itch.io

WOW this game is good. You managed to wring a lot of both puzzles AND mechanics out of the concept you came up with here, and the actual puzzles themselves feel really cohesive - Despite what I feared this concept would become, I never felt like I was throwing random numbers at the wall and seeing what sticked. Pretty much every puzzle solution felt like a result of logically thinking through the mechanics & calculating the solution, without feeling too simple (Plenty of "aha moments" as mark would put it). Once I was able to move the enemies around, that was when I knew this one had the sauce.

I don't think there's much that can be improved on here. Just make more stuff please, you clearly know what you're doing. See you in the top 100.

Sokoban with a countdown! The puzzles worked well, and properly teased my brain. I had to grab a hint on the final level too, so I appreciate the hints not just directly being the solution. I think the idea of pushing rocks without also moving forward was what threw me off with that final puzzle, since it's the only time that mechanic's used, and a complete lack of an undo button felt a little bit hostile, too. I don't think this needs much work though. While the music can be a little repetitive when solving puzzles, it and the artstyle are very well put together. I think this just deserves more levels, to be honest.

Narrative game so good I googled "Anamnesis". Also I think you should maybe not have jumping off your balcony as a go-to for waking up. That seems unhealthy.

I'm usually not too excited for narrative jam games, but this one was pretty good! Having the actual "game" be kept a secret in the screenshots & description added to the theme of attempting to recall memories of one's self, mainly cause I wasn't working too hard to commit each area to my own memory. It makes the game more about hastily recalling things you only half-remember, while using the context clues to help jog what memory you have - which is probably what you were going for.

The only main weakness, I think, is that each area feels a little generic. I don't really get much of a unique idea of who this character is from just a few locations they've been in, and the items I'm moving around seem more tailored to the gameplay loop than the story (Like, I see a syringe, so I know it has to go to the hospital). I think if there were more ways to learn about the character's life, I'd be a little more hooked on the story than I already was (For example, one of the objects being a family photo or wedding ring could indicate the character's relationship, or if they had to be placed in a drawer rather than the bedside table, it might say something about that relationship. Sorry if I'm armchair designing a bit).

Regardless, I think the story being written here is still good as-is, and the gameplay integrates nicely into it. That last line of dialogue also hit pretty hard, damn.

itch.io did not attach the image :))) it was a screenshot of the watercooler LMAO

bro

Polish is off the charts, obviously, and once I got a feel for the controls (After getting absolutely chump checked my first time around), they felt fantastic. I think a lot of jam games struggle with getting core movement down in a way that feels near-immediately satisfying, so this was like a breath of fresh air after wading through a bunch of other games. The track design is pretty varied, too (Though my first round repeatedly generated the same track segment over and over again. Bug, maybe?), and I also love the addition of shortcuts.

I think with the countdown mechanic it was a little tricky to find openings where I wanted to go for a shortcut, and the camera felt a little too zoomed in on my player to spot shortcuts from afar and plan ahead. Like, the map design and the core mechanic felt a little bit like they were butting up against each other in a way that kinda just made me stick to the main track while playing a timing minigame. Thankfully the main track still had the collectibles & wasn't too stale, so I don't think it was a huge detractor.

Hope to see this team come back for another jam, cause you guys very clearly have the sauce.

I think if there were a "Technical" rating category, this game would shoot right up to the top. I'm also treating this game as if the gameplay loop simply involved locking in a site, and winning if said site becomes the wealthiest at the end of the round - so I'm not gonna be mean about the lack of a "You Win!" screen, I'll just pretend it's there for the sake of review.

It took me a bit of time to comprehend the underlying logic, I think. I had the gist down after about my 3rd time reading through the game description, but even with that knowledge I'm not really an economist, so I can't really speak to the quality of the simulation here. At the very least when my prediction was wrong, it was somewhat clear to me why the winning site succeeded the way it did (Having high production in everything but food doesn't really matter when you're surrounded by like, 5 sites able to feed you with a king's feast).

I think the actual details of the game aren't too complex to track - from a game design perspective, I think you're just missing a few QoL elements that would make it a lot easier for the layman to ease their way into understanding the simulation. For one, the event tracker could absolutely do with a little more than just text - I think some icons that have been colour coded based on their relevant resource would help understand events at a glance, or maybe filtering out specific events when a site is clicked. I also think if a site's currently held imports were made visible (or more visible, if there already was a system to view imports, I missed it), it'd also help communicate the import/event system a little quicker without having to learn the (arguably) most important game element from the last section of the description. Maybe it'd also be nice to see potential events ahead of time, but I think needing to play a few rounds of this to learn things through trial and error makes the game significantly more interesting.

