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You'll probably not be surprised at all, when I tell you I like your take on the theme :D

I love how we essentially had the same idea, and spun it in different ways! I guess looking at the stars with a close person stays with you :)

Our approach to audio was also similar- calm background and "sparkly" star sound.

As for the graphics- loved it! Only think I'd add is maybe a small animation for when you find a constellation- like one of the boys pointing up.

As for the gameplay- I'd only add one thing. Some kind of hint mode? Like if you spend a long time without finding the constellation, the other guy could mark one of the stars for you.

Over all- another great submission! Keep it up!

Firstly- congrats on finishing your first game jam! For a first one this one is really good!

Graphics: You only get one chance on making the first impression. The best way to make a first impression is with a fully animated, flash animation style, intro. Brilliant! The rest of the graphics maybe lack the "fully animated" part, but have their own style. 

Audio: I like how you put sound effects under everything. Background music fit the game. Only nitpick is that the "dialogue" sound was a bit loud/annoying. 

Gameplay: I like games like this. The ones that make you read through bunch of hints to figure out the solution. From the other hand- in game jams the games that do the best are the ones that are easy to pick up. Also- the continue button in the main menu doesn't do anything- it just starts the game.

Btw- I always like some narrative, so your game definitely gets some points here!

Theme: Hmmm... I think you could lean more into the theme. The games that get the highest notes in this category are those, that build their gameplay, atmosphere, graphics with the theme in mind. In "Last Words" the "stargazing" feels a bit like an afterthought. Maybe you had an idea for a game before, and tried to fit it into the theme (we've all been here, with various levels of success).

Over all- really good debut! Keep it up! The next Goed jam is in September and I'd definitely like to see your work there! Keep it up!

Gameplay: The gameplay is rather standard top-down shooter, with some interesting decisions. I like how you can't just spam the shoot button. Makes each shot a bit more deliberate. Shooting with arrow keys instead of mouse is not something that you see often, but it felt all right.

Graphics: I knew what was going on at all times, and the limited color palette worked. From the other hand, the enemy variety could be better. If you have a number of different behaviors why not make them more visually distinct?

Audio: sound was fine, and I liked the background music

Theme: Stargazing is mostly felt via graphics here. It's not bad, but I feel like you could lean more into the theme.

Cool idea, creative approach to the theme! 

Gameplay: The gameplay reminded me a bit of okami. The thing is- in Okami, when you painted the shapes the game slowed down, so you could be precise. Here, the pace stays the same, and since you need to pretty precise to draw more complex shapes... I just ended up spamming pillar and the fist. It wasn't called the fist, but I forgot how it was called. You get the idea :) I'd prefer slower gameplay, where I could have an opportunity to be more deliberate in choosing my moves.

Audio + graphics: decent pixel art!  The enemies had a bit of Castlevania vibe. The backgrounds could be more varied. Also- you spend most of the time looking at the top of the screen, so you don't get much chance to appreciate the enemies.

Theme: Very cool take on the theme. You took "stargazing" and build a combat mechanic on top of that, that doesn't feel "tacked on".

Over all- Some design decisions didn't land for me, but the original take elevates the game as a whole. Keep it up!

This is sorta a game about love, so just like in love, you need patience, skill and a bit of luck :)

Interesting game with a really distinct art style!

Gameplay: The idea is fun, but there are some design decisions that seem a bit off. For example- when I discovered the first constellation it looked like I thought that was it. The screen doesn't indicate that I'm gonna be searching for another one now. I was about to turn off the game and start my review with "really short game" :) It's a pretty chill experience.

Audio + graphics: The graphics have a really distinct style, and the text animations look really well (not often I compliment text animations, but here we are). Not much happening with the audio, but the music fits the chill atmosphere really well.

Theme: I'll be honest here. It feels like you really wanted for the theme to be "roadtrip" and had a cool idea about a game with a plane. The star part feels a bit "glued on". I mean... I get it. I had a really cool idea for "roadtrip" :)

Over all. The elements that work, work well. Other parts need some polish.

