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Is it low effort? On one hand, it's all text. On the other hand, it's got quite a lot of text. It's got a fair bit of branching and while the branches are fairly short, they don't feel thin. Regardless, I definitely appreciated the quirky humour!

It's a pretty competent platformer, and the retro art style looks great while still fitting the low-effort idea of the jam. The difficulty ramp is pretty steep, though, and I didn't make it any farther than the third room.

I can see that the art is the emphasis- it's very cute, and honestly probably too nice for this jam. There's definitely some weirdness to the physics. I've had the ball/heart non-intuitively bounce back, and I had to restart because it got stuck on the bottom twice in the first level. It gets more tedious and annoying as you get closer to the end of the level, but that's hardly unique to this game, most Breakout clones are like that. The later levels are more interesting than the first, and I got to the third before game over.

I usually use opengameart for music (and sometimes other assets) and freesound for sound effects.

I like the inversion here, the reverse isekai. It's simple and low-effort but feels complete. I do wish you could replay without refreshing the page and fully reloading the game, I want to see all the paths but that makes it pretty tedious.

It's extremely bizarre, and nearly as clunky and straight-up buggy. The princess part seems to be in the description only. But between the gameplay, graphical style, and theming, it's definitely the most unique game in the jam I've played so far.

Thanks for playing!

Honestly, a lot of the jokes don't really have any rhyme or reason to them, it's just the first somewhat funny idea I came up with. The Soviet theming at the end, as well as the name of Diana's weapon, are a play on the title of "The People's Princess". I fear I've accidentally created a minor meme with the music, though.

It's fun and cute, but honestly feels way too polished and nice for this jam. It's pretty intuitive, I figured out what the symbols meant and how to defeat the enemies, but I'm not very good at it and quickly found myself overwhelmed.

It's minimal and I think still qualifies as low-effort, but a fully functional game. The length is about right, but I wasn't expecting the difficulty ramp to come as late as it did. The basic zombies are actually the scarier ones, because they move fast, the field is tiny, and hits don't stun or knockback at all. I found avoiding the boss bullets to be pretty much impossible, but you have a deep enough health pool that it doesn't matter that much.

That was weirdly surreal. The prince is _just a bit_ of an airhead. It was neat to see guest princesses, I just realized there was probably room for a meta entry in this jam that's just bits of other games pasted together. (I don't think anyone did that but I also haven't played all the games yet)

It was... bizarre, that's for sure. It was funny, though, and the hand-drawn art is really charming. The cursed physics pachinko with no apparent connection to the story gameplay is weird, but I think that's a feature, not a bug.

I haven't played the original, but now I kind of want to, so I think weirdly this works as a demo. Not going to spoiler the joke, but I kinda figured it would be exactly what it ended up being. The graphics and sound are very nice, but still low-effort by virtue of being reused. I liked the humour, though some of the dramatic pauses were overly long.

Feels more like an interactive tarot or something than a game in the traditional sense. Not sure what to make of it, to be honest, but it has some surprisingly  nice art in it.

I love the concept of this, and it's somewhat fancy for low effort, but still fits. I really, really like the Kim statues done in the mannequin style.

I got to the part with the statues, then I got a black screen that said [REDACTED] and that seemed to be it. Not sure if that's the intended end or not, I feel like I'd been given the setup but not yet the punchline.

I wish there was a way to skip or speed up text, but, y'know, that's kinda effort.

That was really bizarre, but surprisingly intuitive. It's... cursed. But it works.

Weirdly, I think this is one of the best examples of both the potential and limits of AI that I've seen. It's pretty good on the surface, but there's an uncanny quality to it, and we never (or at least rarely) see the same character in two pieces.

I was not expecting to see the not-so-subtle dig at a certain politician.

I did find the final boss to be disproportionately frustrating. It didn't take me that long to beat it, but it was a surprise to see actual difficulty after the rest of the game. The rest of the battles (not going to spoil exactly what that means) were funny and fit the idea of the jam perfectly.

I made it about two minutes and change. I kept taking damage from something, but couldn't figure out what. Maybe the clouds? I wouldn't say this is too high effort, I think it hits about the perfect balance of being enough game but still being half-cooked.

I finally got to playing this, and it's a solid experience, a step up from previous games while still very much having the tone and feel of an Apho creation. It does seem like a few minor pieces are missing- the teacher sprite is a placeholder, the companion paths don't quite finish, the ending feels rushed- but it's still pretty close to complete, and there's a lot of content for a jam game. The length is just about perfect, long enough to hold my attention but not so long it gets boring. I did feel that the checks were so hard you pretty much had to know what to put points into ahead of time, but I think my mistake was trying to balance the stats instead of going for a focused build.

