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What a fun, simple, yet intriguing mechanic! The difficulty was definitely on point at being challenging but not too hard. Good job

Huh

This is quite a fun project. I'll say, however, that integrating Coyote Time and Input Buffering goes a long way in making a platformer feel nice to play. Here's a refresher on what these mechanics are, in case you forgot.

Coyote Time: This mechanic is inspired by Looney Tunes' Wile E. Coyote and the Road Runner sketches where Wile would, upon walking off a cliff, float in mid air for comedic effect. In practice, Coyote Time serves as a mechanism to aid in a player's ability to perform precision jumps. By allowing a jump input to be successfully performed while the player is in mid-air during the first few frames after leaving a platform, the player would, theoretically, jump on nothing. In practice, this mechanic adds leeway to any jump that may be otherwise tight, sometimes having a success window of only a handful of frames.

Input Buffering: In platforming games it makes natural sense for the player to only be able to jump when landing on solid ground. To achieve this, one could simply ignore any jump input that is performed when the player is airborne. The problem arises, however, when a player inputs a jump just a few frames before the character lands on the ground. Typically, the game would throw away this early input and leave only a few frames for the player to thrive again in order to actually jump. The effects of this is that the player feels as if they were cheated; there input seemingly being eaten by the programming and disregarded. An easy fix to this problem is to allow the game to "remember" inputs. If a player presses jump within ten frames before landing on the ground, for example, the game could register the jump input and simply perform that action the moment the player touches the ground.

I hope these points of advice prove useful. Good luck on your school project.

Neat

I don't have much to say so uh... Neat!

What a neat and charming little game. I love the aesthetic.

Good Job.

What a fun demo. I enjoyed discoving new skill and placing them to the test in this simple yet enjoyable metroidvania. Good job.

I just maxed out the gear. What a fun little game.

Great job : )

Now THIS is how you make a short game. It doesn't need any bells or whistles. Just a neat idea and some good atmosphere can do the trick. Good job.

Neat game. (Ending level: 60)

You managed to capture the atmosphere perfectly. Combined with the simplistic yet charming visuals, it could be called a "diamond in rough.". It doesn't take much to create a good atmosphere yet you nail it perfectly. Good job.

Also, is their a definitive ending to this game? I died for getting there if their was one.

Difficult with a nice rainy atmosphere. It's quite rough but everyone starts somewhere.

Best: 4

Whimsical and silly—a wonderful combination. I loved the artwork; it had a nice pastel vibe, which along with the simple puzzles helped build up the cozy atmosphere. Great job.

Great job for creating a simple, fun meta-dating game that builds up a charming atmosphere through whimsy writing andgeneral intrigue. It's nice to know that a game could be fun purely based on the creator's charm. (Note: The 5th ending is impossible to reach due to the game defaulting to ending 2).

Although, with so many looming questions, it was impossible for me to not theorize (I am completely overthinking this silly little game). Here is your obligatory spoiler warning.

Let's start with the rules of this universe. Within the game, I have managed to identify 3 separate entities: Kira, the narrator, and the player. Kira and the narrator are often at odds with each other. i.e., the narrator might have information that Kira doesn't know or speak independently from her. Kira also directly refers to the player separately from the "victim," who is revealed to be depicted as nothing more than a severed mannequin head (both revealed in ending three).

Throughout the game, these three entities drive the story forward. The narrator communicates with the player, while the player communicates with Kira. The narrator and Kira do not appear to be aware of each other. Both, however, I believe to be victims of the laws of the universe.

Using context clues, we can piece together how the universe operates. Despite being labeled as a good ending, ending 1 concludes with Kira ominously telling the player to continue the game. This is backed up in ending 4, when Kira describes the truth: she only exists when the game runs. Her existence, then, is similar to the meme in which its caption explains that a character will stop existing when the viewer scrolls, followed by a terrified aforementioned character.

Kira, interestingly, doesn't seem to realize that she is in a game, as she never mentions the player as such or eludes to programs, data, or otherwise. Even though she does distort similarly, akin to a glitch, Kira never specifically takes note of her actions as anything out of the ordinary. The narrator shares similar limited knowledge. Events such as "obtaining an ending" never cause the character to realize that they are in a simulation. Instead, it is almost as if they believe that they are in a time loop. Alternatively, this game may not actually be self-aware. This can safely be ruled out, however, as the game actively uses glitches as motifs for its atmosphere.

Following the idea that the game is self-aware but none of its characters realize this, oddities start to appear when the game operates outside of what it should. For example, when you tell Kira that you don't know who she is, she responds that her mind feels fuzzy. Also within the 5th ending, the narrator states that the game world keeps looping upon itself endlessly, despite it being implied that Kira would have needed to walk down a flight of stairs to receive your food.

P.S. There really isn't a good place to put this, so here will do. Ending 4 has Kira go on a rant about how she's expected to be a love interest in this world on a blank slate, like some dating game character. She adamantly states that she is as real as you and doesn't deserve to be stuck in the predicament she's in. What's more interesting is that before she says all of that, she alludes to other conventional romance game elements, such as having the player be loved by all and only hated by the "villains" or "rivals." No other characters appear in the game besides the narrator and Kira, leading me to believe that the world's structure is based on a conventional dating game but fails to have all the content that comes with it.