Also- one more thing. I'd loose the AI- looking thumbnail. Your game looks stylish as it is, so use a screenshot instead.

Fun little game! Here are my thoughts after finishing the game.

Gameplay: Good platforming is difficult to make, but with some polish you'll get there. There were some technical glitches (jumping when moving up or down a slope didn't always work), and some design decisions that I would do differently (more than one life). As it is it reminded me of early 90s PC platformers :)

Graphics + audio: again- strong early 90s platformer vibe. Graphics were readable and the dog animation was cute :) As for the audio- background music was ok, but adding more sound effects (barks) would be nice.

Theme: I liked how you made the stargazing the reward of the game. Finding my friend at the top of the roof gave me a warm feeling :)

Over all- I had some fun with this one. Keep up the good work (and the kids too)!

This is a game that should be shown when explaining the concept of "game juice"!

Gameplay: Pretty cool! I didn't think there would be a tower defense game here, especially not one, where you draw constellations instead of towers! I'm not sure if I was supposed to end the game after the 8th wave. I kept playing, but stopped after over 40k points. At this point I felt like I was invincible :) 

Graphics + audio: JUICY! The camera effects (shake + freeze frames) really do the work here! I also liked the vibrant colors. Sfx and music worked with the graphics.

Theme: I really like your interpretation! It uses "stargazing" in a fresh way. Really cool.

Over all- I spent more time playing your game than I thought I would! Really cool submission!

I like narrative games that go for a certain mood. I think yours has a good concept, and a lot of potential, but it also needs some work.

Mainly I didn't feel the "slowing down" part. I was just doing chores before opening the business. I think you could have more dialogue, or better yet- a second character, to flesh out the story more. Since the theme is "stargazing" it could be a more important part of the plot too. Now that I think of it, you could even leave the gameplay the same. The second character would be the one who slows down, and finds time to look at the stars, while you do the busywork :)

1265 points. Feels like a good score :)

Gameplay: I enjoyed the game enough to play it a few times. If it had an online leaderboard I'd probably play it even more to get to the top. Simple to grasp, but takes a minute to master :)

Graphics + Audio: Nice, oldschool, readable. Competent pixel art, but I guess it would be cool if there was some more style to make it more "yours".

Theme: More "star" than "gazing". I get how it relates to the theme.

Over all- really enjoyable, fast paced gameplay, where you need some skill and a bit of luck is what I want from an arcade game. Keep up the good work!

Thanks, glad you liked it!

Thanks! We joined late, so we figured a simpler game with some funny constellations would be cool this time.

The dialogue was supposed to be more complicated at first, replying to each constellation in a different way. With limited time we went with what we have :)

Thanks! We wanted our constellations to be absolutely NOT like the real life constellations :)

14445 points, with one minute left! This game could use some online leaderboards :)

Gameplay: I definitely had some fun, although I feel the game is a bit too hard. With the number of objects incoming late in the game and the player not being able to shoot unless the object is identified, I don't know if it's possible to survive till the end. What I'm saying is the game could use a bit more balance.

Graphics + audio: Simple but has it's own style. Music is dynamic and fits the gameplay. The sound effects also compliment the game nicely. Some particle effects or screen shake, when the player is hit could be cool though.

Theme: I loved the "active" take on stargazing. From one side it's definitely "stargazing", plain and simple. From the other, you have your own original twist on it. Nice!

This game deserves to be played by more people! This is easily one of the best games in this jam. I loved every second of it and I think it has a ton of potential to be expanded into a bigger project. Normally, I go through each category, but here there's no need. Everything is really well done, and works together to form an amazing game.

Out of all of the great elements two stand out.

The story really moved me. The "memories fade, love doesn't" just hit me in the right place.

Puzzle design was perfect. It's something I would expect of a release-quality game. How you gradually increase the difficulty, and how you introduce new mechanics... this is exactly how it should be done!

I had my legendary sword by the end of day 6... after a couple of tries :)

Graphics: I gotta say- the swords looked cool and the menus were readable. It would be cool, if you had a constellation picture on the button, not only the name.

