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Thank you so much! 🙏🏽 Music was Josh and myself, it's heartening to hear!

I actually played this for the dev, and demonstrated that they were broken for me — at one point, even when gripping a coloured hold, it caused my player character to slide horizontally, out of reach of any of the holds that I had to Reset Timer. So yeah, unfortunately, this has been confirmed, but there's no easy fix.

Pros and cons noted. With regards to the cons, however, the way I'm seeing it, is that you want the antithesis of someone who's getting better at their craft (where it's supposed to be easier with time). I understand that you want more challenge across the levels, and that's the angle where you're coming from — I'm struggling to make it make sense.

Coming from someone whose spouse is a model rocketry nerd, that wouldn't make physics sense though...? Like, the plastic bottle ones are typically the hardest to control, and more purpose built ones have better features that allow better thrust and lift. 

And... on a related note, we all know what happened IRL to some instances of that final craft we put in (not spoiling). Imagine if that were insanely difficult to control — I think it would be in bad taste, wouldn't you?

I loved the interpretation of this theme, "built to scale." It does bring to mind Tony Roberts, who recently won a gold in climbing without ever expecting to win. The music is quite tranquil, and fitting with the rain you've got going here.

The controls are broken, unfortunately. I've tried reaching and grabbing and twisting to position myself, and at no point is my player character actually holding on to the rock, not even past 0.0m.

Game is very effective: creating sprites to fight for you and defend you. The art and animations are simple and charming, and the music is fitting. I love the upgrade system a lot, but having to constantly left click and move just got on my wick after a while.

All the best in this jam!

The game's quite simple and effective, with each of the cards somewhat corresponding to an element type. The luck aspect of what cards you're given does make this quite nail-biting. Sad about there being no sound, and also no healing option.

All the best in this jam!

Hiya, I'm the musician. Thank you so much, glad you enjoyed what you heard! 🙏🏽

Musician and VA here — thank you so much! 🙏🏽

I genuinely prefer making a tune (or reworking a tune) for the purposes of a given jam, 1) shows what I can do and 2) shows the love I'm willing to pour into a project, I hope.

Musician here — glad you enjoyed what you heard, thank you so much! 🙏🏽

Musician here — glad you enjoyed what you heard, thank you 🙏🏽

Musician here — glad you liked what you heard, thank you 🙏🏽

Musician here — thank you so much! 🙏🏽

Musician here — thank you so much! 🙏🏽 Kingdom Hearts was one of my earlier influences, and I still enjoy playing the earlier games in that series.

That is incredibly high praise — thank you so much! 🥺🙏🏽

I'm the musician on the team — thanks so much! 🙏🏽

Hiya, I'm the audio person. Thank you so much! 🙏🏽 

Musician here — thank you so much! 🙏🏽 

Musician here, thank you so much! 🙏🏽

Hiya, I'm the musician. Was really heartened by your remarks on the music. Thank you!

Thank you so much! <3 I'm the musician on the team; glad you're enjoying what you're hearing!

Hello 👋 I'm the musician. I went for this so you could point and laugh. You know, like a slapstick comedy?

Hiya! Good to see you here! :D

Thank you so much!

Thank you so much! ^_^

The presentation of this reminded me of the old NES fantasy games -- immediately coming to mind is NES D&D, but better. Well done on this game, and all the very best!

Thank you so much! ^_^

Sadge... :(

Glad it does! Thank you ^_^

My thoughts --

• The territory conquered FX is short and effective. The drums and the swoosh together tell us that the area has been turned and it is a short signal of triumph.
• The ability acquired FX is effective, but a touch grating on the upper mids (and, if I were not listening to this on low volume I would have recoiled).
• The alien swarm FX is terrifying. I agree with Doug below me; he's said pretty much everything I could have said on this and I would say that of the three, this is your best.

I sense that you're straight up going dark and edgy and horror with this, and these FX do well to inform prospective devs about the direction the game should take just on their own. Well done.

All the very best in the jam!

