Bit Souls by Roa
(review #13)
I quit after getting stuck at the purple forest labyrinth and throwing (!) all the switches I could find. Don't know if there's any more content after that.
A little though at first, but nothing I can't grind my way through. It was an adequate dungeon crawler thing, though a little clunky to play (e.g. because of the attack range). I'd gladly welcome an option to spend stamina on running, especially since it regenerates so quickly after I upgrade it enough. Also, I collected some weapons and even found out I can open the inventory with Tab, but I have no idea whether I equip these weapons automatically or I actually had to choose the weapon somehow. Simply put, it would greatly help, if every control was explained (be it in the game or README). On that note, I still don't know what space bar does.
The presentation was alright; the pixelated sprites contrasted with hi-resolution GUI, though. Also, the backgrounds often blended with each other; adding some fog effect to make more distant walls fade would definitely make the perspective easier to gauge. I wasn't fond of diamon-shaped bush that surrounded trees in the purple forest labyrinth - I'd rather have them square shaped, surrounding their respective trees instead. Also, in this game a map displaying the layout (including walls and key interactible elements, such as switches) would help a lot; maybe it'd even allow me find some way to progress (still don't know if it can be completed or not...)? Another thing - the game could use some proofreading.
There was no background music, so I wanted to play some instead. I somehow pressed Escape key in the process, leaving the game instantly - this kind of grindy game definitely shouldn't be so easy to accidentally quit. Sound effects were alright. I welcomed the voice acting. The writing could use some polish, though.
One more thing - the cursor in the middle of the screen is annoying, couldn't you have hidden it? I know 3D games use this cursor-centering thing to allow indefinite view rotation, but why show it outright? ^^'
Overall, a decent 3D entry, but needs more explanation (especially the controls) and maybe some fine-tuning (e.g. tweaking the background area for better visibility). Theme is used in presentation only.
Boo! Dice by GameDevDan
(review #26)
That was lots of opponents, lots of rounds and lots of waiting for intermission screens.
Seriously, though, I kinda feel like I spent more time on this game than I should have. In one part, that's because of these intermission panels that are shown for a bit too long and cannot be skipped, which slows down the gameplay. In other part, it's because of how another further opponents need more and more rounds to win, up to 9 with Count Spookula. I feel that after 5 rounds or so there's little difficulty added and just more time-consuming padding. ^^'
The gameplay itself has some basic strategy to it, but it feels somewhat luck-heavy; I had to restart Wailing Bob of all opponents several times because of how bad dice I got (including getting ghost dice often). There's also that aspect that the latter opponent in a round is in better position to properly strategize their rolls, but I don't mind - it actually adds to the skill component, because instead of using one-size-fits-all tactic to get as high score as reasonably possible there's more emphasis put on getting as high score as currently needed. Though admittedly, swapping players each roll rather than each turn would add even more strategic depth.
The presentation is clean, if somewhat empty - there are no portraits for the opponents, just basic descriptions. Also, there's lot of free space used - maybe displaying dice for both players at once would use the space better *and* get rid of these overly long "Player's Turn" intermission panels? It'd be particularly appropriate for swap-each-roll mode of gameplay. The music... well, it's pretty standard and well-known, kind of like Wilhelm Scream is among sound effects.
Overall, a clean and reasonably polished entry, though it could use some gameplay tweaking, better pacing and more complete presentation. Theme is used pretty much in presentation only; there are these ghost dice, but they could have been black hole dice and the score-eating flavour wouldn't be lost at all.
Chiaroscuro by Dickson Law
(review #19)
I don't really know Reversi much, but this entry has some nice modifications - especially the fact that pieces colours are separate from the entities represented on each side. Also, an ability to place a piece even if there's no reversal involved allows for some ground-keeping strategy, e.g. placing a piece in a corner to protect nearby lines from being changed (when enemy would place a piece of the opposite colour). Perhaps dropping this restriction is essential with the other alterations - otherwise a player could be forced to turn pieces in a disadvantageous way.
I played until I defeated the AI - on easiest difficulty, because I'm by no means a Reversi professional, let alone champion, and even the simplest AI easily spots the opportunities that I overlook. Took me a few plays, but I eventually emerged victorious. I enjoyed the gameplay - I feel like the modifications added some nice depth to it.
