Thank you!! The following update will be the last I give this game, I'd consider it complete once I fix the visual bugs and fine-tune the thing. But I'm quite optimistic about the future, and I'm optimistic for you too!!
mjncetera
47
Posts
10
Followers
25
Following
A member registered Jul 28, 2025 · View creator page →
Creator of
Recent community posts
I really liked this one, but did not pull through because I had two runs back-to-back die pretty far in because I hit Q instead of A jumping over water into the level boundary. That’s objectively my fault, no doubt, but it’s way too punishing, considering there's no variance in the earlier levels beyond knowing mechanics/knowing what's an item and what isn't/familiarity. I was fine running it back the first time when I mismanaged my items and energy, but it's truly not fun when I have to do it because of a misinput.
I lead with the negative because the only other issues I have with this game is that I don't think idling should exist like, at all, and of course having to refresh to restart is a little silly. I genuinely adore everything else and wish I had the time to finish it because I was just having so much fun with it. It feels like a game that would've made waves 40 years ago, and even now I can't say there's anything like it that I know of. I will absolutely finish this off once voting ends, great job!!
I quite liked this one! I find myself wishing you got more use out of the gimmick, since the three rooms that do use it are fun to navigate. Using the top-down perspective primarily as a dodging mechanism rather than just maneuvering through the levels is a really nice touch, as if it were a cooldown ability instead of a feature. Honestly I came to love it. I enjoy how it looks, I like how it sounds, overall I'm happy to have played it
The game, however, is also really hard. I don't mind hard games in the slightest but there were times where it felt hard in an unfair way. Think of the loading screen, where most UFOs hang on the left side so you miss their health pickups, combined with the fact that they heal like... 8%? You're more than likely going to lose that to an exploding enemy in the following three seconds, which on that note, are pretty uncompromising in their own right. I really don't think they should be allowed to jump, for one. They go really fast and explode really faster in a pretty wide radius, which is difficult to account for when you're also dodging UFO bullets in a confined space. If you let up on keeping the UFOs down for a moment, you die. There's too many chaotic elements on screen to track and staying in the groove is tough. It's much harder than the boss, and the boss is respectably difficult! The only issue I had with it was sometimes getting totally screwed by the cursors popping in when I'm in a corner, and I personally would've let the battery recharge a little more there.
My only other sore spot would be that the space bar really also needs to be bound to jump, rather than being stuck on W. Caused most of my deaths. Further, the charged shot needs an indicator or even just a sound when it's fully charged up--could never quite get into the rhythm of it. But as a base, it has a strong idea, and a pretty good boss. Would love to see you develop this further--good job!
Did not finish, since I'm hoping to get some other game ratings in before the deadline later today, so bear in mind this is from someone who stopped at the start of Section 2.
You two are wizards. What the hell. I knew from the very start of the jam that this was going to be the winner from what everyone else was saying about it, and it has been completely worth the hype so far. I'm sad I have to put it down since I'm pretty sure I know where at least one thing is headed and it's going to hit close enough to home to hurt. (I mean that well.) It looks fantastic, it's gotten a few laughs (oh my god the seagull,) for a game jam it's completely transcendent. I'd have my doubts on whether or not this could even be done in an 8-day timespan but, no, the theme is very much interpreted in the way you've stated here! It can't exist without B-Jam!
My only real gripe (besides that tbh it does seem like it's a bit long for a jam, but I think the voting period should've been longer anyway) is very early on, with Agatha's shop. That sign lies to you. Only GreenTea and Ale are at their listed prices, and of those, Ale lies to you about its effect. It heals one party member for 4 HP. I figure none of this is remotely intended but the impact it had on Sector 1 is pretty significant; I got very, very close to wiping out when fighting the Flowermen. It luckily doesn't matter at all past that point, but it does get the game off to a rough start.
Everything else is commendable. The visuals are fantastic, the music is great. The dialogue is funny and the story is intriguing. I'm not completely sure if I'd really want anything else! Great job!!
