In case this theme is never revealed, here are some other jams that have just started or about to start ~
https://itch.io/jam/first-sanctum
https://itch.io/jam/jamfest-fall-2024
https://itch.io/jam/mini-jam-171-mystic
https://itch.io/jam/trijam-295
https://itch.io/jam/-natures-whisper-jam-
https://itch.io/jam/2-buttons-jam-2024
Maybe ill take another chance on this jam if I see it pop up again.
Good luck all!
As promised, I've returned to play the game. Unfortunately, there are quite a few issues.
I frequently encounter the bug you pointed out about how the characters can't navigate around each other. This unfortunately stopped me progressing past level 4 at most.
If you purchase the second or third room first, any room previous will never be entered by the characters in any following level.
The third 'Buy' button's click detection isn't the size of the button itself. You can see this simply by hovering over the top half of the button.
The play button is really stretched and doesn't look very appealing, same with the health bar.
Not being able to defeat the character on level one is rather unattractive, it means you are always going to lose health no matter what.
I can't really comment on anything else as I frequently could not get past level 1 due to the characters getting stuck on each other.
I do like the art style and the idea of the game. The mechanic of the game reminds me heavily of a card game I recommend you look at if you are interested in taking this project further. The game is called Boss Monster.
You have a really promising game, but unfortunately it is just unplayable in it's current state. If you were to fix what I have suggested, I would love to replay and give you further feedback.
I had three goes at this and it's really enjoyable! I love the random items each run, and there is a good array of rooms.
I'll start with the negatives:
The crouch is a little overpowered, it's harder to avoid the spikes than the projectiles, and it makes the bosses a joke.
This is more of a personal preference, but the volume is quite loud, it would be a good idea to have a setting to change the volume. While the simple solution is to just turn down my headset, it's my personal common practice to manage this as the developer.
The spikes being an insta-kill is a little annoying. Maybe set the player back to the location they were at before the jump?
I don't know what is causing this, but there is a particular level where the enemies really love just looking to the left, and don't turn around even if you are sniffing their necks. The room looks like it has two trenches, both have one enemy in each, then there is an enemy in front of the exit door. Plus, there is an enemy in the top middle on his own platform.
Now to the positives:
As mentioned previously, I love the variety of everything. The levels, the items, the bosses, amazing.
Even more into the variety, having a choice of items that can either upgrade you or your weapons is excellent.
The choice of music suits the theme really well!
I love the design of all the characters and the animations are done spectacularly.
I hope these comments are useful for further development on this project or the next! Excellent work, definitely among the higher side of the games I've enjoyed the most out of all the submissions! I hope I get to see more of your work in other jams!
Thank you for the feedback! I have no idea what is causing that bug but thank you for letting me know!
In regards on how you mentioned sound effects, was there no sound at all? There definitely is sound in the game. Everything has a sound attached. There are three background tracks and every attack has a different sound. Or do you mean there could be more, which is defiantly something I thought about but I was running out of time lol
Many thanks again!
Love the name, love the gameplay. Q and E are a little hard to use when running away from the Froblins. The UI also believes your hands are empty when progressing to the next area when you have items equipped. The shield also felt rather useless as it wasn't hard to not be hit by the enemies.
I can't really say much else other than I really like it! I could see this being fully adapted into a Turnip Boy Commits Tax Evasion. This is a real promising gold mine of a game you have here!
I can see where you've interpreted the limitation, but it doesn't really work for me. While the customer wants two items, and you're giving them two unique items, you're actually giving them four, and I personally believe that breaches the limitation.
The gameplay isn't bad, though like previously said you can just spam click and you get most of the items within the bread, it would also be a good idea to have some sort of indicator when making the sandwich of where to hover your mouse for the items to spawn.
I really like the idea, it's super chill and is visually quite feel-good. I saw you posted a video in the discord of early gameplay and I've been looking forward to playing myself, and I do like what I played. Nice stuff!
If your focus on this was boss battle design, you have a good foundation. It's just too easy to avoid the attack, I would go as far as to say there isn't any real gameplay here. Your selection of asset packs works well but I would like to see more than a player, enemy and a grey floor. It's my personal opinion that you didn't really meet the limitation. A crossbow wouldn't work without the arrow, therefore I would categorise that as one item, but the idea you have to retrieve the arrow after firing it is a good concept. Very Hawkeye. What you have is good, but I would like to see more.