The audiovisuals are mostly coherent and work well together. An exception - the cartoony character linearts contrast with otherwise lineless and toned graphics; from credits I see most images were pre-made by other people, so that's probably where this slight inconsistency comes from. There were lots of nice effects, be it the summoning circle in the background or flipping pieces and such. It might not be the most spectacular presentation, but it's certainly clean and well-designed.
Overall, an entartaining and well-polished spin on a classic game. Theme is used in presentation only.
Deadly Dungeon by KPJ
(review #17)
That was some simplistic bullet hell. I've played around with Fireball ability first, but at later levels I've found the boss a tad too unapproachable. Then I tried out explosion which worked much better, as it dealt the same damage no matter the distance with the added bonus of clearing the bullets around.
The explosion is especially effective with the kind of bullet patterns used - nearly every pattern is concentric, spreading from around the endearingly named "Evil Death" and it always uses the same angles. It means dodging these patterns boils down to finding a safe spot that covers each of them. Then, the only other obstacle are random miasma drops from above, but they're sparse enough to need only occasional dodging. By staying around the same spot and using explosions whenever they charged, I easily sapped away boss' health until defeat.
The game could have been so much more exciting with a little more varied bullet patterns; having some player-aimed bullets (or player-aimed circles) would already make things a bit more hectic. Then again, more challenging mechanics would work better with some kind of lives system instead of instant restart. Also, to make the abilities more balanced, the boss would need to stop spamming concentring patterns around itself every once in a while, and e.g. use some player-converging pattern instead. This in particular would make Fireball usable even at later levels.
The presentation isn't particularly great; the individual pieces aren't bad, but there's too few of them, and I'm not exactly thrilled about fighting a simple red skull each level. It would definitely work better with some more eye candy, whether it's particle effects around bullets or more varied backgrounds. Also, the game could use some extra feedback, e.g. showing the area of explosion's bullet-clearing effect, or an indicator of fireball range which e.g. lights up when the protagonist gets near Evil Death.
Overall, a decent bullet hell entry, but could seriously use some eye candy and better designed bullet patterns. Theme was used in presentation and backstory only and wasn't particularly strong here.
Demon Santa by Catastrophe
(review #2)
My highest score was 4726. Pathetic.
This game was pretty simplistic, both in terms of the gameplay and the design. Would have liked some more variety, whether it's enemies or background elements or stuff like that. Still, it's sort of enjoyable, most likely thanks to the music (I think I heard it before, but I don't remember where; it wouldn't sound out of place in Megaman, I think?). (addendum: it's CheetahMen's theme from Area 52, thanks Yal!)
Definitely controls *don't* add to the fun factor. I'll never get used to mouse-controlled menus in an otherwise keyboard-controller game, but this game tops even that - it uses ADW for movement, mouse-click for shooting and enter for menu. Note - mouse pointer has literally nothing to do with aiming; left mouse button could be replaced by any keyboard key without any loss of input information. As far as I'm concerned, if you don't use mouse pointer in your game, then most likely you can get rid of mouse-based controls altogether. Mouse-mashing shooting doesn't help, either. ^^'
Overall, a simple entry yet somehow made me play for quite a bit (probably because of the music). Theme is used in presentation only.
Dodge Em' Dracula by Firedingo
(review #27)
Well, that was short. It could take so little time to playtest that thing and see the crash, oh well... ^^' The gameplay itself, or at least the part I could get to, wasn't particularly sophisticated - just make sure not to get hit by driving... fairy things? I think "hey listen" would be an appropriate sound effect here, but I'm not sure I'd like to hear it. Presentation wasn't top-notch, though the Dracula sprite was somewhat endearing. No audio at all.
Overall, the game could use less crashing (and I don't mean Dracula-fairy crash). Theme is used in presentation, but it's spoiled by having a vampire walk in a broad daylight.
Ghost Run by Cat, var
(review #15)
I accumulated quite a speed before giving in, and eventually my final score was...
INVISIBLE!
You can't get more supernatural than that!
Seriously though, in this kind of game getting in a hi-score system is essential; even if you don't save it, displaying it at the end would help.
