GMC Jam Discussion GMC Jam 31 / XXXI / Discussion

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Ralucipe

Member
I absolutely supported the idea of a 10-day jam when it was introduced, and overall I'm glad we did it.

That being said, now having (mostly) completed a 10-day jam, I can say that I prefer the 3-day version over this. For 3-day jams, I worked my hardest for a short and intense period of time, and then it was over and I could move on with my life. But 10 days is a long time for something like this to be constantly hovering over my head. I know many people approached the lengthened period as an opportunity to spread out their work instead of packing in more work, but I simply don't do things that way. For 10 days, through Thanksgiving, I felt a constant urge to devote every moment of my free time to this - and that if I didn't, I was disadvantaging myself. By the end, I felt less like I had accomplished something awesome and more like I had just wasted a week.

I wouldn't mind seeing a few more 10-day formats every now and then, since I know there are certain advantages to the extended length, but I probably won't take part in one again.
 

FrostyCat

Redemption Seeker
I absolutely supported the idea of a 10-day jam when it was introduced, and overall I'm glad we did it.

That being said, now having (mostly) completed a 10-day jam, I can say that I prefer the 3-day version over this. For 3-day jams, I worked my hardest for a short and intense period of time, and then it was over and I could move on with my life. But 10 days is a long time for something like this to be constantly hovering over my head. I know many people approached the lengthened period as an opportunity to spread out their work instead of packing in more work, but I simply don't do things that way. For 10 days, through Thanksgiving, I felt a constant urge to devote every moment of my free time to this - and that if I didn't, I was disadvantaging myself. By the end, I felt less like I had accomplished something awesome and more like I had just wasted a week.

I wouldn't mind seeing a few more 10-day formats every now and then, since I know there are certain advantages to the extended length, but I probably won't take part in one again.
Just because it's a 10-day jam, it doesn't mean you have to take all 10 days. I certainly didn't work on my entry for anywhere near the 10 days allotted, and all entries thus far show evidence of that. If you want to talk disadvantage, flying solo is a much bigger one than having only a few days out of 10.

The new format isn't for you to be on a crunch for the entire duration, but for you to crunch at whatever time is convenient. The chances of having 3 convenient days is much higher if participants have their own choice of 10 days, than if the moderators pick 3 fixed days for everyone.
 

Ralucipe

Member
Just because it's a 10-day jam, it doesn't mean you have to take all 10 days.
I realize this, but I guarantee you that at least one team out there has used at least 8-10 days, and that team is undoubtedly going to be advantaged. Personally, I felt the need to use as much time as I had.

If you want to talk disadvantage, flying solo is a much bigger one than having only a few days out of 10.
I’m not actually flying solo - I have a teammate working roughly the same amount of time that I am.

The chances of having 3 convenient days is much higher if participants have their own choice of 10 days, than if the moderators pick 3 fixed days for everyone.
Again, I realize this, and for that reason I’m not advocating against the 10-day format in any way. I’m merely stating my personal preference. There are certainly advantages to the 10-day format, however I personally did not enjoy the format as much as others may have (in large part because I had no need on this particular week to be granted extra time).
 
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SamSam

Guest
Team Vive Le France salutes the crowd !
Right on time pal !

Edit : indeed I inverted 12 AM and 12 PM. So I am still on time but not right...
 
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I think I like the pressure of the 3 day jam, but the 10 day one is better for solo entries. It was nice to be able to spend equal amounts of time on coding, creating art assets, and writing music for once.
I sort of feel like 10 day jams may be better for just solo entries, but I also understand that not everyone wants to or are able to work completely solo. I guess we'll see how everyone goes!
 

Dr. Wolf

Member
I'm okay with the 10 day format-- maybe not every jam, but perhaps in alternation with the 3 day format.

Between the US Thanksgiving holiday (and wanting to spend time with family) and an idea that I feel like I'd rather do decently than quickly, I'm withdrawing from this round, but it was nice to have the extra time. It'll be interesting to see what we get out of it in terms of results.
 

GameDevDan

Former Jam Host
Moderator
GMC Elder
Just 2 hours 45 minutes until the deadline and only 15 games available for download :eek: is this going to be the least entered GMC Jam ever??

