GMC Jam Voting GMC Jam 40 - Voting Topic - Closes March 22nd

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GameDevDan

Former Jam Host
Moderator
GMC Elder



Get the Games:

ALL 77 GAMES + RANDOMISER (700MB)
1.3GB when extracted, you'll need a program like 7-zip to do so

Slow connection? Data limit? Not enough time to play all of the games? There are other options for you here:

You can download the "lightweight randomiser" here, it contains most of the features of the usual randomiser
but you have to download each entry yourself as you play it:
https://mega.nz/file/zKhhDYwL#_RO6QpROvcnoKWpsaw6Doq2LQUKH7sUGRMVQuMvpO8s (2 MB)

or you can just download individual games from the games topic here:
https://forum.yoyogames.com/index.php?threads/gmc-jam-40-games-topic-enter-here.83982/


Voting Deadline
March 22nd at 9:00 UTC



Voting

  • As soon as the Jam ends on March 1st 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 3 weeks to play and rank the games and voting will close on March 22nd at 09:00 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 story, best presentation (gfx/sound) and best devlog (as written in the games topic).
  • NEW & IMPORTANT: You should vote for individual entries as normal without worrying about which gang the developer is in, as votes for your own gang won't count towards your own gang's total. Please just vote honestly for the games in the order you enjoyed them.

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 story: game name by author name
Best devlog: game name by 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.

šŸ’„ Clash of Gangs šŸ’„

The winning gang will be determined by a combination of factors:
1. How well their games perform on average among reviewers
2. How many of their entrants/teams review and vote for at least 20 games
3. Which gang guessed the theme first (red gang)

You can see a full spreadsheet explaining how the gang mechanics will work here: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1-RWJxznBDWaqs1Ay5Wne09nlLrr216ZvRqGS-VesMzY/edit?usp=sharing
But basically, just play and rate the games honestly and have fun doing it, and we'll see who wins!​
 
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Josh Chen

Member
TOP 3:

1. Wham Bam Dan Jam Slam by GameDevDan
Super neat game with amazing presentation as always. There's so much polish and detail hidden in there that I'll never even find. I love the concept of combining characters from previous jams!

2. One Big Party by Gizmo199, shortbread
I enjoyed all of these minigames! The graphics are fantastic and the AIs are very well developed. Had a lot of fun playing this one!

3. Wastoid Rodney by Cloaked Games, JosephEllis, BlakeNorth
Neat! Lots of good things here. It was engaging and fun to explore and learn the levels. The controls felt good and the difficulty level was perfect in my opinion.



RANKING:

1. Wham Bam Dan Jam Slam by GameDevDan
2. One Big Party by Gizmo199, shortbread
3. Wastoid Rodney by Cloaked Games, JosephEllis, BlakeNorth
4. 3 Mice In A Trenchcoat by Bart, TheSnidr, Xor, Naterboy
5. Forty or the Modern Big Brother by SoapSud39
6. Party Mountain by AJTheApple
7. GreymoorHall by Ninety
8. Hero Huddle by ThinGinger
9. Jam Defenders by Kepons
10. Candles Have Feelings by JordanOttesen
11. Roborazzi by Kultisti, Sulo
12. Crimson Festival by Alice, FunkyPoop
13. Snake Dance by Greenblizzard
14. Adventures Of Robot X by Pixel-Team
15. Florida Man by BreakfastBoy
16. Party Detective by Mercyssh
17. Jenka Dungeon by dosto, Reaktori, Riuku
18. Queen by Toque
19. Hero Horde by PinesOfChaos
20. Crimson Guild's Glamorous Guest List by Mr Magnus
21. HealthBar by Fanatrick
22. The Party Must Go On by GVmG
23. GMC Party Adventure by Imagine Galaxy
24. Candle by Steelegms2
25. Blackout by Siolfor the Jackal
26. Need For Beats by Matharoo, BlaineTanuki, _aeternumgames
27. Party Animals by ScaryPotato, Kalzme
28. Emmy And Sal by Mercerenies
29. Apocalypse party by aspiringgamemaker
30. Survival Party by HayManMarc

Thanks to everyone for submitting their games, it was a lot of fun playing them!
 
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The M

Member
Yellow reviews
Reviews

Top 3:
Crimson Guild's Glamorous Guest List by Mr Magnus

One Big Party by Gizmo199, shortbread

Hero Horde by PinesOfChaos


Best ofs:
Best use of theme: Crimson Festival by Alice, FunkyPoop
Best Concept: Candles Have Feelings by JordanOttesen
Best Presentation: One Big Party by Gizmo199, shortbread
Best Story: Forty or the Modern Big Brother by SoapSud39

Full ranking:
  1. Crimson Guild's Glamorous Guest List by Mr Magnus
  2. One Big Party by Gizmo199, shortbread
  3. Hero Horde by PinesOfChaos
  4. Forty or the Modern Big Brother by SoapSud39
  5. Emmy And Sal by Mercerenies
  6. The Matchmaker by eimie
  7. Wham Bam Dan Jam Slam by GameDevDan
  8. Candles Have Feelings by JordanOttesen
  9. Crimson Festival by Alice, FunkyPoop
  10. One Big Political Party by Terminator_Pony
  11. Behemoth by sp202
  12. GreymoorHall by Ninety
  13. HealthBar by Fanatrick
  14. Party Animal by TehPilot, TheFugue
  15. The Annual GMC Party by O_stogden
  16. Fiesta Down by VinylFly
  17. Hero Huddle by ThinGinger
  18. Demon Dance by Mightyjor, Twintertainment, Brett-Bit
  19. Keyboard Hero by tadashibashi
  20. Final Battle by Kahrabaa
  21. Gangs Bash by D'Andrew Box
  22. Survival Party by HayManMarc
  23. Barry Bear's Birthday by Richerama
  24. Party Detective by Mercyssh
  25. Roborazzi by Kultisti, Sulo
  26. 3 Mice In A Trenchcoat by Bart, TheSnidr, Xor, Naterboy
  27. Party Mountain by AJTheApple
  28. Extinction Tea Party by Moon Goat
  29. happy birthday by Yal
  30. Crazy Waiter by Gatefiz, JP, Claire Dujardin, Benfik
  31. Plague Rats by Nocturne
  32. The Golden Balloon by Little Penguin Studios
  33. Apocalypse party by aspiringgamemaker
  34. Robot Surprise Party by samspade
  35. Blackout by Siolfor the Jackal
  36. Fantasy Strategy Clicker by Julien, Hyomoto
  37. Me pARRty by ghandpivot
  38. Christmas with Uncle Tom by BluishGreenPro
  39. Wastoid Rodney by Cloaked Games, JosephEllis, BlakeNorth
  40. Jenka Dungeon by dosto, Reaktori, Riuku
  41. Candle Wars by Yozoraki
  42. Snake Dance by Greenblizzard
  43. Dr Smiley's Brain Jam Party by Yal
  44. Quickly! Dispensegifts by Allison James
  45. Adventures Of Robot X by Pixel-Team
  46. Need For Beats by Matharoo, BlaineTanuki, _aeternumgames
  47. Party Animals by ScaryPotato, Kalzme
  48. GMC Fruit Salad Surfer by Yal
  49. R-pg-ING by Micah_DS
  50. Queen by Toque
  51. Your Brain On Party by thijsmie
  52. Survive the Party by Nejc Podlipnik
  53. City Scuttler by Bearman_18
  54. Escape of the Clowns by kburkhart84
  55. Jaguar Pogo Party by TotallyAverageGamez
  56. GMC Party Adventure by Imagine Galaxy
  57. The Scattered Army by Sirham
  58. Party Paddles by Fusai
  59. The Retrieval by Dr Wolf
  60. Life Party by Cat
  61. Fiesta Fist by Cristobal, MatthewPattel
  62. get to the party by Wabb, sequential
  63. Party Pooper by Lukan
  64. Party Puker by Ben Stitt
  65. dawg the party animal by NivesStudio
  66. The Way Back To The Party by Noodlehead
  67. The Party Must Go On by GVmG
  68. Jam Defenders by Kepons
  69. Florida Man by BreakfastBoy
  70. Party Parade by Tristan
  71. Candle by Steelegms2
  72. Party Guardians by StarDreamIX
  73. Goin' All Nite by Dadio
  74. dumburk 9000 by Bret Hudson, Allen Webster, Jared Cohen
  75. Color Splash by EvanSki
  76. matoset by Poizen

Reviews (3-N):
3 Mice In A Trenchcoat by Bart, TheSnidr, Xor, Naterboy

The game looks awesome, with super smooth animations on the mouse, tight controls and really good sound design as well. The levels confused me a bit as I didn't really know what I was looking for or what my goal was. Climbing ladders seemed to take you to the next level so I aimed for those, but I also found various things hidden away that I have no idea what they were for.

While the controls were good, I missed a way to rotate the camera. Whenever you were close to a tall wall you had zero vision, which made navigating certain areas very hard. It was also really harsh to restart the game and not just the level whenever you got caught. It did increase the tension and made me very careful as I explored. I had a tendency to run atop the walls, which was fun, but also felt a lot like cheating.

(After watching some of EvanSki's stream I now realize I might have missed a pretty big part of this game, despite winning it, as I never rescued another mouse...)

Adventures Of Robot X by Pixel-Team

This felt like an ambitious platformer and being able to play with a controller was nice. I found movement to be a little wonky, with jumping standing out as especially weird because of how linear the gravity was (i.e. you fell with constant speed instead of accelerating), but it was cool to see moving platforms and tall slopes, which gave the areas a little more personality. I also enjoyed the robot dialogues and the intro was very impressive.

Oh, and the left wall after you've passed the spikes doesn't have collision.

Apocalypse party by aspiringgamemaker

The game was tense and the flickering light added a lot to the atmosphere. It felt a bit basic to only have to focus on two directions as it didn't make for too much variety. However, the limited ammo and randomly spawning ammo pickups made it a lot harder to camp and get comfortable, as you were constantly scavenging for more ammo. This made the game feel more dynamic and kept me engaged for the entire time. On one hand, I feel like much of the level was wasted space as you never really wanted to explore the side paths, but on the other, I think that the close zoom would make it very difficult to do any more advanced navigation as you would be too limited in what you saw. In the end, I think you struck a nice balance.

Barry Bear's Birthday by Richerama

The game is really neat, but having to restart from the beginning is a huge penalty for a single miss, especially when the rules for how you play change between each stage. I didn't realize at first that which balloons to pop in which way in the first stage were different with each attempt so that also took me longer than it should have to beat it.

I think the different minigames were good, they fit with the theme and had plenty of charm, thanks to the great animations and voice clips. The dancing bear was probably my favorite!

Behemoth by sp202

It's a really cool concept and having come at the game fairly late in the voting process there were a lot of people before me who, I assume, got to write hints for me. I have to say, most of those messages were garbage when it came to actually finding the correct order, but at least they were kind of thematic... some of them. Alice came through with six or seven of the cards and then I aced the rest through pure luck, getting me out of the game unharmed. The only thing I think is a little unfortunate with this design is how you miss out on part of the game as you're either going to lose and leave a message, or win thanks to the earlier messages. You can't be part of both groups.

Blackout by Siolfor the Jackal

So now I had to replay the game just to talk to the rat. I wasn't expecting picking up the rock would immediately result in... repercussions. The game was neat and exploring the areas was nice. Some more interactions, and a few more details to the indoor environments would have gone a lot further, but that's how it is with jam games. I liked the characters and the animations were great, though the walk cycle was faster than your movement speed which looked a little odd as you slid forward.

Candle by Steelegms2

The game is neat, with good level generation and an interesting combat mechanic. The characters looks nice, especially the player. I'd have liked to see a little more progression. Right now the only difference between winning and losing a level that I can tell is that losing heals you. I also think you should be able to light more than one candle per attack since your attack is so slow. It would make it a tactical option to wait for the enemies to line up in order to get in a combo hit. I once hit an enemy on another part of the map with the returning flame. That felt good when I realized what had happened!

Candle Wars by Yozoraki

The game has tons of charm and runs smoothly. The tutorial is good but the game drags on a little and constantly having to run back to town to gather up the cupcakes only added to that.

The story is entertaining and combat is alright, though I mostly just spammed whatever units I had available so there wasn't much tactics to how I played. Getting a second playable character was an interesting way to spice things up.

Candles Have Feelings by JordanOttesen

The game is super charming but brutally hard. The idea and the execution is just so good, with the way the candle throws itself on the floor when you duck being my favorite part in selling the fantasy of how desperately you try to escape. Unfortunately, the controls aren't as tight: the movement feels a little floaty and wall jumping is too precise given how punished you get for screwing it up (and requiring it for a secret on the first level before introducing it on the second is a bit mean). If the frosting only served to slow you down, and if the camera slowed down if you were falling behind so that the only thing that could downright kill you was the blowing kid, the game would feel much more fair. Alternately, you could add a few checkpoints to the levels.

Christmas with Uncle Tom by BluishGreenPro

It's a cute game and the story was surprisingly long. That said, I feel like the gameplay-to-cut-scene ratio was skewed a little too far to the latter as there really weren't much interaction going on. On the plus side, the game was very polished and among the story driven walking games in the jam, this one makes each room feel distinct and lived in the most, with various furniture scattered throughout the house and floor and wallpapers to match.

City Scuttler by Bearman_18

I'm afraid the game ended in a crash and I wasn't focused enough to capture the error (sorry!).

At first the game's system confused me and it took me a while and a second attempt to understand how the game worked. I still didn't know what to do and walked around aimlessly, killing enemies and collecting arms and gear. The game starts very hard but once you've collected an extra arm or two it gets a lot easier because you don't just deal a lot more damage, but you can attack several times before the enemy can counter. I almost feel like the game would have been more interesting if you had tighter areas and focused more on this mechanic and made dodging enemy attacks a vital strategy, kind of like Crypt of the Necrodancer.

Color Splash by EvanSki

So there is no game at all, huh? It just kicks me back to the menu immediately when I press play. The menu is pretty cool though and has plenty of energy, giving you some anticipation for what's to come.

Crazy Waiter by Gatefiz, JP, Claire Dujardin, Benfik

I liked how clean the game felt and delivering dishes to gain massive scores were satisfying. The guests were annoying - I can accept penalties when I bump into them, but when I stand out of the way and they actively walk into me, it feels like it wasn't my fault and then there wasn't much I can do about it. In the end, staying out of the way and cleaning up messes seemed like a much more efficient way to gain high scores as it was very quick and didn't require seeking up specific points to the same extent.

Crimson Festival by Alice, FunkyPoop

To base a game around your progress in other games in the jam is such a crazy idea it just might have worked! With the exception of having to manually browse for Greymoor Hall's awkwardly named folder it all worked seamlessly (and hey, you provided an easy way to do that manual work too).

The game was neat, and seeing the various characters was great. I miss some sort of conflict though, as the biggest decision the player got to make was whether or not to take a nap.

Finally, while Golden Collegium is a great name, I think Gilded Collegium would be even better! Anyway, it's fun that it's consistent with kburkhart84's game. :)

Crimson Guild's Glamorous Guest List by Mr Magnus

Drat, one point behind Alice! The game was way too addictive and I had a blast. I had a little trouble with a few of the descriptions but through trial and error I could learn what they were after. I quickly found that I need to be faster at reading and some descriptions were a lot harder than others so you had to prioritize. The help system that faded out characters was pretty neat (though it made it hard to look for any other character). The different effect (chase the clown, darkness) also added to the variety and kept things fresh. My only complaint was that you couldn't click on things above the list because those wouldn't register, and at first I didn't find where to enter your name.

dawg the party animal by NivesStudio

It was interesting to find and perform a load of different tasks within a time limit and I thought the games were pretty good over all. The game had quite a few smaller issues that added up and kept me from fully enjoying it. Most notably, while the music wasn't bad it was something like a four second loop, and that got unnerving after a while. Other than that, I found it some actions unnecessary difficult, for example aiming at the fruits (where I couldn't tell which part of the cursor were the point you shot at) or running from the bull (I got stuck on a tree because I didn't know where to go when the mini-game started). With that said, I think the game selection was creative and the ranking system in the end was neat too.

Demon Dance by Mightyjor, Twintertainment, Brett-Bit

The game was neat but I don't know what it had to do with demons. It had great visuals though, and I loved the voice clips. The songs were good and had some variety to them, especially the second one with its screen-covering balloon effects. I think they could have been made a bit more interesting if there were varying tempos, like half-notes, double taps and pauses to break up the song in parts, rather than arrows coming at a constant rate throughout the entire song. Finally, the last level seemed a little bugged as the music didn't align with the arrows. I had to replay it muted to beat it and while I managed to beat the highscore it didn't seem to record that unfortunately.

Dr Smiley's Brain Jam Party by Yal

I think the idea is great but it's really hard to remember what is required to clear the different groups of items and colors (and I never understood if you could mix items of the same color or if for example the drinks required a line of drinks of the same color). I think that a cheat sheet during gameplay would be of great help, and maybe it could be less strict on color or item type (for example, the drinks could ask for a line of drinks in any color while blobs could ask for a group of any items in the same color). It could be hard to balance though, and might result in too many items being removed too easily.

dumburk 9000 by Bret Hudson, Allen Webster, Jared Cohen

It's a cool interface but it was very confusing, especially at the start when there were no prompts at all. Some tool tips or similar that explained each item/upgrade would have helped a lot. I like the concept of upgrading the party ship by buying different things, but there just weren't enough upgrades to allow for any meaningful choices. There also didn't seem to be a way to get more party members per night and I'm just not clicking through ~3000 days or so to get to 10k.

Emmy And Sal by Mercerenies

It's a chill and clever game with a huge set of levels and plenty of different mechanics to provide variety to them and enough of a story to engage and provide a hook. Some levels felt less planned out than others, especially when I ended up with unused spare parts. I think having the player pan the view was unnecessary as only a few levels required this and that was because they weren't centered to begin with but would easily fit on screen when manually moved.

Escape of the Clowns by kburkhart84

Golden Collegium isn't a bad name, but I think the Gilded Collegium would be even better!

The transitions in the menu are great and with the audio and visual feedback, I think those are contenders for the most satisfying buttons to click on in this jam. Unfortunately, the game has some big contrast issues and it's hard to read the text. You could make an outline by drawing the text in black first and offset it left, right, up and down, which would not only look great but also improve readability by a lot!

I found the puzzles to be interesting and decently challenging. My biggest gripe with the game was how slow the crane moved and blocks fell (after a few levels I accidentally pressed the down arrow and realized you could make blocks fall faster, and I know it was listed in the controls for every level but it loops back to the readability issue above). Even with faster block speed, having to wait around for the crane wasn't very fun. I liked the new gimmicks introduced, and it made juggling where the blocks landed more of a challenge.

Extinction Tea Party by Moon Goat

The game looks really nice with clean and smooth graphics. Moving around felt nice, but also a little unresponsive and it got worse if you accidentally moved the mouse too close to the edge of the areana. I liked the different kind of attacks and they were all properly telegraphed in advance (though the cake was a little unpredictable and the lasers were dangerous for a little longer than I would expect). Some attacks were definitely harder than others, but even so I managed to last for a full minute in the end.

I miss some audio for the game. It's the kind of game that would do really well with some upbeat music and quirky sound effects!

Fantasy Strategy Clicker by Julien, Hyomoto

It's a cool simulator with plenty of different facets. I had some trouble understanding what was what and what did what, but after some time I got most of it. It would have been nice with more tool tips. like the ones shown on the military tab. What I never understood was the goal of the game. Enemy armies didn't seem particularly hostile unless I started a battle, and even then they didn't attack the village if I lost. I tried building up a massive army, but size didn't seem overly important (I had fifty soldiers left vs two soldiers after the first round of combat and those two then killed six of mine in the second round). Unfortunately, the grind started to set in after a while. Manually selling items for one coin each and deploying units to match an army of 500+ enemies just wasn't feasible when there were no way to do bulk actions.

Fiesta Down by VinylFly

The competition is fiercely intense as you bounce back and forth, trying to come out on top and pounding your opponent into oblivion. I had a lot of fun playing the game and almost wish there were more levels after the first one because it feels like the game could be expanded upon somewhat. The game feels like a complete package and it's very stylish. It did take me a few seconds to grasp what everything was and how the game worked before I could start in earnest though, and I kind of wish the characters were a little more distinct so that you could tell them apart more easily, but those are minor nitpicks.

Fiesta Fist by Cristobal, MatthewPattel

At first I was very confused as I couldn't find out how to play, or even navigate the menu. In fact, I accidentally won the game by pressing 'G' before even starting it. I found the game to be challenging and each wave wittled down my health further. I liked the variety to the enemies and the charge power-up gave a nice change of pace.

Final Battle by Kahrabaa

I really enjoyed the way your party expands and encompass more and more different types of units until you have your own massive army that crushes the red militias that patrol the road. Sadly, at that point there's no longer a reason to keep playing as there is no endgame and (somewhat ironically) no final battle. It would have been really neat to have a base or castle or what have you at the end of the road that you could confront to win the game once your party had grown large enough.

Florida Man by BreakfastBoy

Smacking people with an aligator never gets old. I enjoyed the game but found combat to be a little tricky as you had short range and enemies hurt you by just touching you. This changed once I learnt you could throw the gator, which became an incredibly powerful weapon that you couldn't be without. The coins and score was neat, but ultimately pointless. I feel like the game had a pretty good length for what it was and while I wouldn't have minded a boss, I feel like an end screen would have been more important (though what was there was a decent end).

Forty or the Modern Big Brother by SoapSud39

Having read 1984 I was pretty certain where this was going, and I gotta say it was a great adaptation. The only part I struggled with was the signing the documents at the end as I din't realize you had to actively oppose the Party to progress, rather than trying to stay undetected. The graphics and audio were great and editing the documents was a fun little game. Going into the AppData folder was a little out of the way, but it made sense thematically.

Gangs Bash by D'Andrew Box

I have mixed feelings about this. The games all look fantastic and there's more variety to these games than most of the other mini-game bundles I've seen in the jam, but there's still a few issues with each game (mostly coming down to needing tighter controls and better steering for the AI) and though I assumed the game would end with the last pizza slice, it just carries on, making it feel pointless. My biggest issue with the games are the lack of information on how to control them. They games are all fairly straightforward, but for something like the mashing game it's a huge disadvantage to not know what the goal is or what to do before it begins as it's hard as nails as it is. The same can be said to some extent about the other games too. With that said, I was surprised by how many different games there were and they all held a fairly high quality level. The transitions (countdowns, referee whistle, etc.) were awesome.

get to the party by Wabb, sequential

Was the last level unbeatable or was there something I didn't understand? Whenever I got ten dudes to the goal the count just reset.

Other than that level, I found the game to be fairly straightforward. The power-ups were neat but somewhat basic and I feel like there weren't enough levels that made good use of them. Being able to speed up time was great when you had solved the level and waited for it to complete, though since I mashed it up quite far it meant the next level would also start at breakneck speed.

GMC Fruit Salad Surfer by Yal

It amazes me that you managed to create several quality games for the jam. This one looks crazy, with plenty of special effects that look awesome but also make the text pretty hard to read. Unfortunately, I wasn't very good at the game and only on my best attempt I managed to get far enough to see a fish. Buying stuff from the shop wasn't even an option (except for the cheap, lvl 1 glasses) given my poor economy. I feel like you'd have to play a lot to be able to unlock the more interesting stuff.

GMC Party Adventure by Imagine Galaxy

That was a wholesome ending to a nice little adventure. The stickiness of the character was interesting. At first it felt like movement was just glitchy because of how you couldn't jump while being next to a wall (which turned out to be a mild annoyance) but then I started using the "wall jump" to access areas and that felt great: like I was tricking the game, while not necessarily cheating.

I think the environments were a little dull, consisting mostly of random, floating blocks, but it was fine. The voiced cut-scenes were nice, as were the interludes.

Goin' All Nite by Dadio

I'm not sure what I expected, but feeding a lemon random pills on a dance floor wasn't it. It's pretty cool, and grabbing those pills was a challenge (especially only grabbing the correct, yellow ones), but I feel like it should end at some point too.

GreymoorHall by Ninety

The visuals of the game were great and each beat and scene felt deliberate and polished. Moving around the mansion was a little slow for my liking, but I loved the way the characters bobbed as they moved. I didn't really know what my goal was, apart from murdering the host so I wasn't fully prepared for the second phase. It didn't help that the guests' dialogue seemed randomly generated and not very helpful as many of them said the same lines (and it was a little weird that the two professors were both her colleagues but one were a geologist and the other a game developer). I think a little more unique personalities would have made them more memorable and would have made the second phase easier.

happy birthday by Yal

Wow. This game's atmosphere is out of this world. It makes finding the balloons near impossible, but it looks amazing, straining, beautiful and unsettling all at once. Exploring was fun and the scale of the world was very impressive. Platforming was challenging, mostly due to the camera not co-operating and spinning however it liked and the lack of depth perception that came with the blurriness. In the end I only found two balloons before I gut stuck in the limbo underneath the shoreline, trapping me and preventing me from moving on. I found that somewhat appropriate.

HealthBar by Fanatrick

The game has an incredibly ambient art style that's heavy with personality and it just looks really smooth. I feel like the actual gameplay elements (the UI) don't quite reach the same level of style as they're mostly simple shapes. It'd be cool if you could incorporate more of the bar theme into those as well, maybe by changing the beaker-like glasses for ones looking like drinking glasses. Similarly, it'd be cool if the colors were found on taps and if liquid was actually poured into the glass you were filling.

I think the gameplay was good. I had a little trouble measuring correctly while going fast, but the leniency was fair. I think the stats would be easier seen if they were placed in the lower center instead of the upper left corner, because I never once looked at them while playing so I was always caught by surprise when the game ended.

Hero Horde by PinesOfChaos

The game was really interesting and I had to try a few times before I finally understood how it worked. Until then, I would kill a few enemies, then buy a few ally for the money I had and instantly lose, to my confusion and frustration. It wasn't obvious to me that after paying a large sum to hire an ally, they would add a cost over time on top of that. When I finally learnt to have a decent coin buffer I enjoyed the game. I had a little trouble telling unit types apart and being unable to see my party members' health meant I had to guess how much fighting/healing power I needed, which was a little frustrating. In the end I managed to get to the boss with two minutes to spare, but didn't have enough power to take it down in time (I had focused on mages because of how they would hurt all nearby enemies, but that meant I didn't have much to show against a single target as they just missed with all their shots).

Hero Huddle by ThinGinger

Other than the lack of music, this game is very complete and solid. As there is no goal explained at the start I wandered aimlessly and got killed several times before I took a good path that let me free more people and grow my party. Then I understood what my goal was and I enjoyed the challenge of trying to control the massive herd of heroes. I found the melee units to be somewhat disappointing as they had a tendency to end up in the middle of the heap where they couldn't contribute anything, but the ranged units were satisfying to use and getting a massive party for the final battle, pouring it into the castle, was epic!

Jaguar Pogo Party by TotallyAverageGamez

I like the movement mechanics, even though I don't really get why you're on a pogo stick (though to be fair, collecting gifts also seemed kind of arbitrary, given the theme of the rest of the game). I enjoyed navigating the structures to reach the various nooks and crannies. The game looks great and feels thematic. The areas do feel a bit empty as there is nothing there, except for the static backgrounds and walls. The spikes on the second level makes it feel a bit more interactive, but it's not quite enough. I managed to get stuck in a corner on the first level, so it was a good thing I could quit out to the menu without losing progress.

Jam Defenders by Kepons

Is it just me or is this game super-hard? It just didn't seem like there was a way to effectively protect the jam simply because I couldn't deal enough damage to the enemies before they reached it. The different units were pretty neat, though I was mildly disappointed by the lemon's inability to actually hit anything given its steep price, as the delay of the lobbed bombs meant that the enemies had already moved out of range. The different enemy types were also cool and if there had been a little more back and forth combat, they would have been even more interesting. Same with the movement system - it's really advanced and considering that you can only move units between waves, it seems either over-engineered or underutilized.

Jenka Dungeon by dosto, Reaktori, Riuku

The game is really intereesting but I also found it to be very hard. Most of the time, having a large party doesn't really help you as they'll end up behind your front character and away from the enemy and with their limited range, their attacks won't reach anything. The way you add enemies to your team is otherwise very satisfying and seeing your band grow gave a sense of accomplishment. The dungeon is very thematic, though it's a little hard to quickly overview with the lighting effects going on.

When I played I got to the (first?) boss, the snake clown and, after a really fancy intro, it properly trashed me with exploding balloons, wiping out most of my characters in a single hit. I didn't feel prepared to fight an enemy like that as it could soak up way more damage than my units could and was very aggressive, forcing close encounters that I couldn't answer. On a whole I liked the game and if there weren't so many games to go through I'd give this one another go.

Keyboard Hero by tadashibashi

I did poorly. Then I did pretty bad. Then I did okay. I really liked the song and was upset I didn't get to hear much of it because I just couldn't hit the right keys. Thankfully, the keys remained the same between runs so I could practice it and do better. The game looks nice and I like how animated the characters are and the effects on the notes you hit. It all comes together as a neat little package.

Life Party by Cat

I did not realize at first that you could carry more than one gift (or maybe you couldn't early on), which was a problem because it took some 15 seconds before a yellow ghost spawned so I could give it the present, forcing me to wait. Once I was able to hold more, the game got more interesting. I still ended up in situations where I couldn't pick up more gifts and no ghost of the right color(s) showed up, which was a bit frustrating, but it felt good managing to create a massive stack of a single color and watch the score soar.

matoset by Poizen

Game doesn't start unfortunately...

Me pARRty by ghandpivot

Oh my. While I found the constant food drain to be mildly frustrating, I realize it was the main point of the game. It was morbidly funny how the pirates' names got increasingly food themed and I had a lot of fun exploring the various islands thanks to the witty and sarcastic dialogue boxes. The islands look good and the shipwreck especially so. It's a shame there wasn't more of a goal and/or progression to the game, because I loved what was there!

Need For Beats by Matharoo, BlaineTanuki, _aeternumgames

The game is hard and scales up in difficulty quickly. I liked the tutorial but found it too easy to accidentally skip the pauses that explained the mechanics. It was also weird that you could jump with the arrow keys but not beat the glitches with them.

The graphics are great and full of energy. I think the music would have been even better with a background track that could play whether or not you hit the notes so that you didn't get complete silence if you missed one (and hits would instead add an extra layer to the music).
 
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Pixel-Team

Master of Pixel-Fu
Reviews

Greetings, Gamemakers. In my humble opinion, a good game does not need great graphics, mind blowing sound effects and music, or even great writing to entertain. It can have all of these things and fall flat, or it can have none and provoke an emotional response that leaves a lasting impression. That's just my opinion. Other people may have other opinions that good games must include one or more of these other things, and if you want to capture the widest audience, you will consider that, and work on those areas. The reason I'm saying this is because there were a LOT of entries this time. Some looked great, but didn't entertain as much. Some were minimalist, but did better than those that looked better. I rank games on their ability to entertain me, and me alone. Congratulations to all the newcomers. You tested your mettle under pressure and made a game. If your game is not in my top 30, it doesn't mean that it didn't entertain. It means that other games entertained more. I made a top 30 because these 30 really stuck out. Even more stuck out than the 30, but I felt like if I made more than a top 30, it would begin to diminish the need for ranking at all. It kind of does even at 30. Ok, now I'm rambling. On to the games!!!


Top 3:



Party Animal by TehPilot, TheFugue

Party Animal is a puzzle game where you're a ghost who has to capture a cat. The game introduces you to the main character and how to play in a short tutorial that plays out like an old black and white movie. I'm loving everything about this! Great roaring 20's style pixel art. Great sound effects. Amazing music track. Interesting game mechanics make each level more challenging. Supurb entry! I just loved how this game presented itself with such charm and finess!





One Big Party by Gizmo199, shortbread

One big party is a party game featuring 4 minigames where you compete against other AI players. The games are Punch Func, which is a game where you knock other players off the platform in a last man standing setup. Then there's pushy pool, where you're on a pool table and have to dodge the pool balls which are randomly hit by a pool player. Then there is Chook Chase, (Great name, by the way.) where you have to chase chickens into your pen before the other players. Last there is Feud Court. (You know, like Food Court?) In this game, you have to catch the most food on your hat. This game is a testament to how good 3D you can make something in Gamemaker Studio. The graphics are bright and colorful, the music is upbeat, and the games are fun and easy to play. The game did crash after a game of pushy pool for me, however I was able to play several times before this happened. While this is not a perfect experience due to the crash, it's definitely in my top 5. Supurb effort here! I picked this game for second because it made me feel like I was playing a Wii game. Very polished.





Jenka Dungeon by dosto, Reaktori, Riuku

I'm seeing a trend where gamemakers are making games where you gather party members to form One Big Party, and this is a great example. Jenka Dungeon is a top down dungeon themed action game where you control a party of unique characters with different offensive capabilities. You have to find the net in order to capture more party members, and you'll need it when you fight the boss, a totally awesome and terrifying character. This is an excellent game. Well executed. Great pixel art, great mechanics, and cool boss fight with the worm clown. I picked Jenka Dungeon for its originality and unique combat mechanics.





Best ofs:



Best use of : Crimson Guild's Glamorous Guest List by Mr Magnus

Best Concept: Jenka Dungeon by dosto, Reaktori, Riuku

Best Presentation: One Big Party by Gizmo199, shortbread

Best Story: Forty or the Modern Big Brother by SoapSud39

Best Devlog: 3 Mice In A Trenchcoat by Bart, TheSnidr, Xor, Naterboy



Full ranking:



  1. Party Animal by TehPilot, TheFugue
  2. One Big Party by Gizmo199, shortbread
  3. Jenka Dungeon by dosto, Reaktori, Riuku
  4. Wham Bam Dan Jam Slam by GameDevDan
  5. 3 Mice In A Trenchcoat by Bart, TheSnidr, Xor, Naterboy
  6. Candles Have Feelings by JordanOttesen
  7. Emmy And Sal by Mercerenies
  8. Plague Rats by Nocturne
  9. Wastoid Rodney by Cloaked Games, JosephEllis, BlakeNorth
  10. GMC Fruit Salad Surfer by Yal
  11. Survival Party by HayManMarc
  12. Party Animals by ScaryPotato, Kalzme
  13. Snake Dance by Greenblizzard
  14. The Matchmaker (HTML5 ONLY, OPEN FOLDER) by eimie
  15. Crimson Guild's Glamorous Guest List by Mr Magnus
  16. Gangs Bash by D'Andrew Box
  17. Roborazzi by Kultisti, Sulo
  18. Me pARRty by ghandpivot
  19. Quickly! Dispensegifts by Allison James
  20. Forty or the Modern Big Brother by SoapSud39
  21. Robot Surprise Party by samspade
  22. Queen by Toque
  23. Hero Huddle by ThinGinger
  24. The Scattered Army by Sirham
  25. Final Battle by Kahrabaa
  26. Christmas with Uncle Tom by BluishGreenPro
  27. Crimson Festival by Alice, FunkyPoop
  28. GreymoorHall by Ninety
  29. Blackout by Siolfor the Jackal
  30. Barry Bear's Birthday by Richerama



Comments 0 - H:



3 Mice In A Trenchcoat by Bart, TheSnidr, Xor, Naterboy



This is a 3D game, and has some of the best looking 3D graphics I've seen for a Gamemaker Studio game. This game as far as I can tell if you free your fellow mice, and get the trenchcoat so you can escape from the Dog "catchers" and Owls. The game looks beautiful in 3D. The walls, stairs, traps, and characters all look gorgeous, and I didn't see any slowdown in performance. There's a nice little mischievous tune playing in the background that reinforces the sneakiness of the entire premise. The gameplay is quite easy, but can trip you up at times, because there's trap doors, and spikes throughout. I found the key, freed a couple of mice friends, and found the trenchcoat, but wasn't sure of what to do from there. I'm going to have to play this some more, but from what I played, it looks and sounds great. I fully intend to play this until I finish it. Definitly one of my top picks. I am not sure if it fits the theme, but I can't ingore the force of will behind getting a game like this done in 4 days.



Adventures Of Robot X by Pixel-Team



This is my game. This is my very first platformer, and also my very first game that features NPC dialog conversations. The jokes could use some work, as I was writing the script right up to the last hour, and I did release a post Jam version that had a better storyline and better exchanges between characters, and a couple extra visual gags. The Jam version had some tile collision issues, and there was a problem when you restart after beating the game. For those wondering, I made the Pixel-Team Intro before the Jam, and I like to put it before my games, depending on how big the game is. I also had made a few of the tiles made before the Jam, but these were just tinkerings, and it wasn't until lthe Jam started that I got serious tile pixelling done. The Main character sprites, enemy sprites, (53 animated sprites in all) and portraits were all done during the Jam, and live streamed on Twitch.tv. There were a few pieces like Controller Input, options menu, and rolling credits that I had developed prior to the Jam, and these I use like prefabs when I do a game that is more than just a casual game. The dialog was scripted in a tool I wrote called TextMapper, an idea of which I borrowed from D'Andrƫw Box's Gameflow Designer. This game was a huge technical milestone for me as a developer, and a graduation as it were into bigger and more complicated game design. Thank you to all who have commented so far. As for the subject matter of some of my dialog, I like to express myself through commentary on popular issues of our times. I believe that no subject is taboo when it comes to comedy, and the greatest comedians will tell you that as long as its done in good fun and with respect, you can find humor in anything and anyone. That being said, if you have time, please check out the post Jam version. It has better dialog, better jokes, better ending, and is worth a second playthrough. Cheers!



Apocalypse party by aspiringgamemaker



Apocalypse party is a top down shooter where you have to defend the Power Generator against zombies, using a paintball gun. You have to collect paintballs to keep your ammo up, and this takes you away from the generator, where the zombies want to go to cut the power, so they can eat your brain in peace. The graphics were ok. There was music. The game fit the theme.



Barry Bear's Birthday by Richerama



This game turns you into a very whiney bear who pops balloons, jumps on balloons, avoids popping balloons, eats candy while avoiding vegetables, and wails... A LOT. Barry Bear's Birthday is a game of minigames, and while they are well executed, I found that I didn't get enough time to study the rules before each round, and I was quickly forgetting which of the rules I was supposed to apply to each balloon. What really started to get to me is the wailing sound of the bear. Perhaps it was because I was failing so much, but I had to hear that wailing sound to such a degree that my nerves started playing tricks on me. Maybe a sniffle sound would have been a little easier on the ears, being a sound that is heard so much during this game. This game had good pixel art, an ok music tune (at the title) and a few sounds. It definitely fit the theme, being a birthday party. I think my only complaints are that the wailing tends to get unnerving, and the player should be able to start each round manually, so they can have sufficient time to study the rules, as they do change from round to round. I'm going to play some more and see if there are any other mini games besides the balloons and the candy eating. Also, I'm not sure if the eating of candy game and the balloon game have an equal chance of being the game that is played, but I got the balloon game to the candy game by a ratio of at least 10 to 1. So I hardly got to play the candy game as much as I wanted to, (which would have definitely been the easier game for me than the balloon game)



Behemoth by sp202



This is a strange game that just has you guess cards in a row. If you guess wrong, you can leave your name and a message that can be read by future players. Some folks have left useful messages. Some have not. There's not much to this game, other than it uses cool shaders, and it stores data online so that we all as players can help each other. It did not fit the theme at all. I played it a couple times, then read the readme where it said not to play it more than once. Sorry for playing it more than once.



Blackout by Siolfor the Jackal



Blackout is a game where you wake up after a party and have to piece together what happened. This game was starting to get interesting, but it ended after a couple minutes of gameplay. I wish Siolfor went further with it. I like his art style, and definitely love the music.





Candle by Steelegms2



Simple gameplay, good pixel art. Levels seem repetitive and seemed to go on forever.



Candle Wars by Yozoraki



You run around and interact with food items and talk to a Giraffe. It's fun.



Candles Have Feelings by JordanOttesen



This is a game where you play a little candle running away from a birthday boy trying to blow out your flame. At its core, it's just a simple platformer. However, it's extremely challenging! The camera moves at a fixed speed, so you have to stay ahead of the boy. Every few seconds the boy will take a breath, and you'll get a glimpse of the trajectory of the air when he's going to blow it out. That gives you time to either duck, or jump out of the way. There are also some wall slide mechanics, and these let the candle get higher up between two cliffs. I loved the sound of the candle's little feet. I really felt sorry for him when his flame goes out, and the little tear comes out. The pixel art is really well done. The boy looks a little rough but he's drawn very well. The music is calm and pleasant. (Where have I heard that track before!) The game fit the theme perfectly, plays well, and I am going to finish it if it kills me! ***Update*** This game is killing me.





Castle Meta by The M



This game started out a decent platformer. The graphics were not supurb, but that's what they said about Zork, so I thought ok cool. I'm in for an adventure. The game has you collecting these golden pieces scattered all over the game. You need to pick up items that change the gameplay mechanics for you to progress through the areas. I like how the glove dug you into the ground and then launched you up in the air, and the wings gave you an electrified high jump, and the book was a weapon that you could not only shoot, but control its projectile in mid air. The game was going fine until I reached an area where the doors closed on both sides and there was a platform in the center where you could use the glove. It was right here where the game glitched out and tried to play a sound on every frame, creeating a piercing effect on my ears that remains as I write this. I think this game has a lot of good and original ideas. But it did not fit the theme, and was un-beatable due to the scripting error in the room.



Christmas with Uncle Tom by BluishGreenPro



This game is about a family celebrating Christmas. You play a little boy who plays with his siblings. The pixel art was good, and the chiptune music was pleasant in the background. There was a little bit of dialog, and even a couple of occasions where you choose what to say. I think there was more cutscenes than actual gameplay, and I wish there was more to this game, because the characters were interesting. What it did do, it did well though. Good job!



City Scuttler by Bearman_18



City Scuttler according to @Bearman_18 is a "roguelite." you move around the map in turns. You get a few moves, and then the rest of the world takes a turn. The pixel art is good for its purpose. There was no sound or music. I made several runs on this, and eventually got the gun. I found out that the gun did 1 or 2 damage to my opponents when I did 5 to 6 just attacking without it. I found a few pieces of sheet metal. I'm not sure if I was using the sheet metal during my fights. I think with a little work, this game could be interesting. Unfortunately, it did not follow the theme.



Color Splash by EvanSki



This game probably started out with lofty goals. Each of those goals was never met, and what you get with this game is a title screen. That's about it. At least I don't have to type this long-winded review, and that means the world to me right now. Thanks, EvanSki.



Crazy Waiter by Gatefiz, JP, Claire Dujardin, Benfik



Crazy Waiter has you delivering Beer, and food like sandwiches and pizza to patrons in a club. You have to avoid touching other patrons or you lose a thousand dollars each time. This game fit the theme, and was bright, and the characters were drawn well, and the music was catchy. I liked how if you bumped into a patron they would go "Bruh!" I found the controls to be a little unforgiving. I would have preferred it if the waiter auto steered, and my direction keys simply moved him where I wanted him to go, instead of me having to rotate and steer him like a car. Occasionally, there was no avoiding customers bumping into me. In many cases, the person I'm delivering the order to has about 5 other patrons who didn't order anything piled right on top of him, forcing me to take penalties just to deliver the order. The patrons should stay off of one another if you're going to make collision a penalty. All flaws aside, this was a decent entry.



Crimson Festival by Alice, FunkyPoop



This game threw me for a loop. When you first start it, you have a summary of other Crimson Guild games and whether or not you've finished them. It was kind of weird because I played Graymoor Hall, but this said I didn't play it. Anyhow, I pressed "Begin Festival" and proceeded. This game was about two people going to a festival. What's interesting here is that when you play the other Crimson Guild games, they add something to this game when you go to the festival. The graphics were decent, and the writing was interesting. There were several music tracks throughout. It was a nice experience, and it helps if you play the other games before playing this, which I didn't realize until much later on.





Crimson Guild's Glamorous Guest List by Mr Magnus



This game was entertaining, and was kind of like Where's Waldo, except the characters are constantly in motion, and there is a timer. I liked how there is a global high score table, and it was definitely a motivator to see if I could get the high score. The music was catchy, and the graphics were vibrant and colorful. A few times there was a description that contained both a car and a van. I couldn't tell if I was supposed to click the car or the van, and this may have caused some bad clicks, costing me time. I think it was a data entry error that could be corrected easily by Mr. Magnus. All in all, it was a fun game, and definitely sucked up a good amount of my time. Also fit the theme. Good Job!



dawg the party animal by NivesStudio



Dawg the Party Animal is a game where you're Dawg, and you have to gather your friends to your party by participating in some minigames, some of which include dodging a bull, playing laser tag, shooting fruit out of trees so your friend can catch them in his basket. There was good pixel art on the characters, but I found some jagged tiles near the water, so they looked a little unfinished. The music was absolutely terrible. It was a 2 second looped music track. I'll say that again so you understand how excruciating it must sound. It was a 2 second looped music track! The games played ok, the lazer tag being the most frustrating. However, when I got to the bull, he hit me, and the game ended up in a locked state where it showed Dawg, and another dog next to him, so I was not able to complete the game. I think it's a good idea, and fit the theme, but the execution was a bit off. Laser-Tag seemed unfair, since I had to charge my shots, and the duck got to keep firing as much as he wanted. I think there's potential here, but it needs polishing.



Demon Dance by Mightyjor, Twintertainment, Brett-Bit



A Dance Dance Revolution style game. There are a few different tracks, and each have their own level with its own set of visuals. The graphics were decent, although some pieces looked a bit more polished than others. Still there was plenty to look at, and the mood was set. It definitely had a party feel to it. There was a voice-over girl that sounded cool. I felt like when the notes lined up with the arrows, it wasn't exactly following the rhythm of the song. I think it didn't help that there was a thump sound when I dropped the note, rather than just letting the song play the bass drum. I think if the notes were more accurate to following the rhythm it would help. It was close, but not all the time. This was a decent entry. Good job.



Dr Smiley's Brain Jam Party by Yal



This game is, at first glance, a Tetris game. And I fancy myself a pretty good Tetris player. However, the rules are a bit different. Some of the pieces get dislodged and continue to drop after your piece hits, and when rows are completed. In some cases this saved my bacon, and in other cases, I gambled and lost. There are also some special rules for certain sections of your pieces when they are matched with neighboring pieces. These make for some interesting gameplay, because they can blow out sections of rows you are tyrying to complete. You get a few visual rewards when knocking out several rows at once, and on chain-reaction completing rows. On my best game, I got to level 5, with 159,510. The music sounds like Mod music, which I absolutely love, and there are a couple tracks on here. The game is very colorful, and plays well. It fits the theme, as the pieces are party related. Nice work.



dumburk 9000 by Bret Hudson, Allen Webster, Jared Cohen



A Big Black screen with no controls, no instructions. I love it!!!



Emmy And Sal by Mercerenies



This is a puzzle game where you have to cover all the squares with either spotlights, trees speakers, boom boxes, or jukeboxes. I played this game all the way to the end. The music was relaxing. I really like puzzle games, and Mercerenies is known for making puzzle games that are fun, witty and inventive. This one really got my head spinning on some of the levels. The dialog had a nice bit of humor to it as well, which was much appreciated. The game fit the theme, and there were no glitches or crashes. Nice job all around.



Escape of the Clowns by kburkhart84



I hate clowns. Level 4 was tough.



Extinction Tea Party by Moon Goat



Extinction Tea Party is a casual game where you have to dodge... everything. Lines being drawn in random angles, popcorn being launched at you, flying saucers shooting at you. This game is easy to pick right up and play, and is definitely entertaining. It does look like audio should be there though. The only reason this game fit the theme was in its title, and that's fine. As far as casual games go, it's entertaining.





Fantasy Strategy Clicker by Julien, Hyomoto



A Villager Management game. Need to get into this.



Fiesta Down by VinylFly



Fiesta Down is a game where you're a mole that has to make it to the bottom of the burrow before his rival Mole. You have to bounce your way down, collect coins, avoid bombs, and bounce on the head of your opponent. I won on my first try, but that is not to say that this game is easy. It's not. Anyhow, the game looks, plays, and sounds good. The pixel art is cute and colorful, and the sprites are animated well. There is good chiptune music as well. I don't know why people make games as if they are being played on a vertically held cellphone, but this game is like that. People's eyes are positioned side by side, not above and below each other, at least mine are. Just saying. My gripe aside, the game fits the theme, and had a start, middle and end, and that's all we can ask for in this Jam. It was a short game, but Good job!



Fiesta Fist by Cristobal, MatthewPattel



Fiesta Fist is a beat-em up game where you have to recover the invitation to the party which was stolen from you, and I know that because when I was trying to figure out the controls, I accidentally hit G, which the programmer had used to test his end screen. Sorry I spoiled the ending. Anyhow, this game can be played by 1 or two players, and features two guys in animal costumes kicking people's asses on the streets. I wish there were more attacks, but the ones that work are animated nicely. The sprites looks really good, and have great animation. I think with a little more variety, and perhaps some more moves, this game could shape up to be something very special. Good Job.



Final Battle by Kahrabaa



This is a gang simulator. It seems to have a 100 member limit, whichis One Big Party, so good job there. Technically, this is a pretty impressive game, with 1000+ framerates even with 100s of sprites on the screen. I found that after I reached 100 members, the gameplay got pretty consistent, with me losing no more than 10 party members per skermish, and because the game did not have an ending, it just kept on going. A good concept, and with better graphics and some more variety of gameplay I think it could be so much more. Good job!



Florida Man by BreakfastBoy



Florida Man is a platform game where you're a dude on a beach. You get to collect coins and throw an alligator at big muscle dudes, crabs, and chicks who throw volley balls at you. I liked the pixel art in this game, and the music as well. I'm not sure if it fit the theme very well. The game was very short. I'd say that this game shows promise for sure, and with a little more work this could definitely be something people who love platform games would enjoy.



Forty or the Modern Big Brother by SoapSud39



A George Orwell's 1984 shout out, with minigames and a narrative about suppression of creativity. I enjoyed playing it. It did crash right at the end where it said Grand Daddy Is Watching You. That said, it was a nicely done experience, and the music was pleasant and set the mood just right.



Gangs Bash by D'Andrew Box



This is a party game with several smaller games that make up its whole. Some of the games include 3 way circular pong, tank battles, snail racing, stay off the falling tiles, race cars. Some of these games were very entertaining. The 3 way circular pong was very cool, and I liked how the dividers would also deflect the balls. The snail race was cool, and seeing the snails work really hard to move fast was fun. Some of the pixel art in this game was nicely done too. There was an overworld map that showed a path from beginning to end, and showed the team color of the winner after each round, however when I got past the last spot, it kept presenting me with more rounds of games, instead of an ending. On the tank game, I think the left and right controls got reversed, and I was rotating the wrong direction when I pressed left and right. Also, I didn't see any clear way to select which gang I wanted to be. Beyond these small issues, the games all played well, and looked and sounded good. Great job!



get to the party by Wabb, sequential



Kind of like lemmings, but with difficult mechanics. Have to drag a box to deploy? Hmm.



GMC Fruit Salad Surfer by Yal



This is a second entry by Yal in this Game Jam. This game puts you into the character of a piece of fruit surfing on waves, and avoiding the cactuses that go by. Depending on the wave you're on, you can either jump over the cactus, or swim under it. After a few runs and collecting coins, you can buy items that make your runs a bit easier, like dive goggles, that help you stay under, or parachutes that let you fly over everything. This game looks just as wild as it plays. Very colorful. I might even call it psychedelic. The music is really cool, and has some chiptune elements to it. What's really cool is how this game is technically put together. The waves react physically to being jumped into. The music sounds like it's underwater when you're actually underwater. I think this game follows the theme sort of, and an extra bit of effort was made to include the gangs. An exceptional entry, especially considering it's one of 3 entries Yal made during this Jam. Nice work!!



GMC Party Adventure by Imagine Galaxy



Party Adventure is a platform game where you have to rescue your kid from the Troll King. It features pixel art, voice-over talent, and some of the craziest platform mechanics I've seen. I can't help but think that the wall jumping mechanics are either a happy accident, or a bug, because your character defies gravity when you push away from the wall, to the point where it rides along ceilings. I was able to complete the game, and it did fit the theme. There were two music tracks that stood out while I was playing this game. One was a guitar song with a harmonica. I thought it was an interesting choice. The second was kind of a rap song, and that played once I got to the dark level with the creatures. I give you full props for making a crash free experience. While the graphics looked a little rough, and the gameplay felt like it could also use a little polish, I can appreciate an experience that has a start, middle and end. Nice job!



Goin' All Nite by Dadio



If I ever host a rave, I'll know what to put up on the jumbotron. At least it kept me through the whole song.





GreymoorHall by Ninety



This game is a murder mystery where you are the murderer. You have to get to know the guests, and search around the manor for things you can use to implicate someone else in the murder. I enjoyed this game. There's not a huge amount of depth to it, but what it does, it does right. The pixel art is decent, and the characters are drawn well. I like how the pieces look like you are playing a game of Clue. There's a nice music track in the background that adds to the mystery unfolding. I had a good time, and plan to pay this game some more. It fit the theme too.



happy birthday by Yal



A third person 3D game where you have to collect the balloons. This game had a very ethereal feel to it. I'm not sure what the crystals were for, since the objective was to find balloons. Perhaps they were to show the way to find the balloons. There is a very big world to explore in this game.



HealthBar by Fanatrick



A Drink mixing game that uses shaders. Artwork looked rushed. When it got to where I was expected to mix not only colors, but estimate the percentage of each color in a way that would not exceed the capacity of the ordered drink, I said I think I can do this. Then it gave me not enough time to make the drink and the order disappeared. I think this game has promise, but should be a little more patient with players, at least when they first start mixing drinks.



Hero Horde by PinesOfChaos



Hero horde is a game where you have to attack creatures to earn coin and build up your party. Each party member you add will take up the amount of coin you spent on them, per second, so you have to continually kill monsters to maintain your economy, as it were. Eventually you have to fight the Demon Lord. There was decent graphics, a few music tracks, and seemingly random gameplay. The higher up into the woods you went, the harder the creatures were. I need to keep playing if I want to win. It fits the theme, which is getting one big party to defeat the Demon Lord.



Hero Huddle by ThinGinger



Hero Huddle is a game where you have to build up a large size cround of fighters and take on a gigantic gem that fires in all directions and spawns more attackers the longer you take to kill it. I made the mistake of trying to take it on right off the bat, and learned that I needed a bigger party. The graphics were simplistic, and didn't need to be any more than they were. There was no music. The controls were easy, and I eventually finished the game with 60 party members. I think this game is a decent effort even if it was rather a short experience.
 
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ghandpivot

Member
All greens, VOTE!

Video of ~40 games:

I did not have time to review more games, but here are my votes for all entries!

1. Wham Bam Dan Jam Slam by GameDevDan
Great presentation, super polished, impressive roster. Didn't play through half of the characters but could see this on steam for a dollar or two with some more mechanics put in there.
2. Hero Horde by PinesOfChaos
In my opinion the most interesting concept in the jam, played several runs. Didn't quite like the grindyness or the unnecessary 10 minute timer which should be removed all together in favor of more complex mechanics. Also had a hard time understand levels and stats, was there a way to review these?
3. 3 Mice In A Trenchcoat by Bart, TheSnidr, Xor, Naterboy
Super polished, rarely seen something like it in game maker in recent years. Great music and animations. The most fun part was to take high risks with the encounters, though this was increadibly punishing with the current death system. Needs to be changed. Other than that it didn't feel very party-like and I never found any trenchcoat or any of the other mice.

4. Final Battle by Kahrabaa
5. Castle Meta by The M
6. Jam Defenders by Kepons
7. One Big Party by Gizmo199, shortbread
8. Keyboard Hero by tadashibashi
9. The Matchmaker (HTML5 ONLY, OPEN FOLDER) by eimie
10. Forty or the Modern Big Brother by SoapSud39
11. Crimson Guild's Glamorous Guest List by Mr Magnus
12. The Golden Balloon by Little Penguin Studios
13. Fiesta Down by VinylFly
14. Candles Have Feelings by JordanOttesen
15. Need For Beats by Matharoo, BlaineTanuki, _aeternumgames
16. Candle Wars by Yozoraki
17. Party Mountain by AJTheApple
18. Party Animal by TehPilot, TheFugue
19. Roborazzi by Kultisti, Sulo
20. happy birthday by Yal
21. GMC Fruit Salad Surfer by Yal
22. Extinction Tea Party by Moon Goat
23. R-pg-ING by Micah_DS
24. Emmy And Sal by Mercerenies
25. Robot Surprise Party by samspade
26. Hero Huddle by ThinGinger
27. Quickly! Dispensegifts by Allison James
28. Gangs Bash by D'Andrew Box
29. One Big Political Party by Terminator_Pony
30. The Party Must Go On by GVmG
31. Plague Rats by Nocturne
32. Crazy Waiter by Gatefiz, JP, Claire Dujardin, Benfik
33. Queen by Toque
34. Party Animals by ScaryPotato, Kalzme
35. Wastoid Rodney by Cloaked Games, JosephEllis, BlakeNorth
36. Crimson Festival by Alice, FunkyPoop
37. The Way Back To The Party by Noodlehead
38. Snake Dance by Greenblizzard
39. Jenka Dungeon by dosto, Reaktori, Riuku
40. GreymoorHall by Ninety
41. Christmas with Uncle Tom by BluishGreenPro
42. The Scattered Army by Sirham
43. Blackout by Siolfor the Jackal
44. Survive the Party by Nejc Podlipnik
45. Adventures Of Robot X by Pixel-Team
46. Your Brain On Party by thijsmie
47. Dr Smiley's Brain Jam Party by Yal
48. HealthBar by Fanatrick
49. The Retrieval by Dr Wolf
50. Party Detective by Mercyssh
51. Fantasy Strategy Clicker by Julien, Hyomoto
52. City Scuttler by Bearman_18
53. dumburk 9000 by Bret Hudson, Allen Webster, Jared Cohen
54. Barry Bear's Birthday by Richerama
55. Jaguar Pogo Party by TotallyAverageGamez
56. get to the party by Wabb, sequential
57. Behemoth by sp202
58. Candle by Steelegms2
59. Survival Party by HayManMarc
60. The Annual GMC Party by O_stogden
61. Florida Man by BreakfastBoy
62. Escape of the Clowns by kburkhart84
63. Fiesta Fist by Cristobal, MatthewPattel
64. Apocalypse party by aspiringgamemaker
65. GMC Party Adventure by Imagine Galaxy
66. dawg the party animal by NivesStudio
67. Party Pooper by Lukan
68. Party Paddles by Fusai
69. Party Parade by Tristan
70. Demon Dance by Mightyjor, Twintertainment, Brett-Bit
71. Life Party by Cat
72. Party Guardians by StarDreamIX
73. Party Puker by Ben Stitt
74. Goin' All Nite by Dadio
75. Color Splash by EvanSki
76. matoset by Poizen
 
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Mightyjor

Member
Reviews

Top 3:

Crimson Festival by Alice, FunkyPoop
This is one to remember folks. I don't know if there will ever be anything like it again or if there ever has been anything like it in any game jam ever. It's the Crimson Guild Cinematic Universe! Or the videogame equivalent. (hereby to be known as the CHCUOTVGE, at least until something with less constanents comes along). I've currently only completed half of the required games, so I'm excited to compare the two versions once I've completed all of them. I will add a little update to the review when I do.

Positives:
+ Art is wonderful. It must have taken so much work to do all the portaits and backgrounds here on top of everything else that you were taking care of with the meta data. I think there are few around here who would ever sink so much effort into a jam game, but you made something really special with your time and it is legendary.
+ The visits back to the old games that we've been playing through really makes this special. It not only elevates itself but all the other games we've played so far. I think my favorite tie in was seeing the Nightmare Bard from Blackout rocking on stage after he was so happy he had finally gotten a gig in his own game. You didn't realize he was actually coming here which was just so exciting for me. It's our own Crimson Guild cinematic universe! (or the video game equivalant). This also made the world feel so much more alive and bigger than anything I've ever seen in a jam, despite the game actually being fairly short.
+ It is sort of a biproduct of the game and not directly shown unless you were a part of this, but being part of the Crimson Guild during this jam and hanging out in the discord has been wonderful, especially during a time in our lives where we don't really get to talk to people much anymore. It's great to have a place where we can all collaborate on something fun and have something to show for it in the end (even if this really was 99.9999% your work). I don't think there's ever going to be anything like this in another jam, and I think it would be unfair for me to put any game but this at the top spot this jam for that reason. If the theme was One Big Party, you nailed that 100% not only by including a massive party of all the different video game universes, but also this game created one big place for all of us to hang out and bounce ideas off of each other and play test each other's games, which I have to say without question has been my favorite game jam experience I've ever had.

Feedback:
- All the other teams are now full of self loathing for their failure to create the Green Gang or Golden Guild Cinematic Univeses.


Emmy And Sal by Mercerenies
Great puzzler! The game is so simple to understand and gradually builds until you have to tackle some really complex puzzles near the end. I really enjoyed the little story going on behind the scenes as well as the intro to each puzzle. It's an extra touch that didn't need to be there, but I appreciate it.

Positives:
+ Loved the puzzles. Extremely well thought out and well done. There was only one of them that I was able to solve without using all of the pieces. If you had a room number somewhere in the game, I could tell you which one it was with a screenshot in case you ever wanted to release the game with optimized solutions.
+ Fun story, nice and fairly wholesome portrayal of theft ;)
+ Puzzles are never overly difficult and can usually be solved in a relatively short period of time
+ Gradual introduction of puzzle elements keeps things fresh
+ Tutorial is very well paced
+ Cute little characters

Constructive Feedback:
- The game is just a tad bit long for a jam game. I think I exited around 22-23 puzzles to see how far in I was, so that would probably be a good length if you wanted to cut out 4-5 puzzles
- It wasn't always clear how far out each of my objects would reach. I think an easy way to provide some player feedback here would be to show how far out it reached with a transparent indicated once the object is picked up. It would take out a lot of the guess work of placing things down.


Jam Defenders by Kepons
Game is super cool! I really enjoyed the mechanics of it and everything just looked great. I ended up becoming unstoppable with my entire screen filled up by the red ones. The red shooting ones are the clear winners by the way, if you just stock up on those you can't be beaten. I think my first playthrough I was a little discouraged because the yellow ones sucked butt. Was this game made by red team? I don't know, but I'm getting a little suspicious.

Positives:
+ Game looks great with a really pleasing animation style
+ I am so good at this
+ Great job making the difficulty just hard enough that I died my first run or two and then made it with a change of strategy by the next couple tries.

Feedback:
- I am glad this is a short game for a jam and this is in no way a negative, but personally I would have loved more levels. I guess what I'm getting at is you should make this game for real.
- Yellow is terrible. Green is good in earlier stages but basically useless once you get lots of frogs
- I'm not really sure how they are party themed fruits...just look like weapon fruits to me. There's a connection to jams which is fairly obvious, but I guess I'm not really getting the "one big party" theme connection


Best ofs:

Best use of : Crimson Festival by Alice, FunkyPoop
Best Concept: Emmy And Sal by Mercerenies
Best Presentation: Candle Wars by Yozoraki
Best Story: Forty or the Modern Big Brother by SoapSud39
Best Devlog: 3 Mice In A Trenchcoat by Bart, TheSnidr, Xor, Naterboy

Full ranking:

  1. Crimson Festival by Alice, FunkyPoop
  2. Emmy And Sal by Mercerenies
  3. Jam Defenders by Kepons
  4. One Big Party by Gizmo199, shortbread
  5. Wham Bam Dan Jam Slam by GameDevDan
  6. GreymoorHall by Ninety
  7. Forty or the Modern Big Brother by SoapSud39
  8. Party Mountain by AJTheApple
  9. Final Battle by Kahrabaa
  10. Wastoid Rodney by Cloaked Games, JosephEllis, BlakeNorth
  11. Gangs Bash by D'Andrew Box
  12. Party Animal by TehPilot, TheFugue
  13. Adventures Of Robot X by Pixel-Team
  14. Hero Horde by PinesOfChaos
  15. Need For Beats by Matharoo, BlaineTanuki, _aeternumgames
  16. Fiesta Down by VinylFly
  17. Hero Huddle by ThinGinger
  18. Plague Rats by Nocturne
  19. Extinction Tea Party by Moon Goat
  20. Robot Surprise Party by samspade
  21. Keyboard Hero by tadashibashi
  22. Candle Wars by Yozoraki
  23. Me pARRty by ghandpivot
  24. Roborazzi by Kultisti, Sulo
  25. Crimson Guild's Glamorous Guest List by Mr Magnus
  26. The Scattered Army by Sirham
  27. Candles Have Feelings by JordanOttesen
  28. Blackout by Siolfor the Jackal
  29. Snake Dance by Greenblizzard
  30. 3 Mice In A Trenchcoat by Bart, TheSnidr, Xor, Naterboy
  31. Christmas with Uncle Tom by BluishGreenPro
  32. GMC Fruit Salad Surfer by Yal
  33. The Golden Balloon by Little Penguin Studios
  34. HealthBar by Fanatrick
  35. Jenka Dungeon by dosto, Reaktori, Riuku
  36. Fiesta Fist by Cristobal, MatthewPattel
  37. City Scuttler by Bearman_18
  38. happy birthday by Yal
  39. Florida Man by BreakfastBoy
  40. Candle by Steelegms2
  41. Party Animals by ScaryPotato, Kalzme
  42. The Retrieval by Dr Wolf
  43. Fantasy Strategy Clicker by Julien, Hyomoto
  44. dawg the party animal by NivesStudio
  45. Party Detective by Mercyssh
  46. Jaguar Pogo Party by TotallyAverageGamez
  47. The Matchmaker (HTML5 ONLY, OPEN FOLDER) by eimie
  48. Apocalypse party by aspiringgamemaker
  49. Queen by Toque
  50. Crazy Waiter by Gatefiz, JP, Claire Dujardin, Benfik
  51. Dr Smiley's Brain Jam Party by Yal
  52. Castle Meta by The M
  53. get to the party by Wabb, sequential
  54. The Annual GMC Party by O_stogden
  55. One Big Political Party by Terminator_Pony
  56. Barry Bear's Birthday by Richerama
  57. The Party Must Go On by GVmG
  58. Goin' All Nite by Dadio
  59. The Way Back To The Party by Noodlehead
  60. Behemoth by sp202
  61. Survive the Party by Nejc Podlipnik
  62. R-pg-ING by Micah_DS
  63. Party Pooper by Lukan
  64. Escape of the Clowns by kburkhart84
  65. Party Parade by Tristan
  66. GMC Party Adventure by Imagine Galaxy
  67. Party Paddles by Fusai
  68. Your Brain On Party by thijsmie
  69. Survival Party by HayManMarc
  70. dumburk 9000 by Bret Hudson, Allen Webster, Jared Cohen
  71. Party Puker by Ben Stitt
  72. Color Splash by EvanSki
  73. Quickly! Dispensegifts by Allison James
  74. Party Guardians by StarDreamIX
  75. Life Party by Cat
  76. matoset by Poizen

I exceeded the 50k character limit, so all of my reviews are listed in a separate google doc.
Please keep in mind that it's really hard to rank 70+ games. I tried to get to the end of nearly every game to make sure I could judge it fairly and I feel this is as close as I'm going to get to a correct order.
Regarding the reviews: I gave feedback for every single game, even if it was nitpicky. Not to be a jerk, it's just what I love to see on reviews of my games. It's a whole lot easier not to say anything at all, trust me.
 
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Mercyssh

Member
Took long enough for me to finally start voting! A BIIG Thank you to whoever made the launcher to streamline the process and make it so much easier!
I will probably only be able to play some 20 or so games because of a busy schedule. But trying my best to do more!
(GO TEAM GREENS!)

Reviews (20/77)


Top 3:
Plague Rats by Nocturne
Really like the gameplay, aesthetics and the feel of the game. The art and sounds were on point. The game kept freezing on the 2nd level at random times and I had to restart a bunch of times, so maybe a level select screen or some sort of saving and loading system could work well. I like that a mouse is all you really need to play the game, maybe you could even add an ability to zoom out to a certain extent. It was such a fun game that I was left wanting to play a few more levels!. I think this is a great foundation to expand upon and possibily even create a full game. I would rate it a solid 9/10

Jenka Dungeon by dosto, Reaktori, Riuku
Love the concept and the gameplay. A small tutorial could be there to clear up any confusion regarding controls, though i felt they were pretty self explanatory. The game was very tough for me but I think that was very intentional. The music used was just arcadey enough! I really liked the artstyle and the use of shaders as well. Overall a fun game which I genuinely wish I was better at so I could play more of it! I'd give this game a 8/10

happy birthday by Yal
The artstyle was so dreamy and blurry, I loved the vibe that the game off. That feeling of not being able to focus and everything moving like a blur and at the same time the creepy fog of the world was all very atmospheric. The gameplay itself was short but fun, I liked the fact that there were more than 5 balloons but you only had to collect 5, it made it a bit easier to finish the game. I think overall the game appealed to me personally very much, I rate it an 8/10.

Best ofs:
Best atmosphere : happy birthday by Yal
Best Concept: Jenka Dungeon by dosto, Reaktori, Riuku
Best Presentation: Roborazzi by Kultisti, Sulo
Best Story: Forty or the Modern Big Brother by SoapSud39

Full ranking:
  1. Plague Rats by Nocturne
  2. Jenka Dungeon by dosto, Reaktori, Riuku
  3. happy birthday by Yal
  4. Christmas with Uncle Tom by BluishGreenPro
  5. Forty or the Modern Big Brother by SoapSud39
  6. Roborazzi by Kultisti, Sulo
  7. One Big Party by Gizmo199, shortbread
  8. Crimson Guild's Glamorous Guest List by Mr Magnus
  9. HealthBar by Fanatrick
  10. R-pg-ING by Micah_DS
  11. Gangs Bash by D'Andrew Box
  12. Escape of the Clowns by kburkhart84
  13. dawg the party animal by NivesStudio
  14. Demon Dance by Mightyjor, Twintertainment, Brett-Bit
  15. Fantasy Strategy Clicker by Julien, Hyomoto
  16. Survival Party by HayManMarc
  17. Crazy Waiter by Gatefiz, JP, Claire Dujardin, Benfik
  18. Candle by Steelegms2
  19. Party Guardians by StarDreamIX
  20. Fiesta Fist by Cristobal, MatthewPattel

Comments:
Candle by Steelegms2

It was quick to learn the game, though some instructions or tutorial are always appreciated. I wish there was more incentive to exploring the entire level since after some time I just started collecting the key and running back to the exit straight. The hearts are an incentive but I feel they are not important enough to encourage players to explore. There could be some indication how many levels are remaining or if it is procedural. Also some background music would be nice to fill in the times when you are just moving around the level without any fighting. It was fairly basic is the only thing holding it back I think, 4/10 from me.

Christmas with Uncle Tom by BluishGreenPro

It was a very short experience but it was sweet and I thoroughly enjoyed it. The music and the arstyle was very charming and I loved the character of uncle Tom. Just wish it was a bit longer, and that there were more interactions that I could do with my character. It played out nice as an interactive story. Very sweet :) a 7/10

Crazy Waiter by Gatefiz, JP, Claire Dujardin, Benfik

I get and like the concept. The controls were a bit difficult and it felt like the origin point of the players rotation was outside of the body, (like slightly in front). This led to me crashing into a lot of people. Also Points were deducted from me even if people themselves walked into me through no fault of my own. It would be nice if there was a way to manage this situation. Actually a similar concept to my game! I give it a 5/10

Crimson Guild's Glamorous Guest List by Mr Magnus

A very challenging game! The music and the overwhelming amount of people really made me go into a panic mode and scramble around to find the people. Loved the fact that you have provided so many accessibility features. It might be a better idea to start the game off in fullscreen mode since it can be a bit difficult to play in windowed mode. The scrolling for the list of people to find could be made smoother, the snappy scrolling threw me off for a bit and I thought that I was scrolling through different lists instead of the same list, just a nitpick. A fun game with a very small amount of replayability. I'll give it at 7/10.

dawg the party animal by NivesStudio

I enjoyed the different minigames. I think you could do even more with the laser tag one. I had fun playing it with just 1 npc, I feel it would be so cool to have a big lasertag top down battler!. The one bit that threw me off was the cursor, I expected to aim using the point of the hat but that wasn't the case which threw off my aim in some of the games and made me botch up many times. The music is a bit repititve and might become annoying if it keeps playing in the background on loop for a long time. All in all I'd give this game a 6/10

Demon Dance by Mightyjor, Twintertainment, Brett-Bit

It was a fun beat matching game. I loved the music and the cute awkard dancers in the the centre just jamming it out. It would be really cool if there was some sort of visual text or clear indicators when you get the beat perfect. There is a balloons effect which might have been there for that reason, but it really distracted my eyes from the beats, unless that was intentional in which case good job :p A fun quirky game, 5/10.

Escape of the Clowns by kburkhart84

I like the concept of the game. being a jam game it could obviously use some tweaking. It would be nice if the level continued automatically instead of sending me back to the level selection screen. Also it would be nice if the down key could not only rush the boxes, but the grabber too. The UI was a bit hard to read because the text color/font and the background image were not going well with one another. But over all loved the different mechanics and would like to play a full release if it is ever made :) 7 for mechanics but 4 for overall game feel. So about a 5/10.

Fantasy Strategy Clicker by Julien, Hyomoto

I can see what you were trying to do with the game, and I feel that you have executed it well mechanically speaking. I just would have liked some form of instructions before being thrown into the game. Even just giving tooltips when you hover over buttons would've been good enough. As it stands I was only able to figure out the Battle and Soldier creation aspect of the game, I am still clueless as to what the rightmost tab does. From what I understood the seasons change very frequently, which might be what you mechanically wanted, but again I felt panicky when I was suddenly thrust into it. The resources numbers could be colored green and red when trying to purchase/create things to better telegraph if you can afford them or not. It would save the eyes from darting back and forth continously. Its a game I would love to give an 8, but right now I will give it a 6/10.

Fiesta Fist by Cristobal, MatthewPattel

Unfortunately I couldn't even figure out how to get past the menu screen. The buttons were unclear and the instructions too. Wish I could've been able to play through it, seemed like an interesting premise, Sorry :( a 2/10 for me.

Forty or the Modern Big Brother by SoapSud39

I loved the narrative and the use of editting files to progress the game. I was fun and creative. It was a little bit too long or too text heavy for my taste, but thats just me. There was a point in the story where you have to fill out a form related to the sacred texts, and I was filling in the correct options, the only issue was that I did it without having the file open in the background, which made the game get stuck in a boring loop of filling the same form over and over again. But I got past it eventually. At the end the game threw me an error (gml_Object_obj_scene_epilogue_Step_0 (line -1)) so I didn't get to see the full epilogue unfortunately. Leaving these few glitches aside I loved the concept and the gameplay. The artstyle even had its own charm. Still, got the fun I came for. 7/10

Gangs Bash by D'Andrew Box

I had no idea what the controls where, so i lost the first game sending my time just mashing all the keys on my keyboard to see what does what. I really like the selection of games, however I wish there were more. The 3 player pong kept repeating which got boring after some time. After the 3rd game or so, for some reason all the icons on the map got replaced to the green team automatically without even having played those levels. Not sure if this was a glitch or intentional in some way. Overall a very fun game, just needs some more instructions to guide the player. I would give the game a 5/10

happy birthday by Yal

The artstyle was so dreamy and blurry, I loved the vibe that the game off. That feeling of not being able to focus and everything moving like a blur and at the same time the creepy fog of the world was all very atmospheric. The gameplay itself was short but fun, I liked the fact that there were more than 5 balloons but you only had to collect 5, it made it a bit easier to finish the game. I think overall the game appealed to me personally very much, I rate it an 8/10.

HealthBar by Fanatrick

I loved the base mechanic of the game. I also liked the fact how you introduced the color combination drinks into the game suddenly and I was thrown offgaurd in a goodway. That being said the mixing of drinks still feels a bit too difficult to me. I don't know wether that was the intention or not but I got lots of failed drinks because of how sensitive the color mixing mechanic was. It seems like the color only changes upto a certain mark and beyond that it remains the same no matter what you add and also felt like it is too fast paced. So yeah, good concept which needs a little bit of balancing. It gets a 7/10 from me

Jenka Dungeon by dosto, Reaktori, Riuku

Love the concept and the gameplay. A small tutorial could be there to clear up any confusion regarding controls, though i felt they were pretty self explanatory. The game was very tough for me but I think that was very intentional. The music used was just arcadey enough! I really liked the artstyle and the use of shaders as well. Overall a fun game which I genuinely wish I was better at so I could play more of it! I'd give this game a 8/10

One Big Party by Gizmo199, shortbread

I loved all of the minigames. The music was fitting and the controls were very simple and the graphics were cute and lovely. It would work very nice as a party game, and wish to see multiplayer functionality in it. Even simple local coop would be really fun. I think this was the cutest looking game I played!. A 7/10 from me

Party Guardians by StarDreamIX

I liked the sprites for the characters as well as the animations. Though the cake would look better if it was also a pixelart sprite instead of an actual image. Personally speaking the melee character felt far better than the archer since you can just camp out near the edge of the cake and just hold down the mouse click to pretty much win the game automatically. The game could be made way more interesting if you add some form of abilities to the heroes and some more movement mechanics to polish it up. I think it is a good starting foundation which can be developed further but right now it lacks a lot. I'd give it a 4/10

Plague Rats by Nocturne

Really like the gameplay, aesthetics and the feel of the game. The art and sounds were on point. The game kept freezing on the 2nd level at random times and I had to restart a bunch of times, so maybe a level select screen or some sort of saving and loading system could work well. I like that a mouse is all you really need to play the game, maybe you could even add an ability to zoom out to a certain extent. It was such a fun game that I was left wanting to play a few more levels!. I think this is a great foundation to expand upon and possibily even create a full game. I would rate it a solid 9/10

Roborazzi by Kultisti, Sulo

Loved the aeshetic and the limited color pallete used in the game. I liked the concept and execution of the concept as well. I think it actually was better that you kept the controls like a snake game, the only suggestion I really had with the game was that it could be made a bit more difficult. This could be done by maybe adding some form of stealth mechanic to the game or having the people run away when you start clicking their photos even. You could even add some form of levels to it with some movement mechanics perhaps? I'd give this game a 7/10

R-pg-ING by Micah_DS

The gameplay mechanic is very cool and I think original. This game could've used some more music and feedback however and more levels. 3 levels was enough to introduce all the mechanics but not enough to get the opportunity to play around. There could also be some form of exploration aspect added to this game. Would love to see a complete version of this game. A good gameplay with little content, I'd give it a 5/10.

