GMC Jam Voting GMC Jam 35 - Voting Topic

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Alice

Darts addict
Forum Staff
Moderator


Get The Games
Games ZIP (462 MB) | Games Topic

Voting Deadline
December 17th, 12:00 UTC



  • As soon as the Jam ends on December 2nd 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 December 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 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.
 
M

Misu

Guest
My careless voting post
I plan not to do any more traditional elaborate reviews. This will just by my top 5 favorites instead.

1. Super Adrenaline Boy by lazertrax
2. Paranormal by Siolfor the Jackal
3. Chiaroscuro by Dickson Law
4. Boo! Dice by GameDevDan
5. Telepath's Escape by Alice, mp

Best of Theme: The Cabin by Bart
Best of Concept: Homebound by Shadow_Lancer
Best of Presentation: Ghostris by Yal
Best of Story: Telepath's Escape by Alice, mp
Best of Experimental: The House by The M, Ghandpivot
Best of Potato: Night Of The Living Taters by Dadio

And every playthrough Ive done on Twitch. The list organized by Alice (many thanks)

Video 1
0:02:35 - Paranormal by @Siolfor the Jackal
0:11:25 - Im a hunt ghosts! by @Misu
0:19:50 - Spectre 2023 by @Bearman_18
0:30:15 - submerge. by @Josh Chen
0:39:15 - Boo! Dice by @GameDevDan
0:47:30 - Gravity Switcher by @TheMiningBoyAlpha
0:58:25 - Necro-more-cy by @Relic
1:10:55 - Super Adrenaline Boy by @lazertrax
1:17:00 - Ghost Run by @Cat, @var
1:24:40 - Gluttony, My Master by @Cantaloupe (also continued in Video 2)

Video 2
0:00:00 - rest of Gluttony, My Master

Video 3
0:00:35 - Chiaroscuro by @FrostyCat
0:19:40 - Supernatural Science by @MikeeyBikeey and others
0:32:10 - Telepath's Escape by @Alice, mp
1:17:40 - Grave Mistake by @trg601 and others
1:27:30 - Lab23 by @HayManMarc, @Micah_DS

Video 4
0:01:15 - Dodge 'em Dracula by @Firedingo
0:07:35 - Homebound by @Shadow_Lancer

Video 5
0:00:00 - rest of Homebound
0:05:15 - The Cabin by @Bart
0:15:30 - Bit Souls by @Roa
0:29:55 - Demon Santa by @Catastrophe
0:36:20 - Hazel by @FreddyShnitz

Video 6
0:01:25 - Ghostris by @Yal
0:08:15 - Night Of The Living Taters by @dadio
0:10:40 - The House by @The M, @ghandpivot
0:28:25 - Deadly Dungeon by @KPJ
0:38:05 - Ouija by @Sk8dududu, Riley
0:50:05 - Scary Ghost by @stenol
0:55:25 - VLAD III by @Fernando Gonzalez

Video 7
0:00:00 - The Mouse Curser by @Cloaked Games, aSingleCapella

I decided to give a very short comment on the first 3 place winners because I felt like it

Super Adrenaline Boy by lazertrax
Game is really addicting and running properly smooth. Its one of those games that actual defines what a game should be. It has the colorful visuals to keep players admiring it and plus the the gameplay goes as far as challenging and competitive. Has that one tease that something is waiting after passing through certain amount of levels which helps encourage users to keep on trying due to curiosity. Its a thrill to find ways to dodge and avoid getting hurt by any ghost in the path and that is something considerate for a gameplay (saying it in a good way). I definitely enjoyed it!

Paranormal by Siolfor the Jackal
I knew there was something oddly familiar about this entry and it had to be a cliche from that one long running series "Supernatural". The Art style and music made the gameplay type super fitting. It really builds up a hype and certain type of tension to play it. The game is mostly a beat em up style game but without the up and down free movement (which it could had made it even better). I truly find this one highly fun but as far as it can go, it only has two type of enemies and a boss waiting for you at the other end of the room. It would have been better if the progression of playing thru the stage is more of a build up instead of having a simple average spawning system with nothing more than that. Passing the game is only a matter of getting to the other side and defeat the boss. Even though the game shown to be really good looking and had a definitive good path for an entry.

Chiaroscuro by Dickson Law
This game has a really slick presentation and visuals. However, I'm not totally fond with the game type it is but it got me trying a few times definitely. Its a legit gameplay with a tough strategy to occupy the most points you can. Game plot and mechanics seem to fit perfectly and work at its finest. The customization on board types also shows a plus one for me as I enjoy how games want you to try different ways of playing it. Indeed, this is a good entry.
 
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trg601

Member
Trg601's Votes and Comments
Top 3:
1. The House by The M and Ghandpivot.
I was super impressed with this entry. The room transition mechanic, even though it didn't work on all screens, was extremely cool, and the length was surprising and it kept me engaged the whole time.
2. Spectre 2023 by Bearman_18.
The presentation for this game is great. The graphics are very good and the game is fun. The controls might not be perfect but overall I really enjoyed it.
3. Ghostris by Yal.
The game is very well polished. The concept is original and it is very well fitting to the theme.

Best use of Theme: The Cabin by Bart
Best Concept: Telepath's Escape by Alice, mp
Best Presentation: Chiaroscuro by Dickson Law
Best Story: Glutton, My Master by Cantaloupe

Full ranking:
  1. The House by The M, Ghandpivot
  2. Spectre 2023 by Bearman_18
  3. Ghostris by Yal
  4. Telepath's Escape by Alice, mp
  5. Lab 23 by HayManMarc, Micah_DS
  6. Im a hunt ghosts! by Misu
  7. Gluttony, My Master by Cantaloupe
  8. Paranormal by Siolfor the Jackal
  9. Supernatural Science by MikeeyBikeey, Aaron Baron, Caroline Zina
  10. Chiaroscuro by Dickson Law
  11. Boo! Dice by GameDevDan
  12. Super Adrenaline Boy by lazertrax
  13. Bit Souls by Roa
  14. Homebound by Shadow_Lancer
  15. Necro-more-cy by Relic
  16. 重力スワッパー/Gravity Switcher by TheMiningBoyAlpha
  17. Ghost Run by Cat, var
  18. VLAD III by Fernando Gonzalez
  19. Deadly Dungeon by KPJ
  20. The Cabin by Bart
  21. submerge. by Josh Chen
  22. Scary Ghost by stenol
  23. The Mouse Curser by Cloaked Games, aSingleCapella
  24. Ouija by Sk8dududu, Riley
  25. Hazel by FreddyShnitz
  26. Demon Santa by Catastrophe
  27. Dodge Em' Dracula by Firedingo
  28. Night Of The Living Taters by dadio

Reviews/Comments:
Bit Souls by Roa
It's always cool to see a 3D game made for the GMCJAM. I think there is a lot of potential here, though I thought the controls were a little annoying. I like all the rpg elements, and there was a lot of attention to detail in some places like I thought it was cool that dropped exp can be regained. Overall, I liked it.

Boo! Dice by GameDevDan
Wow, this is super polished! I think the gameplay is fun, though maybe it's a bit easy. I defeated all of the opponents, and the only one I had to rebattle was the Nocturne, I think his strategy was a bit too similar to mine XD I liked all the variations of opponents, but I really didn't understand Madame Ghoulie, somehow she almost always got zero, no matter what happened. I think the AI could maybe have been better, but if I'm being honest I wouldn't have done any better in your shoes because AI is pretty hard. I did get one spooky flush though, and it was pretty awesome.

Chiaroscuro by Dickson Law
I used to be good at reversi when I was a kid, but clearly my skills have disappeared. I'm really impressed with the presentation of this game, it looks very professional. I'm personally not the biggest fan of using a lot of preexisting resources for jam games, but since you made most of them it's cool. I could very easily see this being ported to mobile.

Deadly Dungeon by KPJ
This game is so unforgiving :'((( I'm very bad at it but it is pretty fun, I like the choice of weapon and the different types of attacks the Evil Death throws at you, though I really dislike the falling projecticles because they are very hard to see. I enjoyed it, it was ...like... supernatural.

Demon Santa by Catastrophe
For a game made in just 4 hours, this is actually pretty good! I'm not a huge fan of the angels going behind me and having at me like I'm a sitting duck, but other than that the game is fun.

Dodge Em' Dracula by Firedingo
The game is pretty buggy, but I am a big fan of the swagger Dracula has walking down that road.

Ghost Run by Cat, var
The art is gorgeous. The switching effect as well is very pretty. The gameplay isn't super complex, but it gets fun when the speed goes way up. I think that maybe the jump/gravity speed should increase as well though, because at super high speeds you just coast through the air and run the risk of hitting another obstacle without being able to jump away. I think the biggest thing this game needs though is a score/highscore system.

Ghostris by Yal
This has got to be one of the coolest concepts I've seen so far. I'm not very good at tetris to begin with though and after playing a few times I started to get a feeling that there was a lot of luck involved. However, I still liked it a lot, the presentation was on point and I'm impressed that you were able to make it so fast!

Gluttony, My Master by Cantaloupe
Nope, not sleeping tonight. Why? WHY??? It's 3am. I was going to go to sleep earlier tonight but then I had to see that the voting topic was open... and then I just had to post... and then I just HAD to make it an even half of the entries that I'd reviewed... But I could have just stopped it there at Dodge Em' Dracula, but no. No I did not. Gluttony, My Master just had too attractive of a name for me to save it for later. I'm still playing even though I don't know how much longer is left, but I can't just stop now, right? God damn, that face of fury sent shivers down my spine.
Ok, mental break aside the mechanics seem pretty interesting, and I like that you can just slowly fall into disfavor and there doesn't seem to be anything you can do but just keep going. The story is well made, and the game sure is interesting :)

Hazel by FreddyShnitz
The concept is good, and even though the tutorial level wouldn't load, the controls weren't too hard to grasp. There was also a bug (I think?) that stopped me from going to the locations where the items were, so if there was more content I missed it. Overall, I thought the gameplay was fun and I would suggest maybe trying to iron out the bugs for a post-jam version

Homebound by Shadow_Lancer
Very cool concept, it kind of reminds me of prop hunt XD. The theme was used pretty well, though it is too bad there wasn't more gameplay.

Im a hunt ghosts! by Misu
The art style is very cute, tho I really don't like the terrible puns and semi-erotic things not luigi says... They really ruin the whole experience for me if I'm being honest. I'm kidding, the game is pretty enjoyable! I think the movement is a little buggy (if you move your mouse outside the screen you can move at ludicrous speeds), and maybe one thing I would add is maybe other types of attacks for the ghosts? Overall I think it's a cute game, and I did actually like the little messages not luigi said XD

Lab 23 by HayManMarc, Micah_DS
I read your post-mortem (HayMacMarc), and I just wanted to say that there is always more that you wish you could have done, and always some disappointment that downsizing had to be done. Despite that, I think you guys did very well. I enjoyed the game and I thought the telekinesis system was pretty cool, even though I accidentally skipped the tutorial so I was just trapping all the enemies with obstacles at first instead of knocking them out, it was fun.
Also, did you guys really stay up until the end? If so, hats off to you. I did as well (I also live in the US) since my game had a fatal error that took me until around 4 am to fix, but I still kinda regretted it the next day XD

Necro-more-cy by Relic
This is pretty fun! I tried very hard to get farther than 10th in the leaderboard but I just can't seem to figure it out. There could have been some info about controls, it took me a sec to figure out that the numbers meant number keys and that you had to collect undead XD I like the mechanic though of making your enemies your allies. Overall it's pretty fun, though perhaps there could have been more varation in the level design or a tutorial. Good job!

Night Of The Living Taters by dadio
Well played...

Ouija by Sk8dududu, Riley
The graphics look pretty cool, I like the starting animation.

Paranormal by Siolfor the Jackal
I definitely felt like a badass while playing this game. The graphics and animation are really good, and it was very satisfying to lob the heads off of the vampires. Unfortunately there wasn't too much content, it would have been cool to see more but I think with such an intensive art style it would have probably taken too much time to implement. I'm a fan of the menu as well, I always like to see functional options screens.

Scary Ghost by stenol
I was surprised by the length of this! I like the variation of enemies too. I think the scrolling is a little bit too slow, and it can get a little boring just slowly walking and waiting for enemies.
But, for your first game with gamemaker, this is pretty impressive! My first game wasn't nearly this good XD

Spectre 2023 by Bearman_18
Oooh! I love the presentation! The concept and graphics are excellent.
The controls are alright, but the jumping physics is very annoying. It was super frustrating especially to get to the first bazooka guy, as there are many ways you can fall on the way there. It took many, many tries before I finally got into the swing of things, and I found that it was sometimes way easier to just go into spectre mode and not even attack the enemies.
Overall, I still had fun and it was very satisfying to finally defeat the boss after so many tries :')

submerge. by Josh Chen
It's a good game, I like the upgrade abilities though "rank" seems like it could be taken advantage of since could just upgrade speed and money to max first and then get the max amount for rank much easier. It's a shame that the game doesn't use the theme, but otherwise it is pretty fun.

Super Adrenaline Boy by lazertrax
This is a really cool concept! I like that you have to gauge when to close your eyes and carefully time it so that you have enough without going overboard. I thought it was a lot of fun to play, although I could have probably gotten farther if I kept at it. Good job!

Supernatural Science by MikeeyBikeey, Aaron Baron, Caroline Zina
Wow, that was fun! I liked the lever mechanic a lot and the puesdo-3d graphics were pretty cool. The hordes of enemies spawning when you grabbed the key was an interesting element, I'm not sure if you were supposed to fight them or just run away, but I ended up doing the latter most of the time because it was just easier. Overall, I thought the game had a very finished feel to it, and I think you guys did a pretty good job!

Telepath's Escape by Alice, mp
Oh god, it's so hard! I didn't get super far before giving up (I'm not very good at strategy games like these), but I loved the concept, and the mechanics seemed fairly well balanced. The use of theme was very good as well, and I'm a big fan of custom level editors. Good job!

The Cabin by Bart
The idea is very cool, from what I can tell this could be a pretty interesting game if it had more time. I think the use of theme is phenomenal, and I like the photo collection mechanic even if it's a little glitchy.

The House by The M, Ghandpivot
Wow, that transition effect is super cool! The only problem I had was that my laptop screen was a bit too small to fully view it, but I ran it on another computer and it was fine.
Really, really nice use of theme. I realize after the fact that there are a great number of things that could be considered "supernatural," but most entries (mine included), didn't really utilize it super well. I was super impressed with the length of the game too, especially since point-and-click adventure games don't tend to fare well in these jams. Great job!

The Mouse Curser by Cloaked Games, aSingleCapella
It's too bad you didn't get to see this idea out, it sounded pretty neat! I liked the effect of breaking the mouse out of the jar, it had a weird psychological effect on me that I can't even explain. I think I found the secret message as well but I'm not quite positive.

VLAD III by Fernando Gonzalez
Oh god, why is it Vlad III? Are there two other Vlads? I really feel like I've played a game like this before in another jam but I've been looking through the past jams and I can't seem to find any evidence of that. But that's beside the point. I like the game, it's actually pretty gratifying to swoop down on unsuspecting people and get away with it. I mean there is always more that can be done with a game, but I think if you make VLAD IV there could be more variety and challenges in the game. Overall, I liked it, but it left me with a great deal of confusion, wondering if the GMC's search function just isn't that good or if I'm really just going insane...

重力スワッパー/Gravity Switcher by TheMiningBoyAlpha
I love the palette and sound effects, they give it a very authentic retro vibe. The controls are a little glitchy, letting you press both A/D and Left/Right arrows to move at double speed, but I would also maybe add some sort of check that makes you move in the opposite direction when you're flipped. I still had a lot of fun playing it, and the story was nice!
 
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M

Misty

Guest
misty's truthful reviews

These reviews will be truthful as can be.

If I dont like a genre i will try not to affect its score. It isnt fair that some reviewers give a low score just because they are not fans of the genre. Stastically most gamers have genres they enjoy and other genres they dont. Through social effect, gamers are peer-pressured and conditioned to go against their own nature and play games outside of their preferred genres. This results in review bias.

Second, i do not believe in overly wordy reviews. If a game as no effort put into it, my review will reflect the level of effort put into the game itself. I will not attempt making more meaning than is there. We only have 24 hours in a day, why waste extra minutes of your time with overly long-winded reviews.

Third they will be honest. If a game is truly crap I will say so. I will not try to pad my reviews or give extra padding to people just because they are noobs. Noobs will be rated on the same metric as experienced coders.

New Reviews:
I have played 4 games so far. My chair has bad ergonomics and my back started to hurt too much. So I have not played anymore than 4 games.

These reviews are pending. If you feel these reviews were made in error, please send me a PM (private message). My review edits will be based on my own discretion.


ok my reviews are done


Reviews

Top 3:
1. Boo! Dice
by GameDevDan
...
2. Scary Ghost by stenol
...
3. Bit Souls by Roa

...
Best ofs:

Best use of Theme: ...
Best Concept: ...
Best Presentation: ...
Best Story: ...
Best Devlog: ...
Full ranking:

  1. 1. Boo! Dice by GameDevDan
    ...
    2. Scary Ghost by stenol
    ...
    3. Bit Souls by Roa

    4. Telepath's Escape by Alice, mp
  2. 5. Frosty cat's board game
  3. 6. that escape game (lab 23 i think it is)
  4. 7. the rest were total trash

Comments:
Bit Souls by Roa
BIt souls is a FPS with short-range sword combat. It starts with an NPC dialogue with voice-overs, the text has several typos and grammatical errors. I can deal with the bad minecraft graphics, but the combat is hilariously awful. There is no feedback of any kind when you land a hit, and you must attack so close to an enemy that the enemy's hp bar goes out of range of the camera frustrum, so you can't see their hp. There is a similar problem when thy go to attack, there is no momentum when they go to attack, so you must study only the pixels of their arm, as the weapon itself goes outside the view frustrum. Enemies also walk very close behind each other, due to unpolished AI, creating the illusion that they can walk through each other. Still, I would play this game again, to figure out the end of the story. 6/10

Boo! Dice by GameDevDan
The best game in the lineup. This is a dice-rolling game that I played for over an hour. It was just a geniunely enjoyable gaming experience. However, some of the AI seemed broken. 9/10

Chiaroscuro by Dickson Law
Chiaroscuro is a board game made by Dickson Law. It has great gamefeel and sounds, however, some of the game mechanics don't work as I'd expect. I was gonna give this a 7/10 but I really give it a 6/10.

Deadly Dungeon by KPJ
Deadly Dungeon is a 2d boss fighting game with a purple background and awkward non-functioning controls (space does not create a fireball for some reason). It features unfitting music (that plays throughout both the title screen and in-game action) and a strange story. When you die it resets the room immediately, like a typical unpolished indie game. 0/10

Demon Santa by Catastrophe
Demon Santa is a jumping game like Super Mario 3, but without the polish. Bad graphics, no sound effects, procedurally generated levels that create impossible jumps. However, the game did run in a solid 60 fps, and the jumping felt smooth. 2/10

Dodge Em' Dracula by Firedingo
Broken game, and terribly low effort. It is a simple "chicken crosses the road" game, but when you hit the finish line, the game crashes. Next. 0/10

Ghost Run by Cat, var
Meh. Nice graphics and music though. 2.5/10

Ghostris by Yal
The title screen is intriguiging but the fun stops there. Ghostris is a spooky take on Tetris, minus all the fun. Graphical cohesion seems to be put together haphazardly, with minimal harmony and aesthetics, alongside gameplay consisting of awkwardly complex, unconventional block patterns that weren't featured in the original Tetris. Gameplay seems to be a hodgepodge and little effort was put into polish, for instance the game features no sounds of any kind. There is no readme and the title menu offers very little instruction of how to play the game, which is extraordinarily confusing since the blocks appear to be "haunted" and have a mind of their own, in addition to having confoundingly complex configurations. As an "appripo" final finishing touch, the game appears to freeze for indefinite periods when you try to close it. 1/10

Gluttony, My Master by Cantaloupe
Weird creepy nightmare fuel story. First 3 levels are lame boring and linear (didn't play any longer than that.) Game runs at 1 fps for some reason. Excruciatingly boring and no sounds. Will give it negative rating due to the nightmares, although I did find some parts of the game humorous, so I give it higher than -5. -4/10

Grave Mistake by Tyler, Emily, Vincent
Grave Mistake is in a game where you are in a wheelchair. Although this forces the game to be limited (no jumping, with only on-rails scenarios), the game feels suprisingly fresh, new, and different. It has an immersive soundtrack, and although the narrative may be silly at times, it is nonetheless compelling. Ammunition is sparse and demon healths seems to be too high, leading to unbalanced and unfair gameplay. Additionally, there is no death animation when you vanquish enemy combatants, so the gameplay generally feels tedious and unrewarding. 4/10

Hazel by FreddyShnitz
A so-so game with so-so graphics. ############################################################################################
FATAL ERROR in
action number 1
of Draw Event
for object Hazel:
Variable Hazel.dist(100021, -2147483648) not set before reading it.
at gml_Object_Hazel_Draw_64
############################################################################################
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
stack frame is
gml_Object_Hazel_Draw_64 (line -1)
1/10

Homebound by Shadow_Lancer
Not sure what the point of this game is, the graphics are cute, but I just seem to be aimlessly wandering a house, with no objective. Graphics don't make a game. 1/10

Im a hunt ghosts! by Misu
"Im a hunt ghosts!" is a derivative game loosely inspired by Luigi's Mansion. It features an inverted color scheme Luigi named "NOTLUIGI" as the protagonist of the game. The object of the game is to capture as many ghosts as you can. It features lame ham-fisted jokes in comic text bubbles, and repetitive, unintuitive gameplay. Finishing a wave feels unrewarding, and there is no indication future waves will offer any unlocks or new levels. However, the atmosphere, music, and prologue of the game sets an immersive stage. 3/10

Lab 23 by HayManMarc, Micah_DS
Lab 23 is a top down game about escaping containment. Good music and graphics make this an entertaining game experience. However, it is a bit too short. I also had to try several times to master the flicking mechanism. 5/10

Necro-more-cy by Relic
Dont know what I'm doing and readme does not give me instructions of how to play. Next. 1/10

Night Of The Living Taters by dadio
Interesting music but all in all a troll game. 3/10

Ouija by Sk8dududu, Riley
Interesting concept, but I'm not sure what I'm supposed to be doing. A for effort I guess, but F for failing to put in a readme or instructions. 2/10

Paranormal by Siolfor the Jackal
Paranormal is a sidescrolling beat-emup like Zombie Shotgun Massacre 3. Graphics, music, and gameplay are good. I found myself playing a second time after beating the boss. However, it suffers from some pretty severe balance issues. The shotgun seems pretty obsolete and the melee does much more damage. I just used melee to beat the boss by standing still and meleeing, which was too easy. Also, I can't decide if the game would have benefited from more gore, it has white particles instead of gore. There are a lack of landmarks and arrows to show progress in the game. Many players may just quit out and assume it is an unedning level. There is also only 1 level in the game. 5/10

Scary Ghost by stenol
Scary Ghost is a top-down shooter similar in vein to games like Raptor or Ikaruga. Though it uses the default GM particle effects, the sounds are actually quite satisfying, creating a feeling of synergy, giving me great relief, like taking a piss. I would say this is a good game and I would play it again, hoping that it is not a proc-gen level and actually has an ending. 8/10

Spectre 2023 by Bearman_18
Spectre 2023 is a side-scrolling shooter, like Mario but with guns. The jumping is very annoying and the spectre mechanic is very annoying. You cannot shoot while jumping which reminds me of a game called PN-03, an awful game. The checkpoint system in this game is broken and enemies spawn and kill you instantly. All in all though, it is an interesting concept for a game. 4/10

submerge. by Josh Chen
It is a collectathon about dodging obstacles in a top-down environment. It seems like a so-so game with so-so gameplay and graphics. But I like turtles, so 3/10.

Super Adrenaline Boy by lazertrax
Super Adrenaline Boy is a jumping simulator similar in style to the Wii game RUN DX. While the presentation and gameplay of this game is good, the actual jumping mechanics rely too heavily on pixel precision, and the game ends up being far more frustrating than it is fun. 4/10

Supernatural Science by MikeeyBikeey, Aaron Baron, Caroline Zina
Supernatural Science is a Top-Down 3D adventure shooter. It lags heavily due to not using d3d_models correctly. Something about this game is good, however the music seemed to not fit with the tone of the level, making me feel nausea. After reaching the second level I decided to call it quits, due to the lag and also it playing the same music as the first level. 3.5/10

Telepath's Escape by Alice, mp
Interesting puzzle game. It made me sleepy and I didn't find it all that exciting, but its interesting gameplay mechanics and music. 6/10

The Cabin by Bart
The Cabin is a game heavily inspired by OXENFREE. It doesn't seem to be functional or complete. The knobs are way too sensitive to user input. I did like OXENFREE though so I give this a 2/10.

The House by The M, Ghandpivot
Interesting 60 fps gaming. The House is a puzzle platformer, similar to Mario, but with more focus on puzzles. The music and art forms a good atmosphere. It does an interesting Windows effect when you enter another room. Unfortunately the effect exceeds my computer resolution, and I can proceed no further. 7/10

The Mouse Curser by Cloaked Games, aSingleCapella
It is a funny troll game. It has nice graphics but the game is over really quickly. And, none of the sticky notes feature me in them. 2/10

VLAD III by Fernando Gonzalez
This is some kind of game like Postal where the game is to murder as many as possible. While the point of game is to kill people, there doesn't seem to be much focus on the killing itself, the killing is lackluster and impersonal, without so much as even a basic death animation. Every person looks the same and it feels very dull. I did not have much fun playing this game, there was no real challenge to it either, and no real point other than achieving a meaningless high score. 2/10

重力スワッパー/Gravity Switcher by TheMiningBoyAlpha
Game wont run.

in short, most of these games were total garbage
 
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dadio

Potato Overlord
GMC Elder
dadio's Votes and Reviews
Apologies in advance - these are gonna be short and sweet!

GREEN = GREAT
LIME
GREEN = VERY GOOD
LIGHT GREEN = GOOD
YELLOW = OK
ORANGE = MEH
RED = BAD


Complete Ranking:
1st Place: Ghostris by Yal - Most complete. Polished. Neat twist on a golden oldie.

2nd Place: Gluttony, My Master by Cantaloupe - Most memorable. Atmospheric. Unique.
3rd Place: The Cabin by Bart - Cool concept. Very Thematic.

4th: The House by The M, Ghandpivot
5th: I'm a hunt ghosts! by Misu

6th: Grave Mistake by Tyler, Emily, Vincent
7th: Lab 23 by HayManMarc, Micah_DS
8th: Homebound by Shadow_Lancer
9th: Paranormal by Siolfor the Jackal
10th: The Mouse Curser by Cloaked Games, aSingleCapella


11th: Boo! Dice by GameDevDan
12th: Spectre 2023 by Bearman_18

13th: Telepath's Escape by Alice, mp
14th: VLAD III by Fernando Gonzalez
15th: Ghost Run by Cat, var
16th: Super Adrenaline Boy by lazertrax
17th: Bit Souls by Roa

18th: Chiaroscuro by Dickson Law
19th: Ouija by Sk8dududu, Riley

20th: Scary Ghost by stenol
21st: 重力スワッパー/Gravity Switcher by TheMiningBoyAlpha
22nd: Supernatural Science by MikeeyBikeey, Aaron Baron, Caroline Zina

23th: Necro-more-cy by Relic
24rd: submerge. by Josh Chen

25th: Deadly Dungeon by KPJ
26th: Demon Santa by Catastrophe

27th: Hazel by FreddyShnitz
28th: Dodge Em' Dracula by Firedingo


Best ofs:
Best use of Theme: The Cabin by Bart
Best Concept: The Cabin by Bart

Best Presentation: Boo! Dice by GameDevDan
Best Story: Gluttony, My Master by Cantaloupe

Best Devlog: Ghostris by Yal
Best Post Mortem: Lab 23 by HayManMarc, Micah_DS

Comments:
Bit Souls by Roa

3D Dungeon crawl. Flat retro pixel billboard style graphics. Interesting to see a 3D game! Props for that. Felt more like a walking sim than a complete game.


Boo! Dice by GameDevDan

Very slick, professional feeling, minimal, clean UI and presentation. Game itself was "ok". Yahtzee variant. Didn't really scream "Theme!" to me at all. Elevator music. Something I will say I really like about Dan's games in general is he always attempts something new each time. Each game is very mechanically different. I appreciate that.


