itch.io

Very nice game, with cute and charming art. I especially like the card and UI design.

Hmm, interesting idea, I couldn’t figure out what to do though – some instructions or controls would’ve been nice. Running around clicking the LMB to kill stuff felt good though and the Player HUD was pretty cool.

The art in this is really really cool. I like the blend of colors and the way you integrated the shading with the 3D? (Assuming it was 3D?) – but either way, it ended up coming together as really cohesive, moody and nice.

Nice submission!

Thanks! Really appreciate the comment, and I agree that the game itself was very ambitious. I have a serious problem with scope creep – and yet somehow I never learn my lesson – and to be honest I don’t intend to learn any time soon xD

I appreciate your listing the few big issues you had as well! We’ll be looking into those asap – in particular the visual bugs with the card text and inaccurate text are now fixed on the current “post-jam” build, which we’ll update as soon as the jam is over. But it’s also valuable to know right off the bat that you felt like the card variety is lacking. We’ll definitely be adding in more as soon as possible.

Glad you appreciated the “preview indicator stuff” that’s honestly where I spent most of my time polishing since I was really worried about all the complexity not reading properly. As is there’s still a lot to improve, but I’m glad that you were able to get the basics from it.

Thanks so much for your feedback and nice comment.

I think I’m just hunting down all the survivors games now – and glad I’m doing so because I feel like I’m finding all the hidden gems.. This one was really fun, and I LOVE the main character. I want more – that is all I need to say really.

As far as feedback, there’s a few things that would’ve helped in terms of clarity during the gameplay. Some of it was no big deal once I figured it out, but having some more communication around the enemy hitboxes, timing and the actual moment you’re getting hit would’ve helped. For example, a red screen flash + a slight knockback when you get hit, range of enemies being a bit more forgiving or clear so you know when you’re about to get wacked. In a game where you’re balancing your own melee distance against enemy ranges, it feels important to get that right.

But anyways, I’m going to give this 5/5 on art because hell yeah, it’s peak. Imo this game is super iconic looking and I fell in love with Skrimpo immediately. i think I would 100% buy this as a full game and actually really enjoy it if the polish were up to snuff.

I also liked the mixing of weapon types with the shrimps. Felt like you didn’t give a shit when choosing what weapons would fit with the shrimp theme and I’m saying that in the most complimentary way possible.

Also I realize looking back, this post sounds tongue in cheek, but genuinely it was super fun and I meant every word :)

Nice submission.

I mean – this is biased, since this is my all time favorite genre, but this was super fun and the execution of the enemies, attacks, dodging patterns, and general movement and game feel was amazing. Sure there could’ve been a few more juice things squeezed in to get a bit more out of it, but it had the essentials down to communicate it. And importantly, the pacing felt really good.

I’ve found it’s difficult in these type of games to give people a clear goal and also enough pressure, while still allowing them to feel powerful and in control, and somehow you managed to do both, even in what I consider a pretty “jam scoped” game. Hopefully that sounds like a compliment, because it is. It’s clear more could be done to improve this, but you nailed the execution of the things that mattered most. 5/5 in enjoyment from me, and really nice design, style, sound and general creativity with the level ups.

One nitpicky thing is that I wish the level ups were a little more clear as to what they did, I wasn’t sure until trying them out, so some of them felt a little funny. I did really like the premise of them happening on timers though – so much that I would 100% want to see this fleshed out into a full game.

Anywho, really really nice work, genuinely, even though it was simple, probably one of my top 10 from the jam out of the 60 or so I’ve played. :)

This had really nice game feel in my opinion. I know from experience that getting platformers to feel good is not easy and in my opinion, the jump, move speed, accel, decel and other parts of the controls and movement felt really really tuned and played well.

I also liked the premise – the count down to live. It felt cool to basically ahve a time limit to explore in different directions. If I had to leave one note of feedback, it would probably be that I would’ve liked a “time left” or some indicator of when I would die. But in some ways it was also nice that it was missing since it allowed me to do the platforming without pressure. The downside though is that when I did die, it was often frustrating since I was super close to getting something and just wanted to retry a few more times from the start of the room. The visibility of when you’ll die or even just hinting at it could sort of taper the expectations, since that is after all the intended design and hook of the game.