Survival Party by HayManMarc

The game was very straightforward but I probably won't come back to it again and again, it was a once and done experience. The game felt a bit slow for my taste. The chat flows a bit too fast to be able to read it and focus on collecting stuff at the same time. These all might just be personal nitpicks though. I think the game could benefit from some form of small tutorial. All in all I'd give this game a 4/10
 
Last edited:

Evanski

Raccoon Lord
Forum Staff
Moderator
GREEN GANG

twitchtv/videos/933143210
[ARCHIVE LINK]

00:09:50 happy birthday by @Yal
00:34:00 The party mus go on by @GVmG
00:48:11 Blackout by @Siolfor the Jackal
01:21:50 party pooper by @Lukan
01:30:40 keyboard hero by @tadashibashi
01:42:10 survival party by @HayManMarc
02:04:00 crimson guilds glamorous guest list by @Mr Magnus
02:27:00 Candles Have Feelings by @JordanOttesen
02:32:35 The retrieval by @Dr. Wolf
02:44:20 Castle Meta by @The M

twitchtv/videos/935560039
[ARCHIVE LINK]
I'd like to give special thanks to @kburkhart84 for making me want to re-evaluate my life

WARNING AT kburkharts entry Swearing gets intense


00:07:30 forty or the modern big brother by @SoapSud39
00:42:50 final battle by @Kahrabaa
01:03:22 behemoth by @sp202
01:15:12 Christmas with Uncle Tom by @BluishGreenPro
01:30:10 Candle Wars by @Yozoraki
02:03:10 Florida Man by @BreakfastBoy
02:15:41 Party Animals by @ScaryPotato @kalzme
02:29:14 Your brain on party by @thijsmie
02:49:50 Escape of the clowns by @kburkhart84

[ARCHIVE LINK]
*Why archive only? because I accidently leaked an email I dont want people to abuse, so i cut it out

00:05:09 Hero Horde by @PinesOfChaos
00:21:26 Queen by @Toque
00:32:53 One big Political Party @Terminator_Pony
00:46:20 One Big Party by @Gizmo199 , @shortbread
00:59:22 Quickly! Dispensegifts by @NAL
01:09:44 Jaguar Pogo Party by @TotallyAverageGamez
01:29:19 The MatchMaker by @eimie
01:40:38 City Scuttler by @Bearman_18
01:53:18 Party Parade by @Tristan
02:14:28 Me pARRty by @ghandpivot
02:24:58 Jam Defenders by @Kepons
02:39:00 Crazy Waiter by @Gatefiz, JP, Claire Dujardin, Benfik
02:45:39 Need for Beats by @matharoo , BlaineTanuki, _aeternumgames
02:56:25 GreymoorHall by @Ninety
03:09:21 Party Guardians by @StarDreamIX
03:13:24 GMC Party Adventure by @Imagine Galaxy
03:25:48 Party Mountain by @AJTheApple

twitchtv/videos/939359769
[Archive Link]

00:12:00 Fantasy Strategy Clicker by @Julien , @Hyomoto
00:31:32 Demon Dance by @Mightyjor, Twintertainment, @Brett-Bit
00:46:51 Apocalypse Party by @aspiringgamemaker
01:06:29 Wastoid Rodney, @Cloaked Games, @JosephEllis, BlakeNorth
01:31:14 Barry Bear's Birthday by @Richerama
01:40:00 Gangs Bash by D'Andre Box
01:56:06 Candle by @Steelegms2
02:04:09 Party Puker by @Ben Stitt
02:07:59 Get to the Party by @Wabb, @sequential
02:15:34 Plague Rats by @Nocturne
02:38:23 Wham Bam Dan Jam Slam by @GameDevDan
02:46:00 Robot Surprise Party by @samspade
02:53:48 Goin' All Nite by @dadio
02:56:55 Healthbar by @Fanatrick
03:04:40 Roborazzi by @Kultisti, Sulo
03:10:35 Hero Huddle by @ThinGinger
03:15:28 The Scattered Army by @Sirham
03:21:07 Dr Smiley's Brain Jam Party by @Yal
03:27:40 Life Party by @Cat

*Why two links? Blame my computer stream died and I needed to restart it, archive link because accidently leaked info again
twitchtv/videos/941097927

00:06:34 Jenka Dungeon by @Riuku @dosto reaktori ( KƤsityƶkerho )
00:44:42 Emmy and Sal by mercury (@Mercerenies )
01:52:00 Party Animal by @TehPilot , TheFugue
02:11:07 Crimson Festival by @Alice
02:36:09 Golden Balloon by Little Penguin Studios
02:49:31 3 Mice in a Trenchcoat by @Bart, @TheSnider, @Xor, naterboy
03:16:49 The Annual GMC Party by @O.Stogden
03:57:31 (part 1)Extinction Tea Party by @Moon Goat
{stream broke}

twitchtv/videos/941108457
00:02:44 (For real this time) Extinction party by @Moon Goat
00:05:08 Party Paddles by @Fusai
00:09:43 GMC Fruit Salad Surfer by @Yal
00:15:47 Snake Dance by @Greenblizzard
00:19:10 way back to the party by @NoodleHead
00:24:34 Survive the Party by @Nejc Podlipnik
00:27:41 Fiesta Down by @VinylFly
00:32:09 Dawg the party animal by @NivesStudio
00:37:11 Party Detective by @Mercyssh
00:41:25 Fiesta Fist by @Cristobal, @MatthewPattel
00:45:32 dumburk 900 by @Bret Hudson, @Allen Webster, @Jared Cohen
00:48:02 Matoset by @Poizen
00:52:57 R-pg-ING by @Micah_DS
00:56:11 Adventures of Robot X by @Pixel-Team


Ignore my spelling mistakes, there is a lot of them, Raccoonese is my first language,
I cant be bothered to go and fix them all, so suffer

Top 3:

Crimson Festival by Alice, FunkyPoop
I abosulityl love this, the idea of having the other games be linked to this one is an amzing idea!!!!
The presentation was very good, the story of it all being connected was an exelent touch!, Sad that there were some bugs with what games were enabled though!
all in all and amazing and fantastic work and the idea will forever been on of the best I've seen, Its an very wholesome idea to have the entire gang's works be made as a collective thought and to work with the idea of a party
this is by far the best use of the theme One big party! The ammount of work this had to envolve with other people is insane to think about! 20/10

Forty or the Modern Big Brother by SoapSud39
Damn you DAN! I WAS FAITHFUL TO DADDY!
Art, theme, style, PErfect!

Candles Have Feelings by JordanOttesen
This is very well done!, A lot of game desgine choices That I agree with a lot, A amazing entery 10/10

Best ofs:
Best use of Theme: Crimson Festival by Alice
Best Concept: Castle Meta by The M
Best Presentation: Adventures Of Robot X by Pixel-Team
Best Story: Forty or the Modern Big Brother by SoapSud39



Reviews
Full ranking:
  1. Crimson Festival by Alice, FunkyPoop
  2. Forty or the Modern Big Brother by SoapSud39
  3. Candles Have Feelings by JordanOttesen
  4. Adventures Of Robot X by Pixel-Team
  5. Party Animal by TehPilot, TheFugue
  6. Plague Rats by Nocturne
  7. 3 Mice In A Trenchcoat by Bart, TheSnidr, Xor, Naterboy
  8. Emmy And Sal by Mercerenies
  9. Wham Bam Dan Jam Slam by GameDevDan
  10. Need For Beats by Matharoo, BlaineTanuki, _aeternumgames
  11. Demon Dance by Mightyjor, Twintertainment, Brett-Bit
  12. GreymoorHall by Ninety
  13. Party Mountain by AJTheApple
  14. Final Battle by Kahrabaa
  15. Your Brain On Party by thijsmie
  16. Crimson Guild's Glamorous Guest List by Mr Magnus
  17. The Golden Balloon by Little Penguin Studios
  18. Candle Wars by Yozoraki
  19. Quickly! Dispensegifts by Allison James
  20. Jam Defenders by Kepons
  21. Jenka Dungeon by dosto, Reaktori, Riuku
  22. The Annual GMC Party by O_stogden
  23. Wastoid Rodney by Cloaked Games, JosephEllis, BlakeNorth
  24. The Matchmaker (HTML5 ONLY, OPEN FOLDER) by eimie
  25. Florida Man by BreakfastBoy
  26. Snake Dance by Greenblizzard
  27. Hero Horde by PinesOfChaos
  28. Me pARRty by ghandpivot
  29. Queen by Toque
  30. Gangs Bash by D'Andrew Box
  31. Castle Meta by The M
  32. One Big Party by Gizmo199, shortbread
  33. HealthBar by Fanatrick
  34. Barry Bear's Birthday by Richerama
  35. The Party Must Go On by GVmG
  36. Robot Surprise Party by samspade
  37. Apocalypse party by aspiringgamemaker
  38. Jaguar Pogo Party by TotallyAverageGamez
  39. happy birthday by Yal
  40. Blackout by Siolfor the Jackal
  41. Survival Party by HayManMarc
  42. Christmas with Uncle Tom by BluishGreenPro
  43. Crazy Waiter by Gatefiz, JP, Claire Dujardin, Benfik
  44. Keyboard Hero by tadashibashi
  45. GMC Fruit Salad Surfer by Yal
  46. Hero Huddle by ThinGinger
  47. Escape of the Clowns by kburkhart84
  48. Roborazzi by Kultisti, Sulo
  49. Fiesta Down by VinylFly
  50. Party Animals by ScaryPotato, Kalzme
  51. Behemoth by sp202
  52. Extinction Tea Party by Moon Goat
  53. One Big Political Party by Terminator_Pony
  54. Dr Smiley's Brain Jam Party by Yal
  55. Party Detective by Mercyssh
  56. City Scuttler by Bearman_18
  57. Fantasy Strategy Clicker by Julien, Hyomoto
  58. Fiesta Fist by Cristobal, MatthewPattel
  59. Candle by Steelegms2
  60. The Retrieval by Dr Wolf
  61. Party Guardians by StarDreamIX
  62. Life Party by Cat
  63. dawg the party animal by NivesStudio
  64. Survive the Party by Nejc Podlipnik
  65. The Way Back To The Party by Noodlehead
  66. GMC Party Adventure by Imagine Galaxy
  67. R-pg-ING by Micah_DS
  68. get to the party by Wabb, sequential
  69. Party Paddles by Fusai
  70. Party Parade by Tristan
  71. Party Puker by Ben Stitt
  72. Party Pooper by Lukan
  73. The Scattered Army by Sirham
  74. dumburk 9000 by Bret Hudson, Allen Webster, Jared Cohen
  75. Goin' All Nite by Dadio
  76. matoset by Poizen

Comments:

3 Mice In A Trenchcoat by Bart, TheSnidr, Xor, Naterboy

Game looks very good, some bugs with the trenchcoat, the ai, and physics, Please watch my playthrough to understand how broken I made this game

Adventures Of Robot X by Pixel-Team

Amazing as always! Very well done!

Apocalypse party by aspiringgamemaker

Need polish, maybe a better way to get the player to explore for ammo, a high risk high reward situation

Barry Bear's Birthday by Richerama

No mercy, this game is very unforgiving, however its very cute, and very basic gameplay and such, but the rng ends up forcing you to fail at times.

Behemoth by sp202

People are not helpful, Very interesting concept, beat it and was awesome!

Blackout by Siolfor the Jackal

WHERE IS MY RAT PARTY! I WAS PROMISED! I'LL KILL HIM AGAIN, animation is amazing as allways, your music is fantastic, i hope keanu reeves audition worked out for him!

Candle by Steelegms2

Game feels half-done, needs music, more structure, the foundation is here but the game is missing

Candle Wars by Yozoraki

If going to use a custom mouse sprite set the normal windows mouse to none using windows_set_curusrere(cr_none)
The sond effect for not having x to do y is very jaring and can be played over and over

all in all a very nice game
game needs some plolish and it will be 11/10

Candles Have Feelings by JordanOttesen

This is very well done!, A lot of game desgine choices That I agree with a lot, A amazing entery 10/10

Castle Meta by The M

The concept of leaving stuff for the lext player is a very cool idea!, Gamplay is simple and fun to do, all in all soild game, would have the background a darker color for it to be eaiser to teel the diffreance betwen what I can walk on and not.

Christmas with Uncle Tom by BluishGreenPro

So the pixel art and music and desgine was really great! In terms of a game with gameplay there isnt that much,

City Scuttler by Bearman_18

Bearman I love you, But this game needs a lot more love then I for you, Some music, better controls, and this game will do amazing!

Color Splash by EvanSki

go commite the die

Crazy Waiter by Gatefiz, JP, Claire Dujardin, Benfik

These controls suck, but I think thats the whole point, music is kind of quite and repeatative, very hard to score points unless you get good rng

Crimson Festival by Alice, FunkyPoop

I abosulityl love this, the idea of having the other games be linked to this one is an amzing idea!!!!
The presentation was very good, the story of it all being connected was an exelent touch!, Sad that there were some bugs with what games were enabled though!
all in all and amazing and fantastic work and the idea will forever been on of the best I've seen, Its an very wholesome idea to have the entire gang's works be made as a collective thought and to work with the idea of a party
this is by far the best use of the theme One big party! The ammount of work this had to envolve with other people is insane to think about! 20/10

Crimson Guild's Glamorous Guest List by Mr Magnus

It would have been better to advoid maching words like drving and dacning , then shirt and skirt, otherwise very well done, played it more then I thought I would!

dawg the party animal by NivesStudio

music makes me loose control

Demon Dance by Mightyjor, Twintertainment, Brett-Bit

Funky Chonky! very fun, maybe some more polish and its great 11/10

Dr Smiley's Brain Jam Party by Yal

The art is insance, but its tetris with a twist, pretty fun

dumburk 9000 by Bret Hudson, Allen Webster, Jared Cohen

Nice concept but like you said game was unfinsihed

Emmy And Sal by Mercerenies

Big Brain Hurty Juice being splashed in my face holes, very good game!

Escape of the Clowns by kburkhart84

The uncanny vally feels weird but I like the 3d ness of it, The game was kind of annoying to play but I liked that sort of, Wish I had gotten my party I was promised!

Extinction Tea Party by Moon Goat

Would have liked music, More polish!

Fantasy Strategy Clicker by Julien, Hyomoto

I would reccomend options to reduce the ammount of clicking like such 10x 100x options for clicks, or just a send all button for army
instructions for the game, time management powerups

Fiesta Down by VinylFly

very cute, and fun to play, window really small

Fiesta Fist by Cristobal, MatthewPattel

I like the concept its a fighting game, but the controls are kind of awkward and the people dont come towards you you have to go fuind them

Final Battle by Kahrabaa

Tutorial error: Unable to find any instance for object index '9' name 'objChest'
at gml_Object_objMain_Step_2

Add some polish and make it a full game, very fun to play and waste time on

Florida Man by BreakfastBoy

Look into platformer tropes such as input buffering and cyotie time, otherwise amazing florida man experiance

Forty or the Modern Big Brother by SoapSud39

Damn you DAN! I WAS FAITHFUL TO DADDY!
Art, theme, style, PErfect!

Gangs Bash by D'Andrew Box

The code needs some tighening, the AI is terrible or over powered theres no inbetween, art and style plus the crt shader very nice,

get to the party by Wabb, sequential

Lemmings is fun, this game is not

GMC Fruit Salad Surfer by Yal

odd. not sure what to say here, nice concept

GMC Party Adventure by Imagine Galaxy

The minimun level of requirement for a game has been reached but I feel like you could have done a lot more, maybe tightened up the controls, the Ai is the worst, having to reason for any of the actions they do and being sent to the start of the level is soul crushing

Goin' All Nite by Dadio

:~

NOT A GAME! :(

GreymoorHall by Ninety

Some polish and turn this into a full game 11/10

happy birthday by Yal

Wheres my party i was promised?! I like the atmosphere and the spook vibes but with no pay off, I might have missed something, and if I did It didnt become apparent at the time.

HealthBar by Fanatrick

Very difficlue to mix colore well, no support for color blind people, very nice concept, would like the musicer louder

Hero Horde by PinesOfChaos

The music and art and gameplay were very nive, would like to see it fleashed out and with a little easier balancing or game modes

Hero Huddle by ThinGinger


Jaguar Pogo Party by TotallyAverageGamez

Needs polish and have a uniqueness to it to make it stand out from all the other platformers

Jam Defenders by Kepons

Music! a background and its perfect 11/10

Jenka Dungeon by dosto, Reaktori, Riuku

All in all Needs menu, maybe some tweaking of rng enemyies eitherway good game 10/10

Keyboard Hero by tadashibashi

I like the style of the game and the graphics, very game boy esk, i like the idea of a guitar hero clone, too makny keys to keep track of, with certian keyboards deeping on the manufactuar, there is an effect called keyboard ghosting, and what that is , is when you press certian keys, all at once, only a few, will actually registar. Something to keep in mind of with lots of keyboard presses.

Life Party by Cat

Best virus ever!, Needs work done for it, fun concept.

matoset by Poizen


___________________________________________
############################################################################################
FATAL ERROR in
action number 1
of Other Event: Room Start
for object obj_menu:

string_copy argument 1 incorrect type (undefined) expecting a String (YYGS)
at gml_Object_obj_menu_Other_4
############################################################################################
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
stack frame is
gml_Object_obj_menu_Other_4 (line -1)


___________________________________________
############################################################################################
ERROR in
action number 1
of Create Event
for object oGlobalStatsIOController:

Data structure with index does not exist.
at gml_Script_gs_getSetting
############################################################################################
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
stack frame is
gml_Script_gs_getSetting (line -1)
gml_Script_gs_getPlayerID
gml_Object_oGlobalStatsIOController_Create_0

Me pARRty by ghandpivot

Its perfect the way it is, 11/10
Eat everyone

Need For Beats by Matharoo, BlaineTanuki, _aeternumgames

I love this, I want it as a full game like a guitar hero style game, with controller support

One Big Party by Gizmo199, shortbread

Shader was the issue,
very fun game

One Big Political Party by Terminator_Pony

Love the wire frame effect!, The concept was really good, think the balancing is kind of broken or im a good dictator.

Party Animal by TehPilot, TheFugue

The only thing I feel lacking is the use of theme, other then that very wel put together, the style was very nice, gameplay was good.

Party Animals by ScaryPotato, Kalzme

ERROR in
action number 1
of Alarm Event for alarm 0
for object SpinController:

Variable Index [3] out of range [2]
at gml_Script_move_top_SpinGameState_gml_GlobalScript_SpinGameState

Big issue, i have no friends and this game is a party game that requires friendos, the concpt was good, i got to be a raccoon so +100000points, good concept

Party Detective by Mercyssh

therng doesnt really help this game, the text overlaps a bit, good concept

Party Guardians by StarDreamIX

I like the pixel art graphics, they clash with the realistic photos though, very basic, if there was a level 3 it wouldnt play

Party Mountain by AJTheApple

0/10 no party :(

Platformer looks amazing and feels great!
Its kind of raging inducing but that makes me want to play more and try to beat it!
So sad its short!

Party Paddles by Fusai

Pong is a great game, very simple, only two plays, this has 8 and I have no idea whats happening, I had high hopes but it would seem any game titled "paty p." is doomed to not bee up to what they could be
very confusing to play

Party Parade by Tristan

It could be better, The art is very microsoft paint, the music is one track and gets stale fast, the gameplay is very basic and easy, Theres a lot of room for improvment, you have to belive in yourself and have confidance that you can achive more then this, this is a steping stone in the right direction, look forward to seeing more from you

Party Pooper by Lukan

I feel like even with the time alloted you could have come up with an even better idea then this, If you had some life event happen then the game as it is, is understandable, but as what I know currently as writing this and what I see, you could have done better. I belive in you, I belive with your experiance, even if you're bad at art, if you're bad at code, you could have made something even greater then this. Think of this as a steping stone of your ablities as a game dev, and I hope to see better. You need to have confidance in yourself! Always belive in your self! Until you cant, then belive in your self more!

Party Puker by Ben Stitt

10/10 best simulation of social anxiety -IGN

You can do better! Belive in your self! You can maka the best gamer ever! just have confidancey!

Plague Rats by Nocturne

Fix the bug, make it longer, very fun game looks very nice, love to see more of this

Queen by Toque

Toque as always makes very funny and fun games. The shooting is a little off center which isnt so bad but kind of weird to get used to, over all very nice

Quickly! Dispensegifts by Allison James

Its fun to play, the controls are kind of confusing, up and down should have been for moving on the line, left and right should have been for direction, because of the rotation, the music is very edgy
very fun to play though, aalso the buisness man needs soap in his mouth!

Roborazzi by Kultisti, Sulo

I understand what Im trying to do to an extent, otherwise very confusing and instructions didnt have controls in them

Robot Surprise Party by samspade

Very hard, very un fair, or maybe Im jsut really bad at this game, nice concept

R-pg-ING by Micah_DS

Nice concept, polish it, and hope to see more

Snake Dance by Greenblizzard

Very interesting take on combing hole in the wall with snake

Survival Party by HayManMarc

the balanceing is pretty difficult after the first level, i like the art, music and concept.

Survive the Party by Nejc Podlipnik

Game needs more polish, throws up into the game hopes you can swim

The Annual GMC Party by O_stogden

All Hale Noctunre! All Hale Noctunre! All Hale Noctunre! All Hale Noctunre! All Hale Noctunre! All Hale Noctunre!

Im in this game! 10000000000000000000000000000/10

The Golden Balloon by Little Penguin Studios

Polish, some collsions got snuffed, very fun and cutsy

The Matchmaker (HTML5 ONLY, OPEN FOLDER) by eimie

I like the art, music and sound, good game
weird how your website collects ip's tho

The Party Must Go On by GVmG

I like the arty style, I like that i can drift and crash into things with the shopping trolly, would like some visual effect to tell me where to go in the store, did not seem that the game had an ending, I really enjoyed this.

The Retrieval by Dr Wolf

This game goes far over my head and has a steep learning curve, the manual all be it short made stuff more confusing for my small raccoon brain

Alright after some time, reading and pratice I got pretty far then
FATAL ERROR in
action number 1
of Alarm Event for alarm 1
for object obj_combat_master:

point_distance argument 3 incorrect type (undefined) expecting a Number (YYGF)

I think this is a great concept and a great style, given a while Im sure I could get good at it and master the game but I dont think that is a good approch for a game jam,
Kiss, Keep it simple stupid, Honestly I'd reccomend adding more polish and making it a full game,

The Scattered Army by Sirham

This game needs work and love put into it, as it stand right now, its not very good

The Way Back To The Party by Noodlehead

Needs more work done to it, music, poilsh, gameplay

Wastoid Rodney by Cloaked Games, JosephEllis, BlakeNorth

I suck at this game, very nice concept, gameplay and art! 10/10

Wham Bam Dan Jam Slam by GameDevDan

Very nice as allways, the text was kinds overlayed on itself and the shader didnt help that fact, all in all very fun game, DAN POWER!

Your Brain On Party by thijsmie

some polish, balancingon the values, minor bug fixes and soild game! 10/10
 
Last edited:

Mr Magnus

Viking King
1. Party Animal by TehPilot, TheFugue
A wonderfully presented game oozing with polish and everything I could like. Jazzy soundtracks, a unique style, and a cute cat.
Frankly, there isn't much I don't like here. The premise is simple but it's interesting enough that it could probably keep me occupied on its own merits even if it would just be solid squares and circles. The fact you chose to present this as well as you did just made it all the more wonderful of an experience.

Very little wrong with this game other than that I'd have loved more levels: but that's hopefully for June. Wonderful job.

2. Emmy And Sal by Mercerenies
A lovely Mercerenies puzzle game with charming dialogue.

The artstyle is simple but effective. It's a solid narrative with entertaining writing with jokes that stick the landing no matter how clichƩ they are. The puzzles themselves are not the hardest around but they pose enough of a challenge and are presented well enough that even the simplest of them are good fun. The fact that you managed to keep the difficulty curve reasonable is an achivement in and of itself given how hard making good puzzles is to begin with.

Great job.
Final Battle by Kahrabaa
This was more or less just what I needed. It starts a bit slow and it gets repetitive quite fast, but the mellow colors and gentle soundtrack make it a suprisingly zen experience. Just spend a few minutes walking your posse around and cut trough anyone arriving to cramp on your style like butter.

I think what really makes this game is the music choice. The music implies that this isn't some exciting adventure, it's just a calming people gathering game. You presented this well and as a result I was more than happy just spending a minute or ten zoing out while walking to the right. Jumping however may need to be reworked: I don't think I ever jumped outside of the tutorial. Come to think of it I didn't really use much other than just the mouse and gather, but that's maybe a point in favor. Simple controls allow for simple experiences to zone out to.


Best ofs:
Best use of One Big Party : Crimson Festival by Alice, FunkyPoop
Best Concept: Castle Meta by The M
Best Presentation: Party Animal by TehPilot, TheFugue
Best Story: Christmas with Uncle Tom by BluishGreenPro

I'd like to take this time to be amazed at how wonderful this jam was. I've been having a blast getting trough all of these games.
I had incredible difficulties putting this ranking together and most of them are just splitting hairs between personal opinion. There isn't that much gap between the tenth place and thirtieth place, or what have you. No matter where I ranked your game you can be incredibly proud of yourself, this was a blast and I'm blown away with how great of a collection we got in such a gigantic jam.

Well done everyone.

I tried to surround all the comments with spoilers, but the text editor was not playing ball. If you can't find your game try the surrounding games: your game may have gotten caught up in someone elses reviews.


Full ranking:
  1. Party Animal by TehPilot, TheFugue
  2. Emmy And Sal by Mercerenies
  3. Final Battle by Kahrabaa
  4. GreymoorHall by Ninety
  5. Christmas with Uncle Tom by BluishGreenPro
  6. Jam Defenders by Kepons
  7. Crimson Festival by Alice
  8. Adventures Of Robot X by Pixel-Team
  9. Survival Party by HayManMarc
  10. Wastoid Rodney by Cloaked Games, JosephEllis, BlakeNorth
  11. The Golden Balloon by Little Penguin Studios
  12. Quickly! Dispensegifts by Allison James
  13. Demon Dance by Mightyjor, Twintertainment, Brett-Bit
  14. Blackout by Siolfor the Jackal
  15. Candles Have Feelings by JordanOttesen
  16. Candle Wars by Yozoraki
  17. The Matchmaker (HTML5 ONLY, OPEN FOLDER) by eimie
  18. One Big Party by Gizmo199, shortbread
  19. Wham Bam Dan Jam Slam by GameDevDan
  20. Party Mountain by AJTheApple
  21. The Party Must Go On by GVmG
  22. Robot Surprise Party by samspade
  23. Queen by Toque
  24. The Annual GMC Party by O_stogden
  25. Snake Dance by Greenblizzard
  26. Plague Rats by Nocturne
  27. Castle Meta by The M
  28. Hero Horde by PinesOfChaos
  29. Party Detective by Mercyssh
  30. Escape of the Clowns by kburkhart84
  31. Fiesta Down by VinylFly
  32. Keyboard Hero by tadashibashi
  33. Roborazzi by Kultisti, Sulo
  34. Dr Smiley's Brain Jam Party by Yal
  35. Jenka Dungeon by dosto, Reaktori, Riuku
  36. Fiesta Fist by Cristobal, MatthewPattel
  37. Hero Huddle by ThinGinger
  38. Jaguar Pogo Party by TotallyAverageGamez
  39. Florida Man by BreakfastBoy
  40. HealthBar by Fanatrick
  41. Forty or the Modern Big Brother by SoapSud39
  42. The Retrieval by Dr Wolf
  43. Fantasy Strategy Clicker by Julien, Hyomoto
  44. One Big Political Party by Terminator_Pony
  45. Behemoth by sp202
  46. 3 Mice In A Trenchcoat by Bart, TheSnidr, Xor, Naterboy
  47. Your Brain On Party by thijsmie
  48. Need For Beats by Matharoo, BlaineTanuki, _aeternumgames
  49. Candle by Steelegms2
  50. Survive the Party by Nejc Podlipnik
  51. GMC Fruit Salad Surfer by Yal
  52. Party Paddles by Fusai
  53. Barry Bear's Birthday by Richerama
  54. The Scattered Army by Sirham
  55. The Way Back To The Party by Noodlehead
  56. happy birthday by Yal
  57. Gangs Bash by D'Andrew Box
  58. Crazy Waiter by Gatefiz, JP, Claire Dujardin, Benfik
  59. Me pARRty by ghandpivot
  60. Extinction Tea Party by Moon Goat
  61. Party Animals by ScaryPotato, Kalzme
  62. Apocalypse party by aspiringgamemaker
  63. matoset by Poizen
  64. GMC Party Adventure by Imagine Galaxy
  65. dawg the party animal by NivesStudio
  66. Party Parade by Tristan
  67. R-pg-ING by Micah_DS
  68. Color Splash by EvanSki
  69. Party Pooper by Lukan
  70. Party Guardians by StarDreamIX
  71. Party Puker by Ben Stitt
  72. City Scuttler by Bearman_18
  73. get to the party by Wabb, sequential
  74. dumburk 9000 by Bret Hudson, Allen Webster, Jared Cohen
  75. Life Party by Cat
  76. Goin' All Nite by Dadio

Comments:
3 Mice In A Trenchcoat by Bart, TheSnidr, Xor, Naterboy
I have a lot of respect for those who attempt 3d in a jam with Game Maker, simply because while it's gotten easier in the past it's not really what GM is made for. I loved TheSnidr's models and the general vibe of the game. Well fitting music and fun mouse platforming.

However the game had some performance issues on my computer, the camera often clipped in to walls, and I wasn't always aware what I was supposed to be doing other than running around and being adorable. Nothing disqualifying given the effort it took to get this running, but something to consider if you keep developing it. It got a lot better once I set it to potato.

However the more pressing issue is the lack of clear controls, or at least I didn't see them. Giving players a sense of what to do would be welcome for dumdums like me.
Adventures Of Robot X by Pixel-Team
The amount of polish and quality you manage to produce on the regular is incredibly impressive. A well put together jam game that's a really solid game as well. Well written, hits every beat it wanted to hit, and looks and sounds fantastic.
It's not my exact cup of tea but I can't deny that it's very well made and plays like it was made in much more than four days. Your output is fantastic and you can be proud of that.
Apocalypse party by aspiringgamemaker
Why do all these zombies have such good knowledge on how to safely destroy electric generators? :(
The movement could use some work as moving diagonally was a bit tricky. The ammo could have used some spawn checking as it often appeared inside walls where I couldn't get to it.
however this is a solid top down shooter and while rough around the edges it does what it set out to do.
Barry Bear's Birthday by Richerama
Fun idea and execution. An absolutely adorable game. However the calibration was a bit off. Often it was impossible to jump or punch the designated balloons as they flew right over my head or Barry didn't jump high enough. The random colors probably wasn't required. I never got beyond the sweets level as replaying the balloon level was inconsistent and very quickly got tired. I witnessed the other minigames on a stream and they seemed quite a bit easier than the minigames that start the game off. However the graphics were nice and I had decent enough fun for a small bit.
Behemoth by sp202
A very interesting concept. It's a very risky concept given that those that played it first were completely lost and those that came later got the entire answer fed to them. However I liked it. The driving-in-snowstorm effect was really cool, and I'm sure Bill Cipher agrees.
It's a very avant-guard entry, but we need a couple of those.
Blackout by Siolfor the Jackal
As a rock-fan I am really digging this soundtrack.
The game is a bit short, but for what is here is very good. The dialogue, albeit a bit simplistic, is fun and well written. The jokes land well, and watching other people murdering the rat to the shock and horror to the audience was a delight.
Candle by Steelegms2
I presume this is just going to go on forever.
A neat little dungeon crawler with randomly generated elements, which are always hard to pull off. It did more or less what it said it was going to do on the tin and while it's not terribly difficult it's a good time for a few minutes. I very much like the cute attacking candles and my... lighter wizard?
There isn't much here which is the main issue. After you've seen the first room you've seen all of them, so I'd wish that there had been time for a bit more variation in mechanics and challenges.
Candle Wars by Yozoraki
A very lovely RTS. Manuvering the units around was a bit awkward, I'd have liked if the cupcakes would have returned to me once they finished their tasks and I often found that I had the wrong unit selected when I wanted something done and the game wasn't clear if I could swap between selected units easily. The cookies could also attack on sight instead of needing to be plopped down like towers.
Beyond that it was wonderful. Very colorful, fun to play, a bit repetitive music loop given how long the game can drag out but a good listen none the less.
Well done.
Candles Have Feelings by JordanOttesen
Lovely presentation, cute idea and a fun - if challenging - gameplay. If anything I'd wished death didn't restart everything as replaying the same fairly slow bit bit again and again and again quickly grates. I feel as if the screen is a bit too tight, you had very little time between a gauntlet appearing and you navigating trough it.
So yes, I think this may be developer difficulty sneaking in. I think the game is a lot more difficult than you think it is as you've played it half a hundred times while developing it. However that aside it really is adorable and you have a wonderful style.
Castle Meta by The M
The idea is very cool. However the penalty for dying being starting the entire zone again is way too harsh, especially given how often you have to press awkward keyboard combinations to both move out of harms way and use certain tools. This game became a lot more managable with a controller. It was very polished however and well put together, and love these out-there ideas.
Our of curiosities sake I tried beating the game without picking up two of the center pieces. Turns out if you win the game just ignores your final configuration. I and my bad playstyle feel discriminated against.
Christmas with Uncle Tom by BluishGreenPro
A bit out of season, aren't we?
This is wonderful. A little flash in to family life. It's cute, it's well put together, it doesn't outstay it's welcome. It may not be as "exciting" as a lot of the other entries but it's honest. It's questionable if this counts as a big party, but it is a party and a loving one at that. Maybe I'm just a sucker for a good slice of life family affair, but I really fell for this one.
City Scuttler by Bearman_18
A Rouge-like. A bit on the more directionless side, I found myself wandering around more than doing anything interesting. A whole lot of sheet metal, a buch of locked doors, and a city filled with bullies that kept killing me.
I'm very sorry, I gave it a good go but you generally need some sort of hook to get your players drawn in: especially for a jam game where players only have a few minutes to get a feel for your game if they want to be able to play the other games before Christmas. Going for a Rouge-like is very brave and you get points for atmosphere, but I just got lost and confused because there wasn't a clear objective and the map (fittingly for a city) was pretty large.
Color Splash by EvanSki
The menu looked lovely and the music is dope. The declared concept would have been fun, but it is unfortunaty it didn't come together in time. That's how it goes sometimes. You'll get 'em next time.
Crazy Waiter by Gatefiz, JP, Claire Dujardin, Benfik
Why are there so many people just recklessly walking trough my kitchen? Does the health inspector know about this?
A fairly entertaining game. It's a bit slippery to control and after a while you just start ignoring people in your way because the penalty is minimal and they have a real knack for being in ten people large groups all in my way with the person being delivered to right in the middle. The sound effect were quite entertaining and the music (despite the random clicking and clacking on the title screen) was a good listen while I got annoyed at people vomiting all over.
Crimson Festival by Alice
It's going to be really hard to be unbiased with this one because it has the emotional baggage of being linked to both so many good games, but a great community that sprang up from the red gang. Aside from being an adorable visual novel in of itself wherever I look in this entry I am reminded of the great time I had in the Crimson Guild Discord bouncing ideas and having a lovely time with other gang members. Alice, I've said this in the Discord as well but you can really be proud of what you did here. I don't think anyone here but you would have put this amount of effort in gathering, organizing, and fostering a sense of team spirit amongst the red gang and it shows in how great this jam turned out for the guild. Amazing work on all fronts.
dawg the party animal by NivesStudio
If I were to be honest I'd probably prefer had this not had any music at all. The three second loop grates on you really fast.
Beyond that I quite enjoyed this. Sure, it was a bit of a mixed bag, the fruit minigame was too long but the laser tag was quite fun for what it was. The art style was charming and the dialogue gave me a chuckle. It's not something I'd play again, but I enjoyed it none the less.
Demon Dance by Mightyjor, Twintertainment, Brett-Bit
A fun little rhythm game. I did experience some amount of lag and the bonus handouts seemed a bit inconsistent no matter if I followed the music or tried perfect arrow centering.
The music was great however and you did great on the visuals: so your main issue is just tightening up the mechanics so that the timing is more clean.
Dr Smiley's Brain Jam Party by Yal
Yal. Seriously? Three games? I only had time for one and that one resulted in a lot of lost sleep!
That aside I really think out of the three this is the strongest one. It's a very simple, tried and tested concept that's engaging enough that you want to keep playing after you failed but short enough that it's quick to play, get an idea of what this game is about, and see it to the end. I'd advertise the fact some blocks behave differently (i.e fruits not obeying gravity) better than just hiding it behind an F1 menu because I almost assumed that was a bug caused by inaccurate hitboxes. The presentation, while a bit messy, was cohesive and fit well with the general drunken theme of the matched items.
Well done!
dumburk 9000 by Bret Hudson, Allen Webster, Jared Cohen
I'd probably be interested in a more full version of this. However this naturally was very barebones and after a while it devolved in to "Hold space to advance because you've bought everything". However I would have appriciated more direction, as I still have no idea what the dance floor did. I'm interested in this entry, but unfortunatly I can't place it very high in my rankings for the simple fact that it's not much of a game. It's a fun concept, but it's little more than concept at the moment. Hopefully that will change.
Emmy And Sal by Mercerenies
A lovely Mercerenies puzzle game with charming dialogue.
The artstyle is simple but effective. It's a solid narrative with entertaining writing with jokes that stick the landing no matter how clichƩ they are. The puzzles themselves are not the hardest around but they pose enough of a challenge and are presented well enough that even the simplest of them are good fun. The fact that you managed to keep the difficulty curve reasonable is an achivement in and of itself given how hard making good puzzles is to begin with.
Great job.
Escape of the Clowns by kburkhart84
Red comic sans on gray is not a pleasant color choice.
That being said I am very happy with all the improvements I've seen this game go trough. The game felt a lot snappier, the prerendered sprites, while a bit scary, worked well, the music and how it faded in and out as appropriate was very enjoyable. The game could still use a fair bit of polish to go but I'm very happy how it came out. Well done.
Extinction Tea Party by Moon Goat
A simple and entertaining game. I'd so wish that you'd have had some good sounds and even just a free stock music track because this little fast paced avoid-the-lazer driven game is genuinly a good fun with a good level of polish. The controls are a tad floaty meaning it's hard to be precise when avoiding things, and the theme is a bit loosely applied, but overall this is a good entry.
Fantasy Strategy Clicker by Julien, Hyomoto
I fell for a goddammed skinner box. I've been sat here for an hour and a half clicking options and watching numbers grow.

On that note: the numbers grow too slowly. Specifically the recruit conscript button. When you're asking me to make 2500 of the suckers I'd like to be able to buy them in sets of more than 20. If you've developed your town even slightly you've soon got enough resources to bribe the threat to just bugger off while you're stuck watching your army grow the speed of snails on their day off. Some more information or tooltips would be nice as I had to guess what the buildings did by guessing what the name implied and seeing what numbers went up faster. Also, the enemy numbers go up too fast. Three waves and you ask me to make a military that would rival the modern day USA. I could have a whole military parade with all the units I had to make twenty at a time. Twenty! Assuming a set of twenty takes ten seconds the time it would have required to make the 4000-odd army to defeat the wave I got stuck at I'd have to sit here and do nothing but click the buttons for half an hour straight. Half an hour! What sort of absolute nonsense is this? It's 2 in the morning, and my dog is whining at me to go take a quick walk and then head to bed. What on earth is this "You can sell a thousand barrels of food in a click and have a baby farm multiplying at the rate of a metric Shanghai per second, but you can't train more than twenty conscripts at a time. Nonsense. 90 minutes gone and I'm not even sure I had fun for most of it. I downloaded Cheat Engine to speed this up and all that got me was me forgetting that GM values are doubles and crashed my game! Then I restarted, cheated my way to victory, and what did I get?
... a lovely melody. So.... kind of worth it. Maybe. I'll have to sleep on it.

9/10, Hate it. Visuals a bit dull. Would play again for another hour and a half.
Fiesta Down by VinylFly
Absolutely adorable. I'm a sucker for cute games. The gameplay was quite simple and the first half of the gameplay proved a bit empty as it was always a question of simply who made it trough the hole first, but it's a lovely little pacakge. I'd try to rebalance this so that it doesn't just boil down to the last few seconds, but it's a good game none the less.
Fiesta Fist by Cristobal, MatthewPattel
I think I encountered a bug. The first time I played the letter was just lying there on the ground in the middle of the street on the first level. I half thought this was an unfinished game that just got the content cut. However on second playtrough I finally got some enemies.
I'd have suggested making the controls more obvious. WASD is a standard but RTY isn't what I would have expected as the action buttons. I found them, but there was a while I was just staring at the main menu mashing buttons.
However that aside this is a very well put together game. It is polished, it is fun, it doesn't overstay it's welcome, it's well drawn and has a bopping soundtrack. This is a very tough jam so I don't know how it will eventually compare in my rankings, but I really liked this one and you can be proud of it.
Final Battle by Kahrabaa
This was more or less just what I needed. It starts a bit slow and it gets repetitive quite fast, but the mellow colors and gentle soundtrack make it a suprisingly zen experience. Just spend a few minutes walking your posse around and cut trough anyone arriving to cramp on your style like butter.
I think what really makes this game is the music choice. The music implies that this isn't some exciting adventure, it's just a calming people gathering game. You presented this well and as a result I was more than happy just spending a minute or ten zoing out while walking to the right. Jumping however may need to be reworked: I don't think I ever jumped outside of the tutorial. Come to think of it I didn't really use much other than just the mouse and gather, but that's maybe a point in favor. Simple controls allow for simple experiences to zone out to.
Florida Man by BreakfastBoy
Quite hard to control, but it's a very decent platformer. The fit to the theme is remarkably loose, but I guess everything's a party in Florida. I wouldn't know: I've never been there.
Forty or the Modern Big Brother by SoapSud39
Grand Daddy is watching you.
Well put together, a short little visual novel that follows the source material and adapts is in an entertaining way to the theme and forum. I question a bit if I enjoy this because it's a good game or because I am very familiar with the source material which is followed nearly scene for scene in the largest skipping stones. That aside however I I enjoyed the meta-aspect of the puzzles and themes and the visual style is top-notch. Well done.
Gangs Bash by D'Andrew Box
I sense some Crash Bash DNA, or maybe it's just a shared premise from all of these bash party games.
Quite fun, quite simple. The AI needs a bit of reworking as if you die first it is very possible that they just run around in circles for all of eternity. Maybe a time limit at the least. I recognized a few of the tracks, but they were well chosen anyhow. Simple graphics but sufficient for the purpose. An all around solid collection of minigames.
get to the party by Wabb, sequential
I assume the last level is supposed to loop. However a tiny indicator would have been nice. That aside the idea was fun. Execution a bit rough, often controlling who did what was a bit of a shaky hit, but once you manage it it's a neat little puzzler.
GMC Fruit Salad Surfer by Yal
I think this game is 90% shaders, and that's probably a good thing. A very simple arcade game presented as such. It was colorful, it was polished, it had good audio design, it was a complete little package with nothing really to add. It's not terribly varied but it doesn't always have to be. I enjoyed this quite a bit.
GMC Party Adventure by Imagine Galaxy
I honestly should not have enjoyed this as much as I did. It was very rough around the edges, the controls were janky as all hell, and the assets that I did manage to find appealing probably were not original. However all of that just gave the game a kind of charm that I don't often associate with these sort of "first affair" games. The fact you bothered to voice act was amazing and the writing was very well done even if simple. The fact the controls were so janky just added to the gameplay because I could use the fact I stuck to walls and floated along ceilings to actually move around the enemies and treat this almost like a stealth game.

Very well done. It's not the most technically impressive game in this jam, but it's a wonderful game none the less in all of it's roughness. Sadly this is a very strong jam with a lot of very polished entrants, so I suspect this won't come up very high. Don't let that discourage you however, keep doing what you like and it will pull trough eventually.
Goin' All Nite by Dadio
Your game has a bug. You can move the pills very fast and suspend them in mid air. 0/10, game breaking flaw. Please fix in post jam version.

GreymoorHall by Ninety
Very entertaining, and a wonderful execution on a simple but clever premise. I took a minute or two to realize what I should do, but in the end I enjoyed this a lot. My only vice is that once you've talked to everyone and found the gemstone you kind of just have to wait there until the target happens to walk far enough away, leaving quite a bit of downtime where nothing is happening. I'd suggest having the guests walk around in a fixed pattern instead of somewhat randomly so that it's clear when people will be where and when it's safe to strike without waiting it out. The calm jazz soundtrack helped ease the wait a bit, and I love the decision to present us as meeples on a game board.
happy birthday by Yal
My laptop does not like all those shaders in 3D.
A bit of an esoteric game built more on atmpshpere than anything. It's delightfully out there. However after a while the pretty dreamlike effects just made finding the balloons harder than it really should have been. However it looks great and has a very haunting feel that I really enjoy.
HealthBar by Fanatrick
I quite like these color mixing games. I'm absolute rubbish at them, but I like them. This one created a very mellow atmosphere that I enjoyed. The filling is a bit slow and it's not a lot too it once you've gotten the basic jist of it but it's fun for a bit and well put together.
Hero Horde by PinesOfChaos
Strategy tip: running to the last boss with just your starting character does not work.
Honestly? I played this for a lot longer than I expected. It's fun, quirky, a full scale action RPG squashed down to a ten minute session. I'd wish I was any good at it, but that's hardly the fault of the game. I'm not sure that I agree with the quite rapid spike in ally prices, given that it's very seldom worth it buying units from the top level villages. If you've got the time it's almost more valuable to go back to the earlier villages, get cheaper units, and train them quickly before going to the final boss.
Hero Huddle by ThinGinger
The end bosses spiral attack is a bit too tricky to effectivly manuver to be entertaining, but this is a great game none the less. I'd wish we're given a bit more leeway because allies die very quickly. However the simple strategy you can form from just the three unit types is really good. Replayability is suprising given the static nature of the game, so well done there on the engagement.
Jaguar Pogo Party by TotallyAverageGamez
Well polished, but a bit barebones. I got a tad confused when I got all 12 presents and nothing happened in either level, so a bit better indication would have been well recieved. I am not very good at navigation so with the camera so tight and the levels so open navigation became quite tricky.
Jam Defenders by Kepons
I do believe my jam is safe.

Jam.PNG

It's always games like these that capture me. A simple, fun tower defense of a sort. It doesn't do anything complicated, it doesn't need to. It's perfectly content just letting me puzzle out a defense for a bit, enjoying the result no matter if I win or fail, and just have some innocent nonsense fun. I'd very much wish it was longer so if you do make a post-jam version let me know. I need to attack more mice.
Jenka Dungeon by dosto, Reaktori, Riuku
Turns out the winning strategy is to rush to boss and just get all up in his face until he dies.
This is a great concept for a game. A bit rough to properly get the handle on moving around without getting your entire party killed, but it's a fun time. The graphics, albeit a bit too unclear for my liking were well done and the music fun. The presentation was top notch.
Keyboard Hero by tadashibashi
A very fun game. It's a bit awkward having the top two keys on the keyboard as the "instrument" as my brain really didn't map correctly between what it saw on the screen and what it wanted to do as it was touch typing but it's a very fun game with a good soundtrack and a very simple but effective art style. Also this game is brutal. I have quite big hands and those are not common key combinations in the two languages I am fluent in. I crossed fingers too many times to count and the game just mocks me for my few moments of weakness. :(
Life Party by Cat
Was cleared out by my antivirus, which is never a good sign. I managed to play it in a sandbox and it was all right. A bit on the simpler side but it had cute enough visuals and a clear enough goal.
matoset by Poizen
That is so heartbreaking. Even after getting the updated version and adding the settings file in its place I still got a handful of errors and Windows Defender just went "Are you sure? I have no idea what this is". I had to ignore a couple, dodge a few, and narrowly avoid being detected by several more.
And the worst part about it is that this is actually a fun game! I did manage to play it once after getting away from those struct errors and it's adorable! I got myself a purple little worm with a hat, zooming around eating fruit with some well named friends. The graphics are well done, the gameplay is buttery smooth, and I really enjoyed the experience. The music was a tad repetitive being such a short loop but beyond that I really enjoyed myself.
This is a very tough jam so I can't promise a high ranking, but I can promise you higher than last because once I actually got the game working I had a lot of fun. Hope you'll have better luck next time, because you clearly know what you're doing, you just got a bad break and didn't realize it until the clock already had long gone.
Me pARRty by ghandpivot
For the little that was there this was really fun. Who needs Sea of Thieves when you have Me pARRty?
Need For Beats by Matharoo, BlaineTanuki, _aeternumgames
A cool rhythm game, great beats, lovely visuals, but way too hard. The hard parts often felt like they were out of my control as well: the long jump or the double jump after a long jump felt very inconsistent and the timing very narrow, which isn't a good fit for a game where losing your grove for more than a second is an instant fail state. I'd suggest either allowing for a straight double tap or a different button for the high notes.
I'm sure it's someone absolute cup of tea, but I felt frustrated more than challenged which left a rather bitter taste.
One Big Party by Gizmo199, shortbread
I feel like I'm playing a Switch game. That's possibly the cleanest UI I've ever seen in a jam game. Additionally this is a really solid collection of party games. Sure, some of them are very simple and the AI is dog-awful at others, but I had a really enjoyable time aided a great deal by the really good music setting a perfect mood for each game. I faced a few performance difficulties mostly related to the blur shader, but also some in the more 'active' games. That aside I think this is a really solid entry that you can be proud of.
One Big Political Party by Terminator_Pony
What we can learn from this very accurate political simulation is that being consistent in your views and always telling the truth, nothing but the truth, and the whole truth several days in a row will win you the election every time!
I love political games like this, and I kind of had fun with it. It was simple and a bit rough but it did what it promised to. However as I alluded to in the opening joke it's very hard to not win this and it doesn't have much meat on the bone. Of course this is a jam and it's hard making a very good political simulator under time pressure so you get extra credits for the concept, but I'd very much love it if you'd develop this further and made it in to a proper game with proper depth so I can have more political games to enjoy.
Party Animal by TehPilot, TheFugue
A wonderfully presented game oozing with polish and everything I could like. Jazzy soundtracks, a unique style, and a cute cat.
Frankly, there isn't much I don't like here. The premise is simple but it's interesting enough that it could probably keep me occupied on its own merits even if it would just be solid squares and circles. The fact you chose to present this as well as you did just made it all the more wonderful of an experience.
Very little wrong with this game other than that I'd have loved more levels: but that's hopefully for later. Wonderful job.
Party Animals by ScaryPotato, Kalzme
I have been remineded that Covid is a thing and I don't have any friends that can come over to play this with me. I can't even get people over to play my new board game. A sad moment.
That aside a solid collection of one-button minigames. It's not perfect, but it does what it set out to do well. I had a moderate amount of fun with this.
Party Detective by Mercyssh
It's a lovely idea, but there is too much downtime. I had some fun playing around with the concept, but because the tips are randomized either you get too much information (Stella is on floor three, and she killed her husband) or none at all (You have 30 seconds left: but the best we can do is tell you that a Mrs Young wants the money, maybe). Additionally if there arent' any tasks around you're just left standing and waiting for anything to happen. However there is a really fun game lurking there under the surface, and given more time and a bit tighter gameplay I'd love this to bits.
Party Guardians by StarDreamIX
A bit rough and simple, but the intent was there. The game crashes with the ranger on level three and you have some missing windows sounds popping up. I think this could have used a few more minutes in the oven because for all it's worth it is in need of some futher playtesting. The later level with enemies coming from all directions felt like it was set up for failiure because you physically cannot defend both sides of the cake at once, and so will always lose. It may be possible with the bow and arrows, but as I touched on the game crashes before that point so I can't find out.
Party Mountain by AJTheApple
I am in love with this art style. It's bright, colorful, and absolutely adorable. This is a very well put together platformer. It's naturally a bit short, but what I did get to play was very entertaining. Lovely. Well put together, a smooth platformer, a really appealing visual style. I had a lot of fun. It wasn't the most original of platformers but I had really fun.
Party Paddles by Fusai
Fun, Simple, Effective.

My biggest gripe here is that this is addative scoring, not subtractive. Instead of losing lives when you fail to defend you gain lives when (I presume) a ball you touched is scored past an opponent paddle. this is fine and good in more focused one-on-one affairs, but it's very arbitrary when you can't really control the balls you are sending away nor what is happening on the other side of the screen. As an example my player two (which I wasn't controlling) nearly won simply because the AI around him got swamped defending from two sides at once. I however on the other side was defending nearly every block but had very few points because I was never the "last touch". Other than that this is a fun concept and a more party themed variation of a familiar idea.
Party Parade by Tristan
The music stacks when you restart the level. I pressed space a lot of times. My speakers did not like it.
You know what? I had fun with this. Yes it's silly and simple and not much more than "press A and L for a few minutes while stick figures dance", but that put me in a good mood. Silly fun is maybe not a very high barrier to clear but it's an important one none the less.
Party Pooper by Lukan
If nothing else this shows us how incredibly perceptive the brain can be when it comes to color. After a while I had entirely stopped looking at the target indicator and just pressed whichever character was the most desaturated: the target was always a few shades darker than everyone else.
It's a rough game, but it has a good concept and I liked the little shape characters. Could have done with more meat on the bones but it's a proof of concept.
Party Puker by Ben Stitt
It's a simple attempt, but it does more or less what it set out to do. A bit rough for my taste.
Plague Rats by Nocturne
Absolutely lovely. You've got a really fun, grim visual style going on that I really enjoy. It reminds me of something I played a long time ago that I can't really put my finger on. The music is very good and while the controlling can get a bit awkward at times I had a decent amount of fun with this one. Well done.
Queen by Toque
Let nobody tell you you're not consistently funny. The writing was top-class with the perfect amount of nonsense. The gameplay was a bit rudimentary but I do believe that was the point. Not much really I can say here, you delievered a great Toque game.
Quickly! Dispensegifts by Allison James
Well, you certinly get the award for the most crass game of the jam. Not sure if that's a good thing or not but I enjoyed it. After a quick stint getting used to the control scheme I had a lot of fun with this. The sudden reversal from all the party games and fun family friendly stories to my boss yelling at me what a failiure I am was quite a sharp contrast, and the little guy in the game being rude too didn't help. The song slaps tho.
Good job.
Roborazzi by Kultisti, Sulo
A fun "Where is Waldo" affair. The robot speed was a bit slow and I get lost easily enough that walking between rooms searching in vain for my targets got a bit grating. However the visual style is really nice and for a moment I did feel like a roborazzi. The little chatbox to the right was a neat touch, but felt a bit distracting given how little they actually say of value.
Robot Surprise Party by samspade
A very cute little stealth game. I would have appriciated if the controls were laid out more clearly for me as I spent a bit trying to figure out what to move and how. The robots also move a bit slowly for my taste, leading to a lot of downtime where I simply sat there and waited while a blue robot got from A to B. However the polish was nice, the graphics adorable, and the sound design on point. The fact that a dance party happened regardless if you won or lost made it a bit confusing at first, but it fits well with the theme and concept of the game.
R-pg-ING by Micah_DS
I like the concept. Of course it's a bit barebones but I know what you were going for. At first I was a bit confused why I should care about my party members at all and manuvering them was a bit tricky, but it's a good effort that just needed more time to really grow in to it's element.
Snake Dance by Greenblizzard
This is just some pure, good, simple fun. No tricks, no gimmicks, just a lovely arcade game with pretty colors and a zen soundtrack that does what it says on the tin. Nothing more, nothing less. The theme could have been better applied or more obviously applied, but even that aside this is a solid game regardless of the context it was made in.
Survival Party by HayManMarc
While it was a little slow and the difficulty ramps up quite fast I had a lot of fun. It's a charming, cute little game that does what it wants to do. Trying to find the balance between collecting supplies and guests was an enjoyable aspect, but the people ate my supplies way too fast.
If anything I'd suggest revamping that difficulty curve. Because you move so slow getting anywhere is a commitment and a half, and if you don't calculate the distance correctly or are unlucky with supplies spawning you can quickly turn in to a sitting duck with no real course of action to not lose. It's a bit frustrating because the game can turn from "you're doing great" to "you've lost" in such an incredible short span of time.
Survive the Party by Nejc Podlipnik
A fun idea, bit rough around the edges. Lovely graphics.
A bit of advice however: don't attach the core buttons (pause, restart, the likes) to the player character if your intention is then to destroy said character when the player dies. This makes it impossible for the player to pause or restart the game if he dies, which is something he may have an interest in exactly then. The UI was also a little cramped up there in the corner with the numbers sometimes getting obstructed by the bars themselves. Other than that a fun little entry.
The Annual GMC Party by O_stogden
Clever. I have to agree with the sentiment of other reviewers: I'm very happy I didn't get invited to this ever-looping party. The writing was clever and while some people got reduced a bit down to that one conversation you had with them once it just adds to the absurdity and witty writing.
The Golden Balloon by Little Penguin Studios
I loved this. It's sweet, it's colorful, it has fun music, it has some great polish, it's just plain wonderful. A standard little platformer with overflowing charm.
I think that we were missing a lot of popping sound in the final cannon: just for a bit of satisfaction.
The Matchmaker (HTML5 ONLY, OPEN FOLDER) by eimie
You know what, I couldn't really have asked more from a tile pushing game. Fun tunes, appealing pixel art, a bit plain but perfectly servicable mechanics, and a dancing protagonist pushing people to each other.
The "gray" obsticle NPC's sometimes became too obstructive by locking in either the player or the matchable people I was trying to move around before I ever could get to them. Because you can't move two people at once if by my luck a person I needed got surrounded that's It: I can't legally move anyone. I guess that's part of the difficulty but it did annoy me somewhat.
The Party Must Go On by GVmG
If there was an award for most satisfying movement in a jam game I'd give it to this one. Most of the time I spent in this game is just sliding around crashing in to things and giggling. However the gameplay itself could use a bit of tightening up. The orders came in too slow and were too easy to accidentally fulfill as you were crashing in to various shelves trying to get from A to B. A bit of a stronger defined diffucilty curve where it gest steadily harder and harder to fulfill the orders in time would be a lovely addition just so that your players don't start to see idel time waiting for things to do once skidding around stops being fun enough.
The Retrieval by Dr Wolf
First impression: A very loosely fit theme. Second impression: This music slaps. The controls are, as you've probably heard, a bit confusing to get a hold of to being with, but once you've understood the goal it's quite a fun game. I'd appriciate if the battles were faster as even extreme speed took a bit of time to get trough if there were many ships involved.. It's also not very clear to see what terrain I control and what terrain I do not control. The black and white 1-bit interface looks amazing but it does sacrifice things such as colored shading that can make it clear who controls what territory. You however get a lot of points for ambition, because making a strategy game with any sort of depth in it is a really tough goal in a jam and is often a niche audience.
The Scattered Army by Sirham
A very rough game that, while entertaining enough, is a bit obtuse to get trough and requires a lot of trial and error until you realize you can farm the mines for decent equipment that will allow you to defeat other threats in order. Just remember to sneak past the knight to get the baby at the start.
The Way Back To The Party by Noodlehead
I get so very lost in these. However that's not a point against the entry itself. I very much enjoyed the bits of the game I managed to stumble myself in to. However a lot of the options started merging together and lacked variety after a while. Text adventures tend to be a niche market in a jam and so they have to work a bit harder to stand out and not lose their audience. I very much appriciate what you are going for, but I needed a stronger hook to get me invested earlier so that I didn't have to wander around getting lost.
Wastoid Rodney by Cloaked Games, JosephEllis, BlakeNorth
Bit on the tough side, but dazzling visuals, good writing, and jamming soundtrack with a very apt choice in jazz licks.
I think this could have benefited from a pair of unbiased eyes. The first level is managable, but the second is starting to feel developer difficult already. By the third level we've crossed in to frustrating rather than entertainingly challenging. I understand that playtesting is really hard in four days but I feel you've played the game so often it's become hard to see how hard the game is. However it's jamming in pretty much every other way so you can be proud of that.
Wham Bam Dan Jam Slam by GameDevDan
Well, I see that the ghosts of Jam past have risen from the dead with a unified will to bully me and push me off the platform. :(
A very solid party game. It's a bit on the simple side but the concept is great, the execution is polished, and I am very happy with what you managed to pull together from this idea. I feel a bit of balancing would be needed because some characters feel a bit light and hard to keep on the platform. Other than that I enjoyed this entry a lot.
Your Brain On Party by thijsmie
An interesting take on the tower defense genre. I felt it a bit slow at times but I appriciate any changes to the genre that I quite enjoy, even if it's just in the form of a small party in the corner. The vitality meter was a bit too sensitive for my taste. The graphics were a bit rough but presentable enough and served their function. Well done.
 
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T

Tristan

Guest
Reviews

Top 3:

The Annual GMC Party by O_stogden
OK, that was funny, I hope none of the gmc members feel offended, but I REALLY enjoyed the humor!

Survival Party by HayManMarc
I loved the graphics and concept, a bit hard but I liked the pixilated feeling.

Need For Beats by Matharoo, BlaineTanuki, _aeternumgames
Ok, so we both went with the rhythm game route, and you did a lot better than I did, Cheers! Though I found the key bindings a bit awkward, maybe if the right hand controlled the errors instead it would bit a easier to play,

Best ofs:

Best Concept: One Big Party by Gizmo199, shortbread
Best Presentation: Party Animal by TehPilot, TheFugue
Best Story: The Annual GMC Party by O_stogden


Full ranking:

  1. The Annual GMC Party by O_stogden
  2. Survival Party by HayManMarc
  3. Need For Beats by Matharoo, BlaineTanuki, _aeternumgames
  4. Emmy And Sal by Mercerenies
  5. Party Animal by TehPilot, TheFugue
  6. One Big Party by Gizmo199, shortbread
  7. Party Detective by Mercyssh
  8. GreymoorHall by Ninety
  9. Crimson Guild's Glamorous Guest List by Mr Magnus
  10. Hero Horde by PinesOfChaos
  11. Robot Surprise Party by samspade
  12. Blackout by Siolfor the Jackal
  13. Jam Defenders by Kepons
  14. HealthBar by Fanatrick
  15. The Golden Balloon by Little Penguin Studios
  16. Adventures Of Robot X by Pixel-Team
  17. One Big Political Party by Terminator_Pony
  18. Final Battle by Kahrabaa
  19. Extinction Tea Party by Moon Goat
  20. Me pARRty by ghandpivot
  21. Queen by Toque
  22. Quickly! Dispensegifts by Allison James

Comments:
Emmy And Sal by Mercerenies

As a avid professor Layton fan, I completed all the puzzles under 15 minutes. even though I hate puzzles you did had the same thing the Layton games had, a great story. The end was kind of a bust but great job! long live radio shack!

One Big Party by Gizmo199, shortbread

Reminds me of wii party, game will crash if you hit the last ai into water then jump in yourself, Don't ask, your welcome :)
___________________________________________
############################################################################################
ERROR in
action number 1
of Draw Event
for object ct_bumper:

Push :: Execution Error - Variable Index [4] out of range [4] - -7.<unknown variable>(102140,4)
at gml_Script_draw_results
############################################################################################
gml_Script_draw_results (line -1)
gml_Object_ct_bumper_Draw_64
 
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Toque

Member
1 Candles have feelings
2 The Match Maker
3 Golden Balloon
4 Party Mountain
5 Demon Dance
6 The party must go on
7 Fiesta Down
8 Plague Rats
9 One big party
10 Matoset
11 Wham Big Party
12 GMC fruit Salad Surfer
13 Need For Beats
14 Robot Surprise Party
15 Three mice in a trench coat
16 Survival party
17 Caslte Meta
18 Keyboard Hero
19 Final Battle
20 The adventures of Robot X
21 Dr. Smileys Brain Jam
22 Glorious Guest list
23 Raborazzi

Will try and play as many games as I can and make a comment. Sorry if I miss some........ Rankings if I can finish.



Happy Birthday Yal

3-D Find balloons in a creepy dark foggy world.
Lots of looking and exploring. Its a different game. I had fun playing with it and finding all the balloons.
Nice entry. I guess the balloons is party themed.

The Party Must Go on Gvmg

Grocery store cart race kind of game. i really liked your take on the theme. Love he text messages. Great idea. Needed a little direction at the start to figure things out but its pretty easy to do. Simple art but does the job. Good controls. Nice take on the theme. Hey I liked it.

Blackout Siolfor the Jackal

Mystery starting in the hotel. Find out what happened the night before. Fits the theme well. That was some party!! Good art and nice controls. Killing rats is always gratifying. I was left wanting more but like what I got to play. Good stuff.

Finale Battle

Nice sounds. One big party. Its pretty well done. You could nick pick on some detail but great job. Nice play on the theme. One of my favourites so far.

Candle Wars Yozaraki

Lots of candy! Fun cake fighting game. The cake lord was great. Big party stuff for sure. Looks and plays good.

Glamour Guest list Mr Magnus

Matching description style of game. I like the music and the art. Fits the theme. I had fun with it.


Florida Man


Platformer. Mario style. Party? I liked the art and music. Mechanics worked ok. Could alligator weapon. At least you added your own thing. It was fun to play.


Your Brain on Party thijsmie

Tower defence kind of game. A lot going on. Vibes drops a bit fast and overwhelms the game play. Its a cool play on the party theme. Although tower defence is not original I think you did your own thing with it. So good on you. Good job.

Keyboard Hero tadashibashi

Like the gameboy aesthetics. Worked pretty good. Not my favourite style of game but I had fun playing with it. DJ to the party. I think the theme works here. Solid entry.

Survival Party Hayman Marc

Looks good. Collect party stuff and some friends and go back to your house. Hey if that isn't a party what is? Could use a bit of instructions but you can figure it out pretty easy. Art works. Good idea and I liked it.


Candles have Feelings

Love it. Visually great. Creative way to do a platformer. Tons of fun. Good theme. Great.

The Retrieval Dr. Wolf

Bit more complex of a game. Resource turn based game. Aesthetically it works. 6 page manual. The theme is bit of a stretch. Well made complex game for a jam. Nice entry.




Castle Meta the M

Leaving stuff for the next player is such a cool concept. Platformer. Art is ok. Good enemies. Some depth the the designs. Great game.

Behemoth sp2020

Crazy visual. The messages are cool. Find the code kind of thing. Kind of cool how you can help the other players. Different. So I like it.


Christmas with Uncle Tom

Art is ok. Kind of mobile controls. Thats cool but arrows work. Christmas party. Mostly but screens. But so is my game. Nice game. Could use a bit of edge or twist to it. Nothing much of a game but thats ok. It was ok.


Party Animals Scary Potato Kalzme

Mini games. I like the art. games were fun to play. Nice music. Kind of a party theme. Ok. Nice presentation. Hey nice entry.

Revenge of the clown. Kburkhant84

Clown platformer with box mechanic. Boxes are interesting. Its a bit slow at times. Its interesting.


Forty or the modern big brother Soapsud39

Cute art. Grand Daddy is watching you. I like the music. "Party" is unique here. It has a mix of puzzles and mini game. Story driven. Message to Dan... haha...... I love how the error was part of the game. It was clever. Fun in its own way. Kind of political undertones.


Hero Horde Pines of Chaos


I like how you can pick your player. Lots of customizable. Art is good. Need money. Seems to run out money quickly. That keeps it from reaching its potential. Pretty cool.


One big Political party Terminator_party

Political party game. Visually very cool. Very interesting. It interesting how close to reality this probably is. Some people will like it some won't. I like it. I think it fits the theme of "party".. Cool wire effect.


One big party Gizmo and shortbread.

three game system. I have no clue how they can make this stuff so quickly.............. Boxing was super fun. Pool was cool. Chicken race was my favourite. Catching fruit was a big laggy on my old computer but that could be just me. 3_d games dont automatically score high for me. But this one is a winner. My Jam nemesis Gizmo defeats me again........


Quickly Dispensegifts Allison James

Nice intro effect. Rotating killing game. I like the controls. The language doesn't bother me. Its edgy. Party theme? I guess its kind of killing party. Great sound. ITs a bit dizzying after while and have to stop. But I have motion sickness.


Jaguar Pogo Party TotallyAverageGames

Pogostick knight platformer. Intersting mechanic but it works ok. Big jumps seem to be tricky . He doesn't turn when he goes in opposite direction......?? Level design was ok. Theme was strange but ok. Good visually.

The Matchmaker eimie

cool music. Kind of a match making party. Thats a cool idea. Moving to the beat is great. Ok. its a puzzle game. Cool. Ok I love this game. It has huge potential. I could see this work on mobile with different songs. Ok one of my favourites.



Fantasy Strategy Clicker Julien, Hyomoto

Yeah its a clicker. Art is ok. Some clicking alright. Instructions would help these kind of games. Had a hard time to progress much into it. Lots of work into that. Not bad.


Demon Dance Mightyjor, Twintertainment, Brett-Bit

Hey great music. Not an original idea but its pretty well done. I think it fits the theme. Looks good. Hey pretty good.


Acpocolyps Party Aspiring Gamemaker

Art is pretty good. I like the art. Could use a splat paint effect. Maybe bigger bullets. Zombies AI could use some work. Predictable patterns. Dont follow you . But is pretty fun shooting zombies.


Color Splash EvanSki

So Evanski seems to have ambitious ideas. Good ideas. Games we would like to play. But needs to finish these so we can actually play them.

Wastoid Rodney Cloacked games, JoshEllis, BlakeNorth

Cool music. Nice menu system. Cool story. Camera is a bit intense. Good tutorial. Good theme. Its tough in places. Hey it was fun to play. Oh art was nice too.


Barry bears birthday Richerama

Love the voice overs. Cute. Frustrating. Balloons were hard. Almost like a kid game but it was too hard for kids. Mini games. Hey it was fun. Break your keyboard until you get it. Repeating the levels was punishment. Is self punishment entertainment?? Not bad.


Gangs Bash D Andrew Box

Okay so a bit of racer with the colour theme built in. Controls were a bit tricky. Decent art.
I liked the dodgeball game better. Nice music and sounds. Good tank game. So lots of work to have so many games. AI was okay but could be better. Ambitious entry but its a decent entry.


Candle Steelegms2

Candle Character was cool. Candle enemies. creative weapon and enemy deaths...... Find a key. seems a bit unfinished or I cant advance more than I liked to. Wanting more which is not a bad thing. Candles are a party thing...

Party Puker Ben Stitt

Ok I love he premise of the game. I mean some art and you would have something here. Still Its pretty good. Maybe some furniture and turn it into a puzzle kind of game. Hey it fits the theme pretty good. Great idea. Good concept.


Get to the Party Wabb, sequential

Kind of lemmings type of thing. Its a good idea. It was fun playing with it for sure. Its needs a bit of polish. Theme fits in there. It was fun..


Plague rats Nocturne.

Pixels are great. Reused but hey its good. Pretty gross but I love it. I live in a place where we have no rats. Party of rats I guess. Good entry as always from Nocturne.


Whamer Bamer Daner Jamer Slamer GameDevDan

Cool king of the hill type of thing. LIke the mechanics. Its fun for sure. Polished. Party yeah sure. Great stuff.



Robot Surprie Party. SamSpade.

Different game. Hiding bots for a brithday game. Its party theme for sure. I didnt quite get the strategy of the game. Im sure there was more to it but I was limited. It was hard to find bots behind trees once you placed them there. Great idea.


Goin all nite Dadio

Dadio will make a game some day.......


HealthBar Fantrick

Love the art. The shadow people were creepy. Looks like a crazy party. More prominent music. Hey its a cool entry.


Roborazzi Kultisti, Sulo.

I like the colours. Nice art. I like the picture effect. So a robot going around and taking pictures. Kind of a cool concept. It was a bit confusing at the start. Party theme. Hey its really different so glad you took a chance on it.



Hero Huddle. ThinGinger

I like the pixel art. A party of warriors kind of party. Not sure there is a strategic thing to this game. Fighting the boss was more of a game. Kind of turned into a shooter. That was cool. See how many of the party survived at the end. I think this game has some potential. A nice taste to a cool game.



The Scattered Army SirHam


Cool jam art. A bit confusing to get things rolling. Get some soldiers. Attack the blue blob. Had fun with it. Needs a bit of polish and more depth to it.


Dr.Smileys Brain Jam party Yal.

Kind of a tetris match three game. Mechanics was good. Art was good. Mechanics was reactive. Theme for sure. Cool game.


Life Party Cat


Cool idea. Bring some gifts too people. I like the music. Timed game. Fits the theme. Fun game. Could polish up a bit. But the concept works.



3 mice in a trenchcoat. Bart The Snier, Naterboy

Very cool 3-d platromer. I like the characters. It was fun to play.



Crazy waiter Gatefiz, jp, claire, Benfik

So waiter game. Controls were a little touchy at first. But you get used to it. But confused at a few things but you get the hang of it. Hard to not hit the wrong person. They were often overlapping. The direction help was good. Cleaning up puke was great. Good points too. The people response sound was a bit unrewarding.
Hey the art was good. Song was good. Had fun with it......


Fruit Salad Surfer Yal

Hey the wave effect in the movement added a lot to the game. Great menu system. Art was great. It needs polish to master the water flow of the level. It works but not optimized wich of course would take a lot more time than a weekend. But its solid. Nice music. Great entry. One of my favourites.


City Scuttler Bearman_18

So Bearmans " roguelite " game. It works and art is ok. I think its a huge undertaking that got finished but needs more. Not to say there wasn't a huge amount of effort in it. Its ok. Im just not a RPG guy so I was never going to love it. But Im impressed how far you pushed this game. Good job.


The Golden Balloon Josh Chen

Very cool platformer with a unique balloon mechanic. Nice to play different style game. One of my favourites.
 
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Gizmo199

Member
Reviews

Top 3:

Party Animal by TehPilot, TheFugue
That was amazing! Loved every minute of it! Was a huge fan of the 1920's theme. Great work! :D

GreymoorHall by Ninety
That was awesome! Super fun to play! My only complaint is that I had to wait around a good while before I could kill the guest in question. They just wouldn't stop going around talking to everyone! haha. Great work! one of my favorites for sure!

Emmy And Sal by Mercerenies
I loved this! A great puzzle game! Graphics were a bit lacking but the gameplay was super fun! Great work!

Best ofs:

Best use of : Candle Wars by Yozoraki
Best Concept: Crimson Festival by Alice, FunkyPoop
Best Presentation: Party Animal by TehPilot, TheFugue
Best Story: Forty or the modern big brother by SoapSud39
Best Devlog: N/A



Rankings

GOLD - 1st
SILVER - 2nd
BRONZE - 3rd

TRUE RANKING - These games were ranked more thorough placement in mind
ARBITRARY RANKING - These games are in no particular order but I tried to keep them fairly near the spot I thought they belonged. :p

  1. Party Animal by TehPilot, TheFugue
  2. GreymoorHall by Ninety
  3. Emmy And Sal by Mercerenies
  4. Wham Bam Dan Jam Slam by GameDevDan
  5. Candle Wars by Yozoraki
  6. Crimson Festival by Alice, FunkyPoop
  7. Roborazzi by Kultisti, Sulo
  8. Gangs Bash by D'Andrew Box
  9. 3 Mice In A Trenchcoat by Bart, TheSnidr, Xor, Naterboy
  10. Party Mountain by AJTheApple
  11. Candles Have Feelings by JordanOttesen
  12. Wastoid Rodney by Cloaked Games, JosephEllis, BlakeNorth
  13. Extinction Tea Party by Moon Goat
  14. Hero Huddle by ThinGinger
  15. Keyboard Hero by tadashibashi
  16. The Matchmaker (HTML5 ONLY, OPEN FOLDER) by eimie
  17. Hero Horde by PinesOfChaos
  18. Party Animals by ScaryPotato, Kalzme
  19. Adventures Of Robot X by Pixel-Team
  20. Plague Rats by Nocturne
  21. The Golden Balloon by Little Penguin Studios
  22. Forty or the Modern Big Brother by SoapSud39
  23. Jenka Dungeon by dosto, Reaktori, Riuku
  24. Castle Meta by The M
  25. Fiesta Down by VinylFly
  26. Need For Beats by Matharoo, BlaineTanuki, _aeternumgames
  27. Demon Dance by Mightyjor, Twintertainment, Brett-Bit
  28. Crimson Guild's Glamorous Guest List by Mr Magnus
  29. Robot Surprise Party by samspade
  30. happy birthday by Yal
  31. Survive the Party by Nejc Podlipnik
  32. Behemoth by sp202
  33. R-pg-ING by Micah_DS
  34. Snake Dance by Greenblizzard
  35. Queen by Toque
  36. HealthBar by Fanatrick
  37. Me pARRty by ghandpivot
  38. One Big Political Party by Terminator_Pony
  39. Escape of the Clowns by kburkhart84
  40. The Annual GMC Party by O_stogden
  41. Jam Defenders by Kepons
  42. Quickly! Dispensegifts by Allison James
  43. Survival Party by HayManMarc
  44. Christmas with Uncle Tom by BluishGreenPro
  45. Blackout by Siolfor the Jackal
  46. The Way Back To The Party by Noodlehead
  47. Life Party by Cat
  48. The Party Must Go On by GVmG
  49. GMC Fruit Salad Surfer by Yal
  50. Final Battle by Kahrabaa
  51. Florida Man by BreakfastBoy
  52. Apocalypse party by aspiringgamemaker
  53. The Scattered Army by Sirham
  54. Your Brain On Party by thijsmie
  55. matoset by Poizen
  56. dawg the party animal by NivesStudio
  57. GMC Party Adventure by Imagine Galaxy
  58. Fantasy Strategy Clicker by Julien, Hyomoto
  59. Party Detective by Mercyssh
  60. get to the party by Wabb, sequential
  61. Party Pooper by Lukan
  62. Candle by Steelegms2
  63. City Scuttler by Bearman_18
  64. Dr Smiley's Brain Jam Party by Yal
  65. Fiesta Fist by Cristobal, MatthewPattel
  66. Crazy Waiter by Gatefiz, JP, Claire Dujardin, Benfik
  67. Party Paddles by Fusai
  68. dumburk 9000 by Bret Hudson, Allen Webster, Jared Cohen
  69. Jaguar Pogo Party by TotallyAverageGamez
  70. Party Parade by Tristan
  71. Party Guardians by StarDreamIX
  72. The Retrieval by Dr Wolf
  73. Barry Bear's Birthday by Richerama
  74. Party Puker by Ben Stitt
  75. Goin' All Nite by Dadio
  76. Color Splash by EvanSki
  77. One Big Party by Gizmo199, shortbread

Comments:

3 Mice In A Trenchcoat by Bart, TheSnidr, Xor, Naterboy

My heroes all working on 1 game! Truly great! Actual gameplay-wise it felt a bit lacking. Obviously, the graphics were A+ as well as all of the animations and general 'ness'. Could hugely benefit from a mini-map. Amazing job! I had a lot of fun. Everything felt smooth. Just wish it was more 'together' I guess. Just feels like some crucial pieces are missing.