This one's goooood. I got into the story enough that I was really sad to see it end after one monster encounter--it definitely makes sense when you think about why it would end there and it does definitely help with the innocuous resolution of the plot, but it did also feel like there was more to explore with the character and perhaps a further breakdown. I figure there wasn't time for that though, so ah well.
The audio's great, I only had an issue where most tracks failed to loop for me but the sound design is completely on point. It's weird, it stays in the confines of its character's perspective and elaborates on nothing else, which is exactly right for this narrative. The font you chose for all the text is a bit difficult to read when densely laid out (so the options menu/title screen are fine) but nothing too tragic. I like the horse and shall name it Daiwa Scalper. If I had any proper issues with this game, I'd probably point to the visuals? This is an instance where invisible walls would've certainly done you well rather than having a pretty small patch of sand or 4 jpeg walls keeping you in. I suppose if there's no 360 image available that you could've used for the skybox then the walls are probably among the next best things, even though it just looked weird to me.
This is definitely one of my winners so far. Would love to know what specifically it's based off of, since I can't find anything myself (the guy named Scalp Collector is completely different) and I was intrigued enough by the game to want to read up on the real guy. Great job!!
Perfect audio you say?? Well gosh I’m flattered ^^ thank you very much!! Fullscreen is definitely planned for an update, not sure if I can get that going in a post-jam patch or a later update but it is on my radar. Will consider about the tutorial, if nothing else I do agree that the opening cutscene could be a little longer
Completely disregard my previous comment if you saw it! I had been frustrated with something else and threw in the towel way before giving each level a chance.
This game shows a lot of promise. The mechanics are great, the take on the theme is great, the visuals are honestly fantastic and really make the game stick out. It took a WHILE to get down though, like I played it across two separate days before I understood generally what the game wanted from me. The tutorial could certainly be improved.
I would say this game's big issue is the fact that everything is unlit. It definitely fits in the context of the game, I agree, but being unable to see the puzzle you're meant to solve has led me to a lot of frustration. Yes, there are worklights, but the fact that they have collision means you should honestly never use them because they are always in the way. Always. The battery's just much too heavy on top of that, I wasn't able to beat Level 7 and struggled on most others desperately trying to fold it over any elevation. These are all easy fixes though, and after that you have a really nice puzzle game that takes a lot of creativity to get through. Good job!
Difficult to put my thoughts on this one when Aeron basically already has. Like, to a tee. The story's great but the execution leaves me wanting more--I lost at Wave 20 because I ran into a presumably-shotgun enemy that was completely off-screen in an edge I hadn't explored yet. It jumps from pretty easy to being jumped by the actual mafia once you're down 40 enemies or so. It'd also be nice to have a weapon guarantee a drop the first time you see it, since the other half of why I died was being unfamiliar with the tommy gun needing to cool down as it didn't drop the previous 3 times. :P
If you develop this or even this idea any further, I'd love to see it! In any case I will happily keep tabs on wherever you go from here :)
Wanted to get to this one after seeing it on livestream and now I finally have :D
This is good! It definitely has a few flaws, but once you get a run going you can get pretty into it. Considering the amount of store assets you used, I'm really surprised at how well all the visuals melded together. You could've told me they were all by the same artist/from the same pack and I'd have believed you. The audio's also all well done and befitting of the respective sounds/moments in game, nothing felt out of place. Those are two really good things to get right.