Chiaroscuro by Dickson Law

Othello/Reversi derivitive. Interesting to see such a game in a Jam. Not much Theme use. Was "ok".


Deadly Dungeon by KPJ

Dodge em up Bullet Hell. Had music. Didn't feel so Thematic. Was very... static and the gameplay wasn't really fun. (Waiting is rarely fun...) Was ok I guess.


Demon Santa by Catastrophe

Retro styled platformer shooter. Reminded me vaguely of Megaman. Art wasn't so great. Gameplay very simple. Nice retro music! Had a certain odd charm.


Dodge Em' Dracula by Firedingo

Er... it was a game. No sound at all. Simple graphics. Stripped down "Frogger" clone. Fatal error when you reach the exit. But hey, you managed to enter something!


Ghost Run by Cat, var

Infinite runner - with a ghost. Neat art. Clean presentation. Soothing music (felt oddly appropriate even tho it wasn't spooky/scary.) Not very creative or original. Gameplay very simple.

Ghostris by Yal

Well executed and well presented. Would have been better with up front explanations of each block type. Alot of gameplay here. Again, I'm surprised to see this kind of game in a Jam. This Jam seems to have quite a nice cross section of genres! neat jiggly effects. Neat music and sounds. I'm not a huge fan of Tetris, but this is one of the best games this Jam.

Gluttony, My Master by Cantaloupe

Mmmmk. interesting presentation. Great sound use. Unusual art style. Creative use of Theme. Very unique! I didn't find the core gameplay half as interesting as the "wrapper/story/mood".


Grave Mistake by Tyler, Emily, Vincent

Platformer where the player is in a wheelchair. Never seen that before so, props for originality! Neat little story bits. Consistent, nice graphics. Decent music and sound. Solid movement etc. Gameplay just felt a bit too simple and had no real "hook". But this was a solid entry!

Hazel by FreddyShnitz

No idea what I was doing, sorry. Also no sound at all. Next time add some instructions. And some sound for mood! grats on entering something!


Homebound by Shadow_Lancer

No sound at all - *boooo!* View much too close and restrictive. Neat idea and seems executed pretty well from what I can see! nice physics use. Game is a clone of "Haunt the House". This exact thing is what I would have made if I had the time this Jam. Perfect Theme use. I would rank this so much higher if it had a more zoomed out view and more content/purpose!


Im a hunt ghosts! by Misu

Kinda top down ghost hunting game. Neat art, music and sounds! Atmospheric and Thematic. Wish there was more to it - felt incomplete. Nice entry!


Lab 23 by HayManMarc, Micah_DS

Top down psychokinesis game. Neat idea. Gorgeous presentation. Decent music. Felt very polished. Needed more "puzzly" level design. Felt like it would have been more fun to be able to grab the badguys and throw them around. A lot of potential here.


Necro-more-cy by Relic

Top down low res pixel kind of strategy idle clicker almost. using fallen enemies. Wasn't 100% sure what i was doing. Decent Theme use. Had music and sound. Gameplay not up to much tho.


Night Of The Living Taters by dadio

The Legend returns. Having taken an extended time-out from game-making, dadio makes a triumphant return to form here, crafting what can only be described as a work of genius. Mere words are not enough to explain the infinite delights and depth of emotional intricacies within this shining... *gets belted in the head with a rock*


Ouija by Sk8dududu, Riley

Interesting. Top down Ouija board dodging thing. Neat artstyle. Good music! Not quite sure what I was trying to do... memorable entry tho!


Paranormal by Siolfor the Jackal

A side view beat-em up / shooter with ghosts and zombies and a shotgun. Very neat art and animation. Nice music and mood. Quite punishing. Gameplay was "alright" but very "seen that before."


Scary Ghost by stenol

Top down auto-scrolling vertical shooter. Thematic music and visuals (zombies and ghosts). Nice sound FX also (sound in general is so often overlooked in Jam games, yet it adds so much!) Gameplay was simplistic and "old".


Spectre 2023 by Bearman_18

I liked the random story/setting here, lol! Neat side on platformer/shooter. Neat retro pixel art. Decent music and sound use. Good presentation. Impressive for the time-frame. Potatoes!


submerge. by Josh Chen

I kinda liked this! Turtle collecting stuff and dodging plastic. Pity it has zero connection to the Theme tho. And no sound at all. With improved graphics and music, this would have felt much better! (Not following the Theme is what makes this "orange".)


Super Adrenaline Boy by lazertrax

Canabalt style runner. Neat retro pixel art. Had music and sound. Felt a bit uninspired. Just me or is it quite difficult? Ok entry!


Supernatural Science by MikeeyBikeey, Aaron Baron, Caroline Zina

Top down low res pixel shooter/ key gatherer / door unlocker. Nice music! Solid presentation. Poor use of Theme and uninspired gameplay.


Telepath's Escape by Alice, mp

A puzzly kind of turn based game. Interesting, but not really my cup of tea. Apologies to Alice, sometimes my comments on her games sound like a broken record, it's unfortunate that the type of games she tends to make, are exactly the kind I'm not too fond of (or any good at!) Anyway... neat consistent graphics, decent music. Lots of nice level design/puzzles. A solid entry!


The Cabin by Bart

Hmmm... tricky to judge. Cabin where you're taking photos and trying to not get posessed. Love the basic concept. Very thematic. Needed a bit more to it and improved visuals to work I think. Creative tho, I liked it!


The House by The M, Ghandpivot

Very creative view use with the expanding/closing rooms. I dug that (even tho it was jiggly for me here.) Kind of point and click house exploration. Felt like effort put in! Decent entry!


The Mouse Curser by Cloaked Games, aSingleCapella

Interesting concept. An interactive... thing more than a game. Pity it had no music or sound! Break out of the jar and click on notes. The notes were connected to the Jam. I liked that. And I kinda liked this entry!


VLAD III by Fernando Gonzalez

You're a vampire, changing form, eating people and trying not to get noticed. Neat concept. Thematic. Good visuals and music. Pity there was no sound. Needed a bit more to it to feel "complete." Could have ranked *much* higher.


重力スワッパー/Gravity Switcher by TheMiningBoyAlpha

NES styled retro side scroller... gravity switcher game. Neat retro art and sounds FX. No music. Not very Thematic imo. Was "ok".
 
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Yal

🐧 *penguin noises*
GMC Elder
Yal's Traditionally Needlessly Negative Reviews

Top 3:

The House by The M, Ghandpivot
The concept of this game is amazing, but the novelty wears off quick and it becomes a game where you just stare at different parts of your screen really intensely. I got stuck on the code lock in the room with the flying furniture after getting the cheese wedge... 369 didn't work again, the door back was unusable, the "examine" hint told me that I needed "a better view", and I had a spark of inspiration thinking I should drag the game window left to peer into the room... but it didn't work. So I just gave up. The game warped and jittered weirdly during transitions even though it mostly ran properly on my computer, so i'm not sure how sustainable the idea is (on top of requiring a certain screen resolution).
EDIT: got the solution for the cheese puzzle and finish the game now, thanks! The twist at the end was amazing, even though the cheese puzzle wasn't. (Every item so far had a pretty obvious spot it could be used, and I'd basically been conditioned to stop thinking about doors as interactible, except when using keys on them - it'd probably helped if you painted that one door yellow or something to make it stand out, I legitimately didn't think of it as something I could try interacting with even when going back and using the cheese on EVERYTHING)

Builds and releases tension masterfully, does amazing technical trickery (furniture physics and GUI is great, on top of the transition effect) and is intriguing. I wanted to play more, but I got completely stuck on the second code lock and I've got 6 more games to review. This is probably my favorite entry, though. Some polish and you'll have a really solid game! (What would make it even more awesome is if you could change the implementation from "move the window around and resize it" to "capture the current user desktop surface using a Windows API" so you'd be able to make scary things happen off-window in the user's peripheral vision, but that might be too much work now)


Telepath's Escape by Alice, mp
All the "how to play" information at the start is so overwhelming I lost the will to keep going. As impressive as getting this game done in the span of a jam is, it seems way too complex to get into in the span of a jam review session (which typically allots just a few minutes per game and not a whole lot of attention).
Title screen seems like it's too far to the left, not sure if that's intentional. (Maybe the option buttons should've been made smaller or gray so they looked less "there" than the main buttons?)
I managed to end up in an unwinnable situation in the first level (the enemy could get into attack range despite me being as far away as possible so there was no way I could survive while waiting for my PSI to recharge). Then I realized I could spend my PSI to move the enemy further away (since they can move further than me) which was the exact opposite of what the instructions told me.
Got stuck on lv.2 for a bit until I realized that the strategy boils down to having something unfortunate happen to the most nearby enemy all the time. Lv.4 also had me stuck for a bit until I realized enemies can't walk through each other, so you needed to have the normal soldier guy be in the way for all the ghosts. Then I gave up on the first level featuring both gunners and ghosts.... it's a nice touch that every enemy type is instantly recognizeable so you can tell their behavior apart at a glance (I didn't realize this in the first level because I felt like the enemies attacked me at different ranges) but the gunners' hitboxes are so all over the place it's impossible to visualize which cells are safe or not without playing an entire turn and see if you get shot or not. The game would've been a lot more smooth if the 8-directional gunners were introduced later, with first a horizontal-only gunner and then later a diagonal-only gunner introduced first to ease the player into the ranged mechanics.
Also, it's usually good if a game has tiles without an obvious grid (for immersion purposes) but I feel like a game all about figuring out attack ranges and safe spots would be much better if the tile grid would've been visible so you could count cells in your head without having to switch from what you're doing and check ranges all the time. All the puzzles also felt like they had the same solution (survive one turn, kill one enemy, survive one more turn, kill next enemy, repeat until only one enemy left, survive two turns, overcharge), the only thing you had to think about was finding the one cell where you wouldn't die next turn. It feels like there's still some balance quirks to iron out to make the player consider every option at their disposal instead of just finding the One Strategy to Rule Them All. Mind-control kills essentially always are better during a battle because it disables TWO enemies that turn, and your limited movement (and the super-tiny maps) means you can't escape unless you have a prop to run circles around. Mind-controlling one enemy and just moving it just delays the inevitable and is useless when there's more than one enemy left.


Lab 23 by HayManMarc, Micah_DS
What's with this jam and mouse controls? Well, it's actually not too bad in this game, since you can precision-move and precision-drop items. I feel like the controls for throwing objects around where way too stiff, making a lot of my flicks not register (maybe because I jerked the mouse out of the window or something). Also, a chair blocking a desk entirely felt a bit immersion-breaking. I would've loved seeing more puzzles where you use your ability to act at a distance (e.g. knocking out guards from an angle they can't see you, steal keys from right under their noses, etc) and interactions between objects (heavier objects knocking lighter objects around, breaking stuff and causing carnage... not always what you want, since you sometimes want to sneak past guards, but oh so satisfying when it's time for carnage). Breakable glass walls and other eye candy (like Hotline Miami but with less gore) would've been the icing on the cake. So far this is the entry I've had the most fun with, and props for something supernatural that isn't also halloween-themed.


Best ofs:

Best use of Theme: The House by The M, Ghandpivot
Best Concept: The House by The M, Ghandpivot
Best Presentation: Chiaroscuro by Dickson Law
Best Story: Grave Mistake by Tyler, Emily, Vincent
Best Devlog: ...

Full ranking:

  1. The House by The M, Ghandpivot
  2. Telepath's Escape by Alice, mp
  3. Lab 23 by HayManMarc, Micah_DS
  4. Chiaroscuro by Dickson Law
  5. Paranormal by Siolfor the Jackal
  6. VLAD III by Fernando Gonzalez
  7. Necro-more-cy by Relic
  8. Spectre 2023 by Bearman_18
  9. Boo! Dice by GameDevDan
  10. Im a hunt ghosts! by Misu
  11. Grave Mistake by Tyler, Emily, Vincent
  12. Ouija by Sk8dududu, Riley
  13. Bit Souls by Roa
  14. Scary Ghost by stenol
  15. Night Of The Living Taters by dadio
  16. The Mouse Curser by Cloaked Games, aSingleCapella
  17. Supernatural Science by MikeeyBikeey, Aaron Baron, Caroline Zina
  18. The Cabin by Bart
  19. submerge. by Josh Chen
  20. Deadly Dungeon by KPJ
  21. Super Adrenaline Boy by lazertrax
  22. Homebound by Shadow_Lancer
  23. Ghost Run by Cat, var
  24. Demon Santa by Catastrophe
  25. Hazel by FreddyShnitz
  26. Dodge Em' Dracula by Firedingo
  27. 重力スワッパー/Gravity Switcher by TheMiningBoyAlpha
  28. Gluttony, My Master by Cantaloupe

Comments:

Bit Souls by Roa

Cool idea and a lot of stuff done for such a short time, but the game looks super unpolished (why is all the debug mode GUI elements there?) and doesn't feel fun to play. The short attack range means you need to get REALLY close to enemies to hit them, which is where the graphical style is the least enjoyable (and also makes it hard to tell their animations apart since you see about a third of their sprite). Having a game NOT be fullscreen and still lock in your mouse also feels wrong, thankfully pressing escape instantly closes the game (which I discovered by trying to close the bonfire levelup menu... maybeeeee pop up a confirm message with show_question instead?)

Boo! Dice by GameDevDan

Kevin MacLeod music. To anyone familiar with his work, this is an instant mood killer, but I'll try to not be too affected by it since this is a jam.
...however, it doesn't really fit the ghostly mood :v

I feel like just text doesn't sell the personality of the ghosts you're playing against, the game would've instantly been 10 times better if you had drawn up sprites of every ghost and shown them across a table or something as you were playing, bobbing around a bit (bonus points if they also had a dice throw animation). Also make the player throw dice by jiggling a cup full of dice around with mouse gestures (or device accelerometer input) instead of pushing a button and you'd be golden for a full release.

I feel like the player that goes first has a HUGE disadvantage, the player that's second can quit once they're ahead instead of taking risks. This cuts down on strategy a ton and makes the game feel watered down. Maybe players could take turns rerolling / sticking, or the player always goes first and the ghost always second?

Chiaroscuro by Dickson Law

Got caught as a virus by Avast. Might be related to force-starting in fullscreen mode (which kinda also is disruptive in a jam setting). The game is really enjoyable, a lot of extra depth added by having to juggle the interactions between colors and sides (since it's pretty easy to add opportunities for your opponent to exploit if you place pieces carelessly). Sound and graphics design both are commercial quality, but the game just feels... soulless. Can't tell if it's because of the game's abstractness or if it's because too many corners have been filed off.

Deadly Dungeon by KPJ

Nice to see a bullet hell game, but it's pretty obvious corners were cut. I didn't quite enjoy having to wait so long between attacks (and then restart it all from the beginning on every single mistake, especially considering huge hitboxes mixed with fast projectiles) and all the info at the start which then didn't become applicable anyway just confused me. Also, what's the point of having one foe with 500 HP and one with 800 if you only do damage in increments of 400? Both dies in exactly 2 hits...

Demon Santa by Catastrophe

Needlessly frustrating in every way. Having to press enter to play and then switch over to the mouse slows down restarts and doesn't feel natural. I couldn't get past the first jump after several attempts and ended up just concluding it impossible and the game being a joke entry. Cheetahmen music, huh? Aptly placed, but you shouldn't have picked the tune from one of the GOOD Action 52 games...

Dodge Em' Dracula by Firedingo

Left means back and right means forward in basically every language ever, so the title screen is confusing on top of being rushed and bland. It takes like 30 seconds to make a red/dark purple gradient to put some dracula flair... just make a background and select "gradient fill". It's better than the default gray.
...and then the title screen doesn't even go away when you start the game?! And it crashes when you reach the goal. Yeah, no, nothing to salvage here.

Ghost Run by Cat, var

The game looks cool, but there's no real substance to it... without a highscore counter to tell if you're doing better or worse than before, there's not even any incentive to try again and see if you're doing better. The delay between obstacles is WAY too high most of the time, and you're basically invincible if you spam the down button to switch realms constantly, taking away the last sliver of remaining challenge. (The tree obstacle also doesn't even look like an obstacle)

Ghostris by Yal

This is my game. It's obviously best in every way. ...wait, I can't vote for myself? Aww :<

Gluttony, My Master by Cantaloupe

Started up a windows installer for some reason? Followed by lots of text with no clear purpose, followed by a "okay nvm you don't need to worry about all that", followed by a flashing background that hurts my eyes. How many bad first impressions can you chain together?
My goodwill ran out on the level introducing the gravity mechanic, I tried closing the game, and nothing happened. Had to kill it with the task manager. NEVER DO THAT. I just wanna move on and review more games quickly, and getting in the way of that is not gonna help with my judgment. I'm going to put this below the game that crashed after just a few seconds because it's been actively going out of its way to annoy me at every turn.

Grave Mistake by Tyler, Emily, Vincent

Very nice presentation, graphics, and music! The metroidvania elements and all the upgrades feel a bit unnecessary due to how short the game is, the end was where it felt like the game would begin for real. The second room with enemies is a ridiculous difficulty spike, you get swarmed by groups of enemies that take several hits to kill (and more hits if you hit their projectiles by mistake) and you have no evasive manoeuvers since you're in a wheelchair and can't jump. I eventually got through that room by just running through ignoring the enemies and using mercy invincibility... and in the end it turns out I spent like 80% of my gameplay session in that room alone. (once you DO get the jump, you never get to use it to avoid any enemies) I'd say the game is short and sweet, but it's not quite sweet thanks to the difficulty spike and abruptness, so... eh. In the next jam, focus on developing and polishing (and finding out fun uses for) one or two core mechanics instead of adding in more mechanics than you've got time to do anything with, I guess.

Hazel by FreddyShnitz

___________________________________________
############################################################################################
FATAL ERROR in
action number 1
of Draw Event
for object Hazel:

Variable Hazel.dist(100021, -2147483648) not set before reading it.
at gml_Object_Hazel_Draw_64
############################################################################################
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
stack frame is
gml_Object_Hazel_Draw_64 (line -1)


Homebound by Shadow_Lancer

The game was kinda confusing at first but I liked the concept of possessing objects to remove obstacles you can't get past in spirit form. Reached the basement and there wasn't anything more left to do so I just quit.

Im a hunt ghosts! by Misu

What's with Kevin MacLeod music this jam? xD And more importantly, what's with MOUSE CONTROLS this jam? I found the game really hard to control when both movement and attacking was on the mouse (when there's perfectly valid WASD keys to use), accidentally skipping the intro text mashing the keyboard trying to figure out what the movement keys was since the title screen didn't tell me. Since the enemies can hurt you, it'd be nice if you could attack them while strafing (instead of only having "walk towards them" and "stand still" as your options).

It also would be nice if the last ghost in a wave would turn big and aggressive and try to chase you down... the game got samey really quick (quit at wave 3 when it looked like it was just gonna be wave 2 with more identical ghosts) and it's boring to walk around the entire graveyard trying to find the last ghost you missed. The END of a wave should be a climax, not the start.

Another nice touch would've been if the oneliners (one of the best parts of the game) were actually voiced over (by you doing an intentionally bad Luigi impersonation), it's hard to focus on reading the small speech bubbles while looking for ghosts and the game's soundscape is pretty empty so far.

Lab 23 by HayManMarc, Micah_DS

What's with this jam and mouse controls? Well, it's actually not too bad in this game, since you can precision-move and precision-drop items. I feel like the controls for throwing objects around where way too stiff, making a lot of my flicks not register (maybe because I jerked the mouse out of the window or something). Also, a chair blocking a desk entirely felt a bit immersion-breaking. I would've loved seeing more puzzles where you use your ability to act at a distance (e.g. knocking out guards from an angle they can't see you) and interactions between objects (heavier objects knocking lighter objects around, breaking stuff and causing carnage... not always what you want, since you sometimes want to sneak past guards, but oh so satisfying when it's time for carnage). Breakable glass walls and other eye candy would've been the icing on the cake. So far this is the entry I've had the most fun with, and props for something supernatural that isn't also halloween-themed.

Necro-more-cy by Relic

Two games with Kevin MacLeod songs in a row? Am I the only one that stores up a ton of weird stock music for future use instead of looking last second? :p Sort of properly fits the mood, but I'd liked having it transition to a more battle-y theme during fights. I feel like overall, the game had a too abrupt feeling... super tight time limit, fights you can lose in seconds, no real transition between states. It seems like just mashing "1" to raise basic skeletons is the best strategy, because you can get new ones mid-battle to offset your losses the moment even a single enemy dies. I never got to try out the bigger stronger versions as a result. It's not clear what happens in battle at all and the breakneck speed means you don't even have time to react, and much less make any tactical decisions.

Night Of The Living Taters by dadio

I was actually expecting some kind of gameplay to take place eventually. I wasn't expecting MUCH since the movement was so stiff (not even being able to hold down two keys at once to move diagonally... or even change direction), and it was obvious there was no way to leave the room for a while before the big reveal, so it wasn't even that effective.

Ouija by Sk8dududu, Riley

Shifting between keyboard and arrow keys is awkward, especially when you need to do it each time you restart in a game where everything kills you randomly. I took like 5 steps and was killed by a falling finger, over and over. I managed to make it to the first word once (the idea of a game where you need to focus on a super intense action dodge thing but also focus on a blink-and-you'll-miss-it memory thing is kinda cool) but I don't understand what I'm supposed to do to avoid some of the stuff that's happening. Shame on a game that's so polished and cool-looking.

Paranormal by Siolfor the Jackal

Would've been unplayable without the readme, but I read it. Tried "options" first by habit, crashed the game. Error message below.
The game looks, sounds and plays really well, but it's got some issues. Enemies feel WAY too narrow on the y axis, this is especially noticeable with the boss. It makes it really hard to hit things reliably. Combined with the lack of movement options (the dash only being sideways instead of up/down when basically EVERY ENEMY ATTACK hits sideways, so you can't dodge in the direction you want to dodge in 99% of the time) this means challenge mainly comes from there being more enemies than you can position yourself to hit properly. The boss has attacks with invisible hitboxes, I died when it had just a sliver of health and gave up, expecting it to just end with a "YOU WIN" screen (since you're not even properly locked into the arena). The game looks really cool but it's lacking in game feel.
___________________________________________
############################################################################################
FATAL ERROR in
action number 1
of Draw Event
for object obj_options:

Variable obj_options.isy(100027, -2147483648) not set before reading it.
at gml_Script_sc_textImage
############################################################################################
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
stack frame is
gml_Script_sc_textImage (line -1)
gml_Object_obj_options_Draw_0


Scary Ghost by stenol

There's no instructions on how to play the game... at least slap a draw_text() onto the titlescreen or something, please. Took me a while to realize it was the WASD + space since the title menu used the mouse. The game is okay, but there's a LOT of downtime between enemy waves where you're just walking around waiting for something to happen. You should put down treasure the player can pick up or something so the player has something to do between waves (and also give enemies more time to get on screen while the player is busy). It's easy to get stuck on walls if you walk into them from below, stopping you from moving any direction except down. When messing around like 5 minutes into the level I accidentally walked offscreen and got a game over, that was kinda frustrating.

Spectre 2023 by Bearman_18

Started out really good, and then I got to the jumping part where the game goes from "cool but janky" to downright unplayable. Precision platforming where you can't change direction in mid-air and also move about one platform length per frame AND need to fight enemies while unable to shoot unless standing still... not really working out all that well. Also, enemies respawn when you restart at a checkpoint, including enemies RIGHT NEXT TO THE CHECKPOINT, which means you need to shoot right away to not die on basically every checkpoint. Also, the game doesn't explain you can shoot in both directions at once, which would've been nice to know.
If the walking and jumping would've been a lot less janky so the jumping in the first level hadn't been dozens of times harder than the enemies (the game's main strengths), this would've been a really solid entry. Starts out fun, devolves into unplayable halfway through the first level.

submerge. by Josh Chen

I played this longer than expected, but the core gameplay loop is so flawed and unpolished I couldn't keep going until I'd maxed everything. Biggest issue is a screen that's wider than it's tall in a game where every obstacle moves vertically, so you never have enough time to dodge them. Getting more movement speed just makes this harder because you move faster than the view, so you get less time to react and keep running into things by mistake. I like the idea of "soft game overs" where you can buy upgrades but any unspent money is gone, but it stops being fun when you die to things you can't even see. Also, no theme usage and no music (and a really uninspired background that doesn't match the artstyle) makes the game really bland.

Super Adrenaline Boy by lazertrax

The interactions between your stress level and special abilities is poorly explained and it's way too much to keep track of trying to manage it in time for any of your special abilities to even be AVAILABLE in time for an obstacle. The game would feel a lot more manageable if either the stress level or the player moved at half the current speed.

Supernatural Science by MikeeyBikeey, Aaron Baron, Caroline Zina

My first thought was "oooh nice art... wait why is the window so small?". There's a nice intro cutscene (given the limitations), but I'm not sure I'd call anything in the game supernatural. Gameplaywise, the art style is nice, but the player character (and everything else) moves so dang fast it's basically impossible to control the game. The 3D art style means it's really hard to tell which lever changes what thing (I was stuck on level 2's key for a while and had to go around pressing EVERY lever until it was accessible) so I'd really recommend adding more color to the TOP part of walls that are lever-controlled. It was frustrating when a wave of enemies from EVERYWHERE showed up when I'd solved the puzzle I'd been stuck on for a while (and was down to a single hitpoint after all the shots I ran into because I moved uncontrollably quickly). Puzzles and insane speed, one-hit-and-you're-dead action doesn't meld all that well. Also consider changing the levers to crystal skulls placed within large pentagrams / magic circles... right now they're both hard to read (since when viewed from above, they don't look like levers) and hard to HIT with your attacks. Magic levers would also fit the theme better.

Telepath's Escape by Alice, mp

All the "how to play" information at the start is so overwhelming I lost the will to keep going. As impressive as getting this game done in the span of a jam is, it seems way too complex to get into in the span of a jam review session (which typically allots just a few minutes per game and not a whole lot of attention).
Title screen seems like it's too far to the left, not sure if that's intentional. (Maybe the option buttons should've been made smaller or gray so they looked less "there" than the main buttons?)
I managed to end up in an unwinnable situation in the first level (the enemy could get into attack range despite me being as far away as possible so there was no way I could survive while waiting for my PSI to recharge). Then I realized I could spend my PSI to move the enemy further away (since they can move further than me) which was the exact opposite of what the instructions told me.
Got stuck on lv.2 for a bit until I realized that the strategy boils down to having something unfortunate happen to the most nearby enemy all the time. Lv.4 also had me stuck for a bit until I realized enemies can't walk through each other, so you needed to have the normal soldier guy be in the way for all the ghosts. Then I gave up on the first level featuring both gunners and ghosts.... it's a nice touch that every enemy type is instantly recognizeable so you can tell their behavior apart at a glance (I didn't realize this in the first level because I felt like the enemies attacked me at different ranges) but the gunners' hitboxes are so all over the place it's impossible to visualize which cells are safe or not without playing an entire turn and see if you get shot or not. The game would've been a lot more smooth if the 8-directional gunners were introduced later, with first a horizontal-only gunner and then later a diagonal-only gunner introduced first to ease the player into the ranged mechanics.
Also, it's usually good if a game has tiles without an obvious grid (for immersion purposes) but I feel like a game all about figuring out attack ranges and safe spots would be much better if the tile grid would've been visible so you could count cells in your head without having to switch from what you're doing and check ranges all the time. All the puzzles also felt like they had the same solution (survive one turn, kill one enemy, survive one more turn, kill next enemy, repeat until only one enemy left, survive two turns, overcharge), the only thing you had to think about was finding the one cell where you wouldn't die next turn. It feels like there's still some balance quirks to iron out to make the player consider every option at their disposal instead of just finding the One Strategy to Rule Them All. Mind-control kills essentially always are better during a battle because it disables TWO enemies that turn, and your limited movement (and the super-tiny maps) means you can't escape unless you have a prop to run circles around. Mind-controlling one enemy and just moving it just delays the inevitable and is useless when there's more than one enemy left.

The Cabin by Bart

I didn't even realize the game had a readme until after playing it. In a way, I'm kinda glad I didn't, because going into this without knowing it had no goal or end would've made it feel even more fruitless. I clicked around on everything trying to figure out what to do (expecting random jumpscares since it forced fullscreen), was unsure if I was supposed to be freaked out by printing out working_directory, and got super annoyed at how the 60 times per second frequency adjustment thing made it impossible to get a frequency to the value you wanted. The lamp switch did nothing, I could only interact with the camera (and not do anything meaningful with it, like reveal ghosts?) and then the screen got black and I couldn't do anything. After playing the game, I have no idea what to think of it anymore. Best thing I can say is that it's not actively boring or unappealing like some other games in the jam, just very confusing and aimless.

