itch.io

This was really, really cool! I'm in love with the aesthetic and atmosphere here. I enjoyed exploring the environment and seeing how it changed over time. I only wish the game was a bit longer... it felt like it ended rather abruptly. I personally don't think the game needs music, actually - I think it might make it feel less immersive - but some atmospheric sounds beyond the occasional static noise (which, to be honest, I found a bit irritating) could add to the experience. I did also find interacting with the dioramas a bit clunky sometimes; I thought picking up the final diorama was a bug at first, actually, and it took me a minute to realize what I was actually supposed to do from there! Still, I enjoyed this a lot. Great work on this. I'm happy to have this be my final game rated in the jam :)

Neat concept, though I found it difficult to tell what I was supposed to be doing some of the time. I also had some blocks I couldn't interact with appear in the right column, and while the first time I was able to get them to go away by failing the level a few times, the second time I was not so lucky, and had to restart the game entirely. On the other hand, I had no issues with window size - I suppose 1080p with no scaling is the correct resolution for this game? Glad that worked, at least! There's definitely potential here; keep it up!

Neat idea! It has a simple mechanic but it resulted in some surprisingly interesting puzzles. I liked the little particles when you get the sizes right. Good work on this!

This is a really neat concept! I do wish it was a little longer, though... it ended as soon as it started getting interesting. Also, I found the gameplay in the last two levels mostly ended up boiling down to lining the laser up through trial-and-error, removing any puzzle aspects from the game. I think you have a strong idea here, but it could use some polishing and new level designs to make sure it's used to the fullest.

This was really cool! Going in I expected more of a platforming focus, but what I got instead were a bunch of really well-designed puzzles, so I'm not complaining. Felt very polished and never got too frustrating. Good work :)

This is a really cool concept, and is incredibly polished! You did a good job introducing all the mechanics, and the levels all felt well-designed. Great work on this.

This is a beautiful game! The vibes were on point, and I was always wondering what was going to be around the next corner. I have to admit though, I think the camera angles could have been picked much better. I was stuck in the opening area for several minutes because 1) the camera angles didn't appear to me to be showing the same place, and 2) I didn't expect to have to walk "behind the wall" on the right to see the third camera angle that allowed opening the door (a camera angle, might I add, with a very odd perspective that I also didn't immediately register as showing the same place). I figured it out eventually, but my confusion there very nearly prevented me from playing the game at all. Additionally, there was sometimes collision in places I didn't expect due to the darkness of the rooms. I realize the high contrast is part of the game's aesthetic, so I can't completely blame you for it, but it was a bit frustrating. I am nitpicking here, though. I love the visuals and environment in this game, and enjoyed exploring its world a lot. Nice work :)

Short but sweet! The aesthetic was cute, and I love the room names - I'm always a fan of games that do that. The water mechanic was clever. I wasn't able to get the hang of the "jump and tuck" mechanic, though... I ended up just spamming jump + the size buttons and managed to kind of bruteforce my way through the two times I had to do that. Good work on this :)

I like these kinds of Sokoban games, and this was a very polished example of one! The puzzles never got too difficult, but you don't really want them to in a jam game. This could definitely be expanded into a larger game, if you so desired. Great work :)

This is an impressive project for 96 hours! I enjoyed the variety of levels and the lush art design. I do have a few pieces of criticism though, which I hope will be helpful (though keep in mind this is only my opinion!):

- The controls felt a little clunky at times. I think the main issue is that the player moves too fast, which made segments where you have to jump between thin platforms frustrating.

- In one of the levels, I kept falling down and activating the first checkpoint, overriding the checkpoint I had reached higher up and forcing me to climb all the way back up the level to try again. I don't blame you for this one - my game does it too! - but it's an easy oversight to make, so I thought it would be good to let you know.

- I think the "repairing checkpoints" system is flawed. Because you lose bolts upon death, which will potentially prevent you from activating future checkpoints, this system punishes players who die more often, despite those players being the ones who need checkpoints the most. Luckily, because there are so many bolts in the levels, and because you don't lose many on death, this shouldn't ever become an issue for anyone, but it's something to keep in mind.

- I found the last level quite frustrating due to the relative lack of checkpoints and precise jumps.