Audio: no audio :( Some blacksmith sounds and medieval-style music would do a lot for atmosphere.

Gameplay: I had fun! I played the game to the finish and I see potential here.

Theme: I liked how the constellations were at the heart of the game. I didn't like that it took me a second to figure out this were constellations and not spells or elements :)

Over all- lots of potential here. Could be elevated just by adding small elements like sounds and some background graphics (maybe a blacksmith workshop). Also- if, instead of picking the constellations from the menu, I could pick them from the sky. What I'm trying to say, is that you are onto something here. Keep it up!

I had so much fun!

Gameplay: At first I thought this is just a simple "number-goes-up" game. This is technically true, but also it's a hella-fun number-goes-up game. I played it to the end (kudos for ending choice!), and had fun grinding for upgrades!

Graphics: Readable, consistent, properly oldschool. I'm not a huge fan of pixel art, but I think it worked over all.

Sound: Really good! In game like this sound can really sell the speed of number going up. Rapid "trrrrr" of probes hitting rocks was really satisfying. Music also fit the atmosphere of the game well.

Theme: Not something I would have gone with, but it compliments the gameplay nicely. The ending makes the game fit the theme pretty good. As in "you found something among the stars". I liked it!

Over all- One of the most enjoyable game I played so far in this jam (played 10 so far). Keep up the great work!

I just got that I made one of those cozy games everyone seems to talk about!

Glad you liked it!

Thanks! This is exactly what we aimed for!

Thanks for playing! The sky is generated from scratch each time you play, so you might have more luck next time!

A puzzle game would be pretty cool, but we only had 5 days to work on it (none on the weekend), so we decided to go with something relaxing instead.

As for expanding it further- truth be told, we aimed for a tiny, one-off game. There are a couple of my games that could be expanded, but this is not one of them :)

We considered a timer, or even something more "organic" like a sunrise, but in the end decided against it. You don't rush when you look at the stars with someone.

As for the scoring system... we have that! You have the online leaderboard on the title screen and a score counter in the top-left corner. Check it out again to put your name on the scoreboard :)

In this context "active" = the one that's gonna move when I click :) This is not a game breaking issue, but I had situations where I clicked expecting one star to move and instead another moved. In my game (forgive my shameless self-promotion), when I move a picture over the stars some light up- that way you know that those will be counted as a constellation :)

This is not the most ambitious game in this jam, but hell, I HAD FUN!

The main problem is the text field had a character limit, so Canis Minor wanted to play "Total eclipse of the heart" by played "the bad touch".

Also, the story was awfully dirty... nope, that's on me!

Ambitious idea! I feel like taking a step back would help here. There's a LOT in this game. Mission select, with several mission types, calendar, experience points, core gameplay. I think if you cut some of this and spend the time polishing what's left you would end up with a better game.

Gameplay. It's cool that you added the option to re-read the briefing in the pause menu, otherwise I wouldn't know what to do, because the first time I clicked the mission at random :) After finishing I discovered I could keep clicking the same mission, and it would show up as finished, but still give me xp. I'd like it more if the levels grew faster. Without the xp glitch it would be a bit of a grind to unlock new missions. The core gameplay was fine, but could use more variety. Tip for cool enemy behavior- make it so they don't go towards the player, but a random point near the player, that changes every couple of seconds. This way enemies look like they try to dodge the player fire :)

Graphics. They are ok, but need some polish. It would be nice, if enemies had some death animation when hit instead of disappearing.

Audio. The music is ok, but some sound effects do wonder for atmosphere and feedback. Some "pew-pew" for the gun, and impact sound for when you hit the enemy.

Theme. Not much stargazing here to be honest. I guess you are in space...

Over all- I see a lot of potential here, really. When you take part in a jam next time (the next Goed is in September, btw), make the game in half the time, and spend the rest polishing and bugfixing. Keep it up man!

I have some mixed feelings here. Let's go through the categories to show you why :)

Gameplay. To be honest, it's not for me. Like- I like chill games and sandboxes, but I feel there needs to be something more gameplay-wise here.

