itch.io

There's definitely something to this game, but I feel there's a lot to be worked on. Here are my thoughts:

I feel like the overall gameplay loop needs some work. After the first prestige, I never really felt like anything changed. Metaprogression was really slow, I could never buy more than one upgrade, if any, which made it feel like a slog. Things got slightly faster with more pips and the other upgrades, but again, I didn't really feel like anything shifted gameplay-wise. The colors also don't really mean much to me as being distinct, the pips on each rank of color were never different between the three, as they all had equal drain on them, and were equally valuable for upgrades.

The "void" minigames don't feel like they're adding much to the gameplay. It's this whole separate set of things that feel disconnected from the main core concept, hidden away in a corner. Either involve them more in the core loop, or ditch them, because it feels like fluff that isn't really necessary.

There's mention of RTS gameplay, which I didn't get to, as the progress was too frustratingly slow, but this feels like even more of a disconnect from the central gameplay, adding a new separate thing rather than evolving and progressing what already exists.

I think there's a good game in here, but I do think some heavy rebalancing is in order. Of course, these are just my thoughts, but I really think there are improvements to be made. Best of luck with future progress.

Really cool little game, here are my thoughts:

Very grim, very creepy, I really like all that can be found and pieced together outside of the main narrative of the game by reading the forums. I did like the effect of having the room reflected in the screen, really sold the first-person narrative, and it made me tense that there would be a scare with something appearing (or there was one, I just missed it). 

This game is clearly more about the narrative than the gameplay, but I really wish there were a bit more of the puzzle elements to work through, I breezed through what was presented, and the combat wasn't really varied enough to keep it interesting, even as much fun as it was to enjoy the funny little guys running top speed towards me. Just got that the hand/arm enemies are another tie-in to the severed-arm motif, which is a neat touch. 

Speaking about the narrative, I definitely jive with the old internet/creepypasta feel, really nailed the aesthetic. The forums were fun to read through, with the stuff unrelated to the game, I'm a big fan of the "tiny guy" character and his thorough commitment to the bit. I am a bit confused as to some of the logistics of the plot (spoilers ahead!), so RedPig modified the game as a way to get revenge on the player character, reaching out to them as a way to express the trauma they felt over their friend's disappearance, and Dylan abandoning them? There's probably a few things that went over my head, I didn't quite get how Gorgon ties into any of this as a relevant symbol besides all the eyes. 

Honestly, really cool work for a week's worth of effort, definitely going to keep an eye out for future projects. Good stuff!

Really cool little puzzle, with a very interesting usage of classic wordle mechanics, plus an incredible little trick with the bonus question. Smashing entry for the Confounding Calendar.

Hey, no problem. Nice to be appreciated.

Decent game, here are some thoughts:

The grim, minimalized aesthetic really works for the tone and theme of the game, adding a level of depersonalization to what is clearly a highly violent and unethical activity. The politically worded language to describe your earnings in the debriefing is definitely a nice touch.

 The weapons are fun to use, I like how each weapon can be used for solving different problems in the level, missiles for general destruction, drones for specific weak points and the defensive cannons, the gunship for bunkers, and so on. Levels should definitely be expanded in the future, obviously the game is in its early stages, but having more to do in each level would be nice, I liked expanding the number of buildings to destroy, but hitting more targets didn't really feel like it added any challenge, they would already be hit with the destruction I am already doing. I feel like the cluster artillery is intended for that, but I never really saw a purpose in using them over the other options.

I do think upgrades can get bottlenecked a bit frequently, the money you earn and the money things cost isn't quite balanced properly, especially in the late game when you run out of upgrades for the levels and just have prohibitively expensive weapon upgrades left. 

Good stuff overall, best of luck with future development.