Adventures Of Robot X by Pixel-Team

Nice! Very well done! My name works perfectly as a robot name too! :p Good work. Super Megaman vibes. haha. LOVED the art. really great work!

Apocalypse party by aspiringgamemaker

Not bad! A nice little wave-based shooter. The biggest issue was the movement and collisions. Seemed sticky and you can only move 1 direction at a time. Also, there seemed to be no method to the madness of where the paintball reloads spawned. Was left scrambling to find some more often than I should have been. Overall though keep up the work!

Barry Bear's Birthday by Richerama

Not too much here. SUPER unforgiving. haha. I made that poor bear cry so much! Overall just needs a bit of leniency with precision. 1 hit KO is not fun either. Maybe give them a certain amount of tries before the game kicks you. I would also suggest easier inputs than space and enter. The keys are far away. Maybe instead of making them jump AND punch you could just do like a 'Simon says' type system where the balloon color you shouldn't pop changes and the only key you need to press is space to punch the other two colors. Overall keep it up!

Behemoth by sp202

Haha! This was pretty cool. Cryptic! I like it! :p

Blackout by Siolfor the Jackal

Was a short little 'task' type game. Not bad! The animations were good! Obviously needs more. haha.

Candle by Steelegms2

Hey not bad! Not much here outside of shooting flames at candles but the movement was smooth and felt good. Needs more to it! I would have liked it if the candles shot the direction of the mouse instead of the last direction you moved but not a bad little concept. :p Keep at it!

Candle Wars by Yozoraki

Wow! Fantastic entry! Colorful and engaging for sure! Couldn't figure out how to beat the cake boss though. :(

Candles Have Feelings by JordanOttesen

This was so quirky and charming! I love the little worried candle guy running around. haha. This gave me MAJOR Kirby dreamworld vibes! Love it! Good job! :)

Castle Meta by The M

Wow! This was a lot of fun. I kept getting stuck on the 'bird things with clubs' because they kept falling through the platforms. haha. Great work! There is a lot here I feel like for a jam so good job on that! :D

Christmas with Uncle Tom by BluishGreenPro

How sweet! Not much in terms of gameplay but as an interactive story it's not terrible! Needs more to do. Some more interactive dialogue would be nice. That way you can play the game and get different stories each time.

City Scuttler by Bearman_18

Didn't get very far before dying. haha. There are WAAAYY too many controls to remember. Too much going on. Lost interest almost immediately because of this. :/ Sorry.

Color Splash by EvanSki

Um, what? haha. Just kept getting a 'show_message' and the game would never start. All I could do is just change teams. Not exactly sure what was going on. If I am missing something let me know! haha. It did know my name which was kind of creepy. haha. Did it pick up from another game or just my computer?

Crazy Waiter by Gatefiz, JP, Claire Dujardin, Benfik

Well...I got -40,000 points before quitting. haha. Yeah, I couldn't figure out what I was supposed to be doing. I got a pizza (or taco? couldn't tell) and I couldn't find 1 person that wanted it. Also, the controls were quite loose and not easy to use. Needs some work for sure. The art wasn't bad though!

Crimson Festival by Alice, FunkyPoop

Wow, Great job! I loved all of the references! Some of the entries didn't register for some reason. I will definitely be playing this multiple times to see what other kinds of outcomes I can get! haha. Incredible!

Crimson Guild's Glamorous Guest List by Mr Magnus

This was really fun! Basically a 'where's waldo' or 'I spy' type game. Super neat! Great work!

dawg the party animal by NivesStudio

Nice! A bunch of little mini-games! Couldn't get to them all, I had to stop...That little tune would haunt my dreams if I didn't. haha. The biggest suggestion is unless you plan to fully compose an entire track, use either ambient drones or just some sfx. Overall though not terrible! Idk what you are doing with collisions but every time I got near a tree or a house the game slowed down HARD. weird.

Demon Dance by Mightyjor, Twintertainment, Brett-Bit

This was pretty fun! Not very well synced but fun nonetheless. haha. Could be my computer with the syncing issues. Good job! :)

Dr Smiley's Brain Jam Party by Yal

Hmm...very strange Tetris. haha. Was kind of difficult to keep up with so many different options at once! But as a Tetris clone the mechanic's arent bad at all! :)

dumburk 9000 by Bret Hudson, Allen Webster, Jared Cohen

At first, it seemed like it would be fun...but it's really just 'press space a bunch'. I also was not a fan of the music changes between day and night. Overall definitely needs more to it. Was kind of boring. sorry. :(

Emmy And Sal by Mercerenies

I loved this! A great puzzle game! The graphics were a bit lacking but the gameplay was super fun! Great work!

Escape of the Clowns by kburkhart84

That was a pretty fun little puzzle game! Graphics definitely need some work. Overall not bad though!

Extinction Tea Party by Moon Goat

haha. That was neat! I really like the idea! Some better 'telegraphing' would be much appreciated though. I can see them in the background but when they come back around they aren't always where they were in the background. Like the cake that shoots out of nowhere for instance. haha. Good work! The art was good and I had a lot of fun playing!

Fantasy Strategy Clicker by Julien, Hyomoto

Not exactly sure what was going on, but I kind of got the gist by the end. I'm not a huge fan of these types of games personally but overall from what I can tell it does a good job at the genre! My biggest thing is definitely to add more visual stuff to it. I would have much preferred the 'rts' style gameworld interaction than just some screens with a ton of text to read and hardly any visualizations. :/

Fiesta Down by VinylFly

This was fun! A great little arcade game! Very well developed, and everything fits nicely together!

Fiesta Fist by Cristobal, MatthewPattel

Well, it took me like 5 minutes to figure out the very weird controls. haha. Why 'T' and 'Y'? Would have much-preferred space and x/z. Overall the pixel art characters were nice. I like the little dinosaur guy. :p

Final Battle by Kahrabaa

Man, I think I am just terrible at this. The only friend I could make was a dear. Just kept dying. haha. The tutorial was great! Well made. The art was consistent so that was nice!

Florida Man by BreakfastBoy

That wasn't a terrible little platformer! The pixel art was good outside of the colors IMO. haha. DEFINATELY needs coyote time though for the jumps. I died too often, unnecessarily due to just barely being over the platforms when I pressed jump.

Forty or the Modern Big Brother by SoapSud39

Well, it was fun up until the 'input_node' part. I tried multiple times to type in THEME, save, close, close the game, etc. Every combination of save/close I tried wouldn't let the game proceed. Just kept overwriting it. The password was THEME. Was really impressed with everything! Just sad I couldn't get past that part. :( If I am missing something lmk. :( I even went into 'save.sav' and set it to 7 just in case. Still, nothing worked. :(


Gangs Bash by D'Andrew Box

Dang! I wanted to see what happened at the end, but the last game was the tank and I died first. Both the other two tanks just kind of got stuck and didn't move. :( Overall I love the presentation! I could easily see this on the Super Nintendo back in the day. I really great nostalgic vibe! Love it!

get to the party by Wabb, sequential

This was pretty fun! A nice little 'auto' click kind of game. I enjoyed it! :D My only thing is that I wish that I could just click and drag the different items to a spot instead of relying on clicking the characters to set an item. Makes the first character you place typically miss the spring (as an example). Good work! :D

GMC Fruit Salad Surfer by Yal

Nice little game! I like the effects but they also were kind of too much. I liked the tunes and the core game loop was fun! Good work. :)

GMC Party Adventure by Imagine Galaxy

Not bad! I think the stick-to-walls 'mechanic' was an un-intentional 'feature'. haha. It's typically best (if you want the wall-stick/slide mechanic) to make them more controllable. Also, fake loading screens are typically a no-no. Most gamers don't want to wait at a loading screen. Loading screens should only be implemented if ABSOLUTELY necessary. Good work though overall! Props for cutscenes!

Goin' All Nite by Dadio

Welp...what can I say? It's a dadio game. haha.

GreymoorHall by Ninety

That was awesome! Super fun to play! My only complaint is that I had to wait around a good while before I could kill the guest in question. They just wouldn't stop going around talking to everyone! haha. Great work! one of my favorites for sure!

happy birthday by Yal

Very eerie! The fog was a bit much though honestly. Loading took forever, and the collisions were a bit sticky. That said it was a very stylistic 3D game. Ran well on my computer which is a plus! Good work!

HealthBar by Fanatrick

That was a neat little (puzzle?) game! I would suggest maybe a drag-n-drop 'parts per' type system though. Instead of trying to fill them up to get the right color, you could just add amounts of each color to a drink. Overall though nice!


Hero Horde by PinesOfChaos

Pretty fun little game! I wasted some time at the beginning thinking that I need to continually click the enemies for my little guys to attack them, but once I realized you can just click an enemy and they will automatically start messing him up things went much smoother. I wish there was some notice about the demon lord. Wasn't sure what the goal was and once I reached him I was out of time since I spent most of it just killing monsters. Had like 14,000 gold. Overall though, fun! Good work!

Hero Huddle by ThinGinger

AHH! So close to beating the final boss!!! This was a great concept! I loved the bullet-hell mixed with just a blob of players. haha. I really want more to this! Great work!

Jaguar Pogo Party by TotallyAverageGamez

So there isn't a ton here, for some reason though I find this very charming. It really reminds me of the old flash games you'd play on ebaumsworld or the like back in the day. I could definitely see myself 10 years ago zoning out in computer class just playing this game. haha. Got stuck in a wall once but thankfully you save the progress so good job! Overall, just not much here.

Jam Defenders by Kepons

This game was decent! I couldn't get past wave 4 though. Not sure how many formations I could really make to defend the jam enough. Overall a good entry! I liked the frogs floating up. :p

Jenka Dungeon by dosto, Reaktori, Riuku

This was nice! I loved the little 'boss fight begin' sequence. Very nostalgic for me! Great work! Was really fun to play!

Keyboard Hero by tadashibashi

Wow! Great work! That was super hard but was quite fun. The rhythm was matched nicely! With enough practice, you could definitely master them. Great work!

Life Party by Cat

A nice little roundup/drop-off game. Not too much here but was fun enough for what it was! good work!

matoset by Poizen

Didn't work. Immediately got an error. :(
___________________________________________
############################################################################################
FATAL ERROR in
action number 1
of Other Event: Room Start
for object obj_menu:

string_copy argument 1 incorrect type (undefined) expecting a String (YYGS)
at gml_Object_obj_menu_Other_4
############################################################################################
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
stack frame is
gml_Object_obj_menu_Other_4 (line -1)

Ended up reading your post later. Was pretty fun. Overall though there are WAY too many bugs for me to feel right ranking this too high.

Me pARRty by ghandpivot

haha. That was fun! I ate so many people! lol. Overall not a ton to do. I would definitely suggest click&drag for mouse looking though. I'm not a huge fan of keyboard camera movement personally. Good work!

Need For Beats by Matharoo, BlaineTanuki, _aeternumgames

That was pretty fun! Was WAY too fast on some of the tracks though. haha. Also, the controls were not great IMO. I think it could have been pretty fun with just 2 controls. Basically one of them jumps and one gets rid of glitches. That way you wouldn't need 'e' to do 'jump glitches' but just up+glitch killer. Just my thoughts though. Overall not bad! :D Just needs a bit of slowdown and better keys IMO. :p

One Big Party by Gizmo199, shortbread

My game, can't rank. :p

One Big Political Party by Terminator_Pony

This was a neat little political sim! Good work!

Party Animal by TehPilot, TheFugue

That was amazing! Loved every minute of it! Was a huge fan of the 1920's theme. Great work! :D

Party Animals by ScaryPotato, Kalzme

Great work! Mario party-style game. I loved that you only need 1 control to do all of the mini-games! Great work! :D

Party Detective by Mercyssh

Hmm...there was too much going on. Too many guests. I would maybe scale this down some. I couldn't win a game.

Party Guardians by StarDreamIX

The graphics were ALL OVER the place. haha. Took me a second to figure out that right-click was right shoot and left-click was left shoot. Maybe next time if the mouse position is to the right of the player make that the direction the player shoots in. Keep it up! :D

Party Mountain by AJTheApple

Wow! Really well-made platforming mechanics! Everything felt really nice when playing! The graphics were really well done as well! Great work!! :D

Party Paddles by Fusai

That was interesting! Okay, little AI there. Was playing by myself so controlling 2 characters is much more challenging. haha. Not much here though. Keep it up!

Party Parade by Tristan

Nice. Well, I was able to get a really high score pretty easily once I realized I can just spam 'A' and 'L' with no consequences. haha.

Party Pooper by Lukan

Nice! Good work! Was pretty fun once I was able to spot the party pooper without looking at the 'target'. Tried to go really fast after that but caught the wrong one. Still got 41! Good work!

Party Puker by Ben Stitt

A pretty small game but the concept is there. You have a core game loop. Now you just need to expand it! :)

Plague Rats by Nocturne

That was neat! The game crashed at the end of the second level, and the escape button didn't do anything. I did find your secret dev control though. ;P Overall not bad from what I could play. It was pretty fun!

Queen by Toque

lol! That was great! Simple and easy game loop. Took a second to get the hang of getting the queen's hands under the pigeons instead of just centering. Loved the little intro, I just wish that I could skip it after it started playing instead of from just the menu. Great work! I loved the little toque guy with his missing teeth. lol. The animations were great too! Good work! :D

Quickly! Dispensegifts by Allison James

This was fun! Very juicy! I would suggest a *strong language* warning though. Doesn't bother me but for some people it might. Overall great work! Was pretty fun! I think it could be funner if you used the mouse to move the saw in and out, but that's just me. :p

Roborazzi by Kultisti, Sulo

That was really fun! Great polish! Awesome work really! :D My biggest suggestion would be the movement. I didn't like that you moved no matter what. It made me want to quick capture any party goer I saw. Good work!

Robot Surprise Party by samspade

That was nice! I wish I had more control over what paths the robots take though. The SFX were amazing! Perfect for a Nintendo-style game. Great work!

R-pg-ING by Micah_DS

That was neat! The colors were REALLY hard to tell. haha. Very cool though!

Snake Dance by Greenblizzard

I Like the snake meets Tetris kind of concept going on here! Was pretty fun. I think this game should be a 'press per move' instead of a 'hold and move' type of game. I would hold the key for just a second too long and then my snake was out of form. :( good work though!

Survival Party by HayManMarc

Overall a nice little entry. Once I read the readme I had the best party in town! haha. Good work! :p

Survive the Party by Nejc Podlipnik

A nice little survival round game. Good animations. The biggest suggestion, don't use default fonts. Too often I see great-looking games tarnished by GM's default font. haha. Overall though good work!

The Annual GMC Party by O_stogden

Haha. This was pretty funny. I had a great time. Very engaging. Usually, with text games, I get bored very easy but the humor was great. Can't wait for the release on steam. :p

The Golden Balloon by Little Penguin Studios

Wow! What A nice little game! I loved the visuals quite a lot! A cute little platformer. The responsiveness was a little slow for my taste though. The little 'trap holes' were well placed though! Overall great job!

The Matchmaker (HTML5 ONLY, OPEN FOLDER) by eimie

That was really fun! Great work! Wish there was more! :D

The Party Must Go On by GVmG

I have no idea what's going on but it was pretty fun to just make the cart smash around. I loved the feeling of it. Couldn't really figure out what I was supposed to do though. I just rampaged around until the dollar signs got bigger. haha. Was actually pretty fun though just doing that so you nailed the feel! :p

The Retrieval by Dr Wolf

TBH I had no clue what was going on. There seemed to be nothing happening when I clicked 'turn' and the instructions didn't really give me much to go on. nothing really in the readme either. I really enjoyed the graphics! The music was bad. But yeah, no idea what was going on or what I was supposed to be doing really. :/

The Scattered Army by Sirham

Not the worst RPG I've played. haha. Great effort! I actually played for quite a while. The enemies were MUCH too hard though and there didn't seem to be any way to heal your team. Normally I would expect upon exiting a battle that their HP would regenerate to 100% but this was not the case. Defeated the dragon and collected about 10 team members but couldn't beat any of the bosses afterward. There also didn't seem to be much in terms of 'direction'. I went to all the places after the dragon and the only one that seemed beatable was the guy in the forest, but due to my trial and error, my teams health was too low to beat him. I did cheat the mines a bit too, I was able to round out of the room, up, and back in and got a bunch of ores but the smith didn't seem to do anything. :/ Overall good effort, just needs ALOT of work. :)

The Way Back To The Party by Noodlehead

This was a nice little 'visual novel' type game. Needs more! Good work!

Wastoid Rodney by Cloaked Games, JosephEllis, BlakeNorth

Not bad! I could not for the life of me get past the first level though. Couldn't get the timing down and kept dying trying to get the key. :( Looked awesome though! I will try to come back to it but for now, it was super frustrating. haha. Need to hook up my controller. Too many buttons to manage between mouse, space, shift, and wasd.

Wham Bam Dan Jam Slam by GameDevDan

This was just amazing. You know I love me some sprite-stacking!! haha. Great work. The amount of time and energy it took to make this seems immense! Really good stuff!

Your Brain On Party by thijsmie

Not bad! A very interesting concept! Almost like a tower defense game meets sims. haha. The biggest complaint is that it is WAY to hard to manage everything going on! 2 different game mechanics/loops being used at the same time is really hard to manage.
 
Last edited:

HayManMarc

Member
My tally-'em-ups and write-about-'ems thingies'll go right here.


HayMan's
Hillariously Hideous
Votes and Reviews

for
The GMC Jam #40

Theme: One Big Party!

DISCLAIMER
My intention with these reviews is to provide constructive criticism and honest feedback. Sometimes this comes across harsh and abrasive to some people. Please understand that my reviews are not a personal attack, character assassination, or anything akin to cancellation culture. I have absolutely zero desire to make anyone feel bad, inferior, or stupid. Any negative feedback you may receive from me comes from my sincerest wish to provide insight into what I perceive as flaws or mistakes. I will try to provide both positive and negative points in my reviews and keep the general tone lighthearted, but I'm sure doing this will be easier with some games than with others.

Creating games is hard. Creating a game in 4 days is near impossible. If you have anything remotely playable and presentable, that's a win in my book! Learn from the negative feedback, and revel in the positive. Then move on and create something better!

Cheers, my fellow Game Maker!

The Top 5

1ST PLACE
Party Animal by @TehPilot, TheFugue
Really well done, but that's no surprise. Loved the variation of the cat's meow. Nothing to complain about here. The movement in this was fantastic and felt perfect. Excellent!

2ND PLACE
Plague Rats by @Nocturne
Cool idea, neat concept. Game worked well up until level 3. It froze in the same place twice. What was there for the game was great thus far, but the freezing of the game prevents further analysis. Great graphics, sounds, music, presentation, and instructions.

3RD PLACE
Emmy And Sal by @Mercerenies
Really good puzzle game. Some of the puzzles near the end were more difficult, but I managed to figure them out. Story line was hokey, but worked ok. Great music, didn't get annoying. Art was simple, but worked well. Really complete game and experience, altogether.

4th place
Forty or the Modern Big Brother by @SoapSud39
That was a long experience, but pretty neat. Not much for game-play here, tho finding and manipulating a save file was pretty genius. Some of the music, tho good and fitting, got repetitious. You really hit the mark with the Orwellian feels. Nice work, overall. I really liked this entry.

5th place
Queen by @Toque
Really funny game. I was able to score over 100, but wasn't able to finish the game. Kept getting pooped on. Thanks for a more enjoyable game than the last few I played. Easy to understand and entertaining, even tho the game play was really basic. Loved the art as always. Thanks for making me smile, Toque!​


PARTIAL RANKINGS (35)
  1. Party Animal by @TehPilot, TheFugue
  2. Plague Rats by @Nocturne
  3. Emmy And Sal by @Mercerenies
  4. Forty or the Modern Big Brother by @SoapSud39
  5. Queen by @Toque
  6. Wastoid Rodney by @Cloaked Games, @JosephEllis, BlakeNorth
  7. The Annual GMC Party by @O.Stogden
  8. Barry Bear's Birthday by @Richerama
  9. Blackout by @Siolfor the Jackal
  10. Party Mountain by @AJTheApple
  11. The Party Must Go On by @GVmG
  12. Adventures of Robot X by @Pixel-Team
  13. Final Battle by @Kahrabaa
  14. Need For Beats by @matharoo, BlaineTanuki, _aeternumgames
  15. Crimson Guild's Glamorous Guest List by @Mr Magnus
  16. Matoset by @Poizen
  17. Christmas With Uncle Tom by @BluishGreenPro
  18. Gangs Bash by @D'Andrƫw Box
  19. Hero Horde by @PinesOfChaos
  20. Apocalypse Party by @aspiringgamemaker
  21. Party Animals by @ScaryPotato, @kalzme
  22. Fiesta Fist by Cristobal, @MatthewPattel
  23. Castle Meta by @The M
  24. Your Brain On Party by @thijsmie
  25. The Matchmaker by @eimie
  26. One Big Political Party by @Terminator_Pony
  27. Dawg The Party Animal by @NivesStudio
  28. Survive The Party by @Nejc Podlipnik
  29. Party Detective by @Mercyssh
  30. Fantasy Strategy Clicker by @Julien, @Hyomoto
  31. Party Puker by @Ben Stitt
  32. Happy Birthday by @Yal
  33. Get To The Party by @Wabb, @sequential
  34. Behemoth by @sp202
  35. Life Party by @Cat

REVIEWS ( 36/77 ) (0-4 stars)
3 & A ā€“ E
3 Mice In A Trenchcoat by Bart, TheSnidr, Xor, Naterboy
Adventures Of Robot X by @Pixel-Team (3 stars)
Great graphics, sounds, and music. I didn't see the theme. Storyline was kinda neat. Jokes were meh, but okay I guess. Polish and presentation were really great. But I had a horrendous time trying to control what I wanted to do. Even after remapping the controls to what I wanted, I still had a hard time. I think the variable jump was unnecessary. I never needed to jump ā€œjust a little bitā€ and it screwed me up countless times. I couldn't shoot at an angle unless I was moving, which screwed me up many times. The boss could shoot thru platforms but I couldn't. I could hardly ever line up a shot on the boss character. This game should have been more fun to play, but I found myself frustrated to the point of rage quitting. Yes, I suck as a gamer, but I've played other platformer games without these annoyances. I really liked the game, but I just couldn't play it. Ugh.
Apocalypse party by @aspiringgamemaker (3 stars)
Kind of a tower defense kind of game, but you can move around and collect ammo. Wasn't a very deep premise, but at least there was some gameplay there. I lost when I played. Not sure how you win. Good job with the creepy sounds and music.
Barry Bear's Birthday by @Richerama (3.5 stars)
First of all, extremely funny! The game was so ridiculous and dumb, but I was laughing the whole time. Annoying to restart game after loss. Because of that, I wasn't able to finish the game. Graphics, music, sounds ā€“ all pretty good. Thanks for the laughs!
Behemoth by @sp202 (1 star)
Completely random guessing something isn't fun to me. Nothing else happened that would help me. I guessed wrong, then the game quit but didn't exit. It just annoyed me. Didn't see the theme. Neat graphics and nice, moody, atmospheric sound vibes.
Blackout by @Siolfor the Jackal (3 stars)
"Blackout! I really had a blackout!" Firstly, in the readme, I pressed any key but didn't return to the menu. ;) About the game ā€“ Awesome! I can relate, sorta. Lol. Funny, silly story game. Nice art and excellent music (as always). Could have used a bit more filler art in some of the buildings and maybe some sound fx here and there. Entertaining nonetheless!
Candle by Steelegms2
Candle Wars by Yozoraki
Candles Have Feelings by JordanOttesen
Castle Meta by @The M (2.5 stars)
This game was extremely hard for me to play. That's it -- I just suck as a gamer. I can't play these games. The controls are too much for me. Looks like an okay game. Graphics were okay, music and sounds were great. Nice presentation. Neat concept, tho I never found any items or anything left behind by anyone else that I could tell. (Shrug)
Christmas with Uncle Tom by @BluishGreenPro (3 stars)
Kind of a cringe-y story after the first f-bomb, but it did make me laugh as it was quite unexpected. Then the s-bomb really made me wonder what may be coming next. I was scared to find out, but like rubbernecking a car crash, I had to keep going. Made it to the end without asking Tom to play Hippos. Not much game play, just following a story and connecting the linear points. Art and presentation were great. Music was nice at first, but got repetitive by the end, to the point I was quite happy to hear it stop playing. A little out of season for a Christmas story, eh? But I guess it fits the theme, sorta. (Not a very big party happening here, but perhaps it is to this little family.)
City Scuttler by Bearman_18
Color Splash by EvanSki
Crazy Waiter by Gatefiz, JP, Claire Dujardin, Benfik
Crimson Festival by Alice, FunkyPoop
Crimson Guild's Glamorous Guest List by @Mr Magnus (3 stars)
Not bad, but hard to see the differences, but that's probably the way it's supposed to be. Looks like a lot of work went into this. Good music, but could've used some sound fx.
dawg the party animal by @NivesStudio (2 stars)
Music was horribly repetitive and got annoying pretty fast. The game seemed to have a lot of stuff ā€“ an overworld where you traveled to three different places that introduced you to mini-games. That part is impressive, but the game as a whole made me feel rushed and didn't feel very well explained. The mixture of those two things made it even harder to relax and enjoy trying to figure it out properly. Graphics were ok, but inconsistent. The final mini-game flashed by without me doing anything and suddenly the game was over and a party was happening. Yay, party!
Demon Dance by Mightyjor, Twintertainment, Brett-Bit
Dr Smiley's Brain Jam Party by Yal
dumburk 9000 by Bret Hudson, Allen Webster, Jared Cohen
Emmy And Sal by @Mercerenies (4 stars)
Really good puzzle game. Some of the puzzles near the end were more difficult, but I managed to figure them out. Story line was hokey, but worked ok. Great music, didn't get annoying. Art was simple, but worked well. Really complete game and experience, altogether.
Escape of the Clowns by kburkhart84
Extinction Tea Party by Moon Goat

F ā€“ J

Fantasy Strategy Clicker by @Julien, @Hyomoto (2 stars)
Well, the game looks like it might be kinda neat and interesting, but I have no idea what the pictures are that I'm clicking. I suppose if I played it for a half hour, I might start piecing it together thru deduction (maybe), but alas, with 76 games to play and review, and a full life outside the GMC, time is not on our side. Needs instructions or mouse-over context help, desperately.
Fiesta Down by VinylFly
Fiesta Fist by Cristobal ,@MatthewPattel (2.5 stars)
I made it to the best party in the universe and it must have been a costume party. Kind of a simplistic beat-em-up game. No real strategy, just spam the attack button. Only played 1 player, so that's all I can comment on. ā€œTā€ was a strange choice for attack/select, but I kind of get it now, knowing now that there's a two player option. Took a while to figure out that ā€œTā€ was the key to use. Nice pixel work. Sounds and music were pretty good. All in all, it slightly reminded me of my Double Dragon days way back when. :)
Final Battle by @Kahrabaa (3 stars)
Pretty neat at first, but the game restarted where I left off, but with no other party members, so no way to continue. I just got slaughtered every time. Game looks great, but I was unable to play it with any success.
Florida Man by BreakfastBoy
Forty or the Modern Big Brother by @SoapSud39 (4 stars)
That was a long experience, but pretty neat. Not much for game-play here, tho finding and manipulating a save file was pretty genius. Some of the music, tho good and fitting, got repetitious. You really hit the mark with the Orwellian feels. Nice work, overall. I really liked this entry.
Gangs Bash by @D'Andrƫw Box (3 stars)
A goofy collection of mini-games, but it was fun. The tank game's turning was backwards. Snail race seemed unwinnable, car race was wonky as hell, but made me laugh and was easy to win. The main progress menu got to the end, but the game didn't end. Graphics were pretty good, but there was some kind of weird fuzziness to them. Music and sounds were ok. Pretty nice presentation, except for the lack of communication with the player. Didn't really scream the theme at me, but these mini-games could be party games, I guess. Not the worst jam game ever, by far, especially since it was kinda fun. Good work.
get to the party by @Wabb , @sequential (1 star)
Since I was using the mouse, it would have been nice to choose the action type with the mouse instead of the number keys. Same with game speed option ā€“ some clickable boxes for speed up and speed down. Then there wouldn't be any need for keyboard use at all and would have made the game easier to play. Not to be mean, but honestly, this just played out like a bad version of lemmings. The work done to make the game seemed good, tho.
GMC Fruit Salad Surfer by Yal
GMC Party Adventure by Imagine Galaxy
Goin' All Nite by Dadio
GreymoorHall by Ninety
happy birthday by @Yal (1.5 stars)
There was a lot of running around in 3D land with backwards camera control finding a lot of square blocks but no balloons. I didn't have time to keep running around so I had to stop playing. I didn't really understand what I was supposed to be doing since I never saw any balloons. Didn't see the theme. Really atmospheric and well made, otherwise.
HealthBar by Fanatrick
Hero Horde by @PinesOfChaos (3 stars)
I couldn't figure out how to play for a while. Too much trial and error to figure it out, and made me grumpy. Graphics were cool. Music was great. Finally figured it out and the game was kinda relaxing and I ended up liking it pretty good. Needs sound FX, and better game explanation. Stats: DT 195, HH 230, PS 50, MS 1065, TR 0, CR 2936, D 0, TS 4476.
Hero Huddle by ThinGinger
Jaguar Pogo Party by TotallyAverageGamez
Jam Defenders by Kepons
Jenka Dungeon by dosto, Reaktori, Riuku

K ā€“ P

Keyboard Hero by tadashibashi
Life Party by @Cat (0 stars)
This came up with a virus threat. I tried the link on your games page, and it had a virus threat, too. Sorry, I won't take that chance, even tho I don't think you are throwing out viruses. Better luck next time.
matoset by @Poizen (3 stars)
Jam Version of this game starts with a fatal error. Going to look for a fixed version. Hope it doesn't take too long.... Found the fixed version, but my computer tagged it as a potential virus threat. After too much screwing around dealing with all that, I was able to download and play it finally. Nice polish, but game was a little hard to control (turning). Also, it didn't save my information after gameover making me re-input my name and options each time. Might have played more if I wasn't burned out by all these negative points, since the game seemed kinda fun otherwise.
Me pARRty by ghandpivot
Need For Beats by @matharoo, BlaineTanuki, _aeternumgames (3 stars)
Sorry, I can't get into these types of games. Looks pretty well made, but I'm just unable to enjoy it. Polish is great, tutorial, everything seems great. I hope other people who like this type of game liked it.
One Big Party by @Gizmo199 , @shortbread (2 stars)
Pretty interesting, but requires a whole night (or two) to play and I just haven't got the time. Simple graphics, but works well. Could have used some sounds or music, or both. I really liked the idea of this. I'll have to come back and check this out further.
One Big Political Party by Terminator_Pony
Party Animal by @TehPilot, TheFugue (Perfect 4 stars)
Really well done, but that's no surprise. Loved the variation of the cat's meow. Nothing to complain about here. The movement in this was fantastic and felt perfect. Excellent!
Party Animals by @ScaryPotato, @kalzme (2.5 stars)
I think this would have been better as a turn based game, maybe? I dunno. I didn't really enjoy button mashing. Art was cute, but sadly doesn't make up for the lack of gameplay. The interfaces were pretty good, everything seemed nicely polished, but the game just wasn't very fun. Excellent work on polishing the game!
Party Detective by @Mercyssh (2 stars)
There doesn't seem to be stairs to every level. Time seems to pass way too fast, and I wasn't able to even get anywhere, let alone be able to read any messages that guests were saying. Neat idea, but needs work, imo.
Party Guardians by StarDreamIX
Party Mountain by @AJTheApple (3 stars)
I made it to the icy caves, then rage quit because trying to jump on the arrows was too difficult for me. Nice graphics and sounds and music ā€“ overall polish was pretty good. Some kind of help to show the controls before starting the game would have been helpful, since I had to ā€œtrial and errorā€ my way to figure out the controls (and to figure out what the arrow was for).
Party Paddles by Fusai
Party Parade by Tristan
Party Pooper by Lukan
Party Puker by @Ben Stitt (2 stars)
It does look like a first game, but the game is playable and works as intended. No sounds, no music, no graphics (really), nothing special, but congrats on your first jam game. You made something that is playable, it fits the theme, plus it even has a little bit of a story to it! Good job!
Plague Rats by @Nocturne (4 stars)
Cool idea, neat concept. Game worked well up until level 3. It froze in the same place twice. What was there for the game was great thus far, but the freezing of the game prevents further analysis. Great graphics, sounds, music, presentation, and instructions. Music sounds very familiar, I might have used it in a previous game I made. Haha

Q ā€“ Z

Queen by @Toque (3.5 stars)
Really funny game. I was able to score over 100, but wasn't able to finish the game. Kept getting pooped on. Thanks for a more enjoyable game than the last few I played. Easy to understand and entertaining, even tho the game play was really basic. Loved the art as always. Thanks for making me smile, Toque!
Quickly! Dispensegifts by Allison James
R-pg-ING by Micah_DS
Roborazzi by Kultisti, Sulo
Robot Surprise Party by samspade
Snake Dance by Greenblizzard
Survival Party by @HayManMarc (oh my stars)
Neat.
Survive the Party by @Nejc Podlipnik (2 stars)
I didn't see a party. When I died, the game just stopped with no way to exit or go back to menu, or anything ā€“ I had to exit from the window (or task manager). Graphics were pretty nice. Sounds were there, but seemed minimal somehow. No music. This seems very unfinished.
The Annual GMC Party by @O.Stogden (3.5 stars)
Funny game. Fun to see me featured. I easily solved the first level, but failed the second. I don't have time to play further, but I suspect I'll come back to this one. Graphics work well, and music choice is good. There were sound effects, but no gameplay sound effects. Weird, but in a cool way. I went back into the game to listen for sounds and solved the second level after a few guesses.
The Golden Balloon by Little Penguin Studios
The Matchmaker (HTML5 ONLY, OPEN FOLDER) by @eimie (2.5 stars)
First of all, the link didn't work in the downloaded folder, I had to go to your games post on the GMC to find the game. Secondly, the game took a long time to load. It wasn't horrible, but seemed too long for what it was. I played the game and I'm not sure I played it right, but it was extremely fun to move with the beat. Our hero gots da moves!
The Party Must Go On by @GVmG (3 stars)
Kinda neat, but it seemed to go on forever. I didin't have time to wait and play for that long, sorry. Graphics were really nice. I think if the movement were restricted to a grid it might have played better, imo. I'll probably come back to this one and try it again later.
The Retrieval by Dr Wolf
The Scattered Army by Sirham
The Way Back To The Party by Noodlehead
Wastoid Rodney by @Cloaked Games, @JosephEllis, BlakeNorth (3.5 stars)
Cool, arcade-y game, but I couldn't get past the level to find Robo Lazer. Controls seemed a little weird to me - I used my gamepad and the shoot & dash buttons were mapped to the shoulder buttons instead of the triggers, making it less comfortable to hold the controller to play. Storyline, graphics, and music were fun. Cool flash and screenshake effects. Gameplay was a bit unforgiving at times, but probably because I suck at playing games. I had fun playing it until I got stuck dying over and over. lol
Wham Bam Dan Jam Slam by GameDevDan
Your Brain On Party by @thijsmie (2.5 stars)
Really difficult to do the two things at once. I think it's just all happening way to fast to keep up with. I get what you're going for with the tower defense and the party interaction, but it is just unmanageable, in my opinion, to the point of frustration overpowering fun. The game looks like it has a lot of code under the hood, so good job getting it to work for the most part. However, I did experience a game breaking error at one point. Interesting concept, but I think it needs a bit more work to be more enjoyable to play.

1614759244250.png
 
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I've had a chance to play through them, and here are the reviews!

1. Hero Huddle - Really took me by surprise, I liked the different types of enemy and the general mechanic was pretty cool
2. Quickly! Dispensegifts - The UI and general presentation made me take note, I didn't think this could be done in GMS
3. The Golden Balloon - Short and sweet, but it has an overall charm which is very endearing

4 - 9: in no particular order:

Wastoid Rooney - The polish was great
Snake Dance - Takes a simple idea and really follows through, very well done
One Big Party - Was really impressed with the graphics and overall responsiveness
Hero Huddle - I'm not one for bullet hells but this was very well done.
3 Mice in a Trenchcoat - Can tell a lot of effort went into it, nicely done for such a short time!

10 - 15 in no particular order:

Party Mountain - Nice idea and was executed well.
Jam Defenders - Simple idea done well.
Emmy and Sal - I really liked it, a nice puzzle game with good character.
Party Animal - The aesthetic and gameplay was great =)
Candles Have Feelings Too - Engaging and good fun, I liked the art style.

16 - 20 in no particular order:

Adventures of Robot X - Can tell a lot of time and effort went into it, and it was good fun to play =) Couple of collision issues but nothing that wouldn't be an easy fix!
Party Animal - The aesthetic and gameplay was great =)
Fiesta Down - Had a really nice retro feel :D
Florida Man - General theme was wicked, especially liked the gator. I accidentally kicked the gator which crashed the game, but still I liked it.
Forty or the Modern Big Brother - Really liked the art style

18 - 21 in no particular order:

Jaguar Pogo - I liked it. I got stuck on an edge but it had a nice art style and was good fun.
Me pARRty - The 3d was nice and it was very smooth.
The Matchmaker - I liked the pixel art and it was quite engaging.

These are just my ratings, I enjoyed all of them and each and every game had something that stood out =) I am new to GMS so there's probably a lot of stuff which I didn't pick up on, but I enjoyed playing through them and am grateful for the opportunity =) If i get the chance to update this with more games then I will!
 

Yal

šŸ§ *penguin noises*
GMC Elder
Yal's Reviews

Games played so far: 21/77

1st place - Plague Rats by Nocturne: Amazing presentation, the gameplay lets you quickly get to the point, and there's lots of little care and attention to details everywhere. I would've liked seeing rats change visually in some way when you infect them (so you can tell if you collected every rat in a room yet) and there's a bunch of cases where walls obscure walkable space, but other than that it's solid all around. Extra props for a tutorial that portion out information at just the right pace.

2nd place - Candle Wars by Yozoraki: The art style is really nice, especially after all the programmer art! The walking animation is a bit too slow but I'm not gonna be picky. I love a tutorial that's actually integrated into the story, too! The music starts out pretty nice, but it doesn't flow super well and gradually becomes obnoxious as it just keeps going. Maybe having separate tracks for the town and the rest of the overworld would've helped. (It doesn't really feel like a lot's at stake when fighting monsters with the cheerful town music going on). The ending also is super abrupt and would've looked 10 times better with a non-black background that didn't mask the character outlines (e.g. a pink gradient).

3rd place - Forty or the Modern Big Brother by SoapSud39: Got completely blindsided by the "one big POLITICAL party" interpretation of the theme... and then the intro reading "GRAND DADDY IS WATCHING YOU" took me out of the mood because of the Grand Dad meme.. followed by lawyer-friendly Winnie The Pooh. Welp. Having to read text with a new mindset (and parse which words should be changed) was a surprisingly fun gameplay loop. (The twist at the end where it tries to scare you by reading $USERNAME also fails if your username isn't your name :p)

Best Ofs
Best use of theme: Candle Wars by Yozoraki
Best concept: Jam Defenders by Kepons
Best presentation: Plague Rats by Nocturne
Best story: Forty or the Modern Big Brother by SoapSud39
Best devlog: Didn't go through enough of these to be able to make an informed decision, sorry

Full Ranking + Reviews
  1. Plague Rats by Nocturne: Amazing presentation, the gameplay lets you quickly get to the point, and there's lots of little care and attention to details everywhere. I would've liked seeing rats change visually in some way when you infect them (so you can tell if you collected every rat in a room yet) and there's a bunch of cases where walls obscure walkable space, but other than that it's solid all around. Extra props for a tutorial that portion out information at just the right pace.
  2. Candle Wars by Yozoraki: The art style is really nice, especially after all the programmer art! The walking animation is a bit too slow but I'm not gonna be picky. I love a tutorial that's actually integrated into the story, too! The music starts out pretty nice, but it doesn't flow super well and gradually becomes obnoxious as it just keeps going. Maybe having separate tracks for the town and the rest of the overworld would've helped. (It doesn't really feel like a lot's at stake when fighting monsters with the cheerful town music going on). The ending also is super abrupt and would've looked 10 times better with a non-black background that didn't mask the character outlines (e.g. a pink gradient).
  3. Forty or the Modern Big Brother by SoapSud39: Got completely blindsided by the "one big POLITICAL party" interpretation of the theme... and then the intro reading "GRAND DADDY IS WATCHING YOU" took me out of the mood because of the Grand Dad meme.. followed by lawyer-friendly Winnie The Pooh. Welp. Having to read text with a new mindset (and parse which words should be changed) was a surprisingly fun gameplay loop. (The twist at the end where it tries to scare you by reading $USERNAME also fails if your username isn't your name :p)
  4. Wastoid Rodney by Cloaked Games, JosephEllis, BlakeNorth: Nicely polished! It's clear multiple people worked on it. The white outlines help everything stick out from the colorful and noisy backgrounds, which is a nice plus (and something more entries should steal for the next jam). Hearing original music after all the Kevin Macleod stuff was also a nice change of pace.
  5. 3 Mice in a Threnchcoat by Bart, TheSnidr, Xor, Naterboy: It's amazing seeing a proper 3D entry in a GMC jam! It's a bit stiff to play, the gray color scheme makes the castle feel lifeless and dull, and the camera occasionally gets stuck in walls, so perhaps some more time should've gone into the design (visual/level) and not just purely technical...
  6. Party Animal by TehPilot, TheFugue: I liked the turn-of-the century mute film aesthetic and the slick presentation, even if the graphics are a bit simplistic. With a little more random details to decorate the levels (and make humans not look like clones of each other by applying e.g. random hair sprites) it would've been elevated stylewise.
  7. Jam Defenders by Kepons: Ah yes, programmer art. Interesting twist on an interactive tutorial to have all the info at once... a bit overwhelming, I'd probably make each text fade away (maybe only to 50% alpha) after the player performs the action. Interesting twist on a tower defense/RTS mashup and the formation controls are really in-depth for a jam game. Having ANY texture on the background would've made the art feel a lot higher quality than a plain gray color (heck, any other color than gray would've been more interesting...)
  8. Hero Huddle by ThinGinger: Confusing at first. I like how the teams work together instead of fighting for a change. Doesn't feel like there's much strategy involved in the game since you can't e.g. control your formation to get a smaller hitbox (important for the boss) and basically every battle is a completely overwhelming curbstomp because the largest group thins the smaller group so quickly they can't retaliate.
  9. Roborazzi by Kultisti, Sulo: the game starts off with an amazing first impression but kinda wears out its welcome gameplay-wise. Levels feels a bit too large, leading to a lot of aimless wandering, and targets kinda blend into each other to the point I started randomly snapping groups hoping I'd find a target I couldn't see in there (which worked occasionall!). Having to snap each target 5 times doesn't really add anything to the challenge since they don't teleport or anything when you snap them, so you can just hang around and shoot repeatedly. Automatic walking just makes you bounce off corners a lot and be annoyed.
  10. Crimson Guild's Glamourous Guest List by Mr Magnus: I never knew I wanted every game to have a "comic sans" option until now. Props for adding accessibility options, I myself basically always ignore them as a necessary sacrifice! The game itself clearly is suffering, though... primitive graphics with no animation, and everyone moving at uniform speeds (or bouncing in unison on the rooftops) ends up making the game feel stiff and lifeless. The GUI als is a bit confusing and the guest list text capitalization is off the charts. I like the "here's a new goal to try to achieve" on game over, it adds a bit addictiveness.
  11. City Scuttler by Bearman_18: Ooh, a good ol' classic overhead RPG. It's really unstable and crashes a lot, perhaps some try{stuff()}catch(dummy){} would've been a good idea. I'm worried the "every enemy you kill gives you an extra turn + inventory slot" mechanic will completely break the game after a while because of the sheer attrition the player can amass.
  12. Behemoth by sp202: Another cool first impression with the special effects, though not sure a game where you're meant to cheat and learn the solution from other people's messages is a particularly good concept...
  13. Escape of the Clowns by kburkhart84: Kevin McLeod music kinda ruins the first impression, not to mention the title screen text is almost illegible because of red on red (and fuchsia). It's nice with the level select screen telling you how much game there is to get through, though. The core gameplay (having to wait for boxes to slowly build a path) is sooooooo slooooooow, having time pressure (e.g. slowly advancing wall of spikes from the left, boxes breaking) and smaller levels could've helped keep the game more exciting.
  14. Jaguar Pogo Party by TotallyAverageGamez: The visual style is all over the place, especially the menu. I like the part where the screen resolution settings say you're using the only supported resolution when you try to change it, making their existence completely pointless. With no group, no festivities and no politics going on, it doesn't feel like it uses the theme at all.
  15. Goin' All Nite by Dadio: Nice screensaver, apart from the part where it made me motion sick.
  16. Fantasy Strategy Clicker by Julien, Hyomoto: Ah yes, the most generic title possible followed by stock music I recognize, truly the best first impression. And then the actual in-game menu sounds and looks like a prison simulator?? Maybe having a bustling town background (or a high fantasy landscape) or something would've improved this jarring contrast. It's not clear what anything does, so the game probably could've done with some more tooltips (e.g. explaining what resources do). The unsettling in-game music doesn't match the game at all and it's not clear what you're constructing things for. Still more enjoyable than pure reading, but not by much.
  17. The Annual GMC Party by O_stogden: Didn't expect a visual novel / detective simulator. Clearly the reason I'm not in the game is because I'm the best detective and would've trivialized all the murder investigations. Kinda slow and the lack of graphics don't really do a lot to keep my cat-sized attention span going through all the reading, especially not on a deadline. (And just spamming all accusations sequentially to cheese the game felt dishonorable so I didn't do it)
  18. GMC Party Adventure by Imagine Galaxy: That sure was... a thing. The visual "style" makes my eyes physically hurt and I find the troll sprite having a suspiciously high amount of effort put into it compared to blocks that are literally just a single brown floodfill. The game would've looked a lot better if you'd tried going for a more stylish approach (e.g. just using black, white and red) and most importantly, made all assets in the same visual style so they don't clash with each other.
  19. Party Pooper by Lukan: The complete lack of juice makes the game very unrewarding to play, having a built-in fireworks particle effect when you shoot someone is 1 line of code and would've been the bare minimum juice (plus optional sound effects, music, small image_xscale/yscale squash animations to make the characters feel more alive). Also I swear I kept losing because of innocents overlapping the target so I couldn't NOT click them, this could've been avoided if everyone were moving around randomly as well.
  20. Party Parade by Tristan: Ah yes, more programmer art. The color choices don't really contrast with the background properly in a lot of casees, and the band animations are so slow it just looks stiff. The gameplay felt really detached for a variety of reasons, most importantly the A/L keys basically being completely random instead of rhythmical in some way. Having more input variety (e.g. rapidfire elongated notes, more keys being introduced later) would've helped longevity.
  21. Color Splash by Evanski: Really nice title screen. And... that's all it is? (Even the fixed version has a lot less gameplay than the title screen made it out to be). They say that first impressions are everything, but this is kinda pushing it...
 
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StarDreamIX

Member
Reserved for Voting!
Good luck to Everyone! :)
Thank you! ;)
Go Green! āœ…

Sorry Guys.
My entry was a last minute link and since I ran out of time, I forgot to include the credits.
So, here they are (since I can't edit the link in the original submission post anymore):

Credits:

Cake Image From Pixabay:

Skeletons: https://jesse-m.itch.io/skeleton-pack

Arcane Archer: https://astrobob.itch.io/arcane-archer

Knight Sprite In Pack Bundle:
https://uilleaggdwin.itch.io/roguelike-dungeon-asset-bundle
ALL SFX in this game were from freesounds.org

Background Music: Licensed Music From Pro Scores
 
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Chaser

Member
Woooooah! 77 Games! great stuff, ive got my work cut out for me rating all them bad boys. :)

updated: Yeah, 77 games were a lot to get through in 2 weeks, so i was only able to play 14 of them(sorry). I will continue to rate everyone's game and il post them up to my itch page when complete for you to look at, at your leisure. :) Well done everyone who participated and submitted! :)

My game rating cards are to big in file size to upload here so you can view them here: https://chasersgaming.itch.io/gmc-40-2021-rating-cards

Top 3:

1) Glamorous Guest List
2) Final Battle
3) Survival Party


4) Adventures of Robot X
5) Jam Defenders
6) Three Mice in a Trenchcoat
7) Dr Smileys Brain Jam
8) The Scattered Army
9) Your brain on Party
10) Snake Dance
11) Castle Meta
12) Get to the Party
13) The Matchmaker
14) Me Parrty
 
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In all honesty, it was really hard to rank these. There are so many good games! It seems unfair that games I truly truly enjoyed didn't make my top 10 simply because there were soo many good games. It's tough to find time, so I apologize for not playing all of them in time! Either way, what a great community! I'm excited to be more involved in the future.

Top 3:

Crimson Guild's Glamorous Guest List by Mr Magnus
This game is FIRE! I had a lot of fun looking for just the right person(s)? Song fits. Very polished. 10/10

Party Animal by TehPilot, TheFugue
Wonderful game! I love the silent film vibe and thought-provoking puzzles. Great aesthetic, great game. I have nothing negative to say!

Candle Wars by Yozoraki
Amazing. Fun art. Engaging playthrough. I can tell a lot went into this game to make it truly great. The firebreathing cake is an excellent touch.

Full ranking:

  1. Crimson Guild's Glamorous Guest List by Mr Magnus
  2. Party Animal by TehPilot, TheFugue
  3. Candle Wars by Yozoraki
  4. Party Animals by ScaryPotato, Kalzme
  5. Crimson Festival by Alice, FunkyPoop
  6. Wastoid Rodney by Cloaked Games, JosephEllis, BlakeNorth
  7. Wham Bam Dan Jam Slam by GameDevDan
  8. One Big Party by Gizmo199, shortbread
  9. Survival Party by HayManMarc
  10. Hero Horde by PinesOfChaos
  11. Jenka Dungeon by dosto, Reaktori, Riuku
  12. Christmas with Uncle Tom by BluishGreenPro
  13. Me pARRty by ghandpivot
  14. Emmy And Sal by Mercerenies
  15. Forty or the Modern Big Brother by SoapSud39
  16. Barry Bear's Birthday by Richerama
  17. The Party Must Go On by GVmG
  18. The Annual GMC Party by O_stogden
  19. get to the party by Wabb, sequential
  20. Adventures Of Robot X by Pixel-Team
  21. Castle Meta by The M
  22. GMC Fruit Salad Surfer by Yal
  23. Escape of the Clowns by kburkhart84
  24. 3 Mice In A Trenchcoat by Bart, TheSnidr, Xor, Naterboy
  25. Queen by Toque
  26. Party Guardians by StarDreamIX
  27. Florida Man by BreakfastBoy
  28. Crazy Waiter by Gatefiz, JP, Claire Dujardin, Benfik
  29. Party Puker by Ben Stitt
  30. Fantasy Strategy Clicker by Julien, Hyomoto
  31. dumburk 9000 by Bret Hudson, Allen Webster, Jared Cohen
  32. matoset by Poizen
 
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GameDevDan

Former Jam Host
Moderator
GMC Elder
GameDevDan's Votes and Reviews


Top 3:

Candle Wars by Yozoraki
I really like the graphics, the story, the concept and the gameplay. Everything comes together as one fantastic experience here. Obviously matches the theme in a big way and it's bright, colorful and pleasant which is exactly what I wanted when I chose "ONE BIG PARTY"! Unfortunately I just couldn't seem to put the cherry on top of the experience and actually *beat the game*. I distracted big cake man and took a bunch of cupcakes and sweeties to try and defeat him (because making more cookies appeared to stop working after the first batch) but I couldn't seem to do any damage.

The Golden Balloon by Little Penguin Studios
I really like this one. Great graphical style - simple but effective. I like the music, it really matches the feel of the game (although I have heard it in about 3 or 4 entries already this jam lol). The main mechanic is unique to this jam as far as I can tell, and the engine behind it is really well made. Also a nice touch having the interactive end screen where you can reveal the message with the cannon. A Solid entry.

Adventures Of Robot X by Pixel-Team
Brilliant effort. Nice graphics, the platforming engine is nice and smooth (jumps are a *little* unnatural looking but feel otherwise decent to control). The story was decent. It manages to be forgiving when you die with checkpoints in fair places. I got to the end and beat the boss. It's a neat little bonus that the game's title screen uses a font that makes it look like the whole game was designed just for you, the player. Nice one Pat.

Best ofs:

Best use of ONE BIG PARTY: Candle Wars by Yozoraki
Best Concept: Crimson Festival by Alice, FunkyPoop
Best Presentation: One Big Party by Gizmo199, shortbread
Best Story: Forty or the Modern Big Brother by SoapSud39
Best Devlog: Forty or the Modern Big Brother by SoapSud39

Full ranking:

  1. Candle Wars by Yozoraki
  2. The Golden Balloon by Little Penguin Studios
  3. Adventures Of Robot X by Pixel-Team
  4. Candles Have Feelings by JordanOttesen
  5. Emmy And Sal by Mercerenies
  6. One Big Party by Gizmo199, shortbread
  7. Plague Rats by Nocturne
  8. Need For Beats by Matharoo, BlaineTanuki, _aeternumgames
  9. Forty or the Modern Big Brother by SoapSud39
  10. Party Mountain by AJTheApple
  11. Jam Defenders by Kepons
  12. Roborazzi by Kultisti, Sulo
  13. Wastoid Rodney by Cloaked Games, JosephEllis, BlakeNorth
  14. GreymoorHall by Ninety
  15. Party Animal by TehPilot, TheFugue
  16. Gangs Bash by D'Andrew Box
  17. Fiesta Down by VinylFly
  18. Barry Bear's Birthday by Richerama
  19. Crimson Guild's Glamorous Guest List by Mr Magnus
  20. Florida Man by BreakfastBoy
  21. 3 Mice In A Trenchcoat by Bart, TheSnidr, Xor, Naterboy
  22. Christmas with Uncle Tom by BluishGreenPro
  23. Demon Dance by Mightyjor, Twintertainment, Brett-Bit
  24. Extinction Tea Party by Moon Goat
  25. Snake Dance by Greenblizzard
  26. Crimson Festival by Alice, FunkyPoop
  27. Jenka Dungeon by dosto, Reaktori, Riuku
  28. Behemoth by sp202
  29. The Matchmaker (HTML5 ONLY, OPEN FOLDER) by eimie
  30. Party Animals by ScaryPotato, Kalzme
  31. Candle by Steelegms2
  32. Final Battle by Kahrabaa
  33. The Party Must Go On by GVmG
  34. GMC Fruit Salad Surfer by Yal
  35. Your Brain On Party by thijsmie
  36. Robot Surprise Party by samspade
  37. Hero Huddle by ThinGinger
  38. Castle Meta by The M
  39. Keyboard Hero by tadashibashi
  40. Me pARRty by ghandpivot
  41. Blackout by Siolfor the Jackal
  42. Hero Horde by PinesOfChaos
  43. Queen by Toque
  44. R-pg-ING by Micah_DS
  45. get to the party by Wabb, sequential
  46. Jaguar Pogo Party by TotallyAverageGamez
  47. Escape of the Clowns by kburkhart84
  48. HealthBar by Fanatrick
  49. Survival Party by HayManMarc
  50. GMC Party Adventure by Imagine Galaxy
  51. Dr Smiley's Brain Jam Party by Yal
  52. dumburk 9000 by Bret Hudson, Allen Webster, Jared Cohen
  53. Party Detective by Mercyssh
  54. Goin' All Nite by Dadio
  55. Quickly! Dispensegifts by Allison James
  56. Fantasy Strategy Clicker by Julien, Hyomoto
  57. The Way Back To The Party by Noodlehead
  58. Life Party by Cat
  59. Survive the Party by Nejc Podlipnik
  60. The Scattered Army by Sirham
  61. One Big Political Party by Terminator_Pony
  62. Crazy Waiter by Gatefiz, JP, Claire Dujardin, Benfik
  63. Party Paddles by Fusai
  64. The Annual GMC Party by O_stogden
  65. Apocalypse party by aspiringgamemaker
  66. City Scuttler by Bearman_18
  67. The Retrieval by Dr Wolf
  68. dawg the party animal by NivesStudio
  69. Party Pooper by Lukan
  70. Party Parade by Tristan
  71. Party Puker by Ben Stitt
  72. happy birthday by Yal
  73. Color Splash by EvanSki
  74. Fiesta Fist by Cristobal, MatthewPattel
  75. matoset by Poizen
  76. Party Guardians by StarDreamIX

Comments:

3 Mice In A Trenchcoat by Bart, TheSnidr, Xor, Naterboy

I really wanted to like this one before playing because I know just how much time & effort went into it and I really appreciate that. The graphics are obviously great, and the skill required to pull off this level of 3D in GameMaker is immense. However, I think there may have been a lack of planning around making it jam friendly. The aim of the game is never explained & the back story sort of non-existent - so you're just exploring vast (mostly empty) levels where it's hard to find the goal and there aren't many enemies or challenges to face. When you *do* get hit by an enemy e.g. a trap door, you have to start from the very beginning - which is a big no no for me in jams: the penalty for failure should be quite lenient knowing how many games reviewers have to play. The two improvements I would make to have the biggest impact are: 1. a minimap - even a vague one - so the user can navigate the large levels more easily without getting lost. 2. Some kind of introduction sequence to actually tell the user the story / main goal of the game. I think I am being *more* critical of this game than others because I had such high hopes in the first place. In reality you should of course be proud of how the game stands on its own merits (Great graphics, decent music, high level of skill being showcased).

Adventures Of Robot X by Pixel-Team

Brilliant effort. Nice graphics, the platforming engine is nice and smooth (jumps are a *little* unnatural looking but feel otherwise decent to control). The story was decent. It manages to be forgiving when you die with checkpoints in fair places. I got to the end and beat the boss. It's a neat little bonus that the game's title screen uses a font that makes it look like the whole game was designed just for you, the player. Nice one Pat.

Apocalypse party by aspiringgamemaker

Standard top-down zombie shooter - we usually see a few each jam but I think this is the only one this time! ;) the graphics and music and decent. Player should move diagonally when you hold more than one key instead of just the most recent one pressed.

Barry Bear's Birthday by Richerama

This is a nice little set of mini games! each one was interesting and challenging on the first try, but easy to master once you realise how it works. The gamefeel was good, the graphics were decent and the sound was good. Barry seems a little lonely, I know we're in lockdown but maybe a few friends in the background would have been a neat touch ;)

Behemoth by sp202

Really cool concept. I like that the visual effects, I get the sense you wanted to try out some implementation of videos in GameMaker :p the animations are really smooth and well done. I'm always impressed by some level of online functionality, so kudos on that. Although most of the members who have played so far have been very unhelpful lol. I was hoping for cryptic clues to help me but people have pretty much posted either complete nonsense or the actual correct answers... Nice entry for something quite short & simple to play anyway.

Blackout by Siolfor the Jackal

Graphics are good including the animations/transitions. The game is pretty simple in the end, just a good ole walkin' and tappin' sim.

Candle by Steelegms2

A simple but effective concept, which matches the theme well and is quite fun to play. The graphics are good, and the main mechanic works. I am guessing the game is endless and the rooms are procedurally generated? Seems to just keep going and going. Main criticism: Because the birthday candles home in on you no matter what, they have a tendency to trap you in the starting area, then once you've defeated them you have to explore a big, bland empty room to find the key. Would be better if they only attacked you once they had "seen" you so that the whole map was challenging, not just the start zone.

Candle Wars by Yozoraki

I really like the graphics, the story, the concept and the gameplay. Everything comes together as one fantastic experience here. Obviously matches the theme in a big way and it's bright, colorful and pleasant which is exactly what I wanted when I chose "ONE BIG PARTY"! Unfortunately I just couldn't seem to put the cherry on top of the experience and actually *beat the game*. I distracted big cake man and took a bunch of cupcakes and sweeties to try and defeat him (because making more cookies appeared to stop working after the first batch) but I couldn't seem to do any damage.

Candles Have Feelings by JordanOttesen

I really like this game. Very cute and colorful graphics (exactly what I was looking for when I picked the theme!) great music and sound effects. I like the story and the general premise of the gameplay. I will confess I didn't finish it, because it does for me have some slightly frustrating mechanics/controls to get to grips with. My pet peeve in platformers is the kind of wall jumping implemented here, where as soon as the jump is complete the game registers the key you were holding at the time of the jump and moves back in that direction. To see what I mean I suggest playing a game where this mechanic is implemented well (e.g. Super Mario Odyssey) and then comparing the two. I stopped playing because I kept failing one particular wall jump at the end of the second run, where you have to avoid the icing while jumping. But that said, to complete this compliment-criticism-compliment sandwich, I did very much have fun playing this game. Really great entry.

Castle Meta by The M

PLAY 2: Ok so this has a fairly decent platforming engine behind it, and kudos for adding a multiplayer online element to it. That's always a great feat even if I still didn't quite see much impact of it in the overworld, seeing the names on the tablet at least makes everything feel a little more connected. The abilities are decent. There is a lot of dead space between enemies and collectables which makes the game feel like a little bit of a walking sim at times, but otherwise a decent entry.

PLAY1: Unlucky enough to be one of the first (and therefore only) players and so I'm not getting the full benefit of any online connectivity. If I get time I'll come back to this one later, I'm going to leave my review at that for now.

Christmas with Uncle Tom by BluishGreenPro

Won't run for me, not sure why. Sorry about that. I will rank it anyway (seems unfair not to since I'm ranking everyone else) but it will be at the bottom.

Weird to be playing a Christmas-themed game in March but we'll set that aside :p This is more of a slightly interactive animation than a game, not much to do but settle back and watch the story - but that's not necessarily a bad thing. The engine is solid with a good dialogue system which isn't always easy to get right. Decent graphics, nice music and just a general positive vibe running throughout. The story was well-written and wholesome. Good effort.

City Scuttler by Bearman_18

Because your frame of reference is quite small, and enemies move instantly instead of animating into place, it can feel weird navigating around. Almost like you don't move in the right direction when you press the controls (even though I know you do). Also a little bit bland, although I do appreciate the effort that's gone into making the underlying system.

Color Splash by EvanSki

Unfinished - cannot progress past the menu. I like what I see here (the menu is well-made lol) but I can't seem to get into a game.

Crazy Waiter by Gatefiz, JP, Claire Dujardin, Benfik

I like the idea, the inherent humour in the concept, and the smooth/decent graphics. The gameplay leaves quite a bit to be desired though, the movement is quite "sticky" so it's difficult to achieve the tasks the game sets out.

Crimson Festival by Alice, FunkyPoop

This is a great idea to really tie together all of the red gang jam entries - I really like that you went out of your way to foster the team spirit in this jam Alice. The graphics are great and the story (as I played it) was interesting and fun to play through. Of course, the risk with this kind of thing is that the elements won't all "play ball" as it were... and that seems to have happened in some ways here. A couple of the games I definitely played/won did not show up as me having done so and did not appear to have the correct metadata in their own folders for me to add it manually! It might have been prudent to design a fun game *on its own merits* and just add in little bonuses later - where as it stands this is like a visual novel whose main overriding goal is to evoke nostalgia for the other jam games (which doesn't work if they don't play ball with the engine). Nice work though.

Crimson Guild's Glamorous Guest List by Mr Magnus

Bah everyone's too good for me - wish I had played this earlier so I could've enjoyed some time on the scoreboard before all the good people played lol. I very much like the concept... although I dislike the frustrating largely amount of information you need to absorb relative to the small size of the things you're trying to find. A variant of this where the time is faster but the asks are more simple and the guests bigger and more obvious would be great. I think it would lead to more hectic gameplay but less of a feeling of frustration. Nice entry anyway.

dawg the party animal by NivesStudio

A decent effort - but a ways to go before it's up there with some of the better entries. The music being a loop of the same 4 seconds of minor scale notes on repeat is a big turnoff and it would've been better without. The graphics are passable and the gameplay that is there works and is fun in places.

Demon Dance by Mightyjor, Twintertainment, Brett-Bit

Nice little DDR-style clone with funny animations in the background. Good presentation and use of sound effects. I am puzzled as to how the highscores work. I played without missing a single note every time and never even got close to the people who are already up there - but having the online highscores in the first place is a nice feature.

Dr Smiley's Brain Jam Party by Yal

Pretty standard match-3 ish type thing. Not my favourite genre of game. Occasionally the blocks don't seem to behave as expected / observe gravity and they get stuck leaving blank gaps underneath. The presentation is good though.

dumburk 9000 by Bret Hudson, Allen Webster, Jared Cohen

It seems like you have the base engine of a thing figured out, but as yet it is lacking in the instructions/story/visuals which gives the player what they need to understand the game. I kept pressing enter and progressing through the days upgrading my equipment, but not much seems to happen after that.

Emmy And Sal by Mercerenies

This is a really good puzzle game - that's two jams in a row now you have absolutely delivered a fun game with well-structured levels from a clever puzzle idea. I like the humour throughout. The sprites leave a little more to be desired this time but the overall graphical feel - with the smooth animations on various elements - still comes out feeling pretty good. Fab overall.

Escape of the Clowns by kburkhart84

A good concept - the idea that you have to get the boxes to fall where you want to complete puzzles/complete the level is good. The execution leaves a little to be desired though. The jumping needs proper gravity (instead of UP-STOP-DOWN) and the music/graphics could do with some tweaking.

Extinction Tea Party by Moon Goat

An interesting take on a bullet hell mouse-based avoid em up. I like the graphics and the execution of the gameplay. No sound and no back story which are areas that could have been improved.

Fantasy Strategy Clicker by Julien, Hyomoto

Not much information to go on about how this one actually works. It's laid out in a decent way and has OK graphics, but I'm not really sure what my goals are.

Fiesta Down by VinylFly

I quite like this. Has an old school arcade game feel to it and the mechanics are really fun to play. I also like moles.

Fiesta Fist by Cristobal, MatthewPattel

I'm real sorry but just what is the control scheme here? WASD in the main menu... spammed the whole keyboard to figure out that "G" appears to be select a menu option but then when it goes to the next room I don't seem to be able to advance? Needs cleared instructions.

Final Battle by Kahrabaa

I actually enjoyed the tutorial more than the in-game play because it starts off too hard. Almost all the enemies defeat the starting character in a straight face-to-face battle and on a run where I did eventually get up to 2 party members a wave of like 10 red guys just stormed in and kicked my butt. The engine is well made and the graphics and sound are good - there are just some balancing issues which need to be addressed so players are eased into the game.

Florida Man by BreakfastBoy

Not bad! everything's a little bit diddy and small but the graphics have a cute charm to them and the mechanics were interesting (who wouldn't like to throw a croc at their enemies?).

Forty or the Modern Big Brother by SoapSud39

I really like the way this is done. Big fan of Orwell, I've read through 1984 a few times. In the UK 1984 actually entered the public domain this year, so you *could* make a full visual novel of 1984 and market it if you wanted - I reckon you'd do a good job. The inclusion of references to GMC members was funny, and the little out-of-game mechanics and quirks were fun. Nice work.

Gangs Bash by D'Andrew Box

VERY GOOD! I like it. The presentation is really slick and the little party games are all fun to play. Like this entry a lot. Things to improve:
- Need to be able to pick gang/character not just start as Red.
- Need instructions. (I figured out pretty quick every game was just left, right and Z - but still...
- Game never ends when you complete the world map. Just keeps playing games infinitely.
- In the tanks game the controls are completely the opposite to what I would expect. Right should be clockwise IMO. (also runs counter the established controls in the racing mini game)

get to the party by Wabb, sequential

The ideas behind this and the range of mechanics are well thought out. The execution could be better in various ways - graphics, sound, level design... almost every way really. But the idea is a solid foundation.

GMC Fruit Salad Surfer by Yal

Functional, fun and with neat sound effects and graphics - although the bulging TV effect actually takes away from the overall feel IMO. A nice little timewaster.

GMC Party Adventure by Imagine Galaxy

Interesting cutscenes at the start. The engine seems largely well made, although it should be the case that you can "re-jump" when stuck to a wall, instead of having to wait to "un-stick" before jumping a 2nd time. Not quite up there with the top games this jam but a solid effort.

Goin' All Nite by Dadio

Why am I not surprised - a classic dadio entry complete with googly eyes and barely existent mechanics. The wobbling effect makes me motion sick. But I love that you entered. Thanks.

GreymoorHall by Ninety

Yeah! I committed murder and got away with it mehehehe... youse better watch out >:) - I like this entry a lot. Played a bunch of games so far and it's the first to really take on this feel. Fits the theme but takes it in a different direction - murder mystery - which isn't a genre we see a lot of in jams. The mechanics, graphics and sound all worked really well. Could have used a little more content/clearer story direction.

happy birthday by Yal

So laggy I can barely play it unfortunately. The 3D looks pretty, it's just that I'm getting it at about 5 fps lol.

HealthBar by Fanatrick

Nice unique idea, great graphics and sound. It just gets a little boring after a while pouring the drinks (especially as I can do it pretty easily without failing, so there's no real jeopardy for me). Still an interesting entry.

Hero Horde by PinesOfChaos

The graphics and sound are decent, the gameplay is certainly coming along and it's nice to have some options in terms of choosing your characters and having the freedom to play the game as you see fit. That's also sort of its downfall in a way too - there is no clearly direction as to where I should be going so I just sort of wander around aimlessly bashing enemies.

Hero Huddle by ThinGinger

Nice idea, great execution on the huddle of heroes, simple but effective graphics including the neat little splatter marks (presumably drawn to a surface?). A couple of cons: I like to know why I am doing things, a little bit of background story would have been great - even a single static screen. I also don't like harsh penalties for failure. The final boss battle takes ages, restarting the game when you fail means I didn't bother to finish playing (this is a key lesson for future jams!). In general though, a decent entry.

Jaguar Pogo Party by TotallyAverageGamez

Quite a funny idea and an interesting take on the theme. It's weird that the character looks at the mouse when you basically don't use it. Could have done with obstacles and enemies to make the game more interesting.

Jam Defenders by Kepons

I really like this lol - it's funny, the characters and endearing, the little sound effects and graphical effects make the cute, jokey atmosphere of the game come to life. The gameplay is pretty good and more fun than most tower defence games we see in the jams! The downside is obviously that there isn't much to it / it feels unfinished. Would love to have seen more units, more animations, scenery, music etc. etc. so we had a complete package.

Jenka Dungeon by dosto, Reaktori, Riuku

Cute little dungeon crawler and a great interpretation of the theme. It can feel a little bit sticky at times, I guess because of the delay when moving into a grid square, but other than that it's a really great entry.

Keyboard Hero by tadashibashi

I love the music, the graphics and the concept. The choice of layout of the letters is very weird and counter-intuitive. Makes it hard to play the game. I also think people who make "keyboard hero" style games (seen a few before) overestimate how easy it is to play something like this - there's a reason games like DDR and Guitar Hero max out and 4-8 buttons to press!

Life Party by Cat

Pretty basic in terms of both gameplay and graphics. It functions as a relatively fun game, but there's not much to it in its current state.

matoset by Poizen

Really, really sorry @Poizen. I tried the fix you suggested (adding the stats data file to local app data) and the game still crashes for me. Then I tried to download build 1.1 from itch and it *still* has the same problem. Not sure why. I really wanted to give this a go - especially as the screenshots on itch look so good! Just have to chalk this one up as "s**t happens" I guess.

Me pARRty by ghandpivot

A nice foray into a 3D adventure game. The dialogue is funny, but the gameplay isn't up to much in the end. You run out of food in between literally every stop (even if you take the most direct route) and there are only a few interactive places.

Need For Beats by Matharoo, BlaineTanuki, _aeternumgames

I like the graphics, I like the music, the premise and the gameplay. I wish it was more *forgiving*. W/D/E feels like a weird control scheme to me and it only takes a couple of mistakes to fail a song. Overall quite fun though, I like it.

One Big Party by Gizmo199, shortbread

Exactly the sort of vibe I was going for with the theme. Fun, great graphics, nice sound, nice 3D work, a really decent entry. Two problems for me. 1 - you take a real risk making 3D games in GameMaker as to whether it will play well on *all* hardware. Unfortunately on my PC the framerate is terrible. The fruit catching game has a 1 minute timer on it, but actually takes 3 and a half minutes to play on my PC if you want an idea how bad the lag is. 2 - the AI is decent in 3 of the games, but they suck in the chicken coop one, and you have to wait for at least 2 of them to finish to progress! I was sat there for ages doing nothing. Fantastic effort though, really appreciate the skill involved in this entry.

One Big Political Party by Terminator_Pony

I'm interested in politics, maps, simulating elections and a lot of nerdy stuff which ties into this game - so I gave it a good chance. There just needs to be a little more to it I feel. The lack of audio or any visually stimulating graphics makes it a little boring, and you can win the election simply by never changing the arrows for speeches. (Because it seems to average out at a decent number of votes).

Party Animal by TehPilot, TheFugue

I really dig the presentation and the concept. This is cute, funny, the graphics are great and the audio is really nice. The mechanics are quite clever, although some of the time they feel a bit inconsistent (when the cat can see me or not). And it starts to feel a bit "trial and error" when that happens.

Party Animals by ScaryPotato, Kalzme

Some very nice mini games! Sadly, as will be the case with all other party games this jam (including my own) I will not get chance to play multiplayer. Would've been best to include some AI, but I played left-hand against right-hand for all the mini games. Cute graphics, cute music and fun games. Well done.

Party Detective by Mercyssh

There is a lot to think about here all at once and it's hard to concentrate on the clues with not only a timer but a cover meter as well! The platforming engine this game is wrapped in seems solid and the graphics are decent - but there's room for improvement.

Party Guardians by StarDreamIX

Won't run for me, not sure why. Sorry about that. I will rank it anyway (seems unfair not to since I'm ranking everyone else) but it will be at the bottom.

Party Mountain by AJTheApple

A well-made platforming engine, with good graphics and nice music. Short-and-sweet enough that it manages to show off all the available mechanics without hogging too much of this reviewer's time (more Jam games should do this please!) - The one thing I was disappointed in was the ending. The theme is ONE BIG PARTY! seeing just 4 balloons at the end and "party's over" dampens my spirits a bit lol.

Party Paddles by Fusai

Well presented in terms of music and graphics. The gameplay is a little too chaotic for me, especially with no single player mode (trying to control both paddles at once).

Party Parade by Tristan

Not much to it - it just keeps going and going and you aren't punished for just spamming the keys (so you never lose your streak). Good sense of humour, but not much else to report here.

Party Pooper by Lukan

A pretty simple concept. It's almost impossible to lose, there should probably be a countdown timer to make the game more interesting. What's there is done well, albeit obviously very quickly and without much added flair.

Party Puker by Ben Stitt

Very short and not much to go on here (no graphics or sound to give the game a more exciting vibe). Congrats on entering your first jam though, hope to see you enter more in future :)

Plague Rats by Nocturne

Nice use of the theme and a great concept. The rats work well and the gameplay is easy to understand and navigate - such that you would barely even need to read the tutorial prompts to understand what's going on (although it's obviously nice that you have them too!) It's well put together in terms of presentation. I know you wanted it to be longer but it's actually a decent length for a jam game - especially when we have 77 to play lol. Shame about the bug which freezes the game from time to time, but a solid entry overall.

Queen by Toque

Funny cutscene at the start. Gameplay is pretty simple and leaves a bit to be desired - but I do enjoy laughing at the monarchy.

Quickly! Dispensegifts by Allison James

Gotta be harsh but fair with my Chequered Ink colleague: this is just your GM48 entry with minor tweaks (and therefore not *really* made for the jam) and also features gratuitous rudeness/swearing (which isn't against the rules but probably the spirit of the jam, would've stuck a warning in the player description if I'd played before I made the zip lol). What it does have going for it is that it's a neat experimental mechanic, it has good music, and it means you participated in the 10th anniversary jam which I pratically begged you to do :p .... but two of those things were also true of the game when you entered it in the GM48 already. WUMP.

Roborazzi by Kultisti, Sulo

A fun idea, certainly unique to this jam so far. I really like the photo mechanic and the music and graphics are great.

Robot Surprise Party by samspade

The style of the game is very cute. The graphics are good, the music and sound are good and I like the concept a lot. It is, however, a wee bit broken :p the path-finding is not 100% accurate, sometimes the robots will take an inordinately long route to get to a location they can easily reach in a straight line. And if you lose, you get to go to the next level anyway, which is nice in a jam but the lack of a failure condition would get boring if this was commercialised in any way.

R-pg-ING by Micah_DS

Feels a bit like an idea that's going places but it's not *quite* there yet. A good solid foundation for a game but a little unfinished feeling.

Snake Dance by Greenblizzard

I was really looking forward to seeing the crocodile-hoovering-up-confetti game which looked spot on for the theme! but let's set that aside and focus on the game at hand: this is a cool, unique twist on the idea of snake and it's well executed in terms of gameplay, graphics and sound.

Survival Party by HayManMarc

Not really sure what the end game is here. I gathered all the guests and got the fun counter up to the top and then walked back to my house and nothing happened... until the timer ran out and I was admonished on the game over screen for not taking everyone back to my house... which I had... Anyway! major progress blockers aside it was a decent idea, with fair graphics and sound and some neat little touches like the dialogue coming in on the right hand side. Just feels perhaps a little unfinished?

Survive the Party by Nejc Podlipnik

The effort that's gone into the gameplay and graphics so far is good. It looks nice and it's clear there is a solid idea underlying it. Feels a unfinished though. Nothing happens after you die (softlock), enemies can spawn inside you, the character moves a bit slow. All areas for improvement.

The Annual GMC Party by O_stogden

Pretty funny stuff. The first puzzle, of course, was obvious. I didn't really get how the vague clues beyond there were really supposed to help - felt more like guesswork.

The Golden Balloon by Little Penguin Studios

I really like this one. Great graphical style - simple but effective. I like the music, it really matches the feel of the game (although I have heard it in about 3 or 4 entries already this jam lol). The main mechanic is unique to this jam as far as I can tell, and the engine behind it is really well made. Also a nice touch having the interactive end screen where you can reveal the message with the cannon. A Solid entry.

