GMC Jam Voting GMC Jam 38 - Voting Topic

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GameDevDan

Former Jam Host
Moderator
GMC Elder




Get the Games:

DOWNLOAD ALL 45 GAMES (450 MB)*
this zip folder contains a handy jam game player made by @Alice to help you play & rank the games!


Voting Deadline
September 17th, 12:00 UTC


  • As soon as the Jam ends on August 31st at 12:00 UTC, a zip folder of the games will be created and posted in the voting topic so that players can download all the entries at once if they wish.​
  • Voters will then have around 2 weeks to play and rank the games and voting will close on September 17th at 12:00 UTC.​
  • Any member of the GMC can vote, even if they didn't enter the jam. You cannot vote for your own entry.​
  • Votes shall be posted in a single post in the voting topic. You may create a post and continue to edit it as you review more games, do not create more than one post for your votes.​
  • Voters are encouraged to rank as many games as possible, and their final votes must include at least their top 3 games.​
  • The top 3 votes must also be accompanied by a short review of why you liked the game and voted for it (any beyond the top 3 do not need a review, but it is nice to have).​
  • Voters can also vote for the best game in each of the following (optional) categories: Best use of theme, best concept, best story, best presentation (gfx/sound) and best devlog (as written in the games topic).​
Voting Template
(optional but helpful)

XYZ'S REVIEWS AND VOTES

1st Place - Game Name by Author Name
I voted for this game because...

2nd Place - Game Name by Author Name
I voted for this game because...

3rd Place - Game Name by Author Name
I voted for this game because...

Best Ofs
Best use of theme: game name by author name
Best concept: game name by author name
Best presentation: game name by author name
Best devlog: author name

Full Ranking
1. game name by author name
2. game name by author name
3. game name by author name
4. game name by author name
5. game name by author name
6.... etc.
That's all you need to know!
Get playing and voting and enjoy those jam games :)

Boring technical info about how the votes are counted: Entries receive points based on where each voter ranked them, following the formula 1/(rank+1). So if a voter puts a game 1st, it gets 0.5 points. If a voter puts a game 6th, it gets ~0.143 points. These are all added up by the Jam Host to find the overall rank for each game.
 
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Pixel-Team

Master of Pixel-Fu
Reviews

1st Place - Igor by Ninety
DOWNLOAD
Igor is a smooth-as-butter platformer that conforms to the Game Jam theme, has beautiful pixel art and animation, and is easy to play. A clear winner. Excellent work.

2nd Place - Subside by HyprBlu
DOWNLOAD
A clear second runner up for me, this is a platformer where you dive into the ground in a radiation suit, and you have a grappling hook, and fight radioactive monsters. I'm finding myself coming back for more with this game, and I can see it going places! Excellent job.

HookLab by Lambda
DOWNLOAD
A puzzle game that is a joy to play, and has a simple game mechanic. I enjoyed this game thoroughly! There is good pixel art here. You get to play as Mr. Meeseeks!


Best ofs:

Best use of : Igor by Ninety
Best Concept: Igor by Ninety
Best Presentation: Snakes on a Plain by Richerama
Best Story: Igor by Ninety
Best Devlog: Megadome by The M​



Top Ten:

  1. Igor by Ninety
  2. Subside by HyprBlu
  3. HookLab by Lambda
  4. MEGADOME by The M
  5. Snakes on a Plain by Richerama
  6. Break! (don't brake) by Kalzme
  7. They Bleed Red Too by SoapSud39
  8. Trichotomy by FrostyCat
  9. The Faults in our Code by Evanski, CloakedGames and Joseph Ellis
  10. Coco Cards Casino by GameDevDan and NAL

Comments:

My Reviewing Style
People with all skill levels make games. And while I like to inject a little sarcasm on games that are a bit rough around the edges, (I'm one to talk!) I hope that everyone is encouraged to improve their weak areas. I know I am. If I struggle to play your game, I will do my best to figure it out. I know that any game no matter how big or small took effort on someone's part, and it's no small thing to put yourself out there for the world to see your work. I promise to give every game the fair look it deserves.

Night Of The Winning Dead by Pat Ferguson
spr_how_to_play.png
Let me get this out of the way first because my game lacked instructions (Now that's some rough edges for you,) and there are still some who don't know how to play. This is how you play Night of the Winning Dead. You can download the timer bug fixed version that also has these instructions HERE. I'd rather rank dead last on the merits of the game as a whole, than because I didn't get in a readme file in time.


1000 Rules To Live by by Wooshdude

An old west top down shooter where you play an Annie Oakley type of girl with a six shooter. You fight ghosts and stuff. I couldn't figure out how to replenish my health, and sadly, I didn't last long. I did manage to get a gun upgrade that had more damage, but less range. Man those skeletons can shoot.

A Game for 8 Colors by DEGLIS

A game kind of like tetris, but with matching colors. Good music in this one, and I had fun for a while playing it. Nice job.

Break! (don't brake) by Kalzme

A top down game where you're a car on a road and have to dodge pedestrians and cars. I'm going to keep playing this one, even though it's sooper hard, and you have to start over on level 1 when you die. ***UPDATE*** I played this game some more and beat the game. It's definitely worth mentioning that this game has great pixel art, and the music grows on you. I ended up beating the game and got the "High Score!" Nice job!

Cannibal Rules by ZombieLawyer

A game where you have to make important moral and ethical decisions as a leader of a survival group. Decent music, decent graphics. Don't do what I do and hold left or right because you'll notice the days just going by and by the time you figure out that you're giving the same answer to multiple questions, you get cannibalized. ***UPDATE*** I gave this game another play. I got much farther this time. However, some of the questions get asked more than once, and sometimes I feel like there is no right answer. I like the concept. It's a simple mechanic, although the author should fix the ability to hold a left or right direction and basically answer a hundred questions at once. However, This is definitely a viable game here. Good work!

Coco Bombs by Adam Games

A cute top down tournament game where you throw coco bombs at your enemies. You have to stay in the boundaries. I did ok. I liked the graphics on this game!

Coco Cards Casino by GameDevDan and NAL

What can be said about a Game Jam that has not one Rock Paper Scissors game, but TWO? So this one is another colorful game with animal characters that you play against, and it has a similar mechanic to Trichotomy in that you have to select positions, except the outcome is more left to chance. I love these games. They are fun, relaxing, have calming music (unlike mine) and have high replayability. Excellent job.

Collect Build Kill by Lukan

A game where the second you hit play, it says you died. I played it for about 4 hours, but after dying 16,753 times, I was beginning to think that the author did not make this game winnable. It's a shame, too. The graphics were decent, and I like survival games. ***UPDATE*** Ok I think what happened is I messed around with the controls setting, so that every time I ended up pressing space, it said "You Died." perhaps it was just a bug, but it was possible to map many keys to different actions. I did end up getting a bit farther this time. Nice effort on this one!

Color Wars by Rui Rosario

A game where you have to change your ship's color to defeat other ships depending on which color they are. It was fun until there were all 3 types bearing down on me and I had no choice but to hail them and surrender. There was no sound.

Conquer and DRILL by Cpsy1714

A game where you have to manage stockpiles of coal, oil, and natural gas. It was about has fun as managing coal, oil, and natural gas. **UPDATE*** I gave this game a second play. I'm not a huge military strategy game fan, however, I wanted to see if I can learn the mechanics and actually get through the game. Even with the instructions, I found it hard to balance the coal, gas, and oil. It was not entirely clear how I kept getting the YOU LOSE message, and I kept having to exit the game and restart whenever I lost. While technically the game worked, I would say the hardest part was figuring out HOW to balance the resources. For example, I could increase production of each resource, but I couldn't decrease, leaving each one to build until I lost. As for invading, I see how it said that each of the army services had an advantage over 1 other service, but I tried to invade Greenland, which had NO army, and it still said I lost. I think a tutorial on building, training, and attacking would have helped this game a lot. That said, I can see where a game like this can be interesting to some.

Fire Realm by Red Phantom

Fire Realm is a shooter that is reminiscent of Space Invaders, but with better graphics. You move from area to area shooting fire creatures with your Roland 808 Drum Kit sounding weapons. You have to avoid being electrocuted or burned to death, and there are different enemy types. The music is soothing and after a while I sunk into a comfortable pace, and finally reached the Omega Room. I don't want to spoil the ending.

Fishy Clicker by sylvain_I

It's fishy clicker. You have to click the little pencils and you get fish. After about 20 minutes I started to develop a finger cramp. So I had to switch hands.

Grow A Plant by Poizen

A puzzle game where you have to position the water with the seeds and the seeds in the ground. I got stuck on the second level, picked up my monitor, throw it out the second story window, and now I'm typing this on my phone. ***UPDATE*** I played Grow a Plant again, and this time I beat it. The last level was a challenge!! Nice job. Wish there were more levels.

Guess Who Hostage Rescue by Mightyjor

A game where you have to shoot the bad guy and not the hostage based on clues you are given. I liked the color scheme of this game. The music was soothing. ***UPDATE*** I gave this game a second run. Man, for the longest time, I thought the clues were describing the freaking terrorist. I don't know how to follow directions. Naturally, once I read the how to play, I started nailing all the terrorists every time, and finally reached the ending. Cool stuff!

HookLab by Lambda

A puzzle game that is a joy to play, and has a simple game mechanic. You can push blocks over ledges to walk on them, or pull them toward you with your hook. You can also use your hook to pull yourself across gaps. The objective is to get to the flag. I enjoyed this game thoroughly! There is good pixel art here. You get to play as Mr. Meeseeks! ***UPDATE*** I played this game again and beat it. That last puzzle was a doozy!

Igor by Ninety

Igor is a smooth-as-butter platformer that conforms to the Game Jam theme, has beautiful pixel art and animation, and is easy to play. A clear winner. Excellent work. ***UPDATE*** I played this some more. I couldn't figure out the level after the clock, or how to reset the level since I couldn't jump or climb. I am going to persist. This game is just too good, and I got to see what happens to Igor when he gets to work! ***UPDATE*** I played this game a third time, and this time I beat the game. Not a whole lot of wizbang, and not a lot of innovation. A couple of the levels I was able to bypass getting the rules altogether, but ultimately, I'm sticking with my vote. This game was bug free, had an intro, many playable levels, and outro, and looked and sounded great. Nice job.

Inconvenience Store by TehPilot

A game where you have to wear a mask, practice social distancing, and not piss people off by getting too close. First I played it in real life, and then I played it on the game! ***UPDATE*** I circled back around to this one and played through all the levels. You have to wash your hands, clean the shelves, and stay away from the customers. This is really an underrated game, and I'm glad I came back to it.! Nicely done.

Lava Jamp by sk8dududu

An Endless platformer, and a difficult one at that. I was about to jump over the lava, right when the Grim Reaper shot a projectile over the lava, giving me a decision to die by either lava or the projectile. I didn't give either the lava or the Grim Reaper the satisfaction of making me decide. ***UPDATE*** I played this game a second time. I didn't know it, but if you can reach the blue cloud, the speed of the run increases, and carries over to the next game. Also, although most of my deaths were from missing jumps, it's worth mentioning that the animation when you die from the grim reaper is pretty cool. You get disintegrated and your sprite breaks up into particles. The pixel art looks good on areas where sk8dududu took the time. And there's also a ripple effect in the lava that didn't go unnoticed. Nice job!

Mage's Quest by Calepiaro

A decent platformer game that has great pixel art, great chiptune music. A deserving effort. ***UPDATE*** I played this game again and figured out how to beat it!!! I liked how the different power orbs gave you a different power. Great music throughout, but especially at the end. Nice job!

MEGADOME by The M

A 3D Tournament game where you are in a ship fighting against several AI opponents. You have to mine for resource, and spend points on shields or shot power. I loved the announcer, and he actually used the names of the GMC Jam38 participants names. While graphically, not the most eye popping visuals, this game kept me engaged until at last I was the victor! Nice work!

Morning Commute by Yothebob

A game where you have to text while driving, or your girlfriend will break up with you. Just like in real life! Decent graphics, and challenging game play. Great job. ***UPDATE*** I tried to play this a second time. It's really hard to slow down so you don't hit the car, but not too slow that you get penalized for being late to work. This game is HARD!!!!

Nod Zombies by BigDallas

This is the game that Frogger should have been: A guy trying to get hit by money cars while searching for hypodermic needles to stay conscious, and avoiding vagrants that want to kill you and take your money. I liked the voice work, and the obnoxious graphics.

Out of the Square by ericossiqueira and Benjamim

A physics platformer with controls that make you want to rip your eyeballs out of your head and jump up and down on them repeatedly. So frustratingly hard I wanted to pick up my brand new replacement monitor and throw it out the second story window, but I didn't want to relive that whole ordeal all over again. Other than that, it was a fun game. ***UPDATE*** I played this game again. Yep. Still hard. I can't even get enough momentum to knock over some stacked crates. Trying to make it to the top of the room is proving to be most difficult. ***UPDATE*** Would you believe that I tried to play this again? This time I made it to a giant cage with a face on it that every time it made contact with me there was a screen that showed, but it was only on the screen for a blink of an eye and then was gone, so I couldn't tell what it said. It's excruciating trying to move in this game. Now I know how reviewers felt playing my first game, "It Hungers" from the GMC37. Might I suggest for the sequel to this game, you do "Out of the Circle?"

PUSH by Toque

A game where you're a very attractive guy who pushes physics boxes off a platform and try not to get smooshed. I got smooshed. ***UPDATE*** I played this game a second time around, and for about 40 minutes straight! I was determined to push off all the blocks. But it got where the blocks were all dropped, and then it started dropping copies of the player!! I kept getting smooshed. Done for now. I'm going to get back to PUSH.

Robber Rules! by KPJ

A side scroller with three (simple?) controls. Very unforgiving for those with poor reaction time. Still, a well made game overall. ***UPDATE*** I played this game a second time around, and after about 50 attempts, I finally got past level 4. And there was a level 5. This game is like trying to pat the top of your head and rub your belly at the same time. I can't tell if I'm exercising my brain cells or killing them. Entertaining? YES. Fiendishly difficult? YOU BET!

Robo Royale by bandman28 and Josh Chen

A game where you collect coins and drop robot drones that fire on an AI opponent. I was hoping it would be more challenging, but the AI kept running right into danger. I retired undefeated, with seemingly no effort on my part.

Rules of the Rhinoceros by Yal

What's better than a game where you're a rhinoceros? How about a game where you're a rhinoceros WITH A GUN? I really tried to get into this game. But you take damage when you touch coins, and whenever you kill the bad guys, they drop a crap ton of coins. And you know....rhinoceros. They don't jump so good. And... that's about all I can say about Rules of the Rhinoceros. ***UPDATE*** I played this game again. It had a familiar style to it. Then I remembered Killer Shark 77 from the GMC Jam 37. Then I remembered Yal. Yal is a madman! He loves using shaders out the yin yang. Yal's games feel like you just took two hits of acid just before firing up the game. Anyhow, back to the review. So the rules I got the first time I played were different from the rules I got the second time I played, and the second time I played, I kicked ass. There are more guns on this game than Grand Theft Auto. The thing I like about Yal is he knows exactly how to express himself in his games. Each one is in your face exciting. This one definitely deserves some play!!!

Rush, Kill, Repeat by filiprb

A game where you're a guy who got his head cut off, and blood is squirting everywhere, and you have to kill all the bad guys with different guns. I hate games where you have to backtrack, and this game provides a great mechanic that solves this problem, which is the blood squirting out of your neck hole marks the ground where you've been, so you don't search an area twice! Now why didn't I think of that?

Snakes on a Plain by Richerama

An (endless?) runner with excellent pixel art, witty dialog between the runner and a talking fox, and simple controls. These are the types of games that leave a lasting impression. Definitely worth checking out. ***UPDATE*** I played this game some more, and the more I play it, the more I smile at the inevitable ending. I'm kicking myself for not giving this game at least "Best Presentation" because of the great writing, and great animation. So I'm changing my vote! You know, I keep a collection of games from game jams that I want to revisit from time to time. These are games that make me smile and want to show to other people, because I don't want them to get lost down the memory hole. Snakes on a Plain is one of them. It's a keeper.

Spielcomm 2020 by Bart

A 3D adventure where you have to social distance and change your mask every few minutes. Because doing it in real life for the past 7 months just aren't fun enough! My favorite part was that I had only seconds to live, and there was this looooooong tunnel, and when I reached the end of it, it was a dead end, and I didn't have enough seconds to make the long journey back. I gave the game a second try, and wound up in an elevator that took so long to reach the bottom, I ran out of time again. As a technical achievement, it's impressive. to see 3D in Gamemaker Studio. I just wish there were clearer objectives. ***UPDATE*** I got a chance to watch siolfor The Jackal play this game on his Twitch stream last night, and so I wanted to give it another whirl. Turns out I'm a dumbass, and just didn't read the readme file. However this time I made it on the Spielcomm, and took a long ride to an area where there was another Spielcomm, and a garbage. When I tried to go in the other Spielcomm, it said I needed more coins. So I went back in the first Spielcomm, and it said "Taking a Break." There was nowhere to go at this point except go through all my masks and die of covid. I want to stress that I respect the tremendous effort here in the making of a 3D game in 4 days. Nice job!

Subside by HyprBlu

A clear second runner up for me, this is a platformer where you dive into the ground in a radiation suit, and you have a grappling hook, and fight radioactive monsters. I'm finding myself coming back for more with this game, and I can see it going places! Excellent job.

The Faults in our Code by Evanski, CloakedGames and Joseph Ellis

A game where you have to decide if a robot is worth keeping or destroying based on its answers to moral questions surrounding the three laws of robotics. It feels like you're Deckard. When I got a $3 paycheck, I became disgruntled, and wondered if I just played a game, or the game just played me.

The ritual by finh2003

A top down game where you're a wizard and you can make your slain enemies fight for you. I'm going to get back to this one because I like wizards. ***UPDATE*** I played this game to completion because I just had to know what "The Ritual" was. Now I wish I had brought along some lubricant! I won't spoil the ending, but you gotta be good if you're going to reach The ritual!

They Bleed Red Too by SoapSud39

A platformer where you get to exercise stealth, and have to avoid getting shot. I wish getting shot was a little more forgiving, but I love the music, voice work, and the art style of this game. Good animation as well. Definitely recommended!

Three Nights Of Knights by chris24

A platformer where you're a knight. This one is fun to play, and quick to get good at if you study the behavior of the bad guys. This one will get some return play from me for sure! Nice game!

Three Rules Make a Riddle by Ghandpivot

A Word scramble game that gives you clues to the word, and you can type in the answer. Nice tune!!!

Three Rules Standing by Alice and Mercerenies

This game is set in a dystopian future where the State has strict rules you have to abide by, and they change from area to area. There is a good size area to explore, and interesting conversations you have with the other players.

Trichotomy by FrostyCat

The best Rock, Paper, Scissors game you can make in 4 days. This strategy game has you placing Rock Paper and Scissor icons on a board in a way that eliminates your opponent's pieces. How many of you while playing this put down a piece where it was inferior to the piece you intended to eliminate, and your piece was eliminated? Anyone? No? Just me?

Upside Down Tower by Armored Dragon

A feindishly difficult puzzle game where you have limited moves and must collect the cristals (sic). I got several levels in and it got too hard.

Vaccine Maze by Lucas Poeiras

A top down game where you dodge the sneezes. I got stuck in the walls a few times and got sneezed on. Guess it's another 14 days in quarantine for me.

Weapon Master by DreadedDruid

A top down action game where you are a mysterious cloaked figure with a slashing sword. It is well animated, but I didn't get any sound when I played. I found a key, but was unable to find the door that goes to it. This game shows a lot of promise!

Whack (only) the Mole by awlred

A game where you have to whack (only) the mole, pet (only) the bunny, and give (only) the badger the mushroom. Probably one of the most difficult games I've ever played in my life. And I'm rather fond of petting bunnies.

Wizard's Pub Crawl by Siolfor The Jackal

A game after my own heart. You play a drunk wizard who kills random people as he gets increasingly s***faced. Loved it. ***UPDATE*** I went back to this one because I love the idea. Would you believe I made it to the 4th level?

You Only Have 3 Minutes by Evanski

A compelling and well thought out game that captivates the player and confronts them with the question: What happens at the end??? I don't want to spoil the ending, but let's just say it's wirth the 3 minutes.

YOUR RULES by Gravedust and Tomato

A side scrolling space shooter. The graphics and music are good. The controls are easy, and gameplay can get frantic. typically in a bullet hell shooter you would expect the pattern of bullets to give you some openings to fly through. Not this game. This game showers you unmercifully to the point where you fall on the floor crying. I think will a little work, this game cound shape up into something great. ***UPDATE*** I went back to this one after reading a tip, and was able to see the ending. It was beautiful. I won't spoil it for you, but let's just say that some rules are made to be broken. (as in shot with blasters.)
 
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ghandpivot

Member
My rankings and comments are done!

1. Igor by Ninety:
Slick presentation and polished overall. Most concepts could have been explored more, yet still impressive how much was made within the limited time. I would have sped up the game a tad, since the puzzles are mildly challenging at best a lot of the game is spent walking to arrive to your destination.
2. Inconvenience store by TehPilot: Timely relevant and nicely stressful. I would ditch the whole turnbased concept as the game doesn't benefit from it and perhaps also the square-based movement.
3. Three Rules Standing by Alice and Mercerenies: Impressively long. Some puzzles are a bit forced while others are quite smart. Progresses nicely. Could have been nice to highlight all new rules when entering a room somehow, like animate them in the middle of the screen,.​

Rest of the rankings:
4. Coco Cards Casino by GameDevDan and NAL: Super polished and great presentation, cool idea albeit a tad too easy to optimize and then it's just down to luck. A bit too slow gameplay, didn't quite want to sit through defeating all of them. The "M"-menu should be on by default. Maybe add a quick fading number next to your score to indicate how much score you gained in total from the move.
5. The Faults in our Code by Evanski, CloakedGames & Joseph Ellis: Interesting concept, very "Papers please". I don't like reading which there was a lot of. Text went outside the box and sometimes the box barely appeared at all. There are a lot of spelling errors and broken grammar. Would be nice with some form of instant feedback when pressing check/cross, I barely know what the buttons mean.
6. Subside by HyprBlu: Cool art, fun idea to start on ground and jump down every level, feels like an adventure. Theme is in there! Grappling hook is a bit janky. Boss 1 hitbox is bigger than it should be and final boss was quite bullet spongy. Bullet hitboxes are way too big, they hit walls and the ground in inconvenient ways making aiming low really hard. Hit detection on enemies could be done through collision_circle instead of in the collision event, allowing for way smaller bullet hitboxes.
7. Megadome by TheM: The 3 rules feel arbitrarily chosen from gameplay instructions. Can't hear what the announcer is saying. Didn't understand how the weapon recharge time worked. I lost a 1v1 against myself.
8. Rules of the Rhinoceros by Yal: Presentation is all over the place. While that is the style you're going for it's hard to follow what's going on on the screen. Fun idea with different rule sets, I would have gone for that too if I had the time.
9. Grow a plant by Poizen: You can move a dirt below activated water, but only if you do it really quick. I solved a lot of levels in a way that didn't seem right. Sometimes water on the side of the block is enough while sometimes it's too little to wet the dirt. Overall a bit too inconsistent to be a puzzle game, but really clever mechanics if they were to be polished.
10. Trichotomy by Frostycat: It is way too slow if one is to keep on playing it for more than 1-2 games. Things should happen more or less instantly. A neat little puzzle game, I think it would be more interesting with chain reactions (stolen pieces trigger their attack as well).
11. Snakes on a plain by Richerama: Neat presentation! The use of the theme is just 3 arbitrarily chosen game mechanics. You can spam enter to move forward which feels cheap. You can get stuck in enemies and fall back a lot, while at the same time having the audio play dozens of times on top of itself. You should do a quick "if not audio_is_playing(sound_damage)" check for both pushback and audio. There are also several situations you can end up in early on where it is impossible to not either take damage or leave a bird for the spider.
12. Your rules by Gravedust and Tomato: Took a while to figure out how to win, killing 50 seemed impossible. I like the idea of it and it looks good. A bit preachy ending for my taste though. The mechanic of destroying the rules could have been taken further.
13. They bleed red too by SoapQus39: Weird but interesting. The bots seem to shoot a lot at random, I died about 50 times and 40 of them were from randoms shots at NPCs that I didn't quite understand. A bit janky platforming. Didn't quite understand why I would should cut things.
14. HookLab by Lambda: The view shouldn't jump to the player on every move. Either adapt it to the room or smooth the transitions a bit, it becomes janky and disorientating. If the theme is there it's arbitrarily tied to the game mechanics and not quite "rules".
15. Rush, Kill, Repeat by Filiprb: The time you live is incredibly short and the time gained from killing something is too low. Didn't understand if there was another mechanic to increase survival length. It's weird how it changes guns with every kill, especially when it switches to the sniper where it's no longer enough to simply have the enemy in your line of fire to kill them meaning that if you're rushed by 2 enemies you'll kill the first and then die because you got the sniper. It's a weird choice to use the shoulder buttons rather than the shoulder triggers or a more convenient thumb button to shoot/run. Disabling the keyboard when a controller is found prevented me from playing initially, if you code your movement in the style of "move_up = max(keyboard_button_up,xbox_button_up);" you allow both at the same time. There is a button for running but it's not described in the tutorial. There should be the option to restart rather than going back to the main menu everytime you die seeing as you will be doing that a lot. You are invulnerable while standing in walls. You get locked in place a lot when starting a new game (perhaps if holding down buttons when starting).
16. Weapon Master by DreadedDruid: The mouse's position should change the direction of sword slices. Really hard to tell where new rooms are, didn't find the room on the right for quite a while. No audio makes everything rather unsatisfying, I ran past most enemies instead of killing them. The fireball hitboxes are too big. The boss' falling rocks shouldn't lock you in place when they spawn. The use of theme is good and graphics are cool.
17. A Game for 8 colors by DEGLIS: Really weird design choices. It's too difficult to keep track which colors can be combined, which create whites and which create blacks. You shouldn't be able to go into blocks from the side but rather just from the top or it all becomes confusing. You shouldn't be able to move the detached block after your pair has landed, it's confusing especially when the detached block can combine with the color the first block created. If you're quick you can throw several falling blocks into the white explotion. There shouldn't be a white line going downwards all the time, that is confusing when the white line is used for clearing. When the game ends, you shouldn't be allowed to continue accumulating score while the transition fades, which is a long time because transitions are way too slow. Finally it should show your final score somewhere, otherwhise the score is even more meaningless. The idea is good though, but there are so many disorientating things going on.
18. Night of the winning dead by Pat Ferguson: Cool idea, doesn't seem to fit the theme. Should highlight the zombie you're aiming over to make selections more intuitive. Speeding up the game is not fast enough imo. Speeding up also messes up bomb timers, the zombies can explode instantly instead of in 5 seconds, which breaks the function. I dislike premade menu assets, it feels unnecessary.
19. Break! (don't brake) by Kalzme: Fun idea, the three rules weren't necessarily super clear. Ends abruptly, could be randomized a bit too allow for more playthroughs. Didn't realize I was suppose to kill people on my first playthrough.
20. Nod Zombies by BigDallas: Theme is forced, these are not really rules but rather how you play the game. Hitboxes should be smaller and be centered around the front of the vehicles to limit cheap deaths. I would go for lessening the traffic a bit but reducing or removing safe areas all together.
21. Cannibal rules by zombielawyer: Some cards are hard to understand what you're choosing. For example: His uncle doesn't want us to eat him, but should we? "Agree", "Disagree". There's a potential double negative and two separate statements to consider there. Cards are also repeated a lot. You should finally switch from keyboard_check to keyboard_check_pressed, as holding down A/D will lose the game almost instantly.
22. Robber Rules! by KPJ: Theme is a bit arbitrarily applied to the 3 moves you have available. Controls should just be 3 or 4 arrowkeys rather than spread out across the entire keyboard. Actions can be pressed at more or less the same time to go through both doors and humans.
23. Mage's Quest by Calepiaro: Neat little platformer. Doesn't fit the theme. Short, lacks polish overall and a bit confusing.
24. Three Nights of Knights by Chris24: Theme is forced, 3 seemingly arbitrary things are chosen as rules. Coin audio is waay louder than the rest. Collecting coins is not fun as a core concept.
25. Guess who hostage rescue by Mightyjor: Three gameplay mechanics are arbitrarily chosen as rules. Gameplay is a bit too simple and doesn't evolve. There seems to be no timer and no real punishment for losing?
26. Morning commute by Yothebob: A bit clumsy. Accelerating is inconsistent and tapping the key gives unexpected speed boosts. There is not reason why opening your phone and sending the text should have different keybindings, that just makes it more confusing. Would be a lot more fun if you had to stear around cars rather than just adapting your speed.
27. The ritual by finh2003: Would like to hold down to shoot. The concept is kinda flawed. Mana limits you without adding much depth. Giving you potions and the ability to raise the dead is fun, but cursing you for doing so is weird.
28. Fire Realm by Red Phantom: Theme is a bit forced. Quite rough having to restart the world when dying. The immortality should work even after the electrified/burned animation has begun, otherwise there's no real reason to have such an animation, and it would have made the gameplay deeper. Quite funky looking enemies.
29. Whack (only) the Mole by awlred: Non-intuitive and uninspiring controls, the three animals could spice things up more than just hold down a different key when pressing the letter. Will need quite a revamp to be fun.
30. 1000 rules to live by by wooshdude: Consistent looking graphics are more important than good looking. Crashes on third room (Unable to find any instance for object index '11' name 'obj_player'). Doesn't quite follow the theme. Combat needs to be less bland.
31. Upside Down Tower by Armored Dragon: Doesn't seem to fit the theme. Hitboxes are way to unpredictable and way too small for the gems, I spent most my time going through gems that I thought I would catch. Timing for blocking is too precise and seems to be timed to when the bullet hits the player rather than when the bullet hits the shield.
32. Wizard's Pub Crawl by Siolfor the Jackal: Doesn't seem to change much between levels, gets repetitive almost instantly. Extremely easy to not take damage by shooting the huge fireballs. Not sure why thr aim goes all over the place when you're too sober. Don't quite see any connections to the theme unless you arbitrarily choose 3 gameplay mechanics.
33. Spielcomm 2020 by Bart: No idea what's going on. Elevator and train are quite buggy and don't force you to be inside to activate. Ended with "You are resistent", not sure where to go from there. Is the theme in here anywhere?
34. Conquer and DRILL by Cpsy1714: Really hard to understand what was going on, managed to create and army by right clicking which isn't intuitative. Then I lost as soon as I met someone. Tons of things on the screen at once with no explanation.
35. Robo Royale by Bandman28 and Josh Chen: Confusing, didn't quite understand what was going on and then I won. Was there only one other played? How would I know if I damaged him? The rules are weird and feel pushed into the game to fit the theme. In the tutorial you use the arrowkeys, space and the mouse - controls that require 3 hands should be rebound.
36. Push by Toque: Hitboxes are nice and tight, physics are always fun. Theme is forced, 3 seemingly arbitrary things are chosen as rules. Pushing boxes is too slow. No real reason to keep playing. You can jump infinitely. You shouldn't have to watch the intro every playthrough.
37. Out of the square by ericossiqueira and Benjamim: There is no information on how to play the game, played it all as a square... Ends abruptly with smileys falling on you? Overall very confusing.
38. Lava Jamp by Sk8dududu: Doesn't seem connected to the theme, hard to know quite what's going on. The reaper's shots are not synced to the platsforms' movement, making some shots impossible to dodge. Landing on the blocks is a bit inconsistent and should be a little more forgiving.
39. Collect Build Kill by Lukan: Didn't really seem to be all that much to it but perhaps I didn't wait long enough for enemies to spawn. Very buggy and unintuitive building and collecting mechanics. Having a red square around everything is not a great solution for highlighting.
40. Coco Bombs by Adam Games: The view is very disorientating in the way it follows the player and the mouse at the same time. Angling the sprite towards point_direction would have been better than locked rotations, seeing as the throw angles are unlocked. It would have been better with no throwing animation than using the unfinished outline, didn't understand what was going on. Hitboxes are unpredictable and hard to understand quite how they work.
41. Color Wars by Rui Rosario: Doesn't do anything to explain the concept, I guessed that I should shoot everything with its color but it seems to be the opposite. Needs a lot more polish to be interesting.
42. Vaccine Maze by Lucas Poeiras: Make smaller hitboxes, center the view around the player, polish overall presentation.
43. Fishy clicker by Sylvain_I: Didn't understand at all. I get score equal to the number of the button, is there anything more to the game than that? There is music credited but no music playing. Doesn't have the theme in it.
44. You only have 3 minutes: -
 
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C

Calepiaro

Guest
Reviews

Top 3:

Subside by HyprBlu
This game is so amazingly polished and made!
I have no idea how you managed to make this in such a short time!
I loved the art style and the bosses were challenging and fun to fight!
The music also suited everything real nice!
And that grapling hook!! It was so well coded and acted so naturally!
I actually don't know what you could add.
This games looks and feels like a paid one!

Igor by Ninety
Wow this game looks like I paid for it!
I like how Igor sounds too:).
You look like a great game dev if you managed to do this in such a short time!
I am Igor to see more of your work!( ;3 )

The Faults in our Code by Evanski, CloakedGames and Joseph Ellis
I must admit I sent Ticky to hell(that bold guy sure mad me feel guilty aftewards)!
The game is extremelly well done and looks polished and professional!
This game is filled with smart little jokes and references and I really enjoyed playing it!

Best ofs:

Best use of : The Faults in our Code by Evanski, CloakedGames and Joseph Ellis
Best Concept: Coco Cards Casino by GameDevDan and NAL
Best Presentation: Igor by Ninety
Best Story: Three Rules Standing by Alice and Mercerenies
Best Devlog: Night Of The Winning Dead by Pat Ferguson

Full ranking:

  1. Subside by HyprBlu
  2. Igor by Ninety
  3. The Faults in our Code by Evanski, CloakedGames and Joseph Ellis
  4. YOUR RULES by Gravedust and Tomato
  5. The ritual by finh2003
  6. Weapon Master by DreadedDruid
  7. Upside Down Tower by Armored Dragon
  8. Snakes on a Plain by Richerama
  9. Three Rules Standing by Alice and Mercerenies
  10. Three Rules Make a Riddle by Ghandpivot
  11. Coco Cards Casino by GameDevDan and NAL
  12. They Bleed Red Too by SoapSud39
  13. Three Nights Of Knights by chris24
  14. Robber Rules! by KPJ
  15. Break! (don't brake) by Kalzme
  16. Night Of The Winning Dead by Pat Ferguson
  17. HookLab by Lambda
  18. Fire Realm by Red Phantom
  19. Cannibal Rules by ZombieLawyer
  20. Rules of the Rhinoceros by Yal
  21. Guess Who Hostage Rescue by Mightyjor
  22. A Game for 8 Colors by DEGLIS
  23. Grow A Plant by Poizen
  24. Trichotomy by FrostyCat
  25. MEGADOME by The M
  26. 1000 Rules To Live by by Wooshdude
  27. Robo Royale by bandman28 and Josh Chen
  28. Out of the Square by ericossiqueira and Benjamim
  29. Color Wars by Rui Rosario
  30. Vaccine Maze by Lucas Poeiras
  31. Nod Zombies by BigDallas
  32. Rush, Kill, Repeat by filiprb
  33. PUSH by Toque
  34. Whack (only) the Mole by awlred
  35. Wizard's Pub Crawl by Siolfor The Jackal
  36. Inconvenience Store by TehPilot
  37. Coco Bombs by Adam Games
  38. Collect Build Kill by Lukan
  39. Lava Jamp by sk8dududu
  40. Morning Commute by Yothebob
  41. Spielcomm 2020 by Bart
  42. Conquer and DRILL by Cpsy1714
  43. Fishy Clicker by sylvain_I
  44. You Only Have 3 Minutes by Evanski

Comments:

1000 Rules To Live by by Wooshdude

I loved the piano music from the beginning, suited the theme very well, the music in general was really good!
The player would need a stimulation tho because there is no information on what I am doing or why.
Qut game overall, I personally like the wild west theme!


A Game for 8 Colors by DEGLIS

This game was fun to play!
I failed to reac lvl 8, my max being 6!
I found the rules quite hard to remember when in the game.
Also the transition drom the starting menu to the "how to play" section felt a little out of place.
I have also found an error within your code:
___________________________________________
############################################################################################
FATAL ERROR in
action number 1
of Alarm Event for alarm 1
for object obj_box:

Unable to find any instance for object index '100235' name '<undefined>'
at gml_Script_scr_moveright
############################################################################################
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
stack frame is
gml_Script_scr_moveright (line -1)
gml_Object_obj_box_Alarm_1

A nice game overall!

Break! (don't brake) by Kalzme

The art for this game is amazing (I especially like the trees for some reason)!
Sometimes my deaths felt unfair due to that I was in a curve uncapable to move.


Cannibal Rules by ZombieLawyer

A thrilling game!
The cards tend to repeat next to eachother but taking into acount the short time we had this game is great!
I like the subtle semi-transparent lines going down on the display, a very nice touch!

Coco Bombs by Adam Games

The animation for throwing the coco ball was not finished, I was transforming from a strange brute into a square.
The game needs to be a little more polished.
The controls don't feel very good and some sound would have made the experience better.
I liked the design of the character tho!


Coco Cards Casino by GameDevDan and NAL

I personally don't really like card game but this is so professionaly made!
I almost cant believe this was made in such a short time!
The art is fantastic and the rules so simple but yet making such a fun little game, the music is also suiting everything very well!
My fav character would be Mr. Seahorse (duh):3.
I would only like more motivation to play except the hidden character, cuz the game tends to be pretty tough, I lose a lot and there isn't really something to keep me going.
Anyway an extremelly well polished game!

Collect Build Kill by Lukan

Qut slimes and I am a fan of minecraft fan so I liked the idea!
You shoulld explain the controls a little better and a story would be nice.
I have no idea how crafting works even tho I managed to do something.
The player character is also nice!

Color Wars by Rui Rosario

The game would need music and control explanation.
I liked that balls of same color reject eachother!
A simple game but I see it being able to evolve into something greater.

Conquer and DRILL by Cpsy1714

I liked the fact that I have actually heard you:).
The game didn't really ring for me tho.
A section where the rules are better explained would have been helpful.

Fire Realm by Red Phantom

I have actually played ur game back when it didn't have rocks and intro and I love the improvement!
I like the new animations for when the fire creatures die!
You should find a way to entertain the player more I guess for that the motivation to keep playing when you repeatedly die gets lower and lower.
Overall the game is nice!

Fishy Clicker by sylvain_I

I can't say I really know what I was doing.
The menu is nicely done tho.
And even tho I didn't know what was happening I felt accomplished when the game congratulated me for 335 fishes caught!

Grow A Plant by Poizen

A very fun puzzle game!
I find the backround to be quite ingenious and that sun is very qut!
I think this is just me, but I really liked the flower animation:).
How does the fire have a shadow tho?:))

Guess Who Hostage Rescue by Mightyjor

I liked this game!
A fun experience!
The concept was very good and sometimes it was tricky to tell who the Hostage really was!

HookLab by Lambda

I found this game really enjoyable!
The only thing I found to complain about was the hooking sound which was kind of sharp.
The levels were cleverly made and really tested me!

Igor by Ninety

Wow this game looks like I paid for it!
I like how Igor sounds too:).
You look like a great game dev if you managed to do this in such a short time!
I am Igor to see more of your work!( ;3 )

Inconvenience Store by TehPilot

I liked the corona theme!
The game was quite unmotivating tho, I felt no desire to continue.
The intro was very cool!


Lava Jamp by sk8dududu

I have replayed this so many times!
It is very challenging and that reapur uhh!:)
I like that at the beginning the main character swipes his shirt and arranges his mask, a nice detail!

Mage's Quest by Calepiaro

Luv This:)))

MEGADOME by The M

I really liked this one:).
It needs a little more polishing but it is fun to play!
I liked your voice in the backround explaining everything thats happening.

Morning Commute by Yothebob

I liked the concept!
You should explain the controls in the game tho.
A fun little experience.
I ended in the dog house :).

Night Of The Winning Dead by Pat Ferguson

You should explain the controls.
The game is nice, I have looked at the videos and images you posted during dev and I liked them too!
The graphics are really nice and the zombies look wesome!

Nod Zombies by BigDallas

I like the "aaand you're dead" sound:)
Qut game a better introduction in the world would be in need.

Out of the Square by ericossiqueira and Benjamim

I liked the physics behind the characters movement!
The game was fun!
A story would have been nice and some backround music!
Also an exit button!

PUSH by Toque

Very funny concept:).
Is everyone in there?
(sadly not:( )

Robber Rules! by KPJ

This is such a fun game!
I think it would made a great mobile game!
I liked the sound of losing!


Robo Royale by bandman28 and Josh Chen

I found a bug: sometimes I spawn outside the map!
The game was fun!
I liked the idea and how it was carried out!
A fun game, it needs polishment tho.

Rules of the Rhinoceros by Yal

The game is fun but the ever moving screen makes me dizzy.
I like that there are a lot of gun types and the doodely art is nice!
Some sort of story or purpose would be needed tho, I am just shooting animals for no reason.


Rush, Kill, Repeat by filiprb

I found it to be too hard.
The theme is also very dark (not my style but not a bad thing I guess).
I liked the main menu(with the lighting)!

Snakes on a Plain by Richerama

This game was awesome!
The dialogue with Quentin was hilarious and made the game a lot more angaging and making it look polished!
The sound when I get hit tho!! It literally raped my ears!
In a nutshell it was pretty fun!
( The title is very creative too:)) )

Spielcomm 2020 by Bart

I just can't figure out how you do 3D games in Game Maker it seems very hard to me.
The controls were kind of loose and the untimed mode also made all the coins dissapear.
I liked the corona theme tho:)
I managed to get 7/10 coins and I have no idea where the rest were!


Subside by HyprBlu

This game is so amazingly polished and made!
I have no idea how you managed to make this in such a short time!
I loved the art style and the bosses were challenging and fun to fight!
The music also suited everything real nice!
And that grapling hook!! It was so well coded and acted so naturally!
I actually don't know what you could add.
This games looks and feels like a paid one!

The Faults in our Code by Evanski, CloakedGames and Joseph Ellis

I must admit I sent Ticky to hell(that bold guy sure mad me feel guilty aftewards)!
The game is extremelly well done and looks polished and professional!
This game is filled with smart little jokes and references and I really enjoyed playing it!

The ritual by finh2003

This was so much fun!
Don't care about the wizard rules I will create my empire of little skelly minions!!
The game is very hard if you truly respect the rules:))
I liked curses too!
There are some bugs tho, the screen goes black and back to normal at very high speeds(I think it is beacause I had so many skelly boys) and some rooms send you back in the previous room after you enter them, and an elf or goblin turned semi-transparent and started following me for 5 seconds and then dissapeared.
Overall- very fun experience I love the ability to ressurect the dead!
I also like the minimap, simple but useful!

They Bleed Red Too by SoapSud39

I found the game a little too hard.
Everything else was nice tho (exept a little bug when your voice overlapped itself).
The game was well made and the mechanics were working well.
The art was what I really liked!
You are a great artist that's for sure!

