Thanks for playing! I realize game may get boring sometimes, but increasing movement speed would trivialize counting (you'd reach any clock within 2-3 "seconds"). It's not supposed to be a hard game, so I tried to make it at least visually interesting to move from clock to clock. Sadly, player don't always take the most interesting path, and I didn't have time to polish level design. I had ideas for "timezones", also faster and slower clocks, and hour hand. But that's beyond scope of what I could do alone in 4 days, syncopated smiths is all I got. I appreciate your feedback, very helpful, thanks!
Thanks for playing and for the feedback! I can't do colors myself, so I always spend a lot of time finding a good ref palette for my art, and it works fine!
Thanks for playing! Mechanics can be clarified better, sadly there was no much time for making a good tutorial. I'm glad you liked the style, I find it hard to make art myself, but it's getting better!
Cool game! Very polished, looks and sounds amazing, Rathaniel is cute and funny. I can't finish level before I blow all bombs, is it a bug? If it's a feature, it wasn't explained well. Game mechanics are not super unique, and replacing moves counter with a line of bombs feels a bit stretch. But game still is very addicting and beautiful, very well balanced, great job!
Cute game, I like graphics and visual style. Movement feels nice. Interactable elements must stand out more, and of course every move and action must have an audio/visual cue for better game feel. I passed 2 levels. Congrats on submitting a small finished game, good job!
Good idea, solid implementation. Style, art and sound are consistent and create an atmosphere, which is more important than heavy detailed assets. You did a great job of keeping the scope small, but polishing it and making a finished game! I'd like start/restart button to be pressed with space as well, it would be easier than switching to mouse every time between stages. Also it'd be cool if enemy slowly pulled a gun and died mid-animation, so I can see how much time I really had and how difficult the level was. Overall great job!
Nice idea! Implementation is good, graphics and colors are interesting, there's atmosphere. Mechanics seem too complicated, I only used "pause" ability, aside from one slow elevator that required "fast forward". Maybe you could focus more on one ability and polish it better, for now many abilities only overload player's head with difficult controls. Or make it more puzzley, with levels that require every ability and combinations. Difficulty is not super high, but rather annoying. Player has to do lots of tries, so you better do respawn instant, without needing to hold. If you ever do a "hold" button, make sure to add visible and audible cue to it, like a bar or a timer. Overall I enjoyed the game, good job!
Visual design is actually cool, I like that! Controls are clunky, definitely needs smoothing and coyote time. Sad you couldn't finish it and add time control mechanics, but you managed to submit a playable game in a very short time, congrats! Ending text is cute :) Good luck with whatever you do in the future!
Very nice game! The idea is pretty standart, and defusing process is straightforward (check one page at a time until one wire left). But implementation is very solid. You have graphics in a consistent style, very atmospheric lighting and sound, little cutscene in the beginning, smooth transitions. Gameplay is frictionless, no bugs, QoL is there. Defusing might get a bit annoying when you get several positive conditions for same wire, and wording is sometimes complicated to understand. But aside that, I enjoyed the game a lot, managed to complete it twice (second time on expert). Great job!
Wait, these ships are me from the past? That changes everything! Now I understand what you meant with "stray bullets make it worse". That's a very cool mechanic, but not understandable from gameplay, that's how chaotic and unexplained it is. Reading through other comments, it seems like other players also didn't get it, sadly. For now you could explain it on top of your game page description (and under "how your game fits the theme" as well) so jammers get it, and after jam you can update game to clarify it better. Idea is cool, you're very creative!
I'm not on mac, it's chrome on windows. Did you change page display settings? Yesterday it was strethced full width, and I couldn't find fullscreen button. Today it's in a box and fullscreen button is there, much better! I didn't understand ship timers at first, everything moves fast, I thought it was ship's health or something (seems logical: it goes to 0 - ship dies). Turning red baron is nice, but you need to see yourself in this state. It would be perfect if player was a completely different ship, then it can turn red and still be different.
Very nice idea, good interpretation of the theme, huge potential for a great puzzle game! However gameplay is not pleasant and intuitive from the start. At first it wasn't even obvious that the movement is grid-based, because player can't see much, and when you light the candle there's not much grid to be seen. First two level boils down to learning the path, then executing it again and again from memory, trying to save the candle until the end. If feels punishing and not like a puzzle, but like a rage game. Showing a grid overlay on top of the darkness would help player understand their moves, while still keeping depth of a puzzle. Gate texture is hard to see, I didn't understand it was the exit until I randomly hit it. Instead, there are purple fires on first stage, visible in darkness, which I thought was the goal, but it wasn't! Ice mechanic is super cool though, and final level seems like a great ending to the game. Overall a nice game that I enjoyed, good job!