The Matchmaker (HTML5 ONLY, OPEN FOLDER) by eimie

I like the concept, music and the graphics. A funny & sweet game all at once and quite fun to play. It takes a long time to fail, and even if you ignore the matching mechanic it seems you can go on dancing forever as long as you stick to the beat. If you were looking to take this forward and improve it I'd say add some actual danger/urgency to the gameplay!

The Party Must Go On by GVmG

I like the concept for this one a lot. The graphics are good, the physics is good, the choice of music and sound effects are good. However, I think it misses the mark on the execution of the idea. Shopping for the goods would have been a lot more fun if:
- There were fewer total goods to choose from
- There were big, obvious pictures of the goods around the supermarket
- There was some permanent on-screen indication of the goods you need to collect
As it is you have to remember lists of text and move slowly around the supermarket near to shelves to examine more lists of text. The chaotic physics & sound effects would have better matched something with less text and more eye-popping graphics for each item.

The Retrieval by Dr Wolf

The game looks like a lot of effort went into it - which is always a plus. It's not my favourite genre, the graphics are a little hard on the eyes and it does have an issue where it crashes upon certain actions.

The Scattered Army by Sirham

Not bad as concepts go - needs a bit of work to make it more fun/playable.

The Way Back To The Party by Noodlehead

I can see the beginnings of a good text-based adventure engine, I'm sure you can put this to good use given more time in future. It's hard to keep track of the options in this one. With everything just called North, West, South, East Street or Alley, once you've been down a couple of paths it feels like you're turning in circles.

Wastoid Rodney by Cloaked Games, JosephEllis, BlakeNorth

Good graphics, nice concept and story and good music. It gets too hard pretty quickly, especially as your keytar doesn't shoot very fast. It also shouldn't replay opening cutscenes/textboxes when you die and restart. A decent entry though.

Wham Bam Dan Jam Slam by GameDevDan

POST MORTEM: There really isn't anything I could have done to make this any better in the time frame. This is the most effort I have ever put into a jam - I spent all my free time on it over the jam weekend, I made all the graphics, the whole engine and even - for the first time ever - composed my own music from scratch for it! I'm super proud of this entry and what I achieved in the time frame allowed. Now, all of that said, if I had an extra WEEK there are obvious improvements which could have been made. Many of the characters' weight/power needs balancing (The "light" characters are nearly useless in the current build). The locations should have better scenery so that they are more interesting *and* better represent the jam games they are supposed to come from. Although the AI is quite good, the game would really be infinitely more fun with a multiplayer mode (4 players round a TV with a gamepad each would be ace). Lots of stuff I could improve with more time, but I honestly don't think I've ever tried harder than this in a jam so I'm happy enough with the result.

Your Brain On Party by thijsmie

Interesting take on tower defence to meet the theme. Although I am not a fan of the genre (and the added complications / need to focus on many things at once) I can respect that what's been made here is well-executed.
 
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bandman28

Member
I will possibly vote, if I have time.
To be honest, though, I probably won't have time to rank. Mostly just comments. There are 77 entries, you know (but if I finish comments early, I may have time to rank).
Reserved for comments (possibly ranking)
 

Mercerenies

Member
Mercerenies' Salaciously Imperative and Responsively Eclectic Reviews

1. Party Animal - TehPilot, TheFugue
2. Forty or the Modern Big Brother - SoapSud39
3. Greymoor Hall - Ninety

Full rankings:
1. Party Animal - TehPilot, TheFugue
2. Forty or the Modern Big Brother - SoapSud39
3. Greymoor Hall - Ninety
4. Crimson Festival - Alice, FunkyPoop
5. Snake Dance - Greenblizzard
6. Candles have Feelings - JordanOttesen
7. Demon Dance - Mightyjor, Tqintertainment, Brett-Bit
8. Roborazzi - Kultisti, Sulo
9. Plague Rats - Nocturne
10. Party Mountain - AJ The Apple
11. Jaguar Pogo Party - TotallyAverageGamez
12. Wham Bam Dan Jam Slam - GameDevDan
13. Blackout - Siolfor the Jackal
14. One Big Party - Gizmo199, shortbread
15. Jam Defenders - kepons
16. R-pg-ING - Micah_DS
17. Fiesta Down - VinylFly
18. Castle Meta - The M
19. Jenka Dungeon - dosto, Reaktori, Riuku
20. Hero Huddle - ThinGinger
21. The Matchmaker - eimie
22. Christmas with Uncle Tom - Bluish Green Pro
23. GMC Fruit Salad Surfer - Yal
24. Extinction Tea Party - Moon Goat
25. Adventures of Robot X - Pixel-Team
26. Crimson Guild's Glamorous Guest List - mr magnus
27. Escape of the Clowns - kburkhart84
28. Me pARRty - Ghandpivot
29. The Way Back to the Party - Noodlehead
30. One Big Political Party - Terminator_Pony
31. The Party Must Go On - GVmG
32. Queen - Toque
33. Wastoid Rodney - Cloaked Games, Joseph Ellis, Blake North
34. The Golden Balloon - Little Penguin Studios
35. Candle - Steelegms2
36. Candle Wars - Yozoraki
37. Dr. Smiley's Brain Jam Party - Yal
38. Behemoth - sp202
39. Party Animals - ScaryPotato, Kalzme
40. Party Puker - Ben Stitt
41. Survival Party - HayManMarc
42. The Annual GMC Party - O_stogden
43. 3 Mice in a Trenchcoat - Bart, TheSnidr, Xor, Naterboy
44. Survive the Party - Nejc Podlipnik
45. Party Paddles - Fusai
46. Hero Horde - PinesofChaos
47. Florida Man - BreakfastBoy
48. Party Guardians - StarDreamIX
49. Quickly! Dispensegifts - Allison James
50. Barry Bear's Birthday - Richerama
51. Happy Birthday - Yal
52. GMC Party Adventure - Imagine Galaxy
53. Crazy Waiter - Gatefiz, JP, Claire Dujardin, Benfik
54. Apocalypse Party - aspiringgamemaker
55. Healthbar - Fanatrick
56. Need for Beats - Matharro, BlaineTanuki, _aeternumgames
57. City Scuttler - Bearman_18
58. Party Parade - Tristan
59. Party Detective - Mercyssh
60. Color Splash - EvanSki
61. The Scattered Army - Sirham
62. Robot Surprise Party - samspade
63. Final Battle - Kahrabaa
64. Party Pooper - Lukan
65. Your Brain on Party - thijsmie
66. dumburk 9000 - Bret Hundson, Allen Webster, Jared Cohen
67. dawg the party animal - NivesStudio
68. get to the party - sequential
69. Fiesta Fist - Cristobal, MatthewPattel
70. Gangs Bash - D'Andrew Box
71. Fantasy Strategy Clicker - Julien, Hyomoto
72. Goin all Nite - dadio

Best Use of Theme - Crimson Festival (Alice, FunkyPoop)
Best Concept - Wham Bam Dan Jam Slam (GameDevDan)
Best Presentation - Demon Dance (Mightyjor, Tqintertainment, Brett-Bit)

Reviews (72/72)

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 salaciously imperative and responsively eclectic, 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.

3 Mice in a Trenchcoat - Bart, TheSnidr, Xor, Naterboy (16/30)
Gameplay (2/5)
Graphics (5/5)
Audio (5/5)
Theme (0/5)
Opinion (4/10)

An excellent-looking game with Snidr's trademark 3D touch. Unfortunately, I don't get to see it in its full glory, as I'll be playing on Potato mode here (the fact that there is a Potato mode is much appreciated, by the way). Permadeath is quite annoying, as I made pretty substantial progress and having to restart the whole game every time I upset the wrong dog is quite a setback. Also, at one point, an owl stole one of my mouse friends and I had no idea how to get him back, eventually just dying and resetting to try again.

Adventures of Robot X - Pixel-Team (23/30)
Gameplay (4/5)
Graphics (5/5)
Audio (4/5)
Theme (3/5)
Opinion (7/10)

A fun entry with a neat Portal-like overtone. And I automatically love any entry that does its own voice acting, so kudos for that. The platforming engine felt a bit clumsy at times, but overall the game was fun, and the levels kept me entertained. I will say, for some odd reason, that the game only worked with my right CTRL key, not the left one, which is a problem I've never had before with other games.

Apocalypse Party - aspiringgamemaker (13/30)
Gameplay (1/5)
Graphics (2/5)
Audio (4/5)
Theme (2/5)
Opinion (4/10)

As a top-down shooter, the idea has potential. But between the limited four-directional movement, constantly getting caught on corners of things, and the fact that there's only one type of enemy with only one basic attack pattern, combat felt more like a chore of "go collect the pile of candy (?) bullets and then shoot" than an actual gameplay challenge.

Barry Bear's Birthday - Richerama (23/30)
Gameplay (3/5)
Graphics (5/5)
Audio (5/5)
Theme (5/5)
Opinion (5/10)

A sequence of several minigames with a fun, consistent look-and-feel. I'll say that permadeath was annoying; I lost the candle blowing one and got sent all the way back to start, and that just felt unnecessary.

Behemoth - sp202 (17/30)
Gameplay (2/5)
Graphics (4/5)
Audio (0/5)
Theme (5/5)
Opinion (6/10)

Interesting idea, using the clues of Jammers past to solve the puzzle. Unfortunately, it's spoiled somewhat by the fact that I'm playing well after someone just straight up posted the solution in the dead chat. But hey, cool idea.

Blackout - Siolfor the Jackal (28/30)
Gameplay (3/5)
Graphics (5/5)
Audio (5/5)
Theme (5/5)
Opinion (10/10)

A simple entry, but a very well-rounded one. I like the perpetual scowl on the main character's face, and overall the game has a lovely, consistent feel to it. The pizza guy's hitbox was super awkward, though. I felt like I had to be standing in the perfect spot to talk to him, and even then it was hit or miss; I didn't have that problem with any other person or thing in the game.
...
And I just read the afterword. I did kill the rat the first time through, but now I've played through properly for the "Ultimate" ending, and it's much better. I assume that'll reflect well when I go to the Crimson Festival too :p

Candle - Steelegms2 (18/30)
Gameplay (3/5)
Graphics (5/5)
Audio (4/5)
Theme (0/5)
Opinion (6/10)

Although the controls are mostly intuitive, I have to advocate for a tutorial or at the very least a readme file. It took me awhile to discover that spacebar attacks, and had I not discovered that then this would've been a very different experience. Anyway, still a fun entry. It's unfortunate that each attack can only knock out one candle, as it would be fun to line them all up and flame them at once.

Candle Wars - Yozoraki (25/30)
Gameplay (3/5)
Graphics (5/5)
Audio (5/5)
Theme (5/5)
Opinion (7/10)

Here, kids, lies an important lesson about judging a book by its cover. I saw the massive readme and thought "oh god they didn't have time to write a proper tutorial. This looks really complicated". Wrong on both counts. The game explains everything I need as I go, and it's a super simple well-polished entry. I didn't figure out how to beat the boss, though; it said to ambush with the 3 character while talking with the 1 character, but I don't know how to attack with the 3 character.

Candles have Feelings - JordanOttesen (28/30)
Gameplay (5/5)
Graphics (5/5)
Audio (4/5)
Theme (5/5)
Opinion (9/10)

That poor candle :( An excellent entry with a very nice look and feel, and the emotive expressions on the boy and the candle really sell the story. It's a fun speedrun idea, and I unfortunately don't have the patience to get all the way to the end, but the physics engine feels good and very loose (you even did wall jumps, which is awesome).

Castle Meta - The M (25/30)
Gameplay (5/5)
Graphics (3/5)
Audio (2/5)
Theme (5/5)
Opinion (10/10)

A spectacular entry that pulls off the multiplayer theme well. Unfortunately, there were a couple of loose ends: I didn't know what to do in the upper-left room where you get locked in and the game makes the horrible dying sound, and after losing to the eyeball boss once I got softlocked and the game wouldn't respond to any inputs. But overall, really cool idea.

Christmas with Uncle Tom - Bluish Green Pro (23/30)
Gameplay (2/5)
Graphics (4/5)
Audio (5/5)
Theme (5/5)
Opinion (7/10)

A short, wholesome entry about a family Christmas party. No petty theft, no raiding castles, no robots, no attempted murder, just a fun family party. That's really refreshing.

City Scuttler - Bearman_18 (5/30)
Gameplay (1/5)
Graphics (1/5)
Audio (0/5)
Theme (0/5)
Opinion (3/10)

Okay... how do I pick things up? I press G on an object and it says "which one", and I swear I spammed every single key on my keyboard and the only thing that responds is ESC, which doesn't pick anything up.

Color Splash - EvanSki (7/30)
Gameplay (0/5)
Graphics (3/5)
Audio (3/5)
Theme (0/5)
Opinion (1/10)

I assume this is completely unfinished; both the Shop and Start buttons do nothing but show a brief message.

Crazy Waiter - Gatefiz, JP, Claire Dujardin, Benfik (7/30)
Gameplay (1/5)
Graphics (1/5)
Audio (1/5)
Theme (0/5)
Opinion (4/10)

Interesting idea, playing as the sole waiter keeping a restaurant from falling apart. Unfortunately, the controls are quite clumsy. Turning around takes ages, and the acceleration/deceleration is inconsistent enough that, even if I need to do something simple like round a corner, I end up bumping into three walls in the process. There are a lot of challenges to being waitstaff at a restaurant, but walking in a straight line shouldn't be one of them.

Crimson Festival - Alice, FunkyPoop (30/30)
Gameplay (5/5)
Graphics (5/5)
Audio (5/5)
Theme (5/5)
Opinion (10/10)

On sheer principle of the matter, I can't give this anything less than a perfect score. I don't say this lightly, but this is a truly unique GMC Jam experience. I saved it for last and was not disappointed. It's amazing how well you managed to combine the different elements of the various games (like how Siolfor's entry isn't just a random cameo; he's actually the performer on stage). Truly extraordinary.

Crimson Guild's Glamorous Guest List - mr magnus (21/30)
Gameplay (3/5)
Graphics (2/5)
Audio (5/5)
Theme (5/5)
Opinion (6/10)

A fun and well-polished identification game. Sometimes I did get stuck in ruts where I just couldn't find anything at all, and the fade out seemed arbitrary (lots of times it seemed like valid targets would fade out in addition to invalid ones). But I still had fun with it, even if I never got past stage 11 or so.

dawg the party animal - NivesStudio (14/30)
Gameplay (1/5)
Graphics (2/5)
Audio (3/5)
Theme (5/5)
Opinion (3/10)

If you're going to do a minigame-themed sort of thing, you do have to explain the minigames. "Beat me at laser tag" is not an explanation. I don't know how to play laser tag in the context of this game. I also didn't know how to defeat the bulldog guy when I tried that game. And both games basically immediately called it a loss rather than giving me a chance to figure it out.

Demon Dance - Mightyjor, Tqintertainment, Brett-Bit (24/35)
Gameplay (5/5)
Graphics (5/5)
Audio (5/5)
Theme (0/10)
Opinion (9/10)

A well-polished dancing game with great audio and visuals. I barely made it onto the highscore table for Cosmic Rain after awhile, but from the looks of it I'll get kicked off my EvanSki soon enough, whose goal I can only assume is to subsume the entire score table.

Dr. Smiley's Brain Jam Party - Yal (16/30)
Gameplay (2/5)
Graphics (5/5)
Audio (4/5)
Theme (0/5)
Opinion (5/10)

Yal, you're rapidly developing a reputation for making exceedingly complicated Tetris clones. The game is well-polished, but frankly I couldn't remember all of the rules so eventually I just started playing regular Tetris (which is made 100 times easier by the fact that blocks have gravity) and that was enough to sustain myself basically indefinitely.

dumburk 9000 - Bret Hundson, Allen Webster, Jared Cohen (7/30)
Gameplay (0/5)
Graphics (1/5)
Audio (3/5)
Theme (0/5)
Opinion (3/10)

I have no idea what I'm looking at. It seems the only interactive portion of the game is the Upgrade state, wherein I can buy a ship, a dance floor, or a tree (seriously, what is going on in this game that *those* are the options?). I don't know what any of them do or when I should want them, or even if I'm winning or losing. I'm sure this is a cool entry, but you have to communicate that to me: teach me how to play your game and what I need to do to win, either in game or in a quick readme.

Escape of the Clowns - kburkhart84 (20/30)
Gameplay (4/5)
Graphics (2/5)
Audio (4/5)
Theme (5/5)
Opinion (5/10)

A pretty simple platformer with rather janky mechanics at times. I agree with Alice that a target square indicator would be good, and it would be nice if the crane could be sped up too. The visual style was a bit inconsistent; it feels like you spent days getting the clowns looking perfect then threw together the boxes, crane, and everything else in a couple hours.

Extinction Tea Party - Moon Goat (17/30)
Gameplay (4/5)
Graphics (5/5)
Audio (0/5)
Theme (0/5)
Opinion (8/10)

A fun bullet-hell-esque game involving dodging a truly impressive variety of enemy types. The "sketchbook" feel was well-executed, and the game itself was fun.

Fantasy Strategy Clicker - Julien, Hyomoto (5/30)
Gameplay (0/5)
Graphics (2/5)
Audio (2/5)
Theme (0/5)
Opinion (1/10)

There's about a zillion buttons here, right at the start, and that's all I know. No readme, no tutorial, nothing at all. I have no idea what I'm doing, what I should be doing, who I should be fighting or saving or buying. I can't start a battle with the "threat" because that button apparently does nothing, so I conscripted (I think) a few soldiers, sold a bit of food, and then... quit the game, because that's all I knew how to do.

Fiesta Down - VinylFly (24/30)
Gameplay (5/5)
Graphics (3/5)
Audio (3/5)
Theme (5/5)
Opinion (8/10)

A fun, lighthearted 2-player game (that, of course, only plays 1 player because it's a Jam entry, but that's understandable) about hunting down the last piece of cake. The physics are nice and loose, and it feels good to move around. A well-executed entry all-around, and I feel like it could make an interesting 2-player game long-term.

Fiesta Fist - Cristobal, MatthewPattel (2/30)
Gameplay (0/5)
Graphics (1/5)
Audio (0/5)
Theme (0/5)
Opinion (1/10)

Okay, this was basically unplayable. WASD navigates the menu, but how do I start the game? Enter, Space, and Z do nothing, and upon keyboard smashing I learned that G takes me to a "you recovered your invitation congratulations" page which looks like the end of the game? No idea what happened there.

Final Battle - Kahrabaa (10/30)
Gameplay (1/5)
Graphics (2/5)
Audio (4/5)
Theme (0/5)
Opinion (3/10)

Is... there a beginner mode? One where maybe the first enemy I encounter is *not* a posse of ten angry men who can immediately mob and kill me? I literally never successfully recruited anyone because the first group was always massive and overpowered.

Florida Man - BreakfastBoy (13/30)
Gameplay (3/5)
Graphics (1/5)
Audio (3/5)
Theme (0/5)
Opinion (6/10)

A simple entry but a complete one. I would say I think the enemies should pop more. Especially the crabs, they just looked like stage decorations and I kept walking through them thinking they weren't interactive.

Forty or the Modern Big Brother - SoapSud39 (30/30)
Gameplay (5/5)
Graphics (5/5)
Audio (5/5)
Theme (5/5)
Opinion (10/10)

It's only fair to call this a masterpiece, a brilliant rendition of a tale as old as time itself, in the context of the modern world and more specifically our little niche of the Internet that we've carved out for ourselves. Beautiful!

Gangs Bash - D'Andrew Box (9/30)
Gameplay (1/5)
Graphics (1/5)
Audio (3/5)
Theme (0/5)
Opinion (4/10)

The combination of lack of instructions and the fact that I only get to try each game once meant that my experience with this entry was a lot of losing and not a lot of winning. It took me till halfway through the first minigame to realize that (a) I control the red guy and (b) it's a button spam game and I need to be spamming Z. It took me halfway through the second to realize arrow keys turned me. I did not win in either case.

get to the party - sequential (4/30)
Gameplay (0/5)
Graphics (1/5)
Audio (0/5)
Theme (0/5)
Opinion (3/10)

For a game with four TXT files called "tutorial", there's not much in the way of a tutorial. Just a brief screen that says to slow down time with the arrow keys and then a lot of people falling off a cliff. What am I supposed to do? What do these strange icons at the bottom of the screen mean? Clicking on them doesn't do anything. I can highlight the people, but all that does is make it more frustrating when they inevitably die.

GMC Fruit Salad Surfer - Yal (20/30)
Gameplay (3/5)
Graphics (5/5)
Audio (5/5)
Theme (0/5)
Opinion (7/10)

A simple but fun concept of avoiding enemies in an autoscroller, wrapped up in a very well-polished package. I feel like several of the items in the shop were insanely expensive compared to how much money I got in a given round, but maybe I'm just not very good at the game.

GMC Party Adventure - Imagine Galaxy (8/30)
Gameplay (1/5)
Graphics (1/5)
Audio (3/5)
Theme (0/5)
Opinion (3/10)

So... I'm assuming the fact that I can stick to walls and ceilings is not intentional. I'll grant the glitches gave the entry a bit of charm in terms of platforming, but overall the incredibly loose controls, sticky surfaces, and incredibly fast-moving precise one-hit-kill enemies were a frustrating combination.

Goin all Nite - dadio (8/30)
Gameplay (0/5)
Graphics (1/5)
Audio (1/5)
Theme (5/5)
Opinion (1/10)

10/10 best game. I liked the part with the lemon.

Greymoor Hall - Ninety (29/30)
Gameplay (5/5)
Graphics (4/5)
Audio (5/5)
Theme (5/5)
Opinion (10/10)

An excellent murder simulator, with a thick layer of beautiful polish that really sells the game. The gameplay itself depicts all of the best parts of killing someone: investigation, waiting for an opportunity, and then bluffing the detectives, and the cool thing is that none of the phases had to be particularly explained to me. The game is just intuitive. Obviously, I want to know who's around the party before committing murder. Obviously, I want to kill them when out of sight. Obviously, I want to craft a good, provable story to the detectives. It's all just logical and doesn't have to be taught.

Happy Birthday - Yal (14/30)
Gameplay (1/5)
Graphics (4/5)
Audio (4/5)
Theme (0/5)
Opinion (5/10)

I'm going to assume this game would run a lot smoother on a computer made in the past decade, but I personally was getting about 5 FPS the whole time. I also never found a balloon, and I'm not sure what the little prism things do.

HealthBar - Fanatrick (13/30)
Gameplay (1/5)
Graphics (2/5)
Audio (2/5)
Theme (5/5)
Opinion (3/10)

Interesting aesthetic, certainly, and the concept has potential. But the gameplay amounts to, frankly, hitting the button the game tells you repeatedly and then pressing spacebar.

Hero Horde - PinesOfChaos (16/30)
Gameplay (2/5)
Graphics (2/5)
Audio (3/5)
Theme (5/5)
Opinion (4/10)

An interesting idea, and I like the different types of party members. The breaking point for this game for me, unfortunately, was the hitboxes. My income was not limited by the number of party members I had; it was limited by how quickly I could spam click the little slimes with the camera scrolling up and down and constantly moving the hitbox.

Hero Huddle - ThinGinger (25/30)
Gameplay (5/5)
Graphics (4/5)
Audio (3/5)
Theme (5/5)
Opinion (8/10)

One big party indeed, my final party size was 62. It took me a minute to realize that you could choose to NOT face the final boss with a party of 9 and instead go somewhere else first, but once I figured that out the game was a lot more fun. I wouldn't exactly call it a bullet hell, because there's a lot less dodging bullets and a lot more making sure you have enough fodder to stand there and take bullets to the face, but it was a fun game nonetheless.

Jaguar Pogo Party - TotallyAverageGamez (26/30)
Gameplay (5/5)
Graphics (5/5)
Audio (4/5)
Theme (3/5)
Opinion (9/10)

The controls were super fun and hopping around all day was just a genuine pleasure. I feel like the game could've done without the spikes; focusing on simple exploration rather than making an obstacle that can send you back to start, and it would've been nice if it acknowledged when you had 12/12 on a stage. But overall, a really solid, fun game.

Jam Defenders - kepons (24/30)
Gameplay (5/5)
Graphics (3/5)
Audio (3/5)
Theme (5/5)
Opinion (8/10)

A fun tower-defense style game. The three different units were interesting in their own right, but ultimately I felt that the greens became obsolete almost immediately, and the short range on the oranges made them not viable when I could just spam reds and kill everything before they were even all the way on the screen. Am I doing it right?

Jenka Dungeon - dosto, Reaktori, Riuku (27/30)
Gameplay (4/5)
Graphics (5/5)
Audio (5/5)
Theme (5/5)
Opinion (8/10)

This was super fun to play. The variety in enemy (and, of course, ally) types made combat interesting and varied, and the ability to grow the party made for an interesting challenge, which all led up to a well-designed boss fight. I didn't end up winning, mind you, but I still had a lot of fun.

Me pARRty - Ghandpivot (20/30)
Gameplay (4/5)
Graphics (5/5)
Audio (5/5)
Theme (0/5)
Opinion (6/10)

There are definitely places where this is incomplete (some islands don't have collision), but I respect the idea a lot. I absolutely adored the blocky-3D visuals that the game provided, and sailing the seas, despite constantly having to resort to cannibalism, was very peaceful.

Need for Beats - Matharoo, BlaineTanuki, _aeternumgames (21/30)
Gameplay (1/5)
Graphics (5/5)
Audio (5/5)
Theme (5/5)
Opinion (5/10)

I'm sorry, but there's just too much going on, and none of it felt intuitive. Press SPACE on dots, W on quarter notes, WW on eighth notes, D if there's a virusy thing on the bottom row, E if there's a virusy thing on the middle row. That's just way too much to keep in my head. Maybe if the things were just what letter to press (so an E would appear when I need to press E), but right now it's just a frustrating exercise in memory capacity.

One Big Party - Gizmo199, shortbread (27/30)
Gameplay (4/5)
Graphics (5/5)
Audio (5/5)
Theme (5/5)
Opinion (8/10)

Visually speaking, this game could be a triple A game right now. It looks absolutely amazing. I can definitely feel the Mario Party inspiration in the minigames, although I was really bad at most of them (especially the chicken one). A very fun experience.

One Big Political Party - Terminator_Pony (16/30)
Gameplay (2/5)
Graphics (3/5)
Audio (0/5)
Theme (5/5)
Opinion (6/10)

I'll give you points for ambition, certainly, but I think this game goes into the unfortunate category of "way too sophisticated for a Jam game". It looks like there's a ton of logic behind the scenes, and I'm sure it's super interesting, but I don't have time to learn it all, and just by fudging with the sliders I was able to pull a win somehow, but it didn't feel deep or anything like I'm sure it would've if I'd understood the game more.

Party Animal - TehPilot, TheFugue (30/30)
Gameplay (5/5)
Graphics (5/5)
Audio (5/5)
Theme (5/5)
Opinion (10/10)

I love it. Absolutely love it. A fun, lighthearted entry in the style of old film about a ghost looking for a feline companion that just left me grinning at the end. The puzzle mechanic itself was interesting and something I haven't really seen before, in that it has almost a stealth sor tof feel but it's very clearly a puzzle game. Also, the cat sound effects were clearly pretty realistic, as my IRL cat was staring concernedly at the screen the whole time I was playing.

Party Animals - ScaryPotato, Kalzme (26/30)
Gameplay (4/5)
Graphics (5/5)
Audio (5/5)
Theme (5/5)
Opinion (7/10)

This is a fun little entry. I can't fully experience it, as I don't really have a Player 2, so I'm just playing against myself. Given the simplicity of the games, I would say it might've been nice to provide a simple AI opponent you can play against. But still, I've got to hand it to you for making six different minigames, all of which have a consistent and fun look and feel. Even if several of them are button mashers, the game as a whole still looks wonderful.

Party Detective - Mercyssh (15/30)
Gameplay (1/5)
Graphics (2/5)
Audio (2/5)
Theme (5/5)
Opinion (5/10)

A neat setup and looks like a fun concept but... how do I identify the killer? Like, mechanically, what am I supposed to do? None of the people's mouseover names look odd, and the rumor dialogue is just random stuff about people going on vacation. What am I missing?

Party Guardians - StarDreamIX (9/30)
Gameplay (1/5)
Graphics (2/5)
Audio (2/5)
Theme (0/5)
Opinion (4/10)

A simple enough idea, but ultimately it's a bit mundane. The movement feels forced, mainly due to being restricted to 4 directions and also being unable to move while attacking, which makes combat more of a chore than a fun aspect of the game.

Party Mountain - AJ the Apple (26/30)
Gameplay (5/5)
Graphics (5/5)
Audio (4/5)
Theme (4/5)
Opinion (8/10)

A solid platform with a good, tight physics engine. The mechanics were only a few, but they were very well-polished and combined in interesting ways, and the checkpoints were generous enough that I felt the motivation to keep going all the way to the end. Well done.

Party Paddles - Fusai (12/30)
Gameplay (1/5)
Graphics (3/5)
Audio (3/5)
Theme (0/5)
Opinion (5/10)

The game was visually appealing, but given that the balls just bounce off the paddles with normal collision, there really isn't any strategy, and it's just a game of endurance and luck.

Party Parade - Tristan (8/30)
Gameplay (1/5)
Graphics (1/5)
Audio (2/5)
Theme (0/5)
Opinion (4/10)

So... I can just spam A and L repeatedly at all times and get an indefinitely high combo. Neat.

Party Pooper - Lukan (5/30)
Gameplay (1/5)
Graphics (1/5)
Audio (0/5)
Theme (0/5)
Opinion (3/10)

I don't know what I'm meant to do. What makes the party pooper distinguishable from the others? I got lucky a few times but that's it.

Party Puker - Ben Stitt (15/30)
Gameplay (3/5)
Graphics (2/5)
Audio (0/5)
Theme (5/5)
Opinion (5/10)

For a first entry, this is not half bad. It's short and well-scoped. It has very clear gameplay and provides a quick, easy fun factor. Nothing confusing, nothing long, nothing hard, just twenty seconds of interesting gameplay. Well done, and I hope you stick around for the next Jam.

Plague Rats - Nocturne (27/30)
Gameplay (5/5)
Graphics (5/5)
Audio (4/5)
Theme (5/5)
Opinion (8/10)

In this case, I'm actually really glad I watched EvanSki play your game *before* playing it myself, as I had a better understanding of the infinite loop glitch and how to avoid it. This was a fun entry; it was quite satisfying on the third stage once I had like twenty rats to just run up and corner those poor saps. I'm glad they were zombies or I'd have felt guilty doing it. Ended up with 33 rats, which I hope is enough for the gold ranking in Crimson Festival. We'll see.

Queen - Toque (16/30)
Gameplay (2/5)
Graphics (5/5)
Audio (5/5)
Theme (0/5)
Opinion (4/10)

Okay, I love the visuals and the story here, of the Queen getting angry at a bunch of pigeons. The controls were a bit clumsy (very precise hitboxes on the birds, and half the time I couldn't move and shoot at the same time). But still a fun entry.

Quickly! Dispensegifts - Allison James (21/30)
Gameplay (4/5)
Graphics (5/5)
Audio (5/5)
Theme (0/5)
Opinion (7/10)

Are... are you okay? Some of this background dialogue was a bit... intense o_O Anyway, fun game with an interesting movement scheme, that's sold by some well-executed visuals and a consistent look and feel.

R-pg-ING - Micah_DS (24/30)
Gameplay (5/5)
Graphics (5/5)
Audio (0/5)
Theme (5/5)
Opinion (9/10)

Despite all of your self-deprecation attempts, this ended up being really solid. Very interesting combat system centered around rotating your party, the movement felt good and smooth, and I liked how the game eased you into the complexities of moving as a party before throwing moving enemies at you. Very cool.

Roborazzi - Kultisti, Sulo (30/30)
Gameplay (5/5)
Graphics (5/5)
Audio (5/5)
Theme (5/5)
Opinion (10/10)

A very solid entry all around. The movement felt smooth, the central mechanic was unique and entertaining, and I really liked the touch of the actual photographs appearing in the pane to the right. Very well done.

Robot Surprise Party - samspade (16/30)
Gameplay (1/5)
Graphics (1/5)
Audio (5/5)
Theme (5/5)
Opinion (4/10)

Okay, this Birthday Bot has X-ray vision or something. It doesn't matter what I do, he spots everything as soon as I wake up. I don't know how to evade him at all.

Snake Dance - Greenblizzard (25/30)
Gameplay (5/5)
Graphics (5/5)
Audio (5/5)
Theme (0/5)
Opinion (10/10)

A very fun arcade-style movement game with an elegant combination of Snake-like movement and Tetris-style geometry. I got up to "Dancing Snake" and that's as far as I could go.

Survival Party - HayManMarc (21/30)
Gameplay (2/5)
Graphics (3/5)
Audio (5/5)
Theme (5/5)
Opinion (6/10)

A shorter entry about collecting partygoers. I felt that the main character's movement speed was a bit slow and that made things drudge on a bit, but otherwise it's a simple, consistent, fun entry.

Survive the Party - Nejc Podlipnik (14/30)
Gameplay (3/5)
Graphics (3/5)
Audio (2/5)
Theme (0/5)
Opinion (6/10)

A simple but enjoying fighting system. It does really throw you in without any warning, but it's not a huge deal since the controls are surprisingly straightforward. I assume the section after the wizard appears a second time is incomplete, because I tried talking to him and it wouldn't do anything that time.

The Annual GMC Party - O_stogden (19/30)
Gameplay (2/5)
Graphics (3/5)
Audio (3/5)
Theme (5/5)
Opinion (6/10)

0/10 Mercerenies is not present at the party. Anyway, fun concept for a game, and the dialogue was hilarious. I found the clues on all but the first one to be pretty unintuitive, though.

The Golden Balloon - Little Penguin Studios (18/30)
Gameplay (3/5)
Graphics (5/5)
Audio (5/5)
Theme (0/5)
Opinion (5/10)

A really visually appealing game. The sketchbook sort of feel really pops here, and the music sells the relaxing vibe. I found the platform engine to be a bit glitchy; the double jump (which is required in several places) is really hard to get right, and oftentimes I would get stuck in the corner of a block and couldn't keep walking.

The Matchmaker - eimie (21/30)
Gameplay (4/5)
Graphics (2/5)
Audio (4/5)
Theme (5/5)
Opinion (6/10)

Oh look a rhythm game. Here's your Mercerenies fact of the day: I can't keep a beat to save my life. So yeah... this entry did not go well for me, unfortunately, but that's not your fault. It's definitely well put together, and the difficulty scale is well done.

The Party Must Go On - GVmG (14/30)
Gameplay (3/5)
Graphics (3/5)
Audio (2/5)
Theme (0/5)
Opinion (6/10)

What I thought was originally going to be a pretty boring "search and find" game with no real strategy actually ended up being fairly fun. This was mainly because of the exaggerated shopping cart physics and how much fun it is to go crashing down the lanes, skidding tires at every turn, knocking over shelves into you find the frozen pizzas. Having GMC members giving the orders was a nice touch too.

The Scattered Army - Sirham (13/30)
Gameplay (1/5)
Graphics (1/5)
Audio (3/5)
Theme (5/5)
Opinion (3/10)

I think I'm missing something here. Either I need to do something I don't understand during combat, or there's somewhere with a *lot* more soldiers that I didn't find, because no matter how big my army got, I never won a single battle.

The Way Back to the Party - Noodlehead (18/30)
Gameplay (2/5)
Graphics (5/5)
Audio (0/5)
Theme (5/5)
Opinion (6/10)

This is a cool idea, and I definitely respect text-based entries (of which there are not enough :p). But I feel I could use a bit more motivation. On my first run, I "escaped" out the gate, and it told me that wasn't the true ending. Then I got killed a few times. But if not, then... what is the true ending? I was never sure what I was working toward or what was wrong with just leaving town.

Wastoid Rodney - Cloaked Games, Joseph Ellis, Blake North (27/30)
Gameplay (5/5)
Graphics (5/5)
Audio (4/5)
Theme (5/5)
Opinion (8/10)

A solid entry all-around. I'm not normally a bullet hell person in general, but I did enjoy this one. The movement was smooth, the combat felt good, and the patterns were consistent enough to learn and counter.

Wham Bam Dan Jam Slam - GameDevDan (29/30)
Gameplay (5/5)
Graphics (5/5)
Audio (5/5)
Theme (5/5)
Opinion (9/10)

One big party, indeed, a party that's been slowly building for nearly a decade. Although I don't recognize half the characters (despite probably having played most of your games), I can feel the personality and heart put into each of them. I mainly played Toast King. I found his attacks had a good balance of offense and defense. Although I never did quite beat the Jam Slam. Amazing entry!

Your Brain on Party - thijsmie (8/30)
Gameplay (1/5)
Graphics (1/5)
Audio (1/5)
Theme (3/5)
Opinion (2/10)

I genuinely have no idea what I'm doing. There's a tutorial, which is nice, I'll grant you that. But after reading through the whole tutorial and starting the game... there's an area in the topleft where I move with WASD and do... something. I drag and drop vibes onto the massive grid on the bottom that I have no idea what to do with, and then... I lose with a horrible buzzing sound. I have no idea how to avoid that.

Games I Couldn't Play

In no particular order. If one of these games belongs to you and you have a fix or want to discuss further, DM me before the end of the voting period and I'll see what I can do. No promises though.

matoset by Poizen
Error on startup:
Code:
___________________________________________
############################################################################################
FATAL ERROR in
action number 1
of Other Event: Room Start
for object obj_menu:

string_copy argument 1 incorrect type (undefined) expecting a String (YYGS)
at gml_Object_obj_menu_Other_4
############################################################################################
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
stack frame is
gml_Object_obj_menu_Other_4 (line -1)

Life Party by Cat
My antivirus is throwing a fit about your entry, and I'm not sure why. I'll try to get around it.

The Retrieval by Dr Wolf
Code:
___________________________________________
############################################################################################
FATAL ERROR in Vertex Shader compilation
ShaderName: shd_clip

D3DXCompile failed - result

############################################################################################
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
called from - gml_Script_guilib_draw_text_clipped (line 11)
called from - gml_Object_par2_guilib_label_Collision_1 (line 18)
called from - gml_Object_obj_guilib_labelflex_Collision_1 (line 3)
called from - gml_Object_obj_guilib_manager_scrolllist_Draw_64 (line 124)
Barring the error, the literal six-page instruction manual was a turn-off from the start. If your game is genuinely that complicated, you're going to have to put more effort into teaching me how to play rather than writing a thesis about it.

Keyboard Hero by tadashibashi
I don't know what's wrong. It just doesn't open. As in, I double click the executable and nothing happens. No window, no error, nothing.
 
Last edited:
S

ScaryPotato

Guest
Reviews

Top 3:

Wastoid Rodney by Cloaked Games, JosephEllis, BlakeNorth
This is a really fantastic game, four days? Wow. Finding people to throw the greatest party of all time is fun, there's lots of variety, and the storyline keeps things entertaining.

The Matchmaker (HTML5 ONLY, OPEN FOLDER) by eimie
Really enjoyed this game. Movement was tight, the dance moves were humourous, and the overall theme was super upbeat and fun. Great game!

Jenka Dungeon by dosto, Reaktori, Riuku
Wow, this is a great game for the amount of time there way to create it! It was very fun gaining/losing members of the party as you fight against badguys and collect nets to build the party. Fun stuff!

Best ofs:

Best use of: Wastoid Rodney by Cloaked Games, JosephEllis, BlakeNorth I really enjoyed everything about this game, and it reminded me of the Pick of Destiny too, which isn't a bad thing :)
Best Concept: Emmy and Sal by Mercerenies Instantly loved how a puzzle game mechanic tied into getting a party started
Best Presentation: Party Animal by TehPilot, TheFugue The clean graphics and old-timey music tie together so seamlessly!
Best Story: Forty or the Modern Big Brother by SoapSud39 The writing and creative approach set it apart from other similar games.
Best Devlog: N/A I didn't follow this too closely, so can't vote for this category

Full ranking:

  1. Wastoid Rodney by Cloaked Games, JosephEllis, BlakeNorth
  2. The Matchmaker (HTML5 ONLY, OPEN FOLDER) by eimie
  3. Jenka Dungeon by dosto, Reaktori, Riuku
  4. Fiesta Down by VinylFly
  5. Quickly! Dispensegifts by Allison James
  6. Need For Beats by Matharoo, BlaineTanuki, _aeternumgames
  7. GreymoorHall by Ninety
  8. Candles Have Feelings by JordanOttesen
  9. Emmy And Sal by Mercerenies
  10. Forty or the Modern Big Brother by SoapSud39
  11. Crimson Guild's Glamorous Guest List by Mr Magnus
  12. Jam Defenders by Kepons
  13. Party Animal by TehPilot, TheFugue
  14. Party Mountain by AJTheApple
  15. Plague Rats by Nocturne
  16. Snake Dance by Greenblizzard
  17. R-pg-ING by Micah_DS
  18. Final Battle by Kahrabaa
  19. Hero Huddle by ThinGinger
  20. HealthBar by Fanatrick
  21. Survival Party by HayManMarc
  22. The Golden Balloon by Little Penguin Studios
  23. Florida Man by BreakfastBoy
  24. Hero Horde by PinesOfChaos
  25. Roborazzi by Kultisti, Sulo
  26. Candle Wars by Yozoraki
  27. Adventures Of Robot X by Pixel-Team
  28. Goin' All Nite by Dadio
  29. Dr Smiley's Brain Jam Party by Yal
  30. The Party Must Go On by GVmG
  31. Party Paddles by Fusai
  32. Robot Surprise Party by samspade
  33. Candle by Steelegms2
  34. Wham Bam Dan Jam Slam by GameDevDan
  35. Blackout by Siolfor the Jackal
  36. get to the party by Wabb, sequential
  37. Apocalypse party by aspiringgamemaker
  38. dawg the party animal by NivesStudio
  39. Fiesta Fist by Cristobal, MatthewPattel
  40. Queen by Toque
  41. The Scattered Army by Sirham
  42. Jaguar Pogo Party by TotallyAverageGamez
  43. 3 Mice In A Trenchcoat by Bart, TheSnidr, Xor, Naterboy
  44. Crazy Waiter by Gatefiz, JP, Claire Dujardin, Benfik
  45. GMC Fruit Salad Surfer by Yal
  46. One Big Party by Gizmo199, shortbread
  47. Gangs Bash by D'Andrew Box
  48. Me pARRty by ghandpivot
  49. happy birthday by Yal
  50. Behemoth by sp202
  51. Fantasy Strategy Clicker by Julien, Hyomoto
  52. City Scuttler by Bearman_18
  53. Extinction Tea Party by Moon Goat
  54. Demon Dance by Mightyjor, Twintertainment, Brett-Bit
  55. GMC Party Adventure by Imagine Galaxy
  56. Party Guardians by StarDreamIX
  57. Castle Meta by The M
  58. One Big Political Party by Terminator_Pony
  59. The Annual GMC Party by O_stogden
  60. Your Brain On Party by thijsmie
  61. Survive the Party by Nejc Podlipnik
  62. Party Parade by Tristan
  63. Barry Bear's Birthday by Richerama
  64. Party Pooper by Lukan
  65. dumburk 9000 by Bret Hudson, Allen Webster, Jared Cohen
  66. Christmas with Uncle Tom by BluishGreenPro
  67. Party Puker by Ben Stitt
  68. The Way Back To The Party by Noodlehead
  69. Party Detective by Mercyssh
  70. Crimson Festival by Alice, FunkyPoop
  71. Escape of the Clowns by kburkhart84

    These games had issues when I tried starting them up:
  72. Color Splash by EvanSki
  73. The Retrieval by Dr Wolf
  74. matoset by Poizen
  75. Keyboard Hero by tadashibashi
  76. Life Party by Cat

Comments:

3 Mice In A Trenchcoat by Bart, TheSnidr, Xor, Naterboy

Impressive amount of polish for a 3d game to be made in such a short a mount of time. I like that there are enemies and obstacles to add to the challenge of finding your way through a maze

Adventures Of Robot X by Pixel-Team

Very well done platformer! 4 days? Wow...one nitpick is that controls are a little floaty, but this game has a lot going for it

Apocalypse party by aspiringgamemaker

Decent survivor style game. Movement seemed a little finnicky going down narrow halls or corners, which makes the hunt for ammo a little more difficult than it needs to be at times.

Barry Bear's Birthday by Richerama

Simple and easy to get in to, nice sfx for the minigames too

Behemoth by sp202

Game of chance against a one-eyed star monster. It's kind of neat, but would be better if the pattern was randomly generated each time you fail, to give it replayability. Could be fun as a drinking game with friends :p

Blackout by Siolfor the Jackal

Not a bad little game. There isn't too much to do in it, but could see it being fleshed out to become something pretty engaging

Candle by Steelegms2

It's an easy zelda-type dungeon game. Controls are a bit loose, but overall is fun to play

Candle Wars by Yozoraki

This game feels so well-done and thought out, and to have it done in a few days is super impressive. Very nice!

Candles Have Feelings by JordanOttesen

Super fun and simple game. Great concept with a fast pace and decent challenge. Dodging the attempts at snuffing your flame is perfect!

Castle Meta by The M

I love a good platformer, the fact you can 'interact' with other players through items is a really neat idea

Christmas with Uncle Tom by BluishGreenPro

Very nice story, but it seems more like an interactive story than a game. It's well done, though.

City Scuttler by Bearman_18

Reminds me of games on the Atari 2600. Could use some fleshing out, but the basics are there for a decent game

Color Splash by EvanSki

Would be interesting to see where this went, but there's nothing playable right now

Crazy Waiter by Gatefiz, JP, Claire Dujardin, Benfik

Decent enough game, but I was over $30000 in debt before I knew it!

Crimson Festival by Alice, FunkyPoop

Similar to Christmas with Uncle Tom, in that it is more of a story than something with gameplay. It's nice to tie in the other games the way it did. Point and click explanation game perhaps?

Crimson Guild's Glamorous Guest List by Mr Magnus

This game has so much happening all at the same time. I Love the chaotic feel and pressure of finding everyone. It is like Where's Waldo?, on steroids. And crack. Fun game!

dawg the party animal by NivesStudio

It's a neat way to include a series of minigames, by having zelda-esque side quests to get the stuff you need for your party

Demon Dance by Mightyjor, Twintertainment, Brett-Bit

Rhythm game, basic fun. Nice that there is a high-score table!

Dr Smiley's Brain Jam Party by Yal

I do love Tetris, and this is a good take on it. It might be the constant jiggly motion of each component to pieces,but I found it more difficult to get into and focus than when graphics are minimalist in puzzle-type games like this

dumburk 9000 by Bret Hudson, Allen Webster, Jared Cohen

Needs some fleshing out, but it could be interesting? Does seem more like a basic framework than game right no

Emmy And Sal by Mercerenies

Really enjoyable placement puzzle game with some neat variety of mechanics to keep it interesting. Easy to get into and want to keep playing. Good game!

Escape of the Clowns by kburkhart84

Controls were pretty rough. I can see the appeal in a puzzle game like this, but personally didn't find it very engaging

Extinction Tea Party by Moon Goat

Fast paced, fun visuals

Fantasy Strategy Clicker by Julien, Hyomoto

A little abstract to start, but it's kind of fun to try managing resources and build your army

Fiesta Down by VinylFly

It's a short game, but is just so much fun. Super fast-paced, good controls, and I love the story. Can only imagine the amount of chaos if it was multiplayer!

Fiesta Fist by Cristobal, MatthewPattel

Decent beatemup, I do wish the playable area was smaller, or that the graphics were larger. It felt like a lot of empty space while playing. The headbutt attack is fun, but hit zones seemed pretty big?

Final Battle by Kahrabaa

A pretty well polished game with a neat combat system. The fight sfx are kind of funny when you get a huge gang fighting. Great game to have been made in only 4 days!

Florida Man by BreakfastBoy

A nice summer/beach themed platformer. The jump detection felt a little off, but everything else was responsive. Solid game!

Forty or the Modern Big Brother by SoapSud39

Very enjoyable. Excellent interactive story. Not usually the type of game I'd consider playing, but it was so well done that I enjoyed every minute of it. Great execution!

Gangs Bash by D'Andrew Box

Fun collection of minigames, nice variety, cool visuals

get to the party by Wabb, sequential

Pretty fun little game. Could see how it could be expanded on and be kind of like a mix of Super Mario Maker and Lemmings

GMC Fruit Salad Surfer by Yal

Music and sound make the game exciting, and I like the concept ofusing wave heights to help clear obstacles!

GMC Party Adventure by Imagine Galaxy

Platformer, not too engaging with either story or graphics. Controls seem pretty loose, and the 'sticky' feature feels almost like a bug when playing

Goin' All Nite by Dadio

Simple concept, but I loved the look of it, which definitely sets it apart from other games!

GreymoorHall by Ninety

A little dark, but everything about it is executed (pun intended) very well!

happy birthday by Yal

An incredible amount of work for a game jam. A little slow-paced, but is well executed

HealthBar by Fanatrick

Simple drink mixing game, super cool concept. A lot of fun for such a simple idea!

Hero Horde by PinesOfChaos

Interesting take on the theme. I like the time-based aspect of earning money to keep your team with you

Hero Huddle by ThinGinger

Very well executed idea and doesn't take any time getting started. I love the super old school feel to the graphics, but with modern (responsive) controls and quick pace!

Jaguar Pogo Party by TotallyAverageGamez

I love the goofy nature of having an Aztec chief on a pogo stick, exploring for gifts. Neat graphics, good controls. Wish there was more to do!

Jam Defenders by Kepons

I like the wacky take on a tower defence game. Nice tie-in to the gangs and game jam. Solid entry!

Jenka Dungeon by dosto, Reaktori, Riuku

Wow, this is a great game for the amount of time there way to create it! It was very fun gaining/losing members of the party as you fight against badguys and collect nets to build the party. Fun stuff!

Keyboard Hero by tadashibashi

Looks like it is going to start up, but does not run for me :(

Life Party by Cat

Nothing here


matoset by Poizen

Get error when starting game

string_copy argument 1 incorrect type (undefined) expecting a String (YYGS)



Me pARRty by ghandpivot

There's something so morbidly funny about the names of each crew memeber, and I actually like the concept. Could be a fun exploration game

Need For Beats by Matharoo, BlaineTanuki, _aeternumgames

This is a super polished game! The challenge is high, but the execution of the game makes you want to keep trying. Excellent entry!

One Big Party by Gizmo199, shortbread

Fun multiplayer minigames. Great graphics and themes for most games, but I suck with the movement.

One Big Political Party by Terminator_Pony

A neat take on the party theme, tying it into political parties. Seeing the reactions based on your decisions is interesting

Party Animal by TehPilot, TheFugue

Wow, a ghost chasing a cat. Gameplay and visually speaking, this game is outstanding. I'd totally plave (and love) a full-fledged game like this!

Party Detective by Mercyssh

Not bad, but there's no way I'd be able to figure out the killer and try cleaning up all the messes!

Party Guardians by StarDreamIX

Not bad, simple theme, but controlly are't very responsive, especially when you need to be quick to get to each oncoming skeleton

Party Mountain by AJTheApple

Super polished platformer, jumping through mountains to get to a party. Looks and feels like a proper game!

Party Paddles by Fusai

Fun, fast paced chaos. This is a really good version of pong!

Party Parade by Tristan

Fun enough for what it is, but it gets a little boring after a few hundred points

Party Pooper by Lukan

Not a whole lot of variety, which would have made the game more engaging and challenging. Maybe a time limit to find the party pooper would add some tension for the player?

Party Puker by Ben Stitt

Outcome seems the same....I don't mind the avoidance aspect of the game, but it definitely needs some work

Plague Rats by Nocturne

Very enjoyable puzzle solving game, controlling a group of rats. I like the amount of stuff there is to do in the game aside from just progressing, eating piles of filth to stay healthy has never been so enjoyable!

Queen by Toque

Fund, goofy game. Throwing peas at pigeons is a quilty past-time of mine, so I was particularly fond of this game

Quickly! Dispensegifts by Allison James

Very unique tower defence game that's done so well I keep coming back to try getting a better score, and to listen to the great track!

Roborazzi by Kultisti, Sulo

Fun way to collect items; by taking photos of them, and not yourself

Robot Surprise Party by samspade

Enjoyable concept and presentation, would be cool to see each potential path to each bush before starting. The time limit seems very short to get each robot to hide!

R-pg-ING by Micah_DS

Fun mechanic of spinning your party around to take out the enemies of matching colours. Controls felt responsive, and overall is a good game!

Snake Dance by Greenblizzard

I absolutely love the concept of this game. The basic visuals are all that is needed. May not fit the party theme perfectly, but it's like a mix of snake and tetris. very enjoyable

Survival Party by HayManMarc

Super straight-forward and easy to get into. Fits the party theme very well and is fun to play!

Survive the Party by Nejc Podlipnik

It's okay, hack'n'slash

The Annual GMC Party by O_stogden

Kind of unpolished, but could be more fun if you could actually gather clues

The Golden Balloon by Little Penguin Studios

Very simple and enjoyable. Like the really simple, clean graphics, and controls are very good

The Matchmaker (HTML5 ONLY, OPEN FOLDER) by eimie

Really enjoyed this game. Movement was tight, the dance moves were humourous, and the overall theme was super upbeat and fun. Great game!

The Party Must Go On by GVmG

This is pretty fun. Trying to take everyones' food requests. Simple concept, but well done!

The Retrieval by Dr Wolf

Weird errors upon startup, Coud not play:

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

D3DXCompile failed - result

############################################################################################
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
called from - gml_Script_guilib_draw_text_clipped (line 11)
called from - gml_Object_par2_guilib_label_Collision_1 (line 18)
called from - gml_Object_obj_guilib_labelflex_Collision_1 (line 3)
called from - gml_Object_obj_guilib_manager_scrolllist_Draw_64 (line 124)

The Scattered Army by Sirham

Similar idea as Hero Horde and Jenka Dungeon (gather a party to fight enemies), but lacks the level of polish the others had

The Way Back To The Party by Noodlehead

A little on the slow side. Don't mind the theme, but would be nice if there was more going on. More a mystery game than a party game.

Wastoid Rodney by Cloaked Games, JosephEllis, BlakeNorth

This is a really fantastic game, four days? Wow. Finding people to throw the greatest party of all time is fun, there's lots of variety, and the storyline keeps things entertaining.

Wham Bam Dan Jam Slam by GameDevDan

It's fun to have so many characters to choose from and fight it out. The controls mess me up, though. Visually, it's super impressive!

Your Brain On Party by thijsmie

Resource management, not bad, but a little cryptic. Would be nice to have the gameplay area larger than than the area for the waves of requirement icon things



**I added a few missing titles from the list. For the most part, they had errors or some issue that kept them from being played
 
Last edited by a moderator:

Alice

Darts addict
Forum Staff
Moderator
Alice's "Oh dear, 77 entries is actually a lot" reviews

Top 3:

Forty or the Modern Big Brother by SoapSud39
This entry works excellently as an interactive story, with very varied game interaction. Not only that, every piece of gameplay mechanic enhances the story told in each micro-chapter, and quite a story it was. Great entry all around.

Wastoid Rodney by Cloaked Games, JosephEllis, BlakeNorth
Has a good variety of enemies, obstacles and upgrades. Navigating through the bullet hell and figuring out how to defeat specific enemies was quite enjoyable. The aesthetics are pretty great and music was rad. Well-made top-down shooter overall.

Candle Wars by Yozoraki
The general premise of the gameplay is nice and the overall mood is very sweet. I really liked the hi-res cartoony visuals, which are a nice change of pace compared to predominant pixel art. Kudos for using Jam-made music, too. Really cute and well-made strategy game, overall. ^^

Best ofs:

Best use of Theme: Forty or the Modern Big Brother by SoapSud39
Best Concept: Behemoth by sp202
Best Presentation: Adventures Of Robot X by Pixel-Team
Best Story: Forty or the Modern Big Brother by SoapSud39

Full ranking:

  1. Forty or the Modern Big Brother by @SoapSud39
  2. Wastoid Rodney by @Cloaked Games , @JosephEllis , BlakeNorth
  3. Candle Wars by @Yozoraki
  4. Candles Have Feelings by @JordanOttesen
  5. Crimson Guild's Glamorous Guest List by @Mr Magnus
  6. Emmy And Sal by @Mercerenies , Emily
  7. Adventures Of Robot X by @Pixel-Team
  8. Keyboard Hero by @tadashibashi
  9. Party Animal by @TehPilot , TheFugue
  10. Castle Meta by @The M
  11. Party Mountain by @AJTheApple
  12. One Big Party by @Gizmo199 , @shortbread
  13. GreymoorHall by @Ninety
  14. Hero Horde by @PinesOfChaos
  15. Snake Dance by @Greenblizzard
  16. Demon Dance by @Mightyjor , Twintertainment (@curato ), Brett-Bit
  17. Survival Party by @HayManMarc
  18. Wham Bam Dan Jam Slam by @GameDevDan
  19. 3 Mice In A Trenchcoat by @Bart, @TheSnidr, @Xor, Naterboy
  20. Your Brain On Party by @thijsmie
  21. Me pARRty by @ghandpivot
  22. Behemoth by @sp202
  23. Roborazzi by @Kultisti, Sulo
  24. Robot Surprise Party by @samspade
  25. The Matchmaker (HTML5 ONLY, OPEN FOLDER) by @eimie
  26. Extinction Tea Party by @Moon Goat
  27. Gangs Bash by @D'Andrƫw Box
  28. Need For Beats by @matharoo, BlaineTanuki, _aeternumgames
  29. The Annual GMC Party by @O.Stogden
  30. Blackout by @Siolfor the Jackal
  31. Dr Smiley's Brain Jam Party by @Yal
  32. Jenka Dungeon by @dosto, Reaktori, @Riuku
  33. The Golden Balloon by Little Penguin Studios (@Josh Chen, @bandman28)
  34. Plague Rats by @Nocturne
  35. Crazy Waiter by @Gatefiz, JP, Claire Dujardin, Benfik
  36. Escape of the Clowns by @kburkhart84
  37. GMC Fruit Salad Surfer by @Yal
  38. Hero Huddle by @ThinGinger
  39. Party Detective by @Mercyssh
  40. Queen by @Toque
  41. Jaguar Pogo Party by @TotallyAverageGamez
  42. Barry Bear's Birthday by @Richerama
  43. happy birthday by @Yal
  44. Final Battle by @Kahrabaa
  45. HealthBar by @Fanatrick
  46. The Party Must Go On by @GVmG
  47. Christmas with Uncle Tom by @BluishGreenPro
  48. Jam Defenders by @Kepons
  49. Fiesta Down by @VinylFly
  50. Fiesta Fist by @Cristobal, @MatthewPattel
  51. GMC Party Adventure by @Imagine Galaxy
  52. Florida Man by @BreakfastBoy
  53. Survive the Party by @Nejc Podlipnik
  54. Party Animals by @ScaryPotato, @kalzme
  55. The Scattered Army by @Sirham
  56. Life Party by @Cat
  57. Quickly! Dispensegifts by Allison James (@NAL)
  58. get to the party by @Wabb, @sequential
  59. dawg the party animal by @NivesStudio
  60. Apocalypse party by @aspiringgamemaker
  61. Fantasy Strategy Clicker by @Julien, @Hyomoto
  62. R-pg-ING by @Micah_DS
  63. Candle by @Steelegms2
  64. The Retrieval by @Dr. Wolf
  65. City Scuttler by @Bearman_18
  66. One Big Political Party by @Terminator_Pony
  67. Party Parade by @Tristan
  68. Party Paddles by @Fusai
  69. The Way Back To The Party by @NoodleHead
  70. Party Puker by @Ben Stitt
  71. Goin' All Nite by @dadio
  72. Party Guardians by @StarDreamIX
  73. Color Splash by @EvanSki
  74. Party Pooper by @Lukan
  75. dumburk 9000 by @BretHudson, Allen Webster, Jared Cohen
  76. matoset by @Poizen

Comments (from 0 to F):

3 Mice In A Trenchcoat by Bart, TheSnidr, Xor, Naterboy

I won and got the crown!

Having later played other 3D entries (especially "happy birthday") I very much appreciate the "potato" graphics setting. Overall, the 3D was working quite well, though I would have liked having different camera angle (maybe one following the mouse, or maybe something closer to top-down?); as it is now, the camera seems to be fixed.
Not much of a fan of starting over when I make a mistake, especially since the king seems to ignore my extra mice altogether and one-hit-KO me (which means I had to replay pretty much the whole game all over again, twice). Also, I managed to free all three mice, but I didn't find a trenchcoat. Was it hidden somewhere?

Overall, a pretty nice if simple 3D platformer. I wonder what the post-Jam version is like...

Adventures Of Robot X by Pixel-Team

If it isn't another Pixel-Team entry. We had a game based on Lemmings, another based on this beetle thing I honestly have no idea about, and now it's time for Megaman!
Overall, the game plays pretty well and has enough variety for the short adventure it involves. I just wish the final boss had more than one attack, to change things up a little.
There are also various bits of humourous dialogue, often involving cultural references. It was nice for the most part, though I feel the game would be better off without that transgender dialogue sequence. ^^'

As usual, the graphics, music and overall polish is top-notch. The Megaman aesthetic was strong in this one, down to the healthbar appearance. I wasn't a big fan of Space+Ctrl control scheme, so I reconfigured it for Z+X instead. Pretty great entry overall.

Apocalypse party by aspiringgamemaker

Not very advanced shooting game - basically zombies coming from both sides to attack the generator, while I try to walk around and gather pellets to shoot them with.
A little annoying that pellets will always restore ammo to the level of 25, rather than accumulating certain amount (e.g. each package would add 10 to the total, without any actual cap on ammo). Also, some pellets spawned inside the walls or the generator, though at later point it didn't matter much because with their spawn rate there was pretty much always some pellet pack waiting nearby.
It would be nice if the game didn't show 5/4/3/2 minutes, but rather counted down with seconds precision from the start.
Nice touch with game having illustrated both game over and winning screen.

Graphics and audio are fine. An alright game overall.

Barry Bear's Birthday by Richerama

Instead of endless hi-score game of a Barry Bear's time looped birthday, I'd have preferred a nice congratulations screen after the last level. Building upon that, it would be nice if I could restart the current level instead of starting all over, especially since it takes a few attempts to properly understand certain games.
Other than that, it's a nice set of cute party games, though when I play the "eat all the sweets game" (with avoiding vegetables), I can't help but think about children obesity becoming more and more prevalent in our times. While I understand "children like sweets" trope is strong (and not entirely baseless), I would prefer if children weren't taught that vegetables are yucky at least. >.<

The game graphics aren't amazing, but they're made well enough. The music is about as close to a birthday party as you can get. The child announcing next levels would be a nice touch, but having heard these unskippable intros over and over again got pretty tiring later on.

Overall, a cutesy party minigames entry, though I'd prefer if it had some ending instead of endless hi-score mechanics.

Behemoth by sp202

Okay, yeah, this is actually how a meta-game should be done, in that the cumulative effort of the people who played before helps the next player (contrast that with The M's Castle Meta which only uses the single previous player information to affect the gameplay).
I got as far as seventh card, with four cards at the start being revealed to me by others. With my hint, the person who comes after me should have 50% chance to find the remaining cards within the 3 chances given.
I like the otherworldly appearance of the Behemoth. No audio, unfortunately. Would be nice to have some surreal ambient music in the background or something.

Blackout by Siolfor the Jackal

Nice walking simulator with a choice that can affect the fate of the world (I hope you people have chosen well). There's not much to it, but I like the various dialogue bits that are there.
The animations and backgrounds are quite well done, and I like the custom-made audio as well. There's one issue with the ending music, in that once you complete the game there's not much else to do. If only there was some other game where one could listen to it in its full glory... šŸ¤”
Nicely done, overall. ^^

Candle by Steelegms2

Nice base for dungeon crawler, but there seem to be no difficulty progression nor progress tracking (which floor I'm at). In fact, some earlier levels had lots and lots of candles while other later ones had only 2 or so.
No music, but there are still sufficient SFX. Though maybe lighting a candle could sound less like collecting a coin and more like... well, lighting a candle (something based around white noise, maybe).
The wall tile could have different colour than the floor tile. They're somewhat distinguishible already, but it wouldn't hurt to make the walls stand out among the floors even more.

Overall, the basics are here, but there's not much aim to the game without any kind of visible progression (except for counting floors completed without completely dying).

Candle Wars by Yozoraki

The general premise of the gameplay is nice, though it could use less micro-management. As it is now, you need to sent each individual unit to do its task and after that you need to re-select it. Also, it would be nice if the newly created units automatically joined the active party leader, so that they wouldn't need to be added manually and also make room for the next unit. I do like, however, how the team follows the party leader.
The strategy involved in this game is very simple, though it's pretty clever how one party leader can distract the boss while the other can strike, beginning the main boss battle.

The overall mood is very sweet. I really liked the hi-res cartoony visuals, which are a nice change of pace compared to predominant pixel art. Kudos for using Jam-made music, too.

Really cute and well-made strategy game, overall. ^^

Candles Have Feelings by JordanOttesen

Is it bad that it reminds me of Mr. Oshiro boss battle from Celeste?
Got 14/16 cookies. Wanted to confirm how the music in the last level synchronises well with the gameplay, and got all the cookies on the second run. I wish there was something extra in the ending if you collected all the cookies.

Mostly good game design; I especially liked the ability to crouch, as well as the indicators showing where the child is about to blow. My main issue was with wall-jumping: it has this classic issue with having to switch between holding one direction button and the other and yet still making that jump, which - unless some measure akin to input buffering and Coyote time is applied - can sometimes lead to the wall jump feeling non-responsive. Otherwise the game controlled pretty well, though the last section in the last level was still pretty brutal and took me several attempts.

The graphics are nice and mostly coherent. The audio design was spot-on, too. I think I heard the music from the start somewhere, at least in other two entries from this Jam. ;)
I liked how in the last level the game tempo sped up as the music got more intense, that was a great touch.

Overall, nicely presented and quite well-designed platformer. Well done! ^^

Castle Meta by The M

I like the variety of weapons and enemies alike, which can make for some interesting strategies.
Far in the top-left area, there's this bug where the arena won't active, unfortunately.
I could complete three remaining areas in a few attempts each. I've found spellbook and axe to be very useful. Digging gloves I guess are useful, too, but more as an exploration tool than an attack tool.

I understand the concept of passing the items to the next player, as a way to involve players in a ONE BIG PARTY of sorts. However, the chain-like structure somewhat spoils it - instead of many people coming together to make the current player stronger, it's like the most recent player passing the control to the next, at no point involving two people total. The exception would be the hall of fame, but it doesn't directly affect the gameplay. Contrast that with Behemoth, where messages from the previous people might help you escape (even if most of them don't).

The graphics are fine, and I liked different graphical effects (e.g. when digging). Not only that, each area has its specific visual theme (my favourite was the purple-ish one). The music is cool, too, though I think there's a glitch e.g. in the red area, where the music changes when you enter, but when you die it goes back to default main hall music. The sound effects are fine, though sometimes they can stack too much and become very loud (like e.g. with the aforementioned bug in the top-left area.

Cool metroidvania platformer, overall, though I feel the gimmick of the previous player passing items to the next one doesn't add much value compared to e.g. randomising starting items and building up from there.

Christmas with Uncle Tom by BluishGreenPro

A cute game, and even not *that* much off-season. Not much of a gameplay, which isn't really a bad thing (especially in story-driven games). It does mean there's more demand on the story content to make the game great.
I played to see all the endings.
The Frank ending is the worst, because Amy loses.
The Linda ending is best, because she isn't stuck doing the dishes.

City Scuttler by Bearman_18

A game about the right to bear arms. Alas, it crashes for some reason or another.

############################################################################################
ERROR in
action number 1
of Step Event0
for object obj_Test:

Variable Index [1] out of range [1]
at gml_Script_anon_gml_Object_obj_Test_Create_0_5690_gml_Object_obj_Test_Create_0
############################################################################################
gml_Script_anon_gml_Object_obj_Test_Create_0_5690_gml_Object_obj_Test_Create_0 (line -1)
gml_Script_anon_gml_Object_obj_Test_Create_0_5193_gml_Object_obj_Test_Create_0
gml_Object_obj_Test_Step_0

Too bad, because the concept of getting more and more arms and better and better arsenal, while pretty mindless, seems like could be fun. In this "I'm getting more OP so that I can take down the boss no problem" way.
The game controls feel pretty clunky at first, but it's possible to get used to them over time. The overall presentation is fine and quite reminescent of old games in a way (with these roguelike mechanics and descriptions to the side; I dunno, kind of like MS DOS?). There is no audio, apparently.

Overall, nice concept - especially with collecting arms - but the crash makes it virtually impossible to conclude the game properly.

Color Splash by EvanSki

That's some nice menu, with cool graphics and music, but alas, there's nothing more.

Crazy Waiter by Gatefiz, JP, Claire Dujardin, Benfik

There is too much going on combined with a movement scheme that is really bad for swift yet precise movement. The guests are everywhere, which might work well for ONE BIG PARTY theme, but not so well when I need to avoid bumping into them yet still deliver orders in a timely manner. What's worse, guests AI is completely dumb, bumping into the waiter even if he stands still. Sometimes the guests would block the kitchen entrance as well.

Not sure how it would be solved; maybe just have all the guests sit down, or only move within designated areas while leaving main routes (and kitchen door!) mostly clear? At the very least, make them avoid or wait for the waiter to pass?
Switching from rotate-and-move control scheme to up-down-left-right control scheme would likely help as well and isn't all that unrealistic - people are pretty good at moving sideways and backwards, after all (as opposed to e.g. cars which cannot move sideways and must turn instead). Maybe WSAD to move + click to interact would both give the appearance of waiter moving like a normal human (in that the waiter would turn towards the mouse for interactions, while legs could do whatever) and give the mobility required to navigate through all these guests?

That aside, the graphics are pretty neat, though maybe sometimes the layering was off, as one of guests ended up seemingly below a puddle of puke. I kinda like that announcer speaking about new requests and successful deliveries. It's amusing in this slightly over-the-top way, as if successfully serving the meal was comparable to scoring a kill in a deathmatch (must be the type of voice used). The rest of audio was fine as well.

Nice concept, overall, but would work better with slightly different mechanics (especially not-so-pushy guests AI and more manageable control scheme).

Crimson Festival by Alice

It mostly works.
Alas, it looks like I didn't connect Candle Wars properly (sorry, Yozoraki!). u_u'
Also, in the Jam Player the game is credited to "Alice, FunkyPoop", but what happened is that in the end FunkyPoop dropped out before contributing anything (we imagined our cooperation somewhat differently). So in the end it was just me.

PS. If you can't get Greymoor Hall to connect - it's to be expected, because there was a mistake in where the game exports its metadata.
If you completed Greymoor Hall, just click on the file icon next to its title card, then pick metadata file from something like Jam40_redo_maybe. This file should interact correctly.

Crimson Guild's Glamorous Guest List by Mr Magnus

I playtested some early build of this game, but it still was a welcome surprise to see how well the game came together in the end.
The premise is simple, but fun. The gimmicks are a welcome addition too, as well as the feature that smoothens gameplay by making all but one character slightly more transparent.
The characters art isn't anything to sing praises about, but otherwise the background work is nice, and the game does a great job at making the town feel busy. My favourite part would be rooftop dancers. Music was also chosen well.

I still stand by my opinion that the game could have used a reference for various terms used for those who are not familiar with them (like crop top or convertible car). My favourite find-the-person game this Jam.


dawg the party animal by NivesStudio

The minigames could really use some instructions beyond controls. For example, the fact that you need to make the fruits fall into the basket, or that you are supposed to hit the targets or the DJ to get extra points. It can be figured out from the game, but it requires extra playthroughs. Also, the bull minigame is much more unforgiving compared to others, in that in fruits and DJ minigame your performance is averaged over time available, while in the bull minigame you lose the moment the bull reaches you (which is especially easy when you play it for the first time).

The graphics aren't terrible, but I've seen better. Also, it seems the lazer tag level was supposed to have some view limited to the main character, but instead the whole room is shown instead, making everything appear much smaller (also the reason why Duke minigame is the easiest of all)? The repetitive and extremely short music gets slightly jarring after a while, especially since it doesn't really give off the "party" mood (rather, it sounds a little sinister).

Nevertheless, I did manage to get the highest possible party ranking and it was FIRE (well, as fire as it can get with okay graphics and the same music as main game playing). Decent attempt overall, but learning how to evoke different moods through music would really help for future projects; I don't know what this melody was meant to represent, but it wasn't party joy. >.<

Demon Dance by Mightyjor, Twintertainment, Brett-Bit

This is certainly the most busy-looking games of all rhythm-based games here, for the better or worse (the balloons in the Blood Mage might have been a bit much).
The mechanics serve their basic purpose, though they need some more polish. For example, when multiple arrows overlap with arrow frame and corresponding button was pressed, both arrows disappeared rather than the lower one, which disrupted the flow of the game. Also, the bonus seems pretty unpredictable, and when player tunnel-visions on the buttons - pretty unnoticeable. I'd have preferred if the note-beat effect (when arrow frame animation thing appears over the pressed note) had different appearance depending on whether the note qualifies for bonus or not. Also, the gameplay itself is a little monotonous, with the same rhythm over an over again.

I have mixed feelings about the graphics. It kinda seems like the game goes for pixellated aesthetic, but more distant elements have their pixels effectively "smaller", so they appear more hi-res than the closer elements. Also, the arrow frames have this somewhat jagged look that kind of reminds me of badly cut-out JPGs. I'd have preferred if graphics were more hi-res to begin with, though this is also my personal preference speaking. As for arrows themselves, maybe they could use GM colour blending to shift hue gradually, rather than have it change through what appears to be animation frames. Don't get me wrong, I think overall graphics are pretty cool and varied, but there are also some nitpicks to point out.

The music works well with the game, and the announcer exclamations are welcome as well. Would be nice to add some visual description, maybe, to see what actually happened? Is it some 5x combo? A perfectly timed note?

Overall, pretty cool entry, though a little rough around the (pixellated) edges.

Dr Smiley's Brain Jam Party by Yal

Given the chance, players will optimise the fun out of the game. And this game makes it very easy to optimise the fun of.

Too complex, with so many colour and shapes combination, which makes most of the gimmicks very optional. In the end, I've found the safest way to proceed is to try tucking the fruits somewhere near the bottom (sometimes using swapping to wait for a better layout) and use all the other skeleton blocks to fill in the gaps and make full lines. This makes the game so much easier to survive than regular Tetris, even with its slightly larger shapes. Maybe using the more fine-grained matching mechanics would get me a better score more quickly, but why go into such complex methods when the game game can be played as a - nomen omen - no-brainer.

Nice psychedelic graphics, though sometimes they can be unclear - in particular, I misplaced some blocks because I didn't notice there was an eggplant there. Maybe adding some clear outline to each shape would help.
I really enjoy this somewhat chaotic and silly music.

Overall, a nicely presented Tetris clone but it's still a Tetris clone; and most blocks are skeleton blocks, at that!

dumburk 9000 by Bret Hudson, Allen Webster, Jared Cohen

This game does one thing right.
It allows to hold space to perform actions (and also scrolls through unavailable options when space if held down).
With that, I could reach 10000 crewmates with minimal effort of putting some weight onto the space bar button.
When you *do* reach 10000 crewmates... nothing happens. The game just continues on. For those of you who were wondering what happens: You're welcome.

It also does another thing right - it has rad nighttime music - but it's offset by the fact that the night-time music doesn't really play for longer than a few seconds unless player specifically waits for it.
Unfortunately, as it is right now it turned out to be some barebones tech demo. Maybe next Jam you'll be more successful completing the game.

Emmy And Sal by Mercerenies, Emily

Neat puzzle concept; simple in principle, yet not overused. As expected from Mercerenies.
Graphics are good, and are further enhanced by various "bouncing" effects. Glad to see you got another person to work on the pictures. Story is also nice.
Overall, a well-polished puzzle game that I don't have much more to say about.

Escape of the Clowns by kburkhart84

Saved all clowns!

I think the game would work better if:
- less focus was put on timing/platforming challenges
- more focus was put on puzzle mechanics, and consequently it'd be made easier to align clown etc.
- more puzzle elements were added
Maybe if each level had a deterministic set of boxes on both sides and they would be depleted eventually, then the puzzle aspect would be more pronounced?

As it is now, figuring out what to do is pretty basic and the most difficulty lies with actually executing it (especially placing the clown properly and waiting patiently for the box-dropper).
As I mentioned elsewhere, it would be nice to add an indicator of sorts that would follow the currently targetted column when the claw is about to take the box, and then would stay on that column once the claw would be locked onto it. Also, the gameplay would be much smoother if speeding up applied not only to the falling box, but to the whole claw movement cycle in general.

The graphics are certainly colourful, sometimes to a fault; whether it's the red text or some other colour, it would be much more readable if there was mostly consistent background behind it (e.g. an 80% alpha black rectangle behind the text). The clown animation looks a little weird (especially with clown sometimes hovering near the box). Maybe it would help if the clown position directly dictated the animation frame? And if clown was going off ledge and then moving back from it, instead of turning the clown could just walk backwards instead (it would certainly look silly). Also, should the clown be crushed, they should explode into balloons and/or confetti. The large clown portrait lands firmly in uncanny valley (I personally don't mind that much, since I have some tolerance for creepy things).
The audio was appropriate, and the music fit the mood perfectly; one of my favourite ingame tracks this Jam (even if it wasn't custom made).

Overall, a puzzle game with some potential in its concept, but also lots of room for polish.

Extinction Tea Party by Moon Goat

Managed to survive for over 100 seconds. Not bad.
The game has really nice chaos to it, and I like the touch with showing the shadows of party props that are about to enter the scene.

The graphics are really nicely drawn, giving these nice paper cutouts feeling. Wish it had any music and especially SFX, because it's particularly fitting for this kind of busy game. Audio can improve the game a lot relatively cheaply.

A well made endless bullet hell, but really needs some more audio.

Fantasy Strategy Clicker by Julien, Hyomoto

The game could really use some explanations about roles of specific buildings and core mechanics (i.e. what affects peasants numbers, food production and consumption, weapons and armours production etc.). The general tendency seems to be that more houses mean more peasants production, more farms mean more food production, more smithies mean more weapon production, more armories mean more armor production and more schools mean more knowledge production. Also, it seems season affects food production, but it would be nice to explain when the food production is the highest and when the lowest, or whether it involves some other variables aside from farms and season (e.g. does it increase along with the number of peasants?). I have no idea what Cin is, I'm not sure whether market results in more gold being produced or not. This lack of information makes it difficult to devise optimal strategies to progress through the game.

