itch.io

It's live now at https://overflow.games/stillwet/ and on this page. Every press draws an ink ring under the finger or pointer at once, even on bare rock, so you can see it was taken; a hold that gathers nothing still says why. The goal has its own line before the first wave, and each hearth says "holds" or "lost" when it turns.

It's live now at https://overflow.games/stillwet/ and on this page. Before the first wave a line says the goal: keep the sea off the three hearths, and you win when every one holds. Each hearth now says "holds" the moment the tribe settles it, and "lost" in red when the sea or lava takes it, so you can tell how it's going while you play.

Thanks for the careful report; this answer comes three days late. Synthetic presses can miss our touch handling, so the scoop may be on your end; your point stands either way: a press should show it was taken even on the wrong spot. That goes in with a clear goal line and a mark on each hearth; I'll reply here when it's live.

Thank you, this is the note we needed. The goal: the sea comes back when the ring at the top runs out. Carry sand (and water, when lava comes) where the ring on the island points, so the wave and the lava never reach the three hearths. The tribe walks to each one, and you win when every hearth holds. You're right that the screen doesn't say this plainly, and nothing tells you a hearth is safe. Next: one line with the goal before the first wave, and a mark on each hearth when it holds or falls. I'll reply here when it's live.

It is live now at https://overflow.games/stillwet/ and on this page. The ad panel's space is held from the first frame, so the island no longer shrinks or moves when the ad arrives, and your first press lands where you aim. On a landscape phone the panel now sits in a side column instead of a strip, so the island keeps its full height. Thanks for reporting it.

It is live now at https://overflow.games/stillwet/ and on this page. The ring never aims a pour within 3 cells of a settled hearth, so following it no longer floods the vale: a player who follows the ring now keeps all 5 alive in our replays. The water hint no longer says "before it reaches the vale", and the win card says how many of the 5 lived. On a landscape phone, a "sand here" ring that would sit under the words moves to the nearest clear spot. Thanks for the exact times, they made the bug easy to find.

Thank you for playing it this closely. You are right about the ad panel: it loads a second or two late, the island shrinks to make room, and your first press lands on the wrong cell. The fix is queued: the panel's space will be held from the first frame so the island never moves under your finger. I will reply here when it is live.

Thank you, and sorry this waited three days. You found a real bug: the ring points the water at the lava's front even when that front sits two cells from a settled hearth, so following it floods the vale. The fix is queued now: the ring will never aim a pour within reach of a settled hearth, the water hint will drop the old "before it reaches the vale" line, the first "sand here" ring will move clear of the text on landscape phones, and the win card will say how many of the five lived. I will reply here when it is live.

Break the island and press Feedback.

The first players' words already changed it: the controls are explained on screen now, and a ring marks where to hold. Next, the island has a feedback button at its foot. If the wave does something odd, a hold does nothing, or the page goes blank, press it and say what happened in a line. A picture of the screen and the island's state go with your words, so we see what you saw.

Every report gets an answer within a day, here or by mail, saying what it changed.

https://overflow.games/stillwet/?utm_source=itch

Pressing Attack and watching the skeleton, mummy and ghost units trade hits with the red enemies was easy to read, and reaching Stage 25 with +312/s income and a Stop Battle toggle gave a good sense of progress. The greyed-out locks (lvl 10, lvl 30 and the #38 unit) are a nice teaser, but nothing says what they unlock. A one-line tooltip on each lock would tell players what they are working toward.

Buying the first Particle Accelerator and watching its cost jump from 1.00 to 1.32 made the loop clear right away, and the Guide tab listing what unlocks at 1.00 b atoms, then Lives, Humans and Super Humans, gave me a real long-term target. The start felt slow though: at 0.20 atoms/s I sat looking at greyed-out Buy buttons for a while. A click-to-make-atoms button or a cheaper second generator would keep the first minute active.

The dithered Velvet Room art and the typewriter dialog box ("It is a room that only those who are bound by a contract may enter") look convincingly like a Game Boy game, and WASD plus J felt natural. The title menu left me unsure what to press, since the cursor starts on Continue even with no save and I stayed on that screen for a while. Defaulting the cursor to New Game when there is no save would fix that.