I don't usually engage with these kinds of games but I liked what was here. I hope you keep this kind of ambition up for future jams, cause I think this isn't an inherently flawed idea, just one held back by time constraints.

This artstyle is cute! I also like the core puzzle gimmick. It's simple enough & lends itself to a few neat ideas, but I think you could absolutely have benefited from more levels & mechanics. Micromanaging 2 player characters at once is cool, but after that diagonal symmetrical level (2nd screenshot) kinda stumping me for a bit, the puzzles thereafter felt a little trivial and I felt like the game ended a little too early for my tastes, and I'm unsure how much you can get out of a mechanic like this on its own. Some experimentation with different fuse types or different floor tiles could maybe open up the realm for puzzles here.

With that said, I'm probably more of a puzzle game freak than most, so my opinion might be a little skewed. At the very least, if you ever choose to expand on this concept, I'd love to see it.

As much as I like micromanaging a bunch of intertwining parts, I haven't played too many games like this one. That said, I think I like the ideas you've got here - the synergies at play are fun to try and play around & I really like being hit with the "upgrades" gimmick halfway through the game, I think having too many mechanics thrown in at once can boggle the mind a bit too much, rather than being forced to adapt on the fly.

I think this game is just missing a few QoL perks. Stuff like being able to click tiles to check their actions when I'm using "Show Board", or just having a list of abilities available. It'd be much easier to prepare the board for the lich when I know what he's gonna do.

QoL aside, this game is good strategic fun.

Really thinking-heavy puzzle game, if this was sitting in my steam library right now as-is, it'd be sitting next to games like Bean and Nothingness and Snakebird as one of those games I come back to often, just to get absolutely obliterated by the depth of thought needed to solve some of these - which is pretty impressive given the simple mechanic set! I think with both game types, you've got a very sokoban-like engine here, with how you learn consistent ideas & concepts that then need to be continuously iterated & expanded upon as you solve puzzles that build on those, rather than the kinds of puzzle games that ask the player to find the emergent interactions of disparate puzzle elements (Portal and Baba is You come to mind).

What's here is good, but if you ever were to flesh out this concept, I'd just add things - like more levels, a soundtrack, etc. - rather than adjusting the game you've already got. Might revisit this one when I'm in a puzzling mood.

Guys will live in an apartment like this and not see any issues

Neat little focus on narrative, as someone working a 9-5 instead spending time on any of their projects or studies, the themes here hit very close to home.

I think the main problem I have is there isn't necessarily much friction sitting between me and the best options available - working on one's self improvement has a lot of internal/emotional hurdles that aren't necessarily just about pressing F on the running shoes by the door, but here there wasn't really much stopping me from just interacting with everything in the room, or just picking the options I know are the healthiest, and accumulating all the "life improvement points". Perhaps if I had the option to sit at the TV and not do much else, or if the door was much closer to the spawn point than the guitar and shoes, there'd be a little more resistance from me (I was getting a little bored from the slow walking speed, and I think that could absolutely be leaned into here. If that was intentional, it's great, I just think it could be emphasised more). I think there's already some element of that friction with the smoker being closer to my desk than the boss, as well as needing to physically chase down the pink lady, and I think just doing more of that would sell this game's point harder.

Also, the itch.io page says "I tried", but I think the scribbly, "boring" artstyle is cohesive enough to function as intended, and it works well here in tandem with the story you're trying to. I think if you ever want to continue this game while keeping the themes intact, I'd keep using this artstyle. I think you've got a strong concept here, and could probably sell it hard with a few more scenes, and a little more time (As is the case for all jam games).

This feels like divine punishment for not waiting for the keyboard with the numpad to come back in stock when I was buying my keyboard like 5 years ago. Nifty little rhythm game, the main requirement for these is the music needs to be a jam, and this absolutely fits the bill. The art is also super appealing for what's just a vampire staring me down while I miss like nineteen notes in a row.

This game's obviously not built for my setup but it'd be nice to have the option to enable a "faux numpad" of sorts with the JKLUIO789 keys for those of us without numpads - in my opinion that'd probably be the best way to support us numpadless freaks without separating the inputs into separate lanes, which would probably compromise the core idea a little too much.

Putting my input woes aside, this is an appealing little game.

