itch.io

Okay as of now this is my favourite out of all the games I have played in the jam. The mechanics are simple but can get complex very quickly. In the final level, not sure if its a bug but there was a point where you needed to jump from a  high height into the green tube to get enough momentum. I found that if I jumped from too high a height, the momentum for some reason gets killed when I come out the other end. (I mean of course after reaching the next part, I realized I needed it at a specific height, but it was a bit weird).

Overall, great game. I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Thank you for playing ! In a way, yes and no? Unfortunately I didn't manage to finish some cutscenes, so it ended up basically being a Steins;Gate fan fiction I guess haha. Yea unfortunately my mechanic did not pan out the way I thought it would. It sounded cool in my head and when I made it, it looked great as well and I was very happy. Until I starting doing the levels and realized it was an undo button lol. Oh well, I did want this game to be able to stand alone in the rewind mechanic alone as well as the story but I think I might have gotten too ambitious.

SPOILERS BELOW It contains some parts of the ending. Unfortunately I don't see a way to spoiler my text so this will have to do. Below is my original vision for the story to clarify some stuff. 

The original intention was for this to kind of be a possible origin story for one of the many John Titor that gets trapped in the 2000. This one just so happen to have a similar background to Steins;Gate and towards the end on mission 3, somehow ends up in the exact world line as the start of Steins;Gate, the day Okabe sends his first D mail (if you happen to know the divergence value, it is actually reflected in the divergence meter. I wanted to have a cut scene of a mail being sent and the divergence meter going crazy while the time machine was going back to the future, implying that the world line was changed and messed up the time machine's coordinates. This causes John to get stranded in 2000, where he will need to find a way to recalibrate his temporal coordinates. It is here he will find another John Titor that arrived earlier and devise a plan with him to return to their original world lines (This will be the same plan as outlined in the 2009 letter from John Titor, released by Kay Titor). And the ending will be the same as the current ending, though I had wanted the cutscene to be John Titor entering the forums before writing the 2 sentences in the ending. Something along those lines haha, its kind of convoluted but I had fun coming up with this.

In this way, even if the player is unaware of Steins;Gate or John Titor, it would basically just be a story of a soldier being sent to the past to sabotage the evil organization and save the future. He accomplishes his mission, though slowly realizes the severity of his actions as his version of the future's history had already changed drastically in 2010. Tries to go home and gets trapped in the past, with another version of himself and now they have to devise a way back home.

Thank you for playing and giving feedback. The story of the game can be a little dark, so I understand that it isn't for everyone. For what its worth, you were never able to kill the person and it was supposed to serve as both to explain a mechanic in the game as well as set the tone of the game. The whole lacking story at the start was by design to encourage the players who like to explore more and find out more through the interactables in the game, while those that prefer the mechanics can just play the game as per normal. Of course, the story built unfortunately probably not able to stand alone very well because I ran out of time to make some cutscenes, though for players who understood the reference it should work out. Regardless, thank you again for play and giving feedback, I appreciate it.

The game looks amazing, and the audio was really good too. Unfortunately, it was a bit difficult for me to hold the mouse and spin it around fast, so I didn't do that well. But its mostly a skill issue on my part. 

This is just my opinion, but I do have 1 gripe with the game. The fish don't seem to try and go for the bait (maybe it does, I'm not a 100% sure but if there is, the proximity feels too low), but instead has a set movement. Only if the hook comes close to the fish head, does it get snagged. That kind of makes the game become  more of timing your hooks to land and also timing the rate of its descent, because if it lands close but it just so happen that the fish is facing the other way, the hook might descend too low and misses the fish head. I'm not sure if this was intentional or not, but it did make the game significantly harder to me and felt a bit tedious. 

Overall, the game is great and I really liked the art.

I really enjoyed this game. It flowed really intuitively to me the moment I figured out that different specific objects in the world react to different specific forms when you press X. After that I figured out what each character can do specifically, and it just flowed from there. Oh I now need this guy for the next step, so before I reincarnate, can this guy do his thing else where. It clicks in a very satisfying way. The audio was amazing, probably the best out of all the games I played in this jam.

I do have one suggestion, please ignore it if you don't like it. The only pain point I had was at some point, all I needed was a specific form to proceed. I understand that you can stop the wheel early but I couldn't really get the one I want even with that. Instead of leaving the next reincarnation to the wheel, perhaps you could lean into the Samsara more, where rebirth into the next life is based on the actions of the previous life, i.e. if the player dies in the water, the next rebirth will be the frog for example. Or maybe have both, random and deterministic? Idk just putting whatever came to mind.

