GMC Jam Voting GMC Jam 34 - Voting Topic - Closed!

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GameDevDan

Former Jam Host
Moderator
GMC Elder


Get The Games
Games ZIP (280 MB) | Games Topic

Voting Deadline
September 10th, 12:00 UTC



  • As soon as the Jam ends on August 26th at 12:00 UTC, a zip folder of the games will be created and posted in the voting topic so that players can download all the entries at once if they wish.
  • Voters will then have around 2 weeks to play and rank the games and voting will close on September 10th 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.
 
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P

ParodyKnaveBob

Guest
Howdy. I'm ParodyKnaveBob, and I approve this message.


Top 3:

Wormhole by Alice

master.hacker.pro by Reaktori, Riuku

The Portal by Micah_DS

Full ranking:

  1. Wormhole by Alice
  2. master.hacker.pro by Reaktori, Riuku
  3. The Portal by Micah_DS
  4. Garbage Heroes by GameDevDan
  5. Chemodynamics by Dickson Law
  6. No Way Back by Gizmo199
  7. Citadel Stormer by Pixeltroid
  8. Mo's Fish Shack by Relic
  9. The Great Mech War of 2039 by Mercerenies
  10. Spielcomm by Bart
  11. Hatch Controller by NazGhuL
  12. Ninja vs Demons by Toque
  13. I'm Not Drunk by Pranjal, Shwet
  14. PINN by HayManMarc
  15. Slimelvator by Michael McMullen
  16. Fort With Guns by MikeeyBikeey
  17. Unnamed by MikeDark_x
  18. No Smash The Walls by IndianaBones
  19. Turret Trap by Curato
  20. Bouncer by Siolfor the Jackal
  21. Objective: Stealth by KPJ
  22. Just Another Night by Shadow_Lancer, Cowsox
  23. Popcorn Spider by Nacky Slocker
  24. Thirst of Freedom by Fried Llama Studio
  25. 30第二エスケープ | 30 Second Escape by TheMiningBoyAlpha

Live streamed reactions/reviews!

playlist in chronological order

#1 Dad by Timothy Y

(silly XenForo, practically forcing this one URL to become a video when I want it to match the others ... whatever)
Code:
___________________________________________
############################################################################################
FATAL ERROR in Vertex Shader compilation
ShaderName: sh_mat_phong

D3DXCompile failed - result

############################################################################################
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
called from - gml_Script_scr_setShader (line 20)
called from - gml_Object_obj_controller_Draw_0 (line 67)
30第二エスケープ | 30 Second Escape by TheMiningBoyAlpha

https://youtu.be/mA9nd-AANdg

Bouncer by Siolfor the Jackal

https://youtu.be/hhkruamNsBM

Chemodynamics by Dickson Law

https://youtu.be/AIPARZSz84s

Citadel Stormer by Pixeltroid

https://youtu.be/FrF4foUsRsg

Crimson Raider by Lolslayer, Kazimir Mariusz

https://youtu.be/rrux2Tx-Da4
Code:
___________________________________________
############################################################################################
FATAL ERROR in Vertex Shader compilation
ShaderName: shd_map

D3DXCompile failed - result

at gml_Object_obj_map_Draw_0
############################################################################################
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stack frame is
gml_Object_obj_map_Draw_0 (line -1)
Dicy Dungeon by The M

https://youtu.be/LTVqOFi6egI
Code:
___________________________________________
############################################################################################
FATAL ERROR in Vertex Shader compilation
ShaderName: shader_noise

D3DXCompile failed - result

at gml_Object_enemy_Draw_0
############################################################################################
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
stack frame is
gml_Object_enemy_Draw_0 (line -1)
Fort With Guns by MikeeyBikeey

https://youtu.be/ZGw2sIPcX-I

Garbage Heroes by GameDevDan

https://youtu.be/LTVqOFi6egI

Hatch Controller by NazGhuL

https://youtu.be/stClxeUlFR8

I'm Not Drunk by Pranjal, Shwet

https://youtu.be/J9MpRyUmJVI

Just Another Night by Shadow_Lancer, Cowsox

https://youtu.be/QOK6y09Sp0I

master.hacker.pro by Reaktori, Riuku

https://youtu.be/RbY4iPbasU4

Mo's Fish Shack by Relic

https://youtu.be/HQxTu6gNWpw

Ninja vs Demons by Toque

https://youtu.be/F7s-KhzB4oQ

No Smash The Walls by IndianaBones

https://youtu.be/o6RvlO78Tro

No Way Back by Gizmo199

https://youtu.be/1_p0m6ICPqY

Objective: Stealth by KPJ

https://youtu.be/ftWpjcUsRj4

Crash if pressing Enter too much at the end of the story screen:
Code:
___________________________________________
############################################################################################
FATAL ERROR in
action number 1
of  Step Event0
for object obj_start_cutscene:

Push :: Execution Error - Variable Index [0,12] out of range [1,11] - -1.dialogue(100080,12)
at gml_Object_obj_start_cutscene_Step_0
############################################################################################
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
stack frame is
gml_Object_obj_start_cutscene_Step_0 (line -1)
Finally, you requested we try the post-Jam update ( https://krishnajawale.itch.io/objective-stealth-updated ). My thoughts? Eep, you won't enjoy this...
  1. Wow, the obvious typos on the title screen are still there. I'm not talking about the story screen where it shows English might not be your first language.
  2. The update unfortunately made things worse. After the story screen, I now somehow start on the bottom floor, next to the briefcase.
I hope this helps!

PINN by HayManMarc

https://youtu.be/Gq7fxptE2VA

Popcorn Spider by Nacky Slocker

https://youtu.be/k9nYJeVJVrM

SINGLE POINT OF ENTRY.exe by David Pisano

https://youtu.be/wd7fXRPVXPs
Code:
___________________________________________
############################################################################################
FATAL ERROR in Vertex Shader compilation
ShaderName: sh_CRT_Windows

D3DXCompile failed - result

at gml_Object_obj_CRT_Windows_Draw_64
############################################################################################
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
stack frame is
gml_Object_obj_CRT_Windows_Draw_64 (line -1)
Slimelvator by Michael McMullen

https://youtu.be/lCmWsGBeAzs

Spielcomm by Bart

https://youtu.be/busFOdYJAoE

The Great Mech War of 2039 by Mercerenies

https://youtu.be/LTVqOFi6egI

The Portal by Micah_DS

https://youtu.be/3Mxww43wgo4

Thirst of Freedom by Fried Llama Studio

https://youtu.be/F6e1peDK8lA

Tic-Tac-Toe by ParodyKnaveBob

https://youtu.be/ai2XWlo-4r0

Turret Trap by Curato

https://youtu.be/s1lMeUBbbrU

Unnamed by MikeDark_x

https://youtu.be/e-dIlNrQdoo

Wormhole by Alice

https://youtu.be/x7oqZTIs_EQ

Addressing each entry in a final video: corrections, calculations, conclusions.
 
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Mercerenies

Member
Mercerenies' Comically Malicious and Fragrant Reviews

1. Dicy Dungeon - The M
2. Chemodynamics - FrostyCat
3. master.hacker.pro - Reaktori / Riuku

Full rankings:
4. Wormhole - Alice
5. Garbage Heroes - GameDevDan
6. Crimson Raider - lolslayer / Kazimir Mariusz
7. Bouncer - Siolfor
8. Mos Fish Shack - Relic
9. No Way Back - Gizmo199
10. The Portal - Micah_DS
11. Fort with Guns - MikeeyBikeey
12. Just Another Night - Shadow Lancer / Cowsox
13. Unnamed - MikeDark_x
14. Number One Dad - Timothy Y
15. I'm Not Drunk - Pranjal / Schwet
16. Hatch Controller - NazGhuL
17. Tic-Tac-Toe - ParodyKnaveBob
18. Popcorn Spider - Nacky Slocker
19. Spielcomm - Bart
20. Turret Trap - Curato
21. SINGLEPOINTOFENTRY.exe - David Pisano
22. Citadel Stormer - Pixeltroid
23. Ninja vs Demons - Toque
24. No Smash the Walls - Indiana Bones
25. Pinn - HayManMarc
26. Slimelvator - Michael McMullen
27. Objective Stealth - KPJ
28. Thirst of Freedom - Fried Llama Studio

Best Use of Theme - Wormhole (Alice)
Best Concept - Number One Dad (Timothy Y)
Best Presentation - Crimson Raider (lolslayer / Kazimir Mariusz)
Best Devlog - Spielcomm (Bart)

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.

Bouncer - Siolfor (25/30)
Gameplay (3/5)
Graphics (5/5)
Audio (5/5)
Theme (5/5)
Opinion (7/10)

A simple but very fun game. I loved how everyone's head bopped with the music, and the variety of visitors to the club was a nice touch. I personally found it easier to just count in my head rather than having to think about the up/down arrows, but I'm glad the feature is there for those who want it. Also, I'm pretty sure this gets me some kind of "best bouncer" award: https://i.imgur.com/IxdAVLT.png

Chemodynamics - FrostyCat (28/30)
Gameplay (4/5)
Graphics (5/5)
Audio (5/5)
Theme (5/5)
Opinion (9/10)

A very intense but still enjoyable game. Very well-polished, and the random generation of the arrows on the sides of things made for a gaming experience that remained fresh. I like that you provide a turn-based mode, although I did personally find the intensity of the timing-based mode more enjoyable. I am curious whether there were correlations between the color and arrows on the reactants, as it seemed to me that green would almost always be cardinal directions, while yellow was almost always diagonal (red / purple just sorta seemed chaotic). I did feel like my wrist was getting tired by the end, but I can't think of a better way to do the controls (I imagine it would be better on a touchscreen device, but I don't have a touchscreen computer running Windows to try it on).

Citadel Stormer - Pixeltroid (16/30)
Gameplay (2/5)
Graphics (5/5)
Audio (4/5)
Theme (0/5)
Opinion (5/10)

A very strong entry, presentation-wise. Unfortunately, the platforming felt... off, I suppose. Jumping somehow felt too high and too low, I felt like I was sliding around a bit too much, and overall I could never judge where I was going to land. I also feel like it would've been nice to replenish my bullets when I die (or at least bring them back up to where I was when I entered the room), because I felt like I would die with 0 bullets, and then I'd be kinda stuck with no way to fight my way out.

Crimson Raider - lolslayer / Kazimir Mariusz (24/30)
Gameplay (5/5)
Graphics (5/5)
Audio (0/5)
Theme (5/5)
Opinion (9/10)

I feel the need to start by saying: OHMYGOD I LOVE THE VISUALS. Seriously, you pulled off an isometric view perfectly. I can just always tell what depth I'm at, and it really does feel like there's a super-clean third dimension to the game. As for the game itself, it's short but does everything it needs to. I was frustrated the first time that death reset the game completely (I lost two of the keys), but then I realized how short the game actually was and, yeah, it makes sense to have a kind of permadeath in that situation. I found the best approach was just to blindly rush past everything, so I'm not sure I actually did that much fighting, but still.

Dicy Dungeon - The M (29/30)
Gameplay (5/5)
Graphics (5/5)
Audio (5/5)
Theme (4/5)
Opinion (10/10)

Congratulations, you probably win the "Mercerenies spent the most time playing your game" award. I tried this so many times. I did not win... I didn't even get to the final boss. This is so much fun, and I loved every minute, but I could not beat it. The sheer number of dice you had the time to design is breathtaking, although I do wish there was a reference of them somewhere (for instance, I couldn't figure out what the one-shot one did). There were lots of interesting tradeoffs with things like critical dice and wicked whites (I stuffed my dice pool with wicked whites on one playthrough. It did not go well.) Excellent game!

Fort with Guns - MikeeyBikeey (16/30)
Gameplay (5/5)
Graphics (4/5)
Audio (0/5)
Theme (0/5)
Opinion (7/10)

A solid entry. The combat system was basic but fun. There was a good variety in the kinds of guns, and I liked that there was a close range (and pretty effective) punching attack for when you run out of ammo. I was very surprised when this castle-raiding game turned into fighting skeletons from Hell, but hey, that was fun.

Garbage Heroes - GameDevDan (22/30)
Gameplay (5/5)
Graphics (5/5)
Audio (4/5)
Theme (0/5)
Opinion (8/10)

That was... surprisingly epic in mood. When I got halfway through the executive fight, I was really feeling it, between the music and the visuals and just generally his demeanor and creepy Luigi's Mansion-esque grunt. A well-executed rhythm game.

Hatch Controller - NazGhuL (18/30)
Gameplay (2/5)
Graphics (2/5)
Audio (3/5)
Theme (5/5)
Opinion (6/10)

"Impossible to win" indeed, this is an interesting take on the theme. Not a whole lot to be said. I'm not sure how many points I can give to audio, etc. since you basically ripped the Star Wars assets for that, but still, a fun fangame nonetheless.

I'm Not Drunk - Pranjal, Schwet (23/30)
Gameplay (3/5)
Graphics (5/5)
Audio (3/5)
Theme (5/5)
Opinion (7/10)

A game modelled after one of the more annoying aspects of first-world living. I am indeed not drunk, and it took several tries to get that right. I am glad to see it's winnable though; I was worried I would have to give up before doing so.

Just Another Night - Shadow Lancer / Cowsox (25/30)
Gameplay (4/5)
Graphics (5/5)
Audio (5/5)
Theme (5/5)
Opinion (6/10)

Another bouncer-themed game, which makes sense given the theme. I liked the tickers at the top, and the different dress code requirements made for quite a few interesting attire choices (why did so many people wear cats on their heads?:O). Although my main complain would be that it wasn't altogether clear how the VIP and dress code requirements fit together. That is, if someone claimed to be VIP falsely, I'm supposed to reject them regardless of dress code, but if someone claimed to be VIP truthfully but weren't following the dress code, it seemed like I was also supposed to reject them, which took a bit of learning and seemed a bit odd to me.

master.hacker.pro - Reaktori / Riuku (26/30)
Gameplay (5/5)
Graphics (5/5)
Audio (3/5)
Theme (5/5)
Opinion (8/10)

A very well-executed puzzle game. The graphics were simplistic but they got the job done. I love how most of the mechanics weren't explained but were very easily learnable. You never actually had to tell me what the letter transmuters, upcase/downcase converters, or packet check things did because they just explained themselves, and that's a sign of a very good mechanic. Unfortunately, I didn't quite get to the end, as I need to go play the other entries now. I got just past the "ATRIUM" level.

Mos Fish Shack - Relic (24/30)
Gameplay (4/5)
Graphics (5/5)
Audio (3/5)
Theme (5/5)
Opinion (7/10)

Definitely an interesting take on the theme. There is indeed a single point of entry into that pond. I saw in the readme that you had a lot more planned, but to be honest more would just clutter it up. It's a simple, very basic arcade-style fishing game, and it works great. You never actually explained anything to me, really, but it was just super-intuitive that jellies are worth nothing and fish further down are going to be worth more. I also really loved the mechanic that the 1-point fish are technically worth something but end up functioning more as obstacles because they just waste your time.

Ninja vs Demons - Toque (16/30)
Gameplay (2/5)
Graphics (2/5)
Audio (2/5)
Theme (5/5)
Opinion (5/10)

This seems like a cool game, but the execution just didn't quite fit. The hitbox on the sword was super fickle, and apparently I had some kind of hidden healthbar because I hit several demons but then one of them finally killed me later on. Between the two of those, this became difficult to play.

No Smash the Walls - Indiana Bones (14/30)
Gameplay (2/5)
Graphics (2/5)
Audio (0/5)
Theme (5/5)
Opinion (5/10)

A neat idea, but the controls were just too clumsy. I should have to tap the arrow each time I want to move. Having it move when I hold down just meant that it was way too easy for me to accidentally move two spots, which means when the walls start moving faster the game gets very frustrating very fast. I needed a precision that this game just didn't provide.

No Way Back - Gizmo199 (20/30)
Gameplay (4/5)
Graphics (5/5)
Audio (4/5)
Theme (0/5)
Opinion (7/10)

A fun game. It was a very interesting mix of platforming, general top-down navigation, and sliding puzzles, which together made a very unique experience. Unfortunately, the game spazzed on one of the later levels: the player (in kidney bean mode) got stuck in a wall and the key (in antigrav mode) flew offscreen and out of bounds. It wasn't even during a transition or anything; it just happened.

Number One Dad - Timothy Y (21/30)
Gameplay (5/5)
Graphics (5/5)
Audio (4/5)
Theme (0/5)
Opinion (7/10)

For a game whose mechanics can be accurately described as "hold the right arrow key and go afk", this was surprisingly engaging. I can tell you put a lot into the surface showing up right on the coffee mug and the general aesthetic of the office, and it all came together well. When the platforms actually did loop at the end, I could see the pixels jump at one point, but otherwise the illusion remained intact. Although given the loop, I'd say more "no point of exit" than "single point of entry".

Objective Stealth - KPJ (9/30)
Gameplay (1/5)
Graphics (1/5)
Audio (4/5)
Theme (0/5)
Opinion (3/10)

Just to be clear, how many hands did you have when you playtested this game? Because with my two human hands, I cannot keep track of WASD, F, spacebar, shift, enter, and the arrow keys. It just doesn't work like that. I figured, even after seeing the nightmare of a control configuration, that I'd give it a shot, and then I died once immediately and after restarting I couldn't move right. Like at all. So yeah, this was nigh unplayable for multiple reasons.

Pinn - HayManMarc (17/30)
Gameplay (2/5)
Graphics (3/5)
Audio (4/5)
Theme (3/5)
Opinion (5/10)

A neat idea, but unfortunately I found it to be mostly luck-based. I may just be bad at it, but no matter how I tried to position things, it just never seemed to change anything, which would be consistent with the way these types of machines work irl.

Popcorn Spider - Nacky Slocker (9/30)
Gameplay (2/5)
Graphics (1/5)
Audio (1/5)
Theme (0/5)
Opinion (5/10)

Simple enough, but it did what it did well. Just a basic collecting game that is, as you say, impossible to lose. Relaxing and fun for a short time.

SINGLEPOINTOFENTRY.exe - David Pisano (10/30)
Gameplay (1/5)
Graphics (3/5)
Audio (0/5)
Theme (1/5)
Opinion (5/10)

What... was that? Was the game the GLaDOS menu or the brief asteroids mechanic? I suppose both, although I'm not sure what to do with it. Cool enough navigation, I suppose. Although the buzzing sound on the first menu was obnoxious.

Slimelvator - Michael McMullen (8/30)
Gameplay (1/5)
Graphics (1/5)
Audio (2/5)
Theme (0/5)
Opinion (4/10)

So... what am I doing? The game keeps telling me to collect keys and destroy furniture, but the only controls I can figure out are WASD to move. The text that tried to explain things seemed to be about 1.5 pixels tall, so I had to run and grab my magnifying lens to read that. Sorry, but I just didn't know what I was supposed to do.

Spielcomm - Bart (21/30)
Gameplay (2/5)
Graphics (4/5)
Audio (4/5)
Theme (5/5)
Opinion (6/10)

A neat concept, and I loved the low-poly feel of the whole thing. I collected all of the six missing words and then talked to the guards. None of them said anything too useful, so I wasn't sure what to do after that. Did I miss a guard perhaps?

The Portal - Micah_DS (23/30)
Gameplay (4/5)
Graphics (4/5)
Audio (5/5)
Theme (3/5)
Opinion (7/10)

A well-executed puzzle game. The direction-dependent portals were a very nice mechanic, as it messed with your existing perception of the way such things should function and added a lot more paths through the mazes than is apparent at first. I could've done without the unpredictable enemies I needed to lure in, or at least I could've done with making their movements a bit more predictable, as they were a pain to get to do what I wanted.

Thirst of Freedom - Fried Llama Studio (6/30)
Gameplay (1/5)
Graphics (1/5)
Audio (0/5)
Theme (0/5)
Opinion (4/10)

There wasn't a whole lot to go on here. No music, no real story, pretty basic graphics. The fighting controls didn't seem to work; none of the buttons that were supposed to perform some kind of attack did anything at all, and I didn't seem to take any damage from enemies either. So all in all, this feels like an unfinished entry.

Tic-Tac-Toe - ParodyKnaveBob (10/30)
Gameplay (3/5)
Graphics (2/5)
Audio (0/5)
Theme (0/5)
Opinion (5/10)

It's... tic-tac-toe. Pretty basic, but it does what it does well. The graphics look pretty nice, but the AI is pretty dumb. TTT is not too hard to brute-force a perfect strategy, so it would've been cool to see a "hard mode" AI that never loses.

Turret Trap - Curato (13/30)
Gameplay (3/5)
Graphics (3/5)
Audio (1/5)
Theme (1/5)
Opinion (5/10)

A pretty basic shooter. The circular motion was a nice touch, and the movement was very smooth: not too jerky but not too slow. There's not much else to say, as there wasn't really that much content, but it was done well.

Unnamed - MikeDark_x (17/30)
Gameplay (3/5)
Graphics (5/5)
Audio (0/5)
Theme (3/5)
Opinion (6/10)

A simple but neat game. The mechanics are pretty basic, and the sword is close enough range that it's pretty difficult to land a blow without taking damage yourself. The main thing this game has going for it is its excellent GB-style aesthetic, which it pulls off very well.

Wormhole - Alice (25/30)
Gameplay (4/5)
Graphics (4/5)
Audio (5/5)
Theme (5/5)
Opinion (7/10)

Ahhh there's that delicious pun. I went back and beat the game after reading the afterword, just because of that. The variety in the enemies made what would otherwise be a clone of Snake feel fresh and interesting, and the backgrounds complemented that feeling and the whole game very well (especially the last couple: the sunrise and the orange slide-y thing, which felt especially epic given how far I'd gotten in the game by then).

Unplayable Games

30 Second Escape - TheMiningBoyAlpha
Shader error :(
 
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lolslayer

Member
Lolslayer's long overdue but yet just in-time reviews!

Reviews
Top 3:
The Great Mech War of 2039 by Mercerenies
I loved playing this game, there was something addictive about throwing other robots out of the arena and upgrading your own robot. I'm baffled that you could get so many features in there, I found it already quite ambitious that you could modify your robot, but being able to upload your robot and compete against those of others? No, I would never expect anybody to be able to pull that off within the timeframe of a game jam. In my opinion, the only thing that the game misses is the ability to fight other players online in a multiplayer match, otherwise it's a perfect game!
I don't see how the theme plays into this game, but it doesn't matter too much, it was really fun to play this game!
PS I dare everyone who reads this review to fight my boy MR Chrome, I've high hopes for this guy!
PPS I unlocked all the mech parts ;)

Dicy Dungeon by The M
You know that a game is good when you keep coming back at it. Usually for these reviews I try to finish a game once, and then I write the review. For this one however I came back a few times simply for how much fun it was (sadly, some of my plahthroughs were cut short because of crashes). Even though the premise didn't sound that interesting at first when I read the Readme, there's a surprising amount of tactics found in this game, and all your decisions are based on risk/reward which makes it such a high-stakes game. The only flaw I found in the gameplay was that some enemies with a high armour value took way too long to take down.
The way the theme was incorporated into the gameplay wasn't very interesting, but it's an okay implementation and I won't judge the game for that.

