itch.io

A mix of things!

Some things like the character sprites have the shadow/ghosting baked into the sprite. But for the projectiles and other screen elements I set up a custom script that automatically added the ghost/shadow effect. (Ideally, every sprite would use this script because it's more customizable, but because of the jam time limit I decided to brute force it near the end of development via the first method I mentioned, like with the character sprites haha) It's deceptively simple. (If this is what you're talking about)

Thank you! I've wanted to try a '3D model with a 2D projected viewport as the main game' thing for a while and this jam gave me the perfect excuse to try it. 

Thank you very much! That means a lot to hear - I had a lot of fun making the visuals, and I'm happy that people are liking that aspect!

As a huge fan of peggle (and sad there hasn't been a new one in a long while) this was incredible!
You nailed basically everything here, it feels really nice to play, has just the right amount of content for a jam game, and overall is just a lovely, complete experience that is also super replayable even if you've already beaten the different levels.

Admittedly I feel as if the theme was a bit too loosely used here, only having relevance as a part of the story and not really affecting the gameplay much which is what I tend to value most in jams, interesting gameplay based around the themes. It also felt a bit less like a puzzle game and more like a strategy game.

Nevertheless, that can be easily looked past simply due to the quality of the experience. It's truly a wonderful jam entry and I'm definitely excited to see if you do more with it post-jam since there really are not enough games of this style. 

As someone who is a sucker for demakes/games made in old styles / for older systems (definitely not biased, don't look at my submission) this is very fun! You did a great job with everything and it's very impressive. It's cool to see GBstudio being used for games like this!

Very fun game with a lot of juice! Very impressive for a jam game, great work!

Lovely lil' experience. The art is adorable and the gameplay is simple but perfectly fits the theme and replayable. (The ending screen when you fail is also really silly)

All around, great work to everyone who worked on it!

Thank you very much for playing! I also played a lot of LCD games when I was younger, so this was something I've wanted to try for a long while.

This jam and it's theme gave me the perfect excuse to finally try my hand at that style of game. I'm glad I did it well! 

Very solid game stylistically, and the theme is used very well here! Incredible to see / play.
The controls are also solid and overall it was a very polished and pleasant jam game experience, wonderful work!

A very fun arcade style experience. While I do think the theme of 'spin' itself could've been explored more thoroughly this is still stylistically very nice and a well-put-together game with solid controls and a great foundation. Great work!

Honestly brilliant design! I love the visual style and everything revolving around wheels is so satisfying.

Wonderful work, it was incredible to see this game's progress on the discord!

The poor performance is something I witnessed first hand after submitting when I sent it to a friend. I made a downloadable build but forgot to put it on the itch page prior to submitting which unfortunately means I'm sure a lot of people were affected by the performance issues.

Thank you for trying the game regardless! I appreciate the feedback and for being honest with the ratings.
I'll try to have the downloadable build up asap post-jam for anyone who's experiencing troublesome performance.

Thank you very much! I spent a lot of time on the art design for this game so that means a lot to hear. It was fun to make all of the artwork!

Hey! Thanks for playing!

I agree on the dash not being the best. It was designed to dash the player towards the mouse cursor but this isn't conveyed well in the game and it's misleading. It was originally added like that to add to the challenge, so you couldn't shoot when dashing, but the implementation is rough.
Thank you again for the kind words and feedback!

Thanks for the feedback!
The dash doesn't go towards the boss, it dashes the player towards the mouse position. But this is confusing I've found and it will likely be changed post-jam to dash towards where the player is moving instead since that's more readable.

Also I do plan on adding more bosses! The slime is supposed to have attacks that are randomized each time with new attacks to make it fresh, based on what upgrades the player currently has. But unfortunately the randomizer broke. It's also something I'm fixing. (The palette's were ones I use for low-color-palette games and took substantially less time then boss design, less than an hour to implement, hence there being palettes haha)
Again, thank you for playing and for the honest feedback. I've noted it down for the next build of the game!

That means a lot to hear - a lot of my focus was on making the visual style cohesive and interesting so I'm happy to hear that!

Tysm!

Thank you so much!

Thank you! Yes, the 2 mob issue is because of the boss randomizer messing up unfortunately. Wanted to get it fixed prior to the jam but I couldn't figure it out before the deadline. Nevertheless, I'm glad you liked it! It was very fun to make and I'm excited that people seem to like the foundation :)

One thing I do want to do in the post-jam version is make the bullets interact with each other more since I feel the 'fun' of this game would be better if the bullets could be formed into interesting conversations, instead of being independently powerful.
Thank you so much again for playing and for the feedback!

Can I just say your fonts are so nice! They're all really well-made.