I have some issues with the overall gameplay. You pretty much need a run with the Q invincibility ability to get anywhere, and you need that on top of revive on death if you want to have a shot at the boss. The large blob enemies are simply too hard to deal with for how early on they are and how many of them there can be--you basically just die if you get a hallway with 3 and you don't have invincibility (or stunning lightning tbh) locked and loaded. There's definitely no upgrades that are totally useless, and there's a lot of credit to be given there, but whether or not you win is ultimately up to the luck of the draw. Bit frustrating also that you're able to move to the next room without collecting the upgrade, but ah well. On that note: the boss is way too hard. This could be a delta time issue (I had the same issue with the slasher ghosts, I do not recall them being that fast on the stream I watched, I have a 180hz monitor) but the boss is just constantly jumping to your position and you cannot dodge him. I promise you I tried. It completely comes down to whether or not you have enough health/revive on death to tank his constant damage output, and whether you have enough damage output to beat him quickly. I'm lucky to have gotten a run that won at all without grinding out the rest of the permanent upgrades (I only got +1 damage, I think for the length of the game the permaupgrades are a bit expensive)
But I can't say I didn't enjoy it! It feels great to play the moment you get a good ability, although you desperately need coyote timing on the character controller. It's completely cohesive, it all works together, I am very happy to have gotten around to it. Good job!
Pleasantly surprised by how much I liked this one! I personally think it gets the story across pretty effectively, it's a creative take on the theme (I'd only use the word 'blackout' in one of those instances, but it's not that much of a reach tbh,) and though I'll admit that Story Mode isn't the most fun, Arcade Mode definitely picks up the pace and takes advantage of the mechanics you have. The fish is seriously floaty, sure, but taking advantage of the character controller and thusly only moving clockwise or counterclockwise without daring to let go is actually quite a lot of fun. I got 126. I am far worse at the Fisherman Perspective but I also can't give it a lot of time before I go to work today--I can't say I didn't get into it! I only had one bug, that being in Story Fisherman, where I had 2k to my name and bought an upgrade that cost 1k, it upgraded it twice instead of once and took all my money. Small bug in the grand scheme of things but a bug still.
If the game has any weak spot, it's the visuals. The colors are all fine and well, I don't really mind if the spritework's rough, but what I mean more is that--as a non-artist--you do not necessarily have to limit yourself to flat colors and paint buckets. Have some fun with gradients! I get that that'd be harder to pull off in the ocean (where the change from flat color to flat color matters a lot, and you've telegraphed that very well) but it's certainly manageable. You could also have a few bubbles in the background, or even little particles, or much tinier fish just kinda going about their business. That's all flavor and flair I suppose, but for Arcade Mode (I'm not sure it would fit the story too much) it would be very nice to have a visual on where the nearby fishes or even nearest fish is when they aren't on screen, since wandering around a single-color screen holding left or right and making sure I'm not secretly at an invisible wall is frustrating when I have a timer over my head. It's recoverable but it's put me in a bad spot every time I tried.
if I can say something less about the game: I would be more open to the criticism you're receiving from the people who've missed the story in one way or another or didn't try arcade mode. I don't think you have a bad attitude whatsoever--I get the need to defend your work, especially if the person on your tail hasn't seen everything you put into it, but one of the first things I learned as an adult/college student is that you won't always be there to defend your work. Sometimes your work will be seen, and you'll be given an unexpectedly low grade or have the bulk of your game passed up on without you personally being able to make the player see your perspective. Think of it less as, "this player missed a thing!" and more as "how did this player miss this thing?" or perhaps "why would this player assume anything except my vision?" That is one the most difficult parts of game development, to the point where you could readily look at the comments of my own game and call me a blazing hypocrite for letting people know that the game is hard because there's a bug. I think there's a material difference between that (plus you stating that letting people cheese the story fish perspective was intentional, that feels incredibly allowed to me) and disagreeing with people missing the story but I have to go to work in like two minutes and can't think much more on that.
To be clear though, above all else, I think you did a very good job with this and I'm excited to see what games and stories you have in store going forward :)
Surprised at how much you were able to put together in a week! Bloddie is friend-shaped and nobody can tell me otherwise. Not even the part of me that's legitimately scared of her.