Three Nights Of Knights by chris24

I liked the look of the knights and the backround medieval-like music!
I think the game would need to motivate the player more.
Good game overall!

Three Rules Make a Riddle by Ghandpivot

I like this tipe of game!
The questions had the perfect amount of challenge!
The musing suited everything perfectly and there isn't really anything I could advise you to add or remove!
Nice job!

Three Rules Standing by Alice and Mercerenies

It is visible that a lot of work was put into this game.
I liked the dialogue, it was funny and entertaining!
The game makes for a great puzzle!
It tends to be so complex sometimes that a little more motivation for the player would be in need.

Trichotomy by FrostyCat

Well done game!
I liked that you have tought of settings and stuff.
The game tends to be quite boring after two plays tho but that could be fixed with nicer art and music!


Upside Down Tower by Armored Dragon

I have finished the game and I must say I really liked it!
I can totally see potential success in this game if polished and added more levels and enemies!
The shield mechanic one has to use to be pushed backwards is very ingenious and really adds to the "puzzle" part of the game.
I would, tho, like to know what is that chained thing I am standing on:).
Very fun little game!

Vaccine Maze by Lucas Poeiras

I love the corona theme!
Made them water droplets wash their hands real good!
Fun experience.

Weapon Master by DreadedDruid

This game was very nicely made!
I loved the art and it was visible that you worked a a lot on it!
Right before I could finish it tho it closed and an error appeared!
It said:

___________________________________________
############################################################################################
ERROR in
action number 1
of Alarm Event for alarm 1
for object objBoss:

Unable to find any instance for object index '30' name 'objPlayer'
at gml_Object_objBoss_Alarm_1
############################################################################################
gml_Object_objBoss_Alarm_1 (line -1)

Some music would have also been nice.
Anyway the game was great!
I would have liked some sort of controls section or something to tach me what to do when, I had to read ur devlog to figure that out.

Whack (only) the Mole by awlred

A ver challanging game that makes me frustrated(in the good way)!
The concept is smart.
I actually have a garden and I can say moles are very annoying so whacking them felt good!


Wizard's Pub Crawl by Siolfor The Jackal

The game is buggy but funny in the same time:).
I like how the wizard in the corner looks!

You Only Have 3 Minutes by Evanski

Just a timer with no gameplay, kept me on edge tho:)

YOUR RULES by Gravedust and Tomato

I found the way of shooting the buttons to use them pretty smart!
The game is challenging and the music matches the speed of the action very well, I didn't manage to win tho:(.
The screen gets so crowded so fast!
The game looked very solidly made!
A thing to change would be the rate of how the enemies spawn(and make the time longer), I would die and then respawn in enemies and bullets!
I wasn't aware of the secret part of the game which blew my mind. I love it!
 
Last edited by a moderator:

Evanski

Raccoon Lord
Forum Staff
Moderator
Evanski's Short Simple Sweet Reviews

Im not the best at giving critical feed back, so forgive me because a lot of my responses where just 1 sentence.
My ranking is by how fun a game is, if it was able to keep my attention and show me a cool concept of a game.​

Top 3:

Subside by @HyprBlu
I loved this, fast paced, a different enemy after a few levels, boss fights, I'd love to see this as a full game, and the grappling hook!, This is great I want more of this game!

MEGADOME by @The M
I love this, This is extremely fun, The audio loops a few times saying the same line over and over, but all in all this is amazing, I also love the fact that Its all of us battling over space rocks!

Rules of the Rhinoceros by @Yal
I have no words for the fever dream I am experiencing, The rhinoceros is my new king!

Best ofs:

Best use of Theme: Rules of the Rhinoceros by Yal
I hate saying this because it gives off the idea I favor meme games but Honestly, @Yal 's game was built around 3 simple rules, they change to keep it fun, I feel like this is the best example of the theme.

Best Concept: Three Rules Make a Riddle by Ghandpivot
I really loved @ghandpivot 's concept with this game, and it was the only game of this type, It was indeed short and sweet and didn't offer replay value but its uniqueness of the type of game it is, is why this is my choice.

Best Presentation: Rules of the Rhinoceros by Yal / Night of the Winning Dead by @Pat Ferguson
Here we go again with the "favoring meme games", The thing with @Yal 's game is it never once changed its feeling, and it had a very nice loop of restarting, and kept its mood and feeling high, it always presented me with this fast paced game and kept that feeling through out.
But at the same time it was a tie with Pat's game, Pat's game is like an arcade game of zombie lemmings and it takes that idea to heart on start up, it has a nice retro feel and the glitch visuals of a commodore booting up,
Between these two its very hard to pick which one wins the title, and no ones saying I cant choose two (I wont listen to you anyways) These two games are great at presenting themselves.

Edit: because someone *cough*@GameDevDan*cough* said to pick one Night of the winning dead earns this tittle officially in my voting but personally I still say its a tie between the two

Best Story: Three Rules Standing by Alice and Mercerenies
@Alice and @Mercerenies instantly started with a story and its main goal to explore that story, It has interesting characters, a very lovable main character and a nice plot revolting around the use of rules, At first I wanted this as best use of theme but at the same time this game uses more then 3 rules at a time, and by far just has the best story. Cerealebrate!

Full ranking:
My ranking is by how fun a game is, if it was able to keep my attention and show me a cool concept of a game.

  1. Subside by HyprBlu
  2. MEGADOME by The M
  3. Rules of the Rhinoceros by Yal
  4. Three Rules Standing by Alice and Mercerenies
  5. Night Of The Winning Dead by Pat Ferguson
  6. Inconvenience Store by TehPilot
  7. Trichotomy by FrostyCat
  8. Coco Cards Casino by GameDevDan and NAL
  9. Grow A Plant by Poizen
  10. Mage's Quest by Calepiaro
  11. Wizard's Pub Crawl by Siolfor The Jackal
  12. They Bleed Red Too by SoapSud39
  13. Break! (don't brake) by Kalzme
  14. YOUR RULES by Gravedust and Tomato
  15. Igor by Ninety
  16. Three Rules Make a Riddle by Ghandpivot
  17. The ritual by finh2003
  18. Guess Who Hostage Rescue by Mightyjor
  19. Vaccine Maze by Lucas Poeiras
  20. Nod Zombies by BigDallas
  21. Robber Rules! by KPJ
  22. Cannibal Rules by ZombieLawyer
  23. Three Nights Of Knights by chris24
  24. Whack (only) the Mole by awlred
  25. Spielcomm 2020 by Bart
  26. PUSH by Toque
  27. Upside Down Tower by Armored Dragon
  28. Rush, Kill, Repeat by filiprb
  29. Morning Commute by Yothebob
  30. Snakes on a Plain by Richerama
  31. HookLab by Lambda
  32. A Game for 8 Colors by DEGLIS
  33. Robo Royale by bandman28 and Josh Chen
  34. Collect Build Kill by Lukan
  35. Coco Bombs by Adam Games
  36. Lava Jamp by sk8dududu
  37. 1000 Rules To Live by by Wooshdude
  38. Color Wars by Rui Rosario
  39. Fishy Clicker by sylvain_I
  40. Fire Realm by Red Phantom
  41. Weapon Master by DreadedDruid
  42. Out of the Square by ericossiqueira and Benjamim
  43. Conquer and DRILL by Cpsy1714
  44. Tobruk by Selek

Comments:

1000 Rules To Live by by Wooshdude

- 1000 points for the piano song,
I like the art style but wish it was a bit bigger to see, I thought this was pretty fun to walk around and shoot

A Game for 8 Colors by DEGLIS

The major flaw of this is in my case is the understanding of what to do, I found myself just smashing blocks together and it worked.
However overall the game is a fun take on tetris, I found the transitions to be slow but the end game transition to be abrupt. All in all this game is pretty fun.

Break! (don't brake) by Kalzme

3 2 1 go! Love the music and the art, I like the idea of breaking all the rules, the game is pretty fun to play, That music doe!

Cannibal Rules by ZombieLawyer

This is simple and fun, the buttons are kinda touchy and leads to picking multiple options at once.

Coco Bombs by Adam Games

I like the concept of the game, a battle royal of throwing coconuts, but the game shows its unfinished without a real goal besides run around and throw coco-bombs

Coco Cards Casino by GameDevDan and NAL

I like this game, it has a fun concept , a nice art style and some good vibes

Collect Build Kill by Lukan

This game is cute, but I didn't really understand the goal of the game, I could punch trees and pick up rocks but I couldn't figure out crafting, I didn't see any enemies to kill and if I pressed space bar I died

Color Wars by Rui Rosario

This was a cool concept, It didn't feel like it was fully finished and I would have like to see it fleshed out more

Conquer and DRILL by Cpsy1714

I like the idea of this game, I really do, I love the concept, but I found myself confused as to why I'd lose out of no where, what any of the numbers above mean, After a while of trial and error I finally understood and my plan of action was to! sit. and do nothing. then make an army with maxed out numbers from all the waiting. And some how I still lost out of the blue, I wish I could give this game a better rating I really do, but I cant.

Fire Realm by Red Phantom

I couldn't really play this game as, every-time I accidentally shot an electric enemy my eyes screamed in pain, epilepsy warning!

Fishy Clicker by sylvain_I

This game was short and I didn't really understand the random numbers for clicking, I got 332 fishes though!

Grow A Plant by Poizen

I like this game, its cute and very simple to understand, but my smol smooth brain cant figure out how to shift the blocks to the correct places, But I really like this game

Guess Who Hostage Rescue by Mightyjor

Click and shoot!, I like the rules being clues but there not rules they are clues, its pretty fun game but gets repetitive after awhile

HookLab by Lambda

A nice simple puzzle game about getting from A - B , My smol brain couldn't figure out some of the latter levels but I had fun.

Igor by Ninety

I like this game, the art style is nice, the story is good, I wasn't really seeing the power-ups as rules but more as reverse power ups, fun game none the less

Inconvenience Store by TehPilot

The intro was really nice,
This game was really fun and challenging as the levels progress, The idea of keeping the three goals of the game in balance is very well done.
I really like this game.

Mage's Quest by Calepiaro

Instantly love the retro feel on startup!
Was kinda at a lost as to what my goal was until I got the first achievable power up, The music is really nice and fits the game well.
The ending was kind of abrupt, but the game is fun to play.

MEGADOME by The M

I love this, This is extremely fun, The audio loops a few times saying the same line over and over, but all in all this is amazing, I also love the fact that Its all of us battling over space rocks!

Morning Commute by Yothebob

Anxiety the video game, Woman I'm trying to drive!, I like the concept of this game, the rules are simple, although not extreamly creative, fun game all around if you can get past the frustration of a clingy GF and a car that has the MPH of a scooter

Night Of The Winning Dead by Pat Ferguson

I liked this a lot, zombie lemmings!

Nod Zombies by BigDallas

This was a nice clone of frogger, had a nice time playing it, not too much to say about this one besides I wish it would have explored more of its own style

Out of the Square by ericossiqueira and Benjamim

I don't really know what to say about this one, I wasn't given a clear goal or a list of rules to suggest the use of the theme, and the camera followed the mouse instead of the player and made the game feel weird, Also moving as a square is very very slow

PUSH by Toque

Look mom, Im in this game! (its my logo from pride month but its still me) This game was fun and simple , the collisions on the boxes where a little touchy though

Robber Rules! by KPJ

I like this game and its music and art style as well as its use of the jam theme, As simple as it seems its hard to get in the correct rhythm the game wants to finish the level, its like rubbing your belly and patting your head at the same time, lol

Robo Royale by bandman28 and Josh Chen

I found this game lacking, it had a good concept, but the game play was walk around and press space a few times to win, I didn't even use the coins, would have liked more of a challenge

Rules of the Rhinoceros by Yal

I have no words for the fever dream I am experiencing, The rhinoceros is my new king!

Rush, Kill, Repeat by filiprb

I like the fast pace feel of this game but I feel like the time limit to kill all the enemies is really short and the game gets frustrating when that's mixed with unlucky rng of the level being generated

Snakes on a Plain by Richerama

This game was fun, The fox character was great and Steven was a great friend. Not much to say other then I wish I was better at the game to see all the dialog!

Spielcomm 2020 by Bart

Its always really cool to see a 3d game in Gamemaker, I wish there was more gameplay besides beat a timer and collect coins but still awesome visuals

Subside by HyprBlu

I loved this, fast paced, a different enemy after a few levels, boss fights, I'd love to see this as a full game, and the grappling hook!, This is great I want more of this game!

The ritual by finh2003

binding of Isaac doesn't have anything on this dungeon crawler, I like it, fast paced, really simple, the rules where a little to simple to my taste but this was a fun game none the less

They Bleed Red Too by SoapSud39

This game was good, I enjoyed it, shame it wasn't finished, as I really enjoyed the characters and game play. I did find the game play hard but it had a good balance between the difficulty and fun it presented.

Three Nights Of Knights by chris24

I like this game, a simple platformer with 3 simple rules, besides unlocking doors I dint see the benefit of saving the other knights, it would be cool if they helped you out or you got a health boost from it, fun game anyways

Three Rules Make a Riddle by Ghandpivot

this one was really unquie and simple, the rules where more like hints but a clever game none the less

Three Rules Standing by Alice and Mercerenies

I really like this game, The idea around the rules controlling the world and the goal to disable them is really great. Cerealebrate!

Trichotomy by FrostyCat

This was really good, probably the most intense version of rock paper scissors, I'll play, The music fits the state of the game well, and the AI is very good at playing the game.

Tobruk by Selek
The game is really confusing to play, and there's lots of different information all over the screen.

Upside Down Tower by Armored Dragon

The art is nice but I find the control's a little clanky and unresponsive a few times

Vaccine Maze by Lucas Poeiras

This was short and simple, I wish it was more fleshed out

Weapon Master by DreadedDruid

My attacks didn't seem to do anything, and the first door was locked presumably needing a green key, that I could not find, I'm confused as how to play this game.

Whack (only) the Mole by awlred

this was sort and simple, wish the levels where longer and the gameplay was a little faster as it went on

Wizard's Pub Crawl by Siolfor The Jackal
youtube.com/watch?v=Gbra-rKXzk4

This is probably my favorite point and click game, Didn't really see the use of the theme unless the rules are drink booze eat food and shoot fools, in that case its a 10/10
Final score of 9990

YOUR RULES by Gravedust and Tomato

I really like fast pace bullet hells like this, Wish the time limit was longer and there was more to the rules like maybe they changed or something, fun game anyway
 
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Sk8dududu

Member
Reviews

Top 3:

Igor by Ninety
Really great game, honestly can't think of much that could have been improved upon given the circumstances of a game time frame. Story is simple and really good. Great animations. The idea of turning on and off game mechanics certainty isn't new, but the way you did it works very well.

Inconvenience Store by TehPilot
Really beautiful game, honestly I can't even think of anything to improve on it. I enjoyed everything from the music to the art, and to the simple and great gameplay.

Morning Commute by Yothebob
I really loved this entry, and it stood out for me right from the first time I saw that screenshot. The retro morning sunset is so cool, although the art is pretty choppy, it still works. I may be biased because of texting and driving every day, or because I actually planned to make a game very similar before, but it's my rating so I can judge it how I want. lol
But even staying as objective as possible, this game is really great, and learning to juggle the controls was enjoyable.

Best ofs:

Best use of Theme: Three Rules Make a Riddle by Ghandpivot
Best Concept: Morning Commute by Yothebob
Best Presentation: Trichotomy by FrostyCat
Best Story: Igor by Ninety

How/why guide to my rankings in the spoiler below.
FYI, I played these Jam games how I play and enjoy all games. Fast af. Which I understand isn't how everyone plays and people enjoy different things in games and people also may rate differently by trying to be as objective as possible. I tried that in the first jam, and I just didn't enjoy it because I had to do stuff in games that I don't enjoy by trying to be objective.

So this is my subjective personal list of how I rank the games. Which included me not reading anything that wasn't shoved in my face, but also getting annoyed at anything the game tried to tell me, because I'm a strong independent man, and I don't ask for directions. 😅
And speedrunning essentially, I hate game lore, and I wanna go fast. So if running past everything broke the game then I didn't see past that, with the exception of puzzle games, which I play pretty normally. Lol

I'm sorry to anyone this may frustrate or upset, I'm just trying to enjoy the jam as much as I can and not have it feel like work. And I hope no ones feelings were hurt, because if I ranked you low, you can just blame it on the fact that I play games like a psychopath and don't understand things. ❤

Full ranking:

  1. Igor by Ninety
  2. Inconvenience Store by TehPilot
  3. Morning Commute by Yothebob
  4. Nod Zombies by BigDallas
  5. PUSH by Toque
  6. The Faults in our Code by Evanski, CloakedGames and Joseph Ellis
  7. MEGADOME by The M
  8. Snakes on a Plain by Richerama
  9. Grow A Plant by Poizen
  10. A Game for 8 Colors by DEGLIS
  11. HookLab by Lambda
  12. Subside by HyprBlu
  13. Break! (don't brake) by Kalzme
  14. Mage's Quest by Calepiaro
  15. They Bleed Red Too by SoapSud39
  16. Night Of The Winning Dead by Pat Ferguson
  17. Robber Rules! by KPJ
  18. Cannibal Rules by ZombieLawyer
  19. Trichotomy by FrostyCat
  20. Coco Cards Casino by GameDevDan and NAL
  21. Weapon Master by DreadedDruid
  22. Upside Down Tower by Armored Dragon
  23. Three Nights Of Knights by chris24
  24. YOUR RULES by Gravedust and Tomato
  25. Wizard's Pub Crawl by Siolfor The Jackal
  26. Whack (only) the Mole by awlred
  27. Three Rules Make a Riddle by Ghandpivot
  28. Robo Royale by bandman28 and Josh Chen
  29. Out of the Square by ericossiqueira and Benjamim
  30. Conquer and DRILL by Cpsy1714
  31. Vaccine Maze by Lucas Poeiras
  32. The ritual by finh2003
  33. Rush, Kill, Repeat by filiprb
  34. Coco Bombs by Adam Games
  35. Spielcomm 2020 by Bart
  36. Guess Who Hostage Rescue by Mightyjor
  37. 1000 Rules To Live by by Wooshdude
  38. Collect Build Kill by Lukan
  39. Three Rules Standing by Alice and Mercerenies
  40. Color Wars by Rui Rosario
  41. Fishy Clicker by sylvain_I
  42. Rules of the Rhinoceros by Yal
  43. Fire Realm by Red Phantom
  44. You Only Have 3 Minutes by Evanski

Comments:

1000 Rules To Live by by Wooshdude

Okie dokie, so I played for like 15 seconds, turned into a hotdog and the game crashed. With so much health you can just run past everything without any fear of dying. I see no incentive to kill enemies.

A Game for 8 Colors by DEGLIS

A bit too complex for my brain as a non artist. lol
I just randomly put down blocks of different colours until it made white which would destroy the entire row, so it was pretty difficult to actually lose even if you just play based on pure chance. Unique game though.

Break! (don't brake) by Kalzme

Dope idea. I like how my first instinct was to avoid pedestrians, but no, extra points. lmao. Crashing causes you to start over from the beginning of the game which kind of sucks because there is a level later on where if you don't go the right speed, you get put in a position where you can't even switch lanes to avoid both cars, automatically causing you to crash with no way to prevent it without knowing before hand.

Cannibal Rules by ZombieLawyer

Great idea, not sure the execution is really there. Most outcomes to the decisions are completely random or even give the opposite effect of what it says should happen. And with only a handful of situations, you quickly learn what you're supposed to allow or not allow, and the game just goes seemingly forever without any risk of losing.

Coco Bombs by Adam Games

Didn't really understand this game. Lot's of graphical errors. I completely missed the 3 rules because when it says press any key, I pressed a key and it skipped through like 4 messages.
Art style is strange.

Coco Cards Casino by GameDevDan and NAL

Enjoyed the art and the feel of the game. I don't like games of chance and I couldn't really find any particular way to ensure you win based on skill. I just flipped over random cards after selecting random outcomes to get a random amount of points until I or my opponent randomly won. Lol
But, that said there is a ton of people that play slot machines so maybe I just don't understand this type of game and I'm missing out.

Collect Build Kill by Lukan

About 3 seconds after launching the game, I click on a tree and the game crashes. lol
So umm, yeah. It seems to be a rock collecting game.

Color Wars by Rui Rosario

Took me awhile to figure out I could shoot, thought it was just a survival game. umm yeah, idek what to say, it's a game.

Conquer and DRILL by Cpsy1714

Took me way too long to figure out what I was meant to do, and once started, I didn't really understand the point of it. lol

Fire Realm by Red Phantom

Should really put a seizure warning at the beginning of this, hot damn. I'm not even sure what's going on, I was reading the rules and it just threw me into a room with blinding, yellow flashing lights.

Fishy Clicker by sylvain_I

I was super excited to see a clicker game, and even more excited by the limited Gameboy palette. This is hardly a game though. I mean you can try for a highscore, but there isn't even a way to know if your score is good. 500 fish and I give up bruh.

Grow A Plant by Poizen

Cool concept, with nowhere for the water to flow it doesn't really leave for many possible solutions and I really only found 1 for each level. Which is ok, but it made figuring them out very difficult because of the strange way the water interacts with everything else.

Guess Who Hostage Rescue by Mightyjor

Isn't really any incentive to go fast. I've seen almost this exact game in a jam before, and it's a really cool idea. But endless games only work in the game is too hard to continue.

HookLab by Lambda

Really neat puzzle game. Quite obvious what needs to be done and how to do it without having to explain everything to the player which I really like. None of the settings worked. Credits had seemingly no way to exit. (until I pressed many, many buttons on my keyboard). Input does nothing, and the sound doesn't change the sound of the hookshot in the game, which is by default obnoxiously loud. These are of course minor things in the scope of the game. And I really enjoyed playing this grid puzzle.

Igor by Ninety

Really great game, honestly can't think of much that could have been improved upon given the circumstances of a game jam time frame.

Inconvenience Store by TehPilot

Really beautiful game, honestly I can't even think of anything to improve on it. I enjoyed everything from the music to the art, and to the simple and great gameplay.

Mage's Quest by Calepiaro

Neat platformer, quickly loses any enjoyment though once you figure out the pattern. Also some issues with falling through platforms when I picked up gems.

MEGADOME by The M

At first I didn't really like it because of the overwhelming controls right off the bat, but playing a few rounds it became quite easy. Very neat game.

Morning Commute by Yothebob

I always enjoy strategy/puzzle games for jam entries and this one is no exception.
The simplicity is great, everyone knows how to play rock, paper, scissors.
But I really would have liked some more synergy opportunities, seeing as at the moment there is none.
You can really tell that a lot of effort was put into making the game look and feel polished, and as great as that is, some more in-depth mechanics
to really make you think about your placement would have been invaluable.

And there's no doubt that there is 3 very simple and literal rules to fit with the theme.

Night Of The Winning Dead by Pat Ferguson

I didn't really understand this game, kind of felt like lemmings almost. But honestly I couldn't figure out what to do to beat the first level. I appreciate being able to skip the cinematic cutscene though in the beginning. Not enough games do that. lol

Nod Zombies by BigDallas

Pretty cool, I really like all the ambient sounds and the ending sound, "And you're DEAD". lmao.
Pretty cool, couldn't really see anyway to continue to get health other than that 1 time. which is ok. Also couldn't get past $110. Decent game.

Out of the Square by ericossiqueira and Benjamim

Literally no idea what the heck is going on. I played for about 30 seconds just rolling to the end of the room, ended up outside and thousands of smiley faces landed on me, one area of the screen started going black and then the game just shut off without any text or any idea why. lol
Movement was kind of weird, starts off super slow then you reach like supersonic speeds if you just hold right and up.

PUSH by Toque

Funny little game. Sad my icon wasn't included :( Lmao. Some problems were if I was pushing a stack of 2 blocks, sometimes it would just kill me for seemingly no reason. ( probably just the top one was on top of my collision box even though its not falling). And the grim reaper would just toss the boxes off the ledge sometimes. And the play button in the beginning is still interactable when its invisible in the start. Pretty fun game though, and could actually make a cool lil mobile game lol.

Robber Rules! by KPJ

Neat puzzle game that could have been cool as an endless runner. Apart from some slight visual / audio glitches it seemed pretty polished. I enjoyed playing it for a bit. Maybe a bit too much lore in the beginning, but some people might be into that.

Robo Royale by bandman28 and Josh Chen

Not really sure what the challenge is, kind of just started the game, pressed space a few times and won like 5 seconds later and every time I'm just asked to do it again.

Rules of the Rhinoceros by Yal

This game kind of gave me a headache. The shaking in multiple directions mixed with really fuzzy art work was really not enjoyable for me. Too hectic, and not in a good way. I can understand that you went for something unique, and maybe there is an audience for it, but it's just not me.

Rush, Kill, Repeat by filiprb

Impossible without trial and error, I killed a few enemies and then ran out of time because the rest of there were hiding.

And maybe that was deliberate, which is perfectly ok. It just didn't click with me.

Snakes on a Plain by Richerama

Probably one of the best endless runners that I've played to date. The fact that it was made during a jam makes it even more impressive. Simplicity, comedy. It's a solid entry. Getting the jump dash down was kind of tricky because the hitbox was quite small.

Spielcomm 2020 by Bart

Could have been really cool, not very fun though. First time I play I accidentally walk out of bounds in a few seconds, unable to get back into the game I'm just standing in a sea of polygons. Second time I play, I go a different direction down a long hallway which is a dead end. Third time I play I get into the large open area which I was meant to go to, (without any indication of progression) stood there for like 30 seconds and lost because I didn't find a new mask. Didn't see any masks anywhere.

Subside by HyprBlu

Really great platformer, quite a long game with lots of different enemies. Overall I enjoyed playing it, but nothing in particular stood out as innovative. Still, solid jam entry.

The Faults in our Code by Evanski, CloakedGames and Joseph Ellis

Fantastic game taking inspiration from multiple works of films and games. I love these moral / objective judgement games. The only issue I find with this one is that you don't get any feedback as to if you made the correct choice or not. As well some of the entrants simply don't have a correct choice, as it would create a paradox choosing either, leaving it to subjective choice. Games like papers please work with these paradox's by only have 1 right answer, but allowing you to still succeed if you choose the wrong answer.
Not sure if that really makes sense or not. Still, the idea was there. Just didn't feel refined enough to be enjoyable without understanding the moral judgement of the person who made the game and feedback of decisions and their impact on the ending.
The ritual by finh2003

Interesting game idea, but it was very broken. Pressing right click would bring everyone back to life and you couldn't kill them, then switching rooms would make enemies in the new room not killable.

They Bleed Red Too by SoapSud39

Kind of a cool opening. I dislike un-skippable cut scenes in games though. A stealthy little platformer, not bad.

Three Nights Of Knights by chris24

Door says to "save more knights" no idea what that means, I assume its to kill the enemies, killing every enemy doesn't open the door either. So logic would dictate that I have to collect all the treasure since I just skipped all of the chests, and I cant be asked to do that. lol

I'd just like to also point out this was my bad for the first statement in the op.

Three Rules Make a Riddle by Ghandpivot

Neat game, some clues would have been helpful as there was a few I couldn't get. I'm always down for a good riddle/crossword. Doesn't really feel like much of a game without some mechanic to it though.

Three Rules Standing by Alice and Mercerenies

Pressed every button I could, just ran around on and off screen, and talk to "mom" and "dad". Nothing else I could figure out, and the rules were completely cropped off my screen. So maybe there was more I couldn't see, but yeah.

Trichotomy by FrostyCat

I really enjoy puzzle games during a game jam, and this one is no exception. I jumped into it quite excited. And absolutely loved how polished the whole game looked and felt. But it was remarkably slow and I had really hoped for some kind of synergy with the piece placement but really there wasn't any. I still enjoyed playing it a couple of times through, and maybe this would be a neat mini game for something else, but it's just too slow and there isn't really any planning ahead to outsmart anyone that can be done.

Vaccine Maze by Lucas Poeiras

Just like to put this out there, masks don't protect you from getting a virus, they protect other people from getting it from you. That said this game is ok, kind of hard to avoid being hit when these assholes just jump into the camera view and sneeze in your face. Also I got stuck in a wall for a couple of seconds.

Weapon Master by DreadedDruid

Great idea and art, didn't feel great to play. Often my character wouldn't look in the direction that I was walking so I couldn't even attack in the right direction, having to walk backwards to attack. Which from what I can tell, does nothing except freeze them momentarily. So I resorted to just getting all the enemies to follow me out of the way so I could walk past. Didn't feel very fun.

Whack (only) the Mole by awlred

Interesting game. I'm not really a fan of games that have like 300 button combinations without any like introduction into it. Starting off slow and working your way up to that kind of curve instead of just jumping right into using the whole keyboard x3.

Wizard's Pub Crawl by Siolfor The Jackal

Honestly not really sure what I'm doing, grabbed as much alcohol and junk food as I could since that's what I do during a pub crawl, by the end of the room the curser was jumping from 1 side of the room to the other in a split second with no way of controlling it, but the health is so incredibly high that I couldn't die.

You Only Have 3 Minutes by Evanski

ok. Tried a lot of things to see if there was some game in here, and if there is something hidden then I'm too dumb to find it. But I did press every button on the keyboard and I found out there is a button that resets my computer. So that's neat. I tried typing certain phrases like "Three Minute Timer" "Three Simple Rules" to find a true ending.

YOUR RULES by Gravedust and Tomato

I love bullet hells, and it was fun to play. Pretty short. More enemy types would have been cool. And I noticed that a lot of your assets and even code was premade. Definitely an enjoyable entry and a twist in a game is always dope.
 
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D

DEGLIS

Guest
Reservarooski.
Imma try to review all of the them. Prolly not tho.

Full rankings tba:

6/45
A fun, cheeky subversion of the jam theme., where you're encouraged to break the 3 simple rules rather than follow them. The art was really pleasant and clear. The sound felt high quality and mixed really well, although I would have liked a few more sound effects (sfx for changing lanes, or accelerating, for example). The only gripe I have with the gameplay is that as you move vertically, you have much less time to react to oncoming cars than you do when traveling horizontally, resulting in sometimes unfair deaths. I also would have preferred if crashing into a car had more audio-visual feedback. As it is, it just hardcuts to the title screen, which is kinda awkward. Maybe lingering on for a few more seconds with a sprite of the cars burning would have felt better. But overall, the game was really well-rounded, and enjoyable.
Not too bad considering you made the game in only 4 hours lol. The idea is decent. The Red beats Blue beats Green beats Red mechanic was kinda hard to remember. I ended up just spamming random colors, which turned out to not be that bad of a strategy. I feel like simplifing the mechanics to 2 colors would make the gameplay feel a lot sharper (although I suppose it wouldn't fit the Jam Theme would it?) The difficulty curve is kinda silly. After about a minute, the game goes from 1-2 enemies on screen to an absolute hive. I'm sure you would've fixed this if given more time, but it was still pretty funny. Pretty alright overall, would have liked to see what you could make if given more time.
Sorry, man. I really just can't figure this one out. Whenever I declare war and order my units to attack something, they just get run over and do nothing. There is no in-game tutorial, and I feel like the Itch.io instructions don't give me enough information. I keep clicking different buttons but nothing seems to happen. Every time I create an army, the army has no planes, soldiers, or tanks. I'm sure there is a reason for this but I couldn't find it explained anywhere. Maybe some audio-visual feedback would make the mechanics a lot more clear, and I think an in-game tutorial is a must. I will say that it's pretty ambitious to make a strategy game for a game jam; not many people go for that. Also, I liked the tongue-in-check attitude towards western empiricism (You conquer other nations by 'Liberating them' which is pretty funny.) Unfortunately, very little in this game makes sense to me. Sorry.

I also don't understand why the voice acting is in a Russian accent when we are supposed to be the Americans. lol
I love the aesthetic, incredibly psychedelic and creative. I can tell a lot of effort was put into the little details to make this game feel unique. The concept was also pretty interesting. It reminds me of the game 'Fingered!' by Edmund McMillen. The biggest criticism I can give is that I think the clues, as they are, make the game too easy. Sometimes you only need like 1-2 clues to find the hostage. I think that introducing 'negative' clues (i.e. the hostages DOESN'T have red hair, or DOESN'T have blue eyes) would've made things more interesting. You could also maybe make more clues based on things not related to their appearance., like their position on the screen or position relative to others, for instance. Overall, an interesting gameplay idea that was a little too easy with a rather impressive aesthetic.

Great name btw.
A decent attempt to add a new spin on the endless runner genre. However, a few mechanical things keep the the game from clicking with me. Firstly, since the position of the platforms and the angle at which the grim reaper fires are random, it inevitably will force you into a situation where you will either have to take damage or have to go into the lava, which is pretty unfair. Secondly, platforming feels a little stiff. Many times the avatar would fail to jump even when I felt like they should have. In more advanced platformers, you are given a small period of time after you walk off of a platform to make a jump. This makes platforming feel more fair and responsive, and I think it would have been a great addition to this game. I will given special accomodations to the presentation, as it gave off a really nice mood. I was especially impressed by that idle animation at the beginning.
Yeah, this is kind of genius. This game feels like chess or go in that mathematicians and logicians could study for decades and still create new theories over. The tactical potential is really fascinating. There were many brilliant 'A-Ha!' moments where a new nuance of the mechanics revealed itself through me or my opponent's moves.
As for things that can be improved, I feel like the advantage for making the first move is too great. I think this advantage could be mitigated by giving the other player an extra starting piece, or by making the first a non-attacking piece only. I also think that the ability to strategize would increase exponentially if you could see more of the preview pieces (maybe 3). Strategy games become really brilliant when you can think 3+ moves ahead, which isn't really possible when you can only see 1 preview piece at a time.
The presentation was cool and crisp; it really put me in the mood to do some thinking. Overall, a fantastic entry and an easy contender for best of concept and best of the jam.
 
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Mightyjor

Member
Reviews

Top 3:

Igor by Ninety
I really liked everything about this game. It's probably my fave of the jam so far! Beautiful pixel art, great mechanics, and I'm always shocked when someone can work up a good puzzle for a puzzle game in a jam. Great job!


The Faults in our Code by Evanski, CloakedGames and Joseph Ellis
I really liked the beautiful art and cool music. It's a super cool premise and I'm glad it generates lots of different looking cool robots.
I think it could improve by adding a little more "puzzle" to the game. Right now you're really only looking for solid statements of breaking the rules, but maybe if there were like 8-10 robots that interacted with each other you could observe behaviours in action that might be more subtle. Also I didn't know if I got the answers wrong or right.


HookLab by Lambda
I really liked the fun puzzle mechanics. Love that you took a hookshot and made it into its own game. It works great in a puzzle format
I think it could improve with some extra sound/music and some lighting to punch up the game feel.


Best ofs:

Best use of : Igor by Ninety
Best Concept: Igor by Ninety
Best Presentation: The Faults in our Code by Evanski, CloakedGames and Joseph Ellis
Best Story: Snakes on a Plain by Richerama
Best Devlog: Night Of The Winning Dead by Pat Ferguson

I tried to say something I liked and something that could have been improved on each game as well as some ideas if you wanted to turn your concept into a full game if I had any (though take all of these with a pinch of salt as you are the artist) Overall I had a ton of fun and thanks for all your feedback!)

Full ranking:

  1. Igor by Ninety
  2. The Faults in our Code by Evanski, CloakedGames and Joseph Ellis
  3. HookLab by Lambda
  4. Snakes on a Plain by Richerama
  5. Night Of The Winning Dead by Pat Ferguson
  6. Rules of the Rhinoceros by Yal
  7. Coco Cards Casino by GameDevDan and NAL
  8. Trichotomy by FrostyCat
  9. Subside by HyprBlu
  10. Three Rules Make a Riddle by Ghandpivot
  11. Grow A Plant by Poizen
  12. YOUR RULES by Gravedust and Tomato
  13. Break! (don't brake) by Kalzme
  14. Inconvenience Store by TehPilot
  15. Morning Commute by Yothebob
  16. A Game for 8 Colors by DEGLIS
  17. Robo Royale by bandman28 and Josh Chen
  18. Weapon Master by DreadedDruid
  19. Three Rules Standing by Alice and Mercerenies
  20. The ritual by finh2003
  21. Robber Rules! by KPJ
  22. Mage's Quest by Calepiaro
  23. Wizard's Pub Crawl by Siolfor The Jackal
  24. MEGADOME by The M
  25. PUSH by Toque
  26. They Bleed Red Too by SoapSud39
  27. Fire Realm by Red Phantom
  28. Lava Jamp by sk8dududu
  29. Rush, Kill, Repeat by filiprb
  30. Whack (only) the Mole by awlred
  31. Cannibal Rules by ZombieLawyer
  32. Color Wars by Rui Rosario
  33. 1000 Rules To Live by by Wooshdude
  34. Upside Down Tower by Armored Dragon
  35. Three Nights Of Knights by chris24
  36. Nod Zombies by BigDallas
  37. Vaccine Maze by Lucas Poeiras
  38. Coco Bombs by Adam Games
  39. Collect Build Kill by Lukan
  40. Fishy Clicker by sylvain_I
  41. Spielcomm 2020 by Bart
  42. Out of the Square by ericossiqueira and Benjamim
  43. Conquer and DRILL by Cpsy1714
  44. You Only Have 3 Minutes by Evanski

Comments:

1000 Rules To Live by by Wooshdude

I really liked the cool cowboy theme and music. Character animation following your mouse was great too.
I think it could improve some of the game design and enemy design choices. The power ups can really destroy and progress by halving your health for example. The enemy skeletons also shoot way to fast to be able to dodge. Usually bigger and slower bullets for the enemies is more fun in a game like this I think, but it's your game so don't listen to me if you like it how it is!


A Game for 8 Colors by DEGLIS

I really liked the art style and screen transitions were very calming. Puzzle mechanics were really great.
I think it could improve with a little more help to know what colors are primary, secondary, etc. Like a little guide for beginners. I honestly don't know which colors oppose each other and got a lot of black colors because of it.


Break! (don't brake) by Kalzme

Lots of fun! Though you basically have to be able to predict the future in order to win because you can't make any corrections (though this is basically the point of the game). Love the art style.

Cannibal Rules by ZombieLawyer

Reigns style game. Pretty great! Would love some more consequences for bad actions reflected in the story, but I understand that's probably a lots of work to create in a short amount of time.

Coco Bombs by Adam Games

I really liked the look and feel of it, espcially how it felt like a multiplayer.
I think it could improve the animations which felt a bit choppy, likely due to lack of time.


Coco Cards Casino by GameDevDan and NAL

I really liked the artwork, presentation, music, mechanics of the game and story as you're trying to beat all of these guys. I'm blown away that you were able to get all of this done in 3 days.
I think it could improve the mechanics of the game which appear to be very luck based. Is there a strategy to winning? Maybe I just don't get it…


Collect Build Kill by Lukan

I really liked the concept of building and crafting to survive in a pixelated world. Music was very relaxing.
I think it could improve the communication with the player. It was tough to know what to do. Also I kept dying when I pressed the space bar, not sure why.


Color Wars by Rui Rosario

I really liked the rock paper scissors like way of playing through. I could see this working really well in a space invaders type format where blocks were stacked up and you had a puzzle element in finding out where to hit first to cause the most damage.
I think it could improve with a few obvious things, sound being the main one and also character sprites. This would work great with some pretty lighting effects.


Conquer and DRILL by Cpsy1714

I really liked the map design and the concept of balancing resources
I think it could improve the text on the top being very difficult to read and some kind of notification to let you know you're running low on resources.


Fire Realm by Red Phantom

I really liked the enemies were very cool looking
I think it could improve with a bit more attention to the impact of the fire hits as well as a bit less health for some of the early enemies. Sometimes it just felt like too much.


Fishy Clicker by sylvain_I

I really liked the color palette that made it look a lot like an old game boy game
I think it could improve with some additional things to click of modifiers to the amounts that are clicked. I think that's one of the main draws of clicker games is that constant feeling of improvement which is missing right now.


Grow A Plant by Poizen

I really liked the puzzle design which would make for a great mobile game.
I think it could improve with a more clear way of knowing how your plant could get enough water. Also I ran into a bug on level 2 that froze the game when the water broke.


Guess Who Hostage Rescue by Mightyjor

Can't rate my own game, but I am quite proud of it, even if the difficulty could definitely be ramped up with a little more time.

HookLab by Lambda

I really liked the fun puzzle mechanics. Love that you took a hookshot and made it into its own game. It works great in a puzzle format
I think it could improve with some extra sound/music and some lighting to punch up the game feel.


Igor by Ninety

I really liked everything about this game. It's probably my fave of the jam so far! Beautiful pixel art, great mechanics, and I'm always shocked when someone can work up a good puzzle for a puzzle game in a jam. Great job!


Inconvenience Store by TehPilot

I really liked the fun way the store was presented and getting a single moving space was great. The art style was really cool and unique as well.
I think it could improve the way the people move in the store. It's difficult to predict where they're going to go and how fast.


Lava Jamp by sk8dududu

I really liked the artwork, especially the devil, death and hearts were awesome.
I think it could improve the general gameplay. It can be very difficult to jump over a projectile coming from behind you moving forward, especially when the only way to dodge it leads you directly into a lava pit. Also, the speed ups would be better placed on a longer platform so you don't immediately speed off into lava.


Mage's Quest by Calepiaro

I really liked the fun different powers you got, like a really compact metroidvania game!
I think it could improve with a little more direction. It took awhile for me to figure out how to find the second one and only stumbled on it by accident. Maybe the was the point though? Anyway, very cute art and great game.


MEGADOME by The M

I really liked the 3D artwork and the concept of upgrading your ship
I think it could improve the enemies being very difficult to hit with the lasers and some more user feedback to let you know when you have enough to buy an upgrade and when your boost is recharged again.


Morning Commute by Yothebob

I really liked the multitasking was incredibly stressful. Also a very fun theme.
I think it could improve that it's very difficult to judge how close to a car you are even with the phone down. That and you slow down so fast that it's almost impossible to keep a good distance. Also, obligatory don't text and drive. Also obligatory you need to break up with your girlfriend if she is like this.


Night Of The Winning Dead by Pat Ferguson

I really liked the beautiful artwork, amazing cutscenes, and some really cool effects that made me stratch my head wondering how those happened. I'm going to have to look up some tutorials!
I think it could improve the instructions in the game. I didn't really understand how to play…and I didn't see any kind of instructions or tutorial besides telling me what to do and not how to do it.


Nod Zombies by BigDallas

I really liked that the character can just pick up money cars. Also, what is he injecting into himself??
I think it could improve with a change to the color palette and some additional features, possibly upgrades.


Out of the Square by ericossiqueira and Benjamim

I really liked the physics based movement which felt great
I think it could improve the consequences for poor actions. Maybe I missed it, but it didn't feel like there was any consequence for breaking the rules. Also I didn't see any objective, I assume there was an endpoint you were trying to get to though.


PUSH by Toque

I really liked the hilarious character animation/design and that you just push off the edge all of the people in the jam. Also the opening cutscene was fantastic.
I think it could improve with a little more sound.


Robber Rules! by KPJ

Very cool game! I really enjoyed the art style and the clear rules. It got a bit too fast too quick for me and my old man reflexes couldn't get anywhere close to beating level 3.