Another thing - the game state could have been cleaned up after the end, instead of starting with leftover elements from the previous runs. Also, the elements could have been spaced more evenly within each realm - quite often, there were long periods of idleness when I just waited for the next obstacle to happen.
The presentation was pretty cute at least, both in terms of graphics and the music. Nice particle effects during the night, though maybe they could have been toned down to better show the element below them?
Overall, a simple endless runner that could really use hi-score system. Theme sort of drives the gameplay (switching between realms), though it's not as strong as some other gameplay mechanics.
Ghostris by Yal
(review #10)
That's a curious spin on the Tetris (speaking of spin, I was a little confused by the A/D for rotation, instinctively trying to rotate blocks with UP instead). There was lots of pieces moving, appearing and disappearing around. The movement happened at completely random times. Personally I would have preferred it occurred at fixed intervals, i.e. every 1-2 seconds a block has a *chance* to apply its effect, and outside of that "tick" all blocks are guaranteed to be idle. That way I won't get messed by last milliseconds' completely unpredictable change in the blocks layout; instead I can wait for the next "tick" to make sure the layout stays favourable until I quick-drop the piece.
Aside from that, the effects were pretty interesting. Skeletons, pumpkins and wisps stand out in particular; other pieces just keep moving around or are completely idle. There was also some variety of shapes; the larger ones can be painful, but they can also be pretty beneficial under right circumstances. Ability to possess pieces was pretty helpful at times, too (especially when a large piece appeared and I wasn't quite ready for it). I kinda want to see one of Tetris champions play it.
(also, I agree with Catastrophe that skeletons are best pieces)
The beginning and the end intermissions could be shorter. I mean, it's not Super Meat Boy with its insanely short iterations begging for even shorter restarts, but there's still a tad too much waiting between one game and another (especially the Game Over part feels excessively long).
The presentation is high quality, though it's no surprise coming from you. I'm pretty sure if it was a Ludum Dare entry, you would score high in the Mood category.
Overall, pretty wacky and fun. The actions randomness could be toned down to make the gameplay a little more strategic without losing much of unpredictability. Theme drives the gameplay (possessed pieces acting on their own, fitting the supernatural entity they're associated with).
(spin-off idea - Ghostris Skeletons: How High Can You Score Before Getting Bored to Death?)
Gluttony, My Master by Cantaloupe
(review #16)
Well, that was definitely creepy and kinda gross (not in a strictly negative sense, though). Doesn't quite spell SUPERNATURAL to me as much, it's more like it crossed the border into SURREALISTIC territory. ^^'
Presentation was quite fitting, I particularly appreciate this unsettling shaking effect and the audio panning. The level graphics felt a bit simplistic, but they did their job.
I didn't like the controls much, they involved much micro-controlling. It's mostly about having to select and move a piece every turn and having to navigate between pieces by moving the selector around the level, but you only can move along the free fields. I mean, it does add to this suffocating feeling, especially compared to something as swift as selecting the piece with mouse instead, but I'm not sure I want this kind of feeling here. I appreciate an undo option, at least.
Also, some extra feedback to indicate which field is selectable and which is not would likewise help.
Another feel - I don't quite like how slow the resolution cycle was. Would prefer if it was ~2 times faster or so.
The setting and the story is certainly creative and has this consistent eerie tone to it. I just wish I knew whether the game has ending changing depending on player's performance, or is the conclusion always the same? I just tried going for another run while skipping all the levels and the story didn't change a bit, so I feel my performance doesn't matter, but maybe there's something I'm missing here? It'd definitely help if there was an information how much fat is possible to remove in a given level, though I kinda understand why it's not included.
Overall, an atmospheric entry, though the gameplay feels somewhat clunky with its controls and resolution cycle. The game transcends the theme, being so far removed from reality that there's no NATURAL to compare the SUPERNATURAL to.
Grave Mistake by Tyler, Emily, Vincent
(review #14)
It's been a while since I've seen a protagonist in a wheelchair. Granted, that protagonist from back then used a gun recoil to propel himself around.