No Way Back by Gizmo199
I loved this game, I loved the art style, I loved the music, I loved the sounds effects (especially of the text being typed out), and I liked the gameplay quite a lot. There are quite a few possibilities created by the systems provided in the game for creating puzzles, and some of the ones found in this game are quite challenging and rewarding to solve. Sadly, some puzzles gave off the feeling that I didn't find the proper solution, but I still got through anyhow. Controlling two entities at once felt more like you are working against yourself instead of with yourself, which sadly makes the puzzles with the keys more frustrating than it should be. It's possible to get stuck and then you have to reset the whole game, which was slightly annoying, luckily it only happened once to me. I also feel like the game could've benefited from having the sliding work on a grid instead of being stopped by collisions, it would make the sliding feel more solid and grounded in my opinion, it now felt a bit sloppy not being aligned to the grid even though the sliding puzzles were grid-aligned.
Don't get me wrong though, I really enjoyed my ride with this game. It had a magical, dreamy feeling, which I often try to find in games that I haven't succeeded in doing so for a very long time, except for here, thank you for this experience, and I would love to listen to the soundtrack on repeat if you can send me the audio file. :)

Best ofs:

Best use of Theme: I'm Not Drunk by Pranjal, Shwet
Best Concept: Dicy Dungeon by The M
Best Presentation: No Way Back by Gizmo199
Best Story: Garbage Heroes by GameDevDan
Best Devlog: The Great Mech War of 2039 by Mercerenies

Full ranking:

  1. The Great Mech War of 2039 by Mercerenies
  2. Dicy Dungeon by The M
  3. No Way Back by Gizmo199
  4. master.hacker.pro by Reaktori, Riuku
  5. SINGLE POINT OF ENTRY.exe by David Pisano
  6. Wormhole by Alice
  7. I'm Not Drunk by Pranjal, Shwet
  8. Garbage Heroes by GameDevDan
  9. Chemodynamics by Dickson Law
  10. #1 Dad by Timothy Y
  11. Mo's Fish Shack by Relic
  12. Just Another Night by Shadow_Lancer, Cowsox
  13. Fort With Guns by MikeeyBikeey
  14. Crimson Raider by Lolslayer, Kazimir Mariusz
  15. Unnamed by MikeDark_x
  16. No Smash The Walls by IndianaBones
  17. Tic-Tac-Toe by ParodyKnaveBob
  18. PINN by HayManMarc
  19. The Portal by Micah_DS
  20. Spielcomm by Bart
  21. Popcorn Spider by Nacky Slocker
  22. Bouncer by Siolfor the Jackal
  23. Ninja vs Demons by Toque
  24. Hatch Controller by NazGhuL
  25. Slimelvator by Michael McMullen
  26. Objective: Stealth by KPJ
  27. Turret Trap by Curato
  28. Citadel Stormer by Pixeltroid
  29. Thirst of Freedom by Fried Llama Studio
  30. 30第二エスケープ | 30 Second Escape by TheMiningBoyAlpha

Comments:

#1 Dad by Timothy Y
I really like the concept behind the game. Technically I found it very interesting how you had a never ending world that kept looping around a 3D object, and symbolically I really liked how the actions performed in the game empowered it. The narrative is not relatable for me, probably not yet, but I do believe that it was very well executed. Gameplay wise there's not much to offer, but I don't believe that anything more was necessary for this game.
I liked it.

30第二エスケープ | 30 Second Escape by TheMiningBoyAlpha
I do not understand the goal of this game, I've seemingly walked everywhere where you can go, I also learned how to punch walls so I don't think I missed any spot. There wasn't any proper gameplay to be found, and the performance was terrible. I saw that this game crashed for Dan because the game tried to allocate more than a Gigabyte of RAM for the vertex buffers, a GIGABYTE of RAM! That's insane man! I also didn't enjoy the aesthetics that much, but you might have made it a a bit abstract on purpose to create a sense of style and I can respect that.
I can't say much more about this game, not without knowing the goal of it. I don't want to discourage you from doing 3D for your future projects, but I can see that you're not too familiar with it yet, and I believe that for small timeframes as with game jams you can better steer clear from 3D for now. Everyone needs to start somewhere, with some more effort you can get there!

Bouncer by Siolfor the Jackal
I find the gameplay idea quite interesting, tracking the attendees while also making sure that enough people are in the club, while balancing who comes in, poses a good challenge.
But I didn't get the hang of this game, it might just be me but I didn't find a tactic of keeping people inside the club. I tried to fill it up as quickly as possible with a balanced men/women ratio, I also kept track of that it didn't go beyond the capacity, but I still kept losing within the first minute.
I also believe that even if I got the hang of it, the lack of a sense of being rewarded throughout the playthrough does make the game tedious in the end. There's no real sense of what you're doing is the right thing and if you make it, it's over without giving off the feeling that you earned it.
I think this game has a good concept behind it, and with some tweaking it could be turned in a small, fun game.

Chemodynamics by Dickson Law
I find it very hard to believe that this game was created inside the time constrains of the jam, it all looks and feel so polished! The art of the game is really great, and the main menu functions very well too.
Personally I'm not a big fan of games where you have to cram in rules into your head, but I did give it a proper try for this game, and I must say, the challenges this game poses are very interesting and surprisingly fun to tackle. I do however feel like there's a lack of depth in the gameplay, even without all the rules imposed on the player. Gameplay is very much the same for the full playthrough, and most challenges you face are very similar to previous challenges. Because of this, I couldn't hold interest for too long with playing the game.
I've read through both the Readme and Afterword, and I feel like hints that shine at a great past with programming shines through the text. I quite enjoyed your style of writing, the same goes for the instructions of the game. It made me recall reading instructions for board games and game concepts of my father which always have a special place in my heart. This is not too relevant for the game, but I found it worth pointing out. I look forward to your potential future findings of GML 2020!

Citadel Stormer by Pixeltroid
I do not want to dislike this game, because I see that there's a lot of effort put into this entry, but this game was extremely frustrating to play.
Visually, the game looks great. Even with the limited colour palette, everything looked very clear and pretty. Shapes were simple and easily recognizeable. There's nothing wrong with the art, it's top notch.
The gameplay however is qutie lacking. Jumping didn't feel satisfying and was hard to pull off correctly, which made me fall more often than I should with zig-zags. There were sections were you had to go down but you couldn't see what was beneath you, and often there were insta-kill spikes at the bottom, so your blind jumps often resulted in deaths. Shooting was quite essential to progress at times, but when you die, ammo doesn't come back, while enemies do. So at times you were left with too little ammo to properly continue the game whithout a way to fill up your ammuntion.
Please don't take my frustrations personally, I do see that a lot of effort went into this game, especially with the art and the map design. But I couldn't really enjoy this game in its current state, but nothing that can't be fixed with some patches!

Crimson Raider by Lolslayer, Kazimir Mariusz
This is my own game, so take my review with a grain of salt, I will try to review it as objectively as possible, but because of the fact that I know the development cycle behind it and because of the personal attachment you have with your own projects I will probably be biase.
First of all, like many have noted, the presentation is quite great. The textures and sprites created by Kazimir look very nice and the lighting effects I've created are very pretty looking in my opinion. The systems behind the game are quite complex and I'm proud of what I accomplished in the small timeframe I had. Sadly, the gameplay was lacking. Not only was it short, it was a bit clunky and there wasn't much to spice things up. I forgot to store the direction the player swings at when initiating the attack, which means that if you swing multiple times after each other, if you don't move, all the attacks after the first one are reset to the starting direction, which is directly to the right of the player. Because of this to properly attack enemies you had to move a bit back after each swing so you could move towards the enemy again to properly aim, which was quite annoying. I hoped that making the movement camera-aligned would make it easier to pick up, but I agree that walking around ledges is a bit tricky at times because you have to press two buttons to walk along the grid.
The enemies were quite okay in my opinion, the one shooting projectiles was sadly not very effective often because it only shot at a very specific distance to the player, and the one that dashed at the player was a bit too hard to avoid, but I did enjoy the fact that you could block the attack of the dashing ghosts when slashing at the right time, and I find that hurting an enemy feels quite satisfying.
I would love to come back to this game at some point to build upon the systems that are found, but this entry in its current state is nothing more but a glorified tech demo, which I don't mind too much because I'm a programmer after all. ;P

Dicy Dungeon by The M
You know that a game is good when you keep coming back at it. Usually for these reviews I try to finish a game once, and then I write the review. For this one however I came back a few times simply for how much fun it was (sadly, some of my plahthroughs were cut short because of crashes). Even though the premise didn't sound that interesting at first when I read the Readme, there's a surprising amount of tactics found in this game, and all your decisions are based on risk/reward which makes it such a high-stakes game. The only flaw I found in the gameplay was that some enemies with a high armour value took way too long to take down.
The way the theme was incorporated into the gameplay wasn't very interesting, but it's an okay implementation and I won't judge the game for that.

Fort With Guns by MikeeyBikeey
I can see that this game was quite ambitious. The emphasis on the concept of playing around with different guns is tricky to pull off, and sadly that can be seen back into this entry. There are quite a few guns out there, but they don't feel very unique and I usually refer back to the shotgun machinegun which is quite fun to use.
Shooting was quite fun, but moving around felt a bit floaty and it wasn't always very easy to see when you were hit, which makes it feel undeserved when you get killed.
Art-wise it looks quite nice, and overall the systems feel quite solid, the gameplay was sadly just lacking but it was still fun to play through.

Garbage Heroes by GameDevDan
I liked this game quite a lot, even though the genres found in it don't really resonate with me. Overall I think that the gameplay works quite well, it always keeps you on your toes, it's quite tense, and also quite rewarding when pulled off well. I also like the fact that there's an option to make thinigs a bit easier with the second attack pattern when you find it too difficult to hit the mark perfectly for quite a lengthy sequence.
There are a few more things to like about this game, like how you used patterns in the enemies attacks to make it easier to recognize which buttons to press, or the fact that for every enemy the gameplay gets shaken up a little. The art is great too for a game jam game, and I enjoyed the fact that there was a simple story to justify the actions of the game. The music was on point too!
I liked this game, it was quite great overall.

Hatch Controller by NazGhuL
I doubt that it was fully legal to make this game, but I sure don't care. :p
I'm going to be honest, I really don't know how to play this game. I know how to close the hatch and when, but I have no clue how entering the code works. I'm willing to review this game agin if you PM me some instructions.
Art wise I did quite enjoy the game, and I found that the game had a good sense of humour as well. The voice of the droid was also a nice addition. The integration of the theme into gameplay was also quite well done in my opinion. Otherwise I (currently) have not much to add to this review.
EDIT: After being contacted by the creator, I understood the joke behind the game and that a lot was cut due to time constraints. I appreciate the joke, and it's fully understandable that you weren't able to finish it, it could happen to anybody, it happened to me as well this jam.

I'm Not Drunk by Pranjal, Shwet
I really enjoyed this game. It was frustrating, but in a good way. It didn't hold my interest for too long but I enjoyed my time playing this very much. I love how well the theme shaped the gameplay concept, the art looked great and the frantic music really helped to enhance the chaotic feeling this game had. Finally getting the charger in the phone felt really gratifying every time it happened, and missing the hole only made me more detirmened to keep trying. In the end however, the easest tactic I found was keep charging at the hole as often as possible,which made the gameplay a bit still, which was also why I didn't play this game for too long. But overall this is a really great entry for the game jam!
PS, there's a bug where if you re-play the game, the music doesn't play anymore, if you fix that I believe that this will be a very fun game to be released on its own without the context of the jam. ;)

Just Another Night by Shadow_Lancer, Cowsox
There lies a good concept behind this game, quite great even. It even fits the theme very well. Gameplay itself is fun and intiutive, but there are sadly aspects that make the game frustrating to play.
For one, I never get passed the second night. At first this was because the story at the start of the second night only mentioned one piece of clothing to look after out for, but when opening the checklist there suddenly were three. This was rather confusing and I lost a few times because of that. But even after knowing this, I still couldn't get passed the second night. I'm not certain why, maybe it was a string of bad luck, or maybe I'm really that bad at playing this game? At least, the losses didn't feel deserved, and it was quite infuriating, which in the end let me to give up on this game after trying a at least 6 times.
The music and the art are quite good though. I also enjoyed the small detail of the music being dampened by the doors and sounding loud and clear every time you opened them.

master.hacker.pro by Reaktori, Riuku
This was a great entry! It was actually that fun that I finished all the levels, and man, this was very content packed for a game jam game. I really liked the art (especially the trail that moving objects left behind), and I found the puzzles quite imaginative too. The weakest aspect of the game was probably the combat, becuase the other gameplay elements catered to a different playstyle, and when both the puzzles and the combat started to clash it became a bit frustrating to mix two playstyles together, but it was still satisfying to beat the enemies every now and then, the sound effects probably helped a lot with that.
I also enjoyed the GMC references found in the game, and there were some good jokes too! This was a great game jam entry, it has everything I hope to see in a jam entry, and even a little more.

Mo's Fish Shack by Relic
This game was quite fun to play, it didn't really have a hook on me but it was fun to try out a few different tactics. Trying to go down as quickly as possible was surprisingly effective, but after some practice I had the best results when very carefully descending to find the most expensive fish, which was quite the challenge, and a fun one too. Sadly the novelty wore off quite quickly so I didn't play it for too long.
Art and presentation are quite well done. I'm mixed on the camera rubber banding when catching a fish though, for the fish that are close to the surface it feels quite satisfying, but with fish at the bottom of the screen the camera rubber banding is somewhat disoriantating. Overall quite a fun game, but I don't see myself coming back to it.

Ninja vs Demons by Toque
I finished this game in half a minute. Honestly, I couldn't figure out what the challenge of the game really was, the enemies didn't seem to hurt me and I couldn't figure out if you need to defend a certain point or anything in that regard. There really wasn't much to it. The animations were quite well done however and I do appreciate the effort of putting a story behind the game to justify the motivations of your character.

No Smash The Walls by IndianaBones
Even though the concept of the game isn't unique, it is a fun and relevant to the theme. Gameplay wise it's quite solid, the last-minute bombs are a nice idea, sadly I didn't get to use it properly because of that I try to gather as many as possible.
Visually it's quite simple, which isn't a problem at all for a game like this, but I do think that the gaps are too narrow visually to properly predict where you need to stand to enter them. I feel like many of the walls I hit were a result of mispredictions. This could be resolved by widening the gap a little, just not too much to make it look like you can fit in there multiple times.
I also really liked that as a reward for winning the game, you get an additional game to play. There was not too much to explore in that game but it was a fun little timewaster.

No Way Back by Gizmo199
I loved this game, I loved the art style, I loved the music, I loved the sounds effects (especially of the text being typed out), and I liked the gameplay quite a lot. There are quite a few possibilities created by the systems provided in the game for creating puzzles, and some of the ones found in this game are quite challenging and rewarding to solve. Sadly, some puzzles gave off the feeling that I didn't find the proper solution, but I still got through anyhow. Controlling two entities at once felt more like you are working against yourself instead of with yourself, which sadly makes the puzzles with the keys more frustrating than it should be. It's possible to get stuck and then you have to reset the whole game, which was slightly annoying, luckily it only happened once to me. I also feel like the game could've benefited from having the sliding work on a grid instead of being stopped by collisions, it would make the sliding feel more solid and grounded in my opinion, it now felt a bit sloppy not being aligned to the grid even though the sliding puzzles were grid-aligned.
Don't get me wrong though, I really enjoyed my ride with this game. It had a magical, dreamy feeling, which I often try to find in games that I haven't succeeded in doing so for a very long time, except for here, thank you for this experience, and I would love to listen to the soundtrack on repeat if you can send me the audio file. :)

Objective: Stealth by KPJ
While the concept is overall quite good, I didn't have the patience to finish this game. The fact that you have to repeat the same process over and over again when you were caught was extremely tiring, I truly believe that this game could make a good use of a checkpoint system. I also believe that the steps to succesfully get past the enemies need to be taken too carefully, you'll too easily be punished for small mistakes. Things weren't made too when many FOV's of guards overlapped, but I understand that not much can be done in the small timeframe of a game jam.
This doesn't mean that I didn't like the entry at all by the way, I quite liked the introduction cutscene, and how guards react when you throw the ball. Quickly jumping from the ceiling to the ground and back to sneak past the guards was also satisfying. This entry can be genuinely good, but it needs a few things tweaked in my opinion before it can really shine.

PINN by HayManMarc
This was quite a decent game, but it didn't hold my interest for too long. It was quite satisfying to see the ball bounce around, especially when it landed in the green zone. It was however quite cumbersome to move both sliders with the mouse and to juggle between them, at times I couldn't reach the ball with the second slider because I first had to grab it with the mouse, or because of the haste I threw the ball away. With a controller I'm certain you can make it possible to properly control both sliders with the joysticks.
I also felt that the end result of the ball was a bit too unpredictable. At times it felt like it should perfectly land in the green zone, and still it rolled out into one of the red zones, which was slightly frustrating and also probably the main reason why I quickly let go of playing this game.

Popcorn Spider by Nacky Slocker
There's not much to say about the game. Gameplay wise it doesn't really go anywhere and the novelty quickly wears off, but it had some sort of satisfaction to it quite alike to "Cookie clicker" like games

SINGLE POINT OF ENTRY.exe by David Pisano
This was a real surprise, the presentation of this game was amazing! I really liked how the text appeared on screen, how the screen was made to look old by using shaders, and the ASCII art used to portray different elements of the game. I really liked what sounds were used, and what jokes could be found. The fact that this game opened up Gmail actually scared me for one second (I sent the mail btw), and there were a ton of references I enjoyed (and probably still many that I overlooked).
The only thing that was a bit lacking was the integration of the theme into the gameplay, but with a game as great as this one I can easily forgive that!

Slimelvator by Michael McMullen
There honestly wasn't too much to it for this game. Gameplay wise it simply wasn't that. Finding keys on itself isn't that interesting and the combat is quite tedious, and it doesn't feel either. There was one exception though, and that was at the very end of the game. I loved plowing through masses of enemies, that honestly felt really great. And seeing the final boss shatter was also quite satisfying.
Art-wise it was overall quite serviceable, with a few elements standing out. I really liked how the heart icons in the UI warped around and I found it quite enjoyable how the player sprite wiggles around when walking. The bloom of the light sources in the hallways also was a nice addition.

Spielcomm by Bart
While the game was basically a walking simulator, it had some charm to it and I enjoyed my playthrough. I do have to say though, there was one word I never got to find, even though I did succeed in entering Spielcomm. I also enjoyed the fact that you put another game in there for when you finish this entry, but I honestly had no clue how to play it.

The Great Mech War of 2039 by Mercerenies
I loved playing this game, there was something addictive about throwing other robots out of the arena and upgrading your own robot. I'm baffled that you could get so many features in there, I found it already quite ambitious that you could modify your robot, but being able to upload your robot and compete against those of others? No, I would never expect anybody to be able to pull that off within the timeframe of a game jam. In my opinion, the only thing that the game misses is the ability to fight other players online in a multiplayer match, otherwise it's a perfect game!
I don't see how the theme plays into this game, but it doesn't matter too much, it was really fun to play this game!
PS I dare everyone who reads this review to fight my boy MR Chrome, I've high hopes for this guy!
PPS I unlocked all the mech parts ;)

The Portal by Micah_DS
While there's a very interesting concept backing this game, I felt that the AI wasn't very much fun to play with. I finally gave up at the level "Keep your enemies close", I simply couldn't get the AI to do what I wanted them to do, and I simply couldn't properly figure out the logic about the AI's behaviour. I'm also afraid that the concept was quite limited in how many unique puzzles you can get ouf ot it, but I can be very much wrong there.
Graphically this game was quite well done, I also really liked the sound effects, and the music too. I read your Readme, but I don't think that you'll have to worry about the quality of the music, it was quite good!

Thirst of Freedom by Fried Llama Studio
I'm going to be honest here, I didn't play this for very long. I found it very confusing to figure out what to do and some gameplay features didn't even seem to be in there (or they were introduced much later on). It's clear that the game is unfinished, which is too bad, because all the building blocks for a good game were there, they just had to be pieced together. I see that you're an artist, and quite a proper one as well. But I feel like you need to team-up with someone else if you want to aim for quality of art you're aiming for in the span of a game jam. I would be very interested to see what comes out of that.

Tic-Tac-Toe by ParodyKnaveBob
There's not much to mention here, it's a simple game of Tic-Tac-Toe. But it is nice to see that the simple game are still very much fun to play, and I enjoyed playing against the AI quite a lot. It was a bit too easy in my opinion but still relatively competent.
And don't worry Bob, it seems like you are still very capable of programming, I haven't looked at the source code but the game itself is very much functional.

Turret Trap by Curato
The concept behind this game is overall quite solid, and it fits the theme. The problem is that next to the core gameplay loop, there isn't anything added in to spice the game up. The gameplay was constantly the same, and there wasn't really any space for creating tactics to tackle the problem, the game mostly comes down to reaction speed which on its own isn't enough to compel.
Art and sound effects do their job, they don't bring not much tot the table but I appreciate the effort put in these fields. There's some good effort put in this game, but sadly I didn't really find it any fun to play, it wasn't frustrating either, but I don't have a reason to come back to it later.

Unnamed by MikeDark_x
This was a cute little entry. I really liked the game visually. Even with the extremely limited colour palette, the actions were very clear and different art asset all looked distinct. I particularly liked the animations of the final boss battle.
Gameplay wise it was sadly quite lacking. The controls feel nice, and I love how they were explained to the player, but there was simply a lack of variety found in the game. Only fighting a single enemy type, and never more than one at the same time, quickly became tedious, and the platforming wasn't interesting enough to compensate for these problems. The final boss battle, while visually great, was also not that interesting. The attack pattern was announced just too late to properly respond to them, and the pattern didn't change throughout the battle. Luckily, the battle didn't take too long to overstay its welcome.
But in the end I don't want you to take my criticism too harshly, this is a game jam after all and there's only so much you can do within the small timeframe you've received. The game was still quite robust and neatly tied together.

Wormhole by Alice
This was really intense. It frustrated me at times but the game always seemed to pull me back to be finished. But let's talk about gameplay.
Gameplay wise it's quite solid and good fun, but the game really could use a checkpoint system in my opinion. After a few playthroughs the first part becomes a piece of cake and it becomes a chore to finish that part every time to get to the part that's actually challenging. The different stages of the game also seemed disproportionally sorted in difficulty at times. I also don't see the point of the addition of a snake-like gameplay style, the mechanic wasn't used consistently which was confusing at start. With that I mean that even though the player hurts itself by moving into itself, projectiles don't hurt the player even though you would assume that at first (at least, I assumed that at first). The fact that you could hurt yourself also very rarely posed a problem, so often I forgot about that and I moved into my tail as a result, which was quite frustrating. I can see the problem though of the player being capable of making very small 360s when you remove the tail, so it's probably better to have a tail in there, but there might be a better solution for this problem. Overall though it was still very fun to play through.
Aesthetically the game looked really great. I loved how the backgrounds looked and its variety, I also liked how you announced an obstacle coming on screen before it actually hurt the player. One problem with the art however was that at times it was so chaotic that it became hard to follow the player, and was quite straining for my eyes. I also believe that this game needs a warning for epileptic people because I'm quite sure that a particular background at the end of the game would trigger them.
While the implementation of the theme wasn't particularly strong, there was a good joke behind it and I can appreciate that.
Overall a very solid game jam game, with some improvements I can see this become a small little fun game title.
 
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HayManMarc

Member
I decided to try my hand at video reviews. As I said in the discussion thread... these are cold, first time plays. I don't have the greatest setup as there's a bit too much white noise from my microphone for my liking, but I'm just gonna go with it. Also, I don't have a lot of time so I don't know how many I can get through. I guess we'll see what happens! :)
I just hope they're helpful.

Here is the playlist of the reviews...
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLxsISI47uLCMV1FysQvCdpG9p9-QcAkEo

* * * * * ( All reviews finished and uploaded! ) * * * * *

Here's who I've reviewed and uploaded...

The Votes

Top 3:

Chemodynamics by Dickson Law
A very well made game. The instructions were rather confusing, but after playing it for only a short while, I started figuring it out. It ended up keeping my attention for a long while. Of all the games this jam, I believe this one has the best potential as a long-lasting and marketable product, especially since it seems quite original in concept. The presentation was superb, however, I thought the playing pieces were a tad dull for viewing. Perhaps some snazzier art could pep it up and make it more appealing, visually.

master.hacker.pro by Reaktori, Riuku
Honestly, I had a hard time enjoying this game as I played it, but it is undeniably a very well-made and thought-out game. It's great with the basic text-based graphics, but I think it could be even better with some creative art and effects. All the different mechanics that went into the puzzles were pretty impressive.

