... by Misu, Yal
Another light-based game, but a bit too brutal for me.
PROS
-Overall presentation seemed good, I especially liked the whiteout fade.
-Lights and general atmosphere was spooky and well done.
-Sounds effects and music were well chosen, all adding to that atmosphere.
-The shadow monster things looked great, very spooky.
CONS
-The player sprite looked strange and wasn't very well animated.
-The font used on the menu and info screen was hard to read.
-The camera panning did not work at all, the mouse appeared to nothing at all for me, the camera would not move.
-The game speed seemed too fast to me.
-The difficulty spikes so quickly.
-The enemy hitboxes are too large, and they move way too fast.
-The last two cons combined made for some really frustrating sections, some seemingly unfair moments where you can't see the spot you're about to jump towards and there is a monster there(perhaps a result of the pan not working).
-The use of theme wasn't very solid, you turn lights on, but that's not interesting in and of itself.
Blabbit in the Headlights by GameDevDan
Very cute but too familiar.
PROS
-Cute art as usual.
-Nice and short with an ending.
-Great overall presentation as usual.
CONS
-You made this game before but better in a previous jam :/
-Badgers were the random enemy, right? Still no good.
Cat Factory by Toque
Cute but disturbing. I'm sorry but as a dog person, I have to rank this even lower(kidding, but seriously, those poor puppies... you monster!)
PROS
-Very cute sprites and sounds.
-Simple concept.
-Gets intense quickly.
CONS
-I didn't like the layout of the boxes, made the far right one annoying to get to. Mostly because if I accidentally touch the wrong box that's a failure, really feel like you should need to release the mouse button to drop, or click to pick up and click again to drop to prevent this. I ended up losing more because I would frantically try and move one cat to one of the right side boxes and accidentally touch the wrong one.
-I thought I'd be able to turn the conveyor belt on and off but I guess not.
-Wouldn't really say this fit the theme well if at all.
Computer IT by Michael McMullen
Simple little management sim.
PROS
-Easy to understand.
-Nice smooth art(Did you make it?)
CONS
-No end condition.
-Computers just turn off after giving money.
Dusk by Dallas Riley, Riley O'Neail
Very cute and very well made.
PROS
-Art was excellent, I'm not overly fond of minimalist styles especially pixel art, but this just fit too perfectly together with the concept.
-The concept itself was simple but good.
-The enemy variation in the 3 short levels was unexpected and well done. Especially the spider who reacted to the light!
-Soft checkpoints was a great idea, thank you.
-Loved the logo and the ending image.
CONS
-Movement would really benefit from being smoother. By that I mean a wee bit of acceleration and deceleration, and sliding against walls when moving at an angle towards them(as in, moving up and right then you hit a wall above you, you shouldn't stop dead, you should stop vertical movement but slide along to the right still).
-Not really feeling the theme though, as much as I enjoyed this.
Elephants Don't Play Videogames After Dark by wkaudio, KaraLynn.Cosplay
Very cute, and strangely a wee bit addictive.
PROS
-Cute sprites.
-Simple gameplay(both in general, and the cactus game) that tied into the theme well.
CONS
-Got a bit tired of the music constantly restarting.
-It was a little too easy, Mum elephant could have used some fake outs or something to make it a bit more of a challenge.
Fun Park by Bart
I was looking forward to some wacky theme park style game, but this was sadly very unfinished.
PROS
-3D stuff was cool.
-The Carousel was cute.
CONS
-There was no real way to play or progress.
-Some rides were locked off.
-The Ferris Wheel just murdered anyone who tried to get on, no matter what I did.
-During the Punisher ride, the text just overwhelmed the screen.
game_end() by ghandpivot
Eh, I get what you were going for but I just wasn't into it.
I accidentally passed the first few levels by ending the game via my taskbar before I realised what was happening.
Ghost Light by DougM
I did expect to see a few games that use light as a mechanic, but almost halfway through and this is only the second one so far!
PROS
-Sprites were nice.
-Music was catchy(did you write it? No credits).
-The idea worked ok with some minor issues that held it back.
-Loving the death animation.
CONS
-Levels seemed random?
-You could still move after death, it was very weird.
