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Thanks! I'm glad you enjoyed it! Thank you for your post it means a ton! 

I'm glad you liked it! Especially with the sounds, I know audio wasn't the games strong suit and understandably not many people were a fan of them but it makes me happy that you did like the sounds... 

I do wonder with you saying that the game was addicting, just how far you got into the game. 

All things aside I'm glad you enjoyed the game and thank you for your review of it. It means a lot! 

Thank you! I'm glad you enjoyed it! It sounds like you had fun with the game and I'm glad you are impressed. There were things I didn't have time to finish and things I had to slap together quickly at the end but I did make it a point to try and focus entirely on gameplay first and then extras after so I'm glad it all paid off. 

It was a neat little project and I was happy I was able to add so many enemies and bosses however I realised that this is kinda a double edged sword cus while it feels more polished cus people who play longer will see more i also know it means not many people will see it all but I guess that's just game development in a nutshell! XD

Tangent aside, thank you for playing the game and leaving a review! it means a lot. :) 

You are welcome and I'm glad you appreciated the feedback. As you said we as developers don't know unless we are told what issues are present to both learn and improve. 

Speaking of it would mean a ton if you would play and review my jam game. It's called Interstellar Balance and is a downloadable unity game for Windows pc. 

Thank you for your review. It is nice to see that mine steps away from the crowd of other shooters of its type successfully! While I had issue with the game in its development I don't think it came out too bad so I'm happy that it paid of and so many people liked it. 

Unsure if you have already however since you seem to be a jam entry like myself, would you mind going to the jam page and rating it with the stars. Disregard this is you have already, the star ratings seems to be how the game jam hosts decide the voting process. 

Thank you again! 

Thank you for the review,

The middle tactic is a viable one i noticed when playing however i did add other enemies to prevent that or atleast make it more difficult however it still requires tweeking and editing.

I did want the effect of having to keep an eye on both the game and the ball but i also agree that sometimes one gets in the way of the other or it can be overwhelming especially with the boss fights. Ideally the type of game i made would be better without the balance mechanic but with little issues like that out of the way i dont think it was too bad in that regard

Sound effects and music as a whole as well as menu options wasnt a strong suit for the game since i threw them together in the last half hour of the jam. i was meant to have a teammate for the sound design and music making but her monitor broke so she was unable to participate in the jam, which is why the sounds were very poor quality and not as impactful as they should have been, especially since sound and music isnt a strength of mine

The menu problems i knew of but was never able to fix due to time constraints however low key was hoping no one would notice XD

Now the two at the same time bug is an interesting one since i didnt even think that was possible but once again the simple change would have solved that and the previous issue.

and finally, the third enemy could have been made more difficult by having the firerate increased or by having that be the secondary enemy i agree. luckily however if you love more challenging enemies, that are around 8 in total and 4 bosses however unlocking them is a pain in itself and honestly i feel is another weakpoint since due to lack of time i wasnt able to add the various level spawning presets or balance the game better in terms of difficulty, getting the bosses working was a miracle in its own right since that edit was after the submission which KB was nice enough to let me do since it was only 3 lines of code that broke it

I dont plan on going back to this project after the jam however i do plan on taking what i have learnt from the experience and making games of an even higher quality without the time constraints in effect.

Thank you for your in depth review and i appreciate the criticisms they held. :)

This was an interesting concept, my review of it is as follows:

The first impressions with the music was very high with praise. I was too busy grooving with the tune that i totally forgot i was even playing a game to begin with. However when i finally remembered i was suppose to be playing a game a few issues popped up which sadly caused me to mark the music down. The first was that upon clicking the options, the music would jump-cut back to the start of the track and restart. Having played more i realised this was for the whole game not just the main menu. My original suggestion was going to be to have the main menu as one scene that transitions to each options but if the intended effect was for the sound to play in the background and never change then my suggestion would have been adding a gameObject that never deletes when loading scenes so that the tune would never jump-cut when loading scenes but would keep playing from where it was when you clicked the next option. My other suggestion would have been to have multiple songs. Im sure due to time constraints that you likely wasnt able to make many tunes however i did feel i had to mark it down a point for this too since as much as i loved the overall tune, after hearing it for over 10 minutes on loop in gameplay it begun to get annoying to listen to, especially with the jump-cuts. alterations would have been nice because then it wouldnt get as repetitive as quick.

In terms of art, i loved the background for the main menu! I also liked how the ball would gain a green outline when it hits the green ball to show it has a powerup. I did feel that the main menu was lacking in transitions between menus rather than just popping to the new menu it would have been nice to see a transition between them such as the main menu going backwards and fading out into the void behind it.

In terms of the theme, i think it hit it rather well! however gameplay wise is where the issues come in.