My thoughts --

• On the music, there are parts where the melody worked, and parts where it felt all over the place, parts where it invoked dread, and parts where it felt very uncharacteristically uplifting. One thing I'd advise you on is, brush up on your tonality and our cultural and historical associations with chords -- this'll help your emotional literacy when writing themes. These are things that can be learnt through osmosis, through listening to scores that have impacted you over the years.
  • Staccato is a good choice rhythmically for this sort of piece because it gives it a drive and an urgency. So I guess the TLDR is that you've got the right ideas rhythmically, but not entirely, tonally.

• On the FX:
  • Under Attack has that BLOOD-CURDLING gurgly, warbling sound that truly makes it sound otherworldly and frightening. Well done!
  • The death FX was also alien in its sound, though I feel it could've used a touch more impact.
  • That roar was also probably one of the most terrifying I've heard in this jam, full stop, just due to the sheer warbling and  alien nature of it. It could do to be a touch thicker and sharper, but it still managed to instill dread in me all the same. Solid work!

Well done on your submissions -- I note, again, that you're one of those who submitted in such a short time, with hours to spare before the deadline; props for that. All the best in the jam!

My thoughts --

• Music is in .ogg so I had to open it in Audacity, the only program I had that could open it -- the stipulation was MP3 -- but that aside:
• It's got quite a prog rock take on an AOE theme and trad music, and the pulsing guitars in the background give it that drive, that sense of urgency about it.
• This has been really well mixed.
• The odd augmented G#s did their purpose well to remind me that this was not an AOE game, but in fact an invasion game, because otherwise this could have played in an otherwise more benign game with the instrument and melody choices (coming from a trad background, this wouldn't have been out of place in regular AOE were it not for the G#s.

All the FX were submitted as .ogg format as well, instead of the stipulated WAV. That aside --

• The battle cry felt like that of a regular crowd, but the horn sounding behind it was eerie and unworldly. Nice touch!
• The ghoul select FX could work under the right circumstances, but it could also feel like a cacophony of birds or a car alarm. ^_^;
• The UI error one actually gave me a bit of a jumpscare with how piercing its mids were. I don't know if this was intended, but either way, well done.

Well done on your submissions; all the best in the jam!

Thank you so much! The feedback you gave me is much appreciated and I'm taking it on board to up my sound game. ^_^

My thoughts:

Well done for submitting! Unfortunately, in this case there are no FX for me to rate on, only music, and I'll do my best.

The short synthwavey loop you've shared here is melancholic and gives off an air of dread -- good feeling, but to me, it feels a touch bland emotionally. Also, hearing this on repeat on a (presumably) long RTS level might be difficult. The idea is solid, but could use some variation.

My thoughts --

Everything, the music, the FX, is in one file; I want to give people rating a warning in case this has influenced your ratings!

• The first half of music is quite calming, quite idyllic... I'm not quite sure if it is emotionally and thematically on point with the dread and fear being spread by a necromancer about to conquer the world with an army of undead.
• However, later on, it changes. The tonal and dissonant choices here are a lot more on point -- they evoke that feeling of great dread. That moving bassline reminds me of the very first level theme of Doom; it's even the same key!
• I think what you are attempting to do with the music is tell people that before the invasion, it is calm and idyllic, but with the advance of people, it is going to change into something more Stranger Things-like. I appreciate the intent behind that choice, but it's not one I personally would be on board with especially if I'm playing the baddies in this game.
• The bone FX were pretty true to life, well done.
• There was a thing like a party horn in the end; I'm struggling to figure out what it's for -- a success FX? A charge FX? It feels incongruous to me.

All the best in the jam!

My thoughts --

• On the music:
  • The Lumber March is whimsical and spoopy, with some devious rhythmic choices. Well done.
  • The first level music is a simple and effective use of the Dies Irae motif. Relaxing, foreboding, and varied; very nice!
    • I understand that you did a combined level cut for Wwise / FMod implementation, but I think they'd work without the middleware because that variation works on a (presumably) long RTS level.
  • The player losing was... whimsical? Rhythmically and instrumentally it was whimsical but I'm not sure I'm feeling this tonally...
  • Solid mixing all around.
  • The success jingle was super on point, I could not see any other being used for a game like this. Stellar job!