-No frame or reference for movement when the light is off, even just a static or parallaxed background of some sort to give me a sense of how fast I am moving would have made the experience a little more enjoyable.
GR1D_0 by Bauke Regnerus
At first I was playing completely playing the wrong way, but once I realised what I had to do, it was quite challenging and enjoyable.
PROS
-Super simple gameplay that is easy to understand(As long as you pay attention, unlike what I did).
-Great presentation and style.
-Challenge level seemed juuust right to me.
CONS
-No music
-I feel like despite the difficulty/challenge feeling good, it could still use something like a way to reclaim an extra life, though I could be wrong and that would ruin it.
-A greater variety of shapes for the flipping could have been nice, but that's a minor nitpick at best.
Greenshield the Brave by Mercerenies
How is it you had time to make twoooo games?! TWO! I know both were simle but they were both still good. I hate you
I got about halfway with the bugs but didn't beat it. May come back after the jam to finish it off and see if there is an ending!
PROS
-Fun little meta story.
-Simple concept.
-I liked the upgrade path.
-Cool music and cute art.
CONS
-The game felt really sluggish to me, I'm not sure if it was running slow for whatever reason or that was the speed it was meant to be.
-Gah, static jumps are a bit the worst, especially when they are so slow.
-Not sure if the theme was used, but I can see some areas you could argue it is.
Grid Pause by The M
Whoa that was insane!
PROS
-Very intense and fun bullet hell.
-Art was nice and clean.
-Music was awesome.
-Concept was very cool, fit the theme well.
CONS
-Too intense too fast I think, but maybe that's just how the genre is, I'm no expert.
-Controlling movement with the mouse rarely feels good. Even less so on a trackpad.
Gung-ho Pro Commando by Roa
I appreciate the effort of doing a sort of 3D game, but playing it didn't really do much for me. Theme usage was presumably only in the intro(many spelling mistakes btw, but no big deal) and goal.
PROS
-The name.
-3D games are almost always a wee bit more impressive.
-Gamepad controls!
CONS
-Basically just a stripped down top-down shooter, the main gun was very unsatisfying to shoot, I feel the shooting speed was too slow.
-There didn't appear to be much in the way of hit feedback, making the impact of the gun feel even less. I wasn't sure half the time if I was hitting an enemy or not.
-Enemy variety. I only recall seeing two types of enemies, red and blue guys and the only difference was one shot missiles.
-Procedural generation is great and all, but it leads to some pretty boring level design.
-No sound whatsoever was a real shame.
How We Find Home by Lt. Farfetch'd, DanielDochertyMusic
A walking sim with no walking. This game was all fluff and no actual content unfortunately, you seemed to have spent all of your tie on the presentation and none on making a game which is unfortunate because the presentation is great.
PROS
-The art is great, animations could have used some more frames but still looked good.
-The overall presentation was very slick, all the white fades and individual text line fades.
CONS
-You forgot to make a game, man!
-The first part was a really shoddy and boring kind of flappy bird.
-The section with the frog was not done well either, the platforming could have used a lot more work, and the collision box was a little too wide.
-There was a tree, then the end?
Hungry Thing by Shadow_Lancer
Interesting and adorable. I didn't even realise I had fuel until I won!
PROS
-Loved the art.
-The controls worked great and I loved that I had to readjust if I bumped into something. Not sure if that was intentional design but it worked.
-Choice of font and music were great. Music was very calming.
CONS
-It wasn't clear if enemies were there to kill me or just to be a minor annoyance.
-Maybe a little too easy(needs something else to spice it up).
Jasmine Laslo - Switch U On by Allison James
Probably missing something here, but it seemed like there was nothing to do but listen to that one song.
Looked slick as heck though.
Lightbulb by sp202
More of this idea than I expected, but this entry, as short as it was, I think really did it the best.
Lights Out by TinyGamesLab
Very polished entry, even if it is a popular take on the theme.
PROS
-Smooth and consistent art.
-Platforming felt good.
-Great version of this idea.
-The death and light tallies at the end are cool.
-Happy ending, unless the Princess doesn't like you haha.
CONS
-Whilst the concept is cool and all, it makes for some very frustrating levels.
