(!!!) by Triangle
There was no real direction or flow to the game. No clear objective. I ran right and found a gun then just shot at things for a while. Eventually died from one hit(which as I read in your afterword was because enemies take a massive amount each step, which I don't think was a great idea).
Second attempt I went right instead and there were coins to collect and that made no sense either then I died in some flashing rectangle.
I tried one more time and went straight for the gun but I couldn't see any way to progress.
Collisions were occasional bad, I got stuck in blocks or jittered around a bunch.
The jump was a bit high and you had no control over it, not sure if that's just a preference or not though.
AEGIS by VagrantWhaleGames
Cool concept, the idea was nice and simple.
Controls and gameplay were simple and easy to understand.
Not sure where the implementation of the theme was...
Music was annoying after a few seconds
Sprites were ok, but I had to squint to make out what building type I had selected.
A background would have been nice.
Way too easy, just spam houses at the start and one barracks. Easy resources then spam barracks. Worked on both difficulties.
Some better balance, and some visual improvements would make this a pretty solid game in my opinion.
Base Camp by WOKET_MAKER
Lighting was good, and it controlled well enough.
Was I expected to control both guys, or was this two player? I don't have a second player currently available and the controls were set in a way that made it annoying to switch between to control both, so I ended up letting one die.
Not much going on in the way of sprites or backgrounds. What was there wasn't very good. And the music was a bit annoying too.
No sound effects is a bit of a bummer.
Some enemies would go through or get stuck in walls.
Killed everything and circled the map a few times but it still said 15 left. Circled again another two times but nothing.
Blade of Light by JacobV, Alice, parmesano
I feel like I've played this before... Plays just like your last jam game but you charge attacks now instead of spamming them.
I can't tell if it's just because of your style, but the sprites and backgrounds looked like they were just taken from your other jam games.
Overall it just looks like a slightly less polished version of your last jam game...
Final boss was ok, but annoying. Nothing happened after he died except for a message about defeating the evil. I guess that was the end?
The music was very well done, and the save/load system was a great addition.
-Tried it again with the dialogue fix. Very cool how the dialogue changes, it's something I wish I saw more often.
Cavern Business Balloon by Otyugra
I like your simple sprites and the colour theme.
I thought I was missing something until I read your afterword. Shame you ran out of time.
I didn't really enjoy it personally, the controls were a little confusing at first and after several tries they still aren't completely clear to me. Mostly I don't understand the depth thing, why I had to move over to the walls to change depth.
Shame there were no sounds or music either.
Oh, and the game window was so tiny! I fullscreened it but it looked ugly and stretched, so I just squinted and played that way.
The movement and charge seemed to work well at least, not really a fan of the move snapping(prefer smoother movement) but I understand it works in this aesthetic and some may find it more appealing. Either way it was well made.
Caves and Lasers by Mercerenies
Interesting little puzzle game, I got stuck a couple times but made it in the end.
I enjoyed the little bits of humour and fourth wall jokes.
Puzzles were mostly interesting with only a couple that I found annoying to solve.
Art and sound weren't amazing but they got the job done.
Noticed some scaling issues with the GUI in full screen, like the fifth ability and player character dialogue off-screen.
Wasn't expecting it to have so many levels, so well done on making so many puzzles.
Charge Up, You Tiny Ninja! by Mocgames998
Neat idea incorporating the Game and Watch aesthetic.
It seemed mostly done well except I kept getting done by fruit from either side too close together, sometimes at the same time, couldn't seem to time the kick right.
I couldn't make it to the second section despite many attempts
Charged Bullets by Michael McMullen
The sounds effects were amusing(I did most of mine with my voice as well
).
I really didn't like how you controlled the ship, it made it difficult to collect things and aim at enemies.
Sprites were alright though, as were the particle effects..
Oh also, the font on the menu was hard to read.
Crank It Up by Mercerenies
Oh, no thanks.
Defend and Collect by Dr. Wolf
Tower defense games can be really fun when done well.
Unfortunately it looks like you ran out of time before completing it.
The lack of tower types was a bit disappoining.
The game moved very slowly, at first I thought it may be lagging but it didn't appear to be.
Cool aesthetic though.
Energized! by NightFrost
Nice little puzzle game, not sure what it had to do with any of the themes however, I guess I can sort of see Charging Up in the context of powering the nodes.