165 minutes is plenty to throw together a quick minigame! C'mon people let's get the JAM ON HERE
 
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Acr515

Guest
Really stunk that the jam took place during the US Thanksgiving holiday. I could easily see this being a block causing some groups not to participate, since I too was close to deciding not to do it. Despite this, we put together a game and it’s been posted.

As a personal preference, now having tried both, I favor the 3-day jamming format over the 10-days. It was a good thing to give a go, but I don’t think I want to do it again.
 

FrostyCat

Redemption Seeker
I'm pretty sad that this would be my second truncated entry like Starlight Convergence. I had much more planned for it, but I got home late from work throughout the week and mis-prioritized game elements from the start. The silver lining is that it became playable last-minute (albeit not very well tested), and I learned some new techniques while making it. It gave me a good idea of what to practice more of until the next Jam.

(Not very) Proudly presenting: PHAGE

screenshot.png

Lead your team of viruses to domination on an ever changing 8x8 board. Take over enemy pieces by spawning or jumping next to them. Go for green food tiles, hide in blue safe tiles and avoid red toxic tiles. And you'd better have a backup plan for when the board changes every 30 turns and wipes out your unprotected units. Can you prove yourself the master of epidemics against the built-in AI?

PS: The real irony of the project is that I caught a real-life virus of my own while developing it. Damn.
 

NAL

ʕ ᓀ ᴥ ᓂ ʔ
GMC Elder
The Games topic is now frozen, and the Voting topic is open. Game ZIP coming soon.

I will still (begrudgingly) accept late entries, although do note that inclusion in the ZIP can no longer be guaranteed. PM me a link to your game if you need to. Also either send me any information about the game (if you hadn't already posted in the Games topic) so it can be included in the post, or mention that you had posted so I can unhide your original post.
 
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Alice

Darts addict
Forum Staff
Moderator
PS: The real irony of the project is that I caught a real-life virus of my own while developing it. Damn.
I seem to have got one virus for the Jam, too. I hoped it would result in a sick game (in an "awesome" sense of the word), buuut it wasn't the case. I guess starting coding on the final game idea around late Saturday (earlier idea didn't work out) and fanatically replacing most placeholders had something to do with that...
 
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Misu

Guest
Just a heads up I forgot to mention in the Read Me

The game loads up levels and some levels may take for a while to start. To load things a bit quicker, try setting the voluminous bumpmap to disable in the option menu.
Also you can smoothen the graphics by setting compressed resolution to enable in the option menu. Its disabled by default.
Another thing, the nazi flags were part of a storybuild up but never happened (didnt finish this entry on time) but its gameplay is completed at least.
 

Ralucipe

Member
I noticed that a while ago there was some back-and-forth about whether the 10-day format would increase or decrease number of entrants. At the time I thought that the lengthened time period would encourage participation by granting participants a greater window, but participation seems to have considerably dropped. We have, what, 26 entries? I haven't been around long enough to know how abnormal that is, but from my own experience 30-40 has generally been the floor for number of participants. I'd be interested to hear somebody else's take.
 

Alice

Darts addict
Forum Staff
Moderator
The Jam ZIP is in, with 25 entries: https://mega.nz/#!itcSlKAK!FFWvx95_L9bDmwzreMRAucOk4BS71SatFQnXGYNY5o4

Technically speaking, 26 were submitted, but one download link didn't work for me (the author seems to have made the game private, perhaps?) and I didn't get the response, so I decided to carry on with what we have; there's already been quite some time since the Jam deadline passed, after all.

For the record, the game with invalid download is here: https://forum.yoyogames.com/index.php?threads/gmc-jam-31-xxxi-games.55655/#post-339947
 

HayManMarc

Member
Hay, y'all! I'm not sure if the correct version of our game "Wizzy Gizzard: Speed Date" was uploaded. The first version I uploaded still had the levelling system truncated for testing purposes. I had uploaded the fixed version (with the levels getting longer with progression) to the same download link, but I don't know if I was fast enough before @Alice made the Zip. If this is indeed the case and you'd like to play the game as it was intended to be played, you can download the game from the same download on my Games Topic post, or from RIGHT HERE, if you'd rather. Sorry for the inconvenience, and thank you so much if you take the time to re-download the correct version. The game isn't perfect, but it's one of my best entries so far, I think.