• The charge FX was really good too; I loved the detail of the out-of-tune trumpet there.
• Only comment about it besides the above that I have is that the crowd feels too... "not-undead." I could see that shout being uttered by certain living groups of people ^_^;
• The rise undead FX was very characterful and it did scare me a bit. Well done.

Well done; solid work all around, and all the best in the jam! I also note that you did this in a short span of time, props for that.

My thoughts --

• On a musical standpoint, the melody is memorable and simple and very nice. However, there are some dissonances in the bass that clash with the main melody, and later, you don't change the key of the bass when the melody shifts a key up, which makes for an even bigger clash...
  • It sounds like you used your samples as-is, with little mixing. I suppose that might work given some RTSes have had soundtracks like this in the past (looking at you, AOE...).

• The swarm attacking sound is short and sweet, but sounds like it's only one creature that's grunting. I don't know if that's your intention -- listing what it evokes to me!
• The swarm dying sound was fuller and blood-curdling. I felt the twinge of pain in that sound. Well done.
• The troop birthing sound was pretty cliché to me.
  • That said, the mixing of your FX was uniform and they all felt like they belonged in the same game. Props.

I want to close this by remarking that I felt the heart that you put into these files, and I can't let this go unnoticed. Well done, and all the very best!

My thoughts --

• The music was deeply foreboding and the mixing choices here made my spine tingle with dread. When all the other instruments came along, it was great in a retro, unexpected sort of way, and it still conveyed the sense of urgency, dread and unstoppable nature of the swarm.
  • It fits a more modern setting in most cases, but then on the flipside, you have games like Simon the Sorcerer that blend fantasy with modern music, so I'm saying that it fits based on just that fact alone.
  • Only comment I have on this is that it doesn't feel varied enough for a long level (considering this is an RTS), but I would think that fragment enough to dramatically influence the time period, look, and even feel of the game. Stellar job.

• The bites were, again, spine-tinglingly good.
• The moans felt a touch cliché zombie survival to me considering I'll have heard similar sounds in a lot of games (the background rumbling immediately calls to mind a lot of previous games).
  • That said, they were well mixed, and I felt the care put into them (I presume that you did those moans in various pitches; if so, nice touch).

• The squishes felt nondescript to me, but I suppose in the right context and with the right amount of mixing (and possibly warmth), they could depict ooze, entrails, or that scourge that the undead are spreading across the land.
  • Again, this was really well put together and I felt the care that went into this.

Well done, and all the best in this jam. That you did this in such a short span of time is worth noting, and I feel you should be proud.

My thoughts --

• Talking about the music, this was well written on a musical standpoint, the dissonance was just on point. It was minimalist, which was okay, but the sounds grated on me.
  •  The frequencies of the harpsichord caused me to recoil when it was first introduced (something which might have been sorted in mixing), and since it was a short loop, I could only imagine that this short loop would repeat multiple times.
  • I think this was a sound idea, but it could have done with more expansion and variation, especially if playing this on loop on a (presumably) long RTS level.

• The crunch of the skeleton building itself was perfect. :O It had that spine-tingling crunch about it. Well done.
• The "Yes, Master" line was a great choice of line. 
  • I feel it could have done with more distortion for that otherworldly sound, but, having said that:
  • I loved that you used different inflections and tones for the same line to make it sound like different people speaking at once. That was brilliant.

Well done, and all the very best!

My thoughts --

• The music is foreboding, varied, and very well orchestrated. It gives me AOE vibes, but darker, especially when other percussion instruments and synths come in. Mixing could do with a touch of polish.
• The necromancer's den sounds eerie. A little more air and it would have made my hair stand on end.
• The spellcasting FX makes me think of some sort of fire or lightning.
• The wall crumbling felt like a much taller, much hollower structure made of metal was falling down, like a ship breaking or some scaffolding or structural work twisting apart before snapping and crumbling down. I don't know if that's what you were going for, but I thought I'd put down what it evoked for me!

I feel that this befits a much darker experience overall. As I said before, this gives AOE, but darker, which is a good thing in my book. Well done, and all the very best!