itch.io

I can totally sympathise with having to cut the feature - week long jams like these always lull me into a false sense of security with how chill they are compared to 2/4 day jams...

A fun little arcade shooter! We've already discussed what would've been my main complaint in Discord, so all I really have to say is that I like the music and SFX and think the game could use a bit more VFX (engine trails definitely). Overall solid game!

This is quite a cool concept - definitely a unique spin on the genre! I have a few complaints however. First of all, there's a performance issue it seems - whenever I fullscreen (which is basically essential to actually read the text in the game) my FPS drops significantly (can't say exact numbers but it looks like 10-20 by my eye). For reference, I have a Ryzen 5 5600G, RTX 3050, and 24gb of RAM. Additionally, it would've been nice to have a volume slider since the audio is mixed a bit strangely (the SFX is a tad loud in my opinion). A more interactive tutorial would've been nice - it took me (and it seems a lot of others) a hot second to get a handle on the game, which may put off some people not bothered to put in the work to actually learn.

To be a bit more positive, I quite like the eerie background music that persists throughout the game. The art is pretty great too, though I think it would've benefitted from scaling up a bit! Overall a solid game that could use a bit of extra work!

I quite enjoyed this! Pixel art and low-fi are a good mix of art and music for a sci-fi incremental game like this - definitely very relaxing. While the gameplay isn't similar, this gives me the same sort of vibe as Cell to Singularity (if you get what I mean? It's entirely down to vibes...). If I were to build upon this, perhaps adding the ability to reset the wormhole with a permanent buff (a prestige so to speak) that could also unlock new planets? 

This next recommendation is a big strange. There was this game on Windows Phone (yes, those old Nokia windows phones) that was sort of similar to this. You had a planet that orbited around a sun (as opposed to a black hole), but the goal was to nurture life on these planets. I think it'd be cool to add some sort of side objective (or even just a visual flare) that stabilised terran planets eventually harbour life and can go through the different eras of civilisation that we humans have had.

Overall a really great game though!

Only thing missing from making this a full-fledged bingo hall is the quiet murmur of old people...

A real "number goes up" kind of game. It's really simple yet just as addicting as any incremental game usually is. Add in the ability to save your game and slap it on the app store and you've got a great mobile game (or fun little background game on desktop).

I haven't really got anything to complain about here - this is just a solid game all round. Well done!

All of our art was actually made custom for this jam! The only thing we didn't make was the font (that's just a libre font I found online). Cheers for the exhaustive review.

That'll be godot's default tooltip system being a little shoddy - I'll probably make a custom one after the jam. Thanks for playing <3

This is a pretty cool game but there's some things I'd change. First of all, make the tutorial interactive. Players don't like to read if they don't have to or if the text isn't story-related, and as such they don't take in the information as well as if they actively did it as part of the tutorial.

This game is doing a lot. It's not an awful idea, but it felt like you distributed your time across multiple different core mechanics rather than really polishing one. As such, it can get a little overwhelming. Some players enjoy this, but if you want to pander to a broader audience, having one solid mechanic supported by smaller, supporting mechanics, can be better.

The visuals and audio are great, but once again kind of suffer from cluttering. The way that gun shots overlap one-another can make it hard to tell where enemies are coming from, and the churning purple background mixed with asteroids, projectiles, enemies, can make it hard to track enemies at times. Easiest way to solve that is to make enemies pop out from the background - make them brighter, make them a contrasting colour, etc.

Overall, I still quite liked this game and I see potential in it. Keep up the good work!

I really enjoyed this game and think with some post-jam tweaks it could be even greater. First of all, I'm not going to mark my rating down because of this but I think you should scrap the wheel's random chance in favour of letting the player decide who they reincarnate as. I would have stints where I'd get an animal I just couldn't do anything with for a good 2-3 minutes, constantly dying to get the same one over and over. It was a fairly frustrating experience. Additionally, I got the duck once in my entire playthrough (haven't finished it yet unfortunately, did spend a good half hour on it though), to the point where I actually still don't know what the duck does lmao. I just know it quacks and then I died (my assumption is it summons something from above? Idk...).

Moving on from my complaints, I have quite a lot of praises to sing. The art, while incredibly simple, is great and powerful. It's very reminiscent of Undertale in my opinion - especially with how you set out inputs and the questions at the start. The audio, while also just as simple, really compliments the game and fits right in! If you honestly told me that Samsara was a Pico-8 game rather than a Godot game I wouldn't bat an eye - and that's a good thing in my opinion.

An overall joy to play (despite my issues) and one of the best games in the jam imo!

Also...

