itch.io

Being able to stop is one of the most valuable skills, don't forget it!

Cute game!  Like others have mentioned, second level is brutal.  I think a dash would have helped a lot.  The X indicator was great, without it, it would feel really unfair.  I liked you gave a clear "tell" anim for the charge.  Also, kudos on the controls and how-to at the start!

Great entry!  I didn't like the sliding and loved that I could upgrade that.  I think the game was a bit too long, I made it to 15 or 16 (also, I had to stare for a while to read "terminated"), the first 7 levels were fun but levels become so long.  The only real threat was the warping ghosts, nearly 100% of my damage was one warping into me which felt kinda lame.  I'm real torn on how the castle changes, on one had I liked that I got into the rhythm of "there's probably a fast ghost that'll charge in" but it did feel repetitive, especially 10+.

I'm also unconvinced the damage upgrade did anything, maybe it helped but was so outpaced by the shielded ghosts and then warping shielded ghosts, I would have dumped it all into reload speed instead.

Scanning the other comments, I also didn't like the ghosts piled up behind the locks.  An easy fix could have been making the lock larger (or two) so there was a little breathing room.

This is jam and I'm no stranger to overscoping so these are just ideas, again, great job!

Nice entry!  I agree with all comments made so far.  My only additions are I think the health/morph isn't quite enough as mechanic, it was too easy to cheese by trading a little, then just getting a few health/morph pickups and going to the flower.  Obviously jams leave little time for tweaking and it was still fun, just a thought.  Also, I think the vertical traversal was a really cool idea.  Other platformers let you drop and jump through the ground but having the transform made it feel like a cool ability (even if the collision was a little janky). Without having looked at the code, one possible way to solve the jank is actually locking out player control after choosing to go up or down, playing a VERY quick animation and use a raycast to see where the top/bottom is and a tween to go slightly past it.  Fun game, keep it up!

I couldn't figure out what to do after getting out of the pool, I tried jumping from the crane to the right but could only land on the edge, where it then wouldn't let me jump at all.  It said E to interact with some things but if there is anything to interact with early on, it wasn't happening for me, I walked around mashing E at everything.

The game has a real cool look, the filter is really effective.  The screenshots are intriguing, hopefully you get some post jam updates in.

Thanks for playing!  After jumping, you can go back essentially to the first area, jump over some rocks then a pit and get a laser upgrade to stun the turrets.  I had a lot of plans for the radar that didn't happen.  There's actually enough ore in the section after you up up the ramp and fall off, one is  a little hidden (in part due to the lack of art), again I had intended for the radar to be more helpful.

Someone else also called out not get the mining vein at first, which is no surprise since, aside from the rocks, didn't spend any time on the level art.  I feel like such a dummy but yeah, I absolutely should have put some pics in "how to play", I've added that to my jam checklist for next time, thanks again for the feedback!  

Not an experience I'd typically seek out but a real fun surprise!  Last jam I had an idea involving breakdancing that I couldn't pull off so pivoted and it was fun to see it here.  I'm not sure exactly what the issue was, but I had a lot of trouble selecting faces and hair, initially I thought they had to be unlocked.

I really loved the music and animations, they were super charming!  I really struggle making things look good with minimal art, I don't know why or how, but you really pull it off well!

Made it to the end with score of 92 but 26 deaths.  I am sooo thankful you put in checkpoints, it would have been rough without them!  Something is off with the blob jump, I'm not 100% certain what it is but it felt like if you tried to jump when it was near the top of the motion arc, it wouldn't actually jump.  Initially I was thinking it needed coyote time (which every platformer should have, letting you jump even if you've fallen by a frame or two) but it was still an issue when jumping over spikes, I would come right up to them, stop, then jump.

Making the spike creature collision a hair smaller would be nice, I really struggled as the bird to make it over the one where I had to descend quickly because of the ceiling spikes.  Celeste and other games frequently have hazards with smaller collision than the visuals because it feels way better and less unfair since an animation can make it feel like you didn't contanct.

Definitely wanted gamepad support, it's pretty easy to add but I still enjoyed it, keep it up!

Echoing others, looks and sounds great but sooooo hard!  I just couldn't get the controls, I have an ergonomic keyboard so space in only on the right side.  I tried remapping the keys but after a dozen times had to call it.  I also wasn't clear what the timing window was.  I would love to see this with more forgiving timing and in-game remappable controls.

You have a real solid foundation.  Even though it's in an early state, I like the sprites and animation.  It's easy to imagine playing more of this with some more feedback and polish, keep it up!

Loved the music and the concept.  Initially I had several actual bugs so was very confused.  The second playthrough I got the "expected glitches" and it was much better.  Obviously jam time makes these things tough but it's cool to see weird stuff.  I'm on an ultrawide monitor and games frequently have wrong UI so that could contribute to my confusion.

I'm glad you liked it, I appreciate you giving it a try.

Thanks for playing!  I'm hoping to update with more wall jumps post jam, hopefully this is the one I finally deliver on my desire to update.

Fun entry, the platforming was pretty good, it's a bummer you ran out of time for the actual metamorphosis but that's how these things go.  Keep at it and you'll get better each time (though you'll need to resist making bigger games!).

