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Blades in the Dark is definitely a big inspiration, down to the nickname for fixers — one of my favorite RPG characters ever was a Spider, and I always loved the feeling of pulling strings, making deals, and organizing things from behind the scenes. Thanks for the kind words!

With a game this lightweight, I tend to lean in favor of focusing on the narrative side of things and not worrying too much about giving everything a mechanical representation. That said, I would take inspiration from Forged in the Dark games, with bonuses/penalties like:

• +X/-X cards drawn
• Clear X Stress
• Activate a special ability by taking X Stress
• Activate a special ability by playing a specific card suit
• Activate a special ability when you could play a face card, but choose to play a lower-value card

Yep, you've got it on both counts!

Wow, hi! Thanks for checking out my game! Let's do some errata!

1. Stress gain is based on the value of the chosen card, so drawing more cards just means more options.
2. You choose! So you get to maximize your result, determine the consequence (suit) you might receive, or possibly minimize your Stress gain.
3. If any of the cards you draw is a Joker, you jump to 10 Stress and get knocked out of the scene. It's up to a group decision if you still get to use one of the other cards to take your action first; I'd suggest allowing it!
4. Yes, exactly!
5. (And 6.) If you spend an Ace, you get a full redraw. If you draw 3 cards and spend an Ace, you discard them and draw 3 new cards!

Ah, the perils of using natural language in RPGs! In this case, despite the capital letter, Titling doesn't have any special meaning — it just refers to naming a new card, like "Docks District", "Artus Cowl", or "The Ecstatic Dawn of a Thousand Tomorrows". I'll make an update soon that states this explicitly. Good catch!

The fact that you were able to get into it without being familiar with the game's touchstones is such a great sign. Thanks so much for the kind words, and I'm glad you enjoyed it!

I don't think there can be higher praise in a jam than wanting to see a full version. Thanks so much for the kind words and support! We have some other projects lined up at the moment, but we're definitely talking about expanding on Anomalous Intake at some point. You might want to follow our team account for eventual updates. Ahh, I can only say thanks so many times, but seriously, thank you!

Thanks so much for the kind words! Noted on the sound levels — but if by "a repeat" you mean you got a repeated case file, there might be a reason for that...😉

Make sure you check off the Catalog status for every file (usually an induction) — that one's easy to miss!

It's a good idea to err on the side of not annoying players with random unexpected hits from enemies. Have you considered taking a page from fighting games and having different hit/hurt-boxes? Then you could fine-tune each without affecting the other.

Excellent aesthetic and presentation. I love the minimalist style and the progression of mechanics as you keep moving. Like others, I did encounter a bug where I was set back and the next sun patch didn't heal me, making it impossible for me to progress, but I liked what I saw and would love to try it again if updated.

Interesting basis for a strategic management game. Seems that other comments have already covered most of what I was going to say as far as things to improve, so I'll just second all those and congratulate you on a cool little strategy game!

Really incredible level of juice and polish for a jam game! I was already impressed by the menu and initial gameplay, but I was absolutely blown away when the first upgrade screen popped up. The music was super hype. The only issue I had was that the hitboxes seemed somewhat wonky; I was often hitting enemies I didn't expect to, or missing enemies I was aiming for. There's so much potential here to create something between Hades and Vampire Survivors, and I would absolutely love to see more. Awesome stuff!

Super cute and funny concept. I see a ton of potential for this as a larger party game in the vein of Gang Beasts or Overcooked. Really impressed with how much you were able to put together here and would love to see more. Neat stuff!

As a writer, I always appreciate game jam submissions that take the time to develop a story rather than just starting with a blurb explaining the background and letting that do all the work. I was especially impressed that there were even some choices to make! This was a lovely and intriguing moody little adventure, and the aesthetics were on point; it's amazing how some simple lighting effects can elevate a game, even a small one like this. Super cool stuff!

Super cute with lots of polish and potential for more. The animations are adorable and I would love to see a riff on this style of game that goes in some new, exciting directions. The theme opens a lot of room for development, especially with the changing seasons potentially creating different obstacles or strategies to deal with. Neat stuff!

Really impressive functionality and polish on this, especially all the little animations — and the fact you had time to include a whole blackjack minigame?! I struggled a bit with the difficulty, but I still had a good time trying a couple runs, and I really have to commend the aesthetics. Cool stuff!

It's refreshing to hear that you were aware of that kind of issue — it's all too easy to get lost in the forest on a project and lose sight of the overall fun to be had. I know this is just a demo, and I'm sure with some iteration and development this could be a really cool and unique puzzle game.