Despite Kira being the poster child for the game, I believe that the narrator is more important to the story (that either doesn't exist or is not intended). Most of the time, narrators are nothing to note about. If they are important, they are either revealed to be the internal monolog of the player character or a separate character entirely. This game follows the route of the second option but introduces the idea that the narrator may be tricking the player by fabricating the truth. Ending three reveals that the entire date had been a "practice." No one was actually bound to the chair, and instead Kira was speaking to a mannequin head. This revelation would imply that Kira had made up the entire game in her head, but that is false, as ending 5 depicts a conclusion without Kira entirely. If this is true, then why does the narrator continue to make comments that would only make sense if you were actually a person bound in place?

The mannequin has no arms to reach out for a knife—arms that can't be freed by gnawing. Because of this, I believe that the narrator is making the player believe in a situation that does not exist. If the narrator is willing to distort the truth to keep up the false image that the game provides, what else is the narrator doing behind the scenes? Ending 5 depicts the narrator revealing to the player that the world endlessly loops, explaining Kira's absence. This action implies that either the narrator can move through the world somehow or that the narrator already knew that this was possible. It is not implausible that the narrator knows more about this universe and that they may have an ulterior motive, such as doing anything in their power to keep Kira confined within the playworld.

With everything that I have noted, I will attempt to summarize the hidden lore about this game. I admit that I'm probably just overthinking this. Also, I like to think of it as a testament to the creator's ability to make a silly dating game.

Kira's world is designed to be a dating game for the player. The narrator helps aid this agenda by creating a situation alongside Kira that resembles a date. The world is quite crude, however, hurting the characters whenever the player doesn't play the game. Along with that, it also cuts corners, removing anything that is believed to not be necessary, like the outside world, and instead breaks down when its limits are surpassed. Kira doesn't believe that she's in a game, despite occasionally glitching out and doing things that don't make sense.

Poor girl. Being stuck in dating purgatory is a nightmare.

Happy Birthday?

What a lovely experience! (Here's your obligatory spoiler warning).

Ok, where to start...                                                                                                   I would like to give you a congratulations on nailing the story and presentation of the game. Most of the time, these types of games feel cheesy or Game Jam-like. However this time around, it felt more "real?". I'm not sure if it's the characterization or if the light-hearted absurdity but the game made me empathize with the characters in a way that I did not expect. It's not groundbreaking, just sweet.

It's always so enjoyable to see people push simple premises to their limits. It goes to show that sometimes all you need is a good creative direction. I can easily see ways it could be expanded upon. I'm sure many people would love to see even more of your signature creativity.

Button was quite relatable to me for better and worse. I believe her people pleaser personality meshed well with her own occasional bouts of self autonomy, the likes of which isn't commonly different than my own. She knows her boundaries and yet still tries to keep close to "Finn" whenever possible, making the most out of her life even if others aren't willing to do it for her. Bad End 8 however, also displays how such attributes could be pushed to the extreme. The way she selectively ignores the world around her in order to feed her own negative thoughts unfortunately feels oddly familiar. I'm not nearly going to dissect "Finn" that hard. Personally I feel like he speaks for himself.

Anyways, congratulations on telling a strangely demented yet endearing story. I still wonder however how to actually get the tenth ending though...

How wholesome. This was exactly what I needed to warm my heart. Thank You!

Really fun and creative! I'll love to follow along and see where this project goes. Great job.

Simple but fun. Good job.

Simple but fun. This proves that a good gameplay loop can easily outshine something such as graphics. Good job.

How chaotic and cute. Great job.

Simple yet enjoyable. Good job.

This game was quite... Unnatural? It felt as if there was a blend between both fantastical elements and logical misdirections which is a good thing. The atmosphere of the project was on point and radiated mystery. Great job.

Neat

What exactly is supposed to happen after collecting all six spiders? After completing the game, it appears as if the ending is the same.

Well made and fun as well.

There appears to be a glitch that prevents all sound from playing except for the item pick-up sound and the menu button sounds. The BGM toggle doesn't do anything because there is no sound to begin with.

This short experience was quite fun. The pixel art was good and the mood was sent well. My only complaint is the gimmick and occasionally precise blue fuel . Well done.

1660/2000

This game was so sweet and nice. Great job.

Unfortunately you aren't able to save your progress which is quite problematic for an idle game. Besides that however, the game is quite fun.

Wonderful game. I could tell there was a lot of love poured into this Project. The characters were fantastic to play and the whole game felt well thought out. Great job.

The game's difficulty seems to accidentally be very overturned. One of the game's core mechanics revolves around how the ball will continue to bounce  until eventually re-entering the cannon. at which you can refire. This however leads to any shot that does not immediately reenter the cannon to aimlessly bounce while the player is left defenseless. Unless the idea of the game is to control the angle of the ball so that it never bounces, this mechanic serves as more of a nuisance than a benefit. Also, despite my best efforts, I have yet to be able to purchase an upgrade as the inability to defend effectively leads to the game ending too soon. Regardless of everything I've stated, the game in theory is quite enjoyable.

So addicting...

Even though the game was short it still managed to pull off a rich atmosphere. The art style was the perfect mix between what could only be described as a slightly uncanny traditional children's book. Great job.

Fun game. It has the charm of the original. Great job.

I'm not sure what to do. All that appears to be are a few flavor text items, a light switch, a radio, and two pickup-able items (a book and a disk? record?). There doesn't appear to be any instructions on the page or in-game. Also, the camera sensitivity is far too high.

27 Shots to beat the game.