Graphics. Actually really cool. Making procedural art look cool is not an easy task, but you made it. Planets look neat, comet looked great! The sky looked... well, like a starry sky on a cloudless night, but in this jam it's a compliment :)

Audio. The background music fits, but there's not much else. Maybe a "ding" sound when you add a star into a constelation?

Theme. Well... it's stargazing! I don't want to repeat the "gameplay" part, but it would be cool, if you did more with the theme.

And this is why I have mixed feelings. Technical aspects are really cool. The gameplay needs work. Keep it up, man!

Your game gave me a bit of FTL vibes! That's good!

Gameplay. While it's nice to be reminded of FTL, your game could give more feedback to the player. After I chose the class for example. Did it add more options for events ? I think so- I chose engineer, and my options felt technical, but I'm not 100% sure :)

Creativity. It would be nice if you added a bit more to the gameplay. Some personal touch, something that would turn heads a bit.

Audio + Graphics. They fit the atmosphere and are readable, so that's good. It may be nitpicking on my part, but I'd prefer if the ship flight and event illustrations had more similar style.

Theme. More "star" less "gazing" :) Just kidding, I get your interpretation of the theme. It would be cool, if you incorporated the stars into the gameplay more (maybe as a navigation tool). 

It's not often you play a second game in the jam and think "yup, this needs to take the prize". But you got it man!

The use of theme is on point. This is exactly what I think the theme "stargazing" means. 

The presentation. Amazing. The graphics were great, and the audio was better.

But the gameplay. This was a journey! At first I was "ok, so you go and point at the stars". Then "you can see the stars in water. Cool". This was all nice. Then the screen got bigger. "Wider skies, I get it". I thought I've seen all you got by then.

BUT THEN I CURVED THE LIGHT WITH A BLACK HOLE!

Loved it!

Ok, so from the top :)

Gameplay. I played a couple of rounds. The idea is solid- with some additional stuff (powerups, score streaks, something like that) I could see this as a nice "bus game". The rounds are short enough that you'd easily fit a couple in your daily commute :) What I didn't like was the rating system. The idea is good, but right now it doesn't forgive any mistakes. Two stars is the best I could do :)

Creativity. I guess I haven't played a puzzle game with this idea. Points for that :)

Graphics. The graphics were readable, but simple. I'd like a bit more feedback here. A couple of times I clicked a star and then a different one rotated. It would be cool if the "active" star would light up, or otherwise signal it was active.

Audio. Genuinely good! The music was nice, but it's the subtle sound effects on every click that really do the work here. 

Theme. I guess I can see how it relates, but also I wouldn't thing "stargazing" if I didn't know it was the theme.

Over all. Solid submission for puzzle game fans. Could use a bit of polish.

There are two places that can make the doctor fly. Maybe more- an hour ago I was only aware of one :)

Since the game was rushed a bit, there's not really much subtlety to the tactics here. You need to be fast with the minigames, try to remember which of the rooms are busy, so you don't deliver a patient there, and make good decisions in patient vs skeleton situation, basically taking into account the time patient has left. 

Thanks for playing!

I discovered the text issue pretty late. I got to a point it looked ok on my screen, but I guess there was some work still to be done here.

Score system breaking is a weird one. It looks like the score doesn't reset properly, which is strange, because it's only done in one place, and always as a first thing. Of course it works on my machine :)

As for the UI... I'm pretty proud of it. I mean- you are right- there's still room for progress here, but in my early games UI was a complete afterthought, so going from "bad UI" to "more to make it perfect" is still ok. It's gonna get better though :)

Big thanks for a big comment! And sorry for responding this late- turns out I'd have even less time it the jam was this week :D

As for the improved randomization of the minigames, we planed to do this exactly this way, but there's a reason we didn't. On the last day, we focused on the balancing the game and improving the chances of recovering from lost healstreak (in retrospect, still too hard), and we... forgot the implement the randomness improvement. Normally I keep a list of planned improvements/ discovered bugs, but this was a simple game compared to the previous ones, so I didn't bother. Well, that's a lesson for the next jam I guess!