The House by The M, Ghandpivot

The concept of this game is amazing, but the novelty wears off quick and it becomes a game where you just stare at different parts of your screen really intensely. I got stuck on the code lock in the room with the flying furniture after getting the cheese wedge... 369 didn't work again, the door back was unusable, the "examine" hint told me that I needed "a better view", and I had a spark of inspiration thinking I should drag the game window left to peer into the room... but it didn't work. So I just gave up. The game warped and jittered weirdly during transitions even though it mostly ran properly on my computer, so i'm not sure how sustainable the idea is (on top of requiring a certain screen resolution).
EDIT: got the solution for the cheese puzzle and finish the game now, thanks! The twist at the end was amazing, even though the cheese puzzle wasn't. (Every item so far had a pretty obvious spot it could be used, and I'd basically been conditioned to stop thinking about doors as interactible, except when using keys on them - it'd probably helped if you painted that one door yellow or something to make it stand out, I legitimately didn't think of it as something I could try interacting with even when going back and using the cheese on EVERYTHING)

Builds and releases tension masterfully, does amazing technical trickery (furniture physics and GUI is great, on top of the transition effect) and is intriguing. I wanted to play more, but I got completely stuck on the second code lock and I've got 6 more games to review. This is probably my favorite entry, though. Some polish and you'll have a really solid game! (What would make it even more awesome is if you could change the implementation from "move the window around and resize it" to "capture the current user desktop surface using a Windows API" so you'd be able to make scary things happen off-window in the user's peripheral vision, but that might be too much work now)

The Mouse Curser by Cloaked Games, aSingleCapella

Started out like a cool puzzler (except a bit disruptive for people that like alt-tabbing and the like), then the notice board was just a lot of buildup that amounted to nothing. Referencing other jam entries was kinda meta but also felt like just a handful of canned phrases, would've been better to scrape the parent directory for folder names (expecting the game to only be run from the Jam Zip) and randomize phrases using the results. The computer screen felt completely inconsequential and I ignored it almost instantly once I realized I couldn't do anything with it. Lots of missed potential and cool first impressions quickly devolving into disappointment.

VLAD III by Fernando Gonzalez

Pretty good concept, could've done with more consistent graphics (more victim variety, sprites that aren't stickmen, a more violent eating animation that feels more visceral and snappy) but I liked having to pick vulnerable targets and not be seen (it didn't seem like there was any consequence for witnesses getting away, and pretty hard to stop them if you DID get seen).

重力スワッパー/Gravity Switcher by TheMiningBoyAlpha

Test play your entry next time. How is it possible to miss an error in the first room?
___________________________________________
############################################################################################
FATAL ERROR in
action number 1
of Create Event
for object LOGO:

Push :: Execution Error - Variable Get 100002.lang(100061, -2147483648)
at gml_Object_LOGO_Create_0
############################################################################################
 
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C

Catastrophe

Guest
(using the jam template thingy)

Reviews

Top 3:

Ghostris by Yal
Has a pretty amazing amount of replayability. Would be nice if the spirits' A.I. was explained, it kinda sucks just letting the game play a few times just to find out what they do

Spectre 2023 by Bearman_18
Well. somebody doesn't like clowns.

But seriously, pretty awesome :D The puzzle/fights weren't as elaborate as the other games, but the presentation and feel was super awesome.

Chiaroscuro by Dickson Law
Presentation is awesome, and the idea is really cool. This A.I. is also surprisngly good for something made in 3 days, although when I finally won it was by a landslide 20-10

Best ofs:

Best use of Theme: Gluttony
Best Concept: Ghostris
Best Presentation: Spectre
Best Story: Gluttony
Best Devlog: Gotta be honest, I didn't read most them xD

Full ranking:

  1. Ghostris by Yal
  2. Spectre 2023 by Bearman_18
  3. Chiaroscuro by Dickson Law
  4. Im a hunt ghosts! by Misu
  5. Telepath's Escape by Alice, mp
  6. Homebound by Shadow_Lancer
  7. Necro-more-cy by Relic
  8. Lab 23 by HayManMarc, Micah_DS
  9. Grave Mistake by Tyler, Emily, Vincent
  10. Super Adrenaline Boy by lazertrax
  11. Ouija by Sk8dududu, Riley
  12. Boo! Dice by GameDevDan
  13. Gluttony, My Master by Cantaloupe
  14. The House by The M, Ghandpivot
  15. Ghost Run by Cat, var
  16. Paranormal by Siolfor the Jackal
  17. 重力スワッパー/Gravity Switcher by TheMiningBoyAlpha
  18. The Cabin by Bart
  19. Supernatural Science by MikeeyBikeey, Aaron Baron, Caroline Zina
  20. Deadly Dungeon by KPJ
  21. Scary Ghost by stenol
  22. VLAD III by Fernando Gonzalez
  23. Bit Souls by Roa
  24. submerge. by Josh Chen
  25. Hazel by FreddyShnitz
  26. Dodge Em' Dracula by Firedingo
  27. The Mouse Curser by Cloaked Games, aSingleCapella
  28. Night Of The Living Taters by dadio

Comments:

Bit Souls by Roa

Combat was too longthy and repetitive per enemy to enjoy, so I mostly just ran around blocking stuff and ran out of stuff to do.

Boo! Dice by GameDevDan

Basic gambling game. The ghost cancept kinda falls flat due to, well, statistics haha. 6 ghosts essentially doesn't happen xD

Chiaroscuro by Dickson Law

Presentation is awesome, and the idea is really cool. This A.I. is also surprisngly good for something made in 3 days, although when I finally won it was by a landslide 20-10

Deadly Dungeon by KPJ

It's solid, but doesn't really have much life to it.

Demon Santa by Catastrophe

Pathetic

Dodge Em' Dracula by Firedingo

Why'd the dracula cross the road? I dunno I suck at jokes

Ghost Run by Cat, var

Presentation is great, but I feel like the concept didn't really work out. For instance, you can just dodge everything by hitting down instead of jump xD Fun idea, though.

Ghostris by Yal

Has a pretty amazing amount of replayability. Would be nice if the spirits' A.I. was explained, it kinda sucks just letting the game play a few times just to find out what they do

Gluttony, My Master by Cantaloupe

It's an interesting idea, but the puzzles don't carry the story it feels like. Particularly since you don't really have any idea if you're doing them right. That said, at least it's got some "flavor" eh?

Grave Mistake by Tyler, Emily, Vincent

I think what killed her was eating nothing but ice cream, pizza, and soda. Art and music were cool.

Hazel by FreddyShnitz

Not much to say: looks like a typing game, but I got bored pretty quick.

Homebound by Shadow_Lancer

Cute to toss things around and break things, but there's not much of a game here. Still, it's very thematic.

Im a hunt ghosts! by Misu

Pretty much everything was cool, but the actual gameplay was not very exciting. Still it was fun just experiencing it.

Lab 23 by HayManMarc, Micah_DS

Pretty cool concept, althogh incrediby short. There's basically only one main level, the one before the boss. Amusingly, I did not realize you could knowck dudes out, so I made some really elaborate scheme of blocking everyone in the level in

Necro-more-cy by Relic

Pretty cool, got to 1000 score. Now my fingers hurt. Not much to say here, other than it could have used a "press and hold" to recruit

Night Of The Living Taters by dadio

https://www.albinoblacksheep.com/flash/potato

Ouija by Sk8dududu, Riley

Alright, took me a while to figure out what I even needed to do. Dissendium. Whatever that means xD Cute game, though.

Paranormal by Siolfor the Jackal

Very solid presentation, although I didn't really feel very inspired to continue on

Scary Ghost by stenol

Solid presentation. Didn't explain controls I think or I missed it. Main issue here is it's a shooter game with lack of tension. It doesn't get hard until the boss, and also you have a large health pool that drains very slowly. Typicall shooter games hsould start out hard and have instant death with a small amoutn of extra lives.

Spectre 2023 by Bearman_18

Well. somebody doesn't like clowns.

But seriously, pretty awesome :D The puzzle/fights weren't as elaborate as the other games, but the presentation and feel was super awesome.

submerge. by Josh Chen

Well, main issue here, is this is just natural, not supernatural. I just pretended the turtle could shoot laser beams.

Still ordering straws a restaurants, your hippie moralism can't stop me, muahahaha

Super Adrenaline Boy by lazertrax

Overall a cool idea, but the controls end up being too complicated for an instinct game, so it becomes more of a memorization game. Got to level 16 and gave up.

Supernatural Science by MikeeyBikeey, Aaron Baron, Caroline Zina

I got pretty frustrated with this early on. The combination of puzzle based mixed with action kinda turned me off. Main issue is, you do a simple puzzle, then die to some giant swarm, and then don't have motivation to really do that simple puzzle again.

Telepath's Escape by Alice, mp

Pretty cool puzzle game. I've seen this kind of game before, but the puzzles were well designed. Got to level 8 before my brain had enough xD

The Cabin by Bart

It's a neat idea, but I honestly could not figure out what I was supposed to be doing. I took pictures at the right frequency and they showed up, but seemed to just possess me anyways

The House by The M, Ghandpivot

Unfortunately, loses a bunch of points due to being unplayable on my resolution. Honestly could not get far, so not much to say

The Mouse Curser by Cloaked Games, aSingleCapella

Lol xD Honestly you spent so much time making notes and ascii art, I bet you could've finished your game

VLAD III by Fernando Gonzalez

The idea is neat, but the literal one dimensionality kinda hampers it. You're just going up and down for the most parrt.

重力スワッパー/Gravity Switcher by TheMiningBoyAlpha

Cute idea and arcadey sound effects, sound like they were made for the jam with BFXR. That said, there's not really much here, so I stopped after dying in the second level.
 
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Siolfor the Jackal's even more truthful reviews

Just want to say, even though it's been mentioned already in the discussion thread, that the overall quality of the games this jam has been outstanding. Even some of the games I ranked quite lowly were still enjoyable.

One thing though, if I mention anything in my feedback for your game about the mouse or using my trackpad, I didn't rank any games lower for using the mouse(even though they often were way more difficult for me to play in some cases), unless I felt the use of the mouse was out of place, or badly done.

Top 3:

Telepath's Escape by Alice, mp
No surprise that Alice comes up with a unique and interesting concept.

Strong use of theme in mechanics and story.

Gameplay was solid, I was a bit apprehensive when I started reading the how to, thinking it was possibly going to be over complicated and not fun but I was wrong. Clever enemy and level design, good amounts of strategy needed, and the ability to undo turns makes this kind of game so much more enjoyable and less frustrating. The frustration didn't come until you introduced those Esper enemies :p
I got stuck on stage 9 for a while, had to ask for help! Great variety of enemy units.

Art was nice and clean, appreciated all the extra art like in the help section, well done(Especially that lovely ending image).

Music was ok, catchy and fitting. Sound effects were a bit hit and miss, but at least you have them, really add the needed impact.

Great presentation and menus, fullscreen and sound options are most welcome.

Lab 23 by HayManMarc, Micah_DS
This was great. Extremely bloody tough, nigh impossible on a trackpad, but I managed to struggle through. Also, Team Donut XD

Cool and unique use of the theme. only one other TK related game and it couldn't be more different!

The main mechanic was fun and interesting, but stupidly hard on a trackpad(Not sure how much better it plays with a mouse). I wasn't able to reliably fling objects at enemies to stun them, but was able to use objects to block paths at least which made it easier to kite them, so for the most part it still plays pretty well like this.
The boss was a real nightmare haha.
The level design was good, you gave me several options on how to progress which was nice. The enemy AI wasn't *too* dumb.

All the art was great, nice animationed and backgrounds.

The music was sick, I expected no less. So good.

All the menus and text, all of it so stylish. You guys put together a really complete and good looking game.

Super Adrenaline Boy by lazertrax
Fun and a bit hectic, very unique runner,

The gameplay doesn't scream Supernatural, even with a ghost enemy, and whatever those other things were.

Controlled well, and the ability bar thing was an interesting inclusion. Though sometimes it was a bit difficult to pay attention to it and myself, but I guess that's part of the challenge. Highest I could make was 13.

Player sprites were cute, and the backgrounds and menu art looked great. But the enemy sprites looked so out of place in comparison.

Music was pretty cool(Did you make it?) and the sounds effects fit well.

Great overall presentation, menu was slick and the effects, such as when closing your eyes were really well done.

Best ofs:

Best use of Theme: Homebound by Shadow_Lancer
Best Concept: Spectre 2023 by Bearman_18
Best Presentation: Ghostris by Yal
Best Story: Grave Mistake by Tyler, Emily, Vincent
Best Devlog: ...

Full ranking:

  1. Telepath's Escape by Alice, mp
  2. Lab 23 by HayManMarc, Micah_DS
  3. Super Adrenaline Boy by lazertrax
  4. Bit Souls by Roa
  5. Necro-more-cy by Relic
  6. VLAD III by Fernando Gonzalez
  7. Im a hunt ghosts! by Misu
  8. Ghost Run by Cat, var
  9. Homebound by Shadow_Lancer
  10. Spectre 2023 by Bearman_18
  11. Grave Mistake by Tyler, Emily, Vincent
  12. Ghostris by Yal
  13. Boo! Dice by GameDevDan
  14. Supernatural Science by MikeeyBikeey, Aaron Baron, Caroline Zina
  15. Scary Ghost by stenol
  16. 重力スワッパー/Gravity Switcher by TheMiningBoyAlpha
  17. Chiaroscuro by Dickson Law
  18. Ouija by Sk8dududu, Riley
  19. Deadly Dungeon by KPJ
  20. Gluttony, My Master by Cantaloupe
  21. Demon Santa by Catastrophe
  22. The Mouse Curser by Cloaked Games, aSingleCapella
  23. The Cabin by Bart
  24. Hazel by FreddyShnitz
  25. submerge. by Josh Chen
  26. The House by The M, Ghandpivot
  27. Night Of The Living Taters by dadio
  28. Dodge Em' Dracula by Firedingo

Comments:

Bit Souls by Roa

Unexpected but a bit cool.

Great use of theme, a game like this feels very apt.

Gameplay was a bit tough on a trackpad, but I managed to struggle through ok. The combat was basic but worked well enough, parries seemed a bit inconsistent but that could be down to using a trackpad. Enemy weapon range was deceptively far. It's a shame this wasn't more finished, I could see myself playing more. Oh and I only quit because I accidentally pressed ESC to exit the bonfire and it closed the game, a confirmation message is probable need there...

Generally not a fan of such lofi sprites and such, especially in 3D, but it works well enough here. But whyyyyyy is there no fullscreen... drives me insane.

I don't recall hearing any music, and some of the sound effects seemed way out of place(the parry noise was weird), but the voice acting was an unexpected but welcome addition. The echoy voice really worked well with setting the mood, very Soulsy.

No real menu, and the HUD/Menu elements were all a bit boring and basic.

Boo! Dice by GameDevDan

Interesting little game, but I always find games of chance like this a wee bit frustrating.

Nothing all that spooky about dice themselves but the ghost chance and player names make up for it.

Not much to say about the gameplay, sort of like Yahtzee but with a random lose condition.

Art was shiny, too shiny... Looked like some mobile game. It's nice, but I'm not a fan of that style.

Sounds and music worked well together.

Slick presentation as always.

Chiaroscuro by Dickson Law

A neat take on Reversi, it's almost like playing two games together. Sadly, it's not really my thing.

Light vs. dark is a reasonable usage of theme, definitely didn't expect something unique like this.

I can't really say much about the gameplay, it's reversi. Nothing inherently exciting about it, despite the extra layer of strategy.

The overall presentation was slick as heck. Great menus and stuff. Music and sounds were well chosen.

Deadly Dungeon by KPJ

A wee bit too brutal for me, I wasn't able to get far unfortunately.

A bit weak on theme usage.

The charge on the abilties was way too long. You spend so much time just waiting which isn't fun. A weak shooting attack you can use whilst you wait for you ability to charge up would have been nice.

The art was basic but consistent which I like. Certain projectiles rotated which was made them a bit more visually interesting, and I apprectiated the changing colours per level, so good job with those little details.
The falling projectiles however were a bit dark, so sometimes I wasn't able to see them clearly. Perhaps a light outline would have help.

No sound effects was a bit of a shame, but there was some music at least. No credits so I'm assuming you wrote the track. Super basic song but has that catchy progression and fit the game well.

The menus and fonts were really nice, good simple descriptions for the abilities.

Demon Santa by Catastrophe

Simple but functional!

Demon Santa sure is Supernatural. Not sure why he's fighting angels though.

Gameplay was simple, and a bit rough, but it worked. You probably should have mentioned the double jump somewhere, got to take into consideration people who have less experience with games.
Again, another game using the mouse when it didn't need to. You could have easily mapped shoot to spacebar or enter or any other key, which makes more sense. If you aren't aiming with the mouse, it makes little sense to use it to shoot either.
There were some other little issues like sometimes you'd jump under a cloud and warp through it, but no big deal.

Not much in the way of art, but I did enjoy the weird design of Demon Santa for some reason. Could have used a more interesting background. Even a light gradient would have worked, but ultimately some background elements like mountains or other clouds would have been ideal.

Music was simple but pretty catchy.

Could stand to work on your presentation a bit!

Dodge Em' Dracula by Firedingo

This one looks a bit unfinished and broken.

Not sure what the relevance of being a vampire crossing a road is.

Basically frogger but easier? Needs more than that thin slice of road. Then it crashes when you win.

Art was really inconsistent, and there was a weird strobing effect on the road and some other segments.

No sound at all.

Menu buttons were out of place, and the text stays on the screen during the actual game!

Ghost Run by Cat, var

Cute endless runner.

Good use of theme, realm switching mechanic is very apt.

Game controls fine, but I could have used a little more weight with the movement(Yes I'm aware you are a ghost and ghosts are weightless :p ). The switching worked well, but there didn't seem to be a goal or anything which was disappointing.

Sprites and backgrounds were great, very nice. Good parallaxing, and the transitioning between realms looked so good.

No sound effects but the music was chill and fit well.

A nice simple menu is always appreciated too.

Ghostris by Yal

Really cool concept, and really well made.

You nailed the theme, all over it screams 'Supernatural'.

I generally love tetris, and at first when playing I really loved the idea of this, but I found it a wee bit annoying trying to pay attention to the block I'm placing and then figuring out what the heck the already placed blocks are doing. Even when I had some figured out, it was still just more of a nuisance.
The game itself controlled well, at least.

The art looked great, all over, just really good.

Sound was perfect too.

This entry was so bloody polished, almost hard to believe it's a jam game. The menus and displays all looked so good. The Game over splash took too long to let me restart though.

Gluttony, My Master by Cantaloupe

Uhh, ok. That was very strange.

I'm going to say it nailed the theme if only because it was super weird and I have no explanation.

The gameplay was a bit boring at first, but started to get a bit more interesting as it went though, I was able to move on without doing anything and I'm not sure if that's why the face thing was angry at me at the end?

Art was well done, very creepy.

Sound was very atmospheric.

Overall you had a pretty solid vision for this it seems. My only big criticism(apart from the bland gameplay) is that the white text on the light coloured backgrounds was a bit hard to read. I'd recommend better colour contrasting, or text outline.

Grave Mistake by Tyler, Emily, Vincent

Short but sweet fetch quest the game, haha. Haven't seen another game with a wheelchair since the one I made a few jams ago! Nice.

Great use of theme.

Starting in a wheelchair was interesting, but I thought it was going to lead to something else, instead it just became a standard platformer. I accidentally skipped getting the weapon, but I didn't need it! Rolled past all the demons no problem.
I thought it was interesting that the ghosts gave you upgrades after finishing their fetch quests, but the upgrades themselves weren't that interesting, just more standard platforming tools.
That said, it *did* control well, very well made at least.

Great use of colours, sprites and animations looked fantastic, and the simple backgrounds with the parallaxing looked great too. The text box and font were so nice too.

Sounds were great, really added to the mood.

Overall the game looked great, the menu was barebones but still looked good!

Hazel by FreddyShnitz

An interesting idea but needs a lot of work.

Spooky witch summoning game seems right at home in Supernatural.

Firstly, the School menu option always crashed like two seconds into it, so if that was a tutorial or something, I wasn't able to see it.
The map screen was interesting and worked well.
Main game controlled fine, and the ABCD concept was neat, but needs work. I sort of understand why you chose those four letters, but I would have preferred some keys that were more consistently spaced apart(ASDF, ZXCV, QWER, etc). Also, about halfway through my first level I got bored and just started mashing all four buttons which shouldn't have worked but it did, haha. A light punishment for pressing a wrong key is needed.
Speaking of, the levels are way too long!

Sprites and backgrounds looked ok, but you put a translucent rectangle over everything which just made it all look muddy.

No sound or music :(

Good simple menu.

Homebound by Shadow_Lancer

Neat idea, would have been great if you finished more of it.

Perfect use of theme in my opinion, a great unique idea so far.

Gameplay was simple but promising, It was enjoyable flinging things around and smashing stuff. Just needed a point or goal.

Art was nice and simple, loved the particle effects, and how the smashed objects broke into pieces.

No sound or music.

Title screen was good, pretty font for the title. Overall presentation was nice.

Im a hunt ghosts! by Misu

Cute and amusing.

Great use of theme, dude.

Gameplay was interesting, Luigi's Mansion but in a graveyard, heh. I feel though, it was missing something but I'm not sure what. The ghosts rarely put up much of a fight and just ran away, so it was just a lot of running around after them.
One big issue I have, is why do you disable fullscreen? Especially for a game that uses the mouse like this. A couple of times I clicked out of the window and that's just plain annoying.

Art was great, sprites looked cute, and the graveyard very spooky, the lighting effects were nice too.

Sound was well chosen, very fitting.

Great title screen as well, and that font was sick haha.

Lab 23 by HayManMarc, Micah_DS

This was great. Extremely bloody tough, nigh impossible on a trackpad, but I managed to struggle through. Also, Team Donut XD

Cool and unique use of the theme. only one other TK related game and it couldn't be more different!

The main mechanic was fun and interesting, but stupidly hard on a trackpad(Not sure how much better it plays with a mouse). I wasn't able to reliably fling objects at enemies to stun them, but was able to use objects to block paths at least which made it easier to kite them, so for the most part it still plays pretty well like this.
The boss was a real nightmare haha.
The level design was good, you gave me several options on how to progress which was nice. The enemy AI wasn't *too* dumb.

All the art was great, nice animationed and backgrounds.

The music was sick, I expected no less. So good.

All the menus and text, all of it so stylish. You guys put together a really complete and good looking game.

Necro-more-cy by Relic

This was a bit more fun that I expected.

Another great and unique use of the theme.

Gameplay was simple and easy to understand, though the time limit sucked the fun out a little bit.

The game itself looked great, nice effects.

Great choice of sound and music.

The menu was nice, and I liked the font, but had a hard time reading it sometimes. Also, kudos for a high score table!

Night Of The Living Taters by dadio

Wanted to rank this last, especially because of the troll face. But I like that song soo...

One day I would love to see a proper game from you... just one.

Ouija by Sk8dududu, Riley

Great first impresssion, and a solid looking effort.

Ouija fits the theme pretty well, definitely didn't expect it.

Gameplay was... dodging the thing, and not being squished by a finger. There didn't seem to be a point beyond that, and no point where you are told what to do(had to even guess the controls, couldn't find anything but the arrow keys that did anything at least).

Art was great, like really great.

The sound and music was a bit perfect for this entry.

That menu looked so good, gave me high hopes for the rest of the game.

Scary Ghost by stenol

A nice and simple project, but felt feature complete which is nice.

It's hard to go wrong with the theme usage this jam, spooky monsters make sense.

Gameplay was very basic but functionally fine. Controlled well enough, and there was a small variety of enemies. Though, I feel like you could have done more with the skeletons besides just making them tougher zombies. Also, I feel like with games like this, you need to give the player a reason to let go of the fire button, otherwise what is the point of it? Just have the player fire by default. So what I usually do is either reduce the movement speed of the player(that way they may need to let go of fire to better manoeuvre), or I give the player some light health regen when they aren't firing.
Oh and one more thing, level speed was a bit slow, got a bit bored halfway through and almost quit. I eventually got to the boss but wasn't able to beat him. My suggestion would be to slowly increase the scroll speed as the level goes. That way it doesn't feel as much as a drag, and adds a little bit more challenge progressively.

Art was a bit of a mish-mash, it's hard to have consistent art when you have to borrow free assets. I appreciated the particle effects, always welcome.

Great choice of music and sound effects, really helps fill a game out.

Menu was good except for the out of place buttons. Great logo.

Spectre 2023 by Bearman_18

The game had a lot of style, really dug so much about it. But there were some major flaws that prevented me from enjoying it.

The spectre thing was an interesting use of the theme, I didn't get far enough to see if it gets explained though.

I liked what you were trying to do here, very cool, a few issues though:
-I'm not sure why you chose the mouse buttons for shoot, especially since you don't aim with the mouse. I only have a laptop right now, so the shooting, as neat as it is, was difficult for me and actually unplayable at one point. These buttons could have easily been mapped to the keyboard...
-My trackpad doesn't allow me to hold both right and left click, so I can only shoot one direction. This made one checkpoint impossible because you spawn and instantly get gunned down by guys on either side of you. There's no way to survive that.
-Speaking of, In my opinion it is a massive faux pas to have enemies spawn right near checkpoints. The first checkpoint has a guy RIGHT NEXT TO YOU.
-The jumping felt so bad, there was no weight to it and it made the platforming annoying. What I think it needs is some hang time, you go up so fast then before you know it you're already descending, and then weirdly the descent speed is slower.
The dodge however felt great, and so did the shadow ability.

Art was good, I really liked the animations and effects. Really well done there.

The music was so nice, good choice, it fit the setting so well. The voice acting was a nice touch too.

Love the title screen art, your presentation was so good.

submerge. by Josh Chen

Topical.

Well, not even really a hint of the theme used here...

Gameplay was fine, just a bit flat and boring. Movement was too static, you're underwater, there should be more drag perhaps. Upgrading the rank seemed pointless except to make the game harder?

Turtle sprite was nice, and the plastic objects looked good. It was all a bit inconsistent though, especially the blocky background and then the high res upgrade screen.

No sound :(

No real menu, but it wasn't needed. Good how to play screen though.

Super Adrenaline Boy by lazertrax

Fun and a bit hectic, very unique runner,

The gameplay doesn't scream Supernatural, even with a ghost enemy, and whatever those other things were.

Controlled well, and the ability bar thing was an interesting inclusion. Though sometimes it was a bit difficult to pay attention to it and myself, but I guess that's part of the challenge. Highest I could make was 13.

Player sprites were cute, and the backgrounds and menu art looked great. But the enemy sprites looked so out of place in comparison.

Music was pretty cool(Did you make it?) and the sounds effects fit well.

Great overall presentation, menu was slick and the effects, such as when closing your eyes were really well done.

Supernatural Science by MikeeyBikeey, Aaron Baron, Caroline Zina

Cool 3D effect makes a top down shooter just that more interesting.

I wasn't sure of what was going on so I can't comment on the theme.

Gameplay was solid, albeit a little too brutal to play on a trackpad. I wasn't able to progress past the second level because of how you hammered me with a swarm of enemies.

As already mentioned, the 3D effect was a nice touch, I especially like how the tooltips hovered. The sprites and backgrounds were good, and that menu art was so good, guys.

Woo! Sound effects AND music. Basic sfx and the music wasn't amazing, but I just appreciated them being there.

Nice menu and presentation, though the in-game menu had some scaling issues(it was centered towards the left top section of my screen a bit)

Telepath's Escape by Alice, mp

No surprise that Alice comes up with a unique and interesting concept.

Strong use of theme in mechanics and story.

Gameplay was solid, I was a bit apprehensive when I started reading the how to, thinking it was possibly going to be over complicated and not fun but I was wrong. Clever enemy and level design, good amounts of strategy needed, and the ability to undo turns makes this kind of game so much more enjoyable and less frustrating. The frustration didn't come until you introduced those Esper enemies :p
I got stuck on stage 9 for a while, had to ask for help! Great variety of enemy units.

Art was nice and clean, appreciated all the extra art like in the help section, well done(Especially that lovely ending image).

Music was ok, catchy and fitting. Sound effects were a bit hit and miss, but at least you have them, really add the needed impact.

Great presentation and menus, fullscreen and sound options are most welcome.

The Cabin by Bart

Cool idea, but not much to it.

I think the idea showed a promising use of the theme, definitely a unique entry too.