Robo Royale by bandman28 and Josh Chen

I really liked the fun gameplay that felt like a mix between smash TV and a tower defense game.
I think it could improve by adding more variety to the levels and enemies. A multiplayer would be great too!


Rules of the Rhinoceros by Yal

I really liked the art style and there were a lot of little effects that were amazing.
I think it could improve by changing the money hurts you and enemies come back rules. They really killed the game the moment I got them…enemies come back flooded the whole screen with them and money ends up everywhere, especially when those 2 are together. It wouldn't be so bad except for everytime you get hurt you fly across the screen which can be very frustrating.


Rush, Kill, Repeat by filiprb

I really liked the cool lighting effects and that the blood covers the floor as you move. Gun shots really pack a punch too.
I think it could improve with a smaller UI on the bottom. I died more than once from being rushed from below where I couldn't see the bad guys coming. It seems like if you spawn near them, they'll all rush you at once and there's not much you can do. Also it seemed a bit too dark.


Snakes on a Plain by Richerama

I really liked the cool 3D look and the personality of the fox who runs alongside you. Every bit of dialogue was really fun and made it an enjoyable experience. I think it does get a little bit repetitive after awhile, so different levels or a change of scenery might be good if making a full game.

Spielcomm 2020 by Bart

The use of 3D in this game was super cool and smooth. I will say though that I didn't really understand what was going on or what I was doing, and it didn't really seem like there was anyway to avoid certain zombies who would crowd a coin.

Subside by HyprBlu

I really liked the smooth game movement and I really dug how the grappling hook just worked without a hitch.
I think it could improve with some changes, mostly to the end boss. I couldn't figure out how to kill it, and I also think some health would help a lot with a boss like that since the only way you can really beat him is to cheese him by clinging to the ceiling. I could see this working well as some kind of metroidvania.


The Faults in our Code by Evanski, CloakedGames and Joseph Ellis

I really liked the beautiful art and cool music. It's a super cool premise and I'm glad it generates lots of different looking cool robots.
I think it could improve by adding a little more "puzzle" to the game. Right now you're really only looking for solid statements of breaking the rules, but maybe if there were like 8-10 robots that interacted with each other you could observe behaviours in action that might be more subtle. Also I didn't know if I got the answers wrong or right.


The ritual by finh2003

I really liked the raise the dead feature. I was a little sad that this wasn't leaned into more as it was really fun. I think instead of being penalized for using it, it should be a required part of the game. I didn't use it at all because I was so scared of the curse.

They Bleed Red Too by SoapSud39

I really liked the artwork, especially the really creepy opening cutscene
I think it could improve the enemies killing you on accident when you're following the rules. Also there's not a lot of user feedback when you've messed something up.


Three Nights Of Knights by chris24

I really liked that you can still whack around a body once you've killed them. It's very satisfying.
I think it could improve with some more level design, objectives, and standard features, a big one being music as well.


Three Rules Make a Riddle by Ghandpivot

I really liked the presentation, especially the font choices and fluid mechanics
I think it could improve with some extra help, particularly a clue system of some sort. It almost feels like you're trying to read the developers mind on some of them.


Three Rules Standing by Alice and Mercerenies

I really liked the tricky puzzles.
I think it could improve with a little more explanation of some of the rules further down. I didn't really understand a lot of what it was. There were also spots where I think if you ended up in the wrong spot you couldn't progress anymore.


Trichotomy by FrostyCat

I really liked the really well done AI. That can be extremely challenging to get right in a game and this pulls it off very well.
I think it could improve with some additional game modes as well as some other features of gameplay down the road. I know people used to play rock, paper, scissors, dynamite, so maybe that would be a fun extra pickup for playing poorly to help even the odds? Anyway, great job!


Upside Down Tower by Armored Dragon

Love the art and the music. I kept dying on stage 2 and couldn't figure out why. I think maybe the collisions might be off. It can be very hard to judge how far you're going to go.

Vaccine Maze by Lucas Poeiras

I really liked the funny Covid related theme. This felt exactly like everytime I have to go to Walmart.
I think it could improve with some additional TLC, a few collision improvements, music, sprites for the levels, etc.


Weapon Master by DreadedDruid

I really liked the sprites and constantly needing to change weapons to be effective, something a lot of games could do better. Map system is well done too!
I think it could improve with a few minor adjustments. Like the arrow firing closer to the center of the character which seems small except it slightly changes the trajectory when shooting enemies. I would also love if the sword attacked in the direction the mouse was facing rather than the character. It makes you have to always turn around to hit something and can kill the flow of the game.


Whack (only) the Mole by awlred

Very challenging. Easy to understand but difficult to pull off. I like the concept of petting a bunny as a main goal. The only problem was the detection for petting the bunny seemed to be off and I would lose a life even though I could see myself petting it.

Wizard's Pub Crawl by Siolfor The Jackal

I really liked the funny effects when you are sober. Wow that wizard is really an alcoholic and needs some help!
I think it could improve with a little extra care in the enemy animations.


You Only Have 3 Minutes by Evanski

I understand this was probably a joke entry...but why troll your voters? It doesn't even really fit the theme...

YOUR RULES by Gravedust and Tomato

I really liked the artwork. The lighting and particle effects were incredible. There was some great player feedback as well.
I think it could improve the objectives/message. I understand from the notes that it was about more than just shooting enemies, but I didn't really get that through playing. I just felt like a shooter that was too difficult. I think there are probably more clear was of communcating anxiety to the player so that they know there's something deeper to it. But hey, I'm not the artist so you do your thing!
 
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Played all the games. Below are my top 3, then best of, great work everyone!

1st Place - MegaDome by The M
Love the 3D gameplay, the dynamic between trying to fight and upgrade your ship, and that you used the name of people in the jam for the participants in the battle royale. Really cool use of the game jam itself. Well done!

2nd Place - The faults in our Codes by Evanski
Great game. I love the use of the theme with a classic set of rules, Asimov's robotics. Also, the illusion to Blade Runner questioning of robots is superb. Simple but effective, and I enjoyed the graphics and the ability to skip the tutorial if needed.

3rd Place - Subside by HyperBlu- Lots of fun, fast gameplay
Something about a more classical 90s game play feel just has me love it. The radiation damage is a novel take on the classic plat-former that allows for more fun and creates interesting situations.

Best Ofs
They Bleed Red Too by SoapSud39 * Best Concept
Rules of the Rhinoceros by Yal *Best use of Theme
Inconvenience Store by Teh Pilot, *Best Presenation
 
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Selek

Member
I've asked the mods to exclude my game "Tobruk" from voting. I submitted a broken link because I was bone tired at 4:30 a.m., so my entry shouldn't count. More importantly, I forgot to include my splash screen with instructions on how to play my game "Tobruk," which is a complicated wargame that uses an unusual simultaneous-execution "WeGo" system (like that in Ageod games or "War in the Pacific.). You can find the game here if you are still curious, and here are instructions.

1. Left click on any British unit to select it.
2. Left click on any highlighted hex to order the unit to move there during the execution phase. (It won't move til then. That's what confuses people most, I expect.)
3. Repeat for other British units.
4. Hit enter to execute all your moves (and all AI moves) simultaneously. Wait a couple seconds til you see the first move executed.
5. Press spacebar to step through the rest of the execution phase, step-by-step. Best to step through slowly.
6. Repeat.


Otherwise, I'm still reserving this spot to cast my votes on other games.
 
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Anyone playing Weapon Master, please check out how to play off of the itch page, I forgot to add to the game -.-

Reserving spot for my votes!
 

SoapSud39

Member
(11 Sept)
I finally found some time to play through all of the games (or to the extent that it was possible). Since I've been busy and won't have access to my good PC for the next few days (until the 16th or 17th), I only have my top 10 and best-ofs for now. I do have some comments, but I'm only putting effort into the top three and best-ofs. Of course, effort does not denote a good comment either, so don't expect much.

Here are my top three, ranked:
1. Coco Cards Casino by GameDevDan and NAL
This game's really clean. That was probably my first thought when I played it, and in my opinion, it's probably the cleanest game, which is pretty significant considering we were all under time constraints to complete our actual games before worrying about the general feel. It makes good use of the theme and it has a pretty good concept; what else can I say? I'm usually more of a platformer type of guy, so I'm surprised to find myself putting Coco Cards Casino at the top. It's not that the platformers this jam were bad or anything, but I guess they just didn't feel right to me. Maybe I'm just really picky about platformer feel, but that's on me. Anyway, Coco Cards Casino plays really well and it feels good to play, in spite of its totality being relatively simple, and I think that sold it for me. I won't deny that it gets repetitive after a few rounds, but then again that's what you'd expect of a casino-type game. It's all in the excitement of prospects and informed guesses. Music is excellent as well, and the characters are fun.​
2. Igor by Ninety
Igor's also really well made and refined. The concept is also very interesting. The difference between second and first place though, for me, is that while Igor's platforming feeling is solid, it wasn't really excellent or anything (which is understandable, but it factors into my evaluation of the general game feel). It was alright to move around, but just a bit clunky (of course, this is not to say that I would necessarily be able to make a better platformer, but I am judging as a player here). Otherwise, the mechanics and puzzles are really cool and I think very well implemented. Restrictions on these mechanics made for a good usage of the theme and a decently fun puzzle experience. To note, it was a bit disappointing to find that I could cheese one or two of the levels, but I suppose that is the nature of the Jam.​
3. Night of the Winning Dead by Pat Ferguson
I will confess that this game wouldn't have been in my top three favorite games, but given the criteria that I am trying to judge by, I must say that this game is definitely up here. In terms of the overall experience, I can't say that it was as good as some of the other really good games in the jam (for me, anyway), but it also wasn't too unpleasant. It was also kind of disappointing that I couldn't really play it until Pat made a post in the discussion thread with instructions (for I am still young). However, as I made my way through some levels, I was thoroughly impressed that this game was made in four days or fewer. The mechanics are very cool and gameplay is very clean, in spite of the fact that it didn't entirely suit my preferences. Overall, a very magnificent game that may very well have ended up second place for me if not for the instructions issue. Also, it didn't follow the theme, but, I mean, which game actually had "three simple rules"?​

Here are my number 4 through 10, in alphabetical order:
(unfortunately, these are unranked since I couldn't bring myself to do so. therefore, these are just the games I thought were also really good, up to tenth place, with a short comment for each)
Inconvenience Store by TehPilot
Really clean in terms of gameplay and feel. I really liked the music and aural feedback, as well as the style of the ui. The art style of the game world itself was, however, a little unclear and confusing at times.​
Subside HyprBlu
I like the feel of Subside a lot, but some particulars of the mechanics, I feel, are a little clunky. Just a bit. I think if it had been more refined it would have made my top three.​
The Faults in our Code by Evanski, CloakedGames, and Joseph Ellis
The concept is really good and I liked the dialogue quite a bit. My main complaint is that the writing of the text is a bit messy, both in terms of layout and syntax. The character variety is also very fun.​
Three Rules Make a Riddle by Ghandpivot
This was also a very clean game, for the most part. I liked the implementation of three rules into each riddle. The reason it didn't rank even higher is probably because of it's overall simplicity and the fact that it kind of looks like a mobile game (no offense, but I don't really like those).​
Three Rules Standing by Alice and Mercerenies
Lots of content. Quantity's not everything, but a lot of quality content is very good. I'm also a sucker for games with stories, no matter how simple, so it's nice that the story was prevalent throughout the game. The puzzles were also very excellent.​
Trichotomy by FrostyCat
I also like the feel of this game (in a similar way that I like Coco Cards Casino), as well as the utilization of the classic rock-paper-scissors rules. The interactions between adjacent pieces is really cool, and as much as I would have liked older pieces to keep interacting every time a piece turned, the current amount of interaction allows for good control of the situation and strategy where applicable.​
YOUR RULES by Gravedust and Tomato
It's not much of a game, as Gravedust notes, but what is there has a really good game feel. The music and aural feedback are really clean as well. I really appreciate the bit that was included at the end, and I think that part is really neat.​

Here are my best-of categories:
Best-ofs:
Theme: You Only Have 3 Minutes by Evanski
Ironically, this was created for the theme that was not chosen: Three Minute Timer. However, I still think, though inadvertently, this 'game' follows the theme the closest, and through its utilization of the theme, it allows players to experience feelings like anticipation. To my understanding, though it was not really made clear to the player at first, the three rules are:​
1. the game lasts for three minutes (at any rate, when the game itself begins, after Evanski's splash screen)​
2. every 60 frames (variable depending on the game speed), one second of those three minutes is lost​
3. after three minutes, the game ends​
In my experience, when the player does not know the third rule, or has the supposition that there might be a hidden fourth rule, a feeling of anticipation is created. This feeling of anticipation is entirely unwarranted by the actual rules of the game, and has no reason to exist, and yet did exist for many of us on our first playthrough, and that is why I have ranked this game to have the best use of theme. Furthermore, there are (almost) truly only three rules. If there is a fourth or fifth, or any number of extraneous rules, they are much much fewer than those of any other game in this jam.​

Concept: Igor by Ninety
Maybe it's because I have a tendency to like platformers, and maybe it's because of my newfound respect for puzzle games (well, I've always thought them interesting) this jam, but I give best concept to Igor because of its utilization of puzzle elements within a platformer game. This utilization is also non-diegetic and metaphysical within the game world, making the puzzle aspect really clean. There were a lot of good concepts this jam, but I feel like Igor both has a really good one and is able to present it really well.​

Presentation: Coco Cards Casino by GameDevDan and NAL
The game is presented as what it was meant to be: a casino-style game; nothing more, nothing less. Without a doubt, the fact that the game is very clean factors into my judgement of its presentation. While not inherently the best or funnest game, the utilization of its concept is very well-done, and it is able to present the game feel suitable to the type of game that it is. Namely, a significant instance is the rush of the guess and luck.​

Story: The Faults in our Code by Evanski, CloakedGames, and Joseph Ellis
While not as well-developed as in a game like Three Rules Standing or (arguably) mine (lol), I give best story to The Faults in our Code because I recognize the literary thematic merit that it holds. As someone who studies literature (albeit in undergrad), I have an appreciation for elements of story-telling that are more than just the act of telling a story. Namely, I look for themes and application thereof within the story, and this game did well to utilize the concept of morality. Of course, when we talk about rules, morality undoubtedly comes into play, but the morality that is considered in this game is one that is contingent not on the concept of rules, but on the contents of the rules themselves. Not to mention, the game explores the consequences of ethical decisions and calls into question different considerations like the concept of humanity and personhood, all through its storytelling.​

----

(02 Sept)
No votes for me yet, since I'm busy with school stuff, but I've been looking through comments on my game ("They Bleed Red Too").

Here is a slightly updated version (via Google Drive) in case you want to have a slightly more enjoyable experience, but only after you've tried/judged the jam version, or have given up because the gameplay was too difficult.
Fixes (1.2):
- 60 frame buffer on machines' first bullet, so they don't immediately shoot you when a criminal npc passes by
- wider crosswalk detection on npcs so they don't accidentally collide during a red light
- crosswalk at the top of level 2 is now visible, as well as surrounding machines
- fixed the npc sink on level 2, and added a 40 npc limit on spawn objects to improve performance

Near-future Fixes:
- indication of appearance switch while hiding in shadow
- indication of criminality on player and npcs
- I might make it so that the player changes image xscale mid-air so that platforming is slightly easier
- ability to skip cutscenes (sorry, for those who wanted to but couldn't)
- stop attack when clinging to wall (might do this later though)
- music/voice balance

Planned Features: (originally planned and new ideas)
- ability to throw a rock to distract machines
- normal theft (and money system)
- faster attack (needs testing, and might change some animations, so it's not a near-future fix yet)
- (I'll probably also unfreeze the player during attack)
- ability to deflect bullets
- a third type of machine - flying type that shoots lasers
- glow shader on flying machine wings
- better appearance/level design
- titles for levels
- pre-epilogue cutscene featuring Young Master's death
- pre-epilogue level utilizing machines in the third level
- more levels, probably, and more assassinations per level

A bit about the game (jam theme, lore, etc.):

Obviously, my rules were 'Do not murder,' 'Do not steal,' and 'Do not jaywalk,' but the second one wasn't really apparent in the gameplay. Thematically, identity theft (ie copying an npc's appearance) is the stealing part of the game, but you're not really punished for it. Originally, I wanted a normal theft type of deal, where you didn't have to hide in shadows, and you would get money which you could use at shops to buy stuff. A new appearance, maybe, or I will introduce something to buy later.

Additionally, if you reached the end of the game, it was revealed that there are actually three greater rules: physics and morality, and also the law of the creator. Just a twist for the sake of the narrative and its theme.

A bit about the lore of the world. The characters are all, or all seem to be, demons, and that is on purpose (clearly, or I would've mad them look more human). The character dynamics are as such: Father is the ruler of the world, and he seems to have also created it. He has established his three laws, and he punishes those who disobey, or are caught disobeying. His son is called Young Master, and he guides the player, via tutorial and a few other voice lines. The player is called Servant, and he is an assassin who works for Father and Young Master to kill those who obey the laws but are disrespectful toward Father. The machines on the walls above the crosswalks are THRNs, and the flying machines are CHRBs. Later on, secondary flying machines called SRPMs protect Father's lair at the top of the BB Tower.

At the end of the story, Young Master, repulsed by Father's unjust behavior, attempts to usurp the throne, and he enlists Servant's help, but Father sweeps them off the tower (omitted from the game). During the fall, Young Master perishes when he crashes into a protruding structure, but Servant survives when he lands on an innocent passerby. For some reason, whether to have vengeance for Young Master or just to confront Father for whatever unfinished business, Servant makes his way back up the side of the hill (on which the tower is situated) and up the BB Tower again, this time labeled as a criminal in the database. When Father tries to destroy Servant, he is stopped by a great power, and it is revealed to be Creator, who seems to have created Father. Because Father has been impersonating Creator, he decides to destroy him.
----
(31 Aug)

I guess I'll reserve a spot right now??

In the end, I couldn't post my last devlog on the other thread because of the time restriction. But that's okay, it was just my rambling at 5 or 6 in the morning. I also slept through lecture today :( so that's a solid 5% off my final grade (harsh, but whatever).

I guess it's more convenient to have an earlier post, since I won't have to scroll as far later.
 
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kris24

Member
My votes are in!

Played through all the entries, there's some truly amazing ones in there. And many of the games, even ones I didn't rate particularly high, had at least one interesting aspect that made the game fun to play for at least a few minutes, and really at the end of the day, that's what we're here for right?

Ranking 44 games is really difficult...I hope everybody ends up in a place that they are happy with!

EDIT: Updated Best Story nomination - I'm not sure how but I had the wrong game selected for that.

Reviews

Top 3:

Igor by Ninety
Poor Igor has a terrible commute, just saying. Really well done, one of my favorites. And my pick for first, despite perhaps not quite taking full advantage of the 3 rules thing except for a couple levels. The overall polish and little touches is just so nice and the gameplay hits a good balance between being a challenge and yet easy enough to not be overwhelming.

Night Of The Winning Dead by Pat Ferguson
Overall the polish on this is amazing, so I'm a little surprised there wasn't any real sort of tutorial. The levels themselves stepped up the difficulty nicely, so once I figured out what I was supposed to be doing it worked really well. Maybe not super original (I think I played Lemmings once) but here to, the quality of the sound, graphics, and satisfying gameplay make this game one of my top picks.

The Faults in our Code by Evanski, CloakedGames and Joseph Ellis
I laughed at the Papers Please reference. Good game, although there were plenty of times I had no idea what the "right" choice was, or if there even was one in some circumstances. Perhaps not as it seems one possible goal is just to make whatever decisions you need to make to unlock certain achievements. Gameplay wise it wasn't as exciting as other entries, but the smart writing and polished presentation make it a winner for me. This one also makes good use of the famous 3 laws of robotics to fit into the theme, so bonus points for that.

Best ofs:

Best use of : The Faults in our Code by Evanski, CloakedGames and Joseph Ellis
Best Concept: Robo Royale by bandman28 and Josh Chen
Best Presentation: Coco Cards Casino by GameDevDan and NAL
Best Story: Three Rules Standing by Alice and Mercerenies
Best Devlog: ...

Full ranking:

  1. Igor by Ninety
  2. Night Of The Winning Dead by Pat Ferguson
  3. The Faults in our Code by Evanski, CloakedGames and Joseph Ellis
  4. Three Rules Standing by Alice and Mercerenies
  5. Coco Cards Casino by GameDevDan and NAL
  6. MEGADOME by The M
  7. Inconvenience Store by TehPilot
  8. Three Rules Make a Riddle by Ghandpivot
  9. Mage's Quest by Calepiaro
  10. Trichotomy by FrostyCat
  11. Subside by HyprBlu
  12. Grow A Plant by Poizen
  13. HookLab by Lambda
  14. Robber Rules! by KPJ
  15. Rules of the Rhinoceros by Yal
  16. Nod Zombies by BigDallas
  17. Upside Down Tower by Armored Dragon
  18. Fire Realm by Red Phantom
  19. Snakes on a Plain by Richerama
  20. Robo Royale by bandman28 and Josh Chen
  21. PUSH by Toque
  22. The ritual by finh2003
  23. Break! (don't brake) by Kalzme
  24. Cannibal Rules by ZombieLawyer
  25. They Bleed Red Too by SoapSud39
  26. Weapon Master by DreadedDruid
  27. A Game for 8 Colors by DEGLIS
  28. Lava Jamp by sk8dududu
  29. Rush, Kill, Repeat by filiprb
  30. Morning Commute by Yothebob
  31. 1000 Rules To Live by by Wooshdude
  32. Color Wars by Rui Rosario
  33. Whack (only) the Mole by awlred
  34. Wizard's Pub Crawl by Siolfor The Jackal
  35. Vaccine Maze by Lucas Poeiras
  36. Conquer and DRILL by Cpsy1714
  37. YOUR RULES by Gravedust and Tomato
  38. Spielcomm 2020 by Bart
  39. Coco Bombs by Adam Games
  40. Guess Who Hostage Rescue by Mightyjor
  41. Out of the Square by ericossiqueira and Benjamim
  42. Collect Build Kill by Lukan
  43. Fishy Clicker by sylvain_I
  44. You Only Have 3 Minutes by Evanski

Comments:

1000 Rules To Live by by Wooshdude

Shows promise, I like the theming and the music a lot. Gameplay left something to be desired, but I think just because it seemed very unfinished.

A Game for 8 Colors by DEGLIS

The music was really chill and nice. I had a hard time remembering the right color combinations, but that's all on me being dumb I guess.

Break! (don't brake) by Kalzme

I never quite understood what I was supposed to do, but I held down spacebar and got a lot of points, so I guess that was the right thing to do! The art was nice, the music got a bit repetitive.

Cannibal Rules by ZombieLawyer

Haha, I think this is a little broken - when you lose it just keeps going from the day you were at, as does the music. I like the concept a lot, but there doesn't seem to be much variety to the scenarios and the results seem to be more or less random, making it difficult to actually affect the outcome much. Or so it seems anyway. My favorite thing is probably the sprite for happiness and how it changes with your tribe's mood.

Coco Bombs by Adam Games

Clearly very unfinished, but shows potential. Felt like it would be a very frenetic kind of party game.

Coco Cards Casino by GameDevDan and NAL

Not really much of a card game player, but after one initial round where I was just hugely confused, it started making sense and was quite a bit of fun. There's a surprising amount of strategy once you get into it. The polish on this game is incredible, it doesn't feel like a jam game at all.

Collect Build Kill by Lukan

There seemed to be a lot of game breaking bugs - I kept yeeting my crafting table when trying to put stuff in it. I did try following the instructions in the readme, but had no luck in crafting anything.

Color Wars by Rui Rosario

It’s a good start to a game. Something other than gray for the background would have helped the presentation, I think, and any sound at all would make a big difference too. The particle effects were a nice touch.

Conquer and DRILL by Cpsy1714

Kind of cookie clicker like gameplay for the most part since it's mostly waiting for numbers to get bigger - SA countries are easy enough to take, but the enemy armies quickly balloon to ridiculous sizes. (I see you, powerhouse Australia). The voice acting was a nice touch, but horribly overdriven to the point of distortion. In any case, it's still impressive to pull off any strategy type game in GameMaker, I think.

Fire Realm by Red Phantom

The music was especially good, as was the shooting sound effect. I found the gameplay okay, but not super compelling.

Fishy Clicker by sylvain_I

Not much to say about a clicker game. A better presentation (sound, more exciting graphics) would go a long way toward increasing the fun factor.

Grow A Plant by Poizen

After a little bit of initial confusion I figured it out. Fun little puzzle game, not usually my cup of tea but the quality of the presentation helped keep my interest; the water physics was fun.

Guess Who Hostage Rescue by Mightyjor

Was alright - perhaps a time limit would be a good idea to enforce some urgency, otherwise it's easy to just take your time since the clues give you the exact person you need. I'm just not that big of a fan of the concept though, sorry.

HookLab by Lambda

I have to admit that puzzle games aren't really my favorite, so I got a little tired of it sooner than the quality of the game merited. It's solidly made and as far as I got the puzzles seemed pretty good - the game did a really good job of teaching the mechanics which is so important in games like this. But yeah, not too much to say about it, sorry.

Igor by Ninety

Poor Igor has a terrible commute, just saying. Really well done, one of my favorites. And my pick for first, despite perhaps not quite taking full advantage of the 3 rules thing except for a couple levels. The overall polish and little touches is just so nice and the gameplay hits a good balance between being a challenge and yet easy enough to not be overwhelming.

Inconvenience Store by TehPilot

Really pretty polished for a jam game, the music, art, and overall style pulled together a really nice game.

Lava Jamp by sk8dududu

I hate to say it, but I think it's just too hard. I was barely ever able to get past the first blue thing, even after trying dozens of times. Most of the platforms are just too narrow to allow for any flexibility in timing which you need to avoid the boomerang things...or so it seemed to me anyway.

Mage's Quest by Calepiaro

My best time was 26 seconds. I struggled with timing the jumps just right, a little bit more forgiveness around the jumping at edges of ledges might make it less frustrating. But overall a very good game.

MEGADOME by The M

Wow! This is probably the best 3D game I've seen yet from GameMaker. It was still kind of hard to parse the game, given the low-fi nature of it all, but after dying a half-dozen times I finally managed to win!

Morning Commute by Yothebob

I'm just glad I didn't have to think of actual responses, otherwise I would have crashed even more.

Night Of The Winning Dead by Pat Ferguson

Overall the polish on this is amazing, so I'm a little surprised there wasn't any real sort of tutorial. The levels themselves stepped up the difficulty nicely, so once I figured out what I was supposed to be doing it worked really well. Maybe not super original (I think I played Lemmings once) but here to, the quality of the sound, graphics, and satisfying gameplay make this game one of my top picks.

Nod Zombies by BigDallas

"And you're dead!" ha. Nice, relatively simple game

Out of the Square by ericossiqueira and Benjamim

Uh, well, I'm not sure what happened at the end there, but I made it there. I think I skipped a bunch of the level; there was some boss thing that showed up for a few seconds and then disappeared. The movement was interesting, but 100% annoying haha.

PUSH by Toque

More entertaining than pushing boxes has any right to be.

Robber Rules! by KPJ

Great presentation, from sound design to the art style, all very polished. I couldn't get the timing of button presses down well enough though so I found the game quite difficult.

Robo Royale by bandman28 and Josh Chen

The AI seemed a little broken (seemed to not recognize the player turrets at all, so he'd just get stuck all the time) so I didn't even have time/reason to try the upgrades. But the concept is really cool; it'd be neat to see a more polished version of the idea with multiple opponents and a more competent AI.

Rules of the Rhinoceros by Yal

It was, uh, chaotic, to say the least. Ridiculous, and pretty fun when I got good rulesets. The money hurts/money heals combo I got once was kind of confusing.

Rush, Kill, Repeat by filiprb

I'm not sure if the deadzone for controllers is set properly. I had mine plugged in (but wasn't using it) and wasn't able to progress past the menu because the cursor was stuck at the bottom of the screen. This game is odd, it has a mix of really nice polish and some aggravating design decisions. It's generally way too dark, and the random generation sometimes leads to completely awful combinations. Or enemies right next to you. Or no enemies at all to find and you have to shoot randomly and hope you hit something. But when it does work, and I can actually progress at all instead of dying instantly, the screen is filled with awesome explosions and cool guns and it's way more exciting. There's potential for a good game.

Snakes on a Plain by Richerama

Quentin is nice, super impressed with the pseudo 3D graphics, the gameplay is good enough to be fun for a bit.

Spielcomm 2020 by Bart

I appreciate the ambition of doing 3D in GameMaker, haha. It took me a little bit to figure out you can only swap masks at a garbage can...makes sense, I suppose. I became Resistant, so I figure that means I won, but I'm not quite sure?

Subside by HyprBlu

It's a really well made game, controls are fluid and the style is quite splashy and nice. I guess maybe the biggest issue is that it sort of generic? I feel bad saying that, but I guess that's just how it feels.

The Faults in our Code by Evanski, CloakedGames and Joseph Ellis

I laughed at the Papers Please reference. Good game, although there were plenty of times I had no idea what the "right" choice was, or if there even was one in some circumstances. Perhaps not as it seems one possible goal is just to make whatever decisions you need to make to unlock certain achievements. Gameplay wise it wasn't as exciting as other entries, but the smart writing and polished presentation make it a winner for me. This one also makes good use of the famous 3 laws of robotics to fit into the theme, so bonus points for that.

The ritual by finh2003

I found the balance to be a bit frustrating - on my own I couldn't handle the rooms full of enemies, and it was a lot more fun to have an undead army anyway, but the downsides kept making it too difficult to continue as well.

They Bleed Red Too by SoapSud39

The platforming aspects could use some more polish to make it more fun, but the concept is there. The full voice acting and cinematics were a pleasant surprise as well!

Three Nights Of Knights by chris24

My own entry was too ambitious for my skills as per usual. But I'm relatively proud of having done things I've never done before such as hitboxes and enemy attack patterns (too simple to really call it AI).

Three Rules Make a Riddle by Ghandpivot

Ack, I had to look up the hint for #8. It's amazing how some of them I got instantly and then others I struggled for minutes on - probably spent 20 min all told so, good work. Not the most exciting gameplay but well crafted and polished.

Three Rules Standing by Alice and Mercerenies

I’m just really bad at puzzle games so I didn’t get too far really, but the amount of depth for a jam game was great, with the world-building and what looked like some interesting puzzles. The quirky humor was also good!

Trichotomy by FrostyCat

I'm not sure that I ever grasped the full strategy of the thing, but I did manage to win, so there's that. Really polished game with pleasing graphics and good sound and music; the ability to play versus is a nice touch.

Upside Down Tower by Armored Dragon

I liked the concept, I think the blocking timing could be a little more forgiving though.

Vaccine Maze by Lucas Poeiras

The sneeze sound effect was cute, my favorite part of the game. The soap seemed largely ineffective (they still sneezed even if they weren't moving). Not sure if it's a bug or not, but the collected syringe count doesn't reset when you die.

Weapon Master by DreadedDruid

The sprites are really nice, but as far as I can tell there's no actual gameplay yet. I didn't seem able to hurt the enemies at all or find a key or anything to open the door. Perhaps I just missed something, but with the lack of sound and everything I just figure this is an unfinished proof-of-concept. After seeing someone else's comments I realized I missed out because I didn't realize the scroll wheel changed weapons. With that figured out I was able to play through what I believe was most of the game - it crashed while fighting the boss though (missing player object). Much better experience, although some music or sound would have added a lot.

Whack (only) the Mole by awlred

Simple but a good take on the whole wack-a-mole keyboard game type thing.

Wizard's Pub Crawl by Siolfor The Jackal

The concept is funny, but the gameplay left something to be desired. I liked the portrait of the wizard the best.

You Only Have 3 Minutes by Evanski

I ran it four times to see if anything would happen, lol.

YOUR RULES by Gravedust and Tomato

The enemies were neat and their destruction effects were cool. The music was a good fit as well. Wasn't so keen on the one-hit death for the player though. The end section/message was kinda nice too.

NOT RATED BY REQUEST

Tobruk
by Selek

Well, this was very difficult to play, as advertised, but I still wanted to let @Selek know that some people tried it! The lack of readable feedback made it all but impossible to understand what was happening, but I'm impressed with the obvious attention to historical detail. Definitely too complex for a jam game, but as a guy who has a tendency to do the same thing (my last failed jam game was a Napoleonic era line battle simulator...)
 
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JosephEllis

Member
Reviews

Top 3:

Igor by Ninety
LOVED THIS! the art and music was great, i liked the implementation of the theme. The few notes I have are that I wish the story would have been more prevelant, I was expecting something with more depth like in celeste (from the devlog), and the speed of igor felt off. like i would have rather had it be faster, or double down on igor being slow.

Subside by HyprBlu
this was good! only suggestion would be to be a bit more lenient on the player. one hit KO was brutal, and i often found myself grapling into monsters when i didnt want to, especially during the bossfights

YOUR RULES by Gravedust and Tomato
if I hadn't had read the about before starting, i would have gotten extremely mad at this game. But I read the comment and it really struck home with me. I wish that that had been ingrained in the game play more instead of a side page.

Best ofs:

Best use of : Igor by Ninety
Best Concept: Igor by Ninety
Best Presentation: Rules of the Rhinoceros by Yal
Best Story: They Bleed Red Too by SoapSud39
Best Devlog: Night of the Winning Dead by Pat Ferguson

Full ranking:

  1. Igor by Ninety
  2. Subside by HyprBlu
  3. YOUR RULES by Gravedust and Tomato
  4. Mage's Quest by Calepiaro
  5. Weapon Master by DreadedDruid
  6. Snakes on a Plain by Richerama
  7. Rules of the Rhinoceros by Yal
  8. MEGADOME by The M
  9. Coco Cards Casino by GameDevDan and NAL
  10. Trichotomy by FrostyCat
  11. Break! (don't brake) by Kalzme
  12. Morning Commute by Yothebob
  13. Inconvenience Store by TehPilot
  14. Whack (only) the Mole by awlred
  15. They Bleed Red Too by SoapSud39
  16. Grow A Plant by Poizen
  17. Lava Jamp by sk8dududu
  18. Three Rules Make a Riddle by Ghandpivot
  19. Rush, Kill, Repeat by filiprb
  20. Robo Royale by bandman28 and Josh Chen
  21. Nod Zombies by BigDallas
  22. Vaccine Maze by Lucas Poeiras
  23. Upside Down Tower by Armored Dragon
  24. Wizard's Pub Crawl by Siolfor The Jackal
  25. Spielcomm 2020 by Bart
  26. A Game for 8 Colors by DEGLIS
  27. Three Nights Of Knights by chris24
  28. Robber Rules! by KPJ
  29. Coco Bombs by Adam Games
  30. HookLab by Lambda
  31. Color Wars by Rui Rosario
  32. Three Rules Standing by Alice and Mercerenies
  33. Fire Realm by Red Phantom
  34. Night Of The Winning Dead by Pat Ferguson
  35. The ritual by finh2003
  36. PUSH by Toque
  37. Fishy Clicker by sylvain_I
  38. Cannibal Rules by ZombieLawyer
  39. Guess Who Hostage Rescue by Mightyjor
  40. Conquer and DRILL by Cpsy1714
  41. Out of the Square by ericossiqueira and Benjamim
  42. Collect Build Kill by Lukan
  43. You Only Have 3 Minutes by Evanski
  44. 1000 Rules To Live by by Wooshdude

Comments:

1000 Rules To Live by by Wooshdude

It looks promising, I wish there were more direction, and that you could see what the powerups did before you got them. I got hardlocked after trying to leave the cave.

A Game for 8 Colors by DEGLIS

it was alright. I had a hard time because the screen was bigger than my monitor, so I couldn't see the bottom

Break! (don't brake) by Kalzme

No comments, was pretty good! Could have used a bit more tie-in into the theme IMO

Cannibal Rules by ZombieLawyer

Overall it was okay. I liked the different cards, there was a bug i found that the days wouldn't reset when I died.

Coco Bombs by Adam Games

It was alright. I feel like with some polish it could be a really fun game, there were some debugging stuff left in like the speed of the coconuts, and the animations were whack for the player and enemies.

Coco Cards Casino by GameDevDan and NAL

I liked it! all the chracters were fun and the game was intriguing. I wish that the gameplay was a bit faster though, without having to wait for all the animations or a pause when showing which card beat which ones.

Collect Build Kill by Lukan

after spending a while picking up rocks and slapping them together, i couldn't figure out how to do anything else. could definitely use some more direction.

Color Wars by Rui Rosario

a fun little shooter. took me a second to figure out the different firing mechanics though.

Conquer and DRILL by Cpsy1714

This one I'm defaulting to a low rank because Icouldn't figure out how to play, I'm sure if there were a tutorial this would be a game i'd like, but since I cou;dn't figure it out, down the list it goes. (I did like the art though)

Fire Realm by Red Phantom

all around okay, i would have prefered an ability to rapid shoot, but beyond that it all pretty good.

Grow A Plant by Poizen

Liked it, some fun puzzles and optimistic aesthetics!

HookLab by Lambda

there were some fun puzzles, but the jumpinness of the movement was very offputting to me.

Igor by Ninety

LOVED THIS! the art and music was great, i liked the implementation of the theme. The few notes I have are that I wish the story would have been more prevelant, I was expecting something with more depth like in celeste (from the devlog), and the speed of igor felt off. like i would have rather had it be faster, or double down on igor being slow.

Inconvenience Store by TehPilot

It was fun, not my usual type of game, but fun nonetheless. At first I didn't undertand the distancing rule and kept wondering why I was failing the first level

Lava Jamp by sk8dududu

a completely serviceable endless runner. THe artwork was AMAZING though, i really like it.

Mage's Quest by Calepiaro

I enjoyed the optional story and the music. Aside from graphics, it reminded me a bit of Golden Axe on the genesis. I got stuck trying to find the 2nd crystal because i didnt realize there were islands to the left. Also I wish the music wouldn't reset when you died, so i could hear the whole song

MEGADOME by The M

loved this one. It took me a while to figure out the stamina bar, and why i wasnt able to fire when other people could. saw you mention it in the devlog, but it's HARD to figure out where people are attacking you from

Morning Commute by Yothebob

it was good! no comments!

Night Of The Winning Dead by Pat Ferguson

I was really looking forward to this one, but I just couldn't figure out how to play. Anything I'd try would just result in at least one zombie exploding and then I'd lose.

Nod Zombies by BigDallas

it was fun. only comments: i would have made it so each section is only one space instead of three, and somehow i got ran over by a pedestrian

Out of the Square by ericossiqueira and Benjamim

the controls were too much for me, couldn't really get anywhere.

PUSH by Toque

fun too see everyone's pfp!

Robber Rules! by KPJ

it was fun. I'd suggest making the buttons different, maybe not so close together in an akward space on the keyboard (at least for an american keyboard and a right-handed person). Also, there were times when I'd pass on obstacle without doing the thing, or not pass it while doing the thing.

Robo Royale by bandman28 and Josh Chen

I liked the concept, but I had no clue if I was winning or not, the first round all i did was collect coins then got a message saying I had won. Could definitely use something to show if you're winning.

Rules of the Rhinoceros by Yal

I was really looking forward to this game, i love the aesthetic and loved the last game by the dev. I wish there were a way to actually heal beside hoping to get the "money heals you rule," and also i kept running into rules that made the game almost unplayable, such as "the game speed changes randomly" or the combination of "enemies don't die" and "enemies explode when killed"

Rush, Kill, Repeat by filiprb

It was good, although i felt the player was too slow and the enemeies were too few. I felt like I was just wasteing my time traversing a maze to find anything instead of rushing, as the name suggests.

Snakes on a Plain by Richerama

Liked it! The art was great, and I loved quentin.

Spielcomm 2020 by Bart

I couldn't figure out how to replace the mask, so i couldn't get more than ~40 seconds of gameplay. The turning was a bit weird, and super sensitive, and going down the elevator just brought me into a white void. Not sure if I was missing something but I couldn't figure it out.

Subside by HyprBlu

this was good! only suggestion would be to be a bit more lenient on the player. one hit KO was brutal, and i often found myself grapling into monsters when i didnt want to, especially during the bossfights

The ritual by finh2003

I kept getting rooms where I would be overwhelmed by enemies, and at some point no more potions showed up at all. Would have enjoyed some permanent powerups.

They Bleed Red Too by SoapSud39

I liked the story, and I liked the character designs. the organ was a nice touch. I was confused at how the gameplay really tied into the story though.

Three Nights Of Knights by chris24

it was alright! don'treally have any comments on this one.

Three Rules Make a Riddle by Ghandpivot

Nothing to say here, riddles were good, and presentation was lovely.

Trichotomy by FrostyCat

It was fun, only suggestion would be for there to be an option to speed up the "attacks" It got a bit annoying having to wait for them after placing a tile

Weapon Master by DreadedDruid

it was good. it took me a while to undertand the weapons concept, and that you could switch weapons. i spent a ood while just damage boosting past enemies wondering why my sword wasn't killing them. The game crashed at the end, after defeating the crystal

Whack (only) the Mole by awlred

It was alright, however I did get a weird bug where sometimes i did the right thing (petting the bunny) and it quit me saying i ran out of lives.

You Only Have 3 Minutes by Evanski

This game?

YOUR RULES by Gravedust and Tomato

if I hadn't had read the about before starting, i would have gotten extremely mad at this game. If you work on this more, i'd try to tie that message in into the gameplay. Beside that it was a good bullet hell shmup
 
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filiprb

Member
Reviews

Top 3:

Coco Cards Casino by GameDevDan and NAL
I was very impressed with this game, to be honest. The art, sounds, and concept are all part of a game I would actually play. This one has potential to be big, I can feel it.

YOUR RULES by Gravedust and Tomato
My first game I got 8,100 points. I love this game. The menu screen is unique and I love it.

The story behind the game, the message is absolutely beautiful. I didn't expect something like that from this game. I enjoyed playing.

They Bleed Red Too by SoapSud39
I like the developer's sense of humour. I wish he could have added to it by recording multiple lines for getting killed. The artstyle is simplistic, yet the animations are smooth and impressive.

Best ofs:

Best use of : The Faults in our Code by Evanski, CloakedGames and Joseph Ellis
Best Concept: Grow A Plant by Poizen
Best Presentation: Rules of the Rhinoceros by Yal
Best Story: They Bleed Red Too by SoapSud39
Best Devlog: ...