Btw- Dick Storm almost didn't make it to this jam. The final five themes were not very "Dick Storm friendly" (maybe "you shouldn't be here", but we had a different idea for that one). Then we figured that we'd go with a simple easter egg this time (as we were going with simple everything anyway) and DS fit there.

The kissing medical staff were supposed to play a bigger role. Originally we wanted to have more of them, and after a minute of gameplay, they would pair up, and could take a medical room for... private reasons. Another thing that got cut for time.

Thanks! 

We had some more ideas on how to polish this game, if random stuff didn't cut into our time. Escalating difficulty was the obvious thing. Others were procedurally generated patients, and some plot happening in the background. If we had a normal amount of time for a jam (both weekends free for starters)... we would have gone with our second idea for a game :D

Big thanks! Glad you liked it!

Yeah, if you ask my kids your game should take the 1st place in all the categories. They played it several times more (even at school- my son discovered itch wasn't blocked on the school computers). If you spin it into a bigger project they are definitely your first fans :) 

Yeah, there seems to be a bug with restarting the game. that I didn't find :/

170 point is a good result for a first time!

Thanks for playing!

Yeah, I tried to balance the game towards the end, but I guess I could still make the time more forgiving

Thanks for playing!

Ah yes! The proud- second to last score :D

After playing this I wonder if you happen play the Battlestar Galactica board game. The gameplay loop, with waiting for a jump while fending off the attacks of Cylons (I mean, not Cylons- your guys), seemed familiar. The main gripe I had with this game came from this. It feels like the enemy always focused on the civilian ships first. I'd prefer if they went for the warships first (or at least the closest target). That way you could use them as shields for the civvies. Also- the heavy ship's shots were so slow it was pretty damn useless. I guess it would be more effective in the last wave, but then I was broke from the fleet upkeep, and couldn't afford it (then again, I managed to save a bit over 100 guys, so my tactics input might be not something you should listen to a lot).

The graphics were nice. I rarely praise someones menus, and font choice, but seriously- that was some nicely animated menus, with a good font!

The sound was good, but there was a bug, where the shot sound cut out, when there was a lot of action.

Use of theme. Straightforward, but on point. 

One of the ideas our team had for this jam was also a game about a fleet of survivors- the difference was that each of the ships would house a different group that provided different bonuses. Then we went for a simpler game, knowing we had less time than usual :)

Over all- really enjoyable game. The only real downside is that now I want to rewatch Battlestar again :)

I gotta say- the first time I opened your game I didn't know if this is gonna be good or not. Start menu? Longish instructions (but with the combat part missing)? Mid 80's PC graphics? This could have been a hit or a miss.

Fortunately- a hit!

I had three runs. First one I got defeated fairly quickly. Second- By the first "boss" (now I learned to have my stats screen open to track my health). Last time- I finished the game. And just barely! If the boss had just one more round I would have been defeated for sure! So yeah- the gameplay was engaging and exciting, even if it looked like I was trying to close a bunch of windows really fast :) Other than that the UI was intuitive and easy to navigate. I focused on fighting monsters, not interface.

The presentation fit the setting, so the simple graphics built the atmosphere. The sound also fit, but in this case I'd like a bit more that just two sounds. Maybe a bit of background music, or a little fanfare, when you beat an enemy?

As for the theme. I get how the game fit it- you had a limited disc space space, so you couldn't save every file. The thing is... it was never an issue. I used thee strongest equipment and deleted the weaker items once I figured there was no way to sell them. As for the healing items... I just used them! I only had to decrease my stats once, and since I was pretty strong it didn't bother me that much. What I'm saying is that you could have leaned into the theme a bit more.

Over all- I'd like to play a longer game like that. Or better yet- split into two layers. One like this, and another in a "real world" where you can find upgrades for your computer (saving different character builds on floppy disks... I can really see it)! Great work! Keep it up!