Here it's more of a regular battle/platforming thing. The first part mostly consists of demons to defeat with spirit bullets, the other is jumping around with ghostly legs. To be honest, neither was particularly interesting in terms of pure mechanics; especially fighting demons was somewhat dull, just fending off their attacks in an attack-reload cycle.
The stronger suit of this game is its story and atmosphere, including the audiovisuals. There's a nice variety to the backgrounds, the protagonist and ghosts/creatures are well animated and the music completes the mood. There is also a pretty functional dialogue system in place with some variety in colours and such, so props for making that as well.
I played around with the level editor, though I feel it requires a little too much micromanagement - in particular placing the collision boxes separately from the walls, and no autotiling. I feel like basic GM room editor would do at least as good a job without needing to make an entire editor for that. But hey, it's still a commendable effort. ^^'
Overall, a nice atmospheric entry with a good amount of story, if maybe a bit dull mechanically. Theme is used in presentation and story, which is appropriate in a story-driven game in the first place.
Hazel by FreddyShnitz
(review #23)
I feel like I spent more time on it than I should have. ^^'
Apparently, there are two aspects to this game - choosing the destination on a map and a side-scrolling travelling. The latter isn't as much a shooter but a typing game, centered around ABCD letters. Considering there are only four symbols in the first place, I'd rather have them as arrow keys (better than letters because they're consistent across keyboard layouts). Also, the travelling segments are basically the same - just 3 letter ghosts keep spawning as you go through the tedious journey (90 seconds long, maybe?). By the way, there's zero penalty for typing the wrong keys, so sometimes I just spammed the keys until the ghosts were defeated.
The map portion seems to be broken, because after travelling I ended up on a different cell I've chosen before (twice in a row, at that). Because of that, I gave up on the game, as I couldn't get one of ingredients. I think the game could have been designed differently while still keeping its core characteristics - just simplify map portion to five destinations (or however many ingredients are needed) to be selected freely, and then have a level based on a destination. In one case it could feature a forest with werewolves, in another it could be wastelands with ghosts, each level with a different gimmick - some variety is always welcome. Then - assuming the end goal was to gather all ingredients and perform the summoning - have it happen as the player gathers all ingredients. I think this kind of mechanic would work better than the current map, which is a little too sophisticated for the gameplay involved.
The graphics are alright, though the mouse cursor sometimes interfered with the gameplay (mostly when obscuring some letters around the nearby ghost), and the world map is too dark. There was no audio, sadly.
Overall, there seems to be some viable concept, but the gameplay could use some redesign. Theme is used in presentation only, and it's ghosts again.
Homebound by Shadow_Lancer
(review #5)
So, I didn't see any explicitly stated goal, but I figured that the lights are bad, so I made the point of breaking every single light there was. I succeeded, though I had to use the last ashtray (?) in the basement, so these pesky lamps were pretty close to prevailing. They were no match to the TV remote or the teddy bear, though (plush ain't brittle!).
As unfinished and goal-less this game is, it was still fun to play that self-imposed challenge. The poltergeist mechanic was functional, and the strength depended on the object controlled (teddy bear was tricky to control, still). The physics were pretty fun to work with.
The graphics was pretty good and varied. I just wish there was some audio to go along with my evil spirit's quest for Complete Darkness.
Overall, a pretty fun physics self-challenge game. Theme was driving the gameplay (the items possession).
Im a hunt ghosts! by Misu
(review #20)
The game froze for me when moving around and encountering an obstacle, kind of like it entered an infinite loop (I had to close the game from the task manager). It happened twice in a row - couldn't even complete a single game. I don't quite feel like trying once again only to get the freeze once more...
Too bad, because otherwise the gameplay looks pretty interesting and has some potential. I only got to directly vacuuming the ghosts, not reaching the part where hidden enemies appear (I wonder how to recognize the hidden ghost in such case?). Chasing the ghosts with the absorption device was pretty fun when it didn't freeze, though I'd prefer if the movement speed radius was smaller (i.e. so that you can reach the maximum speed at the smaller range than it currently is; if there's any maximum range?).
I think it'd be nice to include some visual feedback that a ghost is about to attack, though. Also, sometimes for some reason the right-click button felt unresponsive, and there wasn't anything to indicate the weapon is reloading, either.