-Your fades are too slow, the death screen wait was excrutiating!
Matsu Switch! by TheMiningBoyAlpha
Final score: 21100
Deaths: 2
PROS
-Your style is consistent.
-Game length was good for a jam game, and it's always nice to have a completion screen.
-Platforming and variety through the levels was good.
-Good simple use of the theme,
CONS
-I get you're going for a specific style, but the wide pixel look just makes things look unnaturally stretched.
-Got stuck in a toggled block at least once which was unfortunate.
Motti by Relic
Cool and unique concept, even though it like many other entries are light-related.
PROS
-Lighting looked and worked great.
-The moth images on the sides were spooky and fittinga as a sanity meter.
CONS
-Oh boy, the movement pace was soooo bad. That is way too slow, and the sprint cooldown was too long(I switched to jam difficulty after the first treatment).
-Mouse aiming is fine, but maybe let me see my cursor so I can aim better. I kept losing relative position which made it difficult to turn around right.
-The sluggish movement is the only thing that really holds back this game in my opinion, that and some of the opengameart stuff seemed a bit inconsistent.
NEET Retreat by Jacob V
Got lost in the woods for like 15minutes finding geocaches then quit.
PROS
-As expected, the art is nice. The backgrounds were especially well done.
-Sprite animations were smooth(expect the head bob on the sprint was a bit much haha)
-Good sound design, al lthe sound effects were crisp and well chosen.
-Overall presentation was nice.
-Z to close your hands over your ears was a neat idea.
CONS
-I wasn't sure what I was supposed to do beyond wander about finding geocaches, game was very unclear about that.
-I tried following the sounds like suggested but I ended up either more lost or going in circles.
-Not really sensing much if any usage of the theme here, unless it's in part of the game I couldn't find...
-No fullscreen option... I'm playing on my laptop so you game window is larger than my usable screenspace...
Occupational Hazard by Cheshy, SamSam
I really enjoyed this idea, but the implementation was a bit lacking. Definitely interesting.
PROS
-Nice unique concept.
-Use of theme is really a strong part of the core mechanic.
-Nice presentation.
CONS
-Art style seemed really inconsistent as if all the assets were from different places.
-The player sprite was super weird...(What was he?)
-Movement and jump could use a little work, movement felt too rigid and the jumps too floaty.
Off and On in the Octagon by Bentley
Big fist wizards!
PROS
-I enjoyed the sound effects.
-I liked the art too, mostly the hands and spell attack.
-Very simple concept, could be a fun multiplayer game.
CONS
-As much as I enjoyed some of the art and sound, it didn't all fit together very consistently.
-I didn't understand the point of turning the thing of and on again and how that related to the battles.
-Man, you got to enable fullscreen, especially for mouse shooting games(Kept clicking outside window...)
-I don't have a mousewheel at the moment so I was unable to change spells.
Office Shape Saviour by Pixel Poison
Sadly this looks very unfinished and unplayable.
PROS
-Not really sure to be honest. I liked the idea of cheering up co-workers and the controls to do so worked well enough.
CONS
-Crashed when I tried to get coffee.
-You really shouldn't use controller icons if you don't have gamepad functionality, it is confusing and misleading.
-I didn't understand the controls, how could A be an interaction key as well as a movement key?
-I wasn't able to get the last block guy because ironically, he was blocked off... by his co-workers near the coffee crash machine.
-Which means I couldn't fight the boss(If there was one).
-A bit concerned by that logo... It looks as if you took it from an existing game and poorly MSpainted over the second word...
On And Off Back And Forth by Mercerenies
I can appreciate this, some of those were wacky and a handful I couldn't tell what they did but it was neat.
Make it two player and release a post-jam version!
Once Upon in Albimore by MilesThatch
Long and confusing, then I got killed cheaply and quickly.
PROS
-Overall presentation was good.
-Solid use of theme(even if I didn't fully understand what was happening)
-Spookiness was well done.
-As was the light and torch effects.
CONS
-It was too confusing, there were too many variations of the room and it wasn't clear at first that the two switches work differently.
-Ummmm, was I... naked? That is concerning.