Full ranking:

  1. Coco Cards Casino by GameDevDan and NAL
  2. YOUR RULES by Gravedust and Tomato
  3. They Bleed Red Too by SoapSud39
  4. Inconvenience Store by TehPilot
  5. Subside by HyprBlu
  6. The Faults in our Code by Evanski, CloakedGames and Joseph Ellis
  7. Weapon Master by DreadedDruid
  8. Igor by Ninety
  9. Rules of the Rhinoceros by Yal
  10. Grow A Plant by Poizen
  11. HookLab by Lambda
  12. Three Rules Make a Riddle by Ghandpivot
  13. Trichotomy by FrostyCat
  14. 1000 Rules To Live by by Wooshdude
  15. Night Of The Winning Dead by Pat Ferguson
  16. The ritual by finh2003
  17. Snakes on a Plain by Richerama
  18. Guess Who Hostage Rescue by Mightyjor
  19. Fire Realm by Red Phantom
  20. Collect Build Kill by Lukan
  21. PUSH by Toque
  22. A Game for 8 Colors by DEGLIS
  23. MEGADOME by The M
  24. Three Nights Of Knights by chris24
  25. Robber Rules! by KPJ
  26. Upside Down Tower by Armored Dragon
  27. Whack (only) the Mole by awlred
  28. Mage's Quest by Calepiaro
  29. Cannibal Rules by ZombieLawyer
  30. Break! (don't brake) by Kalzme
  31. Wizard's Pub Crawl by Siolfor The Jackal
  32. Morning Commute by Yothebob
  33. Conquer and DRILL by Cpsy1714
  34. Out of the Square by ericossiqueira and Benjamim
  35. Color Wars by Rui Rosario
  36. Robo Royale by bandman28 and Josh Chen
  37. Nod Zombies by BigDallas
  38. Three Rules Standing by Alice and Mercerenies
  39. Lava Jamp by sk8dududu
  40. Vaccine Maze by Lucas Poeiras
  41. You Only Have 3 Minutes by Evanski
  42. Spielcomm 2020 by Bart
  43. Coco Bombs by Adam Games
  44. Fishy Clicker by sylvain_I

Comments:

1000 Rules To Live by by Wooshdude

The game was very fun. It did crash and force me to open task manager. It had humour, music, sound effects, and it had good art, too. Also, GLIZZYGANGGLIZZYGANGGLIZZYGANGGLIZZYGANG

A Game for 8 Colors by DEGLIS

With my first score being 1850, and my second game having a score of 1950, the game was simple. The controls were simple, the colours were simple. The music was peaceful.

Break! (don't brake) by Kalzme

This game encourages you to break the rules rather than follow them and I really like that concept. However the number of levels could be increased.

Cannibal Rules by ZombieLawyer

Simple game, good rules. Could have some potential.

Coco Bombs by Adam Games

Quite a messy game. Unpolished. If more time was given, the game could have done a lot better. Unfortunately, lack of audio, and general confusion ruined the experience a bit.

Coco Cards Casino by GameDevDan and NAL

I was very impressed with this game, to be honest. The art, sounds, and concept are all part of a game I would actually play. This one has potential to be big, I can feel it.

Collect Build Kill by Lukan

The game was nice and peaceful. The rules are well defined and everything was well-implemented.

Color Wars by Rui Rosario

The game was difficult to understand at first, but then proved to be very interesting! Rather than three rules, there are three colours. The game is nice and simplistic.

Conquer and DRILL by Cpsy1714

Naturally, the first thing I did was accidentally declare war on Canada.

(I'm Canadian.)

I enjoyed the voice lines, and the GUI was very well implemented.

Fire Realm by Red Phantom

Not a lot to say about it, except if I'm a water dude, shouldn't I be immune to fire? Anyways, the animations were cool. Good job!

Fishy Clicker by sylvain_I

Very repetitive. Not much to say about it, really.

Grow A Plant by Poizen

This game is very cute. It's a challenging puzzle with nice sprites and design. This has to be one of my favourites so far.

Guess Who Hostage Rescue by Mightyjor

Interesting artstyle, levels get progressively harder. Cool game.

HookLab by Lambda

The game was fun. The sound of the hook was a little irritating to listen to because of how loud it was. I enjoyed the mechanics and game honestly. It's a nice puzzle game.

Igor by Ninety

Igor is a great game! It reminds me of Celeste. The artstyle is great, and the controls are easy to understand. Level design is on point.

Inconvenience Store by TehPilot

The art and concept of the game is really cool! I played a couple levels and decided to move onto the next game, but I applaud you! Nicely done!

Lava Jamp by sk8dududu

I couldn't really tell what the three rules were supposed to be. The game was pretty good, though. This idea could be expanded on.

Mage's Quest by Calepiaro

I enjoy platformers, and I enjoyed this game. I liked the spritework as well.

MEGADOME by The M

Hello, fellow GameMaker: Studio: 1.4 user! I actually was very impressed by this game. I have been looking for something like this for a little while now, and the fact that this was made in under four days is astounding!

Morning Commute by Yothebob

It may have just been my misunderstanding of controls, but I couldn't seem to actually send any messages to my girlfriend. The art was decent, and I appreciate the effort put into the game.

Night Of The Winning Dead by Pat Ferguson

Gives me hardcore Lemmings vibes. Everything was thought out carefully, and the artstyle was great.

Nod Zombies by BigDallas

The concept was interesting. I admit the "You died" sound effect made me chuckle. It's basically endless frogger.

Out of the Square by ericossiqueira and Benjamim

The game's physics were very good. Overall it felt sluggish. There was no music, but I did enjoy the game. The rules were unclear.

PUSH by Toque

Oh dang OH DANG if I had known about this I would have changed my PFP from the default to something that represents me.

Robber Rules! by KPJ

Fun game concept, but the controls could've been layed out a bit better.

Robo Royale by bandman28 and Josh Chen

I feel like the game's tutorial was pretty good. The rules were actually very simple to follow.

Rules of the Rhinoceros by Yal

The presentation was... Interesting. A little hard on my laptop, but it was very well made. The art and all was fantastic.

Rush, Kill, Repeat by filiprb

"Yeah it's pretty cool"
-Filip Budd

Snakes on a Plain by Richerama

Funny dialogue, cool concept, awesome game. Could be a bit better if given more time. The shadows were cool. Also, is there an end? You'll have to play for a long time (forever) to find out!

Spielcomm 2020 by Bart

First 3D game here. Instructions were a little unclear, but good attempt at 3D

Subside by HyprBlu

I played this game a lot. It was super fun trying to follow the rules. The transitions and all are just make an amazing game altogether.

The Faults in our Code by Evanski, CloakedGames and Joseph Ellis

I played this one for longer than I am willing to admit. I love the "Papers, Please" aesthetic. There's a really good story and a bit of hidden lore if you're willing to look hard enough. I like the use of the three laws of robotics.

The ritual by finh2003

The game actually has a very interesting concept. If you choose to break the rules there are perks, but there are consequenses. Different potion effects, curses, and monsters are very well implemented.

They Bleed Red Too by SoapSud39

I like the developer's sense of humour. I wish he could have added to it by recording multiple lines for getting killed. The artstyle is simplistic, yet the animations are smooth and impressive.

Three Nights Of Knights by chris24

The animations were well-done, and so were the sounds. I liked the little "Going exploring, are we?" in the beginning.

Three Rules Make a Riddle by Ghandpivot

Satisfying to click buttons, simple rules, easy win. I enjoyed this game. Literally there are three rules for each riddle.

Three Rules Standing by Alice and Mercerenies

The story and dialogue in the beginning was cool. Unfortunately the window was scaled and I kept dropping frames despite my beefy laptop. What I was really supposed to be doing was unclear.

Trichotomy by FrostyCat

A very well made game. It's slowpaced, but I enjoyed my time playing this game. Original.

Upside Down Tower by Armored Dragon

I'll be honest... I didn't get passed level two. Not because the game was bad, however. It was pretty good! But it was challenging, too.

Vaccine Maze by Lucas Poeiras

The framerate kept dropping and the art could have been better. The controls were well implemented.

Weapon Master by DreadedDruid

The art and lighting were the first things that I noticed. No sounds, no tutorial, but I really enjoyed it! The final boss ended with an error, unfortunately.

Two tips: Using if(instance_exists(30)) { //Code here } would be really useful. I believe the error was called from the camera object. Second tip is to reference object names rather than the instance/object id. It makes things a lot easier!

Whack (only) the Mole by awlred

Interesting and simple concept. I've never seen anything like this before.

Wizard's Pub Crawl by Siolfor The Jackal

Interesting concept. It feels like the same thing every round. I didn't realize that you were supposed to stay between sober and wasted, but that's alright. Cool game.

You Only Have 3 Minutes by Evanski

I kinda dozed off in the middle. There were no rules, this game is just a three minute egg timer without the BRIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIINGGGGG at the end.

YOUR RULES by Gravedust and Tomato

My first game I got 8,100 points. I love this game. The menu screen is unique and I love it.

The story behind the game, the message is absolutely beautiful. I didn't expect something like that from this game. I enjoyed playing.
 
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Josh Chen

Member
Let’s vote and say we did.

--

1. Subside by @HyprBlu
This platformer was really challenging and I thoroughly enjoyed it. The levels were really well planned out overall, and I enjoyed the mechanic of the grapple hook a lot. The graphics, animations, and sounds all fit together perfectly, so the overall presentation was amazing.

2. Igor by @Ninety
This was a unique concept for a platform game, and there were a lot of different aspects of the game that make it fun, and there are many different challenges the character faces. I thought the combination of parkour and problem solving was pretty clever.

3. Coco Cards Casino by @GameDevDan
Super simple game (as usual), but great presentation. The different opponents and AIs were well made, which made the same simple concept fun to play over and over again. Pretty impressive for the short period of time we had.

4. Snakes on a Plain by @Richerama

5. Robber Rules! by @KPJ
 
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Chaser

Member
Reserved for ratings.
Why are we reserving places for ratings? Why not just post when finished? I’m curious.:)
 
H

huttoh

Guest
1. Subside
I enjoy platformers and the grappling hook was a great addition to the game. It was clear how you were supposed to play and the animation was great
2. Igor
This game clearly told you how to play and was enjoyable because the puzzles weren't too hard. The animation was really good.
3. The ritual
I enjoy dungeon crawlers and this game clearly told you how to play. The concept of curse made the game more interesting as there are many strategies that you can use.
4. Weapon master
Switching between weapons would have been better if you could use the spacebar but the game was very fun
5. 1000 rules to live by
Kept freezing but it was enjoyable while I could play.
6. Cannibal rules
The game was a bit unpredictable
7. Rush kill repeat
This would have been much better if it wasn't so dark
8. Three rules standing
9. Robo royale
10. Color wars
11. Morning commute
12. Wizards pub crawl
13.Brake (don't break)
14.Snakes on a plain
15. Hooklab
16. They bleed red too
17. Speilcom
18. Nod zombies
19. Robber rules
20. conquer and drill
21. Coco cards casino
22. Guess who hostage rescue
23. Rules of the rhinoceros
24. Trichotomy
25. Grow a plant
26. Coco bombs
27. A game for 8 colors
28. Mage's quest
29. Out of the square
30. YOUR RULES
31. Three rules make a riddle
32. PUSH
33. Whack (only) the mole
34. Megadome
35. Vaccine maze
36. Lava jamp
37. Upside down tower
38. Inconvenience store
39. Fire realm
40. The faults in our code
41. Collect build kill
42. Three nights of knights
43. Fishy clicker
44. Night of the winning dead
45. You only have three minutes



Best ofs:
Best use of theme: Three rules standing
Best concept: The faults in our code
Best presentation: Rules of the Rhinocerous
Best story: Cannibal rules
 
Last edited by a moderator:

GameDevDan

Former Jam Host
Moderator
GMC Elder
GameDevDan's Votes and Reviews

Top 3:

Igor by Ninety
A slick platformer with good level design, great visuals and makes use of the theme as you'd expect it to. I usually don't give high votes to platformers because we see a LOT of them in jams - but this is clearly the best game in this jam. It'd be rude not to put it first :D

Three Rules Make a Riddle by Ghandpivot
Very clever clues to these, I really liked this game. I couldn't get three of them, but I enjoyed the whole thing anyway. Good Job.

Inconvenience Store by TehPilot
Nice, really like the concept here. Great little management sim. The interactions feel a bit slow to respond at times, but otherwise well made.

Best ofs:

Best use of : Three Rules Make a Riddle by Ghandpivot
Best Concept: Three Rules Make a Riddle by Ghandpivot
Best Presentation: Igor by Ninety
Best Story: Snakes on a Plain by Richerama

Full ranking:

  1. Igor by Ninety
  2. Three Rules Make a Riddle by Ghandpivot
  3. Inconvenience Store by TehPilot
  4. Subside by HyprBlu
  5. Snakes on a Plain by Richerama
  6. Robber Rules! by KPJ
  7. Trichotomy by FrostyCat
  8. Night Of The Winning Dead by Pat Ferguson
  9. A Game for 8 Colors by DEGLIS
  10. Grow A Plant by Poizen
  11. HookLab by Lambda
  12. They Bleed Red Too by SoapSud39
  13. Rules of the Rhinoceros by Yal
  14. Cannibal Rules by ZombieLawyer
  15. Wizard's Pub Crawl by Siolfor The Jackal
  16. Three Rules Standing by Alice and Mercerenies
  17. YOUR RULES by Gravedust and Tomato
  18. Break! (don't brake) by Kalzme
  19. The Faults in our Code by Evanski, CloakedGames and Joseph Ellis
  20. Fire Realm by Red Phantom
  21. Three Nights Of Knights by chris24
  22. Mage's Quest by Calepiaro
  23. The ritual by finh2003
  24. 1000 Rules To Live by by Wooshdude
  25. Robo Royale by bandman28 and Josh Chen
  26. Guess Who Hostage Rescue by Mightyjor
  27. Weapon Master by DreadedDruid
  28. MEGADOME by The M
  29. Vaccine Maze by Lucas Poeiras
  30. Whack (only) the Mole by awlred
  31. Nod Zombies by BigDallas
  32. Lava Jamp by sk8dududu
  33. Upside Down Tower by Armored Dragon
  34. Spielcomm 2020 by Bart
  35. Coco Bombs by Adam Games
  36. PUSH by Toque
  37. Fishy Clicker by sylvain_I
  38. Out of the Square by ericossiqueira and Benjamim
  39. Color Wars by Rui Rosario
  40. Morning Commute by Yothebob
  41. Collect Build Kill by Lukan
  42. Conquer and DRILL by Cpsy1714
  43. You Only Have 3 Minutes by Evanski
  44. Rush, Kill, Repeat by filiprb

Comments:

1000 Rules To Live by by Wooshdude

I think the concept was good, I'm not sure why a choice was made to make everything tiny (made it a bit hard to discern what things like bonuses/rules actually were!). I played for a bit and then got a GML Error / Crash.

A Game for 8 Colors by DEGLIS

Nice concept! Not really my kind of genre, but if this was spruced up a bit and optimised for iPhone/Android I could see it doing really well.

Break! (don't brake) by Kalzme

A fairly decent idea and I like the graphics.

Cannibal Rules by ZombieLawyer

Tinder-style gameplay like Reigns and other similar games but with a new story and setting which makes it quite interesting.

Coco Bombs by Adam Games

This is utter madness :D I think there was a considerable amount of time here spent making the background and the static pose of the players look quite good, and not enough on the core gameplay.

Coco Cards Casino by GameDevDan and NAL

My game, very good, please vote for it.

Collect Build Kill by Lukan

Not really sure what's going on here, is it finished? Clearly you can walk around and break things open to get the materials out, maybe do a bit of craftin', but not much else seems to happen.

Color Wars by Rui Rosario

I know that you ran out of time on this one so I won't say too much about it, other than the concept would have been neat in a longer / more finished entry. What you have managed plays smoothly but there isn't much to it.

Conquer and DRILL by Cpsy1714

Not honestly sure what I do in this one.

Fire Realm by Red Phantom

Relatively decent. Not bad on the graphics front and the audio front.

Fishy Clicker by sylvain_I

I feel like I gave this a fair hearing by playing a single round. Spending 60 seconds clicking buttons with numbers on is er, not the most *thrilling* experience but I appreciate the effort.

Grow A Plant by Poizen

Really sorry this game looks SO promising, it's SO cute and I really really love the idea. But my tiny brain can't fathom how to get past level TWO. Yes, level bloody TWO. I assume it's possible right? but every which way I move the stuff either the soil or the water aligns and blocks everything else.

Guess Who Hostage Rescue by Mightyjor

In a sense this puts in the mind of a much quicker-paced version of my own game from the last jam haha - following the clues to eliminate the wrong characters leaving the right one. Decently wrapped up this one, not bad.

HookLab by Lambda

Sokoban/block pushing with a neat added hookshot mechanic. A decent entry.

Igor by Ninety

A slick platformer with good level design, great visuals and makes use of the theme as you'd expect it to. I usually don't give high votes to platformers because we see a LOT of them in jams - but this is clearly the best game in this jam. It'd be rude not to put it first :D

Inconvenience Store by TehPilot

Nice, really like the concept here. Great little management sim. The interactions feel a bit slow to respond at times, but otherwise well made.

Lava Jamp by sk8dududu

If the floor is lava and *so am I* - why does the floor kill me? Decent graphics and audio in this entry, but the gameplay isn't all that fun.

Mage's Quest by Calepiaro

A functional platformer with an OK concept and story.

MEGADOME by The M

Could barely really understand what was going on or get my bearings and it ran preeetty slowly on my PC. I get the idea and it can be difficult to execute this kind of thing in a 3D space - just didn't stack up enough for me.

Morning Commute by Yothebob

I appreciate the effort that went into this one, it's just not that fun. I'm not a great fan of "panic" gameplay for its own sake (i.e. rush to text, rush back to drive, rush to text, rush back to drive).

Night Of The Winning Dead by Pat Ferguson

I want to say lemmings-esque, but I've barely actually played lemmings to compare it to haha. Neat little sandbox-y type engine and the presentation was great, especially the way the story was delivered.

Nod Zombies by BigDallas

Frogger, but you're a zombie and you have to let some of the cars hit you. Well executed on that basis, but not going to rank highly in my votes.

Out of the Square by ericossiqueira and Benjamim

Furstratingly slow mechanics, but sort of funny in a way if the intention was indeed to frustrate us! :p

PUSH by Toque

I played for a while to see exactly which users avatars had been used. There's not much to it as an entry though.

Robber Rules! by KPJ

Ok, once I got the hang of it this was a pretty fun game. I don't know why Enter, Shift and Space were chosen as the controls. A bit of a weird one for me to memorise especially with the game requiring quite fast reactions. However I did find a foolproof way to win - there's no punishment for pressing kick or punch at the wrong time so I just spammed kick/punch until I reached lasers, shielded, then carried on spamming kick and punch :p I enjoyed the game though, and I escaped the bank!

Robo Royale by bandman28 and Josh Chen

I think the overall plan for this one was quite decent, but it's content-light. Pretty easy to win repeatedly.

Rules of the Rhinoceros by Yal

The weird overscanned TV effect that looked so good in the screenshots actually made the game quite hard to play in reality. I think it would have been better to view the graphics neat without that shader/surface effect. The concept of a battle arena game with 3 different rules each time is quite good. Although for the most part is does feel a bit sandboxy/goalless.

Rush, Kill, Repeat by filiprb

The game freezes for me on a very, very dark title screen. An alpha fade in not properly coded? I don't appear to be able to do anything.

Snakes on a Plain by Richerama

Really great humour, and a some excellent design choices make it very aesthetically pleasing without much actual artwork needing to be done. (the parallax, the shadows, the little screen shake every time the spider stomps: great attention to detail). As a game, sure, it's not the most fun thing I've ever played. But as an *experience* it's quite good.

Spielcomm 2020 by Bart

Bonus points because I went to Cologne once and seeing it makes me nostalgic. Not much to the game itself though.

Subside by HyprBlu

Nice game, well presented and a slick platforming engine. Played 12 games so far and this is winning best presentation for me (tho that may change! EDIT: reader, it did change. Sorry.) - I'm assuming I gave up on the "last" level? I played 3 or 4 levels and then got to what felt like a damn near impossible boss fight with a giant blue thing. Would be nice (even if the difficulty remained the same) to have an HP bar on that fight so I know how far away I am from winning.

The Faults in our Code by Evanski, CloakedGames and Joseph Ellis

I'm wasn't sure if there was ever an end to this. Some of the dialogue is pretty funny but I also started to get repeats and had to go and ask someone else who had already played it if anything ever happened other than pressing tick or cross. I think in that sense there should have been some kind of indicator for how far through the story you were. I went back to playing the game and got through a round of it. It was alright but a little bit slow-paced for me!

The ritual by finh2003

A good effort. A lot of walking and clicking to be had.

They Bleed Red Too by SoapSud39

A decent experience, it gets a little boring in places. Nice story and decent graphics, it's just the gameplay that leaves a little to be desired.

Three Nights Of Knights by chris24

A fairly standard platformer. Made decent use of the theme via the story of knights.

Three Rules Make a Riddle by Ghandpivot

Very clever clues to these, I really liked this game. I couldn't get three of them, but I enjoyed the whole thing anyway. Good Job.

Three Rules Standing by Alice and Mercerenies

Some good puzzles, although honestly the rooms could be smaller/graphics bigger so that there's less walking between different tasks. At times it feels like a bit of a walking/talking simulator rather than a game. Still I've played 39 entries so far and played this one for the longest - so it must be alright :D

Trichotomy by FrostyCat

Slick presentation, and the beginnings of a good idea. However the nature of the game (only having one token in your hand at a time, tokens attack directions very restrictive, not knowing which tokens are in the "deck") means that you basically end up playing in a very linear way. Most of the time there are only one or two spaces you can play to get points, and you can't reasonably make tactical predictions about the future, so the game sort of "steers" you. Would love to see variants of this game to see what works best. Suggestions for different mechanics: Give players more tokens in their hands. Make all tokens attack in all 4 directions. Make attacks clear whole lines? (a la Reversi/Othello).

Upside Down Tower by Armored Dragon

Good idea, can't really vibe with the gameplay but a good effort.

Vaccine Maze by Lucas Poeiras

Very topical, not the best top-down shooter ever but I did appreciate the mash up of COVID/ThreeSimpleRules.

Weapon Master by DreadedDruid

It's pretty and like the atmosphere of it.

Whack (only) the Mole by awlred

A funny concept but I can't deal with games that have this many keyboard controls - even the simple mode. It just frazzles my brain a bit. Some kind of directional mechanic maybe would have suited it better (e.g. 9 squares, hold one or more directional arrows to go into the 8 squares around it then use z, x and c to whack, pet and give mushrooms). That would gel better with my brain I think.

Wizard's Pub Crawl by Siolfor The Jackal

Very funny story and concept - but honestly the second you get even slightly wasted it becomes more of a spectator sport than a game XD. The wobbly cursor is very hard to control.

You Only Have 3 Minutes by Evanski

Obviously a bit of a joke game :p

YOUR RULES by Gravedust and Tomato

I'm not good enough at the game to win it - but bonus points for the really clever menu presentation. The game itself is generally quite slick.
 
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R

Red Phantom

Guest
Red Phantom's Reviews

Top 3:

The Faults in our Code by Evanski, CloakedGames and Joseph Ellis
Really fun game. Stellar concept, great dialogue that is very humerous. Graphics are also nice and have a sense of consistency. I also like the music and the different outcomes.

Night Of The Winning Dead by Pat Ferguson
Presentation, wow. Graphics wow. Love the intro with the text sliding across the screen. Music love it. Menu screen graphics are awesome. Even the graphics of the headphones are really nice. "Winning Dead" text is super cool. Had to take some points off in the concept area just because the gameplay was a bit confusing. I'm not actually sure what each of the buttons do and I couldn't play the game. Maybe I am missing an explanation somewhere? Still the actual concept of getting these zombies to a safe-house is pretty cool. As much as I want to put this game #1 purely for its graphics, I can't because there was no readme or explanation in the game for the controls or what each button does.
+

Igor by Ninety
Big fan of the graphics, love the platforms, main characters and NPCs. Gameplay is fun, I personally like the platformer genre, the power-ups/power-downs are fun. The gameplay concept simple but good, to get to the exit door of the room. I really like the NPCs and their dialogue

Best ofs:

Best use of theme: Three Rules Standing by Alice and Mercerenies
Best Concept: The Faults in our Code by Evanski, CloakedGames and Joseph Ellis
Best Presentation: Night Of The Winning Dead by Pat Ferguson
Best Story: The Faults in our Code by Evanski, CloakedGames and Joseph Ellis
Best Devlog: ...

Full ranking:

  1. The Faults in our Code by Evanski, CloakedGames and Joseph Ellis
  2. Night Of The Winning Dead by Pat Ferguson
  3. Igor by Ninety
  4. Three Rules Standing by Alice and Mercerenies
  5. Subside by HyprBlu
  6. Snakes on a Plain by Richerama
  7. 1000 Rules To Live by by Wooshdude
  8. Coco Cards Casino by GameDevDan and NAL
  9. Trichotomy by FrostyCat
  10. Weapon Master by DreadedDruid
  11. YOUR RULES by Gravedust and Tomato
  12. Lava Jamp by sk8dududu
  13. HookLab by Lambda
  14. Upside Down Tower by Armored Dragon
  15. PUSH by Toque
  16. Three Nights Of Knights by chris24
  17. Mage's Quest by Calepiaro
  18. Inconvenience Store by TehPilot
  19. Rush, Kill, Repeat by filiprb
  20. Rules of the Rhinoceros by Yal
  21. Robber Rules! by KPJ
  22. The ritual by finh2003
  23. MEGADOME by The M
  24. Spielcomm 2020 by Bart
  25. Break! (don't brake) by Kalzme
  26. They Bleed Red Too by SoapSud39
  27. Robo Royale by bandman28 and Josh Chen
  28. Guess Who Hostage Rescue by Mightyjor
  29. Three Rules Make a Riddle by Ghandpivot
  30. Coco Bombs by Adam Games
  31. Fishy Clicker by sylvain_I
  32. Whack (only) the Mole by awlred
  33. Collect Build Kill by Lukan
  34. A Game for 8 Colors by DEGLIS
  35. Morning Commute by Yothebob
  36. Vaccine Maze by Lucas Poeiras
  37. Cannibal Rules by ZombieLawyer
  38. Nod Zombies by BigDallas
  39. Grow A Plant by Poizen
  40. Color Wars by Rui Rosario
  41. Out of the Square by ericossiqueira and Benjamim
  42. Wizard's Pub Crawl by Siolfor The Jackal
  43. Conquer and DRILL by Cpsy1714
  44. You Only Have 3 Minutes by Evanski

Comments:

1000 Rules To Live by by Wooshdude

Love how the lady in the corner is playing the piano (game's) music. There's a bug where upon restarting I am spawned outside of the starting room. Love the graphics and piano (starting room) music. I would of preferred if the piano music continued throughout the whole game as opposed to having separate music for outside. Got up to the second level with the purple walls, I'll say I do like the graphics of the purple walls. There's also a bug where if you restart the whole screen is black except for the character being visible.

A Game for 8 Colors by DEGLIS

A strange version of tetris. Not really my favourite game genre.

Break! (don't brake) by Kalzme

I really like the graphics. The voice over is a bit annoying, I personally would have not included a voice over.

Cannibal Rules by ZombieLawyer

Sound effect of being hit is really annoying, you could easily of chose a different sound effect. There's no music.

Found a bug:

___________________________________________
############################################################################################
FATAL ERROR in
action number 1
of Step Event0
for object obj_archer:

Unable to find any instance for object index '4' name 'obj_player'
at gml_Object_obj_archer_Step_0
############################################################################################
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
stack frame is
gml_Object_obj_archer_Step_0 (line -1)


Coco Bombs by Adam Games

Great graphics but no music?

Coco Cards Casino by GameDevDan and NAL

As much as I know this game deserves to be rated higher, card games aren't my favourite game genre. Still, the gameplay concept is pretty creative. Great graphics as always team flob. I really like the characters: gamblotron, coco lolo, mr. seahorse and mr. inverse.

Collect Build Kill by Lukan

Apparently space + left click is "Throw" but space seems to restart the game, so I couldn't really play the game. Music is very relaxing.


Color Wars by Rui Rosario

Not much to say about this game except that it could easily be improved in many ways, e.g. adding music.

Fishy Clicker by sylvain_I

Presentation is ok overall. Doesn't seem to be any music. I really like the menu graphics. Not a fan of the concept/gameplay, it's too repetitive/basic.

Grow A Plant by Poizen

Not my favourite kind of gameplay. Looks like you got lazy with the background images and just blurred a real images.

Guess Who Hostage Rescue by Mightyjor

Interesting game concept. Good graphics.

HookLab by Lambda

Gameplay is super fun, love the hook concept. Like the sound effects. I like the grahics, especially the platforms. I got stuck on the 4th or 5th level. Music is fun, energetic but relaxing.


Igor by Ninety

Big fan of the graphics, love the platforms, main characters and NPCs. Gameplay is fun, I personally like the platformer genre, the power-ups/power-downs are fun. The gameplay concept simple but good, to get to the exit door of the room. I really like the NPCs and their dialogue

Inconvenience Store by TehPilot

"Remember the rules" text is hard to read. I like the game concept. Got up to sharing is caring. Graphics are pretty nice, I like the dashes across the screen and also the main character, but I can't make out what some of the other objects are. Good choice of music, suits the game.

Lava Jamp by sk8dududu

Presentation great. Music is alright. The graphics I love, especially the: lava, NPC and main character. The concept, the floor is lava is pretty cool. Gameplay is simple but I like it. Intro is super cool. Blue power-up/speed-boost is pretty cool. My highest score was 2,016.

Mage's Quest by Calepiaro

Finally! A game with a bit of a story, great. I could only get 1 orb. Presentation (graphics + music) is ok.

MEGADOME by The M

The game concept is pretty cool, having all of us GMC Jam people as characters. Presentation is decent. Not a fan of the voice over perhaps that's because I personally don't like voice overs in games. A lot of controls to begin with at the start of the game.

Morning Commute by Yothebob

Not much to say about this game. Controls aren't explained in the game nor on a readme document. Very 1 dimensional gameplay concept. Graphics are ok though.

Night Of The Winning Dead by Pat Ferguson

Presentation, wow. Graphics wow. Love the intro with the text sliding across the screen. Music love it. Menu screen graphics are awesome. Even the graphics of the headphones are really nice. "Winning Dead" text is super cool. Had to take some points off in the concept area just because the gameplay was a bit confusing. I'm not actually sure what each of the buttons do and I couldn't play the game. Maybe I am missing an explanation somewhere? Still the actual concept of getting these zombies to a safe-house is pretty cool. As much as I want to put this game #1 purely for its graphics, I can't because there was no readme or explanation in the game for the controls or what each button does.
+

Nod Zombies by BigDallas

The death audio is a bit annoying.

Out of the Square by ericossiqueira and Benjamim

Not much to say about this game except that the controls aren't explained. No background music either.

PUSH by Toque

10/10 for game concept. Intro is a bit strange. Graphics I like: the enemy boss at the top of the screen, the platform and the fire. I would rate this slightly higher if there was music during the actual playing part of the game.

Robber Rules! by KPJ

Simple graphics, they're ok. I personally think the difficulty is too high. The game is essentially broken down to your ability to remember a sequence of keys and execute them efficiently. Which I think is a bit limited in terms of gameplay.

Robo Royale by bandman28 and Josh Chen

I like a game with a tutorial explaining the controls, so good work with that. The consistency of graphics is a bit off, with the background floor tiles do not match or go with the other graphics (player, NPCs, robots, coins). You have music, that's a positive, a lot of other entries didn't have music.

Rules of the Rhinoceros by Yal

Graphics are great and music suits it perfectly. However there's just too much going on in the screen at once I think. All the HUD moving is very distracting from the actual gameplay. Platform and NPC graphics are really cool. The weapons are also cool. The concept/3-rules is a bit confusing because the money apparently heals you and hurts you?? In summary, loved the graphics, but there is just too much information on the screen.

Rush, Kill, Repeat by filiprb

Concept is very cool. I like the menu. Not a fan of the music. Graphics are cool, consistent and complementary, except I don't like the exploding death animation, something more subtle might of been better. Abstract story, I really like it. Use of theme and concept is really good too. I noticed the starting level is random which is cool.


Snakes on a Plain by Richerama

Really cool endlesss runner game. Tutorial/intro is great. The big spider feels very threatening. Loved the humerous part of the dialogue "my hand is only 1 pixel so I can't punch. Love the graphics. I'm curious as to whether or not this game has RNG (random number generation) for the spawning of animals(snakes and eagles). Overall great game. Stil, adding music/soundtrack would have improved the game.

Spielcomm 2020 by Bart

Cool and interesting experience, I do like 3D explorer games.

Subside by HyprBlu

Presentation is on point. Really like the platforms, background, NPCs, main character and shooting animation. I got up to the 7th level Music suits the game well too.

The Faults in our Code by Evanski, CloakedGames and Joseph Ellis

Really fun game. Stellar concept, great dialogue that is very humerous. Graphics are also nice and have a sense of consistency. I also like the music and the different outcomes.

The ritual by finh2003

Sound effect of player getting hit is really annoying. There's no music/background-soundtrack to give the game more life. I like the pixel art of the main character and NPCs. The potions are a bit confusing, because I expected them to give you all or at least some of your health back but they don't, instead they give you some kind of power-up. Gameplay is fun though.

They Bleed Red Too by SoapSud39

Very haunting and evil intro. However, there is no way to skip the intro. Really like the graphics of the main character and NPCs. Tried to get through the second level a few times but couldn't, I just kept getting shot by the fast projectiles of the enemies.

Three Nights Of Knights by chris24

Graphics are nice appart from the background and platform being just a single colour. I like the coins. Slightly reminds me of a game called "Assassin Blue". It seems there is no way to save your progress. Attacking animation is great. Gameplay is fun.

Three Rules Standing by Alice and Mercerenies

Textbox graphic is cool. Dialogue is cool and very engaging. Fits the theme really well. Great game concept and great level design. Love the music too, suits the game well.
+

Trichotomy by FrostyCat

Audio on point, sound effects and music are great. Gameplay concept is great. Graphics are also very clean. My opinion is that the difficulty is too high (in the quick game option), the Computer AI is very smart but also has the advantage of attacking before you when YOU place your piece down, which doesn't make sense and isn't fair. Apart from that I think this game is quite good.

Upside Down Tower by Armored Dragon

Upside Down Tower, what a cool concept. Graphics are exceptional, well done. Difficulty might be a bit high, the parry doesn't last very long at all, while the NPC shoots very frequnetly and quickly. I couldn't get past the second level. Great game concept and gameplay concept.

Vaccine Maze by Lucas Poeiras

Not much to say about this game. Not a fan of the graphics and there's no music.

Weapon Master by DreadedDruid

Superb graphics but no music. Unfortunately I don't know how to actually play the game because the controls aren't explained, perhaps I have just missed them somehow? I was only able to move and attack with left click however, enemies don't seem to die when I attack them even multiple times. This could have easily been rated higher if: the controls were explained, enemies died and music was added.

Whack (only) the Mole by awlred

Presentation is ok. Not a big fan of the graphics but I liked the music. Not my favourite kind of gameplay/concept. The controls are a bit tricky to pick up at first.

Wizard's Pub Crawl by Siolfor The Jackal

Not much to say about this game.

You Only Have 3 Minutes by Evanski

Ending was reasonable. Not much to this game seen as though it wasn't your main entry.

YOUR RULES by Gravedust and Tomato

Very fast paced and fun game. Did you create the graphics? Because they are very cool, especially the background and enemies' shooting orbs. I also like the music. Difficulty is very high, I could not "win" or complete the first round (assuming there are more rounds) after multiple attempts.
 
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F

Finh2003

Guest
Reviews

Top 3:

Three Rules Standing by Alice and Mercerenies
Amazing puzzle game. I definitely played this one for the longest time and the concept it great. I haven't finished it yet but I'm still trying. There is lots of content as well.

Subside by HyprBlu
Nice fast paced game and the hook was great. A health bar of some kind on the bosses would be nice

Robber Rules! by KPJ
I played this for a while and although the rules are simple it's a very hard game. I also liked the animations, especially the screen shake

Best ofs:

Best use of Theme: Three Rules Standing by Alice and Mercerenies
Best Concept: Three Rules Standing by Alice and Mercerenies
Best Presentation: Igor by Ninety
Best Story: Three Rules Standing by Alice and Mercerenies
Best Devlog: ...

Full ranking:

  1. Three Rules Standing by Alice and Mercerenies
  2. Subside by HyprBlu
  3. Robber Rules! by KPJ
  4. Snakes on a Plain by Richerama
  5. Grow A Plant by Poizen
  6. Inconvenience Store by TehPilot
  7. A Game for 8 Colors by DEGLIS
  8. Color Wars by Rui Rosario
  9. The Faults in our Code by Evanski, CloakedGames and Joseph Ellis
  10. Coco Cards Casino by GameDevDan and NAL
  11. Igor by Ninety
  12. MEGADOME by The M
  13. HookLab by Lambda
  14. Weapon Master by DreadedDruid
  15. Mage's Quest by Calepiaro
  16. Three Rules Make a Riddle by Ghandpivot
  17. Rules of the Rhinoceros by Yal
  18. 1000 Rules To Live by by Wooshdude
  19. They Bleed Red Too by SoapSud39
  20. Trichotomy by FrostyCat
  21. Break! (don't brake) by Kalzme
  22. Night Of The Winning Dead by Pat Ferguson
  23. Wizard's Pub Crawl by Siolfor The Jackal
  24. Three Nights Of Knights by chris24
  25. Cannibal Rules by ZombieLawyer
  26. Morning Commute by Yothebob
  27. YOUR RULES by Gravedust and Tomato
  28. Upside Down Tower by Armored Dragon
  29. Robo Royale by bandman28 and Josh Chen
  30. Spielcomm 2020 by Bart
  31. Nod Zombies by BigDallas
  32. Guess Who Hostage Rescue by Mightyjor
  33. Coco Bombs by Adam Games
  34. Lava Jamp by sk8dududu
  35. Rush, Kill, Repeat by filiprb
  36. Fire Realm by Red Phantom
  37. Whack (only) the Mole by awlred
  38. Collect Build Kill by Lukan
  39. Vaccine Maze by Lucas Poeiras
  40. PUSH by Toque
  41. Fishy Clicker by sylvain_I
  42. Out of the Square by ericossiqueira and Benjamim
  43. Conquer and DRILL by Cpsy1714
  44. You Only Have 3 Minutes by Evanski

Comments:

1000 Rules To Live by by Wooshdude

I enjoyed it. It would be good if I could tell what item I was picking up before touching it and removing all the other items

A Game for 8 Colors by DEGLIS

It was a bit complex to begin with but I got used to it fairly quickly although when it got faster I couldn't think about where anything should go. With a bit of time once I get more used to the colours I could really enjoy this.

Break! (don't brake) by Kalzme

For a while I thought that the pedestrians should be avoided. Also the three simple rules for the theme weren't stated that clearly. It's a cool idea though and could be made into something great

Cannibal Rules by ZombieLawyer

Cool idea. Sometimes it seemed a bit unfairly weighted and I'd lose 50 food or so in one decision. Also the days didn't reset when I lost and started again.

Coco Bombs by Adam Games

It looks like an unfinished game. The shoot animation takes too long as well so by the time that the coconut actually leaves the character my aim is way off where I want it to be. Also with no objective it got boring fairly quickly.

Coco Cards Casino by GameDevDan and NAL

Great music to fit the theme and the dialogue was good. Each game seemed to take too long though so although I wanted to reach the last person which was only unlocked by beating the others, it just took too long and became monotonous. If the games were a bit shorter (maybe a smaller grid) it would have kept me more engaged.

Collect Build Kill by Lukan

I just couldn't figure out what to do. I read the readme file and it says that space bar and left click is used to throw items but pressing space bar just killed me. Also I couldn't move up.

Color Wars by Rui Rosario

Really enjoyed it. Simple but engaging. Took a while to figure out which key did what.

Conquer and DRILL by Cpsy1714

I really could not understand how to play this and I couldn't read any of the values at the top because the text was so small

Fire Realm by Red Phantom

Cool animations. It was kind of annoying to shoot just keep shooting stuff with lots and lots of health and then have a single shot from something kill you and make you have to start over again.

Fishy Clicker by sylvain_I

An incomplete game. I can see it was meant to be some kind of idle game but I'm not really sure what there is to it.

Grow A Plant by Poizen

Great puzzle game. It would've been nice if instead of blocking how to play at the start there was text in a level when something new was introduced although I understand it's difficult with the limited time.

Guess Who Hostage Rescue by Mightyjor

These didn't really seem like rules but rather hints. It was also extremely easy and got boring fast.

HookLab by Lambda

Good puzzle game. I didn't manage to finish it. I liked how the whole game revolved around the hook mechanic and there was so much you could do with the hook. The camera movement was a bit jumpy though. It would've been nice if it was smoother.

Igor by Ninety

Nice graphics. I don't think the balloons were introduced as well as the rest of the mechanics though and I was a bit confused at first. Overall a great game.

Inconvenience Store by TehPilot

A good game. Interesting planning in the game and concept is relatable at the moment

Lava Jamp by sk8dududu

There would be lots of times where I can't dodge both the projectile from the grim reaper and not fall in the lava. Also putting some leniency on when you fell off the platform would be good.

Mage's Quest by Calepiaro

Short and sweet game. I really like this genre but obviously it was fairly small with the limited time. Being able to see slightly more of the surroundings at once would've been nice.

MEGADOME by The M

It seemed like a pretty cool game. Especially the 3d. It could have been faster paced though with a larger focus on the combat. Also I found it difficult to find enemies

Morning Commute by Yothebob

Fun multitasking game. Graphics weren't consistent which gave an odd feel. It took me a couple of tries to complete it which was good.

Night Of The Winning Dead by Pat Ferguson

I couldn't really understand what I was meant to do so zombies just kind of walked around and occasionally blew up. Nice graphics though.

Nod Zombies by BigDallas

I liked the idea but it becomes repetetive very quickly with very little variation. It would be cool if you could buy upgrades for the character with the money you get.

Out of the Square by ericossiqueira and Benjamim

I didn't really understand this for a while. I figured out I could turn into a circle and managed to get to the end but I'm not really sure what I was doing.

PUSH by Toque

I liked how you used all the people's icons who were participating. It's very simple though and also the score doesn't reset after losing.

Robber Rules! by KPJ

I played this for a while and although the rules are simple it's a very hard game. I also liked the animations, especially the screen shake

Robo Royale by bandman28 and Josh Chen

With a bit of finetuning this could be really fun. At the moment though it is way too easy and I'd win by doing very little.

Rules of the Rhinoceros by Yal

I could see a lot of work had gone into this but I think there was too much going on with the graphics and I often couldn't tell what was happening. Also some of the rules are very unfair (I got no gravity, more recoil and enemies come back at one point and I just couldn't do anything).

Rush, Kill, Repeat by filiprb

This felt more like a maze than anything and from the title I was led to believe it would be fast paced. I could never seem to find all the enemies before the timer ran out and it was just too dark to see most things so I'd often die before even seeing an enemy.

Snakes on a Plain by Richerama

I really enjoyed this one. The fox was a really nice addition. When I got caught by the spider though the spider's head just kept rotating and nothing else happened

Spielcomm 2020 by Bart

It looks like Bart just didn't have enough time to make this and I didn't really understand the whole thing about what the mask meant.

Subside by HyprBlu

Nice fast paced game and the hook was great. A health bar of some kind on the bosses would be nice

The Faults in our Code by Evanski, CloakedGames and Joseph Ellis

It's an interesting concept but I seemed to just be clicking and getting no real feedback. I could see that there was a story behind it as it progressed but I couldn't always understand what was happening

They Bleed Red Too by SoapSud39

Cool story. I don't really understand the no stealing rule because there didn't seem to be any stealing in the game. It was annoying how I could get shot when someone else broke a rule.