And yeah, thanks! We try our best! We've got a decent-sized team, to be fair, so I'm honestly more impressed overall by  the smaller projects, but we really appreciate the kind words :)

Neat little game, shows a lot of care and polish for a first prototype! I found the health/damage system somewhat counterintuitive (as opposed to losing health for every rock you miss), but I appreciate that it was something different and I can see ways to develop on it further. Very cool stuff!

Definitely a cool and creative core mechanic, and I can see even more ways to use it than the variations you show in this demo, which are already impressive. I was a bit discouraged by needing to repeat certain sections so many times as I struggled to hold the whole thing in my head, but it's a neat throwback of a puzzler and I'd be intrigued to see what else you come up with.

I love games like this that make you run around a room or vessel and manage a bunch of different machines to keep it going (Barotrauma, Lovers in a Dangerous Spacetime, FAR, Unrailed!, etc). The slow controls and lack of instruction made it a bit hard to get into, but I still enjoyed figuring out what each machine did (at least, I think I figured them all out, ha!) and shooting for a decent depth. This is cool stuff — you could definitely expand more on this!

Such an excellent use of a few key elements, and a ton of clear polish! The wavering walls and objects, the particle effects, the haze and camera shake, the different stages of the animated portrait are all super striking and well-executed details. The actual gameplay got repetitive fairly quickly (understandable for a jam game), but there was enough juice to it that I still felt interested in finishing the game and seeing how many enemies I could get in one blast. (Four!) If you wanted to expand on this with more enemy and attack types, the visual style and the destructible environment could carry you a long way. Awesome stuff!

Love, love, LOVE the use of the case reports as a framing device to dive deeper while diving deeper! What a great double-dip on the theme! The narrative was fun to uncover and I appreciated the dark but somewhat satirical tone. Would love to see more!

You did so much with just a few components here! The camera effect when falling is really cool (disorienting, but totally appropriate for a short moody game like this); I love that you can see the jetpack trails, and the decision to have it recharge quickly on the ground but still charge slowly in midair is a really smart game design choice! I was really excited to get some of those answers when I first encountered the tree island, but I didn't run into anything afterward, even when I gave up on collecting lights (at about 30) and just tried to fall as far as quickly as possible, which was sort of a fun challenge in its own right. I'll second the desire for a clearer objective or goal but I love the vibes and got lost in the fall for longer than I expected!

I love all the submissions that played around with the theme in new and interesting ways, and I LOVE how you combined the typical nautical approach with a more abstract mental dive!

The rapid ascent after a dive threw me off at first, but I eventually realized it was a really smart choice; I appreciate the overall speed and responsiveness of the game, especially in selling everything after a run. The quick-sell feature, and the instant ascent when you max out your weight, are both really smart inclusions and are much appreciated.

I like how you used the simple, cutesy aesthetic to your advantage — I definitely had a harrowed look on my face when I reached the last depth level. Kind of reminds me of that old free platformer Eversion, in the best way.

Awesome stuff! Thanks for the fun time!

I love a good meta concept and I was amused by the voice lines, but without any extra abilities, the thought spawning ended up either making me shoot good thoughts right as they spawned off-screen, or made too many overlapping thoughts to shoot them all in time; I was never able to build up the Focus meter as I kept getting hit by these massive barrages that knocked me back down and forced me to shoot the few good thoughts hidden underneath. Still, it was good for a laugh and I did give it a couple tries. Nice work!

Felt a little lost in terms of the best way to conserve energy and make useable paths, especially with the character's floatiness, but I like the concept and the aesthetics were on-point. The physics of the marbles sometimes made it difficult to get them out of corners, but I managed to get some into a bowl. Scored 45 before I ran out of energy!

I'll second other comments' desire for more to do in the downtime between prompts, but the overlapping characters and recorded timestamps make for such a cool idea for a puzzle game! I had a couple great moments of surprise when the first switch happened and when I had to correct the course at the helm. And, of course, the visuals are absolutely top-tier. Awesome work!

The little touches really make this game work. On top of the graphical details like the character's footsteps and squishing when they hit the ground, and the animations of the tutorial sprites appearing and disappearing, I was so pleasantly surprised and delighted when I saw how the gun's recoil would affect my air movement. I hit a second moment of awe at the first text popup, and the idea that there was something more to explore compelled me to finish the game. I was amazed by the boss and had a third moment of awe when it turned out to have multiple phases! There's a lot of potential here if you wanted to expand on it, but as it is this was a really fun short adventure.

I'll second that this could easily be a fun light game with some extra mechanics, but as it is I still found it cute enough to shoot for a high score! Unfortunately, I think my resolution caused some trouble, as I was never able to get close enough to the top and bottom edges of the screen to pick up fuel that spawned there, so I invariably ran out before getting much farther than 1 km. Still, loved the style!