The controls worked fine except the camera always took a picture when I picked it up. There was almost nothing to interact with which was a shame, light switch did nothing either. Wasn't sure what I should be taking photos of either, there wasn't a great deal of interest to shoot... Ghosts didn't seem to turn on photos either(not that they had any real discernable shape).
The photo taking itself was pretty cool.

Art was a bit flat and basic(and as already mentioned, the ghosts had no real shape, looked more like a glitch, which could have been the point?). But I appreciated the little details like the light source, and the pendulum swinging.

Great ambient music and good sound effects.

No real menu but it's not really needed here, and reasonable presentation overall.

The House by The M, Ghandpivot

Neat effect window effect, and I was keen for an adventure-type game. But unfortunately this was unplayable for me due to the game window moving off screen and parts or whole rooms being cut off.

The Mouse Curser by Cloaked Games, aSingleCapella

This... made little sense ^^'

Not sure it really works with the theme... Unless I'm missing something.

No real gameplay unfortunately. Breaking out of the glass jar was interesting but that's about it. It felt like I was going to have a puzzle to solve but met with just a "THE END" message was a bit disappointing.

Despite the gameplay, at least the background and sprites looked nice, and the ascii console was cute.

No sound or music :(

Presentation was great, and the notes were amusinc(Though I feel left out D: ).

VLAD III by Fernando Gonzalez

Cool and unique idea, dude. Had a bit of fun with this one.

Great use of theme, vampires are supernatural as heck.

Gameplay was simple but clever. Nice unique idea, some consequences for leaving witness would have made this a bit more interesting overall.

Silhouette bat and stick figures got the job done and worked well with the theme of your game. Backgrounds and effects were nice too.(Did you make any of them though I wonder?)

No sound effects, but you found a nice Castlevania-like music track which was killer.

Nice simple menu.

重力スワッパー/Gravity Switcher by TheMiningBoyAlpha

I love that you have a consistent style across all your jam games, and this one is a big improvement over your last ones!

Theme was a bit weak, not sure I believe a plague is all that supernatural, and the inverse gravity mechanic doesn't make sense either.

Gameplay was alright, simple platforming with a map flip gimmick. What I don't understand is why the punch button is on the mouse? I think I will repeat this in the GMC discussion forum, but if you aren't using the mouse for anything like aiming, then don't use the mouse buttons for attacks or interaction or anything. It makes no sense and just annoying, especially when playing on a laptop. Apart from that, the gameplay seemed reasonably solid, though enemies were a bit tough in some parts, with seemingly no good strategy to avoid getting hurt.

Art was consistent, not my preference but I dig your commitment to it. The little effects when enemies die and when you hit the glass were great too.

Loved the retro sfx and music jingles. Really nailed those.

Menu was there, and the story dialogue sections were neat.
 
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Alice

Darts addict
Forum Staff
Moderator
Inexplicable Reviews for the Gifted

Top 3:

The House by The M, Ghandpivot
A delightful adventure with lots of personality, though also some trial-and-error typical for the genre.

Spectre 2023 by Bearman_18
As much as this game has lots of gameplay design issues, I found it pretty enjoyable thanks to the sheer style and presentation of it.

Grave Mistake by Tyler, Emily, Vincent
A nice atmospheric entry with a good amount of story, if maybe a bit dull mechanically.

Best ofs:

Best use of Theme: Lab 23 by HayManMarc, Micah_DS
Best Concept: Ouija by Sk8dududu, Riley
Best Presentation: Spectre 2023 by Bearman_18
Best Story: The House by The M, Ghandpivot

Full ranking:

  1. The House by The M, Ghandpivot
  2. Spectre 2023 by Bearman_18
  3. Grave Mistake by Tyler, Emily, Vincent
  4. Ouija by Sk8dududu, Riley
  5. Lab 23 by HayManMarc, Micah_DS
  6. Ghostris by Yal
  7. Chiaroscuro by Dickson Law
  8. Super Adrenaline Boy by lazertrax
  9. VLAD III by Fernando Gonzalez
  10. Im a hunt ghosts! by Misu
  11. Homebound by Shadow_Lancer
  12. Supernatural Science by MikeeyBikeey, Aaron Baron, Caroline Zina
  13. Boo! Dice by GameDevDan
  14. Paranormal by Siolfor the Jackal
  15. Bit Souls by Roa
  16. Necro-more-cy by Relic
  17. The Mouse Curser by Cloaked Games, aSingleCapella
  18. Gluttony, My Master by Cantaloupe
  19. The Cabin by Bart
  20. Ghost Run by Cat, var
  21. Scary Ghost by stenol
  22. Deadly Dungeon by KPJ
  23. submerge. by Josh Chen
  24. 重力スワッパー/Gravity Switcher by TheMiningBoyAlpha
  25. Hazel by FreddyShnitz
  26. Demon Santa by Catastrophe
  27. Night Of The Living Taters by dadio
  28. Dodge Em' Dracula by Firedingo

Comments:

Bit Souls by Roa

(review #13)

I quit after getting stuck at the purple forest labyrinth and throwing (!) all the switches I could find. Don't know if there's any more content after that.

A little though at first, but nothing I can't grind my way through. It was an adequate dungeon crawler thing, though a little clunky to play (e.g. because of the attack range). I'd gladly welcome an option to spend stamina on running, especially since it regenerates so quickly after I upgrade it enough. Also, I collected some weapons and even found out I can open the inventory with Tab, but I have no idea whether I equip these weapons automatically or I actually had to choose the weapon somehow. Simply put, it would greatly help, if every control was explained (be it in the game or README). On that note, I still don't know what space bar does.

The presentation was alright; the pixelated sprites contrasted with hi-resolution GUI, though. Also, the backgrounds often blended with each other; adding some fog effect to make more distant walls fade would definitely make the perspective easier to gauge. I wasn't fond of diamon-shaped bush that surrounded trees in the purple forest labyrinth - I'd rather have them square shaped, surrounding their respective trees instead. Also, in this game a map displaying the layout (including walls and key interactible elements, such as switches) would help a lot; maybe it'd even allow me find some way to progress (still don't know if it can be completed or not...)? Another thing - the game could use some proofreading.

There was no background music, so I wanted to play some instead. I somehow pressed Escape key in the process, leaving the game instantly - this kind of grindy game definitely shouldn't be so easy to accidentally quit. Sound effects were alright. I welcomed the voice acting. The writing could use some polish, though.

One more thing - the cursor in the middle of the screen is annoying, couldn't you have hidden it? I know 3D games use this cursor-centering thing to allow indefinite view rotation, but why show it outright? ^^'

Overall, a decent 3D entry, but needs more explanation (especially the controls) and maybe some fine-tuning (e.g. tweaking the background area for better visibility). Theme is used in presentation only.

Boo! Dice by GameDevDan

(review #26)

That was lots of opponents, lots of rounds and lots of waiting for intermission screens.

Seriously, though, I kinda feel like I spent more time on this game than I should have. In one part, that's because of these intermission panels that are shown for a bit too long and cannot be skipped, which slows down the gameplay. In other part, it's because of how another further opponents need more and more rounds to win, up to 9 with Count Spookula. I feel that after 5 rounds or so there's little difficulty added and just more time-consuming padding. ^^'

The gameplay itself has some basic strategy to it, but it feels somewhat luck-heavy; I had to restart Wailing Bob of all opponents several times because of how bad dice I got (including getting ghost dice often). There's also that aspect that the latter opponent in a round is in better position to properly strategize their rolls, but I don't mind - it actually adds to the skill component, because instead of using one-size-fits-all tactic to get as high score as reasonably possible there's more emphasis put on getting as high score as currently needed. Though admittedly, swapping players each roll rather than each turn would add even more strategic depth.

The presentation is clean, if somewhat empty - there are no portraits for the opponents, just basic descriptions. Also, there's lot of free space used - maybe displaying dice for both players at once would use the space better *and* get rid of these overly long "Player's Turn" intermission panels? It'd be particularly appropriate for swap-each-roll mode of gameplay. The music... well, it's pretty standard and well-known, kind of like Wilhelm Scream is among sound effects. ;)

Overall, a clean and reasonably polished entry, though it could use some gameplay tweaking, better pacing and more complete presentation. Theme is used pretty much in presentation only; there are these ghost dice, but they could have been black hole dice and the score-eating flavour wouldn't be lost at all.

Chiaroscuro by Dickson Law

(review #19)

I don't really know Reversi much, but this entry has some nice modifications - especially the fact that pieces colours are separate from the entities represented on each side. Also, an ability to place a piece even if there's no reversal involved allows for some ground-keeping strategy, e.g. placing a piece in a corner to protect nearby lines from being changed (when enemy would place a piece of the opposite colour). Perhaps dropping this restriction is essential with the other alterations - otherwise a player could be forced to turn pieces in a disadvantageous way.

I played until I defeated the AI - on easiest difficulty, because I'm by no means a Reversi professional, let alone champion, and even the simplest AI easily spots the opportunities that I overlook. Took me a few plays, but I eventually emerged victorious. I enjoyed the gameplay - I feel like the modifications added some nice depth to it.

The audiovisuals are mostly coherent and work well together. An exception - the cartoony character linearts contrast with otherwise lineless and toned graphics; from credits I see most images were pre-made by other people, so that's probably where this slight inconsistency comes from. There were lots of nice effects, be it the summoning circle in the background or flipping pieces and such. It might not be the most spectacular presentation, but it's certainly clean and well-designed.

Overall, an entartaining and well-polished spin on a classic game. Theme is used in presentation only.

Deadly Dungeon by KPJ

(review #17)

That was some simplistic bullet hell. I've played around with Fireball ability first, but at later levels I've found the boss a tad too unapproachable. Then I tried out explosion which worked much better, as it dealt the same damage no matter the distance with the added bonus of clearing the bullets around.

The explosion is especially effective with the kind of bullet patterns used - nearly every pattern is concentric, spreading from around the endearingly named "Evil Death" and it always uses the same angles. It means dodging these patterns boils down to finding a safe spot that covers each of them. Then, the only other obstacle are random miasma drops from above, but they're sparse enough to need only occasional dodging. By staying around the same spot and using explosions whenever they charged, I easily sapped away boss' health until defeat.

The game could have been so much more exciting with a little more varied bullet patterns; having some player-aimed bullets (or player-aimed circles) would already make things a bit more hectic. Then again, more challenging mechanics would work better with some kind of lives system instead of instant restart. Also, to make the abilities more balanced, the boss would need to stop spamming concentring patterns around itself every once in a while, and e.g. use some player-converging pattern instead. This in particular would make Fireball usable even at later levels.

The presentation isn't particularly great; the individual pieces aren't bad, but there's too few of them, and I'm not exactly thrilled about fighting a simple red skull each level. It would definitely work better with some more eye candy, whether it's particle effects around bullets or more varied backgrounds. Also, the game could use some extra feedback, e.g. showing the area of explosion's bullet-clearing effect, or an indicator of fireball range which e.g. lights up when the protagonist gets near Evil Death.

Overall, a decent bullet hell entry, but could seriously use some eye candy and better designed bullet patterns. Theme was used in presentation and backstory only and wasn't particularly strong here.

Demon Santa by Catastrophe

(review #2)

My highest score was 4726. Pathetic.

This game was pretty simplistic, both in terms of the gameplay and the design. Would have liked some more variety, whether it's enemies or background elements or stuff like that. Still, it's sort of enjoyable, most likely thanks to the music (I think I heard it before, but I don't remember where; it wouldn't sound out of place in Megaman, I think?). (addendum: it's CheetahMen's theme from Area 52, thanks Yal!)

Definitely controls *don't* add to the fun factor. I'll never get used to mouse-controlled menus in an otherwise keyboard-controller game, but this game tops even that - it uses ADW for movement, mouse-click for shooting and enter for menu. Note - mouse pointer has literally nothing to do with aiming; left mouse button could be replaced by any keyboard key without any loss of input information. As far as I'm concerned, if you don't use mouse pointer in your game, then most likely you can get rid of mouse-based controls altogether. Mouse-mashing shooting doesn't help, either. ^^'

Overall, a simple entry yet somehow made me play for quite a bit (probably because of the music). Theme is used in presentation only.

Dodge Em' Dracula by Firedingo

(review #27)

Well, that was short. It could take so little time to playtest that thing and see the crash, oh well... ^^' The gameplay itself, or at least the part I could get to, wasn't particularly sophisticated - just make sure not to get hit by driving... fairy things? I think "hey listen" would be an appropriate sound effect here, but I'm not sure I'd like to hear it. Presentation wasn't top-notch, though the Dracula sprite was somewhat endearing. No audio at all. :(

Overall, the game could use less crashing (and I don't mean Dracula-fairy crash). Theme is used in presentation, but it's spoiled by having a vampire walk in a broad daylight.



Ghost Run by Cat, var

(review #15)

I accumulated quite a speed before giving in, and eventually my final score was...
INVISIBLE!
You can't get more supernatural than that!

Seriously though, in this kind of game getting in a hi-score system is essential; even if you don't save it, displaying it at the end would help.
Another thing - the game state could have been cleaned up after the end, instead of starting with leftover elements from the previous runs. Also, the elements could have been spaced more evenly within each realm - quite often, there were long periods of idleness when I just waited for the next obstacle to happen.

The presentation was pretty cute at least, both in terms of graphics and the music. Nice particle effects during the night, though maybe they could have been toned down to better show the element below them?

Overall, a simple endless runner that could really use hi-score system. Theme sort of drives the gameplay (switching between realms), though it's not as strong as some other gameplay mechanics.

Ghostris by Yal

(review #10)

That's a curious spin on the Tetris (speaking of spin, I was a little confused by the A/D for rotation, instinctively trying to rotate blocks with UP instead). There was lots of pieces moving, appearing and disappearing around. The movement happened at completely random times. Personally I would have preferred it occurred at fixed intervals, i.e. every 1-2 seconds a block has a *chance* to apply its effect, and outside of that "tick" all blocks are guaranteed to be idle. That way I won't get messed by last milliseconds' completely unpredictable change in the blocks layout; instead I can wait for the next "tick" to make sure the layout stays favourable until I quick-drop the piece.

Aside from that, the effects were pretty interesting. Skeletons, pumpkins and wisps stand out in particular; other pieces just keep moving around or are completely idle. There was also some variety of shapes; the larger ones can be painful, but they can also be pretty beneficial under right circumstances. Ability to possess pieces was pretty helpful at times, too (especially when a large piece appeared and I wasn't quite ready for it). I kinda want to see one of Tetris champions play it.
(also, I agree with Catastrophe that skeletons are best pieces)

The beginning and the end intermissions could be shorter. I mean, it's not Super Meat Boy with its insanely short iterations begging for even shorter restarts, but there's still a tad too much waiting between one game and another (especially the Game Over part feels excessively long).

The presentation is high quality, though it's no surprise coming from you. I'm pretty sure if it was a Ludum Dare entry, you would score high in the Mood category.

Overall, pretty wacky and fun. The actions randomness could be toned down to make the gameplay a little more strategic without losing much of unpredictability. Theme drives the gameplay (possessed pieces acting on their own, fitting the supernatural entity they're associated with).

(spin-off idea - Ghostris Skeletons: How High Can You Score Before Getting Bored to Death?)

Gluttony, My Master by Cantaloupe

(review #16)

Well, that was definitely creepy and kinda gross (not in a strictly negative sense, though). Doesn't quite spell SUPERNATURAL to me as much, it's more like it crossed the border into SURREALISTIC territory. ^^'

Presentation was quite fitting, I particularly appreciate this unsettling shaking effect and the audio panning. The level graphics felt a bit simplistic, but they did their job.

I didn't like the controls much, they involved much micro-controlling. It's mostly about having to select and move a piece every turn and having to navigate between pieces by moving the selector around the level, but you only can move along the free fields. I mean, it does add to this suffocating feeling, especially compared to something as swift as selecting the piece with mouse instead, but I'm not sure I want this kind of feeling here. I appreciate an undo option, at least.
Also, some extra feedback to indicate which field is selectable and which is not would likewise help.
Another feel - I don't quite like how slow the resolution cycle was. Would prefer if it was ~2 times faster or so.

The setting and the story is certainly creative and has this consistent eerie tone to it. I just wish I knew whether the game has ending changing depending on player's performance, or is the conclusion always the same? I just tried going for another run while skipping all the levels and the story didn't change a bit, so I feel my performance doesn't matter, but maybe there's something I'm missing here? It'd definitely help if there was an information how much fat is possible to remove in a given level, though I kinda understand why it's not included.

Overall, an atmospheric entry, though the gameplay feels somewhat clunky with its controls and resolution cycle. The game transcends the theme, being so far removed from reality that there's no NATURAL to compare the SUPERNATURAL to.

Grave Mistake by Tyler, Emily, Vincent

(review #14)

It's been a while since I've seen a protagonist in a wheelchair. Granted, that protagonist from back then used a gun recoil to propel himself around.

Here it's more of a regular battle/platforming thing. The first part mostly consists of demons to defeat with spirit bullets, the other is jumping around with ghostly legs. To be honest, neither was particularly interesting in terms of pure mechanics; especially fighting demons was somewhat dull, just fending off their attacks in an attack-reload cycle.

The stronger suit of this game is its story and atmosphere, including the audiovisuals. There's a nice variety to the backgrounds, the protagonist and ghosts/creatures are well animated and the music completes the mood. There is also a pretty functional dialogue system in place with some variety in colours and such, so props for making that as well.

I played around with the level editor, though I feel it requires a little too much micromanagement - in particular placing the collision boxes separately from the walls, and no autotiling. I feel like basic GM room editor would do at least as good a job without needing to make an entire editor for that. But hey, it's still a commendable effort. ^^'

Overall, a nice atmospheric entry with a good amount of story, if maybe a bit dull mechanically. Theme is used in presentation and story, which is appropriate in a story-driven game in the first place.

Hazel by FreddyShnitz

(review #23)

I feel like I spent more time on it than I should have. ^^'

Apparently, there are two aspects to this game - choosing the destination on a map and a side-scrolling travelling. The latter isn't as much a shooter but a typing game, centered around ABCD letters. Considering there are only four symbols in the first place, I'd rather have them as arrow keys (better than letters because they're consistent across keyboard layouts). Also, the travelling segments are basically the same - just 3 letter ghosts keep spawning as you go through the tedious journey (90 seconds long, maybe?). By the way, there's zero penalty for typing the wrong keys, so sometimes I just spammed the keys until the ghosts were defeated.

The map portion seems to be broken, because after travelling I ended up on a different cell I've chosen before (twice in a row, at that). Because of that, I gave up on the game, as I couldn't get one of ingredients. I think the game could have been designed differently while still keeping its core characteristics - just simplify map portion to five destinations (or however many ingredients are needed) to be selected freely, and then have a level based on a destination. In one case it could feature a forest with werewolves, in another it could be wastelands with ghosts, each level with a different gimmick - some variety is always welcome. Then - assuming the end goal was to gather all ingredients and perform the summoning - have it happen as the player gathers all ingredients. I think this kind of mechanic would work better than the current map, which is a little too sophisticated for the gameplay involved.

The graphics are alright, though the mouse cursor sometimes interfered with the gameplay (mostly when obscuring some letters around the nearby ghost), and the world map is too dark. There was no audio, sadly.

Overall, there seems to be some viable concept, but the gameplay could use some redesign. Theme is used in presentation only, and it's ghosts again.

Homebound by Shadow_Lancer

(review #5)

So, I didn't see any explicitly stated goal, but I figured that the lights are bad, so I made the point of breaking every single light there was. I succeeded, though I had to use the last ashtray (?) in the basement, so these pesky lamps were pretty close to prevailing. They were no match to the TV remote or the teddy bear, though (plush ain't brittle!).

As unfinished and goal-less this game is, it was still fun to play that self-imposed challenge. The poltergeist mechanic was functional, and the strength depended on the object controlled (teddy bear was tricky to control, still). The physics were pretty fun to work with.

The graphics was pretty good and varied. I just wish there was some audio to go along with my evil spirit's quest for Complete Darkness.

Overall, a pretty fun physics self-challenge game. Theme was driving the gameplay (the items possession).

Im a hunt ghosts! by Misu

(review #20)

The game froze for me when moving around and encountering an obstacle, kind of like it entered an infinite loop (I had to close the game from the task manager). It happened twice in a row - couldn't even complete a single game. I don't quite feel like trying once again only to get the freeze once more...

Too bad, because otherwise the gameplay looks pretty interesting and has some potential. I only got to directly vacuuming the ghosts, not reaching the part where hidden enemies appear (I wonder how to recognize the hidden ghost in such case?). Chasing the ghosts with the absorption device was pretty fun when it didn't freeze, though I'd prefer if the movement speed radius was smaller (i.e. so that you can reach the maximum speed at the smaller range than it currently is; if there's any maximum range?).

I think it'd be nice to include some visual feedback that a ghost is about to attack, though. Also, sometimes for some reason the right-click button felt unresponsive, and there wasn't anything to indicate the weapon is reloading, either.

The presentation is generally cool, with these various background elements, main characters, lighting effects and audio. I also appreciate an addition of Notluigi's taunts, though I guess not each of these taunts is suitable for every audience? ^^'

Overall, it looks like it could be some pretty fun entry, but freezes kinda spoil it for me. Theme sort of drives the gameplay (vacuuming the ghosts) and is largely included through story/presentation.

Lab 23 by HayManMarc, Micah_DS

(review #8)

You know, there's that rule "show, don't tell". It's not an absolute rule, but I totally would dig seeing the protagonist walk away triumphantly with exploding facility in the background, instead of reading about it. ^^'

Going back to the beginning, though. When I read about moving items around and tossing them with telekinetic power, I instinctively started thinking about how I would go about that. One of my earliest thoughts was that I definitely wouldn't take the distance between the immediate previous and current object position, because players would likely slow down the mouse motion before actually releasing the mouse. I mean, when you throw a thing, you just need to reach peak speed once and as soon as you slow down, the thing is naturally "released" and keeps going on its own with the momentum you've given.

Instead, I'd try to figure out some mechanics to keep the momentum going despite the actual mouse movement slowing down. Maybe use some kind of an average between recent frames, or maybe use some effect akin to coyote frames (the object would keep some its momentum despite mouse slowing down, much like a platformer character doesn't fall immediately after moving out of the ground). I'm afraid this kind of compensation mechanics wasn't implemented here, because trying to throw things with a basic mouse drag-move-drop often resulted in the object just staying near the mouse position of the drop. Too bad, because telekinesis was the core mechanic here.

Aside from that, the gameplay was pretty functional (though I did manage to get a desk stuck with my telekinesis) and had some basic variety to it. The boss could have about half its health; it's not that it was challenging, but trying to throw stuff at it was a nuisance, mostly because of the tricky telekinesis mechanics. The presentation was good - the graphics worked well together, and music was fitting.

Overall, a decent entry, but the telekinesis mechanics could have been handled better. Theme is driving the gameplay (telekinetic powers); I appreciate using the theme without spooks.

Necro-more-cy by Relic

(review #7)

In a way, this game reminds me of eat-smaller-fish kind of gameplay, though here taking down significantly weaker groups is more efficient.

The gameplay works well enough - raising the opponent's units as your own minions was a neat idea, and I liked the variety of units I could spawn. However, the game lacks clarity on each unit's capabilities and how the battles work, so I can't math my way into deciding whether 1 dragon can defeat 1 knight + 3 mages, or if 1 giant can take down 4 swordsmen. It applies to allied units as well - should I spend all these graves on a dragon or on level 2 fighters?

Another issue is randomness. On one playthrough I'd get like 8 minions before meeting a group that doesn't consist of 12 units or more, other time I'd meet several groups of 3-4 enemies each, getting units much faster. It wouldn't have been as much of a problem if the game didn't impose time limit. Maybe if you didn't have a time limit, but instead an objective to defeat all predefined human groups wandering around (and the time spent would be the reverse score), it wouldn't feel as unfair and also would allow the player to build a magnificent army, adding to the general satisfaction.

Presentation is fine, but both audio and graphics were pre-existing assets.

I wonder who is this "derp" who dominated the leaderboards. Is a score as large as 900-something even possible? With all that wandering around and looking for graves while looking for smaller fish I couldn't even get to 100.

Overall, a cool game idea, but it could use some balancing and/or rethinking the gameplay design. Theme was driving the gameplay (summoning the undead forces).

Night Of The Living Taters by dadio

(review #18)

Alas, poor potato, unable to Escape the Room. I thought the game was broken because potato's abilities weren't working on that smiling person that appeared at some point, but apparently it wasn't an enemy (or maybe it wasn't a human)?
Also, you might want to reconsider using Z for controls, as it can mess with some keyboard layouts (QWERTZ, AZERTY etc.). I guess other letters are risky, too (just like A from AZERTY), but Z in particular.
Theme is used in presentation/story only, and I couldn't get to see the proper supernatural abilities here.

Ouija by Sk8dududu, Riley

(review #24)

That was some cool concept, though it took me quite a while and lots of unsuccessful attempts to figure out what's going on in the first place. I think the game would have greatly benefited from being keyboard-only - just press Enter to play, and select the keyword with arrow keys and again press Enter to confirm (plus, having the current word highlighted adds extra feedback that these can be selected - discoverability!). Why making the controls more distant when it's not necessary? Either way, I managed to correctly pick all three words and the game returned to menu, so I guess I won? Would be really nice to have some victory screen.

The graphics were pretty well made, and the sounds fit the game as well, though the ingame music stopped about halfway through - someone didn't set the looping to true?

Overall, pretty unique gameplay, though could use more explanation and better controls. Theme was driving the gameplay in an original way.

Paranormal by Siolfor the Jackal

(review #22)

Rest in pies. *cue the boss is showered with pies* (aka "How Paranormal Should Have Ended")

That was a good fighter game. I liked this bit of variety added by different weapons taking down different enemies, though would be nice to have even more types of opponents throughout the game, with other behaviours. The boss was alright, but could have more attacks and/or less health. Also, the attacks actual range should have some visual indicator, otherwise I can't even tell which areas are safe and which aren't.

The presentation is good; I feel like you've improved in animation and general design (those were some neat cartoony linearts). The music was also fitting, though I'd have liked if the boss had a separate soundtrack.

From technicalities: after you win, you go back to the game instead of main menu, and the options menu is broken (I remembered that since Options was the first option I went to).

Overall, a decent entry. Theme used mostly in presentation and story, though it explains some mechanics.

Scary Ghost by stenol

(review #1)

Yay, I came back safely!

A good game for multitasking - for the most part I had my left hand on controls while using the right hand to hold a sandwich I was eating (I was hungry after all that Jamming and ZIP-gathering). Just when I finished eating, the game started picking up a pace, eventually leading to the long awaited boss battle. After awakening my inner Reimu I dodges dozens of bullets and won the game with the thrilling 1 HP.

The entry isn't bad, but it has a few issues. First, most of the game I could go on with taking little damage (like, 3 HP) and without really paying that much attention; only at the end an actual challenge appeared. The low difficulty wouldn't have been as much of a problem if the game advanced a little faster. However, lots of the time I took down enemies in a certain segment and was waiting for quite a while to see the next wave of opponents.

Another thing - there was a bug that cancelled out my bullets whenever I shot from bottom of the screen - kind of like the game checked for player bullets to be outside of the screen in general, rather than whether it went above the screen specifically, and as a result bullets were destroyed as soon as I shot them.

Oh, and also - please don't use mouse-controller menu when the gameplay itself is entirely keyboard-controlled. It adds unnecessary complexity to the controls.

Overall, it's slow at first, but the final battle is somewhat fun. Theme is used in presentation only.

Spectre 2023 by Bearman_18

(review #6)

Ah, I see you are a man of meme culture as well.

I love how much pizazz this game has and how the presentation works together; I particularly liked the touch with the voiced tutorial. The sight of the protagonist shooting to the both sides is even enough for me to forgive using mouse-but-only-buttons controls. There's also a good amount of content.

It doesn't work so well when it comes to level and mechanics design. One of the trickiest thing is jumping - I was already planning to suggest pass-through platforms, but trg601 beat me to it. With these, level 2 in particular would have played much smoother (and this is the level that took me the most time).

Also, while I appreciate how stylish it is when the shadow jumps away from the protagonist, it makes the ability unnecessarily hard to use, especially when I want to activate it on a narrow platform. Speaking of abilities, I spent a lot of time waiting for the shadow recharge; would have preferred if the cooldown was shorter, because you either appear in the safe spot, and then you can wait as much as you like, or you appear in a dangerous spot, and then you become mincemeat within a second if you don't quickly go somewhere safe.