Three Nights Of Knights by chris24

Nice exploring game. The text that came up when I went off track exploring was funny. I'm not sure if breaking the curse of the knights did anything though.

Three Rules Make a Riddle by Ghandpivot

I liked the game but the three simple rules weren't really rules. Also some of them are very hard to guess.

Three Rules Standing by Alice and Mercerenies

Amazing puzzle game. I definitely played this one for the longest time and the concept it great. I haven't finished it yet but I'm still trying. There is lots of content as well.

Trichotomy by FrostyCat

It was an interesting concept but there wasn't a huge amount of strategy as it was largely based on luck. Maybe if you could choose between two things to place it might be more of a strategy game. Unless you wanted to keep it based on mostly luck similar to rock, paper scissors.

Upside Down Tower by Armored Dragon

Kind of interesting. Not sure about the name and its relevance to the game. Pretty good graphics. There's a couple of spelling mistakes.

Vaccine Maze by Lucas Poeiras

The syringe number doesn't reset between the levels and in the end I kind of just got frustrated by running around without much else to do.

Weapon Master by DreadedDruid

I liked the exploring part of the game. The combat system was good but the combat itself didn't feel very nice and kind of unresponsive in a way.

Wizard's Pub Crawl by Siolfor The Jackal

I liked the music. It was an interesting concept. I'm not sure if there's a difference between the levels though or if they are all just the same.

You Only Have 3 Minutes by Evanski

Haha. Very funny. Not really

YOUR RULES by Gravedust and Tomato

The menu is interesting. I didn't really understand if it was even possible to win though. I would try and kill everything and then the timer would run out so it was kind of frustrating because I just thought it was impossible to win but I enjoyed it while playing.
 
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Z

zanzindorf

Guest
Zanzindorf's REVIEWS AND VOTES

1st Place - Night Of The Winning Dead by Pat Ferguson
I really enjoyed the authentic Amiga vibe. The music, graphics, menus, and gameplay all worked really well together. The vomit bridges were an interesting mechanic. It had a lot of polish and even had cut scenes :)

2nd Place - Fire Realm by Red Phantom
Character design was neat and gameplay was simple fun :)

3rd Place - MEGADOME by The M
Cool idea. Liked the 3D cell-shaded graphics, and it was an excellent use of the theme.

Best Ofs
Best use of theme: MEGADOME by The M
Best concept: Night Of The Winning Dead by Pat Ferguson
Best presentation: Night Of The Winning Dead by Pat Ferguson
Best Story: Night Of The Winning Dead by Pat Ferguson
Best devlog: ---
 

Richerama

Member
Reviews

Top 3:

Igor by Ninety
This is amazing. It looks lovely and the level design is perfect. It was already my favourite, but when gravity was removed and Igor was zooming around like superman i was giggling with glee. I would definitely pay money for this. Amazing.

Subside by HyprBlu
This was just really good fun, really well made and presented. The boss fights were great, if a little challenging, but it still kept me coming back for just one more try.

Coco Cards Casino by GameDevDan and NAL
Really well designed, looks professional, and fun to play. It seemed strange that the AI could fail to guess the last card correctly but i was grateful for this a couple of times.

Best ofs:

Best use of : Coco Cards Casino by GameDevDan and NAL
Best Concept: Igor by Ninety
Best Presentation: Igor by Ninety
Best Story: Three Rules Standing by Alice and Mercerenies

Top ten:

  1. Igor by Ninety
  2. Subside by HyprBlu
  3. Coco Cards Casino by GameDevDan and NAL
  4. Robber Rules! by KPJ
  5. Three Rules Standing by Alice and Mercerenies
  6. Break! (don't brake) by Kalzme
  7. Spielcomm 2020 by Bart
  8. Grow A Plant by Poizen
  9. Inconvenience Store by TehPilot
  10. Wizard's Pub Crawl by Siolfor The Jackal

I'll add some general feedback, since I've not managed to review everything: In my opinion, you must include a way of teaching the player how to play the game, either an obvious list of controls or some kind of tutorial. It's quite possible I've missed out on some great games here simply by not knowing what i'm supposed to be doing. There were a lot of games to get through so no-one wants to hunt through forum posts in the hope of finding out what buttons to press. On a similar note, it's best to keep it simple. Assume that people won't be playing longer than a few minutes, make a short experience that's fun and easy to play.
 

Mercerenies

Member
Mercerenies' Lavishly Contemporary and Famishingly Chronological Reviews

1. HookLab - TeamAuThe
2. Igor - Ninety
3. Subside - HyprBlu

Full rankings:
1. HookLab - TeamAuThe
2. Igor - Ninety
3. Subside - HyprBlu
4. The Faults in our Code - EvanSki / CloakedGames / Joseph Ellis
5. Three Rules Make a Riddle - Ghandpivot
6. Coco Cards Casino - GameDevDan / NAL
7. Inconvenience Store - TehPilot
8. Trichotomy - FrostyCat
9. A Game for 8 Colors - DEGLIS
10. Break! (don't brake) - Kalzme
11. MEGADOME - The M
12. Mage's Quest - Calepiaro
13. Morning Commute - Yothebob
14. Cannibal Rules - ZombieLawyer
15. Fire Realm - Red Phantom
16. Rules of the Rhinoceros - Yal
17. Wizard's Pub Crawl - Siolfor the Jackal / HayManMarc
18. Nod Zombies - Big Dallas
19. Snakes on a Plain - Richerama
20. Three Nights of Knights - chris24
21. Robber Rules! - KPJ
22. Out of the Square - ericossiqueira / Benjamin
23. Color Wars - Rui Rosario
24. Vaccine Maze - Lucas Poeiras
25. 1000 Rules to Live By - Wooshdude
26. Guess Who Hostage Rescue - Mightyjor
27. Coco Bombs - Adam Games
28. PUSH - Toque
29. Fishy Clicker - sylvain_I
30. Spielcomm 2020 - Bart
31. Upside Down Tower - Armored Dragon
32. Weapon Master - DreadedDruid
33. Whack (only) the Mole - awired
34. The ritual - finh2003
35. Collect Build Kill - Lukan
36. Robo Royale! - bandman28 / Josh Chen
37. YOUR RULES - Gravedust / Tomato
38. Lava Jump - sk8dududu
39. Grow a Plant - Poizen
40. They Bleed Red Too - SoapSud39
41. Rush, Kill, Repeat - filiprb
42. Conquer and DRILL - Cpsy1714
43. Night of the Winning Dead - Pat Ferguson
44. You Only Have 3 Minutes - EvanSki

Best Use of Theme - The Faults in our Code (EvanSki / CloakedGames / Joseph Ellis)
Best Concept - A Game for 8 Colors (DEGLIS)
Best Presentation - Three Rules Make a Riddle (Ghandpivot)

Reviews

I'll be reviewing every game and rating them across five categories: Gameplay, Graphics, Audio, Theme, and Personal Opinion. Your total score is not a definitive indicator of my vote for you; I determine my votes holistically. And don't be discouraged by a negative review: remember that I'm lavishly contemporary and famishingly chronological, so I'm giving constructive feedback to everybody. We're all friends, and it's totally awesome that you managed to produce a game in the first place.

Reviews will be listed in alphabetical order by the name of the game.

1000 Rules to Live By - Wooshdude (15/30)
Gameplay (3/5)
Graphics (3/5)
Audio (3/5)
Theme (1/5)
Opinion (5/10)

A fairly straightforward top-down shooter. All of the upgrades I got ended up being awkward tradeoffs, so it felt like I should've been able to see what the upgrades were before applying them (like, "triple the bullet size but halve the velocity" was really counterproductive when I was having no trouble aiming anyway).

A Game for 8 Colors - DEGLIS (28/30)
Gameplay (5/5)
Graphics (5/5)
Audio (4/5)
Theme (5/5)
Opinion (9/10)

A very solid tetris-style game. You reminded me how much of my color wheel I'd forgotten since high school, but even so it's surprisingly easy to get used to it again. There are just enough colors to make things interesting but not too many that it feels like some kind of memorization game. And that feeling of satisfaction when you clear a row of black blocks is without compare. I think I got around 6500 in the end.

Break! (don't brake) - Kalzme (24/30)
Gameplay (5/5)
Graphics (5/5)
Audio (5/5)
Theme (0/5)
Opinion (9/10)

Well done! A fun driving game where your score is how many traffic laws you flaunt ignorance of. I really like the design, and it's very hard to make a game with no actual instructions or tutorial self-explanatory, which you seemed to do an excellent job of here. It would be cool if there were a few more levels (or even infinitely many, procedurally generated ones), but still a very cool game. I ended up with 21576 points in the end.

Cannibal Rules - ZombieLawyer (26/30)
Gameplay (4/5)
Graphics (4/5)
Audio (5/5)
Theme (5/5)
Opinion (8/10)

A well-executed decision-making game. I'm not sure if this was intentional or not, but the day counter kept incrementing even when I started the game over. Happiness was way hard to keep up. It seemed like there just weren't that many ways to keep people happy... in a post apocalyptic wasteland. Also, the "radiation sickness" prompt was a death sentence. It's almost like there's no good way to deal with radiation sickness.

Coco Bombs - Adam Games (14/30)
Gameplay (2/5)
Graphics (3/5)
Audio (0/5)
Theme (5/5)
Opinion (4/10)

A top-down fighting game about tossing bombs. There wasn't really a lot to see here. Pure chaos from the various AIs didn't leave a ton of room for strategy, so it was mostly spamming the left-click while running away more than actually planning any attacks.

Coco Cards Casino - GameDevDan / NAL (28/30)
Gameplay (4/5)
Graphics (5/5)
Audio (5/5)
Theme (5/5)
Opinion (9/10)

An excellent entry from the all-star team as always. Well-polished and definitely balanced. It felt more luck-based than what I'm used to, but that's just probably because I'm not used to gambling games where the primary strategy is in counting cards.

Collect Build Kill - Lukan (14/30)
Gameplay (1/5)
Graphics (2/5)
Audio (4/5)
Theme (3/5)
Opinion (4/10)

It looks like a crafting game. Unfortunately, I couldn't figure it out. The readme says to "throw" items together to craft them. It also says hit SPACE to throw. But as far as I can tell, SPACE is an instant-kill, as it takes me to the game-over screen whenever I hit it.

Color Wars - Rui Rosario (13/30)
Gameplay (2/5)
Graphics (2/5)
Audio (0/5)
Theme (4/5)
Opinion (5/10)

This was a bit frustrating, mainly because the color matchups were arbitrary, and I never really got to the point where G>R>B>G felt "natural", so whenever a ship appeared, I had to consciously think "okay, that's green. I need to fire blue... uh, that's D on my keyboard".

Conquer and DRILL - Cpsy1714 (13/30)
Gameplay (1/5)
Graphics (1/5)
Audio (3/5)
Theme (5/5)
Opinion (3/10)

Sorry, I just don't have the time. If a game is super simple, it can get away without explaining the mechanics. But if you're going to make a real-time strategy war sim and the first screen I see is the entire world, filled with armies and landmasses and about twenty different on-screen statistics, then that's just not going to work. Complicated Jam games can be done well, but the mechanics have to be introduced gradually. I have 43 other games to play as well as this one. I will give credit for the voice acting though, as I respect an entry that does its own voices.

Fire Realm - Red Phantom (22/30)
Gameplay (4/5)
Graphics (3/5)
Audio (4/5)
Theme (5/5)
Opinion (6/10)

A pretty solid shooter game reminiscient of Galaga and company. Not being able to fire at the electrical enemies (who are firing at you) made for a very interesting touch and an added challenge.

Fishy Clicker - sylvain_I (7/30)
Gameplay (2/5)
Graphics (1/5)
Audio (0/5)
Theme (0/5)
Opinion (4/10)

There's not a whole lot here right now, but I could see it having potential. Some polish here and there, maybe some moving targets and some fishes that give you extra time or something, and you'd have a solid mobile game on your hands.

Grow a Plant - Poizen (23/30)
Gameplay (2/5)
Graphics (5/5)
Audio (5/5)
Theme (5/5)
Opinion (6/10)

I really want to like this one. It's a stunningly beautiful game, between the backdrop and the gorgeous shadows on the blocks and generally just all of the textures. But I can't figure out the win condition. I lucked my way through the first level, and I found out that when all of the blocks of a particular type are contiguous, they "pop" into dirt or water... but what then? I've got the plant planted, there's water all around it, but it won't let me proceed.

Guess Who Hostage Rescue - Mightyjor (18/30)
Gameplay (1/5)
Graphics (4/5)
Audio (3/5)
Theme (5/5)
Opinion (5/10)

With some additional complexity, this could be an interesting puzzle game. Like a whodunnit type thing where some of the clues are lying or ambiguous or something. But in its current form, it's fairly mundane: "it says the hostage is dark-skinned, so let's shoot all the light-skinned people then look at the next clue" doesn't require any strategy.

HookLab - TeamAuThe (24/30)
Gameplay (5/5)
Graphics (4/5)
Audio (5/5)
Theme (0/5)
Opinion (10/10)

Man, I do love me a good puzzle game I can just sink my teeth into, and this hit all the right spots. The chief mechanic being not able to turn on the spot made this a fascinating mind-twisting escapade of movement restriction, and I loved every minute. The game felt like just the right length, too, honestly. The last level was hard, but not too hard. Well done all around!

Igor - Ninety (30/30)
Gameplay (5/5)
Graphics (5/5)
Audio (5/5)
Theme (5/5)
Opinion (10/10)

I had already heard good things, but yeah, this entry definitely holds up to the hype. A hybrid platform-puzzler with excellent graphics, superb polish, and interesting level design. Fun, a good length, and just overall a good time!

Inconvenience Store - TehPilot (27/30)
Gameplay (5/5)
Graphics (4/5)
Audio (5/5)
Theme (5/5)
Opinion (8/10)

A very well-made entry. The calm theme music contrasts sharply with the stressful experience of running a shop and all the various tasks that come with it. This is reminiscient of the Kitchen Rush board game, which has a similar "constantly in a hurry" feel to it.

Lava Jump - sk8dududu (14/30)
Gameplay (3/5)
Graphics (2/5)
Audio (4/5)
Theme (0/5)
Opinion (5/10)

Looks like a good idea. But I couldn't get the hang of it. It seemed like I was always in situations where the only way to dodge a death beam was to fall into lava, and I couldn't avoid them both. Basically, I pretty much decided that the optimal strategy was to ignore the death beams, jump over the lava, and just last as long as possible until my hearts run out. I think this game needs maybe some horizontal movement control if you intend that players avoid both things at once.

Mage's Quest - Calepiaro (17/30)
Gameplay (4/5)
Graphics (3/5)
Audio (4/5)
Theme (0/5)
Opinion (6/10)

A fun, short little platformer about utilizing various powers. Didn't see any theme usage, but that's fine. I would say the timer felt very unnecessary. It took what was otherwise a relaxing platformer and implemented a level of stress that really didn't add anything of value to the game.

MEGADOME - The M (24/30)
Gameplay (3/5)
Graphics (5/5)
Audio (4/5)
Theme (5/5)
Opinion (7/10)

A 3D space shooter that feels like it should've taken a bit longer than the Jam time to get the controls right. For a Jam game especially, it felt quite smooth moving in the 3D space. The upgrade system was simple but neat, and it felt like I always had something to do.

Morning Commute - Yothebob (26/30)
Gameplay (5/5)
Graphics (5/5)
Audio (3/5)
Theme (5/5)
Opinion (8/10)

A solid entry. A very stressful experience, but I get the feeling that's not unintentional. I did eventually get there. Once I realized that my actual speed doesn't matter (provided it's above 40), the game got a bit easier, because up till then I'd been trying to stay at like 80 to save time.

Night of the Winning Dead - Pat Ferguson (11/30)
Gameplay (1/5)
Graphics (3/5)
Audio (4/5)
Theme (0/5)
Opinion (3/10)

I don't know. There's some buttons on the bottom of the screen. One looks like a bomb, one looks like a fast-forward. Then there's the up/down that changes a counter I can't figure out. You gotta explain the mechanics, man. I literally have no idea how to play this game. When I click the buttons, they make a church bell sound and then nothing happens.

Nod Zombies - Big Dallas (20/30)
Gameplay (3/5)
Graphics (2/5)
Audio (4/5)
Theme (5/5)
Opinion (6/10)

Basically, Frogger. Not that there's anything wrong with that. The money cars looked quite a bit like the green dump trucks, which got me several times. Not sure if that was intentional or not.

Out of the Square - ericossiqueira / Benjamin (8/30)
Gameplay (2/5)
Graphics (2/5)
Audio (0/5)
Theme (0/5)
Opinion (4/10)

I see what you were going for: 2D platformer where movement is restricted to physics. But the physics were just... too bad. It didn't feel satisfying when I got to the next platform; it felt like I'd gotten lucky. The idea definitely has potential, but the player needs more control to make this a less frustrating experience.

PUSH - Toque (20/30)
Gameplay (2/5)
Graphics (4/5)
Audio (4/5)
Theme (5/5)
Opinion (5/10)

A simple enough idea, and I definitely like any entry that throws GMC members into the mix. But it was just... kinda dull when it comes down to it. Slow movement and the only real goal is "push in the direction of the box".

Robber Rules! - KPJ (22/30)
Gameplay (4/5)
Graphics (2/5)
Audio (5/5)
Theme (5/5)
Opinion (6/10)

Simple enough, but well-executed. Three possible obstacles and three different ways to deal with it. Fundamentally, it's all about reaction time. My one complaint is probably that lasers were a bit hard to see. With the screen moving fast, the thin red line was easy to miss.

Robo Royale! - bandman28 / Josh Chen (21/30)
Gameplay (3/5)
Graphics (3/5)
Audio (4/5)
Theme (5/5)
Opinion (6/10)

A cool game, and the "convert your enemies" approach was definitely well-done. Unfortunately, it seemed to end really fast. Like, I just set up a couple robots, then I kill one guy, and everything's over. Were there multiple enemies who self-destructed each other, or how did I seem to win so fast?

Rules of the Rhinoceros - Yal (24/30)
Gameplay (4/5)
Graphics (5/5)
Audio (3/5)
Theme (5/5)
Opinion (7/10)

A straightforward shooter with good weapon variety. I really liked the variety of rules, although "money hurts you" was a bit crippling in any round it showed up. I also could've done without the sort of mosquito-buzzing background sound that seemed to show up later in the levels.

Rush, Kill, Repeat - filiprb (13/30)
Gameplay (1/5)
Graphics (3/5)
Audio (3/5)
Theme (5/5)
Opinion (1/10)

This looks really cool, but I'm getting about 5 FPS on my machine. I assume the lighting calculations or something are just too much, so this game was unplayable. Sorry :(

Snakes on a Plain - Richerama (23/30)
Gameplay (2/5)
Graphics (4/5)
Audio (5/5)
Theme (5/5)
Opinion (7/10)

A very solid, well-executed reaction-time game. Good variety of enemies and things to react to (vultures being high/low, and the snakes that jump sometimes). I broke rule 3 :(

Spielcomm 2020 - Bart (14/30)
Gameplay (2/5)
Graphics (3/5)
Audio (4/5)
Theme (0/5)
Opinion (5/10)

So.... what button do I hit to replace mask? Because it said I had 11 of them, but I kept dying when the first one ran out. Readme didn't say, and spamming random keys didn't work.

Subside - HyprBlu (28/30)
Gameplay (5/5)
Graphics (5/5)
Audio (4/5)
Theme (5/5)
Opinion (9/10)

A very fun, intense timed platformer. The controls, especially the grappling, were very smooth and it felt good to move around. The boss fights were super fun and really hit that perfect difficulty where you really felt like you accomplished something when you won them.

The Faults in our Code - Evanski / CloakedGames / Joseph Ellis (29/30)
Gameplay (5/5)
Graphics (5/5)
Audio (4/5)
Theme (5/5)
Opinion (10/10)

A very fun, simple, but well-done entry. The graphics looked great, the variety in the robots was superb, and the awards made me want to keep coming back. I got "Ensuring Job Security" a ton and then tried the brilliant strategy of "let all the robots out" to get "21XX was an inside job". The opposite strategy of "burn them all" seemed to just get into an infinite loop, because the day didn't end.

The ritual - finh2003 (21/30)
Gameplay (3/5)
Graphics (4/5)
Audio (3/5)
Theme (5/5)
Opinion (6/10)

Simple enough top-down shooter. I'm not really sure what the rules were for though. I mean, you introduced several mechanics and then instantly said "don't do these things"... so, like, why are they there?

They Bleed Red Too - SoapSud39 (20/30)
Gameplay (2/5)
Graphics (3/5)
Audio (5/5)
Theme (5/5)
Opinion (5/10)

I... don't know what I was doing wrong. I never lasted more than like 10 seconds and never found one of my marks either. Way too many lasers, I guess.

Three Nights of Knights - chris24 (17/30)
Gameplay (2/5)
Graphics (4/5)
Audio (3/5)
Theme (3/5)
Opinion (5/10)

Simple enough fighting game. The combat was pretty basic and didn't feel like there was a lot of skill involved. The wall jumps were pretty smooth, and the platform engine felt good, all things considered.

Three Rules Make a Riddle - Ghandpivot (27/30)
Gameplay (5/5)
Graphics (5/5)
Audio (4/5)
Theme (4/5)
Opinion (9/10)

A well-executed riddle game. I am ashamed to admit I needed your post's "bonus clue" for a lot of them (which I'm very glad you did). I also ended up breaking out an anagram solver for "cutlery". I had already figured out what it was talking about without even looking at the post, but I was stuck on "utensil", "chopsticks", ... and couldn't get to cutlery. :p

Trichotomy - FrostyCat (27/30)
Gameplay (4/5)
Graphics (5/5)
Audio (5/5)
Theme (5/5)
Opinion (8/10)

A solid strategy game. Fun to play, if a bit slow-paced (for as short as the turns are, I feel like the "this piece is taking this piece" animation could've been shorter). Also, side note, but the icon for your game really reminds me of the GM7 icon. I think it's pretty close to the same red, and it threw me for a loop at first.

Upside Down Tower - Armored Dragon (19/30)
Gameplay (2/5)
Graphics (5/5)
Audio (4/5)
Theme (3/5)
Opinion (5/10)

I didn't get past the second level. The game demanded a level of precision that the graphics (while beautiful on their own) couldn't support, so every time it seemed like I was hitting the crystals and the game said I wasn't. That coupled with the fact that you get three hops to get three crystals (and on only the second stage) meant perfection was demanded, and I couldn't deliver.

Vaccine Maze - Lucas Poeiras (7/30)
Gameplay (1/5)
Graphics (1/5)
Audio (1/5)
Theme (0/5)
Opinion (4/10)

Not really much to say here. Very simple top-down movement system centered around dodging projectiles and collecting collectibles. The sneeze sound effect was... unnerving especially in this day and age.

Weapon Master - DreadedDruid (9/30)
Gameplay (1/5)
Graphics (4/5)
Audio (0/5)
Theme (0/5)
Opinion (4/10)

So.... what's the point of being a weapon master if your weapon doesn't kill anything? The sword doesn't seem to have any tangible effect on the creepy candle guys. So I just tried to run past them and get to the next rooms but... that's kind of hard to do without hitting anything.

Whack (only) the Mole - awlred (16/30)
Gameplay (1/5)
Graphics (2/5)
Audio (4/5)
Theme (5/5)
Opinion (4/10)

I appreciate you putting the controls at the bottom of the screen during gameplay, but it actually wasn't enough. For a fast-paced game like this, the cognitive load of "Okay, it's a bunny, that means I gotta hit... let's see... ctrl... and... oh wait which key was he on... U... oh darn he's gone" every time something comes up makes this more of a chore than a game. My recommendation would be to make the animals themed so I don't have to think about it. Maybe camels for ctrl and sharks for shift (so the starting sounds of the words line up) to make it easier to remember. Plus, if you're going to go for rapid recognition, the graphics need to be distinguishable and quickly recognizable.

Wizard's Pub Crawl - Siolfor the Jackal / HayManMarc (19/30)
Gameplay (3/5)
Graphics (2/5)
Audio (5/5)
Theme (3/5)
Opinion (6/10)

A simple enough on-the-rails shooter with the interesting twist of making it difficult to aim. I liked how, depending on which side of the scale you were on, the aiming was bad in different ways.

You Only Have 3 Minutes - EvanSki (3/30)
Gameplay (0/5)
Graphics (0/5)
Audio (2/5)
Theme (0/5)
Opinion (1/10)

I waited. Nothing happened at the end.

YOUR RULES - Gravedust / Tomato (14/30)
Gameplay (2/5)
Graphics (2/5)
Audio (2/5)
Theme (3/5)
Opinion (5/10)

Is... is this possible? Maybe beating all the enemies... but there's no way I can get that score just by beating a bunch of enemies. There must be some collectible or combo move that I don't know about to get more points in the time limit.
 

Alice

Darts addict
Forum Staff
Moderator
Feel free to check out the new and polished Jam-complete version of our entry Three Rules Standing. See this post for more information.
The post also has a walkthrough in case you get stuck, but still want to find out how the story progresses.

Alice's Unruly Reviews

Top 3:

The Faults in our Code by Evanski, CloakedGames and Joseph Ellis
The game has a cool concept and story to it, and some choices were pretty interesting.

Inconvenience Store by TehPilot
It's a nice concept, if somewhat hectic, what with trying to keep up with both cleanliness and stock at once (and occasional customers).

Subside by HyprBlu
Generally, a nice and well-polished platformer, if maybe it could use some more variety of challenges compared to the number of levels.

Best ofs:

Best use of Theme: YOUR RULES by Gravedust and Tomato
Best Concept: Igor by Ninety
Best Presentation: Night Of The Winning Dead by Pat Ferguson
Best Story: The Faults in our Code by Evanski, CloakedGames and Joseph Ellis

Full ranking:

  1. The Faults in our Code by Evanski, CloakedGames and Joseph Ellis
  2. Inconvenience Store by TehPilot
  3. Subside by HyprBlu
  4. Igor by Ninety
  5. Night Of The Winning Dead by Pat Ferguson
  6. Three Rules Make a Riddle by Ghandpivot
  7. Coco Cards Casino by GameDevDan and NAL
  8. Grow A Plant by Poizen
  9. Snakes on a Plain by Richerama
  10. Trichotomy by FrostyCat
  11. Break! (don't brake) by Kalzme
  12. YOUR RULES by Gravedust and Tomato
  13. A Game for 8 Colors by DEGLIS
  14. Robber Rules! by KPJ
  15. Three Nights Of Knights by chris24
  16. They Bleed Red Too by SoapSud39
  17. HookLab by Lambda
  18. MEGADOME by The M
  19. The ritual by finh2003
  20. Upside Down Tower by Armored Dragon
  21. Wizard's Pub Crawl by Siolfor The Jackal
  22. Morning Commute by Yothebob
  23. Nod Zombies by BigDallas
  24. Fire Realm by Red Phantom
  25. Weapon Master by DreadedDruid
  26. Whack (only) the Mole by awlred
  27. Rules of the Rhinoceros by Yal
  28. 1000 Rules To Live by by Wooshdude
  29. Mage's Quest by Calepiaro
  30. Guess Who Hostage Rescue by Mightyjor
  31. PUSH by Toque
  32. Cannibal Rules by ZombieLawyer
  33. Spielcomm 2020 by Bart
  34. Out of the Square by ericossiqueira and Benjamim
  35. Lava Jamp by sk8dududu
  36. Robo Royale by bandman28 and Josh Chen
  37. Vaccine Maze by Lucas Poeiras
  38. Color Wars by Rui Rosario
  39. Conquer and DRILL by Cpsy1714
  40. Coco Bombs by Adam Games
  41. Rush, Kill, Repeat by filiprb
  42. Fishy Clicker by sylvain_I
  43. Collect Build Kill by Lukan
  44. You Only Have 3 Minutes by Evanski

Comments:

1000 Rules To Live by by Wooshdude

The game keeps randomly freezing and bugging out, sorry. At least I got a hotdog skin on one of my playthroughs, before entering the next level and getting a message about being unable to draw obj_player or something.
Other than that, I guess it has this "choose your own rule" thing going on, but I can hardly make an informed decision when I cannot see the rule before collecting it. >.<
The audiovisuals are pretty nice, but I'd have preferred if the pixel sizes stayed consistent, so that e.g. buttons in menu aren't more blocky than the background.

A Game for 8 Colors by DEGLIS

Phew, it was getting really catastrophic near the end, but I won!
(I didn't even realise I can win until near end of level 7, when I finally spotted that it has "out of 8" next to level number)

Either way, it was somewhat fun, if maybe too hectic near the end - at this point I couldn't really process what colours I'm making and I just tried to dump whatever in a place where blocks are somewhat scarce.
The fact that it uses RYB colours rather than RGB colour doesn't help. Several times I pushed blue into yellow intending to make a white block, only to get green instead. Or green into purple to make a while block while getting black.

Break! (don't brake) by Kalzme

I understand the appeal of wordless tutorials, but personally I feel it tried to convey too much with too few information, making me initially confused. Then again, the "Space" hint (as in, press Space to speed up) might also have something to do with it.
Other than that, it's a neat concept and also one of few games that revolve around breaking the rules rather than following them. And also, the rules don't seem completely arbitrary like some other games.
The audiovisuals are also quite good.

Cannibal Rules by ZombieLawyer

Not a great fan of this decision-making genre, especially with some random events being objectively better to get than other events. The wildly random values of gain/loss don't help.
Also, I feel like some trade-offs might have got their sign wrong, or at least had a counter-intuitive effect.
At least the game has a good ending (which you can see if you replay the game without restarting the application - the score from the previous run is still there).

Coco Bombs by Adam Games

This game seems very unfinished, with enemies sometimes having clearly placeholder frames and seemingly no losing/winning condition?
At the very least, I applaud the use of hi-res graphics, even if some of these are pretty simple. I don't mind blocky pixel-art per se, but I'm seeing so much of it, I really want some high-quality vector-likes for a change.

Coco Cards Casino by GameDevDan and NAL

Interesting concept. It relies quite a lot on card-counting, but the added mechanic of adjacent cells also means you want to aim for clusters of revealed cards, so there's at least this extra bit of strategic depth.
That said, 2 levels are quite enough for me; I'm not feeling like challenging all these AIs that have been prepared. ^^'

Collect Build Kill by Lukan

Whenever I press Space and let go of it, I end up with a message "You died". So all I can do is collect and place things, which doesn't make for a very interesting gameplay. Sorry. ^^'

Color Wars by Rui Rosario

Ah, a simple rock-paper-scissors based shooter.
I feel the visuals would be improved if the background was plain black rather than plain gray.
I liked how specific colors not only killed the enemies they are strong against, but also absorbed the bullets.

Conquer and DRILL by Cpsy1714

As a person who completed Britskrieg, I was initially ready to complete this entry as well. However, things take a lot of time here, and the armies go from hundreds of units in Central America to millions in Austalia. This is 30k clicks for building the army alone, and you still need to manage the resources and upkeeps; if you make a misstep, you lose. >.<
(that, and while I generally appreciate voice acting, I don't really like listening to the intro somehow...)
The controls are also somewhat convoluted and clunky to use; I had to look in the Jam Games thread to find out how to use these, too.

Fire Realm by Red Phantom

Phew, I defeated the Ashen Mother or whatever it was at the end and completed the game.
I gave the game a test run before, and it's generally a major improvement compared to the early version. Health bars, shorter levels and temporary immunity are welcome additions, and fire orbs give a nice extra variety (earlier fire creatures just flied around).
I also think the backgrounds got a bit more decorated?
Anyway, it's a pretty enjoyable game now. Maybe not the best, but still fun. Well done.

Fishy Clicker by sylvain_I

I collected 317 fish. I'm glad it's not THREE MINUTE TIMER, because while it was somewhat enjoyable for a minutes, it'd get stale after three times that.
Oh wait, those are actually 6 timers. 5 for recharging fish, and 1 for game countdown.
This might explain while I don't see THREE SIMPLE RULES explained anywhere.

Grow A Plant by Poizen

Fires are casting a shadow, and water doesn't put out the fires. I think I should be concerned...
(then again, we have the sun wearing sunglasses, too)

Other than that, it was a nice little puzzle game, if maybe it has the issues with some real-world intuitions not applying (again - fire casting shadow and resistant to water). The water physics are a little tricky to predict fully, but I didn't experience the trouble with expecting one behaviour from the water physics and getting the other.

Guess Who Hostage Rescue by Mightyjor

It's definitely on an easy side, with clues allowing a basic elimination of the baddies (maybe except for the eyes, one needs to stare really hard to figure our their colour).
Then again, if the clues weren't enough to narrow down the hostage, the game would be unfair. Maybe some more indirect clues could make the game a little more challenging...?
Would be nice to have some more satisfying ending then just going to credit. I dunno, maybe some summary of how many hostages were saved? Or even better, a disco party with all the hostages present.
It's not a bad concept, but I'd have preferred if clues weren't so straightforward. Audiovisuals were fine, I guess?

HookLab by Lambda

Not quite seeing use of THREE SIMPLE RULES here, or rather, while there are some mechanics that could explained in 3 items, it can be said about lots of other games.
Usually I'm not a great fan of being very explicit about use of theme and stating it outright in the game, but THREE SIMPLE RULES is an exception here - especially when these three rules are three core game mechanics that can be anything.
Other than that, it's a really enjoyable puzzle game, and the levels use the hook mechanics quite cleverly. Well done. ^^
(also, would be nice to get some clarification whether the music was made by the team during the Jam or taken from elsewhere; I'm pretty sure that the victory melody at the very least is a paraphrasing of Final Fantasy winning tune)

Igor by Ninety

"Spikes are harmless" - my favourite rule.
A well-made puzzle platformer with good level design, gradually introducing new concepts. The presentation is also well done, and there's some basic story progression, too. Not sure whether anti-raise is a proper phrase, though. :p
While I appreciate the unique and fun rule-switching mechanic, I think the *three* rules aspect is underemphasised. There are three slots for rules, yes, but in many (most?) levels you'll use one or two rules at most, and only the latest levels make proper use of the three rules limit (when getting a fourth rule removes the first).

Inconvenience Store by TehPilot

COVID again... *masked deep sigh*
It's a nice concept, if somewhat hectic, what with trying to keep up with both cleanliness and stock at once (and occasional customers).
And then some super-sick client comes over and keeps spreading the disease. >.<
Either way, I managed to pass all levels. The ending was satisfying. ;)

Lava Jamp by sk8dududu

It's way too easy to fall off the platform - them being so narrow doesn't help. Extra narrow platforms might work in precision platformers, but not so much in endless runners, especially with the reaper chasing and shooting slices at you.
Also, I recommend reading this article) on platforming jumping - there are two useful concepts presented that can make your platformer feel so much more responsive and nowhere near as frustrating. In case of Lava Jamp you'd need to adjust the concepts here to the fact that length of holding jump key affects jump height, but I think it's perfectly doable still.
Other than that, the audiovisuals are pretty cool.

Mage's Quest by Calepiaro

First I completed the game on Easy, then I played on Normal and got 35 time overall.
It's short enough, at least., and there some variety in powers, so it's nice. Not the smoothest platformer I've played, and there needs to be a difference between background and obstacle trees (maybe make the background trees darker or even black altogether).
The theme... well, as ghandpivot would put it, "Theme is forced, 3 seemingly arbitrary things are chosen as rules". I had to specifically check the Story section to see what the rules are in the first place.
Also, please don't use mouse-controlled menu for otherwise entirely keyboard-controlled game. It means every time I want to replay, I have to move my hand from the keyboard to mouse and then back.

MEGADOME by The M

Cool general idea, but it's a little too chaotic for my taste. Especially when some opponent hits me from the back and I don't know which direction of back it is, exactly. Also, would be nice to add some visual depth by fog-like effect, so that distant asteroids don't blend with the closer ones. Having some highlight around the competing ships would be nice, too.
Would be nice to have a crosshair in front of me; it's pretty hard to tell where the exact center of screen is, which is quite a life or death matter in this game.
I appreciate that the ore goes towards you when you're close, at least (or at least, that's how it seemed to me).
Also, it's nice to get voice acting here - and having the announcements corresponding to various GMC usernames is even more impressive - though the quality of voice acting might still need some work.

Morning Commute by Yothebob

Wow, that was intense.
I appreciate the general concept, but execution could be better along all 3 rules:
1. Not getting late - it would be more logical if you had to maintain an appropriate *average* speed, rather than keeping it 40mph or higher; I imagine it could be illustrated with a bar with e.g. a car and hourglass along it - if the car is ahead of the hourglass, it means it goes ahead of time, if the hourglass is ahead - the car is getting late.
2. Not annoying the girlfriend - I feel the typing mechanic could be smoother, in particular by having Enter be both send and hide phone. If not that, at least make Space the phone showing/hiding button, since the typical messaging app has Enter as a send button (on PC rather than mobile, but still).
3. Not crashing - I just don't know why cars in front of me suddenly disappear, that's weird.

Night Of The Winning Dead by Pat Ferguson

Alright, this game gets top scores for style.
Not as good for gameplay mechanics, though - speed-up in particular has been working pretty wonky, with sped-up timer being different from regular timer, and zombies dying when falling from height that's perfectly fine in normal speed mode.
Other than that, it's a nice throwback to Lemmings (I recognised that even without the overly long marquee text telling me so). I like how typical lemming abilities had some touches to be more zombified (spew bridge, however gross, is also genius in how thematic it is). I also liked how clawing up ability could be used for stalling - in particular, I saved almost every single zombie in the level introducing the bridge, if not for the time running out because of the speed-up bug.
The rules are a little lackluster, especially since I didn't see them in a game, but only in a devlog. And not sure about having a snack along the way - there was only one level involving that. >.<

Nod Zombies by BigDallas

...so, are money cars made of literal money? This would explain while collisions with them are somewhat harmless.
Alright, this game kept me playing for at least several attempts, which is rare for me as far as score-as-high-as-you-can-without-specific-end-goal sort of games.
It's even more impressive, considering that the controls use this press-key-to-move rather than hold-key-to-move scheme, which I usually dislike.
The graphics are nothing to sign praises about, but I did like the SFX, especially the mocking laugh when the other junkie hits you.

Out of the Square by ericossiqueira and Benjamim

That was certainly quite an experience.
It took quite a while to reach the point where use of theme is introduced (via warden) and the slow movement didn't help.
At the end I got swarmed by a rain of balls and the game ended. Is that it?


PUSH by Toque

Alright, it's silly, but memetic if somewhat fun. Would have played it for more than two runs if the intro wasn't so long and unskippable.
Also, I can't quite tell how the game decides whether the block fell on main character or not, but it's counter-intuitive - both times I failed, it didn't seem like block fell on me at all.

Robber Rules! by KPJ

The title made me hope that it would involve some "honour among thieves" rules, but it's a basic three-fixed-rules instead.
I like how it has specific levels instead of being an endless runner - it allows for briefer and repeatable challenges and gives a point of completion.
(and also it means the protagonist wins - though since the protagonist is a robber, maybe I shouldn't root for him...?)

Towards the end, especially the 5th level, the game was getting quite tough. Wouldn't mind if it was slowed by 10-20% or so, giving the player more time to react and make the correct movement - please keep in mind that as a developer, you have so much more experience and knowledge about your game than the random Jam reviewers.
Also, I'd have preferred more focused controls, e.g. up arrow for shield, right arrow for punch, down arrow for kick.

Either way, I completed the entry. Ignoring later levels getting a little too tough, the game was somewhat enjoyable overall. Would have preferred a more satisfying conclusion, but at least a win screen is there.

Robo Royale by bandman28 and Josh Chen

Played it twice, won both times. Good concept, a game is a tad too easy to win, but at the very least you can finish it quickly. Theme used in standard three-fixed-gameplay-rules.

Rules of the Rhinoceros by Yal

Hnnnh... I feel like it could have been quite a good game, but it suffers from the same problems as Ghostris:
- the RNG can mess with you really bad
- some of the variations are more annoying than charmingly challenging

In particular, the game puts so much extra "oomph" that every time the rhino takes damage, they get knocked back pretty far and can't be moved for a bit.
It's a short bit, but it still breaks the game flow, turning what should have been a crazy fun ride into an unnecessary struggle. The variable speed rule messes up the gameplay flow even worse, draining away all the inherent joy of running around and shooting stuff.
As for RNG messing with the player - let's just say that out of 6 or 7 runs I played the game, I got "Collecting money hurts you" 4 times and "Ghosts haunt you" at least 3. I never got healing by money rule.

In the end, I didn't even manage to climb higher than initial 25m. The fact that the game doesn't explain how to complete a tier, exactly, doesn't help. >.<
Well, at least the game uses theme in a more creative way than "3 fixed gameplay mechanics". The audiovisuals are also pretty cool.

Rush, Kill, Repeat by filiprb

I dunno, I feel like without the head I shouldn't be able to get too far, and the game seems to agree.
The time limit is just too low, so I'd need to get really lucky with enemies coming my way until I bleed out.
The extra-darkness - while understable from the perspective of the headless - makes finding enemies even harder.
Now I'm a little disappointed no one made a game with rules being: "1. Make games. 2. Sleep. 3. Repeat."

Snakes on a Plain by Richerama

I'm disappointed. They promised something exciting, but when I finally got to the nighttime, I didn't get any raving zombies or anything. Also, the cacti still cast shadow like they were before.
Aside from that, it's quite polished and has some neat little dialogue. The fox on a desert reminds me of Little Prince. Overall, neat little game.

Spielcomm 2020 by Bart

Hey, I actually managed to complete the game, i.e. collect all 10 coins, enter the metro and then leave while it's "Taking a break". Not sure what the small reward was supposed to be, though.
The game could use some quality of life features, in particular prevent the NPCs from going near the sinks. When I washed my hands, an NPC came nearby and skyrocketed my infection rate to 100% while I couldn't move.
Also, the walls are blending with one another, since they all use the same colour and there's no fog-like effect that makes the closer objects more prominent.
I still don't know what Spielcomm is. Is it some kind of German games convent, or what?

Subside by HyprBlu

I think the game has some nice concept behind it, but I personally would prefer if there were fewer levels and/or more varied challenges; it was mostly running/jumping/grapple-hooking around the maze and shooting stuff on your way. Out of too many levels in this game, one stood out to me positively - the one with pile of plague at the bottom, two pools of acids on the side and the ceiling with spew-jellies. It actually made me combine grappling-hook holding with shooting, which I didn't realise was possible before.
Bosses are a nice addition, although I didn't like the first one much because of this plain rectangular room design, while the third one could be cheesed by standing on a sufficiently wide platforms and micro-dodging the spews (maybe it's for the better). The second boss was probably the most interesting.
Generally, a nice and well-polished platformer, if maybe it could use some more variety of challenges compared to the number of levels.

The Faults in our Code by Evanski, CloakedGames and Joseph Ellis

Why having hi-res font on super-blocky pixel-art, whyyyy? >.<
(and the menu has hi-res background, too...)
Out of fixed sets of three rules to pick, Asimov's laws are good rules.
The game has a cool concept and story to it, and some choices were pretty interesting. I wonder how to get specific endings. I only got the first and the last one.