Either way, relaxing little puzzle game. Nothing overly new or interesting done with it but I still enjoyed it.
FarmSim by Gravedust
I thought the concept was pretty cool, I think you combined the two different play styles in a way that felt natural.
The sprites were great.
I feel like the player zips around a bit too fast.
The aliens spawned in all sorts of annoying spots, I think some more reliable spawning would make more sense instead of randomly teleporting in.
Difficulty was a bit brutal.
Grabbing and planting seeds was a bit of a chore(guess it is in real life too haha), as was selling the fruit since you couldn't drop it.
The effects were great, overall this game looked pretty. With some better balancing and variety, this could be a pretty great game.
Hidden Bullet by Studio Rainfall
Firstly, this looked very polished, nice intro and menus.
But I felt like that was 90% dialogue... and the only real playable section was so short and uninteresting, it was a real disappointment that there was nothing else.
The actualy gameplay part showed potential but was too short and no that interesting.
The backgrounds were simple but nice, but the sprites could have used more work.
I did however think it was pretty cool the way the sound effects sorta synced up to the music, well done with that.
I Fell by Snail Man
Dude, what the hell? You can't end it like that?!
I was a bit skeptical at first when I saw the control layout, but I ended up being pleasantly surprised.
Very good use of theme, I feel like you used Charging Up and Switch Between Different Genres pretty evenly.
The platforming and jumping felt good and controlled very smoothly, and the flying/shooting parts felt great.
There was a good balance of both sections throughout, and I thought it was very clever integrating the enemies into the platforming sections. Very well done.
The art seemed basic, but the player character was animated very well with the spinning, and the enemies looked great.
The difficulty seemed to increase at a rate I felt was very even and fair, which is something a lot of people(myself included) seem to struggle with.
I will say however, that as great as that music was(I dug it), it seemed out of place to me.
Last Convoy by Kahrabaa
This was a really good idea and use of the themes.
Great simple objective, and good implementation of your idea.
Taking control of different units was done well, and satisfying.
Rescuing people to add to your army was good.
The sprites and backgrounds were ok, consistent which is good.
My only real complaints are that it was really difficult, and it doesn't really ease you into the different aspects of the gameplay. I don't think I could get past a third of the way! But I'm not very good at games with micromanagement I'll admit. I did still really enjoy it, I think this is something worth continuing on and improving.
Less Than 3 by The M
Very cool idea, it was very satisfying to solve these puzzles, that last one was quite the puzzle too.
The only thing I really disliked is it became a lot of just trial and error in most cases, but occasionally there was a really well made puzzle that required some actual thought which made up for it.
MisuWare by Misu
Oh man, I really wanted to rank this higher.
I loved the Warioware aesthetic, and it fits perfectly with one of the themes. But I think your biggest letdown here was that there were too few games and the games themselves were no good.
The cat jumping one had bad collisions, I found several times that I would land on a platform and not be able to jump for a second.
The enemy tracing one didn't really seem to make sense to me and looked very unfinished so maybe there was more to it.
The clown shooting one worked fine, but the gui was displayed over a quarter of the screen(Guessing because I was in fullscreen, gui is a bastard like that, I can relate).
I think you did a wonderful job with the presentation, the Warioware elevator and transitions were done pretty well. Looked almost as good as the real thing.
Not The Bees by Shadow_Lancer
Equal parts relaxing and stressful, also a bit adorable.
The bees controlled well, and the dangers were just obvious enough to see them if you look and lose bees if you aren't paying attention.
I only wish there was more to do.
Once Upon A Time In Outer Space by HayManMarc
I like the sprites and the idea, could be a lot of fun if it were finished.
Unfortunately, it looked like there was no actual game loop
Repairing stuff or using the control panel didn't seem to do anything in the end.
Prism Palace by Curato
Core concept was good, but needs some serious work. These kinds of games can be very enjoyable when done right.
Movement was a bit slow and stiff.
The teleport noise was absurdly loud.
Also far too short.
Your credits say "Orginal Desgin and Art by Curato" but then I see credits for almost everything else in the game so I'm confused as to which assets you actually made hehe.
Robot Ranchers by Pere, Tadashibashi, Fausto
Looked and sounded good, good sprites and backgrounds.
The farming seemed weird and forced.
The combat wasn't very satisfying and seemed better with a melee weapon because you could just spam it and kill everything whilst reflecting attacks.
