I really enjoyed playing your game and love the art! I will not repeat stuff that have been already pointed out but what I would like to see is some kind of tutorial, even something simple like slides explaining some of the mechanics, think more like a primer to ease the player into the game. I figured stuff out eventually by playing and reading through the skill tree but it still would be nice.
On the balancing front I think that stuff like ingredients should probably be cheaper but not by that much. I feel that a possible issue is that the player will not necessarily understand that getting the income upgrades early on is the way to go. It made sense to me at the time and by getting a lot of them it let me unlock other stuff easily but they are not really that exciting upgrades so players might avoid them. As a suggestion I could see a rework to the skill tree where the player will be "forced" to get adequate income upgrades before being able to unlock other more exciting upgrades like new glasses, ingredients etc. Another option is to make income upgrades come through gameplay instead of the skill tree, something like the already implemented upgrade system of the glasses but not tied to the glasses.
In any case this is a great entry and I'll definitely return to play this again. Great job!
Play game
Bootlegger’s Bar's itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Controls | #29 | 3.625 | 3.625 |
| Graphics | #30 | 4.000 | 4.000 |
| Audio | #30 | 3.542 | 3.542 |
| Originality | #54 | 3.500 | 3.500 |
| Overall | #78 | 3.167 | 3.167 |
| Accessibility | #82 | 2.833 | 2.833 |
| Fun | #84 | 3.000 | 3.000 |
| Theme | #187 | 1.667 | 1.667 |
Ranked from 24 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
Godot Version
4.6.1
Theme Interpretation
You play a bootlegger dealing with the mob (Theft), where earning extra tips
Wildcards Used
The first wildcard (description pending)
Discord Username(s)
_eit, hedgiesman
GWJ Participation Level
1
Team Size
2
Comments
This was pretty fun. It does a good job of tapping into the 'incremental' gameplay motivation. Placing the Tetris blocks is ok. I'd say the game design is good, but the mechanic design is a little tedious. Let's see how it feels after I get all this stuff unlocked.
But it's refreshing to see more of an actual game from a gamejam. Good job.
I very much enjoyed playing your game, thought the art direction was excellent and the audio complemented the feel of the game very well. I'd agree with the previous comments though, it feels a little too easy to stick to one pattern once you figure out how to put down your ingredients. The new glasses do introduce some more challenging placement, but I felt I didn't have enough ingredients to fill them out. I think balance-wise the first few new ingredients should be a bit cheaper (1500 is steep), although it's perfectly plausible that I just didn't upgrade the right stuff and that's why my money was low. Having different customers coming in with different needs is great and adds some diversity to the orders you make. All in all, it's amazing how much content you packed into your entry, congrats!
Really complete package, everything you expect for a incremental game! Most of the gameplay feedback I have was already given in other comments. My biggest critic is regards to the theme, where there is not much of theft/stealing in the gameplay itself. Still, great job, I liked it a lot!
Thanks for the feedback. In my experience with various game jams, I’ve found that the distinction between theme and mechanics can be surprisingly tricky to navigate. It’s a common challenge I've seen and faced, especially when a jam prompt requires both. If you're interested in exploring how these two interact, I highly recommend 'The Art of Game Design: A Book of Lenses.' It’s a fantastic, easy-to-read resource that really helped me clarify these concepts. Happy gaming.
Regardless, the most important things for me are player feedback and connecting with fellow developers. Thanks again.
It’s fantastically done! I LOVE the UI animations, great work! As LowVoltage pointed out, it’s easy to stick to one strategy.
Some ideas that came to mind were that maybe you could show some information about the next customers so the deck could be arranged better. Also, maybe the glass layout could have some bonus tiles randomly generated to encourage a different piece placement.
Congrats on the entry! :D
Hi! I’m a huge fan of incremental games, and I’ve been really enjoying what you’re building too. Thank you so much for playing our game and providing such valuable feedback!
- Regarding the difficulty: the starting glass was intentionally designed to be easy. However, I'd love to hear your thoughts on the other glasses. Do they still feel too easy or lacking in challenge compared to the first one?
Thank you in advance for your response; your insights will help me a lot!
One thing I noticed is that when I select the bowl it switches to the goblet.
I think the glasses provide a nice variety to the gameplay. They kinda have their tricks, like the flute, it’s tall and a bit tricky to place certain pieces. The most difficult for me was the hourglass one, it’s hard to fill it properly.