I liked how attacking worked, it was like I had spike shield which is cool.  Having some effect when you took damage would be helpful.  Initially I didn't realize I was getting hurt since I wasn't looking at my health.

Having the intro was awesome, but I'd definitely have a way to skip it.

You might try desaturating the background, all the colors are on the bright and saturated side so you have to think about what the platforming surface is.

These are just some ideas for next time, or if you continue working on this.  Regardless, great job!

Thanks for playing, I'm glad you liked it!  I'm hoping this is finally the jam where I actually keep working on it, at least a little, to get it closer to what I originally intended.

I really hope you work on this after the jam because what I was able to play was great but some UI issues essentially made me unable to progress.  My monitor definitely isn't well calibrated, but I the dark "eye" outline made is so the back button was invisible for me.  I'm also on a stupid ultra monitor and either something obscures the clickable area, or the button and clickable zones get out of sync when resizing.  I'd resize to see the button, the try to resize it back and click in a growing circle since I couldn't see the mouse.  While this was obviously frustrating, I also really wanted to keep playing!

The first attempt I got the key but then clicked on the boombox and couldn't get out.  The second attempt I couldn't even back out of the door after getting dinner.  The setup is great, being called Gregor and given dinner is quite the hint and the game controls were great.  I definitely prefer gamepad but these still felt good, and being such short levels with a quick respawn really helps.

What you have plays well and the main sprite looks nice.  I certainly know the pain of not getting in what you wanted.  Also, you can (and probably should) just have a single page with all the versions, definitely easier to manage.  I highly recommend using itch's command line tool `butler` to upload; if you have the os in the name, it actually auto tags them for you.

Just noting for others that if there is a mac download, you often can grab the *.pck from it, make sure it's named the same as the windows exe and it will work.

I really enjoyed this but I had to use a remapping app so I could play (mostly) with gamepad; it was practically impossible for me to play with a keyboard.  I suggest is to make the spike collision smaller.  There's on article on how Celeste (and others) actually have smaller collision than the hazard which makes it much more forgiving and feels a lot more fair; as is you can die but it sometimes it doesn't even look like it overlaps.  Also some indicator on the charge level would have been helpful, and maybe resetting it after changing?  I died several times early on because I had just dashed, then change and went to float but plummeted to my death.  There were a few other bugs, but overall really great design, even if it did end up being too challenging for me (I stopped at the level with all the platforms with just one or two spikes, maybe 10?).  Keep up the good work!

Love the music and the RPS twist, it's kinda like the Monty Hall problem as a game.

Nice work!  While it is obviously supposed to be chill game, I desperately wanted to hear Gojira's "From Mars to Sirius" due it's awesomeness and thematic appropriate-ness.  Totally love the whale art, I saw the cover and had to play it immediately.

Loved the music and tone.  Initially it was slow going till I realized I could zip on by if I was mostly morphed.  Also great that being a torch also added a light.  I managed to beat it but I think I would have liked an unfogging minimap or trial of breadcrumbs to help keep track.  Fun entry, keep it up!

Thanks for the feedback and bug reports!  I've got the ore fix queued up for post jam.  I'm assuming you were playing with keyboard and mouse?  I thought I got all the issues with the menu sorted but obviously not.  And 3D is tough.  I definitely am getting better but there's so much to the whole pipeline, I don't know how obvious the progression is from the other 3D jam games I've made.  But I just gotta keep at, like any other skill so don't be too afraid to give it a try!

Yep 15 full days and nights on normal.  I kinda just skimmed the instructions initially so the first 3ish days were mostly building fire instead of distributing them more equally so that definitely slowed me down and I think I just got unlucky a few times when I built out the other elements.  Re-reading my post, I must have been too wrapped up thinking about the design but yes, the first 10 days were definitely fun so I think your target of 8 was perfect (and it wasn't that it was un-fun after that, just definitely increasingly tedious, esp as I started to wonder if there was bug).

Having some more time to think, what I really like is how it's kind of a series of micro puzzles.  Balancing complexity is always hard but I think this was a super cool way to address it.  Generally there was clear winner for large traversal but then actually taking out enemies was only thinking a few moves ahead, instead of dozens.  Another addendum, while it would have been nice to pan around, having the minimap was great, it really gave a sense of strategy.

That was a wild ride!  Skimming the other comments, I totally agree with not adding teleport so close to the end.  As is I think 3 level would have been pretty good, the 4th level took so long I almost gave up thinking there was a bug.  I loved the final form, it was huge relief being so powerful after struggling for 15 or 16 levels.

This was stellar!  All the components work really well.  The only thing I'd change is making the tally slower/clearer, it zips by so fast that there were some effects I never figured out.  I even recorded some rolls to watch in slomo trying to figure out how the math worked but had trouble making sense of it.   But again, super impressed so I'm not really complaining, keep it up!

Ha, nice!  Those doors took longer than I anticipated to get right so I assumed I still fell short, glad I didn't (at least in this case).

Let's just say I was really inspired by Animal Well so decided to forgo any tutorial vs running out of time or not thinking about it.  But now I have some ideas, thanks for clarifying.

