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I like this one a lot. It takes time to get a feel for the controls, but they make the gameplay more interesting. The visuals are also unique and cool. I had to stop for a moment and appreciate the jellyfish.

I dig the minimalist storytelling - the reveal of the boss was unexpected and very cool (although I may have had a bug - he just sorta froze after his big reveal). The ending overall was a great touch.

The main criticism I have is with the enemies. It seems sort of inconsistent about whether I'm doing damage. Most of the fish don't seem to move on their own. I'm also not sure how you're supposed to attack the pufferfish types without taking damage, although that may be a skill issue.

I really want to like this one.  I played it to the end, and you all clearly put in a lot of work and it shows. Sophia is adorable, the music and art are great (especially the backgrounds and the world map) and I love the theme. However, I got very frustrated by the wonky physics - especially when dealing with blocks and moving platforms. I kept falling through them, or boxes would fall through them.  Sometimes, when I had blocks stacked on each other while on an up-down moving platform, the bottom block would just fall through. Sometimes, the platform I was standing on kept going up without me when I activated the music block. The jump also doesn't work consistently - like 25% of the time, I get a short jump. 

I also think you could improve the level design. The music blocks were a neat idea and a few of the levels that use them really shine. However, it felt like too many levels boiled down to "stack 2 blocks to reach the note" or just "grab the easily accessible keys and go through the doors in order". Also, some of the later levels felt very simple, like they should have been in the first or second area.

There's a lot of potential here, and I hope you polish it up!

Got up to 1474! Great job - I tried out an earlier build of this, and I really like the improvements. The day/ night cycle is a cool and creative touch that prevents it from getting tedious. I was initially going to complain that the falling snow (ice?) part of the cycle was unfair, but I realized it was a skill issue :D A very well-scoped project for this jam.

You made it much further in your first Godot attempt than I did! Jump height aside, you've got everything you need for a game here, and the simple art style works well for it. I appreciated that F2/F3 made me do a little tiny hop - discovered that when trying to adjust my volume. Good luck in future jams!

Made $11000 in a few minutes! Why do people get real jobs, anyway? 

This was a nice little game. Great job on the sound. The music combined with the gentle "plunking" and the ambient nature sounds were very peaceful and well-implemented.  I also like the fish-art, although I would've like to see them pop up or something when I caught them.

This is amazingly polished for the timeframe. I've got no idea what goes into making a gameboy game, but this was really cool and unique. The music was great, too. I could see it being confusing, but the instructions were pretty clear. Great job.

Great job, especially on the graphics. I love the 2d objects in the 3d world and the camera effect that makes everything "feel" small. We apparently had similar ideas about scales as ammo :D 

Wow! Excellent job. What a cozy little experience. This is such a flavorful game for being so short - I love the touches like the mouse's little bedroom. The art and music are gorgeous, too.

Very well done! The scope of this is massive. I'm impressed with how well the procedural generation works. Even if it doesn't feel like a completely finished game, this clearly took a lot of work and it  looks good and plays well.  And y'all did this in a month - crazy. I hope you keep working on it! 

Great job! This felt like a nice, peaceful break. The style and music captured the feeling of lying awake at night for me. I'm also a big fan of the text animation - did you do that yourself?

You clearly put a lot of time into the mechanics here - I love it. The boost jumps are dope and feel really nice to pull off, especially with the added visual effect. Great music, very appealing graphics - even if they're simple, there's enough polish and flair that it doesn't matter much.

I did call it quits before I beat it, unfortunately. The level that got me was the "wall jump boost to high jump boost" one. I was able to make it to the final jump, but even when I pulled off the high jump, the momentum from the first boost carried me right into the death wall. I'm sure it's beatable, but that's where I ran out of patience.

I'm a sucker for anything with a grappling hook. Everything else is just icing on the cake. But like, you guys went and made an adorable and surprisingly challenging game out of it. I love the visuals, and the narration/ commentary is fun and actually adds quite a bit to the experience. One of my favorites so far!

Dang, this game just feels so good to play. Bangin' music, good sound effects, satisfying gameplay loop, simple but easy to read and appealing visuals.  Excellent job - tons of polish for a monthlong jam.

