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Really enjoyed this. The sound is well done, and more than anything it's something I hadn't played before — that counts for a lot.

Looked simple at first, but it's harder than it seems — the difficulty sits in that spot where I kept focused without getting frustrated. Good use of the theme, and the characters are adorable. Good game.

One thing: when the cars come through, I couldn't work out how to protect my ducklings, and watching them go was a bit heartbreaking.

The paper look — weapons, characters, the whole map — is really well done, and it felt fresh. Working through it with the sniper was fun too.

A few small things, and if any of them are on purpose, ignore me:

- Looking up at the ceiling, the trees warp quite a bit.

- Two things took some of the tension out for me. Characters hang in the air a long time after a jump, so it's very easy to see where to aim. And quick-scoping (right-click zoom, then left-click right away) makes it a lot easier — though that might just be because it's against CPU opponents.

Gave it a quick solo go. One thing I kept noticing, so I'll just say it: the HUD felt busy to me.

The board is what I'm clicking on every move, but it sits small in a big dark middle, and I was squinting at room names and little arrows. The rotate and "Place here" buttons on the tile are the smallest things on the whole screen, and you can't skip them. If I had one wish it'd be zoom the board up and make those controls as big as your other buttons.

Smaller things: I couldn't tell which stat icon was which without names, and I didn't notice turn 2 had started until the move count reset. One line up top — "Turn 2 · your turn · 5 moves" — would cover both.

End turn being the big bright button is exactly right though, and the lobby and cards are clean. Take it for what it's worth from a short run.

Finished a run — got Ending 2 of 5, and the last line of it made me laugh.

The setup works: cursed five-dollar cartridge, a wizard's OS that bills you for every click, a duck with his own ideas about freedom. Good joke, told with a straight face.

Where I got lost: Debt. I never understood what it was while playing — why my own purse counts against me, whether it changes the ending, why it jumped by over a hundred during the second story scene. And I didn't realise the two characters you meet were choices until the ending screen told me so. One line at those moments that this one matters would go a long way.

A few thoughts with the jam in mind, for what they're worth:

- Art and sound are both great. I wouldn't touch them.

- Giving the same monster different attack patterns was a good call — it kept the fights from blurring together.

- Two worries, and I don't claim to know the answer. First, in a jam a lot of people decide in the first minute whether to keep going, and the opening — good as it is — could hit harder. Second, the game felt dense to me, and I think it's because it shows a lot at once. Cutting back to the core might actually help it stand out, though I know there's not much time left before the deadline.

After the jam: honestly, I'd be a little sad if this stayed 1-bit. It deserves a proper high-quality pixel-art pass. I'll be back for another ending.

You're the third person to say this, so it's real. The flash does push them back, but only inside the beam and it gets weaker as the torch cracks — which is exactly when you need it most. So in practice it reads as "the room lit up for a second". Making it a proper breathing-room button is at the top of the post-jam list. Thanks for putting it so clearly.

Thanks for explaining — the brazier trail is a different way around it than mine, and it's got me thinking about the problem again.

And thanks for the invite, I'll drop by. A place where people actually play each other's games and trade notes is what I've been missing — most of what I learned this week came from a few comments like yours.

Giving it a proper go now — it's got more going on than I expected, so my actual play impressions will come in a second comment once I've seen an ending. In the meantime, I ran it through the same bot playtester I used on my own game (Chrome at 1280×720, Normal difficulty, stopped at the start of floor 4 after 10 minutes, HP 26/26, 126 coins). Here's what it hit, in order:

Bugs

- Chest sprite doesn't open. Opening a chest on floor 2 gave the +20 coins, but the picture stayed closed.

- Floor 2 board: the top-right corner tile isn't drawn — there's a gap in the grid.

- Floor count disagrees with itself. The wizard's line says Duckus hides on floor eight; the floor screen says "Climb 10 floors".

- Field Guide says one chest every 3 floors, but there were chests on floor 2 and floor 3 back to back.

- Elixir: the prompt says "Press E or click the elixir", but stepping onto the tile drank it (+3 HP) without a press.