Thanks for playing!

The camera and a lot of stuff happening offscreen is definitely an issue. I should have put the movement triggers closer to the middle, as you suggested, and probably moved the camera out a little.

I think you found all the endings. There are some slight variations in the last scene depending on earlier decisions, but these aren't distinct endings. I do wish I had time to put in something indicating which endings were found.

Song of Morus, but slightly different? Definitely feels like it's made from the same mold, in terms of style and general gameplay, but different in the details. I had more trouble with the first enemy than the second- the small target is pretty annoying to hit. 

It definitely feels more prototype and demo like than previous entries, but given the scope of those and the crunch (probably?) involved, that's probably for the best.

The long-hinted Basin Lake fighting game is here!

The fighting does feel a bit clunky currently, and the AI pretty basic, but I'm sure those things are on the agenda to fix up. It's pretty thin at this point, but the art, music, and general presentation are on point, and I'm excited to see where this goes next.

For only 72 hours of development there's a lot here already. It's only the beginning, and it's missing the minigames, but it's a promising start to the story.

It's a small thing, but I hope the protagonist's facial expression gets tweaked for the next version. For the most part the art is very good, but there's something about his expression that makes me laugh and totally takes me out of it.

No idea why that happened, I don't remember anything like that showing up in testing but it's been a very long time since I worked on this. You may have to load an even earlier save game, or just open the console (~) and use Noclip.

For some reason this game took a long time to load and appeared to be unresponsive... it did eventually load and I'm glad I waited for it. It's a beautiful game, in many different ways. I didn't like how open the endings seemed to be at first, but the more I dwell on it, the better it sits.

This was a very sweet little VN. Overall the story is well written, very relatable and full of feels. I think I know that song about the duck and the grapes. The art is very nice, but in particular I liked the idle animations a lot, it's just a little thing but it adds so much personality. The music cues fit perfectly, too.

It's short but sweet, and I absolutely loved the art style. It didn't really resonate with me (I'm neither transmasc nor a parent), but I think it will for a lot of people.

I wasn't expecting to see a puzzle platformer, but this is a really creative one. The swapping bodies mechanic is a brilliant idea that I haven't seen in a while, and the graphics are delightfully retro, reminding me of an old DOS game.

I struggled with the isometric movement and the puzzles in general- I think I am just not good at puzzle platformers, though.

It's stock RPG Maker assets, but they're used well here and the environments are pretty good. It gets across that weird dreamlike feeling where things are sort of realistic but also weirdly out of place. I think the music is pitch-shifted? That also contributes to that mildly uneasy, dreamlike feeling. The art shift at the very end makes a ton of sense for the framing device.

Random encounters are my pet peeve, and I can't help but feel they just kill the flow of the game here. I was enjoying the mystery and exploring the strange environment, but running into a random enemy just yanked me out of it every time. I found it really tedious and annoying by the end. I think if it factored into the story it would feel more worthwhile, but it seemed to just be there.

Overall, I enjoyed it. There are some bugs and weirdness, but nothing game-breaking. The ending is abrupt, but I think it works.

I went into this blind, without playing the first game. That probably wasn't the smartest decision, but I didn't have too much trouble picking up the story. The art style is distinctive and I think that's what got me clicking on it in the first place. It's a short and sweet feel good story, but I think that's perfect for this jam.

I love the idea of this, a dress-up game plus, and the art is very cute. I found some of the sound effects a little harsh, but the music is really nice.

I do kinda wish that the game gave you a defined set of scenarios and scored at the end instead of being endless, but that's getting close to "I wish this was a different game" territory. I also have no idea which clothes go with what situation, but I think that's more on my lack of a sense of style than anything.

It's a small game but I really liked it.

I've made other magical girl games if you want to check them out, though only one other has a trans character.

Thanks for playing! I'm glad you enjoyed the story.

The whole thing is pretty janky, I'll admit. Honestly, I think trying to do a sidescroller with the narrative sections was a bridge too far for the time I had, but I really wanted gameplay of some sort over making a bunch of cutscenes for those story beats.

Thanks for playing!

It's kind of a repeat of Shattered in that way, where I came up with the narrative first and then had to figure out some gameplay for it, though I actually started working on the gameplay first this time. It was definitely a bridge too far to do both with the resources I had and the gameplay really suffered, but I needed story for this jam, I did want some gameplay, and I really wasn't feeling like making cutscenes for all those critical story beats.

I've done way too many origin stories in general. I think literally every story-driven game I've made in the past few years that wasn't a sequel has been some form of origin stories. It's an easy narrative that's comfortable to me, but I'm definitely running out of variations on it and I really ought to do something else next time.