The armies part are generally better explained, with tooltips and such - something that town building lacks. Battles, on the other hand, require LOTS AND LOTS of clicking in order to send my large army against comparable threat. With that, I defeated three threats and gave up fourth, because there is no way to send entire army at once - I must make one click for each soldier, which with hundreds of soldiers becomes a massive chore and a real health risk. Not only that, I don't even know how many enemy armies are there in the game and whether the game rewards successful completion. The game would have been so much easier to play with:
- hold down mouse to simulate repeated clicking, similar to what happens in text editor when you hold down a letter buttonnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn
- allow queueing soldiers recruitment, instead of making the player wait for the current batch of conscripts before starting the next one
- maybe some upgrades/resources that allow speed up of building upgrades and army recruitment? Or maybe a plain speed-up button would suffice?

The graphics are fine, though very dull and gray, with scarce colourful accents here and there. Maybe something warmer like Heroes of Might and Magic 2 brown colour scheme would make the game more welcoming? Add to that this vaguely intimidating ambient soundtrack - playing regardless of the current season or general progress - which makes me wonder whether the true threat in the game aren't enemies armies waiting patiently for the player in a separate tab, but rather a plague of depression haunting the town.

Overall, not a bad premise for the clicker, but the gameplay is in a dire need of quality of life improvements, while the atmosphere feels way too heavy and demotivating.

Fiesta Down by VinylFly

Nice minigame with cute aesthetics and story. I like the option to choose a different character with a different ability. It would be nice if I could advance the story manually (there's only Enter to skip).
Not much else to say, since the game doesn't have much content in the first place. ^^'

Fiesta Fist by Cristobal, MatthewPattel

No information about controls ingame, I just pressed keys randomly until I found out it's T for action/attack and Y for jump. Earlier on, I also found out that G key can be used to see the ending while skipping the game itself.
Other than that, the game is fairly basic beat'em up. The game took several attempts to beat; I feel like certain enemies pack quite a lot of punch, especially compared to measly two hearts I get from the health kits. At least the speed-up powerup was pretty fun.

The graphics are fine, though the backgrounds could use some variety instead of the same monotonous brick walls and roofs. The audio is alright. A decent entry, overall.

Final Battle by Kahrabaa

The game is called "Final Battle", but there doesn't seem to be any megaboss at the end. It just keeps going on and on and on, so I eventually quit with a feeling I spent more time on it than I should have.
Otherwise, the party gathering mechanics and powerups collection seems to work pretty nicely, especially when powerups are timed well (just before an army of baddies). The gold doesn't seem to be used for anything, though? I think it would have been a pretty nice entry, if only the titular Final Battle with some Final Boss actually occured at some point. Also, the beginning seems particularly tough and luck-based, with only one person in the party (even tutorial had more).

The graphics... they kind of look nice, but kind of messy; maybe it's the jagged outlines? Maybe this mix of simplistic graphics contrasting with detailed backgrounds? I can't put my finger on it, but I feel like something makes the artwork not work so well together as it could. The sound effects are fine, but can get pretty annoying later on with so many people fighting (especially when archer ladies are involved). The music is alright, but gets pretty monotonous after a while.

Overall, a decent strategy-ish game, but it becomes pretty trivial after enough party members are gathered, and there is no conclusion. Also, while the audiovisuals aren't bad, there's still some room for improvement, I think.

Florida Man by BreakfastBoy

Not exactly sure what is the ONE BIG PARTY here, but I do like unleashing the gator on unsuspecting enemies nonetheless. It adds some nice silliness and gameplay factor to otherwise generic platforming. I would like to see some puzzles based on the send/recall logic, maybe to collect some secret coins.

The graphics are alright, but I'd have preferred if the game was upscaled to like x2-x4 its size (I mean, keeping the effective resolution as-is, but have the pixels 2-4 times wider and taller). I can still mostly see what's going on with these tiny little sprites, but I don't like having to focus on such a small area too much. Also, maybe the main character's shirt could have some other colour, so that it wouldn't blend so much with the sky. The sound effects are fitting. The music is cool, but I would like to know what track is it exactly (I could find it quickly just by looking up "The Mini Vandals").

Nice and silly platformer, overall, though I still don't know where is that ONE BIG PARTY supposed to be, so docking some ranks for that.

Forty or the Modern Big Brother by SoapSud39

This entry works excellently as an interactive story, with very varied game interaction. First there's the notepad mashing intro, then redacting the unlawful texts, then playing crappy minigames, then changing things in filesystem outside of the game, then finally solving the pop quiz and reaching the conclusion (with some potential time loops).

Not only that, every piece of gameplay mechanic enhances the story told in each micro-chapter (with relatively short dialogues glueing them together), and quite a story it was. Add to that some excellent music and well-drawn graphics. I kinda wish you went for hi-res graphics (on the ground that I already keep seeing plenty of pixellated games), but I guess Grand Daddy won't allow adding too much detail.

Great entry all around; I concur with Dan that a full game based on that concept would be great (whether actual 1984 or something similar).

Continued in the next post...
 

Alice

Darts addict
Forum Staff
Moderator
...continued from the previous post.

Comments (from G to Z):

Gangs Bash by D'Andrew Box

Would be nice to be able to choose the gang. I mean, Red Gang is best gang, obviously, but still. Also, the game doesn't finish after all 8 pizza pieces are allocated; it just keeps going on and on. Seems like the winning mechanic was broken somewhere, because I saw the ending somewhere in the devlog.
The minigames could really use some explanations, when it comes to controls at least.
The snails minigame is just button mashing, and it takes quite a lot of effort to beat the AI. If not competing against other players, I would prefer if all that took to win was press Z repeatedly with moderate-to-fast speed using only a single finger; button-mashing games already are bad enough as is, no need to make them extra difficult.
The car racing minigame is somewhat fun if someone actually explains how to drive the cars (note: I didn't get any explanation at first, and I only knew Z can be used for driving forward; after I knew about controls, I beat the game effortlessly).
The pong minigame was pretty cool. I like how - if one player gets eliminated - the balls just bounce off that player's arc.
The floor-falling minigame is so trivial Evan could complete it even without moving. Maybe if falling floors were more focused around players? Also, the AI could probably be a little less silly.
The tank minigame is a bit of a drag, especially with how easy it is to get stuck on some box or something (AI can confirm, as it gets stuck too).

The presentation is good, both in terms of graphics (neat scanlines effect) and varied minigames music. I really like how the overworld music changes when 5 levels are completed, giving off the sense of finality. Too bad the game never actually ends.

Pretty neat overall, though AI is janky a lot (especially in the floor-falling and tanks minigame). Also, please, don't do button-mashing minigames.

get to the party by Wabb, sequential

A nice attempt at a Lemmings-style game, though the logic needed to solve these levels isn't particularly advanced (just 4 tutorial levels and 2 more "complex" ones). On what seemed like the last level, some party crashers started appearing as the level just kept repeating over and over again; I have no idea what it was supposed to be.

The graphics are... simple. The audio is nonexistent. Overall, while I appreciate the concept, the game needs a lot more polish to shine.

GMC Fruit Salad Surfer by Yal

A simple endless-runner-with-upgrades game. The main gameplay loop is pretty cool, with the wave-surfing mechanic interacting nicely with spike-towers of varying height and piranhas staying underwater (most of the time, at least). The upgrades introduce some additional and welcome complexity, allowing to avoid specific obstacles more easily or gain money more efficiently. However - unlike many other upgrades-based games - this one limits player to single item per run. Personally, I'd prefer if all items were applied at once (or you could toggle them individually); this way the player could gradually become more and more powerful before eventually obtaining all the upgrades there are. As it is now - with only one item usable per run - I'm not really motivated to buy various items, if I won't use most of them either way. Not only that, there is barely any feeling of becoming more powerful and getting coins more quickly to keep me playing until the next upgrade. If I could use all items at once, I might have as well keep playing until I maxed out every item and bought all skins available in the game.

Aside from that, the game features trademark Yal's psychedelic graphics and music (though I'm certain the main menu music appeared in Killer Shark '77 before). I particularly liked this colourful wave effect, and it was even better seeing how on EvanSki's stream this wave was somehow semi-transparent to the point of Jam Player interface being visible behind the wave! I also appreciate the variety of different character skins, and general upgrades descriptions.

Nice endless runner with upgrades overall, but I really would prefer if I could equip all items at once.

GMC Party Adventure by Imagine Galaxy

These platformic mechanics take me back to the times of The Games Factory and its janky ceiling-grabbing platforming mechanics. Was it an inspiration?
Unfortunately, these mechanics turned out to be pretty annoying - especially when navigating the large cave - where I couldn't fall as freely as I would have liked. Add to that swarms of angry teletubbies, which made me restart over and over again. Still, I made it to the end, and that was a pretty adorable end (seems like the main character was trolled šŸ˜Ž).

Music was cool. Voice acting wasn't professional, but otherwise it was mostly clear what was being spoken, which isn't always the case for Jam games voice acting (though text might have helped here, too). I wonder who did it (family?) because there were multiple people involved. I just wish the intermission screen (the one with lots of white circles appearing) was shorter.
The graphics weren't as good as music, and at least some of them were likely taken from elsewhere given the varying level of detail (e.g. the troll).

Overall, pretty silly and janky platformer, yet charming in its own way.

Goin' All Nite by Dadio

At first I thought it was another jokey entry devoid of any interactivity, but I must admit, I was mistaken - you can actually feed the pills to the lemon.
Still, I miss the likes of the DA NUMSKULZ or Cthonimon thing that had a proper gameplay at least... u_u'

GreymoorHall by Ninety

During my first two attempts I tried to immediately flee from the crime scene, which got me caught. Only on third attempt it turned out that after killing and waiting for a few seconds I proceed to questioning.
Also, on my second and third attempt the host was very social, being left somewhere alone only around the last hour of the party. It's pretty frustrating, having to wait for the opportunity after already speaking with all guests and finding the key item, but still risking the round being botched because people just won't let go of the host. Or are there some systems that prevent the host from being busy around the last hour?

That aside, the game has a nice amount of polish, when it comes to the graphics, the custom-made music and some of the writing (though there was some conspiciously repeating patterns among the party guests, usually with some guests sharing very similar dialogue lines). Nice job with varied character portraits. The conclusion... with mostly text on the black background, it feels pretty underwhelming, but I guess it's sufficient? I wonder how the game would turn out with more varied dialogue, guests personalities and items that appeal to them (right now it seems the items mostly appeal to greedy personality).

Overall, a nice starting point for a detective game, but needs some more variety for better complexity and replayability.

happy birthday by Yal

This game - together with One Big Party I played just before - made me all the more appreciate the "Potato" graphics settings in 3 Mice In A Trenchcoat.

The game is a walking simulator with more focus on overall atmosphere, but I don't mind games like that; that game for EVERYBODY IS DEAD Jam worked pretty well, too. That said, this game... it could use some improvements. First, the fog - it obscured so much of the view, it was hard to tell where I was supposed to be going, since it obscured too much of the view. Maybe it would work better if its effective radius was doubled or something? Second, the overall performance - the game lagged a lot on my GPU-less laptop. Also, maybe the game could put less emphasis on platforming challenges sometimes (like jumping on a sequence of trees to get a balloon) in favour of pure exploration (or maybe I just found it difficult because of lagging)? The ending... I get a vague sense of what it's hinting at, though I personally prefer more concrete stories (not necessarily upfront).

Aside from that, the intro could be more skippable (it seems to last a dozen seconds at least, which gives me enough time to read it many times over) and I'd pick a mouse-controlled camera over WSAD-controlled camera anytime.

The graphics and audio serve well enough to build up the atmosphere, and the overall layout was varied. The player character model felt very... off proportion, and very unlike the shadowy figure seen in the menu.

Overall, I find this entry interesting and kinda wish this was the one you most focused on, since I'm always up for atmospheric jumpscare-less horror/surreal games. Now I kinda want to create a horror game myself, and make it wholesome.

HealthBar by Fanatrick

I'm not a great fan of current gameplay mechanics. As it is now, having requests in sub-units amounts is troublesome, and it's very hard to get hues other than primary and secondary; maybe there's some overeager colour interpolation going on or something? I think combining this gameplay with mechanics of RPG Potion Brewer by @eimie would have worked better for this game. As in, pressing A/S/D would add one unit's worth of red/green/blue, and requested drinks could be combined by using a combination of full units of colour (e.g. 3 units of red and 3 units of blue). Also, maybe don't have the drink requests appear so quickly, at least at the start? I think slowing down the game a little and focusing more on precision would work quite nicely.

The general background graphics are nice. The crazy dancing people are a little funny, not in a very bad way, though. I like the music, but it's pretty silent compared to SFX; at first I didn't even know there's music in the first place.

Overall, a decent drinks serving game, but I'd have preferred stricter game mechanics coupled with a little more time to prepare the drinks in right proportions.

Hero Horde by PinesOfChaos

The game is quite difficult, took me several attempts to figure out the winning strategy.

Generally, it turned out it's better to buy lots of units from early levels - preferably those that actually aim at the main opponent as opposed to e.g. blue mages whose bullets go everywhere + priests - and level them up on early opponents. The units bought later on turned out to add greater cost per second and also died easily before being able to level up enough.

Eventually, my massive party of a knight, lots of rangers, priests and warriors managed to slay the demon lord, though not without losses near the latest phases. I reached the Demon Lord several times before, but ran out of time back then.

There could be some indication for the party state, e.g. little player icons, HP/EXP bars and current level. It should be perfectly possible to fit multiple units in a single row of such HUD display (e.g. 3-5 per row), so that party doesn't grow so large its HUD becomes taller than the game window. This HP/EXP/LVL would be especially important for making sure there are no near-dying people in the party. Also, it would be nice if instead/alongside the one-time coins cost there was also per-second cost displayed for units about to be bought.

Aside from that, graphics are good enough, music is chosen well. Pretty neat entry overall, but could use more forgiving difficulty and/or better party state indication.

Hero Huddle by ThinGinger

I completed the game with the final part size of 105!
The crowd mechanics worked really nice, and it was really fun to see them going around. The graphics were working pretty well, too, especially with red/green/yellow teams. The game isn't particularly difficult or strategic, but it was still fun going around with the army of destruction, and boss battle was pretty fun, too. Overall, nice and varied short entry.
Add some background music, and maybe some extra SFX e.g. for freeing the prisoners, and it would be great.

Jaguar Pogo Party by TotallyAverageGamez

Pretty cool pogo-jumping mechanics, goofy enough to stand out yet not so gimmicky they're annoying. Maybe the collected gifts could appear semi-transparent, to indicate that yes, they were there and yes, the player already collected them. It seems the game doesn't save progress of collected gifts (between different playthroughs, that is); would be nice if it did.

The graphics are pretty nice, but there needs to be a better distinction between the foreground (interactible elements) and the background. Nice choice of music. Fun platforming concept overall.

Jam Defenders by Kepons

I defended the Jam. In general, it seems like Team Red is the most effective - as it should be - though I'm afraid because of that other units aren't used that much (except for pears at the start). Thus, the gameplay turns out to have little variety overall.

The graphics are simple, but functional; I would have liked something more varied as a background than plain gray (maybe at least some checkered tablecloth pattern?). Sounds are alright. No music, unfortunately.

Overall, nice little tower defense, but Reds are very much OP and the game could use some music.

Jenka Dungeon by dosto, Reaktori, Riuku

I enjoy the concept of gathering the opponents, though this kind of party gathering isn't exactly uncommon this Jam.
I feel the units attack are too uncontrollable, especially when it comes to monsters like this swampy thing (leaving two puddles in some direction) or the demon thing (sending a fireball in some direction). In the end, I've found the knights attacking left and right were about the best fit against the boss, especially once I caught up to the boss enough to easily avoid the explosive balloons while still dealing damage.

Other than that, the presentation is really cool, the game introduces the concepts really well and there's a good variety of enemies, as well as proper completion. The attacks unpredictability is my main issue here, though it's a serious one.

Keyboard Hero by tadashibashi

Made it!


Out of all the rhythm games this Jam, this one felt the best to play. The mechanics were very straightforward - just press specific keys at the correct time - as opposed to more platform-y Need For Beats. Also, it had better feedback about Good/Excellent notes, and also had more varied rhythm as opposed to Demon Dance (who used constant interval between subsequent notes). During my initial attempts I did pretty bad, but that's to be expected from a game with so many keys available and no experience on my part. The more I played, I felt I was improving gradually, and the game kept me hooked enough to actually get the perfect score (no bad notes). Once again - as far as core rhythm game mechanics go, this one was absolute best.

The interface and the music could use some improvement. The real-life keyboard usually has two rows of keys (white and black), and it could be reflected perfectly here if not for that B button somewhere in the middle. Had it been replaced with something else (H?), all notes would use only top and middle row of letters. With that, you could omit bottom letters from the interface, and place the rest higher or lower depending on whether they are in the top or middle row. This, I think, would greatly improve the overall visuals-to-keyboard mapping, making the game more intuitive to play.

The game seems to aim for early GameBoy aesthetics, which is a little ironic for a game that uses a broad range of keyboard letters (which clearly weren't available in original GameBoy). The music was a joy to play, and seeing the people dance on the stage was quite rewarding. Very no-nonsense and charming rhythm entry overall!

Life Party by Cat

It seems someone forgot to call randomize(). ;)
(on my first playthrough after starting the game I keep getting the same layout)

Got 220 on my third proper playthrough. I enjoy the idea of gathering the gifts and giving them to ghosts, and the gift stacking mechanic somewhat limits the potential annoyance of walking into gifts I don't yet intend to collect. Also, it seems the ghost speed as well as max gift stack size increases as the game progresses? Not sure if it depends on gifts given or the timer.

The silly paint-y ghost graphics seem a little inconsistent with higher-detail gifts? The music is fine, but there's no SFX. I like the idea of ghosts party aesthetics, though - undeads need their parties, too (vide Party Animal).

matoset by Poizen

Game crashes even when I added globalstatsio.dat to matoparty local appdata...

After I downloaded the fixed version and removed apparently broken globalstatsio.dat file the game started working properly. It's a nice concept, but it requires tweaking. For example, worms turn way too fast, and the game has no minimap or zoomed out view which would make it easier to decide which fruit to jump to next. Also, the worms make it seem like there's some rivalry for resources going on, when in fact these worms seem to be ghosts of earlier scorers? Would be nice if they were semi-transparent so that they wouldn't take too much focus.

I like the character customisation options, but it would be really nice if I didn't have to type out the name every time.

Ranking it last, because the original Jam version crashes, whether with or without provided globalstatsio file.

Me pARRty by ghandpivot

Alright, I *think* I explored everything there was to this game. There was little content, but I liked these (often darkly humorous) bits the game provided.
I guess if it was a game with an actual content and goal, I'd have preferred if the food didn't go down so quickly. Also, I think I'd prefer mouse controlled camera as opposed to arrow keys controlled one. Other than that, the concept seems pretty fun - though I'm not sure how to make a remotely balanced resource management game out of it, if it was the original intent. I think it works well enough as it is, with goofiness being the main selling point. Would be nice if there was some winning/completion condition, though.

The graphics are neat overall; I might be tired of the widespread pixel art, but I don't see voxel art as often, so that's a nice variation. Music is quite fitting, too. Fun entry overall.

Need For Beats by Matharoo, BlaineTanuki, _aeternumgames

Okay, yeah, no, I'm not completing that last level. It's basically "developer difficulty level", i.e. when developer plays their game for the Nth time and thinks "Yeah, that's entertainingly challenging now, it actually takes me a few tries to complete it."
The game is too unforgiving and yet demanding, in that every note-taking is handled by this cursor thing and the delays in cursor movement affect the gameplay too much. Together with very narrow intervals between note-bits you have very little leeway between ending one note and beginning the next one. Had the game used more independent controls - e.g. glitch destruction doesn't move a cursor but instead e.g. sends some explosion from it - I think the overall responsiveness and by extension gameplay would improve a lot. As it is now, I don't feel like I'm improving in the last level at all - especially compared to keyboard hero, where I was missing keys a lot at first, but gradually got a better grasp of what to press when.
Also, in a game with such frequent restarts, is it too much to ask for a keyboard-controlled restarting? Or entirely keyboard-controlled menu, for that matter? Having to move a hand to mouse and back breaks the flow considerably.

I wish the gameplay was more responsive and not so ridiculously fast-paced, because otherwise the game presentation is very slick and the music doesn't fall behind, either. Seeing people dancing in the background is pretty entertaining; seeing them despairing yet another time because the game is too hard.

Overall, entry looks and sounds great, but the gameplay is too fast and overcomplicated compared to other games of rhythm genre (largely the fact that note-actions aren't independent from one another).

One Big Party by Gizmo199, shortbread

Alright, I played and won all party games. I won't massacre my GPU-less laptop any longer.
Punch Funk is very much like Wham Bam Dan Jam Slam I just played. So I guess in a way this entry already does that and some more?
Pushy Pool is nice, though I found there's much more relevance to avoiding balls rather than pushing other players into them; maybe if there was some kind of shove attack, the interactions between players would be more meaningful?
Chook Chase felt a little slow - possibly because of tiring my laptop. It might have made the chicken chasing experience a little more troublesome than it was already.
Feud Court was probably the most fun of all, with different players bumping into each other and at the same time not ending as quickly as Punch Funk.

The visuals are great, both in terms of general looks and animation. One little thing that could be fixed: the chosen team could be indicated with something more than bold text; with letters already being pretty thick in the first place, it's hard to notice.

One Big Political Party by Terminator_Pony

I was just kinda trying to stay close to average, tilting one way or another towards the "How they want it". I think it worked? I won the election, at least.
I've found the gameplay a tad too repetitive, and while having some indicator bars is nice, it would be even nicer if the trust in particular had at least middle of the bar marked, if not show the numeric value altogether.
The graphics are pretty simplistic, maybe too much even. The visualisations of the values balances was pretty cool, though. No audio whatsoever, sadly.

Overall, a good general idea to use the theme, but I'd have much preferred if the concept had more to it than going around, doing speeches and micro-manipulating overly specific gauges. Maybe some kind of TV or Internet campaigns too, or something?

Party Animal by TehPilot, TheFugue

That's an interesting premise, but the game in its current shape has mostly simple logic. The cat movements were hard to predict, especially at later levels. It sort of made sense in terms of enforcing the correct kind of solution, but there were seemingly some unwritten rules that didn't come up before.

I liked the whole black-and-white film setup, in terms of presentation the game is great. My main issue would be that it's not clear the orange area cannot be crossed by possessed people. I overlooked the area in the first possession level, so I didn't recognise it as "no entry" area in the level with the door (I just thought that's what area behind opened doors looks like, for some reason). The music fits overall mood perfectly.

Overall, a nice and not too complex puzzle game.

Party Animals by ScaryPotato, Kalzme

Unfortunately, it's a local multiplayer game, so I can't really judge the competitive factor.
Not a fan of these button-mashing games like the racing or twisty ball thing. I'd rather spare my keyboard and my hand health, thank you very much.
Finding letters was the most interesting of the games I saw; nice mixing of memorisation elements with same-computer multiplayer controls.

I am pretty sure I heard this track elsewhere for this Jam... šŸ¤”

Party Detective by Mercyssh

This is the kind of concept that can easily become overcomplicated with splitting one's attention between maintenance work and listening on guests dialogue, but this game strikes the right balance. The fact that the detective zooms crazy fast across the halls also helps and actually feels pretty good (compared to many other games with rather modest movement speed). At the same time, there is lots and lots of guests so they overlap frequently; maybe halving their numbers would help? Also, I noticed guests dialogue would go offscreen sometimes.

The graphics are simple, but functional, and the running detective animation looks nice. The sound effects are nice, but I would also have liked some music to boot. Pretty cool entry, overall, I like how well the maintenance part and deduction part work together.

Party Guardians by StarDreamIX

Not much to say about the gameplay - defending the cake, with either archer or the melee fighter and just beating skeletons for two levels. Not much to it, but at least it was short.

The melee fighter attack uses Windows error sound for some reason. It does feel pretty appropriate with all that art mismatch the game has, though.
I'd generally recommend some basic drawing learning. It doesn't have to be good, it might be something like Party Parade stickmans for start, but once you can make the art of your own you can make it consistent.

Hopefully, you'll improve by the next Jam. ^^

Party Mountain by AJTheApple

Pretty standard, sweet and short platformer. Reminds me of Celeste a lot, especially with the mountain-climbing theme. The controls are responsive and precise, and at no point I felt like I struggle against poorly implemented mechanics (with my platforming experience, I completed the game quite quickly).

The graphics are nice; maybe the background could be desaturated and/or darkened and/or semi-transparent, so that it doesn't get mixed with the foreground too easily. The collapsing platforms were pretty tricky to tell apart from the background in particular; it's not like I couldn't see they are there, but they're still not very noticeable. I liked the icy caves area, wish there were more area types as well (maybe with different kinds of obstacles?). The animations and graphics effects add some more life to the game, and all that is accompanied by nice sounds and music.

Well-made platformer, overall, with solid mechanics and neat presentation alike.

Party Paddles by Fusai

Rather than having to hit the ball at the opposite area, I'd have preferred if the scoring was based around how few balls I let through (like in a similar paddle game in Gangs Bash). As it is now, with the chaos around the board and 8 areas total (which leaves very little spot for me to hit), my success seems less reliant on my skill and more on how other opponents play and whether the general chaos won't set my ball off-track.

Aside from that, the sprites remind me very much of Final Fantasy. Were they made by yourself, or did you get them from elsewhere? The rest of the graphics are alright, though maybe one section of the disco lights (?) could be a little slower, so as not to make the player too dizzy? The music is kinda fitting for this epic battle of all these parties, even if it's something as trivial as pong; I just wish the gameplay held up as well. Aside from a little fanfare thing at the beginning, I don't recall any sound effects here.

Party Parade by Tristan

Well, I've seen better rhythm games this Jam. ^^'
There's not much to that entry. Mechanics allow just spamming A/L for a massive combo. Graphics are pretty crude - though I do appreciate the parade getting bigger and more varied. The music is fine.
After a while, the game just keeps going indefinitely; it could be pretty nice if the game had limited scope - about as long as the music lasts - but over that time the parade would pass by a variety of places, with no repetition.
Which is to say, with more time and effort this concept could turn out really well, but I guess there was not much time here?

Party Pooper by Lukan

So, um, it took me a while to notice that "target" indicator in the top-left, and meanwhile I've found another way to distinguish the party pooper.
They were always darker.
It has some unfortunate implications.

Other than that, it seems that clicking on overlapping people results in either clicking both of them or a random person of them. Rather, it should be made it so that the person displayed in the front is always clicked.
There is a slew of improvements that could be made here (the aforementioned mouse input, some audio, adding a time limit or something, have the party pooper with the same range of colours as the rest of people), but then it's probably not the game that's meant to be developed further.
(I think Mr Magnus entry does a much better job at "spot the person" type of mechanic, at any rate)

Party Puker by Ben Stitt

I made it through safely. Wasn't too hard, though these idle chit-chatters sometimes get in the way. Also, I noticed that you can complete the game by entering the door from menu.
The game could use some kind of audio... or graphics other than rectangles, for that matter. Still, I appreciate the effort to enter the Jam, and the gameplay isn't *entirely* trivial.

Plague Rats by Nocturne

I kept getting reliable freezing bug in level 3. Then, in my next run, I was extra careful when crossing over between one side of the opened barrier to the other. Don't know if this is the thing that helped, but after that I managed to complete the game.
I like the crowding mechanics, though it can be tricky to execute attacks in the most efficient way (i.e. attacking from all sides available once the zombie is aware of the rats). Well, I was still successful enough to complete the game with 31 rats. The splitting and joining mechanic might open up some interesting possibilities, but in practice I found it's simpler to just go with one big crowd, and only used splitting when "press multiple buttons at once" puzzle required it.

The graphics and music are really cool, but most of these were made before the Jam, so no extra points for these.

Queen by Toque

I had to go through quite a literal poopstorm to earn that party.
Other than that, it's unmistakably a game by Toque; pixel art graphics, Jam references, specific sense of humour...

The gameplay was simple, but functional; one complaint would be how you have to press arrow buttons *after* the Queen stop shooting, or else the controls won't respond. Also, the peas being slightly off in relation to the queen made aiming slightly difficult at the start, but it's something one can learn over time so it's not much of a complaint.
Managed to complete the whole thing. Nice game overall.

Quickly! Dispensegifts by Allison James

Functionally, the gameplay is pretty simple, but the rotation controls make it more complex than it needs to be. I'd rather have a single button for switching direction, rather than one button to turn clockwise and other to turn anti-clockwise. Otherwise, there is a little bit variety to the enemies (especially those that fly freely around instead of just coming closer and closer), but not too much. I just wish I could outstretch the gift towards the guy in the bottom-left, so that he would shut up with his often very foul verbal abuse.

The graphics are very neat, and it's always nice to see a game that uses vector pictures rather than pixel art for its 2D graphics for a change. The music is fine, I guess?

Generally, nice and simple gameplay, but the rotation could be handled better and I'd much prefer if all that verbal abuse was left out. Life Party was more wholesome in that regard, especially since people who were given gifts were already dead anyway.

Roborazzi by Kultisti, Sulo

The game is too unforgiving. The battery goes down extra fast in the third room, yet when you restart you go back all the way to the beginning. Rather than increasing energy consumption (or at least that's what I think is happening), I'd rather increase difficulty in later levels by making the party busier (more people, more decorations) so that it's harder to spot the person/decoration player is looking for. Too bad, because otherwise it was pretty fun to spot different elements present at the party and making sneaky photos of them (even if it mostly meant mashing photo button 5+ times and keeping minimal social distance as soon as the target was found). The chat generally would be a nice additional as well, but with all this energy consumption and no way to stop the main character from moving wastefully I had to time to see what they're talking about at all.

The graphics are pretty great; I like the variety of characters and decorations there, and the overall colour scheme works pretty well. The music and sound effects complete the presentation nicely. It's a pretty cool and well-presented concept overall, but having to restart from the beginning combined with the overly difficult third room make it somewhat frustrating (especially since now I don't know if there's some properly rewarding ending or not).

Robot Surprise Party by samspade

That's some really cute premise, and nice gameplay mechanics to boot. It was pretty fun - if sometimes time-consuming (vide level 3) - to sneak on the birthday bot so as not to spoil the surprise. It would be nice if the trees behind which a surprise bot is hiding would be shown as semi-transparent; I had to do quite a robot-hunting after hiding some bots behind nearby trees. Also, in the last level some bugs started being noticeable, like weird pathfinding making the robot go completely off route, or ability to stack robots one on another and hide all together in the same bush. Also, it seems no matter whether I achieve complete surprise or not, I still get the party at the end - which is very fitting, because no matter whether there is complete surprise or not, there's a reason for the party - but kind of breaks the general "you need to actually win to progress" convention. ^^'

The audiovisuals are cute; especially the level winning music is pretty rad. Adorable entry overall, a little spoiled by tricky hiding behind trees and pathfinding problems (especially in the last level; just what is happening there?).

R-pg-ING by Micah_DS

Damn, things are really serious if Micah_DS doesn't have time to make music.
Otherwise it's a nice prototype, though hard to tell how well this idea would expand for a larger project. Would be nice if each level was designed in a way it could be completed with no losses, unlike the last level before congratulations screen. Maybe add some focused mode which halves the ring radius but doesn't allow player units to attack?
Also, make the player character white or black rather than desaturated bluish, so that it really stands out as the one with no colour.

The graphics are alright (if maybe there's not much of them). The audio is sadly missing. :<

Snake Dance by Greenblizzard

That's a pretty great concept and executed quite well, too; I enjoyed wiggling the snake into designed spots. Got Snake God on my second playthrough (thank goodness there were no more ranks, lest I would need to keep playing even more) and a Highscore of 213915. It's the kind of game where I would like to see online leaderboards, especially with how largely skill-based it is.

The graphics are minimalistic, but serve their purpose well enough; though it would be nice if there was some indication how the snake goes along or at least where its head is. The chill music is pretty fitting, though I feel it would be even better with something more upbeat and with snake "snapshots" being taken to the rhythm, making it feel even more like a dance (the increase of difficulty could be handled by gradually increasing pitch of the music, I guess). A fun concept executed well, overall.

Survival Party by HayManMarc

Good concept, and very in tune with the theme (as opposed to many other entries which focus on the "party" aspect and not as much the "one big" aspect).
I did pretty well - reaching as far as level 4 (which is apparently where the balancing breaks down?) - but that's also because I read ahead HayManMarc's post about how the Fun Factor mechanic works. Once you're made aware that you need to balance party favors vs party size, the gameplay is pretty straightforward, but still has some nice tactical aspect to it with the route you're taking.
I'd have preferred if the main character speed was faster, maybe having the timer shorter and party favours more frequent in exchange? As it is now, it often takes several seconds between deciding on the next destination and reaching it. Speaking of the timer, I'd have preferred a plain countdown rather than an analog clock, especially since it's not obvious what time is actually the deadline.

The audiovisuals are pretty nice and charming. Pretty fun entry, overall, though it might rely a bit much on mechanics that aren't explained in the game or readme (especially the slower depletion of party favours the higher the fun factor is).

Survive the Party by Nejc Podlipnik

A basic top-down fighter thing, involving some melee attacks, magic attacks and also dashing (the last one I didn't use, because I didn't know I can and it wasn't really needed).
After 3 waves I got the treasure chest that I could interact with repeatedly. It didn't matter much, though, because it seems the game doesn't progress past that (interacting with wizard didn't do anything). Could be fun to play more challenging waves of that.

The artstyle reminds me a lot of eddynadro games, especially with this knight and orc. There are some basic sound effects, but apparently no background music. Nice base for a top-down fighter overall, but lacks conclusion and variety for now.

The Annual GMC Party by O_stogden

Yay, Initial D Deja vu reference!
A nice, simple murder mystery game; I managed to be successful on each level on the first try. Also, the time loop plot was an interesting twist as well.
At the same time, I'm somewhat dissatisfied that there were no women there. No wonder EvanSki left the party...
Graphics are very GMC. Music is very Kevin MacLeod. But we all know the main appeal is the mystery plot, and that's done pretty nicely.

The Golden Balloon by Little Penguin Studios

Simple, nice, pleasant, very much complete.
Revealing the PARTY at the end with acorn cannon was nice.
Still, I'd like to see the actual party in question, even if it's just a bunch of spheres bouncing to the music from speakers. It would work especially well with the colour-lagging-behind-outline effect as seen in the game.

The golden balloon mechanic is nice, though very hard to be strategic about with coin collectibles never reappearing and carrying over to next levels. I feel the mechanic would feel more significant if in some levels there were enough coins for golden balloon (reappearing on restart), and the player had to use the golden balloon to pass through barrages of acorns.
As it is now, the mechanic is very much optional, to the point I completed the goldless% run of the game (never get a golden balloon, just barely staying at 11/12 coins).

The Matchmaker (HTML5 ONLY, OPEN FOLDER) by eimie

Too bad it's HTML5 only, but since you couldn't export to Windows, I understand. I just hope you'll figure out how to get the Windows export working for the next Jam...?
(are you perhaps using GM:S for Mac? That's the only reason I can think of why you could export to HTML5, but not to Windows)

Putting that aside, the game is actually pretty rad. I like mixing rhythmic movement with pushing people to meet their special someones, and the dancing moves of the main character fit perfectly. Neat little game overall, and the one I didn't mind playing again. Online scoreboard would make it even better.

The Party Must Go On by GVmG

I generally like the concept of collecting stuff from the shop, especially with this silly trolley drifting. However, the difficulty is really low at the beginning - to the point where I need to wait several seconds for the next request. Following that, it increases so slowly that after a while of uneventful shopping I just ended up failing the game on purpose with way above $1000 spent. Also, I didn't see my name on the phone list, either. :<

The audiovisuals are nice, I particularly like the trolley drifting effect. The music is fine, but a little silent on default settings. With all this drifting I'd have preferred the traditional Italian music that is Eurobeat.

Nice entry overall, but the difficulty progression is too slow for the game to be engaging.

The Retrieval by Dr Wolf

Sorry, couldn't figure out how to move things even with manual, and the game crashed after I progressed through several turns.

I'm pretty sure it's possible to cover the same gameplay mechanics using more approachable UI (tutorial would be the best, but also time-consuming). Maybe opting for 4-colour palette - black, white, cyan and magenta - could keep the retro feel of the game, while allowing more options to provide feedback (e.g. highlighting the UI/map elements the current action relates to). On closer inspection, I've also found there are tooltips appearing next to specific commands (in a similar way to basic browser/Windows tooltips), so that's nice.

Other than that, the graphics are neat and the cursor effect is nice. Maybe text could have disabled anti-aliasing (or a pixel font could be used instead), since right now it kinda stands out among the sharp black-or-white pixels. I quite like the music as well.

The Scattered Army by Sirham

The gameplay relies too much on trial-and-error knowledge, some of which I'm still not quite certain about. For example:
- does greater army contribute only health, or also a bit of attack or something?
- what are the conditions to remove the boulders in the mountain (it seems having sufficiently large army, but the game doesn't state it, and it takes some weird movement around to remove the boulder in the first place)
- apparently there's that bard character that randomly appears around the town or smithery and gives you the OP Songshirt of Healing (which is extremely useful to completing the game on Medium+ difficulty, yet relies on a random encounter)?
- what are the enemies stats, so that I won't get myself accidentally killed?
- what is the purpose of specific spells?
If the game provided this information, it would be easier to develop a strategy involving the order of actions (when to attack which monster and perform which quest). As it is know, there's lots of information that only developers knows upfront, and others need to figure out all these (often pretty obscure) secret.

Aside from that, the exploration felt somewhat clunky, especially the boulder moving part. I feel it would be nicer and more efficient if I could just point and click at specific locations/elements, instead of walking around. The graphics were pretty underwhelming, and music... I appreciate the attempt, but there are still ways to go; it would also be nice if there were different tracks for different situations (e.g. battle). It's still more fitting than "dawg the party animal", though.

Overall, a nice attempt at RPG-like entry, but it still has ways to go in terms of smoothness of mechanics and audiovisual polish.

The Way Back To The Party by Noodlehead

I don't mind text adventures, but this game mostly consists of navigating through the labyrinthine city and seemingly not many interactions aside from that. The previous Jam samspade made a similar text adventure "Distress Signal Found", but that at least didn't rely on commands like "North/West/East/South", but rather "go to sea/go to jungle" etc. which made the exploration so much less taxing compared to indistinct streets and alleys.
I think with descriptive area names like in Distress Signal Found and with varied illustrations similar to those in this game, it could make for a nice area exploration experience. Add to that variety of interactions involving ingame content, and we got some neat adventure game.
(though I personally prefer the point-and-click format)

Graphics are alright, though I wish there was some background to the bodyguard or some image of the casino at the end. No audio I could hear, unfortunately.

Wastoid Rodney by Cloaked Games, JosephEllis, BlakeNorth

Nice top-down shooter, with a good variety of enemies, obstacles and upgrades. I'm very aware I'm not speaking for everyone here, but navigating through the bullet hell and figuring out how to defeat specific enemies was quite enjoyable. One suggestion for the final battle: it would really help if there was some indication that a hostile robot/sheriff will spawn at a given point a little bit before that actually happens, so the player can get out of the way in time.

Other than that, the aesthetics are pretty great, with all these neon colours and such, and I enjoy the musicians designs as well. Music was rad. I liked these little and varied sound effects when dealing damage to the enemy. Would be nice to have a separate sound effect for when a bullet hits the purple barrier, so that I would realise when I'm hitting that off-screen. Well-made top-down shooter overall.

Wham Bam Dan Jam Slam by GameDevDan

Neat entry. The gameplay is pretty basic and not unlike many other "kick other people out of the ring" games, but still well-presented. I kept playing Jam Slam to get a perfect victory (no hearts lost), and eventually got one on a third try.

Other than that, the audiovisuals are always up to the game and seeing all these characters from previous Jam games sure is impressive. Maybe not as astonishing, though, considering Dan has a long history of both including GMC members and earlier entries cameos. Well done, overall.

Your Brain On Party by thijsmie

I reached wave 105 in the end, before losing on purpose with no apparent increase in difficulty.
The tutorial incorrectly highlighted energy bar as a source of hydration towers, and hydration meter as a source of energy fix. This led to lots of confusion for me at the start, since the energy didn't seem to do anything while hydration seemed to place towers, but I thought maybe these are repairing towers. Also, when the game is played again, I cannot place towers on locations where towers were before losing.

At first I thought going for mostly social towers was the way to go, especially since it's possible to vibe and socialise at the same time. However, with hydration being very quickly recovered and staying near energy drink, at later point I just switched between fully restoring vibing and energy, occasionally restoring hydration along the way. That way I didn't need to worry about staying social while not getting out of speakers range.

Alright graphics of the main game, though room navigation graphics are somewhat inconsistent. Music is cool. Nice tower defense and cool concept of mixing it with party activities, though it could use some balancing (and tutorial without swapped items).
 

Pixel-Team

Master of Pixel-Fu
...continued from previous post.

Jaguar Pogo Party by TotallyAverageGamez



This game has you riding a pogo stick with a jaguar costume on. (You mean there's other ways to ride a pogo stick?) Your job is to collect party items scatterred all over the map. I liked the graphics, sound, and controls in this game. I found it was quite easy to get around, and I was having a great time. On two separate occasions I got stuck in a corner and had to start over. One of them, the corner was above me, and the other time the corner was below me. Both were on level 1. I wish I could score this game higher, but I twice got halted and had to exit the game and restart.



Jam Defenders by Kepons



A Decent tower defense game. I loved the pixel art, and the sound effects. The mechanics were nicely done. No music, which is fine. Didn't follow the theme...



Jenka Dungeon by dosto, Reaktori, Riuku



I'm seeing a trend where gamemakers are making games where you gather party members to form One Big Party, and this is a great example. Jenka Dungeon is a top down dungeon themed action game where you control a party of unique characters with different offensive capabilities. You have to find the net in order to capture more party members, and you'll need it when you fight the boss, a totally awesome and terrifying character. This is an excellent game. Well executed. Great pixel art, great mechanics, and cool boss fight with the worm clown.





Keyboard Hero by tadashibashi



A DDR game but with letters. ALL THE LETTERS. Takes good typing skills to be good. Great chiptune music. Like the pixel art.



Life Party by Cat



This game has you delivering colored presents to the guests that are the same color. The play area is really cramped, and you can't help but collect stacks of presents of every color, and you can't help but collide with guests, even though you're carrying stacks of the wrong present color. This game is pretty basic. There's not a whole lot going on here. The graphics look ok, but not great.



matoset by Poizen



Poizen says this lacked a file that goes in app data. Need to download the game from itch.io, since the game would not create the appropriate directory in appdata. Need to download it from my laptop, since work computer quarantined his exe as unsafe.



Me pARRty by ghandpivot



This is one of several 3D entries this Jam. You have to sail around and keep your crew fed and keep the booty coming. While there wasn't a whole lot to this game, props for making it 3D, since Gamemaker Studio is mainly for making 2D games. However, I really enjoyed the humor this game had, particularly when it came to the descriptions of the crewmates, and the descriptive text when having to make the painful decision to eat people. I was in stitches reading some of these! I didn't like how the camera moved really hard, and wished it had a bit more easing to it. (Here I am complaining about a 3D game made with Gamemaker.) I wish it was a longer experience, too. Sometimes these Jams you never know how much you're going to get made until you can actually make the story in between. I really loved the writing on this, and hope ghandpivot takes it further.



Need For Beats by Matharoo, BlaineTanuki, _aeternumgames



A DDR Game that loses focus off the game when you hit the buttons. ARGH!



One Big Party by Gizmo199, shortbread



One big party is a party game featuring 4 minigames where you compete against other AI players. The games are Punch Func, which is a game where you knock other players off the platform in a last man standing setup. Then there's pushy pool, where you're on a pool table and have to dodge the pool balls which are randomly hit by a pool player. Then there is Chook Chase, (Great name, by the way.) where you have to chase chickens into your pen before the other players. Last there is Feud Court. (You know, like Food Court?) In this game, you have to catch the most food on your hat. This game is a testament to how good 3D you can make something in Gamemaker Studio. The graphics are bright and colorful, the music is upbeat, and the games are fun and easy to play. The game did crash after a game of pushy pool for me, however I was able to play several times before this happened. While this is not a perfect experience due to the crash, it's definitely in my top 5. Supurb effort here!





One Big Political Party by Terminator_Pony



This is a game about campaigning for president. You have to travel the country and persuade people to trust that you will move the country closer to how they want things to be in matters like Religion, Environment, Money, and Jobs. You can decide how truthful you want to be with them, but if you're not careful, they can catch you lying and you will lose trust. This is an interesting take on politics, and the game that all politicians play with people. It's hard to quantify what is effective in this game, because you have to travel all over, and may have a larger or smaller difference on how the people want things, and how they are. The graphics in this game are minimal. There is no sound or music. It's hard to tell if you are winning or losing, because you have such a difference from state to state. I think it would help the player if there was more a description on how the people should be influenced. Are you trying to bring the people down to reality? Are you trying to exceed their expectations? I think there's some good ideas here, and with a little more effort, there can be a great game. Good job.



Party Animal by TehPilot, TheFugue



Party Animal is a puzzle game where you're a ghost who has to capture a cat. The game introduces you to the main character and how to play in a short tutorial that plays out like an old black and white movie. I'm loving everything about this! Great roaring 20's style pixel art. Great sound effects. Amazing music track. Interesting game mechanics make each level more challenging. Supurb entry!





Party Animals by ScaryPotato, Kalzme



This is a party game featuring 7 mini games that can be played by between 2 and 4 players. The pixel art was great, The interface looked well put together, and the characters were cute and colorful. The music was nice too, (I think I heard this song in another game in this Jam, which is fine.) The gameplay was simple for the most part, just 1 key to do the games, and on Pump it Up, Little Zoomers, and Topsy Turvy, you have to mash the buttons to win. The most challenging game I think was Keyboard Colours, (I love your accent!) where you have several seconds to memorize the letters, and then only type the letters for your team's color. My favorite game was Speedballers, where you both have to jump over the cannonballs. The game crashed a couple times on Topsy Turvy when pressing the buton. I think this game fit the theme very well, being a party game. (Although I had to play it by myself, so I am judging from a position of someone who didn't actually get to compete with a live player.) I think aside from the crash, this is a very well put together game, and I can see players having a blast with it. If I were me, I would add an AI player for when people play alone, and also a way to remap the keys. If I'm only playing with a second player, I won't want our keys to be A and C. I'd want them to be A and the 0 key on the keypad. These are small gripes though. Well done!





Party Detective by Mercyssh



Party Detective has you as an undercover detective who has 3 minutes to solve a murder, while maintaining his cover as a maintenance man. (Who knew that maintenance men also served drinks?) Anyhow, this game did not give a whole lot of instruction, and so I was left to figure out on my own that I had to run into the maintenance room to equip the appropriate gear to either sweep up crumbs, serve a drink, or blow someone's ever-loving head off. There was no music, and not all games need to have it. The graphics were ok. I did like how your broom looked when you whipped it around. The game fit the theme, as it was set at a party. I think what it lacks is clearer instructions. I'm going to keep plugging away at it and see if I can find the killer.



Party Guardians by StarDreamIX



This is a game where you have to defend a cake. You get to pick one of two warriors. It locked up on level 3.



Party Mountain by AJTheApple



This game is a platform game where you have to jump and avoid spikes to make it up to the top of the mountain. It had great pixel art, great music, great controls, and the main character was well animated. There was a mechanic where if you jumped onto a little arrow, you got to do a second jump in mid air. That was introduced early on, and was required for much of the rest of the game. The theme was represented, but it kind of seemed like it was shoe-horned in, particularly after seeing the ending, which was anything but One Big Party. I also would have liked to see more variety in the hazards than just spikes, and I think this game shows tremendous promise. Great job!



Party Paddles by Fusai



A Paddle game where multiple people compete against each other. Good pixel art, good music, cool voice-over chick. Felt like a few cheap shots got by me and my range of movement was not sufficient to deflect the shots effectively, or target any of the other players.





Party Parade by Tristan



This is a game where you have to hit A and L when the A and L come in from the left and right sides of the screen and enter a box in the center. There's a parade going on in the background. There's not much to this game. The music starts over once its done. The penalty for missing a single letter is that your score starts over back to zero. The good news is that there's absolutely no penalty for hitting the button while no letters are inside the box, meaning you can button mash until you reach a million points and listen to the song about 75,836 times, which I did. :) There's graphics, music, and interaction, and it fit the theme. I wish there was more to it, but there wasn't.



Party Pooper by Lukan



As an avid pooper I was able to click through 59 targets. I know poop when I see it, apparently.





Party Puker by Ben Stitt



You have to make it to the door before you puke. Virtually no graphics except for some squares and a door. No sound. If you touch the red squares, you stop. I think you should aim a little higher for a Game Jam. This one should have gone into your tech demo folder. I applaud your ability to detect collisions though!



Plague Rats by Nocturne



Plague rats has you controlling a swarm of rats, moving from area to area, collecting more rats and attacking zombies. The controls are simple. Click where you want the rats to go. Use middle mouse to move the camera. This game has excellent presentation. The pixel art is spot on, and there are multiple chiptune tracks that play during the levels. I'm going to give this game some more play, but I got a fatal lock up on the level where it was time to leave the sewer. It was in an area that had two switches at the bottom of the area, and a lightning door at the top center. I can't give this game perfect score because of the fatal crash, but I REALLY WANT TO.



Queen by Toque



You get to play Queen Elisabeth throwing peas at pigeons who are trying to crap on you. Simple, yet challenging, (especially when you get to level 4). I like toque's pixel art style, and am beginning to recognize it with each jam. I also like how he puts himself in his games too. In this one, he drives up in a pigeon removal service truck. I thought I was going to play as Toque, but he kept on driving and made the Queen fix her own problems. The game fit the theme. It had good graphics. The gameplay was not particularly compelling, but it was still fun to watch, and to play, and that is everything in a game.



Quickly! Dispensegifts by Allison James



This game has you operating a circular machine with a present on the end of it, presumably to utterly destroy every man, woman and child with. in a bloody satisfying orgy of mass murder. At least, I assume that is the purpose of this game, otherwise why do these dumb šŸ’©šŸ’©šŸ’©šŸ’©s keep coming at me when they know I'm going to bludgeon them to death with a present if they do? This game stands out as one that does not care about things like fine sensibilities, and I like that in a game. A little harsh language, so definitely don't play it in front of the churrin'! I enjoyed the music, the graphics, and the endless insults thrown at you by the boss. Definitely a fun party game that you can play at a party. Great Job!



Roborazzi by Kultisti, Sulo



In this game you are a Roborazzi, you know, those lovable photographers who take pictures of celebrities when they're trying to go out in public? So you start out by picking one of two rooms, and given three subjects at a time to shoot photos of. You have to shoot 5 photos of each subject. When you clear a subject, a new one pops up in its place. Sometimes subjects are people, and sometimes they are works of art. As time goes by, your battery depletes. If you don't continuously take correct pictures (Without yourself in the picture), your battery will go out, ending the game. When you get enough subjects shot, you exit the room and do another. This game is very challenging because the Roborazzi can't sit still for a second. He's like Rodney Dangerfield. Constantly moving. I found a good strategy by leaning up against a wall while I took the photos. After a while though, I was taking them as I was walking. When you get to the third level, the battery drops very fast, so you need to get the pictures or you won't last. I finally completed the third room after several attempts. I really enjoyed this game. The pixel art was really good, as was the music. The game supports controller, which is always nice, although I did not find an advantage of playing with either a controller or keyboard and mouse. The game fit the theme somewhat, if you imagine that the pictures are being taken at one, although this is not stated in the game. Well Done!



Robot Surprise Party by samspade



This is a game where you have to get all the robots into the bushes to surprise the "Birthday Bot" without being spotted. The game has excellent pixel art and animation. The bots look great, as does the scenery. The gameplay is pretty straight forward. Click a bot, then right click where they need to go. When I failed the level, the messaging was somewhat confusing, because it said "Surprise!" as if I succeeded. So I thought I was winning when in fact I was losing. Another thing I noticed was that bots can hide right on top of one another, and when this happens, I can click on them and move them as if they were a single robot. I first thought that each robot needed his own bush to hide in, but this wasn't the case, and I could make them all hide in a single bush, it seemed. I think this is a great looking game, and an original concept. I think the rules need a bit of work, and you shouldn't be able to select and move 2 or more bots as one when clicking on them. I think if 2 bots were not allowed to occupy the same space it would eliminate this problem. Small complaints aside, this game looked, sounded, and played well, and definitely fit the theme. Great job!



R-pg-ING by Micah_DS



No sounds. Played to the end. Good concept, just didn't take it far enough.



Snake Dance by Greenblizzard



Snake Dance is a very fun (and addictive) puzzle game where you have to make the snake form the shape shown in the shadow before the piece that is casting that shadow lands on it. You get a bonus if you can pick up the square before you enter the shape. I love puzzle games, and this one is fun, has great music, and is simple (yet challenging) to play. I suppose the lighting effects constituted a party atmosphere, and in that sense it followed the theme...barely.



Survival Party by HayManMarc



In this game, you have to collect all the partygoers and get them to your house to start the party. Along the way you have to pick up soda, ice vream, cake, and balloons to keep the partygoers happy. If they aren't happy they could drop off your party and you have to pick them up again. I am enjoying this game a lot. The pixel art is pleasant, and the music is very catchy!! I like how it fit the theme well! I'm going to pick this one up again.



Survive the Party by Nejc Podlipnik



Didn't fit the theme. Good Pixel Art, Good Sound. Good Control scheme. No music. When I died, nothing happened and I had to force quit to get out.





The Annual GMC Party by O_stogden



Simplistic game design, but the dialog was funny. PLayed it through to the end.



The Golden Balloon by Little Penguin Studios



Nice physics based platformer. Charming. Played it through to the end. Music was soothing.



The Matchmaker (HTML5 ONLY, OPEN FOLDER) by eimie



This was a puzzle game where you had to push the dancers together according to their color. A unique element of the gameplay was that you had to make your moves according to the rhythm of the music. I absolutely loved the animation on the player. This was really fun to play. The main character's dance moves were pretty slick, and reminded me of how I dance. Totally awesome! This needs to be a downloadable Windows game like the rules say. How else can I put this in per personal favorites collection? :)



The Party Must Go On by GVmG



Ok graphics, ok presentation. Need to play more



The Retrieval by Dr Wolf



A Black and white space strategy game with very little instruction. need to get back to this.



The Scattered Army by Sirham



This game has you gathering forces to do battle with various enemies. First I went to the dome and freed a couple of guys, then I went to the village and picked up a couple more guys. Then I killed the dragon, and collected a couple more guys. Then it said to head to the pond, where I was decimated easily by what looked like an attractive female. There wasn't a whole lot of instruction with this one. I couldn't tell if clicking on my character during fights and selecting sword was making the slightest impact on my combat performance. The graphics were ok, and the music was somewhat repetitive, but I'm glad there was music. I think that the building up of the army was the part that fit the theme of One Big Party, so props for that. I think this game could use a bit more instruction, especially about the icons you see when you click the player. Also, the smithee says he could improve my weapons if I collect stuff from the mines, but I could not find any mines anywhere, nor could I find any rocks, at least none that let me click on them.



The Way Back To The Party by Noodlehead



The Way Back To The Party is a short game where you have choices to make until you find the way back to the party. (Wait. I already said that.) There's some graphics here, and you get presented with a view of your current surroundings with each move. There's a little tune in the background, which was very low volume. I don't think there was not a whole lot to this game other than picking the directions. On my first attempt, I found my way through the gate and ended the game without first entering the bar, or fighting the man. In order for the player to experience the game to its full potential, you should prevent the player from getting to the end without experiencing these events. I'm grateful this game had a beginning, middle and ending, had graphics and sound, and controls that worked. I would definitely shoot higher on the next effort.



Wastoid Rodney by Cloaked Games, JosephEllis, BlakeNorth



This game is a top down shooter. Wastoid Rodney gets the Keytar of all Space-Time and has to "play" his way through several levels of robots, collecting music upgrades along the way. The game has breat pixel art, and great music. The controls were simple, but I found one area that required that I sacrifice a heart to get through so I could get a key. At any rate, the game played great, and I had a good time. It fit the theme well. The last level is quite challenging, and turns into a bullet hell game. I played through Wastoid Rodney and got to see the end, and it was the Greatest Party of All Space Time! Great job!



Wham Bam Dan Jam Slam by GameDevDan



Wham Bam Dan Jam slam is a brawler game where it's last man standing. GameDevDan, who is known for making quality games, recreated all of his characters from previous jams and made them playable characters on this game. They each could shove, and also have a special attack. The controls were very easy, and the objective was to knock everyone off the platform. This game presents itself beautifully. Great pseudo-3D graphics, well presented Title screen and menus, good music, and fun gameplay. I can see how Dan made one big party out of all of his characters, and he did a beautiful job. This really is a solid game, and the only shortcoming of Dan's game is that there were even stronger entries, if that were possible. Another hit. Well done!





Your Brain On Party by thijsmie



This is a tower defense game taking place inside of your brain. Graphics were a little rough, but I could mostly understand what I was looking at, which is the important thing. What you need to do is keep your fluids all up, and you spend fluids on units you can place all over your brain to keep the bad thoughts from trying to get you to leave the party. This game quickly starts to test your mettle, as you are attempting to keep all your fluids topped off by controlling a little man at a party on the top left part of the screen, and also trying to pay attention to the little creepers moving across your brain. It looks like you can corral the bad thoughts by careful placement of units, and that helps, but when my red fluids run out, I tried everything from running up to the music to humping everyone's leg at the party and nothing helped get the levels to go up. I'm going to really have to sit down and get better at this one. As tower defense games go, this is very unique, and I can see potential here with an orignal concept. Nice job!
 

TehPilot

Member
Pilot's Votes

All games were played live on Twitch.

Stream 1.1
0:10:23 - Crimson Guild's Glamorous Guest List (@Mr Magnus)
0:29:11 - Hero Horde (@PinesOfChaos)
0:42:40 - Emmy and Sal (@Mercerenies)
1:15:25 - One Big Party (@Gizmo199, @shortbread)
1:27:35 - GMC Party Adventure (@Imagine Galaxy)
1:39:47 - Matoset (@Poizen)

Stream 1.2
0:00:00 - Matoset commentary (continued)
0:02:40 - GMC Fruit Salad Surfer (@Yal)
0:12:22 - City Scuttler (@Bearman_18)
0:23:30 - Escape of the Clowns (@kburkhart84)
0:51:14 - Party Pooper (@Lukan)
0:57:27 - Forty or the Modern Big Brother (@SoapSud39)
1:21:42 - Jaguar Pogo Party (@TotallyAverageGamez)
1:38:03 - Plague Rats (@Nocturne)
1:50:34 - Candle Wars (@Yozoraki)
2:15:39 - Fantasy Strategy Clicker (@Julien, @Hyomoto)
2:31:48 - Party Paddles (@Fusai)
2:36:44 - Extinction Tea Party (@Moon Goat)
2:41:26 - dawg the party animal (@NivesStudio)
2:48:04 - Party Puker (@Ben Stitt)
2:53:12 - 3 Mice In A Trenchcoat (@Bart, @Xor, @TheSnidr)
3:17:43 - The Party Must Go On (@GVmG)
3:33:19 - happy birthday (@Yal)

Stream 2
0:05:52 - Demon Dance (@Mightyjor, Twintertainment, @Brett-Bit)
0:21:03 - Color Splash (@EvanSki)
0:28:26 - Robot Surprise Party (@samspade)
0:40:36 - The Way Back To The Party (@NoodleHead)
0:53:32 - Greymoor Hall (@Ninety)
1:04:15 - Me pARRty (@ghandpivot)
1:09:58 - get to the party (@Wabb, @sequential)
1:17:21 - Gangs Bash (@D'Andrƫw Box)
1:32:24 - Barry Bear's Birthday (@Richerama)
1:42:11 - Adventures of Robot X (@Pixel-Team)
2:00:59 - One Big Political Party (@Terminator_Pony)
2:17:06 - Castle Meta (@The M)
2:35:03 - Candle (@Steelegms2)
2:40:40 - The Matchmaker (@eimie)
2:48:27 - Quickly! Dispensegifts (@NAL)
2:57:10 - Blackout (@Siolfor the Jackal)
3:05:39 - dumburk 9000 (@BretHudson, Allen Webster, Jared Cohen)
3:12:16 - Jenka Dungeon (@dosto, Reaktori, @Riuku)
3:23:52 - Party Animal (@TehPilot, TheFugue) - developer commentary!
3:42:26 - Roborazzi (@Sulo, @Kultisti)
4:00:36 - Florida Man (@BreakfastBoy)
4:05:46 - Party Mountain (@AJTheApple)
4:12:34 - Wham Bam Dan Jam Slam (@GameDevDan)
4:19:41 - Crazy Waiter (@Gatefiz, JP, Claire Dujardin, Benfik)

Stream 3
0:08:03 - The Annual GMC Party (@O.Stogden)
0:29:46 - R-pg-ING (@Micah_DS)
0:36:23 - HealthBar (@Fanatrick)
0:44:23 - Snake Dance (@Greenblizzard)
0:54:46 - Fiesta Fist (Cristobal, @MatthewPattel)
1:06:02 - Party Animals (@ScaryPotato, @kalzme)
1:19:11 - Keyboard Hero (@tadashibashi)
1:27:56 - The Scattered Army (@Sirham)
1:51:18 - Fiesta Down (@VinylFly)
1:58:36 - Candles Have Feelings (@JordanOttesen)
2:15:37 - Goin' All Nite (@dadio)
2:19:28 - The Retrieval (@Dr. Wolf)
2:33:10 - Dr Smiley's Brain Jam Party (@Yal)
2:51:50 - Survive The Party (@Nejc Podlipnik)
2:57:28 - Behemoth (@sp202)
3:06:49 - The Golden Balloon (Little Penguin Studios)
3:14:12 - Queen (@Toque)
3:26:21 - Christmas with Uncle Tom (@BluishGreenPro)
3:37:55 - Party Guardians (@StarDreamIX)
3:45:12 - Need For Beats (@matharoo, BlaineTanuki, _aeternumgames)
3:53:44 - Party Parade (@Tristan)
4:02:44 - Survival Party (@HayManMarc)
4:16:45 - Hero Huddle (@ThinGinger)
4:24:56 - Crimson Festival (@Alice)

Stream 4
0:08:25 - Apocalypse Party (@aspiringgamemaker)
0:24:00 - Party Detective (@Mercyssh)
0:36:17 - Life Party (@Cat)
0:40:15 - Your Brain On Party (@thijsmie)
0:55:28 - Final Battle (@Kahrabaa)
1:08:52 - Jam Defenders (@Kepons)
1:22:50 - Wastoid Rodney (@Cloaked Games, @JosephEllis, @BlakeNorth)
1:59:48 - Super Mario Sunshine (Nintendo, 2002)

1. Crimson Festival
2. Emmy and Sal
3. Final Battle

Best use of Theme: Crimson Festival
Best Concept: Greymoor Hall
Best Presentation: Adventures of Robot X
Best Story: Wastoid Rodney
Best Devlog: 3 Mice In A Trenchcoat

1. Crimson Festival
2. Emmy And Sal
3. Final Battle
4. Roborazzi
5. Greymoor Hall
6. The Party Must Go On
7. Adventures of Robot X
8. One Big Party
9. Wham Bam Dan Jam Slam
10. Keyboard Hero
11. Dr Smiley's Brain Jam Party
12. Jenka Dungeon
13. Plague Rats
14. Crimson Guild's Glamorous Guest List
15. Escape of the Clowns
16. Candle Wars
17. Quickly! Dispensegifts
18. Gangs Bash
19. Forty or the Modern Big Brother
20. Christmas with Uncle Tom
21. Survival Party
22. Wastoid Rodney
23. Jam Defenders
24. Behemoth
25. Party Mountain
26. The Golden Balloon
27. Fiesta Down
28. Demon Dance
29. GMC Fruit Salad Surfer
30. 3 Mice In A Trenchcoat

Emmy And Sal
An excellent puzzle game entry. The progression of puzzles in the game felt very natural to me, albeit here and there I felt the difficulty didn't progress linearly (partially because it would ease up when introducing new mechanics, which is fine; partially because I felt some of the later puzzles were easier than the mid-game puzzles). I didn't find the story or presentation to be anything special, but it worked very well to frame the mechanics and aid the sense of progression in the game. Everything tied together exceptionally well and made it one of the most memorable and enjoyable experiences - and it ended up being one of the games I played the longest - kudos to that.

Crimson Festival
Truly unique amongst entries to this game jam. I think the visual novel aspect of it on its own is less exciting than the other VN entries, but the meta aspect gives it a completely different flavor and made running into it towards end of the playthroughs a great experience. Clever in context of the game jam, and very happy I had the opportunity to get my entry included within it!

Roborazzi
It took me a hot minute to get the grasp on this game, but once I had the direction down I had a blast. I think the framing on this game helps a lot too - the faux chat on the side adds something to the experience, and the limited color pallete and overall art direction is distinct. I found the third room to be a bit of a punishing difficulty spike - and sometimes felt I had automatically lost when I didn't head the right way to find the target having not committed the target's location to memory earlier - so I didn't actually finish the game. I liked the concept and the framing otherwise.

Greymoor Hall
A great little murder-mystery experience with good presentation. I wish there was a little more to the experience, but getting through and solving my first mystery was an appropriately-sized experience and took just the right length of time to feel good. The randomized aspect of it made going back and trying again to identify the artifact worthwhile (even though I completely bungled the kill the second time around...). Technically impressive and admirable for a game jam entry. Great work and I think with some tweaks and extensions this has potential.

The Party Must Go On
The fastest way to win me over with a game is to make me laugh, and this game succeeded in that regard. Taking any mundane task or scenario and making it over-the-top is a trope that resonates very well with me, and I spent more time than I would want to admit slamming my shopping cart against the walls and picking up items. The text messages coming from entrants brought me great joy when I got one with my name on it. I do wish there was a little more of a game to it - I only hit a loss condition when I deliberately stopped playing to let requests fall through and it felt very slow to resolve even a solid ~20 minutes into the game. Outside of that gripe I was immensely entertained.

One Big Party
Killer presentation. Something about the polygonal, simplistic presentation modeled after modern UI like the Switch's interface strikes a chord with me. The individual minigames looked great and show great work put into kitbashing basic elements together. The minigames were a bit simple and I didn't find the games themselves that engaging - the chicken coop one stood out as less enjoyable (partially because of known performance issue quirks with my own machine) - but I think it's a good base for a multiplayer game with a handful of tweaks.

Adventures of Robot X
A very good complete package of a game. Gameplay, audio, visual direction, all consistent with one another and very well done (and especially impressive for a single person team). Really nailed the Mega Man X aesthetic and feel, and the attention to detail (player name on the menus/title cards, dialogue details) pull it together well. I personally wish the game handled a little tighter at times - the platforming felt a bit too floaty to me - but the game feel is in the right place regardless.

Keyboard Hero
- The best rhythm game in the jam, with respect to rhythm game mechanics. Good timing, good scoring mechanism, the use of FMOD for the audio elevates it significantly - wish I was more familiar with touch typing and the letter combinations used specifically so I could score higher than an F, though... The clean aesthetic does this game wonders and doesn't get in the way of the subtleties put into making the actual rhythm experience. Commendable work and a great go-to example for anyone looking to try a rhythm game of their own.

Wham Bam Dam Jam Slam
Putting together any sort of multi-character game like this is commendable in the timeframe of a Jam. The overall aesthetic of this game was superb too. I didn't find the gameplay itself that engaging, though. The "knock your opponent out of the ring" approach is pretty standard fare and over the course of a longer game it drags on and becomes boring without some other source of pressure or advancement (it only lasts a few seconds as a Mario Party minigame and for a good reason). The individual abilities of each character were a great addition, and I think the one-vs-all elimination mode was the best approach to the game. I commend what was presented here, just the game itself didn't do much for me past playing a single round to see what it entails.

Dr Smiley's Brain Jam Party
Having gotten into various puzzle games due to an interest in their competitive scenes, I had a blast working out the mix of mechanics and ways to work with all of them on a single game board. Ultimately I think this game is best optimized for sticking to a single strategy and following that where possible - and unlike the games this derives from, the variance and complexity of each of the individual pieces makes it a little harder to deliberately set up and strategize like you can in Tetris, Puyo Puyo, etc - and I think the complexity does more harm than good. That aside, it's a great idea with great presentation behind it, and I support this one the most out of all your three entries.

Final Battle
Sick concept. My favorite of the RTS-style games in this game jam (or at least my favorite of the games that have you controlling some swarm of units at a time). It was awesome at first to have to avoid the encroaching army when its waves came through, and to pick and choose weaker targets to build up my army to tackle tougher foes and waves of unrecruitable enemies. I was a little disappointed when the progression capped out and my 100-strong army sort of just rolled through every obstacle without issue without any defined end. Great concept and the emergent gameplay towards the start made it very memorable.

Plague Rats
A great little experience. I admire the game's simplicity for an RTS-like (at least that's how I categorize anything in the "control a lot of units at once" category!) and the concept fits the gameplay very well. I wish it handled a little differently as noted in my playthrough, and perhaps the perspective could be a little different (it wasn't immediately clear to me that the lowest part of some of the laboratory rooms were traversible due to the wall blocking the view, but the see-through shadow helped navigating there at least). With a few tweaks this would be outstanding - and I would've loved to see some of the intended elements such as the boss battle given the theme.

Crimson Guild's Glamorous Guest List
Once I got a grasp on the game and what the different colors / patterns / clothing types looked like this was a fun search game. I can tell there was a good deal of love put into bringing this concept to life. The various accessibility options and assist tools are a welcome addition to the game. I think my one minor gripe is that the fade-out to help with identifying valid targets should've been made more explicit or indicated somewhere (or maybe I just didn't read the help or documentation enough...) as I first thought it was a draw-alpha issue, haha.

Escape of the Clowns
I enjoyed the funny box-dropping game a little more than I ought to have, in all honesty. Something about comedy violence really amuses me. I also think the sort of early-2000s 3D sprite style (as a friend called in during my stream) with the particular clown model actually put the game into a kind of entertaining, unsettling aesthetic. The actual gameplay itself was a solid concept; I wish it was a little more deterministic with the boxes that spawn and that the drop logic was telegraphed a little better (I figured it out, but it took several levels to manipulate it to my liking fully). I stopped short of the end as I was messing up a number of tight jumps - made a little harder by the fact I could be visually completely off the top of a block/box and still be considered on it. With some visual adjustments this would be really good on its own - but I believe you already know what to do to get this game to the next level. Good work.

Jenka Dungeon
Loved the way this game looked, loved the idea it was going for. The combination of locked grid movement and real-time attacks felt off to me, personally - and I found it very hard to deliberately line up or time attacks with that in play. The final boss being a matter of rushing towards it and standing on top of it without much other challenge was a bit of a letdown - first time I defeated it, it felt accidental. Definitely had some good fun making my way to the clown worm-looking boss and trying to take it out with my scuffed, rushed party on later attempts. Good work.

Quickly! Dispensegifts
I don't know what I expected, but I'm happy with what I got in the end. Strikes the right balance between a simple, consistent set of mechanics and enough disorientation to make it challenging and worth pursuing a high score. Some others have commented on the profanity in the game - it adds something initially but I think it got a little intense and detracting with some of the later quotes. Can't blame the character for getting that heated, though...

Gangs Bash
A great little collection of minigames with one of my favorite aesthetics applied over it. I was a little disappointed in the lack of direction or instructions, but found that the minigames themselves were intuitive enough I figured them out quickly enough on my own to win every round (except for the first racing game, which I think handled the least well of all the games). Having the game be self-explanatory to the point it's playable without expressed instruction is great - not many games nail that aspect. The continuation of games after the last map marker without end felt hanging and incomplete. Were this pulled together in a more structured format this would be a top game to me for sure.

Candle Wars
Aesthetically I love this game, and I think the framing behind it is good and creative. From the gameplay perspective, I played this for a while, but felt ultimately a little burned out on it. It took me a while to acclimate to the game flow and controls and I found it slow to pick up in pace overall. I feel like some of the subtleties of the game were lost on me when I simply split my party into a mass of cupcakes and cookies, ran over the majority of my opponents, and stumbled into the final boss relatively early. I throw a number of my resources after catching on to the character-focus implications of that fight and lost a lot of units very quickly. At that point, seeing I would be grinding in the same manner, I put the game down. I admire the graphical work and how well the systems work together, but I found the gameplay itself less interesting than some of the other RTS-style games in the Jam.

Forty
A great visual novel-esque experience. I initially received this game very warmly for how well it tells a 1984-esque story with a GMC-themed flair to it. The gameplay segments of the VN fit well with the story. In hindsight, I feel the story is a little too analogous to 1984 proper to be interesting past a single playthrough. The other star aspect of this game is its meta component, which was well executed and rather clever. Ultimately it was a very impressionable game on first play, especially with the meta component and experiencing the story for the first time.

Christmas with Uncle Tom
I loved the translation of a family experience into a game here, and I can tell a lot of care went into conveying the story which was told. Uncle Tom's sense of humor is certainly relatable to me personally and I found the moment entertaining as an outside observer. While normally I don't give high marks to games that tend to be more cutscene-oriented or less interactive / game-y on the whole, but considering how well this resonated with me I'm happy to include it here in my top 30.

Survival Party
It took me a hot minute to figure out the gameplay (this is what I got for not looking at the readme this time...) but once I got going I was able to appreciate the strategy needed to advance in this game. It was admittedly a difficult balancing game between rounding up people and gathering resources to offset the expense of maintaining a large enough party. For the different interlocking systems of the game I feel it was balanced reasonably well (if tuned to be a little hard) - the disappearance of party materials from the playing field was my only gripe (especially if something vanished after I committed to moving towards it). All that aside, a solid experience.

Wastoid Rodney
I wanted to like this game a lot more than I do - it has a killer aesthetic (80s and synthwave-esque visuals? Sign me up!), a great plotline, and serious mechanical potential. However, I found in my playthrough the game was frustrating for the wrong reasons - the camera movement combined with mouse aiming gave me difficulty in properly lining up my shots, getting hit was a significant punishment (losing powerups), and the combination of camera, movement, and lack of invulnerability on the dash made me stumble into damage or death a lot of times. I also felt the levels were too long and ramped up too much in pattern difficulty too soon. These factors lead me to get frustrated and stop playing early. I acknowledge this is a very good game jam entry and one with seriously strong potential, but I found it very hard to enjoy personally.

Jam Defenders
A good tower defense-like. I like the simple and clean visuals, and I found the automatic structures for placing units very useful. I learned that the eighth level is the last one before the game repeats endlessly and I only made it to the seventh level - partially because my button-pressing habits might've made me close the game unintentionally a few times... but otherwise I feel I played and saw enough of the experience to be satisfied. I would personally remap some of the controls (right click to confirm feels weird outside of like, League of Legends and Blender), but this was good overall.

Behemoth
Not a lot to say from my end - for a multiplayer-adjacent game, this was fun. Enough people had played before me that I was able to survive in my experience. I think its relative simplicity and only-play-once guideline make it not terribly interesting past the first run - although for its gimmick that worked well. This is also one of the few games where theme influence felt a little weaker. An interesting niche nonetheless.

Party Mountain
One of the better-feeling platformers in the game jam. The movement and weight of the character felt the most on point in this entry to me. The game's environments look good, too. I can feel a decent bit of Celeste influence on this one. As noted in my playthrough it was a bit tight and unforgiving on some of the jumps; a few additional quality-of-life platforming tricks would've elevated this experience quite a bit. Outside of that it was relatively short and simplistic; platformers lend themselves to longer and more complex/challenging experiences so right as I was getting warmed up it ended. Would love to play a longer game with the same feel as this one.

The Golden Balloon
I liked the visual style of this game a lot, and felt like it was a well done platforming experience. Keeping the balloon out of the way of the projectiles turned out to be an enjoyable mechanical focus, and routing to pick up collectibles for temporary invulnerability ended up being more interesting than I expected. The experience was good and well put together, but ultimately as far as platformers go I found this one less distinct than a number of the other entries in the game jam. I think a little longer length or more obstacles / acorn trajectories would go a long way in making this game stand out further.

Fiesta Down
Very satisfying to make it to the end and get my slice of cake. Having my choice of movement option was a nice touch and I played through twice to experience each mole's ability. I was a little disappointed to see the game was just the single level itself, but I had fun with it regardless.

Demon Dance
A solid rhythm game. I really liked the way the game looked, and I certainly dig designing it after Dance Dance Revolution - an all-time favorite rhythm game series of mine. I think this held up better than the other rhythm games not listed in my top 30, but ultimately I found some of my problems with it hard to overlook. The change in arrow position from DDR and the timing window being as large as it is (allowing me to hit two notes at separate times at the same time...) are my two gripes with the game's design. Overlooking that, the sight of the different team-color silhouettes absolutely jamming out was great - and the tunes themselves were enjoyable. That's what matters in a music-based game after all, right?

GMC Fruit Salad Surfer
A fun endless score game for the first few runs. The different character and equipment unlocks introduced some good variety, but only being able to equip a single powerup at a time holds this game back a decent degree, I feel. It's understandable if the balance of the game would get thrown off by that change, but I feel like working towards going whole-hog and having a set of abilities and powers to work with would be fun for score attack. Absolutely love the way the game looks - just a little disappointed it was a relatively standard arcade-fare game and not something wackier (Dr. Smiley's) or more abstract (happy birthday).

3 Mice In A Trenchcoat
I admire the technicality of this entry, but I have to admit I was really let down by the gameplay in the end. It didn't feel stealthy like I would've expected with the premise, most threats were readily circumvented or ignored (I don't think trapdoors actually posed much danger once I realized I could bolt over them), and the trenchcoat came too late to be interesting in my opinion. A single death resetting the game also stung, especially with my several attempts to take the crown ending in increasingly shameful ways (like standing still next to the broken-pathfinding king only for him to right course and grab me suddenly, sending myself down the trapdoor with the king, etc.) - and my successful run felt like an accident rather than an intentional success. Killer modeling work, and certainly one hell of an experience from start to finish - but the gameplay left a lot to be desired.
 
Last edited:

Dr. Wolf

Member
Reviews

Wow, lots of entries this time! It was neat to see the variety of different interpretations that people found for the theme, though, in some cases, the connection seems to have escaped me. Anyway, by necessity, these reviews are rather short, but hopefully useful nonetheless.

Top 3:

Party Animal by TehPilot, TheFugue
Cute little puzzle game! The possession mechanic is a bit exploitable, since you can catch the cat directly on unpossession (I got through the door level without using the door that way), but overall, the setup makes for some interesting puzzles. Creative use of the theme, too, and the silent-movie aesthetic was pretty neat. I played this one all the way through.