- During the "Installing one small curse…" lines, E didn't finish the text even though the hint says "E / click: finish text". Later dialogue did respond to E.

Unexplained numbers

- Debt: it went −26 → −27 → −28 just from paging through the Field Guide, then showed −170 on the contract screen. Nothing says what moves it. It's also partly covered by itch's Follow / Add To Collection overlay buttons, so on the itch page you can't always read it.

- Max HP went 32 → 30 → 28 → 26 over floors 1–3 with no choice or message shown.

Controls / first minutes

- Floor 1: pressing D before spinning the wheel does nothing and shows nothing. You have to press E or Space first — a one-line hint there would save the first 30 seconds.

- First W got "No charge — follow the glow". That floors 1–5 are on rails (only the highlighted tile is allowed) only became clear after the second rejection.

- From "Run game" to the first move is about 4 minutes: intro → loading bar → "Click to continue" → animated story → menu → Begin → another story → contract. Esc only pauses. I got the same note on my own game, so I know how it feels — a skip on the very first screen would do a lot.

Layout

- The iframe is 1300×740, so in a 1280-wide window the right edge is cut off and a horizontal scrollbar appears.

- Title menu: the top half of the screen is empty.

Fights: hold-and-release on Scissors read fine (0.8 s = "Good!"). The timing ring on Paper the bot couldn't judge, so no note there.

More once I've actually finished it.

Thanks for sticking with it. The last-lamp hunt on floor 3 is something two people have mentioned now, so a hint when one lamp is left is going on the list. The ghost count I'll look at with that — if you can't find the lamp, more of them is just more frustration.

Thank you — the title screen teaching the aim was a late idea, glad it landed. You're right about the search for the last lamp; that's where the loop sags, and it's the first thing I'll fix after the jam. Appreciate the honest read.

Thanks! Glad the intro worked for you.

That helps a lot, thank you. Floor 3, eyes crossing the lit area while you stood in it — I'll try to reproduce exactly that. And a hint when the flash gets weaker is a good call; it's going in with the cooldown indicator I already had planned.

Thank you so much for coming over from the jam and playing! I'm still pretty new to making games, so hearing that it was thrilling — and that you felt bad for the little mouse — means a lot. (The mouse forgives you.)

Hope we keep running into each other at jams and keep making good games, each in our own way.

Looks like we were making cousins of the same game during this jam. Compared to mine, yours is definitely the kinder one to a new player. The torch crackle and the footsteps are nicely done too.

One thing I learned building my maze game: never let a deadlock happen — a monster parked on a corridor the player has to pass through, with no way around. Did that come up when you were designing the map and the monster behaviour? Curious how you handled it.

I'd really like to play this, but I got stuck before the game started, so two questions:

- On the camera calibration screen (attached), is there a way back to the main menu? Even after restarting the game it comes straight back to this screen.

- Is there any way to play without a webcam? I don't have one on this machine, so it says "Requested device not found".

Thank you! Don't be — Handlight has three whole worlds in it, that's not tiny. Really glad you enjoyed it.

Thank you, this is exactly the kind of note I was hoping for — and floor 3 is where I wanted people to end up.

Through walls: intended. They're shadows, so walls don't stop them, which is also why they can get behind you. I should say that on the page.

Lit places: they can't come inside the coloured area, but they do drift across its edge while they're floating around, and from the player's side that can look like they walked in. If you saw one sitting well inside the colour, that's something I'd want to reproduce — do you remember which floor?

Flash: when it didn't push them, do you remember where they were relative to you, and whether your torch was already cracked? The flash shrinks with the cracks right now, and I'm not sure that's the right call.

Minimap filling only where you've walked is intended, but you're not the first to say it, so I'll look at it. And "taking ground back" is exactly what lighting a lamp is supposed to feel like, so if it didn't, that's the note I'll build from. Thanks again.

The design on this is excellent — the cover, the in-game art, all of it is adorable, and the backgrounds are soothing to just sit in. I really hope you keep working on it after the jam. I'd come back.

Thank you! Floor 3 is exactly where I wanted people to get to — that's where it stops being a tutorial and starts being a game. Glad the sound did its job. Your cat games made my night too.