I liked this game a lot. Here are my thoughts:

I'd definitely define this in the category of "rage game," with deliberately irritating and pointless mechanics. The incessant, useless notifications, constant requests and nagging from your boss, simple tasks that would be easy to complete without the stress, all serving as a blunt yet effective parody of our modern world. I liked the characters, even if they were simple, they did make me smile with their little pieces of dialogue. I also like how making certain tasks repetitive encourages you to explore and break free of your job, which leads to the end of the game. I do think the end of the game does have some brief grim implications, which were effective if intentional, but still a little jarring. 

Good work, and congrats on the marriage. I've followed your work for a bit, and I'm excited to see more from you, if making more games is what appeals to you.

Got there eventually. Here are my thoughts:

It's a very interesting take on the Sokoban genre, I liked the multiple realizations you have as you begin to discover the mechanics at play. The difficulty is a notable factor, I think this can come in part from the lack of indication of progress, which is in part helped by the checkpoints, but the comments made me worried that a checkpoint would put me in an impossible position, even though I eventually finished. There was a bit of jittering when opening rooms inside themselves, but nothing that really affected gameplay. I did like the development of multiple sub-objectives on the way to the main objective; to reach the treasure you need to unlock this door, which has a door that is unlocked by this key, which needs to be rescued from this room, and so on, which is a nesting of challenges thematically liked to the mechanics of this game, which is interesting. The graphics are neat and functional, simple always works for a jam title, and the keys had a nice bit of personality to their design, especially when you could have gotten away with making them delineated by color.

Overall, a really solid entry for a game jam, I'll look forward to future work from this team.

And thanks for adding the blocks that make it harder to get on the wrong track.

Still working through it, but this is a really neat game, even if it is tricky to figure out how much progress you're actually making. I'll leave a more detailed review if when I finish.

Creative, funny, cool. Took me about 3 tries for the full clear, here are my thoughts:
The humor is spot on, I love the names for all the cash penalties. I do think you could be a bit harsher, make it so movement costs something at the start and the title will make sense without exception. The upgrade system is fun, but I do think it would be better if the cash penalties were minimized instead of removed altogether, as to again fit the name. I do like how wall jumps and double jumping is impossible in the in-between realms, it's the only "service" the mysterious penalty-giver actually provides. The pull-in and push-away spheres were pretty difficult to ever use effectively, and as obstacles I think they required a bit more finagling than actual skill to work around. Overall, a really neat experience, I'll look forward to future work.

Seems like fun, I like the grim yet silly atmosphere, and the custom ship building is definitely a neat idea. I wish there were more reasons to armor the left side and the back, all attacks seem to come from the right and front. The mother didn't seem to have a functional attack, and there was nothing to do once she was defeated, which was a shame, as I'd love a little more progression.

Very interesting game. Here are my thoughts:

I really like the constant weighing of decisions in the design. Every choice is based on opportunity cost: is it more damage with that extra modifier, or an extra bullet, and is it worth lowering my multiplier by drawing? The hard limit on the number of actions you have per turn is interesting too, you need to get as much value out of each item as you can. The items are cool, I like hot iron item for being cool thematically. Thinning your deck is usually the way to go in these types of games, I think I'd like some reason to keep the pebbles in my deck outside of niche use cases like farming for crits. There's the clear Balatro inspiration, but I like there's a little more being done with the concept. The bounty system is really interesting, picking and choosing when you want to fight what, managing a constant pool of health against certain upgrades.

I wish there was a little more enemy variety, or that they meshed in more interesting ways. The coward enemy getting his box back when killed is a little jarring as he doesn't have one prior to defeat. I also think the final boss could be a bit more intimidating, the cigar use is cool but I don't know if he really jumps at me as much as he could.

Overall, it's a good iteration on some old and new ideas, and I'm a fan of the final output, but I just wish for a bit more variety, which isn't all too bad, I don't want to force scope creep. Great stuff for a little project like this, I look forward to future work.

muchas gracias

get wirtual on this NOW

absolutely love these short word puzzles. make more for me you funny frog man.