The ritual by finh2003

It was actually somewhat fun. I did a curseless run first (i.e. no drinking potions or raising dead ever), took me two attempts. It was a little monotonous, but workable.
Then I did the cursed run, raising the dead whenever I could. Then I've grown to appreciate the curse system, since some drawbacks were more creative than plain debuffs. My favourite one is hallucination - so simple, yet so effective.
The ending looks like the human wizard cast a Polymorph spell, but failed to specify the target properly (note: this makes sense in Warcraft 2 context).
I liked some nice elements of polish that I've learnt *not* to take for granted - e.g. ability to use WSAD and arrow keys interchangeably, automatic restoration of mana after clearing the room, a minimap. Would be nice to have a speed-up option, too, for running through empty rooms after finding a far-reaching dead end.
Pretty enjoyable entry overall, though it could really use some music.

They Bleed Red Too by SoapSud39

The voice acting is actually pretty good, I appreciate that. The scenes and the general backstory were good as well.
The gameplay... not so much. The platforming was janky, and because the character didn't turn immediately while changing directions, it hindered wall clinging (because the protagonist was facing the wrong way). Also, I kept getting in the crossfires of drones patrolling the road. The gameplay in general could have definitely used some playtesting and tweaking.


Three Nights Of Knights by chris24

A decent though a little monotonous platformer, with moving around and taking down enemy knights. The foreground elements are good, the platforms and backgrounds could use something more than solid colours.
Is the number of knights at the end the same as the number of knights saved? At any rate, that ending was about as satisfying as Solitaire's. Which is actually pretty good.

Three Rules Make a Riddle by Ghandpivot

I like the general idea, and the riddles were quite interesting. I had to look up the devlog for about half of them, but eventually figured them all out (some of these rules were really vague - like those two with bleeding - or abstract - like the one with hallucinations). At the very least, the rules are not fixed arbitrarily chosen gameplay mechanics.
Presentation is clean and nice.
One thing to improve - have backspace clear the letter and go back at once, rather than first clear the letter and then on another backspace go back. At no point have I thought "oh, that's nice how the cursor still stays on that position after removing the previous letters", and many times I thought the exact opposite.

Trichotomy by FrostyCat

Compared to earlier strategic games, this game seems to rely a bit too much on randomness; especially with items with many arrows being objectively more desirable than item only a subset of these arrows.
Maybe giving both players two or three symbols in hand would add some more strategic depth to the game?
Also, the animation could be sped up. Not only that, I think it'd be far more satisfying if getting two blocks - instead of having regular poking one side and then regular poking other side animations - would smoothly transition from poking one side to then poking the other side.
Other than the animation - pretty long compared to the time it takes to make a decision - the presentation is neat and functional.

Upside Down Tower by Armored Dragon

Nice little game, wouldn't mind getting more levels using this concept of managing moves and exploiting parries. Though having a wider room for parrying would be nice, too.
The audiovisuals are pretty nice, too., though I'd have preferred if the protagonist sprite wasn't so blocky compared to the other higher resolution elements.

Vaccine Maze by Lucas Poeiras

Ah, very topical game. Though it's not quite the topic I'd want to be reminded of.
I guess the premise is fine, if maybe not too interesting in the long run. In a game like this, when enemy can be right behind the corner, it's better to keep the camera moving with the player so their field of view at least covers a reasonable area.
At any rate, well done for submitting a finished and complete game, even if you have still ways to go. ^^

Weapon Master by DreadedDruid

Using the basic weak-against-colors mechanic as three rules? This kinda sorta works, but isn't quite creative. Also, while I usually prefer when the theme isn't spelled out, THREE SIMPLE RULES is an exception, considering the variety of things people can designate as their three rules.
Other than that, the graphics are really nice, the gameplay is a little monotonous and the audio is nonexistent. Sometimes it was hard to tell where to go next, and with side and back walls having no visible "doors" (as opposed to front walls) it was hard to tell there's a passage there.
In the battle with the crystal, it would be nice to have some indication how much HP it has left (maybe by the little crystals around it breaking down?). I think the final battle could be a tad more interesting, if the crystal could occasionally summon one or two mages, too.
Generally, it's recommended that you provide the controls for your game in the game itself or - if you don't have time - in a README.txt file included with the Jam game (not "Read me", though).

Whack (only) the Mole by awlred

Pretty simple concept, took me a few plays to get used to, but in the end I got experienced enough to get a 39 score.
Would be nice to get a feedback when you are too late with your action, e.g. show a cross instead of a check mark. I appreciate how choosing *incorrect* action has a specific animations, though.
Other than that, it's a decent entry. Maybe presentation could be a tad better, but I still appreciate the variety of animations.

Wizard's Pub Crawl by Siolfor The Jackal

I won the game with 8990 score. It's just under 9000!
Thank goodness this game has an ending. The difficulty didn't seem to go up, so if it was an endless runner, I'd probably keep going for a while.
The graphics are generally fine, but I'm not sure about the blurry background in front of the sharper road/wall (I think fireballs were also somewhat blurry compared to the elves, even though they're closer). Also, the edibles/drinkables are clearly placeholder, aren't they?
Other than that, I think the general concept isn't bad - especially balancing the tox meter - but it could have been made more challenging. Maybe make the elves cast their fireballs more often, at least? As it is now, the game feels a little dull.
(also, while I appreciate Siolfor's music in general, I think maybe he could use this opportunity to try out bardcore instead of straight-up metal?)

You Only Have 3 Minutes by Evanski

Wrong theme.

YOUR RULES by Gravedust and Tomato

It's about the only game where you break rules so literally.
It was quite an interesting experience, but I only got that thanks to the prior knowledge about the special gameplay mechanic.
These floaty creatures in level 2 were quite nice. In general I liked the audiovisuals.
 
Last edited:

sylvain_l

Member
Reviews

Top 3:

Igor by Ninety
Very nice platformer-puzzle! Great graphics (man love the detail that the head move to lookup when I press the up key)! The music feels good. Well polished!

Snakes on a Plain by Richerama
A good touch of humour, and nice little graphics effect (I like the shadows). Game mechanic is basic, but well executed. A very solid entry. (1302m)

Coco Cards Casino by GameDevDan and NAL
Nice gambling game. Creative concept. Polished realization. funny opponent characters.

Best ofs:

Best use of theme: Three Rules Standing by Alice and Mercerenies
Best Concept: Coco Cards Casino by GameDevDan and NAL
Best Presentation: Igor by Ninety
Best Story: They Bleed Red Too by SoapSud39
Best Devlog: -

Full ranking:

  1. Igor by Ninety
  2. Snakes on a Plain by Richerama
  3. Coco Cards Casino by GameDevDan and NAL
  4. Robber Rules! by KPJ
  5. Rules of the Rhinoceros by Yal
  6. Trichotomy by FrostyCat
  7. They Bleed Red Too by SoapSud39
  8. Break! (don't brake) by Kalzme
  9. HookLab by Lambda
  10. Three Rules Standing by Alice and Mercerenies
  11. Inconvenience Store by TehPilot
  12. The Faults in our Code by Evanski, CloakedGames and Joseph Ellis
  13. Subside by HyprBlu
  14. YOUR RULES by Gravedust and Tomato
  15. The ritual by finh2003
  16. Coco Bombs by Adam Games
  17. Lava Jamp by sk8dududu
  18. Morning Commute by Yothebob
  19. Three Rules Make a Riddle by Ghandpivot
  20. Grow A Plant by Poizen
  21. Color Wars by Rui Rosario
  22. Spielcomm 2020 by Bart
  23. Night Of The Winning Dead by Pat Ferguson
  24. MEGADOME by The M
  25. Robo Royale by bandman28 and Josh Chen
  26. Mage's Quest by Calepiaro
  27. Whack (only) the Mole by awlred
  28. 1000 Rules To Live by by Wooshdude
  29. PUSH by Toque
  30. Guess Who Hostage Rescue by Mightyjor
  31. Three Nights Of Knights by chris24
  32. Nod Zombies by BigDallas
  33. Fire Realm by Red Phantom
  34. Conquer and DRILL by Cpsy1714
  35. Wizard's Pub Crawl by Siolfor The Jackal
  36. Rush, Kill, Repeat by filiprb
  37. Cannibal Rules by ZombieLawyer
  38. Vaccine Maze by Lucas Poeiras
  39. Upside Down Tower by Armored Dragon
  40. A Game for 8 Colors by DEGLIS
  41. Weapon Master by DreadedDruid
  42. Collect Build Kill by Lukan
  43. Out of the Square by ericossiqueira and Benjamim
  44. You Only Have 3 Minutes by Evanski

Comments:
Sorry if you are looking for good constructive comments you won't find that here :(
just my first thought after closing the game. (was kinda rushing to play them all in 2 evenings, so I didn't give much thought to comments)

1000 Rules To Live by by Wooshdude

game crashed (well got a white screen ^^) but then was able to play and get to level 2.

A Game for 8 Colors by DEGLIS

woaw, win at fisrt play. To be honest it's really a shame, could be a nice little puzzle game, but the moving background and the moving white bar are awfully distracting. If it's voluntary it not fun and else, why the heck put those there.

Break! (don't brake) by Kalzme

"three... two... one... go!" ("new high score" 9620). It's fun to be the worst driver :D

Cannibal Rules by ZombieLawyer

felt like my choices were meaningless and it's just the randomness of the cards chosen that decide if I live or die.

Coco Bombs by Adam Games

nice graphics. shame the game isn't polished/finished.

Coco Cards Casino by GameDevDan and NAL

Nice gambling game. Creative concept. Polished realization. funny opponent characters.

Collect Build Kill by Lukan

collect, press space, die XD
unfinished game? I assume because I couldn't find anything to kill, nor build. (readme say to use space bar to throw thing at an altar, but pressing space just kill me)

Color Wars by Rui Rosario

man i'm so confused by having to shoot a different color at each different enemy (instinctively I tend to shoot the same color the enemy is XD) (score 80)

Conquer and DRILL by Cpsy1714

"mister president you lost" LOOOOL (got that one a lot)
I have no idea what I'm doing, because any army I create seams to loose against any other (be it canada or mexico)

Fire Realm by Red Phantom

enter first level..."you died of electrocution...you died of electrocution...you died of electrocution...you died of electrocution...you died of electrocution..." man is there any way to avoid that death ?!? (the up button doesn't seems to offer any protection).

Guess Who Hostage Rescue by Mightyjor

a bit repetitive once you get the rules.

HookLab by Lambda

level 5 impossible or I'm missing something ?
Was a good start with nice graphics and a solid mechanic, shame it stopped like that at level 5.

Igor by Ninety

Very nice platformer-puzzle! Great graphics (man love the detail that the head move to lookup when I press the up key)! The music feels good. Well polished!

Inconvenience Store by TehPilot

man I want a mask, too hard to respect social distance in an inconvenince store. (seriously always fail because of not meeting the social distance requirement)

Lava Jamp by sk8dududu

too bad I suck at that game (best score 826 -_-' )

Mage's Quest by Calepiaro

feels to me like poor world design. Honestly, there is an orb just above the initial spawn point, but clearly no way to get to it. just frustrating. You need to give hint to the player what to do in which order, not just put things randomly, or give false direction.

MEGADOME by The M

I commend your efforts to make a 3d game. But the responsivness feels a bit akward. Like the other players move really fast while I'm struggling to face a direction and move.

Morning Commute by Yothebob

loool texting while drivng simulator XD. Did a lot of things but never managed to get to work on time :p At least I got a good laugh out of it.

Night Of The Winning Dead by Pat Ferguson

very nice intro screen. A shame stuck at the first level. I don't get how to make only 1 zombie explode; they all explode or none.

Nod Zombies by BigDallas

(high score 26.52) controls are a bit weirds, having to press for each single move feels bad.

Out of the Square by ericossiqueira and Benjamim

unfinished I assume, because I didn't really got what was going on. Mostly just pressing the right key to panfully move right and end under a rain of smilies.

PUSH by Toque

bug: the score doesn't reset between plays XD

Robber Rules! by KPJ

*rage quit*

Robo Royale by bandman28 and Josh Chen

how do you upgrades robots?

Rules of the Rhinoceros by Yal

rules are too unbalanced for me. If you are lucky you get money heal+ bullet bounce + big ennemy (easy to shoot) and on a bad run you'll get, ennemies won't stay dead+ gravity upward+ weapon have melee range. In those conditions, the game and the death feel mostly unfair as it's just randomly due to the 3 rules that were randomly chosen. A shame because for the rest the game had great potential.

Rush, Kill, Repeat by filiprb

my record even in easy mode: 2kills!
honestly the monsters rushing you, invisible in the corners... too punishing to my taste and prevent me from enjoying anything from that game.

Snakes on a Plain by Richerama

A good touch of humour, and nice little graphics effect (I like the shadows). Game mechanic is basic, but well executed. A very solid entry. (1302m)

Spielcomm 2020 by Bart

I commend your effort at making a 3D game!

Subside by HyprBlu

I couldn't beat the first boss XD So sorry no idea what's after.
Nice pace and gameplay by the way, but my skills suck :/

They Bleed Red Too by SoapSud39

*rage quit* honestly too many time I got killed by a lost bullet (1 random guy walk into the red camera zone while you are digilently waiting for the light to turn green, all the security angels shoot, and you take one of the bullet)

Three Nights Of Knights by chris24

is there a way to open the door of the 2nd level ? I couldn't find one.

Three Rules Make a Riddle by Ghandpivot

I'm bad at riddles. Couldn't get the 5,6,9 and 11 even with the hint from the devlog. I wish the hints where included in the game to be fair (needed those more then half the time).

Three Rules Standing by Alice and Mercerenies

"Oh they got four rules, here. That's convenient" I saw what you did there^^
too many puzzle!

Trichotomy by FrostyCat

Is it just me or that's a strategy game with a lot of RNG invovled into it. (too much, kinda feel like the result is mostly decided by the RNG more then my strategy)

Upside Down Tower by Armored Dragon

I was only able to pass the first level, never made it to the 3rd; lol stuck at the 2nd. Too difficult for me.

Vaccine Maze by Lucas Poeiras

I don't know if it's volontary, but some infected are moving too fast; kinda impossible to "soap" those. Result in a hit and run playstyle to force them to sneeze and avoid the virus :p

Weapon Master by DreadedDruid

unfinished? can kill the monster, but they can kill me; and there are 2 locked doors... don't know what to do ^^'

Whack (only) the Mole by awlred

full game top score : 1
after 3 tries; XD ok I'm very bad at typing game.

Wizard's Pub Crawl by Siolfor The Jackal

how many levels are there? I got already bored at end of level 3 (score 7860). Felt too repetitive to be honest each level seams to be just the same repeat.

You Only Have 3 Minutes by Evanski

yeh a 3 minutes timer XD

YOUR RULES by Gravedust and Tomato

nice little shooter. But my lack of skills prevented me from scoring enough/killing enough to beat the game :eek:P
 

Bart

WiseBart
Bart's Reviews

Top 3:

Igor by Ninety
This game looks beautiful and has great gameplay. Very atmospheric as well.
The theme has been put to great use.
The story is nicely told through the environment.
A candidate for just about every "best of" and for a top position as well.
A great game in every way.

Three Rules Standing by Alice and Mercerenies
Those are some very tiny sprites on a 4K monitor. Ah wait, there's F for fullscreen.
Pretty nice looking character portraits.
I really like the way you combined the story with the rules and the environment.
The setting is really nice and it's told beautifully through the conversations with the people.
I must admit I didn't make it far.
Might try again later.
This is a clear candidate for best use of theme!
Second time playing this game. There's really a lot of depth to the gameplay.
Seems like I got away with breaking two rules, though.
In the first room with four rules I took the middle path and moved to the diamond, then to the square.
Broke two rules when moving up one more, game over.
But I then respawned at the square instead of the diamond, broke two rules and could still advance.
Ah, so the two triangles are the "right" path... I get it.
The glitch didn't work when I tried a second time. Not sure how to reproduce.
The system has "Notebook++"?! That can only be a good thing!
I quit after I reached Galahad Meyers. Great name.

Night Of The Winning Dead by Pat Ferguson
Very neat introduction, although it is a bit long in my opinion.
I'm not entirely sure what to do here. Seems like a Lemmings style game, which I heard of but never played myself.
Will play again later.
Second time playing. Figured out that the zombies can dig through the terrain.
Destructible terrain. Nice.
Third time playing this game and I'm noticing a couple more details.
So the game actually saves settings. Audio pauses when I drag the window in windowed mode.
All that is a great attention to detail!
I did find a very tiny "bug": one of the buttons still doesn't seem to be deleted when you go to the "Total zombies/ Zombies needed tot win" screen.
The hover sound (sounds like an old Windows click effect) plays when you move the cursor to that area (to the right of the "Click to start" text).
Seems like there was no reference to the rules anywhere in the game. I did find them in the forum post, though.
It may be interesting to make the fastforward button toggle the game speed.
Right now I was often just holding it.

Overall, a high amount of polish.
Nice to see that you made everything yourself! Very interesting to discover all that in the devlog.
I enjoyed playing this entry.

Best ofs:

Best use of Theme: Three Rules Standing by Alice and Mercerenies
Best Concept: Igor by Ninety
Best Presentation: Coco Cards Casino by GameDevDan and NAL
Best Story: Igor by Ninety
Best Devlog: Night Of The Winning Dead by Pat Ferguson

Full ranking:

  1. Igor by Ninety
  2. Three Rules Standing by Alice and Mercerenies
  3. Night Of The Winning Dead by Pat Ferguson
  4. The Faults in our Code by Evanski, CloakedGames and Joseph Ellis
  5. Subside by HyprBlu
  6. Snakes on a Plain by Richerama
  7. Fire Realm by Red Phantom
  8. Break! (don't brake) by Kalzme
  9. Three Rules Make a Riddle by Ghandpivot
  10. Wizard's Pub Crawl by Siolfor The Jackal
  11. Coco Cards Casino by GameDevDan and NAL
  12. Cannibal Rules by ZombieLawyer
  13. Inconvenience Store by TehPilot
  14. Trichotomy by FrostyCat
  15. Weapon Master by DreadedDruid
  16. PUSH by Toque
  17. YOUR RULES by Gravedust and Tomato
  18. MEGADOME by The M
  19. Lava Jamp by sk8dududu
  20. Upside Down Tower by Armored Dragon
  21. Mage's Quest by Calepiaro
  22. HookLab by Lambda
  23. Rules of the Rhinoceros by Yal
  24. Robber Rules! by KPJ
  25. Grow A Plant by Poizen
  26. A Game for 8 Colors by DEGLIS
  27. Morning Commute by Yothebob
  28. 1000 Rules To Live by by Wooshdude
  29. They Bleed Red Too by SoapSud39
  30. Rush, Kill, Repeat by filiprb
  31. The ritual by finh2003
  32. Robo Royale by bandman28 and Josh Chen
  33. Guess Who Hostage Rescue by Mightyjor
  34. Coco Bombs by Adam Games
  35. Whack (only) the Mole by awlred
  36. Color Wars by Rui Rosario
  37. Conquer and DRILL by Cpsy1714
  38. Three Nights Of Knights by chris24
  39. Out of the Square by ericossiqueira and Benjamim
  40. Vaccine Maze by Lucas Poeiras
  41. Collect Build Kill by Lukan
  42. Nod Zombies by BigDallas
  43. Fishy Clicker by sylvain_I
  44. You Only Have 3 Minutes by Evanski

Comments:

1000 Rules To Live by by Wooshdude

A game that takes place in the wild west. That's neat.
Love the honky tonk piano when you start the game.

I played for a moment. It has some neat, entertaining gameplay.
I like how you can change the rules by picking up items.
But you just change a rule when you walk into it.
Interesting that each rule not only gives you an advantage but also comes with a disadvantage (the "BUT" part).

A couple of tiny things that I noticed:
Doesn't seem to have proper fullscreen.
I couldn't find the credits anywhere.
The font doesn't include all characters.
The player character is always drawn behind the lady and the piano.

A Game for 8 Colors by DEGLIS

This is a very interesting game. Good concept.
The rules are simple and clear but remembering them while playing is a bit harder.
Very nice, soothing background music. Fits the game perfectly, I think.

Break! (don't brake) by Kalzme

This was very enjoyable to play.
The game explains very well what you're supposed to do.
The three simple rules are very clear.

Best concept/best use of theme?

Cannibal Rules by ZombieLawyer

I like how this game requires you to make decisions. And there are some interesting ones that have to be made.
Something that happened a couple of times was that a question was asked twice. So I think there could be a bit more variety in that.
The background music really sets the atmosphere in this game. It really pulled me in despite the graphics being a bit basic.
So I need to get to day 100 but didn't make it further than day 15.
Might play this entry again later.

Coco Bombs by Adam Games

This is an interesting game. I like the concept.
The graphics are really nice but it looks like you didn't get all animations finished.
Too bad there's no sound or music.

Coco Cards Casino by GameDevDan and NAL

Wow, very nice looking graphics. Many opponents to select from.
Love that Rhodes piano in the background music.
Actually just the background music in general :)
This may well turn out to be the entry for Best Presentation.
I didn't play for too long, though.
It felt a bit too slow, since you always have to wait for your opponent to make its move.

Collect Build Kill by Lukan

The key remapping doesn't work properly.
Seems like some keys get mapped to a string instead of a single key/character.
It seems to autocorrect itself when closing the game and running it again.

The trees seem to have very odd collision behavior.

I collected a few resources and built a crafting alter but quit after that.
The game feels a bit unfinished.

Very nice soothing background music.

Everything runs smoothly.

Color Wars by Rui Rosario

What key do I have to use to shoot?
Ah, it's three keys, one for each primary color.
Interesting concept.
If you look at it from a pure physics standpoint, since you're white as the player you should be able to deflect any of the other three colors and basically be invincible.
Then again, that's not one of the three rules :p
I played it for a moment. Could be a basis for an interesting game, I think.

Conquer and DRILL by Cpsy1714

I don't think I understand what I'm supposed to do here.
Will try to play again at a later time.
Second time playing this game.
It's still not clear to me what I'm supposed to do.
Ah, I see there's a how-to-play in the game's post on the forum.
I created an army in the USA 4 times and got the message "You Lost".
This game looks like it could be interesting but I think it really needs a tutorial.
So many number are shown and it's too hard to guess what each one stands for.

The speech at the start is quite loud and a bit noisy. Not sure if that's intentional?
The graphics aren't consistent. The world map is pixelated but the units seem to be at "normal resolution" (not sure how to put it).
The animations are pretty nice looking.

Fire Realm by Red Phantom

This is a nice entry.
I like the gameplay.
I played a couple of levels but quit after a while because it got a bit too hard for me :)

Learned a new English word: "immolation". Didn't know that yet.

Fishy Clicker by sylvain_I

I think this game is a bit too simple.
I clicked all circles mostly at random.
Played a second time and got a somewhat higher score by thinking a bit more about which circles to click.

I think the concept can be interesting if you work it out a bit further and combine it with something else than clicking the circles.

Grow A Plant by Poizen

Ooh, this is a very neat concept. I like it!
I didn't get really far, though...

Guess Who Hostage Rescue by Mightyjor

A nice little game that's fun to play.
Reminded me of the game "Who is it"
I played a few games. The hints are a bit too easy.

HookLab by Lambda

Very interesting game with some interesting puzzles.
I got stuck somewhere in the third or fourth level.
There's nothing under the input menu.
May play this again later.

Igor by Ninety

This game looks beautiful and has great gameplay. Very atmospheric as well.
The theme has been put to great use.
The story is nicely told through the environment.
A candidate for just about every "best of" and for a top position as well.
A great game in every way.

Inconvenience Store by TehPilot

Bonus points for the neat pun in the title :D
An interesting use of the theme for sure!
The letter t in the font looks more like a c.
Some nice transitions between screens.
I enjoyed playing this entry but it wasn't always clear what I was supposed to do.

Lava Jamp by sk8dududu

This game is hard.
I played it for a couple of minutes but then quit.
Will play again later.
Second time playing the game.
Yeah, I think this is really a bit too hard.
Is there more to this game than beating your own highscore?
Some things seem to be near impossible to get right.
Landing on a single, narrow block almost always has as a result that I fall into the lava.
I may not be timing my jump right, not sure.
So... I basically gave up. The highest score I got was a bit over 1100.
A nice reference to the theme but only at the start.

Mage's Quest by Calepiaro

A very smooth platformer
I don't seem to be able to advance.

Overall, a good attempt at a platformer with some added mechanic.
It has a nice background music.
The waving grass is a nice detail.

MEGADOME by The M

Very neat game. Interesting to see another 3D entry.
It lags quite a bit on my computer, though, which only has an onboard GPU and 4K monitor.
Couldn't verify whether the CPU or the GPU is the bottleneck.

Funny to see myself as an opponent in the game.

Once another player starts shooting you I find it really hard to figure out where it is.
By the time I have it in view I'm already dead.

Morning Commute by Yothebob

"Don't. Don't. Don't", three times, that's a bit too imperative :p
Original concept
It's nicely presented although a bit basic.
I really like the colors.
I must admit I gave up quite quickly.

Night Of The Winning Dead by Pat Ferguson

Very neat introduction, although it is a bit long in my opinion.
I'm not entirely sure what to do here. Seems like a Lemmings style game, which I heard of but never played myself.
Will play again later.
Second time playing. Figured out that the zombies can dig through the terrain.
Destructible terrain. Nice.
Third time playing this game and I'm noticing a couple more details.
So the game actually saves settings. Audio pauses when I drag the window in windowed mode.
All that is a great attention to detail!
I did find a very tiny "bug": one of the buttons still doesn't seem to be deleted when you go to the "Total zombies/ Zombies needed tot win" screen.
The hover sound (sounds like an old Windows click effect) plays when you move the cursor to that area (to the right of the "Click to start" text).
Seems like there was no reference to the rules anywhere in the game. I did find them in the forum post, though.
It may be interesting to make the fastforward button toggle the game speed.
Right now I was often just holding it.

Overall, a high amount of polish.
Nice to see that you made everything yourself! Very interesting to discover all that in the devlog.
I enjoyed playing this entry.

Nod Zombies by BigDallas

Looks to be a game like Frogger.
I think it's odd that you get hit by everything except for money cars.
Then again, it's one of the rules of course.
I died pretty quickly. Not sure if there's a way to avoid those pedestrians.


Out of the Square by ericossiqueira and Benjamim

This is intriguing.
Both interesting and a bit annoying to control.
I didn't make it too far, I think.

PUSH by Toque

I love that main character :D
The game over music is funny
Not sure where the link to the theme is.Df
Sometimes I got lucky and a block just fell straight into the fire. I think that could be adjusted.
There's something satisfying to pushing an entire tower of blocks in the fire all at once.
I think you could turn this game into something very entertaining.

Robber Rules! by KPJ

This game is tough.
Pressing Shift a couple of times triggered the Sticky Keys on my PC.
Lovely graphics.

Robo Royale by bandman28 and Josh Chen

This is a nice little game!
A lot of fun to play but a single round seems to be incredibly short.
Not sure if I missed something and there's more?

One thing that felt odd was that all controls are using the keyboard but sometimes you have to click to continue.

Great background music

Rules of the Rhinoceros by Yal

Another of those games of a highly psychedelic nature, if I may put it that way. I like it!
Definitely a very unique presentation!
I played a couple of times.
Is it possible to clear a level?
Very catchy title.

Rush, Kill, Repeat by filiprb

What is it that I am in this game?
Second time playing.
Ah, a headless being. I should've paid more attention to the intro...
I like the idea. The implicit "blood" timer is a nice way to link the gameplay to the story.
I kept dying, unfortunately so gave up after a couple of tries.

Snakes on a Plain by Richerama

Love it!
A good sense of humor, I can greatly appreciate it!
The spider looks neat.

Subside by HyprBlu

Plays very smoothly
Very pretty art. Nice colors. And a very fitting background music.
I played quite a few levels.
Might be a candidate for best presentation

The Faults in our Code by Evanski, CloakedGames and Joseph Ellis

A very neat game.
I'll play it again later.
Hmm, "moral encoding"

Second time playing the game.
There are some tough decisions to be made, very relevant to today's society.
I like that. It's definitely a game that makes you think.

I stopped playing after a short while, though.
Nothing seemed to happen to indicate that I was advancing.
How many robots do you have to check before you progress? When did I give a "correct" answer?
I'm not sure if I missed any of those.

A candidate for best presentation

The ritual by finh2003

The rules sure are interesting.
I played for a moment but died after a while, I didn't see a potion anywhere.
Second time playing the game.
Interesting. So I get helpers when I use the right potion. That's a neat mechanic.
Overall, I think this game shows nice potential for a little game.
But it's too easy to die (or I'm just not a good player, that's definitely another viable option)

They Bleed Red Too by SoapSud39

Catchy title.
The previous background music instance keeps playing when you die and restart a level so it plays twice.
Nice voice acting.
This game has some interesting gameplay elements, like hiding and the security cameras.

Three Nights Of Knights by chris24

Ah, a game of knights, interesting. I like the setting.
The knights look really nice. The rest of the environment isn't at the same level of quality, unfortunately.
I played a couple of levels but at one point got stuck at a closed door that wouldn't open.
Not sure if that's the end of the game or if I had to do something to open it.
The background music is lovely. I guess you played it yourself?

Three Rules Make a Riddle by Ghandpivot

A word guessing game, nice!
Nice funky background music
I played it a couple of times but didn't get all answers.
Time to look at the hints in the forum post.
The hints give it all away for the remaining entries.

That "Free refills" in riddle 12 :p

I enjoyed played this game.

Three Rules Standing by Alice and Mercerenies

Those are some very tiny sprites on a 4K monitor. Ah wait, there's F for fullscreen.
Pretty nice looking character portraits.
I really like the way you combined the story with the rules and the environment.
The setting is really nice and it's told beautifully through the conversations with the people.
I must admit I didn't make it far.
Might try again later.
This is a clear candidate for best use of theme!
Second time playing this game. There's really a lot of depth to the gameplay.
Seems like I got away with breaking two rules, though.
In the first room with four rules I took the middle path and moved to the diamond, then to the square.
Broke two rules when moving up one more, game over.
But I then respawned at the square instead of the diamond, broke two rules and could still advance.
Ah, so the two triangles are the "right" path... I get it.
The glitch didn't work when I tried a second time. Not sure how to reproduce.
The system has "Notebook++"?! That can only be a good thing!
I quit after I reached Galahad Meyers. Great name.

Trichotomy by FrostyCat

Ah, a new puzzle game.
A perfect use of the theme. The three simple rules are clear.
Nice work on the main menu.
I played the game once and managed to beat the computer player from the first time, while I made quite a few mistakes.
So it feels like this is a much simpler entry compared to your previous ones.
Second time playing this game. I managed to defeat the computer player again.
That's not what I'm gotten used to in your puzzle games :).
Not sure if this is related to the AI being configured to be an "easier" opponent or the rules of rock, paper, scissors just not being suited for more complex puzzles.
I still enjoyed the entry and played a few games.
Ah wait, I now see the AI level can be changed in a custom game.
Will have another try later.

Upside Down Tower by Armored Dragon

This game has interesting gameplay.
Very neat graphics and a fitting background music.

Vaccine Maze by Lucas Poeiras

A short and simple entry but I liked it
A couple of levels and some variation in enemies
Cute characters and sound effects
I did notice that the character sometimes gets stuck in the walls.

Weapon Master by DreadedDruid

This game surprised me.
At first it looked like there was only one room but there was a lot more.
When I pressed Escape it turned out it even has a fully functional minimap.
Very nice graphics.
I got stuck at one point, though. I found one blue key but only saw a white and a green door.
Is it possible to advance?
I'll try again later.

Whack (only) the Mole by awlred

This game is a bit harder to play on an AZERTY keyboard.
It's a fun game to play for just a while.
Good idea. And a nice background tune.

Wizard's Pub Crawl by Siolfor The Jackal

The story of this game is hilarious!
It's a very interesting concept, I haven't seen my cursor move like that before.
Overall a good amount of polish and a nice background track.
It did get a bit repetitive after a couple of levels. Doesn't seem like there's a lot of progression in the levels.
Not sure why the right mouse button has to be used to advance to the next level.

You Only Have 3 Minutes by Evanski

Ah, the three minute timer. That was my theme guess, too.
Good use of theme! :D
Funny joke game.
The timer sound effect doesn't seem to be synced properly with the display timer.

YOUR RULES by Gravedust and Tomato

Interesting use of the spaceship to select a menu option.
Once the game gets going there's a lot going on on screen.
Nice visuals and background music
It does seem like this game can't be beaten. Or is there any way to actually "break" the rules as you state in the credits?
I'll play again later.
Second time playing the game.
I read something on the forum about this game and it seems like there is a way to finish it.
So I played it again and got to the end. It's an interesting ending, for sure.
 
Last edited:

The M

Member
The M's Reviews

Top 3:

Igor by Ninety

The Faults in our Code by Evanski, CloakedGames and Joseph Ellis

Subside by HyprBlu


Best ofs:

Best use of Theme: Three Rules Make a Riddle by Ghandpivot
Best Concept: The Faults in our Code by Evanski, CloakedGames and Joseph Ellis
Best Presentation: Igor by Ninety
Best Story: The Faults in our Code by Evanski, CloakedGames and Joseph Ellis

Full ranking:

  1. Igor by Ninety
  2. The Faults in our Code by Evanski, CloakedGames and Joseph Ellis
  3. Subside by HyprBlu
  4. Three Rules Make a Riddle by Ghandpivot
  5. Inconvenience Store by TehPilot
  6. Grow A Plant by Poizen
  7. Coco Cards Casino by GameDevDan and NAL
  8. Wizard's Pub Crawl by Siolfor The Jackal
  9. Night Of The Winning Dead by Pat Ferguson
  10. Weapon Master by DreadedDruid
  11. Break! (don't brake) by Kalzme
  12. HookLab by Lambda
  13. Trichotomy by FrostyCat
  14. Mage's Quest by Calepiaro
  15. Rules of the Rhinoceros by Yal
  16. YOUR RULES by Gravedust and Tomato
  17. A Game for 8 Colors by DEGLIS
  18. Robber Rules! by KPJ
  19. Three Rules Standing by Alice and Mercerenies
  20. They Bleed Red Too by SoapSud39
  21. Guess Who Hostage Rescue by Mightyjor
  22. Snakes on a Plain by Richerama
  23. Three Nights Of Knights by chris24
  24. Cannibal Rules by ZombieLawyer
  25. 1000 Rules To Live by by Wooshdude
  26. Spielcomm 2020 by Bart
  27. Whack (only) the Mole by awlred
  28. PUSH by Toque
  29. Upside Down Tower by Armored Dragon
  30. The ritual by finh2003
  31. Robo Royale by bandman28 and Josh Chen
  32. Coco Bombs by Adam Games
  33. Fire Realm by Red Phantom
  34. Nod Zombies by BigDallas
  35. Conquer and DRILL by Cpsy1714
  36. Color Wars by Rui Rosario
  37. Tobruk by Selek
  38. Morning Commute by Yothebob
  39. Vaccine Maze by Lucas Poeiras
  40. Lava Jamp by sk8dududu
  41. Fishy Clicker by sylvain_I
  42. Out of the Square by ericossiqueira and Benjamim
  43. Collect Build Kill by Lukan
  44. Rush, Kill, Repeat by filiprb
  45. You Only Have 3 Minutes by Evanski

Comments:

1000 Rules To Live by by Wooshdude

I really liked the concept of picking one of three rules to apply but it was slightly ruined by not letting me know beforehand what the rules were. Since I was picking randomly anyways there were no real reason to have three rules instead of just one. That being said, I liked how the rules had all kinds of effects and how they often came with negative side effects too, except for the one that turned me into a hot dog which was only an upgrade.

The game seem to be a bit unstable as exiting on the second level (the cave) caused it to freeze and continuing after dying led me to spawn in a grey void instead of the bar.

A Game for 8 Colors by DEGLIS

I think the concept is really cool and I haven't seen it done before. It took some time before I really understood what was going on because while the "how to play" section explained the mechanics well, it didn't really say "how" to play. Once I'd figure it out the game started ramping up the speed significantly and I started losing control (for some reason I mixed green and purple a lot and the black blocks are really hard to deal with). I did enjoy the game, though one thing that would improve it further is a "next piece"-window so you could plan a little in advance. The biggest bummer is that the screen fades out immediately when you lose so you can't see your score. That ruins a big part of what makes this kind of game so exciting.

Break! (don't brake) by Kalzme

Wait, I'm SUPPOSED to kill the pedestrians!? I did everything I could to avoid them as I figured they worked the same as hitting a car (and I managed some cool dodges too!). It was only after beating the game I watched through the entire cutscene and realized you gained score for hitting them.

Either way, I found the game to be enjoyable and fairly challenging. It was tough to be sent back to the menu after a single hit and it made me (slightly) more careful in my second attempt. I think the game looks great and jumping lanes feels nice. The countdown is a neat touch that brings a little extra energy to the game.

Cannibal Rules by ZombieLawyer

It was interesting trying to balance the needs of the people with the will of the people, I thought I was doing pretty well and had started to learn how each event worked when all of a sudden I lost everything from a single event. Turns out giving the guards some extra rations cost 50+ food for some reason which meant an instant loss. Other than that completely ludicrous event, I think the cards were fairly balanced and while the results weren't always what you'd expect, it was manageable. I enjoyed it, though it'd be neat with a few more types of events, some larger, overarching narrative, and maybe having some way of anticipating the scope of the results from them.

Coco Bombs by Adam Games

It was an interesting arena game but I found it to be very, very hard. I was constantly bombarded and the enemies didn't seem particularly fazed by my own attacks so it went awful. With that said, there didn't seem to be an end or any score counting so it felt a bit pointless. The game looks great (with the exception of an unfinished animation and a little debug output). It'd be nice with a few invincibility frames when you respawn and I'm not sure what the lives were for because the bombs one-shot you anyways. Still, with a little more polish this could be a very neat game.

Coco Cards Casino by GameDevDan and NAL

The game is clever and very stylish but too slow paced for me to play against all the opponents. It's fun to see them use different tactics and you can certainly play better or worse. However, a big part still comes down to luck, or feels like it does at the very least. The cheat sheet is a great help and it'd been nice if was there from the beginning I think. I found it interesting to weight the different options to see which felt best and, once it'd clicked for me, deciding which card to flip to maximize my chances to score. Great game overall.

Collect Build Kill by Lukan

I was intrigued by the crafting system but never got it to work. The game kills you when you press space and that key is supposedly used for crafting. Nothing else seemed to happen and eventually I tried placing an item that didn't exist and the game crashed.

Color Wars by Rui Rosario

Not knowing the controls made the game a little hard but I figured out how it worked fairly quickly. I liked the rock-paper-scissors mechanic though it'd been nice to have a reference guide of what beat what because in the heat of the fight it was easy to forget not only which color beat which but also which key mapped to which color.

Conquer and DRILL by Cpsy1714

I had a very hard time understanding what I could do and what effect it had. I managed to create an army to "liberate" Greenland but lost after I declared war on central America. I couldn't tell if I had a net loss or gain in resources or what I needed to do next so my actions felt arbitrary ("let's attack these guys because they look weak").

Fire Realm by Red Phantom

The premise is neat, though generally the electric guys seem like a much bigger threat (but maybe they're not the invasive type?). Either way, I found the gameplay to be fun and the growing cast of enemies kept me on my toes. It would have been nice to see a few more variations in enemy attacks as each level was mostly the same as the last but with more fire and lightning raining down. Then there's the matter of getting electrocuted, which hurts the eyes to watch. It made the game less enjoyable and while it's a cool effect, it should probably be toned down a little. Finally there's the shield which was a neat addition that made sure there was a way to bypass enemies that tried to hide behind the yellows.

Fishy Clicker by sylvain_I

It's very simple, but a complete game nonetheless. The UI is neat and I quickly caught on to what to do. While the game worked well, it kind of dragged on a bit and since it didn't evolve or changed it grew repetitive after a while. I'm not sure if it had anything to do with the theme.

Grow A Plant by Poizen

It's a very casual and calming game which was a great change of pace and a chance to relax a little. The concept is very easy to grasp but there's a depth of complexity hidden underneath which makes the puzzles fun and challenging. I think the game is a little hard to predict at times, mostly when it comes to water physics and how water interacts with the other tiles (though the water itself is really cool). I also think the game would really benefit from having an undo-button. Another idea is to streamline the controls a little to let you also move a block with the arrow keys once you've selected it as I found the buttons to be a little small to quickly click on in succession.

Guess Who Hostage Rescue by Mightyjor

The game has some really cool visual effects, especially for the background. I found the gameplay to be interesting but a bit shallow and I didn't even realize there were more than three clues until I accidentally clicked the next-button one more time. It'd be cool to have a few more variants on the clues to spice things up, for example gender, accessories or negations (e.g. "does not have red hair").

HookLab by Lambda

The puzzles are really clever and solving them felt good. Being able to pull boxes made the game different from most box-pushing games but what really made it interesting was that you couldn't turn around on the spot so a lot of the puzzled revolved around creating space enough to aim. It's a neat concept and I think the balancing was right where it should be. While the levels aren't too big, an undo-button would be a great feature for this kind of game. The sound effects are probably the weakest part of the game.

Igor by Ninety

The presentation of this game is stellar and full of lovely details. The animations on Igor are great and the environment feel grounded and are just pleasant to watch. When the theme was announced my thoughts immediately went to Baba is you and the way this game uses similar mechanics is great! The rules are clever and fun to work around, although I do feel there weren't quite enough to cover as many levels as there were and the game started to feel a little repetitive towards the end, despite introducing the blank rule and using the limit of 3 in the puzzles. Was the clock synced with the system clock or was that just a coincidence?

Inconvenience Store by TehPilot

I love the visuals of the menu as things fly in and out - it looks great! If anything, my only complaint is that the 't's look very much like 'c's which made reading a little awkward for me. The game itself is interesting and pretty fun. It took a few levels before I really started to understand the mechanics and even then, it was a bit of a guesswork to figure out what I needed to stock on before the customers came. Trying to fight contamination was interesting for sure, and was fun to juggle as you also tried to keep up with everything else and I found myself running around a lot in the store. I also ended up waiting a lot which would have been nice to have a better system for. Having a button for it was great, but waiting for only a step often meant nothing moved and it made me wonder if the button even worked. It also meant having to mash the button for the characters to finally come up to the counter. I think a better solution would be to fast-forward until the next customer has moved a step.

Lava Jamp by sk8dududu

I like how the game looks and the music is weirdly catchy. The presentation is great but I'm having trouble with the gameplay. Running and jumping is fine: the platforms are bit tough to stay on as you sink through them if you don't land correctly, but I can work with that. The chasing Death is another matter as dodging its attacks is more down to chance than skill since it's the floor that dictates when and how high you must jump. I found that trying to dodge the attacks was pointless and would only drop me into the lava so tanking them was better because you can take more hits from Death than the lava.