The presentation is generally cool, with these various background elements, main characters, lighting effects and audio. I also appreciate an addition of Notluigi's taunts, though I guess not each of these taunts is suitable for every audience? ^^'
Overall, it looks like it could be some pretty fun entry, but freezes kinda spoil it for me. Theme sort of drives the gameplay (vacuuming the ghosts) and is largely included through story/presentation.
Lab 23 by HayManMarc, Micah_DS
(review #8)
You know, there's that rule "show, don't tell". It's not an absolute rule, but I totally would dig seeing the protagonist walk away triumphantly with exploding facility in the background, instead of reading about it. ^^'
Going back to the beginning, though. When I read about moving items around and tossing them with telekinetic power, I instinctively started thinking about how I would go about that. One of my earliest thoughts was that I definitely wouldn't take the distance between the immediate previous and current object position, because players would likely slow down the mouse motion before actually releasing the mouse. I mean, when you throw a thing, you just need to reach peak speed once and as soon as you slow down, the thing is naturally "released" and keeps going on its own with the momentum you've given.
Instead, I'd try to figure out some mechanics to keep the momentum going despite the actual mouse movement slowing down. Maybe use some kind of an average between recent frames, or maybe use some effect akin to coyote frames (the object would keep some its momentum despite mouse slowing down, much like a platformer character doesn't fall immediately after moving out of the ground). I'm afraid this kind of compensation mechanics wasn't implemented here, because trying to throw things with a basic mouse drag-move-drop often resulted in the object just staying near the mouse position of the drop. Too bad, because telekinesis was the core mechanic here.
Aside from that, the gameplay was pretty functional (though I did manage to get a desk stuck with my telekinesis) and had some basic variety to it. The boss could have about half its health; it's not that it was challenging, but trying to throw stuff at it was a nuisance, mostly because of the tricky telekinesis mechanics. The presentation was good - the graphics worked well together, and music was fitting.
Overall, a decent entry, but the telekinesis mechanics could have been handled better. Theme is driving the gameplay (telekinetic powers); I appreciate using the theme without spooks.
Necro-more-cy by Relic
(review #7)
In a way, this game reminds me of eat-smaller-fish kind of gameplay, though here taking down significantly weaker groups is more efficient.
The gameplay works well enough - raising the opponent's units as your own minions was a neat idea, and I liked the variety of units I could spawn. However, the game lacks clarity on each unit's capabilities and how the battles work, so I can't math my way into deciding whether 1 dragon can defeat 1 knight + 3 mages, or if 1 giant can take down 4 swordsmen. It applies to allied units as well - should I spend all these graves on a dragon or on level 2 fighters?
Another issue is randomness. On one playthrough I'd get like 8 minions before meeting a group that doesn't consist of 12 units or more, other time I'd meet several groups of 3-4 enemies each, getting units much faster. It wouldn't have been as much of a problem if the game didn't impose time limit. Maybe if you didn't have a time limit, but instead an objective to defeat all predefined human groups wandering around (and the time spent would be the reverse score), it wouldn't feel as unfair and also would allow the player to build a magnificent army, adding to the general satisfaction.
Presentation is fine, but both audio and graphics were pre-existing assets.
I wonder who is this "derp" who dominated the leaderboards. Is a score as large as 900-something even possible? With all that wandering around and looking for graves while looking for smaller fish I couldn't even get to 100.
Overall, a cool game idea, but it could use some balancing and/or rethinking the gameplay design. Theme was driving the gameplay (summoning the undead forces).
Night Of The Living Taters by dadio
(review #18)
Alas, poor potato, unable to Escape the Room. I thought the game was broken because potato's abilities weren't working on that smiling person that appeared at some point, but apparently it wasn't an enemy (or maybe it wasn't a human)?
Also, you might want to reconsider using Z for controls, as it can mess with some keyboard layouts (QWERTZ, AZERTY etc.). I guess other letters are risky, too (just like A from AZERTY), but Z in particular.
Theme is used in presentation/story only, and I couldn't get to see the proper supernatural abilities here.