I like the movement mechanic a lot, it has a lot of potential, actually feels like loos orbiting in space. Screen size problem is unfortunate, I recommend you test it in advance and during the jam (it's a thing you only need to figure out once). I only seen points counter on screen, not the timer, you probably need to add that (maybe I didn't see it because of screen size). Once you become red baron, it's impossible to tell where you are. And even before that it's hard to tell where you are - game is so fast, it needs better visual clarification. Overall game is very fun, it's chaotic and fast in a good way, it has feel and atomosphere. Congrats on you submission, good job!
Sadly not me nor my PC knows how to run a .yyp file. Basic thing, but you must test how your game runs outside of editor, and you must test in advance. Best thing is to upload and test empty build before the jam, just so you know how to do every part of it - compile, ship, zip, upload, etc. Congrats on taking part in the jam anyways, good luck with your future projects!
Thanks a lot! I had plans for music, but having music all the time would make counting trivial. My idea was to make local music - like a street musician, or a night club. For now I plan to only make minimal tweaks after jam, as I have other projects to do, but we'll see!
Glad I helped! Negative feedback tells a dev how to get better. If a dev wants their game to be better, they would appreciate such feedback. Personally I never met a person on itch who didn't appreciate honest feedback, so I'm not that scared to write it, based on my experience. Maybe they exist, but if so - they don't deserve to be supported with fake positive feedback anyways 😈
Alright, since you asked for feedback, here it is.
What you did (had basics before jam and made game during the jam) is totally acceptable. I recommend you point it out at the top of your game page. For now it's a wall of text, that jammers don't have time to read, where you bragging with PvE and PvP modes and types of weapons and so on, seems supsicious that you didn't make it for the jam. I had to ctrl+F for "jam" to find the info that you actually made the game (most of it) for jam and during the jam.
What makes game a game is not quite what you say. You had bean shaped enemies and now you have skeletons, but it's not that important actually. A game is the abiltiy for a player to enjoy your game, and there's not much of it. Think of an actual human being, not familiar with your game at all, with random skills at gaming, loading your game for the first time. They spawn on that island with npcs with no directions, what should a player do? For example, I went to instuctor who offered me to pass 13 drills. Am I supposed to pass all of them right now? If I do - is it fun? Sadly - no, it's not fun. Limiting player to 1 move, offering a player to kill 2 enemies with that move, then unlockng the next move - would already be more fun. Same for reaper with 200 enemies - it's straight up impossible to kill that many, and if it is - it's not fun to even play for that long.
What I recommend you doing is vastly limiting your scope and trying to polish it, until it feels like a small but finished game. A game that a random person with no context can launch and enjoy. With game design and level deisgn subtly, or explicitly, telling them what to do to explerience most fun. Game jams are actually best place to do that - you just need to focus on a smaller game, finish and polish it. You can (and should) bring your creativity to the jam, and develop you skills of keeping scope under control and finishing what you do.
Maybe you came to the wrong place. If you want feedback on such an ambitious project, jammers who are on a rating spree, 5 mins per game, won't help you. Start a devlog, gather community, do regular updates on your progress and get continuous feedback. But trust me, once you focus one one thing, you'll realize that making a kill on a skeleton with a sword feel great takes 5+ testers and a month+ of real time for trial and error and balancing. And once you done that, you can continue with other weapons and mechanics - or decide to limit/remove them at all! Small-scoped finished game is better than any unfinished one!
Now for game itself. I'm sure you can make fullscreen a default option, and native resolution to be default. Sensitivity belongs to "controls" section of menus. Graphics look great, you could go for that cartooney outlined style if you wanted. Moveset is probably huge (I didn't spend time to discover everything) and is somewhat telegraphed, both from player and enemies, but it must be much better telegraphed. For now swing is slowed at the end, then suddenly there's a hit. A hit must be telegraphed most, so it probably must start with a slowly accelerating swing itself. Every combo move must have a bright/loud cue when you execute it, the moment you execute it. If you want to go for 200 enemies night - it's possible, but you must kill 3 skeletons with 1 swing, not 1 sleketon in 3 hits.
Overall, the project seems super-duper-extra promising. I can't rate it high in this jam, but I wish you best of luck in whatever you do in the future. Whether you decide to make a proper small jam game, or continue a big ambitious project. Anyways congrats on a cool submission!
There's probably a good idea, but I couldn't enjoy the game. It's super fast and unintuitive. I "played" cards by pressing "->", but then how do I unplay or clear them? Why not everything about changing a card is arrows, but suit is bind to space? Also you should not expect a player to know what a "straight" is, especially not when they has to react within seconds. What's good is that everything has an animation/sound cue, that creates a solid feel of the game: something very sensible and interesting happens, even if it's too fast for an average player. I know it requires a lot of assets and tinkering to support the atmosphere and feel of the game, you definitely nailed that! Good job, very impressive for a first solo game, good luck with whatever you do in the future!