I see what you're going for with the weapon switching.  It's potentially a cool mechanic to remove the player's weapon swapping agency. But I think it needs some tweaking. I only got to use the pulse gun and the shotgun for most levels, and I barely saw the sniper rifle. I also didn't have to vary my strategy at all based on the weapon. I think it'd be improved if 1. the weapon order was random 2. you have to swap weapons every time you run out of ammo, even if you upgrade them 3. there's a bigger difference between weapon types.  Maybe the laser gun is weaker but sets enemies on fire, or the sniper rifle penetrates multiple enemies.  And, it's cliche and inaccurate, but the shotgun only deals damage up close and makes you get dangerously close to enemies.

Thanks! The graphics aren't for me, either.

Thanks for playing! Hmm... was the powerup attached to a scale that was on your back? If so, that's intentional. If not... something broke :O

Much appreciated! Yeah, most of the art is either from other projects or pooped out with minimal effort. I procrastinated on making better visuals and ran out of time. 

Great game! Simple but a good scope for this jam and well-polished. It does get very tough as you scale up and slow down, but you're also very generous with health, so it works out. Good music, too.  It'd be nice to have some warning when powerups are wearing off and maybe a brief warning of the explosion things before they can damage you.

This was adorable. I want a glitcholotl or whatever he is. I also had an invisibility bug on the last level, where I disappeared unless I was jumping. But bugginess kinda fits the game - I assumed it was intentional :D

Only critique: I made it to the end of a level (I think it was the Win 95 one?) only to realize that I missed something and had to drop all the way down. It'd be nice to have a glitch counter so you know how many you're missing.

I love the concept here - very creative, and a cool blend of 2 classic game types. It was too tough for my tastes, though - the main thing is that the snake's hitbox for eating Guido is huge. I like that it's something to watch out for, but I'd prefer if the danger zone was just his mouth area. I kept dying when I thought I should be fine as I jumped over his head or onto his back. Change that, and I'm into it. Nonetheless, very cool game and nice job!

I think this has potential as a sort of adventure/ mystery game - sorry you weren't able to finish in time.

Excellent game! This is one of my favorites so far. Can't say I've played anything like this before. Art's great (although the resolution was a little funky - had to zoom out to fit everything on my screen), music and sound were good, and you actually had time to make a story and dialogue! I hope you keep working on this.

A couple issues I had: sometimes the elevator would move so fast I couldn't click on anything in time, like when 2 ogres drop on one side. I had to know what was coming and compensate for it, which didn't feel fair. Maybe add a speed limit? Also, sometimes the little imp/goblin guys would go flying when I thought I had just dropped them gently.

Very cool concept for this theme. I wasn't able to figure out how to take advantage of the tilting, but I'm sure there are strategies there. Neat!

Nice little game! I do like me some monkey ball. It'd be helpful to have some visual feedback for the controls - I wasn't really sure if moving my mouse further away from the ball was doing anything. Not sure how the theme fits in, though.

Ps. sorry for putting butts on your high score table. What I lack in maturity, I also lack in impulse control.

Thank you! As soon as I decided I was making a lizard game, I had my heart set on getting those legs to work. 

The world needs more Katamari-like games. Very cool, and bonus points for getting this to run in a browser.

Wow, excellent work. Visually, this is spectacular. It's one thing to make nice models and graphics, but you created an adorable character and themed levels. I love the puzzle-on-top-of-another-puzzle design. Reminds me of the last dungeon in Skyward Sword. I'll admit I gave up on the last one when I died and lost my progress :( I'd love to see this expanded, maybe with a couple of easier levels to get a hang of the mechanics. And maybe don't re-hide the rooms when you die! That felt too punishing.

Some minor criticism - I kept getting hit by traps before I saw them. Mostly from walking/ falling through a door and dropping into them. Also, I liked the movement, but had some trouble getting through the doors. Maybe enlarge them and/or remove the ledge around them?

Wow - very unique and ambitious take on the theme. Do you plan on finishing it? It'd be neat to see the mechanics expanded.

