itch.io

Hi Almam!

Thank you for this visualizer. I've been slowly figuring it out for the past couple days.

One thing: the live visualization is broken more often than not on my end, and resetting it sadly doesn't seem to do anything.

Strangely, it always works perfectly with the demo config that comes with the program. WHat could it be?

Well, if this isn't the definition of "Short and sweet"!

Being this up-front with philosophical self-inquiry in narratives is risky. 
It's easy for it to come across as overbearing, cheesy, or pretentious...

But I think you walked that fine line successfully!

There were a few truly special little moments of ludo-narrative alignment, such as the spring platforms and – my favorite – the "run towards your fears" bit.
Take a mechanic like that, develop it carefully, and expand on it over time, and I'm sure you can make some really interesting longer games!

I'm curious to see what else you'll come up with in the future!

Thank you for the game!

Are you working on any new projects after you're done updating the jam games? I'd love to see what you two come up with next!

LOVE THIS GAME.

I could EASILY see myself playing an entire, release-length version of this. It's mind-bending in almost the same kinda way as Baba Is You, which is GREAT.

Mechanics teach themselves with no tutorial needed, which is great game design.

Sounds were varied enough I could tell exactly what had just happened before I even registered it visually.

Music was fun, but I feel like it could be longer and/or more varied.

Congrats! This was lovely.

This game is really fun!

I love the short little rising percussion fx in the music - almost sounds like an 8-bit bark to me, pitched-up or from a small dog. 

I guess I'd call the music "dog techno"? hahaha

The only thing I have any feedback on is the damage values. Tennis ball hits harder than the dog & can be spammed faster (even if you recall before each shot, which you don't need to) so the dog doesn't feel like the main thing here, but more like you're knocking the mailmen out with tennis balls and the dog is just kind of helping.

Honestly, though? The game's still really good.

Really liked this one!

Pros:

• The graphic novel-style intro was some really, really nice bit of wordless storytelling.
• Monke's movement is responsive and killing enemies is satisfying
• Evasive roll is VERY useful
• Keycard is a small, but nice bit of auxiliary game design (what's that called? stuff that runs parallel to or breaks up the main game loop?)
• Audio was handled pretty well, especially the music choices. 

Cons:

• Monkey's movement might be TOO fast? It's a bit disorienting at times, how I can dash away so far that enemies completely leave the screen.
• The dash key being "E" was unfortunate, because it uses the same finger as D (or E, I guess?) Better choices would've been Shift, Space, or even Right-click.
• SFX weren't great at times. The humans' shots work, but the monkey's are super weird. 

The enemies' little "hey!" when they see the monkey was derpy as hell, but it amused me so much every single time it happened that instead of a con, it ended up being the thing that pushed Fun up to 5 stars for me. 

All in all, great job! 

P.S.: If you want help with audio on a future jam, hit me up :D I'd love to work with ya.

Thanks Peter! 

I agree - we did want to make more levels, but ended up unfortunately not having time for that.

I'm glad you had fun! The puff-up's my favorite part too :D

The creativity takes the cake on this one to me!

Because of the static nature of the enemies, the game doesn't have that sense of constant danger that bullet hells tend to have. In fact, this played more like a puzzle to me - which was a nice surprise, in fact!

Art and audio aren't great but that's understandable given this is a solo game that uses asset pack stuff. Everything felt well implemented, though, particularly in the transitions - both visually and in audio, the game start and the teleport transitions are pretty smooth and work pretty well.

The Arena looked like a Petri dish to me for some reason, so going in I expected this to be a game about bacteria or nanobots! Nonetheless, the circular arena does a nice job of making the player feel confined particularly due to the reflective walls and how those interact with the bullet paths. 

In fact, random spray from moving in and out of bullet paths was the one thing that really gave me danger since in some cases the bullets can spread around very chaotically and still be around when your shield depletes. However, patience and careful thinking got me through the game safely!

Positives: 

•  This game feels more polished and complete than than a jam game! 
• Approachability and player-friendliness was definitely top-notch with the simple commands and the very readable controls right in the title screen. 
• Art is top-notch, and the screen transitions are a huge part of what makes it feel like more than a jam game.

Negatives: 

• SFX were a bit on the loud side at times, and a bit too shrill in places. Filtering out the highest frequencies would go a long way, and wouldn't necessarily "damage" the 8-bit aesthetic since old systems had lower sample rates (thus a lower high frequency limit).
• I can't really see the relationship to the "Confined" theme here. One of the gameplay gifs does show what looks like a jail car, yet I didn't come across that one in my playthrough (maybe because I suck, but alas :P). Didn't give it a 0 or 1 because that's my fault for sucking, but I gave it a 2 because I feel like the jam theme could've made clear from the start, or at least early on in the game.

we’re aware of the issue :( thanks for the comment!

glad you enjoyed and thanks for the comment!