Overall, this was a nice short game, and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

This game is great. The mechanics are simple but can get complex by expanding on the different karma types. Below is my feedback.

I kept mistaking the rotation direction and end up using the wrong rotation many times. Its probably a me issue, but I would appreciate if there was an A and a D button on the side with a rotation arrow that reminded me of how it will spin. I ended up writing on a note bad that D was clockwise and A was counter clockwise just so I dont forget.

The visuals and audio is great. Looks really polished and fits really well.

Overall great game, I really enjoyed playing it.

Thank you for your kind words. Honestly, I also have no idea the limits of GameMaker as well haha this is my second game jam where I submitted something but technically my first time submitting a somewhat complete game (my first game submission in a previous game jam only had movement and one cutscene). I really learnt a lot from this, aside from the sprite assets and audio, I basically made everything from scratch, from the movement, to the rewind mechanic, to the dialogue system, audio system, cutscenes, etc.

I actually had another name in mind, Ouroboros, cause in a way the game's ending is the beginning that will end up looping itself. Samsara also worked well as you surmised, though not just with the time aspect, but also the world line theory where every divergence results in a different world line similar to how in every reincarnation will be different depending on your karma (which is determined by your past actions). I ended up favoring Samsara more and went with it. Though, I was also referencing to Steins;Gate where the names the main character gives isn't supposed to mean anything (though it usually does connect in some way).

There was an idea to limit the number of turns actually, but I wanted the players to be able to be free to explore the map and learn a bit about the world, however cryptic it may be. So I decided against limiting it. Leaving the turn counter in, was initially supposed to tie to the mechanic of rewinding 5 turns, but I ended up unable to make a proper level, aside from the first one, leveraging it. Actually, I probably should have completely hidden that, given that the 5 turn rewind is already visually apparent when the watch is pulled up and I wasn't going to use it. 

In any case, thank you for taking the time to play it and giving me feedback. I am glad you enjoyed it.

The game is interesting. At one point in the early game somehow my single oil refinery was repairing just in the nick of time to send out a ship and then gets hit by a missile, so I always had some money. That was when I realized I made the mistake of buying the centrifuges early. With that slither of income I just slowly upgraded the missiles and then bought the refineries and then just afked to victory lol. Anyways below is my feedback.

I actually did not realize that the 25m was for the purchase of the oil refinery until I clicked it. Lol on hindsight it was obvious but because it cost quite a bit, and I wasn't sure what it was, I avoided it in favor of other stuff (the missiles) until the other stuff was too expensive. Only then did I click on it and realize what it was for. I think it would be nice if there was a tooltip when you hover over it.

It is kind of weird that technically you could win by just buying centrifuges, though that will take a long time. At the same time it does seem like it would be too difficult to balance the lose condition around the different systems (like if the lose condition was everything destroyed, then the defense system becomes priority etc.). Maybe time? Like you need to build the bomb by 4 in game years? I'm not sure really.
-EDIT- Actually it suddenly occurred to me that perhaps it would be alright to have different lose conditions in the different systems, as that can just be something similar to a challenge mode. It would give more variation in the strategy required depending on the lose condition.

It would be nice to have some agency on where the initial anti air systems and oil refineries are placed, would also add some replayability and variation to the game.

The visuals are alright, and the audio wasn't too loud and fit quite well. The starting dialogue/tutorial was quite amusing. Overall, it was an enjoyable game. It strangely reminded me a of Plague Inc.

Thank you! I'm glad you enjoyed it. Ah I probably should have separated them or at least made it clear that it was 2 different interactables. My bad, but thank you for the feedback!

This game feels quite nice. It is quite an interesting mechanic, it can be a bit of a hassle to calibrate the gravity though. 

If I may give a suggestion, this is just something that came to my head so ignore it if you don't like it. Perhaps the player could have like a few "slots" they can configure a specific gravity pull, so they can set them and then change the gravity dynamically while moving by just switching between pre-configured gravity pulls. So for example, if the player lets say has 2 slots, he could set one to near zero gravity, and then one with more gravity on the left, then he can just switch between the two with 1 button instead of calibrating it with the mouse.

But otherwise, its a pretty solid game. I quite enjoyed it.

Thank you for your feedback! I'm glad you enjoyed it.

Honestly when I saw the spinning theme, the first thing that came to mind was clocks and then my mind jumped to time travel haha. I happened to be watching a video about John Titor so the idea was stuck in my head. But that's fair. 

