This was great. It reminds me of the game I did for the 2019 jam. I was mildly annoyed by how the magnet mechanics worked, I was often getting stuck on walls or couldn't attach.
This is cool, we should totally put each game jam game on the blockchain too. The game's code could serve as an NFT, making the vibes truly unstoppable. I assume, idk, I'm gonna go funge some tokens now.
Really amazing, my favorite game of the jam that I've played so far! I love the dual purpose mechanic of the timer and the interactions with the world, and in terms of mechanics, the game kept giving and giving, with time reversal, time slowing, etc, and then mixing them up and bringing things together. Fantastic!
I was contemplating a similar concept before I switched to something else (holding breath), so it's cool to see an implementation of the idea. I feel confused as to why I permanently lose air, ie both the pickups and my resource in general, and why air would go down while my feet were submerged instead of my full body, but I understand this had a late start, and the spin mechanic (which feels more like a grapple) is fun.
Love the general concept of buying upgrades to make your code more inefficient. The red screen signaled the endtimes, but I do kind of wish the game started chugging as you got nearer and nearer to the end.
This is one of the most enjoyable games I've played in the jam so far. Love to see the Outer Wilds influence (which is probably my favorite game) with how the player accumulates knowledge to progress quicker. I did kinda guess the password after only getting two letters, but I felt like at that point I had solved the major puzzles anyway.
Absolutely loved this. A brainvania! I've wanted to do one myself but they just seem so difficult (especially in a full game context where the player might accidentally learn a technique on their own -- at least here that's unlikely to happen). Still, you have to be clever enough to make the ideas natural to have them intuitive, but not intuitive enough for the player to stumble upon. It's a hard balance, so I'm very impressed that it was found here. This is my favorite game of the jam so far, even more than the Sisyphus becomes a live-streamer game and the Sisyphus discovers <spoiler>cat videos</spoiler> game. I've wishlisted your game as well.
I've only played like 2 or 3 other brainvanias (Toki Tori 2, The Witness, arguably Outer Wilds) so playing more is a blast. I feel like this and the meta-sokoban (Corrypt, the end of Baba is You) are my favorite micro-genres.
idk what's wrong with me, I can't stop playing Sisyphus games. Actually, I like this one the best so far because rolling the boulder is a matter of skill, and it feels like your fault when it starts rolling back down, but the physics system makes it chaotic so the boulder can go over your head, at which point you're scrambling back to retrieve the rock in a Getting Over It kind of way. Also, another subtle design bit that I like is that the boulder's surface isn't uniformly round, which makes it a constantly dynamic challenge as you're rolling it uphill.
I really liked this! I actually thought of a loophole idea while brainstorming ideas for the jam, but I couldn't figure out how to make a game out of it, and so I'm really glad someone else made this and was able to apply it.
What's weird about these jams is how similar themes will show up in completely different games, and in this jam, I keep seeing futility. There are several Sisyphean games in the vein where the player can't even win, which is a relatively uncommon thing to do and now I've been seeing it all over this jam. So when I got to level 12, I see that yet again: try and you will fail. (unless you CAN beat level 12, idk).
I have dreams within dreams within dreams all the time and it's terrifying, so this is like simulating my hell. I actually managed to escape first time without dying so I'm happy about that. Very creative idea and fits the theme in a unique way!
I'm impressed by the sheer audacity of having full graphics and sound but not using them until you've made significant progress into the game. Especially in a game jam, where players have no patience (you have maybe 30 seconds to make an impression).