Just Another Night by Shadow_Lancer, Cowsox
Of these top three, I had the most fun with this one. I would have rated it first if I based my ratings on "fun" alone. But alas, I'm compelled to honor at least a small bit of objectivity. With a bit of polishing, this is a fine candidate for an inexpensive-but-fun game you could find in a game marketplace. I hope to see you raking in the coins when you release it on Steam!

Best ofs:

Best use of Theme: Mo's Fish Shack by Relic
Best Concept: Dicy Dungeon by The M
Best Presentation: Chemodynamics by Dickson Law
Best Story: Garbage Heroes by GameDevDan
Best Devlog: Spielcomm by Bart

Full ranking:

  1. Chemodynamics by Dickson Law
  2. master.hacker.pro by Reaktori, Riuku
  3. Just Another Night by Shadow_Lancer, Cowsox
  4. Wormhole by Alice
  5. Mo's Fish Shack by Relic
  6. I'm Not Drunk by Pranjal, Shwet
  7. Garbage Heroes by GameDevDan
  8. Dicy Dungeon by The M
  9. No Way Back by Gizmo199
  10. The Portal by Micah_DS
  11. The Great Mech War of 2039 by Mercerenies
  12. Citadel Stormer by Pixeltroid
  13. Ninja vs Demons by Toque
  14. No Smash The Walls by IndianaBones
  15. Hatch Controller by NazGhuL
  16. Slimelvator by Michael McMullen
  17. Unnamed by MikeDark_x
  18. #1 Dad by Timothy Y
  19. Fort With Guns by MikeeyBikeey
  20. Turret Trap by Curato
  21. Bouncer by Siolfor the Jackal
  22. SINGLE POINT OF ENTRY.exe by David Pisano
  23. Tic-Tac-Toe by ParodyKnaveBob
  24. Objective: Stealth by KPJ
  25. Spielcomm by Bart
  26. Crimson Raider by Lolslayer, Kazimir Mariusz
  27. Popcorn Spider by Nacky Slocker
  28. 30第二エスケープ | 30 Second Escape by TheMiningBoyAlpha
  29. Thirst of Freedom by Fried Llama Studio
 
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Toque

Member
1. No way back Gizmo199____________________ Wowest
2. Garbage Heroes Dan_____________________Wower
3. Just Another Night Shadow_lander,Cowsox __Wow

best theme: Pinn HayManMac
best concept: Im not drunk Pranjal Shwet
best story: Hatch controller NazGhul
best presentation: Just Another Night by Shadow_Lancer, Cowsox
best devlog:




4. Wormhole Alice
5. Portal Mich_DS
6. Chemodynamics frostycat
7. Mo’s Fish Shack Relic
8. Im not Drunk Pranjal Shwet
9. Pinn HayManMac
10. The Great Mech War Mercerenies
11. Master.hacker.pro Reaktori, Riuku
12. Bouncer Siolfor the jackal
13. Objective Stealth KPG
14. No smash the walls IndianaBones
15. Citadel Stormer Pixeltroid
16. Fort with Guns Mikeey Bikeey
17. Slimelvator Michael Mcmullen
18. Turret Trap Curato
19. Crimson Raider lolslayer Kazimir Mariusz
20. Hatch Controller NazGhul
21. Spielcomm Bart
22. Popcorn Spider Nacky Slocker
23. Dicy Dungeon The M
24. Tic tac toe ParodyKnaveBob
25. #1 Dad Timothy Y
26. Unnamed MikeDark_x
27. Single Point of Entry David Pisano
28. Thirst of Freedom Fried Llama Studio
29. 30 second Escape TheMiningBoyAlpha



Game Jam 34



I thought the games are great. I find it hard evaluating your games because they are all better than mine.





No way back Gizmo 199

Ok maybe my favourite game. Its done so well. I loved pretty much everything about it. My only conflict was the theme. If the character started at one spot or through an entrance I could easily pick this as my number one. I chatted with Gizmo and about it and I see what he/she is saying. Im not sure if I will rank number 1 or not.




Bouncer Siol for the Jackal.

Another one of my favourite games. Very polished. Fun. Rewarding. Great music and visual. Follows the theme in a creative way. Could tighten the rules. Bribing would be a fun side money maker. Great game. Cool idea on theme. Good stuff. Well made. Too bad Just another night is in the jam as well. Seemed a bit random.


Chemodynamics FrostyCat

Torn on this game. Obviously a skilled dev who can make a very polished game. Starting it sounded a bit like a tetris flavour so I was excited. The instructions were laborious. Even after reading them a couple times I just clicked hoping to wing it.

Again I like the puzzle idea and actual game. Why is it so hard on the first go? Im old and not very bright. The game highlighted Im old and not very bright. A few all directional blocks thrown in would of made a world of difference at the start. This is how you play learn and reward the player at the start. But its a good game with a unique puzzle idea. I see the theme. Well done. (after playing some more I could get more finished)


Citadel Stormer Pixeltroid

Great gameboy palette platformer style. I like the art. A bit of mix of enemies. Had to play a few times to get the hang of it. I needed more bullets but I suck. Theme? Ok.

It was good.



Fort with Guns Mickeey

Not a bad game. I had fun playing it. Does have some theme there with the enemies. I did have fun shooting stuff. Reminded me slightly of the old atari game adventure. The aiming line was a little distracting.



Garbage Heros Dan

Very polished game. I actually liked how the theme was used. Great visually. I had to play the second time to get better at it and strategize. Its great. One of my favourites.



Great Mech War 2039 Mercenaries

This was actually a fun game once I figured out the controls. But that was my bad. I like these kind of wobble character / sports games. Seems wild but there is control there.

Not sure I see a strong theme there.



Hatch Controller NazGhal

Ok im a huge Lost fan so the hatch idea gets bonus points. Love star wars too. Its creative. Different. Follows theme. Risky in a sense you know a lot of people will bash its concept but you went with it anyways. So good for you. More of a art piece. Could of turned it into more of a game. I liked it for what it was.





Im Not drunk Ok its a simple game. I give bonus for creative theme. Good fun. Good laugh. But its still a playable game. Nice art. I will boost in the ratings because of entertainment value. Its great having these kind of games in the jam!!!!




Number One Dad Timothy

3-d thing around a mug. More visual. It was interesting to see 3_d stuff. I like that you took a chance and tried something different. Had shader problems so could not do much but see the screen you posted.


Objective Stealth KPJ

I played this game more than any other.!!! I game I just wanted to love. Nice theme. Cool idea. My style of game. Stealth kind of puzzler with some action. Oh KPJ I would of given you top 3!!!! But NO. Why is this game so great but SO HARD at the start!!!!!! It took an hour to get anywhere. Just click on a few of those guard objects on the first couple levels and hit delete and you have gold. My youngest came into the office and asked if I “was okay?” while I was playing. If you ever balance out the levels and controls let me know. I don’t think many players will be as forgiving as me. I have no clue how I will rank this game. But credit for you for the stuff thats there.



Unnamed MikeDark_x

Nice gameboy colours. Actually good pixels you made there yourself. Bonus points. The attacks were a bit too tight. Controls were awkward. A few sounds would of helped. Theme maybe? Not sure. Its not bad.



Thirst of Freedom Fried Llama Studio

Runner with some good ideas. Game has more potential than jam time. Basic sprites. Actually some good level design in there. You have a variety of enemies. Theme? Unfinished feel to it. Needs more time and polish. Good effort.



Spielcomm Bart

3_d explore. I kind of thought of it as a code game but instead of code words it was German. I liked that. Theme was there for sure. A bit confused at first but muddled my way through it. A bit of ending would of tied it together better. I you like exploring leisurely around you might like this. I need a little more action or something to keep me interested. Not bad.



Pinn HaymanMarc

I play these types of games at the mall with the youngest son. I wanted ticket rewards. If you could get tickets then select prizes that would be cool. Any parent probably knows what Im talking about. But that’s too much for a jam game. Im old and not quick so I like mobile style easy fun games. Thats what we get here. Its polished. I like the triangles. At least adds some skill to the randomness of it all. Its a great play of the theme. The trail of the ball is some how satisfying. Polished. Nothing here to hate. Nice game.



Portal Micah_DS

Im not a huge puzzle guy but again I liked this game. Simple concept but added a lot of depth. You made the art with the annoying GM sprite editor. BONUS points there. Music was good. Good instructions. Enemy was cool. Variety. Level design was interesting. It was just fun. Top game.



Tic Tac Toe Parody Knave Bob

Its tic tac toe. Credit for a game I would struggle to make. No idea about the theme. Has different difficulty levels that you explain in your (fun to watch ) videos. I think if you get back into dev we will see more interesting things from you. I guess placing the X is a single point entry.


No Smash the walls IndianaBones

I nice simple game with a little bit of a twist. A real mobile game feel. It needed power ups or something. Could glitter up the sprites and effects that would help. Theme for sure. Second play would ramp up faster. Simple. I liked it.

Single Point of Entry David Pisano

Really like the old school colour and text graphics. Loved that really. Brought me back to my old Apple IIe days. Makes me want to make a text game some day. I really wanted to love this game. I like the concept. The problem…….. its incorporates all the things about computer stuff thats frustrating. Its more risky than clever. The gmail browser thing was a critical error. Stopped playing.



Turret Tap Curato

So old school shooter here. Its Tempest. It does have the theme for sure. Good theme and game connection. ITs ok jam game. It works. Visually ok. It could ramp up faster. Could have more variety in enemies. Your redoing a classic Tempest so the bar is pretty high. Its like “ oh man thats a great idea I wish I could of teamed up with you and helped with the art. “ Good effort.



Just Another Night Shadow_Lancer Cowsox

I think the team effort made this game shine. Great idea and visuals. Loved it. Felt good to deny people. Had some variety. Music was great. I like how the sound increased when door open. A few little things that made this a winner. Fun and rewarding.

Popcorn Spider Nacky Slocker

Ok just some fun spider eating popcorn action. Its pretty creative as I have never considered spiders eating popcorn so good for you. Nice little pixels. It could use a story or some more motive to root for the spider. The pop corn poppers added a bit of depth. Needs more. Not sure about the theme. Some polish would help. Instructions could last more than three seconds. Hey its not zelda but I think it would be fun to team up with Nacky on a jam..... A fun little adventure.

Crimson Raider

Ok . Had to change computers to run the shaders. So its a 3-D slasher. Always fun slashing. I found it hard to posistion my attacks so they could be effective. Visually it works. Pretty cool and some code skill. As a game more flash than deep satisfaction. Theme? It was nice to see a different style of game. Glad you entered it.

30 second escape TheMiningBoyAlpha

Needed to use another computer to handle this games shaders. Otherwise I got shader errors. First person maze / escape thing. Ambitious. Looks like a huge effort that didnt deliver anything fun. Theme wasn't obvious to me.

Mo's Fish Shack Relic

A very polished fishing game. Great effects. Music. Well everything was great. The worm was a nice bonus effect. Fun. I think the theme works. Yeah another great game from Relic. I had fun with it. On a side note. I can't deduct for "story". Some games dont need a story. Some games tell their own stories.

Wormhole Alice

Music is the bomb. Top notches for music. Kind of different for avoiding instead of hunting stuff. Kind wanted to eat stuff to be honest. Good controls. Different enemies was really cool. This is so good. Simple but done perfectly. Doesnt need a story. Its snake. It doesn't need a story. Serious fun for a non serious game. Top 5 game for me. Not sure where it will end up. Good job.

Slimelvator Michael McMullen

Maze style game. Destroying furniture funny. Interesting character. A bit repetitive. I like the players weapon. Gives me a feeling of old Atari Adventure game. Not a bad thing. Has enemies. Has a boss. Sprites are ok. I had fun with it. I guess the theme. Not bad.
 
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GameDevDan

Former Jam Host
Moderator
GMC Elder
GAMEDEVDAN'S REVIEWS AND VOTES

Wasted a whole morning and half an afternoon of what should have been work playing all 30 games! :D Time well spent... but at least I got the reviews done early and heeeeere are my favourites:

Top 3:

Mo's Fish Shack by Relic
Really like this. For such a simple idea it's incredibly well made. Decent graphics with just the right animations & processing effects to make it look nifty. Sound design is really well done, I like the music and the sound effects don't sound cheap or forced in. My top score was 161, has real good fun playing this one.

No Way Back by Gizmo199
A really good game! I was worried at first it was going to be a clone of Baba Is You based on the appearance, but the resemblance is only superficial. This is a decent game in its own right with some nifty mechanics and I enjoyed playing it. I like the music & sounds. And I can see why you did the graphics the way you did: quick & easy to make something look good if it's scribbly with a few blobby expanding effects thrown in (actually just done something really similar myself which I can't go into too much detail on yet, but maybe you'll see it when it comes out :p). Overall a very nice entry.

The Great Mech War of 2039 by Mercerenies
OK I wasted faaaar too much of my time playing this XD proper decent game this is. Happy to say I beat your mech in an online battle :D although I probably wouldn't if it was actual PvP, it was a nice touch including that aspect in your game (also means you can sneakily keep tabs on who bothered to use all the features). I have two main criticisms: 1 - would prefer a different control method to mouse. Bashing the hell out of the left and right buttons hasn't done mine any good. 2 - the offline characters give too little money for the amount of effort put it. The only one it actually makes sense to fight is the lowest one, because you can beat it so much faster than the rest that you can always build up money quicker just by knocking him about a bit.

Best ofs:

Best use of Theme: PINN by HayManMarc
Best Concept: No Way Back by Gizmo199
Best Presentation: Mo's Fish Shack by Relic
Best Story: Spielcomm by Bart
Best Devlog: The Great Mech War of 2039 by Mercerenies

Full ranking:

  1. Mo's Fish Shack by Relic
  2. No Way Back by Gizmo199
  3. The Great Mech War of 2039 by Mercerenies
  4. Wormhole by Alice
  5. master.hacker.pro by Reaktori, Riuku
  6. PINN by HayManMarc
  7. Popcorn Spider by Nacky Slocker
  8. Dicy Dungeon by The M
  9. The Portal by Micah_DS
  10. Chemodynamics by Dickson Law
  11. Just Another Night by Shadow_Lancer, Cowsox
  12. Crimson Raider by Lolslayer, Kazimir Mariusz
  13. Spielcomm by Bart
  14. Citadel Stormer by Pixeltroid
  15. Fort With Guns by MikeeyBikeey
  16. Bouncer by Siolfor the Jackal
  17. I'm Not Drunk by Pranjal, Shwet
  18. SINGLE POINT OF ENTRY.exe by David Pisano
  19. Ninja vs Demons by Toque
  20. Slimelvator by Michael McMullen
  21. Unnamed by MikeDark_x
  22. Objective: Stealth by KPJ
  23. Thirst of Freedom by Fried Llama Studio
  24. No Smash The Walls by IndianaBones
  25. Turret Trap by Curato
  26. #1 Dad by Timothy Y
  27. Tic-Tac-Toe by ParodyKnaveBob
  28. Hatch Controller by NazGhuL
  29. 30第二エスケープ | 30 Second Escape by TheMiningBoyAlpha

Comments:

#1 Dad by Timothy Y

I like the idea behind the whole thing, very unique. More of an interactive art movie than a game though, would have been cool to feature actual platform levels around the coffee cup in some way rather than having to hold down one button continuously (although I understand the motivational speech was the point of the game).

30第二エスケープ | 30 Second Escape by TheMiningBoyAlpha

Instant crash on every run:

FATAL ERROR in
action number 1
of Draw Event
for object magma:

Fatal Error: Can not create vertex buffer of size 147456 bytes
6565 vertex buffers allocated with total size of 1595744 KB
at gml_Object_magma_Draw_0

-- Advice for GMC Jams: Don't do overly complicated 3D, not everyone's computer can take it.

Bouncer by Siolfor the Jackal

The art is really well done for the time frame and I like the concept in general. I found it difficult to concentrate on all of the necessary factors at once though, a game like this would have been better kept a little bit simpler for the jam.

Chemodynamics by Dickson Law

Urgh I hate to be critical of something that looks like a lot of effort went into it, this does look & sound like a great game and the concept is really decent, but I couldn't even clear round 1. To begin with I had to re-read the instructions 5 or 6 times. Something this complicated is always best explained "as you play" with prompts / hints to guide you, rather than walls of text. Then when playing, far too many of the pieces I encountered were diagonal-only movement. Meaning the screen got pretty quickly bunched up with stuff as I couldn't move it sideways. Really like the idea, but can't get on with it in its current execution.

Citadel Stormer by Pixeltroid

Aesthetically very pleasing, a bit buggy as platforming engines go but not the worst I've played by a long chalk. Feels quite similar to a game I've already played this jam that had a gameboy vibe - great minds think alike and I really do like the graphical style.

Crimson Raider by Lolslayer, Kazimir Mariusz

Extremely pretty and a nice concept, maybe suffers a little from trying to go too big with the scope as you said in your readme. The controls / gameplay feel of the game could be a bit better, it's always a bit awkward having to hold down two directional buttons at once to navigate a diagonal path (like a bridge) and it's hard to get the timing right on hitting the little ghosts. The aesthetics are real nice though, and kudos for trying the whole top-down with platforming depth thing (not the easiest approach to take in a jam).

Dicy Dungeon by The M

Terry C's gonna be miffed, make sure you choose a different name if you continue this one after the jam haha - https://terrycavanagh.itch.io/dicey-dungeons

A fairly decent game in its own right. The mechanics work well and it's nice and chilled out. Maybe a bit too slow to reach new pastures though, I only got to the point when I had seen the two different types of bug before I got a bit bored.

Fort With Guns by MikeeyBikeey

Teeny weeny top down shooters are always good fun. I like how you can push around the obstacles - even trees! Had no idea what to do in the room where you get attacked by a stream of crazy ants. Just kept dying (my weapon didn't seem to hurt them, the doors were locked and I couldn't find anything else in the room to do).

Garbage Heroes by GameDevDan

My game.

Hatch Controller by NazGhuL

Disney would like a word with you :D not much action & a lot of talking is all I'm seeing here.

I'm Not Drunk by Pranjal, Shwet

Haha I love this. Infuriating but simple, and based on lived experiences I assume? :p Graphics were neat, music was good, game was short and sweet.

Just Another Night by Shadow_Lancer, Cowsox

Unlucky for STJ you both made basically the same game and this one is slightly better executed! :p I like the graphics and the humour applied to this one. However it suffers from the similar problems. ZXCV, 4 controls all in one tiny corner controlled by just the left hand is a bit of an uncomfortable experience and gets my brain in a muddle when I'm supposed to be thinking on my feet! I like the concept though.

master.hacker.pro by Reaktori, Riuku

This is a neat concept, I really like some of the ideas for level mechanics you've got going on in this one. I didn't get very far though, stuck on level 6 as I didn't understand what I was supposed to do with all the upper and lower case As? I assume I was meant to get them to follow me somehow but couldn't figure it out. What I saw of the game was good though.

Mo's Fish Shack by Relic

Really like this. For such a simple idea it's incredibly well made. Decent graphics with just the right animations & processing effects to make it look nifty. Sound design is really well done, I like the music and the sound effects don't sound cheap or forced in. My top score was 161, has real good fun playing this one.

Ninja vs Demons by Toque

Short, cheap and cheerful. Not much that can be said about it in terms of criticism, it could obviously be bigger in every way but it is a jam game after all! :)

No Smash The Walls by IndianaBones

It fits the theme in the most basic way imaginable and yet, not a way I had considered myself! A nice little minigame, although at the moment most of the difficulty comes from the fact that the controls are extremely sensitive (rather than from any threat posed by the obstacles themselves).

No Way Back by Gizmo199

A really good game! I was worried at first it was going to be a clone of Baba Is You based on the appearance, but the resemblance is only superficial. This is a decent game in its own right with some nifty mechanics and I enjoyed playing it. I like the music & sounds. And I can see why you did the graphics the way you did: quick & easy to make something look good if it's scribbly with a few blobby expanding effects thrown in (actually just done something really similar myself which I can't go into too much detail on yet, but maybe you'll see it when it comes out :p). Overall a very nice entry.

Objective: Stealth by KPJ

"Made for the 43rd GMC Jam" :O this game is from the future! I like the graphics (or as far as I saw anyway) - but it starts off a little hard / frustrating from the get go. The enemy behaviour is also a bit inconsistent. Sometimes they appear to spot me when I shouldn't really be in range and other times I'm in their cone of vision but don't get caught? A good effort, but not my cup of tea.

PINN by HayManMarc

Nice little game, my top score was 1260. I really liked the way this was done. The drawing trail, while not exactly hard to do was a really nice feature. It would be an interesting gimmick to do a mode where none of the trails disappear, or at least the last few are saved when you click to drop the next ball.

Popcorn Spider by Nacky Slocker

Very cute, I love me a good spider with a face on its rump. Even though there isn't really much to it this game is weirdly hypnotic and kinda cool?! Anyways it took me about 4 minutes to become the super spider and I had a bit of fun doing it. Good work.

SINGLE POINT OF ENTRY.exe by David Pisano

A neat idea although there's not really much to it. Feels like one of those mind boggling art pieces with a hidden statement *dun dun duuun*.

I logged in as Overmars, got the virus, defeated it and made it to the thanks for playing screen. I do like a short & sweet Jam game :D

Slimelvator by Michael McMullen

I almost quit the first level because it's not explained that you have to go back to the start once you have the key lol. I like the idea, seems like there's not much to it though at the moment, I made it through 3 rooms and got a "thanks for playing" screen but couldn't tell if I had won or been killed by a slime that was chasing me :)

Spielcomm by Bart

I liked this because I've been to Cologne and it brought back happy memories. Found the right entrance pretty easily... I speak a little German which helped but in reality I just sorted waltzed into the right entrance by accident pretty early on haha.

The Great Mech War of 2039 by Mercerenies

OK I wasted faaaar too much of my time playing this XD proper decent game this is. Happy to say I beat your mech in an online battle :D although I probably wouldn't if it was actual PvP, it was a nice touch including that aspect in your game (also means you can sneakily keep tabs on who bothered to use all the features). I have two main criticisms: 1 - would prefer a different control method to mouse. Bashing the hell out of the left and right buttons hasn't done mine any good. 2 - the offline characters give too little money for the amount of effort put it. The only one it actually makes sense to fight is the lowest one, because you can beat it so much faster than the rest that you can always build up money quicker just by knocking him about a bit.

The Portal by Micah_DS

I really like the presentation and the *idea* behind this, but I can't get my head around what direction each warp portal goes in? Maybe my brain is just being silly here, but the rules on where a portal will throw you out don't seem that intuitive in cases, especially when it gets harder and the portals are blocked by solid boxes and pushable boxes. Still it's a decent game.

Thirst of Freedom by Fried Llama Studio

Seems just a tad unfinished ;) I always have infinite health, I can run through the level without pressing "E" to set things in automatic motion. Not a bad start but it would definitely feel better if it was an all round polished entry.

Tic-Tac-Toe by ParodyKnaveBob

A game of Tic-Tac-Toe. It's functional, but doesn't present much of a challenge as I always managed to beat the AI.

Turret Trap by Curato

Not much to this one. It's very slow paced, I'm rather fond of 360-degree shooters (cough check my signature cough) it just feels like there needs to be more enemies, more weapons, more going on in general.

Unnamed by MikeDark_x

I defeated the Lich at the end and immediately the game threw a fatal error. The controls were a bit odd, A, D, Space and Mouse? I kept wanting to press W to jump, which could have worked since the button wasn't being used for anything else. The graphics were nice, but on the whole it feels a bit unfinished.

Wormhole by Alice

It's snake but with kickass psychedelic backgrounds and pumping electro music, what's not to love? I liked the creativity shown in the different types of weapon. Good game.
 