With regards to the walking animation, you're right I initially thought that because I was doing tile based movement, it would be weird to have animation (cause the object just snaps to the next tile). But after reading your comment, I went to look at some games that have tile based movement like Baba is you and realized that it would look a lot better with some change in the sprite when the character makes a movement.

For the music, hmmm yea maybe I should have used different audio tracks in the different timeline.

In any case, thank you for taking the time to play it as well as giving feedback. I appreciate it.

This is probably my favorite out of all the games I've played in the jam. The mechanic is simple yet complex at the same time. It feels like there's so much room for different designs and expansions on the mechanic. Like challenge mode to get the most quota, or maybe change it up earning the most money. Puzzle mode, where the player has a bunch of pieces and must create an infinite loop or whatever. Even player made challenges would work. I really like it a lot. 
I only have 2 gripes with the game.
The first is the tutorial, but I'm guessing the tutorial is like this because of time constraints (mine was  the same tbh). Aside from that, I think it would be nice to have an option for a more standard font for the text in the tutorial, as it was actually a little bit difficult for me to read the tutorial.
The second is the sound effect of the explosion when I accidentally made the same rotation adjacent was a little too loud. It kind of jump scared me. It seems to be because each spinner destroyed produces the explosion sound. When multiple of them go off, because the sound is the same, it just gets amplified. I tested it in sandbox and it seemed to be the case. 

Overall, I really like this game. 

Thank you! Yea, honestly I was quite sad about that too. The idea felt really cool in my head but after I spent a long time making it and the guard detection system, I made a level and realized it was basically a glorified undo button with limitations. I tried to make it work with something similar  to the tutorial level but I ran out of time. I tried changing it so that the player can move forward in time while the guard freezes or something along those lines but I ended up with a lot of bugs and just decided that it was probably better to just focus on other stuff. I was still learning how to add in audio and cutscenes at the time.

Regardless, thank you for taking the time to play it. Knowing that someone played my game and understood the references made all the time and effort making this so worth it. I am really glad you enjoyed it. 

This was quite fun, it was quite satisfying to snipe some of the enemies from far with the boomerang.
I do think there needs to be like a brief moment for the player to react. There was a room where I entered and I was immediately swarmed.
In the first dungeon, to the right room then through the left door near the middle top door, it suddenly spawned me in the middle and that felt kind of jarring cause I was expecting the character to be on the right side of the room.
Overall though, the game was great.

The game visuals and audio is really nice. My only gripe is with the movement, it feels really sluggish with the acceleration and deceleration, especially when you move while attacking, which doesn't really feel good with action combat in my opinion. The rest of the game is really well polished though, great job.

I like the idea, and the game overall was quite interesting. However, the time it took for the ball to land is a tad too long. 

Not really my cup of tea, but I can see the vision. I do like the idea and the sound effect really did make it quite immersive. I played for a bit but unfortunately the long text was a little much for me.

I have a suggestion if you are planning on continuing this. Maybe give the player a highlighter or a pen, so that the player can bold and highlight certain words for their reference? I think it could make thematic sense as the editor to edit the draft before sending it to print and it would allow the player to be less overwhelmed by the amount of text.

Hey, thank you for playing. I'm guessing you mean the doors? Yea honestly on hindsight I should have just completely removed the doors, it just made sense to have them but I think it just made things more confusing without proper indicators. But yea you are right, I tried to put a tutorial at the start, but its all text and not very visual. I ended up making a video walkthrough just in case and I'm glad I did haha. Anyways I will take note of this in my future games, thank you for the feedback.

The game is really fun and it was quite satisfying to play. 

Its a bit hard to see projectiles coming from the back, so maybe a top down view will be better? 

The text (dark purple) in the game description below the game was a bit hard to read as both the text and background color are kind of dark.

Overall the game is great.

Lmao when I started the first game, my opponent rolled a Nat 20. Anyways, its a pretty chill, fun and simple game. Visuals and audio were also nice.

One suggestion I would have is maybe you can give the player, at the start, a choice of 3 passives? 

Otherwise, its surprisingly engaging for how simple it is.

The visuals and audio were really nice. The movement was kind of fun though a bit hard to control at first.

I do think perhaps the boost button should be on another key instead of "shift". I get that it is for the "Do your SHIFT" thing but it was kind of awkward cause my thumb would be on the space bar and then pinky finger on the shift because the shift button is a bit further. Maybe S or another key where it would fit more comfortably on the index or middle finger would be better?

Otherwise, overall great game.