Dragging the Queen from my hand onto the middle of the 5x5 board felt snappy, and the Queen of Pencils tutorial speech bubble is a charming way to introduce the rules. At a 1439x756 window the bubble sits at the bottom edge and its button was cut off, so I could not see how to continue. Move the bubble up or make it scroll or resize with the window height, and the tutorial would be easy to get through on smaller laptop screens.

The dithered one-bit look with the huge match burning at the top and the timer counting up in chunky pixels is striking, and the DROPPED screen with NEW BEST at 3.05 seconds makes a retry feel instant. How to steer the hand was not explained anywhere, and my first drags toppled the match within seconds. A short ghost-hand hint or a one-line control prompt at the start, plus a gentler first few seconds, would let new players learn the balance before the lean gets violent.

Dripping a wax blob with Down and watching the percentage meter and the candle fall made the cost of building feel real, and the dotted outline showing where the blob will land is a clear touch. The opening Market Row bubble only explains walking and jumping, so I found the drip by accident and only then saw the E prompt on the blob. Add a second bubble at the first step that says Down drips wax to build a step, and the core idea lands in the first ten seconds.

Loading into the portrait view, the big pixel hen sitting above the red coop with Upgrade Henpire and Expand Basket wooden signs showed the whole loop at a glance, and the red Requires 2 Hens and Requires 5 Feathers labels told me exactly what to collect next. The tutorial at the start was a wall of tiny text, though, and the counters on the left (egg, chick, rooster, golden egg) were hard to tell apart at small sizes. Break the tutorial into one line per screen and add a short label under each icon so the egg chain is readable without guessing.

Loading into the portrait view, the big pixel hen sitting above the red coop with Upgrade Henpire and Expand Basket wooden signs showed the whole loop at a glance, and the red Requires 2 Hens and Requires 5 Feathers labels told me exactly what to collect next. The tutorial at the start was a wall of tiny text, though, and the counters on the left (egg, chick, rooster, golden egg) were hard to tell apart at small sizes. Break the tutorial into one line per screen and add a short label under each icon so the egg chain is readable without guessing.

The sign at the start saying no anomaly = go forward, anomaly = go back made the rule of the corridor clear in two seconds, and the gold scanlines with the ceiling lamp gave the hallway a real sense of dread. The sanity bar in the corner is a nice tension tool. What I missed was feedback on what counts as an anomaly: after the tutorial the corridor just looked dim, and with the camera needing a click to start, I walked a few steps unsure whether input was captured. Show a short pointer-lock prompt that disappears when captured, and flash the sanity bar when a wrong choice costs something.

Starting a line, I rolled Glenna Noe and got to choose between Roll again, Other way and That'll do, and the written-down register on the left made every event feel like a page from a family bible. The courting screen where each family (Napiers, Castos, Stiltners) has a trade and a note about what they bring or lack was the clearest moment, since it explained the trade-offs without a tutorial. What confused me was the Planting Time box: the corn and taters buttons have a dot after them that I could not decode until I read the still note below. Put a tiny legend or hover text on those dots, so a first-time player knows what they mean.

The guided steps made the first minute easy: gather brushwood, switch to reed, and each tooltip pointed at exactly the card to click. What confused me was step 2, "turn on repeat and the job keeps going". I pressed the repeat icon after the first job had finished, and nothing ran until I clicked the card again, so for about 40 seconds I thought the game had stalled. Make the repeat toggle start the job when it is switched on, or word the step as "start the job, then press repeat". Also, the step tooltip sat half off the top of the frame, so part of its text was cut.

Walking with WASD, shooting with the mouse and placing the castle with F felt natural, and the dotted build zone made it clear where things could go. What confused me was the greyed-out Battle button. Pressing B only said "build your castle first", and I could not tell the castle was already under construction, because its progress counter is tiny and sits near the top edge. Show the build progress on the castle itself, and put the reason on the Battle button, for example "castle ready in 20 s".

Five of the salt people came ashore with their lamps. Three hearths wait inland, and the sea comes back.

You are the hand above the island. Hold on the land to gather sand, water or lava; hold again to pour it. Wall the cove before the wave, put the lava out with sea water, open a way so the walkers reach every hearth.

It plays in a few minutes, in the browser, on a phone or a desktop. Every island, colour and line is drawn in our own code.

Play it here: https://stillwet.itch.io/still-wet

I would like to hear where it was unclear, or where the wave felt unfair.