-I activated a toy car and a shadow just sped at me and game over, I had no chance to do anything...
pagefault by TehPilot, TheFugue
As per usual, TehPilot and TheFugue come in with something simple looking and stylish as heck. The gameplay itself was a bit standard puzzle platformery and basic, but the way it's all put together in the context of the desktop theme is a bit neat and fun. The jam theme however, that's tough. The core puzzle element seems to be binary puzzles, which I suppose you could justify since 1s and 0s represent on and off states. Closing and opening windows makes more sense but seemed to be secondary.
PROS
-The desktop looked very nice.
-Music was excellent.
-Visual effects were good too.
-Puzzles were a bit standard but well executed.
-Progression and addition of more files and permissions was neat.
CONS
-The actual platforming was a bit boring by itself(That said it was still done well)
-I feel like more could have been done with the window manipulation perhaps, but then again that may be too similar to one of your last jam games.
PAINTB***H 2.0 by Lukan
Cool GMSpaint.
Powerout by Cat, var
Like FTL as a platformer, nice. At first I wasn't sure about this idea, but it turned out to be a pretty interesting game. I like to think I got pretty far but I didn't finish it just yet.
PROS
-Simple art style worked pretty well, everything was communicated pretty effectively.
-The one music track was a bit nice.
-The abilities and order you unlock them in was good, the way the different levels of upgrade worked was great.
-Enemy variety and difficulty seemed well balanced to me.
-The platforming was solid.
-Sniper sight line changing brightness to indicate when he was going to fire was a great idea.
CONS
-As good as the one music track was, it was getting a bit grating towards the end of my session.
-Shooting just didn't feel good. There was no hit feedback from enemies which made it feel flat.
-The controls. I spent most of the game playing one handed because all the controls are shoved on the right side. I understand this makes sense due to the left hand being needed for the mouse, but since the game wasn't purely a shooter, my left hand was often sitting there idle. I think my biggest issue here was how clumsy it felt to manage you power cores. Holding shift and then pressing the number was often annoying. I had two ideas on how I would approach this:
1. Pressing the number key when that ability is full or you have no more power cores, cycles it back around to 0. or:
2. Press the number key to add power, and hold it to remove.
Rebot by HayManMarc
Loved the presentation and the clean looking sprites. Somehow the error message for levels out of range seems apt.
PROS
-Art was clean and nice, little robot dude was cute.
-Nice and clear use of the theme which led to an interesting idea. Switching all the switches on is pretty normal, but switching them all off then having to switch them all back on is an interesting take, especially since you have to dodge enemies and they can disable switches.
-The music was strange but oddly fitting, did you make it?
CONS
-I feel like you move too fast and slide too much, it was a little unwieldy at times, but no too bad.
-The blast was OP, level 4 and 5 felt impossible without it, but way too easy with it.
-If X wasn't right next to C, I may have had issues with the controls as they were explained. The font you used(which is great for this type of game) made X look like a H or something, initially confusing.
Reflector Sector by woodsmoke
A fun and reasonably simple idea, with a good use of theme.
PROS
-Theme is right there in your central mechanic.
-Simple goal to destroy other balls.
-Simple colour scheme and art style works well for this sort of game.
CONS
-Considering the main mechanic revolves around reflections, it is a bit of a shame that sometimes the reflections themselves aren't accurate enough or behave in ways they shouldn't.
-The procedural generation sometimes meant the monster started right in my path for an instant game over basically.
-Sometimes the player ball would get stuck on corners or inside the edges of blocks.
-Due to the getting stuck and not-always-correct angles, it became a bit difficult to accurately aim yourself.
-Oh boy, I got stuck on level 2 for so long!
RoBros by BeardyElf
Cool looking entry, did you make the music?
PROS
-The menu looked great, loved everything about it.
-Sprites and background art looked great too, overall the art was really good.
-Music was sweet.
-Concept was cool.
-Random level generation is neat.
CONS
-Sometimes the random levels would put you in very unfortunate starting positions.
-Run out of energy too fast.
-Switching between robots to recharge and shoot was fiddly and annoying for the pace of the game.
Save The Lights by KPJ
SImple concept, but maybe a little too simple.
PROS
-Easy to get and play at the very least.