Edit: Yep, I just checked the zip and sure enough, the short levels for playtesting is the one in the zip. The game still works, so not too big of a deal. It just makes the game way too easy to beat (especially when it's pretty easy to begin with).

Anywho, cheers to all! I'm gonna start playing all these games now. :)

Oops, part 2:
I forgot to include the music in the credits. Music credit belongs to Kevin MacLeod.
Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

Also, just FYI, there are 10 levels ("weeks") in the game.
 
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@Ralucipe I just read some of your reviews, very well done. I also appreciated your review of my game, very fair. Totally agree about the balance unfortunately. I wanted the zombies to swarm and surround you but they just piled up on one side, but I prioritised adding more enemies over fixing that unfortunately for the zombie. I wanted the ghosts to be really annoying and worth the odds, so they do attack a fair bit faster, but you can block and counter them, or try moving up and down to get out of their range.
I wanted to do more with the combat but I had never made a beat em up before so I had no idea what I was doing '^^

EDIT: I did notice you mentioned my choice of music, which to me implies I chose it instead of making it. Just to be clear, I made the all music during the jam as well. :)
 
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matharoo

manualman
GameMaker Dev.
Are you required to vote? If you don't, does it affect your ranking in any way?

I'll try my best to find time to play some games and review them, but I'd still like to know.
 

FrostyCat

Redemption Seeker
Are you required to vote? If you don't, does it affect your ranking in any way?

I'll try my best to find time to play some games and review them, but I'd still like to know.
The rules don't require you to vote, but I think not voting defeats the purpose of participating the Jam. The point is to see what your peers would have done in the same position you have been, and learning from their techniques and mistakes entails voting for yourself what's worth taking with you. If you don't want to do a full-fledged video or long-form review, that's fine, a sentence or two summarizing your findings is good enough.
 

Relic

Member
A lot of comments about going back to 3 day. As everyday is basically a work day with kids - no chance to cram development into a couple of days. I hope we can still have at least one 10-day jam a year.

That said, I think I'll try be smarter about the 3 day jams - have a template project with camera/menu/pause functionality/sound options/controls ready to go. The stuff that every game needs (or should have if finished on time)
Or is this cheating?
 

HayManMarc

Member
A lot of comments about going back to 3 day. As everyday is basically a work day with kids - no chance to cram development into a couple of days. I hope we can still have at least one 10-day jam a year.

That said, I think I'll try be smarter about the 3 day jams - have a template project with camera/menu/pause functionality/sound options/controls ready to go. The stuff that every game needs (or should have if finished on time)
Or is this cheating?
It's been said in the past that using pre-made resources is okay, as long as they weren't made specifically for your jam game. I'd say what you're suggesting is acceptable, but also seems like its in that gray zone. I think someone else suggested that if you make those resources available for everyone ahead of time, it evens the playing field.

I always use bits of code from other projects to speed up development. Why write the same code from scratch when you don't need to? This is where coding experience wins out over beginners in these jams, and in a way, I think it should be expected.
 
A lot of comments about going back to 3 day. As everyday is basically a work day with kids - no chance to cram development into a couple of days. I hope we can still have at least one 10-day jam a year.

That said, I think I'll try be smarter about the 3 day jams - have a template project with camera/menu/pause functionality/sound options/controls ready to go. The stuff that every game needs (or should have if finished on time)
Or is this cheating?
Yeah, I use a template project which just has some basic stuff I would usually copy/paste anyway. Such as scaling, automatic menu placement, and basic options.
 

matharoo

manualman
GameMaker Dev.
I didn't even bother making a menu this time. Didn't seem necessary, and I liked putting the player right inside the game as soon as it opened.
 

HayManMarc

Member
Yeah, I use a template project which just has some basic stuff I would usually copy/paste anyway. Such as scaling, automatic menu placement, and basic options.
I've been doing these jams for a long time and I've always said I would make some template stuff. And I never have. Woe is unto me. I'm always defeated by scope, mainly because of menus, front-ends, transitions, music systems (music system got the best of me this time), etc. Someday...
 