Great job on all of it!

https://splendiddog.itch.io/fishtronomy

Despite a few small delays behind the scenes that caused us to move from our initially planned late-November launch into early-December, Fishtronomy is now officially available for release! You can now dive into the game, (get it? Dive? Like… fish… water? That sounded better in my head), and experience the small-scale cosmic adventure through space first hand – a space filled with way, way too many fish. And one quirky guide to help you through it all. (Phebe tries her best)

Currently the game has a 10% off sale for it's launch period!

What Can You Expect from Fishtronomy?

• Silly, physics-based interactions between fish that’ll make you think (and also that get very, very chaotic).
• Minimalistic mixed art-style, featuring starry space-themed visuals with cozy pixel art.
• A relaxing yet cosmic soundtrack to accompany your journey. (Composed by the very talented Cris "Ariyassa" Luu)
• A heartfelt little story about the cosmos, fish, mysterious beasts lurking in the night sky, and everything in between.

A quick fishtrospective:

Developing Fishtronomy over the past few months has been a very fun, interesting, and informative process. From brainstorming different ways that the game could be expanded and improved from the original concept it was based on to crafting a small, simple, but still interesting and fun narrative to tie everything together. This project has truly been a fun and passionate one.

From humble roots as a jam game (which had a way more confusing name) to a full release, no matter how small of a release that is, Fishtronomy has had a very wonderful, exciting, sometimes terrifying, but very fun development journey, and hopefully the game reflects that by being fun to play in turn.

Okay, now what?

The game is now fully released on but that doesn’t mean it’s over quite yet! Currently there’s an update being worked on which should be available later this month (December) that aims to address some of the most common suggestions and feedback that the game has already received since launch, which will hopefully make the game even better moving forward!

With all of this said…

🛒 Fishtronomy is available now—hopefully you love it as much as we’ve loved making it.
See you among the stars! 🌠

Thanks for all of the really good feedback! It's definitely all super helpful and I'll be taking note of all of this.

This is the first official 'public' showing of Fishtronomy so, I knew there'd likely be some issues to address. I'll take this feedback and try to work more on the core design. The gameplay is experimental and I'm still figuring out what really works with the formula, this all helps.

Thanks again for playing the Demo!

It's always nice to see 3D entries in the jam, and I think this was well done!

The most difficult part of doing 3D games is generally just readability, and I think you handled that well here. I could tell where I was going and make out the enemies which I count as a win. Nice job!

An incredibly well-made pseudo-3D game. I think you handled the resolution very well and the presentation is top notch! (Also just really satisfying)

Love the concept and it's always nice to see sequels to jam games. Great work!

Absolutely INCREDIBLE lil' dungeon crawler game, loved every second of it it's so cute. The pixel art and game feel is really really nice.

Tysm!

Nice minimalistic space shooter! I think the dual actions are nice (the thrusters being used for attack and flying)
It's overall super nice!

Thank you so much for the kind words!

I had a lot of fun making this and I'm glad you liked it as well :)

Super fun, absolutely loved this! The visuals and overall game feel is incredible.

Absolutely loved the graphic style in this and the game was just overall really well done! Incredible work!

Wow, thank you so much for the detailed feedback! (And don't worry, I don't take it that way! Feedback and criticism is great for improving things, and I'll definitely be using this in a post-jam update)

I agree about the spikes and their implementation being a tad off. They were added fairly close to the deadline so I couldn't polish them as much as I would've liked, but I'll definitely take all of your suggestions for the post-jam update! Like making it to where the spikes can't hurt you until you're actually on the  ground instead of while you're rising, making them appear sooner, etc. It's all really helpful stuff and I appreciate this detailed comment! And thank you for playing the game :)

Thank you so much! Small scope and minimalistic gameplay was my goal - so I'm happy to hear I was able to execute on that well and make something fun!

I'm glad you enjoyed the game, and again, thank you for playing and the kind words!

Thank you very much, that means a lot!

That wasn't a bug actually, completely intentional and poorly executed haha. Fixed in the post-jam version coming either tonight or tomorrow!
I'm glad you enjoyed the game, overall! :)

Aw, that means so much to hear! Thank you so much! 

Thank you!

Thank you so much! I'm glad you like them! 

https://opengameart.org/content/simply-expressive-72-emotion-buttonsicons

Here you go, uploaded there as well!

This was really nice! The fish felt fun to control and it was nice zipping around the level, jumping over hills, etc.

I did softlock myself at the very end by jumping over the last hill only to get stuck behind it haha. But that's just on me exploring too much. Overall I think this was really well done for only being made in a week and I think it'd be neat to see this movement with more mechanics like a small collectathon or sonic-like setup.

Bonus points for creativity, given the format used to make it. Not only making a game in a jam time-frame but ALSO making it for the GBA is awesome! Did take some hoops to set up but overall a really nice experience.