Ouija by Sk8dududu, Riley
(review #24)
That was some cool concept, though it took me quite a while and lots of unsuccessful attempts to figure out what's going on in the first place. I think the game would have greatly benefited from being keyboard-only - just press Enter to play, and select the keyword with arrow keys and again press Enter to confirm (plus, having the current word highlighted adds extra feedback that these can be selected - discoverability!). Why making the controls more distant when it's not necessary? Either way, I managed to correctly pick all three words and the game returned to menu, so I guess I won? Would be really nice to have some victory screen.
The graphics were pretty well made, and the sounds fit the game as well, though the ingame music stopped about halfway through - someone didn't set the looping to true?
Overall, pretty unique gameplay, though could use more explanation and better controls. Theme was driving the gameplay in an original way.
Paranormal by Siolfor the Jackal
(review #22)
Rest in pies.
*cue the boss is showered with pies* (aka "How Paranormal Should Have Ended")
That was a good fighter game. I liked this bit of variety added by different weapons taking down different enemies, though would be nice to have even more types of opponents throughout the game, with other behaviours. The boss was alright, but could have more attacks and/or less health. Also, the attacks actual range should have some visual indicator, otherwise I can't even tell which areas are safe and which aren't.
The presentation is good; I feel like you've improved in animation and general design (those were some neat cartoony linearts). The music was also fitting, though I'd have liked if the boss had a separate soundtrack.
From technicalities: after you win, you go back to the game instead of main menu, and the options menu is broken (I remembered that since Options was the first option I went to).
Overall, a decent entry. Theme used mostly in presentation and story, though it explains some mechanics.
Scary Ghost by stenol
(review #1)
Yay, I came back safely!
A good game for multitasking - for the most part I had my left hand on controls while using the right hand to hold a sandwich I was eating (I was hungry after all that Jamming and ZIP-gathering). Just when I finished eating, the game started picking up a pace, eventually leading to the long awaited boss battle. After awakening my inner Reimu I dodges dozens of bullets and won the game with the thrilling 1 HP.
The entry isn't bad, but it has a few issues. First, most of the game I could go on with taking little damage (like, 3 HP) and without really paying that much attention; only at the end an actual challenge appeared. The low difficulty wouldn't have been as much of a problem if the game advanced a little faster. However, lots of the time I took down enemies in a certain segment and was waiting for quite a while to see the next wave of opponents.
Another thing - there was a bug that cancelled out my bullets whenever I shot from bottom of the screen - kind of like the game checked for player bullets to be outside of the screen in general, rather than whether it went above the screen specifically, and as a result bullets were destroyed as soon as I shot them.
Oh, and also - please don't use mouse-controller menu when the gameplay itself is entirely keyboard-controlled. It adds unnecessary complexity to the controls.
Overall, it's slow at first, but the final battle is somewhat fun. Theme is used in presentation only.
Spectre 2023 by Bearman_18
(review #6)
Ah, I see you are a man of meme culture as well.
I love how much pizazz this game has and how the presentation works together; I particularly liked the touch with the voiced tutorial. The sight of the protagonist shooting to the both sides is even enough for me to forgive using mouse-but-only-buttons controls. There's also a good amount of content.
It doesn't work so well when it comes to level and mechanics design. One of the trickiest thing is jumping - I was already planning to suggest pass-through platforms, but trg601 beat me to it. With these, level 2 in particular would have played much smoother (and this is the level that took me the most time).
Also, while I appreciate how stylish it is when the shadow jumps away from the protagonist, it makes the ability unnecessarily hard to use, especially when I want to activate it on a narrow platform. Speaking of abilities, I spent a lot of time waiting for the shadow recharge; would have preferred if the cooldown was shorter, because you either appear in the safe spot, and then you can wait as much as you like, or you appear in a dangerous spot, and then you become mincemeat within a second if you don't quickly go somewhere safe.
As for the level design issues - why checkpoints are at the spots around enemies? I mean, I can just hold down the mouse buttons to shoot them down as soon as I respawn, but it's still quite annoying that I can't get a breather right after respawning. The level design I'm most salty about, though - putting the information about rocket flipping in *level 3*. After I spent so much time trying to take down the potato upstairs, even succeeding to do it with my gun once and eventually figuring out the rocket flipping on my own. And then that instruction appears in level 3, where the rocket flipping is nowhere near as helpful; it kinda felt like a joke of sorts. ^^'
By the way, after playing this game I realised that the classic GameMaker clowns kinda look like disguised potatoes. I mean, their shape, their complexion and such...