Mage's Quest by Calepiaro

It's a short and sweet race against the clock. The controls are a little hard to get used to, mostly because of the high movement speed of the character but once I got used to it, it felt good to blaze through the level. I was a little worried at first when you could choose to enable or disable checkpoints but fortunately I never needed them anyway (though I appreciate the option). I think the game lasts for just about long enough to feel complete, though I wouldn't have minded a final challenge after the last orb.

Morning Commute by Yothebob

There's a reason why you shouldn't text and drive: it's super hard! Just juggling the car speed was difficult (did the breaks not work?) as you had to move slow to avoid crashing but going too slow hurt your job meter. Texting at the same time was honestly a bit too much as I had no idea what was happening on the road. I think the concept is great but I wish the meters went up while you were driving fast and after you'd sent a message so defeat felt less inevitable. The graphics are neat. It would be cool if you could see the roads off the highway.

Night Of The Winning Dead by Pat Ferguson

You spent way too much time on that first screen..! The intro was awesome and the levels are beautiful. I did find it a little hard to see what was foreground and what was background at times. I love the Lemmings style gameplay, complete with the nuke option (though with slightly less fireworks). I like the original additions which fit the theme of the game. I don't quite see how the game fit the jam theme though.

One thing I found was that the fast-forward function didn't fully work as at one point the zombies died from a fall when I fast-forwarded but not if the game ran at normal speed. It also seems to break the timer.

Nod Zombies by BigDallas

It's a neat game about what matters in life. The game works well and it's a nice flow of jumping in and out of traffic to nab the money cars. I wish there was some more progression to the game: it didn't feel like it got harder over time, though you could easily make it so by increasing the amount of cars and zombies that spawned. Right the top lanes are just more trafficked than the bottom ones so I just stayed at the bottom. Finally, while I think the graphics are fine, I found it a little hard to tell the difference between money cars and the green trucks.

Out of the Square by ericossiqueira and Benjamim

It was interesting to control a physics-based object and see how it was affected by increasing the number of corners in the polygon. I had a hard time at first since I didn't know how to change shape and since you have no control in mid-air it's tricky to navigate. I got to the cage and fought it but didn't know how to beat it and eventually it got stuck (once off the screen to the right and once up on a platform) and I couldn't progress.

PUSH by Toque

Well, that was a bit odd, sure, but the game was fine. The concept is neat and it was cool to be pushing icons of the GMC members (though I was hesitant to push my own profile pic into the fire :) ). The physics worked well but it felt a little luck based where the blocks would land as they sometimes stacked up really tall and other times basically fell off by themselves.

Robber Rules! by KPJ

This game is brutal! The speed is high and the obstacles are densely packed (especially on the later levels) which makes it really challenging to complete each sequence. What made it harder was that I constantly pressed the wrong button for punching and kicking. I'm not sure if it's the keybindings that were tough to separate or if the animation is too similar or if it's just me who can't handle the pace without short-circuiting. Either way, the concept is nice and the execution well done and the game feels polished.

Robo Royale by bandman28 and Josh Chen

It's a neat concept but I found the game to be all too easy for it to be very interesting. I placed a group of robots which decimated the enemy without there being much of a fight. This meant I barely got to make any upgrades and never had to account for or adapt to the enemy's tactics.

Rules of the Rhinoceros by Yal

The game is incredibly stylish and the gameplay is solid. I'm still not entirely fond of the psychedelic aesthetics but I'll admit it looks really cool. Unfortunately, I found the game's rules to be infuriating and it made the game near-unplayable. For the first two rounds I was stuck with random game speed (the first also had damaging money and darkness which all combined made for a terrible learning experience), which made it really hard to play. Then I got ghosts which at times seemed to spawn inside me (probably because gravity was inversed). Then I got a run with fun modifiers (no gravity, fire backwards, exploding guns) and finally a run where enemies exploded on death and guns only fired in melee range. Good luck with that. I want to like the game but I feel like some of the modifiers need to be nerfed and ideally you could give the player the option to replace one of the modifiers (maybe roll four and pick one to remove) to avoid the really bad combos. I'd also like to see the hit stun on the player toned down because it seemed to last really long (especially amplified by the random room speed rule). I still think this might be the most polished game of the jam.

Rush, Kill, Repeat by filiprb

The game seemed to be frozen on the menu screen. Too bad because it looked very intriguing.

Snakes on a Plain by Richerama

The dialogue quips made the game more interesting as there was more of a reason to continue. It was also nice to see the sun set in the background and the shadows looked great! The game itself was fine but as it got harder it started to get frustrating as impossible situations happened more and more often (for example, two vultures at too short intervals to hit them both or one flying just above a jumping snake). What made it annoying was that losing just wasn't my fault since there was nothing I could have done to change things. It's a bit unfortunate because I wanted to see if anything happened once the sun had set entirely. :)

Spielcomm 2020 by Bart

It was an interesting challenge but also a very hard one and it wasn't obvious when and why you lost. What made it harder still was the delays during the transitions, for example heading into the metro took some 30-ish seconds and when you're on a short timer, not knowing that beforehand was disastrous. I eventually quit and played the timeless mode. The map is really large and I'm really impressed by it, especially when you see the landmarks dotted around the map, but it also feels very empty and it's a bit hard to navigate when everything is mostly one color. Finally, the mouse sensitivity was extremely high which also made the game tricky to play without feeling sick as I spun around in place. I eventually adapted to it though.

Subside by HyprBlu

Wow, the presentation here is great, with fantastic room transitions, snappy controls and great visuals. That the music shifts as you enter the pit is a great touch as well. When it comes to gameplay I think it's solid and polished but not quite as smooth as it could be. While the individual mechanics work great it's a bit hard to combine shooting with grappling since you need to aim for both, though in different directions. I also found that I hit walls a bit more than I'd have liked with both the grapple and bullets. I don't have a good solution for these issues. Maybe there could be a key to keep shooting in the same direction while grappling in another? Maybe adding a small bounce off the wall as you release the grapple would make it easier to go where you want as it lets you almost wall-jump up walls in the way? Otherwise I was impressed with both the amount of content and the enemies. While the basic critters looked weak enough they managed to get the best of me more times than I care to admit by jumping over my shorts or suddenly not walking back and forth but jumping off the platform and down on top of me. They're great!

The Faults in our Code by Evanski, CloakedGames and Joseph Ellis

Wow, there was a lot more content here than I'd thought. It was great clicking through each dialogue and decide on what to do and some of the decisions were tough! I loved the story that weaved through the more generic dialogues, although while there seemed to be a few different narratives, the game was a little too long for me to want to sit through it all again for another outcome, at least for now. Finally, I think the presentation was excellent and really nicely done.

The ritual by finh2003

It's an interesting twist to have a ruleset and a game where you need to consider when to break said rules. It made for an interesting dynamic but it was hampered by the fact that I never found the skeletons to be particularly useful. Sure, they could kill a few enemies but they were generally weaker than the goblins so they just died off. Similarly, potions could have great effects but could also be somewhat pointless and the curses were just not worth risking (my game ended after drinking a homing potion: since I already hit with each shot it didn't help me but since the curse made enemy shots homing it became impossible to dodge and the run was over). I do like the variety among the effects though. I would have liked to see the same variety to the rooms which all looked the same. It made me wonder if there was an end to the game.

They Bleed Red Too by SoapSud39

I was impressed by the quality of the cutscenes and voiceover. The story was intriguing and interwoven well with the gameplay, although I had some issues with the eyes and turrets randomly firing and often hitting me despite me hiding. I'd also have liked if you could turn while wall jumping as having to face the right way made some of the jumps awkward and not always intuitive. It was a neat thing that you could bounce on the eyes to make them shoot.

Three Nights Of Knights by chris24

The dueling feels really nice and it'd be cool if there were a few enemy types so you could take it further. The concept of beating corrupt knights and healing them was nice and movement feels natural. The game did get repetitive after a while as all areas look kind of similar and while there are some water obstacles or tall shafts, it doesn't spice things up quite enough. I also found the controls to be a bit awkward and I'd have preferred to use space instead of enter to interact with stuff as it felt unnecessary to have an extra button for that.

Three Rules Make a Riddle by Ghandpivot

It's very stylish and entertaining, I had a few moments of exhilarating clarity when I realized some of the words. The clues were great, though I found some to be a little harder than others and those took me a while (for the candle I was thinking of washing clothes and tried to find related words, for cutleries I was on the right track but was thinking of the wrong words). I really like how easy the game is to play. I used the mouse for the most part and jumped between levels if I got stuck, which felt liberating.

Three Rules Standing by Alice and Mercerenies

The premise of there being changing personal rules that each citizen must abide is extremely interesting (I realize the rules apply to areas rather than people, but that was my first thought). The puzzles are good and figuring out which rules to break was a fun challenge. I'm a little disappointed in the amount of boring, empty space though, which just pads out the game for no real reason. It'd be fun if the rooms were filled with more people who could comment on things and if the people there were had more to say (for example, the only ones to react on the the rules being gone were your family and even they mostly commented on them hearing you and not on, what I assume, how the society just radically changed).

Tobruk by Selek

The game is very overwhelming in its first impression and I can't tell what is what.
After clicking around some I understood which units were mine and I figured I was supposed to attack the others.
Since I can't tell what different unit types or the numbers on them mean I mostly tried clicking around.
I figured launching everything I had on the enemies would be the best way to capture the town and it seemed to work. Then I got this exception:

############################################################################################
ERROR in
action number 1
of Step Event0
for object oMap:

Variable <unknown_object>.combat(100043, -2147483648) not set before reading it.
at gml_Script_ChooseMove
############################################################################################
gml_Script_ChooseMove (line -1)
gml_Object_oMap_Step_0

Trichotomy by FrostyCat

It's a really cool concept but unfortunately I also found it infuriating. The rock-paper-scissors dynamic is interesting, especially since it means you can plan ahead (in theory) to limit your opponent's options. In practice I found that the game relies way too heavily on chance to allow for any real strategy. Not only will you need to be lucky with which hand you get, but you also need to roll the right arrows or you're out of luck. I had a spot where I needed a rock to be able to claim three other pieces in a glorious takeover but proceeded with getting scissors no less than six times in a row, and when I finally got a rock piece with more than one arrow I used it out of exhaustion, despite not getting maximum value from it. I think the game could be better if the arrows were removed and you always got to choose between each tile type (but only had a limited supply of each). With all that said, the game is still very well done and the AI feels good and challenging to play against.

Upside Down Tower by Armored Dragon

The game is very interesting: I didn't realize at first that you had limited moves and that limit made the levels a lot trickier to solve. I found the controls to be a little awkward as it wasn't clear how far clicking would send you and I never figured out if there was a way to control that. The timing on the parry is also very narrow which made it hard to learn, but at least it feels great when you manage to do it. I think the visuals are awesome and the elevator is really neat. It'd be cool if there were just a little more story around it as it's basically just a fancy but random backdrop.

Vaccine Maze by Lucas Poeiras

The rules are straightforward and the gameplay is fine. Walking randomly through a maze isn't the most exciting thing but it works and dodging sneezers makes it a bit more interesting. I like the idea of collecting syringes, though it'd been nice to know how many I needed for each level. I also found the view to be very limiting since it didn't scroll unless I was very close to the edge, which made it very hard to dodge enemies because you didn't have any time to see them come.

Weapon Master by DreadedDruid

Exploring the castle and finding new rooms was really exciting, especially finding hidden ones. At the same time, it was a little frustrating not being able to tell which walls were real and which were doors, so I think some sort of compromise would be good here (like how you'd in some cases highlighted passages with carpets or torches). The rock-paper-scissors like combat was fine, though I didn't realize there were different weapons at first and was very confused as to why the enemies didn't take any damage. I think the enemies could be a little smarter as their path finding wasn't always good enough to get them out of corners and you could often bait them and deal with them one at a time, with the exception of the wizards that were challenging foes. If there's anything this game would have really benefited from its audio, which I missed badly. Oh, and the game crashed at the end after the boss.

Whack (only) the Mole by awlred

The game is neat but the 26 key game is tough. Sometimes it was hard to tell if I succeeded or not because I would pet/hit/feed the animal but still lose a life (I guess the animation didn't have time to finish before the animal left, which felt a little unfair). The 9 key mode wasn't too bad and I did well enough to miss some sort of difficulty curve. It didn't seem like the game got any harder over time but instead kept sending out animals one by one at the same pace. For the 26 key game that didn't matter because it was challenging enough as it was (at least for me). I liked the way you displayed the information on screen: it made it easier to remember as I had a guide to look up.

Wizard's Pub Crawl by Siolfor The Jackal

This proves being wasted is by far more predictable than being sober. It was fun trying to stay within the sweet spot and dealing with the side effects of going beyond. It gave me a new appreciation for beer which was really the only thing worth consuming (because the other items launched you too far off the track in either direction). I'd have liked to see a little more difference between the rounds than a speed increase but the increased speed also made subsequent runs faster which meant they didn't drag on for too long. Neat!

You Only Have 3 Minutes by Evanski

It's a clean and stylish timer where the text contrasts well against the black void of nothingness that remains ever present in the background as a looming shadow of unseen things, reminding you of your mortality. Time doesn't fly fast and, staring at the dwindling numbers of the timer, you feel the weight of every second as they are etched into the back of your retinas. You wonder why a 3 minute timer needs so large a window, but perhaps it's not the window that is large but the timer that is small? Is three minutes a small window in time? The questions remain even after the timer is gone.

YOUR RULES by Gravedust and Tomato

Now, I'd seen your post on the forum about shooting the rules so that didn't come as a surprise to me, but that's probably just as well as I'm not sure I would have tried it otherwise. I feel like the normal game slightly lacking an end as destroying the rules doesn't really affect anything. Maybe the payoff of destroying the rules would have been greater if, for example, the highscore rule was replaced with a rule that said "you only have one life". That would mean you could likely go further than before if you broke the rule, compared to now where you basically play through the game and nothing really changes between each run. The final message was nice and I was wowed by how much of the art was dedicated to that part.
 

dadio

Potato Overlord
GMC Elder
Reviews
Apologies to all for the short, sharp comments.
Didn't have a whole lotta time!

Grow a Plant - Poizen (sorry!) - Couldn't play cos virus checker

Top 3:

1st Igor - Ninety
2nd Coco Cards Casino - GameDevDan and NAL
3rd Subside - HyprBlu

Best ofs:

Best use of Theme: Igor - Ninety
Best Concept: Coco Cards Casino - GameDevDan and NAL
Best Presentation: Coco Cards Casino - GameDevDan and NAL
Best Story: The Faults in our Code - Evanski, CloakedGames and Joseph Ellis
Best Devlog: N/A

4th Snakes on a Plain - Richerama
5th The Faults in our Code - Evanski, CloakedGames and Joseph Ellis
6th Your Rules - Gravedust and Tomato
7th Hooklab - Lambda
8th Night of the Winning Dead - Pat Ferguson
9th Three Rules Make a Riddle - Ghandpivot
10th Wizard's Pub Crawl - Siofor The Jackal
11th Trichotomy by FrostyCat
12th Three Rules Standing by Alice and Mercerenies

Comments:

1000 Rules To Live by by Wooshdude

Game crashed and locked up. Had to ctrl, alt, del to stop it. Mer. Was an ok top down shooter. Cowboy type thing. Maybe with more time and variety coulda been good. But as is, gameplay is very dull and samey.

A Game for 8 Colors by DEGLIS

Color mixing Tetris. Interesting idea. Doesn't quite play as nicely as it might. Not such a big fan of Tetris myself either.

Break! (don't brake) by Kalzme

Top down driving game. Very nice presentation / gfx / music / sound. Gameplay however was just so-so.

Cannibal Rules by ZombieLawyer

Odd that a lot of games this time are similarish in concept... this one is a bunker thing. With yes or no choices for survival. Interesting, but the choosing yes of no was really flaky / badly implemented! I kept flying through multiple choices by mistake. Real shame. Oh well.

Coco Bombs by Adam Games

Top down coconut thrower thing. Art was ok. Meh gameplay.

Coco Cards Casino by GameDevDan and NAL

Wow. Ok. Top notch presentation. Neat little rock paper scissors minesweeper mix-up thing. Really nice art. Nice music and sound fx. Decent, relaxing gameplay. Really liked this.

Collect Build Kill by Lukan

Wasn't sure what to do. Top down crafter thing. Low rez pixel style. Had music. Meh. Boring.

Color Wars by Rui Rosario

Space invaders with worse gfx. No sound. Colors. Meh.

Conquer and DRILL by Cpsy1714

World map takeover type game. Had no idea at all what to do. Might have been ok if I had a clue? Meh.

Fire Realm by Red Phantom

Single screen swapping invader shooter like. Water vs fire blobs. Ok-ish I guess. Had sound. Repetitive. Dull gameplay.

Fishy Clicker by sylvain_I

Gameboy gfx. No sound. Clicker gameplay. Bad.

Guess Who Hostage Rescue by Mightyjor

Shoot hostage thing. Meh.

HookLab by Lambda

Sokoban with a hookshot added. Had sound. I think I'm not a fan of this type of puzzly (done to death) game. Seems like a very old, tired concept. Still, solidly done and some nice level design.

Igor by Ninety

Very nice rule based / changing platformer. Very neat pixel style and music. Felt very polished and complete. Neat little character text bubbles. Cool!

Inconvenience Store by TehPilot

Puzzly top down corona avoid em up. Meh.

Lava Jamp by sk8dududu

Nice music. Decent grfx. Kinda demonic vibe. Gameplay was just... a very simple infinite runner.

Mage's Quest by Calepiaro

Low rez pixel platformer. Was ok. Had sound. Decent controls. Level design not so interesting. Just lacking in gameplay / fun.

MEGADOME by The M

Weird 3D mining/collection thing. Bad art. A bit meh.

Morning Commute by Yothebob

I like the concept here. Driving with those 3 rules. But weak art. No music. No mood. And very badly implemented gameplay / controls.

Night Of The Winning Dead by Pat Ferguson

Lemmings with zombies. Nice presentation and gfx/music/sound. Pretty nifty! Can't help feel it was created before the Jam (no theme) and... well... it's just a Lemmings clone.

Nod Zombies by BigDallas

Frogger. But much, much worse lol.

Out of the Square by ericossiqueira and Benjamim

Side scrolling physics box thing. No sound at all. Was ok I guess. Boring gameplay. Don't see the theme at all.

PUSH by Toque

Weird push blocks off the sides thing with blocks falling from the top. It was ok. Good to see the GMC avatar icons!

Robber Rules! by KPJ

Side view low pixel thing. Punch, kick etc. Was ok... ish.

Robo Royale by bandman28 and Josh Chen

Top down collector coin. Meh. Not up to much.

Rules of the Rhinoceros by Yal

Um. Weird. Interesting screen rotation fx. Overboard tho. Rhino side shooter. Was oooook I guess. Very limited view and unclear what to do.

Rush, Kill, Repeat by filiprb

Top down shooter with a very limited timer. Meh. Nice sound and neat text.

Snakes on a Plain by Richerama

Simple endless runner. Funny little text chatting. I like it. Music was sorely missing!

Spielcomm 2020 by Bart

3D walking thing. Corona. Don't get infected. Kinda nice concept. Had music/sound. Gameplay a bit repetitive and meh.

Subside by HyprBlu

Pretty good stuff. Jump down a hole and shoot alien things and dont touch anything. And ya have a grappling hook. nice and fast gameplay. Potential here!

The Faults in our Code by Evanski, CloakedGames and Joseph Ellis

Very interesting little game. Based on Asimov's 3 laws. Not really much in terms of gameplay tho. More... an interactive art piece.

The ritual by finh2003

Verrry basic top down Zelda like with wizard. No music. Had sound. Very dull and repetitive. No theme.

They Bleed Red Too by SoapSud39

Weird. Side scrolling platformer... demon instuctor. Kill people. Had sound. Art and presentation were ok. Gameplay and level design very lacking. Nice to hear voice-over in a Jam game.

Three Nights Of Knights by chris24

Side scrolling platformer with a knight. Mer, boring gameplay and weak level design. Had music, had sound.

Three Rules Make a Riddle by Ghandpivot

Nice presentation. Simple concept. 3 clues to guess the riddle. Had music and sound. I'm a bit rubbish so I didn't get many. Kinda nifty to see this kinda thing in a Jam tho.

Three Rules Standing by Alice and Mercerenies

Seemed to be some (major) problem with views being broken here. Couldn't play it! Couldn't see anything outside the initial area cos the view didn't follow the player. Oh well.

Trichotomy by FrostyCat

Minesweeper with rock paper scissors. Was ok. Not really my cup of tea. Nice presentation / coding tho.

Upside Down Tower by Armored Dragon

Rules based thing. Mer.

Vaccine Maze by Lucas Poeiras

Very simple top down dodge viruses type thing. No music. Had sound fx. Very basic, dull gameplay.

Weapon Master by DreadedDruid

Zelda like. Slash em up. No sound. Ok gfx. very poor boring gameplay. No theme.

Whack (only) the Mole by awlred

Whack a mole using keys. Interesting. Ok presentation and gfx/sound. Repetitive/boring gameplay.

Wizard's Pub Crawl by Siolfor The Jackal

Scolling Operation Wolf alike. Funny concept. Getting drunk and all. With (much) better art, and variety in enemy movements, this coulda been a contender. But as is... meh.

You Only Have 3 Minutes by Evanski

Yup. 3 minute countdown. I only waited 10 seconds tho lol.

YOUR RULES by Gravedust and Tomato

Neat little sidescrolling shooter. R-Type-alike. Nice gfx. Music/sound. Quite liked this. (Tho it's a dead simple concept and doesn't exactly scream theme to me.)
 
Last edited:
Voting post

I had a lot more fun this time streaming the entries with the creators and other jammers, so I think I will try and do it again next jam.
I'll relink the timestamp stuff here too:

Top 3:

Night Of The Winning Dead by Pat Ferguson
Lemmings but a zombie game... I can't believe this wasn't already a thing. It's just a perfect idea.
You really nailed that old DOS/Amiga aesthetic that I originally played Lemmings on.
What really put this at the top for me was all the extra work in the intro and the music. It just feels so much like a finished game as it is, with all the splash screens, but then you have this whole voiced intro with the newscaster and and ending. I hope you polish this up and sell it for real.

Three Rules Standing by Alice and Mercerenies
If we were ranking purely on how much time I spent on a jam game, this would be #1 for sure XD
This is the kind of idea I was hoping to see this jam. I think I've been pretty vocal about how I feel about this theme(and some other recent ones) but this kind of game makes the theme worth it.
I had some trouble understanding some of the rules at first, but the game makes it easy to figure out, which was very helpful. The puzzle progression was done really well. You could have easily left this game with each room having 3 rules to obey and make all your puzzles based on that, but instead you started adding extra rules to a room, but with the caveat that you could ignore some as long as you are still following three of them. That was extremely clever, as it gives the illusion of more complicated puzzles, but you really are still following 3 rules, just like the older rooms, only now you have to figure out which ones you can ignore. But then on top of that, you'll revisit rooms from a different entrance, and now some of those rules you ignored before are rules you need to follow. So wonderfully complex. I think I was only able to cheese like, one or two of the puzzles too which is a sign of good puzzle design(I'm still embarrassed by how long it took me to solve some of them, I am going to blame stage fright from streaming).
Alice's art has been steadily improving recently, which is great to see. Quite a few portrait images of the characters and they all looked great, I'm glad you've found a style to work with. Your walk cycle animations could still use some work, but they are really solid, well done.
The story was great too, this could have easily been a cynical game given the totalitarian society portrayed, but it was full of puns, and jokes, and laughs, and pancakes, and more puns. Also a nice little twist ending that explains why you can use the computers, heh.
Lots of fun and funny dialogue, which only makes it more of a shame you didn't have time to flesh out the emptier rooms with the NPCs you planned to have. I'm looking forward to seeing the post jam version when I find some time after voting.
All this really needs is some more interesting backgrounds and tiles, maybe tweak some of the animations, and flesh out the empty rooms. Oh and a better failure popup.

Inconvenience Store by TehPilot
Topical *and* fun!
I'm glad I had you in my stream while I was playing this, as there were a lot of little details I wouldn't have figured out on my own.
This idea sounds so simple and easy, but making it turn-based really messed with my brain. I really loved playing it.
The way each level sort of adds complexity was handled well, we start with one item to sell, then you add more, then you add cleanliness on top of that, and that's where the stress comes in.
As was pretty evident from my playthrough video, I was very bad at keeping things clean! Without your tip about the coloured squares, I would have had a much harder time with it. I think you pointed out that even a green square was still a level of dirt, but in my mind, I see a green square and think green = good, so I was ignoring them at first.
It really pays to plan out your route before you start just blitzing around the shop, I had a lot of fun trying to figure out which order I was going to do things in, based on previous failed attempts. I was playing too reactively, but you really need to be proactive in a game like this.
Great sprites, and I loved the bouncy movement, though I think some of the sprites needed to stand out more from the background, as I did notice sometimes I would lose track of the newspaper for instance.
Also, a great length for a game jam game too, though I would love to play more.

Best ofs:

Best use of : Igor by Ninety
Best Concept: Grow A Plant by Poizen
Best Presentation: Night Of The Winning Dead by Pat Ferguson
Best Story: Three Rules Standing by Alice and Mercerenies
Best Devlog: ...

Full ranking:

  1. Night Of The Winning Dead by Pat Ferguson
  2. Three Rules Standing by Alice and Mercerenies
  3. Inconvenience Store by TehPilot
  4. Igor by Ninety
  5. The Faults in our Code by Evanski, CloakedGames and Joseph Ellis
  6. Grow A Plant by Poizen
  7. A Game for 8 Colors by DEGLIS
  8. Trichotomy by FrostyCat
  9. Subside by HyprBlu
  10. YOUR RULES by Gravedust and Tomato
  11. HookLab by Lambda
  12. Weapon Master by DreadedDruid
  13. Break! (don't brake) by Kalzme
  14. Robber Rules! by KPJ
  15. Whack (only) the Mole by awlred
  16. Three Rules Make a Riddle by Ghandpivot
  17. The ritual by finh2003
  18. Three Nights Of Knights by chris24
  19. Snakes on a Plain by Richerama
  20. They Bleed Red Too by SoapSud39
  21. MEGADOME by The M
  22. Spielcomm 2020 by Bart
  23. Morning Commute by Yothebob
  24. Coco Cards Casino by GameDevDan and NAL
  25. Rules of the Rhinoceros by Yal
  26. Color Wars by Rui Rosario
  27. Mage's Quest by Calepiaro
  28. Upside Down Tower by Armored Dragon
  29. Conquer and DRILL by Cpsy1714
  30. 1000 Rules To Live by by Wooshdude
  31. Coco Bombs by Adam Games
  32. Cannibal Rules by ZombieLawyer
  33. Nod Zombies by BigDallas
  34. Guess Who Hostage Rescue by Mightyjor
  35. PUSH by Toque
  36. Out of the Square by ericossiqueira and Benjamim
  37. Lava Jamp by sk8dududu
  38. Robo Royale by bandman28 and Josh Chen
  39. Rush, Kill, Repeat by filiprb
  40. Vaccine Maze by Lucas Poeiras
  41. Fire Realm by Red Phantom
  42. Collect Build Kill by Lukan
  43. Fishy Clicker by sylvain_I
  44. You Only Have 3 Minutes by Evanski

Comments:

1000 Rules To Live by by Wooshdude

Kind of a Risk of Rain vibe with the item effects, except without the random, since it appeared that item placements were static. I had a good laugh at the hotdog one because I joked on my stream that I thought it looked like a hotdog, and it was. Fun and weird. I like it.
The actual combat wasn't great, and the wall collision needs some work.
Great little soundtrack too, loved the piano dude hanging out.

A Game for 8 Colors by DEGLIS

Another fun and interesting puzzle game.
Whilst I loved the idea and general vibe of this entry, I had a lot of trouble remembering how the colours worked. When I went back to play it later, I understood the game much better. I'm not even sure how you could communicate it better in game since your "How To Play" section was pretty succinct.
I think all this really needed to shine was a more visually interesting colour palette, the same colours obviously, but maybe with different saturation and light values. Something more interesting than flat squares. But for a jam game, this is great.
The white bar that moves down the screen was odd and I'm not sure what you were going for there.

Break! (don't brake) by Kalzme

This was a fun game, I could play something like this all day, probably on my phone given how simple it is and the visual style.
Not much to say, it was a simple idea executed pretty well. You could easily come up with multiple hazards and obstacles if you were to continue working on it. Chuck in some online leaderboards and you're good!
Cute art style too, and the music you chose to use seemed to fit well in my opinion.

Cannibal Rules by ZombieLawyer

Kind of fun management game. Funny idea, I dug the humour.
I think it mostly just needed more variety in the scenarios, and less repeats. Also, a way to gauge the size of the population, since that seemed to affect outcomes as well.
Restarting also seemed to be bugged, possibly the population size not resetting, so I could instantly fail on a replay some times.

Coco Bombs by Adam Games

I feel like you had a good concept, but the game is way too unfinished.
The few animations that are in there are great, like, wow, I really dug them. And the background looked really good.
The hot potatoness added a nice sense of urgency and chaos. Just needed to be more finished to shine.

Coco Cards Casino by GameDevDan and NAL

Another interesting twist on Rock/Paper/Scissors.
Idea is neat, but I'm not overly fond of chance games. That said, this one is less chancey than your dice game at least. Still enjoyable, since there is a little bit of strategy to employ.
The different AI behaviour is always nice, and I do enjoy the characters you usually have in these games. Though, I see a lot of familiar faces this time, heh.

Collect Build Kill by Lukan

A crafting game isn't much if you can't craft unfortunately.
What's there though, does work pretty well. I amused myself at the very least.

Color Wars by Rui Rosario

Shame you didn't have more time, because this seems like the basis for a cool game.
My struggle was constantly trying to remember which colour beats what, and then which button shoots that colour.
The shooting itself should be faster in my opinion. No one like slow bullets.
And some more variation in enemy types and behaviour is a must.

Conquer and DRILL by Cpsy1714

Haha, Russians telling the American president what to do... How unrealistic... ha ha ha... ...
Anyway, I appreciated the idea, and I liked that I could pick fights with anyone, but I'm already bad enough at these kinds of games and I felt lot there was a lot that wasn't explained. Despite not knowing what I was doing, I still had a good time. Bumped you up a rank or so soley because you made Australia the strongest. XD
I didn't need to hear the voice over every time I restarted by the way!

Fire Realm by Red Phantom

Pre-emptive strike on the fire people seems a bit sketchy to me, man. Are you even sure they plan to invade? Seems a bit rude to bust into their place and just lighting them up.
First thing I noticed was the menu. Black text on a dark background is not a great idea. It's still readable, but the text should stand out more. White text or a white outline would work.
Seems sort of Space Invadery but more random. I only had one issue with the controls, in that historically, up arrow makes more sense for doors. Down arrow for shield would have made more sense. Not a big deal since I barely used them.
Shooting was unsatisfying(What was I even doing? Shooting bubbles out of my mouth?).
Some hit effects for enemies that have health would have helped add a little bit.
Not sure what the electric enemies were even doing there. Maybe that's why the fire ones were so mad, all these foreigners in their realm making a fuss. The moved too fast and were less of a challenge and more of an annoyance.
I dug the variety of enemy shapes, but some of them were really weird, man.

Fishy Clicker by sylvain_I

Clicking some fish. I mean, at least it's not false advertisement. The whole game is in the name.

Grow A Plant by Poizen

What a wonderful little puzzle game. I could probably play something like this all day.
I don't have a great deal to say about this game, as I think you did a great job already.
Simple to understand, but I still had trouble with some of the later puzzles. The variety of blocks was good, some of the stages felt like a weird combo of those slide puzzles with a match-3 game, with some sunlight and water physics on the side. There is a lot going on here for such a simple looking game!
It made for a very relaxing and enjoyable experience.
If you were to keep working on it, I'd love to see some more complex stuff like multiple seeds to plant, or different types of plants that require different conditions. I feel like there is quite a bit you could probably do with something like this.

Guess Who Hostage Rescue by Mightyjor

I had the instructions backwards at first and accidentally kept killing the hostage. Whoops!
Fun idea, just needs something extra to keep people playing.
Great overall presentation too, I loved the variety of features you used for the people.

HookLab by Lambda

I wasn't expecting two jam entries featuring grappling hooks!
I like the simple concept, the classic kind of block pushing game, with the added grappling hook twist.
Puzzle design was great, some of them had me stumped for quite a while, and it felt rewarding working it out.
My only real issues with the game are cosmetic. The player sprite doesn't match the style of the background tiles, which seem to be more detailed. So a more cohesive style would have been nice.
Also, your menu requires the mouse when your game doesn't... That's a bit of a pet peeve of mine, since it makes no sense.

Igor by Ninety

Another good use of theme, and a solid experience all round.
Firstly, this was a really well made platformer. Jumping felt great, with a good amount of hangtime. The climbing worked well too.
You introduce the rules one by one at first, as part of your tutorial(I enjoyed how you made the tutorial instructions part of the levels, like a big poster). This works great, as once you get into the meat of the game and start needing to juggle the rules, it becomes more important to know what each icon means.
The nice gameplay twist of only having room for 3 rules and having to remove some or avoid collecting others, I feel that was a bit inspired, really made for a clever and fun experience. All this made for a great progression of difficulty, and a good length for a jam game too.
The art was very nice. Well animated sprites with a bit of juice, good simple backgrounds and tiles, but lots of little nice details(Poor Igor's shack of a house).
Fun story too, just Igor trying not to be late for work(His commute is a nightmare to be honest, don't know how he does this every day), I enjoyed the intro and ending dialogues. A few NPCs scattered throughout the game was nice, they didn't add much, but it did make the world feel more lived.

Inconvenience Store by TehPilot

Topical *and* fun!
I'm glad I had you in my stream while I was playing this, as there were a lot of little details I wouldn't have figured out on my own.
This idea sounds so simple and easy, but making it turn-based really messed with my brain. I really loved playing it.
The way each level sort of adds complexity was handled well, we start with one item to sell, then you add more, then you add cleanliness on top of that, and that's where the stress comes in.
As was pretty evident from my playthrough video, I was very bad at keeping things clean! Without your tip about the coloured squares, I would have had a much harder time with it. I think you pointed out that even a green square was still a level of dirt, but in my mind, I see a green square and think green = good, so I was ignoring them at first.
It really pays to plan out your route before you start just blitzing around the shop, I had a lot of fun trying to figure out which order I was going to do things in, based on previous failed attempts. I was playing too reactively, but you really need to be proactive in a game like this.
Great sprites, and I loved the bouncy movement, though I think some of the sprites needed to stand out more from the background, as I did notice sometimes I would lose track of the newspaper for instance.
Also, a great length for a game jam game too, though I would love to play more.

Lava Jamp by sk8dududu

I don't mind these kinds of games usually, but they really need solid mechanics to be any fun.
The jumping was mostly ok, but short hops felt weird. A game like this really needs some sort of jump buffer too for when you land or when you jump just off the end of the ledge.
The ground collisions seemed to be a bit inconsistent too. I would descend, and I would see the character stop momentarily indicating I hit the ledge, but then he would just fall through it, which was frustrating.
And while I like the idea of the extra obstacle of the enemy behind shooting things at you, it just wasn't balanced very well. Your only defense is to jump over, but you already need to jump so precisely half the time, so most of the time I was getting hit because I had no choice, or rather, I had to choose between getting hit or falling off.
I did like the art, even though I'm pretty sure we see the little demon guy's wang every time he jumps. How embarrassing.

Mage's Quest by Calepiaro

Short and sweet.
Mostly just a simple platformer, but the abilities you can find add some nice variation with some light puzzle solving. Really needed some more levels.
Also, I know it's just a jam, but menus shouldn't use the mouse if you don't use the mouse in the game.
Catchy little chiptune soundtrack too.

MEGADOME by The M

I'm not really into battle royale type games, but this was a bit fun.
The mining thing to bolster your stats was neat, but I found the best strategy eventually was to just go straight for players before they get too strong, and ignore the mining completely. In my later playthroughs I was winning consistenly by doing this.
Controlled well, but the sensitivity was way too low with no way to adjust, I had to pump my mouse up to 11. Also, no crosshair feels like an oversight(Pun intended).
The cooldown for shooting was a good idea, but I found it frustrating how long it was, I just want to shoot, man! Haha.
Also I feel like 3D games like these need some sort of fog effect for gauging distance, or any kind of lighting effect that makes every appear less flat than it does.
Using GMCers as your AI units is a fun idea(But it would have been neat to play as myself haha), and the voice over thing is a fun idea but the quality of the voice acting left a little to be desired. I could barely hear the voice over the other sounds, as if you were trying to keep your voice down while recording it.
Obviously out of scope for a jam, but this could be more fun with humans, since the AI is a bit naff haha, and they don't know how to spam fire, so I always have the advantage.

Morning Commute by Yothebob

World's neediest girlfriend simulator.
The idea was neat, I liked it and I think it was mostly well made. Very challenging.
The main issue I had was the car decelerates way too quickly, making it difficult to manage. Either let me keep accelerating or make the deceleration more gradual.
Also, I would have highly recommended swapping the Enter and Space key functions. That kept tripping me up, since Enter makes more sense for sending messages.
Anyway, the idea itself is fun enough still, just takes some really specific strategy to win(and because the win screen is so similar to the lose screen, I didn't even realise I had won the first time! )
Nice simple backgrounds, but could have used more detail and some scenery.

Night Of The Winning Dead by Pat Ferguson

Lemmings but a zombie game... I can't believe this wasn't already a thing. It's just a perfect idea.
You really nailed that old DOS/Amiga aesthetic that I originally played Lemmings on.
What really put this at the top for me was all the extra work in the intro and the music. It just feels so much like a finished game as it is, with all the splash screens, but then you have this whole voiced intro with the newscaster and and ending. I hope you polish this up and sell it for real.

Nod Zombies by BigDallas

A fun twist on Frogger.
I think my main complaint with this was that the people who mug you don't stand out much against the background, so I had trouble seeing them half the time. That and I think the garbage truck shouldn't be green, since it's easy to mistake for the money car. But maybe that was intentional?
The effect of the screen darkening and the sounds distorting was done very well, so gradual that I didn't even notice until I reset it with adrenaline. Nice.

Out of the Square by ericossiqueira and Benjamim

I feel like this could have been a really interesting puzzle game with the shape changing, but unfortunately there's nothing like that here. When I first realised I could change shape, I expected some sort of situation where I might need to be octagonal to fit in a hole or flat to block something, or anything really. But in the end there was just some light platforming and box2D collisions. The cage enemy was neat, but buggy. In my second playthrough it saw me, missed once, then flew out of the level.
The ending is strange and I'm not quite sure if it's supposed to mean anything, but it did make me laugh.

PUSH by Toque

Funny idea using the GMC avatars for the blocks.
I would have liked the game much better if I didn't feel like I was dying unfairly to blocks that barely moved or barely touched me.
Also, hell yeah for recurring characters!
I think what bugged me most about this game, was I was forced to rewatch the intro animation every time I restarted. Put in a skip button, man! It's funny the first time for sure, but I don't want to sit through it every retry.

Robber Rules! by KPJ

Great concept, but I think the difficulty to start off is too high. I think this was the first game I played in my streams, and as you could see from that, I had a hard time getting through it!
The concept was simple enough, but the enemies come up behind you much too fast. I would recommend slowing the whole game down to begin with, then ramp it up later when players are comfortable.
The other issue is that it ends up being pretty easy to exploit and cheese your way through(Which is the only way I ended up beating it during the stream).
I think part of it was the controls, I know personally I would have preferred some controls closer together, like Z X C or the arrow keys or something like that.
Simple art, very readable. Cool music too.

Robo Royale by bandman28 and Josh Chen

First mistake is requiring both hands on the keyboard to play, while also having the menu be mouse based. I only have two hands.
Unfortunately this seems to be quite unfinished. At least once I spawned outside the play area.

Rules of the Rhinoceros by Yal

This was probably the most insane jam game I played. I'm still not a fan of the weird blurry chromatic abberation look. I find it hard to look at it, starts to give me a headache. There's just so much going on constantly too.
The rules twist was another neat one, but some of the random rules were just not fun in the slightest. The money damaging you one probably hurt my enjoyment the most. But I still sort of understand why it is in there, I just wish I didn't draw it so often.
The main gameplay loop was mostly fun, but chaotic(which itself can add to the fun). I felt like the knockback from enemies was wayyyy too high. I would get flung into a corner and just have to wait several seconds until it's done, only to get hit again and repeat.
The guns were wild, it was fun trying out the different types. I didn't get far, or unlock many upgrades, mostly because I kept getting the coins hurt rule a lot.

Rush, Kill, Repeat by filiprb

Cool idea, but there were a lot of smaller issues that made this tough to play.
First off, it seems you didn't set controller deadzones, so having one plugged in made me think the menu was broken.
While I thought the lighting system was a cool idea, it was just too dark, dude. Everything was too dark.
I was told mid way through my stream of the game that shift would let me run(Which would have been nice if it was explained in the game or in a readme file). My opinion on sprint buttons is, if there's no reason for me to not sprint, then the sprint speed should be my normal speed, and I shouldn't need a sprint button. In this case, there didn't seem to be any point not sprinting, as the normal movement speed was so slow.
The timer based gameplay is a neat idea, but the random enemy spawns makes any successful run based a bit on luck. Some sort of indication of where enemies might be is much needed in a game like this. If everyone had a slightly larger and brighter light circle, that could have helped immensely.
The different kinds of guns were pretty fun to shoot though.

Snakes on a Plain by Richerama

I thought I had beaten the game with an exploit, but it turns out the game was just being polite and waiting for me to stop spamming punch before it triggered the next set of dialogue.
As I said on the forum, this game reminded me a little of a mobile game called Punch Quest(which is actually quite fun), as it had similar controls.
I tried to think of how you could improve on your game, but I just kept coming back to Punch Quest haha.
The sprites and background were neat, really dug the 3D effect on the background.
Dialogue was funny too.

Spielcomm 2020 by Bart

Topical!
It was a strange entry for sure, racing to find a bin so I can change masks, washing my hands, avoiding everyone possible, all while trying to collect coins.
The AI was frustrating, but that's pretty accurate because people are just as frustrating. It took me a few goes to get the hang of it and finally get to the tram thing, but several attempts and I still wasn't able to survive the tram ride!
Just like the other 3D game, some lighting or fog effect to gauge depth and make things look less flat coloured would be ideal too.

Subside by HyprBlu

Grappling hooks are always a bit fun.
Good variety of enemies and enemy behaviour. Didn't expect there to be boss fights, and they weren't too bad. I think all but the giant ceiling bug boss were cheesable, but still a good challenge.
Shooting felt good, good amount of screenshake too. Great progression of difficulty and challenge, each stage becoming more complex and more full of enemies and hazards.
Some nice sprites and backgrounds too, though, the bosses being sized up normal enemies looked weird, but fine enough for a game jam. Good way to reuse resources and save time.