It's awesome that you inadvertently did a speed run, when I was doing a pass to prevent bypassing and accidentally jumping out of the level, I realized a few places were fine to cheat you would already have the right upgrade, and some places I could nudge to make it possible.

I hadn't thought of if it but you bring up some really valid points on the benefits of being mini, I'm going to try leaning into those in the future.  I really appreciate the feedback and perspective shift!

I loved this, seeing the different monsters made and battling it out was a real treat!  Gameplay-wise I felt that movement was so strong, I'm not really sure the traits had much of an impact, though maybe I just didn't get far enough.  I really hope you go farther with this post jam, clearing out some bugs and improving the usability (ex being able to cancel out earlier, but you still had it at all so it's not critical).  I really appreciated the space bar, but unfortunately it wasn't enough, when I took out a creature, its stats window remained which blocked another one of my character's action menu.  I used space to advance but then on my turn I couldn't do anything.  Again, not me complaining, just hoping you work on it some more!

Yeah, I really missed the mark on the ore, I was going for a "vein of gold" feel but since I didn't really texture the ground, I didn't have a sensible way to make the mound so just did the a crummy "decal".  I actually wanted to have blast off scene at the end but having submitted  with only 21 seconds to spare, it also got cut.

For the blue obstacles, I'm assuming it's these doors, you should be able able to hold shift to boost through them and if they close, you should be able to back up just enough till they open, make sure your boost has recharged to get through quickly.  I debated, and still might, make it a dash.  Thinking about it, I'm guess you were backing up but then when turning back around to face the right direction and would end up triggering it closed again?  For other reasons I was looking over the movement code and the robot facing direction doesn't matter so can boost in the opposite direction still at full speed.

Thanks again for playing and the feedback!

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Thanks for playing, I'm glad you enjoyed it!

Nice work!  This was super cute, loved the art, audio and the variety of games.  I like seeing the wario ware randomness but having a through-line to tie it all together is very satisfying.

I'm a sucker for "alchemy" mechanics, well done!  I don't know how you always manage to deliver such good games, maybe your super power is scoping well?  I didn't write down all the combinations I found but I enjoyed all of them except the gambler, with either the pyromancer or vampire being my favorite.  The only "issue" is sometimes the dice would overlap nearly completely but the popup made it not an issue.  I also have to admit I was a little confused by the "cantrip" dice but it quickly made sense and I understand the wording.

Awesome game!  Love the music and concept.  Would have liked to see a few more levels and some gameplay effect from morphing but I really enjoyed it!

Wow!  This was the first one I've played and it's so well done!  It took me a while to figure out how to ruin clothes but it was a lot of fun messing things up.  The only bummer was the option for hold/toggle for digging didn't work so I had to hold it, and I generally wanted to move faster.  It could have been cool if the stakes were a little higher, maybe they chase after you (but you can still just trip them)?  Hard to say it that would actually improve it, everything about this was so good!

I think the placement helped a lot, I was able to do much better.   Having played a few rounds, I realized the initial frenetic pace prevented me from having deeper feedback.  It's great that you get the indicator that the note as good or bad, but I realized that I'm not certain when the perfect time to hit the note is.  I'd guess with some experimentation I could figure it out but having some indicator would be helpful.  One idea would be an outer circle so when it overlaps (but this obviously creates more clutter).  Another might be a glow effect on the perfect time.  After writing this out, I can imagine that they shake at the right time but it's hard to see that since they scale in.

I think also having some key indicators for the items that freeze, like a "P" by the item the is unfrozen with "P";  I basically just kept mashing  IOP to keep things unfrozen.  My gut is that penalizing for that would be un-fun, but giving a boost for hitting right when it changes state could be fun so people can mash if they need to keep up but as you get more adept and time it, it stays unfrozen longer.  Basically my thinking is when game have a quick-time reload mechanic, missing it isn't really bad, but can provide a bonus to keep expert players engaged. 

Super cool that you improved things post jam, esp with the advent calendar.  Each jam I mean to, and often do some work, but then keep delaying uploading because of the "it will be so much better if I add in one more thing" trap.

In this page, the submission page, you put "source" as "N/A, but i plan to open source it." but on your game page provide the GitHub link.  I wanted you to know that you can actually edit your submission page to fill in that link.  Especially during the jam rating period, I think more people see the submission page and forget to look at the actual game page. Obviously this isn't critical info but now you know just in case.

Thanks for the feedback.  A good reminder that I need to add thumbstick sensitivity, which might help but not necessarily solve the creation issue.  As you noted, it's where the camera is aiming but I need to try it from the direction you are moving, which a friend thought of after the deadline.  I also want to put in some sparkly/highlight effect where it'll spawn from so it feels very predictable.

Yep, you made it to the end, next time I'm doing what you did, that was great.  I'm glad you liked it, I'm always trying to do weird stuff in jams, not-infrequently to the detriment of it being a game.

Thanks for playing!  There was supposed to be a lot more to the lost world but hit a point where I realized how much art it was gonna take and I didn't even have the factory arted.  Classic over-scoped solo project.