I love all the games that went for a non-nautical theme and switched up the core premise! My team was planning something similar before we pivoted. I got stuck in the second-stage room with two wall buttons and two crates, but I enjoyed myself up until then — being able to destroy and revert objects has so much puzzle potential, and I would love to see more expanding on that idea, and more interactions with different types of objects if you decide to continue with this or make something with a similar mechanic.

What an incredibly clever twist on the Flappy Bird formula. I can only second what many others have said, but the realization that the game wanted me to intentionally fall into the water and then actually dive deeper myself — what a cool expansion on the concept, and needing to time your returns to the surface (and still dodge pipes there!) is a crucial detail that keeps it from being too simple. Awesome stuff!

I concur that this is criminally underrated! Your presentation is top-notch and I can't believe how much you managed to fit into this game in the jam timeframe. I mean, the enemy variety? The scale? The upgrades? The animated robot arms? The options menu alone!

The ballast system for ascent and descent is really cool and unique, and I appreciated that there were more upgrades than just numerical bonuses, like the smart ballast and the different weapon types. The only thing I thought was lacking was some way to get a map, but the sonar upgrade basically performed the same function, so I can't complain too much.

Coming from a team who also often overshoot our targets and make too much content for jams, I am in awe of the level of dedication here. While I can sympathize with the errors you noticed after uploading, I gotta say, they pale in comparison to what you actually accomplished. In honor of our shared reach exceeding our respective grasps, I decided to sit down and actually finish this game. And even though the final boss might not have had the right hit points, the reveal was awesome!

The way jams like this are structured can make it hard for good games to get attention, so please, no matter how the rankings turn out, be proud of your work. This is my personal favorite submission, for whatever a stranger's opinion is worth!

I'll second that it was hard to navigate and figure out what to do (I got pushed out of the level by the moving platform), but I absolutely adore the papercraft visual style — that kept me going, just to see what other cute details there might be!

The presentation here is incredible! I love the hand-drawn style of the visuals and the way the different pieces move and bob around the screen. These kinds of "interface management" games are always a favorite of mine, but they're usually less frantic than this one; I think there's a really cool game idea in trying to manage a bunch of different buttons and switches while simultaneously piloting a vehicle safely through a treacherous environment. It's definitely quite hard, and I absolutely don't have the reflexes to get a high score (I maxed out at about 45 seconds) but I had a great time diving!

I was really impressed by the presentation here! The environment design, use of light and particle effects, sound and music, and the voiceover all feel nice and polished for the jam timeframe. I thought the main music that played while fighting the wraiths felt somewhat at odds with the tone expressed by the narration and visual style, but I did like it a lot. Everything else was well-balanced, distinct, and nice to look at; I especially liked how the design of each level felt meaningfully different without using a ton of different assets.

I think the style here is strong enough that you could expand this into a much larger game if you wanted to. The vibes are on point; greater use of enemy types, abilities, and incorporating the environment more could make this a fun and even moving experience if the story was extended. Nice work!

Thanks so much, that's awesome to hear! Since the setting is designed to be customized to the table's preferences, I can't give many specifics, but I am (very slowly!) working on the full book, which will have some sample locations and mysteries for inspiration.

At the base level, the world is the American frontier in the latter half of the 19th century (so about 1850–1900), but with the addition of whatever flavors of weirdness you and your players find most interesting. Personally, I started this project with a sort of Shadowrun-esque mix of reality and fantasy in mind, where genre staples like elves, dwarves, dragons, and wizards were integrated into the world on the same level as caravans, outlaws, six-shooters, and steam trains. Throw in some mad science a la Frankenstein and Wild Wild West and you've got a lot to work with.

To start, I'd suggest asking your group what kinda stuff they'd be interested in, picking one or two of those elements to focus on for your first session, and expanding from there! The world is yours to explore and evolve.

Cute and fun little adventure. I had some unexpected trouble with the platforming but I managed it all eventually! It was also just pleasant and refreshing to have all the NPCs be so friendly and kind (Scratchy somewhat included) and willing to help. Reminds me of A Short Hike, so it's in great company!

You're kidding. I would have sworn I clicked everything in that room half a dozen times each. I must have missed it by a pixel! Thanks for the tip, and good luck on the next project :)

An interesting core mechanic packed with a whole lot of style! The trails, background effects, the fluid pixel animations — this is just so pleasing and satisfying to play, with lots of room for expansion and future development if that's something you're interested in. New enemy types, level variants, and different ways to use the two dimensions could elevate this from a fun, short arcade experience to a deeply engaging action game. As it stands, though, it's already dripping with polish and was a delightful surprise!