I suppose that makes sense, I didn't really have the knowledge you do, but I still think that I clicked on words that led me to no new documents, but still decreased the number, so perhaps I'm misunderstanding something. Still looking forward to new puzzles!

Wait, saw you agreed about the ending being a bit anticlimactic. Nevermind!

Lovely little experience, here are my thoughts:

I managed to get through with no brute-forcing or wild guessing, which was very satisfying. Poring through documents reveals a very interesting narrative, which is reflected in the family tree. I was a bit annoyed by how difficult it was to discover the last few documents, figuring out the feature of unclicked words was helpful, and highlighting the specific ones would be too much, but I think that unclicked words should account for ones searched on other documents. 

The alternate language was a really cool concept, you can learn a lot about their culture through the word construction, and it's a helpful layer on top of the documents that creates additional depth to the puzzles. I did think the end was a bit abrupt, I felt the central question was who the rightful heir was, and I didn't get a chance to work it out. You already know about the locking in by three things, I definitely agree there needs to be something there that indicates which have been affirmed. 

I was looking forward to a new puzzle from you, I'll be eagerly anticipating future work.

Thanks for the thanks!

Absolutely fabulous little game. About half an hour for full completion, exploring and mossing every tile scratches an itch in my brain I didn't know was there. I know Pico is hard to work with, you did a great job with the limitations of the software, and working with the mechanics you established. My one complaint is the difficulty of figuring out how many rabbits are left, it's an intentional choice to not reveal the exact number, which I do appreciate, and I like the climactic final usage, but it takes a long while to realize your mistake if you have fallen short. Phenomenal work, I'll be looking forward to new entries.

Love variety puzzles like this. Fun stuff.

Very artsy, very creative. I'm a big fan of rules discovery puzzles, games which you can beat way faster on the second playthrough. The QR codes is a novelty that provides interest, but I don't know if the obtuse nature is worth the benefit. I do like the hell section that forces you to learn the rule about the gates, and the finale is a fun climax to the story. An excellent jam submission.

I thought it was alright. It's clearly a bit of an experimental release, so I shouldn't have my expectations too high, but I honestly kinda felt like this was a slog to get through. The final boss fight also felt a bit out of place, I feel those should build on skills you develop throughout the game, but there wasn't much to do besides wait for an opening, which was again tedium. I also feel the Undertale reference devalues the originality and identity of the product. The game's cute and all, maybe I'm not the target audience, or I'm being too harsh. I do like the uniqueness of the game, I was dreading that this would be another incremental/idle title, but this team is always great on that front. Best of luck with future work.

another torcado game!?!?!? don't mind if i do

Not exactly a game per-se, but I do resonate with the emotions here. I am absolutely nauseated by the repetitive game design I keep seeing around video games, with all their "incremental" tags and endless rehashing of successful formulas that boil down to uninspired mimicry. I do feel the dialogue may have dipped into the pretentious side at times, but it was genuine, and I agreed with a lot of the ideas there. I figured out it was meant to be two people by the way the conversation was formatted, and then made the distinction that the characters were delineated by font and color, a choice reflected in the background. Communication is a tricky thing, and at the end of the day, it is truly about the communicator, not the one communicated to. It's simple, but I can see the truth in the work. I truly appreciated it. 

I really like this game. As a fan of word puzzles and variety puzzles,  I really enjoyed this. My favorite puzzles were the ones with more unique concepts, like the dog name one and the Creatine Crunch cereal (which took me forever). The story is a nice pacing break after a few puzzles, and unlocking the hint section is a nice touch for those stuck towards the end. I do have one gripe with the America puzzle, I feel like the final answer can be many words beyond the intended solution, which doesn't seem to connect directly to the puzzle, but perhaps I missed something. I think the hardest puzzles were the America one and the Creatine Crunch one, I used a hint early on the fruit wrap one and got it immediately, kinda wish I wasn't intimidated by the comments. This is a minor thing, but I feel it would be better if the discounts weren't all 25%, while it doesn't really matter in the grand scheme of things it would just be a touch more realism to connect with. Great work overall, I'll be looking forward to more work in the future.

