Congrats on the great submission!

I struggled a bit at the beginning, but actually felt I had the tools I needed to make progress, so after a few times dying at the first zombie, I did make it to round 3!

I couldn't quite figure out how to use the machines or get any upgrades. I'm guessing there's a sort of targeting I can do to find those, but it wasn't immediately obvious (even after scanning the manual). I will say, it's quite a long manual, and I think for a game jam, it's quite a lot to read and process (especially those of us that are trying to rate and play each and every game). There's probably a way to trim down and focus the game on the mechanics that feel good and make the game tense. I would really think about each and every key and whether it is worth the cognitive load for what it adds.

I found movement and firing fairly intuitive, and while I understand what aiming with ctrl did, I didn't quite understand the left/right arrow targeting while aiming. Like Patricia, I found holding control to be a bit awkward, and I would think about folks who might have motor disabilities, and would prefer not to have to hold a key down.

All of that being said, I really like the sound design (which made it clear when the round was starting), and really enjoyed this game. Congrats again, and thanks for building and sharing for the jam!

Big scary bug: executing the game got my mouse locked in a certain area of pixels. I can’t move the cursor. Is there any way this can be fixed?

Another this is [ ] is used to switch between option tabs, as per the documentation. I would like to suggestion to actually use tab and shift+tab to do this, because those characters are a pain to get to with a non-english keyboard - they require me to press AltGr+ 8 or 9, and I never know where those are intuitively. It’s just not the best combo of keys for my keyboard.

Having to press and, worse, hold the Ctrl key (shift key would be the same problem) to aim is also quite uncomfortable: my hands are not so big and this is a really weird position. I would try to find another key to use to enter the aim mode. Controller support would also be nice, but it’s important that the keyboard controls are also ergonomic, as much as they can be.

Switch to previous and next weapon is also not very intuitive for me in my keyboard. “-” is next to the right-hand shift, and “=” is shift + question mark, which is right next to 0, in the numbers row.

I’ll report when I have more news. Reading the documentation but not going to lie, the bug that locked my cursor scared me a bit. Otherwise, so far I’m impressed with the audiodescription for the studio logo.

The manual seems a bit overwhelming as well, not gonna lie. A lot of information and controls to take in and memorize. You suggested us to read it before playing, but it’s quite an effort. I like that we have the manual, but I do wonder if there’s any basics that are more essential when we start? Is there any in-game tutorial to practice with and teach us the mechanics and controls, or is it only the manual?

See you soon!

The audio design for this game is extraordinary! Additionally, the haptic feedback is great and I love the rebinding options that are available. You did such a great job with this game and I would love to see more from it in the future.

Wow, what an intense entry! I'm really enjoying the sound design so far. There's a lot to learn, so I'll be patient with it, but I am also still doing poorly on Easy mode. I appreciate the thorough manual to go through, and this feels like the kind of game I could get good at with enough practice.

I wanted to point out some minor issues I encountered, before I jump back into the fight and try to get better:

• When starting the match, the vibration on my controller was intense and constant for a long time. This may be intentional, but it felt more like a bug than an artistic decision.
• When setting up gamepad bindings, it seemed like these were completely empty by default. I could navigate the menu just fine, but manually had to bind even simple controls like moving forward/backward/left/right/turning, plus all of the actions I wanted to use. It would be nice if you had a complete set of default bindings you recommend using already configured. Sidenote: the rebinding menu is incredibly impressive and well-done! I was surprised it even knew the names of each individual button on my Playstation controller.
• Even though playing with the controller feels great, apparently my aim is much worse than on keyboard. This could be user error, or misunderstanding the manual aim mode, but it was a stark enough difference that it felt worth mentioning. If I figure out the disconnect myself, I'll let you know where the gap was.

I played on Windows with a DualSense (PS5) controller.

This was actually a fun game, even though i suck at surviving rounds, i just kept dying over and over. I do like the audio description for the title screen, that was really awesome. I do like the music and all sound effects, it really gives this creepy feeling. You did a really great job with this.

Great submission!

It’s well-executed and doesn’t hold your hand. The description on the title screen made me feel as if I was there. The sound design and action are gripping, and the radar and target tracking are extremely helpful in navigating the chaos.

Truthfully, I’ve only experienced a fraction of the content. I had to play on easy. The farthest I got was to the end of round three. Not once did I have enough gold to try any other weapons. But I can see the depth here for more skilled players.

I appreciated when I realized that I could turn on NVDA to get my preferred voice and speech rate. The menus were robust and let me tweak a lot of things. By the end, I even remapped all of the controls to play it comfortably with my Xbox controller. I liked being able to move and turn and look like a standard FPS game, scrolling through the radar targets with the bumpers, holding left trigger to aim, and firing with the right one.

My only true gripes? Maybe the volume sliders should be logarithmic rather than linear—I had to turn the music down to 0.025 to fully appreciate the rest of the sounds. When I spent a lot of time pausing and jumping between the game and its (very comprehensive) manual, I found that the application was hijacking my mouse for seemingly no reason—thankfully I can navigate fine with my screen reader? And I might try giving the machines different pitches or jingles to more easily tell them apart.

Hey thank you for entering the jam!
So game crashes if you open without screen reader open, but I don't see any mention screen reader is required. Since plenty of sighted folks play and may not open their screen reader unless needed! So if screen reader is required, let folks know!

I like it so far, but I keep getting killed by the first zombie that I meet, or I have no idea how to interact with the machines. The manual also is conflicting, saying that left and right brackets switch weapons, but this actually switches radar targets, along with some opions not being translated to English (the biggest culpret being the controls menu) however, it is still a good concept. I also don't know how to check my coins, with every machine saying not enough coins. A tutorial mode that teaches the aiming mechanic, especially if you're going to try for verticle aiming, would also be useful.

Hi,

I'm really liking this game, even though I am terrible at it! I can barely make it past the first few rounds, but I'm really looking forward to any updates or new games you put out!

I have a few thoughts. Please let me know if it looks like I'm misunderstanding something btw.

The upgrade machines seem to be labeled in Spanish on the radar, which makes it tricky to figure out which machine I am approaching since my language is English.

I think it would be helpful if the cost of the upgrade could somehow be viewed during gameplay, so I wouldn't have to keep going back to the manual to refresh my memory.

I also wonder if there should be a way to snap your character north (or whatever the starting direction is), since navigating the field can be disorienting after I've changed my direction during combat.

One last thing: The manual says you can press up/down arrows when aiming, but that doesn't do anything for me. Only left and right arrows seem to do something (and obviously I have to hold down ctrl).

Anyway, I'm having a lot of fun with this, though I desperately need some practice!