As for the level design issues - why checkpoints are at the spots around enemies? I mean, I can just hold down the mouse buttons to shoot them down as soon as I respawn, but it's still quite annoying that I can't get a breather right after respawning. The level design I'm most salty about, though - putting the information about rocket flipping in *level 3*. After I spent so much time trying to take down the potato upstairs, even succeeding to do it with my gun once and eventually figuring out the rocket flipping on my own. And then that instruction appears in level 3, where the rocket flipping is nowhere near as helpful; it kinda felt like a joke of sorts. ^^'

By the way, after playing this game I realised that the classic GameMaker clowns kinda look like disguised potatoes. I mean, their shape, their complexion and such...

Still, as much as this game has lots of gameplay design issues, I found it pretty enjoyable thanks to the sheer style and presentation of it. Theme was driving the gameplay (the supernatural spectre abilities).

submerge. by Josh Chen

(review #21)

So I got some bragging rights, it seems. They are well deserved for getting $4.80 in a game where it all has to be collected in a single run.

It's a nice little upgrade-based entry, though the top speed could be a little lower (or at least give some sort of slow-mode for precise dodging) and more forgiving hitboxes - sometimes I felt like the obstacle hit me from farther away than it should. Also, the fact that collected money is lost after closing the shop makes the game significantly more difficult, though it's not really a bad thing.

The overall premise and graphics are fine - the premise in particular sounds like the kind of thing GameDevDan could apply in one of his games (with these ecological themes and such). Graphics aren't particularly great, but they aren't too ugly, either, and serve their purpose in the game. The viewport, on the other hand, might work better when shifted towards the top, so that the player can see incoming junk earlier and react accordingly. Sadly, there seems to be no audio here.

Overall, a solid game, though some aspects (collision especially) could be improved. No apparent use of theme, until the story is about a turle avoiding synthetics to stay, like, 120% natural - in other words, super-natural. Either way, this lack of clear theme use will cost the game several ranks.

Super Adrenaline Boy by lazertrax

(review #25)

You know the game needs rebalancing when the most viable tactic is to close your eyes and scream at the top of your lungs.
It's the case here - I made it through all the levels by keeping eyes closed all the time and spamming the scream attack.

Other than these balancing issues, the gameplay concept is pretty cool, though maybe either the speed could be toned down, or the completion split into shorter segments? High-intensity long-running challenges tend to ramp up the difficulty too much, especially when you can reliably repeat the earlier sections and need to learn later ones.

The presentation is good, though the super-blocky enemies look completely out of place compared to high resolution background and cartoony protagonist. I mean, I guess it makes them appear more "supernatural", but I'm not fond of this particular effect...

Overall, a cool hectic runner, though easy to cheese through. Theme is used in presentation, though all that spooky stuff drives the gameplay mechanics.

Supernatural Science by MikeeyBikeey, Aaron Baron, Caroline Zina

(review #9)

The gameplay was mechanically, but there are some things that could be redesigned. I wasn't particularly fond of various hazards activating as I progressed; or rather, something singular as rolling stones is fine, but a barrage of arrows or swarm of enemies is a bit much, especially since the player doesn't know what they'll face without trying. I guess it wouldn't have been as troublesome if the health slowly regenerated, instead of having a fixed number of non-recoverable hearts.

Also, there's some variety of weapons, but I'd rather have the game focused on melee/shoot attacks instead and be balanced with these abilities in mind. Extra weapons add extra controls, which leads to a clutter. Furthermore, for whatever reason the bomb and flame ring controls were introduced in the levels before the weapons actually were added, which led me to unsuccessfully launching a flame ring as I dashed to the end of second level.

The presentation of this game was good; I kinda liked the 3D perspective effect here. The music and sound effects also were appropriate. I appreciate the effort put in the menu, but particularly in the ending screen. I like when the game puts some extra effort to make the completion rewarding.

Generally a good entry, but gameplay could be improved. Theme is used in presentation only, and doesn't feel emphasized much.

The Cabin by Bart

(review #11)

Oh dear, they came back for me. The controls from my nightmares - the slider knobs!
I just can't get over it. Whenever I see a knob, I try to rotate it. No sane person would try to lift a knob to adjust corresponding setting in a real life, so why UI designers keep doing it? >.<

Possibly the only worse thing is the device next to the oscilloscope thing. Apparently, it changes value each frame the left mouse button is held over a device button. It basically means that if I want to set an exact value, I'd sooner do that by waving mouse up and down (with left button held) - crossing the device button along the way - rather than trying to do a blazing-fast click on that button.

User experience aside, the game has nice mood and presentation, but the ghosts were disposed of before I was exposed to any of their trickery. I really wish there was some strong feedback indicating the ghost's state (whether it's hurt or perfectly fine) so that I'd know better how they're affected. Also, the camera is a nice addition, but doesn't really feel all that useful; I kinda wish I could get some score or cash for quality photos with ghosts on them (kinda thinking about Touhou photography games for some reason).

Overall, I appreciate the general idea, but it could have better UI design choices and... well, more complete gameplay.

The House by The M, Ghandpivot

(review #12)

There definitely *was* something behind the painting in the corridor! Why else it would be uninteractible?!

So, I eventually reached the ending (*cough* with a little help *cough*). I got held back by a certain doorstop; it seems there was a wordplay on "wedge" that's easily lost to non-native English speakers. Aside from that, though, that was pretty enjoyable adventure game, though on the trial-and-error side. I definitely like the various flavour remarks sprinkled here and there, whether these would be puns, backreferences (paintings, pendulum) or dry wit (lively flowers).

I wouldn't go as far to call the ending brilliant, but it definitely is a nice twist, and the protagonist's decision make him more likeable somehow. Was it ghandpivot's idea? Going by earlier Jam games, it feels like it would be in his style.

The presentation was fitting; maybe not the cleanest and prettiest there is, but consistent and with solid quality. I just wish there wasn't that smudging when transitioning between rooms. I definitely liked the variety of props - clearly splitting the workload helped here. The audio was also fitting the game.

Overall, a delightful adventure with lots of personality, though also some trial-and-error typical for the genre. Theme drives the overall story and the mood; also, there's this uncanny screen-shifting effect (which I thankfully have the appropriate display resolution for).

The Mouse Curser by Cloaked Games, aSingleCapella

(review #3)

Ah, darn, I hoped for some kind of cool meta adventure... and it kinda is, but it's short.

I mean, I broke out of the jar, then I kept checking out the bulleting board notes. Lots of GM memes, references to Games topic posts, the Last Librarian note, general memes, and also some Morse encoded message. If my Morse code memory serves me right, it was "HI FROM CG", so hello to you too, I suppose (the 5th and 6th letters were harder to decode because the dashes just blended into some long lines)?

Sadly, there was no content after cleaning up the bulletin board, seeing all the ASCII art and stuff. Also, no audio, though the graphics are cool. The concept seemed very promising, but in the end I guess time constraints happened.

Theme is sort of used in this supernatural ASCII-art or something? And also in referencing Jam games, and the main plot was to be about the curses, but there's not too much of the main plot... ^^'

VLAD III by Fernando Gonzalez

(review #4)

I totally dig the music of this game; from MediaCharger, apparently? I wonder which track it is in particular; there's dozens of tracks on their channel. ^^'
Too bad there were no sound effects, though.

The background art was pretty cool. Not sure how I feel about the stickmen, but the animation is good, especially the shapeshifting one, so I guess I don't mind.

The gameplay was satisfying - in particular when I swoop down on a victim, or sneak up on someone from behind. I just kinda don't know what's the point of Witnesses - is the game over after there are too many of them? I didn't see it explained anywhere. Eventually, I ended the game with 44 victims and 2 witnesses, and I got congratulations, so I guess so few witnesses aren't a problem.

Overall, a pretty enjoyable, quick-to-play entry with a well-chosen music. Theme was driving the gameplay (the vampire-like shapeshifting mechanic). Well done.

重力スワッパー/Gravity Switcher by TheMiningBoyAlpha

(review #28)

Somewhat plain platformer thing, though I kinda like I can slowly glide down by doing these slaps mid-air. I wish the gravity switching mechanic didn't mess with the left/right controls, that bit was annoying. Also, the zombies are way too quick; there's no much fighting skill involved, just keep slapping and hope they won't deal too much damage. Generally, the gameplay wasn't too great, but it was balanced enough to make the completion reasonably possible (even with limited lives).

Graphics aren't too great, but also aren't jarring. The animation works well enough. There are a few sound effect, but no music. There is some story at least, and after I complete the game, I actually get a conclusion.

Overall, a passable platformer. I guess there is an attempt at theme use with zombies, but since they've originated from 100% scientific virus, there's no supernatural element to them.
 

Bart

WiseBart
Reviews
Top 3:
The House by The M, Ghandpivot
What a great room transition effect!
Lovely sense of humour, too.
There's so much content in this game
Ghostris by Yal
I love the ragtime piano music of this game.
Everything is polished, from the 'old' sounding background music to the visual grain effect and the animations of the Tetris blocks.
My first thought was to put this aside as 'another Tetris clone', but it's so original that that wouldn't do any justice to this entry.
Definitely a candidate for best presentation, too
Chiaroscuro by Dickson Law
This game looks incredibly polished
Definitely a candidate for best presentation
I've never played Reversi before but I must say that I really enjoyed this entry
Also, nice names for the custom maps that fit well with the theme
Best ofs:
Best use of Theme: Homebound by Shadow_Lancer
Best Concept: The House by The M, Ghandpivot
Best Presentation: Ghostris by Yal
Best Story: Grave Mistake by Tyler, Emily, Vincent
Best Devlog: ...
Full ranking:
  1. The House by The M, Ghandpivot
  2. Ghostris by Yal
  3. Chiaroscuro by Dickson Law
  4. Im a hunt ghosts! by Misu
  5. Necro-more-cy by Relic
  6. Grave Mistake by Tyler, Emily, Vincent
  7. VLAD III by Fernando Gonzalez
  8. Spectre 2023 by Bearman_18
  9. Bit Souls by Roa
  10. Telepath's Escape by Alice, mp
  11. Lab 23 by HayManMarc, Micah_DS
  12. Gluttony, My Master by Cantaloupe
  13. Supernatural Science by MikeeyBikeey, Aaron Baron, Caroline Zina
  14. Ghost Run by Cat, var
  15. Super Adrenaline Boy by lazertrax
  16. Homebound by Shadow_Lancer
  17. Paranormal by Siolfor the Jackal
  18. Ouija by Sk8dududu, Riley
  19. Boo! Dice by GameDevDan
  20. The Mouse Curser by Cloaked Games, aSingleCapella
  21. Hazel by FreddyShnitz
  22. Scary Ghost by stenol
  23. Night Of The Living Taters by dadio
  24. submerge. by Josh Chen
  25. Deadly Dungeon by KPJ
  26. Demon Santa by Catastrophe
  27. Dodge Em' Dracula by Firedingo
  28. 重力スワッパー/Gravity Switcher by TheMiningBoyAlpha
Comments:
Bit Souls by Roa
Interesting game/demo
Plays smoothly and there's a nice atmosphere behind that first door.
You could've disabled that debug overlay, though :p
Boo! Dice by GameDevDan
Everything looks and plays nice
Nicely polished
A fun game to play for a while, although it couldn't keep my attention for too long
Chiaroscuro by Dickson Law
This game looks incredibly polished
Definitely a candidate for best presentation
I've never played Reversi before but I must say that I really enjoyed this entry
Also, nice names for the custom maps that fit well with the theme
Deadly Dungeon by KPJ
The game is fun to play for a while
There seems to be quite a bit of variation in the evil death's moves, which is nice
Demon Santa by Catastrophe
Ah, so I can double jump. That wasn't clear from the start.
Doesn't feel like a great use of theme.
This game was fun to play for a moment. It's quite challenging.
The walking animation doesn't stop when the key is released
Dodge Em' Dracula by Firedingo
The dracula character looks nice.
Unfortunately there's nothing to do in this game.
The walking animation doesn't stop when the key is released
I got a fatal error when walking into the finish:
___________________________________________
############################################################################################
FATAL ERROR in
action number 1
of Step Eventobj_goal
for object obj_player:
unable to convert string "testing" to bool
at gml_Object_obj_player_Collision_08dad2d9_5a70_4cc7_99d6_59ebf3264fe9
############################################################################################
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
stack frame is
gml_Object_obj_player_Collision_08dad2d9_5a70_4cc7_99d6_59ebf3264fe9 (line -1)
Ghost Run by Cat, var
Nice idea
Pretty graphics
Ghostris by Yal
I love the ragtime piano music of this game.
Everything is polished, from the 'old' sounding background music to the visual grain effect and the animations of the Tetris blocks.
My first thought was to put this aside as 'another Tetris clone', but it's so original that that wouldn't do any justice to this entry.
Definitely a candidate for best presentation, too
Gluttony, My Master by Cantaloupe
Definitely another candidate for best presentation, and also for best story
The music, color scheme, sound effects create a very nice atmosphere.
I don't really understand the mechanic behind this.
It seems like eating just a little bit is enough to complete a level.
In the end I got to 'FIN.', which I guess is French for "The End"
Grave Mistake by Tyler, Emily, Vincent
Now this is a nice entry!
Interesting how you use the wheelchair as part of the gameplay.
Pretty graphics, supported by fitting sound effects and a beautiful background music.
The character animations are very detailed, especially the aiming of the main character.
Hazel by FreddyShnitz
I've had a few tries at this game, first in the school level, where I got a fatal error:
___________________________________________
############################################################################################
FATAL ERROR in
action number 1
of Draw Event
for object Hazel:
Variable Hazel.dist(100021, -2147483648) not set before reading it.
at gml_Object_Hazel_Draw_64
############################################################################################
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
stack frame is
gml_Object_Hazel_Draw_64 (line -1)
Overall this is pretty okay. There is a world map where you navigate to places and to get there you first need to do a race.
I like the idea of the side-scrolling shooter combined with letters that need to match.
Not sure if A, B, C and D are the best choices, though, since they're a great distance apart on the keyboard.
Hm, seems like the witch doesn't end up at the right location after completing a flight/level.
Homebound by Shadow_Lancer
There's some great potential in this
Im a hunt ghosts! by Misu
This game seems to draw its inspiration from a well-known game by a big game company with similar gameplay :D
I like it. Graphical effects are nice and the effects make catching ghosts a rewarding experience.
Candidate for best presentation
Lab 23 by HayManMarc, Micah_DS
Nice
Necro-more-cy by Relic
Ooh, this is entertaining! Surprisingly fun.
I like the concept behind this.
Night Of The Living Taters by dadio
Okay... Not sure what this is :p
I get a list of controls and it seems the only keys I actually need are WSAD/arrow keys.
Bonus points for the funky disco music!
This entry is absolutely absurd. I like it :D
Ouija by Sk8dududu, Riley
Everything looks greatly polished
A candidate for best presentation.
I have no idea how to avoid being crushed.
Paranormal by Siolfor the Jackal
Very nice polished graphics!
The background music is okay.
The game itself is fun to play for a while but I'm not sure if there's an end goal.
Got a fatal error in the options screen:
___________________________________________
############################################################################################
FATAL ERROR in
action number 1
of Draw Event
for object obj_options:
Variable obj_options.isy(100027, -2147483648) not set before reading it.
at gml_Script_sc_textImage
############################################################################################
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
stack frame is
gml_Script_sc_textImage (line -1)
gml_Object_obj_options_Draw_0
Scary Ghost by stenol
A good entry.
The graphics are okay and sound effects and music are fitting.
The graphical style of the main menu doesn't seem consistent with the rest of the game.
Spectre 2023 by Bearman_18
Love the background music
Nice attention to details everywhere
The use of your shadow is a nice concept and a good use of the theme
submerge. by Josh Chen
Entertaining for a short while, I got to rank 6
A background music and a sound effect would've added a lot to the experience
There's no relation to the theme
Super Adrenaline Boy by lazertrax
A very interesting idea but it's pretty hard to get to the end
Music and graphics are good, a good amount of polish
The character style does feel different than the environment, though
Supernatural Science by MikeeyBikeey, Aaron Baron, Caroline Zina
I like how this game creates an atmosphere by using a topdown perspective projection combined with the environment
Trees can be moved and attacks leave their marks on the environment
The background music gets a bit repetitive after a while
Telepath's Escape by Alice, mp
Very interesting idea
The House by The M, Ghandpivot
What a great room transition effect!
Lovely sense of humour, too.
There's so much content in this game
The Mouse Curser by Cloaked Games, aSingleCapella
Ah. Very short but quite original.
I like it.
No music or sfx unfortunately
VLAD III by Fernando Gonzalez
Dead simple and yet so entertaining
Yeah, a very nice entry
重力スワッパー/Gravity Switcher by TheMiningBoyAlpha
The game starts with a fatal error unfortunately:
___________________________________________
############################################################################################
FATAL ERROR in
action number 1
of Create Event
for object LOGO:
Push :: Execution Error - Variable Get 100002.lang(100061, -2147483648)
at gml_Object_LOGO_Create_0
############################################################################################
 

The M

Member
Here we go!

Top 3:
Telepath's Escape by Alice, mp

Chiaroscuro by Dickson Law

Ghostris by Yal

Best ofs:
Best use of Theme: Ghostris by Yal
Best Concept: Ghostris by Yal
Best Presentation: Gluttony, My Master by Cantaloupe
Best Story: Spectre 2023 by Bearman_18

Full ranking:
  1. Telepath's Escape by Alice, mp
  2. Chiaroscuro by Dickson Law
  3. Ghostris by Yal
  4. Super Adrenaline Boy by lazertrax
  5. Spectre 2023 by Bearman_18
  6. Gluttony, My Master by Cantaloupe
  7. Supernatural Science by MikeeyBikeey, Aaron Baron, Caroline Zina
  8. Necro-more-cy by Relic
  9. Ouija by Sk8dududu, Riley
  10. Paranormal by Siolfor the Jackal
  11. Im a hunt ghosts! by Misu
  12. submerge. by Josh Chen
  13. VLAD III by Fernando Gonzalez
  14. Boo! Dice by GameDevDan
  15. Grave Mistake by Tyler, Emily, Vincent
  16. Bit Souls by Roa
  17. Deadly Dungeon by KPJ
  18. Ghost Run by Cat, var
  19. Lab 23 by HayManMarc, Micah_DS
  20. Scary Ghost by stenol
  21. The Mouse Curser by Cloaked Games, aSingleCapella
  22. The Cabin by Bart
  23. Homebound by Shadow_Lancer
  24. Hazel by FreddyShnitz
  25. Demon Santa by Catastrophe
  26. Dodge Em' Dracula by Firedingo
  27. Night Of The Living Taters by dadio
  28. 重力スワッパー/Gravity Switcher by TheMiningBoyAlpha

Comments:
Bit Souls by Roa

I never imagined a soulslike game to be in the jam. This one feels decently polished with nice graphics and good voice acting. It was cool to find new weapons but they didn't feel as powerful as your starting equipment since they cost a lot more stamina to use. I'd have liked a second bonfire (if there was one, I didn't find it) because dying a few times got annoying. With more polish, I could see a souls game like this actually work. The combat is pretty good and timing those parries feels great. It is a bit hard to see when enemies (and you) are within reach which makes it a bit tougher, perhaps some kind of highlighting system could help with that?

Boo! Dice by GameDevDan

The game looks nice and has some neat touches, like the background moving with the mouse. The premise, to roll higher than the opponent without busting is fine but not terribly exciting. The different AIs were cool and it was fun to discover what quirk your next opponent would have. My issue with the game was how it felt like your actions didn't really matter. Either you high-rolled and won or you'd get a ghost and bust but you needed to re-roll enough dice to match your opponent so the choice to stay low was often not an alternative. Because of these rules the very first opponent was, in my opinion, the hardest one which felt weird. Playing a few matches it also started to feel sluggish, as you play a lot of rounds and there's a decent amount of waiting in between.

Chiaroscuro by Dickson Law

I really enjoyed this, much more than I thought I would. It's a very interesting take on a classic game while it feels similar it's also so very different. I love how both players can choose between placing back or white tiles but the board still ends up a fairly balanced mix of the two. It's also cool how you sometimes choose to place a tile that gives score to your opponent because it puts you in a better position. It got a bit overwhelming at times when you had a lot of options to consider and at first I always tried to click on the token I wanted to play but I quickly lost that habit. I think the UI is fine, it has some neat animations but doesn't get in the way. One thing I realized was that the spinning circle in the background would have looked even better if the layers spun at different speeds or maybe in different directions. Finally, the AI was surprisingly good. I beat it (of course :p) but I still felt like it made some clever moves.

Deadly Dungeon by KPJ

It starts fairly simple but eventually picks up the pace and gets brutal at the end. It's an interesting idea to have different attacks with different strategies. I went with fireball and I can see the pros and cons with the other two. Getting close to the boss was an issue, because of the fireball's limited range you really didn't want to waste it but going closer to the boss made you way more exposed to its attacks. I think it'd have been much better if you could tell how close you had to be, for example if there was a highlighted ring around the boss showing the required range. When it comes to attack patterns these were alright but not very exciting, especially since the bosses mostly reused the same moves. Since you only have one life, it'd be nice if there was a highlight or effect when you got hit. Several times the battle restarted and I couldn't tell what had hit me and a "death cam", if you want to call it that, would have made it less shocking or frustrating.

Demon Santa by Catastrophe

I'd tone down the brightness/saturation of the background a bit because it's very intense and make the game somewhat hard to look at. The gameplay is intense with many precarious jumps that feels like they shouldn't be possible but still is (which can be thrilling as you overcome the odds). The game is also very hard and I couldn't get very far before either missing a jump or getting shot by an angel. Coming directly from Super Adrenaline Boy, I can't help noting that "pathetic" and "nicely done" leaves two very different emotions and the latter made me much more eager to try again and best my record.

Dodge Em' Dracula by Firedingo

It's a good enough concept but since it crashes upon you reaching the goal there is no development of the game and nothing to see beyond the first level.

Ghost Run by Cat, var

It's neat and looks really nice. The gameplay is basic but is made a little more interesting thanks to the plane switching. I think the obstacles are too uncommon as I often went several seconds without any appearing. Once there were a few around it got interesting, your jump is so sluggish that you have no problem clearing even large clusters of rocks but you are also committed to it for a long time. Thankfully, the phasing could take care of the landing but this also meant you were practically invincible and made the game very easy.

Ghostris by Yal

It's Tetris but it's cool and annoying. It was fun to figure out how each block worked, though it did mean the first playthrough would end in disaster as gaps closed as I desperately tried to fit blocks into them. I must admit I kind of panicked when one of the huge blocks dropped. The game is well designed and feels good to play, but how well you perform seems kind of up to luck (get a skull made of stars and you're basically screwed, but get a ghost made of skulls and you're home free). If anything, I'd want an online high score board so I could compare how well I performed with everyone else.

Gluttony, My Master by Cantaloupe

It's haunting and looks great. I never really grasped the mechanics: because it didn't matter if you beat or lost a level it was hard to tell IF you'd beaten it. The interface is good but just slightly too slow. You have to wait for the state to update and do a lot of button presses to navigate the blocks and that kept me from experiment as much as I'd probably have done otherwise. These two issues combine and made the game less enjoyable. However, there were a few great puzzles and the story was very interesting and I looked forward for it to continue. This, combined with polished graphics and audio I still liked my time with the game.

Grave Mistake by Tyler, Emily, Vincent

The game has a very interesting setting and immediately feels different since you can't jump. The combat was fine but grew repetitive, especially when your movement options were limited and you basically had to take down the enemies one or two at a time and then move on to the next one. It seemed weird that once you got more mobility, the enemies were all gone because that's when I think the combat would have been the most fun. Instead it felt like you had a few different mechanics that you used only to throw away when something new was introduced.

Hazel by FreddyShnitz

This game really needs some instructions on how to play. I would guess that's what the school button was meant to do but the tutorial crashes (which is kind of ironic). From what I could tell, I was supposed to move along the grid and pick up the various ingredients by flying and avoiding ghosts. While the game seemed to be focused around the mouse it turns out you could type to banish the ghosts, which was pretty neat. Unfortunately, each flight takes several minutes (the exact time seemed to be random) and the enemies doesn't change or get harder in that time which makes it incredibly tedious. Failing and getting hit also seems to reset the game from the beginning which is a really harsh penalty given how long you have to play to beat it. I think the game has potential and the concept is neat but it needs some rebalancing before it will be fun to play for more than a minute.

Homebound by Shadow_Lancer

It's a cool concept and I like how smooth playing the game feels. Possessing items works seamlessly and it's fun to see what can be interacted with. There's also some nice physics interactions and effects, such as the shattering jars. It's too bad there's no goal or purpose to it.

Im a hunt ghosts! by Misu

The game has a really nice title screen that gets you in the mood. The presentation is clean and it was easy enough to play once you knew what you were doing. I had an issue with the tutorial as I accidentally clicked and skipped part of it and therefore didn't know how to capture ghosts. I think the problem was that I didn't know clicking would continue the tutorial as I did it to try moving as it instructed me to.

The gameplay is fine, capturing ghosts feels nice and there's some challenge in trying to keep them in range. That said, there were a few things I think could be improved. First off, I'd have liked some kind of radar tool to indicate in which direction the ghosts were. At the end of one particular wave I had to search the entire arena before finding the last ghost and that's not where the challenge should come from. Second, the game got repetitive too quickly as very little changed between waves. Eventually, new ghost types started appearing but they didn't do enough to spice things up. I think maybe introducing upgrades between waves and/or adding a timer would add some much-needed variety and challenge. It'd also be cool if you could capture multiple ghosts at the same time, kind of like in the game this one is referencing.

Lab 23 by HayManMarc, Micah_DS

It's neat and works well overall. I think the level progresses nicely and it's fun to see all the different things to fling around. The graphics are also very clean and easy to parse. I think the main gameplay mechanic is interesting but hard to use. Flinging objects was satisfying and it's nice that the power recharges so fast but there were a lot of times when I'd intended to throw an item but couldn't, probably because it had hit something and stuck or I'd stopped moving the mouse. That a small bin could lock down a huge table was also annoying and easily took me out of the power fantasy when it happened. The boss was nice and thematically appropriate. The game was just long enough to be interesting without outstaying its welcome.

Necro-more-cy by Relic

It's a cool concept and I like the idea of growing your army larger and stronger but I can't seem to do it successfully. Whenever I fight enemies, most of my army gets destroyed so it doesn't feel like I end up more powerful afterwards than before. Sure, with a concentration of graves I can create stronger units but they don't feel that much stronger compared to their cost (for example, is a level 2 skeleton stronger than 3 level 1 skeletons?). This is perhaps a side effect of not showing any damage numbers or unit stats. It's also a problem that whenever I grow in power, so does the enemy groups and I constantly feel outclassed. I managed to get a score of 100 at the highest but there's just no way I could see myself reach those top scores.

Night Of The Living Taters by dadio

I expected nothing less. The suspenseful buildup was great and just when I thought there was no exit and I'd be stuck in this room forever, you bring out the trollface. Masterful!

Ouija by Sk8dududu, Riley

The game was really cool but totally inexplainable. I walked around a bit, got crushed, tried again, lasted a little longer and got killed. I probably had to try a half-dozen times before I started to understand what the point of the game was, where you were allowed to walk and how to play. During that time I watched the intro animation a few too many times and it went from amazing to annoying. I think the game is a really neat take on the theme and it's well executed and visually appealing. Since so much of it revolves around trial and error when you don't know which word the sharp thingy will spell it's unfortunate that you have to restart from the beginning and wait for it to complete the patterns you already know.

Paranormal by Siolfor the Jackal

The game has an intensity in both graphics and music that mirrors the gameplay nicely. Blasting ghosts with the shotgun is really satisfying and the game makes you feel powerful, at least until you read the depth wrong and miss the enemy. That's when it takes a turn for the worse: enemies will counter and I often found myself swarmed and unable to do anything as they bounced me back and forth between each other until I died. Here's where I think the dash ability could have shone if you'd let the player use it to cancel out of the hit animation and get far enough away to not just get hit again immediately. I eventually got through to the end but that was through playing carefully and not nearly as aggressively as the tone of the game would have suggested me to do.

Scary Ghost by stenol

I find scrolling shooters like this one is tricky to get right because you have to carefully balance the pacing, having both intense sections and slower lulls. I think you've done a decent work, there are various enemy patterns and environmental obstacles that help create diversity but there were times where I'd cleared the screen of enemies and was just waiting for it to scroll up to the next group. I'd love to see a little more variation in attacks too, either as upgrades you could pick up or maybe as a charged attack or other special move you could perform on top of your regular shooting. Eventually I got curious about how far down you could walk and found the answer when got an instant game over. That felt bad since it wasn't really my fault and I didn't want to do it all over again.