Sometimes when the player put the purple ball through the platform, it wouldnt award points while other times it would which felt inconsistent. If the player was hit one too many times they would also lose the ability to jump high enough to do anything in which case lead to the player being stuck in a situation where they couldnt really play but just had to wait for the inevitable game over screen to appear. The points system seems to go into the minus numbers when the player is hit too many times. this isnt necessarily a bad thing, but it is unusual since normally games tend to cap the points to 0 when the points is below that value.

Finally i feel that the game was indeed telling the truth about the game being difficult however it is clear this game had only local split-screen multiplayer and small monitors in mind since for me, it was near impossible to play since i physically couldnt look at both sides of the screen at the same time and since both sides are attacked at the same time and both need to be controlled separately, it becomes very unfair to the player as a whole.

Overall a good attempt at making a game in such a small time period however the main issue i had with the game was its gameplay. Ideally all the critics i put above are things that i think would improve the quality greatly however if you ever needed to focus on specifics the gameplay is the thing id focus on. The take away i think should be to have people playtest or look at the game while you make it to give you a fresh perspective and sense of difficulty, have a target audience in mind when making the game (Who are the type of people you are making the game for or rather what people do you have in mind while working on it) and ask yourself if the difficulty and gameplay match up with what you think they would like and enjoy.

Once again a good attempt especially with only 3 days to make it, problems and bugs are to be expected. You did well all things considered.

What can i say for this review except well done. This game was both charming and funny in its own unique way. This was the first jam game i found that made me laugh and admittedly i laughed quite a lot at some of the unexpected jokes and lines of comedy. I will try to cover it all in as much detail as possible for you. My review goes as follows:

Aesthetics, From the very moment i loaded up the game, i was already in love with the art style and direction, from the really nice colours to the beautiful complimentary font, font colour and bloom effects. The art was very well done and every bit of it made me smile seeing it. I also loved the animations that played to display your current health in a diegetic manner which is always interesting to see. It was also a nice subtle touch too to see the players name at the bottom left corner during the main menu.

Sound wise the music was nice and fit with the games overall theme and the sounds were responsive to the gameplay.

This game stuck to the theme of balance in a fun and interesting way and also promoted a message of moderation when eating, whether intentional or not. The leaderboard was also really well executed too! I did try to break it by inputting a second score however was happy to see that it didnt work and that the game remembered my previous highscore and as such never updated the table.

A small side note before talking about the gameplay is that i loved the game over screen quite a bit. It was a nice touch to add the various death messages, one of which being a nice call back to a Spongebob quote which is nice to see, but i was also very impressed with the quality of life edits such as the highscore button. When i clicked on the button i expected to be back on the main menu, so when i clicked back off of the highscore menu i would be back at the main menu but was pleasantly surprised when i realised i was still on the death screen

Going on to the gameplay, i felt it was fun, interesting and challenging, I did however have once slight issue with the gameplay, which was that the controls felt too slippery and the food often moved too fast. this meant that sometimes i would spend a while trying to eat one food because the player would either move not enough or too much when trying to collect it and would move too slow compared to the food in question. It is also worth noting that the level seemed to be premade rather than procedural, which is fine however when playing the second time i already knew where things like the muffin would be which i could imagine could get a little boring after a few attempts, i only played twice so i cant confirm on that however my suggestion would be to have either random spawns like you have when the game is on going or preset levels that randomly pick between each other so that the layout has the illusion of being random when in reality it isnt.

Overall a very well executed concept and if i didnt know better wouldnt even think this was a game jam game made in three or less days! It is very impressive just how much polish this game has and im glad i got to play it!

You are welcome! Every game has its faults but knowing them is how we as devs improve :)

Speaking of, i was also wondering if while you are here, you could try out my submission and rate it and review it for me? I would mean a lot to me if you did! I would love to hear your thoughts on the game.

Im glad you liked it! I am sorry for having to endure the dreaded "pew" XD the game was initially going to have my friend do the music and sound however her computer monitor broke and a new one never arrived on time and with only half an hour on the clock before submission and no skill at sound design, i had to quickly throw something together and hope for the best however i feel the audio and options menu were the only shortcomings i had to my knowledge that if granted more time and if my teammate had her monitor, would have defiantly improved. Furthermore i am happy that you liked it and thank you for playing and reviewing!

An original idea with a lot of possibilities. Here is my review

The music was rather quiet. I wasnt originally going to put that seeing as it was a royalty free track so there is a chance that track is naturally quiet however i felt i needed to put that point there since the sound effects were too loud next to each other. Having turned up the volume to hear the music lead to a bit of a shock when the sound effect played and nearly split my eardrums.

Art wise i liked the direction for the art however i feel that the grey behind the characters felt a little bland compared to the characters in front however this could just be artistic preference. I did however feel that the characters could have had more variety than just the hair being a different colour however again its a minor nitpick. A final point to note is in the tutorial area, the text overlaps the highscore leaderboard and also has a fair number of spelling mistakes. The very same sentence is hard to read since its mostly obstructed by the various other text from the leaderboard.