Pretty basic, but a nice game overall. It clearly lacks cues, animations, smooth movement and transitions, maybe some effects. Main parts are there, but the feel of the game is not very strong. Slowmo adds a lot of depth, basically changing gameplay from surviving to a short feast on orange circles. Because slowmo becomes an essential part of a game, I think it needs more focus: louder and brighter cues on when it's refilled, maybe collectables to refill instantly or power-ups for temporary infinite slowmo, etc. Also game feels too difficult for a jam entry, most players won't be able to play for more than 1 minute. Despite all that, I enjoyed my time in the game, it has a complete and addicting gameplay loop, good job!
P.S. Also I encountered a strange bug where tutorial never ended and repeated again on pressing space. I reloaded game page and it worked fine on second try.
Very good game. Limited in scope, but polished to the limit. Visuals and atmosphere are amazing, story is simple but touching. The mechanics are simple, fits the theme perfectly, and create tension that supports the atmosphere and story, perfect synergy here. Tutorial really starts in main menu with you having to hold the buttons, then seamlessly continues into intro section, which in turn seamlessly continues into main part with a timer. Difficulty is well balanced, even in a jam rating spree you have time to figure out and use all mechanics, and complete the game first try under just enough stress. Excellent job!
I hate to say that, but implementation didn't deliver well. The idea is truly brilliant, fits the theme perfectly, it's funny and deep. The visuals, background gags, humor, atmosphere and story in general are great. But it's impossible to understand what to do. There's no differentiation between interactible and non-interactible UI elements. There's 2 sets of 3 sheets of 6 buffs each, all accessible through 3 buttons with no indication of transitions at all, for my first 10 mins of gameplay I thought all 3 buttons randomized the sheet, not transitioned it. Selecting a buff is done through same buttons, which I also understood after 20th buff or so. Cues for when a buff is triggered are too subtle, you easily miss it and then get surprised when suddenly find the timer to be 60mins. Surely big jumps in time must be heavily animated, and maybe each jump must be animated with at least green/blue tint for a moment. You did a great job and you're very creative, I recommend you playtest more and make that fun of yours more accessible by an average player. Overall a cool game, I enjoyed it a lot by the end!
Amazing game! I like the story, the art, sound design, overall a very solid and strong atmosphere. Story is simple, but written good, I actually worried about the characters. The petal counting mechanic is very creative and cool, right on the theme! I wish special petals were explained better though, X/V signs is not enough for me, especially when it's plucked so fast you don't have time to understand how it works. However the game is very well polished, all timings/animations were right on the spot. Great job!
Fun game definitely on theme! There is room to polish: more consistent and pronounced UI, highlighting on parts and more cues for everything. Difficulty curve seem to skyrocket right after 2nd ship. There's probably no need to introduce every mechanic all at once, adding tools one by one throughout levels would be better. What you definitely did right is tutorial, despite all chaos game rules is easy to pick up. Overall a very enjoyable game, great job!
Very nice idea with a potential! I'd like it to be less chaotic, with a tutorial in the game itself, and more time for player to react and make decisions. Also it would be great to add some visual/audio cues for shooting and other actions. Overall it's a fun game once you know the rules, good job!
I like this game! It's simple and without new creative mechanics, but it's solid, polished, has a consistent style and is very finished. Story and wording is a little too long and fancy for a short jam game in my opinion, but it's still completeable in a rating spree. I'd sure like more of short timed challenges over story. Overall a cool game that I definitely quite enjoyed, great job!
Thanks for playing! I tried to make multiple "a-ha" moments when you see synced animations, and then when you see unsynced animations, I'm glad it worked. I'll try to play your game during a voting week!
I adore this one. Idea is super simple, but implementation is off the charts. Animations, sounds and atmosphere are fire, meditation speech is hilariously funny (10 stars comedy movie writing and acting right here). I like how it lacks menus or pause (you can't pause a nightmare!) and how final cutscene is just ascending... forever... I found it a bit hard (closing gates always got me) and at first it's not super clear that you can move while calming down. I had to learn the map, and in the end I managed to escape by kiting the monster up and down in a straight line with no gates. Great job, excellent game!
Pretty basic, story feels a bit stretch, mechanics are somewhat arbitrary. However the game is very solid from start to finish, it has every part required for story, tutorial and atmosphere. Graphics is gorgeous (aside from some stock UI elements). Overall it feels like a nice finished game, which is much better than an ambitious unfinished one.
Game deisgn wise, I found myself evading purple light so much that I didn't even see the monster itself, so a player can miss some content on a normal playthrough. Maybe it's better to add jumpscares or scripted encounters to at least show monsters to the player. The difficulty and level design is good, I completed game first try under a little stress, feels perfect for a jam game. Great job, congrats on solo submitting a cool game!
Thank you once again! Smith's room sure is a final boss, but it has a trick to help you if you look closely ;) We'll see about the video, I'd love it as well!