Spectre 2023 by Bearman_18

I liked the basic mechanics of the game: it felt satisfying to fire a gun and even more so to fire both at once (especially when you could position yourself between the enemies) and dodging out of the way for enemy attacks gave a sense of control and dominance. Unfortunately, the game doesn't bring out those things to their best. The snipers were an example where it worked great, but the rocket launchers were another story where it worked less well (mostly because of the large and lingering hitboxes of the explosions). Platforming in general was very unforgiving and was the weakest part of the game. Personally, I'd have liked to see you drop the cooldown on somersaults entirely and instead let the player use it as a combat tool rather than a one-off move that mostly feels like a weaker version of the stealth skill. The atmosphere and crazy potato enemies were both great though and the voiced tutorial was a neat touch.

submerge. by Josh Chen

Whoa, a politically loaded jam game! I, for one, prefer my plastic straws well out of the ocean. Anyways, the game seemed straightforward enough at first so I was pleasantly surprised when the upgrade screen came around. It added a bit more much-needed depth to the game and made it fairly enjoyable. I didn't really understand what Rank did. I assume it was difficulty which I regret upgrading so much so early. I wish the camera was a little smarter: I don't need to see so much below me when all the danger is coming from above, especially if I'm moving up. I think offsetting the camera would make the game more interesting as you'd have more time to react and plan instead of relying on twitch reactions. I also died a lot when it seemed like I should have been ok. Perhaps the hit-boxes are a bit off on the rotated objects or maybe they're just really harsh?

Super Adrenaline Boy by lazertrax

The game was incredibly tough but also kind of beautiful in its simplicity. I really liked how you had to manage the adrenaline meter: too high and you can't scream any more, too low and you can't jump nor scream, if you get it down low you can turn invincible but then you can't see the enemies and risk getting hit when you open your eyes. I got to stage 13 at best and couldn't beat it until I realized you could close your eyes and still scream. This meant holding down Z and mashing X made me invincible indefinitely and I could easily get to the end, without seeing any of the game's content, sure, but still. I think the presentation is really slick but I think the death screen could be improved: first, I'd like to know where and how I died so keeping a shadow or something of the stage would help the player understand what they did wrong. It was alright for the first few stages but dying at stage 10+ to some sudden hazard meant a lot of backtracking before you could make another attempt and hopefully do better. The other thing I found was that Z would have been a better restart key than R. Having to reach for R got annoying and felt out of place since the rest of the game just use X and Z.

Supernatural Science by MikeeyBikeey, Aaron Baron, Caroline Zina

The game feels like a complete, bite sized adventure which is perfect for a jam. The mechanics work well and the 3D effect is really neat. The sounds are a bit hit or miss and often came out a bit loud or harsh but were fine overall. The level design is also mostly fine with some interesting mechanics, such as the bomb throwing and the darkness in the last level. I wasn't really a fan of the death traps. Spawning scores of enemies out of the blue when you pick up the key felt cheap, especially that one time when I'd cleared out the level and barely made it to the key with a single heart left before picking it up. It does add a layer of intensity but I think you could do it in a more "fair" way. The ending was nice and I like how it tied in with the title screen, it felt wholesome.

Telepath's Escape by Alice, mp

Well, that took longer than I had thought and I didn't even beat it! (At least not without cheating on the second to last level). I feel like the game doesn't hold any punches, it's hard. Thankfully, it's simplistic enough to get away with it. I think a few quality of life improvements could be made, such as combining enemy movement and attack range when looking at them to make gauging their actions easier. Other things worked really well from the beginning, like the rewind button allowing you to redo steps and try different tactics. I like how many different kinds of enemies there were and how they all felt very different from another. Simple changes, like the ghosts moving one extra tile suddenly made them a lot scarier than your normal guards.

The Cabin by Bart

There's some nice ambience going on here but the gameplay is lacking. I couldn't figure out which machine was which at first but I eventually settled on the left one being the transmitter. It didn't seem like it was always necessary to have the correct frequency, I'm not sure if 'close' was good enough or if it was something else. Actually inputting the correct value was incredibly hard as it ticked by one each frame (it was much easier on the tuner so I liked that one better). The effects caused by the ghosts were cool but I wish the effect I caused on them was more visible, it'd give me more feedback on if I was doing the right thing. Finally, I'd love to have a win (and lose) condition other than just taking pictures, which by the way was neat but ultimately pointless. I like the small touches, like the UFOs and the guy running through the woods.

The Mouse Curser by Cloaked Games, aSingleCapella

The start of the game was very intriguing. To have the mouse cursor stuck in a jar was unexpected and I wondered what the story behind its capture where. I noticed that moving the mouse fast would wobble the jar and I was excited to see what would happen if I broke out. It's unfortunate that nothing did happen when I broke the jar. Sure, there were the notes to go through and they were neat, but the game lacked the substance needed to make it something special.

VLAD III by Fernando Gonzalez

The intense music really carries the game. The setting is cool with the castle and the moon and the graphics work really well (the way the characters stop and ponder as you approach them gave a sense of powerful finality). I found the gameplay to be interesting but unfortunately too shallow: at first it was a puzzle to keep others from spotting me but it quickly turned into a routine where I'd fly over the first guy to get the second. I rarely had to think hard about my movement and it didn't feel like the game got more challenging over time. I liked it, but it couldn't sate my thirst.

重力スワッパー/Gravity Switcher by TheMiningBoyAlpha

Started with an exception, unfortunately.
 

Relic

Member
Reviews
Top 3:
The House by The M, Ghandpivot
Pros: The window sliding effect when changing rooms was great. The jokes were pretty funny. It was very well thought out with new interactions for each state of the game (before and after picking up items). Great story transition from typical house to superantural theme. Lots of unique sprite work. I'm amazed you did all this in the Jam time!
To Improve: Some issues with window going off my 1080p laptop monitor (think other reviewers said changing to 100% scaling fixed this). So had to guess the last number of the first combination lock as it was off screen. The last cheese wedge puzzle was obtuse - and am I correct in saying the solution would only work from one side of the door and not the other? Had greater expectations for the ending. Who was the other person in the house? I wanted to know more..
I was so in love with this game that I went out of my way, harassing members of the GMC to give me clues to get past the cheese wedge puzzle so I could continue. That's saying a lot since I'm perfectly fine with quitting a Jam game when the game fights against me too much.
Gluttony, My Master by Cantaloupe
Pros: The simple effect of tweening the ghost sprite made the game more lively. It was a unique and interesting puzzle experience.
To Improve: Was never sure of the win state. It's awfully appreciated to have a "move on" option for a jam game, but forcing the player to decide to move on meant I was never sure if I beat the puzzle. Was one point worth of tile enough? Or was there a method to get 3 points? As a lofty goal include, an Angry Birds star system - 3 stars for getting all possible points, 1 star for at least one point. The art was stylised and worked well, but that constant flicker of the background colour was annoying.
Paranormal by Siolfor the Jackal
Pros: Well presented. Having enemies vulnerable to different attacks was nice. Super fast retry was appreciated.
To improve: Basic checking of game - error when choosing options should have been caught. One boss enemy attack seemed to have an unfair hitbox (or was missing some pojectile type animation) as I was getting hit despite being quite far from the boss.
Best ofs:
Best use of Theme: Gluttony, My Master by Cantaloupe
Best Concept: Spectre 2023 by Bearman_18
Best Presentation: Chiaroscuro by Dickson Law
Best Story: The House by The M and Ghandpivot

I played and ranked the games by fun factor and quality of mechanics. It's a gut feeling based on concepts like uniqueness of mechanics (not just a standard platformer), whether mechanics matter (no good making something cool then letting the player ignore it because running past all enemies is a viable option) and how fun it is to use the mechanics. Art, presentation and story matter, but are a secondary consideration for me after whether the mechanics feel good.


Full ranking:

  1. The House by The M, Ghandpivot
  2. Gluttony, My Master by Cantaloupe
  3. Paranormal by Siolfor the Jackal
  4. Chiaroscuro by Dickson Law
  5. VLAD III by Fernando Gonzalez
  6. Lab 23 by HayManMarc, Micah_DS
  7. Super Adrenaline Boy by lazertrax
  8. Spectre 2023 by Bearman_18
  9. Grave Mistake by Tyler, Emily, Vincent
  10. Ghostris by Yal
  11. Im a hunt ghosts! by Misu
  12. Telepath's Escape by Alice, mp
  13. The Cabin by Bart
  14. Boo! Dice by GameDevDan
  15. Bit Souls by Roa
  16. Scary Ghost by stenol
  17. Deadly Dungeon by KPJ
  18. Ghost Run by Cat, var
  19. Supernatural Science by MikeeyBikeey, Aaron Baron, Caroline Zina
  20. Hazel by FreddyShnitz
  21. The Mouse Curser by Cloaked Games, aSingleCapella
  22. submerge. by Josh Chen
  23. Homebound by Shadow_Lancer
  24. 重力スワッパー/Gravity Switcher by TheMiningBoyAlpha
  25. Demon Santa by Catastrophe
  26. Dodge Em' Dracula by Firedingo
  27. Ouija by Sk8dududu, Riley
  28. Night Of The Living Taters by dadio

Comments:

Bit Souls by Roa

Pros: Well done implementing jank free 3D in the jam time. Graphics were nice. All the Souls systems were there, apart from leaving messages to help other players :).

To Improve: (acknowledging you knew you didn't have a finished game): Being hit well after the swing animation started felt wrong - perhaps only hit player the moment the enemy swings, not for the duration of the swing animation. I kept walking into the swing after I thought it would be safe. Couldn't see the enemy health when fighting.

Boo! Dice by GameDevDan

Pros: Well presented with very clear mechanics

To Improve: Keep in mind I wasn't compelled to go past Daddy O'Luck but there was no incentive for me to change tactics. Having a risky opponent just made them bust as often as get an insane roll so I kept focussing on hitting the averages. Which is why I didn't play on - nothing new. Very loose tie to the theme. Replacing the ghost with ANY icon would allow this game to meet a lot of different themes.

Chiaroscuro by Dickson Law

Pros: Well implemented with nice effects and a cool skew on traditional reversi.

To Improve: This is your 3rd Jam game in a row that is board game-like. I'd like to see what else you can build! Wasn't much to improve upon though. You are not higher in the charts only because of fun factor (I'm not that in to reversi or games like it).

Deadly Dungeon by KPJ

Pros: Clean, simple sprite work - though evil sprite could have stood out a bit more.

To Improve: I rage quit after I died the 3rd time standing next to a wall on the 3rd iteration of the evil spirit. Maybe rocks were in the wall and I couldn't see them - I felt cheated. Otherwise the game was easy to cheese. I stood in the corner with the teleport power. Apart from rocks, no attacks got me here. Waited for the charge then teleported in and ran back to the corner. Some more variation in attacks perhaps?

Demon Santa by Catastrophe

Pros: Complete entry with scoring system and randomised levels

To Improve: Platforming felt too hectic. Double jumping higher than the screen itself was weird. Didn't kill any good guys, but not because of any moral discomfort. Only shooting horizontally while enemies mostly above me proved troublesome. Nor did I really need the mouse. Shooting could have been a keyboard button so I didn't have to move from mouse to enter button continuously to restart. Graphics were average - sky was a single shade of blue. Mix it up a bit. Is Santa supernatural? Maybe.

Dodge Em' Dracula by Firedingo

No real pros, sorry!

To Improve: Test your game. An error when completing the 2 second run should be an easy catch and is inexcusable. The menu is still showing after starting the game? Seems like you didn't have time to complete your entry at all.

Ghost Run by Cat, var

Pros: Despite it being a bit barebones (pun intended), it's a complete package with nice graphics.

To Improve: Menu font colour was hard to read when failing in the night mode. High score or something to keep me aiming higher. New mechanics to make it more than just a basic endless runner - I have the fail screen on google chrome for that.

Ghostris by Yal

Pros: Excellent presentation and the Tetris game mechanics were clear (disclaimer below) for the incoming pieces, the score etc. As far as you can, you have linked the theme to the game.

To Improve: These additions to the Tetris formula do not make the game better. Testis is a game where the player works with a predefined set of pieces to overcome a physical space puzzle challenge -fitting these pieces together with minimal gaps. The player is rewarded for executing a logical set of moves by removing the blocks. Your additional elements say "F%^@# you player, don't worry about thinking too hard because the blocks will move randomly anyway". Some of your new block types would work well in a Tetris plus game - the predictable blocks, like the skeletons that will fall to the lowest spot is fine (and even helps make Tetris easier). The random moving starfish that stuffed up my attempt at getting a Tetris in the last few seconds made me quit.

Gluttony, My Master by Cantaloupe

Pros: The simple effect of tweening the ghost sprite made the game livelier. It was a unique and interesting puzzle experience.

To Improve: Was never sure of the win state. It's awfully appreciated to have a "move on" option for a jam game but forcing the player to decide to move on meant I was never sure if I beat the puzzle. Was one point worth of tile enough? Or was there a method to get 3 points? As a lofty goal include, an Angry Birds star system - 3 stars for getting all possible points, 1 star for at least one point. The art was stylised and worked well, but that constant flicker of the background colour was annoying.

Grave Mistake by Tyler, Emily, Vincent

Pros: A game with a story and a well animated main character. Dialogue also witty and well presented.

To Improve: Having a replenishing limited pool of ammo, combined with an inbuilt delay between shots resulted in a redundant mechanic. I could fire almost as often "without ammo" compared to "with ammo". Let me shoot as quick as I can click or don't have the pool of ammo and keep the built in delay. Also, would prefer shooting on click rather than on release - fast paced battles need quick timing. I was in two minds about the no jumping mechanic - it made combat challenging/frustrating because of removing a dodge dimension. But then jumping was added. But no more combat. Then double jumping, then the end. Adding mechanics is nice when it builds on the challenge. Having one off levels with a themed mechanic is fine (think Mario levels - later levels usually have a one-off twist) but not when that mechanic is "jumping" - it's a bit lame. The game should have continued with combat while adding jumping puzzles.

Hazel by FreddyShnitz

Pros: It was ok presentation. The movement of the witch following the light was well done.

To Improve: School option was riddled with errors which needed to abort the game. If this was going to be the tutorial, I could not do much in it. Going to start made it seem like a typing game. But the witch followed the mouse. Not sure if I was meant to keep one hand on mouse and type one handed. Most keys seemed to be on the left of the keyboard but it also was just A B C D so that could have been coincidence. Game seemed dark - I could barely make out the menu options. The lantern was also then too bright, couldn’t see anything behind it. Didn't understand what was going on with the overworld map. After completing a typing challenge, I seemed to be back 'home' and no further along the map.

Homebound by Shadow_Lancer

Pros: Definitely something here, shame you couldn't turn it into something more.

To Improve: Challenge - what will you do as the sprite? It's not sandbox enough to avoid having a goal.

Im a hunt ghosts! by Misu

Pros: Well presented from the sprite work to the effects while sucking to the spooky fog.

To Improve: Wave progression is a bit slow. Too many early rounds of sucking up more of the little ghosts. Doesn't bother me whether there are 3 or 10 of them, I'll get them all without loss of hp. Then the wave with the bigger ghosts came and I died. Something about them getting out of the beam and running straight through me? Couldn't work out a better tactic than approach and suck. Didn't want to face 4 rounds of little ghosts again so just the one play through for me.

I'd applaud you for a novel idea but so much of it is drawn from a very recent game - even down to how the ghost hp is shown. Don't mind you using other games as inspiration - no idea is born in a vacuum (pun not intended but acknowledged). However, you haven't done much to make it your own version. This game is "Luigi's Mansion combat without...." while I wished you aimed for "Luigi's Mansion combat with...."

Lab 23 by HayManMarc, Micah_DS

Pros: Great idea and solid power controls.

To Improve: Enemies just as good at blocking lasers as furniture which keeps them knocked out to boot. I didn't use the powers unless it was to block a laser or destroy the console. I guess I wanted reasons to use this power more often. Solve a puzzle, make enemies a real threat, cause distractions or set off hazards. The enemies were dumb and running past them was the best option. If powers mattered more this could have been my game of the jam.

Night Of The Living Taters by dadio

It closed itself after a while? Did I do it? I'm too old for this.

Ouija by Sk8dududu, Riley

Pros: graphics are pretty nice for a short jam timeframe

To Improve: mouse controls to start play, but keyboard after that? Keep consistent. I couldn’t figure out what to do. I died to the gold marker or a finger the 5 times I tried- is the finger avoidable? I only got arrow keys to do anything.

Paranormal by Siolfor the Jackal

Pros: Well presented. Having enemies vulnerable to different attacks was nice. Super fast retry was appreciated.

To improve: Basic checking of game - error when choosing options should have been caught. One boss enemy attack seemed to have an unfair hitbox (or was missing some projectile type animation) as I was getting hit despite being quite far from the boss.

Scary Ghost by stenol

Pros: Nice and consistent art style. Basic mechanics of scrolling shooter well implemented. I liked the enemy variety generally and the boss battle.

To improve: Mouse on main menu, but keyboard used everywhere else - keep consistent. WASD + arrow keys nice, but couldn’t use WASD on pause menu and had to use enter instead of space. Killing player for walking below screen seemed harsh. I tried it out since I wanted to know what would happen if wedged between trees and screen. Probably ok to kill if stuck, but not simply for user manually walking below screen. You win screen was lack lustre - I didn't feel rewarded for level completion. Skeleton enemy needed variety to distinguish from zombie, some sideways movement perhaps.

Spectre 2023 by Bearman_18

Pros: Lots of attention to detail, muzzle flash, potato juice on the walls, variety of background decor. The mechanics were interesting and could lead to some cool puzzle action choices - go spectre to dodge the laser sights, shoot right to take out a potato, then evade, etc. Tutorial messages were timely. Enemy variety was nice. I liked that I could shoot both directions, and sometimes was required (only when I spawned between two enemies though!). The machine gun enemy attack tell was well thought out. The character death animation was nice (but didn’t always fit, like with an explosion death).

To Improve: Mechanics were redundant. I don't know when I was meant to choose to evade over spectre. The latter is 100% required to get past the laser sights, right? The former can dodge the machine gun bullets as they spray along a wall, but it’s easier to just shoot - causing instant enemy death. My point is the evasion mechanics was unnecessary fluff. The platforming was average - the gravity was too high and, to compensate, the jump strength too high. You need to pay more attention to the space between your platforms. Feels uncool to keep bumping your head, which also affects whether the jump is successful or not. Your platforms were too narrow. I would have removed all jumping completely and added a ladder system. Since you can't attack while jumping trying to navigate these poorly spaced and sized platforms was a nuisance, not a clever challenge and was entirely independent of the spectre mechanic. If this game focussed on puzzle like combat - how to best use the spectre to slip past this enemy, to be able to take out the other one etc, this could have been a really highly ranked game. Because I focus on mechanics above all else, this game is not ranked as high. For reference, I rage quit at the first missile enemy because I had fallen all the way to the bottom 5 times jumping over the missile.

submerge. by Josh Chen

Pros: Clean and simple controls

To Improve: Hitboxes seem unfair - "I didn't get hit!" moments were common. Story makes no sense - turtle collecting coins to increase an arbitrary rank. No tie to theme so will knock you down some ranks.

Super Adrenaline Boy by lazertrax

Pros: The little touches like the closing eyes effect, sliding the black in from top and bottom. Your presentation was great. It was a good balancing act between choosing eyes closed, scream, and double jump (slide was just getting added where I was dying). I could not use one tactic over and over again when there were multiple mobs in a room. I wasn't good enough to beat it though.

To Improve: Having a single jump was meaningless. Every mob I encountered needed to be double jumped (got to lvl 7). Should have just had one jump that was high enough. Correction: I played one more time to check this. I COULD single jump an enemy but that was really tight! Ghosts were there, but it was only a cosmetic connection to the theme. Endless runners can have any thematic skin.

Supernatural Science by MikeeyBikeey, Aaron Baron, Caroline Zina

Pros: Nice little intro cutscene. The fake 3d stuff worked well.

If I recall this is your 3rd jam in a row? Your entries are getting a little stale as it's always top down, always insanely fast, always lots of enemies I must run backwards from, always getting new weapons assigned to shift, space and clicking. Try something new, otherwise my feedback is the same as the other two games. No obvious tie to theme except the title of the game. But I did quit level 2 after 9000 enemies bombarded me in a corner.

Telepath's Escape by Alice, mp

Pros: Consistent rules and a gradual introduction of enemy types to help the player learn.

To improve: I spent a lot of levels carefully choosing one tile of movement over another so that the enemies would stay grouped together. This allowed me to run loops around a solid wall while the dumb AI got picked off one by one. I said, "carefully choosing", but I should of stressed "randomly choosing until the enemies moved the right way". I gradually realised this is the intended way to play the game, but it felt wrong. I appreciate the undo feature, but it did mean I would test out a couple of tiles just to see which one would keep the AI at bay the best. I was stumped on lvl 4 for a while because the run circles tactic could not be applied. The solution ended up needing to know that order of AI movement was always the same - so that the single human, who would move last, could block the ghosts and stop their movement completely. As this order of operations was hidden from me I could only solve this room by random luck - trying out any old move since more obvious ones like killing the man first (as he was closest), then using a ghost to block did not work. I wasn't patient enough or smart enough to beat lvl 5 - felt again like I should have been trying to run circles but could not find the combination that would leave the enemy far back enough to do so - maybe that’s more on me though. I couldn’t get a grasp of where safe tiles would be. Something about the enemy movement made it unclear if I was safe by 1 tile or in their attack zone.

The Cabin by Bart

Pros: A great idea for sure.

To Improve: The controls were cumbersome- noting that the tuner was not finished, but I could not for the life of me let go of the mouse button quick enough to hit the frequency exactly, always overshooting. The transmitter was easier, but I am still unsure how to control it. Does the mouse need to swivel around or is it just based on horizontal changes in the cursor position? I'd suggest digital controls rather than this analogue stuff, or much bigger buttons and more precise control. The screen went completely black after a few seconds when returning from the collections. Thought the ghosts were playing havoc, but if so, I couldn't find a light switch again so quit. Ghost 'death' wasn’t clear - just ceased to exist as soon as the right freq is reached? Some feedback to player would be good.

The House by The M, Ghandpivot

Pros: The window sliding effect when changing rooms was great. The jokes were funny. It was very well thought out with new interactions for each state of the game (before and after picking up items). Great story transition from typical house to supernatural theme. Lots of unique sprite work. I'm amazed you did all this in the Jam time!

To Improve: Some issues with window going off my 1080p laptop monitor (think other reviewers said changing to 100% scaling fixed this). So, had to guess the last number of the first combination lock as it was off screen. The last cheese wedge puzzle was obtuse - and am I correct in saying the solution would only work from one side of the door and not the other? Had greater expectations for the ending. Who was the other person in the house? I wanted to know more...

I was so in love with this game that I went out of my way, harassing members of the GMC to give me clues to get past the cheese wedge puzzle so I could continue. That's saying a lot since I'm perfectly fine with quitting a Jam game when the game fights against me too much.

The Mouse Curser by Cloaked Games, aSingleCapella

Pros: Everything well presented, with two(?) nice point n click like adventure puzzles.

To Improve: More. A lot more.

VLAD III by Fernando Gonzalez

Pros: Interesting idea. Visuals stylised well.

To Improve: "Toilet Door" stick figures looked a little out of place. Didn't mind the silhouette approach, but perhaps less symbolic, more realistic. Gameplay left wanting an extra mechanic or two. I certainly liked the stealth nature of the game, but didn’t urge me to do more than a single play through. Felt I had mastered the mechanics after one run - 42 souls and 1 witness (decided to do one more play through just to do the best I could). What's with those clouds? Wind typically makes all clouds move in the same direction! They also covered up the time and score info. Font could have been more Transylvania/gothic -like

重力スワッパー/Gravity Switcher by TheMiningBoyAlpha

Pros: The combat has improved vastly from your last Jam game. Found your secret room with the Pokémon(?) - nice addition.

To Improve: Show energy as a graphic instead of numbers (which could go below zero?) - easier for the player to understand with a glance. Using enter for menu commands is annoying with left hand on WASD and right hand on mouse. Gravity switching didn't make sense within the context of the story - and it’s not really gravity switching, it is switching the room? It flips both vertically and horizontally which was confusing. Would have felt nicer if it was the player who just went upside down and not the entire world. The health packs are not placed strategically - lots of health options after one or two enemies, and none after a big wave. Breaking glass with your fists!? It wasn't necessary as the player could have just as easily walked to the end of the level at that point.
 

Bearman_18

Fruit Stand Deadbeat
BEARMAN_18's AMATEUR REVIEWS

1: SUPERNATURAL SCIENCE
2: THE HOUSE
3: GLUTTONY, MY MASTER
Amazing Jam this time around. Even many of the low ranking games were quite good!

Bit Souls by Roa
Not bad! The fact that you used 3D is impressive in itself, and the visual style is nice as well. I liked the combat. It was timing-based, which is always appreciated in a sword-fighting game. But it was a little janky at times. Particularly, I think the enemy's hitbox shouldn't have lasted as long as it did. It was weird being able to walk into a sword after it was swung. Also, what was with the rats? I was concerned about fighting them at first, but it turns out they were the weakest enemies in the game. I was invariably able to kill them in two hits before they could attack. That aside, the leveling and progression was very good (it basically felt exactly like Dark Souls, which I assume is what you were aiming for). Exploring was fun as well. I like how throwing switches would open up previous areas, and I was legitimately disappointed when there was nothing left to explore. Solid entry overall!

Boo Dice by GameDevDan
Boo Dice is a game that matches the supernatural theme by using 5 sided cubes. Lol. I love how polished and chill this game was. The concept of the game was simple and refreshing. It was somewhat luck-based, but there was just enough skill involved to keep it interesting. The music was perfect as well. I think the game could have been paced better. For instance, I think having an individual message screen that lasts a couple seconds just to tell me whose turn it is slowed the game down frustratingly. I would have preferred if it was just a bit of text always at the top of the screen. Also, the balancing probably could have been improved by the addition of a four side. Statistically, three out of five of your dice are going to be useless zeros, ones, and ghosts. This usually meant that the safest strategy if your second roll is close to your opponent's score is to try to match it instead of exceed it, which added rounds to a game that, towards the end, had way too many rounds. I did enjoy the last opponent, though. It was legitimately difficult, but I did manage to beat it first try. We both had 8 wins, and both rolled Boo's. I won the next round. In the end, I think my over-analysis of the game is a testament to how much I enjoyed it. Good entry!

Chiaroscuro by Dickson Law
Holy cow, another extremely polished entry! Did the Jam the start earlier than I thought? I was impressed with how nice it looked, visually, but I was even more impressed with the sound design. There was something about the sound of flipping over a long row that was very satisfying. And the music accompanied it very well. The AI was good as well! ...Actually, at the earlier levels, I think the AI was maybe a little TOO good. I'd only played Reversi once before, though, so maybe I just suck. Playing against AI Familiar, I've lost every game, except the most recent one before this review, which I tied. The game is mechanically simple, but strategically deep as well. It's interesting thinking about both black and white AND angels and demons. The game is a variation on Reversi; I can't credit you for Reversi, but you add a lot of elements which wildly change the way the game works, in a very good way. And I can credit you for that. This is one of the few entries that I'll probably come back to after the Jam has ended.

Deadly Dungeon by KPJ
Said I, "I'm sure glad that skull doesn't shoot and throw rocks at the same time, or this would be completely unplayable." So, I enjoyed the game up until the fourth enemy. As far as being a bullet-hell goes, this game isn't too bad. The enemy patterns are appropriately mesmerizing. But there were problems with the patterns. Specifically, I could avoid every shot by finding a specific place and sitting there. Ideally, a bullet pattern will force the player to adjust their position, and I get that you tried to do that with rocks, but the rocks had some flaws as well. First of all, I think the rocks would have been better if the player's hitbox had been smaller. Usually, this type of game will have a tiny hitbox, possibly one pixel in size. Also, the rocks kind of blended into the background, making them difficult to see. Lastly, I think they should have fallen in a pattern, instead of randomly. The random factor led to a lot of inescapable situations in the fourth fight, especially with the players slow speed. Not too bad, though. You clearly understand how a proper bullet-hell should go, but your implementation could use some work.

Demon Santa by Catastrophe
Good musical choice! Visually repulsive, but the platforming is better than mine, so what can I say? As far as the scope of this game goes, I only have two suggestions. 1: TELL me I can double-jump, and 2: I think the pacing would have been better if I could click to start instead of pressing enter. That said, seeing how long I can last and trying to line shots up is kind of fun. This game scores a Better than Cheetahmen/10.

