I intentionally kept this session to about five minutes so I could cover more jam entries and give more developers feedback. That first window still matters, especially for onboarding, presentation, controls, and the immediate hook.

Good job with the itch page. It is thematic without trying too hard, and more importantly, it remains easily legible. A lot of developers either pile on so much styling that the page becomes a mess or barely present the game at all, which is such an unfortunate waste. Small side note, itch pages are indexable by Google and discoverable through AI search, so I would encourage you and any other indie dev reading this to think about the page copy as part of your actual marketing and SEO. Anyway, SEO sermon over lmao.

The retro sci-fi horror presentation feels cohesive. The CRT styling, grain, limited colors, and lighting all support the same atmosphere, even though this is not normally my preferred visual style. The UI sounds are especially good, very clean and clicky in a way that fits the technology perfectly. I would add WASD as another standard movement option, and clarify the mouse instructions because “Click to move/interact” followed by “Left click to cancel/menu” sounds contradictory. I would also collapse the enormous FAQ or hide the answers behind spoiler sections because it explains solutions and failure conditions before players have a chance to discover them.

If you have two minutes of fuel left, I would love to trade playtests. BEAT BAES has Riders smashing spinning battle mechs together through extremely questionable physics.

Spend your remaining fuel on BEAT BAES · Transmit the damage report