Anyways, really nice submission, I had fun with it and the controls were impressive. Nice work.

That was really fun! I loved the simplicity and intuitiveness – was immediately grokable and the simple but effective pressure of having the timers going made it feel important to go fast but also be careful.

The speed and implementation and nice sfx really sold the game for me, it felt good to click the buttons, get the timing right etc. I tend to be bad at these sort of timing games or other “high pressure” scenarios, but I felt like the first level did a good job to keep it in a zone that was really approachable and forgiving.

I also liked how things drove up in complexity and how the game expanded it’s challenges as it went along. It was also fun when the panels to tackle them doubled or got added. Trying to do 3 or 4 in a row on the same screen was way more satisfying than 1 at a time for some reason. Something about the context switching.

Anyways, really nice submission! Good job!

Yeah! Someone else brought up super auto pets, which I hadn’t heard of – I’m definitely gonna check it out. Thanks for the kind commend :)

Wow, really kind comment! Thank you! I’m glad it hit home for you.

Also cool you found the “exploit” of cranking an enemy’s attack negative as a viable win condition – you’re the second person to mention it. It might see some future balancing, but honestly it’s a fun find, especially because it wasn’t something we consciously intended. The math just allows it, and I kind of love those happy accidents

More SFX and actual music are 100% high on the post-jam list (we’ve decided to keep developing the game, so there’s a lot coming).

Thanks again for taking the time to play. <3

Hi, thanks for the kind words!! And that’s a fair read – I can explain where the idea came from, even if we missed the mark on staying literal.

The theme sparked the initial idea: each unit (monchum) has a count over its head that’s constantly changing, and originally every count was meant to diminish each turn (the way the Subtractive type still works). From there I thought a cool use of the count would be forcing enemy HP to count down to EXACTLY zero – very much inspired by darts, where there’s a penalty for missing the number you’re counting down to. So in my weird brain logic, “count down” meant landing the count on zero.

It carried into the lore too: a mysterious cosmic countdown is the reason everything is happening – equilibrium and peace only arrive when the count reaches exact zero. The whole game is chaos (+, −, ×, ÷) trying to settle into equilibrium (≡ 0).

So the theme lives mostly in the ideation and the lore rather than the literal mechanics – you’re fair to call that a stretch! But hopefully that explains the intention. Thanks for playing!

Really cute polished art and a fun little game! You would think the screams of enemies would wake the guards up, but they must really be out! I definitely got a good chuckle out of whoever is responsible for their yells. Very good cues so you could tell who was coming at you.

This is incredibly polished for the time you guys had!!! Congrats! The color scheme is absolutely yum and Mr. Vampire is a wonderful character design. I loved all the new mechanics you threw at me. The levels are designed in such a great way that it didn’t feel like a tutorial but rather a space for me to explore the mechanic myself without feeling like my hand had to be held. That’s incredible game design. This is a really fun fresh puzzle game and I would love to see more done with it!

I will mention that I didn’t read that this game built on your past deaths. When I died the first time I was sweating bullets getting ready to remember each move I needed to make with pinpoint accuracy. I was pleasantly relieved to find I had body doubles of past me’s to rely on(should’ve read the description more carefully). It was fun to discover the mechanic and very addicting game loop. My only note is that it can be really easy to lose yourself in the sea of past you’s, but I think that could be a really easy visual fix. Really fun game and the sprite animations are awesome!

I want to see this built out more! I love the premise of turning a rhythm game into a pickpocket game. It’s like a different flavor of Rhythm Thief. The hand you drew is gorgeous and I can only imagine what the rest of the game would look like with a bit more time.

I’m guessing you already though through this but maybe for an added layer of difficulty you could have another beat running that the player needs to hit a different key for to evade police or something. Anyways a fun simple game you put together with a lot of places you could run with it!