I don't think it's the red herrings, I just think there's not enough pointing to the badger. I didn't really think it was the guy who was dragging away the wife (he looked to obviously evil), but he was my first guess. I went to the other woman and then the husband before picking the badger. The two scenes I didn't understand were the ones where it indicated looking at the wall and the one that said "proves the innocence of one character;" why is the husband exonerated and not the badger?

Fan of the mood and the puzzle elements, most of my thoughts have been echoed in other long-winded reviews, so I'll spare that. I don't really know how the badger was supposed to be seen as the culprit, I think I noticed just about everything but there's nothing that really indicates he did anything, or his motives for doing so.

Only three puzzles in, still stuck on the frozen pizza one, but I love this game so far. I'll give a more detailed review once I finish the full game.

Fun little game, I liked the customization you get out of the skill tree, but I wish I had a bit more sway over the build, as skill points are rather uncommon and the monetary upgrades are much more linear.

The Tic-Tac-Them Toes mission seems broken, I have several instances of dice lining up with the same value and the effect not triggering, I can't quite figure out what I'm doing wrong. I'm not using spice pieces if that affects anything, but otherwise I don't really have a clue. Does anyone have any idea what's happening?

utterly phenomenal. i will be attempting to replicate this game in real life by any means possible. please do not try to contact me.

Thanks for the thanks, and appreciating my appreciation.

Don't worry, even if you are American it's not easy

Very fun little game, here are my thoughts:

I love the messages on censorship in media. It's definitely overt, but there's still some slightly more subtle ideas that aren't bashing you over the head, like the Gerome painting being included, and the ideas that public works with nudity would be considered very adult. The minimal artstyle brings to mind the notions of "old internet," which fits into the notion of censorship being an outdated concept. A lot of censorship in media is involved with forms of art that are more crude than the paintings here, so seeing these paintings censored in a similar manner is a helpful juxtaposition. 

The quiz is the only "gameplay" that this offers, which isn't necessarily a bad thing for a creative work of this nature, but it was a bit annoying having to do the game from the start when I got a question wrong, which of course makes sense in terms of it being a highly flawed form of age verification. I really liked the bathroom bit, a personal grudge for me is the restriction of basic human needs and liberties such as relieving oneself, there should be no amount of anything restricting basic bodily functions. 

I definitely think this work is a necessary piece in the modern day, censorship is an idea that I have recently been thinking about, and it's nice to see I'm not the only one considering the issue. I look forward to future work.

Pretty cool, here are my thoughts:

The graphics were pretty cool, simplicity always helps for game jam projects, but doesn't easily translate to quality, which is what happened here. The lore isn't really all that present in the dialogue, some more worldbuilding would have been interesting. Around the second-to-last player, the dialogue started ending as soon as the text finished appearing in the box, making it impossible to read. 

The gameplay was pretty fun, I liked that the enemies choices for stickers would affect your future rewards, and them choosing second added tension over victory. Multiplication stickers are of course the best, I didn't like the x2 against one type -3 against another because they were so situational. Not being able to pick the order stickers trigger was a bit tricky, it was a bit unsatisfying that they weren't used optimally. I also didn't know how to feel about the stickers covering up the card, it got hard to tell what the value and suit was. It was never really impossible per se, and I think that that effect is intentional, but I think the mechanic would benefit by making it either more or less prevalent, either ensuring the card is always readable or that more stickers will guarantee a card's base value becomes incomprehensible.

Overall, an excellent game jam entry. Seeing the other comments, I wish my Spanish was good enough that I could write this review in it, but that's unrelated. Looking forward to future work.