Emmy And Sal by Mercerenies
Nice! Solid puzzle mechanics, consistent style, lots of content with a good difficulty curve, and some entertaining plot interludes. Played this one through to completion. Well done!

Hero Huddle by ThinGinger
Cool concept! Nicely calibrated difficulty, too; I managed to beat the boss, but it took me a few tries to get the technique down. I thought this was a very creative take on the jam theme.

Best ofs:

Best use of : Plague Rats by Nocturne
Best Concept: GreymoorHall by Ninety
Best Presentation: Christmas with Uncle Tom by BluishGreenPro
Best Story: Emmy And Sal by Mercerenies

Full ranking:

  1. Party Animal by TehPilot, TheFugue
  2. Emmy And Sal by Mercerenies
  3. Hero Huddle by ThinGinger
  4. GreymoorHall by Ninety
  5. Fantasy Strategy Clicker by Julien, Hyomoto
  6. Survival Party by HayManMarc
  7. Christmas with Uncle Tom by BluishGreenPro
  8. Plague Rats by Nocturne
  9. happy birthday by Yal
  10. One Big Political Party by Terminator_Pony
  11. Hero Horde by PinesOfChaos
  12. Crimson Festival by Alice, FunkyPoop
  13. Roborazzi by Kultisti, Sulo
  14. 3 Mice In A Trenchcoat by Bart, TheSnidr, Xor, Naterboy
  15. City Scuttler by Bearman_18
  16. GMC Fruit Salad Surfer by Yal
  17. Quickly! Dispensegifts by Allison James
  18. Demon Dance by Mightyjor, Twintertainment, Brett-Bit
  19. Robot Surprise Party by samspade
  20. Forty or the Modern Big Brother by SoapSud39
  21. Party Mountain by AJTheApple
  22. Final Battle by Kahrabaa
  23. Snake Dance by Greenblizzard
  24. Extinction Tea Party by Moon Goat
  25. Jaguar Pogo Party by TotallyAverageGamez
  26. Survive the Party by Nejc Podlipnik
  27. Fiesta Down by VinylFly
  28. The Party Must Go On by GVmG
  29. Candle by Steelegms2
  30. Jenka Dungeon by dosto, Reaktori, Riuku
  31. The Annual GMC Party by O_stogden
  32. Dr Smiley's Brain Jam Party by Yal
  33. get to the party by Wabb, sequential
  34. The Golden Balloon by Little Penguin Studios
  35. Crimson Guild's Glamorous Guest List by Mr Magnus
  36. Keyboard Hero by tadashibashi
  37. Blackout by Siolfor the Jackal
  38. R-pg-ING by Micah_DS
  39. Wastoid Rodney by Cloaked Games, JosephEllis, BlakeNorth
  40. Candle Wars by Yozoraki
  41. Party Paddles by Fusai
  42. Jam Defenders by Kepons
  43. One Big Party by Gizmo199, shortbread
  44. Queen by Toque
  45. Party Guardians by StarDreamIX
  46. dawg the party animal by NivesStudio
  47. Your Brain On Party by thijsmie
  48. HealthBar by Fanatrick
  49. Party Detective by Mercyssh
  50. Wham Bam Dan Jam Slam by GameDevDan
  51. Escape of the Clowns by kburkhart84
  52. Me pARRty by ghandpivot
  53. Apocalypse party by aspiringgamemaker
  54. GMC Party Adventure by Imagine Galaxy
  55. Candles Have Feelings by JordanOttesen
  56. Castle Meta by The M
  57. Adventures Of Robot X by Pixel-Team
  58. Need For Beats by Matharoo, BlaineTanuki, _aeternumgames
  59. Behemoth by sp202
  60. The Way Back To The Party by Noodlehead
  61. The Scattered Army by Sirham
  62. The Matchmaker (HTML5 ONLY, OPEN FOLDER) by eimie
  63. Gangs Bash by D'Andrew Box
  64. dumburk 9000 by Bret Hudson, Allen Webster, Jared Cohen
  65. Florida Man by BreakfastBoy
  66. Party Puker by Ben Stitt
  67. Party Pooper by Lukan
  68. Party Parade by Tristan
  69. Crazy Waiter by Gatefiz, JP, Claire Dujardin, Benfik
  70. Barry Bear's Birthday by Richerama
  71. Color Splash by EvanSki
  72. Party Animals by ScaryPotato, Kalzme
  73. Goin' All Nite by Dadio
  74. Fiesta Fist by Cristobal, MatthewPattel
  75. Life Party by Cat
  76. matoset by Poizen

Comments:

3 Mice In A Trenchcoat by Bart, TheSnidr, Xor, Naterboy

Always impressive to see a 3D game for a GM game jam, especially one that's actually fleshed out with gameplay and content! Really gives you the whole "mouse" feeling, too, with the claustrophobic camera angles and constant threats. I wish you didn't have to restart from the very beginning every time you died, though.

Adventures Of Robot X by Pixel-Team

Seems like a pretty standard shooty-platformer. Not really my sort of thing. I got as far as the bit with the spikes before getting stuck.

Apocalypse party by aspiringgamemaker

Not bad. I did notice ammo drops spawning inside the walls, and the invisible walls over the spawns felt like unfair ammo-wasters. Pretty simple, but playable.

Barry Bear's Birthday by Richerama

Obnoxious sounds, and I keep losing despite pressing the right key for the balloon that's passing by. Maybe there's some kind of timing mechanic, but if so, it's not something I'd be interested in learning.

Behemoth by sp202

Not sure what was going on with this one. It said something about "fallen allies", but I never saw any hints or anything, and eventually wound up brute-forcing it.

Blackout by Siolfor the Jackal

A bit pointless. I liked talking to the party rat and then killing it anyway, though. Wish the hit radii for interactions were bigger.

Candle by Steelegms2

A neat little game, but I wish there were some progression: powerups, different enemy (candle?) varieties, a score counter, Some music and terrain variety would be nice, too. The fire-throwing mechanic felt unnecessarily awkward due to the vague movement controls. Still, it's at least reasonably playable; I got some enjoyment out of the few minutes I gave this game.

Candle Wars by Yozoraki

There's a lot going on here! Unfortunately, it's all a little bit awkward, given the need to constantly reselect your units after they do anything. I got to the fight against the cake in the castle, and couldn't work out how to make the ambush happen, regardless of whether I brought the two characters through the same door or different doors.

Candles Have Feelings by JordanOttesen

No, I don't think that they do. Anyway, I guess this was alright. I didn't like that you can't see where you are or where you're going a lot of the time unless you intentionally back off and sacrifice some distance.

Castle Meta by The M

Don't think the meta aspect was working for me, since I didn't find anything that looked like it was left over from another player. Pretty standard platformer stuff without that; I fell into spikes and died a lot.

Christmas with Uncle Tom by BluishGreenPro

Well, this was adorable! Not much gameplay, just the holidays, as they seemed back when you were too young to pick up on all the undercurrents of bitterness and resentment flying around the room. Overall a pleasant experience, and doesn't overstay its welcome.

City Scuttler by Bearman_18

I like the growth mechanic and the oldschool roguelike control scheme! Unfortunately, it crashed after a while with an array out of range exception.

Color Splash by EvanSki

It's too bad this one (as far as I can tell) won't pass the main menu; would have been nice to see what it's all about.

Crazy Waiter by Gatefiz, JP, Claire Dujardin, Benfik

Feels like, not only am I fighting against awkward controls, but the game doesn't necessarily even give me a chance; sometimes there's just a whole bunch of people blocking the way between me and the person who needs food. Sorry, but I don't really see the point of this one.

Crimson Festival by Alice, FunkyPoop

It was nice to see all kinds of stuff from other games turn up!

Crimson Guild's Glamorous Guest List by Mr Magnus

Very on-theme! Hurts my eyes a bit after a while, though.

dawg the party animal by NivesStudio

Not much of a fan of the background music. I think this would have been better with more focus on a single form of gameplay, instead of distributing time over so many unpolished minigames.

Demon Dance by Mightyjor, Twintertainment, Brett-Bit

Seems decently-executed, I guess. I'm not sure how "bonus" works; sometimes it goes up when I hit something, other times it goes down. Also, I found it disorienting that the layout of the controls on the screen didn't match their physical layout; perhaps choosing different keys would help?

Dr Smiley's Brain Jam Party by Yal

Nicely done! I'm not 100% sure on some of the specific rules for what does or doesn't count as a match, but you've definitely got something playable here.

dumburk 9000 by Bret Hudson, Allen Webster, Jared Cohen

Seems rather pointless, sorry. Perhaps the missing content was meant to flesh out the gameplay?

Emmy And Sal by Mercerenies

Nice! Solid puzzle mechanics, consistent style, lots of content with a good difficulty curve, and some entertaining plot interludes. Played this one through to completion. Well done!

Escape of the Clowns by kburkhart84

I don't hate the basic idea of this game, but the execution kept me from enjoying it very much. Text is hard to read due to the color palette, and the jumping feels very un-fluid, which in turn makes spikes very frustrating. Adding to the frustration is the fact that the general pace of the game is slow, but getting impatient will get you killed very quickly, whether from walking a bit too far when trying to hang over the edge, not backing off enough from a falling box, or being too quick to move over to the "hurry up" button. Also, the window was too big for my screen, causing the bottom of the game to be cut off.

Extinction Tea Party by Moon Goat

It took me several tries, but I finally managed


to survive for over 30 seconds! I did get a few crashes where it couldn't find obj_cake, but oh well-- with such a short gameplay time, it's not the biggest deal. Actually rather entertaining, though I'm not sure I'd play more of it. Could really use some sound.

Fantasy Strategy Clicker by Julien, Hyomoto

Pretty neat! I like the atmosphere built up by the music, the ever-present "threat", and the possibility of starvation.

Though...I know it's a "clicker" but, given the mood of the game, I can't help but feel like it might be better if it weren't just an idle game, but if, instead, the threat would actually attack after a while. Naturally, this would require a lot more balancing, but, properly calibrated, I think putting out a strong army efficiently enough to stay alive could be an interesting challenge. Nonetheless, I stayed with this game until the threats started to involve over a thousand troops.

Fiesta Down by VinylFly

Cute, but something about the pacing of it leaves me feeling like I don't have a whole lot of control.

Fiesta Fist by Cristobal, MatthewPattel

Took me a while to find a way through the main menu. Then I was taken to a room with an empty road, and then on to what appeared to be a win screen about attending a party. Not sure what's mean tto be going on here.

Final Battle by Kahrabaa

Pretty neat idea. Is there meant to be an endgame, though? Eventually I got to the point where I was travelling down the middle of the road with a maxed-out party and thousands of coins, and it didn't seem like anything else was going to change.

Florida Man by BreakfastBoy

Tiny and very difficult. If there's something particularly original here, I didn't feel compelled to stick around long enough to find it, sorry.

Forty or the Modern Big Brother by SoapSud39

Hah! Neat use of system functions. Though, I did hit a bug once and get stuck.

Gangs Bash by D'Andrew Box

Seems very random. Not sure what this has to do with the theme.

get to the party by Wabb, sequential

This has the makings of a neat little puzzle game, though it could use more content and polish. The control scheme took me a bit to get used to, specifically 1) that everything you can do applies to people, not the terrain, and 2) that you can only switch tools with the hotkeys and not by clicking on the buttons.

GMC Fruit Salad Surfer by Yal

The CRT effect is really a bit much-- makes the game hard to look at. Perhaps tone it down a bit? Otherwise this is a fairly entertaining if simple game.

GMC Party Adventure by Imagine Galaxy

Was the stickiness mechanic originally an intended part of the game's design? It's different, but has the side effect of making ordinary movement feel very awkward. I got as far as the "troll base" level before the fun-to-frustration ratio became unfavorable.

Goin' All Nite by Dadio

Please no.

GreymoorHall by Ninety

I liked this one! It was interesting to try and work out who'd make a good alternative suspect to pin the murder on. Would be neat to see a more developed version of this game with deeper conversations, perhaps requiring some deduction to work out which guest best fits the profile of a good suspect. As it is, it becomes trivial once you know what to look for.

happy birthday by Yal

What a strange, moody game...I kind of like it. Especially after playing too many entries about noisy parties.

HealthBar by Fanatrick

Alright, I guess. Having to look all the way to one side to see what I'm making, and then all the way to the other side to see what was wanted, with a bunch of movement in between, was very disorienting. There was also an awful lot of having to stop and stare closely at the screen, while under time pressure, to see how full something was or whether it was exactly one color or actually a nearby mixture, e.g. red vs orange. Seemed very difficult to get ahead given the slow fill speed, too.

Hero Horde by PinesOfChaos

I like the idea, but the execution could use some cleaning up, especially the difficulty of selecting enemies. A lot of the time, my people would just wind up sitting there because apparently I didn't click in exactly the right spot...

Hero Huddle by ThinGinger

Cool concept! Nicely calibrated difficulty, too; I managed to beat the boss, but it took me a few tries to get the technique down. I thought this was a very creative take on the jam theme.

Jaguar Pogo Party by TotallyAverageGamez

As someone who's not terribly big on platformers, I found this one more frustrating than fun, though it was neat to see "one big party" somehow translate into "Aztec-themed pogo stick exploration game." Eventually I got stuck in a wall.

Jam Defenders by Kepons

Pretty cute; not sure if there's meant to be a connection to the theme here. The controls threw me off a bit; why can't I build stuff by pressing the hotkey, given that there's a hotkey, instead of clicking the button?

Jenka Dungeon by dosto, Reaktori, Riuku

Interesting idea, and I like the lighting effects, but the controls felt quite awkward, to the point where I found it hard to stay interesting.

Keyboard Hero by tadashibashi

Nifty game, but aagh, the difficulty-- I'm not a slow typist by any means, but I'd need a much bigger margin of error to have even the slightest hope of getting some of the faster sequences here. Still, it's cute, and I like its little tune.

Life Party by Cat

Microsoft Security Essentials thinks your game has to die, sorry.

matoset by Poizen

Crashes instantly with the error:

string_copy argument 1 incorrect type (undefined) expecting a String (YYGS)
at gml_Object_obj_menu_Other_4
############################################################################################
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
stack frame is
gml_Object_obj_menu_Other_4 (line -1)


Me pARRty by ghandpivot

It's neat-looking and kind of funny, but there's not much point to it; seems like you just sail around while progressively eating more and more of your crew...?

Need For Beats by Matharoo, BlaineTanuki, _aeternumgames

This game is so hard that I can't even complete the tutorial. If I go slowly enough to avoid instantly closing the help popups, I die. If I don't, then I don't get any closer to knowing what the controls are. Looks like there's some polish here, but I just can't play.

One Big Party by Gizmo199, shortbread

Wow, it really seems like a lot of effort went into polishing this one! Still, I think the result might have been better if some of the energy that went into making four pretty, polished games had gone into developing the gameplay of one instead, perhaps with some fine-tuning for the controls in the process. If I had to pick one, it'd be the one where you chased chickens, since the others didn't feel like they gave me much control over the outcome.

One Big Political Party by Terminator_Pony

Interesting take on the theme! Perhaps not the most realistic political simulator, since I set the honesty meter to full, kept all the position meters in the middle everywhere I went, and won by a landslide. But pretty neat nonetheless.

Party Animal by TehPilot, TheFugue

Cute little puzzle game! The possession mechanic is a bit exploitable, since you can catch the cat directly on unpossession (I got through the door level without using the door that way), but overall, the setup makes for some interesting puzzles. Creative use of the theme, too, and the silent-movie aesthetic was pretty neat. I played this one all the way through.

Party Animals by ScaryPotato, Kalzme

Don't have any way of playing this, sorry.

Party Detective by Mercyssh

Interesting idea! But the pacing is much too fast. All I can do is run around, barely keeping up with the various guest tasks; there isn't even enough time to read what the guests are saying, let alone try and figure out the mystery. The platforming, the weird stairs layout, and the tool switching all pile on extra things to take up your time, and it's just too much.

Party Guardians by StarDreamIX

Ranged character seems much more effective than melee. Got through a couple of levels by spamming shots, then the game froze. Like several other entries, windowed mode was too large; the game should automatically go into fullscreen if operating at the display's maximum resolution, or part will be cut off due to the window frame and taskbar.

Party Mountain by AJTheApple

Pretty standard platformer, but seems well-executed; the difficulty curve here does a better job than most at keeping the game from becoming frustrating without making it trivial.

Party Paddles by Fusai

Well, it's an interesting idea, but I'm not sure it really...works. With so many players and so many balls bouncing around, there winds up being a lot of randomness in the outcome. Having a dead player when playing on your own doesn't help, either.

Party Parade by Tristan

Well, it's somewhat playable, but quite basic. Also, since there's no penalty for an incorrect press, you can just spam the two keys and go on forever, which makes it a bit pointless.

Party Pooper by Lukan

Very, very basic; could really use some sounds, particles, plotline, etc.

Party Puker by Ben Stitt

Well done for making something playable your first time!

Plague Rats by Nocturne

Well, that was adorable! I did hit the freezing bug mentioned in the readme once, unfortunately. I think, if this were to gain some harder levels down the line, it would make it much easier to micro the zerglings rats if there were hotkeys for the split/join button and the two groups. Fun, but could use some more content.

Queen by Toque

Very random premise! It threw me off a bit that you fired peas from off to the side, depending on your movement; that cost me a couple of rounds very quickly early on.

Quickly! Dispensegifts by Allison James

This is probably the first time I've played a game about murdering party guests with a gift-dispensing crane arm while being cursed at by an abusive manager. I suspect I may be terrible at it, but it's well-done.

Roborazzi by Kultisti, Sulo

Neat little game! It's a bit tricky to find the people sometimes-- seems like there's a chance that you could just never encounter someone before you run out of time-- but pretty fun nonetheless.

Robot Surprise Party by samspade

Neat little puzzle-rts! The pacing does drag a bit, but I like the concept and it fits the theme nicely.

R-pg-ING by Micah_DS

Well, I like the idea, but there's not much content here. The platforming elements and perspective both make it trickier than it has to be, too. Still, it's a nice start.

Snake Dance by Greenblizzard

Was a bit confusing at first-- to my eye, the falling shapes don't naturally read as a gameplay element, leaving me wondering why I was dying when I wasn't colliding with a wall or myself, and why it wasn't going on even when I had matched the desired shape. Neat concept, though.

Survival Party by HayManMarc

Ooh, this was a neat one. I like the core mechanic of trying to balance gathering people for your party with catering to their needs; there's some interesting tension there, because you'll want to sweep the map for people, but party items might appear in the wrong direction for that. At the same time, if you collect too many people too fast, and not enough other stuff, they'll start leaving, because the more you have, the more they'll consume.

Survive the Party by Nejc Podlipnik

Is this supposed to give you infinite fireworks after just a few waves-- like, is that meant to be the end, or is it a between-level screen that's bugged?

The Annual GMC Party by O_stogden

Would be nice if there were some deduction involved-- comments that contradicted each other and so forth. Decent concept, though.

The Golden Balloon by Little Penguin Studios

Not too frustrating, thankfully. I don't think the invincibility powerup is generally worth the risk of going for coins; I did better when I just ran for the end and hoped for the best. Fell through the floor once, for some reason. Still, seemed decently executed.

The Matchmaker (HTML5 ONLY, OPEN FOLDER) by eimie

Pretty simple matching game. Not really sure what the whole "move to the rhythm" mechanic brings to the party, so to speak. HTML5 only is inconvenient for those of us who are using the jam player.

The Party Must Go On by GVmG

Neat concept, but the speed scales up much too slowly, leading to a lot of waiting. And without any sense to the store layout or informative graphics for the shelves, it basically boils down to around 10% memorization, 90% just cruising around seeing when some text pops up with one of the items hightlighted blue. Could be fun with some polish!

The Scattered Army by Sirham

Seems to basically boil down to memorizing the order in which to do things. Very rough, also. But there's the seed of an interesting idea here...with a lot more content and polish, and some interesting combat mechanics in place of automatic resolution, this could eventually evolve into something rather entertaining.

The Way Back To The Party by Noodlehead

The enter key really needs to display the whole text on first press, not jump directly to the options-- I keep pressing enter instinctively to try and hurry up the text, and wind up not being able to read it at all. In the end, I wound up wandering around semi-randomly until I won.

Wastoid Rodney by Cloaked Games, JosephEllis, BlakeNorth

It looks like a lot of effort went into this, but uncomfortable controls and punishing difficulty even in the tutorial stages on "easy mode" meant that I got frustrated very quickly and couldn't play for very long.

Wham Bam Dan Jam Slam by GameDevDan

Nice graphics and pretty particle effects, but I don't really see the point of the gameplay. As far as I can tell, it's mostly about staying in the middle and hoping the attacks the AI dishes out don't just kill you instantly.

Your Brain On Party by thijsmie

It's a neat idea, but trying to keep track of what's going on in the super-tiny party screen and on the "brain" screen at the same time is just too much, especially with so many different resources. Also, it's not clear what the rules are for tower placement-- where they go, how many I can buy, etc.
 
77/77 Complete

Phew! Made it!

Congrats to everybody. Lots of really good games this jam.

Reviews

Top 3:

#1 - Emmy And Sal

#2 - Candle Wars

#3 - Wastoid Rodney


Best ofs:

Best Use of Theme: Crimson Festival by Alice, FunkyPoop
Best Concept: Castle Meta by The M
Best Presentation: Party Animal by TehPilot, TheFugue
Best Story: Forty or the Modern Big Brother by SoapSud39
Best Devlog: 3 Mice In A Trenchcoat by Bart, TheSnidr, Xor, Naterboy

Full ranking:

0 - Emmy And Sal
1 - Candle Wars
2 - Wastoid Rodney
3 - Crimson Festival
4 - Forty or the Modern Big Brother
5 - The Matchmaker (HTML5 ONLY, OPEN FOLDER)
6 - HealthBar
7 - Castle Meta
8 - Candles Have Feelings
9 - Robot Surprise Party
10 - GMC Fruit Salad Surfer
11 - Jam Defenders
12 - Fiesta Down
13 - Adventures Of Robot X
14 - One Big Party
15 - The Scattered Army
16 - Party Mountain
17 - Crimson Guild's Glamorous Guest List
18 - Need For Beats
19 - Escape of the Clowns
20 - 3 Mice In A Trenchcoat
21 - Extinction Tea Party
22 - Demon Dance
23 - Plague Rats
24 - Queen
25 - Final Battle
26 - Party Animal
27 - Snake Dance
28 - happy birthday
29 - Gangs Bash
30 - The Golden Balloon
31 - Florida Man
32 - Roborazzi
33 - Apocalypse party
34 - The Retrieval
35 - Crazy Waiter
36 - Blackout
37 - Jenka Dungeon
38 - Party Animals
39 - Dr Smiley's Brain Jam Party
40 - Behemoth
41 - Wham Bam Dan Jam Slam
42 - GreymoorHall
43 - get to the party
44 - dawg the party animal
45 - Party Detective
46 - Christmas with Uncle Tom
47 - Candle
48 - Your Brain On Party
49 - Me pARRty
50 - The Annual GMC Party
51 - Fantasy Strategy Clicker
52 - Fiesta Fist
53 - Hero Huddle
54 - Barry Bear's Birthday
55 - GMC Party Adventure
56 - The Party Must Go On
57 - Quickly! Dispensegifts
58 - Survive the Party
59 - Keyboard Hero
60 - Hero Horde
61 - R-pg-ING
62 - City Scuttler
63 - One Big Political Party
64 - Party Guardians
65 - Survival Party
66 - Party Parade
67 - Party Paddles
68 - Party Pooper
69 - The Way Back To The Party
70 - Life Party
71 - Party Puker
72 - Color Splash
73 - Goin' All Nite
74 - dumburk 9000
75 - matoset

Comments:

3 Mice In A Trenchcoat by Bart, TheSnidr, Xor, Naterboy

Really impressive 3D. Great shadow shaders. Controls felt really solid and responsive and were the collisions. My two critiques would be the lack of a progress save, which was rather punishing, having to start over again. Especially considering there were trap doors around corners and I couldn't rotate the view. The other would be a lack of direction as to what my goal or objective is. I figured it out after a while, but there were a few trials and errors. 'Oh cool, an owl! I wonder if he's friendly and I can talk to... RUN FOREST RUN!' But a really great entry overall. A+ on the SFX and music as well.

Adventures Of Robot X by Pixel-Team

Loved the humor. Solid mechanics. Very well polished and great music. Only gripe was that the jumping felt a little floaty, but I suppose that could be chalked up to a more forgiving platforming experience. Very impressed by the number and quality of animations as well. One of the best entries I have played so far. Bravo.

Apocalypse party by aspiringgamemaker

The gun felt really good. Sound effects and bullet speed were spot on. The balance of ammo to enemies in the normal mode felt fairly balanced. The same in hard mode and the zombies moving faster. I was pleased that the ammo was infinite to compensate. A small critique would be in the future to do a simple rounding on display numbers when drawing them in the UI (health, power, time). It's a quick fix, but the lingering decimal places just make it feel less polished, especially when the rest of the art is so well done. Cheers!

Barry Bear's Birthday by Richerama

Nice and cohesive. Well done on the art and animations. Because of having to start from scratch each failure, the balloons were frustrating. 'Was it yellow I was supposed to sit on, or was that the last try?' It got confusing real quick. But then I realized you put a cheat sheet in the upper left corner, which made it much better. I was a bit confused as to the goal, because there was no end and highscore tally. It just looped back to balloons after the cake. I assume it goes indefinitely because there is no progress save after each level. Also, I think I found a bug in that if I pressed the spacebar repeatedly in the instruction area I could bypass levels. Otherwise though, well done.

Behemoth by sp202

Cool concept. I might have put the idea/info/rules at the start of the actual game instead of in the readme, because at first I didn't get it and almost started clicking buttons at random before I realized there was a readme. Also, not sure if I won or not? I got to the last character and made a wild guess. The inputs then popped up. I assume that means I lost, because there was no end animation? But not sure. Otherwise, neat use of the theme and online support groups :D

Blackout by Siolfor the Jackal

I was going to comment it reminding me of the hangover and wishing for more levels, but then I read the Afterword. Had to go back and redeem myself after hippy Jesus stoned the rat the first time. Second time I chose a more 'wholesome' route. Obviously short, but great job on the details, such as the shadows. Had a great feel to it and some great art. Cheers!

Candle by Steelegms2

Not sure if it had an end or not. I am guessing the levels were not procedurally generated? Progress indication would have been nice, so I knew roughly where I was and if there was an end. Also there were quite a few no-win scenarios (dead-ends or narrow hallway spawns with dynamite right there). On the flip-side though, without those, I would have been less inclined to snagging all the extra hearts in the levels which I could. So, sort of a design wash. Great animations and art. The collisions and pathfinding were also solid.

Candle Wars by Yozoraki

Art was fantastic and the game was very cohesive. Loads of personality, which I am sort of a sucker for. My one qualm was that, as the player, I didn't really get much feedback with the combat, such as hit sounds or effects. I didn't realize the ghosts could even be killed until pretty late in the game. Also, killing the cake wasn't as strait forward as I thought. I ended up using ranged units on the edge. But overall, extremely well done.

Candles Have Feelings by JordanOttesen

I am really impressed by the polish and finish. Even though I couldn't quite get the hang of the wall jumping mechanics, perhaps that is more due to my lack of platformer experience than the controls, which all felt tight and responsive. Bonus points for the voice over in the beginning and all the well blended SFX.

Castle Meta by The M

Loved the game. Great concept. Nice varied environment and abilities. Solid level design. The controls killed me. Not being able to rebind and being forced to use space and arrows I just couldn't get my brain to wrap around it. I know if I had been able to use the up arrow to jump as well I would have been able to beat the game. I typically use WASD for movement, and splitting the motion between right hand moving and left hand jumping was just too much for my lizard brain to compute at the speeds required for certain areas. Otherwise, was really cool and had a great use of the theme.

Christmas with Uncle Tom by BluishGreenPro

"That was funny, but kind of scary." "Starving Hippos" Fantastic writing! Great music too. And extra props for having a pause menu with options and the like. My only hiccup was the character control. When I would start to walk it felt sluggish and buggy until I got going. My guess would be this is because you were using an acceleration system rather than a hard coded 'x += speed' solution. Otherwise, really good job and a highly enjoyable experience.

City Scuttler by Bearman_18

I wasn't really sure what the purpose of the scrap metal was? I also didn't realize I could hit enemies by moving into them. But perhaps that is just my lack of familiarity with turn based roguelikes. Impressive amounts of systems implemented in such a short time. Good job on the art. And especially well done putting the controls right out front so people can reference back to them easily.

Color Splash by EvanSki

Even though it didn't have a game loop, I can still appreciate me some well fleshed out menu systems... Cheers for participating.

Crazy Waiter by Gatefiz, JP, Claire Dujardin, Benfik

Really solid gameplay loop. The controls were a bit strange, but if you approach it like a racing game with a dynamically changing track, it actually works really well. My note of constructive criticism: I might try and avoid no-win scenarios in the future. A few times I was faced with the choice of either running into people or letting the timer just keep draining. Especially at choke points. This would have been fine if a sort of progress ramp had been implemented, such that the better the service the more customers there are, the harder your job. Games naturally need difficulty caps, but to be thrown into the pool at the deep end can be a bit off putting and frustrating. Good art, great sound design. 'BRUH'

Crimson Festival by Alice, FunkyPoop

Very nice. Well done. Thanks for letting me be a part of it! Of all the things to tackle in a game jam, I wager the toughest is herding a bunch of stressed jammers like a pack of' Plague Rats' (TM) towards an overarching goal. But you pulled it off really well. Cheers!

Crimson Guild's Glamorous Guest List by Mr Magnus

Wow. The sheer amount of content here is impressive. I'm typically not a fan of "Where's Waldo?" type games, but I still had a fun time. The clown coming out of nowhere I found unreasonably funny. And all the options and the various game modes were just icing on top of icing. My one hiccup was on some of the descriptions. It was a bit confusing switching between generic and particulars such as crop tops counting as plain shirts. I never even really figured out what a button down shirt looked like. But otherwise it was a good time. Well done.

dawg the party animal by NivesStudio

Neat bunch of mini-games. Laser tag was the best once I got the hang of it. The bull got me... so not sure how that effected the party. The timer mechanic was a little strange, because it seems like you don't want to lose the hype, but the missions also take a certain amount of time, forcing you to lose hype in the process. On the main screen, there also seemed to be a hiccup whenever you collide with a boundary that slows down the game significantly. Otherwise impressive amount of content and mechanics that, while not polished, were fleshed out to a playable state.

Demon Dance by Mightyjor, Twintertainment, Brett-Bit

All the little things, like the spinning planets, really made this great. My only qualm would be the beats not matching the song timing. But I know that syncing them in the span of jam was probably out of the question. Extra points for the sick voice over too!

Dr Smiley's Brain Jam Party by Yal

Wonderful art and presentation. I really liked a lot of the concepts going on here, it just seemed a bit convoluted. Perhaps starting off with only two colors or two types and gradually going from there would have made it more approachable. To that end, letting me press F1 in the game to remember what I have to do with the different things, or better yet an in-game map key among the UI, would have helped me out a lot. Having certain pieces that key diagonally, in groups, explode, etc... is cool, but adding on the complexity of matching color as well, might have just been a step over my head. But then again, I am not much or a Tetris player, so this is the constructive criticism of a noob :D Everything else felt spot on though.

dumburk 9000 by Bret Hudson, Allen Webster, Jared Cohen

Might just be a prototype, but I do like the music! Thanks for submitting anyway.

Emmy And Sal by Mercerenies

At first I was going to comment on the art. But then I moved the stage and the parallax kicked in and I thought 'ok, that's cool'. It grew on me, or maybe the music made it grow on me. It was a very cohesive whole. Absolutely loved the color palette and the style of the game. Also impressed by the amount of items. The dialogue was good. Nice balance on difficulty. What was there not to like? 10/10 Would rob radiohut again.

Escape of the Clowns by kburkhart84

Appreciated how forgiving the controls were. Also the speed up for dropping. Extra kudos for the escape sounds. Yehooooo! My only complaint was perhaps the animation cycle of the clown pausing mid-stride, but it sort of worked with the aesthetic, weirdly enough....

Extinction Tea Party by Moon Goat

Loved the art. The lack of sound was kind of a bummer. But the mechanics and difficulty curve seemed just about right. Bravo!

Fantasy Strategy Clicker by Julien, Hyomoto

Was a bit lost at first. An explanation, like a tooltip, for what each buildings did would have been great. Art was fantastic! I'm not sure what the deal with food was, after I had about 20 farms it seemed like I hit an equilibrium where I was consuming about as much as I was producing, and I didn't know how to get out of it. It wasn't clear if it was the number of peasants, or the number of soldiers, or the number of houses I had that was tanking my food production, but after I had about 49 farms I figured that should have been enough, but it wasn't. An infinite button on the recruit soldiers would also have been great, because clicking the same button 4000/ 20 times wasn't exactly the most fun thing to do. But otherwise, I really liked the concept and how snappy the buttons were.

Fiesta Down by VinylFly

The menu when you are selecting your character felt a bit convoluted with all the information and text. But that (and maybe a lack of levels, which is common to all jam games, so perhaps it should just be a wash across the board) is really my only critique. The animations, sounds, characters, and backgrounds were all fantastic. It was well balanced and the controls were tight. An impressive showcase of how to make an engaging game out of a few simple mechanics. And the story, while short, was just right. So well done.

Fiesta Fist by Cristobal, MatthewPattel

The main menu hung me up for a bit because I didn't know that T was the select button. Had to go to the itch.io page to figure that out. Good job on the art. The hitboxes felt a little large at times. I like that the hearts stack so much. The boss at the end with the minigun could have used a little indication that he is being hurt (not necessarily a health bar but maybe change of appearance, position, or attack style). I didn't actually defeat him because I wasn't sure if he was actually going down or if maybe I was just doing something wrong and he was healing. Also, props for the co-op aspect, even though I ended up playing solo.

Final Battle by Kahrabaa

Lots of polish and the number of animations is insane! The music and SFX are the cherry on top. My only gripe was that I wasn't sure if level 50 in the bottom right corner was the highest? Or what the point of the coins was. As soon as I had a hundred minions, we just sort of marched down the boulevard and clobbered anything in our way. And while the fps might have been an oversight, I appreciated it :D

Florida Man by BreakfastBoy

Controls felt really good and tight. Love the gator and its ability to destroy anything. All it needed was a few large snakes, sunscreen, some white knuckle driving and it would have been the complete Florida experience. Well done.

Forty or the Modern Big Brother by SoapSud39

*in a whisper* Viva La Revolution...

Gangs Bash by D'Andrew Box

Love the retro style. Great polish and finish on all the art and music especially. It took me a bit to realize the arrow keys were also controls and I didn't just have to bump my car against the wall at random. The tank controls also seemed reversed to me. Otherwise, impressive amount of content, and once I figured out the arrows, the car racing bit was my favorite of them all. Good job.

get to the party by Wabb, sequential

Really like the concept and very well paced. Wish there were more levels but that comes with time, which I know jams don't have. The first two abilities being per-person and one-offs didn't make too much sense to me when the rest were perpetual. A boost zone or a walk sign I think might have served the nature of rerouting better and would have been more intuitive. But impressive amount of sub-systems and I never encountered an error. Cheers!

GMC Fruit Salad Surfer by Yal

Everything was top notch. Really impressed by the water and the use of shaders. I appreciated the unlockable characters as well, especially the carrot. The mechanic of the waves moving you up and down really added a good element of strategy to your positioning. A few times I found myself in a no win scenario because of the random nature of the fish and mines, but the items balanced this out nicely. I only wish there was an item that allowed you to bring all the items with you :D

GMC Party Adventure by Imagine Galaxy

It is both derpy and charming at the same time. A few thoughts on what could have made it better... Rather than a few large rooms, I might have opted for more rooms and a smaller view. The art and charm of the main character and the jumpers is almost completely lost at such a wide zoom level, and clearly room transitions pose no problem for you with the cutscenes and all. Also, more advanced, and sort of random, but some parallaxing on the clouds or backgrounds would have made it pop a lot more. Loved the story twist. And despite the unorthodox collisions, I never got my saucer completely stuck. Cheers!

Goin' All Nite by Dadio

And the award for weirdest-thing-on-my-computer-screen-this-jam-SO-FAR goes to...

GreymoorHall by Ninety

I am edified by the inclusiveness of disgraced pool noodle designers in your cast. Fantastic art. Took me a while to figure out what I needed to do, but I got away with murder eventually. The pawn bouncing and movements felt really good and the music was top notch. Not really much to critique other than perhaps it might have been nice to add more gameplay elements, like a weapon or evidence hiding system. But there is only so much that can be done in a jam. The battle is always art, polish, and gameplay, and you can only have two in such a sort amount of time. Cheers!

happy birthday by Yal

Always impressed by 3D. But 3D that has terrain with collisions and water? Twice as impressed. Love the atmosphere. Great design choice in having lots of balloons that people can gather instead of only 5 in the entire world. It seemed counter productive, visibility being impaired while tasked with finding things, but it actually worked out well and I applaud not sacrificing tone and theme just for ease of access. My only hiccup was not knowing if I had reached the end of the game. I assumed after finding the five balloons and the journal entries appear, that was all there is. But the starting text stayed so long on the screen without a way to skip that it also made me wonder if perhaps the diary text was just taking a long time to finish. Overall, very impressive though for the given amount of time.

HealthBar by Fanatrick

Using the different colors and color blending was genius. It was naturally intuitive and the gradual intro of the mixed drinks made it an easy transition. It looks like at some point the fill rate of the glass reaches a parabolic curve such that it is impossible to keep up with customer demands because the fill rate just isn't high enough. Whether this is intentional or not, I might have considered lengthening the difficulty curve to make the game just a bit longer (was pretty short). Or perhaps rather than having a dynamic fill it could have been instant but in 1/16 increments so that the limiting factor is how fast you can press the keys. Of course this might have ruined a slower paced aesthetic you were going for. The atmosphere and neon art were also top notch. One of my favorite entries so far. Cheers.

Hero Horde by PinesOfChaos

Great concept. There were a few Achilles heels lurking in some of the execution. I had a hard time telling what unit I was purchasing due to the level of zoom. Being that all the actions were mouse based, it could have also benefitted from some feedback when you target a unit for attack. Multiple times I thought I had targeted an enemy when I had actually just clicked on the ground. This wouldn't be such a big deal if there wasn't such an intense focus on rapidly dispatching foes or else running out of money. Art was good. Music was nice. Had a lot of really neat systems, just needed an extra round of balancing.. which is typically the case with all jam games, especially those that lean towards RTS territory more. Cheers!

Hero Huddle by ThinGinger

Loved the graphics. Nice use of the theme. The only thing I think it really lacked was a convincing hook. Gathering soldiers until you become an unstoppable amoeba is fun to a point, but to make it really fun there has to be some fort of push and pull mechanic; that sense of walking on a knife's edge where your decisions can mean either ultimate doom or insane rewards. The boss battle at the end had a little of that. The hook could also be thematic, such as if the soldiers were actually all celebrities or mermaids. Then the addictive factor is in waiting to see what the next absurdity is, rather than catchy mechanics.

Jaguar Pogo Party by TotallyAverageGamez

Critique of my own game would be that I spent too much time on the menus and peripherals as opposed to implementing another game mechanic, which would have been a spike that allows you to attach to walls and bounce from there. Good learning experience though.

Jam Defenders by Kepons

Don't fire until you see the whites of their eyes! The variety of the enemies and all the accompanying art and animations is quite impressive for a single person team. The inclusion of little things like SFX, particles, and shadows made it feel very well polished. It was short, like all Jam gams, but I'm sure with more time it would have been even better. Well done.

Jenka Dungeon by dosto, Reaktori, Riuku

Great artwork. Impressive variety. Really appreciated the jumping to the beat of all your soldiers. I never got a real good sense of the combat. Sometimes I would ram my snake into an enemy and they would die. Sometimes I would die. A bit more explanation or a tutorial on how the combat is supposed to work would have been nice. Good sound and the lighting engine really helped add atmosphere. Cheers!

Keyboard Hero by tadashibashi

At first, it wouldn't run. Then after a computer restart it kept giving this error on the main menu
--------------------------------------------------------------------
GMFMS_EvDesc Error! Attempted to assign an invalid handle.

Life Party by Cat

Nice music. Good art. Just a few rough patches around the edges, that made it less cohesive than it otherwise could have been; such as the timer displaying 100ths of a second when second intervals would have been just fine, or guests taking all the presents in the stack of their color rather than just one. But props on it being complete otherwise.

matoset by Poizen

Tried to start it up, but I kept getting this error...

############################################################################################
FATAL ERROR in
action number 1
of Other Event: Room Start
for object obj_menu:

string_copy argument 1 incorrect type (undefined) expecting a String (YYGS)
at gml_Object_obj_menu_Other_4
############################################################################################
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
stack frame is
gml_Object_obj_menu_Other_4 (line -1)

Based on the readme, props for what seemed to be a lot of game beyond the unfortunate error, and for attempting online elements, which I am still too chicken to mess with :D

Me pARRty by ghandpivot

Solid voxel art. Some of the size scales were a bit off, but that's what comes with prototypes. My one critique would be the camera speed. It seemed way too fast for the calm and tranquil nature of the experience, almost to the point of being disorienting. 10/10 Would have eaten Sam "Quarter Pounder Cheeseburger with Fries" Smith again.

Need For Beats by Matharoo, BlaineTanuki, _aeternumgames

Rhythm games are not really my cup of tea... but the art was fantastic and the music manipulation / timing seemed really good. The controls were a bit un-intuitive. I didn't realize I could use the arrow keys until quite a few failures, and even then, for the purple splotches I didn't find any other key than E, when I would have thought intuitively the down or back arrow keys would do the trick. Or maybe they did and my timing was just that bad? Either way, a few slower levels beyond the tutorial for us uninitiated DJs would have been great. But I know there is only so much time and the polish level on everything else is definitely A+. Cheers!

One Big Party by Gizmo199, shortbread

Holy moley. That's some impressive 3D in game maker. Also the use of sequences for animations was really good. The minigames themselves I was sort of split on. They felt a bit clunky but also tight at the same time. The character movement and collisions felt good, but some of the other elements, such as getting the chickens to do what you want or the fruit falling in your area were a bit more mushy. Perhaps this was because I was using a keyboard but I know these sorts of games are typically console and controller oriented. Sounds were great. Music was great. Really well done.

One Big Political Party by Terminator_Pony

I sort of just told everybody the truth and I somehow won. I guess I wasn't really sure how to lose? Perhaps lie all the time? The sliders were a bit confusing. A definite marker, like a poll that takes 1 day but shows voter sentiment in each state, would have given me more direction in what states I should focus on and what issues particularly. Cool background and animation. And there's a lot there, it just needed some unique gameplay hook beyond the pure numbers.

Party Animal by TehPilot, TheFugue

Really cool concept and executed well. Special props to the grain effect and film border with the squares design. They both really helped to amp the tone of the entire piece. Bravo!

Party Animals by ScaryPotato, Kalzme

Impressive amount of games implemented in such a short amount of time. Art and sound were spot on. I commend you on keeping it super simple with each player only needing to remember 1 button. It of course limits things a bit to timing and button mashing, but given the scope that limitation is completely warranted. Well done.

Party Detective by Mercyssh

Took me while to figure out that the mop was for the water. I thought it meant they wanted water, not that water needed to be cleaned up. Also took me a while to follow the clues in the dialogue. But I did eventually win. The two timer concept actually worked out pretty well. It felt balanced in how much suspicion it offsets. Music would have been good in the main menu, but the rest of the sounds and art were all nice and cohesive.

Party Guardians by StarDreamIX

Once I figured out the right mouse button, it was a lot more fun. The difficulty curve though, still seemed a little steep. I was expecting a powerup, or something I could use to make my bow fire faster, so I could actually stop the hordes. But as is, it definitely felt like the spawn rate was higher than the fire rate, right off the get-go. The potions that regen helped in that regard, but a power up for the character would have felt more empowering as a player, rather than a catch-up mechanic IMO. Really nice job on the pixel art, (I assume the rest were stock images you had license to use?). And I appreciated the lose animation as well. Cheers.

Party Mountain by AJTheApple

Fantastic art and sound! Controls were really solid too. I would wish for more levels, but in the span of a jam I we only get so many wishes. Cheers!

Party Paddles by Fusai

Nice art and sound. Was a bit hectic. I'm not sure that the scoring mechanic wasn't flawed in a couple ways. First, in normal pong when you hit a ball, typically you can strategize where it is going, whereas in here the numerous AI meant there was a good chance somebody else hit it before it went out (unless you do a corner dunk every time on the green player), and basically stealing your point. Also, perhaps you added some counter measures under the hood I didn't know about, but with numerous AI playing against each other, you could possibly be putting the player in a no-win scenario where the AI beats other AI faster than it is humanly possible to win, especially given the random and fast paced nature of the game. Overall, it felt like less of a pong game and more of a 'contain the chaos' game, which probably means a goal other than a direct scoring system would have served you better. Otherwise, I never hit any bugs or game-breaking errors, so well done on the coding side. It just needed a bit of a conceptual re-tooling which is what learning in game jams is all about. Cheers!

Party Parade by Tristan

Good art. Well done on the music. I especially liked all the GMC paraphernalia on the billboards and flyers. An issue to consider in the future regarding design; I don't think there was really a way to lose? Which is kind of a big part of any game. I wasn't sure how taking the points to zero was a bad thing? Band members didn't go away when points were taken down, and it wasn't clear if certain members only unlock when you reach a certain score, or if that was accumulative. So a more clear understanding of the push-and-pull mechanics of the game mechanics would have been helpful.

Party Pooper by Lukan

Not sure how many levels there were. I assume infinite? My high score was 16. Obviously, some music or an end goal would have made it better, along with maybe a timer or some motion of the people. Good use of distinct shapes though. At first I thought the characters would just blend together, but identifying them actually felt just about right. Not too difficult and not too easy. I initially wanted more vibrant colors, but the less muted tones actually helped to balance the shapes out.

Party Puker by Ben Stitt

Congrats on your first jam game. As times goes I'm sure the art and mechanics will improve. A critique to keep in mind for the future. I'd try and avoid wasted player time. When you are caught chit-chatting, rather than making the player sit and wait for the timer to run out, I would just end the game right then by either triggering the event or setting the alarm to 1 so it goes off the next frame. Cheers!

Plague Rats by Nocturne

Great art even taking into account it wasn't made during the jam. The concept of controlling a horde of rats was a really good hook and the scampering of the group was amusing. A couple critiques... Combat seems to have a lack of info or feedback. There is just sort of this shoving match where one or the other dies. An indicator that an enemy was successfully targeted or rats visually clamping their jaws on the victim would have been more satisfying. Also, no rats left behind! Not being able to free the other rats visible in the cages is a bit of a missed opportunity. Otherwise it was really fun. I didn't get to the end though, because of that infinite loop. It always happened just as I crossed the car barriers in the third level. Cheers!

Queen by Toque

R.I.P doggo. Loved the wacky concept and the dialogue. Nice art and animations. Some of it was in different pixel grid sizes. Not sure if this was intentional or not. Didn't bother me too much, but I know it can throw off the cohesion as a whole some times. The hitboxes of the pigeons was interesting in that it felt good and forgiving when they were flying but not when they had landed. Also, the movement of the queen was fairly solid until I tried to throw and move at the same time, which caused her to stop, which was fine, except she wouldn't continue walking after throwing even though the movement button was down. I had to repress it every time I wanted to move again. Otherwise, very enjoyable and a great game premise.

Quickly! Dispensegifts by Allison James

Aside from the continual seemingly pointless cussing, which just isn't my jam, the spinning death wheel with retractable present is an interesting concept. Art was good. And I really liked how the main menu was integrated to be not only functional but also an extremely brief tutorial.

Roborazzi by Kultisti, Sulo

Great look and feel to the game. The balance between the timer, number of people, and your limited view was well done. Not really sure what point of the scrolling chat on the right was. I assume aesthetics? As soon as the rooms read 3/3 I was expecting the end of the game, but it looked like you could go indefinitely, which I guess made sense with the High score on the main menu. But kind of weird having that metric if you could just keep revisiting room indefinitely. Otherwise, very well done and good music too.

Robot Surprise Party by samspade

Art, menus, music, sfx, was all impressive (especially the pixel art). Only hiccup was on level two where one of my bots just starting moving up and right, no matter where I clicked, until it was off the screen. It also took me several tries because I didn't really get a good sense of what spots were safe and which weren't. Example: Does hiding behind flowers count? Is one grid space above from the stump visible on the horizontal? Or is perspective not accounted for? Little things like that. But overall really well done.

R-pg-ING by Micah_DS

Cool concept with the different colored minions and the color coded enemies. Maybe I'm just too easy to impress, but the 3D plus jumping physics is no piece of cake. Also the enemy pathfinding and jumping seemed pretty solid. Would loved to have seen more levels, obviously. But for a jam game there's a lot already here. And I would take solid core mechanics over quantity any day. Well done.

Snake Dance by Greenblizzard

Great idea. Fit the theme. Super simple. Well polished. Fun to play.

Survival Party by HayManMarc

Didn't realize at the beginning that the items were being consumed by the party as we wandered around. I sort of lost interest once I figured that out, because I knew at some point I wouldn't be able to move fast enough to keep up with demand (If the party size kept growing and the spawn rate stayed constant). Despite that, I thought the aesthetic was great and the music was good. Just needed some extra mechanic besides walking, which I assume is something you had planned, but simply couldn't implement due to time.

Survive the Party by Nejc Podlipnik

Neat little game. The sword swinging was solid. Not sure what the white dots did? They didn't seem to replenish mana and I didn't see a high-score screen anywhere. And if it was a high-score, the chest at the end could just be spammed repeatedly. Mechanics felt really good though, and I'm sure with more time you probably would have been able to incorporate more variety. Good job.

The Annual GMC Party by O_stogden

Loved the 'who wants to be a millionaire' vibes from the music change... only, it's 'who wants to be a murderer' instead, I suppose. Rather short and simple, but the narrative utility was level 100 when it came to making the most of little things, like lights, and shaders, and TRF, which is reasonably priced on steam. Not so much a game as a narrative experience, which I am ok with. 10/10 would get thrown out a window rather than join a cult again. *whistling dixie intensifies*

The Golden Balloon by Little Penguin Studios

Great job on the feel of the game and solid controls. It wasn't immediately apparent that the coins were only for temporary invincibility. Even once I figured it out, I wasn't sure how to use that ability strategically, given that it only last for a few moments and I could just run past the trees anyway. Also, appreciated the PARTY!! hidden at the end in the balloons.

The Matchmaker (HTML5 ONLY, OPEN FOLDER) by eimie

Really catchy tune. And the beat syncing is great. For being simple, it was loads of fun. And sometimes that is all you really need. I was going to say the progression was a little wonky, but on second thought, it worked out just fine. The more people on the floor as you make matches is a great natural limiter. My only hiccup was with the heart/groove bar. It seemed that landing your moves on the beat in the beginning worked as intended. But as I progressed for some reason it got harder. Not sure if it was a syncing issue or if there was another intentional factor making it harder. But great game and the pixel art was fantastic. Well done.

The Party Must Go On by GVmG

Gives me flashbacks to midnight grocery runs with my mom. Totally stuffed buggies. Drifting around isles. Worrying if the frame of the buggy could take that much weight. Good times. The only thing this game lacked was a an objective or a way to lose. Extra kudos for the screeching wheels and flames. Accurate to real life in my experiences...

The Retrieval by Dr Wolf

Really interesting turn baed game. I only wish there was a learning curve that pointed me in a direction. First go round I got in a fight immediately and got my butt kicked. I think part of it was the fact that the tooltips over the tiles took so long to pop up. I didn't even know there was a tooltip until my second or third try, so I had no clue what each tile did. I also got an error at one point during a battle that crashed the game. Great job on the art though and the amount of systems / content is pretty remarkable for 4 days. Well done.

The Scattered Army by Sirham

Wasn't expecting much given the art but you proved me wrong. There was a lot here. A dialogue system. A really cool inventory system. Picking up buckets of water. Obviously it was rough around the edges, but I like the open world design where you had to figure things out on your own. My one caveat to this is the items. Some of the armors and items gave status effects but I wasn't sure what they did exactly and why I would want one over the other. A tooltip system that gives a small description when you hover over them would have helped a lot. But overall it was a fun little game. Well done.

The Way Back To The Party by Noodlehead

Nice little text adventure. My only wish was that the graphics were unique per location, or else it was just text and not images. I found my brain wanting to rely on the images, and therefore subconsciously thinking I didn't need to remember the text, which bit me in the end and made me a little confused because some of the images were the same for different locations.

Wastoid Rodney by Cloaked Games, JosephEllis, BlakeNorth

My favorite? 'Eat. My. Shorts' Lol! Really solid game and nicely fleshed out. Losing the power ups after getting hit was a great mechanic, as well as them stacking. Not sure if it was a bug or not, but at the last level, I just ran and quickly sat on the defense power up and I was pretty much invincible. Music, sound, art, menus were all really good. Congrats to all of you on a well done game.

Wham Bam Dan Jam Slam by GameDevDan

Great graphics. Super kudos on all the characters from past GMC jams. Really neat art style (looked like sprite stacking to me)? The game loop was a bit limited by what it was. An additional hook beyond pushing and throwing might have spiced it up slightly more. But I'd always take at least one solid mechanic rather than ten half baked mechanics that never pan out. Very well polished and sounded spot on. Cheers!

Your Brain On Party by thijsmie

Really fun and unique twist on tower defense. Good use of the theme. Having to split your attention between the party and the brain was a challenge but satisfying with the replenish of various meters. If there was one mechanic I was on the fence about, it was the towers degrading. It didn't really allow me to strategize too much with their placement. And it seemed that the homing tower wasn't working (I assume due to time limits). But impressive for what you were able to finish and that it was a cohesive whole. Well done. One of my favorites so far.
 
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Reviews

Top 3:

GreymoorHall by Ninety
I love the idea of procedurally generated guests and having to gather clues on them to get away with murder. The game pieces are a nice touch. Played it multiple times. Also fits the theme pretty well.

Roborazzi by Kultisti, Sulo
Fun and unique camera mechanics in this one. Very cool aesthetic, too. It definitely fits the theme well

The Matchmaker (HTML5 ONLY, OPEN FOLDER) by eimie
Love the mix of rhythm and color matching elements. I also love the general bounciness of everything.

Best ofs:

Best use of Theme: Roborazzi by Kultisti, Sulo
Best Concept: GreymoorHall by Ninety
Best Presentation: Party Animal by TehPilot, TheFugue
Best Story: Forty or the Modern Big Brother by SoapSud39
Best Devlog: The Party Must Go On by GVmG

Honorable Mentions:
Candles Have Feelings by JordanOttesen: Fun and challenging scrolling platformer. The death animation is hilarious.

Party Mountain by AJTheApple: A nice, classic platformer with crisp pixel art and animation. Very clever obstacles.

Survival Party by HayManMarc: Really enjoyed the concept of gathering partygoers and managing party favors.

Emmy and Sal by Merceneries: Interesting puzzle game with cute dialogue. Lots of levels to play, would love to see more.

Christmas with Uncle Tom by BluishGreenPro: A charming story-driven game. If you want to make a bigger adventure game, this game would be a nice base.

Wham Bam Dan Jam Slam by GameDevDan: Even though I was unfamiliar with your characters, I like the idea of crossover games and this one looks like it had a lot of heart put into it.

Crimson Festival by Alice, FunkyPoop: Much like with Wham Bam Dan Jam Slam, the crossover aspect of this game is a nice touch. Not much in terms of gameplay, but it was nice to see many different developers' characters interact.

One Big Political Party by Terminator_Pony: Interesting take on the theme, this one. The concept is unique and with some more polish, I'm sure it could be a very successful Politician Simulator.

Jam Defenders by Kepons: The UI was a bit confusing at first, but once I got past that I found it to be a very fun tower-defense game.

One Big Party by Gizmo199, shortbread: A very well-made 3D party game. My only complaint is that the chicken game feels a bit slow. Still, very impressive given the 96 hour dev cycle.

Robot Surprise Party by samspade: A cute and engaging stealth puzzle game. I could see this translate well to the mobile market.

Blackout by Siolfor the Jackal: This game really took me back to the days of playing point-and-click adventure games. Would love to see more of it.

Your Brain On Party by thijsmie: I was confused at first, but after watching someone else play it I must say it's a very interesting idea for a tower defense game.

Adventures Of Robot X by Pixel-Team: The presentation in this one was second-best. I love the pixel art and voice-acting in the intro. Gives me strong Mega Man vibes.

Crimson Guild's Glamorous Guest List by Mr Magnus: I like the concept of having to identify guests. However, the sheer number of people is a bit overwhelming. Maybe start with a smaller crowd that gets bigger with each level?

Party Detective by Mercyssh: Much like Glamorous Guest List, this game has a neat concept but there's a lot going on in the screen.

R-pg-ING by Micah_DS: An interesting concept for a game where you control a massive party. However, it was a little hard on my eyes.

Castle Meta by The M: This game has some pretty ambitious ideas. With some polish it could be a very nice metroid-vania type game.

City Scuttler by Bearman_18: The lack of sound effects or introduction was a bit off-putting at first. Still, very nice survival game. Love the turn-based aspect.

Candle Wars by Yozoraki: Very charming resource-management game with cute graphics. Made me think of Pikmin and Earthbound. Had some trouble figuring out how to defeat the boss. Maybe some sound effects or a more conspicuous prompt for when the cookies are attacking him could fix that.
Full ranking:

  1. GreymoorHall by Ninety
  2. Roborazzi by Kultisti, Sulo
  3. The Matchmaker (HTML5 ONLY, OPEN FOLDER) by eimie
  4. Party Animal by TehPilot, TheFugue
  5. Candles Have Feelings by JordanOttesen
  6. Party Mountain by AJTheApple
  7. Survival Party by HayManMarc
  8. Fiesta Down by VinylFly
  9. Forty or the Modern Big Brother by SoapSud39
  10. GMC Fruit Salad Surfer by Yal
  11. Emmy And Sal by Mercerenies
  12. Wastoid Rodney by Cloaked Games, JosephEllis, BlakeNorth
  13. Wham Bam Dan Jam Slam by GameDevDan
  14. Jenka Dungeon by dosto, Reaktori, Riuku
  15. Christmas with Uncle Tom by BluishGreenPro
  16. Crimson Festival by Alice, FunkyPoop
  17. The Annual GMC Party by O_stogden
  18. Snake Dance by Greenblizzard
  19. Plague Rats by Nocturne
  20. One Big Political Party by Terminator_Pony
  21. Jam Defenders by Kepons
  22. One Big Party by Gizmo199, shortbread
  23. The Golden Balloon by Little Penguin Studios
  24. Robot Surprise Party by samspade
  25. Gangs Bash by D'Andrew Box
  26. Quickly! Dispensegifts by Allison James
  27. Blackout by Siolfor the Jackal
  28. Your Brain On Party by thijsmie
  29. Adventures Of Robot X by Pixel-Team
  30. The Party Must Go On by GVmG
  31. 3 Mice In A Trenchcoat by Bart, TheSnidr, Xor, Naterboy
  32. HealthBar by Fanatrick
  33. Crimson Guild's Glamorous Guest List by Mr Magnus
  34. Extinction Tea Party by Moon Goat
  35. Survive the Party by Nejc Podlipnik
  36. The Way Back To The Party by Noodlehead
  37. Need For Beats by Matharoo, BlaineTanuki, _aeternumgames
  38. Keyboard Hero by tadashibashi
  39. Party Detective by Mercyssh
  40. Queen by Toque
  41. Life Party by Cat
  42. Party Puker by Ben Stitt
  43. R-pg-ING by Micah_DS
  44. Party Animals by ScaryPotato, Kalzme
  45. Barry Bear's Birthday by Richerama
  46. Castle Meta by The M
  47. get to the party by Wabb, sequential
  48. Fantasy Strategy Clicker by Julien, Hyomoto
  49. dumburk 9000 by Bret Hudson, Allen Webster, Jared Cohen
  50. The Retrieval by Dr Wolf
  51. Me pARRty by ghandpivot
  52. happy birthday by Yal
  53. Apocalypse party by aspiringgamemaker
  54. Hero Horde by PinesOfChaos
  55. Candle Wars by Yozoraki
  56. Escape of the Clowns by kburkhart84
  57. Demon Dance by Mightyjor, Twintertainment, Brett-Bit
  58. Party Paddles by Fusai
  59. Dr Smiley's Brain Jam Party by Yal
  60. Jaguar Pogo Party by TotallyAverageGamez
  61. dawg the party animal by NivesStudio
  62. Party Pooper by Lukan
  63. City Scuttler by Bearman_18
  64. Candle by Steelegms2
  65. Hero Huddle by ThinGinger
  66. Fiesta Fist by Cristobal, MatthewPattel
  67. GMC Party Adventure by Imagine Galaxy
  68. Final Battle by Kahrabaa
  69. The Scattered Army by Sirham
  70. Behemoth by sp202
  71. Party Parade by Tristan
  72. Crazy Waiter by Gatefiz, JP, Claire Dujardin, Benfik
  73. Goin' All Nite by Dadio
  74. Party Guardians by StarDreamIX
  75. Color Splash by EvanSki
  76. matoset by Poizen
 
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A

AJTheApple

Guest
Reviews

Top 3:

Currently Undecided

Best ofs:

Also currently undecided

Full ranking (so far):

  1. Emmy And Sal by Mercerenies
  2. The Golden Balloon by Little Penguin Studios
  3. Adventures Of Robot X by Pixel-Team
  4. Fiesta Down by VinylFly
  5. Final Battle by Kahrabaa
  6. Crimson Guild's Glamorous Guest List by Mr Magnus
  7. Party Animal by TehPilot, TheFugue
  8. Need For Beats by Matharoo, BlaineTanuki, _aeternumgames
  9. Blackout by Siolfor the Jackal
  10. Candle Wars by Yozoraki
  11. Hero Huddle by ThinGinger
  12. Your Brain On Party by thijsmie
  13. Party Pooper by Lukan
  14. The Way Back To The Party by Noodlehead
  15. Apocalypse party by aspiringgamemaker
  16. Candle by Steelegms2
  17. Escape of the Clowns by kburkhart84
  18. Party Puker by Ben Stitt
  19. matoset by Poizen
  20. Goin' All Nite by Dadio

Comments:

Adventures Of Robot X by Pixel-Team

The presentation of this game is amazing, it genuinely blew me away when I opened it. From the music, to the art, to just the title screen and opening cutscene, I was almost astonished this game was made in 4 days. However, the gameplay is where it falls short. The controls feel a bit unrefined, and I fell through the floor more than once. The actual level design is a bit boring, which may just be due to the fact that the player doesn't feel amazing to control. However, everything other than the gameplay was great, the dialogue was enjoyable, and the presentation is fantastic.

Apocalypse party by aspiringgamemaker

The game was overall okay. The artstyle was inconsistent, though not the worst. The controls were okay, although I wish you could've moved diagonally. However, the idea was executed well enough, I just wish it was more polished.

Blackout by Siolfor the Jackal

Overall presentation was good, and I liked the artstyle. However, the game seemed to end before it even began, without a lot of gameplay. Also, the character was too slow. All things considered, a decent game, just needed more content.

Candle by Steelegms2

The game was okay. The controls were a bit finicky, and hitting the candles with the flame was way too precise. It seemed a bit repetitive after the first few levels, since the only thing that ever changed was the design of the level. The art was nice, though.

Candle Wars by Yozoraki

The game was overall pretty good. It was cute, although the gameplay itself was lacking. I liked the art, and all of the character designs were endearing. Overall, lacking in gameplay, but it was a charming game.

Crimson Guild's Glamorous Guest List by Mr Magnus

A great concept that was executed just as well. While it's a little lacking in the actual art, it's made up for by all of the details and the gameplay itself.

Emmy And Sal by Mercerenies

This game was really fun! The gameplay itself was very engaging, and the mechanics were taught perfectly, although the dialogue didn't add much, and the art in some areas wasn't the best. But overall, it was a great game.

Escape of the Clowns by kburkhart84

This game had a good concept, although a not-great execution. The gameplay itself seemed slow and clunky, and everything seemed less about solving a puzzle or actual skill and more about just waiting for the claw to move. The art also seemed kind of gross and muddy. Still, I believe this game has the potential to be very good with some more work put into the art and faster paced gameplay.

Fiesta Down by VinylFly

I loved this game! The story was very cute, and the gameplay was, if short, replayable. My first thought is that this game could easily be expanded and with a bit more polish and content it could be a very fun party or mobile game. The pixel art was a bit rough around the edges in some areas, and the game was very short, but it makes up for that.

Final Battle by Kahrabaa

I really liked it! It was satisfying to get stronger and stronger as the game progressed, although it did get repetitive near the end. The presentation was good, and the concept was great.

Goin' All Nite by Dadio

What the hell

Jokes aside, it was an, experience, although I'd hesitate to call it a "game". I can tell it was just made as a fun little joke, so respect for that, although I'd have a hard time ranking it fairly

Hero Huddle by ThinGinger

A bit lacking presentation wise, and I feel it could've benefited from a bit more juice and polish, although the core game is strong enough and it didn't overstay its welcome.

matoset by Poizen

Err, the game crashed on startup. The music that I could hear before it crashed was neat.

Need For Beats by Matharoo, BlaineTanuki, _aeternumgames

Overall a good agme that has a fun, simple mechanic that's expanded upon. A tad too difficult, though, especially in the third level.

Party Animal by TehPilot, TheFugue

A good concept with a lot of polish and a great presentation. The way the cat reacts to you can seem kind of finnicky sometimes, but that might just be me.

Party Pooper by Lukan

Neat concept, but lacking in polish. Art was fine, although there was a glitch (?) where the targets would only appear as dark colors, so it was very easy to spot them in the crowd of colorful people. Overall, it had a cool concept, but just not enough there to make me want to play it more.

Party Puker by Ben Stitt

I can tell this game was definitely made as a learning experience, so I won't judge it too harshly. I wouldn't say the game is terrible, just, bland. There's no art and only about 15 seconds of gameplay, so there's honestly not much for me to say. I definitely respect that it was made for the developer's first game jam, though, so I understand it's not supposed to be something super amazing. Overall, it was a neat concept, but the game is just empty.

The Golden Balloon by Little Penguin Studios

I really enjoyed this game. It gave me a sense of nostalgia, and just generally felt comforting and calm, a large part I suspect is due to the music, which I really liked. The gameplay was a bit too simple, but it didn't overstay its welcome, and I like the unique artstyle. It's simple, short, and sweet.

The Way Back To The Party by Noodlehead

This game had an interesting idea, but the actual gameplay felt confusing as to finding out what to do. The game wasn't terrible, just okay.

Your Brain On Party by thijsmie

Hectic, but fun. Art was okay, it took me a bit to understand how the game played, and the game got repetitive after a bit, but it was a good concept and I liked how it required you to multitask.
 
OK. Got my stuff done barely. Some of the feedback is a bit shorter than I would have liked.

Firstly, I want to say that I had a great time with almost every entry. A great variety of interpretations of the theme.

Now, one thing I want to get out is this: Please make you games switchable to full-screen. Either check that option in GMS or write your own scaling code, I don't care. Some games choose tiny resolutions, or you make a mouse aimed shooter, they need fullscreen.
Oh, and readmes. I know many of you are thinking "Oh but it's better to have that information in-game or have a tutorial". Yeah, that's ideal. But have a text file for reference is also really šŸ’©šŸ’©šŸ’©šŸ’©ing nice. And worst case scenario, if you forget or run out of time to add info in-game, well, hey, at least you have a readme to fall back on.
And it is really nice when you specify credits, even if you worked by yourself and did everything. I still want to know, just so there's no confusion when something looks or sounds *too* good, or doesn't match. Chuck that in the end of your readme too!

Because of the post limit, here's a google doc where I pasted the comments. I haven't got time to format it though. Sorry.

COMMENTS

Stream 1

Color Splash by @EvanSki
Escape of the Clowns by @kburkhart84
Crimson Guild's Glamorous Guest List by @Mr Magnus
The Annual GMC Party by @O.Stogden
Candle Wars by @Yozoraki
Hero Huddle by @ThinGinger
Jam Defenders by @Kepons
Behemoth by @sp202
Goin' All Nite by @dadio
Party Parade by @Tristan
happy birthday by @Yal
Party Pooper by @Lukan
3 Mice In A Trenchcoat by @Bart , @TheSnidr , @Xor, Naterboy
Jaguar Pogo Party by @TotallyAverageGamez
Hero Horde by @PinesOfChaos
Snake Dance by @Greenblizzard

Stream 2
Party Animals by @ScaryPotato, @kalzme
Party Puker by @Ben Stitt
Party Guardians by StarDreamIX
3 Mice in a Trenchcoat - speedrun :p by @Bart , @TheSnidr , @Xor, Naterboy
Party Detective by @Mercyssh
GreymoorHall by @Ninety
Forty or the Modern Big Brother by @SoapSud39
Party Animal by @TehPilot , TheFugue
Emmy And Sal by @Mercerenies
Queen by @Toque
Demon Dance by @Mightyjor, @curato, @Brett-Bit
Crimson Festival by @Alice , @FunkyPoop
Party Mountain by @AJTheApple
Apocalypse party by @aspiringgamemaker
Wastoid Rodney by @Cloaked Games, @JosephEllis, BlakeNorth
Adventures Of Robot X by @Pixel-Team
Survival Party by @HayManMarc
Plague Rats by @Nocturne
The Matchmaker (HTML5 ONLY, OPEN FOLDER) by @eimie
Christmas with Uncle Tom by @BluishGreenPro
Me pARRty by @ghandpivot
Extinction Tea Party by @Moon Goat

Stream 3 - part 1
Party Paddles by @Fusai
The Way Back To The Party by @NoodleHead
Robot Surprise Party by @samspade
R-pg-ING by @Micah_DS
GMC Party Adventure by @Imagine Galaxy
HealthBar by @Fanatrick
matoset by @Poizen (Unfortunately couldn't play this one!)
Fiesta Down by @VinylFly
City Scuttler by @Bearman_18
Dr Smiley's Brain Jam Party by @Yal

Stream 3 - part 2
The Retrieval by @Dr. Wolf
Need For Beats by @matharoo, BlaineTanuki, _aeternumgame
Roborazzi by @Kultisti, Sulo
Castle Meta by @The M
Survive the Party by @Nejc Podlipnik
Life Party by @Cat
Candle by @Steelegms2
Wham Bam Dan Jam Slam by @GameDevDan
Barry Bear's Birthday by @Richerama
Your Brain On Party by @thijsmie
One Big Political Party by @Terminator_Pony
The Scattered Army by @Sirham
dawg the party animal by @NivesStudio
One Big Party by @Gizmo199 , @shortbread
Jenka Dungeon by @dosto , Reaktori, @Riuku
GMC Fruit Salad Surfer by @Yal
Crazy Waiter by @Gatefiz , JP, Claire Dujardin, Benfik
The Party Must Go On by GVmG
Final Battle by @Kahrabaa
Fantasy Strategy Clicker by @Julien , @Hyomoto
dumburk 9000 by @BretHudson, Allen Webster, Jared Cohen

Stream 4
The Golden Balloon by Little Penguin Studios
Gangs Bash by @D'Andrƫw Box
Florida Man by @BreakfastBoy
Candles Have Feelings by @JordanOttesen
Keyboard Hero by @tadashibashi (After getting a post jam version working)
Fiesta Fist by Cristobal, @MatthewPattel
get to the party by @Wabb, @sequentia[/SPOILER]l
Quickly! Dispensegifts by @NAL

Votes

Top 3:

Wastoid Rodney by Cloaked Games, JosephEllis, BlakeNorth
Rad! Great art, music, and overall polish. This is probably one of the more "complete" and whole games I feel we saw in the whole jam.
Already had me with the keytar and 80s aesthetic.
The general gameplay was solid, shooting and movement felt nice, and the shot upgrades added to the satisfaction. Would have been cool to see more varieties and combinations of powerups.
One of my few issues with the game was the camera, I think maybe it moved a little bit too slow, but I did appreciate that it prioritised where I was looking.
I think an option for either dashing based on movement direction or based on aim direction would be a welcome addition, since there seemed to be a lot of situations where I wanted to dash where I was looking instead.
Enemy variety was nice, as well as some obstacle segments. Boss fight was messy, but I scraped through. I think it was well-designed for a jam.

Adventures Of Robot X by Pixel-Team
That intro and menu screen! It was rad how you got the menu font to display the entered name. Seeing "The Adventures of Robot Butts" on my second playthrough amused me more than you'll ever know.
Speaking of the menu, very slick MMX style with great transitions. All the splash screens looked great. As cool as the voiced intro was, it needs a skip option.
For the most part, this is Megaman X(Well, more like you play as Bass), and I think you did really well capturing that style of gameplay with your own twist on it and the story.
The biggest issue is the fall speed. The gentle glide downwards is way too slow! Set a max fall speed at least 2-3x faster(I think this would improve the feel dramatically), apart from that, the jumping and platforming was really solid.
Like I said earlier, the shooting is less Megaman and more Bass, which is actually nice, I like having the option to shoot at angles other that forward. A charge shot, or a quick fire burst shot would be a sweet addition.
Your boss fight was great, very much the kind of patterned boss fight I expected. Some better telegraphing of the beam attack would be nice, and what would be really cool is extra phases of the fight, plus more patterns. That said, I think for a jam, this boss fight is as much as it needs to be, so well done.

Castle Meta by The M
Once I mapped this to a controller, I had a blast with it. The item variety is nice(Though the spellbook is OP).
The idea that the next player will start with the gear I ended with, that's a cool idea, man. And I think it's awesome you pulled it off.
The combat and enemy variety were good, shame about the broken area.

Best ofs:

Best use of : Plague Rats by Nocturne
Best Concept: Crimson Festival by Alice, FunkyPoop
Best Presentation: Party Animal by TehPilot, TheFugue
Best Story: Crimson Festival by Alice, FunkyPoop
Best Devlog: ...

Full ranking:

  1. Wastoid Rodney by Cloaked Games, JosephEllis, BlakeNorth
  2. Adventures Of Robot X by Pixel-Team
  3. Castle Meta by The M
  4. Crimson Guild's Glamorous Guest List by Mr Magnus
  5. Emmy And Sal by Mercerenies
  6. Crimson Festival by Alice, FunkyPoop
  7. The Matchmaker (HTML5 ONLY, OPEN FOLDER) by eimie
  8. Candles Have Feelings by JordanOttesen
  9. Robot Surprise Party by samspade
  10. Jenka Dungeon by dosto, Reaktori, Riuku
  11. Survival Party by HayManMarc
  12. Plague Rats by Nocturne
  13. Queen by Toque
  14. Keyboard Hero by tadashibashi
  15. Roborazzi by Kultisti, Sulo
  16. Snake Dance by Greenblizzard
  17. Jaguar Pogo Party by TotallyAverageGamez
  18. Candle Wars by Yozoraki
  19. HealthBar by Fanatrick
  20. Extinction Tea Party by Moon Goat
  21. Escape of the Clowns by kburkhart84
  22. GreymoorHall by Ninety
  23. Jam Defenders by Kepons
  24. Party Animal by TehPilot, TheFugue
  25. One Big Party by Gizmo199, shortbread
  26. Hero Huddle by ThinGinger
  27. Hero Horde by PinesOfChaos
  28. The Golden Balloon by Little Penguin Studios
  29. The Retrieval by Dr Wolf
  30. Barry Bear's Birthday by Richerama
  31. Forty or the Modern Big Brother by SoapSud39
  32. Party Detective by Mercyssh
  33. The Party Must Go On by GVmG
  34. Fiesta Down by VinylFly
  35. GMC Fruit Salad Surfer by Yal
  36. Need For Beats by Matharoo, BlaineTanuki, _aeternumgames
  37. Demon Dance by Mightyjor, Twintertainment, Brett-Bit
  38. 3 Mice In A Trenchcoat by Bart, TheSnidr, Xor, Naterboy
  39. The Annual GMC Party by O_stogden
  40. Florida Man by BreakfastBoy
  41. Party Mountain by AJTheApple
  42. Final Battle by Kahrabaa
  43. Fiesta Fist by Cristobal, MatthewPattel
  44. Gangs Bash by D'Andrew Box
  45. Crazy Waiter by Gatefiz, JP, Claire Dujardin, Benfik
  46. The Scattered Army by Sirham
  47. Wham Bam Dan Jam Slam by GameDevDan
  48. Apocalypse party by aspiringgamemaker
  49. Your Brain On Party by thijsmie
  50. One Big Political Party by Terminator_Pony
  51. Me pARRty by ghandpivot
  52. dawg the party animal by NivesStudio
  53. happy birthday by Yal
  54. get to the party by Wabb, sequential
  55. Candle by Steelegms2
  56. R-pg-ING by Micah_DS
  57. Survive the Party by Nejc Podlipnik
  58. Fantasy Strategy Clicker by Julien, Hyomoto
  59. Behemoth by sp202
  60. Christmas with Uncle Tom by BluishGreenPro
  61. Life Party by Cat
  62. Party Puker by Ben Stitt
  63. GMC Party Adventure by Imagine Galaxy
  64. Dr Smiley's Brain Jam Party by Yal
  65. Party Paddles by Fusai
  66. Quickly! Dispensegifts by Allison James
  67. The Way Back To The Party by Noodlehead
  68. City Scuttler by Bearman_18
  69. Party Animals by ScaryPotato, Kalzme
  70. Party Guardians by StarDreamIX
  71. Color Splash by EvanSki
  72. Party Parade by Tristan
  73. dumburk 9000 by Bret Hudson, Allen Webster, Jared Cohen
  74. Party Pooper by Lukan
  75. Goin' All Nite by Dadio
  76. matoset by Poizen
 
Last edited:

Yozoraki

Member
Reviews

-About my Ratings-
If I'm rating all these games I decided I want to bring something new to the conversation instead of repeating what many others inevtiably will.
So I have structured my ratings under three titles- What I Loved, Possible Improvements and Full-Game Worthy?
Everything here is very subjective and heavily biased based on my personal preferences, so don't make the mistake of thinking it has any credibility haha

Some of the things I value in jam games are-
  • I love an original concept or a unique spin on something, creativity is also noticed
  • A game needs to be fun and easy to pick-up (in game tutorials, good pacing, no hard resets)
  • I have a heavy bias against platformers because nintendo polish has ruined them for me. I do apologise šŸ˜…
I didn't thoroughly check my reviews so they are most likely first impressions without much expansion.
Also- I thought all the games this time were really great and I was super impressed! Great job everyone!