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FrostyCat

Redemption Seeker
FrostyCat's GMS Jam 34 Reviews

Top 3:

master.hacker.pro by Reaktori, Riuku
A maze-style game where each level has a "Single Point of Entry" guarded by a password. While maze games made in GM tend to lack variety in mechanics, this one makes great use of a unique string manipulation system. This is one of few entries where there was ample leeway given to level design, and on top of that it was executed exceptionally well and with great variety. Some levels require the player to run through the level and rearrange the playable agent's letter string, while others require strategically shooting at or toggling letter generators to unlock the goal. Though it would have been better if the objects such as case transformers and filters were explained ahead of time, it was a minor hindrance I was able to figure out each relatively quickly. I had a lot of fun with this entry and would be happy to see more of it.

Garbage Heroes by GameDevDan
An arrow-pressing game similar to some "Dance Dance Revolution" simulators, but with RPG combat elements and some special actions. I must say this is the entry I'm the most impressed with so far. The "Single Point of Entry" theme is actually central to the mechanics of this game (actions stream in through a pipe at the top), unlike some other entries where it is just a peripheral crutch for inadequate design. The graphics were well done and cohesive, and the even the cutscenes are fully illustrated. The game's overall design is original with sufficient variation (especially the later levels), and the rules are easy to pick up and well-explained. The only complaint I have is that there's no real choice once you're good enough with the button sequence, as I beated the whole game using the fox move alone. Still, a very satisfying entry, and a welcome exception to the deluge of lazy designs.

Just Another Night by Shadow_Lancer, Cowsox
Another "bouncer at a nightclub" simulation game where the player is the "Single Point of Entry". This one I think is much better executed than the other one, and has a lot of replayable value. The basics are easy to learn, but the finer points are slightly harder to learn than should be. For example, the graphics style makes it slightly difficult to tell a flesh-tone shirt from a naked person. I also don't have clear instructions on what to do when the VIP list and dress code clash, as on round 2 I got 2 VIPs (identity verified with V) and I got strikes for both. But once I got the gist of the game, it played surprisingly smoothly. The presentation is simple but very effective, and to boot this is the only one that made me chuckle with the bottomless men and the disco ball heads. Great entry overall, though, despite its short length. Would have made a great survival-type game, though.

Best ofs:

Best use of Theme: master.hacker.pro by Reaktori, Riuku
Best Concept: Mo's Fish Shack by Relic
Best Presentation: Garbage Heroes by GameDevDan
Best Story: Just Another Night by Shadow_Lancer, Cowsox
Best Devlog: The Great Mech War of 2039 by Mercerenies

Full ranking:

  1. master.hacker.pro by Reaktori, Riuku
  2. Garbage Heroes by GameDevDan
  3. Just Another Night by Shadow_Lancer, Cowsox
  4. The Portal by Micah_DS
  5. Mo's Fish Shack by Relic
  6. No Way Back by Gizmo199
  7. Wormhole by Alice
  8. Slimelvator by Michael McMullen
  9. Ninja vs Demons by Toque
  10. No Smash The Walls by IndianaBones
  11. PINN by HayManMarc
  12. Bouncer by Siolfor the Jackal
  13. Turret Trap by Curato
  14. Dicy Dungeon by The M
  15. The Great Mech War of 2039 by Mercerenies
  16. Crimson Raider by Lolslayer, Kazimir Mariusz
  17. I'm Not Drunk by Pranjal, Shwet
  18. Objective: Stealth by KPJ
  19. Fort With Guns by MikeeyBikeey
  20. Citadel Stormer by Pixeltroid
  21. Spielcomm by Bart
  22. SINGLE POINT OF ENTRY.exe by David Pisano
  23. Unnamed by MikeDark_x
  24. Popcorn Spider by Nacky Slocker
  25. Thirst of Freedom by Fried Llama Studio
  26. #1 Dad by Timothy Y
  27. Tic-Tac-Toe by ParodyKnaveBob
  28. 30第二エスケープ | 30 Second Escape by TheMiningBoyAlpha
  29. Hatch Controller by NazGhuL

Comments:

#1 Dad by Timothy Y

Some sort of platformer game around the surface of a 3D mug. Nice technical demonstration, but I wouldn't consider this a real game entry. I also don't see any mechanical tie-in with the theme or anything to do beyond walking in circles.

30第二エスケープ | 30 Second Escape by TheMiningBoyAlpha

A straight 3D FPS rip minus the shooting. Just basic movement (and the jumping doesn't really work), background tiles that stack too high for its own good, and nondescript red tiles that somehow hurt you but doesn't do much beyond that. And the biggest insult of all is that the 30-second timer doesn't even count down. Also, you got the Japanese translation wrong. 第二(dai ni) means second as in the position after first, not as in a unit of time which should have been 秒 (byou). There's nothing to be impressed about here.

Bouncer by Siolfor the Jackal

A unique simulation game with a bouncer letting clubbers in. I like how the player is itself the "Single Point of Entry" and the element of manually counting people coming in and out, but other than that there isn't much to the game. Though the graphics and general presentation are clean and cohesive, it was easy to make it to the end of the service, after which there is nothing to do. Also, there's a bug where the service timer continued to run after finishing, so I got both a "you made it to the end of the service" and a "you're fired" message.

Citadel Stormer by Pixeltroid

The 8-bit GameBoy look isn't bad, but that's about it. The blind drops are major annoyances in the level design, and some of the collision boxes are too wide. There is also no real effort at incorporating the "Single Point of Entry" theme.

Crimson Raider by Lolslayer, Kazimir Mariusz

A short isometric exploration game. While I appreciate the detail that appears to have gone into this entry and how it considers the theme in the levels, unfortunately there were several major factors detracting from the game. The first is how it mismatches regular top-down movement on an isometric grid instead of isometric movement on an isometric grid. The second is a near-non-existent collision mask for the sword attack, which I eventually abandoned in favour of just running alone. The third is how the level design doesn't shade or use thickness properly to help avoid this issue (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isometric_projection#/media/File:IsometricFlaw_2.svg), so a lot of bridges and pits actually don't look like bridges and pits. Might have been decent, but definitely a missed execution.

Dicy Dungeon by The M

A unique game combining elements of Rogue and D&D dice mechanics. As a casual backgammon player myself, I like the variety in dice and the dice assignment combat mechanics. I played this for quite a while longer than I anticipated. Though the graphics and sound effects work in unison, they could use some improvement, and the background music sets the wrong atmosphere. There is also next to no mechanical tie-in to the "Single Point of Entry" theme for the parts of the game I played. So while I personally enjoyed the entry, unfortunately for not following the theme well I can't rank it too high.

Fort With Guns by MikeeyBikeey

A short top-down shooter with a final boss room demonstrating the "Single Point of Entry" theme. The enemies were simple and a bit too easy to kill, and the final boss is more or less completely ineffective once you learn to stand still. I'll give credit for the last room, but otherwise I don't see much effort in original work or design in this entry.

Garbage Heroes by GameDevDan

An arrow-pressing game similar to some "Dance Dance Revolution" simulators, but with RPG combat elements and some special actions. I must say this is the entry I'm the most impressed with so far. The "Single Point of Entry" theme is actually central to the mechanics of this game (actions stream in through a pipe at the top), unlike some other entries where it is just a peripheral crutch for inadequate design. The graphics were well done and cohesive, and the even the cutscenes are fully illustrated. The game's overall design is original with sufficient variation (especially the later levels), and the rules are easy to pick up and well-explained. The only complaint I have is that there's no real choice once you're good enough with the button sequence, as I beated the whole game using the fox move alone. Still, a very satisfying entry, and a welcome exception to the deluge of lazy designs.

Hatch Controller by NazGhuL

Starts off looking like a MOTAS clone, but then realized it's just a short demo of clicking buttons in a control room. I have no idea what this is about, and the brief, contrived mention of the "Single Point of Entry" theme at the beginning is just lame.

I'm Not Drunk by Pranjal, Shwet

A minigame where the player tries to plug a phone into a charger port. I like the interpretation of the "Single Point of Entry" theme as a mundane daily task, but the execution is a little too simple, and the random movement noise seems to be more frustrating than fun to me.

Just Another Night by Shadow_Lancer, Cowsox

Another "bouncer at a nightclub" simulation game where the player is the "Single Point of Entry". This one I think is much better executed than the other one. The basics are easy to learn, but the finer points are slightly harder to learn than should be. For example, the graphics style makes it slightly difficult to tell a flesh-tone shirt from a naked person. I also don't have clear instructions on what to do when the VIP list and dress code clash, as on round 2 I got 2 VIPs (identity verified with V) and I got strikes for both. But once I got the gist of the game, it played surprisingly smoothly. The presentation is simple but very effective, and to boot this is the only one that made me chuckle with the bottomless men and the disco ball heads. Great entry overall, though, despite its short length. Would have made a great survival-type game, though.

master.hacker.pro by Reaktori, Riuku

A maze-style game where each level has a "Single Point of Entry" guarded by a password. While maze games made in GM tend to lack variety in mechanics, this one makes great use of a unique string manipulation system. This is one of few entries where there was ample leeway given to level design, and on top of that it was executed exceptionally well and with great variety. Some levels require the player to run through the level and rearrange the playable agent's letter string, while others require strategically shooting at or toggling letter generators to unlock the goal. Though it would have been better if the objects such as case transformers and filters were explained ahead of time, it was a minor hindrance I was able to figure out each relatively quickly. I had a lot of fun with this entry and would be happy to see more of it.

Mo's Fish Shack by Relic

A cool ice-fishing minigame. I can definitely see the hole in the ice as the "Single Point of Entry", and the frogger-like gameplay requires quick reflexes and decision making. I constantly had to make decisions between going deeper and potentially hitting a nearby jellyfish (which is worth nothing), or settle for a fish that is sideswiping me. The graphics have a good uniform style, although some quick shading would have added more relief and made the game world look less flat. Most of what's there is static, but the expressions on the bait worm's face adds a lot of character. I saw on the readme that there was a market system planned for the game, but I've done enough Jams to know that kind of expansion is out-of-bounds 90% of the time, and I don't think it would have added much to the value of the game. Instead I would think different stages varying the depths, payout ratios and kinds of fish would have more impact on the game, and actually take not a lot of effort. For such a simple game, I found myself enjoying it a lot and spending more time on it than I expected.

Ninja vs Demons by Toque

A small platformer where bats enter through a hole at the top. I can see the "enemies dropping through a hole" mechanic tying into the "Single Point of Entry" theme, which is a welcome difference compared to all the other blind platfomer engine rips. Unfortunately there's no variety in enemies, and the goal of collecting just 4 keys is far too easy. Had this game been designed as a survival game and with different kinds of enemies dropped in over time, the outcome would be something I'd enjoy a lot more. Good concept, but missed execution.

No Smash The Walls by IndianaBones

A minimalist "block avoiding" survival game where each oncoming block has a "Single Point of Entry". It takes a lot of guts to incorporate the theme with this kind of narrow and focused premise, so I'm quite impressed on that front. Unfortunately the minimalism is also the game's weakness on the presentation front, as the block graphics are just too simple. But the worst part is how the keyboard control repeats too quickly, and I was not able to easily move one space at a time. Often it moves 2 or 3 spaces and then I have to counter-adjust, hoping that it doesn't over-compensate. It became frustrating quickly. Though my rating policy this time is to value theme compliance, for doing too little and poor controls I have to bump down the ratings a notch.

No Way Back by Gizmo199

An interesting puzzle game combining movement from standard platformers, top-down RPGs and "fly in a straight line" puzzles. Definitely original and shows evidence of effort. While the game was short, I appreciated that the tutorial taught me to play quickly, and gave me some sense of "Single Point of Entry". There were only 2 "real" levels, so the theme didn't really get a chance to shine through, but I can see the product in a direction where the theme can start having more of a role. The "blobby animation" graphics look fitting together, and the sound is minimal but effective.

Objective: Stealth by KPJ

A stealth platformer game. I can see the "Single Point of Entry" theme on each floor of the level, but unfortunately the game is not very well made. The platformer physics is jumpy and hard to control, the ceiling grapple can pull you off the top of the level, and the lack of checkpoints makes for a lot of frustrating restarts. I got to about the third floor from the top before stopping. I can't bring myself to like this entry except for being on-theme and showing evidence of effort.

PINN by HayManMarc

A Peggle-like physics game. There's one point of entry, so I'll give that for theme compliance, and the game is fairly straight-forward to play. The presentation was a little too simple, and I think even a few different boards or manipulatives wouldn't be too much to ask for. I would have liked this game a lot more if there was more in it in the first place. Still, for an on-theme entry, I'll give it credit.

Popcorn Spider by Nacky Slocker

This is a joke. I don't see what a WASD-controlled spider eating popcorn has to do with "Single Point of Entry". I'm not going to make an effort reviewing something that has no effort put into theme compliance or design.

SINGLE POINT OF ENTRY.exe by David Pisano

Some sort of console simulator. While I think the theme tie-in is in how there's a "Single Point of Entry" in the system, I wasn't really able to find it. All I got were a couple of dialog messages (almost like a choose-your-own story kind of thing), some technical tricks like earlier Karoshi games from Jesse Venbrux (e.g. opening up gmail.com), but nothing much beyond that. After a few attempts, I lost interest in playing on. Compared to the other console-themed entry (master.hacker.pro), this is a significantly worse entry.

Slimelvator by Michael McMullen

A quick top-down action game. While I like the reflection of the "Single Point of Entry" theme in the level layout and the easy-to-learn play, I generally found the game too easy. The enemies have a short activation radius and I was able to easily hit each in isolation, and the boss took only about one or two hits to beat. Everything works together well, but there's lots of room for improvement.

Spielcomm by Bart

Some sort of 3D explorer game where the aim is to find the single right entrance. I've briefly explored the environment, but other than talking to a few characters I lost interest in what I'm doing. I'm giving credit for the theme in case there was an entrance that I didn't find, but in all I have no idea what this entry is trying to do. Sorry if there's more, but I'll pass on this one.

The Great Mech War of 2039 by Mercerenies

A fighting game featuring customizable robots. I like the concept of making modifications to the robots (which appear to be uploadable) and fighting increasingly challenging bots, but there were several detractors from the enjoyability of the game. All the parts felt more or less the same except for their power, and the fights quickly reduced to click spamming. The presentation is acceptable, though too simple on several fronts. But the big one is how I can't find any semblance of "Single Point of Entry" here, so even though I had some fun with the entry, I can't really rank it too high.

The Portal by Micah_DS

A quick turn-based Sokoban game centered on the use of warps between compartmentalized rooms. I can definitely see the theme in play (one point of entry to each room), and the levels were very carefully designed with a clear skill progression. The enemies were a little difficult to control, though. The presentation is a neo-pixel style which coordinates well together on the most part, good sound and music combination that isn't annoying, though the player and the enemy didn't really fit in with the rest of the aesthetics. I can see a lot of effort being put into this entry, and it plays really well.

Thirst of Freedom by Fried Llama Studio

Yet another platformer tutorial rip. No attempt at satisfying the theme or cohesion in resources.

Tic-Tac-Toe by ParodyKnaveBob

A stock tic-tac-toe example. I don't see what the relationship to "Single Point of Entry" is, and the AI is very badly done.

Turret Trap by Curato

A standard 360-degree shooter. While I appreciate how the "Single Point of Entry" theme is integral to the design, there really isn't much to appreciate. There's only one kind of enemy that doesn't spawn frequently enough, and there weren't enough things to shoot for the heat management aspect to have any real importance. Still, for being functional, on theme and showing specific regard for the entry, I'll give it a bare pass.

Unnamed by MikeDark_x

More platformer spam, and this one's attack button is a little unresponsive to boot. The story tries to use the "Single Point of Entry" theme by saying that the skeletons come from a portal, but it is so marginally attached to the product that the theme's involvement is entirely discountable. Sorry, not impressed.

Wormhole by Alice

A snake game that focuses exclusively on avoiding obstacles instead of getting pickups. While I enjoyed the concept and made it through one full round, the only use of the "Single Point of Entry" theme was when the game starts, so I couldn't really give the theme usage full credit. It may also be useful to tell the user that only one symbol counts as a wormhole, as I did once mistake the flower on the second pattern transition as something to go towards.There also seems to be a resource leak or overload with the particle effects, as by the fifth or sixth pattern the game started to lag. Still, a reasonably fun entry.
 
Last edited:

Bart

WiseBart
Bart's Reviews
Top 3:
Just Another Night by Shadow_Lancer, Cowsox
Strangely addicting mechanic, although it feels a bit repetitive after a while
The characters are a bit basic but the combination of everything works really well
A good eye to detail, such as the filter on the music when the door opens and closes and the announcements on the billboard
Good use of theme
A little remark: it didn't seem like it was possible to return to the main menu from the pause menu, Escape only brings you back to the game
No Way Back by Gizmo199
I really like the concept behind this
Combining sidescroller and topdown mechanics like this
Neat presentation, despite the somewhat basic graphics. Everything fits together really well
Definitely a candidate for best concept
The Portal by Micah_DS
Pretty nice
This has a very original mechanic
The graphics are basic, but overall it works out
Definitely a candidate for best concept
Best ofs:
Best use of Theme: I'm Not Drunk by Pranjal, Shwet
Best Concept: No Way Back by Gizmo199
Best Presentation: Mo's Fish Shack by Relic
Best Story: #1 Dad by Timothy Y
Best Devlog: ...
Full ranking:
  1. Just Another Night by Shadow_Lancer, Cowsox
  2. No Way Back by Gizmo199
  3. The Portal by Micah_DS
  4. Garbage Heroes by GameDevDan
  5. I'm Not Drunk by Pranjal, Shwet
  6. Mo's Fish Shack by Relic
  7. master.hacker.pro by Reaktori, Riuku
  8. PINN by HayManMarc
  9. Dicy Dungeon by The M
  10. #1 Dad by Timothy Y
  11. Chemodynamics by Dickson Law
  12. The Great Mech War of 2039 by Mercerenies
  13. Fort With Guns by MikeeyBikeey
  14. SINGLE POINT OF ENTRY.exe by David Pisano
  15. Citadel Stormer by Pixeltroid
  16. Wormhole by Alice
  17. Slimelvator by Michael McMullen
  18. Crimson Raider by Lolslayer, Kazimir Mariusz
  19. Objective: Stealth by KPJ
  20. Unnamed by MikeDark_x
  21. No Smash The Walls by IndianaBones
  22. Bouncer by Siolfor the Jackal
  23. Ninja vs Demons by Toque
  24. Thirst of Freedom by Fried Llama Studio
  25. Turret Trap by Curato
  26. Popcorn Spider by Nacky Slocker
  27. Hatch Controller by NazGhuL
  28. Tic-Tac-Toe by ParodyKnaveBob
  29. 30第二エスケープ | 30 Second Escape by TheMiningBoyAlpha
Comments:
#1 Dad by Timothy Y
Quite a unique experience!
A very nice technical display of a 2D world wrapped around a 3D coffee mug
30第二エスケープ | 30 Second Escape by TheMiningBoyAlpha
This game starts with a fatal error, unfortunately:
___________________________________________
############################################################################################
FATAL ERROR in
action number 1
of Draw Event
for object magma:
Fatal Error: Can not create vertex buffer of size 147456 bytes
6628 vertex buffers allocated with total size of 1604816 KB
at gml_Object_magma_Draw_0
############################################################################################
Bouncer by Siolfor the Jackal
Very nice graphics
I didn't really know what to do
Enter didn't really feel like the right key to use in combination with the arrow keys
It's nice that the game has gamepad support
Chemodynamics by Dickson Law
I'm not great at these strategy games based on rules and exceptions but this game did take me quite a few tries to finally figure out what I was supposed to do
The basic idea is pretty interesting and the custom game allows for interesting variations on that
Presentation is good, music and sfx are fitting
Moving the reactants by dragging, however, didn't feel intuitive
Too often I just lost control over where I wanted to place a reactant
The reactant would just jump back to its original location when I tried to drag it in an invalid direction while still holding the mouse button
It felt like an awkard way to indicate to me that I was trying to make an invalid move
Also, when dragging to a valid location, it moved there with a delay and I could do another move in an entirely different direction without even releasing the mouse button
Pressing Escape in-game immediately ended the game, to me it would've felt more intuitive that it would bring me back to the title screen or some pause screen
Citadel Stormer by Pixeltroid
Lovely graphical style and good mechanic
Unfortunately it lags on my computer
Crimson Raider by Lolslayer, Kazimir Mariusz
A very nice looking game
The enemies were hard to beat since there was no way to defend
No background music or sfx, unfortunately
Dicy Dungeon by The M
Some short tutorial or in-game explanation would be nice
This was fun to play for a short while
At the start it wasn't very clear to me where I was on the map
The map, together with the ladders and staircases, give the impression that you're actually in quite a big dungeon
Fort With Guns by MikeeyBikeey
Plays smoothly and looks quite okay
Pretty entertaining for a short while
Too bad the game doesn't have any background music or sound effects
Garbage Heroes by GameDevDan
Pretty graphics and good supporting music in the background
The mechanic became a bit repetitive after a while, especially because there was no break between the different enemies
In the end it started to get pretty hard to keep my focus
I loved the executive's sound effects
Hatch Controller by NazGhuL
I honestly had no idea what I was supposed to do
I'm Not Drunk by Pranjal, Shwet
Great idea!
Presented really well
Not too steady hands for sure :p
It felt a bit too short, unfortunately
Best theme!
Just Another Night by Shadow_Lancer, Cowsox
Strangely addicting mechanic, although it feels a bit repetitive after a while
The characters are a bit basic but the combination of everything works really well
A good eye to detail, such as the filter on the music when the door opens and closes and the announcements on the billboard
Good use of theme
A little remark: it didn't seem like it was possible to return to the main menu from the pause menu, Escape only brings you back to the game
master.hacker.pro by Reaktori, Riuku
Ooh, very creative
It takes a bit too long before you can actually start playing and there doesn't seem to be a way to skip that part
A candidate for best concept
Mo's Fish Shack by Relic
Pretty entertaining
The camera effects contribute a lot to the overall experience
A very polished entry
It's fun to play, but gets repetitive after a while
Ninja vs Demons by Toque
Apparently you die instantly once you hit a demon
Pretty okay graphics, fitting sound effect(s)
A clear link to the theme
It appears to be a very short game
Hm, I get "game over" when I finish the game? :p
No Smash The Walls by IndianaBones
A good mechanic
Clever use of the theme
A couple of sound effects and background music could made a big difference
The graphics could be better
I really think this could be an entertaining game to play if it had some powerups and visual effects added to it
No Way Back by Gizmo199
I really like the concept behind this
Combining sidescroller and topdown mechanics like this
Neat presentation, despite the somewhat basic graphics. Everything fits together really well
Definitely a candidate for best concept
Objective: Stealth by KPJ
Looks interesting
Still need to figure out how to get past the guards
Will play again later
The game feels a bit too quick-paced
So you made this for the 43rd GMC Jam :p
PINN by HayManMarc
A lot of fun this is. Physics always work
A polished game despite the rather basic graphics
It all fits together really well
A great use of the 'single point of entry' theme on the start screen!
Popcorn Spider by Nacky Slocker
Hmm, a very peculiar entry
It was entertaining for a very short while
After that, I lost my interest, unfortunately
Since I had no idea what level I needed to reach to become the 'Legendary Super Spider'
SINGLE POINT OF ENTRY.exe by David Pisano
I like the idea behind this
I got to the antivirus pretty quickly
Slimelvator by Michael McMullen
Nicely presented game
The background music repeats a bit too quickly
Destroying the furniture was fun
Spielcomm by Bart
Yeah... I know this one :)
The Great Mech War of 2039 by Mercerenies
There's quite a bit of content in this game
Even the ability to share your custom bot online
That's nice
I don't see a relation to the theme, though
Graphics are very basic, the music and sound effects are okay
Combat seems to work alright, but it doesn't feel too smooth
You're supposed to use the mouse for attacking but it is in no way clear where your blow will end up
Not a big fan of using the built-in show_message
Particle effects are still visible on the next screen (when playing with bots that use them)
There doesn't seem to be a way to quit the current battle (at least Escape didn't work)
The Portal by Micah_DS
Pretty nice
This has a very original mechanic
The graphics are basic, but overall it works out
Definitely a candidate for best concept
Thirst of Freedom by Fried Llama Studio
This game really throws you right into it
No time to have a look at the controls since I'm already being hit by the first enemy
Graphics are a bit incoherent, unfortunately
Tic-Tac-Toe by ParodyKnaveBob
I like how this game has AI included
Otherwise, a basic tic-tac-toe game
Turret Trap by Curato
Nice idea to move on a circle
Good use of the theme
There's not really a reason to use the mouse for shooting since you don't have to aim at anything
It may be better to just use another key on the keyboard for that to keep the controls consistent
Unnamed by MikeDark_x
Very good looking graphics and a distinct style
Too bad there weren't any audio or sfx to add to the presentation
I liked how the controls were embedded in the game world
Wormhole by Alice
Ah, a variation on snake
There is enough variation in the levels to keep it interesting but in the end it felt like I was constantly avoiding things
"In other words, you can score at most a SINGLE POINT in this ENTRY." => Good one!
 