- This one's just me being confused, but are you supposed to be able to keep "repairing" the observatory at the end forever? The animation kept playing but my bolts weren't going down and nothing else seemed to be happening, so I just left the level.

Good work on this overall, though! I had a good time playing it, and it has a larger scope than I might expect for a game jam game.

This is one of my favorite games I've played this jam for sure. It doesn't have a lot of mechanics, but explores what it has very well and has great level design. My one criticism is that the wall jumps were sometimes a little frustrating - I had a lot of trouble with the final level for that reason, since it required a long stretch of consecutive wall jumps between fairly spaced-apart walls to complete. Still, I enjoyed this a lot. Great work here. This definitely deserves more ratings than it has!

To add on to this, restarting the game then skipping to the level you were on, as awkward as it is, should fix the bug.

This is a really neat concept! I did find it a little confusing to tell objects apart sometimes - after a while I couldn't tell the different parts of my ship apart anymore - so I agree that adding some different colors would hugely aid readability (the simple geometric style by itself is fine, though, and can look quite nice!).  Sound effects would also make the gameplay a lot more satisfying, even without adding anything else. In general, pushing the juice on this would add a lot; this is already a strong base for a game, and it would help take it to the next level. A score counter would also be nice, to add a sense of progression. Good work on this overall!

Ah, that makes more sense. Thanks :)

This was a lot of fun! I liked how there were constantly new ideas being introduced, so the game never got boring. All the levels felt pretty well-designed, too. Great work on this!

The checkpoint thing was an oversight for sure. I've patched it in the upcoming post-jam update.

This was really fun! Definitely deserves more ratings than it has. It was a little awkward paying attention to both sides at once, but once I got used to it it wasn't so bad. There's a lot of charm here - I loved the title screen animations and the game show host. Great work :)

I love the aesthetic on this, but I agree that the controls/physics could use a lot more polish. I found that running up against walls often let me see through them, and collision + interacting with objects felt kind of janky at times. Also, at one point in level 2, the game said I'd softlocked myself despite... not having done so? Not sure what was going on with that. Good work overall, though. Keep it up.

There is coyote time, actually! Maybe not quite enough, I guess. Might extend it for the post-jam build.

I think this is one of my favorites I've played in the jam so far! It's nice to see another pixel art platformer - for a genre I often hear called oversaturated I sure haven't come across a lot of them this jam for some reason. This was super polished and a lot of fun. I just wish there was more of it! As soon as it felt like it was really getting going it ended. All the levels felt well-designed, and I think there's definitely room to expand this into a larger game, if you so desire. Great work on this :)

This was awesome! Super polished and had some neat puzzle designs, plus a really smart base concept. I appreciated the hints - I don't think I would've gotten off the first island without them, since I didn't even think of bringing an object into the map. Great work on this.

If you set the key to E you can jump over all the pillars (might need to do it on beat, don't remember).

Ah, which part did you get stuck on? I hope I didn't make something too convoluted!

This was a lot of fun! There weren't a lot of mechanics, but those that were there were all well-explored. I would suggest in the future to pick a more ergonomic set of default keybinds - it might just be me, but I find it quite uncomfortable to have to do everything with one hand. I much prefer if one hand does the movement while the other does the actions (the popular choices from what I've seen are either arrow keys + Z/X/C, or, slightly less commonly in my experience, WASD + J/K/L). That's mostly just my opinion, though. I enjoyed what I played of this game, though I wish there was a bit more of it; about half of it was the tutorial section! A second level would've gone a long way. Still a fun game, though! Good work on this :)

Yeah, the "jump on the beat" mechanic seems to desync sometimes. Not sure what's up with that - I'll try to fix it in the post-ratings patch. In any case, the flashes are tied to that mechanic, so worst case using them as a guide will work.

This is super cute! I love turn-based RPGs. I agree that the font was a big issue though. Trying to read it strained my eyes a little bit, and there was some text in the game I just gave up trying to decipher altogether and hoped wasn't important (including the very first NPC!). I liked the little dodging minigames - I'm always a fan of when RPGs provide some means to dodge attacks. Good work on this overall.