Top 3:

Forty or the Modern Big Brother by SoapSud39
Superb overall and a blast to play, I was enthralled the whole way through and love the changing gameplay that matches the story so well. A very creative entry with great music, story, sound and art. Well done!

Crimson Festival by Alice
It turned out amazing! Truly a feat that this could be pulled off in a jam game. It's an amazing idea on so many levels. The art is great and how you pulled all the strange art styles together is impressive. Knowing the behind the scenes and how hard you worked on this and brought the red gang together is also greatly appreciated.

Roborazzi by Kultisti, Sulo
Really fun and polished game, that takes a concept and plays it out perfectly! Excellent visuals and sound, all supporting that superb game-play loop.

Best ofs:

Best use of Theme: Crimson Festival by Alice
Best Concept: Crimson Festival by Alice
Best Presentation: Party Animal by TehPilot, TheFugue
Best Story: Forty or the Modern Big Brother by SoapSud39

Full ranking:

  1. Forty or the Modern Big Brother by SoapSud39
  2. Crimson Festival by Alice
  3. Roborazzi by Kultisti, Sulo
  4. Party Animal by TehPilot, TheFugue
  5. Crimson Guild's Glamorous Guest List by Mr Magnus
  6. Plague Rats by Nocturne
  7. Jam Defenders by Kepons
  8. One Big Party by Gizmo199, shortbread
  9. Jenka Dungeon by dosto, Reaktori, Riuku
  10. Final Battle by Kahrabaa
  11. Emmy And Sal by Mercerenies
  12. Party Detective by Mercyssh
  13. Wastoid Rodney by Cloaked Games, JosephEllis, BlakeNorth
  14. Hero Huddle by ThinGinger
  15. Wham Bam Dan Jam Slam by GameDevDan
  16. GreymoorHall by Ninety
  17. Adventures Of Robot X by Pixel-Team
  18. Party Mountain by AJTheApple
  19. The Matchmaker (HTML5 ONLY, OPEN FOLDER) by eimie
  20. Gangs Bash by D'Andrew Box
  21. The Golden Balloon by Little Penguin Studios
  22. The Party Must Go On by GVmG
  23. Candles Have Feelings by JordanOttesen
  24. Fiesta Down by VinylFly
  25. City Scuttler by Bearman_18
  26. GMC Fruit Salad Surfer by Yal
  27. Extinction Tea Party by Moon Goat
  28. Snake Dance by Greenblizzard
  29. 3 Mice In A Trenchcoat by Bart, TheSnidr, Xor, Naterboy
  30. Hero Horde by PinesOfChaos
  31. Castle Meta by The M
  32. Need For Beats by Matharoo, BlaineTanuki, _aeternumgames
  33. Keyboard Hero by tadashibashi
  34. Demon Dance by Mightyjor, Twintertainment, Brett-Bit
  35. Quickly! Dispensegifts by Allison James
  36. The Scattered Army by Sirham
  37. HealthBar by Fanatrick
  38. Fantasy Strategy Clicker by Julien, Hyomoto
  39. Florida Man by BreakfastBoy
  40. Your Brain On Party by thijsmie
  41. Jaguar Pogo Party by TotallyAverageGamez
  42. Fiesta Fist by Cristobal, MatthewPattel
  43. Candle by Steelegms2
  44. Me pARRty by ghandpivot
  45. The Annual GMC Party by O_stogden
  46. Behemoth by sp202
  47. Survive the Party by Nejc Podlipnik
  48. Escape of the Clowns by kburkhart84
  49. Blackout by Siolfor the Jackal
  50. The Retrieval by Dr Wolf
  51. One Big Political Party by Terminator_Pony
  52. Dr Smiley's Brain Jam Party by Yal
  53. GMC Party Adventure by Imagine Galaxy
  54. Robot Surprise Party by samspade
  55. R-pg-ING by Micah_DS
  56. get to the party by Wabb, sequential
  57. Queen by Toque
  58. Christmas with Uncle Tom by BluishGreenPro
  59. Survival Party by HayManMarc
  60. Crazy Waiter by Gatefiz, JP, Claire Dujardin, Benfik
  61. The Way Back To The Party by Noodlehead
  62. dawg the party animal by NivesStudio
  63. dumburk 9000 by Bret Hudson, Allen Webster, Jared Cohen
  64. Party Guardians by StarDreamIX
  65. Barry Bear's Birthday by Richerama
  66. Apocalypse party by aspiringgamemaker
  67. Party Animals by ScaryPotato, Kalzme
  68. happy birthday by Yal
  69. Party Parade by Tristan
  70. Party Puker by Ben Stitt
  71. Goin' All Nite by Dadio
  72. Party Paddles by Fusai
  73. Life Party by Cat
  74. Party Pooper by Lukan
  75. Color Splash by EvanSki
  76. matoset by Poizen

Comments (A-G):

3 Mice In A Trenchcoat by Bart, TheSnidr, Xor, Naterboy

What I loved- Very impressive 3D work, I love the character models. The platforming is simple but works well and the game is well designed around the fixed camera. I like the ending, simple but satisfying.

Possible improvements- The level design is decent, however I think it's lost a bit between being direct and open world so it can't achieve the benefits of either one. Because the camera is fixed I think direct levels are more suited to it. I dunno if it's just me but the fish eye sort of look to it made me a little nauseous, I think it was likely to do with the tall walls and in general they could probably be brought down a little anyway.

Full Game worthy?- The fixed camera 3d platformer is something I'm sure exists somewhere but I've never seen it before so if you can use that as a hook then yes. And the genre that benefits the most by a fixed camera is horror so maybe adding some elements of horror could make it stand out? :p


Adventures Of Robot X by Pixel-Team

What I loved- The name in the title is very cool. Good platforming, level design and enemy variety. I love the animations and visuals. The dialogue is great at keeping interest as the game continues. The boss was nice too!

Possible improvements- I like the floatiness to the jumping but the initial jump height is too low so it makes getting over saws and spikes very difficult. Those spikes were particularly hard to get through timingwise too.

Full Game worthy?- It's very good all round so if you can find your niche in the platforming genre then yes. The world building makes me think it would suit some light metoridvania elements like open-world with consistent characters.


Apocalypse party by aspiringgamemaker

What I loved- I'm assuming this is one of your first games (because there are a lot of easy fixes that you've missed that come from long term use of GM), if I'm right and it is then congratulations. While it's not the perfect game, I can really see the value and effort put into this. I especially love the premise and the detail put into the visuals (the paintballs hitting walls, the generator getting damaged).

Possible improvements- Try and research some different movement tutorials, having to release buttons to move doesn't feel great. Only spawn ammo on the floors (just check for a collision with your wall object before spawning it). Design-wise, I think finding more use with the side areas would be good. When I got to the end of the 5 minutes and didn't know where the door was, it got really fun because I only had like 6 health on the generator left. If you made the door randomly generate somewhere, it would give you something to search for while you were shooting.

Full Game worthy?- It's a bit too linear, but with some expansion, yes. Like I said, I can see the creativity in your work and I hope you continue on to make even better games!


Barry Bear's Birthday by Richerama


What I loved- Graphics are creative, reminds me of the web games I used to play as a kid. The sound and effects are well implemented

Possible improvements- The tutorial disappears way too fast, you should probably wait until a player presses a button. The hard reset stopped me from seeing all of the game, I got up to the candles and died (because I didn't understand the controls immediately). I think randomising would've been the best approach here because then people can experience everything and people who want the challenge can try and get them all in a row.

Full Game worthy?- Probably not, it's a bit too gimmicky

Behemoth by sp202

What I loved- A really cool idea, with a geat aesthetic and polish.

Possible improvements- In game prompts would be great, I didn't notice the readme until it was too late (my bad).

Full Game worthy?- No, but as a cool feature in another game it'd be awesome (similar has been done in some games but spoilers haha)


Blackout by Siolfor the Jackal

What I loved- The character models are really nice, music is great.

Possible improvements- Some more content/variety and also more detailed environments, but I'm aware that was the plan.

Full Game worthy?- I love an adventure game as much as the next guy. So yes, especially with those quality character models and the focus on changing character dialogue


Candle by Steelegms2


What I loved- Cool shooting mechanic, graphics are really nice. Controls really well.

Possible improvements- A level counter or something with even a barebones story would've added a lot. Add music. Some ending

Full Game worthy?- I really like the mechanics you have here, I reckon add the ability to light multiple candles with one projectile, and then fill the room with more enemies per level and make it like a horde fighter. And maybe an upgradable flame.

Candle Wars by Yozoraki

What I loved-

Possible improvements-

Full Game worthy?-


Candles Have Feelings by JordanOttesen

What I loved- Visually great, the concept is well explored and the mechanics are all really well implemented. Level length is well done and there is a decent amount of challenge

Possible improvements- I found the wall jump very frustrating and it killed the fun for me (this is more on me because I generally don't enjoy platformers that much). I think the wall jump just needs a bit of coyote time too because I would mess it up by both trying to swap directions too fast and hold onto the wall for too long.

Full Game worthy?- This seems like a boss level of a platformer, I don't think you could sustain a longer period of play with the kid mechanic. As a boss level, absolutely.


Castle Meta by The M


___________________________________________
############################################################################################
FATAL ERROR in
action number 1
of Destroy Event
for object enemy:

Unable to find any instance for object index '100871' name '<undefined>'
at gml_Object_enemy_Destroy_0
############################################################################################
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
stack frame is
gml_Object_enemy_Destroy_0 (line -1)
called from - gml_Object_obj_muncher_Step_0 (line -1) - <unknown source line>


What I loved- Excellent idea. Fun variety in gameplay and weapons, good level design. Good simple art style.

Possible improvements- I got the error above after defeating a pink enemy. I had already tried exploring in all directions so I didn't try again, honestly I probably wouldn't have completed it anyway because I died in frustrating ways and the checkpoints are just a bit too far away to have that "i must try again!" feeling. The main thing for me was the platforming needs some work, it's that classic mario thing where the main mechanic is the platforming so you need to make sure that's fun on it's own, also it had a double jump sometimes but not always and I couldn't figure out why.

Full Game worthy?- Yes. The idea of having the previous player affect the next is a really cool idea and a game that focuses on making that fun would be great, just focus on polishing the movement first.

Christmas with Uncle Tom by BluishGreenPro


What I loved- Amazing polish, good writing, great sound. Accessibility options are always appreciated . The spritework is very nice too, managing a lot of detail in such small sprites

Possible improvements- More branching dialogue/ choices would add to the game. Also, profile pictures for who is speaking maybe?

Full Game worthy?- The system you've got is really nice and seems future-proof for a full game. Visual novels need some sort of hook to get me interested though so you'd need to think of something. If you get your hook then absolutely.

City Scuttler by Bearman_18


What I loved- Had fun exploring the game world and finding new items as I climbed my way up the power chain.

Possible improvements- All the things you listed would be great additions. A hold down movement for walk would be good for the large stretches.

Full Game worthy?- I like the concept and the system you've made seems very future proof, so it bascially just needs more content. I think the graphics would need a boost, but it could play as either a rogue-like or with a less punishing death and more like a metroidvania.

Color Splash by EvanSki


What I loved- Played the fixed version- Cool concept, amazing menus.

Possible improvements- The obvious

Full Game worthy?- Any game with this beautiful menu is worth it.

Crazy Waiter by Gatefiz, JP, Claire Dujardin, Benfik

What I loved- Great visuals and atmosphere. Great sound and overall polish. I like the timed free roam gameplay

Possible improvements- I got an endless spinning mop when I was cleaning and a couple of people ran into me during. Controls took a while to get used to but even then it was pretty much impossible not to hit any party guests. Less people would help I think. My strategy by the end was just mop up all the vomit and I got a much better score haha

Full Game worthy?- While I enjoyed it, it's a little too gimmicky for a full game.


Crimson Festival by Alice, FunkyPoop

What I loved- It turned out amazing! Truly a feat that this could be pulled off in a jam game. It's an amazing idea on so many levels. The art is great and how you pulled all the strange art styles together is impressive. Knowing the behind the scenes and how hard you worked on this and brought the red gang together is also greatly appreciated.

Possible improvements- It's great already

Full Game worthy?- Absolutely, I think there's definitely a huge undiscovered market here. You could go out and contact other indie devs with newly released games that look promising to you and make another free crossover story with links to the games that give you a cut if they're used for sales. It seems like most things have been done in games before but, is this a new genre? A festival type game? Amazing.


Crimson Guild's Glamorous Guest List by Mr Magnus

What I loved- Some legit fun, I got hooked trying to get the high score haha The music and sound all adds to the fun and love how the characters move in time with it. It's got enough depth to it to continue being fun through the multiple playthroughs and the faded hints when you get stuck make it even better. Also very creative in its various instructions and civilian attributes. Great job

Possible improvements- Work on the character sprites a little so they're a bit easier to see at a distance, I think they did a great job as is though. Distant people are hard to see (but part of the fun I guess)

Full Game worthy?- It'd work already as a web game for sure. Add a story/more locations and I'd pick it up again for sure.


dawg the party animal by NivesStudio

What I loved- Excellent first game jam! Impressive! Love the idea and the variety of gameplay, having an overworld is much better than a simple menu.

Possible improvements- The music is way too repetitive, if you want music in your game then there are plenty of free resources out there. The time limits on the games really go against the main goal of the game, I got a four star amazing party at the end because I wasn't quick enough but I'm unsure how I could have been faster because all the games are timed. I would change the goals to (get X amount of fruit/get X amount of hits on the duck). You should look more into how resolutions and sprite sizes work in game maker (it's very confusing at first I know) ,so that you can try and keep a consistent scale across the whole game. The last thing is checkpoints, I think a lot of people won't get to the end of your game because of the very brutal hard reset which happens when you get hit by the bull. Especially with jam games, you should make them as easy to complete as possible for favourable reviews.

Full Game worthy?- It would require a lot of polish but a game like this with minigames would work. I think flesh out the overworld with more gameplay outside of minigames.


Demon Dance by Mightyjor, Twintertainment, Brett-Bit

What I loved- Love the classic controls, good rhythm and a good mix of interesting backgrounds that don't get in the way of gameplay but just add extra mood, and having them all be unique is great. The background dancers are also great.

Possible improvements- While the gameplay is good, it doesn't bring much new to genre gameplay wise and doesn't stray much from the constant steady beat of notes and only single hits at a time. At the same time i did actually appreciate it from the standpoint of a jam game as I didn't have to remember the song or practice before getting into it.

Full Game worthy?- If it's got good music and well mapped gameplay then any rhythm game can be successful. I think you'd need to figure out some sort of niche idea that would make it stand out though.


Dr Smiley's Brain Jam Party by Yal

What I loved- A very intricate tetris style game, it seems like it has a lot of stategy and I especially love the concept of holding a piece.

Possible improvements- I played a round without seeing the rules and was extremely confused, then I tried again generally knowing the rules and it didn't actually change the result by much. I'm bad enough at tetris so this definitely isn't a game targeted at me.

Full Game worthy?- It would probably require a lot of iteration and deep AI research into the order of pieces to make it 100% fair run to run, but if tetris found it's success I'm sure this could too. Some more visual cues to things being almost matched could help too.


dumburk 9000 by Bret Hudson, Allen Webster, Jared Cohen

What I loved- The layout of the text is well designed, the sound design and music changing with the modes works great.

Possible improvements- I love the concept but it wasn't utilised to it's fullest here (I guess mostly from time constraints). It definitely needs more choices in the player's control. As it is, even with more variety, there isn't much that I felt like I was doing.

Full Game worthy?- I love the style and I definitely think there is a niche for games like this, but it needs more player control.


Emmy And Sal by Mercerenies

What I loved- Great tutorial, great puzzle design! Practical visuals, simple storyline that ties the game together. Interesting mechanics. The gameplay allows for easy experimentation which is what I love in puzzle games, no game over screen just give it another go easily. Testing is qucicker, easier and visually satisfying so it stops the problem some other puzzle games have where I just look at it for 5 minutes until I solve it without touching anything.

Possible improvements- Nothing jumps to mind!

Full Game worthy?- You've already pushed the mechanics farther than I could imagine possible so I doubt it, but I wouldn't put it past you to be able to haha It's a very solid game as is.


Escape of the Clowns by kburkhart84


What I loved- A very interesting mechanic, in a way it's a take on tetris. Love the creepy clown visuals, and the clown controls work well. The puzzles are good at introducing new mechanics.

Possible improvements- The main detriment of the game is that there is a necessary waiting period in all the levels (when the crane picks up the boxes). An easy fix would be to make the speed up down button also work for the crane in general. But even still, building a tower is quite tedious (the block types definitely help this though).

Full Game worthy?- It's an interesting mechanic I haven't seen before so sure! First you'd need to fix the game flow problem, but after that you could implement shapes other than squares (triangles, circles?)

Extinction Tea Party by Moon Goat

What I loved- The short burst style gameplay is very fun, get right into the action. Controls nicely and incoming projectiles etc are choreographed really well. Visuals are consistent and nice.

Possible improvements- It's a little inconsistent from game to game but this does also add to the fun a bit because of the element of luck that can get you that bit further.

Full Game worthy?- Put it on mobile with and upgrade system and unlockable costumes and you got yourself a game!


Fantasy Strategy Clicker by Julien, Hyomoto

What I loved- Well balanced clicker, doesn't require alot of waiting like some clickers and has a variety of different things to do. The art and layout design was generally very good

Possible improvements- I finished it but it could've been a lot shorter, seeing that any new mechanics or strategies are found before even the second to last battle. The clicking to add troops to the battles felt tedious compared to the other clicking, I would guess mostly because there isn't any immediate award to it so I would have liked a slider or something there. Being able to watch the battles play out, even just a little mockup would have also added to the experience.

Full Game worthy?- For an idle clicker it definitely has some value that lots of others don't. I like the general theme to it and if it were to keep adding unit types i think it would work really well with the standard idle game model (upgrade until final boss then restart with extra bonuses).


Fiesta Down by VinylFly

What I loved- Love the visuals and the polish. Great length, difficulty and easy to understand gameplay for a jam game.

Possible improvements- Nothing comes to mind!

Full Game worthy?- It's an interesting mechanic, it definitely seems to fit a multiplayer game. Give it a wider play area and some more strategies/mechanics. The short rounds make it fun to play in bursts.


Fiesta Fist by Cristobal, MatthewPattel


What I loved- Love the nostalgic look and the animations and sprites are great. It has lots of variety, which I think is one of the most important parts of a beat'm'up. While I don't have anyone to play with, adding two player is really cool.

Possible improvements- Controls in game would be handy. The combat felt a little bit unfair and I think overall it could do with a bit more crunch effectwise to make it feel more satisfying, like visual and sound effects. The difficulty wasn't bad but kicking you back to the start made it feel tedious on the next runs. I tried multiple times to defeat the gunman (I assume is the final boss) but I couldn't do it and I always seemed to die in a kind of glitchy way where I would lose a huge chunk of hearts from getting too close, but it's necessary to beat him. Also that pesky G button haha

Full Game worthy?- I think this is definitely worth expanding on. Focusing on the two player aspect could be really cool, for me it's been some of the most fun I've had with 2D beat'm'ups (playing Contra 2P) Needs some more variety in the combat but you seem to have a good grasp on what makes a fun classic beat'm'up overall


Final Battle by Kahrabaa

What I loved- Very fun and satisfying gameplay, the art style is easy to understand even in a pile of 100 units and is consistent. Sound is well done, and the variety of enemy types is appreciated. The build up units feels great and introducing larger enemies and waves of enemies early on really makes beating them later all the better.

Possible improvements- An ending/goal or just something to do with the money is the natural next step. The formation controls are great but underutilised seeings there's not really any reason to split the group up and it just makes it a bit annoying when you get to a really large group to have to be pulling the stragglers at the back along to progress. You could probably do away with the formation stuff (keep the left click right click cos that was cool) and then just make all enemies move in correlation to the mouse at all times but have farther enemies move slower so you still feel like you're in control.

Full Game worthy?- I like it a lot but like a lot of other entries the major hurdle is the large enemy size which would be difficult to handle in a large project in terms of both cpu and designing a longer experience without it losing it's appeal. I love the game structure though and that can definitely be used elsewhere.


Florida Man by BreakfastBoy


What I loved- Really fun to play, especially the alligator mechanics. Sound is good, visuals are nice. The checkpoints are spaced out well.

Possible improvements- Needs coyote time.

Full Game worthy?- Sure, I can see it working as a short level side scroller like 2d mario structured levels. The only problem would be coming up with enough unique mechanics for enough levels, which is difficult.

Forty or the Modern Big Brother by SoapSud39

What I loved- Superb overall, a blast to play. All super polished. Great music, story, sound and art. Well done

Possible improvements- It's pretty great as is.

Full Game worthy?- For sure. Expand and give it some multiple endings and secrets


Gangs Bash by D'Andrew Box

What I loved- Minigames are all great and stand on their own so the game flows nicely. The menus are especially and I like the general aesthetic and sound design. The cars is a perfect blend of frustrating and skill based gameplay.

Possible improvements- An ending, even a simple podium screen would be cool.

Full Game worthy?- I imagine it's designed as a multiplayer experience from alot of the UI and I think it'd work really well as one. Just add some more games and an ending.


get to the party by Wabb, sequential

What I loved- This is very impressive for a first jam game, I love the variety and the sandbox approach to how levels work. Very unique controls that you don't often see with these types of games, but it works really well especially with the speed controller.

Possible improvements- I kept trying to click on the icons at the bottom before remembering that they are mapped to number keys, it wouldn't hurt to have them function by both. The artwork could be improved but it does the job fine as is. Music/sound would be good. I would have loved to see more levels that really prove the concept more.

Full Game worthy?- I like the concept so sure! if you do then definitely expand on the sandbox/creative side to the gameplay with multiple ways of beating a level


GMC Fruit Salad Surfer by Yal

What I loved- This one is definitely the best of your three. I love the aesthetics, and the unlockables are all super interesting. The game plays well with easy to understand controls.

Possible improvements- Nothing comes to mind.

Full Game worthy?- As a phone game yes, but the small screen (that works really well here) doesn't really allow for much expansion in my opinion and I think you've explored the concept to almost it's deepest level already.


GMC Party Adventure by Imagine Galaxy


What I loved- Super creative with solid gameplay. The themed areas are nice. The tutorial level is really great, a single path that teaches the basic mechanics needed for the whole game (wall jumping etc)

Possible improvements- Level design is probably the thing you should focus on learning, study your favourite levels in other platformers and try and figure out why you love them. Some tips I would give you are first of all, make sure the player understands where the goal is and even better, always make the level design point towards the goal (unless it's specifically a maze-themed level). One of the reasons 2d mario is so fun is because the goal is always known (go right). If you are going to make a level with multiple paths, all of these paths should be fun. Don't make a level big just for big sake, try and make sure everything is there for a reason. I usually do this by mapping out levels on paper first.
I would also avoid any random elements like seemingly random enemy movements in a precision platformer like this. Try and keep enemies predictable and in line with how you designed the level (random enemies can ruin your vision, for example I got stuck sometimes because there would be 4 or more enemies in the way and no way around).

Full Game worthy?- The gameplay is decent, so keep practising level design (the most important part of platformer game design) and you'll be ready for a full game in no time. Good luck!

Goin' All Nite by Dadio

What I loved- Fun goofs.

Possible improvements- Seems like all possible targets for this game have been reached

Full Game worthy?- If anything it's proof that HD games CAN be made with Game maker


GreymoorHall by Ninety

What I loved- Love how it looks and the sound design. The gameplay is really cool and puts you in the role as soon as the game starts up. The dialogue and randomisation is all really well implemented.

Possible improvements- The waiting in it is it's biggest flaw, as I write this review am waiting for the white guy to be by himself with a full case against the yellow guy and all possible info. Buuut, I just timed out and the white guy never left the center of the room. I would suggest using set paths instead of random movements, even if it's just for the white guy so he'll enter side rooms more often or something. Other than that there's not much!

Full Game worthy?- Yes. But it would require a lot of work because I think it would require a lot of different scenarios, like a 2d Hitman style game.
 
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Yozoraki

Member
happy birthday by Yal


What I loved- The atmosphere's great, and as always 3D in gamemaker is impressive. The world is interesting and even with minimal graphics I could recognise areas.

Possible improvements- I spent like 5-10 minutes jumping around and only found one balloon, and I couldn't reach it. The controls are very slippery which is fun for movement but not for precision. Watching others stream it, I got a better feel for it in general but it didn't click with me controls wise.

Full Game worthy?- Not without a large amount of optomisation and some better gameplay goals

HealthBar by Fanatrick

What I loved- All the visuals are great and support gameplay really well. The controls work really smoothly and it's satisfying to play and complete orders.

Possible improvements- There's a pretty big difficulty spike when the mixing of colours starts (or maybe i'm just really bad haha), I think bringing mixed colours in sooner would work better because they're the most fun, maybe 1/4 of orders right from the start. Also maybe have new orders in fixed locations so it's easier to visualise the orders.

Full Game worthy?- There's not much expansion that could be made to the premise because there is only so many colours. I guess it could be expanded similarly to any other speed cooking games. I think it works really well as a minigame though.


Hero Horde by PinesOfChaos

What I loved- Very deep and a lot of content for a jam game. I love the distinct enemies and the various class types.

Possible improvements- The main problem is the small hitboxes for clicking, I think fullscreen would've helped a lot (couldn't find it if it was there), but even with fullscreen having to click directly on enemies is difficult, especially when the camera is in motion. Auto-attack when in the area might have worked better. Also while the game seems very well balanced, the guage in the top right is really hard to comprehend as a player and I often died because I would buy a guy for 50 with a few hundred spare not realising until too late. I think you could fix this with a red zone where you can survive for a small amount of time when under money so people know that whatever is above the line they can spend.

Full Game worthy?- It reminds me a lot of runescape gameplay wise so if you can find a way to make runescape exciting outside of an MMO then yes, I imagine that's fairly difficult to pull of though. You seem to have a knack for stat based games so something in this vein I imagine is definitely achievable.


Hero Huddle by ThinGinger

What I loved- Great concept and well executed. Looks great and feels fun to play. The final boss is a super satisfying end to the game with a good amount of challenge.

Possible improvements- The zooming on the boss is great in concept but it was a little jarring and made it so hard to target the boss when the party gets small, not necessarily a 100% negative though if that's what you're going for. Also some of the guys got spawned outside the boss area and got stuck.

Full Game worthy?- As much as I love it I can't imagine it any bigger than this scalewise, I think it would just be too messy to handle with such a large amount of units.


Jaguar Pogo Party by TotallyAverageGamez

What I loved- Looks really nice, plays great.

Possible improvements- The mouse for facing directions seemed unused? Probably a planned future feature I'm guessing. The gameplay is well made but it isn't incredibly fun, there's a lot of back tracking and the movement itself gives a bit of feeling of waiting for him to come back down, it's hard to explain. (I'm not a huge fan of platformers so it may just be that). I would have loved to see an enemy that complimented the pogo movement (Jump on their head enemies is an easy example).

Full Game worthy?- It's missing a big part of the fun factor at this point, so that's something you'd definitely need to work out. Like the hook of the game, and something that can prove the value of the pogo movement mechanic. But overall, yes, It's got great polish and art so there's a full game here for sure.


Jam Defenders by Kepons

What I loved- Love the minimalistic take on a tower defense, also I love the party themed attacks. It's also very satisfying to play. As a proud red gang, I beat the game with an army of apples. The formations for distributing units worked really well

Possible improvements- More levels! I wanted to keep playing haha

Full Game worthy?- Definitely! I think it'd work best as a web game


Jenka Dungeon by dosto, Reaktori, Riuku

What I loved- The visuals are amazing, especially the character icons and end boss. It's challenging but the random generation means the hard reset isn't so bad and I got better at understanding enemy movement etc the more I played. The boss especially was great and satisfying when I finally beat him.

Possible improvements- The movement was a tad sluggish. Some of the enemy AI (red guy, soldier) were very hard to predict compared to others which I got the hang of.

Full Game worthy?- Yeah I can see value in this as a full game. Maybe as a less punishing version with attacks that the player has control over.


Keyboard Hero by tadashibashi

What I loved- Good music choice, rhythm-wise it seems to line up well. Visually great and the intro was done really well, simplistic.

Possible improvements- The keyboard key placement makes it difficult to understand with just a straight line on letters down the bottom. I can more or less touch type and I still found it difficult. I'd say maybe make the line at the bottom 3 lines that match with the key placements.

Full Game worthy?- Yep! A good rhythm game comes down mostly to the music choice for me.


Life Party by Cat

What I loved- Love the music and the general vibe.

Possible improvements- Some sound effects for when presents were given would add to it. Also for a high score game I think it needs some more AI with the instance creation so it's less based on luck. There were a few times where I would have 3 of a colour gift and none would spawn for a good few seconds. Maybe have separate timers for each colour spawning or spawn in a similar coloured ghost for each present so there's always a goal.

Full Game worthy?- A game with a similar vibe- yes. But gameplay wise there's not enough there


matoset by Poizen

Didn't work, and I tried the itch link and the download kept failing. Let me know if you fix it because I think your game looks really cool and I'd love to try it!

Me pARRty by ghandpivot

What I loved- Great atmosphere, I enjoyed the exploration alot. All the cannibalism jokes made me laugh

Possible improvements- Some clipping issues, lighting needs some work. Camera controls could be smoother. And of course some more content

Full Game worthy?- Absolutely. Even with very little game here I really enjoyed. Maybe like a roguelike? But with a large focus on exploration and comedy


Need For Beats by Matharoo, BlaineTanuki, _aeternumgames

What I loved- Visuals are great, it's almost distracting how much I enjoy watching the background dancers. The music tracks are all great choices for a rhythm game. The tutorial was great, and the general game design worked really well.

Possible improvements- I had some trouble with the green notes, I don't know if it was just me but I couldn't find the rhythm in them so they threw me off a little. And that last track (while being fun) felt like looking down at the road out the window while it's driving down the highway, so I definitely couldn't play it for long periods of time.

Full Game worthy?- The gameplay is very similar to a runner, so I can see it as a rhythm runner. It's gameplay already is basically one of those rayman music levels with a different skin (and we all know they were the best levels)


One Big Party by Gizmo199, shortbread

What I loved- Really great presentation, has a great visual style too for a party game. The minigames are consitently really well polished and fun.

Possible improvements- I would make the game timer just a bit shorter, it's not too long I just think it'd benefit from shorter games because then you'll get that 'just one more round' feeling. Put the chickens further back in the coop so that they don't block the way near the end, it might add for some shenanigans in real multiplayer but for singleplayer multiplayer it's just frustrating.

Full Game worthy?- Sure, marioparty is crazy popular so there is definitely a market for it. Add a board game overworld sort of thing and some interesting characters and I'll buy it


One Big Political Party by Terminator_Pony

What I loved- Love the visuals, and the idea is great. UI works really well, especially the travel movement.

Possible improvements- It's very hard to understand from the get-go. It's a style of game I often stay away from because i don't usually get interested quick enough to delve deep into the mechanics (which is where it starts getting worthwhile).

Full Game worthy?- It's not for me, but if you aim for the niche market that is drawn to them then I would think yes. For me personally, it would need to be a lot more visual and focus more on the comedy aspect ( I appreciated the comedy in it)


Party Animal by TehPilot, TheFugue

What I loved- Visually amazing. Sound design is also great, including well fitting music. The puzzles are slowly introduced and use the good variety of mechanics well.

Possible improvements- I had various problems on the level that introduces doors, sometimes getting stuck in the door, sometimes getting pushed out the playzone entirely, because I thought you had to leave the guy next to the door to keep it open and then he would close it on me (aka, a me problem). The cat movements aren't consistent so I think a visual cue for this would be good for the places they stop, something like cat scratches on the carpet.

Full Game worthy?- Gameplay-wise it's hard to say, it would need some more depth and there's no obvious solution in my mind. But really, put this level of aesthetic on anything and it'll sell


Party Animals by ScaryPotato, Kalzme

What I loved- Nice aesthetics and music, and very well polished all round.

Possible improvements- While there's variety to the games they're quite shallow in general, most of them just involving some sort of button mashing. I think the card one has the most value on it's own but then it was also quite unbalanced and random. I think I would have focused on one game standing on it's own like a more complex version of the card game (maybe multiple cards taking turns trying to reach one's number which could lead to some fun sabotage/'they stole the card I needed' situations)

Full Game worthy?- Aesthetically yes, but the gameplay isn't deep enough as it is.


Party Detective by Mercyssh


What I loved- Really great gameplay loop, multitasking between a bunch of tasks that are all easy and fun plus really great movement that feels fast.

Possible improvements- Those 'hints' really are very mild, but I guess it's funny to shoot a guy based on the fact that some guy at a party said he wasn't happy with his brother haha. Its a bit hard to see in the default window and gets a bit blurry in fullscreen (but functional). The tools are the most difficult part to see, an equipped icon in the top left would be helpful. Also add floor signs somewhere because it isn't universal what floor 3 is (I thankfully live in a country where we don't have the insane 0 floor)

Full Game worthy?- Yeah this is fun enough for it. Polish it and maybe add a story with more specialised dialogue and a growing expansion of tasks to have to do.

Party Guardians by StarDreamIX


What I loved- It's basically a more interesting version of space invaders on it's side. I like the left/right attacks idea for getting enemies that get past you. Multiple playable charaters is cool too.

Possible improvements- Try and stick to either full mouse controls or full keyboard. Also art style is very inconsistent, try to pick one and stick with it. A bit more depth to the combat would have been good, especially the axe guy because enemy attacks would often hit before I got a chance to attack.

Full Game worthy?- I think focus on the bow character and treat it like an upgrade to a space invaders game and it'd make a cool arcade game.

Party Mountain by AJTheApple

What I loved- Great presentation, the movement is fun by itself as a platformer should be. The crunchiness to the deaths and flag collection is really nice. Excellent level design with tutorial built in. Great polish and consistency all round.

Possible improvements- It's a little on the short side (I mention because I wanted to keep playing when it ended). The left/right movement when jumping felt ever so slightly off, not a game breaker at all just thought I'd mention it.

Full Game worthy?- You need a hook for sure because concept it is available in other games on the market, but I love the feel and movement so expand upon it for sure!


Party Paddles by Fusai


What I loved- The concept of making an RPG party into a pong paddle is an amazing use of theme haha Sound is well done, controls smoothly

Possible improvements- It's an interesting concept but has some major flaws. Very luck based (natural for an 8 player game), you can't really aim at all so you just defend the whole time and there's no real benefit to it being 8 player it just takes away the ability to read your opponent like in 1v1.

Full Game worthy?- Probably not

Party Parade by Tristan

What I loved- Even with minimal mechanics I still had fun with it.

Possible improvements- Matching the fps etc better to the music is a start, also having the prompts along the bottom of the screen took away from the background changes. Either change the layout or maybe add in small breaks in the game to allow players to see the changes.

Full Game worthy?- Probably not, but this sort of fun atmosphere can defintely be transferred to other games


Party Pooper by Lukan

What I loved- Well designed with good UI. Gameplay is fun

Possible improvements- It didn't involve much searching because it relied so heavily on colour and there was only one person of that colour so I never had to look closely at the faces (also they seemed to only ever be dark colours?). I played three times and I swear that I didn't click the wrong one so maybe there's some overlap issues (or I'm just bad).

Full Game worthy?- I've seen similar finder games become successful so if you can find a new interesting idea in the genre then absolutely.


Party Puker by Ben Stitt

What I loved- First of all congrats on your first game! I spent years not finishing games before I discovered game jams and since I have, my skill level has rocketed so I hope that you'll get to experience the same! This is a really great start for sure! I like the general mehanics you've chosen and tying the gameplay to a player motivation helps me imagine the situation even though all the objects are squares. The AI is pretty decent too!

Possible improvements- I would've liked to see some puke effects when you lose haha. You could also quite easily replace the squares with free online resources to bump up the quality.

Full Game worthy?- No, but your first game never should be. It's only up from here! Good luck :)


Plague Rats by Nocturne

*crashed for me 1st while I was reading thelevel 2 text, and then when I beat a hardhatted zombie in the 3rd level.

What I loved- Love the art style, the group of rats feels really good to move. Simple but fun

Possible improvements- Nothing really stood out other than the crashes

Full Game worthy?- For sure, this could easily be a phone game as it is


Queen by Toque

What I loved- My lucky last entry on the randomiser, and a perfect comedic end to the jam. Got some laughs out of me for sure, visual gags are great too.

Possible improvements- As a game about comedy it's flawless, gameplay wise it has some flaws but I immediately forgive them all because the comedy comes first. Birds doubling up was a bit trippy though

Full Game worthy?- While this game isn't, I definitely think there is a huge empty market for comedy games and you do them well. 90% of the television I watch is comedy, so why is such a small amount of games I play comedy? I think you could make a really successful game in the vein of McPixel


Quickly! Dispensegifts by Allison James


What I loved- Absolutely horrifying, but has great game feel. Chunky as hell and I got surprisingly used to the controls.

Possible improvements- Not much!

Full Game worthy?- This is probably best left as a jam game haha but a great one

Roborazzi by Kultisti, Sulo

What I loved- Amazing, excellent visuals, superb gameplay. Excellent gameplay made better with great sound. Really well polished

Possible improvements- Great as is!

Full Game worthy?- Is this not a full game already? :p If we're talking bigger though, a story and cutscenes would be cool.


Robot Surprise Party by samspade

What I loved- I love the concept, really interesting take on the theme. Visually it's very nice and polished, controls well.

Possible improvements- The concept isn't completely acheived here, it always feels somewhat unfair because seemingly none of the 'enemy' movement is choreographed so you'd have to play the level over and over to figure out the pattern (or just wait and watch which isn't extremely fun). I think you could fix this with either character paths visualised, or if that's too obvious then make a sort of rule based system where you know what the enemy is going to go towards by putting a thinking bubble of that item above their head.

Full Game worthy?- I think you'd need to figure out which genre it really is because it's kind of stuck in between a puzzle and stealth game without being either, choose one and go with it! :)


R-pg-ING by Micah_DS

What I loved- Interesting concept, wasn't used to it's full potential but enough to prove there is fun to be had with it. The movement was great and the mouse controls are intuitive. Length of levels was good.

Possible improvements- The colours were very hard to read and it was very dark overall. The necessary wide range of the camera makes level design difficult, so I think designing with the least amount of turning possible would make for fun levels.

Full Game worthy?- I can see it playing well as a less open-world and more like a runner with short auto-scrolling levels, kind of like Fall Guys but you play as all the characters haha


Snake Dance by Greenblizzard


What I loved- Interesting mix of game ideas, very well polished, controls amazingly. visuals work well and perfectly match gameplay. Difficulty and scoring is well balanced

Possible improvements- Not much!

Full Game worthy?- It seems like final form as it is!

Survival Party by HayManMarc


What I loved- Died on level 3. Theme use is spot on, the game strategy gets more fun as you learn the mechanics. The graphics are nice and wow, as a lazy programmer the effort put into that scoreboard scares me haha

Possible improvements- At first it comes off as a walking sim (in a way it is) but as I said it gets more strategic but it's still missing something because it seems to mostly come down to luck on the AI movements and spawned items. It feels a bit slow overall too. The backtracking you have to do when someone leaves the party is a little frustrating too, I think you could solve this by having a button that represents a chant or something and you have to chant when any party members go yellow or something along those lines so you don't physically have to go pick them up again.

Full Game worthy?- Probably not, little too gimmicky.

Survive the Party by Nejc Podlipnik

What I loved- Very satisfying combat, great sound design.

Possible improvements- Spawn points would have been better outside of the arena so you had more time to react. Also this led to them getting caught in each other (probably could have turned off collisions between enemies all together). The player feels a little slow, the dash helps but enemies being faster than you feels somewhat unfair.

Full Game worthy?- There are loads of games in this style that are popular so you'd need to find something new to compete, but the combat felt good so I'd say yes.


The Annual GMC Party by O_stogden

What I loved- Even though I've only been active on the forums for a few months now, there was enough here to keep me interested.

Possible improvements- The mysteries were kind of dumb and mostly guesswork, but I am aware that's the point haha.

Full Game worthy?- Dunno, but i do know of another game available on Steam that might be


The Golden Balloon by Little Penguin Studios


What I loved- Excellent polish and visuals. The party mechanic at the end made me glad I finsihed it. The levels are a great lengths. The double jump mechanic is fun.

Possible improvements- The double jump didn't work sometimes? Not sure why it seemed like a 50/50 chance, which made some of the later levels more challenging than it should have been.

Full Game worthy?- Sure! I like the interesting take on platforming, but I think it could be a bit faster for potentially longer gameplay times.

The Matchmaker (HTML5 ONLY, OPEN FOLDER) by eimie

General Thoughts- had a good time with this, especially when I learnt the best tactic- pushing the lonely losers to the walls haha

What I loved- Super polished, and the art and design is really great. Difficulty is perfect for an arcade jam gam.

Possible improvements- Nothing stood out, I guess if anything some sort of global high scores or goal would be the next step

Full Game worthy?- Possibly as a mechanic of a larger game (e.g. necrodancer) but I think it's pretty much it's perfect form as is!







The Party Must Go On by GVmG

What I loved- Really fun to play, the cart movement is excellent espeically the screeching. Cool to see a text from myself :p

Possible improvements- I think if you added an element of remembering where things were/ items you can see on shelves it could add to the fun. At the moment it's mostly me just smashing into everything until it autopickups (still very fun)

Full Game worthy?- I reckon it'd make a great phone game with a daily schedule style checklist and upgrades (like papers please format)


The Retrieval by Dr Wolf

___________________________________________
############################################################################################
FATAL ERROR in
action number 1
of Step Event0
for object obj_combat_master:

ds_list_find_index argument 1 incorrect type (undefined) expecting a Number (YYGI32)
############################################################################################
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
called from - gml_Script_detach_ship_from_flagship (line 7)
called from - gml_Script_ship_do_combat_turn (line 169)
called from - gml_Object_obj_combat_master_Step_0 (line 31)


What I loved- Very Impressive, fully legible even with little colour. Great interface

Possible improvements- Error I got above happened when I was moving my scout ship. Game design wise it's very difficult to understand in general (admittedly I did gloss over the manual a bit), with more time I think a step by step in-game tutorial would help a lot. Also personally I would want a more defined goals and interesting encounters

Full Game worthy?- It's not my type of games (I don't often get into complex strategy games), but the polish and detail here is surely appreciated by people who are.


The Scattered Army by Sirham

What I loved- This game is incredibly creative and I find a lot similar in the values you have focused on with what i enjoy with games and game dev. It seems like a strategy game at first but it's more of a puzzle. I love the world building, various locations and task based gameplay tied to characters and places.

Possible improvements- I was unfortunately unable to finish it, I got stuck with the knight and lake enemies both to powerful to beat even on easy mode, it's likely I just missed something but without an overall guide of some sort this is a problem you'll find many players will have. There doesn't seem like any major reason why you'd need arrow keys to move, so I would change it to be entirely mouse based. I think it'd be good to have some in-game indicator of what's clickable, so an easy way of doing that is create a mouse object that changes sprite based on what it's hovering over.

Full Game worthy?- For sure. I personally am really drawn to games that focus on consistent and varied handmade content over random generation or stretched out design. I think the mechanics would need some polish and some more involved and fun combat, but I like the world and the single screen locations aspect.


The Way Back To The Party by Noodlehead

What I loved- A nice take on a text-based game. The fast reaction bit was really cool

Possible improvements- It was easy to get lost in the streets, I would add a new image for each area, or you could give the streets names.

Full Game worthy?- With a good story and more interesting mechanics/surprises like the fast reacction bit, this style of game could succeed for sure.


Wastoid Rodney by Cloaked Games, JosephEllis, BlakeNorth


What I loved- Visuals are great, story and characters are great (reminds me of regular show), gameplay is fun and polish is excellent

Possible improvements- I thought it was a little difficult in terms of level length. The hits you take are a bit unfair at times. The camera is a difficult one to grasp because I turned it off at first which made it easier to control but then I ended up turning it back on (and understanding why it's on in the first place) because you need to be able to see around corners. There has to be a solution somewhere inbetween the two camera styles, but I dunno what it is haha sorry.

Full Game worthy?- It would need tweeking in some areas, but there's fun to be had here so yes. I can see it being fun as more of a random generated roguelike type.

Wham Bam Dan Jam Slam by GameDevDan

What I loved- Insanely impressive. I wish I had been doing GMC jam for longer so I could recognise the characters. The character variety and unique models and specials are so cool. The UI and overall polish is excellent.

Possible improvements- The gameplay is a little basic but it was still fun and I don't think it needed to be anything more, but if I had to say one area to improve it would be gameplay

Full Game worthy?- Probably not, but I am totally stealing this idea and making a crossover game of all my jam game characters in the future


Your Brain On Party by thijsmie

What I loved- I really love the concept and the multilevel gameplay. Very interesting take on the tower defense genre and I'm a big fan of TD games that let you create your own path because of the extra layer of strategy it gives you (less of an idle clicker like bloons). The brain art real nasty too, I like it haha

Possible improvements- There are a lot of small things that when added together lessen the experience, for example I would get 'can't place over towers' messages on blank tiles (not the pink wall-like ones or a full row, just some random ones). The party bars outside of vibing and social are awkwardly far in that you can make it there and back in time but it really throws you off the flow of the game and on top of that if you want to use something in the bar it leaves it very low so you're almost forced to do every distant run twice in a row. I think a way to fix this could be, make the timers much longer and then make the party items move around every wave so you're always on your feet (Thematically I'm thinking like that "change places!" robot from futurama haha)

Full Game worthy?- I like the flow of the tower defence portion and the mix of the two mechanics (I find a lot of TD games are lacking player-reliant game mechanics). So yes, and I think it could work as switch between two screens thing, one at the party and one in the head. I think there's a lot of opportunity for a cool story here too, like Inside-out but dark comed haha.
 

Bjulin

Member
Here are my votes so far. I hope to find the time to play some more before the gates close!

My comments are usually quite short and to the point.
I don't want to be rude about it.
But I generally try to give constructive criticism.
So please don't be angry if I don't beat around the bush.


Reviews

Top 3:

Party Animal by TehPilot, TheFugue
Not much to say here!
Style in music and presentation are great!
The theme is neatly incorporated.
The game mechanics are interesting and expandable.
This one is definitely a winner!

The Party Must Go On by GVmG
OK, here we have a really unique idea and that also linked to the theme - That gives fat extra points!

The music fits the mall quite well, the sounds as well.
The graphics are quirky and appropriate for such a prototype.
The gameplay is really something else. Just a pity that you have no overview, which products are desired. Then it would make sense to memorize where to find what and you could then target that specifically. But that might be something that goes beyond the prototype.
A really good one - Well done!

Emmy And Sal by Mercerenies
Wow - Interesting puzzler!
Captivated me a bit right away. Especially because there were different elements, with different effects. And everything nicely embedded in the theme.
The music is unfortunately inappropriately chosen for the theme.
Graphics are adapted to the theme and the depth effect by the parallax scrolling a small eye catcher
Not bad at all!

Best ofs:

Best use of : ...
Best Concept: ...
Best Presentation: ...
Best Story: ...
Best Devlog: ...

Full ranking:

  1. Party Animal by TehPilot, TheFugue
  2. The Party Must Go On by GVmG
  3. Emmy And Sal by Mercerenies
  4. Plague Rats by Nocturne
  5. Robot Surprise Party by samspade
  6. Snake Dance by Greenblizzard
  7. Castle Meta by The M
  8. Apocalypse party by aspiringgamemaker
  9. Extinction Tea Party by Moon Goat
  10. Escape of the Clowns by kburkhart84

Comments:

Apocalypse party by aspiringgamemaker

The theme is built into the concept.
The music is actually just a beat.
Sound effects were hardly present.
Graphically, this is worthy of a prototype.
Unfortunately, though, I just don't see a game concept in it. How should this be expanded? The game is over after 5 minutes. And with it then also the attraction of the whole game. Sure, a hard mode adds another few minutes, but then what? Somehow I have the feeling that this doesn't go beyond the prototype.

Castle Meta by The M

The idea of players being able to find other players' items is nice, but since the interaction doesn't show up in the game, it doesn't work. If you read the readme after the fact (like I did), you have no idea what the meta is supposed to be and what the names on the board mean.
The theme itself was not implemented in the game. It also has nothing to do with a party if the players can't get together. So the idea itself is to be appreciated, but unfortunately not quite thought through to the end.
Music is standard, also has no party character.
Graphically, there is also nothing party-like.
I think it's good that the items have different effects and therefore make playful sense!

Emmy And Sal by Mercerenies

Wow - Interesting puzzler!
Captivated me a bit right away. Especially because there were different elements, with different effects. And everything nicely embedded in the theme.
The music is unfortunately inappropriately chosen for the theme.
Graphics are adapted to the theme and the depth effect by the parallax scrolling a small eye catcher
Not bad at all!

Escape of the Clowns by kburkhart84

Uh... what can you say. The eyes hurt!
I know that this is a prototype, but still should not cause pain!
The music is chosen to fit the theme.
In the graphic elements, the theme was also tried to process.
Gameplay-wise, the whole thing didn't captivate me and I didn't really have fun with it either, I' m sorry.

Extinction Tea Party by Moon Goat

No explanation.
An error after 8 seconds of play.
The graphics are relatively appealing.
The gameplay has nothing to do with the theme for me. Only the presentation can remind you of a party with the sweets and cakes.
An extinction also has nothing in common with one big party.

Party Animal by TehPilot, TheFugue

Not much to say here!
Style in music and presentation are great!
The theme is neatly incorporated.
The game mechanics are interesting and expandable.
This one is definitely a winner!

Plague Rats by Nocturne

Well, I think the subject has been dealt with in a way. But ... well. ;)

Graphically, of course, it's impressive for a prototype, even if it wasn't designed this weekend.
Music is simple, but again, cool that this is homemade.
Gameplay-wise, it's not badly done. Especially the division of the rats into groups adds depth to the game, of course.

Robot Surprise Party by samspade

The music is full of disharmonies , which is why I was grateful for the music button!
The sound effects are drowned in reverb, which unfortunately makes no sense in a bright world like the one presented here.
But I think it's cool that they seem to have tried to create the assets themselves.
The graphic elements in contrast are so cool and beautiful that I can hardly get out of being amazed. Were they created this weekend or are these already finished assets? Either way, these are really cool pixel graphics!
The gameplay is of course simply explained as "hide and seek", but unfortunately the meaning wasn't carried over into the story or the instructions (or at least I couldn't figure it out from the in-game text). I'm going on the assumption that the bot was the birthday child and wasn't supposed to notice anything. Unfortunately, the bot recognized the sneaky bots even though they were hidden in the bushes, which unfortunately makes the game mechanics not work.

Snake Dance by Greenblizzard

Interesting concept - I think one could certainly make good out of this!

The music unfortunately does not fit the theme.
Graphically, this is modern, minimalist. The advantage is of course the clarity, but one can not convey a great party with it.

The Party Must Go On by GVmG

OK, here we have a really unique idea and that also linked to the theme - That gives fat extra points!

The music fits the mall quite well, the sounds as well.
The graphics are quirky and appropriate for such a prototype.
The gameplay is really something else. Just a pity that you have no overview, which products are desired. Then it would make sense to memorize where to find what and you could then target that specifically. But that might be something that goes beyond the prototype.
A really good one - Well done!
 
V

VinylFly

Guest
I'm not sure I'll make the deadline on the 22nd, so I wanted to post what I've reviewed so far. Congrats to all, I'm blown away by the creativity on display here...

3 Mice In A Trenchcoat by Bart, TheSnidr, Xor, Naterboy:

The movement in this game felt really smooth, benefiting from some great animations all around. It is one of those games that immediately feels fun to just wander around, which is essential for a platform/adventure/stealth game such as this. I also delighted in each time I wandered too closely to an enemy critter, hearing them 'bark or 'hoot' at me. Not only does it warn the player of their 'high alert' status, it is just really funny because the models and animations themselves are fantastic and amusing. A great effort all around.

Adventures Of Robot X by Pixel-Team:

A nicely polished platform game in the vein of Mega Man X, but with a delightfully twisted sense of humor. The ingredients are all there for a full-on adventure, so it will be interesting to see if the mechanics make there way into a longer experience. One detail I enjoyed was that you holster your gun when speaking to NPCs. That is a small detail, but one I found added to the immersion that much more. Between the fun humor and attention to detail, to the ability to fire diagonally, to an intense boss battle at the end, Adventure of Robot X is a swell entry.

Apocalypse party by aspiringgamemaker:

There is a nice tension that permeates throughout the whole of this game; it reminds me of Resident Evil in the way that you are always nervous about running low on ammo. And in a fresh twist on game-play, the zombies do not directly attack you as the player, but the generator that is keeping the lights on. And you must keep the lights on, as that is the only thing keeping you safe! When I was getting low on firepower, and I noticed a slew of zombies start to rip up my light-source, I ran around like a madman looking for those sweet, sweet ammo caches. A fun, simple game that had me replaying to see if I could wait out the 5 minute goal. I like it!

Barry Bear's Birthday by Richerama:

'Barry Bear's Birthday' had me laughing all the way through in the best way possible. From popping balloons, eating candy, playing a musical chair-like, and pinning the tail on poor Eeyore, these collection of mini-games were all different and challenging. But with a bit of practice, I was keeping Barry Bear happy all the way through. What makes the game beyond the solid game-play, were the fun sound effects that accompany each mini-game; although I was left brokenhearted each time I failed, and Barry Bear was left crying. This game reminds me of WarioWare, except everything here makes sense immediately, even when you only have moments to become accustomed to a particular game. Verdict: Would attend Barry Bear's Birthday again next year!

Behemoth by sp202:

Whoa, this was a trippy little experience. In the game, some sort of god tasks you with placing either an 'X', a circle, or a square in the correct order across 10 blank spaces. In what is a brilliant use of multiplayer, you can leave a 20-character message to help new players solve the riddle. As written in the 'readMe', I limited my play as to not break the experience for others. I will return after the voting process to finish the game. But I have to say, this was really, really awesome!

Blackout by Siolfor the Jackal:

We have all been there: you wake up in a strange hotel room unsure of how you got there, end up killing a rat to earn enough money to pay for the pizza you stole the night before, and make it in the nick of time to your heavy metal audition. Having said that, the game is really great! The animations, the humor, the music, it is all solid stuff. It is laid out in an efficient way, where you will not wander aimlessly without a clue of what to do. A perfect slice of a game jam. I would love to see a continuation of this game. Like, maybe you wake up every-other-day after a blackout and have to solve last night's shenanigans. I wish I could say I cannot relate, but alas, here we are. I really enjoyed it, nice!

Candle by Steelegms2:

What is cool about this game--and this may be due to time constraints-- is that you learn through playing as to what is expected of you. You play as a mysterious candle-master, wandering through a cake-like maze full of other, dangerous, lesser-candles. The only way to stop these evil, unlit, waxy demons, is to fire your flame, stopping them in their tracks. It takes a moment for your flame to return, so there is sense of danger wherever you go. Luckily, there are also potions to collect that allow you to investigate with ease, but only for a short while. Find the key, find the door, and continue your adventure. I actually really enjoyed the aesthetic and the idea behind this one. I can see it expanding, imagining all sorts of puzzles to solve with your flame; the more complex the deeper you go into the dungeon. As it stands now, I give it 4 candles out of 5. Sweet.

Candle Wars by Yozoraki:

'Candle Wars' had me right from the beginning, as it felt like some long lost fairy tale come to life! The aesthetic and vibe was like a mix between Babes in Toyland and Alice in Wonderland. It was a joy to play as you run around collecting jellybeans to order up troops to aid you in battle and problem solving. Having a crew of cupcakes and exploding candies was extremely enduring. I was unable to beat the boss, however, so I will have to return to solve that last mystery so I can enjoy the conclusion. Still, this was one of my favorites so far!

Candles Have Feelings by JordanOttesen:

Boss battle incoming! In Candles Have Feelings, you take control of a frightened candle in various platform sections to outrun the birthday boy trying to blow you out. This was a lot of fun, as the platforming felt pretty good and diverse (jumping over frosting, wall jumping, etc.) and the animation if you lose is so very amusing; a single tear from the blown-out candle as he frowns in defeat. As mentioned earlier, this feels like a boss battle of sorts, and I could imagine a whole game of sensitive candle goodness. A cool idea, and the execution is quite polished. Nice!

Castle Meta by The M:

'Castle Meta' merges a platform-adventure with a neat multiplayer component, creating a unique journey for players to engage with. During your adventure you can collect items to aid you, such as swords, axes, dash-giving items and more. The catch? The next player that ventures forth will find the items you left behind in their respective slots, allowing for some interesting situations. Their are plenty of different enemies to deal with and spikes to avoid, and everything culminates in a boss battle against a giant, bullet-shooting demon heart! Unfortunately, after I died to the boss and re-spawned, I seemed to be frozen in place outside the final lair, unable to continue. It is just a minor bug, and the game is still worth playing because it is a pretty meaty game with lots to explore. Really cool ideas here!

Christmas with Uncle Tom by BluishGreenPro:

You know you are in for a treat when a Christmas game has a parental advisory, but my expectations were blown to pieces as the credits begin to roll. My initial thought was that this was going to be an absurd, black comedy with swearing and craziness; which would have been just fine. However, I soon realized this was a down-to-earth recollection of good memories, with likable, colorful characters and a polished framework for delivering a nicely written story. Sure, uncle Tom may be somewhat aloof and a potty-mouth, but you sense his heart is true, and I think just about anyone can relate; we have all had an uncle Tom in our lives at family gatherings. I especially enjoyed the Starving Hippos pixel art and the music. The music is very lovely! The game is very well done, and I look forward to playing again while choosing the alternative dialog choice!

City Scuttler by Bearman_18:

'City Scuttler' is an impressive Jam. As described in the readMe, there are some elements not implemented because of time constraints, which is completely understandable. What is here, however, is a very playable turn-based 'roguelike' where you search for items to collect, equip, and use on unsuspecting (and suspecting) enemies. Kill an enemy, and you can collect their arm to allow you to perform more moves before the world reacts. It is a fun way to level-up before you journey further upwards into more threatening enemies. Once you understand the controls and the concept, the game becomes quite accessible and enjoyable. You can tell this slice of concept is just barley scratching the surface of the full vision, which is not a negative, it is an exciting prospect! With a bit more work, the game could go on to be something truly epic and original. It is an interesting game in its own right, and surly a project I hope pops up again down the line. Super cool, unique and fun!

Color Splash by EvanSki:

I am very happy 'Color Splash' was added to the lineup because it gets my imagination bursting with what the end result may have looked and played like! Sure, the game is unfinished, but I am certain it would have been a blast to color splash, especially with EvanSki humor combined with the use of the Gang theme. Presumably, just based on some of the descriptions of what was planned, my guess would be an all out battle between the 3 colored gangs where you could switch to different member of your gang at will, perhaps with each fighter having a different ability or power. And maybe at the shop you could spend points or another currency to buff up (or de-buff down) your teammates before entering another arena. Perhaps the battles were in the form of a 2-D Smash-like type of game! Hopefully the original vision will be attempted again at some point because it sounded rather chaotic and fun!

Crazy Waiter by Gatefiz, JP, Claire Dujardin, Benfik:

The concept of 'Crazy Waiter' is immediately understood, making it really accessible right out of the gate. This allows you to jump right in and start, er, waiter-ing. The waiter staff has ditched you for a bit, so it is up to you to grab a slice of pizza or a beer and track down the patron. Unfortunately, the place is hopping with activity, so you need to avoid other customers or lose money in the process. The game helps you out by having an arrow to guide you to the destination, but you will have to weave and jive your way to avoid going into debt before the timer runs out. I managed to hit positive cash flow by the end, but it was clear I was a terrible waiter. The other staff better have a good excuse for ditching me on such a busy night, but all is not lost, the game is fun as heck! Very nice!

Crimson Guild's Glamorous Guest List by Mr Magnus:

The collaboration among the Crimson Guild is pretty spectacular, and I did not realize these were all connected in some way until now! Well played, red, well played. In 'Crimson Guild's Glamorous Guest List', you take on the roll of inviting guests to the party, but you must select carefully based on distinct features such as hair color, types of clothing, folks in cars, and other qualities. The game plays within a single screen, an entire neighborhood worth of pixel people; people are walking, dancing, driving; it is quite a sight to behold. Luckily, as the player, we simply check the list of invite-able people, right click on the mouse to zoom into the scene, and left click on your mark to invite. It is an incredibly enduring game because of the busyness of the scene with all these colors and pixels. The game itself is very polished, even offering options for accessibility regarding certain colors and differing fonts; it is all well thought out. Not only are the options great, but there are 4 different modes to tackle that give the game a lot of replayability. Truly a remarkable effort!

Dawg the Party Animal by NivesStudio:

In 'Dawg the Party Animal', it is up to you to make it a special day by visiting a few friends and completing their quests. There is a lot going on in this game, and it is quite ambitious because of all the different mechanics at play. Firstly, there is the hub-world where you control Dawg with WASD or ARROWS, guiding him from one house to the next. Inside each house, you are tasked with different mini-games that present you with a completely new mechanic. In one house, your goal is to aim your gun with the mouse and carefully shoot fruit so it lands in the basket held by an AI controlled pig. In another, you play laser-tag against a duck within a large maze-like arena. And finally, you must outrun a rampaging bulldog. In the end, the party goes down and were left with an exciting party with the DJ duck providing the music. This is a fairly short experience, but there is quite a lot of substance packed into this small package, and I salute the ambition on display here. Really nice effort.

Demon Dance by Mightyjor, Twintertainment, Brett-Bit:

In what might be the best use of the jam theme yet, 'Demon Dance' takes on the rhythm-game genre with style and polish. There are 3 hot tracks to jam to, tasking the player to hit the appropriate arrow-key in time with the music. Mechanically, this game is spot on and very accurate, which is obviously a must for this type of experience. But the real treat is the trippy background imagery that accompanies the music; from really cool spinning planet effects to the vibrating colorful dancers to the final dance-off on a stage under a disco-ball, the atmosphere is just perfect! When I play a game like this, it makes me wish I could create something close to this experience. But between the graphics and the mechanics, it is all a bit beyond me. But the point is that it is inspiring to play. Just fantastic!

Dr Smiley's Brain Jam Party by Yal:

If the likes of Tetris and Puyo Puyo had a baby and it was raised by bar-tending PH.D. wielding party-wolves, you might get something close to 'Dr Smiley's Brain Jam'. Maybe. The point is, this chaotic take on the classic falling-block-puzzler is as addicting as it is bonkers. Instead of simple blocks or gooey blobs, we have an assortment of different party-themed items that have their own prerequisites to account for to clear them. There are fruits, drinks, balloons, bombs, and presents (presents being a sort of wild card). Fruits, for example, must be cleared in a line, but will not fall like the others. Bombs on the other hand with blowup when either color-matched or line-matched. There is a lot to take in when you start playing, but once you get accustomed to the different rules, it becomes a blast to play. One unique feature is that you can swap a falling group with another with the press of the spacebar, and it adds a level of control and strategy that keeps things interesting. With lots of fun effects and graphics, this insane puzzler is highly recommended!

dumburk 9000 by Bret Hudson, Allen Webster, Jared Cohen:

Firing up 'Dumburk 900' prompted a message from the developers commenting that their game is a prototype, and would be expanded upon post-jam. Without any other context, I jumped in to take a peek! What I was met with was a HUD displaying different types of information. One section displays ship/dance floor/tree stats and cost required for upgrading. Another section delivers information on days passed, loot acquired, party attendance and ship capacity. And the other area shows what the state of the game is currently in; whether it is day, night, upgrade time, or review time. By pressing enter, you toggle the game-states and receive updated insight on your progress. There is obviously a lot of thought going into what is happening here, and I would love to see where this is all going. But based on what is here, it seems like a text-based turn-based resource management-type game with the intended goal of creating the biggest and best party in the galaxy. There is something epic going oh here, and I am extremely curious as to what a final product might look like. Keep up the good work!

Emmy And Sal by Mercerenies:

A neat little puzzle game where you must place boomboxes, sub-woofers, and other tools onto a grid with the goal of getting out the word on the upcoming Crimson Guild Party. Each tool has its own range and reach, and it is up to you to place them so that they cover the whole grid area without overlapping. You place a boombox, check to see how many squares it covers, and then rearrange or add another tool to fill in the rest. Once you cover the entire area, you win the level and move on. This is all built around a story and plenty of levels to tackle. It is a relaxing game and I could see this being even more fleshed out and added to post-jam. But even in its current state, the game in quite meaty. This was a lot of fun, well done.

Escape of the Clowns by kburkhart84:

WARNING: Clown Torture ahead. With that being said, 'Escape of the Clowns' is a platformer that tasks you with moving kidnapped clowns to the exit and back to the party where they belong. It seems these poor clowns are being harassed by cranes dropping wooden crates onto them, but luckily for the clowns, we can use these boxes in certain situations to get to the goal. Each level adds a new twist on the gameplay, and with it a new challenge to overcome. With 10 levels in all, one for each kidnapped clown, you cannot help but want to rescue all of them. It is a neat game and well executed. Well done.

Jaguar Pogo Party by TotallyAverageGamez:

What stuck out to me in 'Jaguar Pogo Party' is that the bouncing around on a pogo-stick feels so good. The game nails that idea that even 'walking around' itself is satisfying and fun. I would love to see this game fleshed out with more levels because the Pogo-mechanic is just that good. I hope the developer continues this experiment post-jam. Well done!

One Big Party by Gizmo199, shortbread:

Wow. This is an extremely polished, beautifully rendered mini-game collection that nails the jam theme in many ways. For one, the game itself is built with multiplayer in mind. And the theme itself is, well, one big party. You can even choose which gang to play as, including the mysterious Purple Gang. As for the mini-games themselves, we have a total of 4 to choose from. 'Punch Funk' is all about knocking other gang members over the edge with a boxing glove. 'Pushy Pool' tasks us with dodging pool balls while some overlord of pool continues to play. 'Chook Chase' is all about wrangling the appropriate colored chicken into the appropriate pen. And finally, 'Feud Court' is all about catching falling fruit, comically watching your basket fill and grow with all of your fruit. All the games are quite challenging, which is a plus because the matches are very short, and you can easily replay them over and over with the goal of getting first place. The graphics are great, the polish is unreal, and the games are fantastic. This is going to be a tough one to beat, that is for sure! I really, really liked this one.

Queen by Toque:

'Queen' has two great things going for it; really fun humor, and really nice classic arcade action. To celebrate the 40th GMC Jam, a parade has been planned and organized by the queen of England. Unfortunately, some pesky pigeons show up to ruin the fun by pooping all over the place. This cannot stand, and the queen quickly jumps into action to rid the parade route of these flying rats. While you can skip the intro and get right to the action (a nice option to include), the cut-scenes are so amusing you will not want to skip them, even after first viewing. So how does the queen decide to deal with the enemy? Well, she first asks the guards to shoot them, naturally, but the guards refuse because these are of a protected bird-type. Then, in a nice twist, the developer of the game shows up as Toque's Special Species Pigeon Removal. Unfortunately, the queen dismisses Toque's pigeon service, which is shame because this very specific business was made to order. But the queen has a plan now, and nothing will stand in her way. She then unleashes a hound. The hound then gets carried off by a pigeon. How frustrating for the queen. In one final hurrah, the queens turns to the next obvious weapon: mushy-peas. And this is where the action begins. You control the queen and must use these mushy-peas to fling at the pigeons. If you run out of mushy-peas, you will need to collect more from a handy barrel full of them. I enjoyed how if you get hit by the pigeon poop, you will get a game over. But if you let the poop land on the street, you can then clean up the poop for an extra point. It is quite hectic and enjoyable. To mix things up, there are between level cut-scenes, that again, are just hilarious. With 4 levels and plenty of poop to keep you busy, 'Queen' is a solid Jam that keeps you laughing the whole way through!

Your Brain On Party by thijsmie:

Being a fan of the tower-defense genre, I was pleasantly surprised to find this little gem of a game. But this is not just another tower-defense, it is actually something completely unique. The concept is really cool: you are at a party, but distracting thoughts keep interfering with you having fun, so it is up to you to balance these thoughts and defeat the distractions. The action all happens on one screen, and this is notable because there is a lot going besides just placing troops to stop incoming waves. You create troops using 'brain fluid' such as Vibes, Hydration, Sanitary, Energy and Social. To acquire these valuable resources, you control a party goer that is displayed in the upper-left corner, a sort of mini-map where you collect resources by visiting certain sections of the house. Running low on Vibes? Hang out by the speakers to soak some up. Running low on Hydration? Move your character and grab some juice. Once you have some fluid to spare, you click which resource you want to create and place them on the grid where the incoming distractions appear. It is a lot of fun to balance collecting fluids and placing troops. I am amazed at how well this system works and how balanced it feels. The game keeps you on your toes, and it is this chaotic tension that makes the game a blast. Very original, I love it.
 
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I most likely won't have the time to play/review as many as 21 games, but I got 9 done in a session now (Edit: ) 16 done after two sessions, and will add more (and update my ranking) if I get the time...

Full ranking:

  1. Castle Meta by The M
  2. Emmy and Sal by Mercerenies
  3. Me PARRty by ghandpivot
  4. Jenka Dungeon by dosto, Reaktori, Riuku
  5. Hero Horde by PinesOfChaos
  6. One Big Party by Gizmo199, shortbread
  7. Party Animal by TehPilot, TheFugue
  8. Roborazzi by Kultisti, Sulo
  9. Extinction Tea Party by Moon Goat
  10. R-pg-ING by Micah_DS
  11. The Party Must Go On by GVmG
  12. GMC Fruit Salad Surfer by Yal
  13. Candle by Steelegms2
  14. The Retrieval by Dr. Wolf
  15. Party Detective by Mercyssh
  16. Dawg the party animal by NivesStudio

Reviews:

Me PARRty by ghandpivot

This game made me laugh several times. The little ocean world was fun to explore, and the event interactions/choices were hilarious. I led a largely cannibalistic crew. If this was made into a full game, I'd have preferred a wider camera angle and better camera controls, but as is, it kind of added to the comedy effect, fitting nicely with my completely incompetent piracy escapades. Great job with all those voxel models!

Castle Meta by The M

Great job! I'm impressed by the nice collection of mechanics and the level design built around them. I explored at least three of the zones, and enjoyed the variation between them. The few, but distinct enemy types work very well. I was a bit confused by the double-jump-only-below-platform thing. I got stuck upon respawning after failing the boss, but greatly enjoyed the experience and everything you managed to squeeze in here in the short timeframe!

One Big Party by Gizmo199, shortbread

Great job putting together this visually polished 3D game! The different mini games were all pretty enjoyable. The AI is nicely done (functional, and with a good balance between dumb and clever). I'd have liked less slippery controls, but it was manageable. I was particularly impressed by the mechanics and concept of the pool game, such a clever idea.

The Party Must Go On by GVmG

Fun gameplay, hilarious shopping cart controls; great job with that! After playing for a while, I couldn't figure out if there were a win or loss condition, so I decided to end it there. I like the presentation of the game, nice touch with the GMC member chat messages!

Emmy and Sal by Mercerenies

Great game! The puzzles work very well, and are just the right amount of challenging. The story frames the game nicely, adding a bit of humor. The different mechanics work nicely together, forming surprisingly intricate tasks. I ended up resetting one of the last levels a couple of times because I didn't realize I could move the view and that the stage was bigger, not understanding why the game didn't proceed.

Dawg the party animal by NivesStudio

Very cute and derpy animal characters living in a charming, small world. I didn't understand a lot of what was going on, but I enjoyed the fruit collection and laser tag games. While the music is subtracted more from the experience than it added, in the spirit of the Jam, I applaud the effort of making it.

GMC Fruit Salad Surfer by Yal

A pretty fun game; I like the core game mechanic concept of two-way jumping from the water surface, and the coin collection/powerup item shop extends the game nicely. It might just be because I was tired at this point of playing, but the visual effects/distortion to the game screen took more away from the experience than it added. Very nice touch with the over/under water change of music track.

Candle by Steelegms2

Pretty good! I really like how the unusual projectile shooting mechanic, with its very low rate of fire, and inverted boomerang return, creates strategic challenges in face of the enemies. So the gameplay at its core is good in its simple, effective way, but the game lacked any sense of a progression structure (difficulty, variation etc). Nice graphics! I'd love to see this concept expanded upon and refined, because it holds a lot of promise!

Party Animal by TehPilot, TheFugue

Great game! Very nice presentation. The old-style silent film format really added a lot to the experience. The puzzles work well; the mechanics are stretched just far enough to sustain the whole game perfectly. After the first few levels, I really wondered how the simply sneaking mechanic would be enough, and was very pleasantly surprised by the posession mechanic. (Nice visual effect too!).

Hero Horde by PinesOfChaos

I love the concept of this game! It took me a couple of very failed attempts to realize there was a cost per second from hiring. But once I did, this became a very engaging task of managing the economic balance of my horde of heroes. I only made one full playthrough, as it grew a bit same-y over time, but it was definitely a fun experience! Great job with all the different enemy designs.

Party Detective by Mercyssh

Okay, there are way too many people at this party. Good job, though! I love the concept, and I think the mechanics as they are would work great with a 10-5 x smaller crowd. I enjoyed exploring a few different strategies, but alas, I couldn't find the killer.

Jenka Dungeon by dosto, Reaktori, Riuku

Very cool concept, nice visual style, and fun gameplay. The music also adds a lot to the enjoyability of the experience. I was initially, and am still slightly confused about how attacks/damage works. My main gripe is that I so easily lose track of where my character is, which the finicky controls contribute towards (being unable to change direction between steps). The boss was delightfully creepy. I love the overall presentation of the game.

The Retrieval by Dr. Wolf

For the limited time I could dedicate to this game I found the complexity too confounding to get a lot out of it, despite reading the manual. Seems like it'd be fun if it was more easily accessible, though! I like the graphics stiyle, but I think different colors and animations to indicate and emphasize different elements and interaction points would have been beneficial. The game crashed on me after a handful of turns. Nice choice of music!

R-pg-ING by Micah_DS

Very cool concept, I can sort of see what you intended, and it definitely worked to some extent! Great job with the mechanics and the pretty 3D visuals!
 
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Ninety

Member
wordart(1).png


What a jam! 77 whole entries, including a few that surprised me in their ambition. A lot of fantastic games in here. My reviews are fairly to-the-point this time around, I'm afraid, and given the huge number of entries I didn't get too hung up on the rankings past about #15. Thanks to Dan, Alice and everyone else for their hard work in running this. Without further ado:

Top 3

#1 - Crimson Guild's Glamorous Guest List by Mr Magnus
#2 - Party Animal by TehPilot, TheFugue
#3 - Emmy and Sal by Mercerenies


Awards

Best Presentation - Party Animal by TehPilot, TheFugue
Best Concept - Crimson Festival by Alice, FunkyPoop
Best Use of Theme - Forty or the Modern Big Brother by SoapSud39
Best Story - The Annual GMC Party by O_stogden​


Full ranking:
  1. Crimson Guild's Glamorous Guest List by Mr Magnus
  2. Party Animal by TehPilot, TheFugue
  3. Emmy And Sal by Mercerenies
  4. Wham Bam Dan Jam Slam by GameDevDan
  5. Forty or the Modern Big Brother by SoapSud39
  6. Jam Defenders by Kepons
  7. Wastoid Rodney by Cloaked Games, JosephEllis, BlakeNorth
  8. Crimson Festival by Alice, FunkyPoop
  9. Party Mountain by AJTheApple
  10. Jenka Dungeon by dosto, Reaktori, Riuku
  11. Roborazzi by Kultisti, Sulo
  12. One Big Party by Gizmo199, shortbread
  13. Need For Beats by Matharoo, BlaineTanuki, _aeternumgames
  14. Hero Huddle by ThinGinger
  15. Castle Meta by The M
  16. 3 Mice In A Trenchcoat by Bart, TheSnidr, Xor, Naterboy
  17. Gangs Bash by D'Andrew Box
  18. The Matchmaker (HTML5 ONLY, OPEN FOLDER) by eimie
  19. Adventures Of Robot X by Pixel-Team
  20. Plague Rats by Nocturne
  21. The Annual GMC Party by O_stogden
  22. Blackout by Siolfor the Jackal
  23. The Golden Balloon by Little Penguin Studios
  24. Robot Surprise Party by samspade
  25. Snake Dance by Greenblizzard
  26. Demon Dance by Mightyjor, Twintertainment, Brett-Bit
  27. The Party Must Go On by GVmG
  28. Fiesta Down by VinylFly
  29. Candles Have Feelings by JordanOttesen
  30. HealthBar by Fanatrick
  31. Extinction Tea Party by Moon Goat
  32. Apocalypse party by aspiringgamemaker
  33. Survival Party by HayManMarc
  34. Jaguar Pogo Party by TotallyAverageGamez
  35. happy birthday by Yal
  36. The Way Back To The Party by Noodlehead
  37. Final Battle by Kahrabaa
  38. Candle by Steelegms2
  39. Party Animals by ScaryPotato, Kalzme
  40. Quickly! Dispensegifts by Allison James
  41. GMC Fruit Salad Surfer by Yal
  42. Your Brain On Party by thijsmie
  43. Candle Wars by Yozoraki
  44. One Big Political Party by Terminator_Pony
  45. R-pg-ING by Micah_DS
  46. Hero Horde by PinesOfChaos
  47. Survive the Party by Nejc Podlipnik
  48. Queen by Toque
  49. Me pARRty by ghandpivot
  50. Dr Smiley's Brain Jam Party by Yal
  51. Escape of the Clowns by kburkhart84
  52. Fantasy Strategy Clicker by Julien, Hyomoto
  53. The Retrieval by Dr Wolf
  54. get to the party by Wabb, sequential
  55. Party Detective by Mercyssh
  56. Life Party by Cat
  57. dawg the party animal by NivesStudio
  58. Christmas with Uncle Tom by BluishGreenPro
  59. Barry Bear's Birthday by Richerama
  60. Crazy Waiter by Gatefiz, JP, Claire Dujardin, Benfik
  61. Party Paddles by Fusai
  62. Florida Man by BreakfastBoy
  63. Fiesta Fist by Cristobal, MatthewPattel
  64. Party Pooper by Lukan
  65. Behemoth by sp202
  66. City Scuttler by Bearman_18
  67. dumburk 9000 by Bret Hudson, Allen Webster, Jared Cohen
  68. GMC Party Adventure by Imagine Galaxy
  69. Party Guardians by StarDreamIX
  70. The Scattered Army by Sirham
  71. Color Splash by EvanSki
  72. Goin' All Nite by Dadio
  73. Party Parade by Tristan
  74. Party Puker by Ben Stitt

Reviews:
3 Mice in a Trenchcoat by Bart, TheSnidr, Xor, Naterboy -- Look, it's very pretty. The music and SFX are really good. I just don't think the gameplay works completely. For one thing, the controls aren't explained; I never figured out how to put on the trenchcoat, and when pressing random buttons realised you could place down a bone. The camera perspective, combined with the tall walls, made it occasionally difficult to see what was going on. Also, I think it's unnecessarily punishing to make the player start all the way from the beginning if they fail once.