The theme was executed rather well in interesting idea and spin on the idea of perfect balance however the gameplay lets it down.

Up until this point these were all minor nit picks that did affect their respective roles depending on how big the nitpicks were compared to the redeeming qualities however with the gameplay, sadly the issues i had were quite bigger.

Aiming for the characters felt way too difficult and strict where you would think your close enough only to find that it still didnt count and when you do hit them, a lot of the time it doesnt work and they still live. This could be improved by having a radius or a minor auto aim to help guide the cursor on top of the enemies when close enough.

The other big issue was the balance not having any UI to tell you where the imbalance is coming from. It does a good job telling you when their is balance but when their isnt the game expects you to instantly know why which is ok when its really obvious such as 3 demons and 1 angel however it borders impossible when theirs say 13 angels and 14 demons, especially in the small time frame you are given to fix the balance before they all fly across the screen at a speed near impossible to catch meanwhile your health is still ticking away at a rate far too fast and not regenerating fast enough to compensate.

Overall, This was a good concept but not such a good execution. It is however, also of note that for what the game is, it makes for an interesting idea and a good attempt at making a game in only 3 days or less. If the above issues were solved, i can imagine this being a fun game to play. I recommend updating the game fixing those issues so you can keep it in a portfolio or learn from the games shortcomings for the next game. You did good and i hope that my critic of your work will help you on your path to being an even more experienced developer in the future and if you decided to, making this game even better! I wish you luck with the rest of the jam and your future as a developer.

Lol Yeah apologies on the sound. I was suppose to be working with my friend for the jam to do the audio and sounds but due to technical problems we were unable to and since im terrible at audio and sounds i left it til last minute to focus on the core gameplay and attempt the options menu which later became the credits menu. I had a few bumps but i did get the volume slider working just encase people hated the sounds hahaa... But yeah I agree that the sound and settings were the two minor downsides to the game due to time restraints but like i said in another post with only having 3 days these kinds of things happen and should be used as a learning curve... like now next time my friend orders a monitor for her pc, to pester her to buy a cable too! XD

Thank you for the review and im glad that its gameplay translated well... The original intent was to make it simple in concept but add an element that would cause the player to rethink how they play those sorts of games while slowly over the course of the game introduce the (7 i believe in total) enemy variants and the 4 bosses to further create a sense of difficulty and panic, each enemy being easy on their own but only become obnoxious and difficult when combined together and added with the balancing act above you! :)

You are welcome! Its difficult to make a game in such a short while and even harder to make it near flawless so its expected that issues would raise up, especially since a lot of the devs have little experience in their field making this more of a learning experience. I wish you luck with your animation and art!

Also i would also like to ask if you would mind checking out and reviewing my jam game while you are here, it would mean a lot if you would try out and tell me what you thought as well as rating it. if not thats fine but it would really help me out. My game is called Interstellar Balance encase you decide you wish to check it out.

This game is neat!

The art is amazing, the Book upgrades bit was super cool and gave me so many options to choose from which was an interesting way of showing balance. 

The sounds matched up perfectly with the gameplay and the tune at the start screen was very good. The only let down was within the gameplay. 

The main gameplay of shooting and moving feels very good and responsive but once you run out of bullets it seems impossible to collect anymore. In my multiple runs of the game i never got a single bit of ammo so the moment i ran out of bullets i was unable to play any further which is sad because i was really enjoying it til i reached that point. 

I tried giving myself more ammo to see if maybe it was a time thing or enemies killed thing but still no ammo. Typically in these sorts of games the only guns with an ammo count are upgrades and theirs always a secondary to fall back on with infinite ammo or the base gun is always infinite ammo and the upgrades would be chosen at the start as yours does

Furthermore another problem i encountered was that once you die it tells you your score and your highscore but under that is just a blank space and no options to back out of the menu, so effectively everytime i die on the game im forced to close and reload the game so i can play it again, which again is a shame.

Overall you have a very good game their however those two major issues are a huge issue that i feel breaks the game almost entirely which is sad because had those issues not been present i may have said that was one of if not the best game i had played from the jam.

Thank you! It means a lot to read that, I was able to update it with the new bosses so now the player can engage them randomly. Overall im glad you played it and took the time to review it, it means a lot to me and i too hope more people see and review it. Good luck with your submission!

Thank you for the review, Im glad you liked it. There was an update i just released that made the bosses accessible in the gameplay if you are interested. however if not, im happy you took the time to play and review the game as a whole. 

You are welcome, One more thing if you do chose to add it however i feel the game would be even better if you also added controller support like a pad or something as an option. This just comes as a preference since im more of a console gamer however i think it will make the game better overall for anyone who likes that preference like myself. I wish you luck in fixing those bugs! 