Still, as much as this game has lots of gameplay design issues, I found it pretty enjoyable thanks to the sheer style and presentation of it. Theme was driving the gameplay (the supernatural spectre abilities).
submerge. by Josh Chen
(review #21)
So I got some bragging rights, it seems. They are well deserved for getting $4.80 in a game where it all has to be collected in a single run.
It's a nice little upgrade-based entry, though the top speed could be a little lower (or at least give some sort of slow-mode for precise dodging) and more forgiving hitboxes - sometimes I felt like the obstacle hit me from farther away than it should. Also, the fact that collected money is lost after closing the shop makes the game significantly more difficult, though it's not really a bad thing.
The overall premise and graphics are fine - the premise in particular sounds like the kind of thing GameDevDan could apply in one of his games (with these ecological themes and such). Graphics aren't particularly great, but they aren't too ugly, either, and serve their purpose in the game. The viewport, on the other hand, might work better when shifted towards the top, so that the player can see incoming junk earlier and react accordingly. Sadly, there seems to be no audio here.
Overall, a solid game, though some aspects (collision especially) could be improved. No apparent use of theme, until the story is about a turle avoiding synthetics to stay, like, 120% natural - in other words, super-natural. Either way, this lack of clear theme use will cost the game several ranks.
Super Adrenaline Boy by lazertrax
(review #25)
You know the game needs rebalancing when the most viable tactic is to close your eyes and scream at the top of your lungs.
It's the case here - I made it through all the levels by keeping eyes closed all the time and spamming the scream attack.
Other than these balancing issues, the gameplay concept is pretty cool, though maybe either the speed could be toned down, or the completion split into shorter segments? High-intensity long-running challenges tend to ramp up the difficulty too much, especially when you can reliably repeat the earlier sections and need to learn later ones.
The presentation is good, though the super-blocky enemies look completely out of place compared to high resolution background and cartoony protagonist. I mean, I guess it makes them appear more "supernatural", but I'm not fond of this particular effect...
Overall, a cool hectic runner, though easy to cheese through. Theme is used in presentation, though all that spooky stuff drives the gameplay mechanics.
Supernatural Science by MikeeyBikeey, Aaron Baron, Caroline Zina
(review #9)
The gameplay was mechanically, but there are some things that could be redesigned. I wasn't particularly fond of various hazards activating as I progressed; or rather, something singular as rolling stones is fine, but a barrage of arrows or swarm of enemies is a bit much, especially since the player doesn't know what they'll face without trying. I guess it wouldn't have been as troublesome if the health slowly regenerated, instead of having a fixed number of non-recoverable hearts.
Also, there's some variety of weapons, but I'd rather have the game focused on melee/shoot attacks instead and be balanced with these abilities in mind. Extra weapons add extra controls, which leads to a clutter. Furthermore, for whatever reason the bomb and flame ring controls were introduced in the levels before the weapons actually were added, which led me to unsuccessfully launching a flame ring as I dashed to the end of second level.
The presentation of this game was good; I kinda liked the 3D perspective effect here. The music and sound effects also were appropriate. I appreciate the effort put in the menu, but particularly in the ending screen. I like when the game puts some extra effort to make the completion rewarding.
Generally a good entry, but gameplay could be improved. Theme is used in presentation only, and doesn't feel emphasized much.
The Cabin by Bart
(review #11)
Oh dear, they came back for me. The controls from my nightmares - the slider knobs!
I just can't get over it. Whenever I see a knob, I try to rotate it. No sane person would try to lift a knob to adjust corresponding setting in a real life, so why UI designers keep doing it? >.<
Possibly the only worse thing is the device next to the oscilloscope thing. Apparently, it changes value each frame the left mouse button is held over a device button. It basically means that if I want to set an exact value, I'd sooner do that by waving mouse up and down (with left button held) - crossing the device button along the way - rather than trying to do a blazing-fast click on that button.