This helped btw, I think I made the width too big somehow (looking back at the code, I didn't divide by 2; fixed it here) because I overshot it and reopened the game 15 times, and when I tried to fix it, it double clicked a pixel and deleted everything. This took like two hours to run as well, so I don't really feel like trying again.
import java.awt.Robot;
import java.awt.event.InputEvent;
public class Main
{
public static void main(String[] args)
{
try
{
Robot rob = new Robot();
int startX = 780;
int startY = 271;
int width = 362;
int height = 540;
int secondsBeforeStarting = 3;
rob.delay(secondsBeforeStarting * 1000);
for(var i=0; i<width/2; i++)
{
for(var j=0; j<height/2; j++)
{
rob.mouseMove(startX+i*2, startY+j*2);
rob.mousePress(InputEvent.BUTTON1_MASK);
rob.delay(50);
rob.mouseRelease(InputEvent.BUTTON1_MASK);
rob.delay(50);
}
}
}
catch(Exception e)
{
}
}
}
Getting into the cave seemed kind of impossible, idk how I eventually did it, but then I managed to get double jump so I could get dash -- which was pretty neat because I noticed it never resets so you can just fly infinitely; so I was flying like a real dragon.
This is my favorite game I've played in the jam so far (of about 50). Recursion is fun and causes existential dread.
I like how:
1. Jumping outside the bounds just puts you into the next highest world, and your size grows back to normal. There is no escape.
2. The angle of objects doesn't move as you turn, which lets you place them easier -- though it can still be a little difficult to place them exactly how you want. I got the board by placing the bridge on the castle tower and then interacting with it in mid-air as I jumped, which I feel like wasn't the intended way since everything was so delicate.
Despite my control problems (web version was unplayable because the mouse wasn't being locked, initially even figuring out how the wheels were supposed to be interacted with was a struggle, then every time I tried to climb off the roof of the mech I'd fall all the way to the ground, and staying on top of the cannon was a challenge) I found this immensely enjoyable, collecting 8/8 in 27:43. I assume that's the end of the game at least, because the timer stopped. The shader makes it look great too -- definitely wish for sound effects, but this looks like it took all of the 4 days already.
Was at first like "What does this have to do with the theme?" But yeah, then the twist happened, and that was great. Reminds me of last year's theme "Roles Reversed" too. Style's fantastic, it looks incredible for something that could be so basic.
So I'm def someone who loves first person cameras more than third, but in the case where literally the point of the game is to eat to make yourself bigger, I feel like the third person camera should have at least been the default -- I didn't even understand what was happening until I already won, then I went back and played again and decided to press "C". That being said, the style is great; it looks awesome.
See, this is the exact kind of brutalist aesthetic that I actually love; the same kind of low poly, trippy space that a game like Cruelty Squad inhabits. It'd be even better with sound effects. But yeah, if it weren't for the style, it's kind of a wonky shooter with really floaty movement, but honestly the floaty movement feels part of the charm.
This is one of these ideas that's so simple and so clever that it's the kind of thing I wish I could figure out when I'm thinking up an idea for the theme. How do you even conceive of this game concept in your head and then even know it will work? Maybe I'm approaching this from a top-down design approach when it's more about a process of discovery.
One neat subtle bit of design that I love here is that it's a Sokoban-type puzzler in a sense, but the player is indistinguishable from the items they're pushing. When you yourself are an element to the solution (ie which "boulders" are placed where, and you're also one of those boulders), it adds an extra layer of depth to the puzzles.
Anyway, some levels are really clever, but some levels can be really chaotic in trying to predict what numbers will appear where. The latter feel less satisfying because they can be a bit "fiddle to win".
But overall I think the game is really clever and a great idea that I never would've thought of. It fuses Sokoban and Minesweeper together great and keeps both of their mechanics.
So I like the idea but is there a secret to the controls? I swear sometimes the arrow doesn't appear, other times when I release nothing happens, and then I click again and the arrow moves to my current position and I have to start again. The game seems difficult enough without the controls bogging me down, and from what I've seen so far it seems pretty competent otherwise.
How is this so polished? There are only a few levels, but that's understandable in a game jam. I'm simply astonished by the graphical quality and the fact that the AI actually functions (there have been a few other games where you place objects to guide players (both in 2D even) and they're way more jank). It feels like a demo to a full game practically. Perfect score.