Relic

Member
Relic's Reviews

Top 3:

Garbage Heroes by GameDevDan
The good: Very well presented with the little details adding to the experience - tweening of sprites making characters dynamic, key prompts flying around upon correct/incorrect player input. Progression of difficulty, adding extra elements felt right.

Room to improve:
For a jam game, not much, but if I was to really push what the game could have been: There were not any interesting choices to be made. I either could complete the sequence or I couldn't which decided for me between fox and fly attacks. Healing seemed wasteful, at least the one time I tried, because I was healed less than what the enemy damaged me over a round. The turn based RPG like presentation of the game left me wanting to make choices for the characters. The fly attack could have been an infinite set of prompts so that I could potentially do more damage if I became quick and accurate. I'm not 100 % sure the right changes to make, but since the game became (for me) the same for each enemy (apart from the progression of new defense patterns) the extra options seemed superfluous, which made the combat a little stale compared to what it could be.


Chemodynamics by Dickson Law
The good: You have a knack for making tactical turn based (whether against an opponent or not) games. The rules are unique and made me think. Every little feedback has been included right down to the highlighting of icons/buttons when mousing over them.

Room to improve:
Your game window was taller than my monitor, cropping the bottom of the screen (only just, still managed to mute audio and hit pause). I couldn't change resolution/go full screen.
While the attempt to show the player how moves will execute by creating a ghost of the reactant as it was dragged around was appreciated, I felt it was more intuitive if it only perform the move when I let go of the mouse button, rather that performing the move as soon as I moved the mouse in a valid direction. This would also give the player a sense of how any action would behave, without committing entirely.

master.hacker.pro by Reaktori, Riuku
The good - great aesthetic. Nailed an old school 80's hacking vibe. Nice implementation of mechanics to give a puzzle element to the hacking. Sounds nice too.
Room to improve - not everything was clear. I stopped on level 10 as I couldn't figure out how to be just a C without the A. The passwords were there on the screen but not emphasized so took a moment to figure out what to do with strings of letters. The intro was long - fine the first time. But quitting by holding ESC was annoying as it forced me back through the intro with no way to quit from fullscreen. The game was a little too much of an inconsistent mixture between puzzle and finesse of movement. Navigating tight paths to avoid being destroyed wasn't the fun part - the puzzle problem solving was. More of that.

Best ofs:

Best use of Theme: I'm Not Drunk by Pranjal, Shwet
Best Concept: master.hacker.pro by Reaktori, Riuku
Best Presentation: Garbage Heroes by GameDevDan
Best Story: Garbage Heroes by GameDevDan
Best Devlog: Crimson Raider by Lolslayer, Kazimir Mariusz - sorry I couldn't play your game, but I felt the sense of progression in your snippets of devlog with images included.
Best Reviewer: ParodyKnaveBob - not sure if best reviewer is still a thing with it being missed last Jam, but I really appreciate the effort you put in to two rounds of video reviews.

Full ranking:

  1. Garbage Heroes by GameDevDan
  2. Chemodynamics by Dickson Law / FrostyCat
  3. master.hacker.pro by Reaktori, Riuku
  4. Just Another Night by Shadow_Lancer, Cowsox
  5. I'm Not Drunk by Pranjal, Shwet
  6. No Way Back by Gizmo199
  7. Wormhole by Alice
  8. The Portal by Micah_DS
  9. Unnamed by MikeDark_x
  10. PINN by HayManMarc
  11. Popcorn Spider by Nacky Slocker
  12. Ninja vs Demons by Toque
  13. The Great Mech War of 2039 by Mercerenies
  14. Fort With Guns by MikeeyBikeey
  15. Turret Trap by Curato
  16. Objective: Stealth by KPJ
  17. Hatch Controller by NazGhuL
  18. Citadel Stormer by Pixeltroid
  19. No Smash The Walls by IndianaBones
  20. Bouncer by Siolfor the Jackal
  21. Slimelvator by Michael McMullen
  22. Spielcomm by Bart
  23. Tic-Tac-Toe by ParodyKnaveBob
  24. Thirst of Freedom by Fried Llama Studio
  25. Remaining entries unranked due to crashes

Comments:

#1 Dad by Timothy Y

Immediate error on game start - Tried to restart and update drivers - no luck. Running directX 12.0, windows 10, laptop with NVIDIA GeForce 940MX
############################################################################################
FATAL ERROR in Vertex Shader compilation
ShaderName: sh_mat_phong

D3DXCompile failed - result

############################################################################################
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
called from - gml_Script_scr_setShader (line 20)
called from - gml_Object_obj_controller_Draw_0 (line 67)

30第二エスケープ | 30 Second Escape by TheMiningBoyAlpha

Immediate error on game start - Tried to restart and update drivers - no luck. Running directX 12.0, windows 10, laptop with NVIDIA GeForce 940MX
FATAL ERROR in
action number 1
of Draw Event
for object magma:

Fatal Error: Can not create vertex buffer of size 147456 bytes
6487 vertex buffers allocated with total size of 1584512 KB
at gml_Object_magma_Draw_0



Bouncer by Siolfor the Jackal

The good - fully fleshed out with title, options menu etc. Graphics worked within the context of the game.
Room to improve - music was poor (for a night club game in particular). Could do with some performance indication during the game (seemed to just pass or fail without warning). No real challenge. I smashed through the first 5-8 people and then just kept letting the next through when one left. Ignored all men and women ratios but was a fine.

Chemodynamics by Dickson Law

The good: You have a knack for making tactical turn based (whether against an opponent or not) games. The rules are unique and made me think. Every little feedback has been included right down to the highlighting of icons/buttons when mousing over them.

Room to improve:
Your game window was taller than my monitor, cropping the bottom of the screen (only just, still managed to mute audio and hit pause). I couldn't change resolution/go full screen.
While the attempt to show the player how moves will execute by creating a ghost of the reactant as it was dragged around was appreciated, I felt it was more intuitive if it only perform the move when I let go of the mouse button, rather that performing the move as soon as I moved the mouse in a valid direction. This would also give the player a sense of how any action would behave, without committing entirely.

Citadel Stormer by Pixeltroid

The good: nice sprites and sound effects.

Room to improve:
The jumping was awkward. Gravity seemed too strong. To counteract this you made the jump up force too strong as well. Holding space made me feel like a rocket powered man that was on a planet with a very intense gravity field.

Spikes hidden from view is always annoying. I never want to jump down even when that is the right option.

Enemy combat was hard to figure out. For example, enemies seem to shoot randomly rather than in a fixed pattern, making it hard to judge when I should attack. The flying enemy that aimed right at me was particularly brutal as there was no where to hide, and a low ceiling so jumping was ineffective. It just didn't seem like a challenge I could win unless I had full health.

Getting hurt seemed janky - was the player being teleported backwards? This movement could have been smoother.

Ranked lower as I saw no tie in to theme.

Crimson Raider by Lolslayer, Kazimir Mariusz

Immediate error on game start - Tried to restart and update drivers - no luck. Running directX 12.0, windows 10, laptop with NVIDIA GeForce 940MX
___________________________________________
############################################################################################
FATAL ERROR in Vertex Shader compilation
ShaderName: shd_map

D3DXCompile failed - result

at gml_Object_obj_map_Draw_0
############################################################################################
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
stack frame is
gml_Object_obj_map_Draw_0 (line -1)

Dicy Dungeon by The M

Immediate error on game start - Tried to restart and update drivers - no luck. Running directX 12.0, windows 10, laptop with NVIDIA GeForce 940MX

############################################################################################
FATAL ERROR in Vertex Shader compilation
ShaderName: shader_noise

D3DXCompile failed - result

at gml_Object_enemy_Draw_0
############################################################################################
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
stack frame is
gml_Object_enemy_Draw_0 (line -1)

Fort With Guns by MikeeyBikeey

The good: I liked the variety in weaponry and your attempt at a minimap collectible. I love games that have a dodge - something about getting out of the way of an attack and then unleashing the pain releases endorphins.

Room to improve: Gun variety could have been fine tuned. It seemed to be guns followed the rule that they had a mixture of spread, rate of fire and ammunition. The widest spread was ridiculous, taking up a 90 degree angle. Would have preferred if guns had different damage per bullet (didn't seem like it was) and different range to give a real sense of being different.

The end boss was easy to cheese - just let them circle me while standing in one spot, firing until they were all dead.

The minimap collectible is nice - but the room layout didn't require it, it was easy to mentally navigate a 3x3 grid and I already had the key and was heading to the boss room before finding the map.

Garbage Heroes by GameDevDan

The good: Very well presented with the little details adding to the experience - tweening of sprites making characters dynamic, key prompts flying around upon correct/incorrect player input. Progression of difficulty, adding extra elements felt right.

Room to improve:
For a jam game, not much, but if I was to really push what the game could have been: There were not any interesting choices to be made. I either could complete the sequence or I couldn't which decided for me between fox and fly attacks. Healing seemed wasteful, at least the one time I tried, because I was healed less than what the enemy damaged me over a round. The turn based RPG like presentation of the game left me wanting to make choices for the characters. The fly attack could have been an infinite set of prompts so that I could potentially do more damage if I became quick and accurate. I'm not 100 % sure the right changes to make, but since the game became (for me) the same for each enemy (apart from the progression of new defense patterns) the extra options seemed superfluous. which made the combat a little stale compared to what it could be.


Hatch Controller by NazGhuL

The good: Good looking setup although the control pad looked really out of place. Nicely plagiarized sounds too. Voice narration also great.

Room to improve:
Was it meant to be more of an experience than a set of challenges I could overcome? Not my kind of thing. Not sure what to suggest since its so far out of my comfort zone sorry.

I'm Not Drunk by Pranjal, Shwet

The good: Great little concept and amazing graphics with consistent aesthetics. Very strong tie to theme - nice to see amongst a sea of platformers that throw "SINGLE POINT OF ENTRY" into the intro text as a point of narration only.

Room to improve:
Hitbox/collision seemed a bit wonky. I swear I was closer on some attempts that failed compared to those that succeeded. Nothing to extend gameplay or want me to replay again. High score based on time? I usually stop playing Jam games before I complete them once I feel I have a sense of the game but yours was very short indeed.

Just Another Night by Shadow_Lancer, Cowsox

The good: A nice amount of progression in challenge. Really liked the background art (sky, nightclub interior). Well presented instructions with the clipboard mechanic.

Room to improve:
VIP not obvious quick enough. By the time I checked over the clothes and let them in it was too late for the "I'm VIP" text, then I was penalized. I failed on the 3rd level I'm unsure if this was because of letting in VIPs or because their clothes were damaged/stained. I did not see anyone with stained clothes so this was not obvious enough in the art if this was the case.

master.hacker.pro by Reaktori, Riuku

The good - great aesthetic. Nailed an old school 80's hacking vibe. Nice implementation of mechanics to give a puzzle element to the hacking. Sounds nice too.
Room to improve - not everything was clear. I stopped on level 10 as I couldn't figure out how to be just a C without the A. The passwords were there on the screen but not emphasized so took a moment to figure out what to do with strings of letters. The intro was long - fine the first time. But quitting by holding ESC was annoying as it forced me back through the intro with no way to quit from full screen. The game was a little too much of an inconsistent mixture between puzzle and finesse of movement. Navigating tight paths to avoid being destroyed wasn't the fun part - the puzzle problem solving was. More of that.

Ninja vs Demons by Toque

The good: Simple but good looking sprites. Platforming felt solid - just right balance between jump height and floatiness in my opinion

Room to improve:
My laptop couldn't display the whole game, cropping the bottom, and there was no resize option (even allowing full screen in the options before compiling is a nice and simple addition)

Something did some resizing after clicking Play on first screen (GUI perhaps?)- could no longer click on Play in second screen but managed to play on by clicking below Play. Shouldn't have a mouse controlled menu for a keyboard based game.

Sword hit box seemed way off. Lucky it favoured the player, but I must have been swinging that sword so fast that the air was slicing these demons.

No Smash The Walls by IndianaBones

The good: Clear instructions and THANK YOU for allowing the flexibility of going full screen - your game was taller than my monitor but this was fine because I could go full screen unlike a handful of other games.

Room to improve:
I struggled to move the block a single space at a a time. Had to really focus on quick taps (quicker than what I would consider a standard quick tap) to have a chance of moving the block only one space. That was annoying. When in full screen mode, there was no visible edge to the game world (blended with the black bars introduced by the new game window size). Made it hard when the hole was at the far edge of the wall and I couldn't tell which side to move to.

Your game was simple. My game (Mo's Fish Shack) was almost identical in scope (in a game mechanics sense) - move an avatar along a single dimension to avoid obstacles. The only difference really was the approach to aesthetics. Art assets aside, doing well in your game meant a little bit of text indicating a level was complete. Doing well in my game meant getting those deep fish pulled out really high. If anything, I think we have an interesting experiment to see how important world design and giving the player those little rewards is- I'll be monitoring reviews for both of our games closely.



No Way Back by Gizmo199

The good: Pleasing aesthetics considering minimal sprite work. A combination of platformer tropes, but combined into an interesting set of puzzles. Little messages between levels add a little something to the world, making it more engaging.

Room to improve:
I would have preferred if the antigrav wasn't timed. It would still be the same puzzle and it didn't need to be a race.
Not sure of tie to theme so ranked lower.

Objective: Stealth by KPJ

The good: Great choice of music and sound effects.

Room to improve:
Make it easier to get learn the game. Having an enemy that will catch me within 2 seconds of the game start does not allow me to even work out the controls. I thought this game looked and played a little like Gun Point by Tom Francis of Suspicious Developments - a game I quite enjoyed - but your version played much faster, too fast for my liking.

The controls could be refined. Having WASD, arrow keys, space, F and enter was awkward. When I finally reached the elevator on the top floor after a dozen tries, I quit with rage because F and enter did not let me use the elevator. I think the controls did say to use the arrow keys, but really, it could have been F just like the doors.

PINN by HayManMarc

The good: Matched theme nicely and I thought the bouncing mechanics felt realistic

Room to improve:
Much like the real game, I was frustrated by the "randomness" of the bouncing. While probably all nicely simulated, the slight variation in starting position meant I did not have any real control over the outcome. I did eventually find I could move the triangles WHILE the ball fell - but even then the pins below the 2nd triangle would still drastically alter the outcome. I think my point is while I liked watching the ball bounce, the point system and gameplay was not in my hands which made me feel like I wasn't playing a game.

Popcorn Spider by Nacky Slocker

The good: You have a weird mind. I played for longer than I should have, getting to the end for a little reward.

Room to improve:
There was something satisfying about the speed of collection and having that level bar keep going up quite regularly. What I wanted was a progression, something I could do that would make me more effective at collecting the popcorn over time- almost like some sort of active cookie clicker type experience.

SINGLE POINT OF ENTRY.exe by David Pisano

Immediate error on game start - Tried to restart and update drivers - no luck. Running directX 12.0, windows 10, laptop with NVIDIA GeForce 940MX
___________________________________________
############################################################################################
FATAL ERROR in Vertex Shader compilation
ShaderName: sh_CRT_Windows

D3DXCompile failed - result

at gml_Object_obj_CRT_Windows_Draw_64
############################################################################################
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
stack frame is
gml_Object_obj_CRT_Windows_Draw_64 (line -1)

Slimelvator by Michael McMullen

The good - controls were solid and despite not having instructions, I worked out how to move and attack with ease. I did have to guess the key to activate the elevator which wasn't explained, but worked out well enough.

Room for improvement - Kinda like a shmup but the AI had poor path finding, getting stuck in walls. The best strategy was to approach enemies one at a time (easy to do since they have limited vision range) and smack them while retreating. Schmups really need something that gets a player into the mix instead of a constant back peddling. The latest iteration of Doom I hear does this well as you need to get up in the face of the enemies to make them explode into ammo and health. Adding a dodge would work because then I can approach and avoid too.

Very long corridors, too long I would say. Was this to hide where the key was? Could have been achieved with leaving rooms invisible until entered.

I got stuck in a wall on the 3rd level so all my thoughts end there. Hope the game didn't change drastically after this.

Was there a reason for different coloured keys? Could have been a generic key. Minor nitpick, granted.

Some weird janky layering with the suitcase appearing inside some walls and not others.

Spielcomm by Bart

The good: A unique spin on the theme and game idea in general.

Room to improve:
Not much 'game'. After getting all the missing vocab I didn't feel any wiser about where the entrance was. Got bored and tried the first door. Nothing happened. I thought I was going to instant fail. So then by trial and error I got in, and played the hidden game (couldn't get a point on the first level, so quit both games).

Perhaps you intended for something more - I only saw one instance where a translated word appeared in a future conversation. Perhaps some interesting translation puzzles that would make me actually work for the answer would have been good.

The Great Mech War of 2039 by Mercerenies

The good - I like the idea a lot. Progressing through arenas by incremental upgrades and a unique style of combat.

Room to improve - combat seemed like a war of attrition, or I am just no good. Trying to time my attacks didn't work as well as just smashing the mouse buttons until victory..... and NEVER walk backwards. Every small gain forward from button mashing can be lost by trying to make the opponent miss by taking a step back. The counter attack never made the opponent go back far enough to make any strategy other than button mashing worthwhile.

Not that I imagine their would be time in a jam, but having more variety in the bots beyond arm swinging would give perhaps some strategy elements. Against a bot that was slow but powerful I would value quick moves. Against a bot that could jump high I'd value attacks that were more powerful when aimed up.

Wasn't theme related so not as ranked highly as it would be for execution alone.

The Portal by Micah_DS

The good: Has the beginnings of a great puzzle game. The learning curve was there, introducing a new dimension of challenge each level.

Room to improve:
Sorry to say but I quit in frustration on the 3rd level (the first enemy level?). Perhaps it was just my way of moving but that enemy would not do what I wanted it to. I restarted the level three times because the enemy would either never go through the portal (preferring horizontal movement over vertical when I needed the other way around) or when I did get the enemy through the first portal, its next move always brought it back through the portal again. More consistency, or rather more transparency in how the enemy behaved would have been appreciated.

Thirst of Freedom by Fried Llama Studio

The good: I liked the platforming - it had the right speed and jumping felt good.

Room to improve:
Add sounds.
Having an enemy right in front of you attacking upon game start is a big no no. That said, I think you submitted a very unfinished game as none of the attack buttons on the start screen worked for me. I pushed other random buttons and sometimes could spawn a gun, but nothing else would work.

Tic-Tac-Toe by ParodyKnaveBob

The good: It works and has a functional AI with variety of difficulty levels.

Room to improve:
Could have stuck with purely mouse controls - add buttons to menu screen since game is entirely mouse based anyway. Have an automatic return to menu after game end system. I forgot that T was title screen - esc, enter, spacebar all did nothing and so I closed the window. Also, not sure what you meant by the source code - I saw no links to this in game or in the readme/afterword.

Turret Trap by Curato

The good: I liked that the idea was novel. Invigorating after the string of platformer with single melee attack or top down shooter with guns I've played so far.

Room to improve:
My laptop couldn't display the whole game, cropping the bottom, and there was no resize option (even allowing full screen in the options before compiling is a nice and simple addition)

Stopped playing at level 5 as I saw no progression. Couldn't even sense an increase in difficulty. From level 2 I cheesed the levels by always holding one key, rotating around at full speed and firing as I passed in front of an enemy.

Controls a little unintuitive - having a left and right key for clockwise and anticlockwise breaks my brain when on the "wrong side" of the circle. Perhaps if pushing left always left me go towards the left side, and if held, would continue the current direction (anit/clockwise) until I let go.... not sure, just speculating.

GameMaker particle effects didn't mesh with the rest of the art style. The smoother explosion clouds with alpha and gradual shading stood out from your own sprites which were single coloured and 'blocky'. Neither style was right or wrong, just juxtaposed.

Unnamed by MikeDark_x

The good: nice aesthetic that was consistent throughout the game. The written intro and death text could have looked more like the rest of the game to really complete the picture. Platforming was jank free - but a little floaty for my liking.

Room to improve:
Sword attack lacked 'oomf', looked like a little jab, that could hurt enemies a significant distance away from where the animation showed.

Deep pits with spikes at the bottom are annoying, especially when on full health with no option but to wait to die. Perhaps instant kill me at least.

Time between sword attacks felt too long. I would stab a skeleton and half the time get hit back while I waited for the sword cool-down. I COULD have run back... but that doesn't seem fun. I would rather the skeleton would get knocked back so I was safe and felt powerful. A failed hit would still be penalized by being open to a counter attack for a moment, if this was your intention.

Using mouse was not required. If I have no aiming over my attack, might as well be a key. The mouse was objectively worse as twice I clicked off the screen, losing focus.

Error when trying to restart:
FATAL ERROR in
action number 1
of Key Press Event for <any key> Key
for object typewriter0:

Moving to next room after the last room.
at gml_Object_typewriter0_KeyPress_1
############################################################################################
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
stack frame is
gml_Object_typewriter0_KeyPress_1 (line -1)

Wormhole by Alice

Good - Background animations were great (although that early star/snowflake one was a bit too close the the obstacles in appearance). Love the music change upon failure, which I did three times without getting a single point.

Room to improve - ok ok, i MIGHT have been able to get a point if I focused but I got bored and my mind wondered. It's just "Snake" with obstacles rather than apples to collect. I can't really talk as I made 'Frogger' but I'm expecting the same criticism. Some feedback about progression would be good. Was I ten more seconds off a point or 10 min? Seemed like I played for a long time with no feedback. Snake rewards you with the "bloop" when collecting an apple, increasing your score and building the difficulty by extending the snake tail. This version of the classic removes these positive feedback moments leaving a less engaging experience behind.

Edit: Wait, was there only going to be a single point if I completed the game? That's cruel but respects the theme!
Edit 2: Read the Afterword - yeah ok, you got me. I didn't finish the game. But nor did I feel a desire to.
 
Last edited:
N

Nacky Slocker

Guest
Nacky Slocker's ratings and feedback.
NOTE: The ranks were just a tool to make it easier to organize the placing of the entries, they don't necessarily mean I think a game is good or bad.
ALSO, I rated the games based on my experience. I'm not as concerned with it following the theme. BUT I am concerned with getting a full experience in a short time (being a JAM game) Anything longer 5-10 minutes generally doesn't get as much favor.

1st Place - No Way Back by Gizmo199
This game is the one I'd like to see more of the most.

2nd Place - master.hacker.pro by Reaktori, Riuku
I definitely had a good time with this one, it had plenty of levels, and I loved the puzzle elements.

3rd Place - The Great Mech War of 2039 by Mercerenies
It's replay-ability was higher than I expected. Also, moon-walking mechs win.