The mini games were easy to read and pick up, but the ramp was a little bonkers! The vibe is creepy and a good juxtaposition to the minigames. I do wish there was maybe just a touch more sfx or response upon clicking things. Fun small game

The buzzing music is really charming! I think this is way more entertaining than any tower defense. I don’t know if I ran into a bug or this was intended, but I purchased the first permanent item twice expecting to have two on screen. Alas there was only one on screen :c I also feel like there could’ve been a really satisfying squish sfx with the finger. Definitely not something as punchy as the flip flop, but something.

overall a fun little game!

The audio and vfx really shine! I was giggling with every milk fart.

The audio sound was great and really moody, and the headliner character really stood out in terms of personality. I personally enjoyed the text at the beginning, even though it was an incremental, I still thought the story bits suited the vibe of the game really well. Nice job!

I really loved the artwork – super beautiful background, and the main character is mysterious and charming. I love the crow motifs.

The gameplay itself felt cool, I thought the countdown to jump was a really interesting idea and it felt interesting all the ways you guys used it. It really forced a nice sense of timing and rhythm.

That was a really cool use of the mechanics. I thought the bounce pads felt like a very innovative way to play and the controls felt really intuitive. WASD + mouse felt surprisingly good for almost everything – I’m gonna have to try that next time I do a platformer.

I also thought the art was really cool and stylish, and there was a nice sense of worldbuilding. The dialogue cutscenes were the perfect length without driving me insane, but while still giving me tidbits of story along the way. Great job!

Feel like the audio was doing some serious lifting here! That was fun – I really was struggling with it at first until I realized that the timer just started a countdown wherever I was and I didn’t have to stand next to the box to have it go off. Once I figured that out, it was really fun.

The movement felt great and precise, the wall slide and bounces felt good and I thought it was an innovative way to use the theme. Great job!

Thank you! Really glad the monsters landed – they were some of the most fun parts to make.

And I hear you on the UI – it’s the part I’m least happy with right at the moment in terms of hitting the unique flavor we want, and giving it its own identity is high on my priority list. I have a few ideas lined up that I’m excited to try there.

Anyways, thanks so much for your playtest and your kind comment.

I think that was my first 5/5’s all across the board – holy moly that was insanely good – such a simple but crafted game loop, really polished, minimalist and intuitive controls, and really stylish and fun characters.

The use of simple mechanics and clever upgrades that felt rewarding was really nicely balanced. It took me a while to figure out what kind of combos felt good and actually started earning me money, but once I did, I feel like I launched off like a rocket. I had a really good time trying to figure it out and barely breaking even but feeling like I WAS slowly making progress. Really interesting concept, cool use of the theme in counting down (bike count, time count, fuel count, day time count, countdown deliveries) etc. Very nice game. Nice job!

Also, these incremental games always get me but I wasted an hour more than I intended to playing this game, but I finally won :)

If I had to make one tiny nitpick it’s that I wish I could’ve used wasd to move as I’m terrible with the arrow keys and the control on wasd would’ve helped a lot.

So funny that you say that after playing your game I feel like I should be saying the same back to you haha you guys’ submission was top tier :)

Wow, this is hecka charming and funny – loved the voices and the characters – you commented on my game about how good the character design is – I could say the same about y’alls. Those characters are amazing. So much attitude and personality.

The voice and personality of the character kinda reminded me of the Mummy Joe videos on YT – which is the biggest compliment I can give because my wife and I watch his videos on release every time and I am known to quote it constantly. Now I can add “Dat’s my gaem” to my repertoire of voices as well. :)

I had a lot of fun with this one – Definitely 5/5 in audio as well, the voices, music and sfx did a ton of lifting alongside the funny art style.

So yeah, honestly not much to gripe about. I think this was a super fun game and really impressive amount of polish for a jam timeframe. Good work!

Yeah! Thanks so much. Really appreciate your comment.

Yeahh that was honestly something I was pretty worried about – making math fun – early it was pretty damn math equation-y and doing lots of mental arithmetic and it was really boring so I’m glad it sounds like we fixed that up.

And agreed with you on the music and sfx, we crammed the few sound effects that we had in the last 2 hours and it definitely shows.

Thanks for playing!