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I didn't even bother making a menu this time. Didn't seem necessary, and I liked putting the player right inside the game as soon as it opened.
Sometimes that's really the best thing though.

@HayManMarc I know what you mean. My first two jams have similar menu code but I wrote it all from scratch each time wasting all that time. And then third and fourth I just copied the code this time. By my fifth jam, I had decided I was tired of the repetition and knuckled down and made the template project which I add to in between each jam. So worth it to have something where all the foundational stuff is just ready to go. Last jam I even wrote some scripts for handling music so that I wouldn't have to worry about that either.
 
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TinyGamesLab

Guest
As suggested, I also need to create an empty project where I place all my useful pre-made stuff such as menu handling scripts and easing codes. I have coded it all by hand for this Jam and it indeed takes some time while this should not be the focus of the jam itself.
Nonetheless, if it is not your own code, please refrain from only copying and pasting it. Try to code it yourself before the next Jam or at least during the next Jam.
I feel that Jams are a perfect place to try and learn new things (this time I played around with a top down grid concept with art restrictely contained to each grid tile, which I never had done before) and you should try to do everything from scratch at least once in your lifetime. If your end result ultimately fails, it doesn't matter, as what does count is the learning journey itself! (Cliche, I know)
Next Jam I'll do my own songwriting for example. I have the software but never got the hang for it. A Jam would be an ideal place to try and probably fail, but at least that side of my game making skills would improve.
 

Smiechu

Member
I wouldn't judge on basis of one jam if 10 day format had negative or positive influance on number of participants. Could be that this time by 3 day format it would be even worse. Who knows...
One thing is sure, with 10 days it's easier to get carried away. I made that mistake... and started a project in scope to big for my possibilities. Maybe if a I had a tamplate ready for the game type I've started it would be easier. Nevertheless, in order to have any game, I was forced to drop my initial concept and make something small.
My entry Stream of Adaptation was made in one day. My objective was to have something playable, nice and without possible bugs or glitches, and I'm happy I've made it. Unfortunately I didn't have time for final tweaking, the controls and gameplay could be a better, and the gameplay is repetitive. Some additional gameplay elements would be needed.
In the end, I'm happy I've made it! It was a very first Jam for me...
 

GameDevDan

Former Jam Host
Moderator
GMC Elder
Theme: Adherence to the theme... I don't know what theme this is supposed to be...Adapt? Dodging enemies is pretty much in every game, so seems pretty weak. 1/5
The evil voice at the start takes away your Armour and Weapon and tells you you'll never make it through his dungeon. I knew it was subtle but I didn't want to spell it out...
 

sp202

Member
@Ralucipe Thank you for the review, glad to hear you enjoyed what little of it was there.
Moving time forwards/backwards was surprisingly well-done, even if there wasn't any clear tie-in for it to the game's central idea.
The concept was that the character was recounting their day, hence any mistakes you make are the character misspeaking, so you could rewind to backtrack and correct the mistake.
Is the theme... overcome all odds? Seems a bit weak, and the game's biggest mechanic didn't seem to have a strong tie to that theme.
The theme we had in mind was adaptation, that you'd adapt to the unforeseeable obstacles through rewinding. I think this would've been more apparent if we had multiple rooms of obstacles and replayed the player's successful run-through at the end like we had planned but ran out of time to end up doing so.

@GameDevDan
However, I have very little patience for games whose difficulty rely on you not initially knowing what's about to pop up or just sorta repeating really difficult sections over and over (like IWBTG), so I didn't get far into it.
I'm not particularly fond of games like that either so I can sympathize, but I felt our use of similar gameplay was somewhat fair as the ability to rewind makes it far less tedious to play. We didn't intend it to be a difficult game skill-wise, there are quips that come up when you "die" that tell you the intended way to deal with an obstacle. The room with the cars is the only bit of gameplay there is, followed by a short cutscene so I suppose you didn't really miss much.
 

Ralucipe

Member
@Siolfor the Jackal I did like your entry and how it mixed in the creative card/dice elements. I think whether or not a horde of enemies was "unbeatable" had a lot to do with how many of them you rolled - for instance I rolled around 8 or 9 ghosts, and there really wasn't ever a moment where I could let my guard down without getting hit.
That's awesome to hear that you made the music yourself. Each track fit the mood really nicely.