I've been thinking about "Then comes the meat" a lot. Good vocal stim

Hits a lot of high points. Really good story that sets up the whole game, the visuals are really well executed, and including your 4yo as a voice actor adds to the charm a lot (Although I will need to dock points for child labor (joke)). The gameplay is also fun and frantic. Even when fully understanding the objective of each task, and even when anticipating what each task is going to be, I still found myself rushing to get the task done. Each shot feels like I'm playing a different WarioWare microgame, despite fundamentally achieving the same goal.

My only real complaint is that the game is quite short. Although it does help with trying to encourage mastery of each microgame, having the 5 tasks repeat themselves within 1 run of the game does make it feel a little bit stale. Even with that said, I wouldn't bother trying to develop/improve this one after the jam. I think what's here is excellent.

Very obviously the presentation is off the charts here, this nails the visual aesthetic a lot for a game made in 96 hours, hot damn. The character design on the cover feels a lot like the kind of characters you'd see on early 2000s TV (I'm not really familiar with Panty and Stocking, but that's the closest analogue I have here, I think). Amidst an ocean of people trying to achieve the "Y2K Aesthetic" nowadays, I think the visual style here sticks out in the way it nails the aesthetic while remaining unique.

Also, the actual gameplay is really fun! Counting out bullets manually adds a good layer of challenge & including people saying random numbers in the music is a really funny way to try and throw the player off. It's hostile design, sure, but it's executed in a way where it feels like I'm laughing along with the joke at my expense, and it also plays directly into the main mechanic of the game. It shows the attention that went into thinking about how the player interacts with the core concept.

I think my only gripe with this game is that one gun that shoots a single, easy-to-miss line. Whatever. I just throw it out anyway.

See you in the top 100.

Incredibly simple game, and I appreciate the concept of reaching a specific score threshold before the timer runs out as an additional goal layered onto the challenge of avoiding obstacles. I think you just need to fix up the hitboxes on the collectables, as they seem a little inconsistent, and increase the overall polish level - improve the audio beyond the simple music loop, touch up the UI, and add some more sound effects & feedback to the abilities & gem collection.

(Also, using Generative AI tools to create your itch.io cover image is against the rules of the jam, and any additional Generative AI use should be disclosed on your game's page. Consider updating the cover image and content disclosure.)

This game's kinda overwhelming, to be honest. I think trying to process the (albeit really creative) gimmick of using cogs to attack is enough to get my brain firing off, but the different weapons & the reaction mechanics are where the game starts to leave me behind a little. I'm comprehending the mechanics & roughly understanding what to do, but I think it's a little tricky to try and integrate all the mechanics into a cohesive plan, especially with the analog gear placement making it really tricky to gauge distances, I.E. "How many gears will I need to reach this?".

With that said, I think the concept here is really cool & unique. I think there's a good amount of strategy packed into this game that was just a little out of reach for me, and I think this is worth expanding upon with a post-jam build. If you ever decide to do any major reworks, I'd be down to revisit this one.

(Also, a personal request, if you're gonna make a 1920x1080 game, please give me a fullscreen option for the desktop build, the buttons near the bottom of the screen clipped into my taskbar. Didn't dock any points for it or anything, just an issue I noticed & wanted to point out since most people don't play the desktop builds)

This is a very strange game, but in a good way. Feels like if the ending to SUPERHOT: MIND CONTROL DELETE was fleshed out into a proper game. The introduction presenting me with a squadrillion options before even starting the game was a little overwhelming, but once I understood the main mechanic, I realized there's not really a simple way to slowly introduce the player to mechanics where you're supposed to be overpowered to begin with.

The art is incredible, and the sheer amount of content is off the charts for a jam game (Like, this has more content than some switch indies I've played. I got blown away by the options menu alone!). I think everything you've got here is absolutely worth fleshing out for a full release, though I'd probably polish up the animations a little, they sometimes feel a little jank & teleporty.

I think one area that could be improved is the moment-to-moment combat. I think with a game built around emphasizing the idea of using your sheer skill to keep yourself alive when out of boons, I'd absolutely recommend focusing a lot on making the base combat feel satisfying to execute. As it is, I feel like I just run at the enemies and mash J, or just hold down the shoot button until everyone's dead. If the base combat was expanded upon more, perhaps with expanding on the enemy design, I would absolutely put this on my steam wishlist. Please do consider working on a full release, and let me know when I can buy it.

You were reminded of Tennis for Two (1958)?