I didn’t mention it in my first comment because I couldn’t remember the name, but this game reminds me a lot of Backpack Hero (steam link). Playing it again now gave me new ideas:
- You could try to add more effects to make the pieces do combos when certain conditions are met, like proximity, type, columns and rows, etc., similar to the big ice drop or the tamarin.
- The farm could automatically replant whatever you planted last time, or maybe show an icon indicating that there are unused slots.
- The glasses could maintain the arrangement from the last turn if it’s the same glass.
- The customers could suggest a specific glass for some bonus points.
These are just suggestions, so feel free to take them or leave them! I wouldn’t want to interfere with your vision for the game.
Very impressive amount of content for a jam game! Congrats!
Although, the game could do with a little more focus, perhaps? Things like the skill tree and save/load system are technically impressive, but don't seem to add a lot to the core of the gameplay. Once I settled on an arrangement of my available pieces there was no punishment for repeating it or incentive to explore anything else.
Other than that, the game had a good amount of polish, good art and music choice!
Good job!
Thank you so much for playing our game and providing such valuable feedback!
- I was actually a bit surprised to see comments saying the save/load and skill tree systems were 'overkill' for a game jam. From my perspective, it was quite simple to implement using the ResourceLoader and ResourceSaver functions. By designing every feature (like rotation, upgrades, and glass unlocks) within a Resource class, it made the whole process very straightforward.
- Regarding the difficulty: the starting glass was intentionally designed to be easy. However, I'd love to hear your thoughts on the other glasses. Do they still feel too easy or lacking in challenge compared to the first one?
Thank you in advance for your response; your insights will help me a lot!
Very impressive that you managed to implement such a broad skill tree within the space of a jam. I think on the core gameplay front it could use a bit more variety, once I found a method of arranging pieces that worked I was able to rinse and repeat the same arrangement over and over. I think taking away the players ability to create their deck and leaving that aspect up to chance, along with allowing the player to rotate pieces could really spice up the gameplay.
That being said, great submission, very polished
Really interesting submission, and one with really solid graphics and polish The pixel art especially is great, and I like your title and page design generally.
It took me reading other comments to go back and realize I could progress the game more, as it wasn't immediately clear to me what I could afford on the skill tree, or where my own gold and mana were recorded.
I agree with other comments that ultimately I think the inclusion of a skill tree and save load system seem superfluous systems for a 9 day development time, and I think that time might have been better spent on improving the core gameplay and creating a more satisfying core loop. At the moment, the actual task feels repetitive, and I can't seem to get any other items than cherry and ice. Having the option to rotate pieces, or seeing on screen when a placement gets me a bonus with a juicy effect or anything like that.
Otherwise I think the skilltree could have done with just a little tutorialization, by drawing attention to the first upgrades with a pulsing animation or similar. Or generally a simple tutorial might have helped me better understand my goal in placing pieces down.
Nice work, hope you keep polishing the gameplay! It played smoothly and without bugs and there's a lot here that could easily be evolved.
Thank you for the valuable advice, it’s really helpful. You’re right about the scoping issues (feature creep) is a real struggle for me. I actually failed to finish my last two game jams because of it. Luckily, this jam gives us more time, so I should be able to complete it. As you mentioned, focusing effort on core gameplay is what matters most.
Also, I realized that making 'piece rotation' an upgradeable skill might have been a design flaw, as many players seem to miss it. Thanks again
Thank you for playing and for your valuable feedback. I completely agree with you, in a Game Jam where players need to try many games to rate them fairly, long playtimes might not be ideal.
As a temporary solution, I recommend using the cheat menu I used for balancing. During the setup phase, you can press Ctrl + Alt + C to open it. From there, you can add as much Gold or Mana as you need.
Thank you for your time!
Very well done! One of the more polished experiences from what I played. I'd have preferred a less repetitive gameplay over that massive skill tree though.
Few things that bothered me :)
- Coin and Mana UI is covered by the skill tree window, so I can't see what I'm working with
- The cursor feels irregularly positioned on the individual pieces. Always at the very bottom or so would be grand.
Thank you for your very valuable feedback.
1. In the setup phase, I designed the Mana/Gold to be in the bottom-left of the window, but during gameplay, it is in the top-right. This makes players confused. Thank you very much for pointing out this design flaw, I have to redesign the UI again.
2. For this part, I admit that I didn't finish it in time, but thank you very much for highlighting that this is very important.
Cool style, nice art and big skill tree.
I had fun. Great work! :)
Nice incremental deck builder with a very robust skill tree! I enjoyed trying to fit all the pieces together to fill the glass. Well done!
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