The Faults in our Code by Evanski, CloakedGames and Joseph Ellis

References: The Game(I later made that joke in Evanski's stream too)
I was surprised to see a "Papers, Please" inspired game in this jam, but it works quite well. The gameplay itself is quite simple. Click the cross or the tick, that's it. Where this game shines is the humour and dialogue. You have to decide whether or not a robot is defective or not based on Asimov's 3 laws(Kind of perfect for the theme, heh). Eventually you start to realise there is an actual story underneath(which was unexpected), and you are in control of how it ends. Multiple endings is always cool in my book, and the ones I saw were a lot of fun.
There were a tonne of references throughout, about half of which I got. Much appreciated, references and easter eggs are fun. Like seeing you had 42 written out in binary gave me a chuckle(Squirrel Girl taught me to count binary better than any IT teachers I had), and the Short Circuit reference I got was wonderful. It was also nice to see FAZIL again, good past jam entry haha.
Great art throughout, fun and creative looking robot designs. GIANT HAND CURSOR. Great menu, and some sweet music.
As a narrative-focused game, this works well, but it does sort of make the randomised robots feel less interesting and those parts of the game more pointless. Some sort of indicator of how well you're doing, or some consequences for your decisions would be a good addition to flesh this out more.

The ritual by finh2003

I like how instead of having 3 rules to follow, you went the opposite route and had 3 forbidden rules. Very nice twist on the theme.
I ignored that because raising the dead is fun, and also makes things so much easier. The potion effects were fun too.
I also completed the ritual, and it I got a good laugh from running around as the pig, I put up a good fight too! Well, I ran a lot. Still fun.
The curse meter I didn't understand at first because I instantly forgot what I had read in the tutorial. My later playthrough it made sense to me though haha.
There were some good simple animations and backgrounds. I liked how the wand rotated on the hand, but the fireballs appeared from the player's center, not the wand, so that was a wee bit disappointing.
Good sfx too, the fireball sounded great.

They Bleed Red Too by SoapSud39

The intro was very unsettling, well, all the scenes with the father were really. Well done.
Once I understood the rules, this was a fun and interesting entry. Some good platforming and controls. Hiding in the shadows was cool.
My first playthrough I jumped outside the level and fell forever. Completely ignoring the exit sign at the end level.
Simple sprite designs, but the colours and shading gave it this neat embossed feel that I was into. I enjoyed stealing identities and changing my appearance.
The backgrounds were a bit boring, but that's how jams go.

Three Nights Of Knights by chris24

A fun little platformer with some light combat.
The main part of the gameplay was breaking open chests, and boy did I enjoy that. I just love breaking 💩💩💩💩. And I get money? Hell yeah. The little bit of screenshake helps sell it even more.
The platforming was basic but worked well enough. I would consider adding variable jumping(Jump height deteremined by how long you hold the jump button).
The combat was simple, but could be improved with some small changes. Firstly, I would make the block/parry more timing based. You have to press it right before being attacked to parry. That would add a small amount of challenge.
Obviously, the AI is a beat weak, so there's plenty to improve upon here, but it's fine for a jam game, just a bit easy once you work it out.
I did like that I could use my hard earned gold to revive the enemies as friends, just a shame they served no purpose. I imagine you wanted them to help fight bad guys which could have been a lot of fun.
I think all you would need after that is some other enemy types and some bosses and you're good.
The sprites and animations were fine, just needed some background art.

Three Rules Make a Riddle by Ghandpivot

If you watched the stream, you'll see I struggled quite a bit with this one. I'll chalk that up to stage fright ^^' Solving puzzles with an audience watching is stressful haha.
I feel like most of the clues were well written with only a few that maybe were too vague or confusing(The brushing teeth one threw me because of the bleeding clue). I would have likely been stuck for much longer with some vague but helpful clues from people watching me play.
Apart from that, a reasonably solid word puzzle game. A good use of theme too.
The keyboard input worked well, and the jumbled letters as a sort of extra hint to unscramble was a nice touch.
Great presentation too, I know there wasn't much happening, but it looked good.

Three Rules Standing by Alice and Mercerenies

If we were ranking purely on how much time I spent on a jam game, this would be #1 for sure XD
This is the kind of idea I was hoping to see this jam. I think I've been pretty vocal about how I feel about this theme(and some other recent ones) but this kind of game makes the theme worth it.
I had some trouble understanding some of the rules at first, but the game makes it easy to figure out, which was very helpful. The puzzle progression was done really well. You could have easily left this game with each room having 3 rules to obey and make all your puzzles based on that, but instead you started adding extra rules to a room, but with the caveat that you could ignore some as long as you are still following three of them. That was extremely clever, as it gives the illusion of more complicated puzzles, but you really are still following 3 rules, just like the older rooms, only now you have to figure out which ones you can ignore. But then on top of that, you'll revisit rooms from a different entrance, and now some of those rules you ignored before are rules you need to follow. So wonderfully complex. I think I was only able to cheese like, one or two of the puzzles too which is a sign of good puzzle design(I'm still embarrassed by how long it took me to solve some of them, I am going to blame stage fright from streaming).
Alice's art has been steadily improving recently, which is great to see. Quite a few portrait images of the characters and they all looked great, I'm glad you've found a style to work with. Your walk cycle animations could still use some work, but they are really solid, well done.
The story was great too, this could have easily been a cynical game given the totalitarian society portrayed, but it was full of puns, and jokes, and laughs, and pancakes, and more puns. Also a nice little twist ending that explains why you can use the computers, heh.
Lots of fun and funny dialogue, which only makes it more of a shame you didn't have time to flesh out the emptier rooms with the NPCs you planned to have. I'm looking forward to seeing the post jam version when I find some time after voting.
All this really needs is some more interesting backgrounds and tiles, maybe tweak some of the animations, and flesh out the empty rooms. Oh and a better failure popup.

Trichotomy by FrostyCat

Your affinity for these kinds of strategy games, and your own implementation of them is impressive. There's no way I could come up with a board game half as interesting as some of your jam entries.
I did expect to see some Rock/Paper/Scissors type games in this jam, but I think this was the most impressive one.
I'm not an overly strategic minded person, so I do struggle with these games a wee bit, but I still had fun. Still managed to win against the AI.
The directional attack of the pieces was a nice touch, though I feel like this meant there was a bit more luck involved in winning, but not so much that it outweighed pure strategy. I briefly wondered if letting you rotate your piece would work.
I think from a full version I'd like to see different board sizes, (I was going to suggest multiplayer but on my second playthrough, I noticed you already added human second player!)

Upside Down Tower by Armored Dragon

I don't think I have played a puzzle game like this before. I don't have much to say besides that I think the block timer needs to be longer.
The art was great, loving the shaking chains and the effect of the falling elevator platform, very cool.

Vaccine Maze by Lucas Poeiras

Another game that uses mouse for the menus, but then not for the actual game...
The maps layouts were ok, simple ideas like this are nice. Just a few small issues that add up in the end.
I noticed some wall collision issues, probably due to sprite origins. In a game like this I recommend using a sprite mask instead, keep it simple.
Using the soap to stun enemies was good, but they were still able to sneeze in that state. Intentional or not, I found it a wee bit annoying.
I did manage to beat all the levels, the first two were good, but the last one was a big random mess. I didn't realise though that I didn't have to collect every syringe to win.
Sprites were good, just could have used some more interesting wall sprites.

Weapon Master by DreadedDruid

The three rules weren't obvious to me at first, but it was a neat interpretation of the classic weapons triangle.
Making enemies only vulnerable to one type of weapon works well, especially with the variety of enemies matching your own capabilities.
Colour coding them is always a good idea, but I feel like some colours would make more sense switched around. Like, fireball should be red, no?
Either way, it was a neat idea in a well made game. The lighting effects and level layout, keys to find to progress, and a boss fight. All great.
The boss fight was cool, but needs some tweaking on enemy spawn behaviour. Nothing worse than having an enemy spawn on you, not fun.
I didn't notice until my second playthrough that you have a fully functioning map in your pause menu! Impressive.
Good sprites and backgrounds too, just a shame there was no sound or music!

Whack (only) the Mole by awlred

This was a great twist on Whack a Mole. I never would have thought this game idea could be improved with extra animals, and the way you adapted it to the keyboard layout was wonderful.
I obviously struggled with the full keyboard layout version. I think my main issue came from trying to remember which extra key to hold before pressing it, and I don't have a solution on how to make that easier.
My biggest complaint is that it seems that even if you correctly press the right keys, and are in the process of patting a bunny or giving mushrooms to a badger, it can still register failure if you do it too late. Clearly the disappear timer is still running during the interaction, which should be an easy fix.
Sprites were fine for a jam game, but I would love to see a fully polished version with improved sprites, and some nice backgrounds. The music was great btw, very catchy.

You Only Have 3 Minutes by Evanski

Joke games are fine, but at least pick the right theme?

YOUR RULES by Gravedust and Tomato

There was a lot to like about this game. Controlled well, and there a good variety of enemy with varying AI. The eventual gimmick of destroying the rules once you realise they may be impossible to follow is great. I assumed I would be able to destroy them at first, but didn't think I would have to fail first before trying it again. Lovely ending btw.
The space background looked fantastic, and the player and enemy sprites were really well done. Like I said in my video, I really liked the stretching effect on the projectile, it just looked so cool.
All the effects looked good to be honest, lots of little and cool details.
I know it's not the point, but I would have liked a proper game out of this too, with bosses and more enemies and locations, and powerups. It just felt and looked so nice that I wanted to keep playing.
 

Poizen

Member
Here are my votes and some words. I was short on time so some of the games I didn't write much about. Now I'm off to bed.

Top 3:

Inconvenience Store by TehPilot
What a cute style. I like it a lot. And the music is pleasant and fitting. The gameplay loop is entertaining and challenging and not too hard. Good theme usage too

Rules of the Rhinoceros by Yal
You know, in the last jam I thought the psychedelic effect was part of the shark game's cthulhu vibe, but it's in this game too so I guess it's just Yal's style. :p

Now here's a game that utilizes the theme well. The rules are not an afterthought; they're part of the game's mechanic. ...And it's chaotic. The rule combinations might make your life easier or harder. I will say though that I don't like the room speed changing rule. It's not fun, it just makes the game seem laggy.

I wish you could toss your old guns while you're in the shop... But then it's not like there's any need to buy a gun when there are always dozens of them lying around anyway.

It's a pretty fun roguelike. Has replay value.

Igor by Ninety
This looks gorgeous.

I like games with a rule-centric concept like this. It has a lot of potential for versatile levels. But it can be hard to design more complicated levels without leaving in shortcuts (like this one).

Good polish all around. Most of the levels were super easy but it was a fun ride.

Full ranking:

  1. Inconvenience Store by TehPilot
  2. Rules of the Rhinoceros by Yal
  3. Igor by Ninety
  4. Night Of The Winning Dead by Pat Ferguson
  5. The ritual by finh2003
  6. YOUR RULES by Gravedust and Tomato
  7. HookLab by Lambda
  8. Break! (don't brake) by Kalzme
  9. Robber Rules! by KPJ
  10. Coco Cards Casino by GameDevDan and NAL
  11. Mage's Quest by Calepiaro
  12. The Faults in our Code by Evanski, CloakedGames and Joseph Ellis
  13. Weapon Master by DreadedDruid
  14. Spielcomm 2020 by Bart
  15. Three Nights Of Knights by chris24
  16. Subside by HyprBlu
  17. They Bleed Red Too by SoapSud39
  18. Snakes on a Plain by Richerama
  19. Wizard's Pub Crawl by Siolfor The Jackal
  20. MEGADOME by The M
  21. Guess Who Hostage Rescue by Mightyjor
  22. Fire Realm by Red Phantom
  23. Upside Down Tower by Armored Dragon
  24. Three Rules Standing by Alice and Mercerenies
  25. 1000 Rules To Live by by Wooshdude
  26. Trichotomy by FrostyCat
  27. Cannibal Rules by ZombieLawyer
  28. Three Rules Make a Riddle by Ghandpivot
  29. Rush, Kill, Repeat by filiprb
  30. Robo Royale by bandman28 and Josh Chen
  31. PUSH by Toque
  32. Whack (only) the Mole by awlred
  33. Vaccine Maze by Lucas Poeiras
  34. Coco Bombs by Adam Games
  35. A Game for 8 Colors by DEGLIS
  36. Out of the Square by ericossiqueira and Benjamim
  37. Conquer and DRILL by Cpsy1714
  38. Lava Jamp by sk8dududu
  39. Nod Zombies by BigDallas
  40. Tobruk by Selek
  41. Collect Build Kill by Lukan
  42. Morning Commute by Yothebob
  43. Color Wars by Rui Rosario
  44. Fishy Clicker by sylvain_I
  45. You Only Have 3 Minutes by Evanski

Comments:

1000 Rules To Live by by Wooshdude

The music is good but pretty loud.

I really like how you used the theme.

The game crashes at the end of the second level, so I guess that's it? Well it was fun while it lasted.

A Game for 8 Colors by DEGLIS

There's so much going and effects to keep in mind. Most of the time I have no idea what I'm doing and then suddenly a white block appears and clears a column. This is a neat unique idea, but it's overwhelming to me.

Break! (don't brake) by Kalzme

A clever take on the theme. It would be nice if you could try a level multiple times. A couple of the first ones are pretty slow so replaying them gets old.

Cannibal Rules by ZombieLawyer

It seems kinda random how much you gain stuff at times. On one hand you learn the learn the right answers when the same questions keep repeating, but then you might get a sudden "-84 food" and lose the game. I assume the numbers vary more wildly as the game goes on. Also feels like sometimes you can only lose; some questions always lead to unhappiness.

The controls are a little weird, a bit clunky. Optimally you wouldn't be able to hold down an arrow key an accidentally agree to multiple things in quick succession.

It's a cool concept though. Nice atmosphere.

Coco Bombs by Adam Games

Clearly very unfinished. But the painted graphics look nice.

Coco Cards Casino by GameDevDan and NAL

It's a neat game idea. The basic concept is simple and there's actual strategizing you can do. Except I think some of the computer players are cheating (that bird gal just kept getting those three-pointers).

A peculiar design choice that the person who goes last always gets a minimum of six points on that turn.

Yeah, a chill slow-paced game. I played a few rounds, I almost won all of them. I forgot what the three rules were but I remember they definitely were there.

Collect Build Kill by Lukan

Sounds interesting. And straight-forward.

Or so I thought. I spent a good few minutes not having any idea what I'm doing, then I realized there's a readme.txt. I'm still confused though. Why does the action button instantly kill you? How do you make the hammer or the knife (I am following the recipe)? How do you drink the potion? I'm assuming the game isjust unfinished.

The game crashed when I pressed the Load button. Also at one point I had 880 of an empty object and then it crashed.

The art is pretty cute.

Color Wars by Rui Rosario

Alright, rock-paper-scissors with colors. Not a whole lot to it. Kinda frustrating to try to remember which button kills who.

Conquer and DRILL by Cpsy1714

There are a lot of little things you have to do. I wish there were more instructions in the game. I didn't realize how impossible it is to play without looking up the user manual in the games topic. And even then I lost? I beat Central America but then I lost the game when I tried to conquer it. Hmm.

Fire Realm by Red Phantom

I dig the sounds and the graphics.

The enemy movements are a bit too erratic. Like sometimes a bunch of fire and electric guys are bunched up and you just have to wait. Or you think you've got a clear shot but then an electric dude swoops in and takes the bullet.

And sometimes projectiles trap you right as you walk in through the door and then you're dead. And then you might have to replay the previous level, which is pretty punishing. Yeah, I'm giving up on that level that comes after omega. Way too much randomness IMO.

Fishy Clicker by sylvain_I

It's a short clicker game. I don't really get it. Maybe it's just that prototype-y.

Guess Who Hostage Rescue by Mightyjor

The first rule is more like an instruction... I feel like I'm nitpicking the theme usage a lot in these reviews.

I like the graphics style. It's very unique.

The idea is pretty original. It's pretty easy though and there's no variation so after a few rounds it's just repeating itself

HookLab by Lambda

Ha, the settings menu looks impressive but only volume can be changed.

The puzzles aren't too hard. Except for that last level. Phew, took me quite a few moments. I liked it.

So you can push things, pull things and fly to things. I think those are the three rules. I guess I'll squeeze out some theme points.

Igor by Ninety

This looks gorgeous.

I like games with a rule-centric concept like this. It has a lot of potential for versatile levels. But it can be hard to design more complicated levels without leaving in shortcuts (like this one).

Good polish all around. Most of the levels were super easy but it was a fun ride.

Inconvenience Store by TehPilot

What a cute style. I like it a lot. And the music is pleasant and fitting. The gameplay loop is entertaining and challenging and not too hard. Good theme usage too

Lava Jamp by sk8dududu

Is it just me or are there a lot of situations where it's impossible to dodge the attacks? A lot of RNG going on

I like the sound design

Mage's Quest by Calepiaro

Short and fun and simple. The guy looks like the prince from Katamari.

MEGADOME by The M

There are a lot of buttons.

The 3D is impressive.

The rules are pretty basic stuff as far as the theme goes; power up, win, and don't lose.

Morning Commute by Yothebob

This is so ridiculous. :D I don't know how to send the text though. Enter just puts the phone away.

Night Of The Winning Dead by Pat Ferguson

Super cool aesthetic. Looks very polished. Is this an actual Lemmings engine? Damn.

The music is great, the sound effects are superb, the puns are... nice. Seriously though, it's a cretive and fun game

Nod Zombies by BigDallas

Frogger but with drugs. The logo looks cool.

Yeah, it's pretty fun. The grid-based movement feels kinda clunky though

Out of the Square by ericossiqueira and Benjamim

Those rules already sound intriguing before I even start the game.

I thought there were going to be some kind of clear and immediate consequences for changing shape or going fast. I guess the rules were more like backstory. But in the end you just roll to the right edge of the room and then you win. The only enemy is the flying cage but it doesn't seem like anything really happens when it touches you.

PUSH by Toque

I guess it just keeps going. I was half-hoping there was a easter egg if you build a tall pile and reach the grim reaper wizard.

The forum avatars are a nice touch.

Robber Rules! by KPJ

This is a very hard game! But it's fun. The door kick especially is very satisfying.

Robo Royale by bandman28 and Josh Chen

Huh, the game is over in like 10 seconds? And all you have to do is place a couple of robots. Is it supposed to be that easy? Is that all there is?

The rules aren't very limiting at all either. You would actually have to go out of your way to break them and lose.

Rules of the Rhinoceros by Yal

You know, in the last jam I thought the psychedelic effect was part of the shark game's cthulhu vibe, but it's in this game too so I guess it's just Yal's style. :p

Now here's a game that utilizes the theme well. The rules are not an afterthought; they're part of the game's mechanic. ...And it's chaotic. The rule combinations might make your life easier or harder. I will say though that I don't like the room speed changing rule. It's not fun, it just makes the game seem laggy.

I wish you could toss your old guns while you're in the shop... But then it's not like there's any need to buy a gun when there are always dozens of them lying around anyway.

It's a pretty fun roguelike. Has replay value.

Rush, Kill, Repeat by filiprb

Hmm, is it the RNG that is ruthless or am I doing something wrong? If there are no enemies around at the start of the level you can just inevitably die.

I figured the normal mode is how the game is meant to be played, but even easy difficulty is quite challenging.

I like how you can shoot through walls. And the headless protagonist is a fun silly design choice.

I don't know how well the theme applies. You don't really feel like there are three rules when you're playing. But I do like how it sounds in the title. It's a cool name for a game.

Snakes on a Plain by Richerama

This seems like a game where the title came first and the concept second.

I wasn't expecting that you can and have to combine the moves. And the fox didn't even mention it. That was pretty neat I thought.

Spielcomm 2020 by Bart

I can see this is unfinished. I'm wondering if the finished game would have more than just collecting coins. It's very video-gamey compared to the real-worldy setting.

The theme is very clearly present with the three things you have to do to stay alive.

Subside by HyprBlu

I was thinking it's a fun game if a little easy. Then I got to the boss and found it impossible. I attempted it probably dozens of times. Does he even take damage?

The Faults in our Code by Evanski, CloakedGames and Joseph Ellis

A little Blade Runner text adventure, eh?

I felt like some decisions didn't have a clear answer or they were random. Maybe I'm just dumb. Also, I could be imagining it but the first time I played it felt like there was no end in sight and it just kept going (eventually I tested the red button). The second time it ended after a while and I got an award. Don't know what I specifically did though. Yeah, in the end there was no clear sign of progress and cause and effect.

Good concept to pick for the theme

The ritual by finh2003

I love the idea that the rules are more like guidelines. I never got to see what the Ritual is. I assume it comes later. I died a bunch of times. It gets difficult, especially with the curses

They Bleed Red Too by SoapSud39

Well I liked the idea. And the ol' "arson, murder and jaywalking" is always funny. The weird dystopian setting fits well. The voiceacting is neat. The story is very dramatic.

The gameplay is not the most satisfying though. But I realize the game is incomplete. Having to wait fo the green light is funny but several seconds feels like too long at times. And I wish you could change direction in midair to jump from wall to wall. Also I didn't feel like I ever needed the crouching in the shadow mechanic.

Three Nights Of Knights by chris24

So some things you can do make up the three rules. The rules seem kinda arbitrary, at least gameplay-wise. I guess it somewhat works for the lore.

I like the super dramatic music.

The walls and the background were noticeably featureless.

The end screen was dope.

Three Rules Make a Riddle by Ghandpivot

Clever use of theme.

It's great that you can skip riddless because I cannot figure out the 2nd one. Or most of the other ones. A lot of them are way too riddly for me. (Thanks for the hints.)

Three Rules Standing by Alice and Mercerenies

Some unique puzzles. You can really empathize with the citizens of this dystopia because some of the rules are really annoying (like having to constantly change direction).

Tobruk by Selek

This looks very complicated at first. Oh, I'm the yellow one, not the green one. I'm not sure what the markings on these units mean. I don't know if the units have hit points and if they are taking damage at some point.

I messed around for some time but I have no idea what I accomplished. I hope other players can appreciate it more

Trichotomy by FrostyCat

This feels like one of those games where there's some grand strategy that is out of my grasp. I did manage to win by a small margin, but it felt like chance. Sometimes you get a piece that beats one or two of the opponent's pieces but I think most of the pieces didn't do anything. Not that it necessarily isn't or shouldn't be part of the design. Idk, felt like a lot was left ro RNG

Upside Down Tower by Armored Dragon

Interesting concept. Some good puzzley levels. Nice graphics. Short and sweet.

Vaccine Maze by Lucas Poeiras

I think this has some bad science in it lol

I don't like how the view works. You can't see more than a couple blocks in front of you. Also I'm guessing it's not intentional that the syringe counter never resets. So you already have the required number of syringes when you start the next level.

The three things in this are more like things you can do than they are rules (mechanically that is). At least the mask one. It's a powerup (and I only found one in the whole game).

Weapon Master by DreadedDruid

Nice clean pixel graphics. The map is cool. That must have taken a while to make, even though it doesn't have that much use in the game.

Oh, the different-colored enemies have different weaknesses. Took me a minute. And those are the three rules. I get it.

Very Zelda-esque. It's a curious choice that you can't tell which walls you can walk through. I don't know if it's on purpose. I guess it must be.

That last boss fight took so long that I started to wonder if there was some trick to it. Like maybe you had to break the small crystals or it would just loop forever.

Then the game ended ceremoniously in a crash.

Yeah, it's obviously a little unpolished. An alright little dungeon crawler. It would be fun if there were more diverse uses for the weapons, but I suppose that's out of the game's scope.

Whack (only) the Mole by awlred

The premise is funny. A simple pleasant game

Wizard's Pub Crawl by Siolfor The Jackal

Hey, this is pretty fun. It's simple but the mechanic is unique and weird.

I guess what I also like is the fact that it's not too difficult. Often you can just get wasted and click randomly and you'll be fine. (Which actually highlights that rule 2 is not much of a "rule")

You Only Have 3 Minutes by Evanski

I'm giving this a fair shot. An entry is an entry.

The ticking is way off sync. It bothers me too much.

The ending was a little disappointing.

YOUR RULES by Gravedust and Tomato

I do like a game with meta elements. And it is still definitely a game. Like you said, it doesn't always have to be about winning. A lot of games in fact are about the journey.

There's a clear vision and a concise execution. And it's a nice change of pace from more traditional jam games
 

FrostyCat

Redemption Seeker
FrostyCat's GMC Jam #38 Reviews


Top 3:

Igor by Ninety
+ Professional-grade pixel graphics and presentation
+ Very tight integration with the assigned theme
+ Puzzles have a clear progression, controls are intuitive and responsive
+ Good learning curve and number of levels

Three Rules Standing by Alice and Mercerenies
+ Highly strategic level design
+ Very strong adherence to theme
+ Great overall presentation
+ Controls well explained and responsive, undo is especially useful

Inconvenience Store by TehPilot
+ Very interesting turn-based mechanic in an unexpected setting
+ Excellent use of theme
+ Consistent and professional presentation, smooth animations
+ Quite enjoyable to play, multi-tasking without being rushed


Best ofs:

Best use of Theme: Three Rules Standing by Alice and Mercerenies
Best Concept: Inconvenience Store by TehPilot
Best Presentation: Igor by Ninety
Best Story: Three Rules Standing by Alice and Mercerenies
Best Devlog: They Bleed Red Too by SoapSud39
Best Reviewer: Siolfor the Jackal


Full ranking:
  1. Igor by Ninety
  2. Three Rules Standing by Alice and Mercerenies
  3. Inconvenience Store by TehPilot
  4. Subside by HyprBlu
  5. Coco Cards Casino by GameDevDan and NAL
  6. Grow A Plant by Poizen
  7. Guess Who Hostage Rescue by Mightyjor
  8. Fire Realm by Red Phantom
  9. The Faults in our Code by Evanski, CloakedGames and Joseph Ellis
  10. Snakes on a Plain by Richerama
  11. Rules of the Rhinoceros by Yal
  12. They Bleed Red Too by SoapSud39
  13. HookLab by Lambda
  14. Three Rules Make a Riddle by Ghandpivot
  15. Weapon Master by DreadedDruid
  16. Whack (only) the Mole by awlred
  17. Robber Rules! by KPJ
  18. Wizard's Pub Crawl by Siolfor The Jackal
  19. Night Of The Winning Dead by Pat Ferguson
  20. Three Nights Of Knights by chris24
  21. Rush, Kill, Repeat by filiprb
  22. Upside Down Tower by Armored Dragon
  23. Nod Zombies by BigDallas
  24. A Game for 8 Colors by DEGLIS
  25. PUSH by Toque
  26. MEGADOME by The M
  27. Color Wars by Rui Rosario
  28. YOUR RULES by Gravedust and Tomato
  29. The ritual by finh2003
  30. Morning Commute by Yothebob
  31. Cannibal Rules by ZombieLawyer
  32. Break! (don't brake) by Kalzme
  33. Vaccine Maze by Lucas Poeiras
  34. Lava Jamp by sk8dududu
  35. Coco Bombs by Adam Games
  36. Conquer and DRILL by Cpsy1714
  37. Robo Royale by bandman28 and Josh Chen
  38. 1000 Rules To Live by by Wooshdude
  39. Mage's Quest by Calepiaro
  40. Fishy Clicker by sylvain_I
  41. Collect Build Kill by Lukan
  42. Tobruk by Selek
  43. Spielcomm 2020 by Bart
  44. Out of the Square by ericossiqueira and Benjamim
  45. You Only Have 3 Minutes by Evanski


Comments:
  • +: Points that I like about the entry
  • -: Points that I dislike about the entry
  • *: Points that I suggest that the author of the entry learn or practice more of
  • ×: Points that I suggest that the author of the entry stop doing
1/45: Igor by Ninety
Theme: Great | Concept: Great | Presentation: Great | Overall: Great


+ Professional-grade pixel graphics and presentation
+ Very tight integration with the assigned theme
+ Puzzles have a clear progression, controls are intuitive and responsive
+ Good learning curve and number of levels
- Backdoors on certain levels

× Avoid small-angle rotation effects in pixel graphics, looks jarring and distorted

2/45: Three Rules Standing by Alice and Mercerenies
Theme: Great | Concept: Great | Presentation: Good | Overall: Great


+ Highly strategic level design
+ Very strong adherence to theme
+ Great overall presentation
+ Controls well explained and responsive, undo is especially useful
- Shading of in-game elements feel flat

3/45: Inconvenience Store by TehPilot
Theme: Great | Concept: Good | Presentation: Great | Overall: Great


+ Very interesting turn-based mechanic in an unexpected setting
+ Excellent use of theme
+ Consistent and professional presentation, smooth animations
+ Quite enjoyable to play, multi-tasking without being rushed
- In-game objects could use a better description
- "Scratch" effect for in-game objects is somewhat distracting

4/45: Subside by HyprBlu
Theme: Good | Concept: Good | Presentation: Great | Overall: Good


+ Good graphics all-round
+ Very immersive sound and music
+ Easy to pick up and play, good variety in enemies
- Title screen is done significantly worse than in-game graphics
- Bullet hitbox too big, platformer physics a little jumpy

* Practice drawing larger things like cover art, not just smaller things like tiles and in-game sprites

5/45: Coco Cards Casino by GameDevDan and NAL
Theme: Good | Concept: Great | Presentation: Great | Overall: Great


+ Clear usage of theme
+ Highly strategic gameplay with simple rules, no visible bugs
+ AI and UI both very well built, excellent overall presentation
- Some of the UI animation is too exaggerated
- Second player's advantage is too strong (has a 100% shot on the final turn)

× Tone down some of the wobble animations, they can get distracting and look overused

6/45: Grow A Plant by Poizen
Theme: Good | Concept: Great | Presentation: Good | Overall: Good


+ Good use of theme and level design
+ Decent presentation, UI is easy to use
- Water is unpredictable and hard to control --- simulated water with more predictable movement would have been better than softbody particles
- Background is a photorealistic style compared to vector in-game graphics

* Practice using a tweening framework to smooth out animations

7/45: Guess Who Hostage Rescue by Mightyjor
Theme: Good | Concept: Good | Presentation: Good | Overall: Good


+ Interesting "Guess Who?" mechanic that incorporates the assigned theme
+ Smooth to play, good UI
+ Very consistent presentation
- A bit short, would benefit from random-generated levels

8/45: Fire Realm by Red Phantom
Theme: Good | Concept: Good | Presentation: Good | Overall: Good


+ Good consistent set of "Three Simple Rules"
+ Familiar shooter style with an avoidance mechanic that promotes careful shooting
- Kill screen is annoying
- Too much progress loss when hit
- Can be hit multiple times, animation goes berserk

* Learn to use flags to resist unwanted repetition: https://forum.yoyogames.com/index.php?threads/restricting-unwanted-repetition-with-flags.34455/
* Learn to use a tweening framework to smooth out flashing animations.
× DO NOT use high-frequency full-screen flashes.

9/45: The Faults in our Code by Evanski, CloakedGames and Joseph Ellis
Theme: Great | Concept: OK | Presentation: Good | Overall: Good


+ Unique choice of 3 rules, also happens to be quite famous
+ Interesting reading comprehension game
+ Very consistent and well-done pixel art, sound and music are minimal but work well together
- Text boxes are too short, text overflows it; reminder of the 3 rules also too small
- Lines repeat too soon
- No visible consequence for misjudging a robot?

10/45: Snakes on a Plain by Richerama
Theme: Good | Concept: OK | Presentation: Good | Overall: Good


+ Great built-in thematic tutorial
+ Good background and mostly consistent style
- Vultures hard to punch when offset from the ground
- (BUG?) I can be sometimes be pushed just behind the point where the monster eats me, and I can stay indefinitely uneaten by constantly jumping

× Use <= and >= for "when a value crosses a line" behaviours, NEVER ==.

11/45: Rules of the Rhinoceros by Yal
Theme: Good | Concept: OK | Presentation: Good | Overall: Good


+ Nicely coordinated psychedelic graphical style
+ Variety of weapons
+ Interesting take on assigned theme
- No way to quit, need Ctrl+Alt+Del
- Game can last indefinitely in certain setups (e.g. no gravity + cash heals + shoot backwards)

12/45: They Bleed Red Too by SoapSud39
Theme: OK | Concept: Good | Presentation: Great | Overall: Good


+ Great voice acting, music and sound effects
+ Built-in tutorial sequence, good menu as well
+ Smooth platforming engine
- Traffic light collisions sometimes too sensitive (e.g. narrow strip between two crosswalks on the second level)
- No real way to dodge, level gets crowded

13/45: HookLab by Lambda
Theme: Poor | Concept: Good | Presentation: Good | Overall: OK


+ Working menu and in-game engine
+ Good number of levels, reasonably well designed
- Can't really see the theme
- Music doesn't make sense
- Movement looks choppy and synthetic

* Learn to use animations to smooth out grid-based movement

14/45: Three Rules Make a Riddle by Ghandpivot
Theme: Good | Concept: OK | Presentation: Good | Overall: Good


+ Simple but effective presentation
+ Some clever riddles, good interpretation of the theme
- No hints if the player gets stuck
- No replayability

15/45: Weapon Master by DreadedDruid
Theme: OK | Concept: Good | Presentation: Good | Overall: Good


+ Some use of theme (A beats B, B beats C, C beats A)
+ Good consistent graphics, usable UI
+ Well-functioning engine with 3 basic attacks (though the key positioning makes it hard to switch)
- No instructions on how to play
- Many passageways look like walls
- No music or sound effects, less immersion

* Get familiar with sound and music resource sites, or purchase some stock resources and organize them for future use

16/45: Whack (only) the Mole by awlred
Theme: Good | Concept: Good | Presentation: OK | Overall: Good


+ Rules are well-explained, easy to pick up
+ Consistent presentation
- BUG: Lives still taken away if an animal disappears while the whack/feed/pet animation is underway
- No sense of progression

* Practice using a tweening framework to help smooth out animations

17/45: Robber Rules! by KPJ
Theme: Good | Concept: OK | Presentation: Good | Overall: Good


+ Well-explained rules and good opening sequence
+ Consistent graphics and presentation
- Counterintuitive controls
- Keystrokes often not responsive, detrimental to this type of game

* Need more practice on collision handling and state control

18/45: Wizard's Pub Crawl by Siolfor The Jackal
Theme: OK | Concept: Good | Presentation: OK | Overall: OK


+ Interesting balance mechanic mixed into a rail shooter
+ Simulated shaking adds interest to the game
+ Great music
- The paint-style food and drink items clearly don't match the smooth vector style of the characters and background

* Practice drawing items and inanimate objects to become a more well-rounded and adaptable artist

19/45: Night Of The Winning Dead by Pat Ferguson
Theme: OK | Concept: Good | Presentation: Great | Overall: Good


+ Very nice pixel graphics and chiptune music, highly coordinated
+ Nice opening cutscene
+ Very well-made Lemmings engine
- Applying a skill on overlapping zombies is unreliable
- Time seems to pass too quickly relative to actual movement when fast-forward is used
- Not very clear usage of the assigned theme

20/45: Three Nights Of Knights by chris24
Theme: Good | Concept: OK | Presentation: OK | Overall: OK


+ Clearly memorable use of "Three Simple Rules" theme
+ Good choice of music
+ Smooth engine work
- The background, the title and the characters are three different graphical styles.
- The player's knight has a robotic, stiff swing animation, while the enemy knights have the same animation done right.
- Health is specific to the room rather than to the character
- The revived knights don't do much.

* Learn proper procedures for controlling the persistence of variables across rooms.
* If you are specializing in pixel art, practice background and environmental objects.
× Don't mix graphical styles.

21/45: Rush, Kill, Repeat by filiprb
Theme: OK | Concept: OK | Presentation: OK | Overall: OK


+ Replayable through generated levels
+ Decent engine work
- Very poor choice of music, just doesn't match the game
- Flashlight effect on main menu is annoying to use
- Not much depth or variety in gameplay
- Blood stain effect looks mechanical and fake

* Experiment with trail effects.
× Save fog of war for gameplay, not UX.

22/45: Upside Down Tower by Armored Dragon
Theme: OK | Concept: OK | Presentation: Good | Overall: OK


+ Good overall presentation
- Shield too sensitive, movement stops short, finicky controls overall
- Too few levels
- Typos

* Practice with a room transition extension to smooth out transitions

23/45: Nod Zombies by BigDallas
Theme: Good | Concept: OK | Presentation: Good | Overall: Good


+ Complete game instructions with illustrations
+ Good variant of frogger
+ Well-designed logo and titles
- Controls are awkward and slow (two taps to move across a lane, can't hold to run)
- Somewhat mixed graphical style (especially solid red menu background)

24/45: A Game for 8 Colors by DEGLIS
Theme: Good | Concept: OK | Presentation: OK | Overall: OK


+ Interesting variant of Tetris with good theme cohesion
+ Good in-game help
- Very obnoxious and tacky music, perhaps the worst I've ever heard
- Background is out-of-place and distracting, UI elements are oversaturated and unsightly, room transition too slow

* Get familiarized with a UI framework
× Please DO NOT do your own music if this is the best you can do, get some stock music instead

25/45: PUSH by Toque
Theme: OK | Concept: OK | Presentation: OK | Overall: OK


+ Simple, consistent gameplay
- Gets old quickly
- Not enough friction on blocks
- Odd kills from still stable blocks stacked just above the player

× Avoid skuomorphic borders if you aren't going to play by the boundaries.
× Avoid hand-drawn UI text unless you are actually qualified in fontography.

26/45: MEGADOME by The M
Theme: OK | Concept: OK | Presentation: OK | Overall: OK


+ Good attempt at using 3D in GML
- Default movement is slow
- Can't seem to see what enemies look like
- Very limited play scope

* Learn how to create and render models in 3D

27/45: Color Wars by Rui Rosario
Theme: OK | Concept: OK | Presentation: Poor | Overall: OK


+ Some use of theme (though needs some experimentation to see what beats what)
+ Easy to pick up and play, no obvious showstoppers
- Rules not explained
- Can get repetitive

28/45: YOUR RULES by Gravedust and Tomato
Theme: OK | Concept: Poor | Presentation: Good | Overall: OK


+ Decent shooter engine, controls well
- I didn't understand the "shootable rules" gimmick at first, and neither did most other people --- very easy to get stuck
- The two halves of the game look too distinct from each other
- The narration in the second half is nice, but looks like filler on the most part

× Try not to be "creative" with standard UI elements, just keep it usable
× Don't hide most of the game behind a gimmick most people won't get

29/45: The ritual by finh2003
Theme: OK | Concept: OK | Presentation: OK | Overall: OK


+ Working game with several enemy types
+ Tutorial gives good enough coverage of basic play
- Little intentional mechanical tie-in with theme
- Hitboxes are off
- Crash when dying

* Learn to use instance_exists() to protect code that depends on the existence of an instance

30/45: Morning Commute by Yothebob
Theme: Good | Concept: OK | Presentation: Poor | Overall: OK


+ Interesting take on theme
- No visual feedback for successfully responding to a text message
- Sudden disappearance of turning cars is unnatural, as is the animation on road markings

* Learn more about the role of visual feedback in UX
× Don't hand-draw text, it looks very tacky and childlike

31/45: Cannibal Rules by ZombieLawyer
Theme: OK | Concept: OK | Presentation: OK | Overall: OK


+ Good music to set the tone, matching graphical effects
+ Simple resource management mechanic
- Messages repeat and look repetitive too easily
- (BUG) Sometimes I can approve/disapprove instantly, while other times I need to do it twice and the screen remains tilted

32/45: Break! (don't brake) by Kalzme
Theme: Poor | Concept: OK | Presentation: Good | Overall: OK


+ Nice tiled graphics, decent presentation
+ Easy to pick up
- No visible use of theme
- Too short

33/45: Vaccine Maze by Lucas Poeiras
Theme: OK | Concept: OK | Presentation: Poor | Overall: OK


+ Workable menu system
+ Help screen is workable and explains the game sufficiently
+ Visible use of theme
- Easy to get stuck in walls by animating into them
- Graphics look tacky and out-of-place, oversaturated blocks
- View border too narrow for the game's design

* Learn to sprite or get some sprite packs
× Animate only your drawn sprites, NOT your collision masks

34/45: Lava Jamp by sk8dududu
Theme: OK | Concept: Poor | Presentation: OK | Overall: OK


+ Reasonably coherent presentation
+ Easy to play
- Level generator is repetitive and dull, gameplay almost entirely dependent on reaper enemy's timing
- Very poor colour contrast between ground and background
- Jump is sometimes unresponsive

35/45: Coco Bombs by Adam Games
Theme: OK | Concept: OK | Presentation: Poor | Overall: OK


+ Basic gameplay works
- Lots of residual debug-like graphics
- Players don't face the right way
- Gets old quickly

* Learn how to handle directional movement from an RPG tutorial

36/45: Conquer and DRILL by Cpsy1714
Theme: OK | Concept: OK | Presentation: Poor | Overall: Poor


- No real instructions on how to operate the game
- No way of restarting the game other than closing it
- Very crude presentation

37/45: Robo Royale by bandman28 and Josh Chen
Theme: OK | Concept: OK | Presentation: Good | Overall: OK


+ Intuitive controls, workable gameplay
- Theme is not very well integrated
- AI is way too easy to beat by swarming
- Rather short and gets old easily

38/45: 1000 Rules To Live by by Wooshdude
Theme: Poor | Concept: Poor | Presentation: OK | Overall: Poor


+ Working engine, reasonably easy to pick up
- No visible use of theme
- No instructions
- Barely more than an engine

39/45: Mage's Quest by Calepiaro
Theme: Poor | Concept: OK | Presentation: OK | Overall: OK


+ Nice minimalist graphics and chiptune
- No visible use of theme
- Short and without an end goal, I could only collect the speed gem but that's it

40/45: Fishy Clicker by sylvain_I
Theme: Poor | Concept: OK | Presentation: OK | Overall: Poor


+ Easy to figure out even without instructions
- No use of theme
- Gameplay too simple, especially for the amount of time given

* Practice with a more sizable project than this before joining another jam

41/45: Collect Build Kill by Lukan
Theme: Poor | Concept: Poor | Presentation: OK | Overall: Poor


- Very poorly tested and barely more than an engine
- Space bar instantly kills instead of throwing anything

42/45: Tobruk by Selek
Theme: Poor | Concept: OK | Presentation: OK | Overall: Poor


- No built-in instructions on how to move or send orders to units
- No visible use of theme
- Controls are awkward, possible to give contradicting commands (e.g. two units moving to the same hex)

* Try spreading the AI's computation across steps to avoid freezing
* Get familiar with UI and animations
* Get familiar with a resource site or buy some resource packs for future use

43/45: Spielcomm 2020 by Bart
Theme: Poor | Concept: OK | Presentation: OK | Overall: Poor


+ Nice demonstration of 3D
- Not much to do, no clear goal, little more than a technical demo
- Elevator takes you to a white screen with no way out
- No shading, looks blocky and primitive

* Practice more with shading and fog in 3D
* Practice texturing models

44/45: Out of the Square by ericossiqueira and Benjamim
Theme: Poor | Concept: Poor | Presentation: Poor | Overall: Poor


- Tacky and unresponsive movement
- No exit option anywhere, need to Ctrl+Alt+Del
- Clicking doesn't shoot

* Practice with a working product before you try to join a jam again

45/45: You Only Have 3 Minutes by Evanski
Theme: Poor | Concept: Poor | Presentation: Poor | Overall: Poor


- No serious effort, won't rate
 
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