I like this concept quite a bit, once I got the hang of the mechanics I felt properly engaged the whole time. There's a steep learning curve to overcome, but I think it's worth it. Perhaps there could be a little more telegraphing on what an attack will do when it's queued? Like a target reticle for the projectile's target position, or the shield could have an initial pulse on each beat before it fully defends the player, for example.

Also, I think that even with the larger hitbox and understanding of the projectile attack, I was having quite a bit of trouble gauging whereabouts the square enemies were going to be. I think the constant, smooth movement makes them a bit hard to assess when making a snappy, 1-beat decision on where to shoot, and if I've made a mistake, it's far too late to course correct. Apologies for playing armchair designer, but I think the square enemies could benefit from moving in pulses as opposed to their current smooth movement, so it'd be easier to gauge their travel distance, and more time can be spent focusing on the rhythm mechanic, which I think is the meat of the idea here.

Nitpicks aside, this was still very fun.

Pretty neat little platformer, I like the little details like the small intro animation that plays when starting a level & the diegetic level select screen. If I had to guess, I think you've also taken some moveset inspiration from The End Is Nigh? Ledgegrabbing is a movement option that's honestly a little underexplored in platformers, so I'm happy to see it here.

I think most people have already pointed this out, but the ledge snapping can a little too generous. I found myself often clinging to ledges when I was just trying to descend a bit, and controlling my jump height off a ledge felt a little bit too uncomfortable to try performing consistently (Though I did find the "hold down" mechanic halfway through writing this review, which is a good addition). I think maybe some tweaks to the overall movement & feel of the character could make this game really satisfying to master.

Also, for an "unfinished" level, I found the concept for the last level to be the most engaging one. I think the weird back-and-forth pattern was what kicked my brain into gear (pun) and started making me memorize the "boss patterns", per se - it becomes a fun game of trying to compartmentalize the entire sequence, trying to remember roughly where the clock hand would be at certain parts of the track (E.G. the hand will go to the top right at the bridge, it'll stay at the top when X instrument comes in, etc.) as opposed to simply memorizing a sequence of attacks & actions ala Super Meat Boy (You know that one boss I'm referring to).

I think the idea here is unique enough that it's worth fleshing out into a full title. I can already picture ideas like having a waltz move the clock hand in Forward-Back-Back triplets, or polyrhythms with the hour/minute hand that force you to keep track of 2 beats at the same time. Consider expanding this concept a bit more.

Also for the record I played this one because you submitted it on day 1 of the jam as "ITS-A GAME JAM-A TIME YAHOO" with a tiny super mario jpeg as the image and I'm glad you kept him in the description.

I hate them

knew this was a banger the moment i ran into my own body and it gave me style points

The polish on this goes crazy but MAN that time duck is fucked up

I'm putting starcraft APM into a cosy furry salon management game

I appreciate the big creepy guy, but I feel like the rules are unclear. I'm pretty sure I can play illegal moves, and the loop detection doesn't seem to be approving some of the loops I've created.

The artstyle dwarfs the rest of the game, I think with some fixes to the mechanics & some sound design, this could be great.

I like the concept I'm just not sure why this guy is going to an office job in full warrior uniform

Good lord this has a lot of puzzles for a jam game, you guys are insane.

This is a very creative & well made brain tickler (Thank you SO much for the quality of life stuff like the hotkeys & speed up button), honestly I think my main concern is you've done too much with the amount of items and objects, rather than relying on puzzles that focus on a couple of key objects.

That's not to say this is an issue, I think the mechanics of the boomerang have been well explored & the puzzles effectively test my brain, I just think the amount of different mechanics overwhelmed my brain a little bit by level 20, so I might need to come back at a future date when I'm not already bogged down by the fact I'm trawling through jam games already lol

With some light polish on the visuals and music, I could see this being a full release.

Very good spin on the metroid-brainia theme I've seen a lot of this jam, you've also made the actual learned mechanics feel EXCELLENT to pull off, they have that payoff I see a lot of people compliment about Celeste where the mechanics you need were something you could always do, with the final skill simply being a combination of all the abilities at once. I felt like a Mario Odyssey speedrunner near the end (The way the slopes of the map unfold into a mechanical playground also felt similar to my experience with the movement mechanics of Dustforce), good stuff.

I think my only recommendation would just be to do more of what you're already doing. More visual polish, more sound design, and more of a world to explore. If your upcoming steam title has this level of appreciation for design (And from the looks of things, it does), I can absolutely see it becoming a darling indie shortly after release.

I won't lie, I spent like 5 minutes making raw slurry cause I didn't scroll down for the ingredients list. Whoops!