@GameDevDan Regarding your review of "Liquid Bacon" - one of our main concerns while developing the game was that the player would not know how to proceed and get stuck, and we're sorry you experienced that. In retrospect we should've prioritized getting others to playtest the game in order to gauge how difficult we were making it.

If anyone else is interested, here is a more complete outline on how to beat "Liquid Bacon" (the AFTERWORD provides only vague details):
One of the ingredients for Liquid Bacon is in the Warehouse.

To get into the warehouse, you need a "Bouncy Potion". The main ingredient for this potion is "Rubber" - the only way to get that element is from He Who Dwells Under The Bridge. If you talk to He, he'll tell you to bring him something sugary in exchange for this element. You can find Candy by killing bears (the drawings in the 1st Edition Encyclopedia hint at this). Every piece of Candy can be exchanged with He for 5 chunks of "Rubber".

Several easy-to-find elements can be combined with "Rubber" to make a "Bouncy Potion". Once you have this potion, you can bounce into the Warehouse. Inside the Warehouse, you'll be ambushed by Frank (the giant hamburger that was in the restaurant). Frank is essentially the Final Boss, so you'll need buffs from potions and/or a few weapons to deal with him. Defeating Frank allows you to collect the 8 "Vats of Liquid Helium" from the Warehouse. This is the first ingredient for Liquid Bacon, but the second one is relatively easy to obtain.

The second ingredient - "Grease" - can be obtained from the cashier at Frank's Fasties. You'll need to trade a Shiny Thing in order to get it from him. Shiny Things can be found in two ways:
  • Killing a fortune teller, OR
  • Agreeing with a scientist on how the Earth is indeed flat (he'll give you a Shiny Thing after this dialogue)
Combining a "Vat of Liquid Helium" with "Grease" gets you Liquid Bacon, which will cause your heart rate to drop to zero and kill you (meaning you've won the game).
 

The M

Member
Well, crud. I'm very sorry for not testing the game properly before sending it in and as a result two thirds of the game are unreachable. Here is a fixed version if you want to see what the rest is like. The green squares do nothing and are completely optional to collect (originally they were supposed to be hidden under a "ceiling" that fades away when you're near it) but in this version they won't crash the game at least. Also, in this version: press PageUp to skip past sections. Might be useful if you don't want to redo the first part :)
 

ghandpivot

Member
Nooo!
I messed up my game! Crap. I moved the character to do some bug testing for a quick fix and did not move it back. So half of the game is just cut, and it's the half I liked most...

Here's a download where the player is moved to the start of the game and not the middle of it.


This really sucks.

Here's a video for those of you who do not want to play the game at all. I wanted to showcase at least one death in the start just to show how much effort I put into making the player being thrown by the boulder :p
 
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HayManMarc

Member
Nooo!
I messed up my game! Crap. I moved the character to do some bug testing for a quick fix and did not move it back. So half of the game is just cut, and it's the half I liked most...

Here's a download where the player is moved to the start of the game and not the middle of it.


This really sucks.

Here's a video for those of you who do not want to play the game at all. I wanted to showcase at least one death in the start just to show how much effort I put into making the player being thrown by the boulder :p
I SO know how you feel! I did the same thing. I'll download and rate yours if you do the same for mine? :) (I'll do it anyway. It really sucks to invest so much effort and time then get screwed by a stupid mistake.)

Same with yours, @The M.
 
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Micnasr

Guest
The voting begins!

With ~26 entries total, the voting will last for around 15 days until
Tuesday, 11th December, 23:59 UTC

DOWNLOAD ZIP (~600 MB)

The ZIP with all entries is linked here. The ZIP includes, aside from the games themselves, a Jam Player tool. It is strongly recommended to use Jam Player to play the games.

Mega: Whole ZIP

Prizes
Jam Prizes

The top 3 entrants and best-of winners will be featured in the Hall of Fame, and will choose the themes for the next Jam.


Community Prizes

Please don't forget to check if you aren't eligible for one of community prizes contributed to this Jam's pool, and poke the prize givers if necessary!
(if you are the one giving away the prize, especially the one for specific entries, please contact those who should receive the prize)


How to vote?
You must make a single post with your votes, which might include the games ranking and optional awards for best games in specific categories. When you name a ranked / awarded entry, please use both the game name and the authors, as just a title or author isn't sometimes enough to tell which entry you mean. Preferably, just use the directory name from the game ZIP, as it identifies the game correctly.