Thanks for playing! I was definitely focused on variety this time, and I'm glad you enjoyed it. The motorcycle section was definitely a swing and a miss; I think the "sideways" controls just didn't work out.

GBTK pedigree had me worried. I did play this one when it came out for MGGJ9, though, and I remembered it was decent but didn't remember much else about it. The art isn't my favourite style, but it's well executed. It has just enough story to draw me in, the movement is solid and the attacks are satisfying. I'm not very good at it, though, and died to the first boss.

I'm waiting for the full devlog before rating. I'm very curious as to how this went from a GBTK entry to a more polished, serious experience.

I read through the devlog and it's pretty minimal but it covers most of the points. I do remember seeing the updates in the Discord as well. It's interesting to hear that you kinda lost enthusiasm for this one, which is fair. 

This one starts slow and does a lot of telling rather than showing. I know these are both conventions of the genre, but I'm not personally a fan, and I wish there was something- an animation, a minigame, a choice- to break it up a bit. Similarly, the writing is pretty good, but too dry for me.

The limited colour art style is striking and works well for the tone of the game. The music is well chosen but I wish it had more variety.

It may be your first ever devlog, but it actually hits the mark pretty well. It explains what decisions were made and why they were made. I think the only thing that I found wanting is the timeline.

Getting a little philosophical, I just can't agree with the approach being taken here. The main takeaway I got from the devlog is that you're writing a story, not making a game. It talks about the plot, the influences, the story, but nothing about gameplay or presentation. I'm not sure how to disclaim this: this type of visual novel is a valid approach, it's just one that I'm totally uninterested in. I want to see some sort of gameplay intertwined, and some cinematic presentation. I'm not interested in a book with pictures that I have to click through. The length target is also wild to me: 15-20 hours may be the norm for what's it's really going for, but that's insanely long for a little indie game.

In the end, I think there are some good bones here, and the devlog covered the points well, but it's just not for me.

Sorry, but given the rating criteria of this jam, there isn't really anything I can rate on without at least a cursory devlog.

It's simple but it works. The graphics are oldschool and minimalistic, but it's clear what everything is supposed to be, the animations are cute, and the "reflection" effect is really neat. I struggled a bit at first until I figured out the timings and your attack range.

The only thing that's really missing is a lives/health indicator- I made it to Wave 3 my first time around before getting sent back to Wave 1 but I wasn't sure if this was because I got hit too many times or if that was just the end of the game until I tried it again.

It hurt my eyes and broke my brain, but that's not your fault, I just don't get on well with bullet hells. So with that disclaimer- I think this is not technically a bullet hell, but even Zombie Driver was close enough to break me- out of the way...

The bosses seemed much easier than the actual level, but maybe that's just because of the above. I also had trouble telling powerups apart from projectiles and telling terrain apart from the background, but again that could just be me.

I think this really did nail the arcade aesthetic. It really looks and sounds like a sidescroller you could see on coin-op machine back in the 80s or 90s. It's hard to describe this but some of the designs and audio cues just clicked.

It is pretty prototype-y at the moment, with only one level and a bunch of "press this key to fix this specific issue" at the main menu. The bullets also come out of a point just behind the player sprite, which is weird.

I haven't rated this yet, because the devlog doesn't seem to exist (unpublished draft, maybe?).

Thanks for playing!

I do touch on this a bit in the devlog, but deep lore and worldbuilding has basically just been kicked down the road again. There's really not a lot to try to be consistent with, but feel free to message me if you need clarification on anything.

There are definitely bugs and shortcomings. This is something I sort of cover in the devlog, but development was rushed and it was really shoved out the door with minimal testing.

While it's cut down from the original concept, I'm happy that I was able to keep the globe-trotting feel intact, as well as trying different gameplay ideas. I don't know if this is going to be the last game in the series (I'll get back to this in a bit), but I was trying to treat it as Gina's last hurrah.

I probably should have switched up the controls in the motorcycle sequence. I think all but one of the people who tried it have been thrown by them.

Was it the hospital scene that was "too real"?

This is the first game where you can only use magic with one-handed weapons. It's a compromise between the previous games which either allowed you to use magic all the time or didn't have magic at all. It also makes animating the weapons slightly easier. This definitely could have been explained better, I think there's only a mention in the ingame help.

Did you suggest a title when I was soliciting those? That might be the reason for the special thanks, either that or for testing it during the first jam.

Will this be the last Outliers game? I do answer this in the devlog, but I'll paraphrase it here: I don't think so, but it'll be the last one for a while, and it might be the last big one. I still have a lot of ideas in my head, including of course what the epilogue could lead into, but I also really don't want to take on another project like this any time soon.