The idea of choosing a different guy was neat, I tried them all out except for the healer one. It didn't really seem to matter too much which one you pick.
The actual island levels were probably a bit too small.
If you could find a way to make the farming parts feel more natural(it wasn't all that interesting either), improve the combat, and make the islands larger with more to do, then I could see this being a lot of fun.
Rocketeer Inc. by FrostyCat
A bit fun and a little stressful.
Sometimes I felt like no matter how organised I was, I was at the mercy of RNG(or however you determined what pieces were available at a time). At one point I didn't get enough bases to make enough rockets in the time limit(I saved every single one and it wasn't enough) so losing because of that kind of sucked.
The art was nice and simple, the design/shape of the rocket made it very easy to understand and I felt it was mostly pretty well balanced.
Instead of just increasing the speed and the goal amount, some new configurations or something may have kept it a little more interesting for longer. Otherwise it got old pretty quickly.
Screens by TehPilot
I liked the idea but I would have like it better with more variation in the mini-games.
Obviously this is great for a jam game, but I feel like there is more you can do with the idea. The way different screens interacted was cool, so I think seeing some more creative ways to use them would be great.
Those transitions and camera movement were great.
SlimePrince by Oyakiiv
Liked the idea, but I think it needed a lot more work.
It was very slow, and I'm not sure what the point was. It didn't look like the prince could even be hurt but other slimes would disappear with no warning.
Killed the wolf and then nothing happened, there was nothing else I could see to do.
Good job with the camera zoom when you increase your mass, that was neat.
Smooth Robotics by Micah_DS
*Spots Micah_DS's name, turns down headphone volume*
Just kidding haha, good sound levels. The overlay was a nice touch, I would have just made it my pause menu though(via Esc or Start on gamepad).
This was a cool idea with some cute robots and I really wanted to like it, but I found it way too frustrating. Escort missions in games are usually the worst, so probably not the best model to work with. The little robot would get itself attacked in the worst spots which made it really annoying to shoot at, then it wanders off in a way that is annoying for me to follow. I couldn't get too far, I tried several times.
The platforming itself was fine, and the wall stick worked well enough. I think I was expecting something different from your earlier gifs.
The music was great(definitely better than any shoe commercial... wtf).
Spud Pump by GameDevDan
I was going to say that I really disliked this, but the victory music was too perfect.
Starship Skedaddle by H3ADL3SS
First stage: Sprites were a bit dull and not even animated. There were waaaaay too many enemies, and no real indication on where I should go.
Second stage: Very pretty background, but clicking randomly to find a key is no fun. Could have instead maybe had some sort of logic puzzle, like buttons pressed in an order or something to start the ship.
Third stage: It was fine I guess, got a bit insane towards the end though.
Fourth stage: A bit bland but probably the better part of the game. A bit easy since the enemies seemed to just sit and wait for me.
Would have liked to have seen some more of that art from the title screen. second stage and the ending.
Stick Together by Sora
Damn, Sora. This looked like it could have been great if it was finished.
That first image that pops up was very promising, that idle stick sprite looked very well animated, and I would have loved to have seen more of the animations like that.
The idea was pretty solid, the archer and knight felt different enough to play as and both controlled well enough(with a bug here or there).
There didn't seem to be a point though, I killed a lot of enemies and busted into their castle.
Also, as far as I could tell, almost all of the music and sounds were ripped from Warcraft 2. You should really have made note of that in a readme file or a credits section or something.
Sticky Tanks by Bingdom
That was a lot of fun. This would be a great multiplayer game.
The control of the tanks felt great(Although maybe a little fast to turn) and the idea of having objects stick to you and affect your centre of mass was cool. However, I'd consider lessening the effect a little and adding more types of things to collide with, I imagine you could make good strategic use of that with a little tweaking. (I actually got a gold turret attached to me and it seemed invulnerable, so I used that as a shield for most of one match).
I believe some static structures that can't be attached or moved would make maps a little more interesting too.
I can really see this as a great mulitplayer game, expanding on the sticky objects thing can lead to some great strategies(I regularly had a box or something for added defense).
The art was great too, that 3D effect whatever it was was done well.
I wonder how many other people were disappointed to not see their name in the game as well
STTTAT by Misty
Car physics weren't that much fun, felt like the car steered from the middle instead of the front as well and it was way too heavy. Zombies also seemed to slow it down way too much on collision.