I know that's not what people are playing this for, but here's some comments on the gameplay (solution spoilers):

Playing this in isolation to the other games in the jam was interesting, I really had to go by vibes alone for the solutions, which led to some annoying moments, like with the bridges, stumps, pots, and trees in the town, as it was clear one of the two was off, but there was no real way to tell what the right answer was. I did end up playing one of the other games for some of the others, which led to me finding some answers I really couldn't have otherwise, namely the chair in the piano room, pots in the one building, and the mirror in the starting room. Those were the only ones I really cheated for,  I found the others naturally. 

I do feel the wording was a bit ambiguous, going in blind I was confused as to what exactly I was supposed to be looking for. I figured it out eventually (obviously) but just saying "props" doesn't communicate that. "Maps" was also faulty wording, again I did figure out what you meant but there was some ambiguity when it was first used.

The casual dialogue works for the style, I feel that my dislike of it probably comes down to matters of taste. I'm not sure about the plot, the flippant angel was fine but the "death" part was sort of a clash in tone in terms of the stakes, although that might just be a pastiche of isekai tropes that didn't fully land with me. I think a better "punishment" would just be having to stay a woman forever, which would both be funny and make more sense for the game, as I feel a better ending would be making that choice for yourself instead of it being made for you (being fully cisgendered I really am not the proper authority on this). The hint system was funny, I went through it after using it once just to see what the dialogue options were, I like having to degrade yourself in order to get a hint, and was pleasantly surprised to see that it wasn't just the same choices over and over.

Overall, honestly a pretty neat puzzle game, I feel a little work to lower the barrier for entry would go a long way, but making it in the RPG maker system is really just a limitation of the game jam format. I did play with the sound off, so I can't comment at all on that, but it's clear the effort that went into this game in the other areas. I can understand giving up on the forest as a boring environment, but I think some kind of more dramatic removal (like burning it down) would show more that you weren't avoiding it for reasons of laziness. I can't really comment on the transgender parts, but I suppose I appreciate this game confirming my sexuality for me given my utter disinterest for those elements. I look forward to more work in the future.

Very interesting demo, here's some thoughts that didn't go into the feedback survey: 

I need some kind of way to tell what classes do what, and the stats of those characters, so I can better counter them. I also would like a little more detail on the progress of my rooms; I never really knew why any room was gaining money or souls over the other, or what made a floor successful.

 Will definitely be checking back to see how this game progresses.

Fun, cute, short, sweet. Love the art and small puzzles, if the only thing about a game you can say is that you want more of it, that's a game that's doing something right.

This game is certainly above others I've seen from itch, here are my thoughts:

Player onboarding was rather quick, as someone familiar with the rules of Yacht and Balatro I picked it up rather fast. It took me a few rounds to work out what the difference between white and red dice were, and how many turns I had to meet the score limit, but I picked it up rather quickly.

The theming and art are top notch, the style is inspired and definitely is worth the effort put into it. A note on the animations, I'd appreciate some more transitional animations, each one is so fluid that it becomes jarring when it snaps to the next one (such as the idle pose to reactions on winning), if this was changed  it would definitely push it into perfection. A specific nitpick, the policeman boss's right bicep vanishes during the flexing animation. I did really like the background for the devil shifting and reflecting the theme of the boss, it's a really fun choice.

The gameplay isn't the most original, being two familiar games taken together, which definitely works for making a functional "new" idea, but I wish it gave me something I haven't seen before. The relic per row idea is a bit of a novelty, but I rarely got any more than 5 relics, so there wasn't much there. I do feel the wolf boss is a bit unfair, it's rather punishing and there are no easy workarounds. Some relics don't seem to work like they should, the ladder relics don't activate unless they're in a specific scoring place, and the Uno card one doesn't seem to do anything at all. Working out the balancing for the item system and adding more variety would be my priority.

I really love the legs this project has. It's not perfect, but has a lot of room for growth. Fleshing out the story just a teeny bit more would go a lot further with all the style present, but I really would recommend rounding out the mechanics more. I'll definitely be following this one as development progresses.