Best Ofs
Best use of theme: I'm Not Drunk by Pranjal Schwet
Best concept: No Way Back by GIzmo199
Best presentation: PINN by HeyManMarc
Best devlog: N/A

Full Ranking
- Rank A
1. No Way Back by Gizmo199
2. master.hacker.pro by Reaktori, Riuku
3. The Great Mech War of 2039 by Mercerenies
4. Mo's Fish Shack by Relic
5. Wormhole by Alice
- Rank B
6. The Portal by Micah_DS
7. Garbage Heroes by GameDevDan
8. Ninja vs Demons by Toque
9. PINN by HayManMarc
- Rank ?
10. I'm Not Drunk by Pranjal, Shwet
- Rank C
11. Objective: Stealth by KPJ
12. Fort With Guns by MikeeyBikeey
13. Slimelvator by Michael McMullen
14. Unnamed by MikeDark_x
15. Just Another Night by Shadow_Lancer, Cowsox
16. Chemodynamics by Dickson Law
17. Spielcomm by Bart
- Rank D
18. Citadel Stormer by Pixeltroid
19. Thirst of Freedom by Fried Llama Studio
20. Tic-Tac-Toe by ParodyKnaveBob
21. Hatch Controller by NazGhuL
22. No Smash The Walls by IndianaBones
23. Turret Trap by Curato
24. Bouncer by Siolfor the Jackal
- RANK F - UNPLAYABLE
25. 30第二エスケープ | 30 Second Escape by TheMiningBoyAlpha
26. Dicy Dungeon by The M
27. SINGLE POINT OF ENTRY.exe by David Pisano
28. #1 Dad by Timothy Y
29. Crimson Raider by Lolslayer, Kazimir Mariusz
- My entry
Not Ranked - Popcorn Spider by Nacky Slocker
Hypothetically, I give myself a RANK B, right below "The Portal".

Comments!
- Rank A -
========


1. No Way Back by Gizmo199
RANK: A
Pros/Cons/Neutrals +/-/~
- Got stuck on the first level with the key (soft-locked after touching a boot, or a kidney bean)
+Love the level design and puzzle
+This could be a great full game! Like "Portal"

Suggestions
- To avoid soft-locks, make the player able to leave regardless of color, OR make sure that the necessary color is ALWAYS available.

Thoughts
I did get soft-locked with a key (unless there's a reset button I somehow missed). Perfect length, felt very complete, was satisfied with the ending. Congrats, I give you first place!

2. master.hacker.pro by Reaktori, Riuku
RANK: A
Pros/Cons/Neutrals +/-/~
- Can be a little harsh on the eyes after a while
+ Great levels and puzzles, extremely fun!
+ Felt like it was up to me, the player

Suggestions:
-Use WASD for moving instead of arrow keys

Thoughts
Wow, I had a good time! I played it once, and stopped on the last level thinking "I don't know how much longer this game is", but then I played it again... and found out I was already on the last level. I really enjoy the puzzles! This is a great game here!

3. The Great Mech War of 2039 by Mercerenies
RANK: A
Pros/Cons/Neutrals +/-/~
- I'd take the random feature out of the shop.
+This is silly, in the best possible way!
+Graphics are charming!
+The online feature surprisingly works. (Amazing you had that going in the JAM period)

Suggestions
- Sprites for the parts in the workshop (If it says "Nova Hand" have a small Nova Hand sprite)
- Normally I recommend not doing anything like online connectivity in a jam game, but you got it to work, so good job.

Thoughts
There are lots of options, so I wish the shop wasn't random, but it doesn't really matter, I beat "The One True Bot" with my default armor by moon-walking! Then I bought Nova Feet and Legs, and was just destroying the poor guy. I had fun. More than I thought. I could see this being a good full fledged game, of course a few tweaks here and there.

4. Mo's Fish Shack by Relic
RANK: A
Pros/Cons/Neutrals +/-/~
- Jellyfish on the very bottom row.
+ Watching a fish near the bottom fly straight up at super fast speeds was very satisfying.
~ I heard the term "Inuit" is appropriate in place of the derogatory "Eskimo"

Suggestions:
- Fish dissapear as you collect them sounds nice

Thoughts
Fishing minigame... And one I didn't hate. I haven't liked fishing in a video game like that since The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening. AND it was actually GOOD.

5. Wormhole by Alice
RANK: A
Pros/Cons/Neutrals +/-/~
- Using arrow keys instead of WASD
- Error occurred
+ MUSIC WAS AWESOME!
~ Music dying out when the player dies. (good design decision, but tragic for the player)

Suggestions:
- Checkpoints for every transaction would be nice.

Thoughts:
Well, got an error on "Walk in the park difficulty" after what would normally be the triangular torpedo things. I had fun! The music was Superb! Dying wasn't fun though, it was extremely punishing, but worm games are usually like that anyway.
___________________________________________
############################################################################################
FATAL ERROR in
action number 1
of Other Event: User Defined 0
for object obj_PhaseGreen:

- Rank B -
========


6. The Portal by Micah_DS
RANK: B
Pros/Cons/Neutrals +/-/~
- Running in circles at points was tedious
- Music was a bit repetitive
+ Liked the puzzles
~ "That room" due to lack of time

Suggestions:
- Enemies that go back and forth or up and down.
- Enemies that move away from the player

Thoughts
I had a good time! A few times I broke the level and had to restart, but overall, it was just fine. Thanks for the good time!

7. Garbage Heroes by GameDevDan
RANK: B
Pros/Cons/Neutrals +/-/~
-A little difficult to read the arrows sometimes.
+Fun, simple, complete. Great job!
+Difficulty scaled nicely
~Huh. That executive sure had a lot of HP.
~A little confused at first, but I figured it out, so it wasn't too bad.

Suggestions
- You could make the arrows more distinguishable by making them different colors, or sharper difference in the shapes. HOWEVER, if this was a deliberate choice for the difficulty, then I think it's fine.
- Add a bit of pizzazz for when you get the presses right, or wrong. Sparkles, confetti, saying "Good!", or "Miss!", or something as simple as lighting up, or darkening the buttons.

Thoughts
I enjoyed it. I don't feel like it needs anything more than it already has, but I don't feel like it'd hurt it if there was more to explore. The graphics were charming, and it had music, which is pretty good for a jam.

8. Ninja vs Demons by Toque
RANK: B
Pros/Cons/Neutrals +/-/~
- The 2nd play button's hit box is lower than the button itself
- Sometimes the gargoyles would just kill me instead of dying, seemed to be random.
+ Ninjas are awesome

Suggestions:
- Faster top horizontal speed
- Slightly higher jump
- Larger graphic and hitbox for the attack, shorter attack window

Thoughts:
At first I thought it didn't work, but then discovered the play button needs to be clicked BELOW the play button. I had fun, it was nice and short. I liked feeling like a ninja. Great job!

9. PINN by HayManMarc
RANK: B
Pros/Cons/Neutrals +/-/~
- I swear the ball kept jumping out of the holes
+ The presentation was great! Solid graphics and sounds!
+ I liked the path that was drawn behind the ball
~ There's no high score feature.

Suggestions:
-High score feature
-Different types of balls would make things interesting: Super bouncy, super heavy, super light.

Thoughts
not my type of game, however I thought it was very nice looking, and it was fun to tinker around for a bit. I believe I got a score of 1880

- Rank ? -
????????


10. I'm Not Drunk by Pranjal, Shwet
RANK: ?
Pros/Cons/Neutrals +/-/~
- I hated my character being (not) drunk
+ I now have a negative desire to become drunk
~ uuuuuuuh, yes you are VERY drunk.

Suggestions:
- uuuuuh... Gee... Add a sober... mode?
- A bucket.

Thoughts
Well... That was weird. At least it was nice, simple, and short. Great graphics, good job!

- Rank C -
========


11. Objective: Stealth by KPJ
RANK: C
Pros/Cons/Neutrals +/-/~
- Inconsistant vision
+ Fun trapping everyone in a room
~ Difficult to get the hang of, but fun when you do.
~ My boss didn't say anything to me when I finished

Suggestions:
- A notice bar that fills up. Sometimes I'd just get instantly caught.
- Have things to hide behind (Chairs, couches, or dare I say, boxes)

Thoughts
This game is insanely difficult, until I found out you can grapple in front of them and they won't notice you at all. I used this to my advantage it controls a little clunky, but it serves it's purpose. Satisfying when I figured it out.

12. Fort With Guns by MikeeyBikeey
RANK: C
Pros/Cons/Neutrals +/-/~
- Didn't feel like I got to explore all of the weapon possibilities.
- Won with 2 room unexplored, feel like I didn't get to explore them.
+ Random weapons left a nice sense of surprise.
+ Graphics were nice. Found a donut tree.
+ Those creepy pitch-black creatures at the end.
~ You can push just about everything.

Suggestions
- Don't lock me into the final room until I've explored all the other rooms
- Make the ammo prioritize being picked up over being pushed

Thoughts
I had fun, I played the game more than once to explore the rooms. The end room was so creepy, it was my favorite. I also feel good that I liberated all the captive guns, and they lived happily ever after.

13. Slimelvator by Michael McMullen
RANK: C
Pros/Cons/Neutrals +/-/~
- Enemies going through the walls
+ You have a One-Hit-KO-ing suitcase!
~ The player can go through walls

Suggestions
- Alternate weapon types. Further reaching suitcases, or ones with larger hitboxes

Thoughts
Simple, a little buggy. Slimes were just flat out walking through walls, and so did the final boss, and so did the player. But it was still a pleasant experience. Nice and short, I like it that way.

14. Unnamed by MikeDark_x
RANK: C
Pros/Cons/Neutrals +/-/~
- The skeletons seemed like a guaranteed hit against the player.
+ Nice, simple, short.
~ Game Boy esque feel

Suggestions:
- Slight physics re-vamp, an air-dash would be neat.
- I understand the game-boy esque feel, I'd try experimenting with colors also, it might look real nice.

Thoughts:
Nice and short. I didn't like the skeletons, there seems to be no way to get passed them with out getting hit, but I did enjoy the rest of the game.

15. Just Another Night by Shadow_Lancer, Cowsox
RANK: C
Pros/Cons/Neutrals +/-/~
- Was unclear that the following levels built on top of the restrictions of the previous levels
- Unclear whether VIPs had to follow the restrictions
+ Music effect was awesome
+ Variety in guests
~ People threw up on themselves?

Suggestions
- Raising clipboard should pause the game

Thoughts
It was fun. Nice and short. I'm not quite sure, is this a genre? I loved the disco rave feel it had. I loved the guy you play as, for some reason I found him funny.

16. Chemodynamics by Dickson Law
RANK: C
Pros/Cons/Neutrals +/-/~
- I felt like I was progressing very slowly
- The instructions felt like homework
+ I thought the puzzle aspect was great!

Suggestions:
- Puzzle elements, set up levels with prepositioned units
- A little extra flair when you get the chemicals in a row couldn't hurt.

Thoughts:
I thought it was fun! Felt a little slow, I stopped after round 4 on Quickplay

17. Spielcomm by Bart
RANK: C
Pros/Cons/Neutrals +/-/~
-Music was a little too loud, and repetative
+3D, wow!
~I don't speak German.
~Couldn't quite understand the minigame.

Suggestions:
-Faster turning speed.
-A sprint button

Thoughts
I'm not sure what I was supposed to be doing. Found a 2D minigame inside the game, still wasn't sure what I was supposed to be doing. The German was a nice touch, I actually (didn't understand, but) liked it! Great job on the 3D!

- Rank D -
========


18. Citadel Stormer by Pixeltroid
RANK: D
Pros/Cons/Neutrals +/-/~
- Very punishing
- Enemies would respawn when the player died, but the player would still lose bullets
- Leaps of faith
+ I loved the gun sounds
~ Game Boy asthetic

Suggestions:
- Could definitely use a checkpoint system that doesn't punish the player
- Larger view area could be nice

Thoughts
Well, it wasn't bad. I died by things I couldn't see, and jumps that would punish if I missed. I think a few tweaks might make it an extremely fun game. As it stands, I have a difficult time enjoying it overall.

19. Thirst of Freedom by Fried Llama Studio
RANK: D
Pros/Cons/Neutrals +/-/~
- Got stuck in ceiling spikes
- Got stuck in a pit
- Confusing control scheme
+ Infinite health was a great option for the Jam!
+ I liked the (manataur?) guy
+ I liked the way some of the enemies looked

Suggestions
- Have a control display follow the player
- Tell the player how to use a weapon after they pick it up.
- Easier level design for a jam. That level felt like it'd be good for experienced players.

Thoughts
I died a lot, and eventually gave up. I felt like I was thrown into a later level of a game, where I was supposed to know the game in and out, and know my abilities in and out. I didn't know anything, but I feel like I'd have a better experience if I did. Still love the Manataur guy.

20. Tic-Tac-Toe by ParodyKnaveBob
RANK: D
Pros/Cons/Neutrals +/-/~
- You don't have an option to go 2nd
+ Functions like a perfect Tic-Tac-Toe game
~ It's Tic-Tac-Toe

Suggestions:
-Option to go 2nd
-Maybe a 4 in a row mode?

Thoughts:
It's Tic-Tac-Toe. What more could you ask for? What more can I say? I played it as a child.

21. Hatch Controller by NazGhuL
RANK: D
Pros/Cons/Neutrals +/-/~
+Nice and short! To the point!
~Very confusing (I think that was the purpose?)
~Star Wars music (Is that allowed?)
~Clever little sucker punch there! assuming I played the game correctly.

Suggestions
- Uh, I don't know. It felt clunky, but I think it was supposed to.

Thoughts
If I did play this game correctly, then it has zero replayability, but it's worth 1 play through! It looked like it was supposd to be inspired by Five Nights at Freddie's? I don't think this game is very fun, but the ending was just genius! To me, it rewarded the whole playthrough, and I liked that.

22. No Smash The Walls by IndianaBones
RANK: D
Pros/Cons/Neutrals +/-/~
- Got bland pretty quick
+ Grid-locked movement, would have been much more difficult otherwise

Suggestions:
- Add random pickups for the player, bombs, lives, level skips.
- WASD controls

Thoughts:
Simple, and to the point. Beat easy mode, but didn't have much insentive to beat normal or hard. I liked the cheats and the bonus room though!

23. Turret Trap by Curato
RANK: D
Pros/Cons/Neutrals +/-/~
- A little bland
+ It certainly follows "Single Point of Entry" theme.
+ The aliens kind of looked like frogs (cool)

Suggestions
- More enemy types: Slower, bulkier, fast rewarding one, spiriling ones.
- More ways to attack: Mines, Lasers, spikes.

Thoughts
I felt like I got to explore everything, so that's always a plus in a jam. I thought the concept was solid enough, different enemy types could make it really interesting.

24. Bouncer by Siolfor the Jackal
RANK: D
Pros/Cons/Neutrals +/-/~
- difficult to understand what the objective was.
+ Satisfying beat.

Suggestion
- Levels with goals and variations: "One gender only", "At least 20 people", "Perfect Rythmn"

Thoughts
I was mostly confused on what the goal was. I was congratulated on keeping the venue open all night, then immediately got fired.

- RANK F -
UNPLAYABLE

25. 30第二エスケープ | 30 Second Escape by TheMiningBoyAlpha
- Unplayable
Another unplayable entry, but I did see a blue haired face on this one.

Suggestions/Thoughts
I was using Windows 10, I'm not sure what the problem is.
___________________________________________
############################################################################################
FATAL ERROR in
action number 1
of Draw Event
for object magma:

Fatal Error: Can not create vertex buffer of size 147456 bytes
6490 vertex buffers allocated with total size of 1584944 KB
at gml_Object_magma_Draw_0
############################################################################################

26. Dicy Dungeon by The M
- Unplayable
I see a guy in a brown cloak, a black circle shrink to the lefthand side, then I get hit with an error message.

Suggestions/Thoughts
I played on a windows 10 computer, and got the error message below.
___________________________________________
############################################################################################
FATAL ERROR in Vertex Shader compilation
ShaderName: shader_noise

D3DXCompile failed - result

at gml_Object_enemy_Draw_0
############################################################################################
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
stack frame is
gml_Object_enemy_Draw_0 (line -1)

27. SINGLE POINT OF ENTRY.exe by David Pisano
- Unplayable
Heard a buzzing sound, but then I just got an error message.

Suggestions/Thoughts
I was using windows 10, and got the error message below. Sorry the game didn't work for me.

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

D3DXCompile failed - result

at gml_Object_obj_CRT_Windows_Draw_64
############################################################################################
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
stack frame is
gml_Object_obj_CRT_Windows_Draw_64 (line -1)

28. #1 Dad by Timothy Y
- Unplayable
I heard some sounds, but got an error message.

Suggestions/Thoughts
I tested this on Windows 10, so I don't know if that caused issues or not.

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

D3DXCompile failed - result

############################################################################################
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
called from - gml_Script_scr_setShader (line 20)
called from - gml_Object_obj_controller_Draw_0 (line 67)

29. Crimson Raider by Lolslayer, Kazimir Mariusz
- Unplayable
Got absolutely nothing when I tried to play this entry

Suggestions/Thoughts:
I used Windows 10, don't know if that is an issue or not.
___________________________________________
############################################################################################
FATAL ERROR in Vertex Shader compilation
ShaderName: shd_map

D3DXCompile failed - result

at gml_Object_obj_map_Draw_0
############################################################################################
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
stack frame is
gml_Object_obj_map_Draw_0 (line -1)

- My entry
Not Ranked - Popcorn Spider by Nacky Slocker
RANK: B
Pros/Cons/Neutrals +/-/~
- Instuctions went away too quickly in the beginning.
- Biting the oil barrels seem to work randomly.
- unclear at what level you become the legendary super spider.
+ LEGENDARY SUPER SPIDER!
~ It's a toy

Suggestions:
- Add more variety, different types of things to pick up or bite.
- Easier way to use the bite mechanic

Thoughts
I set out to make a game that you could complete in less than 5 minutes. I made a mindless toy. YAY!
Also, since someone is reading this, if you hold down the letter "P", then after 5 seconds you'll start leveling up extremely fast.
 
Last edited by a moderator:

NazGhuL

NazTaiL
Good job everyone. Note that i'm not a professional reviewer. A fun game is a fun game. I play it, if I like it you go up the rank. I picked what I think is the best.

1 Mos Fish Shack by Relic

2 master.hacker.pro by Reaktori, Riuku

3 Just Another Night by Shadow_Lancer, Cowsox



4 Great Mech War by Mercerenies
5 I'm Not Drunk by Pranjal, Shwet
6 Dicy Dungeon by The M
7 Wormhole by Alice
8 Garbage Heroes by GameDevDan
9 The Portal by Micah_DS
10 No Way Back by Gizmo199
11 Chemodynamics by FrostyCat
12 Pinn by HayManMarc
13 Ninja vs Demons by Toque
14 Turret Trap by Curato
15 Citadel Stormer by Pixeltroid
16 Crimson Raider by Lolslayer, Kazimir Mariusz
17 Objective Stealth by KPJ
18 Spielcomm by Bart
19 Tic-Tac-Toe by ParodyKnaveBob
20 Unnamed by MikeDark_x
21 Fort With Guns by MikeeyBikeey
22 No Smash The Walls by IndianaBones
23 Bouncer by Siolfor the Jackal
24 Slimelvator by Michael McMullen
25 Popcorn Spider by Nacky Slocker
26 NumberOneDad by Timothy Y
27 Thirst of Freedom by Fried Llama Studio
28 30 Second Escape by TheMiningBoyAlpha
29 SINGLE POINT OF ENTRY.exe by David Pisano


Best use of theme: I'm Not Drunk by Pranjal, Shwet
Best concept: Dicy Dungeon by The M
Best presentation: Garbage Heroes by GameDevDan


Comments, feel free to PM me.
Top:


30 Second Escape by TheMiningBoyAlpha
Good:Camera runs smooth.
Bad:No explanations. Seems to have no goal.
Note: Looks like an unfinished game.

Bouncer by Siolfor the Jackal
Good:Menu, graphics and idea are great. The line-up, the music and animation, All this works well together.
Bad:Repetitive.
Note:Sadly, I didn't have fun.

Chemodynamics by FrostyCat
Good:Technically well made. A variant of a match 3 game.
Bad:Rapidly filled the board with tokens. I felt stuck.
Fun:I nice twist of the genre.

Citadel Stormer by Pixeltroid
Good: Looks good.
Bad: It runs too fast for all the dangers around. I sometimes hit enemies while changing section.
Note: It felt like many platformer I played. Nice start.


Crimson Raider by Lolslayer, Kazimir Mariusz
Good:Appealing.
Bad:I fell in green lava so much time when going in the second 'room'.
Note: I didn't like that the player runs that fast and can fall into a pit easily. I liked the ambiance.


Dicy Dungeon by The M
Good: I like the different die system.
Bad: At first it was unclear what to do.
Note: Funnier than expected as soon as new dices appears.

Fort With Guns by MikeeyBikeey
Good: Instruction were clear, fast respawn. I played more because of that.
Bad: No sound and no clue on what to do. I failed again and again against the first boss. Why the trees are moving?
Note: There is potential. Looks like a disguised shoot em up. :D

Garbage Heroes by GameDevDan
Good: Nice looking. A Dance Dance Revolution for fingers! Quick story and nice graphics.
Bad: My eyes are bleeding, I will dream of arrows.
Note: I found it challenging. Good job.

Great Mech War by Mercerenies
Good: This is the 1950 version of a mech! Plenty of options. Multiplayer/customize are nice extras.
Bad: Hard to time punch/jump/defense. But that avoid the spamming click-click-click game.
Note: Nice work. I'm impress by the custom aspect of the game and the upgrades.

I'm Not Drunk by Pranjal, Shwet
Good: Charrrge! hahaha
Bad: Too short.
Note: This is a perfect mini-game to include in any bigger game.

Just Another Night by Shadow_Lancer, Cowsox
Good: Progressing difficulty. Music sync with door.
Bad: For what the game is supposed to be, I think it does the job well in every aspect. Nothing bad I can see.
Note: Twist of Paper Please (You know this game right?). Good job guys.

master.hacker.pro by Reaktori, Riuku
Good: I like this game. Funny and looking good.
Bad: I didn't felt like a hacker.
Note: I played game like this and this one is well made. Monochrome is a nice choice. Will play it again later.

Mos Fish Shack by Relic
Good: Great idea, challenging.
Bad: Bouuuu to all Jellyfish in cold water! They ruin my fun. :D Impossible to pull off a 50kg fish by that hole!
Note: Good job. A simple and effective idea for a jam.

Ninja vs Demons by Toque
Good: The main menu style is a nice attention. The sprites fit well.
Bad: Increasing the ninja's gravity when he lan would make him more...ninja! I felt more like a balloon with a sword.
Note: The idea is simple and good.

No Smash The Walls by IndianaBones
Good: The have a rought prototype for a running game.
Bad: Well, it's simply a square dodging rectangle. Not super fun.
Note: Turn that square into an adventurer, those walls into brick and put a moving stone background. That will help a lot.

No Way Back by Gizmo199
Good: Nice presentation. In game tutorial. Nice looking.
Bad: I got stuck in the room with the first key. I took the boots then the kidney and there was nothing to restart the level or turn me back white.
Note: A good platformer game. With a good increasing difficulty.

NumberOneDad by Timothy Y
Good: Nice 3D here.
Bad: Holding a single key and jumping...
Note: Voice acting, the loop, the idea is good. Just not super fun.

Objective Stealth by KPJ
Good: I wanted to play it.
Bad: I wasn't able to go far because it's so fast and there is no increasing difficulty.
Note: This need to be improve! The idea is very good.

Pinn by HayManMarc
Good: Appealing and works well.
Bad: How many levels? 1? Never passed it. I feel like moving the triangle don't change a lot the fate of the falling balls.
Note: The idea is good. Adding some pinball flap would add interraction.