Quite a fun game! I enjoyed the leaderboard - really added to the competitiveness and completely discouraged me from playing with cheesy strategies (spamming the boost button to win). I didn't really encounter any issues in-game, but when I tried to fullscreen it crashed. Not sure why...

Overall a solid game, could see it becoming a fun time-wasting mobile game you'd play during a commute!

Having known the music producer, I knew the game was going to sound great. The music and SFX fit the vibe of an 80s synthwave spinner game as well as they could've. That's not even mentioning how pretty the map design and VFX are.

The gameplay is well polished and interesting - I'm impressed you were able to implement two separate game modes in the time we had (though to be fair they aren't too distinct from one-another). My only problem is that the survival mode's match length feels a little short for how small the map is. I looped the map a good few times before the portal finally appeared, and beyblades spinners seemed to get a little lost in some parts of the map. 

Still an overall joy to play and a game I see with potential for more after the jam ends!

I like the idea of this - I can definitely see where you were going with it. The gameplay is fairly solid if not simple (not a bad thing). A momentum-based platformer (especially a 3D one) can be rage-educing in all the ways a game should if it wants to. I did experience issues with the camera - whenever I would hit escape to tab out for a moment I would come back with my mouse on the screen and unable to rotate the camera more than the width of my screen. This is likely due to the fact that you set the mouse as unlocked when opening the escape menu, but never relock the mouse when it closes (I've done this before in my early days of making 3D games in Godot!).

Overall a silly serious game with plenty going for it! I'm also a fan of the fact you made a vast majority of your assets yourself, that's very commendable! I do think it would've been good to give yourself more time in the week to complete the game to add polish and extra SFX, but that's neither here nor there.

A silly serious little game! I quite enjoyed the different sorts of builds you could go for with each stat, but found that it was almost always the best idea to go for a high spin speed, high range build with the item that scales damage to walk speed. 

There are some areas of the game that lack a bit of polish - a lack of hit noise when the player gets hit makes it difficult to tell when you've been hit (given that the player's health decreases quite gradually). The game doesn't really scale in difficulty past the first few rounds, and it becomes almost impossible to lose unless you intentionally do so.

Overall still a good time and certainly something you can build upon down the line!

I quite like the idea on show here - top-down survival games with roguelike mechanics are always a solid genre mix. However, there are some issues when it comes to balance. Getting slowed on hit later in the game spells an almost instant death sentence. The amount of enemies that pile up into one spot makes it impossible to get away unless you've upgraded your movement speed, damage, or health enough (which honestly comes down to luck). I noticed that the healthbar displayed my health at 0 for a moment before actually killing me - this probably has to do with how you're checking the player's health. Overall a solid submission!

This was such a charming and engaging little puzzle game! Anything made in Pico-8 already wins over my heart, but it won over my mind with its wonderful puzzle mechanics and layouts.  I'll admit certain levels did stump me before realising the new mechanic it was trying to teach me (it took me too long to notice I could push objects on level 3...), but the balance between difficulty, novelty, and engagement is treaded with sophistication and without fault. There honestly feels like no need for a proper tutorial as you've clearly designed it to gradually introduce mechanics in obvious ways then twist them in ways the player might nor expect.

A really solid and quirky roguelike - I quite like how there's multiple ways to go (for me, I built up a massive amount of stock early on and basically relied on that for a while, focusing on upgrades that increased my buying/selling speed). The visuals are cute and reminiscent of old stock trading, supported well by the ambient clutter of noise in the background and bell. It's a small but really appreciated touch that the cat reacts to how they're performing - it's the small unnoticed details of polish that really help a game to shine.

This was a fairly unique and cool project! Games have always been a great and powerful tool for education, with yours being no different. Blending education with a fun (though very techno-babble filled) sci-fi story is an interesting choice that I personally think you pulled off well. Even disregarding the education, this game could serve as a great way to relax and calm down by making you focus on the different frequencies.

An overall great game with plenty of polish! Could definitely see this evolving into a fun mobile game or plunging deeper into the education aspects of the game.

Quite a cute and cozy tile-based puzzle game. The music did get a little repetitive after a while, especially since the only other SFX was the quiet tap whenever you place a tile. There's a strategy to placing tiles, but the game doesn't really punish you from just spinning tiles and hovering your mouse over different areas until you find green numbers. Adding a punishment to not reading and understanding how tiles interact could help to improve the puzzle aspect of the game

Overall, a fun time and something I could see myself playing to pass the time during a commute!

I quite enjoyed this. It's an interesting take on how Slay the Spire handles progression, and the gambling aspects were fairly well thought out. My only issue is that whenever I seemed to heal at full health, it would deduct health rather than heal (at least visually on the healthbar). Additionally, I never saw a reason to put more than 2-4 items on the wheel, as a x4 bonus was already more than enough once I got about midway through the game (playing as the vampire fyi).