-Nice clean intro and howto screens.
-The variety in lightbulbs was a good idea, and it was represented well with the colours.
CONS
-These kinds of games generally aren't all the much fun as they are manic.
-Levels were over so quickly.
-I think I can see where you were going with the theme usage, but it didn't quite hit it.
Server Reset by Mikeey Bikeey, Aaron Baron, Nacky Slocker
Fun idea that fits the theme.
PROS
-Nice consistent art.
-Upgrades kept it interesting as you progressed.
-Nice short and sweet 3 levels.
-Great overall presentation(apart from the floating words left over)
-Cute ending and nice credits.
CONS
-Is your name really Aaron Baron? Why do your parents hate you?(Kidding of course)
-Upgrades made you OP very quickly.
-This feels very similar to a previous jam game with the hammer and mace...
Shield Shuffle by Curato
Cool concept but the execution was not ideal.
PROS
-Simple and interesting idea.
-Fit the theme well with the shield managment.
CONS
-This should not be controlled with the mouse, and on click release to move... that was a bad idea, really annoying to control that.
-That's about it really, the mouse controls were so bad that I just did not want to keep playing.
Something Scary by Bearman_18
Considered an idea similar to this myself, I'm expecting to see a few more like it. Definitely a solid use of theme.
Unfortunately I wasn't able to beat it, as I didn't want to spend too much time attempting to, but I feel like I got far enough to see what it was about. I'll definitely come back after voting and ranking and reviewing to try and beat it, maybe even before if I have more time.
PROS
-Great presentation, the opening story intro was well done, with nicely made story images.
-Sound effects were well chosen(even if they didn't fit with the art style).
-Character designs were nice and contrasting.
-The implementation of the main light switch mechanic was handled well, the placement of the first switch and stairs giving an instant introduction to the mechanic.
-Crawling under tables was a great idea, I loved it, it fit well with the mechanic and the setting.
-Sprites were simple but good, animated well enough for the style.
CONS
-Really could have used some spooky music to sell it more and create more of an atmosphere
-The movement and jumping could have used more work, the jumping was especially weird(I believe the ascent was too fast and descent too slow, with no hang time).
-Whilst I loved the crawl mechanic, I feel it was underutilised. It was only used where a light switch was which was a shame(Feel free to correct me if there is a later part where it gets used more and more independantly).
-Switching between characters was nice, but there were a couple of sections where they were too far out of sight yet I needed to switch the lights off and there just happened to be a monster right where they dropped down to, and then I had no time to recover.
-No checkpoints... I got a bit tired of playing the first sections I had passed several times over and over.
Switch Glitch by Silas The Dev
Nice menu, but despite your advice in the forums, I cannot open any levels
TIMER by orSQUADstra
I didn't get far in this but it looked good. I couldn't shoto because I don't have a mouse and my trackpad doesn't let me use left click and right click simultaneously.
PROS
-Art and animations were really great.
-Loved the menu and title image.
-General presentation is excellent, loved the effects.
CONS
-The controls were a little spaced out for my liking. Shift, Control, and Space feel a bit awkward to use all together.
TOGGLD by Lazertrax
Very cool idea, I could play for hours if not for a couple of issues.
PROS
-Very cool interpretation of the theme.
-Nice polish on menus and in-game display.
-Good effects and sounds.
-Great way to teach/learn binary!
CONS
-I feel like this would work much better with keyboard controls instead of mouse.
-Seemed to be some Draw GUI issues.
Tricky Farming! by Paul, Sergio
Cool concept, deceptively fun and addictive.
PROS
-Like I said, concept was cool. Nice and simple, which makes it easy to get the hang of quickly.
-Music was nice(but it did get repetitive after a while).
-Art is ok, the little effects for the wind and fire were well done.
CONS
-Too short, haha.
-First screen was confusing(after initial message), I wasn't sure if it was a level, a tutorial, or some sort of attract mode.
-Though most of the concepts were communicated effectively, I still didn't fully understand it. Rain was obvious at least, putting out fires but also flooding, but Sunlight was less clear, I did notice crops only caught fire during the day but I didn't see any negative effects at night, so a few times I just left it as night and still won.
-Not enough variety in challenge.