Popcorn Spider by Nacky Slocker
Good: You made a game and the oil sprite looks good.
Bad: Not super fun. :(
Note: It's repetitive. Perhaps adding some obstacle to dodge will help.

SINGLE POINT OF ENTRY.exe by David Pisano
Good: Effect are well made.
Bad: You open my gmail and that s*****.
Note: Not fun puzzle.

Slimelvator by Michael McMullen
Good: Look well enough. I wanted to play it.
Bad: Too much simple. Walking fast and dodging.
Note: Smaller room and slower movement could help.

Spielcomm by Bart
Good: Getting unknown word by talking to people.
Bad: Turning is slow.
Note: Outlining walls will help seeing where we are heading.

The Portal by Micah_DS
Good: Well think push block puzzle game.
Bad: Increasing difficulty too fast.
Note: This is a game I would play from time to time. A sokoban twist?

Thirst of Freedom by Fried Llama Studio
Good: Well you have some ok platformer element implemented.
Bad: Those element are a bit buggy. There's a lot of bug.
Note: That needs more work to be playable. It's a good start.

Tic-Tac-Toe by ParodyKnaveBob
Good: It works! 1 on 1 or vs AI.
Bad: No sounds...
Note: Well it's tic-tac-toe. It does the job.

Turret Trap by Curato
Good: Shoot em up locked in circle position is a good idea. (Already saw that but I like it)
Bad: Need more action!
Note: More enemies, more guns, screen shake, smoother movement, alternate speed. You have a good idea here.

Unnamed by MikeDark_x
Good: I like how it looks.
Bad: Simple platformer that needs smoother gameplay. Game crash when dying.
Note: Good start. Need improvement.

Wormhole by Alice
Good: Nice effect and good music. It looks simple at first but no it isn't. Nice progression.
Bad: I would prefer a smoother movement, more fluid. Unforgivable. You touch your head you restart at the very beginning. :(
Note: I like it. Good job on this.
 

curato

Member
Reviews
Top 3:
Just Another Night by Shadow_Lancer, Cowsox
Cute idea orginal. I guess disco ball heads are bad. I was just looking for shirts and pants. disco dudes looked like they were ready to party.
Mo's Fish Shack by Relic
cool concept. deeper you get the better. could have used a little more depth lol but overall well executed.
Citadel Stormer by Pixeltroid
decent platformer some of the spaces too tight to shoot the guy you need to shoot.
Best ofs:
Best use of Theme: ...
Best Concept: ...
Best Presentation: ...
Best Story: ...
Best Devlog: ...
Full ranking:
  1. Just Another Night by Shadow_Lancer, Cowsox
  2. Mo's Fish Shack by Relic
  3. Citadel Stormer by Pixeltroid
  4. Spielcomm by Bart
  5. PINN by HayManMarc
  6. Bouncer by Siolfor the Jackal
  7. Ninja vs Demons by Toque
  8. No Smash The Walls by IndianaBones
  9. The Portal by Micah_DS
  10. The Great Mech War of 2039 by Mercerenies
  11. Garbage Heroes by GameDevDan
  12. Chemodynamics by Dickson Law
  13. Objective: Stealth by KPJ
  14. No Way Back by Gizmo199
  15. Hatch Controller by NazGhuL
  16. master.hacker.pro by Reaktori, Riuku
  17. Slimelvator by Michael McMullen
  18. Crimson Raider by Lolslayer, Kazimir Mariusz
  19. I'm Not Drunk by Pranjal, Shwet
  20. Dicy Dungeon by The M
  21. Wormhole by Alice
  22. Fort With Guns by MikeeyBikeey
  23. Popcorn Spider by Nacky Slocker
  24. Unnamed by MikeDark_x
  25. #1 Dad by Timothy Y
  26. 30第二エスケープ | 30 Second Escape by TheMiningBoyAlpha
  27. Thirst of Freedom by Fried Llama Studio
  28. Tic-Tac-Toe by ParodyKnaveBob
Comments:
#1 Dad by Timothy Y
nice 3d not sure what the point is other than that.
30第二エスケープ | 30 Second Escape by TheMiningBoyAlpha
3d i guess. wall seem a bit squirm. not much to do other than not step in red stuff puch with nothing to punch.
Bouncer by Siolfor the Jackal
like the idea. trying to keep up witht the clicker and on the entrance and exit it a bit awkward. I ended up just eye balling it.

Chemodynamics by Dickson Law
good graphics. there was a single point of entry. Not sure if the chemicals were random or planned, but it could do with a little tutorial level or a slower build up of difficulty. If it were pushed forward it could be a decent mobile time waster game.
Citadel Stormer by Pixeltroid
decent platformer some of the spaces too tight to shoot the guy you need to shoot.
Crimson Raider by Lolslayer, Kazimir Mariusz
looks awesome. AI is rather poorly tooned and unforgiving. The attack is low range at best and odd to aim
Dicy Dungeon by The M
I really like the concept here you could push this concept to have a bit more control of which dice in your inventory you are using and a few more mechanics to be able to control the flow. Also not sure if you got far enough for any sort of story.
Having said that it did crash when I died.
___________________________________________
############################################################################################
FATAL ERROR in
action number 1
of Step Event0
for object controller:
Variable obj_player.slots(100026, -2147483648) not set before reading it.
at gml_Object_controller_Step_0
############################################################################################
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
stack frame is
gml_Object_controller_Step_0 (line -1)
make sure if you are using global variables for pointers that you check that it exist before you run the code. It may work 99 times out of 100 but especially on side issues like changing rooms or closing the game you can hit this type of error as the engine removes the uneeded objects.
Fort With Guns by MikeeyBikeey
enemy are just running around spraying and praying. need a little better AI and let the player plan how to beat the obstacle rather than the bum rush.
Garbage Heroes by GameDevDan
cool idea. not really about the twitchy time skill queues. I was hyped to try it when I saw you post about but it kind of fell flat for me. not sure the skill twitch queue is really a point of entry. That is not to think you couldn't exspand and market something like this but games where the controls are the challenge aren't really my jam (pun always intended)
Hatch Controller by NazGhuL
star was theme. great art but not much game depth kind of a pat you head and rub your tummy kind of deal.
I'm Not Drunk by Pranjal, Shwet
don't much drink so I can't relate but I don't really care for deals where the controls are the hard part of the game. I do appreciate the attempt at silliness, but everyone know the hard part is getting the connector in the right way the first time :p
Just Another Night by Shadow_Lancer, Cowsox
Cute idea orginal. I guess disco ball heads are bad. I was just looking for shirts and pants. disco dudes looked like they were ready to party.
master.hacker.pro by Reaktori, Riuku
decent puzzle game. I would say if someone trying to exit just exit don't make a whole extra production out of it ... it just alt -f4 and was done.
Mo's Fish Shack by Relic
cool concept. deeper you get the better. could have used a little more depth lol but overall well executed.
Ninja vs Demons by Toque
nice concept. controls are a little twitchy for the platform jumping.
No Smash The Walls by IndianaBones
interesting concept. would have prefered on click of the arrow keys to equal moving one position. having the hold and it keep going at the increased speed made it akward and frustration when it could be a fun concept to expand on.
No Way Back by Gizmo199
decent with puzzle. you don't want to go back anyways with all that gas.
Objective: Stealth by KPJ
concept is ok, but the implementation is off. the load point on to the level is hot with a security guard? you can't even look at the pattern before the level resets because you are found.

PINN by HayManMarc
cute little game. I used to be quite the pachinko shark back in my day.
Popcorn Spider by Nacky Slocker
cute for a second. not sure what I supposed to do can't win or lose
SINGLE POINT OF ENTRY.exe by David Pisano
I don't really like programs opening outside stuff without asking nor sounds that persist after you close the program. I had reboot to get rid of it. I didn't look any further to see what other things that never should be included in a program are in there.
Slimelvator by Michael McMullen
please be kind and put the unfront text in a larger font. Otherwise, a basic "dungeon crawler" enemies could have used better ai.
Spielcomm by Bart
3d. good concept. felt a little like wandering around at random than solving anything to me. I got in not sure if i figured it out or cliped through a wall but i found out of dialog dude lol.
The Great Mech War of 2039 by Mercerenies
not really sure theme wise but I like the fight your way through with a workshop etc. the fight mechanics could use a little work the punch isn't very punchy and it seem to turn you around near the edges when you are on the attack. kind of devolves into a sumo belly bump contest
The Portal by Micah_DS
interesting little puzzle game.
Thirst of Freedom by Fried Llama Studio
not sure abou the them, but I couldn't get the Z X C buttons to do anything either.
Tic-Tac-Toe by ParodyKnaveBob
tic tac toe. definately works. the AI seems to make random instead of tactical choices.
Turret Trap by Curato
wanted to do a 360 shoot did a 360 shooter. hard to get the pacing right to get all the guys jumping out the hole. started too slow I guess. It speed up as it levels.
Unnamed by MikeDark_x
ok little platformer. retro. collisions and sword length are not kind
Wormhole by Alice
its snake I haven't seen that game in a while. I tried to play on the basic difficulty I am not sure if that was the issue but after the first portal I was just circling for like 5 min waiting for something else to happen.
 

Micah_DS

Member
~ Micah's Votes & Feedback ~

Top 3:
Garbage Heroes by @GameDevDan
Such a charming little game, and quite fun to play!

/''' USE OF "SINGLE POINT OF ENTRY" '''\
The action in the center - encased as the single point of entry - is the action you must take. I like it. I think that's a pretty good use of the theme.

/''' CONCEPT '''\
I think the idea is pretty creative. It's simple, but it has enough depth to be fun and interesting.
I like that you allowed for two methods of dealing damage and one for healing as well, so the player has some more input to control the battle. The concept is very jam-friendly.

/''' PRESENTATION '''\
Man this game's presentation shines! I do wish you would've shown credits for everything, so I'm not sure if the music is yours? I looked at your devlog, but there is no mention of audio.
So I'll just praise the artwork. MAN, it's clean, cute, charming, and full of character! And all the juicy details with text boxes and falling inputs are very smooth and satisfying.

/''' ADDITIONAL PROS & CONS '''\
- As touched on above under 'presentation', lack of credits was disappointing, because I'd like to know where the music is from.
- No ability to press escape to quit whenever you want (I know you can use various Windows OS functionality to do this, but it's nice to have the in-game option).
= The final boss perhaps has slightly too much health, maybe? Unsure if this is a con or just neutral, because it wasn't exactly 'bad'.
+ The game's length is pretty much perfect. It felt quite satisfying upon finishing.
Mo's Fish Shack by @Relic
Such a simple yet satisfying fishing game! My high score so far is 204.

/''' USE OF "SINGLE POINT OF ENTRY" '''\
You fish through a single opening in the ice. That's a very simple and straightforward use of the theme, so looking at the theme use in itself, it's not all that impressive, but how it really shines is in the concept.

/''' CONCEPT '''\
The concept plays off your simple and limiting theme use quite brilliantly. You can only go up and down, but it's amazing how much control you give the player to use skill and thought to score higher.
Do you risk taking more time to go deeper, dodging jelly fish to snag a better catch? It's such a great example of taking a simple concept and fleshing it out for deeper gameplay. Whenever a concept can stay simple yet have deep gameplay, I consider it to be a fantastic concept. Well done!

/''' PRESENTATION '''\
For the most part, the game has stellar presentation. The only stuff I'd consider 'bad' would be the black outlined graphics, being the timer and fish bag; those almost feel out of place, perhaps partly because they get blown up at certain points and it's all pixelated? Anyway, I absolutely LOVE all the other art. There's just so much charm and everything is so water-floaty-bobbly, it's downright cute. And the worm's expressions are fantastic! HAHAHA! I love it!
I also like that the lower you catch a fish from, the higher they fly up when brought out of the water. This increases the impact of the catch. If it's a good catch, you feel excited and satisfied, and if it's a bad catch, it emphasizes your disappointment (in the best way).

/''' ADDITIONAL PROS & CONS '''\
- The hitbox on the worm and/or fishes felt a little big. I felt like I was hitting them when I was still far enough away. It made it a little frustrating, though not too bad.
+ Having it save the high score is a huge plus for a game where the goal is to get a highscore. It makes it feel much more worthwhile and I can try to one-up myself more later.
I'm Not Drunk by @Pranjal Bisht, @Shwetaketu Dighe
Pure funny fun.

/''' USE OF "SINGLE POINT OF ENTRY" '''\
Plug the USB C cable into the phone's single charging port. The entire gameplay revolves around this, so it's a great and very direct use of the theme. Simple and powerful. Nice.

/''' CONCEPT '''\
The concept is awesome and perfect for a jam game. The core goal is to plug into the phone, and things are spiced up by making the phone shake and adding a steadying mechanic. Managing to make something simple, yet complex enough for good gameplay is a big deal. Well done.

/''' PRESENTATION '''\
Everything is presented super well. The music isn't bad, though I did find it pretty repetitive. The sfx are great, especially the "YEAAAA!!" when you get it in. The art and colors are very well done, and the effect that appears when you bounce off the phone is good polish. Trying to control the thing was slightly frustrating, but that's kind of the point, and it was certainly doable. In the end, it made for a fun time, so you did things right!

/''' ADDITIONAL PROS & CONS '''\
- Lack of credits means I don't know who did what, or if everything was made by you guys. I'm assuming it's all done by both of you during the jam, but I hate having to assume.
= The game may be a bit too close to the line for being a game for kiddies which might be something to keep in mind for future jams, but this is neither a pro nor a con. Just a thought.
+ The game was the perfect length for the content, plus it felt very complete. That's awesome.

Best ofs:
Best use of Theme: I'm Not Drunk by @Pranjal Bisht, @Shwetaketu Dighe
Best Concept: master.hacker.pro by @Reaktori, Riuku
Best Presentation: Garbage Heroes by @GameDevDan
Best Story: Objective: Stealth by @KPJ
Best Devlog: The Great Mech War of 2039 by @Mercerenies

Full ranking:
  1. Garbage Heroes by GameDevDan
  2. Mo's Fish Shack by Relic
  3. I'm Not Drunk by Pranjal, Shwet
  4. master.hacker.pro by Reaktori, Riuku
  5. Just Another Night by Shadow_Lancer, Cowsox
  6. No Way Back by Gizmo199
  7. Chemodynamics by Dickson Law
  8. Bouncer by Siolfor the Jackal
  9. Ninja vs Demons by Toque
  10. Slimelvator by Michael McMullen
  11. Dicy Dungeon by The M
  12. Wormhole by Alice
  13. Unnamed by MikeDark_x
  14. No Smash The Walls by IndianaBones
  15. PINN by HayManMarc
  16. Fort With Guns by MikeeyBikeey
  17. Crimson Raider by Lolslayer, Kazimir Mariusz
  18. Turret Trap by Curato
  19. SINGLE POINT OF ENTRY.exe by David Pisano
  20. Citadel Stormer by Pixeltroid
  21. Objective: Stealth by KPJ
  22. #1 Dad by Timothy Y
  23. The Great Mech War of 2039 by Mercerenies
  24. Tic-Tac-Toe by ParodyKnaveBob
  25. Spielcomm by Bart
  26. Popcorn Spider by Nacky Slocker
  27. Thirst of Freedom by Fried Llama Studio
  28. 30第二エスケープ | 30 Second Escape by TheMiningBoyAlpha
Unranked entries:
  • Hatch Controller by NazGhuL
    ( See feedback below for the reason )
  • The POrtal by Micah_DS
    ( It's my own entry )

Feedback:
...and it can fit because it's a Google Doc !
( Sorry, I went over the character limit so I had to do this. )

- Tips for reading the Google Doc -
To the side of the document, there's an "outline" (if it's not there, it should be a tab on the left; click that to expand it). You can scroll down through the outline to find your game's title. Click that to jump immediately to my feedback for you. Games are listed alphabetically, of course.
Also, if it's not already off, it can be easier to read if you turn off "Print Layout" found under the "View" drop down menu, as that will remove the spaces between pages.

Bonus Highlights Video:

• 30 Second Escape by TheMiningBoyAlpha
• Bouncer by Siolfor the Jackal
• Citadel Stormer by Pixeltroid
• Fort With Guns by MikeeyBikeey
• Garbage Heroes by GameDevDan
• Hatch Controller by NazGhuL
• I'm Not Drunk by Pranjal, Shwet
• master.hacker.pro by Reaktori, Riuku
• Spielcomm by Bart (though it's a game inside the game)
• Mo's Fish Shack by Relic
• Ninja vs Demons by Toque
• Objective: Stealth by KPJ
• Slimelvator by Michael McMullen
• The Great Mech War of 2039 (very short, sorry)
• Thirst of Freedom by Fried Llama Studio
• Crimson Raider by Lolslayer, Kazimir Mariusz

Sorry if someone wanted to see their game in here (or perhaps you're thankful it's not here, ahahaha). If it's not here, I was probably way too tired when playing your game, or I had recording issues that ruined the footage, etc.
 

The M

Member
Some Reviews and Votes

Top 3:


master.hacker.pro by Reaktori, Riuku

Just Another Night by Shadow_Lancer, Cowsox
Mo's Fish Shack by Relic

Best ofs:

Best use of Theme: master.hacker.pro by Reaktori, Riuku
Best Concept: I'm Not Drunk by Pranjal, Shwet
Best Presentation: Mo's Fish Shack by Relic

Full ranking:




    • master.hacker.pro by Reaktori, Riuku
    • Just Another Night by Shadow_Lancer, Cowsox
    • Mo's Fish Shack by Relic
    • I'm Not Drunk by Pranjal, Shwet
    • Wormhole by Alice
    • Hatch Controller by NazGhuL
    • Garbage Heroes by GameDevDan
    • Chemodynamics by Dickson Law
    • The Portal by Micah_DS
    • #1 Dad by Timothy Y
    • The Great Mech War of 2039 by Mercerenies
    • PINN by HayManMarc
    • Spielcomm by Bart
    • No Smash The Walls by IndianaBones
    • Crimson Raider by Lolslayer, Kazimir Mariusz
    • Fort With Guns by MikeeyBikeey
    • No Way Back by Gizmo199
    • Unnamed by MikeDark_x
    • SINGLE POINT OF ENTRY.exe by David Pisano
    • Slimelvator by Michael McMullen
    • Bouncer by Siolfor the Jackal
    • Popcorn Spider by Nacky Slocker
    • Citadel Stormer by Pixeltroid
    • Turret Trap by Curato
    • Objective: Stealth by KPJ
    • Ninja vs Demons by Toque
    • Tic-Tac-Toe by ParodyKnaveBob
    • 30第二エスケープ | 30 Second Escape by TheMiningBoyAlpha
    • Thirst of Freedom by Fried Llama Studio


Comments:


#1 Dad by Timothy Y

Well, that was something. The moment I saw the combination of 2D and 3D I figured this was going to be great. It was inspiring for sure but as a game it left me a bit disappointed, I expected more to happen. From a technical standpoint this was really cool, especially when you walked through the mug's ear. The illusion was only broken for a moment when I reached the reset point and the left side of the mug suddenly changed.

30第二エスケープ | 30 Second Escape by TheMiningBoyAlpha

I'm not sure where the 30 seconds came into play but I did escape so there's that. The game is pretty straightforward, basically a huge maze to get through barriers along the way and dangerous tiles to avoid. At first I didn't realize that the red floor was harmful to touch so I thought it was a bug or timer that reset the game. When I realized how it actually was I was down to one health left, which made the rest a bit more tense as I had to be really careful to not screw up. I think the player movement/collision could be improved as it's easy to get stuck on walls right now.

Bouncer by Siolfor the Jackal

This was interesting and really hectic. Having to manage both people count and gender count was hard. At first I tried using the counter to keep track of the people but that just wasn't viable considering how fast they left the building. Instead I just winged it, trying to pour in more people at the same rate as they left. I have no idea how well it went or how close I was to losing but I made it through to the end. I feel like knowing these things would have made it more exciting because now I could have performed really well or poorly and I have no idea which.

Chemodynamics by Dickson Law

The game is very well rounded with a great-looking menu and excellent tutorial. The gameplay is also interesting and unique, not quite like anything I've played before. There's some strategy as to where to place the elements, especially since there are some that you can't easily move or some that must go in certain directions.

There are two big issues I had when playing that kept me from fully enjoying the game. The first one is the lack of control: it's great to see a highlight of where the element is going to end up but moving it is a lot harder than it should be. I often found myself trying to quickly fling elements into place across the board but the input didn't register or the element only moved a single square despite me pulling all the way off the board. Being unable to act quickly killed the pacing of the game and made it feel sluggish. The second issue I had was the lack of difficulty. I couldn't notice any differences between the first and the fifth level and that eventually got boring and made me quit. Some ways the game could grow harder is by making some color more common than the rest (forcing the player to care about not matching colors) or adding obstacles to the board that prevents you from just filling up the same spots over and over again.

Citadel Stormer by Pixeltroid

The game looks great and has a good variety to the obstacles and enemies, but it feels unfair against the player and that makes it frustrating to play. My biggest concern is how sparse ammo is and the fact that enemies respawn but ammo does not. This means you can get stuck in impossible situations because you're out of ammo and can't kill the enemies. A way to keep limited ammo but avoid this could be to have a basic weapon with infinite ammo and a stronger weapon with an ammo pool. I'd also like to see more of what's above and below me. I died more than once because I landed on something dangerous that I couldn't see. It's a shame because it prevented me from exploring more of the game which I'd have liked.

Crimson Raider by Lolslayer, Kazimir Mariusz

The game was very atmospheric and the glow of the enemies was a beautiful touch. The game suffers from a lack of explanation and purpose, it's still fun to explore the payoff isn't as big as it could have been if I'd been invested into it. I think combat is fine: you can dodge with a jump or counter with a well-timed attack, both of which feel great to pull off. If I were to improve it, I'd suggest adding a bit of knockback to hits and make the player's attack feel like they had more swing and reach to them. Of course the biggest issue with the game is that it's too short. You get a taste of what there is, and it feels good, but it's over before it's really begun.

Fort With Guns by MikeeyBikeey

It was interesting and fun to try out new guns and see how they differed but eventually I just stuck with one that felt good and didn't bother with the rest. Finding stuff, the map and the key, was exciting and I wished there was more things like that to find. Currently there's not enough incentive to explore in my opinion. Adding health drops would help this somewhat because then you could clear rooms to prepare for the boss. I think the gun mechanics were good. It's nice to see the different ammo capacities and accuracies/recoil as you fired. It'd been nice to have a reload button because I ended up having a lot of extra ammo and half-spent magazines which I had to empty before I could reload.

Garbage Heroes by GameDevDan

The game is clean and stylish and just complex enough to retain my interest for the whole playthrough. The various patterns were creative and it's amazing how much animation you can do by just stretching and moving sprites around. I would have liked to see a little more variety to the heroes' attacks because I rarely used any other than the all-or-nothing move because it seemed to be the strongest. The bosses added more special tokens to their attacks and it'd been cool if you'd unlock something similar. I think the game's balance was excellent and it felt like I got through the patterns with barely a few seconds to spare each time.

Hatch Controller by NazGhuL

That was weird in a lovely, wonderful way. It was fun to see things collapse as the commands grew more and more complex and urgent. I think there could be room for one more button to press without making things too cluttered and overwhelming for the player to prolong the game just a little.

I'm Not Drunk by Pranjal, Shwet

Wow, that was one of the most absurd things I've seen made into a game in a long time. The game played well and felt like a complete, if small, package. The graphics and audio are a perfect match and the sparks flying when you miss is a great touch. It's a nice little microgame that's fun for a minute or two.