Overall still a good experience that could do with a bit of polishing.

Thanks! Yeah, the lack of items is a sore point since we didn't have as much time as we had hoped throughout the week to finish the game, and as such a bit of polish and extra items were cut to save time and get a simple, functioning, and enjoyable game out for our personal deadline (a day before the actual deadline, as we had stuff to do on the final day).

We (or at least I, not sure about my partner) plan to continue working on this game after the jam. I have a feeling it's one of the more solid foundations for a full release out of all my jam games so far.

It's unfortunate that if global avg. temperatures rose to 52 C that we wouldn't have any human live to operate the cosmic cooling fan, given we would all be cooked alive by that point...

A neat game with a straightforward and simple gameplay loop and message. It would've been nice to have links that fact check the facts you put in the questions (not that I doubt them, I just think it's helpful to provide further reading resources and credit your sources). Additionally, I wasn't really sure what the x10 motivation did...

Overall a good submission with a bit of work left to polish out the blemishes.

This is an immaculate game with very little I saw that needs improvement. The gameplay felt great and never lagged behind in scaling. The art and VFX were wonderful and really added to the overall vibe of the game (the art style you chose is honestly perfect for games criticising corporate culture, it helps to make the characters in a story feel distant and detached from reality). I love how there's glaringly unsubtle digs at the problems with corporations, such as how they can really put a strain on your relationships by encouraging overworking and greed.

My one and only complaint is that I can't sacrifice my interns to the CEO at the end, y'know, because every executive views interns as disposable... 

Near perfect 5/5 game <3

note: should've made an alternative ending for those of us that didn't even end up divorcing

I can definitely see what you were going for here, but the game lacks a lot of polish in a few aspects. Gameplay doesn't really evolve past what the original pong did. The only difference is that you control both sides, which I feel like defeats the purpose of Pong. My recommendation is to add features like powerups . Visually, it looks fine but lacks some potential VFX for when the ball collides with something. The complete lack of sound is honestly what breaks immersion and engagement the most. While games don't need to be realistic, most players are happy to suspend disbelief and engage with a game (even for games as simple as Pong). As such, when you break their expectations (such as adding no SFX for ball collisions or scoring points) it completely breaks the flow of the game. Some background music, even if just public domain or creative commons music off of freesound or pixabay, would also help to elevate gameplay

Don't feel dissuaded from the overwhelming negativity I've thrown your way - the best way to improve is to take on feedback and try to include it in your next project!

It was probably my competitive edge that drove me (which is why leaderboards are such a powerful engagement tool) but at the time of my review, I have stolen the top spot of the leaderboard (I'll probably get dethroned quickly)

I quite liked the idea and gameplay design of this submission. Its difficulty is well-earned and not just down to dumb luck. I did find out a strategy to quickly weed out the correct answer (not spoiling it for others though <3). However, I think there are certain visual aspects that detract from the overall experience. The background is pretty neat, but I found it straining my eyes after a while. Making it move slower would likely help to reduce eye strain for longer play sessions.

Overall a neat submission that I could see a small but competitive player base forming around if given more time after the jam.

Such a unique and insanely confusing experience, but that confusion is what drives me to play honestly. There's nothing much I'd change about the core gameplay aspects, but there are some visual improvements I think you could make to really enhance the experience.

First of all, try to avoid applying a pixelation filter to the labels positioned in 3D space. It made them incredibly difficult to read at times. Additionally, the camera can be a little janky at times, and kind of freaks out when you tab out (I personally think this could be better as a windows / linux build rather than a web build once the jam is over, but it's understandable to focus on a web build for the jam).

Finally, find a font! Find some nice, legible, sci-fi font to use. Correct me if I'm wrong but you seem to have just used the default Godot font, which I think detracts from the vibe you were trying to convey here (though that's just personal opinion).

An overall superb submission to this jam and a game I could see having success going forward!

A fun spin on the theme here - though I did find it a bit difficult at times. It would've been helpful to put an input prompt with the corresponding key for talking and interacting with objects (though I did quickly figure it out, E is a natural place to put an interact button). I found that the outlaws were a bit unfair in how quickly they shot me but the distribution of health packs was forgiving enough to make the game possible. Definitely one of the more quirky games I've played this jam!

The game looks very visually competent and pleasing, but it lacks in its gameplay somewhat. The game doesn't really punish you for playing cheesily - such as spamming cards - and I believe it should, since this detracts from the overall engagement and immersion of the game. It also strains your fingers :(

Overall still a solid submission with plenty of potential!