User experience aside, the game has nice mood and presentation, but the ghosts were disposed of before I was exposed to any of their trickery. I really wish there was some strong feedback indicating the ghost's state (whether it's hurt or perfectly fine) so that I'd know better how they're affected. Also, the camera is a nice addition, but doesn't really feel all that useful; I kinda wish I could get some score or cash for quality photos with ghosts on them (kinda thinking about Touhou photography games for some reason).
Overall, I appreciate the general idea, but it could have better UI design choices and... well, more complete gameplay.
The House by The M, Ghandpivot
(review #12)
There definitely *was* something behind the painting in the corridor! Why else it would be uninteractible?!
So, I eventually reached the ending (*cough* with a little help *cough*). I got held back by a certain doorstop; it seems there was a wordplay on "wedge" that's easily lost to non-native English speakers. Aside from that, though, that was pretty enjoyable adventure game, though on the trial-and-error side. I definitely like the various flavour remarks sprinkled here and there, whether these would be puns, backreferences (paintings, pendulum) or dry wit (lively flowers).
I wouldn't go as far to call the ending brilliant, but it definitely is a nice twist, and the protagonist's decision make him more likeable somehow. Was it ghandpivot's idea? Going by earlier Jam games, it feels like it would be in his style.
The presentation was fitting; maybe not the cleanest and prettiest there is, but consistent and with solid quality. I just wish there wasn't that smudging when transitioning between rooms. I definitely liked the variety of props - clearly splitting the workload helped here. The audio was also fitting the game.
Overall, a delightful adventure with lots of personality, though also some trial-and-error typical for the genre. Theme drives the overall story and the mood; also, there's this uncanny screen-shifting effect (which I thankfully have the appropriate display resolution for).
The Mouse Curser by Cloaked Games, aSingleCapella
(review #3)
Ah, darn, I hoped for some kind of cool meta adventure... and it kinda is, but it's short.
I mean, I broke out of the jar, then I kept checking out the bulleting board notes. Lots of GM memes, references to Games topic posts, the Last Librarian note, general memes, and also some Morse encoded message. If my Morse code memory serves me right, it was "HI FROM CG", so hello to you too, I suppose (the 5th and 6th letters were harder to decode because the dashes just blended into some long lines)?
Sadly, there was no content after cleaning up the bulletin board, seeing all the ASCII art and stuff. Also, no audio, though the graphics are cool. The concept seemed very promising, but in the end I guess time constraints happened.
Theme is sort of used in this supernatural ASCII-art or something? And also in referencing Jam games, and the main plot was to be about the curses, but there's not too much of the main plot... ^^'
VLAD III by Fernando Gonzalez
(review #4)
I totally dig the music of this game; from MediaCharger, apparently? I wonder which track it is in particular; there's dozens of tracks on their channel. ^^'
Too bad there were no sound effects, though.
The background art was pretty cool. Not sure how I feel about the stickmen, but the animation is good, especially the shapeshifting one, so I guess I don't mind.
The gameplay was satisfying - in particular when I swoop down on a victim, or sneak up on someone from behind. I just kinda don't know what's the point of Witnesses - is the game over after there are too many of them? I didn't see it explained anywhere. Eventually, I ended the game with 44 victims and 2 witnesses, and I got congratulations, so I guess so few witnesses aren't a problem.
Overall, a pretty enjoyable, quick-to-play entry with a well-chosen music. Theme was driving the gameplay (the vampire-like shapeshifting mechanic). Well done.
重力スワッパー/Gravity Switcher by TheMiningBoyAlpha
(review #28)
Somewhat plain platformer thing, though I kinda like I can slowly glide down by doing these slaps mid-air. I wish the gravity switching mechanic didn't mess with the left/right controls, that bit was annoying. Also, the zombies are way too quick; there's no much fighting skill involved, just keep slapping and hope they won't deal too much damage. Generally, the gameplay wasn't too great, but it was balanced enough to make the completion reasonably possible (even with limited lives).
Graphics aren't too great, but also aren't jarring. The animation works well enough. There are a few sound effect, but no music. There is some story at least, and after I complete the game, I actually get a conclusion.
Overall, a passable platformer. I guess there is an attempt at theme use with zombies, but since they've originated from 100% scientific virus, there's no supernatural element to them.