I love games with this kind of aesthetic, but had some difficulty playing this one. I don't know if I was just missing something obvious about the puzzles, but a lot of the levels seemed like they necessitated nailing really difficult/precise jumps that I just couldn't do. While I doubt it's needed for this game (?), I can't bunny hop to save my life, and quite honestly don't even now how you're supposed to do it, and my skill at the rest of Quake movement follows similarly. I was only able to complete "Look Up", and that required landing a jump so precise I quite nearly gave up. This was very polished, so good work on it, but I found it difficult to enjoy personally. I still feel I was missing something obvious about the puzzles, though... I had to be... so I won't dock points for it.

Edit: Somehow, this comment got posted twice. I deleted the other copy, but you may have gotten two notifications. Sorry about that!

Liked this a lot! I agree that the momentum from platforms is weirdly inconsistent (a really far launch off a tall tower was so difficult it caused me to have to stop playing), but I enjoy the main mechanic and had a lot of fun playing with it. The level design overall was good. Nice work :)

Simple, but fun! I think either angling the camera up a bit or adding some kind of camera controls would be nice, since especially when the snowball was very big I had trouble seeing what was in front of me. Solid entry, though!

Fun, though it tested my patience. I am not good with these types of rage games, haha... I think if the launch direction was somehow also controlled by the mouse the game would be a lot less frustrating. Additionally, though I know this would kind of go against the game's genre, the game would be a lot more accessible if there were some kind of checkpoints (toggleable, even, so people who wanted the extra challenge could still have it). After falling from about halfway up a couple times I decided I didn't want to restart the game anymore and quit (and by the way, every time I did choose to try again, I found restarting the game easier than trying to bounce my way back to the start - a reset button would be greatly appreciated). So good work overall, but I don't think this game was made for people like me :)

Super neat idea, but like others here I found the car physics extremely frustrating, and didn't have the patience to complete the game. The map requiring lots of tight, awkward turns and containing unforgiving cliffs to fall off of didn't help. I think if the controls were made tighter this could be a lot more fun - there's definitely a lot of potential here!

This is really neat! My one complaint is that the controls sometimes felt pretty janky (getting caught on the corners of platforms and being unable to climb up, mainly). I enjoyed the secrets hidden around the map, and how there were different paths to explore.

Liked this a lot! I just wish there were more levels... the game was over in only a few minutes, though that's to be expected from a game jam game. One criticism I have is that there was never any reason to be a larger size, so the levels never really became "puzzle-y" in any way, and the difficulty remained mostly stagnant (the last couple levels took longer due to the colored gates, but weren't really more difficult, per se - there's no fail state, so all those levels do is take more time). Good work overall, though!

Simple, but a lot of fun! The secondary mechanic introduced later on kept the game interesting, and there were a couple really interesting bits of level in there (almost puzzling at some points). Good work on this.

Really neat idea, though I wasn't patient enough to perfect everything and ended up with a D. Had a cute aesthetic and was kind of relaxing to play. I did get stuck inside an object at one point after resizing it, but was luckily able to swap its size back and continue playing. Good work overall :)

I had some trouble building anything functional (the concept of using the button was hard to wrap my mind around for some reason), but this is a neat concept! Whenever I see these games about building vehicles I'm reminded of playing Bad Piggies when I was younger, haha. Nice work on this.

Simple, but well-made! I think the controls could definitely be improved on (larger player sprite, a bit higher gravity maybe), but for 48 hours this was a lot of fun. Good work :)

Ah, that makes sense - I'm super happy with our musician's work though, so if you have time to give it a listen I'm sure he'd appreciate it!

Sorry about the keybinds - Z is a quite common jump button on keyboard for the games I play and I hadn't thought it was going to be an issue. I find it much more comfortable than any of the other options. The title screen does say to press Z, though maybe that wasn't enough?

I tried my hardest to make the movement satisfying, so glad to hear it felt alright.

The enemies were difficult to get working as-is, so we didn't go the extra mile to make them more interesting. Maybe a score counter could work.

As for the key change mechanic not being clear... yeah, we probably should've added an NPC to explain that. I guess we just hoped it would make sense to people once they hit the button, the music raised in pitch, and platforms floated up to form a bridge.

Don't go out of your way if you don't want to, but it should work on Wine. I made the game on Linux running GameMaker through it, haha.