The tension is there from the first second — the horror mood really works, and the torch fits the theme well. A few things I ran into:

- When a ghost found me, I couldn't tell how I was supposed to get away from it.

- The item you find at the start — I never figured out what it does.

- The splash sound when you fall in the water felt out of place against the mood you've built everywhere else.

- In fullscreen it stuttered quite a bit for me.

Small things against a game I thought was excellent overall.

I liked how the two maps, opposite in mood, each got used for what they do best. Had a good time, thanks!

This took me back. Pixel-art adventures like this are always a pleasure to play. One thing though: the in-game text seems to have gone through the same pixel treatment as the art, and it came out blurry enough that I had trouble reading it.

This is about as on-theme as it gets, and I think that deserves credit — the jam set a clear theme, and games that really take it on should score for it. I liked the presentation and the way it plays. One thing that got in the way: the flame has a lot of inertia, so it kept swinging past where I wanted it, and that felt a bit sluggish to control.

Haha, it shows — in a good way. If you get a few minutes, I'd love your take on mine too: /jam/ai-jam-5/rate/5208940 — a rat with a torch instead of a cat, but same love for small creatures.

The look of this is stunning — the vase turning while Prometheus stays put is a lovely idea, and the black-figure art sells it completely.

One thing that stopped me cold on the first vessel: there are two fires with the same icon and the same "SPACE" label, and only one of them does anything. I went to the wrong one first, held Space, nothing happened, and assumed the game was broken. I'm guessing the other fire is where you deliver the flame — if so, hiding that prompt until you're actually carrying fire would have saved me a few confused minutes.

Smaller one: Show/Hide on the side panel works, but I'd have liked Hide to go further — the vase is the star, and it could take up a lot more of the screen when the panel is away.

Such a quiet, peaceful game — the mood is lovely. I did wish the fishing had a bit more of a hook (sorry) — a rare catch or a little surprise now and then would keep me casting.

Never played anything like this before. The sound and the presentation are on the quiet side, but it's oddly addictive.

You have a real knack for games that are simple and just click. (Also, cats are love.)

The launch feels great — the speed and the flips are a rush. But I never figured out how to land. Every run ended in "vertical impact too hard", and I couldn't find anything on the page or in the game explaining the thrusters or what counts as a valid landing. If landing is the real challenge, a short how-to would make a big difference.

Sparkly little game! A familiar genre, and that's part of why it was easy to enjoy. One personal note: the sound on a match felt a bit flat to me — a little more pop there would go a long way. If you have a few minutes, I'd love a rating on mine too: /jam/ai-jam-5/rate/5208940

Played the itch build again. The line reads fine now. The sound is there, but only just — a faint wind, and nothing that builds or tightens as the flame goes. If you want it to carry some of the tension, that's the place I'd look. Moved my rating up a notch for the fixes.

Oh, that's an idea I never would have thought of!

Thanks for taking the time to play! There is a story in there, though it's mostly in the opening: something put the lights out across the whole world, and a rat stumbles on a torch that turns out to be special, so it climbs toward the surface. I probably should make that come through more during play.

The time-attack idea is a good one — the torch burning down would fit the game well. I'll put it in a post-jam update. Thanks again for giving it a go.

Glad to hear it! One honest question, since I'm still filling in my rating: is there a part of the game that connects to the TORCH theme? I might have missed it while playing, and I'd like to give the Theme score fairly.

Haven't played anything quite like this before, and I liked it. One thing: the resolution felt quite low, so it was sometimes hard to make out what was on screen.

Fresh concept, and the art and the characters fit together beautifully. I hope you keep working on this one after the jam — I'd come back for it.

Lovely colors, and the sound has a calm, grounded feel to it. Had fun, thanks!

The design, the sound and the presentation are all excellent. Learned a lot from this one.

Easy to get into, no instructions needed. And something about the look and the sounds made it weirdly addictive — I kept going longer than I planned!

Glad to hear it! The artwork really shows the effort. If you have a few minutes, I'd love to hear what you think of mine too: https://ssang2.itch.io/touch-the-sky — a rat with a torch in a dark maze.