Instant hit as far as I'm concerned. Art style is fantastic, easy controls but enjoyable gameplay, amazing. Gave me heavy Wario Ware vibes and I'm here for it. Simple, but effective. I do agree with a previous comment, having the two heroes be able to do some sort of unique ability to differ them would be a great addition and give purpose for there being two of them. Amazing stuff!
I love how you've used the guns to add to the movement, but it's just too tricky for me. Just like Kikamack has already stated, art is great, concept really works. I also like the sound effects, they work quite well with the visuals. The bats and player have really good designs. It's actually quite scary when the bat suddenly charges at you.
Overall, great submission, just a bit too tricky for me.
I love the idea. This would be a fantastic mobile game that I would happily play in my downtime.
Visuals are great, sound works well, the good stuff is great!
A few notes I want to make:
Firstly, it's really hard to see the hazards. And not in a hard difficulty kinda way, in a way that it needs to be changed because it doesn't make sense for it to be that hard to see.
Secondly, I saw multiple times that a hazard spawned on the same spot as a delivery point, maybe it's just my opinion but I don't think that should be a thing.
Lastly, it's really confusing having five lanes, but that could just be me.
Overall, I think this would be a great minigame if developed further, but what you have is really enjoyable! Good job!
I felt a bit like that Cuphead journalist who couldn't get past the first jump for a while, but I eventually got over it, then immediately died.
Furthest I got to was the room with the red men. Due to the constant changes in velocity, I could not time my swings and instantly died. It's a really fun design, but in my personal opinion and level of gaming ability, your main mechanic became your biggest downfall in that moment.
I love the concept, I'm a fan of the visuals, but the sudden difficulty curve is so huge that it's hard to get over. This would be the sort of games that speed runners would play for world best time, but for someone more casual like me, this does not appeal to me enough to play more than a handful of times.
Please don't get me wrong, this is a great submission and a clear indication of how well you know Gadot, this one is just not for me. Great submission!
A lot of what I thought has already been mentioned so I'll get straight to the point!
Love the comedy, the character design and names are super, and the whole concept is really well thought out. Great gameplay loop, the art style works really well, this could be the next Super Auto Pets!
Great submission!
I was looking forward to this one and you did not disappoint!
I absolutely agree with what has already been said, they've identified some great points so I won't repeat anything I found similar as it's already been identified.
What would I change?
Firstly, the bats take forever to get to you. They start off at a reasonable speed, then they slow down. I end up waiting on a platform for a few seconds every other jump when I just want to move on.
I would love to see the sword having a space ability and the shield having an x ability. Any further additions to movement would be great as well to give some variety to what you can achieve.
Those are my only two thoughts on areas of improvement for the game. Otherwise, I love the art style, the comedy in the cutscene is great, fantastic concept pulled off brilliantly, very very good game. Absolutely loved it.
I really like it! The whole one person has a sword and one person has a shield is rather over done in my opinion, but you actually pulled it off quite well.
While it isn't clear within the gameplay that the green goblins are for the sword and the red for the shield, especially considering the designs of the knights, you've definitely made some fascinating gameplay which I have drawn some inspiration from to use in my own projects.
The choice of font doesn't really work. You've got a very Nordic font when the game is about knights.
It would also be a good idea to give the knights and the castle some visual representation of remaining health.
Overall, fantastic minigame. I do feel like this may work better with some sort of rhythm game element, but great submission!
As previously mentioned, the controls were super confusing. The constant camera position change was also really jarring. And that font was just illegible at any resolution.
Now that the negative is out of the way. I really like the concept. Great idea, good execution, sounds work well, visuals are consistent, everything is tied together really well! With a little bit of work, the already good quality of this would multiply massively. Cool stuff!
I really enjoyed playing this! I'm not really sure on the purpose of the guardian angel. I didn't try it, but it felt like he wasn't actually needed. I also didn't do anything with the picture, but I completed the game, so I'm not sure what that was about. If the angel could interact with objects, rather than removing darkness, then that would bring a whole new level to the puzzles.
Super neat concept, odd house layout, loved it. Brought me back to the games I used to play on Newsgrounds. Nice work!
Fantastic. Instant applause. This is such an incredible game. I can already see, if you were to polish some of the problems out, this would be such a hit with the causal gamer community and you could easily make some money.
So you probably already know the following problems, but if these were to be addressed, you'd have a wonderful immersive experience:
Collisions. Just a small collision at the base of each tree and caravan to stop you walking through it goes a long way.
Tile layering. There are multiple instances, more so after you've changed the environment, where the object or environment piece is on the wrong layer relative to the player.
