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A jam submission

Ticking HeartView game page

Game made for the GMTK Game Jam 2026. The theme was Count Down
Submitted by Syntax Error Studio — 1 hour, 38 minutes before the deadline
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Ticking Heart's itch.io page

Results

CriteriaRankScore*Raw Score
Audio#51132.6483.375
Narrative#61082.1572.750
Enjoyment#63992.5503.250
Artwork#67542.5503.250
Creativity#84382.3533.000

Ranked from 8 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.

How does your game fit the theme?
The Little Wizard has a Ticking Heart (Health) and his health/time is Counting Down every second and he needs to stop the Time Witch that cursed him with a Ticking Heart

(Optional) What would you like to be called if GMTK features your game?
SyntaxError

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Comments

Submitted

Using time as a health bar is really creative! At first when I got hit, I thought my character’s HP would keep draining. It wasn’t until my second run that I figured out it’s just the timer ticking down. I made it to level three, but I ran out of time soon after. New levels don’t give you extra time, so any mistakes you made earlier keep haunting you as you go further. The game basically turns into memorizing every level and rushing through as fast as you can. Overall, for your first game, it’s really well done. Keep it up!

Submitted

A game demo with a very solid foundation! Nice game

Submitted

At first the shooting felt limiting since you only fire in the direction you're moving, so up, down, left or right, but no diagonals even though you can move that way. Got used to it pretty quickly though. It's a solid foundation to build on, you could add upgrades or a better shooting mechanic on top of it. Great job for a first game, fellow first timer!

Submitted

For a first game, this is really good! I loved the artwork, and the movement felt pretty good. I also really liked the mysterious music, it fit the aesthetic really well.

I got lost trying to find the remaining enemies on some of the bigger levels, but eventually managed to beat the game. It may be nice to have some sort of mechanic where stepping on the red square gives you an indicator of where the remaining enemies are. You could also exploit some of the pathfinding by getting enemies stuck on holes, as well as just shooting them from farther away before you’re in their sights.