Just Another Night by Shadow_Lancer, Cowsox

The game is fancy and I love all the details and variations to the people and the environment. It's a neat touch that the sound grows whenever the doors open. It was hard to spot some issues, I had trouble with the VIPs because I prioritized their clothing over their names. I also had trouble with the naked people because I didn't realize the rules of the first night still applied to the second one. I think the game was about long enough not to overstay its welcome but it'd been nice to highlight your score at the end so you could tell how good you performed.

master.hacker.pro by Reaktori, Riuku

The intro does a fantastic job of setting the mood and the visual style is consistent throughout the entire game. You had a lot more levels than I'd anticipated which was awesome as they were both varied and well-made, but I also grew fatigued with them as the complexity increased. I'm impressed with how much you could do with a limited number of tools and mechanics. The first few levels were a bit confusing until I'd learnt what you could do and how things worked. Thankfully they were suitably simple that this wasn't a problem. One thing I noticed is that dying has a very small impact. I would suggest adding some kind of highlight that you're dead, either with text or maybe a screen distortion effect and restart automatically.

Mo's Fish Shack by Relic

I love the animation on the text. Honestly, the animation work in general is really good, from the expression of the worm to the smooth camera movement. The gameplay is satisfying, at first I thought it might be better to just go for a ton of near-surface fish but the exponential value increase meant that deep dives was the real way to go, and that's great. I'm torn about the jellyfish, they give an element of risk vs reward which isn't bad but considering that they grow so common on the lower levels it's easy to do three or four deep dives in a row that all yield 0 points instead of 50 each because you bad lucked into jellyfish instead of normal fish and that's frustrating. Kudos for showing the highest score, a lot of jam games just throw away the score when the game ends and that's a missed opportunity.

Ninja vs Demons by Toque

It's a simple concept but it works well. The game looks good in motion and the controls are solid. I found the game to be too easy, if you could clear the screen of enemies before too many appeared then it was only a matter of waiting for the keys and demons to spawn and deal with them one at a time. I'd like to see enemies appear from different directions to spice things up a bit.

No Smash The Walls by IndianaBones

The premise is simple but well executed and it fits the theme like a brick in a wall. It was fun how you could feel the speed increase with each passing wall, it pushed the limit of how fast I could reacted and stopped just right before it got too much. The biggest issue I had was the controls and I feel that they made the game a lot harder than it should have been for the wrong reason. Because of how quickly you move when pressing a button it ends up being slippery and you don't get as much precision, which is bad because this is a game about precision movement. I often overshot the place I wanted to move to and had to try and compensate by tapping the other direction as lightly as I could. This worked for the easier difficulties (if barely) but not on the hardest and it didn't feel good losing a life because the controls were too responsive.

No Way Back by Gizmo199

Seamlessly switching between mechanics created some interesting puzzles. I think the ramp up in difficulty was handled well and the text slices between levels made me want to keep playing to find out what would happen next. I think the collision handling could be improved because it felt clunky when platforming or trying to navigate passages in zero-g. The game has a great art style and I especially like the animated text. It's simple but also very clear and not taken too far.

Objective: Stealth by KPJ

Being able to climb ceilings certainly makes you feel stealthy and it's fun to outsmart the enemies. Unfortunately I never mastered the controls so it was hard to really get into character. I think the game's biggest issue is that it's too hard from the start: you barely even have two seconds when you spawn before you lose and if you manage to get past that first guard there's half a dozen more just after it with no safe place in between to plan your next action. If the game started easier, with a floor or two that introduced the game mechanics in a safe environment it'd be so much easier to learn how to play. The existing tutorial is nice but with so many enemies I don't have time to read it. As a side note, showing button prompts when you're near things you can interact with is another way you can make things easier for the player because then you don't need to keep that in mind and can focus on the important parts (playing the game).

PINN by HayManMarc

I'm torn about this game. I think the aesthetics are great and the music and sound effects are so chill that the game gets some zen-like qualities. On the other hand, I feel like the gameplay is too nonexistent to be enjoyable. You have barely any control of where the ball goes and because it can bounce in different directions even if you don't change anything between drops it's impossible to predict where it will go and it all comes down to luck. For this to be interesting I feel like there should be more the player con do to control the outcome and then perhaps modify the level, perhaps by moving elements around to keep you from being able to keep dropping the balls in the same place over and over for infinite scores.

Popcorn Spider by Nacky Slocker

This was cool. I never understood the point of the game but you managed top make collecting popcorn satisfying enough that it didn't really matter that much. I'd have liked to be able to use the arrow keys for movement because it feels more natural to me for this kind of game. Trying to juggle the oil barrels to keep as many of them on screen as possible was challenging, especially since you moved so fast and had to be very precise with the biting. When I did manage to keep a few of them active for some time it was great.

SINGLE POINT OF ENTRY.exe by David Pisano

I'll admit, when the game opened up facebook for me I started to doubt if playing it really was a good idea. It got better when I got to play that cool anti-virus game, the text-based visuals were great and you've got to love the sound effects. I think the game was well made, though I'd suggest speeding it up a little. It started to feel a bit slow when you picked an option and nothing really happened and you had to go back to the previous screen. I do realize it's part of the theme.

Slimelvator by Michael McMullen

You nailed the animations of the player and the hearts, they're awesome. The rest of the graphics is somewhat bland in comparison, it looks good but is also mostly black background. When I saw the name I though maybe there'd be tons of slime blocking off paths and forcing me to hurry to avoid the floors being flooded. Unfortunately, the gameplay isn't that interesting: you have a decent attack move and run suitably fast considering the long distances, but the combat lacks the depth needed to stay interesting and randomly walking through a maze gets old quickly. It's the same with the backtracking, because nothing changes it ends up being just a long walk through empty corridors. It does makes perfect sense given the theme so it could have been great if only something would happen on the way back.

Spielcomm by Bart

I liked that part of the game was learning words in a different language, it gave it an anchoring in the real world and was a fun twist. The gameplay itself was a bit slow I think and it was hard to know where to go. Eventually I just tried the different doors until I got inside so it didn't feel like I used the knowledge or clues I'd collected. I think it would be neat if you could add outlines to everything or ambient occlusion or similar because when the walls were of a single color it was really hard to make out any details in the geometry.

The Great Mech War of 2039 by Mercerenies

The game started off well but then I hit a patch where I just couldn't win and it got incredibly frustrating because I couldn't tell what I did wrong. Eventually something just clicked and I managed to get enough upgrades that I could power through the rest of the enemies. It was an interesting game but I never felt like I understood how to play properly. The parts shop was fun, especially once you'd accumulated enough wealth that you could afford something every run or two. The different parts were nice but what I really liked was the quirkier upgrades, such as the jetpack or extended arms. It was fun to just roll through the shop inventory to see what would come up. The multiplayer was also a cool feature and probably the reason I stuck with the game so long (can't give up and upload some ugly, half-built bot for others to see :D).

The Portal by Micah_DS

It's a clever take on the theme and a well-polished game. The way you had to think about how to use the portals created some interesting challenges, although I feel like they were never used all the way to their full potential when most levels were focused just around the portals and the rooms were otherwise empty. I think the last level (despite its cruel number of enemies) was the best at filling up the area and incorporating the entire screen in its design. Normally, moving around and pushing blocks isn't all that engaging but the music and visuals contributed to making the game feel faster paced than it was, which I think added to the experience.

Thirst of Freedom by Fried Llama Studio

The game was confusing and I had a hard time knowing what things were or did, both when it came to objects in the world and buttons to press. It seemed like half of the buttons did nothing and I had no real idea of where to go. After playing for a while I figured the game had a metroidvanea structure where you could find different power-ups by exploring and that was neat. Unfortunately I could never figure out how to win before dying one time too many. The checkpoints were nice but since the power-ups reset it didn't feel like they helped all that much.

Tic-Tac-Toe by ParodyKnaveBob

Tic-Tac-Toe fits the theme surprisingly well when you think about it because there's really only one correct play. Of course, this makes the game itself rather uninteresting. As for the implementation, I think it's fine. I'd move the keys from E and T to enter and escape which I think is a bit more intuitive but other than that I found it enjoyable for what it was.

Turret Trap by Curato

I like the concept of defending a single chokepoint and this is similar to an idea I had for the jam. I think the game has potential and the way you've added heat management is a nice way to increase the complexity somewhat. It's not enough though, as the game is still too straightforward and too slow in my opinion. There's no real depth to your decisions when playing because you have no idea where the enemies or cooldown pickups will appear which means you just have to move and react when they do. The heat cooldown also limits how often enemies can spawn because if they spawn too often you won't be able to cool down fast enough. I think slowing down the enemies and increasing the distance between the ring and the portal would allow you to spawn enemies more frequently and increase the difficulty by having more enemies on screen at once which could then be taken further by having different enemy types and waves of enemies to deal with.

Unnamed by MikeDark_x

It's a short game but it plays pretty well. I think the graphics were very well made with a good amount of variety. I'd have loved to see more in the background through, not necessarily everywhere but a few bricks here and there would make it feel more complete. Combat is ok, I feel like you could make the player attacks more dramatic, give him proper swings with that sword, to make it more satisfying. I'd also make the player's hitbox slightly smaller because you don't have much leeway when getting near the skeletons. The boss was cool and very well animated.

Wormhole by Alice

The backgrounds are what really sells this game, the animations are beautiful and I was constantly wondering what would appear next. I felt that the titular wormholes were missing when I played. I couldn't tell if there not being more wormholes was a bug (or missing feature), intended behavior or if there was something I misunderstood. I tried entering a spike ball just to see if those gave me points but afterwards it was clear that wasn't the case. I kind of feel the game would have been better if there was something to collect as you tried to dodge the obstacles because there was no incentive to move across the screen and that made some of the stages too easy and less interesting in my opinion as it just meant waiting for the stage to end while moving in circles.
 

Alice

Darts addict
Forum Staff
Moderator
I need to go to work now rankings
(now with some actual feedback)​

Top 3:

master.hacker.pro by Reaktori, Riuku
I enjoyed the variety of the puzzles and the audiovisuals were fitting. Also, an adequate use of theme (if maybe not obvious for non-programmers, but most people here are programmers, anyway).

Chemodynamics by Dickson Law
Took me a bit of playing around and reading instructions to find out how it works, but once I figured it out, it was a pretty enjoyable concept.
The ability to store the rook piece (i.e. one that can go in all 4 cardinal directions) makes things a tad too easy for me, though.

No Way Back by Gizmo199
A good concept, although the gameplay felt clunky (in particular the levels look tiled, but the movement doesn't feel like that).
Mostly benefits from its strong use of theme via the secret ending (thanks @ParodyKnaveBob for pointing it out).

Best ofs:

Best use of Theme: No Way Back by Gizmo199
Best Concept: master.hacker.pro by Reaktori, Riuku
Best Presentation: Garbage Heroes by GameDevDan
Best Story: No Way Back by Gizmo199

Full ranking:

  1. master.hacker.pro by Reaktori, Riuku
  2. Chemodynamics by Dickson Law
  3. No Way Back by Gizmo199
  4. The Portal by Micah_DS
  5. Mo's Fish Shack by Relic
  6. Just Another Night by Shadow_Lancer, Cowsox
  7. I'm Not Drunk by Pranjal, Shwet
  8. Garbage Heroes by GameDevDan
  9. The Great Mech War of 2039 by Mercerenies
  10. Dicy Dungeon by The M
  11. PINN by HayManMarc
  12. Ninja vs Demons by Toque
  13. No Smash The Walls by IndianaBones
  14. Bouncer by Siolfor the Jackal
  15. Crimson Raider by Lolslayer, Kazimir Mariusz
  16. Hatch Controller by NazGhuL
  17. Unnamed by MikeDark_x
  18. SINGLE POINT OF ENTRY.exe by David Pisano
  19. Spielcomm by Bart
  20. #1 Dad by Timothy Y
  21. Fort With Guns by MikeeyBikeey
  22. Citadel Stormer by Pixeltroid
  23. Slimelvator by Michael McMullen
  24. Objective: Stealth by KPJ
  25. Popcorn Spider by Nacky Slocker
  26. Turret Trap by Curato
  27. Tic-Tac-Toe by ParodyKnaveBob
  28. Thirst of Freedom by Fried Llama Studio
  29. 30第二エスケープ | 30 Second Escape by TheMiningBoyAlpha


Comments:

#1 Dad by Timothy Y

Alright, I get that the mug handle is the "single point of entry", but it doesn't feel quite as central and integrated into the game. If I didn't know about that handle thing in advance, there's a good chance I wouldn't notice the theme use at all. ^^'

Otherwise, it's a nice short entry, though the general message feels a tad unoriginal, I suppose?

30第二エスケープ | 30 Second Escape by TheMiningBoyAlpha

Sorry, but it crashes right from the start, making it unplayable.

Bouncer by Siolfor the Jackal

I kept the party going and I got fired. Such is life, I guess. ;)

I appreciate the concept, though I feel it was executed better in Just Another Night. In particular, with so many people leaving at the same time and doing it so quickly I couldn't even think of using count tracker, especially with that many people trying to enter. Also, I feel like there could be one or two more poses for each gender to keep things varied (though at least you had female club goers, which wasn't the case for Just Another Night, if no people having "CENSORED" bar over their bare chest is any indication).

Chemodynamics by Dickson Law

Took me a bit of playing around and reading instructions to find out how it works, but once I figured it out, it was a pretty enjoyable concept.
The ability to store the rook piece (i.e. one that can go in all 4 cardinal directions) makes things a tad too easy for me, though.

Citadel Stormer by Pixeltroid

I managed to reach the third gate and then lost.

This game is downright unfair - the player spends bullets, health and lives on enemies, but then they respawn every time the player re-enters the room.
Also, the game is heavy on memorization, because the view often doesn't allow to see the next safe area the player can get to (it's especially true for descending, since the view below the player is barely existent).
Jumping from the ledge felt unresponsive.

Controls could use improvement - in particular O and L force the right hand into somewhat unnatural position, compared to e.g. more comfortable K and L.
Personally I'd prefer something like arrows + X/C (I'd recommend Z/X if not for AZERTY and QWERTZ keyboards, but AZERTY is also bad for WSAD controls).

I feel like the entry would have been so much better if it was more balanced (making enemies permanently eliminated would go a long way).

Crimson Raider by Lolslayer, Kazimir Mariusz

The game had no music, so I whistled Yakety Sax on my way to get the keys.
I've found running around to get the keys much more effective than actually engaging in a battle (probably because of the enemies being hard to hit).
This pseudo-3D perspective is pretty nice, and I actually liked the multi-layered level design, but there shouldn't be pitfalls of doom in places hidden behind a wall the player cannot see through.

Dicy Dungeon by The M

Cool concept, but given all these entries I have to play I didn't finish the whole thing (especially since battles started getting a bit repetitive). I couldn't use the numpad minus trick either, because right now I use a computer without a numpad. >.<

It was initially hard to figure out what to do; I kept selecting and deselecting dice and pressing done, not realizing that I'm supposed to click the protagonist or the opponent to assign the dice to them. It *was* mentioned in readme that you can assign the dice to the enemy or yourself, but it skipped the part where you're supposed to click yourself the respective combatant to do that. Maybe you could indicate that the player and the opponent are clickable with some visual feedback?

Also, the game could be clearer on what each die does, especially the golden die. At first I didn't even know that a golden die is player-only. Some tooltip appearing when hovering over a die would go a long way.

Fort With Guns by MikeeyBikeey

I freed all the guns? I'm not sure making all guns free is a good things...
Aside from that, it's an okay entry, though I don't find it particularly memorable.

Maybe it could use some overpowered mace... were you the one who made games with overpowered maces for earlier Jams?

Garbage Heroes by GameDevDan

Definitely the pretties of the entries I've seen (maybe except mine *whistling*).
Pretty fun to play. The number of player attacks (perfection-requiring foxy, reliable swarm and healing mouse) felt just right and none felt unnecessary. Also, I do see the classic Dan input sequences gameplay here. ;)
The battle against the executive was taxing,* though.

I couldn't see much in terms of the use of theme, so I took away some imaginary points for that.

*pun originally not intended, but acknowledged and embraced

Hatch Controller by NazGhuL

We know now. The Death Star was destroyed because of the overly unreliable CAPTCHAs.
The game could use some subtitles for the droid speech.

I kinda imagined the game over screen voiceover being spoken by droid floating in space to the likewise floating protagonist.
Of course, by then protagonist can't hear the droid. Because of space, among other things.

I'm Not Drunk by Pranjal, Shwet

That person shouting "CHARGE!"... was it the same person who voiced the announcer in that sushi cat fishing game for that old, old Japanese Jam? I'm pretty sure Pranjal at least is/was a part of Zombies Indie House group, known from this prehistoric Jam entry about... yes, charging phones. Ah, nostalgia.

Either way, it was pretty intense; thank goodness it was only 3 levels. Often the charger bounced off the phones by just a few oversized pixels, while it is possible to get the perfect fit into the slot. It's just the game plays a bit too random to me and I can't even find some kind of pattern that would allow a person with sufficient skill to reliably charge the phone.

Good use of a single point of entry, by the way.


Just Another Night by Shadow_Lancer, Cowsox

I like that effect of sound changing depending on whether the door is opened or not. Is it two synchronised soundtracks switching between one another, or did you use some sound effect I don't know of?

The game crashed when I pressed V at the start of the next level.

Speaking of VIPs, it would be nice to have the "I'm a VIP" speech bubble appear right as they go towards the bouncer, not only after they got there. As it is now, the player either has to wait for each individual customer to have the speech bubble appear (or not) or they end up allowing the wrong VIPs into the club. It breaks an otherwise streamlined gameplay experience.

master.hacker.pro by Reaktori, Riuku

So... am I the only one who at the beginning pressed "n" just for the heck of it?
(for the record, it exited the game, just as I expected)
...aaand as I wrote it down, the game told me "just press y already". Well played.

There has been a good variety of puzzles, though after a while it became a little tiring, especially since I didn't know how many levels of security were left.
Then I was slightly irked that there was a time limit I wasn't aware of (I thought it was more for hi-score tracking purposes), but since it was only by 8 minutes and a bunch, I grit my teeth and played again. On another go, I got around 15 minutes, give or take a few. I just wish I could see the passwords file before the program crashed...

Mo's Fish Shack by Relic

Final score after several tries: 307kg

At first I didn't quite understand that deeper fish give more score; only fishing a medusa head made me realise that different fish give different rewards. Thinking back, it makes sense that a goldfish would be way heavier than others. On that note, Mo is pretty strong, dragging a 100kg fish from such a depth in such a short time.

Also, I initially didn't quite read the movement as lane-based (probably because of the smooth transition between lanes) and was surprised that holding a down button didn't advance me any further below.

For me, the game works well as it is. I feel adding some market/demand element (as described in the readme) would have made things unnecessarily complex.

Ninja vs Demons by Toque

Legitimate use of theme. I considered a game where you are a demon trying to keep both demons and humans from crossing between worlds, but quickly wrote it off as something too time-consuming to make for what I planned (and I planned the Jam Player). Glad to see a game using a vaguely similar concept.

Aside from that, it's pretty short, but thanks to that doesn't overstay its welcome.
You really could have used a keyboard-controlled menu instead of click-to-play, with the rest of the game being entirely keyboard-controlled. I know the game is mobile-inspired, but still. >.<

No Smash The Walls by IndianaBones

It integrates the theme well in the gameplay itself with completely abstract elements, not resorting to explaining it through a story or showing it throught a concrete imagery (like a door, a portal, a hole in the ice or a phone charger socket). Had it not been for a tricky use of theme in No Way Back, I'd give it best use of theme.

The gameplay itself is fine, if maybe a tad simplistic and occasionally too long (especially the easy levels). Nonetheless, I completed the whole thing and got to the minigame at the end based around the earlier game idea. I feel like it could be pretty enjoyable if you implemented it well, though it would require some careful balancing and maybe adding more gameplay elements to keep the game going outside of a single successful orbit entry.

No Way Back by Gizmo199

A good concept, although the gameplay felt clunky (in particular the levels look tiled, but the movement doesn't feel like that).
Mostly benefits from its strong use of theme via the secret ending (thanks @ParodyKnaveBob for pointing it out).

On my first two plays I got the bug when the key would disappear on the, as it turned out, second last level.
Nice poetry skills, by the way.

Objective: Stealth by KPJ

Sorry, I have neither time nor will to complete the entire entry.
Largely because of the guards are packed so densely that the player can't even stay at starting position for a while without catching an attention of the guard. And let's not mention descending through the elevator right into a guard's flashlight.
Also, the controls feel clunky, largely because of using AS + W control scheme instead of AD + W, which is more in line with classic WSAD. Combine this with Shift and F and things get quite confusing.

PINN by HayManMarc

Fun to play for a short bit, but it could at least use a hi-score tracking.
It may be just me holding the mouse unsteadily, but it seems that the game physics are unreliable. That is, dropping a ball from the exact same location can result in different outcome? If you specifically designed the physics to make this randomness happen, then it's actually pretty clever.

Popcorn Spider by Nacky Slocker

Is becoming the legendary spider the single point of playing this entry?
I mean, once you get to this spider level, it *is* pretty impressive, I give you that (and yes, I did it without cheat codes).
Also, juggling opened oil cans to the left side is an extremely effective if perhaps unexciting tactic.

SINGLE POINT OF ENTRY.exe by David Pisano

I see and appreciate what you were going for here, with these computer terminal aesthetics and somewhat horroresque continuous sounds, but I'd prefer if the game didn't open a mail client or Facebook page, thankyouverymuch. It's probably this kind of thing that raises warning flags among various antivirus systems.

Slimelvator by Michael McMullen

I picked up the boss key. Does it mean I'm the boss now?
Not much to say, though there was definitely lots of squishiness in the sound effects.

Spielcomm by Bart

That was... confusing? Both the main game as well as the secret game (opened with F10). I can't even tell if I found the right entrance.
The solid-coloured blocks without any shading made it pretty hard to make out where exactly do the walls bend. Also, some areas looked like I can walk on them, but apparently invisible walls kept me from walking there.

The entry-detective premise sounded pretty fun, but in the end I couldn't really find many useful clues, and the German words didn't seem to help, either.
At least it uses the theme, I guess?

The Great Mech War of 2039 by Mercerenies

The collisions and hits were hard to make sense of. Took me a while to get the general hang of it and I still don't feel like I really get it.

I like the variety of customisation options, though I'd really prefer if there was a fixed list of components and these would be shuffled. I.e. one of each head component, two of each leg component, two of each fist component etc. And when you purchase a component, it counts as sold out so you will never buy more units of a given component than you can use.
(maybe you could even include some easter egg components that only appear once there are not enough regular components to fill the shop list; just a thought)

Including an option to upload your robots is pretty neat, kudos for that.

Didn't really see much in terms of theme, unless the language of punches and fight is the single point of entry to another robot's heart.

The Portal by Micah_DS

It was pretty cool until the last level. I completed it but sheesh, that was an ordeal.

The enemies luring was annoying, especially since I couldn't predict which way they would go when aligned diagonally. Would have liked them replaced with some other gameplay mechanic.
They do have cool cartoony expressions, though, I'll give you that.

Thirst of Freedom by Fried Llama Studio

More like a tech demo than an actual game, though I still appreciate you entering the Jam.
I kinda wonder where it would go. It seems like it would be along the lines of "break into someplace important" kind of "single point of entry".

Tic-Tac-Toe by ParodyKnaveBob

I mean... it's a Tic-Tact-Toe. ^^'
A very functional Tic-Tac-Toe, but I'd like to see more Tic-Tac-Theme.

Turret Trap by Curato

Completed 3 levels, didn't see much difference between any of these, so I quit.
The entry could definitely use more variety or at least some difficulty progression.

Unnamed by MikeDark_x

When I saw these bone-throwing skeletons, a Castlevania soundtrack immediately started playing in my head.
I'm not quite sure what was the point of the mouse-based attack in an otherwise entirely keyboard-controlled game. I mean, it's not like there are 360 degrees controls involved here, I feel an action button would suffice here.
It felt like the character wouldn't turn to the side until they jump. It can be a hindrance when the player tries to attack to a specific side.

The game crashes when pressing Space (possibly any other key, too) on game over screen. At least I could watch the victory screen with no problems, which is far more important here.

Wormhole by Alice

Must... resist... urge... to play...
 
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