I think the game gets away with explaining very little--obviously as an analog horror game you wouldnt give out the story, but through trial and error I think for the most part the game explains itself quite well. The two exceptions are the Act 1 Part 2 puzzle, which I had to look up, and the Act 2 Part 1 puzzle (I think it was? The one with two health doors) in which there isn't anything that tells you what you can do with the hammer, let alone some interact text with the object where said hammer is used. I almost threw in the towel on that puzzle, actually, since (1) the final requirement being to make your way around a hostile robot makes it really, really frustrating to mess up, since you have to do all that waiting all over again (2) I had an instance where the power cylinder robot got stuck on a deactivated robot and it just genuinely wasn't possible to win after that point. There's too much time between attempts, I think a checkpoint would be great.
Those two do unfortunately drag the game down for me, alongside the admittedly mundane gameplay of Act 2 Part 3 (which i get is probably of some story significance, and the tonal whiplash is done very well, it's just... a lot of walking lol.) That all said, I was definitely into it by the end and was sad to see it go. Will absolutely play the finished product--good job with this!
The addition of a "sing" button is perhaps the most important game mechanic since we invented the game over screen. The only thing inaccurate about it is that you continue to hit all the notes once you've had all your beers.
Short, wild, and funny. Admittedly not the most engaging game in the world, but the presentation carries it through to the end. I love that it just does not explain anything beyond "but you woke up somewhere worse." Yep! Sure did! Good job overall :) as a lightweight though this feels like a frightening amount of alcohol dear god this'd probably kill me
What the hell, sure. It's Lemonbotomy dawg, it's lit.
It's great to finally come an entry that takes the jam's overall "weirdness" factor seriously. It's funny, it's bizarre, there's so much that's just strange in an intentional way that I can't help but completely adore. I have to lock my computer every time I beat the game though since I get stuck in pointer lock and that's the only way it lets me out--I would also have loved a volume slider for the incredibly bass-heavy main song. Like wow there's way too much bass on that thing. Besides that, thoroughly enjoyed this one. Good job!
It's pretty difficult to construct my thoughts on this one, because I do have a few of them. I'll lead with the game's strong suit: going with Blender visuals in a non-3d game gives it a seriously surrealist vibe, and I had wish you had leaned into it for completely for the backgrounds and such because it's made this entry feel far more weird and out there than the others I've played, and I love that for this jam. There's nothing that looks like it and I think it overall works in your favor.
If there's any one point I want to send home, it's that the instructions on this itch page are way too long for things that could be in the game. There could be instructions for each boss phase when they come up. There could be a prompt that tells you how to void dash. The doors could say that you press Z to proceed. Instead that gets lost in a wall of text on the itch page itself that makes the game feel far more foreboding than it should, especially when the bulk of the game uses WASD and X only. The instruction for X is particularly too long. It all needs some tweaking--what should the player know before they hit play, and what can they learn when they get there?
Besides that, the camera in Level 4 seems to be broken and won't scroll past the door, rendering it incompletable. I did finish every other level though, and I wish you were able to get around to the other mechanics since they were sorta just going to point B then back to point A. I have more to say but I will leave you with those two. I'd be very curious why the browser version for this game doesn't work, considering you and I both used the same engine (presuming you're on 2026 LTS?) and I never had an issue like this. Let me know if you figure it out!
Keep at it. Keep up using Blender for sprites, I think that's honestly awesome and it's how you stick out. Looking forward to where you go from here :)
I'm unsure how many of my issues can be attributed to the lack of delta time, as you've stated in these comments and on Discord. I tried moving the game window to another monitor (my main one's 180hz, I have one that's 60hz) and it didn't change anything but I could be mistaken about how browser games work internally.
In any case--the gameplay loop ended up being staying in the dead center, getting one light show up on the left, waiting a few/several seconds, getting an attack where 3 lights come at me from all directions but left, banish them, collect, wait a couple more seconds, rinse and repeat with the same two attacks. I figure that the attack variety might also be impacted by said delta time bug, and it's a real shame (1) in general! I feel massively for you, as someone who commented out a critical QoL feature in my own game (2) because I like your take on the theme and think this could be a lot of fun if there were more, but slower, lights. If you're planning a patch I will happily revisit after the jam!