Please refrain from posting until you have reviewed at least one entry.

For a vote to qualify, you must rank at least top 3 entries (without ties), and they must be accompanied by at least a short comment explaining what you liked about them. Also, you cannot rank your own entry.

Aside from top 3, you can vote for:
  • Best use of Theme
  • Best Concept
  • Best Presentation
  • Best Story
  • Best Devlog
You can vote for best reviewer, too, but that might or might not be counted, since the best reviewer is chosen arbitrarily by the Jam host.

Also, you can rank as many other entries as you like, all the way to the very last entry. However, ties are not allowed, and entries from the first tie onwards aren't included when counting the votes.

Voting post template
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(this template is also used by Jam Player when exporting votes and comments)

Code:
[center][b][size=7]My amazing reviews![/size][/b][/center]
[size=6]Top 3:[/size]

[size=5]First place[/size]
Short comment about the first place...

[size=5] Second place[/size]
Short comment about the second place...

[size=5] Third place[/size]
Short comment about the third place...

[size=6]Best ofs:[/size]

[b]Best Use of THEME:[/b] ...
[b]Best Concept:[/b] ...
[b]Best Presentation:[/b] ...
[b]Best Story:[/b] ...
[b]Best Devlog:[/b] ...

[size=6]Full ranking:[/size]

[spoiler][list=1]
[*]first place...
[*]second place...
[*]etc...
[/list][/spoiler]

[size=6]Comments:[/size]

You might post your comments here, or, if you tend to write long and detailed feedback, make a document elsewhere and link to it here.
Providing feedback to each ranked entry is not mandatory, but generally people appreciate that.

How results are decided?
(the information here is not necessary for voting; it's mostly for people who want to understand how votes are calculated to produce the final results)

When it comes to the games ranking, the voting system used is 1/(rank + 1). It means for each ranking an entry appears in, it will get a score of 1/(rank + 1), and no score for other rankings.

When it comes to best-of awards, the winners must have gathered the most votes in their respective category. If multiple entries have the most votes, the Jam host may choose one or more entries among them to win the award. This is to avoid situations when e.g. 5 entries tie for 2 votes for the best devlog, and they all win; at the same time, it's still the community that decides which entries get the most votes.

The best reviewer is chosen arbitrarily by the Jam host, but the community opinion may be taken into account (just not in a "systematic" way).

Let's get voting!
hey @Alice , I messaged you in our convo about me messing up and forgetting to put my itch.io game on public, could you please add it, it was made before the end of the JAM, Thanks since this is my first ever game for a JAM and I really worked hard on it with my friend.
https://micnasr.itch.io/overcoming-all-aliens
 

Micah_DS

Member
I really wanted to participate in the jam and I had totally planned on it, but another project came up at the start of the month that I just couldn't pass up, so it took priority, leaving no extra time for the jam.

Guess I'll just shoot for playing and voting then. Sounds like quite a number of people made mistakes with their jam versions though? That's unfortunate.
I think I'm going to play some of the re-ups instead of the jam versions, and vote based on those. At least, in some of these cases, it just feels like people shouldn't be punished for the little mistakes like these.

EDIT: I meant well when I said the above, but further discussion in this thread has pointed this out as being unfair toward the devs who ensured their games ran without major issues. I want to be as fair and respectful of hard work as possible, so I'll vote based on jam versions, but I will make my initial playthroughs and feedback be on the latest versions of each game.
 
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Micnasr

Guest
I really wanted to participate in the jam and I had totally planned on it, but another project came up at the start of the month that I just couldn't pass up, so it took priority, leaving no extra time for the jam.

Guess I'll just shoot for playing and voting then. Sounds like quite a number of people made mistakes with their jam versions though? That's unfortunate.
I think I'm going to play some of the re-ups instead of the jam versions, and vote based on those. At least, in some of these cases, it just feels like people shouldn't be punished for the little mistakes like these.
try out my game by clicking the link if you want and give me feedback since I'm here to learn
 
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