Dodge Em' Dracula by Firedingo
I just don't think his hat should have been part of his hitbox. The error upon winning adds some comedic value, in my opinion. You misspelled "'em" by the way.

Ghost Run by Cat and var
It's very good, visually. The day-night thing is cool, and the music is nice as well. It's obviously unfinished, so I won't complain too much, but I am annoyed that I switched realms and appeared inside a rock XD. Cute ghost!

Ghostris by Yal
I have a love-hate relationship with this game. I love Tetris, and naturally this game has that going for it. But seeing as Tetris is a game about trying to avoid chaos, the chaotic aspect of the ghostrominoes was annoying. Frequently, a star or a pumpkin would spawn or move into just the right space to make me lose in a situation where I could have saved myself. But just as frequently, they would complete a line towards the bottom that would save me from death. That said, the ghostrominoes are predictable, which does add an interesting element, where you know what they will do and you try to plan accordingly. But I hate the random element of some of them. I like the zombies and the skulls, the flames are acceptable, the pumpkins and the ghosts piss me off, and I downright despise the stars. There is a lot going for this game, though. The presentation is amazing, it's visually appealing, and the music and sound effects really hit the mark. Despite being frustrating, I do like playing this game (like Chiaroscuro, I will probably continue to play this after the Jam ends), but that largely is due to the fact that it's Tetris. And while I'm very impressed that you managed to make a Tetris game in such a short time span (especially such a well-polished one), I would feel wrong to give you too much credit for game design. We already know that Tetris is good, but the new mechanics give me mixed feelings. I think it would be better if the pieces were more predictable in their movements. Also, those gigantic pieces shaped like ghosts have a really bad case of existing, which needs to be cured. This a very good, if sometimes a little irritating, entry.

Gluttony, My Master by Cantaloupe
I was extremely impressed with the art, sounds, and story of this game. For being a pretty basic puzzler, it's actually pretty frightening! I would have preferred it if the puzzles were a little more deep, but I get that the game is more story-driven than puzzle-driven. It's about trying to solve progressively more difficult puzzles, but being doomed to do progressively worse, until you anger some sort of god. I also like the subtly flashing background. And the mentor character was great, hey? One nitpick, if there are two holes, and you move a block into one, both will display the eating animation. It's a short and simple, but still very solid entry.

Grave Mistake by Tyler, Emily, and Vincent
I like the story and characters in this game. The dialogue was a lot of fun, I thought it was clever the way you used emojis to convey the character's emotions. The visual style is really good as well. I like the progression of the game. the part where you get legs and the ability to jump in particular. I think the ending would have been more powerful had the game been longer, but you did a lot with what time you had. Overall, this game was pretty good! I think the demons could have had lower health though, but they weren't really a major threat.

Gravity Switcher by TheMiningBoyAlpha
It had a lot more story than most jam games, I must admit. I'm actually kinda curious how you did the gravity thing, as well. That said, the gravity swapping mechanic had many bugs, and I found I often got stuck in walls with it. For that reason, I appreciate being able to press R to reset, but it should have reset the room, rather than the game. I think getting past the zombies ended up being more about memorization than skill, which is fine, but there was one annoying segment where you fall down a hole and land on a zombie. Despite the games many flaws, I do like the NES sounds and the two punching animations. The tutorial was very nice as well. Say, why is it "Switcher" in english, but "Swapper" in Japanese?

Hazel by FreddyShnitz
So I went around the map collecting stuff, mixed it up in a cauldron, and the cauldron... became extremely aroused? I'm a little unclear on the story, but I did eventually find the game by pressing the GO button. Unlike creating sexual tension between myself and a pot, there was some fun to be had with the Typing of the Dead-esque gameplay. Joking aside, I assume the original plan was that I would have to fight through ghosts in order to go from place to place? I do like the concept, but it could have done with some escalation, becoming more difficult as it went. Also, it would have been nice if the ghosts were an actual threat. I could wait for them to be halfway to me, and still type them out of existence before they reached me. Also, I think the individual trips should have been shorter. If Death Stranding was the first strand-type game, Hazel is the second.

Homebound by Shadow_Lancer
Honestly, I really enjoyed this for something made in just a few hours. Just flying around and causing a ruckus was fun and meditative in a way. I found the strong lights were sort of an irritation, but the rain was a clever way to keep the player in the house. The physics were smooth and fun. I particularly enjoyed being the stuffed bear and the TV remote. I also enjoyed seeing how long I could last as the mug going top speed (not long, in case you're wondering). Graphics were nice as well. Couldn't you have taken literally fifteen minutes to add some sounds, though? Honestly. It would been just that much better.

Im a Hunt Ghosts by Misu
Notluigi. In other words, Waluigi. There was quite a lot of charm going for this one. The ghosts were cute, and Notluigi was hilarious. Something about his retarded jokes contributed to the game being basically a spoof of Luigi's Mansion. I really like how the game looked, and I also like the sound effects and music. The gameplay was nice as well, but it did get a little repetitive. There was some variety in the ghosts, but only in how much health they had and how erratically they moved. Oddly, it was easier to catch the more erratic ghosts because they would change direction before they got too far away. I like that the disguise rocks are easy to distinguish from normal rocks, if you're looking for it. Ultimately, this game was most fun when there were lots of ghosts to chase, but it did feel a little grindy when picking off stragglers. Overall, a solid game.

Lab 23 by HayManMarc and Micah_DS
It's simple, but in a good way. Swinging stuff around to knock out guards and block lasers was fun. I do think it was a bit too easy, though. Perhaps it would benefit from having more levels. Of course "not enough content" is a slightly silly complaint to make about a Jam game! I had a lot of fun with what was there. My only real complaint is that the boss had way too much health for the scope of the game. I like the over-dramatic way was the story is presented, and I like the goofy art. Not a big fan of the sound effects, but the music was good. The game was short and sweet. There was very little to it, but what was there was very good.

Necro-more-cy by Relic
I'm glad I'm not the only person in the universe who uses the word "yonks". I know you didn't make the sprites, but I still really like them and how they were implemented. I love the concept, but it has some flaws. First off, waiting to build bigger units always seemed like a recipe for disaster, as individual units are quickly overpowered, leaving me vulnerable. Secondly, while, in theory, spamming the one key should work, the combat is far too quick for me to keep up with, no matter how rapidly I hit one. I think this game would benefit from making the bigger units even more powerful, as well as slowing down the fights just a tad, giving me more time to plan. That said, the concept is still very good, and the way the game escalates is quite solid, and rare for a jam game.

Night Of The Living Taters by dadio
Epic troll. The way the game closes itself out is a great touch, and your comedic timing is spot on. Both pieces of music were well used, and I appreciate that the "game" looks pretty good as well. One flaw: your capitalization. Note that "of" and "the" should not be capitalized. Somehow, the appearance of the troll face didn't scare the crap out of me, which is good.

Ouija by Sk8dududu
First of all, the art is absolutely amazing. I love every piece of art with the exception of the witch's hands and the death animation where you get run over by the game piece. The art reminds me a lot of Lumpy Touch, which is a really good thing. The music and sound effects were perfect, and the gameplay is great (once you understand it, but it doesn't take long to understand). If I have any gripes, It's that I think the player should be able to run just a little bit faster, and it would be nice if I didn't get the same words every time. Using a long and uncommon word as essentially the boss fight was hilarious, in a way. I think the music should have become more intense or something for that part (speaking of, what's with the near minute of silence at the the end of the music ogg?). This was one of the most novel entries, and I was very impressed with it.

Paranormal by Siolfor the Jackal
it's simple, but effective. The music, the art, and the speed at which the character walks all combine to make you feel like an absolute badass. The attacks are satisfying to use, and I like that different enemies are effected by different weapons. Honestly, I think the ghosts shouldn't be effected by the machete, the only reason I even used the shotgun was because it's so fun to use! I would have liked the game to be a little more difficult (you could ramp up the enemies a notch), and would have been nice if the boss had a couple different attacks or something. Also, the dash felt great to use during the boss fight, but that was the only place where you really needed it (and even then, the "need" part is debatable). There were some bugs here and there: Opening the options just throws an error that tells me that the variable "obj_options.isy" wasn't set before reading it at "gml_Script_textImage", and putting the bosses HP into the negatives causes his health bar to extend off to the left (the clamp function could fix that right up). The game was short, but solid. I enjoyed it.

Scary Ghost by stenol
A nice vertical shooter. Overall, I liked the gameplay and the art, but it did begin to feel a little repetitive, and was perhaps a little too long. But it felt pretty nice to play. The player's movement speed was good. I would have preferred it if I had lives instead of health, and I think the ghosts could have been used in further moderation. There wasn't much to it, but it was still nice and oddly relaxing.

Submerge by Josh Chen
This game appeals to my megalomania. There's something fun about swimming around and collecting coins to buy quality-of-life upgrades with. I'm extremely irritated that I lose unspent money at the the end of each shop visit, though. The taxes in the world of Submerge are pretty brutal. Having to dodge plastic straws was a cute idea as well. Of course, if this turtle is smart enough to understand the concept of money, why is he dumb enough to eat the straws? Maybe he's a capitalist turtle, and he's the one putting straws in the ocean! The game was nice and relaxing, and occasionally made me rage, which is nice. It's visually appealing as well. It doesn't match the theme, so I can't give it too many points, but it was definitely one of my favorites.

Super Adrenaline Boy by lazertrax
I love the sounds and music (the running sound in particular). I also like the sprite for the boy, but it contrasts oddly with the minimalist ghost sprites. The concept is great, and the execution is good as well. It definitely needs balancing though. I too can't decide if it's easy or difficult. It's difficult with some strategies (relying on jumping or closing your eyes), but easy with others (screaming like a lunatic). It gets difficult no matter what you do later in, so that's good (I've only reached stage 14 though). The gameplay is pretty smooth and, as far as I can tell, bug-free. Good work!

Supernatural Science by MikeeyBikeey, Aaron Baron, and Caroline Zina
There's so much to love about this that I'm almost annoyed by how much I have to write XD. The "show, don't tell" style of storytelling. The art (hella cute, and I'm loving those 3D trees), sounds, and music. But most of all, the gameplay. It's fun and puzzling, and, oddly, reminds me of Doom in a very very good way. This mainly comes from the way the game is fast-paced (the run speed is amazing), the way the maps are designed to make you find levers to open more areas, the key-hunt that somehow isn't annoying, the way finding a key causes a hoard of monsters to appear out of nowhere, etc. But it still manages to put it's own unique spin on those concepts. The weapons are fresh and interesting (the fire ring is a welcome surprise), the enemies have variety, and the boss fight is cleverly designed around the way the rest of the game works (it's my belief that the final boss should always bring the player back to the core of what the gameplay is about, and you accomplish this by having the boss use the mechanics of the previous levels). My favorite level is the one right before the boss. The bit where you get chased by boulders is great, and I love the way unlocking the key causes a maze to appear. My only nitpick is that I would have liked more warning before the boulders came. But it happens early enough in the level that it doesn't matter too much. Also, I'm confused by the way the boss ends. Did I kill him? Or did he give me my friends back? It was a little hard to tell. The way the game ends is great, I like the way the menu adds your friends to the picture after you've saved them. I want to be more helpful with this review, but I found so little to criticize! I would love to see this made into a longer game with more story. I think you could profit from it. Otsukare!

Telepath's Escape by Alice
This is a very good concept, and is quite novel to me. The art and music is quite nice as well. The controls were a bit confusing at first, but when I realized I could perform any operation just by clicking on units, it became more intuitive. I like that enemies can move and attack for the cost of attacking, it's very convenient. The ending image was cute, and I like the way new enemies are added to the title screen as you encounter them. There's plenty of strategic depth, and I had fun with it up until level 8. I can't tell you how long I spent, but I never did solve it. For this reason, I'm grateful that you put in a PSI replenishing cheat. (Also, if you could explain to me how level 8 is supposed to work, I would really appreciate it). I think the concept could use some work, but I think it has a lot of potential as well. Not bad.

The Cabin by Bart
An interesting idea, with some pretty good atmosphere to go with it (the sound design was well executed). It was fun when the ghosts possessed things (other than me, I mean). And I also noticed a weird little guy running by in the background a couple times. I liked the stars and the mist, and the camera was a very neat idea (though it only actually kept the picture twice). Took me a while to figure out which one the transmitter was. Why make it so hard to use, though? Also, I think the tuner's dial would have been better if you move the mouse left and right to tune it, rather than up and down. I'm curious what this game would have become, if it had been finished. Are you planning to finish it?

The House by The M and ghandpivot
Wait, this isn't dirt! It's pudding! I never would have expected this level of quality from a jam game, even with two people working on it. I'm genuinely impressed! The art is great, the sounds really help the atmosphere, and the dialogue and story are really entertaining. The way the window changes shape and moves around the screen is amazing and very well executed. The game is full of memorable moments: being chased by a zombie, jumping on flying tables, using cheese to hold a door open so the camera will show you the code to a lock in an adjacent room, etc. It's full of clever tricks, weird jokes, and amazing/hilarious puzzle design. The ending is also a fun surprise in a way. Why does he say "We'll take it"? Whose "we"? The main character's complete disconnect with the world around him only adds to the game's charm. This review would be longer if I had something to criticize, but I don't (well, the main character sprite is a little goofy looking XD). Amazing job!

The Mouse Curser by Cloaked Games and aSingleCapella
A cute little experience for what it is. Breaking out of the jar was fun, and a really cool idea, and I also enjoyed reading all of the little sticky notes. The screen that was drawing images was nice touch, a as was the little sound visualizer thingy. Obviously, I can't place it highly, as there's not much to it and it doesn't match the theme, but I still really like it. (Just noticed that you spelled "curser" instead of "cursor". Clever, if it was deliberate.)

VLAD III by Fernando Gonzalez
Cool. I like the warning sign-esque art style, and those walk cycles weren't bad. I also enjoyed the music you used. All of the animations were good as well. There wasn't really much variety or challenge, but the concept of eating people without being caught until night is pretty cool. There doesn't seem to be a downside to having witnesses. Also, why do people seeing me as a human get suspicious if I haven't done anything and they didn't see transform? Lastly, I think the game would benefit if the people were quicker to react and less likely to just ignore me if I disappear. Certainly not a bad entry. I should compliment you on the parallax background as well. It looked really good.

1: Supernatural Science
2: The House
3: Gluttony, My Master
4: Super Adrenaline Boy
5: Chiaroscuro
6: Ouija
7: Bit Souls
8: I'm a Hunt Ghosts
9: Ghostris
10: Paranormal
11: Grave Mistake
12: Homebound
13: Lab 23
14: Telepath's Escape
15: Necro-more-cy
16: Boo Dice
17: Ghost Run
18: The Cabin
19: Scary Ghost
20: VLAD III
21: The Mouse Curser
22: Demon Santa
23: Night Of The Living Taters
24: Submerge
25: Deadly Dungeon
26: Hazel
27: Gravity Switcher
28: Dodge Em' Dracula
 
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ghandpivot

Member
Hello. I share votes with The_M since we worked together. I will not be posting my own votes.

As for my playthroughs, they can be seen below and they're even lower quality than usual. I have to fix a proper mic some day.

Here's video 1:

Here's video 2:

Here's the order of appearance:
Video 1:
Submerge
Telepath's escape
Supernatural science
Bit souls
Dodge em' dracula
Night of the living taters
Grave mistake
Gravity switcher
The cabin
Boo! Dice
Lab 23
Necro-more-cy
Paranormal

Video 2:
Spectre 2023
Deadly dungeon
Im a hunt ghost!
VLAD III
Chiaroscuro
Super Adrenaline Boy
Homebound
Demon Santa
Ouija
Scary Ghost
Ghostris
The mouse curser
Ghost run
Gluttony, my master
Hazel
 
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Mercerenies

Member
Mercerenies' Dangerously Marketable and Symbolically Feral Reviews

1. Necro-more-cy - Relic
2. Telepath's Escape - Alice, mp
3. Grave Mistake - Tyler, Emily, Vincent

Full rankings:
4. The House - The M, ghandpivot
5. Boo Dice - GameDevDan
6. Lab 23 - HayManMarc, Micah_DS
7. Bit Souls - Roa
8. Chiasroscuro - Dickson Law
9. I'm a Hunt Ghosts - Misu
10. Ghostris - Yal
11. Ghost Run - Cat, var
12. Spectre 2023 - Bearman_18
13. Paranormal - Siolfor the Jackal
14. Deadly Dungeon - KPJ
15. Submerge - Josh Chen
16. Scary Ghost - stenol
17. Super Adrenaline Boy - lazertrax
18. Demon Santa - Catastrophe
19. Gravity Switcher - TheMiningBoyAlpha
20. Supernatural Science - MikeeyBikkey, Aaron Baaron, Caroline Zina
21. The Cabin - Bart
22. Homebound - Shadow_Lancer
23. Night of the Living Taters - dadio
24. The Mouse Curser - Cloaked Games, aSingleCapella
25. VLAD III - Fernando Gonzalez
26. Ouija - Sk8dududu, Riley
27. Gluttony, My Master - Cantaloupe

Best Use of Theme - I'm a Hunt Ghosts (Misu)
Best Concept - Grave Mistake (Tyler, Emily, Vincent)
Best Presentation - The House (The M, 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 comically malicious and fragrant, 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.

Bit Souls - Roa (24/30)
Gameplay (3/5)
Graphics (5/5)
Audio (5/5)
Theme (5/5)
Opinion (6/10)

I absolutely adore the graphics on this one. Simple, classic feel, basic not-overblown 3D, it all comes together very nicely. And voice acting in a Jam game is always fun to have. The gameplay itself was pretty basic. Fighting the enemies was relatively simple but still pleasurable. It took me a bit to realize the experience point animation was experience points; at first I thought it was some kind of bug trying to attack me. Still, fun game with excellent graphics.

Boo Dice - GameDevDan (27/30)
Gameplay (5/5)
Graphics (4/5)
Audio (5/5)
Theme (5/5)
Opinion (8/10)

A very solid entry from GDD, as always. I enjoy this for the same reason I enjoyed Dicy Dungeon (The M) last time around: simple, stupid, but incredibly fun to sit there and play for far too long. I got up to Madame Ghoulie before deciding I should probably move on.

Chiasroscuro - Dickson Law (27/30)
Gameplay (5/5)
Graphics (5/5)
Audio (4/5)
Theme (5/5)
Opinion (8/10)

That was unexpectedly swingy. I mean, regular Reversi is a bit swingy in terms of who's winning, but that was... very swingy. Still, that made for a very fun if chaotic experience, and the game itself was well-polished with very nice graphics and music to set the tone.

Deadly Dungeon - KPJ (19/30)
Gameplay (4/5)
Graphics (3/5)
Audio (2/5)
Theme (4/5)
Opinion (6/10)

A pretty standard bullet hell concept. I like the different attacks (I found fireball easiest to use simply because it doesn't require proximity to the angry monster skull and it deals a lot more damage than explosions). That said, the falling rocks could've done with better contrast against the background, as I found them hard to see. And having to constantly glance up to see the power meter was a bit of a distraction. Given how crucial that meter is to the game, it would've been nice to have it nearer to the player character physically.

Demon Santa - Catastrophe (8/30)
Gameplay (2/5)
Graphics (1/5)
Audio (1/5)
Theme (0/5)
Opinion (4/10)

A pretty basic platformer. I can respect the procedural generation as I do love games that utilize that. But the graphics were very basic, and the platforming engine itself was pretty primitive (if I touch any part of a cloud, I apparently clip to the top of it?), and having a good platform engine is necessary in games where the goal is sophisticated platforming to dodge lasers.

Ghost Run - Cat, var (23/30)
Gameplay (3/5)
Graphics (5/5)
Audio (4/5)
Theme (5/5)
Opinion (6/10)

Simple and straightforward. The beautiful visuals take this entry from being a very standard dodging game to a well-polished experience. I can see how the mechanics could be abused, like you say, but having you be invincible while shifting is still much more fair than having things sneak up on you from the other realm.

Ghostris - Yal (24/30)
Gameplay (4/5)
Graphics (5/5)
Audio (3/5)
Theme (5/5)
Opinion (7/10)

So... is there actually a strategy to this, or is it just Tetris for people who want to watch the world burn? Regardless, fun and chaotic to play, but I couldn't find any rational way to actually plan ahead, so I conclude that there isn't one.

Gluttony, My Master - Cantaloupe (18/30)
Gameplay (3/5)
Graphics (1/5)
Audio (4/5)
Theme (5/5)
Opinion (5/10)

The puzzles themselves are pretty basic. On that alone, this would probably be a simple but reasonable entry. But... those graphics and stories were just disturbing. And not in the "interesting concept for a Jam game" sense, but the "I don't want to continue seeing this" sense.

Grave Mistake - Tyler, Emily, Vincent (29/30)
Gameplay (5/5)
Graphics (5/5)
Audio (5/5)
Theme (5/5)
Opinion (9/10)

Simple, short, and sweet, but very fun. I like how much of a challenge not being able to jump made fighting the demons, and how well-polished the combat seemed (being able to 1-for-1 cancel off their fireballs with my attacks was a very smooth mechanic). A few simple puzzles, a nice aesthetic, a bit of combat, and a story that leaves a lot open to interpretation. These are the jigsaw pieces of a masterpiece.

Gravity Switcher - TheMiningBoyAlpha (13/30)
Gameplay (2/5)
Graphics (2/5)
Audio (3/5)
Theme (2/5)
Opinion (4/10)

A pretty simple idea. The fact that every time I switched gravity, the screen would rotate and suddenly "left" and "right" were switched in the controls was extremely disorienting. I feel like either the screen shouldn't have flipped at all, or it should've flipped vertically rather than rotated 180 so the controls didn't have to change, as that really broke the immersion for me every time I had to use gravity switch.

Homebound - Shadow_Lancer (11/30)
Gameplay (1/5)
Graphics (2/5)
Audio (0/5)
Theme (3/5)
Opinion (5/10)

Didn't seem to be a finished product, which makes sense given the comments in the readme. Seemed like a neat idea with a fairly polished physics system. Could've made for some interesting stealth mechanics or something.

I'm a Hunt Ghosts - Misu (26/30)
Gameplay (4/5)
Graphics (5/5)
Audio (5/5)
Theme (5/5)
Opinion (7/10)

So... was the elevator pitch for this game: "how many Boo puns can we fit in a game without Nintendo taking notice"? Fun and amusing entry. The combat system itself was well-polished, and the movement was well-done as well; I initially balked at the idea of having to use LMB to move rather than WASD, but the collisions are done well so that it doesn't get in your way. Also, I'm naming my kid Notluigi now.

Lab 23 - HayManMarc, Micah_DS (29/30)
Gameplay (5/5)
Graphics (5/5)
Audio (5/5)
Theme (5/5)
Opinion (9/10)

Short, simple, but very well done. The physics system is surprisingly well-polished given that it seems to not be Box2D as far as I can tell, which means you basically did it all yourself. Smashing that giant red button repeatedly at the end was very cathartic.

Necro-more-cy - Relic (30/30)
Gameplay (5/5)
Graphics (5/5)
Audio (5/5)
Theme (5/5)
Opinion (10/10)

This is the one; there's always one game each Jam I give a perfect score to. Excellent work, very addictive gameplay. I can see how it used to be an idle game, and I absolutely love how you adapted it into a fighting game. That said, 900 points... I couldn't even break 200 and I played for... awhile. My best strategy was to spend like 20 seconds spamming 1 to build an army of the cheap disposable guys, then start focusing on 3's and 4's (2's didn't seem to be a good investment to me) and occasionally getting a 5. But I still couldn't even get anywhere near that highscore table.

Night of the Living Taters - dadio (13/30)
Gameplay (1/5)
Graphics (2/5)
Audio (3/5)
Theme (2/5)
Opinion (5/10)

0/0 Couldn't summon Cthulhu game ruined.

Ouija - Sk8dududu, Riley (11/30)
Gameplay (1/5)
Graphics (2/5)
Audio (4/5)
Theme (2/5)
Opinion (2/10)

So... what was the goal? I ran around like a maniac. The little lens cursor thing is an instant-kill obviously, but occasionally a random pie chart shows up which transforms into a finger of also instant-kill, with no discernible pattern. So... what was I supposed to do?

Paranormal - Siolfor the Jackal (24/30)
Gameplay (4/5)
Graphics (5/5)
Audio (3/5)
Theme (5/5)
Opinion (7/10)

Neat game, and you definitely captured the aesthetic of the show well with the graphical design. The combat was very intuitive and I found myself able to use the three different attacks (well, two attacks and a dodge, I suppose) very naturally.

Scary Ghost - stenol (19/30)
Gameplay (3/5)
Graphics (5/5)
Audio (3/5)
Theme (3/5)
Opinion (5/10)

A pretty basic concept. Although having a button for shooting was kind of pointless, given that there's no incentive to not hold it down the whole game, so you could've saved me some effort (and some pain for my eardrums; that bullet sounds gets old fast when you're spamming it) by just having the player's gun be always on.

Spectre 2023 - Bearman_18 (22/30)
Gameplay (3/5)
Graphics (5/5)
Audio (4/5)
Theme (4/5)
Opinion (6/10)

A fun idea, and the mobster-style tommy guns were a nice touch. I did find the controls to be a bit messy though. Landing on some of those platforms was difficult even when there were no enemies around. Also, checkpoints were positioned in the worst possible places. It seemed like every time I respawned there was something two inches away from me trying to shoot me.

Submerge - Josh Chen (11/30)
Gameplay (3/5)
Graphics (3/5)
Audio (0/5)
Theme (0/5)
Opinion (5/10)

A pretty basic game with a respectable upgrade system. What did "rank" do though? Speed and money are self-explanatory, but "rank" is unclear.

Super Adrenaline Boy - lazertrax (16/30)
Gameplay (3/5)
Graphics (4/5)
Audio (4/5)
Theme (0/5)
Opinion (5/10)

A pretty basic idea. Fast paced with a meter to balance. I like the idea of different abilities being unlocked based on this meter than can't get too high. But I couldn't ever get past stage 4.

Supernatural Science - MikeeyBikkey, Aaron Baron, Caroline Zina (12/30)
Gameplay (2/5)
Graphics (3/5)
Audio (3/5)
Theme (0/5)
Opinion (4/10)

Looked like a cool idea... but how do I get the key on level 2? Bombs don't smash that wall and I couldn't find a lever to open it.

Telepath's Escape - Alice, mp (30/30)
Gameplay (5/5)
Graphics (5/5)
Audio (5/5)
Theme (5/5)
Opinion (10/10)

Sure, why not? A perfect score. A flawless puzzle game with an admittedly steep learning curve but once you get the hang of the way the enemies move, it's a very in-depth and enjoyable game. The art style is somewhat simplistic but versatile at that. Also, https://i.imgur.com/KiSGmUy.png. I haven't experimented with the level editor as I do need to get to the other entries at some point, but I would like to. Oh, and my strategy on the last level can very much be classified as "human shield" (https://i.imgur.com/9NbBUY6.png). Not sure if that was the intended solution or not.

The Cabin - Bart (21/30)
Gameplay (2/5)
Graphics (4/5)
Audio (5/5)
Theme (5/5)
Opinion (5/10)

The goal seems to be setting the frequency to corrupt the ghosts. Could be a cool concept (especially if you'd had time to do the tuner), but the frequency thing just moves so... freaking... fast. It's at 3.65, a ghost appears at 3.62, I tap the down button and end up at 3.58. Which made this more a game of spamming up and down till I get the right number than hitting ghosts.

The House - The M, ghandpivot (29/30)
Gameplay (5/5)
Graphics (5/5)
Audio (5/5)
Theme (5/5)
Opinion (9/10)

A very well-designed game. I love the gimmick with the window position. It makes it feel like the whole mansion is on my screen, even though I can't see most of it. And the graphics are simple but complement the feel of the game nicely. I had to cheat and look on the discussion topic to see what to do with the cheese wedge though. Thought I had tried everything. Clearly not.

The Mouse Curser - Cloaked Games, aSingleCapella (8/30)
Gameplay (1/5)
Graphics (3/5)
Audio (1/5)
Theme (0/5)
Opinion (3/10)

So... is there actually a way out of the jar?

VLAD III - Fernando Gonzalez (7/30)
Gameplay (1/5)
Graphics (2/5)
Audio (1/5)
Theme (0/5)
Opinion (3/10)

This is why you need to explain games. It looks cool, and it tells me the controls... but what's the objective? I can swoop down. Occasionally that kills someone apparently. Other times it just makes people mad and they run off... so... yeah... what was I supposed to do?