Ok with the power of hindsight my comment below is funny because I got walled at what was the last level LOL
My main thought is still that it is much too dark, which is a shame because I do really like the core mechanic! My main issue though (besides that I would've loved more levels) is that the mechanics are generally inconsistently applied. In the first room, the bat enemies chase you when you flash, but in the rest of the game they simply go about their business. In the second level, you have walls you can dash through in the light (really cool idea!) but is absent in the last level, which doesn't really telegraph its solution to you in any way. I'm also just completely unsure what the skull does.
There's a lot of great ideas in play here, and I do honestly mean a lot. The visuals are all around good and I don't think they need any tinkering. Given even a little more time in the oven, I can see it coming together really well! As of now though I just don't think the execution is there. Would love to play a longer version if you ever want to make one!
The idea of the room lighting up every time you fire is one I really, really like, but there's unfortunately have a few issues that bring it down for me.
I think my biggest one is the shop--most of the items are not particularly enticing, with its side effects vastly outweighing the positives. Of my two runs that made it to Medic, I had one with two Health Packs and one Swift Moves, and another with a Health Pack, Stronger Lights and Sourcherry. Point is that health is king and you're kinda just screwed without another way to heal if you don't want one, or if you buy all 3 items from the shop, which is rough going when you occasionally lose like half your health in a fraction of a second. (Strikes me as a bug? When I try to recreate it, I lose like... less than 1 a second.) My only other big one is that I'm not completely sure Medic is possible? Maybe I'm missing something, but on one attempt he spawned something like 30 enemies before hitting me with the (really!) fast crosses and I just could not dodge a single one of them.
I think you have a great core idea of a blackout roguelike that can be developed into something much larger, and I'd encourage you to rock on with it! But in this execution, it's difficult for me to vibe with it enough to complete it. I will definitely keep tabs on where you go from here, though!
AHAHA I'm glad someone found it funny!! A streamer played through it last night and was entirely unamused and I was soooo worried it would come off in a mocking fashion. I could definitely serve to have the tutorial emphasize that being away from lanterns hurts you a little more since it seems to be a common point of confusion. I'm glad you vibe with it so much!!
I'd be careful about binding keys to anywhere on the numpad, not all keyboards (mine included) have one.
All in all, considering you joined halfway through the jam, this came out quite well! It's damn hard and I'm very thankful for the lenient hitboxes, but I can come out of it saying that I have beaten the greatest enemy. The bullet hell genre usually requires a far smaller player sprite than what's here but to be honest it works with the patterns you've given. It's definitely basic overall, but there's enough flair (the game has a good sense of humor) (I love the chairs) that it works and I was happy to see it through to the end. Good job!
It's pretty much impossible to play this one during the day because of how dark it is when you're not flashing. I'm squinting my eyes and getting close to my screen and even then I can't make out enough of level 5 to figure it out. I'll give it another whirl when the sun goes down but wanted to get these thoughts out here now
I echo what everyone's said about the visuals, and I'd like to also extend that to the cutscenes. The game has a visual identity strong enough that I'm really surprised about there being no store assets here!
The gameplay loop is pretty solid but I find myself wanting more out of the level design. I did have the key spawn in the same place twice in a row, I'll admit, but the gold key being in the same place and the game ultimately ending right after has me wanting a larger level to explore, and perhaps another key. I certainly get it makes sense within the story, but if nothing else I would've loved a larger level, especially for a factory. There's also a little too many batteries, I found myself basically never worrying about my flashlight. There's definitely a solid base here though, and I'd readily play a sequel :) good job all in all!
Oh I'm completely sure my PC shutting off was a bug with my computer. I have an AMD GPU and it's been giving me an incredible amount of trouble, it's possible it failed to cool itself down after running the game and three monitors off an iGPU instead and it just cut power then and there. There's no chance it'd have been a bug, it's on me.
Sound design is tough! I don't blame you for having one real loud sound, the other games I've played so far have all had at least one as well. Glad to have helped :)