Just a bit boring driving around avoiding zombies, collecting supplies or fuel on the way could have at least given you something interesting to do besides follow a car.
The last stage felt like a chore since the car isn't much fun to control. Could have been a good opportunity to use a second theme "Switch Between Different Genres" by giving you a gun or removing the car altogether.
The art was total garb. The car sprites looked like every other generic top down car sprite, the backgrounds were dull and uninteresting, and the smoke particles looked like boring stock GM effects.
The music was wildly inconsistent and rarely fit the situation. Not only was the style of music inconsistent, but the quality as well. I went from some high end metal production from presumably the Dual Dragons, to some terrible midi track in the next stage...
Story was lame, and the dialogue was cringey.
Core concept attempted to utilise the theme "Stick Together", which just included following another car around which was boring. The final stage was just running over zombies, which is nowhere near as satisfying as it sounds.
Also, at first I thought the game was broken when I got into the first proper level because there was no car on screen. On my third attempt I realised that for some reason, you control the camera with the mouse. I don't really understand the point in that, a static camera would have sufficed.
Swing me by Relic
Perhaps an interesting idea if you got to finish it, it crashed on me though.
It looked really unfinished so I'm not sure what to say about it.
'Tato Lazers by PugWizard101, Uskompuf
A bit rough around the edges.
The platforming could use some improvement, and collisions. Seemed to get a bit stuck on jumps, and the moving platform, you don't move with it.
The Best Game Ever by Maximiliano
It really did self-destruct!
___________________________________________
############################################################################################
FATAL ERROR in
action number 1
of Step Event0
for object obj_steve_mobs:
Unable to find any instance for object index '29' name 'selfdestruct'
at gml_Object_obj_steve_mobs_Step_0
############################################################################################
I think you had the right idea, and everything controlled well, but it needed more.
Overall, I think the health recharging mechanic was odd and made no sense. Free health any time. And everything felt a bit flat without any sound effects or music.
The first section was just a basic platformer, there was no difficulty or anything, just a couple of jumps and ladders then a section of buzzsaws I was forced to walk through. It really needed some actual obstacles or enemies to attempt to stop you there.
The second section looked like it was going to be fun but again there was no challenge to it. The car was far too light and floaty, and you just had to hold to the right and it would self correct since the terrain wasn't very varied. It could have also benefitted from some enemies or obstacles, anything really to make it have some sort of challenge. I'd also recommend parallax scrolling backgrounds for that part.
The last section was better, but it would have been good if the enemy had some better AI instead of just standing there shooting like turrets.
The boss needed more variation too, sadly he just shoots at where you are and that's no fun.
The Island by CodeManuPro
Very pretty presentation.
Core idea is neat, but it get's hectic pretty fast. I'm not sure what the best strategy to survive is, and enemies can hit me through walls.
The range on the player and enemies is a bit far, and I feel like it takes too long to build anything useful at the start. You need something so that it's not just spending the first few days gathering supplies then avoiding attacks.
The Uncompleted Gravitation Machine by K3llyll
No use of theme as far as I can see.
The jumping was not good. A lot of the jumps required you to be very precise which made it quite difficult. And the jump would trigger if you were holding jump instead of only on press. I'm not sure how much of a general issue that is, I might just be weird in that I hold jump for the whole duration of the jump. But sometimes that meant I would land and instantly jump again.
The sections with the purple blocks were incredibly frustrating mostly because any kind of contact made them disappear, regardless of which side you hit them from, that and they don't seem to reappear ever so if you mess up on that vertical section, you have to kill yourself. I died on the very next section and wasn't willing to go through that annoying vertical section again.
Void Swarm by Nocturne
Very cool. Good use of theme too.
There was no readme or in-game controls so I had to guess. Then after my first playthrough I noticed the focus bar and how I never used it. So I had to hunt down your WIP post to find out not only are there buttons to change the fire mode, but also that it has gamepad support!
After that I really started to dig the game. The enemy variety and patterns were really good. Each enemy looked and felt unique with the design of some of them informing their attack which was great.
The upgrade system was great, each drone felt unique and served a different purpose, I personally enjoyed my army of just the weak 150 drones, after a while it's like a wave of death!
The menus were really nice too, and the music was excellent, really all fit together very nicely.
It did however get a bit samey after a little while. You get more powerful quicker than the enemy gets harder, perhaps you could break it up with the occasional boss fight?