Oh, no, that's just because I didn't implement as many items as I had hoped.

Thanks! The player does actually have their first roll rigged in their favour (floor is 13 rather than 1), but it does sometimes just kill you instantly. It's technically an intended behaviour but one I might iron out after the jam.

Quite a cosy little mix of goblin slaying, sword spinning, and spell slinging. It's a good blend of difficult and fun (though my tired brain didn't enjoy it at first). The art is quite cute and the music / SFX are fairly competent, though could've benefitted with a volume slider (for the first time in jam history, your game was a little too quiet!). A solid game with plenty of things going for it - could totally see it becoming a fully fleshed indie game in the future.

This game is very serious, deer are a threat to all of humankind! In all seriousness, I did quite enjoy my time playing this. It's a good blend of silly, a fairly consistent core gameplay loop, and some good VFX & SFX. The lack of music is a bit of a downer, but not enough to dissuade me from giving your game a good rating!

Crunch time gets us all in the end...

I do love how random this game is, but I have a few issues / bugs I'd like to bring up. First of all, the volume resets every time you exit to the main menu. Kind of a jumpscare the first time it happened (after already being jumpscared by the game upon loading). Could be a script setting the global volume back up when the main menu scene loads.

Secondly, I believe the planets are getting culled (or are respawning in an untended way) as I noticed they constantly popped into and out of view. 

Still a funny and good submission, just not without its issues <3

I can definitely tell that Risk of Rain 2 was a massive influence on this game (not a bad thing, I love the RoR series) but there are some spots you could definitely improve upon. First and foremost is that you don't stand still when using any of the player's drill attacks. It felt incredibly immersion breaking and annoying to have my flow interrupted because I (most of the time accidentally) triggered one of these two attacks. Secondly, I'd power them up a bit. I never really found a reason to not just blast everything with  the gun attack (given most enemies fly and keep their distance). Finally, I think you could've integrated the spinner more thoroughly to reinforce the link to the theme (perhaps even as simply as just making it occur more often).

Despite my complaints, I did quite enjoy this submission and totally think it could be expanded upon after the jam!

fyi, a silly little dinosaur as a main character is incredible.

Quite enjoyed my time playing this. Though it was a bit difficult to get past some levels (I'm not exactly an expert at bullet hells) the spirit of the game was certainly strong. Getting punished for having your swords poorly positioned was definitely a cool feature towards the start, but at the end it felt impossible to not just hold down left click with the number of projectiles and swords thrown at you. I also think it would've been cool to have different variations of swords (e.g. a sword that's invulnerable to attacks but breaks after a certain number of hits). Overall still a solid first ever shipped game!

I quite enjoyed the story and gameplay. While it took a hot second to get used to, it felt natural pretty quick. I've never been great at fast paced shooters like Ultrakill, but I'm not going to hold that against your game. An overall solid game that could definitely see expansion into a full experience after the jam!

I quite like how the gameplay is almost split into two separate games. On one hand, you're managing how to best benefit from each interaction, and on the other you're trying to interpret how each personality would react. The voice acting was pretty good and felt natural for the type of conversation the player and Jessica were having (which is contributed with the fairly consistent writing quality throughout). I honestly have no major complaints here, and this game deserves the high rating I've given it <3

There are enough corporate buzzwords to put a even the most stalwart of white collar workers to sleep. Truly brilliant! This kind of game can only be bore from (correct me if I'm wrong) a very tired British software developer who has been around the block of the software industry for far longer than is safe for one's sanity. An absolutely superb game for a first jam (although definitely not your first game you've worked on if my conversations with you in the Jam Discord have been accurate).

Only complaint is that my thumb got tired after a while and I had to use both hands to control the game.

I'm not familiar with MonoGame, so it's cool to see new engines/frameworks! The mechanics and overall vibe of the game are pretty fun (the wheel is as unfair as a carnival game should be </3), and the different upgrades you can purchase were all neat. One bug I noticed while playing is that you didn't normalise your WASD inputs. As such, you walk at twice the speed when walking at a diagonal, which was both a blessing and a curse. At times it helped me get away from the chickens and rat, but in others it threw me off and caused me to walk straight into them. Definitely fix that if you plan to work on this submission after the jam.

Still a solid game! Keep at it <3

I like the unique idea and challenge of the game! The difference in challenge between some shapes definitely adds to the re-playability, but adding new challenges in space would help to freshen things up. Additionally (as I've seen a lot of others in the comments saying) the tutorial is way too easy to skip for how hard this game is.

Still a solid submission with a lot of potential!