Haha yes, that reset ability may have been my doing – sorry about that :D. We definitely plan to add more chapters – the jam’s short timeframe unfortunately limited us to one, but we’re definitely gonna add more asap.

Thanks for playing and for your comment!

Thanks for the playtest and video. Insanely helpful and we appreciate it big time. :)

Really cool you it to the end! I was pretty nervous when we were playtesting it – I was worried all our time designing the boss and elite fights wouldn’t even matter if people couldn’t get past the first few stages – we made some last minute bold balance changes in an attempt to fix it and I’m glad it paid off.

Regarding the “hand emptying” problem – I definitely want that to feel more clear and obvious, so thanks for bringing it up. I’ll come up with something

Anyways, thanks for playing!

Thanks! Yeah, that was the first thought I had when I thought of the idea was how the heck am I gonna make this work when in almost every other game you just want your damage to go up, up, up… Felt like we were entering into bizarre territory that you might want to intentionally nerf your damage.

Honestly I had no idea if it would work so I’m glad it at least ended up partly enjoyable. Thanks for your comment!

Thank you! Amber and I really appreciate your comment about the character design silhouettes – she and I went to school for character design, so it’s good to know that paid off. Thanks for playing!

Also, strong agree about the lack of music. That will be among the first things we add into the project should we continue its development.

Thanks so much! Really happy you liked it – honestly, it’s comments like yours about how much fun it is that makes me want to continue its development especially because it was one of the most fun game projects I’ve worked on as an artist.

Also – noted about the fonts and text presentation. Lots of bugs in that department we need to comb through! Thanks for your feedback!

Thanks so much! Really appreciate it! Yeah, StS definitely was a huge inspiration – plus other deckbuilders like Monster Train and hearthstone for the juice/effects and UX emulation. Thanks so much for the nice comment, means a lot that you enjoyed it.

Wow I really liked this one – the vibe, the lighting, the polish was all really good. I loved the pixel art and the execution of all the vfx and sounds was really on point.

I think the pixel art and art itself is a really solid point as well – this is insane for 4 days of work, so really nice job.

I like the tileset and art, it was really charming and the sound had a nice amount of appeal. The platforming itself felt great, especially sliding up walls. Nice work!

The music was really calming and the pixel art was charming. Kind of a fun head scratcher. There was some weird stuff like the overlap with the spacebar used for typing and closing the notepad that tripped me up for a minute, but overall it still was a fun time.

I like these sort of look for clue/riddle games and I spent wayy longer on this than I thought I would.

Wow I feel like I’ve never been so thoroughly rewarded for my niche skill of being good at using a scroll wheel – that was super fun. I liked how there was a really generous amount of time even once it seemed like you should have failed where you could still complete the scroll. Pretty nice touch. The art was nice, didn’t bug me. But honestly I just thought the idea of a rhythm idea with a mouse wheel was innovative and a cool way to hit on the count down feeling and literal mechanic. Could see this working really well with music as a vibe/fun relaxing (or not so relaxing) game to play in the evenings.

Wow – that had an incredible amount of juice and polish. Really nice submission. Loved all the feelings of shooting and the sounds and all the actual tuning of the core loop was super clutch. It’s a genre I’m already a sucker for (top down shooter roguelikes) but I think the way you handled it was a master class in juice and control and making a good game. I’ll definitely be takin’ some notes.

I did have a few gripes, but they’re pretty nitpicky. The visibility of the rattlesnake was really difficult to see until the orange maps which was really annoying since it looked just like the weed decorations. It may have been thematic, but felt frustrating. I also thought the movement around crates could’ve been tuned and smoothed a bit, it felt like I was getting caught on a lot of corners – and speaking of crates, there probably could’ve been a few less of them since it felt like half the game was about navigating around crates instead of all the fun shooting I wanted to be doing.

Leaving these honest few points of critique because I genuinely want you to take this further and I think these things would really help improve it a lot.

But that said, it might be my favorite of the jam – and definitely was in terms of pure game feel and moment to moment control and enjoyment. The bullet as a pick 3 was also super fun and I’d be interested to see something like combining or forging bullets together if you took it further – the vortex plus the bomb would’ve been kinda crazy paired together. :-)