Side note, I dont know if i should ask but would you mind reviewing my game too? My game is looking a little sorry for itself in the reviews department and i know seeing an extra review there would brighten it up! I recently patched a bug with it so now everything works correctly. If you do wish to do so my game is called Interstellar Balance, and is available on windows.

Here is my review of this game

So gameplay wise, i felt the movement and attacking was a bit rigid and stiff at times and inconsistent at others where the jump would not allow you to move during it and would only move if you were moving but when the log rotates you auto move in that direction. While its realistic for that to be the case the other rest of the movement undermines that in a way which is why i find it inconsistent. Sometimes the player would also get hurt by the enemies even tho the enemy was facing away from the player and never really did any indication to show they were attacking or how to avoid it and even when enemies were dead they would sometimes not die because i killed them too early. The log would often tilt way too easy sometimes and other times its impossible to move which again leads to more inconsistencies. A final thing to note is that the leaderboard seems to add new scores per finishing the game which for an offline leaderboard is fine but for online it seems weird to have the same person's name multiple times rather than just moving the name around however this isnt a big deal, just a minor thing of note.

I loved the intro aesthetics and the leaderboard design and the art had a cute style to it. However i cant help but think the animations were a bit too smooth and unnatural in movement which is really its only fault.

As for the theme, i dont think i really need to say because it is very clear that you have stuck to the theme and come up with an interesting concept. 

As for sound, i didnt really hear any sound so i cant review that

In conclusion, this game was a good attempt at making an interesting and fun concept with the balance leaderboard theme however im personally not too big of a fan of the gameplay since theres too many issues that i found that distract me from the game and lead to the game ending rather abruptly such as the log rotating 180 degrees so no real explained reason one round yet the same circumstances would occur the next and nothing would happen. 

On the other hand i can tell you have tried to make this work and be the best it can be and for that i say good work! 

While not the best game in the world, you still managed to make it in 3 days or less so with that in mind the game isnt too bad.

So my review of this game is as followed

The art for this game is amazing and you can really tell the inspiration behind it, The sounds fit nicely with the gameplay. Theme wise im unsure how it connects to balance, my best guess is the balance between tough enemies or weak enemies as priorities or perhaps the speed vs firing thing however i am not too sure either, on the other hand the leaderboard is a really nice feature and i ended up playing the game way longer than id like to admit just to get a nice place on that board. 

Speaking of the gameplay was amazing and i like the quest/upgrade system added however what spoils it in my opinion is that enemies will often spawn too close to the player which isnt too bad when dealing with the basic enemies but when its the skulls it borders on unfair since you cant move fast enough to outrun them in the first place. 

Another issue was the mouse cursor. Every now and then while aiming id get so focused on the game that i wouldnt realise the mouse cursor is on the other screen so when i click to fire id suddenly stop moving and firing because the game window is no longer the active window which while in some case are just mild inconveniences, at the worst it can often be a make or break situation for the gameplay. however with those two issues out of the way i really loved a lot of the gameplay. 

I feel it could have been made more clear as to how the game works like how the player gets stronger as the game progresses however its not really specified what causes it or how the points work since they seem really inconsistent as to what things are worth and how points work overall, at times i would have a multiplier of about 12 or 13 and it would feel like im getting the same amount of points. but overall not a bad submission. I enjoyed this even more than some professional triple A games!

Good stuff! I hope more people see and try this game out.

I loved the game! The theme is hit perfectly where keeping balance is very important to the gameplay, the aesthetics look consistent and nice and the sounds are nice to listen to and compliment the gameplay wonderfully. 

The only criticism i have for the game is that the gameplay feels a little difficult to control, the controls feel inverted sometimes. Sometimes it also feels like you spin out of control while other times you dont turn fast enough. collecting the balls can often be really challenging however i would imagine thats the point of the game. However with that aside the gameplay was still interesting to keep me engaged while playing. as such i leave it this rating:

3/5 gameplay

5/5 theme

5/5 Aesthetic

5/5 Sound

Overall the game is a 4.5/5 or 5/5 rounded up

Great work!

So backstory, I've been working on the game dead veg for a long time, but eventually the time came to go back to Uni and in which i had a number of very large assignments... Amongst them was an assignment to make GUI for multiple consoles. Deciding to be as unique as possible i created Word Crusher, the small yet fun typing game in which you play to see how many points you can rack up and for how long you can survive. I decided that with how good it turned out and with how long I've kept people waiting on Dead Veg that this would be the perfect game to upload as a way of thanking anyone following the development of Dead Veg and a nice warm welcome gift for anyone seeing me or my posts for the first time.

I hope that people will like this project since it took a bit of time to make and i felt it was a fun experience teaching me a few new things in the process...

link - https://ch13f3r4d1c470r.itch.io/word-crusher