One addition I would make is an animation going into the water. At the moment, you just walk into it. It would add a lot more if you were to have the character stop, step down, then give the control back to the player.
I would also add some indicator that you can put the items back in the caravan. I did not realise that until I did it accidentally.
The visuals are beautiful, the music is fantastic, this is one for the portfolio. Incredible.
Very cute character designs, love the music, very clear direction on what to do. Every visual element is so neatly coordinated and super appealing.
I feel the enemies are too fast. It is a struggle to defeat one by itself, let along when there's a hoard chasing you. I found in multiple instances I was trying to do a heavy attack, but then multiple zombies managed to reach me without getting hurt and took off half my health. I couldn't destroy one spawn point before I died every time I played.
Though this isn't a very descriptive bit of feedback, there's not much I feel I can say other than I really enjoyed it. You have clear knowledge on what is fun, and I think you have achieved it. One slight change in relation to my previous comment and I would have happily played any content you threw at me.
Great stuff!
First of all, yes yes and more yes. Give me more.
This gave me an instant throwback to minigame websites and arcade machines. While it's a simple gameplay loop, you've created replayability incredibly well. The sounds are fantastic, the characters have a good design, everything aligns really well.
One note, I may be mistaken, but I believe the jump sound plays if you press space in the air.
If this had one of those leader boards where you could only put in three letters, this would be the perfect arcade game.
I am struggling to identify points of improvement, what you have is so well implemented and all flows so well together that I can't fault anything. Fantastic submission!
My top score: 27,500
The game looks great, and fantastic concept, but I really struggled to play it. The controls are all too close together, I find myself struggling to press the correct buttons with whatever finger is available, it's a mess in my mind trying to comprehend it. The movement also seems to be bugged. You get stuck on corners, you get stick in the air mid-swing, it's just impossible to keep a fluid motion.
If these two things were resolved, you would have an excellent game. On paper, this sounds fantastic, but the game really suffers from these difficulties. Great submission though!
I feel like I may be missing something. Is this the entire game window? I had the two buy buttons, but nothing is happening. The text on the menu screen was also cut off on the right. I don't know how web builds work, but was there some sort of resolution selection? I'm going to hold off from rating in case this is a simple error and will check back later. I do like the style though!
This was great! I love how you utilised the limitation, it created so many possibilities for gameplay. The animation is excellent, I love the jump into the chair. Great variety of skills leading to cool movement combinations. The only thing I would say to improve the game is audio, but I really can't think of any criticism. Great execution!
Actually surprisingly fun. You have a really solid gameplay loop. I chose to get the 500 gold and the love, but I somehow still saved the village?
Love the pixel art style. I'd probably change the arrow for a bandit or something, but it's super clear on what to do regardless, clear indication on next progression, good good good all round.
I haven't played a lot of scratch games in my time, though I did use it going back around 10 years ago, but this is easily the best scratch game I've played.
Not really sure what I'm doing in the game, but I can see you've clearly thought about how a run can vary depending on what items you select. My only question is what is the outcome? What have I gained by collecting 5 stones with the pick. What benefit am I receiving by gathering water. Who am I helping by defeating the red squares. I could see this being an excellent mobile game about gathering resources to upgrade a town. You have a solid foundation for a gameplay loop, just missing some purpose.
Visually? Wow.
I couldn't see the limitation being used in the game, but I've now seen your clarification on this page so I kinda get it kinda don't. I also broke the game, I kept pressing sell and it crashed the game. Will post log below.
I also just kept spamming New Day to see what would happen, and there seems to be no consequences. I don't play visual novels, but something gave me 'The Yawhg' vibes though. Great font selection too.
Not really sure on the purpose, but the visuals are worth a rating on their own.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I'm sorry, but an uncaught exception occurred.
