've returned to this one regularly over the course of the voting period. Probably one of my absolute favorite entries. It doesn't even matter that I know the "winning" number combinations at this point, the simple straight forwardness of it and its execution are just so dang goofy I can't help but be like "what if I did THESE numbers" and just run in and have it go while I take a tea break or something.
Didn't know how bad I needed a retro horse racing simulator until this jam, but void well filled!
Was rocking out, beating random people up, getting called a wanker, winning at my quests, having a good old time. Then I turned around at the perfect second to see myself get jumped by one of the millions of clones of the same woman in red and get a game over. 5/5 presentation
Hilarious, but also REALLY difficult. Just like doing a single trip from the car to the door so +1 for realism tbh.
This was genuinely fun, like playing twister with my left hand while hoping desperately I didn't completely throw off my balance with the right. Mutlitasking elements in a game is difficult to balance right, and I think this was one of the games this round that handled it the best.
There's a lot of beautiful visuals in this game, I had to turn off some of my lights to be able to see everything properly as a lot of the default textures and lighting are a little on the darker side. This isn't inherently bad, it can lead to a really intense and cinematic experience with the right setup.
My only major issue is the lack of feedback when planting, picking, and taking damage. I didn't even realize I was "dead" and just thought I encountered a bug for a second until I realized the same as another commenter did where you can just keep unpausing and playing haha. No worries, temporary fixes are temporary and I see you guys are still working on it and have more permanent fixes ready for after the jam. Very exciting! Can't wait to see how the game evolves and gets closer to its intended form.
Very ambitious within the time frame, but I think it paid off. Great job!