The movement control was quite nice, haha the voice as well. 
I think for the stamina of the spinning tops, it would be nice for it to also be at the side? It's quite hard to tell how much stamina is left in either my spinning top or my opponents.
I couldn't really tell if spinning at the countdown made a difference or not. Also my opponents were spinning so fast lol. 
In one of my runs I was max power, and somehow I was suddenly flung all the way out of the map. Like beyond the stadium, no idea what happened there.
Overall, it was quite fun. 

The visuals are nice and the movement was quite smooth. It was quite nice to roll around. 

For the notes, I think there were 3 of them scattered around. I wasn't able to read most of it because the moment I walked into it, the textbox pops up. But then I happened to press another movement button because I wanted to change directions to crush a rat, and then the textbox is gone. Might need to freeze player inputs the moment the textbox appears. And perhaps since it is a note and does not really affect the doors, it doesn't need to disappear? Also, the brief text I managed to see, I saw some square boxes in some of the words which I don't know if its  done intentionally to omit some of the letters or maybe the font isn't readable?

The stairs was a bit clunky. Maybe instead of those stairs, it could be a door to the stairway, where instead of taking you to another room, it takes you upstairs or downstairs?  Idk.

There was a meter at the bottom right, but I don't know what it does?

Overall it was quite fun and I enjoyed it.

Yea, I  realized this when I made the tutorial. Its why I added a walkthrough video just in case. Do you think visual indicators would have helped? I wanted to add it in the tutorial but I ran out of time and prioritized other stuff. Thank you for playing though. 
For the bug, do you remember roughly what it said and what you did when you encountered it?

Its a really interesting idea. I got to the 2nd part (after dodging the stuff) but the amount of text was a little too much for me. 

I think maybe for the hints, it could also include some highlighted words in the different text files? 
The audio was a bit too loud for me during the dodging the stuff while pressing the button game. I think instead of instant death, perhaps allow 2 hits? 

Otherwise overall, it was really cool playing it. I will revisit it later when I wake up to try and finish it.

Interesting idea. But it was a bit frustrating to play.
I got a sticky keys warning so maybe shift is not the best button.
It would be nice of there was some knockback after the enemy damaged you. Right now the enemy keeps getting stuck under me and keeps damaging me. Or maybe a way to damage and knock the enemy back once they are close to you.

Great game, the atmosphere was really getting under my skin, in a good way haha.

One thing though, when I first started the game, the sensitivity was really high for me and I couldn't find a way to adjust it while inside. I ended up remembering that there was a setting option at the start, so I reloaded the game and adjusted. It would be nice if there was a way to adjust it once the game started, unless there is one and I just missed it. I was playing in the web build. But overall, it was really nice.

I see the vision, with some polish the movement can feel really good. Throw in some levels and  the game will be quite fun.

The sound effects I think can be softer though.

The idea is very interesting. I enjoyed throwing the guys off but I noticed sometimes  there will be one guy that just resists the force of the spin even with 2 or 3 stacked spins? Not sure if that's a bug or if I missed something. Audio was a little loud for me, but otherwise great game.

The visuals and sounds were really satisfying. I was quite surprised that the I could see multiple coins slowly spinning in. It was really nice. I did kind of get tired dragging the coins though, so I stopped after a few minutes. Otherwise, great game.

The game is quite satisfying, the planets getting launched after getting hit by the moon was quite nice.

I do think perhaps the moon can just spin automatically? Cause I just ended up holding the right arrow key to make it spin continuously. The screen is unfortunately chopped off. Full screen works it isn't centered as well. I'm not sure if there is any audio but I couldn't hear any. 

Other then that I think the game is quite fun. Am I a heretic for believing in Heliocentrism haha? 

Nice game. Could use an audio loop or even an occasional sound of splashing. Otherwise, I like the fishing mechanic idea. 

Game is really nice. The music and art fits really well. I don't really understand how the comet worked though. There were a few points when the perspective made it a bit difficult to navigate, not sure if that was intended or not though. Otherwise, great game!

Thank you for your kind words! It was on purpose, there was supposed to be more to the story so that it could stand alone (at least I hoped it could), but I ran out of time (I only realized halfway how troublesome the dialogue logic would be when it involved rewinding time). The way it is put together now only kind of makes sense if you got the references, which on hindsight was probably a bit silly of me but the idea came to my head and I really wanted to do it. Anyways thank you again for playing, I hope it was enjoyable. 

Really fun. The audio was really low for me though, I couldn't hear anything. I assume its just endless mode for now? I reached day 10 and decided to stop but it was pretty fun.

Visuals are nice. Would appreciate if there was a way to skip to the end of the day or at least speed it up once the objective is hit. A description on how to play the game either in game or in the description would be nice as well. Otherwise, nice.