Unplayable Games

Dodge Em' Dracula - Firedingo
___________________________________________
############################################################################################
FATAL ERROR in
action number 1
of Step Eventobj_goal
for object obj_player:

unable to convert string "testing" to bool
at gml_Object_obj_player_Collision_08dad2d9_5a70_4cc7_99d6_59ebf3264fe9
############################################################################################
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
stack frame is
gml_Object_obj_player_Collision_08dad2d9_5a70_4cc7_99d6_59ebf3264fe9 (line -1)

Hazel - Freddy Shnitz
___________________________________________
############################################################################################
FATAL ERROR in
action number 1
of Draw Event
for object Hazel:

Variable Hazel.dist(100021, -2147483648) not set before reading it.
at gml_Object_Hazel_Draw_64
############################################################################################
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
stack frame is
gml_Object_Hazel_Draw_64 (line -1)
 

Cantaloupe

Member
Reviews
Top 3:
1. Telepath's Escape by Alice, mp
I don't play many games like this, so the only real frame of reference I had was Into the Breach. Going into it after reading the help screen, I was half-expecting the mechanics to feel a bit contrived but, in a pleasant surprise, it gave me a lot of the same feelings of gradually uncovering depth and finding new ways to use mechanics that I got from ItB, which I really enjoyed and admired. The first few levels especially felt tight in that they each made me expand how I thought about the mechanics, though this made the last few feel sloppy in comparison (maybe what they were trying to say just wasn't as clear).

A minor criticism that I have is that the help screen and UI were quite overwhelming at first, which I understand may be because the time constraints of the jam might not have allowed you to come up with the best possible solution. I will say that I found that the helpscreen was actually quite useful for clarifying aspects of mechanics which I had misunderstood once I had some understanding of the game (the ingame tutorial did its job pretty well), but it was almost impossible for me to parse on first glance without that base.

2. Ghostris
by Yal
I liked this for mostly the same reason as I did Telepath's Escape. At first I was frustrated by what seemed like complete randomness but, as I played again ana again, and began to take note of the unique behaviour of each of the blocks, I was able to improve quite quickly (I don't really agree with the sentiment that the different behaviours should have been explained, as I think the most effective way to understand them is to just observe them, but it could have helped to point out that each block behaves differently). The feeling of internalising the game's mechanics and having that be reflected in increasingly high scores in subsequent runs was extremely satisfying. The presentation, especially the audio, is of course great too.

3. The House by The M, Ghandpivot
It was really cool technically, and it was able to make me dread progressing, which I take as the mark of a good spooky (horror sounded a bit too strong) game. That it was able to do what it does while having been made in a jam makes it even more impressive.

Best ofs:
Best use of Theme: The Cabin by Bart
Best Concept: Ghostris by Yal
Best Presentation: Ghostris by Yal
Best Story: The House by The M, Ghandpivot
Best Devlog: The Cabin by Bart

Full ranking:
  1. Telepath's Escape by Alice, mp
  2. Ghostris by Yal
  3. The House by The M, Ghandpivot
  4. The Cabin by Bart
  5. Lab 23 by HayManMarc, Micah_DS
  6. Bit Souls by Roa
  7. Grave Mistake by Tyler, Emily, Vincent
  8. Im a hunt ghosts! by Misu
  9. Spectre 2023 by Bearman_18
  10. Ouija by Sk8dududu, Riley
  11. Supernatural Science by MikeeyBikeey, Aaron Baron, Caroline Zina
  12. Necro-more-cy by Relic
  13. Super Adrenaline Boy by lazertrax
  14. Chiaroscuro by Dickson Law
  15. Paranormal by Siolfor the Jackal
  16. Homebound by Shadow_Lancer
  17. 重力スワッパー/Gravity Switcher by TheMiningBoyAlpha
  18. Boo! Dice by GameDevDan
  19. VLAD III by Fernando Gonzalez
  20. Deadly Dungeon by KPJ
  21. Scary Ghost by stenol
  22. Ghost Run by Cat, var
  23. The Mouse Curser by Cloaked Games, aSingleCapella
  24. Hazel by FreddyShnitz
  25. submerge. by Josh Chen
  26. Demon Santa by Catastrophe
  27. Night Of The Living Taters by dadio
  28. Dodge Em' Dracula by Firedingo

Some other comments (I may get around to adding more):
Homebound by Shadow_Lancer
The physics and the interactions with light sources were pretty neat; I'd be really interested to see how you would approach making a version that is more pointed and not just a sandbox.

Lab 23 by HayManMarc, Micah_DS
The concept is pretty solid but it felt like there were a lot of missed opportunities as far as different kinds of interactions (e.g. an enemy which you could manipulate into stunning others), though I'm sure time would've been a significant factor in this.

Ouija by Sk8dududu, Riley
I'm really glad I gave this one another shot because, the first time, I wasn't paying enough attention to have a clue what was going on and what I was supposed to do. Having something of an understanding of the game now, I think the design is quite elegant, though it feels like the difficulty ramps up pretty quickly (I wasn't good enough at dodging the pointer to ever get beyond the second word). Dying as often as I did, the wait before being able to restart got annoying, but otherwise I really enjoyed the presentation.

EDIT: I thought you had to try to stay within a certain range of the pointer to avoid being squashed but, reading your comment in the discussion thread, the player just has to stay on the letters. In my opinion, it's a bit less elegant (I really liked the idea of having the player constantly juggle between paying attention to the pointer's position relative to the character and it's position on the board, and I would think the mechanic as it actually is would reduce that a bit) but it should make the game somewhat easier!

The Cabin by Bart
I don't know if its ab direction you even considered while making it, but it felt like the sort of game that kids would come up with when playing make believe, so I found it especially evocative in that way. Reading through your devlog, I thought it was a real shame that you weren't able to implement all of your ideas in the time you had; I would definitely love to see an expanded version based on the concept.
 
Last edited:

FrostyCat

Redemption Seeker
FrostyCat's Reviews for GMC Jam 35

Top 3:

Telepath's Escape by Alice, mp
A turn-based strategy game similar to FFT, but with a unique enemy-control mechanic instead of regular attacks. Great theme use, good presentation, and the documentation and tutorial were the most thorough out of any entry. Compared to the other "telekinesis" entry, this one held my interest for much longer and is backed by a deeper concept. It was a challenge to balance my own movement against manipulating enemies. Though I didn't get very far with the usual "create distance and run" strategy taught in the tutorial, I can see this being a decent puzzle for those looking for an alternative to traditional TBS battle games.

Im a hunt ghosts! by Misu
An easy-to-learn action game with a classic "ghost vacuum" mechanic. The pixel graphics were perfect, the sound and music go great with the aesthetics, and the game itself was quick to pick up. It kept me interested for many rounds, and the runner ghost provided an element of surprise starting around wave 4 or so. Great level progression. The main downsides are how the wave-spawning mechanism sometimes spawns ghosts on top of me, and there is a rare freeze that can happen if the pathfinder can't find a way to the cursor. But on the most part, it was an enjoyable experience.

Scary Ghost by stenol
A scrolling shooter with a priest shooting the undead in a haunted forest. In the beginners category, I am actually quite impressed by this entry. The presentation had a good colour scheme and matching music, the enemies and shooting mechanics were smooth on the most part, the difficulty was just right, and the final boss was a great final touch. This is one of few entries that I played all the way to the end. Several areas for improvement include the main menu (should be keyboard controlled), the font (try using an artistic horror font, for example) and changing the music just for the boss. But I can't really complain much about what's there, it is a solid and commendable effort.

Best ofs:

Best use of Theme: Im a hunt ghosts! by Misu
Best Concept: Telepath's Escape by Alice, mp
Best Presentation: Paranormal by Siolfor the Jackal
Best Story: Gluttony, My Master by Cantaloupe

Full ranking:

  1. Telepath's Escape by Alice, mp
  2. Im a hunt ghosts! by Misu
  3. Scary Ghost by stenol
  4. Paranormal by Siolfor the Jackal
  5. Ghostris by Yal
  6. Gluttony, My Master by Cantaloupe
  7. Boo! Dice by GameDevDan
  8. Super Adrenaline Boy by lazertrax
  9. Grave Mistake by Tyler, Emily, Vincent
  10. Lab 23 by HayManMarc, Micah_DS
  11. Necro-more-cy by Relic
  12. VLAD III by Fernando Gonzalez
  13. Ghost Run by Cat, var
  14. Homebound by Shadow_Lancer
  15. Bit Souls by Roa
  16. Supernatural Science by MikeeyBikeey, Aaron Baron, Caroline Zina
  17. The House by The M, Ghandpivot
  18. Spectre 2023 by Bearman_18
  19. Deadly Dungeon by KPJ
  20. The Cabin by Bart
  21. Ouija by Sk8dududu, Riley
  22. Hazel by FreddyShnitz
  23. Demon Santa by Catastrophe
  24. The Mouse Curser by Cloaked Games, aSingleCapella
  25. submerge. by Josh Chen
  26. Dodge Em' Dracula by Firedingo
  27. 重力スワッパー/Gravity Switcher by TheMiningBoyAlpha
  28. Night Of The Living Taters by dadio

Comments:

Bit Souls by Roa

A first-person 3D swordfight game with pixel graphics. While I like the concept of fighting skeletons and the attempt at voicing the gatekeeper, the signboard graphics don't give enough sense of depth for the game to make sense. At striking range, the skeletons' health bar and striking hand both disappear off the top of the screen, and the enemies don't even feel like enemies as I could walk right through them. It's also hard to tell where the skeletons' hit boxes start and end. This is a fusion of 2 disparate graphics styles that I think is better left un-fused, with actual models instead of sprite signboards.

Boo! Dice by GameDevDan

A Yahtzee-like dice game with a special ghost face that turns the score to zero. I greatly enjoyed the simple rules and the variety of personalities in the preset enemies. Only the first, second-last and last enemies provided any genuine challenge for me (I'm used to counting probabilities as a backgammon player), but even then I got them all in less than 30 minutes. The theme attachment in mechanics is on the weak side, but I'll take the written profiles as a replacement for that. Not a bad entry.

Deadly Dungeon by KPJ

A bullet-hell-like shooter with a choice of 3 attacks and one enemy in the middle. The basic premise is workable, but forcing me to use my left hand for the most demanding task is counterproductive, and the raining asteroids have very poor contrast. The graphics were basic, and the music could have been more deliberately chosen. I also don't see very specific usage of the theme.

Demon Santa by Catastrophe

A scrolling platformer shooter with a demon shooting angels and leaping across generated platforms. The music felt very generic, the graphics were monotone and the general gameplay lacked variety. Not much adherence to the theme either. Compared to the other scrolling shooter entries, this is a significantly worse entry.

Dodge Em' Dracula by Firedingo

Appears to be an attempt at a frogger game, but a complete miss at execution. The menu buttons were persistent and carried into the first level, and that's ugly enough. But the ugliest was how the first level's goal comes with a crash:


___________________________________________
############################################################################################
FATAL ERROR in
action number 1
of Step Eventobj_goal
for object obj_player:

unable to convert string "testing" to bool
at gml_Object_obj_player_Collision_08dad2d9_5a70_4cc7_99d6_59ebf3264fe9
############################################################################################
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
stack frame is
gml_Object_obj_player_Collision_08dad2d9_5a70_4cc7_99d6_59ebf3264fe9 (line -1)


Surely this would have been caught within a few seconds of playtesting, but there was no evidence of even that. And the titular character looks more like Rich Uncle Pennybags than Dracula, by the way.

Ghost Run by Cat, var

A side-scrolling runner game where a ghost phases in between the physical and metaphysical worlds to avoid obstacles in each. I loved the detailing that has gone into the background graphics and phasing transitions, so it came as a disappointment to me how the menu and scoring didn't match that. There was no running score and the menu's text had poor contrast. While the controls were straight forward and I was able to learn to play easily, the difficulty progression was too slow and I lost interest quickly.

Also, got this out of the gate on my Windows 10 laptop:

___________________________________________
############################################################################################
FATAL ERROR in Vertex Shader compilation
ShaderName: shd_night

D3DXCompile failed - result

at gml_Script_apply_shader
############################################################################################
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
stack frame is
gml_Script_apply_shader (line -1)
gml_Object_obj_control_Draw_0


Ghostris by Yal

A tetris game with paranormal-themed blocks that shift around after landing. The presentation is spot-on and greatly enhances the theme, with graphics that look like a horror film and blocks that resemble the undead. While I initially looked forward to the special block behaviour aspect, in the end this was the aspect I ended up not appreciating. Most of the special movements were unpredictable and took too much agency away from the player. It instead added a dimension of frustration when blocks disappear or shift at seemingly random times, and would have been much better if they triggered on a turn-based basis with more predictable patterns. The extra-large blocks also threw the game's balance out the window, and the holding mechanic could only save me so many times. I got about 11000 points, but for 70% of the session the bottom half of the screen was propped up by purple blocks that I can't get rid of.

Gluttony, My Master by Cantaloupe

A block shifting game similar to Sokoban with a "hungry ghost" theme. I liked how this entry framed an otherwise normal block puzzle as a supernatural-themed game with minor horror themes, and the story was a good complement to level progression. The main downside is that you can "continue" through every level, the level design was basic on the most part, and there was no incentive to play the best possible solution. Still, the graphics were decent, and the narrating character is relatable and definitely a good addition to the entry.

Grave Mistake by Tyler, Emily, Vincent

A pixel-styled platformer with a boy in a wheelchair gaining abilities as he completes quests for ghosts. I am very impressed with the detail that has gone into the pixel graphics, and the NPCs along the way were personable and cute. The main weakness is the short length of the entry, and having the interact and the reset so close together resulted in many accidental do-overs.

Also, got this out of the gate on my Windows 10 laptop:

___________________________________________
############################################################################################
FATAL ERROR in Vertex Shader compilation
ShaderName: shd_blur

D3DXCompile failed - result

at gml_Script_draw_surface_blurred
############################################################################################
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
stack frame is
gml_Script_draw_surface_blurred (line -1)
gml_Script_light_draw
gml_Object_obj_control_Draw_0


Hazel by FreddyShnitz

A side-scroller with typing game elements. While I appreciate the decent splash screen and adherence to the theme, that's all there is to like about this entry to me. There was no sound, and the fog and light effects were badly done and obstructive to normal play. The typing game element became repetitive quickly, and there was no variety in play.

The "School" mode is also completely unplayable because of this error:

___________________________________________
############################################################################################
FATAL ERROR in
action number 1
of Draw Event
for object Hazel:

Variable Hazel.dist(100021, -2147483648) not set before reading it.
at gml_Object_Hazel_Draw_64
############################################################################################
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
stack frame is
gml_Object_Hazel_Draw_64 (line -1)


Homebound by Shadow_Lancer

Some sort of house simulator with a ghost possessing various household objects. A nifty toy, but some objects were just too mobile (e.g. the teddy bear and the TV remote). I had some fun smashing lights and dishes. But without a goal, I can't really call it a game, and it didn't hold my attention for long.

Im a hunt ghosts! by Misu

An easy-to-learn action game with a classic "ghost vacuum" mechanic. The pixel graphics were perfect, the sound and music go great with the aesthetics, and the game itself was quick to pick up. It kept me interested for many rounds, and the runner ghost provided an element of surprise starting around wave 4 or so. Great level progression. The main downsides are how the wave-spawning mechanism sometimes spawns ghosts on top of me, and there is a rare freeze that can happen if the pathfinder can't find a way to the cursor. But on the most part, it was an enjoyable experience.

Lab 23 by HayManMarc, Micah_DS

Another telekinesis-based escape game, this time action-driven instead of turn-based. The menu was great and drew me into the game, and the explanations in the opening were sufficient in getting me started. While the keyboard movement and the basic drag both worked smoothly, the drag-and-flick was fiddly to use. The release is sometimes not recognized as a throw and the object doesn't drift, thus some guards unexpectedly stays alive. The boss was also a little too easy. A decent entry in terms of presentation, albeit a little too short.

Necro-more-cy by Relic

A "grow-and-conquer" kind of game where a necromancer summons undead from graves and battles living folk. The thematic match is perfect on both graphics and general play, and creating graves from battles is an interesting cyclic mechanic. The pixel graphics looked nice too, although the capital letters were hard to read. The mechanics lacked tactical interest, however, a little bit like Insaniquarium but that's it. The game would have been much more interesting if formations and picking battles had been more integral to the implementation.

Night Of The Living Taters by dadio

Little more than a joke program flashing a trollface at the end. Not impressed at all.

Ouija by Sk8dududu, Riley

Some sort of action game on an Ouija board. While I appreciate the effort going into the graphics, sound and music to make them fit the theme, all of it was squandered on poor gameplay. It was not explained at all, and the finger comes out of nowhere to squish the player with no way I know of to stop the timer. This could have been documented in a README, and not even that was present. Quite disappointing, really.

Paranormal by Siolfor the Jackal

A hack-and-slash game with 2 basic enemies and a final boss. The menu is easily the best and most attractive of all entries thus far, good sound effects and music, and the vector graphics were well done and a welcome exception to the pixelated majority. I enjoyed the entry enough to have played through it twice, so great job on that. Unfortunately, the dashes and turn-arounds were somewhat unresponsive due to animations, and I remember this being an issue on a similar previous entry as well. If this genre is your main suit, I would recommend researching how to interrupt animations and balance responsiveness with smooth transitions.

Scary Ghost by stenol

A scrolling shooter with a priest shooting the undead in a haunted forest. In the beginners category, I am actually quite impressed by this entry. The presentation had a good colour scheme and matching music, the enemies and shooting mechanics were smooth on the most part, the difficulty was just right, and the final boss was a great final touch. This is one of few entries that I played all the way to the end. Several areas for improvement include the main menu (should be keyboard controlled), the font (try using an artistic horror font, for example) and changing the music just for the boss. But I can't really complain much about what's there, it is a solid and commendable effort.

Spectre 2023 by Bearman_18

A fast-paced platformer-shooter with a stealth mechanic. While I am quite impressed with the pixel graphics, the jumpy controls kept me from going far, and I was confused by the "fire those guns with the mouse buttons" instruction for a long time (I tried left-clicking to my right to shoot right to no avail). Furthermore, the checkpoints could not be placed any worse, and that would have been obvious with basic testing. Sad to say this is yet another entry where good presentation was ruined by poor gameplay.

submerge. by Josh Chen

A game where a turtle collects coins and avoids plastic straws. Workable presentation, but the theme is completely off. This is more like "natural" instead of "supernatural", and the game mechanics are too simple and lacking variety.

Super Adrenaline Boy by lazertrax

A simple scrolling runner game with 2 special moves for getting around enemies in a line. I appreciate the utter simplicity of this game, and the neo-pixel aesthetics worked great as a casual entry. My only complaint is that the enemy's hitbox seems to be too big. That makes single jumps next to useless, and I catch the character's feet all the time. Level 10 was the luckiest I got, but at least I enjoyed trying.

Supernatural Science by MikeeyBikeey, Aaron Baron, Caroline Zina

A standard top-down shooter with a 3D view and 4 levels. While the mechanics work well and the controls are responsive enough, the game's design was too generic and not all that fitting of the theme. Just enemy and bullet spam on the most part, to be honest. The boulders also seem to have a one-hit KO collision bug.

Telepath's Escape by Alice, mp

A turn-based strategy game similar to FFT, but with a unique enemy-control mechanic instead of regular attacks. Great theme use, good presentation, and the documentation and tutorial were the most thorough out of any entry. Compared to the other "telekinesis" entry, this one held my interest for much longer and is backed by a deeper concept. It was a challenge to balance my own movement against manipulating enemies. Though I didn't get very far with the usual "create distance and run" strategy taught in the tutorial, I can see this being a decent puzzle for those looking for an alternative to traditional TBS battle games.

The Cabin by Bart

A ghost hunting simulator with 3 basic tools. While the theme usage is pretty good, the limited scope and loss of planned functionality cut this entry short. The tuner was hard to use and scrolled too quickly. The camera worked and I took a few photographs, but the novelty didn't last long.

The House by The M, Ghandpivot

An adventure game inside a haunted house. Decent graphics, great sound effects and music, and the controls were smooth on the most part. I would have put this entry in the top 3 if it wasn't for its sliding window gimmick. It was shaky while it lasted, and when I got to the room with the safe's password in it, the window is already past the right side of my 1920x1080 screen. That stopped my session right there. While I appreciate the effort that has gone into everything else in the game, this entry should serve as a lesson to you and other participants that technical stunts can completely spoil otherwise excellent work.

The Mouse Curser by Cloaked Games, aSingleCapella

A clicker game with a giant cursor removing sticky notes from a board saying "The End". I understand the premise of the title's attempt to integrate with the theme, but it's just too simple to seriously evaluate.

VLAD III by Fernando Gonzalez

An arcade game with a vampire descending onto unsuspecting victims and then flying up again. While I appreciate the full integration of the theme into the presentation (both music and background are done well), the game was a little too simple and repetitive for my liking, and the stick figures didn't match the background. Having more types of victims or enemies fighting back would have made the entry more interesting.

重力スワッパー/Gravity Switcher by TheMiningBoyAlpha

A standard platformer with gravity mechanics. While I appreciate the attempt to implement the theme and the pixel aesthetics, I must say nothing worked out in this game. The pixel graphics were oversaturated, and the tutorial text was illegible. But the biggest problem of all is how easy it is to get embedded into a wall by regular movement. I did not progress more than a few steps in the tutorial or the first level without getting stuck. This needs a lot of work. For starters, learn to use static masks for moving platformer characters instead of precise masks that get stuck in walls as you move.

Also, got this out of the gate on my Windows 10 laptop:

___________________________________________
############################################################################################
FATAL ERROR in Vertex Shader compilation
ShaderName: shd_pal_swapper

D3DXCompile failed - result

at gml_Script_pal_swap_set
############################################################################################
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
stack frame is
gml_Script_pal_swap_set (line 0)
gml_Object_obj_basic_example_Draw_64
 

Micah_DS

Member
~ Micah's Votes & Feedback ~

Top 3:
The House by @The M, @ghandpivot
CORE ASPECTS

CONCEPT ( mechanics, story, etc. + jam theme integration )
A familiar style of horror-like exploration, but with a cool window placement and scrolling mechanic and a whole lot of charm.
I consider it to be a very solid use and integration of the theme, since the mechanics provide a nice way to interact with and explore the supernatural mysteries.

PRESENTATION ( art, audio, feel, polish )
Really, really good. The graphics may have a hint of ms paint, but they have charm, and the atmosphere is arguably more important, and that atmosphere is great!

ENJOYMENT
Exploring the house and solving the puzzles with this combination of atmosphere and jokes was a fantastic experience. You guys rock!
ADDITIONAL FEEDBACK

/'` CONS `'\​
  • The game was a bit small, though it wasn't too bad, and it's understandable in order to accomplish the room transitions. In the end, if it was a trade off to having the transitions like that, I'd say it was worth it.
  • The symbols for the key controls shown in the starting room should've been a bit brighter. The dark gray was a tad too hard to see against the black keys.
  • When I came to the first flight of stairs, I saw the 'interact' bubble appear, but I thought it was to interact with the painting. I wasn't sure why I was jumping to a new position. I figured it out pretty quick though. This probably could've been avoided if there was a special text in that case that explained staircase movement. It wasn't bad though.
/'` NEUTRAL `'\​
  • From what I understand, you can't actually die, right? When you get chased by the monster, if you stand there, it'll bump you back until you fall in the hole. Since it's a jam, I like it, because you don't lose progress or anything, though I don't think it would've hurt the game to have a little of that kind of challenge. If it weren't a jam, it'd be pretty lame, so I think this is actually a pro?
/'` PROS `'\​
  • A very smooth and polished experience with great atmosphere and good game feel. Whoop!
  • Included credits. Thank you!
  • "So fa' so good." Humor like this really brings me life.
  • You even managed to add a nice ending that's not just a wall of text (which HayManMarc and I's game is admittedly guilty of).
Paranormal by @Siolfor the Jackal
CORE ASPECTS

CONCEPT ( mechanics, story, etc. + jam theme integration )
Another fun beat 'em up from you? I'll gladly take it!
The concept uses the theme in a very straightforward way. Despite not being super creative or fancy, it's a very good use of the theme.

PRESENTATION ( art, audio, feel, polish )
Wow, you did awesome with everything. Maybe my memory is wrong, but your art looks even better than your past jam entries that I've played. Maybe you've improved as an artist or perhaps you just had more time given to art? It also plays quite well and it's very nicely polished. Great!

ENJOYMENT
I really enjoyed it. I got the hang of it quickly and it felt great to dash, slash, and shoot like mad, and the boss was satisfying to fight. Very fun!
ADDITIONAL FEEDBACK

/'` CONS `'\​
  • Oops! Trying to access the options crashes the game.
    It's a very minor issue though, since it doesn't occur during gameplay, and - though it would've improved the game to have them - I was fine without the options.
  • If you dash past an enemy, no matter how far you go ahead, it will eventually catch up if you wait.
    This is alright for the most part, but when you reach the boss, it should definitely get rid of the enemies off screen. I had a ghost finally catch up and come on screen after I had been fighting the boss for a while.
/'` NEUTRAL `'\​
  • The boss's health bar goes negative if you continue to hit him after he's dead. It's really just a minor visual issue; it doesn't affect gameplay, since the boss is clearly dead already.
/'` PROS `'\​
  • Very good credits! It's important to me to know who did what and when.
  • Despite the old school midi style guitar sounds :p, the music rocks.
  • The animation and healthy dose of particle effects really made an impact on me - it really makes it feel polished.
  • Amazing execution.
    The two enemies work well with the mechanics for interesting and varied gameplay, and the boss AI is different enough from enemies to be interesting and climactic, plus it encourages use of all the player's abilities. I'm impressed!
Grave Mistake by @trg601 (Tyler, Emily, Vincent)
CORE ASPECTS

CONCEPT ( mechanics, story, etc. + jam theme integration )
A game about ascension, and the mechanics are also about ascending. First you're in a wheelchair, then you can jump, then double jump, reaching new heights, and you reach a peak in the end. I think that's fantastic. The mechanics are engaging as well. I quite like the concept!

PRESENTATION ( art, audio, feel, polish )
Splendid! The art and colors are great, and the game controls well and feels smooth and good.

ENJOYMENT
I very much enjoyed both the gameplay and the dialogue.
ADDITIONAL FEEDBACK

/'` CONS `'\​
  • I would prefer having credits accessible outside the game or from the menu, not just when beating the game.
/'` PROS `'\​
  • Deaths are forgiving, since the game doesn't put you too far back. I appreciate that.
    Honestly, the game wasn't very difficult anyway, which I also appreciate. :p
  • The color choices are seriously pretty and otherworldly, and I really love the heart and blue orb HUD graphics.
  • The game's length and progression was perfect.

Best ofs:
Best use of Theme: Telepath's Escape by @Alice , mp
Best Concept: The House by @The M, @ghandpivot
Best Presentation: Grave Mistake by @trg601 (Tyler, Emily, Vincent)
Best Story: Gluttony, My Master by @Cantaloupe
Best Devlog: The Cabin by @Bart

Full ranking:
  1. The House by The M, Ghandpivot
  2. Paranormal by Siolfor the Jackal
  3. Grave Mistake by Tyler, Emily, Vincent
  4. Bit Souls by Roa
  5. Boo! Dice by GameDevDan
  6. Im a hunt ghosts! by Misu
  7. Ghostris by Yal
  8. Spectre 2023 by Bearman_18
  9. Telepath's Escape by Alice, mp
  10. Chiaroscuro by Dickson Law
  11. Supernatural Science by MikeeyBikeey, Aaron Baron, Caroline Zina
  12. Scary Ghost by stenol
  13. Necro-more-cy by Relic
  14. The Mouse Curser by Cloaked Games, aSingleCapella
  15. submerge. by Josh Chen
  16. VLAD III by Fernando Gonzalez
  17. Ghost Run by Cat, var
  18. Night Of The Living Taters by dadio
  19. The Cabin by Bart
  20. Super Adrenaline Boy by lazertrax
  21. Gluttony, My Master by Cantaloupe
  22. 重力スワッパー/Gravity Switcher by TheMiningBoyAlpha
  23. Homebound by Shadow_Lancer
  24. Hazel by FreddyShnitz
  25. Demon Santa by Catastrophe
  26. Deadly Dungeon by KPJ
  27. Ouija by Sk8dududu, Riley
  28. Dodge Em' Dracula by Firedingo

Feedback:
You can find my feedback for the other games in the jam discussion here.
... Because I went over the character limit. :oops:
 
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