While running game code:
File "game/script.rpy", line 47, in script
$ npc.name, npc.coin, npc.want, npc.point, npc.favorite = jelder.name, jelder.coin, jelder.want, jelder.point, jelder.favorite
File "game/script.rpy", line 47, in <module>
$ npc.name, npc.coin, npc.want, npc.point, npc.favorite = jelder.name, jelder.coin, jelder.want, jelder.point, jelder.favorite
AttributeError: 'int' object has no attribute 'name'
-- Full Traceback ------------------------------------------------------------
Full traceback:
File "game/script.rpy", line 47, in script
$ npc.name, npc.coin, npc.want, npc.point, npc.favorite = jelder.name, jelder.coin, jelder.want, jelder.point, jelder.favorite
File "C:\Users\willw\Desktop\MiniJamSubmissions\TWOSPOONS-0.1-pc - Cedes\renpy\ast.py", line 823, in execute
renpy.python.py_exec_bytecode(self.code.bytecode, self.hide, store=self.store)
File "C:\Users\willw\Desktop\MiniJamSubmissions\TWOSPOONS-0.1-pc - Cedes\renpy\python.py", line 1178, in py_exec_bytecode
exec(bytecode, globals, locals)
File "game/script.rpy", line 47, in <module>
$ npc.name, npc.coin, npc.want, npc.point, npc.favorite = jelder.name, jelder.coin, jelder.want, jelder.point, jelder.favorite
AttributeError: 'int' object has no attribute 'name'
Windows-10-10.0.19045 AMD64
Ren'Py 8.2.0.24012702
TWO SPOONS DEMO 0.1
Mon Feb 19 16:10:50 2024
Is it possible to get all the robots with only two keys? This is good as a puzzle concept but I couldn't tell if it was actually completable. The game also really needs audio, even a basic shooting sound would have gone a long way.
What is the purpose of the lights? You're in a dark space which would suggest some sort of sneaking around, but you and the enemies have lights.
Lastly, there is no consistency with the fonts. There area multiple different sizes, some have a capitalised letter, some don't, maybe I'm being picky but that's the first thing I noticed.
Good concept, not really sure on the direction.
I see that you used this as an opportunity to play with the terrain tools, and I would love to see what you've done, but there is nothing gameplay wise driving me to venture around. I took the two photos of a couple random statues, I saw that they had a name and an occupation, but I struggled to find purpose in going to all the points of interest.
Your choice of asset packs works quite well, I would say they work together visually. Bit weird that the character runs with his palms towards his chest but that's not your design.
What I would change:
The control selection is horrendous. Enter to close a window? If I'm moving with WASD and looking with the mouse, it becomes an exhausting thought to have to navigate to the other side of my keyboard to close "This is Jeff". The effort of closing the window was not equal to the joy of opening that message. I'd suggest using E to close it as it's the same button to open it, or Space.
Controls really should be either shown on the main menu, or have prompts as you play. Hiding them in the pause menu isn't enough, I didn't know they were there until I went to quit the game because I couldn't find how to take a photo.
If your main menu is controlled with WASD and Enter, you need to capture and hide the mouse. I had to delete a comment from the Discord asking if anyone else couldn't get past the main menu. I decided to spam random keys to see what would happen which ended up starting the game after I hit Enter. As you can click on the option on the menu and get visual feedback, I assumed that it was the intended method to start the game and it did not work.
More of a bug, if you press E on one of the pillars, press space, then press enter, your character will jump when the window ends. Easy fix, just have a bool that determines when the character can jump and disable it when a window opens.
I believe you have met your personal goal of playing with the terrain tools to make something good, but I would be so much more enticed to see what you created if there were purpose for finding the lake, climbing the mountain. Look at The Witness for example. Fantastic map, and we explore it because the island is full of puzzles.
Overall, it's good for a walking simulator. You have walking, you have something to do, it just lacks that purpose. I like the audio selection, the asset packs, and the idea behind the game of the character finding inspiration. I didn't mean for this to be so negative, just wanted to share my thoughts. Hope this helps on your next submission!
Though you say you forgot it, the limitation still stand in my opinion as you are only equipped with a sword and shield.
The game really needs some variation to the levels. It's all on one height, the only 'difficulty' is the jumping across gaps, and for the most part you can just spam left click to kill the enemy without any real thought.
The animations are rather clean. All the assets look like they came out of an asset pack, please take this as a compliment if you created it all yourself as all the assets work really well together.
Level 5 should have been some sort of boss fight, or something more challenging. It's weird to just have 'thanks for playing' taking up a level slot. Though having selectable levels is always a good idea as it makes it super easy to expand the game.
Audio would have added so much more to this game. It's kind of dull without it.
There are a couple issues I found in the game:
If you attack an enemy after they start their attack animation and before they hurt you, their attack animation is swapped for their hurt animation. This leads be to believe I have stopped their attack. Turns out I did not stop their attack and I've been hit.
I'm not sure how, but I took a hit, defeated the enemy, got a heart back, but when I was hit again it took away my middle heart. I was then hit one more time and I died. This happened on level 2.
Overall, I like the game visually, it just needs more activity to make it fun. I think the limitation is applied and the theme is well met.