This was very chill and casual, I think I would've preferred some kind of objective or obstacle - if not a time limit, maybe just a set amount of customers? It's very tricky to make suggestions that aren't just drawn straight out of the Papa Louie series. I also think this could do with some quality of life additions - sometimes I royally fuck up the recipe and make the world's nastiest mocha & want to try again, but I can't go on without poisoning my customer.

That said, the artstyle is very cute & would absolutely suit a full release. Consider building on this concept a bit.

I don't think I would ever have expected someone to merge the "Crafting" (Doodle god, Little alchemy, ...infinite craft....?) genre with the clicker game, but this was a pleasant little surprise. I especially love using emoji as a visual style. Like others have said, when the characters are zooming down the track, it's a little hard to keep up. One thing I'd probably add is an in-game recipe list? Obviously only show what I've crafted before, I just had a hard time remembering what recipe I used to craft what item.

Clever game.

I love you chrome dinosaur

This concept, for how simple it is, is an EXCEPTIONALLY cool puzzler idea (like, how has nobody done this before?), I think this just needs more levels. The experience here is unfortunately way too short to get any real meat out of it, but you have a clear understanding of decent puzzle design and I hope you build on this a ton - you wouldn't need to flood the puzzles gimmicks either, I can absolutely see the concept expanding out into tons of cool puzzle solutions with just the one ghost. If I were to suggest gimmicks for a full title, perhaps some simple block pushing puzzles? With some touched up visuals and sound design, along with a proper suite of levels, I can absolutely see this being a full release. Please consider expanding on this.

I like the concept a lot, actually - needing to do the weird movement option to complete the objective is neat. I think my main criticism here would be the weak positive/negative feedback loop - playing good isn't particularly rewarded and playing bad isn't particularly punished - with the title "Chain em" I was expecting some kind of reward for "Chaining" together rings - perhaps there could be some score multiplier for collecting multiple rings without releasing space? Like 1 point for the first ring, 2 for the second, 3 for the third and so on.

I also think there should be more of a downside for slamming into obstacles, I don't feel enough of a punishment from losing 2 points and grinding to a halt, something I'm already intending to do by releasing the space bar - mind you, the physics could definitely use some fine tuning if you were to try this, but with the player speeding up there's a clear theme of "Chaos" intended here, maybe colliding with an asteroid could make the ship's momentum carry on, and send them careening into space? I'm armchair designing here, do what you want, but I think with the existing wacky movement, this could be leaned into a lot.

WOW these turn physics feel fantastic once you get a hand of the controls (Turning relative to your car without camera motion can be very tricky, but the lack of camera movement did make it a lot easier to learn the map layout, in fairness), that said, it was kind of annoying needing to slowly back out of a wall when I inevitably crashed - perhaps the car could slide along the wall a little while moving forward (Looking at the car physics you sourced, I think this could be done with some adjustments to slope physics). Obviously this can do with some more visuals & sound design, just a couple additions from some premade asset packs or royalty free artists would go a long way - but I think my main suggestion would be some quality of life tweaks - perhaps a lap counter, minimap, per-lap timer, or maybe some indicator for how I'm getting points? All that said, this is a first game, and I'm impressed you took on a game jam for a first released project. Good work, please keep making things.

I like this concept a lot, I'm a big fan of the little quality of life stuff like swapping a tile last-second while a blob of icecream is on it to quickly flick it over the other way, and the fast forward button is a welcome addition. I think maybe the difficulty could ramp up a little more (or a little quicker, if there's difficulty ramping I missed), since the gameplay loop does get a bit stale once you've got the motions down for setting icecream in motion. In spite of that I think this is a pretty creative way to approach this kind of game & this feels fun to play in short bursts.

i feel like jerma

what do you reckon a whimsicle tastes like

I like the idea of a "Reverse-stealth" game, and this concept is pretty neat. I think the mechanics of the snake are a little janky though, I'll sometimes have vision cones poking right through my barrier. That said, actually pulling off puzzle solutions is satisfying. I think this could be a great game with a few fixes to the jank.

The map and physics very clearly have a lot of care put into them - pulling off the right turns here feels excellent. This'd be a great little speedrun game with just some more levels to play around in. Good game.

Level 8 is my favourite one. This is a really good sokoban-like mechanic, I also love the addition of the apples as optional pickups (Something I haven't seen too often in more simple sokoban games). I think the difficulty uncomfortably ramps up by level 9, although that's probably just my lack of puzzle game experience. Good game.