Nice job! The music was the highlight for me. I like the concept and it has potential, but the gameplay got stale pretty quickly. It basically felt like playing the same room over and over again while trying to get out of the mazes.  I think it'd be a solid game if you expand the enemy types and powerups and ditch the maze exploration.

Hey, our games have the same name :D Great job. Neat concept. I like the additional challenge of the controls - I think this lawyer was drinking on the job. I had a really hard time with the puzzle, though. The pieces kept rotating as I was moving them, even when they weren't touching other pieces.

Nice job! The graphics and artstyle are excellent, and this is a unique use of "scaling". There was some creative use of  the physics of stretching. Some of the puzzles got pretty tricky. I got stuck for a bit on #6 in particular, because of the "jumping" mechanic.  I did have a hard time with the one-way walls/ floors. I wasn't clear on when/how I could pass through them til the last few levels.

Dang, this is very well thought out and polished! Excellent puzzle game. Started making my brain hurt at around level 11.

Wow, nice job. This was very well done and polished, and I couldn't stop playing til I beat it.

I loved this. Neat idea and the sound and visuals were all great. Very cool interpretation of the theme. It wasn't exactly balanced, but that seems like the point. Reminded me of playing Dominion. I, too, ended up with an extremely broken Deba  knife, but it took til turn 18. Although at some point, I think the values rolled over because I ended up with one that could remove negative scales.

Well done! A simple concept but executed well. Getting to choose between rooms was a nice touch, too - definitely adds some replayability. Very satisfying to mop up all the gold (nanoscales?) after clearing a room. I liked the visuals, too.

Ran into a couple bugs: I skipped buying the large gun, but it was added to my arsenal when I bought the huge one. Also, after I died, quit, and restarted, I ended up in a room with 95 enemies and all of my upgrades from the previous run.

Those legs were my entire graphical budget

I survived! This was tougher than expected, but a good time. Didn't run into any bugs, except the giant bacteria thing that kicked my ass. That thing was mean. Good job!

Simple and poetic. I miss the mountains.

Howdy! I'm far from an expert, but I've attempted a handful of jams. I wanted to share some tips I've picked up for anyone who's trying their first jam - especially solo devs. Feel free to add more tips if you got 'em!

• Start small, and don't get too ambitious. Even simple games are going to be more challenging to create than you expect.  When you're coming up with ideas, ask yourself, "how am I going to program this?"
• Make a to-do list and set priorities. Your game will still work without music, sound effects, or extra levels. Get those game mechanics working first.
• Sketch out your ideas on paper. I like to make flowcharts to help figure out, for example, the different states the player character can be in.
• Your game doesn't have to be good. Just making something to submit is a huge accomplishment, and you'll learn a ton from the experience.  
• Sometimes, you're gonna have to cut stuff because you can't get it to work. That's ok!

Hi! Here are some tips on how to get started from someone who's still learning.

• It is 100% normal to feel intimidated.  This is a time-consuming hobby. But it's worthwhile if you stick with it.
• You're going to run into a lot of stupid glitches. Stupid glitches are the best teachers. Embrace them. 
• If you aren't comfortable with coding, some engines (Game Maker Studio that I know of for sure) have visual systems you can use. They're more restrictive than writing code, but they're much easier to grasp.
• Watch some tutorials for Game Maker Studio, Godot, Twine, RPGmaker or whatever engines interest you. Pick one that doesn't look too overwhelming.
• Get familiar with the engine by doing a couple more tutorials and skimming the user manual. You need to learn a ton, but you'll mostly learn as you go.
• Start with a simple concept. If it's a story game, make it just one scene long. Use free assets or your own MSPaint'd art. It doesn't have to be good - no one else even needs to see it - just make something. Whenever you run into something you don't understand, look it up in the engine's user manual or google it.
• Find a game jam that sounds doable and commit to it. Even if you don't finish in time, keep working on it til it's done. Again, it doesn't have to be good. As a bonus, you get to play other people's strange, broken, and creative ideas. Jams are a good way to give and receive feedback and get acquainted with the community.
• Think about game dev while you're playing games you enjoy. Take notes on  games as you play them.