Adventures of Robot X by Pixel-Team -- The graphics are nice, the humour is welcome. The gameplay is basic but enjoyable. There's one joke that I think doesn't work at best and is a bit offensive at worst; I see what you were going for, but it comes off like a cheap shot, and unoriginal as well.

The Annual GMC Party by O_stogden -- I laughed. I cried. I clenched my fist in impotent rage against an unjust world.

Apocalypse party by aspiringgamemaker -- Neat top-down shooter with a vague party theme. A lot of the collisions felt awkward and clunky.

Barry Bear's Birthday by Richerama -- The instant failure is really annoying...

Behemoth by sp202 -- Interesting and unique presentation, with online comments, for what amounts to a memory game and then an exit to desktop??

Blackout by Siolfor the Jackal -- I felt like this wanted to be an adventure game, but there's never any need to work out the next thing to do, which leaves it feeling more like an interactive cutscene than a game. Presentation was quite nice, especially the animation.

Candle by Steelegms2 -- I think this needed some music, maybe a combat mechanic? As it is it's pretty basic.

Candles Have Feelings by JordanOttesen -- I was remarking to someone that this felt a lot like the Mr Oshiro fight from Celeste. I think the platforming mechanics are lacking a bit, but I enjoyed the concept for what it was. Graphics were pretty nice.

Candle Wars by Yozoraki -- I think this would be better if you had ditched the WASD-controlled character and done this as a straight RTS. Having units fall asleep when they finished a task is pretty annoying and means you have to make the trip to where resources are dropped off anyway to retrieve them.

Castle Meta by The M -- I encountered an error when fighting the two anteater-looking things above the elevator:
############################################################################################
FATAL ERROR in
action number 1
of Destroy Event
for object enemy:

Unable to find any instance for object index '100438' name '<undefined>'

at gml_Object_enemy_Destroy_0

############################################################################################
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

stack frame is

gml_Object_enemy_Destroy_0 (line -1)

called from - gml_Object_obj_brute_Step_0 (line -1) - <unknown source line>

Besides that, it was okay. I don't think I finished it, but I spent quite a while exploring different areas of the castle.

Christmas with Uncle Tom by BluishGreenPro -- Not quite sure what to make of this. Might be autobiographical? Barely any gameplay, but definitely party-related.

City Scuttler by Bearman_18 -- This feels unfinished. I couldn't work out how to add stuff to my inventory (I can grab, but not store it, apparently).

Color Splash by EvanSki -- Not much more than a pretty menu.

Crazy Waiter by Gatefiz, JP, Claire Dujardin, Benfik -- I'm sorry, I just can't get past how awkward the controls are, or how easily a bad RNG can punish you. The graphics are decent.

Crimson Festival by Alice, FunkyPoop -- This one is special for me, since the game came together from the collective efforts of the Red team (at least, those of us who know how data saving works in GMS *whistles*). Alice's hard work made this easily one of the more unique concepts for a jam game I've seen. It's fun to play through after finishing the other games, and it brought us all together to contribute. 10/10 would metagame again.

Crimson Guild's Glamorous Guest List by Mr Magnus -- Genuinely fun to play, just the right difficulty level, catchy music. What's not to like?

dawg the party animal by NivesStudio -- The idea of a minigame collection held together by an RPG-style overworld is a neat one, though the ever-changing controls made it feel inconsistent rather than varied. The music got really irritating.

Demon Dance by Mightyjor, Twintertainment, Brett-Bit -- The background graphics were really nice. For some reason I found the arrangement of different keys on the screen very awkward; maybe you could have used four adjacent ones instead? eg A S D F or something.

Dr Smiley's Brain Jam Party by Yal -- I couldn't figure this one out. It's Tetris, but sometimes the blocks fall with gravity, and when you clear a line some blocks remain. I assume it's related to the colours, but I couldn't sense a clear pattern even after playing a while.

dumburk 9000 by Bret Hudson, Allen Webster, Jared Cohen -- Nice idea, but any game that can be played by repeatedly mashing space bar can't keep my attention very long. Maybe some random encounters or events could add more variety and interest?

Emmy and Sal by Mercerenies -- Top-notch puzzle game. Interesting concept, enough variety to the gameplay to keep it fresh, and the quips from the characters were a bonus. The art isn't amazing, but it works.

Escape of the Clowns by kburkhart84 -- I like the basic concept, but the presentation is kinda garish and the gameplay feels clunky.

Extinction Tea Party by Moon Goat -- Fun little bullet hell type of thing. Badly needs some sound and music.

Fantasy Strategy Clicker by Julien, Hyomoto -- This badly needed a tutorial or at the very least a readme. Also not sure how it relates to the theme. But the basic gameplay is solid.

Fiesta Down by VinylFly -- Simple but well executed. I'd have recoloured the CPU character to make it more clearly distinguishable from the player.

Fiesta Fist by Cristobal, MatthewPattel -- Not entirely sure how this related to the theme. Controls were very awkward in single player, and it took me a lot of guessing to find them. Overall the combat was alright. Some nice pixel art.

Final Battle by Kahrabaa -- Another entry in the "build up your party by attacking enemies" category. There was some nice strategy to this one, although I never quite got a handle on the control scheme - I think maybe you should have picked either WASD or RTS-style click-to-move, but having both felt awkward. Not in love with the graphics but there was a lot of detail which was nice. The RNG can be very punishing though; more than once a huge army of enemies spawned at the very beginning.

Florida Man by BreakfastBoy -- Not sure I see the theme connection. Why is it so small?? ;-;

Forty or the Modern Big Brother by SoapSud39 -- Inventive, amusing, and well presented. The meta gameplay was a nice touch. I'm not normally into games that are long cutscenes connected by short bits of gameplay, but this was really well done.

Gangs Bash by D'Andrew Box -- The Mario Party style of gameplay was let down a bit by the fact that it just keeps repeating. Some of the minigames are better than others, but overall, I like this quite a bit. It felt like a fun assortment of different little challenges.

get to the party by Wabb, sequential -- Nice little Lemmings-like. The presentation isn't great, unfortunately.

GMC Fruit Salad Surfer by Yal -- Neat gameplay loop, but I think it needed to be significantly faster. I can't say I really thought the distorted visuals added much.

GMC Party Adventure by Imagine Galaxy -- I'm not going to lie, it feels like the platforming mechanic of sticking to walls was just a bug you decided to leave in. It certainly feels like a buggy collision system rather than an intentional decision. The cutscenes were... of questionable necessity, and honestly, I really think the voice acting should have been left out.

Goin' All Nite by Dadio -- Truly, the Peter Molyneux for our time.

The Golden Balloon by Little Penguin Studios -- I liked this quite a bit. The visuals were nice and had a unique style to them. The lack of sound effects was a shame.

happy birthday by Yal -- The graphical style (fog/blur) got in the way of the gameplay. An interesting enough ending.

HealthBar by Fanatrick -- The distance between the current drink and the reference made it kinda hard to get the right amount, but I assume this was deliberate. Very simple but I like the concept.

Hero Horde by PinesOfChaos -- This game is harder than it looks. It needs some sound effects, and some rebalancing, but the core is solid.

Hero Huddle by ThinGinger -- The graphics give off a ZX Spectrum kind of vibe. I liked this a lot. It's simple but well executed.

Jaguar Pogo Party by TotallyAverageGamez -- Interesting movement concept, but I actually don't think it feels all that great to play; the character controls kind of stiffly. I wonder if maybe a different interpretation of the pogo stick would work better with the platformer genre - maybe using it as a way to bounce off the ground to get more height than a normal jump allows?

Jam Defenders by Kepons -- Short but sweet. The lack of any background/scenery visuals was a shame. Everything else felt very polished.

Jenka Dungeon by dosto, Reaktori, Riuku -- Presentation was really nice. I don't think the combat read particularly well visually; it was hard to tell what was going on just by watching. I'm not sure if that's a product of the low-res style or maybe the speed at which everything happened. Sounds were functional but fitting.

Keyboard Hero by tadashibashi -- I got an error when attempting to start this: "GMFMS_EvDesc Error! Attempted to assign an invalid handle."

Life Party by Cat -- Simple concept, let down by how awkward it is to control the ghost with presents attached. Maybe a dedicated button to "give" the present would have made the gameplay work better.

matoset by Poizen -- I couldn't get this to run.

The Matchmaker by eimie -- A fun little minigame with a decent amount of polish. The "move with the beat" system was not very forgiving.

Me pARRty by ghandpivot -- I think the overall objective needs to be clearer. Is there any downside to cannibalising your whole crew?

Need for Beats by Matharoo, BlaineTanuki, _aeternumgames -- It took me a while to get used to the controls but once I did it was fun. I think a bit more feedback on notes being hit/missed would have been useful. The double jump/glide mechanic was admittedly a bit awkward.

One Big Party by Gizmo199, shortbread -- Great presentation, none of the minigames stood out that much by themselves but together make for a fun selection.

One Big Political Party by Terminator_Pony -- I never quite got my head around how to strategise for speeches. I like the concept but I feel it's maybe lacking in direction?

Party Animal by TehPilot, TheFugue -- Best presentation of the jam, in my opinion. The gameplay felt a little fiddly and unpredictable; maybe a grid system, or more predictable behaviour for the cat, would have helped. It was a surprisingly short game, once I figured out how doors worked.

Party Animals by ScaryPotato, Kalzme -- So many multiplayer games in this jam! Unfortunately, every minigame here is a single button, sometimes just mashing. Sound effects would add a lot I think.

Party Detective by Mercyssh -- I like the idea here, but the deduction/mystery part is lacking. The clues don't seem to add up to much most of the time, and the floaty/slidey platforming detracts from the cleaning up gameplay.

Party Guardians by StarDreamIX -- The presentation felt inconsistent and disorganised to me. The separate buttons for shooting directions was an odd choice, but not a big obstacle.

Party Mountain by AJTheApple -- I think the background tiles should have been darker, to help them stand out from the foreground/collidable tiles. Also the theme use was fairly nominal. But I'm a sucker for a really good platformer, and this is a really good platformer.

The Party Must Go On by GVmG -- Cool concept, nice presentation. I think the phone should have been on the screen at all times. It's hard to know where to find something you're looking for, so I ended up resorting to just bumping around randomly.

Party Paddles by Fusai -- I found it really hard to tell what constituted gaining or losing a point when there's so many teams. I think a single player only mode would have been a better fit for a jam game, since nearly everyone would be playing alone.

Party Parade by Tristan -- A kind of Guitar Hero/rhythm game type thing, but without the rhythm. Background visuals were garish. But, the overall idea isn't bad.

Party Pooper by Lukan -- There's not much to say about this. It works.

Party Puker by Ben Stitt -- Short, not much to it. I suspect this is one of your first GameMaker projects, and if so, well done on finishing something for a jam! Buuut there's really not much there, so I'm not going to rank it highly.

Plague Rats by Nocturne -- Great presentation, gameplay felt a bit flat though. As others have said, a clear visual indicator for which rats are in your team would be useful.

Queen by Toque -- This has restored my faith in the monarchy and the divine right of rulers. God Save the Queen.

Quickly! Dispensegifts by Allison James -- I could never quite get the hang of the controls, though I liked the gameplay concept a lot. The guy in the corner yelling was an... interesting touch, for sure.

The Retrieval by Dr Wolf -- I'm in two minds about this. On the one hand, the visual style is appealing, and I'm always impressed by people who manage to pull off an RTS within the confines of a jam. That said, I just couldn't wrap my head around the gameplay. There's very little feedback for anything you do, which means you can't tell when you're playing right vs wrong. I did read the manual first, but I found when I got into the actual game, I still didn't feel like I knew what I was doing.

Roborazzi by Kultisti, Sulo -- Presentation was really nice. I think the player controls are a little odd in that you can stay in the right place by flipping your direction constantly.

Robot Surprise Party by samspade -- The fact that the level advances even if you fail is a warm touch, and fits with the tone, but it did mean the difficulty is undercut. Very nice presentation.

R-pg-ING by Micah_DS -- The lack of sound was unfortunate, though I like the core concept. I think this could be fleshed out into a bigger game.

The Scattered Army by Sirham -- The presentation on this left a lot to be desired. The core idea of recruiting characters to your army and raising your strength is a solid one (see: half the games in this jam) but the automatic fights and clunky navigation undercut the potential.

Snake Dance by Greenblizzard -- Liked the concept. I think there should have been a visual indicator for which part of the snake is the "head". Also, it felt like the snake was overshooting a lot; a little grace period to cancel input would make the gameplay feel a bit better, I think.

Survival Party by HayManMarc -- Simple, but well made. The visuals were badly in need of some depth sorting.

Survive the Party by Nejc Podlipnik -- The graphics are cute, the combat feels good.

Wastoid Rodney by Cloaked Games, JosephEllis, BlakeNorth -- This was a difficult but fun little shooter, with the cutscenes and characters being a welcome addition.

The Way Back to the Party by Noodlehead -- Making "go back" default to the starting position was an odd choice. I liked it, not much challenge but not bad as a bite-sized text adventure sort of thing.

Wham Bam Dan Jam Slam by GameDevDan -- Genuinely really impressive that you could put this together inside the jam deadline. The gameplay was fairly simple but the presentation was excellent.

Your Brain on Party by thijsmie -- Interesting concept. I feel the tower defence section was a bit lacking; I could never put down the homing tower, and the one that shoots pellets felt woefully underpowered. Maybe you could have split the two main gameplay sections into distinct "phases", so you would run around the party filling up on juices first, then would do a round of tower defence, and so on? I don't know if that would make it less interesting, but it might be a lot more intuitive to play.
 
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The M

Member
Yellow reviews cont.

(O-Z)
One Big Party by Gizmo199, shortbread

This has got to be the best-looking 3D game I've ever seen made with Game Maker, it's fantastic. Unfortunately, that graphical prowess seem to come at the cost of performance and my computer struggled to keep the frame rate stable.

The games are fun and the AI is good. It's great that you can use a controller for these games, but it's a little strange that you can't use it for the menus.

One Big Political Party by Terminator_Pony

It was a very interesting game and if I learnt something its that election day comes quickly. It took me some time before I understood the systems but the handbook did a good job introducing most of the mechanics. What I never knew was how much your speeches affected other states and their expectation of you. Since time was limited and each speech seemed to only have a limited effect, I mostly kept to a small cluster of states that didn't like me much and focused on swaying those. I won in the end, so I guess I did decent enough.

Party Animal by TehPilot, TheFugue

Jeez, these crimson guild intros just get more and more complex! I can't decide whether to give points or deduct points for them, probably both.

Either way, the game has really nice visuals that ooze charm. Movement feels smooth and navigating the levels is fun. The abrupt interruptions of story cards are a little jarring but fits with the aesthetics the game aims for. The levels themselves were pretty good and while I found the first few to be a little too straightforward, you then introduced more interesting mechanics with the possession of dudes, increasing the complexity and giving the game enough variety to last its entire length.

Party Animals by ScaryPotato, Kalzme

The game is cute and charming and the mini-game selection is pretty decent considering they're one-button games, though I miss a few games where holding down the button is the key rather than tapping it quickly as it gets tiring after a while (the jumping game stood out for that reason). It's a solid entry with good quality across the board.

It's neat to have a multiplayer party game, though I don't have anyone but myself to play with. On the other hand, since you use the buttons A, B, C, and D, which are all super close to each other on the keyboard, and with no controller support, I think it would be hard to play more than two anyways.

Party Detective by Mercyssh

It's a neat concept and the sheer number of guests make the task of finding a particular one a bit daunting. Still, because there are only very limited dialogue boxes and basically only one that says on which floor a person is, I found it a little too easy to find the target. I think it would be fun with a little more noise/useless dialogue. Otherwise, it was fun to try to keep up appearances while figuring out who's who, though I spent most of the time in the closet so that I was prepared for when the next task appeared. It could be neat to let you eavesdrop better if you stood near people so that you would have to move around to collect all the information.

Party Guardians by StarDreamIX

I was very confused by the game and didn't really know how to play. Picking the knight, the game was challenging at first before I realized you could just stand in front of the cake and hold down the attack button and you'd win. Then the game threw a curve ball by having the enemies come from two directions at once and there was just no way to get back and forth in time. Maybe there were some attack I didn't know about, otherwise I don't see how to win.

Party Mountain by AJTheApple

The game feels really slick, looks great and the transition effect shines with polish. However, as much as I like the visuals I still had a few issues with them: it wasn't always easy to tell the background and foreground apart as they had very similar saturation and hues, and the delay between restarts was just a little too long so it didn't feel like I could just get up and try again (and the tight jumps made those restarts common). On a whole, the game didn't do much I haven't seen before, but as platformers go it was a solid one with tight controls and good physics.

Party Paddles by Fusai

I liked the concept, but it easily got messy and I missed the satisfaction of scoring on the opponents. Instead, it felt like scores were arbitrary and even if you performed well you wouldn't necessarily gain any points if the ball bounced between two other players on the way out. I think the game might have worked better if you instead had health and were kicked from the game if you lost them all (and the arena would reshape accordingly).

Party Parade by Tristan

The game was neat, with a lot of positive energy. The gameplay was straightforward and worked well, but there was no real progression and when the music ended and then restarted I figured there'd be no end to the game. I enjoyed looking at all the background stuff that flew by and the GM logoed manholes made me smile.

Party Pooper by Lukan

It's a neat little game that plays well. I found it surprisingly easy to spot the target, maybe because they're always a different color than the rest of the guests. When I eventually lost, it was because there was a civilian standing behind the target and the click would "go through" to it too.

Party Puker by Ben Stitt

It simple but neat. I got through the game twice, first by hugging the wall and sneaking past everyone, then by charging right through in between them all. The second time was actually closer to the time limit because one guest decided to guard the door.

Just for fun I tried to talk to some guests too, though I'm not sure if the way you got stuck inside them until they moved away was a bug or an intentional way to get you "caught in conversation".

Plague Rats by Nocturne

The game looks amazing, and not just the art, but the transitions, x-ray effects and the general high level of polish. Moving the huge swarm of rats feels great, though they're not always super intelligent and had a tendency to get stuck on edges. I wasn't a fan of the splitting mechanic and would have preferred if you'd used the keyboard for that, rather than three tiny buttons tucked in the corner, as dealing with groups was awkward.

The game had nice progression and the levels were interesting. I think the splitting mechanic could have been explored a little more, for example by having two separate groups move through different parts of the level, or disengaging traps while the other group crossed. I'm not sure what you would do if the rats in one group died though...

Queen by Toque

Those were some very elaborate cut-scenes with so many visual gags I was wondering if there would even be a game in there. The gameplay was fine, though as the levels progressed I found fewer reasons to go after the sitting birds and just stayed by the barrel, giving me infinite ammo and less risk to get hit back. While I think I got a good score, I don't know since it wasn't shown in the end. I loved the concept though, as it was so unexpected.

Quickly! Dispensegifts by Allison James

Did I just brutally kill a bunch of half-robot people with a huge, spinning gift while some random guy in a suit told me to stop and called me mean things? Wow!

The game works great but I struggled really badly with the controls and constantly pressed the wrong buttons. I guess that's by design, at least partially. I think it would be more intuitive for me if the up and down keys moved the gift and the left and right keys controlled the spinning direction.

I liked how the game ramped up in difficulty and introduced new enemy types as you progressed. It also provided a lot of defense/barrier things which meant that missing an enemy wasn't the end of the world, and I think that made dealing with the controls less frustrating than it otherwise would have been.

Roborazzi by Kultisti, Sulo

The game has a very unique and cool style with plenty of ambiance. The snapshot effects when you take pictures were neat and looked great!

It took me some time to understand how to play but then I had a lot of fun trying to complete the tasks. Being unable to stop moving made the game a lot harder than it would otherwise have been and it felt like a bug, even though it might have been intentional. It was nice to see controller support but I played with the mouse and keyboard instead because it just felt more useful to have the mouse's precision.

Robot Surprise Party by samspade

I love the concept and the graphics are really charming. The environment looks alive, though little animations on flower and trees would raise it to the next level.

The gameplay is interesting. The premise is great but it just doesn't work for me. Having no indication on when the birthday bot will wake up or exit the house makes it incredibly hard to time your actions. The path-finding is also a little spotty and sometimes the bots move in the opposite direction I want them to, which is not ideal. I feel like it would have been better to let the player draw a path in the grid. That way you could be more precise in how you want the bots to move and you can move much more sneakily, which I think would be fun. Another helpful feature could be some kind of visualization of the birthday bot's line of sight.

I'm glad you let me skip levels as it let me experience later puzzles without too much effort. Also, the dance party scene is awesome!

R-pg-ING by Micah_DS

It was interesting, especially trying to rotate the group to make sure the right person was facing the enemy. I feel like that part primarily could be expanded upon further.

Moving the group worked well and it was cool to see how they ran to their positions if you turned swiftly. Since the units were so far from the center it made navigating obstacles a bit awkward, especially on the level where half of your units start in mid-air. Maybe being able to call the guys closer would have been a neat option? While I think the lighting adds depth, it also made it a bit hard to tell colors apart in dark areas so I think you want to keep things fairly bright and well-lit.

Snake Dance by Greenblizzard

The game is cool, but I found the twitchy controls and narrow time frames to be a little frustrating as it was very easy to overshoot or screw up. Thankfully, it wasn't the end of the world if you did as you had plenty of health, with the option to gain more. I think the game looks great and the way the walls fade in is really nice. A small improvement I would have appreciated is a way to tell which end is the snake's head. Right now you have to keep it in mind, which isn't hard while the snake is in motion, but since you stop to wait for the wall that means it becomes an extra thing to process as you plan how to best move to the next opening.

Survival Party by HayManMarc

I liked the clock but it was not very useful at telling me how much time I had left. There's a lot of information presented in the UI but it's a little hard to tell what is important to keep track of. It gets a little overwhelming. The graphics are clean and I love the banter going on at the side.

I didn't realize that people consumed all your collectibles and left if there weren't more. It makes sense, but those were some gluttonous bastards. It does change things a lot and I can't seem to figure out the best strategy. I feel like it might be a good idea to stock up on items before recruiting the hoard. At the same time, people are so spread out that it feels wasteful not to go for them. It's a tricky situation and it makes for good levels. I think the balancing is pretty good (but it annoys me when foodstuff just disappears before me).

Survive the Party by Nejc Podlipnik

Swinging that huge sword and smacking the enemies feels really satisfying. Movement is a bit too slow I think, especially when walking diagonally which appears to be slower than alternating horizontal and vertical movement. I took on the hordes of enemies and got the chest, and I think that was the end of the game? I liked the way waves progressed and got harder over time, with a new enemy thrown in there to spice things up. I would gladly have played more.

The Annual GMC Party by O_stogden

At first I was a little disappointed to not be part of the group. After the second round I was pretty happy to have been left out.

The writing was witty and morbidly funny in the way it presented each new iteration and I enjoyed figuring out each new scenario. I think the difficulty was decent, but many of the murders were either very obvious or pretty vague with little in between. I think that's a side effect of the limited interaction and dialogue the player had to work with, as it didn't allow for more complex scenarios (though it would have been interesting if someone was lying and you had to figure that out given the others' (or Nocturne's) dialogue).

The Golden Balloon by Little Penguin Studios

The game was neat and felt very polished, with good movement, nice effects and transitions, and a good amount of content. The double jump mechanic made navigating the levels interesting and I enjoyed it. I'm less keen on the acorns as they felt a little too hostile when I was trying to just navigate the area. Getting the balloon popped by one and having to restart was frustrating, which isn't ideal. The golden balloon idea was nice and gave more strategy to coin collection. I would have liked a timer on it so I knew how much longer it would last.

The Matchmaker (HTML5 ONLY, OPEN FOLDER) by eimie

The way you move and move with each move is really satisfying. It took me some time to understand how the mechanics worked, as the only part that mattered were that the characters had the same background color and that you had to place them horizontally next to one another (but facing direction didn't matter and those without color were just obstacles). It became an interesting puzzle as more and more of the floor was covered, but then the timer started going nuts and just poured away, forcing defeat no matter what I did. I feel like this curve could be balanced a little to keep more of the gameplay in that sweet spot of having multiple options and obstacles, while not reducing the timer too fast.

The Party Must Go On by GVmG

I think the concept is great and the way the shopping cart handles is pretty awesome, but there doesn't seem to be a goal to the game. Sure, I can buy the stuff they're asking for in the messages, but then what? The game has great potential, so it's a little unfortunate it got cut short.

The Retrieval by Dr Wolf

I read the entire manual and while it's well made, with detailed pictures and thematic descriptions, I was still very confused when I played the game. I think an in-game tutorial, combined with strong feedback indicators (which planets I control, the strength/health of my ships, my current income, etc) would have helped a lot. If you must have the information in a separate document, I think the most important information should be provided up front with no prose to cloud it, so that the player can learn the most important things and get into the game as quickly as possible. What I'm looking for is: what are the controls, how do I win, how do I lose, and is there something else that I must know to play that I wouldn't want to have to discover on my own. Ideally, you should be able to sum it all up in one or two paragraphs.

I think the game looked really good (I loved the art style!) and the systems were very interesting. It was satisfying to discover new areas on the map and the battle simulations were cool, though the novelty of them wore off and I would have liked a way to skip to the result (or fast-forward at a pace where the battle would be over in less than five seconds).



The Scattered Army by Sirham

I liked how many different areas there were as it made the world feel large and diverse. While walking around and picking up soldiers was easy, I had a lot of trouble with the combat. Since there was no way to tell how strong an enemy was in advance you had to start the battle and hope for the best. Sure, you could run away from tough fights, but since there was no way to regain health (that I could find) it meant fighting any battle that you couldn't dominate was going to result in your death sooner or later. I'm not sure the game is beatable even if you play it "right".

The Way Back To The Party by Noodlehead

Exploring the city was interesting, but without more details I found it hard to keep track of where I were. Having a sudden quick time event felt a bit mean, though losing it wasn't the biggest deal since you didn't have to redo too much (it seemed a little arbitrary to be attacked when trying to talk to the guard, especially after having fought the thug where you had time to consider your options). On a whole, the game was fine but a little uneventful. It was a nice touch that there were multiple endings.

Wastoid Rodney by Cloaked Games, JosephEllis, BlakeNorth

The game has a really cool vibe and interesting controls that feels nice when playing with a controller. Unfortunately, I don't think the level design quite works with the way the player character controls. The way you dash around, shoot in any direction and dodge in bursts of speed would, in my opinion, work much better in a large arena with a zoomed out camera, rather than tight corridors, a close up camera that can't quite keep up and enemy turrets that require patient waiting behind cover instead of mad dashes. The end result drags out a bit and isn't as engaging as it could be, even though the levels themselves aren't bad.

Wham Bam Dan Jam Slam by GameDevDan

I had to start an extra round just to look at the characters and try to determine if they were 2D sprites or 3D meshes because of how smooth they turned and moved. The game plays well and is an excellent celebration of the gmc anniversary. After trying out a few characters I came to the conclusion that those with two close-range attacks were much more powerful as it allowed you to mash both attacks to completely shut down opponents. It's ambitious to have so many characters and while their move sets were somewhat limited and similar, that's very understandable (and it's not likely I would have time to try them all out now, even if they were super-diverse). I found it a little hard to see where I was at times, especially after respawning or when fighting opponents with similar color schemes, but it wasn't too big a deal. Oh, and for a suggestion: controller support would fit the game really well!

Your Brain On Party by thijsmie

That was a lot to keep track on and I couldn't do it properly. It seemed like as soon as I left the speakers Vibe would instantly drop to critical levels, preventing me to fill up the other meters in any capacity. I also couldn't place any of the energy towers, and while I struggled to do that I lost a lot of time. I really like the concept, but I think the game needs to have super-tight controls and balancing (which is really hard to get right in this time frame) to pull off that kind of multi-tasking as nothing should distract from the main tasks. I think this game almost got it.
 

curato

Member
The quality of the games was so much higher this time that is was very hard to choose rankings. Sorry, I really wanted to go back and give better reviews, but there are so many entries they started blending together a little on me. If you want a little more feedback give me a shout.

Reviews

Top 3:

Crimson Festival by Alice, FunkyPoop
This was definitely a good idea and use of theme. I honestly worried you had bit off too big of an idea when you mentioned it. There is isn't a bunch of game play per say and the story linear with the exception of how the other crimson games affect it, but overall this was pulled together pretty nicely.

Emmy And Sal by Mercerenies
This is actually a cute concept. Theme was on target. The puzzles are well thought out. Good luck finding a police department that stupid though lol.

Party Animal by TehPilot, TheFugue
cute idea. everyone wants to pet a cat. film grain effect was a nice touch.

Best ofs:

Best use of : Crimson Festival by Alice, FunkyPoop
Best Concept: Crimson Festival by Alice, FunkyPoop
Best Presentation: Emmy And Sal by Mercerenies
Best Story: Blackout by Siolfor the Jackal
Best Devlog: ...

Full ranking:

  1. Crimson Festival by Alice, FunkyPoop
  2. Emmy And Sal by Mercerenies
  3. Party Animal by TehPilot, TheFugue
  4. Candle Wars by Yozoraki
  5. Candles Have Feelings by JordanOttesen
  6. Blackout by Siolfor the Jackal
  7. Forty or the Modern Big Brother by SoapSud39
  8. Keyboard Hero by tadashibashi
  9. Party Puker by Ben Stitt
  10. Wham Bam Dan Jam Slam by GameDevDan
  11. Escape of the Clowns by kburkhart84
  12. Fiesta Down by VinylFly
  13. Robot Surprise Party by samspade
  14. Final Battle by Kahrabaa
  15. get to the party by Wabb, sequential
  16. Candle by Steelegms2
  17. Christmas with Uncle Tom by BluishGreenPro
  18. Castle Meta by The M
  19. Need For Beats by Matharoo, BlaineTanuki, _aeternumgames
  20. GreymoorHall by Ninety
  21. Crimson Guild's Glamorous Guest List by Mr Magnus
  22. Quickly! Dispensegifts by Allison James
  23. The Matchmaker (HTML5 ONLY, OPEN FOLDER) by eimie
  24. Barry Bear's Birthday by Richerama
  25. Hero Horde by PinesOfChaos
  26. The Scattered Army by Sirham
  27. Dr Smiley's Brain Jam Party by Yal
  28. Jenka Dungeon by dosto, Reaktori, Riuku
  29. Survival Party by HayManMarc
  30. Jaguar Pogo Party by TotallyAverageGamez
  31. dawg the party animal by NivesStudio
  32. Survive the Party by Nejc Podlipnik
  33. R-pg-ING by Micah_DS
  34. Party Mountain by AJTheApple
  35. Jam Defenders by Kepons
  36. Gangs Bash by D'Andrew Box
  37. One Big Political Party by Terminator_Pony
  38. Your Brain On Party by thijsmie
  39. Life Party by Cat
  40. Apocalypse party by aspiringgamemaker
  41. Party Parade by Tristan
  42. GMC Fruit Salad Surfer by Yal
  43. The Annual GMC Party by O_stogden
  44. Adventures Of Robot X by Pixel-Team
  45. Wastoid Rodney by Cloaked Games, JosephEllis, BlakeNorth
  46. Snake Dance by Greenblizzard
  47. Party Detective by Mercyssh
  48. City Scuttler by Bearman_18
  49. Me pARRty by ghandpivot
  50. Queen by Toque
  51. Crazy Waiter by Gatefiz, JP, Claire Dujardin, Benfik
  52. HealthBar by Fanatrick
  53. Roborazzi by Kultisti, Sulo
  54. Party Paddles by Fusai
  55. The Way Back To The Party by Noodlehead
  56. The Party Must Go On by GVmG
  57. 3 Mice In A Trenchcoat by Bart, TheSnidr, Xor, Naterboy
  58. Hero Huddle by ThinGinger
  59. Plague Rats by Nocturne
  60. Party Animals by ScaryPotato, Kalzme
  61. happy birthday by Yal
  62. Fantasy Strategy Clicker by Julien, Hyomoto
  63. Florida Man by BreakfastBoy
  64. Color Splash by EvanSki
  65. The Golden Balloon by Little Penguin Studios
  66. Party Pooper by Lukan
  67. dumburk 9000 by Bret Hudson, Allen Webster, Jared Cohen
  68. Fiesta Fist by Cristobal, MatthewPattel
  69. Party Guardians by StarDreamIX
  70. GMC Party Adventure by Imagine Galaxy
  71. Behemoth by sp202
  72. The Retrieval by Dr Wolf
  73. One Big Party by Gizmo199, shortbread
  74. Extinction Tea Party by Moon Goat
  75. Goin' All Nite by Dadio

Comments:

3 Mice In A Trenchcoat by Bart, TheSnidr, Xor, Naterboy

cute looking game. The 3D is pulled off nicely. had to mash all the buttons to figure out B drops a bone. Kind of made sense as the big guys kind of look like pugs. They ignore the bone and chase you. I am left wondering what the point of the game is.

Adventures Of Robot X by Pixel-Team

The intro is pretty cool with the VO and the robot and The title with your name. After that it it a platformer. The option description doesn't match the control description in readme which is correct. The platform difficulty ramps up to quicky almost immediately you need to be twitch to avoid damage fortunately one hit doesn't kill you. It isn't obvious until you play with the controls that you can shoot at diagonals.


Apocalypse party by aspiringgamemaker

kind of odd concept to wedge a zombie shooter in to a party theme. Not sure how light make zombies weak to paint balls. after that it is pretty much a war of attrition over 5 min. The generator takes up to much of the room it is hard to squeeze around the top.

Barry Bear's Birthday by Richerama

Seems to be a timing and coordination game. Not my strong suit lol. The mixing to the balloon colors and task did keep me on my toes. It did feel like the balloon would bound behind you too much to punch but it still worked so no biggie. Also the sweets to the mouth was a small target area that felt like the timing was a little particular.


Behemoth by sp202

no idea what this is supposed to do. The visual is cool though.

Blackout by Siolfor the Jackal

I really liked the look and feel of this one. It was nice and you could jump right in and place without any spin up on the controls. It was a little touchy on the the range to which you interacted with things it was a really tight window and could be opened up a bit when the levels are so open. Also if you help the party rat then wonder what that rock does and kill him by accident then bar owner loses his mind and crashes the game.


___________________________________________
############################################################################################
FATAL ERROR in
action number 1
of Other Event: User Defined 0
for object obj_barman:

ds_list_size argument 1 incorrect type (array) expecting a Number (YYGI32)
at gml_Object_obj_barman_Other_10
############################################################################################
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
stack frame is
gml_Object_obj_barman_Other_10 (line -1)
called from - gml_Object_obj_player_Step_0 (line -1) - <unknown source line>



Candle by Steelegms2

I so like attack recharge mechanic on this one. It could have used either a little instruction up front of not have enemies there to swarm you up front so you can check out the controls. Also the player could have been more directional so you could tell where you were aiming better. I had a number of misfires due to improper direction and that combines poorly with the recharge mechanic.


Candle Wars by Yozoraki

Looks nice. A lot of go fetch type and minions.

Candles Have Feelings by JordanOttesen

cute graphics and nice concept, but it rather odd the camera stays with the boy rather than the candle and you can run off screen and have no idea what you are doing.

Castle Meta by The M

I am not sure what the deal with the items is I found them when I first loaded the game and they give you skills which is fine but then it devolves into a basic platformer. Still a bit twitch for me at least it not one hit to die. Really couldn't tell what the what the meta of it all was.

Christmas with Uncle Tom by BluishGreenPro

Looks like a visual novel. Could use more of a choose your own story deal to it.

City Scuttler by Bearman_18

Didn't crash as advertised so there is that. Other wise the this roguelike difficulty ramps up too quickly. Really enemies did too much damage and there wasn't enough smokes to heal you up.

Color Splash by EvanSki

Initial menu looks nice and polished. I assume this is a tease of the post jam version. Not really any game here to review.

Crazy Waiter by Gatefiz, JP, Claire Dujardin, Benfik

being a waiter at the part. The control are the entire difficulty here. It is a real pain to steer the waiter and you bump into people which is the whole thing you are suppoed to avoid. Then you can't find the one person in the whole place that wants what you have to deliver. i was quickly frustrated and wanted to close it out and there wasn't even an option for that and I had to alt F4 out.

Crimson Festival by Alice, FunkyPoop

This was definately a good idea and use of theme. I honestly worried you had bit off too big of an idea when you mentioned it. There is isn't a bunch of game play per say and the story linear with the exception of how the other crimson games affect it, but overall this was pulled together pretty nicely.

Crimson Guild's Glamorous Guest List by Mr Magnus

Seems kind of like a where is waldo game. The shame is no one ever asks how is waldo... First off I am dreadful at this game. I could't tell any of the people from the description even with all the accesability turned on. The only one I found was the dude driving the van. Otherwise I just waited until the game gave up on me and started fading out the wrong options then I could eventually find it lol. This game could have benifited from some form of tutorial about matching the art to the description or something I had no idea what in your mind a plain skirt looked like and even zooming in is that plain or fancy? I am not sure.

dawg the party animal by NivesStudio

First the music really needed to be able to turned off. I don't' know about the rest of the sounds... I hade to mute it to be able to get through a play through. I just stumbled through the mini games and tried to figure them out and ended up at the party; so, I guess I won?

Demon Dance by Mightyjor, Twintertainment, Brett-Bit

Why are so many people better than me at my own game lol.

Dr Smiley's Brain Jam Party by Yal

I am at the point of how many entries did you have time to do? It is a tetris type game. It does seem to suffer from too many combination to match easy. There is way too many variations of behavior and matches.

dumburk 9000 by Bret Hudson, Allen Webster, Jared Cohen

not really sure what the point was. you can buy stuff and upgrade stuff but I am not sure what you do with it. I saw the notice of it was unfinished. I hope to see it after the jam!

Emmy And Sal by Mercerenies

This is actually a cute concept. Theme was on target. The puzzles are well thought out. Good luck finding a police department that stupid though lol.

Escape of the Clowns by kburkhart84

Neat little puzzle game. The dangling so far out over spike it is crazy to trick the crane to drop in the wrong spot is an odd mechanic.

Extinction Tea Party by Moon Goat

Honestly no idea what I am trying to do here. I am sure there is something here but I can't figure it on in the few seconds of game cycle. really could use instructions to go with it. It would likely improve its rating. The graphics look cute.

Fantasy Strategy Clicker by Julien, Hyomoto

seems well enough put together but is rather slow and not a lot of feedback on what you are doing and why.

Fiesta Down by VinylFly

I won. I am not sure what I was doing almost just held down arrow down and bounced around, but there was cake! That is what is important.

Fiesta Fist by Cristobal, MatthewPattel

If you are going to have non standard controls, please include a readme. No one wants to fidget with all the keys to figure out how to get the game to start. After that the same T key did some sort of attack. I am guessing that was the only skill? Anyways made to the boss. The bad guys were a little small and there attack was so subtle that it was hard to tell I was being attacked. Also the Boss is huge compared to those guys.

Final Battle by Kahrabaa

I just stay off the road and cultivated my horde of deer to destroy my enemies. Kudos for a proper tutorial.

Florida Man by BreakfastBoy

I am guessing beach party? The original resolution was way small. Kudos on allowing the window to scale up. Otherwise it was rather unforgiving and twitchy. Also I want jump to be space and not W just would have felt better with the pace.

Forty or the Modern Big Brother by SoapSud39

Some how grand daddy watching is creepier than big brother. Well thought out story and setting. The only thing I would say is at the end it wants you to enter the password and locks up and seems like a bug to me, but then when you go back the make menu I barely see something about grand daddy watching so maybe not a bug? That part could use something more graceful in line with the rest of the game.
(I almost typed in big daddy is watching that would be a little more creepy than grand daddy lmao)

Gangs Bash by D'Andrew Box

party game. really could use an instruction over view and tighter controls.

get to the party by Wabb, sequential

nice kind of lemmings concept going on. The controls are a little difficult to pinpoint what you want to do.

GMC Fruit Salad Surfer by Yal

the control are rather wonky on this. the combo between the current pushing you and the controls be slow to react and fight what you want to do left me quiting after a few short tries. It looks nice and cute though. I wouldn't have done the wiggle on the text in the instructions and stuff. readability beats flavor of the game in this case.


GMC Party Adventure by Imagine Galaxy

Not sure what the epicly long cutscene had to do with a bouncy sticky ball. The cut scene seemed to be on theme but then it drifted off. Not sure what the sticky was for other than to keep you from jumping to things. The sticking could have been a good thing, but it seemed to be more in the way than helping you.

Goin' All Nite by Dadio

If there is more to this than a lemon trying to give me motion sickness idk what it is.

GreymoorHall by Ninety

This is actually an interesting concept. I like the idea of the murder mystery where you are the murderer and got to find out about everyone to shift the blame. It needs some mechanic improvements. After I taked to everyone the guy I needed to kill wouldn't stop standing with everyone else. There has to be a way to separate him or he needs to go by himself on some sort of basis. It really isn't fun to sit there while the time runs out where you can't do anything but wait.

happy birthday by Yal

Really long narriation for a few sentences I couldn't skip. Then go to a somehow foggy wasteland with little square to collect an didn't' see balloons.

HealthBar by Fanatrick

I am guessing that I was supposed to match the fill of the colors on the side? I am guessing without instructions. It seemed to play that way until I started getting colors that didn't' match the options and the mix was needed maybe but I didn't' get the mix right I guess.

Hero Horde by PinesOfChaos

I like a good RPG party. This mechanic is interesting, but a little hard to balance. Trying to find that just right balance between not running out of money and not running out of health isn't that easy. Also not sure if you were supposed to go some where to save the world in 10 min or if you just had to kill enough monsters. Never lived long enough to tell the tale.


Hero Huddle by ThinGinger

could have used some instructions to figure out keys to control and mouse to attack. Also the AI is way to relentless.

Jaguar Pogo Party by TotallyAverageGamez

cute idea for the pogo stick. Hearing the sound repetively does start to wear on you after a moment. He bounced backwards most to the time then suddenly would face the correct direction. Getting him to properly jump on those baby platforms wasn't easy either.

Jam Defenders by Kepons

Like the turn of phrase on jam and the RTS mechanics are well executed, but I never got a wave 2.

Jenka Dungeon by dosto, Reaktori, Riuku

Interesting concept of the RPG party. It is a little hard to see and control what you are attacking.

Keyboard Hero by tadashibashi

NIce rythm type game. I liked how the music went with how well you did, It could have benefited from a few fewer options for keys to press. I wasn't properly braced for a full typing test.

Life Party by Cat

run around the screen and drop the present off. Not a huge strategy. you could basically just run in a circle and drop them off.

matoset by Poizen

Game will not start


___________________________________________
############################################################################################
FATAL ERROR in
action number 1
of Other Event: Room Start
for object obj_menu:

string_copy argument 1 incorrect type (undefined) expecting a String (YYGS)
at gml_Object_obj_menu_Other_4
############################################################################################
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
stack frame is
gml_Object_obj_menu_Other_4 (line -1)




Me pARRty by ghandpivot

It is nice it is in 3D and all but the game play really isn't there. You just stumble around at random and not so much for treasure or to fight pirates but to find enough food to not have to actually eat Fat Mike. Seems like it would be way to easy if you know the map and a way to hard if you don't know the map. Also I think I would have checked those cabinet before eating fat mike lmao. Also I think by time Fat Mike starved to death he would have just been regular Mike lmao.

Need For Beats by Matharoo, BlaineTanuki, _aeternumgames

Nice rhythm game. Tutorial required too much cordination for me, but nicely put together.

One Big Party by Gizmo199, shortbread

cute Mario party type concept. The control is rather lacking for keyboard controls. The turn is way to slow if you are going to turn with arrows. Also had a crash on the pool game right off the bat.

One Big Political Party by Terminator_Pony

I guess the point here is to travel as economically as possible. You can't fly much or you might lose.

Party Animal by TehPilot, TheFugue

cute idea. everyone wants to pet a cat. film grain effect was a nice touch.

Party Animals by ScaryPotato, Kalzme

Party type game. Really could use some CPU competitors. All the game seem to involve just pushing your button. Could be crowded if you actually had four people.

Party Detective by Mercyssh

This needs a better tutorial. No idea how I am supposed to serve the guest or arm the weapon or question the way too many guest.

Party Guardians by StarDreamIX

Really needed an instruction listing. The game crashed while i was face rolling key to see if something would do something. Tried again and seems like the mouse makes it fire left and right. Might just be me but it felt awkward. Cleared the second wave then the game locked up and didn't do anything else.

Party Mountain by AJTheApple

Platformer. Seems a little twitchy for the first level. Had to stop there or chuck my computer.

Party Paddles by Fusai

I like the FF looking sprites. The game look itself is chaos. That may players and balls at the same time is a bit much. Also not sure if I am supposed to play both players or let one sit.

Party Parade by Tristan

not much to do other than tap A and L and there is not penalty for pushing them at the wrong time. I am assuming it is a matter of how high of a score you can get? When I got bored it went back to zero but It didn't' make a game over situation.


Party Pooper by Lukan

Took me a moment to notice the icon up top to see which one it was. I assumed it was the frowny face one. I am not sure if is a game won condition or it just goes on forever.

Party Puker by Ben Stitt

Being an introvert finnally pays off. I got out one try!

Plague Rats by Nocturne

I really like the concept here. It does annoy like one rat is much slower than the rest. Also, the game started acting odd. Some rats made it under a door and some wouldn't go under then the game froze and I had to end task.

Queen by Toque

The controls are off on this one the bird just sit and poop if you get under them and you can only throw peas straig up and then it feel off center when you do throw which make the aim feel off. Maybe it is a UK thing but i didn't get the Queen with pea and pigeons thing.

Quickly! Dispensegifts by Allison James

I guess you beat everyone up with the presents. I kept getting disoriented with the spinning and the arrows I kept mixing them up as it went around.

Roborazzi by Kultisti, Sulo

Difficulty is too high for just walking into the game. way too many enemies and hard to look and dodge at the same time. having the player bounce off the walls at the same time doesn't enhance the experience.

Robot Surprise Party by samspade

I am bad at this. Oh well never cared for surprise parties anyways. Just run in and say surprise.

R-pg-ING by Micah_DS

Interesting concept. a bit of a pain to figure went to jump with so many things. I don't' really care for twitchy jumping with one thing more less 20 things

Snake Dance by Greenblizzard

Looks like a snake game except you assume the shape before the time runs out. Nice you get partial points for kind of getting there lol.


Survival Party by HayManMarc

boils down to run around in circles and hope the stuff spawns to keep your people happy enough before the time runs out. Could have used a bit more strategy to it.

Survive the Party by Nejc Podlipnik

looks like a survival wave type deal. a little hard to steer. state of game didn't reset after a loss.

The Annual GMC Party by O_stogden

Murder mystery party. Cool idea. It really could have used some clues to who did it maybe some set up for context so it isn't so much of a random guessing game. Like take to everyone and get the clues than gather everyone in the parlor and make out your case like the old movies.

The Golden Balloon by Little Penguin Studios

Platformer. The balloon seems to be the theme, but that is the most awkward part. It feels like you are controlling the bottom on but the top on it what the trees are aiming for. Looks cute but the controls just didn't feel right to me. Then I tried to esc to close and it wanted to reload my continue spot. I just hit alt F4.

The Matchmaker (HTML5 ONLY, OPEN FOLDER) by eimie

I guess you are the party match maker in this one. You just push people around like sokoban to make them match up. I am also guessing this is a match as many as you can for a high score rather than a game with an ending. I think the placement could use some work. It seemed random and some times there weren't many good moves to make as the dance floor got more crowded.


The Party Must Go On by GVmG

Not sure if there is an end to this or just and endless list of request. It is hard to find what you are looking for and the physics for the cart are wild. I hope no-one drives a cart like that. Though it was fun to demolition derby around until it said grabbed and slide in on two wheels into the check out.

The Retrieval by Dr Wolf

Not sure if I still didn't understand what I was doing after reading the instruction manual or not or the game wasn't working. Either way if you need a manual for a jam game it is likely too complicated.

The Scattered Army by Sirham

Concept of the RPG party is good. The inventory is really hard to see what you are equipping or not. It is also hard to figure what order you are doing things in. The enemies are pretty unforgiving even on easy. The bolder push was also odd. I bumped into the boulder a few times and it didn't do anything until I walked a way. It just seemed odd and made it harder to figure out that was what you were supposed to be doing.

The Way Back To The Party by Noodlehead

Like an old school adventure game. get you trying to piece your night together after the party. It would be better if every guy you talk to didn't try to kill you. Bad neighborhood to have a party in.

Wastoid Rodney by Cloaked Games, JosephEllis, BlakeNorth

looks like hotline miami meets bill and ted's excellent adventure. It has a nice retro look. The controls rather fight you it kept resetting to a cardinal direction when I was trying to shoot at and angle. It make that first step out the tutorial into a bullet hell more of a pain than it was worth. The dash could use a bit more distance. You have to stand too close to get safely across.


Wham Bam Dan Jam Slam by GameDevDan

cool mario party concept. The characters are a little difficult to steer.

Your Brain On Party by thijsmie

Kudos for having a more involved concept with a tutorial up front. Not sure if there is a winning scenario or just maintain as long as you can.
 

Richerama

Member
Reviews

Top 3:

Emmy And Sal by Mercerenies
This is a very cleverly made puzzle game with a great learning curve that keeps introducing more concepts and increasing the challenge. There's also a lot of content - I spent quite a bit of time entertained by this and still didn't make it to the end. The story and the humorous dialogue provide a bit of extra polish that makes it even more fun to play.

Forty or the Modern Big Brother by SoapSud39
I liked this for trying something a bit different and doing it really well. There are some interesting ideas here and it was an enjoyable experience to play through.

Wastoid Rodney by Cloaked Games, JosephEllis, BlakeNorth
A simple yet fun music themed shooter that kept me wanting to keep playing. I like the theme and the story around this but mostly was just fun to play.

Best ofs:

Best Concept: Emmy And Sal by Mercerenies
Best Presentation: Party Animal by TehPilot, TheFugue
Best Story: Forty or the Modern Big Brother by SoapSud39

Full ranking:

  1. Emmy And Sal by Mercerenies
  2. Forty or the Modern Big Brother by SoapSud39
  3. Wastoid Rodney by Cloaked Games, JosephEllis, BlakeNorth
  4. Hero Horde by PinesOfChaos
  5. Party Animal by TehPilot, TheFugue
  6. Snake Dance by Greenblizzard
  7. The Matchmaker (HTML5 ONLY, OPEN FOLDER) by eimie
  8. HealthBar by Fanatrick
  9. Jam Defenders by Kepons
  10. Jenka Dungeon by dosto, Reaktori, Riuku
  11. Plague Rats by Nocturne
  12. Christmas with Uncle Tom by BluishGreenPro
  13. Party Animals by ScaryPotato, Kalzme
  14. Wham Bam Dan Jam Slam by GameDevDan
  15. One Big Party by Gizmo199, shortbread
  16. The Golden Balloon by Little Penguin Studios
  17. Adventures Of Robot X by Pixel-Team
  18. Quickly! Dispensegifts by Allison James
  19. Queen by Toque
  20. Need For Beats by Matharoo, BlaineTanuki, _aeternumgames
  21. 3 Mice In A Trenchcoat by Bart, TheSnidr, Xor, Naterboy
  22. Survival Party by HayManMarc
  23. Party Mountain by AJTheApple
  24. Extinction Tea Party by Moon Goat
  25. GMC Fruit Salad Surfer by Yal
  26. Fiesta Down by VinylFly
  27. Castle Meta by The M
  28. Your Brain On Party by thijsmie
  29. Candles Have Feelings by JordanOttesen
  30. R-pg-ING by Micah_DS
  31. Roborazzi by Kultisti, Sulo
  32. Blackout by Siolfor the Jackal
  33. One Big Political Party by Terminator_Pony
  34. Fiesta Fist by Cristobal, MatthewPattel
  35. Crimson Festival by Alice, FunkyPoop
  36. GreymoorHall by Ninety
  37. Demon Dance by Mightyjor, Twintertainment, Brett-Bit
  38. Gangs Bash by D'Andrew Box
  39. Me pARRty by ghandpivot
  40. Robot Surprise Party by samspade
  41. get to the party by Wabb, sequential
  42. Crimson Guild's Glamorous Guest List by Mr Magnus
  43. Florida Man by BreakfastBoy
  44. Final Battle by Kahrabaa
  45. Dr Smiley's Brain Jam Party by Yal
  46. Survive the Party by Nejc Podlipnik
  47. Party Guardians by StarDreamIX
  48. The Scattered Army by Sirham
  49. Candle Wars by Yozoraki
  50. dawg the party animal by NivesStudio
  51. The Party Must Go On by GVmG
  52. Candle by Steelegms2
  53. Apocalypse party by aspiringgamemaker
  54. Jaguar Pogo Party by TotallyAverageGamez
  55. Party Detective by Mercyssh
  56. Party Paddles by Fusai
  57. The Way Back To The Party by Noodlehead
  58. Hero Huddle by ThinGinger
  59. Crazy Waiter by Gatefiz, JP, Claire Dujardin, Benfik
  60. Escape of the Clowns by kburkhart84
  61. Fantasy Strategy Clicker by Julien, Hyomoto
  62. The Annual GMC Party by O_stogden
  63. The Retrieval by Dr Wolf
  64. Behemoth by sp202
  65. City Scuttler by Bearman_18
  66. GMC Party Adventure by Imagine Galaxy
  67. Life Party by Cat
  68. Party Parade by Tristan
  69. Party Pooper by Lukan
  70. Party Puker by Ben Stitt
  71. dumburk 9000 by Bret Hudson, Allen Webster, Jared Cohen
 
Reviews

Top 3:

Wastoid Rodney by Cloaked Games, JosephEllis, BlakeNorth
Wow. This was the first GMC Jam 40 game that I played, and it set teh bar pretty high for the rest. I'm a sucker for twin-stick shooters, and was thrilled that I had the option to use my controller. The game itself was fun, and addicting. I literally didn't want to stop until I threw the most radical party of all space and time. I had a hard time with level 2, and just as I was about to quit - I discovered "easy mode" in teh settings... as well as teh option to remove teh flashing effects. Bonus points for thinking about people with epilepsy. The only nit-pick that I have is with the camera controls. I don't know exactly what it is about them, but I felt like I kept leaving teh view-port. I changed the setting and then I couldn't see what I was shooting. It wasn't quite right either way.

One Big Party by Gizmo199, shortbread
Wow. I'm blown away by the graphics in this one. Near Mario Party quality. The gameplay was fun, and the controls felt good. If there was more content and multiplayer I would totally buy this for my Switch. Hard to believe that it was made in GameMaker honestly LOL. The music was nice, and so were the sound effects. Nothing to nit-pick really, I just wish that there was more! Keep up the great work. Looking forward to the post-jam version.

Party Animal by TehPilot, TheFugue
Wow. That was pretty great, honestly. I especially loved the aesthetic. It felt like I was in an old silent film. The score was fantastic. Great job with that. The core gameplay loop was unique and fun - just the right amount of frustrating. No bugs to be found. All in all, this is a solid game.

Best ofs:

Best use of Theme: Crimson Festival
Best Concept: The Matchmaker
Best Presentation: Party Animal
Best Story: Plague Rats
Best Devlog: 3 Mice in a Trenchcoat

Full ranking:

  1. Wastoid Rodney by Cloaked Games, JosephEllis, BlakeNorth
  2. One Big Party by Gizmo199, shortbread
  3. Party Animal by TehPilot, TheFugue
  4. The Golden Balloon by Little Penguin Studios
  5. The Matchmaker (HTML5 ONLY, OPEN FOLDER) by eimie
  6. Plague Rats by Nocturne
  7. Candles Have Feelings by JordanOttesen
  8. Adventures Of Robot X by Pixel-Team
  9. Crimson Festival by Alice, FunkyPoop
  10. 3 Mice In A Trenchcoat by Bart, TheSnidr, Xor, Naterboy
  11. Quickly! Dispensegifts by Allison James
  12. Emmy And Sal by Mercerenies
  13. Demon Dance by Mightyjor, Twintertainment, Brett-Bit
  14. Escape of the Clowns by kburkhart84
  15. GreymoorHall by Ninety
  16. Crimson Guild's Glamorous Guest List by Mr Magnus
  17. Party Mountain by AJTheApple
  18. Need For Beats by Matharoo, BlaineTanuki, _aeternumgames
  19. Wham Bam Dan Jam Slam by GameDevDan
  20. Jaguar Pogo Party by TotallyAverageGamez
  21. Forty or the Modern Big Brother by SoapSud39
  22. Castle Meta by The M
  23. Candle Wars by Yozoraki
  24. Christmas with Uncle Tom by BluishGreenPro
  25. Apocalypse party by aspiringgamemaker
  26. Hero Huddle by ThinGinger
  27. Snake Dance by Greenblizzard
  28. Fiesta Down by VinylFly
  29. Blackout by Siolfor the Jackal
  30. Survival Party by HayManMarc
  31. GMC Fruit Salad Surfer by Yal
  32. Gangs Bash by D'Andrew Box
  33. Roborazzi by Kultisti, Sulo
  34. Party Animals by ScaryPotato, Kalzme
  35. Robot Surprise Party by samspade
  36. Hero Horde by PinesOfChaos
  37. Final Battle by Kahrabaa
  38. Party Detective by Mercyssh
  39. Dr Smiley's Brain Jam Party by Yal
  40. The Annual GMC Party by O_stogden
  41. Florida Man by BreakfastBoy
  42. Extinction Tea Party by Moon Goat
  43. dawg the party animal by NivesStudio
  44. GMC Party Adventure by Imagine Galaxy
  45. Crazy Waiter by Gatefiz, JP, Claire Dujardin, Benfik
  46. HealthBar by Fanatrick
  47. Queen by Toque
  48. Jenka Dungeon by dosto, Reaktori, Riuku
  49. The Scattered Army by Sirham
  50. Party Parade by Tristan
  51. Barry Bear's Birthday by Richerama
  52. City Scuttler by Bearman_18
  53. Fiesta Fist by Cristobal, MatthewPattel
  54. Party Guardians by StarDreamIX
  55. Party Paddles by Fusai
  56. The Party Must Go On by GVmG
  57. R-pg-ING by Micah_DS
  58. Me pARRty by ghandpivot
  59. One Big Political Party by Terminator_Pony
  60. The Way Back To The Party by Noodlehead
  61. Party Pooper by Lukan
  62. happy birthday by Yal
  63. Survive the Party by Nejc Podlipnik
  64. get to the party by Wabb, sequential
  65. Jam Defenders by Kepons
  66. Life Party by Cat
  67. Candle by Steelegms2
  68. Behemoth by sp202
  69. Fantasy Strategy Clicker by Julien, Hyomoto
  70. Party Puker by Ben Stitt
  71. Your Brain On Party by thijsmie
  72. Goin' All Nite by Dadio
  73. dumburk 9000 by Bret Hudson, Allen Webster, Jared Cohen
  74. Color Splash by EvanSki
  75. The Retrieval by Dr Wolf
  76. matoset by Poizen
  77. Keyboard Hero by tadashibashi

Comments (3-F)

3 Mice In A Trenchcoat by Bart, TheSnidr, Xor, Naterboy

Very impressive. It's a bold move entering a 3D game in a 96 hour game jam.... but I've got to say - this is really well done. The controls are tight and it feels good to play. The graphics were pretty great. There were a few small things I could nit-pick like the camera showing the inside of walls - but this sort of thing is way over my head and that may be a lot of work to fix for such a minor issue. The music was great, though... and I love the concept of this. It reminds me of the part in Ocarina of Time where you're infultrating Hyrule Castle... which is a very fun thing to do. I'm not exactly sure what the end-goal is? Maybe that's the point? But I got to the part where I am 3 Mice in a Trench-Coat and then could not figure out where to go next. I tried going back to the first floor, then back up to the trench-coat floor - and still was unable to figure it out. I did discover that pressing B drops a bone - but I'm not exactly sure what the point is. I thought that it might distract the guards - but that didn't seem to be the case. I thought that it might hold down the red button - but that didn't seem to be the case either. Actually, I'm not sure what the point of the red button is, either. As far as I can tell - it doesn't do anything. I did discover that when you are 3 mice in a trench-coat you can hop from barrels onto the walls... and perhaps that's how you progress - but I wasn't able to find anywhere else to go even with that in mind. I understand that there is a post-jam version, and I'm looking forward to checking that out. PS: It's a very cool move to release the source-code. Thanks for contributing this to the community. <3


Adventures Of Robot X by Pixel-Team

Awesome game! I really enjoyed playing this one. It's pretty amazing that you did all of the code, audio, and artwork by yourself! The chip-tune was wonderful, the graphics (especially the player character) were nice. The story was humorous and actually had me laughing a few times. Bonus points for the voice-acting and also gamepad support. I did have a little trouble with the menu buttons while using my gamepad. See Twitch stream if you're curious. Also, after the credits, I was shown a screen with the player, two gears, and I couldn't move or do anything. Aside from that, flawless. I wish that there was more to it. The boss could have been a bit harder, too.


Apocalypse party by aspiringgamemaker

Fun game! I made it through all five minutes on normal, and hard mode. Once that happens, I was un-clear on what to do. Is that it? Did I win? It didn't feel like it. I went searching for the door, and at first I thought they were on the left and right sides (where the zombies enter from) but that was not the case. It took me another few tries to figure out that the door was on the north wall. Once I knew that, I was able to beat the game rather easily. Your core gameplay loop is near perfect. It just wasn't clear to me where the door was. It might be too easy. Or maybe I'm just too awesome. It's hard to tell sometimes. NOTE TO SELF: TRY TO EXPAND ON THIS REVIEW LATER.


Barry Bear's Birthday by Richerama

That was by far the saddest game that I've ever played. I successfully managed to ruin Barry Bear's Birthday more times than I'd like to share. It was surprisingly difficult. I was only able to follow instructions on the balloon game about half of the time, and I had no success at all with the vegetable game. There was such a slim margin of error - I just couldn't do it. It really frustrated me, actually. I felt like flipping my laptop at one point. The graphics were nice. SImple, but stylized. The voice-acting was phenomenal. I really enjoyed that. Even though it bummed me out. Big time.


Behemoth by sp202

Well, first of all... that was absolutely terrifying. Beholders are really scary. Second of all, interesting concept. Not bad for something thrown together in the last day. I'm curious if the messages are connected to the internet in some way. It sure seems like it. The graphics were okay, and the music was a little spooky. I mis-understood the readme and played twice.


Blackout by Siolfor the Jackal

I like this. This looks like one of the good ol flash games with current era software. I dig the controller support, and the general look and feel of the game. The graphics were nice, and the music was just about perfect. The story was humorous, albiet short. I wish that there was a little more to it, but since this was for a jam - I completely understand. The end screen was fantastic. I like how the music changed (seamlessly.) Good job with this!


Candle by Steelegms2

This is an okay prototype. It was fun for a few minutes, but I feel like it needs more content to keep the player engaged. After a few floors it got repetitive and a little bit boring. The graphics are not bad. Simple but effective. Good job implementing the jam theme.


Candle Wars by Yozoraki

That was the second saddest game that I've played so far. The first was Barry Bear's Birthday. Good story. Just... heart-breaking. The graphics were adorable, and the music was good. I'm normally terrible at RTS games... so I'm surprised that I got the hang of this one. The controls were good and easy to pick up on. Although, I got a little confused on how to fight the cakedouche. The following AI got a little buggy around the castle walls, too. I had fun playing this. Wish that there was a little more to it. If you decide to expand on this game - I think that you have a great place to start here. Great job with it.


Candles Have Feelings by JordanOttesen

Wow. This was a pretty amazing game. Great concept! Although, I'm not sure why a candle would resist being blown out. Fire seems like it would be the scariest thing for them. I ADORE THE PLAYER CHARACTER! The animations are flawless, and give it so much personality. The little flame trail, the look on his face while he's running. The tear drop (or is it a drop of wax?) when he dies. Etc. It's all perfect. The rest of the graphics were pretty good, as well. But you nailed the character. The music was nice, and so were the sound effects. Adding controller support always gives you bonus points in my book. The platform mechanics were infuriating, but fair. I made it to the chocolate world with about 50 deaths and then had to stop because I felt like throwing my controller and it was really starting to stress me out. There's a market for this sort of thing, and some people are really into it, but I'm one of them, lol. Great job all around. The controls were tight and precise. I'm just bad at it.


Castle Meta by The M

First of all, I really like this concept! Very cool idea and a unique take on the theme of ONE BIG PARTY. I was confused as to what the objective was at first, although I figured it out through playing. It wasn't made clear which items were placed by players. I thought that would include the golden triangles (does it? I don't think so.) From what I could gather, the idea is to collect 10 of the triangles to open the portal to fight the boss - and the "items" you speak of are just the equipable items for Z, X, and C. I found my name on the "We are the Meta" list which surprised me, because I suck LOL. Is that just the most recent players? At first, I thought it was a high-score list or something. Confusion aside, I did enjoy the game. Although, I found myself incredibly frustrated with the controls. My laptop is one of those that has tiny up and down keys (that take up the space of one key on my keyboard) which made some of the mechanics very difficult. The option to re-map them or use a gamepad would have helped out tremendously. There were a few game-breaking glitches, too. At one point I fell through the floor and into the void. The only option was to close the game and restart. Also, after my first rodeo with the boss the character froze in place. I could change items with Z, X, and C but not move. Is that a bug or a feature? I feel that I was robbed LOL. I really wanted to go back and give it another go, but I didn't want to start over. The graphics and music were terrific. I really like the pixel art style, and the tiles were placed in a very artistic manner. The brown area in particular looked spectacular. The level design was on-point, too. I like that certain items allow you to access certain areas, and not everything is accessible at all times.


Christmas with Uncle Tom by BluishGreenPro

I like this. Normally I don't care for heavily text-based games, but this one was captivating to me. I found the dialouge funny, heart-warming, and relatable. The graphics were good. It's kind of amazing that I was able to identify hungry hungry hippos with an 8x8 sprite. This is a good example of a low-rez pixel-art game done well. The music was nice, too. Non-intrusive and relaxing. It reminds me of my GameBoy Color for some reason. Part of me wants to say that I wish there was more options/gameplay... but I don't think that was the point. As far as I can tell, this was basically a short-story book inspired by your family... and in that sense, I think that you nailed what you were going for. PS: Thanks for the pro-tip on how to play hungry hungry hippos correctly. I never knew.


City Scuttler by Bearman_18

Interesting. The controls were... a lot to take in, but once you get into the swing of it, they weren't as terrible as I initially thought that they were going to be. It's just odd. Your hands are all over the keyboard playing this thing. But like I said, once you get used to it, it's alright. The graphics were pretty good, and I like the whole "turn based" action RPG type thing that you created here. It's almost like a table-top game in a way. I think that it needs to be more clear when you're taking damage, though. I didn't even realize that I was being shot. A visual or auditory cue would help tremendously. Also, I had a hard time rationalizing a few things. For instance, why smoking increases your HP and why an AK-47 doesn't drop enemies, and requires so much re-loading. It just doesn't make sense. LOL. Not holding that against the game, though. I just have questions. I did not make it to the boss, and I understand the whole spaghetti thing. But I do really like what you were going for here. I think that the concept has merit, for sure. Good job.


Color Splash by EvanSki

Very nice title screen! I liked the music, and general aesthetic... but it's not really a "game" persay. One thing that I would love to know is how on earth it figured out and auto-populated my first name. Windows user-name, perhaps? That kind of scared me.


Crazy Waiter by Gatefiz, JP, Claire Dujardin, Benfik

"Breh." I like the concept of this game a lot, but it is a little bit too buggy to fully enjoy. I managed to break it two consequetive times (where basically I couldn't move, and the mop just kept spinning in circles.) As a result, I threw the lamest party ever. Initially, I didn't quite understand how to play the game. I didn't realize that I could pick up food and drinks from the waiters, and was literally just a janitor the first play-through. Ironically, that was the best party that I mangaged to throw LOL. A viewer pointed out that I should be following the arrow, and once I understood that, the game made a lot more sense. I don't know exactly how (or if) that could be made more clear. To be fair, I'm really stupid sometimes... but I figured I'd let you know. The graphics were alright, and so was the music. The VA was cool, but also very repetitive. If you were to mix up the "breh" with "bro" "dude" etc. it would be a lot less annoying IMHO. All in all, good job with this. Fix the bugs and it could be... "Awesome!"


Crimson Festival by Alice, FunkyPoop

Initial Reaction: Nice work on this! The concept was very ambitious and it turned out really well. The graphics were nice, and although point and click games aren't a genre that I particularly enjoy - it was fun to play through. The music was wonderful. The story was pretty good as far as I could tell. My comprehension isn't always perfect when reading large amounts of text, so I feel like I missed some of it - but I'm going to give this a second go once I've played the other games.

Final Reaction: I revisited this after playing through the other games. It was cool to see some recognizable characters from them, and see how that affected the story. After seeing more of the dialouge, I can tell that the story behind this game is better than I initially had thought. I hadn't finished all of the games to completion, so afterwards I used the right-click cheat to unlock all of the options, and see what differences that would have made. This is a very cool concept, and I'm looking forward to seeing the post-jam version. This is definitely one that I'm going to remember. Fantastic work, y'all.


Crimson Guild's Glamorous Guest List by Mr Magnus

Pretty good game! Right off the bat, I enjoyed that you took into consideration people with dyslexia and color-blindness. Great amount of accessibility options. The game itself is not an easy one. I was not good at it LOL but I can't hold that against you. I don't know how people were scoring so high on it... but it's a very cool concept and fun to play... albiet frustrating at times - especially when you're down to the wire on time. I love the fact that when you've been stuck for a while - the game starts ghosting out the wrong options to guide you to one of the people that you're supposed to find. All in all, I would say that this is the best "Where's Waldo" type thing that I've ever played. Planning to come back to it and try to get on the high-score board at a later time. The graphics were simple but effective, and the music was perfect.


dawg the party animal by NivesStudio

I like the concept behind this game quite a lot. Nice collection of mini-games, tied together by a storyline. I feel that the "countdown timer" (hype) should stop ticking while you're reading the prompts. On the first run-through I felt handicapped by the time it took to read the instructions... The second run-through I think that I did better, but I'm not really sure because the debrief text seemed to break for some reason. The first prompt (about food) took a few seconds to appear, and the others didn't appear at all. The graphics were okay, but rather inconsistent in style. The music was okay. Not bad over-all. Good job with this!


Demon Dance by Mightyjor, Twintertainment, Brett-Bit

Awesome game! I genuinely had fun playing this, and was able to set a few high-scores. The online leaderboard was a nice touch. The graphics were very nicely done, as were the sound effects. The background videos were fantastic. I wish that there were more tracks and difficulty settings, but as this was a jam game - I totally understand why there aren't.


Dr Smiley's Brain Jam Party by Yal

Well, I like the concept... but I'm terrible at it. This game is sort of like a mix between Dr. Mario and Tetris - and a bit more micro-management than my brain can handle. I felt like I was just getting lucky when I got combos. It was a little difficult to tell which blocks did what... and for some reason - some times they would float (leaving gaps) when other times they would collapse and stack neatly. I'm unclear if that is a bug or a feature. All in all, this seems like a pretty solid game though. The graphics and music were nice. I'm just... not good at it.


dumburk 9000 by Bret Hudson, Allen Webster, Jared Cohen

I'm going to be honest. I don't quite get this game. There was no tutorial or instructions on how to play it. As far as I could tell, the only two keys that do anything are the space bar and enter. And the best strategy seemed to be holding down the space bar until I have enough loot to purchase upgrades... then the game was over. There didn't seem to be anything else to do at that point. I think I see what you were going for. A simple text based game reminescient of the DOS era... but (as you said) it's largely un-finished and not fun in it's current state. I did like the music, though.


Emmy And Sal by Mercerenies

Interesting. It started off as a simple pentomino/tangram type game... but you kept adding mechanics every few levels and it evolved into something very, very complicated. The pacing was perfect. It was easy to understand each new mechanic as it was introduced... Although, once you get into the later levels the sum of it all is... a bit frustrating? Maybe I'm just not smart enough for this, but I felt like after a certain point it became a game of trial and error. Just slapping things around at random until they all clicked. I don't know. The story was light-hearted and funny. The music was nice. The graphics were fine. All in all this is a pretty good game. Nice job with it.


Escape of the Clowns by kburkhart84

That was fun! It reminds me of that game from the Game Maker's Apprentice - but you expanded on it wonderfully! The two cranes were a nice touch, and this is hands down the best take on that concept that I have ever played. The music and sound effects were perfect! I believe that there were more one track - or if not, the one track had various parts and didn't get repetitive at any time. The graphics were good, for the most part. The menu text was very hard to read... The controls were tight and precise. The level design was pretty good. The last level took me more than a few tries. If you expand on this post-jam I would look forward to playing more levels. Great job!


Extinction Tea Party by Moon Goat

I really love the graphics in this game. The whole thing has a very "doodley" feel to it, and reminds me a game from the golden era of Flash. I noticed that the cursor changes when you hover over the menu button. I have no idea how you did, and wasn't aware that was possible... but it was cool. It's the little things sometimes. The game itself was fun, but not easy. The core gameplay loop is solid. I like the variety of obstacles that you have implemented. I did get the following error message twice:

############################################################################################​
ERROR in​
action number 1​
of Step Event0​
for object obj_cake:​
Unable to find instance for object index 100127​
at gml_Object_obj_cake_Step_0​
############################################################################################​
gml_Object_obj_cake_Step_0 (line -1)​

Both times, it caused the game to crash... Also, I think that a little music would have gone a long way here. And, this is a nit, but the menu button should read "Click here to play" not "Click to play"


Fantasy Strategy Clicker by Julien, Hyomoto

I think that this game has potential... but it's not tuned exactly right. It took a bit of trial and error to figure out how to play it because there was no tutorial, read me, or tool tips. Once I figured out what everything was, I was able to take out the first two threats pretty easily... but the third one took a very long time to prepare for. After I finally defeated the third wave, I decided to quit and move onto the next game. In my opinion, it would help to speed up the core gameplay loop. For a game that takes so long to play, it would be nice if there was a way to save your progress. The graphics were simple but effective, and the music was okay.


Fiesta Down by VinylFly

I LOVE the concept of this game. It would be a really fun multiplayer, honestly. But anyway, I managed to beat it the first time on both characters... so I don't know if I'm just awesome at it, or if it's a bit too easy... but I did have fun playing this. The story was cute, and I loved the ending. The graphics were simple but consistent and effective. The way you handled the cut-scenes was awesome. Great job with that. PS: Thank you for including the option to use WASD or Arrow Keys. That's really important to me LOL. Not much to nit-pick here. Good job with this game. :)


Fiesta Fist by Cristobal, MatthewPattel

At first, I had absolutely no idea how to play this game. I figured out that WASD moves up and down on the main menu pretty intuitively - but I couldn't figure out how to select an option. I tried enter, spacebar, shift, z, all of the obvious things - and eventually had to resort to just trying literally ALL of the keys. Once I had figured out that T is the Enter key - I also figured out that G shows the win screen, R restarts the game, and Y is Jump... To be completely honest, the controls ruined this game for me. T and Y are keys that I normally hit with my left hand (but since I was using that to move my character, I had to use my right-hand... which was laying diagonally across the edge of my laptop (because thats not a normal position) and after a few minutes my wrist started to hurt. Worst control scheme I've ever had the misfortune of experiencing in any game... ever.

End rant.

The game itself wasn't bad. It reminds me of an old arcade game I played at Chuck'e'Cheese's once. The difficulty was just about right. The music and the sprites were okay. I especially liked the player character - he was absolutely adorable. Good job with the game overall - but please don't ever use this control scheme in another project.


Final Battle by Kahrabaa

I got this error message at the end of the tutorial.

############################################################################################​
FATAL ERROR in​
action number 1​
of Step Event2​
for object objMain:​
Unable to find any instance for object index '9' name 'objChest'​
at gml_Object_objMain_Step_2​
############################################################################################​
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------​
stack frame is​
gml_Object_objMain_Step_2 (line -1)​

The game itself worked perfectly fine, though. I was able to amass a party of 100 and had no problems fighting wave after wave of enemies. After a while, that got kind of boring... I was expecting a boss fight or something along those lines... but it never seemed to happen. The graphics aren't bad. They're consistent and work well. The core game-play loop is fun and I did enjoy it for a good while. The UI is a little rough around the edges. All in all, this is a good game. It fit the theme of "one big party" perfectly.


Florida Man by BreakfastBoy

Not a bad game. The music was fantastic and fit the aesthetic and general feel of teh game perfectly. The difficulty was a little bit much. I made it to the second checkpoint and just could not seem to progress any farther. Maybe I just suck...? But I feel like it could have had more check-points or been a bit more forgiving to new players. The combat was nearly impossible. When you get close enough to fight you're subject to a barrage of attacks which are (IMHO) OP.


Forty or the Modern Big Brother by SoapSud39

This game scares me. A lot. Brilliantly written story. It honestly got into my head a little bit like 1984. You nailed the vibe you were going for. Very dysotopian. Much wow. The graphics and sound effects fit perfectly. Unique use of the the theme "one big party." Very different take on that than everything else that I've seen. Not going to lie, though. At the end I got stuck in an infinite loop of filling out the same document and I'm not sure if that was a glitch because I didn't close the appdata file when I was supposed to, or if that was actually the ending of the game. I feel like it was probably the latter.
 
Last edited:
Reviews Continued

Comments (G-Z)

Gangs Bash by D'Andrew Box

Not a bad "Mario Party" type game. Fits the theme of the jam well. The pixel art style was fairly consistant and the music was nice. I swear that the first game is rigged - like, impossible to win (maybe I just suck.) Also, the tank game seems to have a bug in it. I died first and the other two tanks just kind of sat there forever and ever and ever and ever - preventing me from moving onto the next game. Perhaps a simple fix would be a time out of some sort. The mini games were fun, though. I also like that I was the red player - because reasons.


get to the party by Wabb, sequential

The controls to this game are a little bit wonky. It took me a minute to figure out how to play it... but once I had done that - I enjoyed this. It's a fun concept. A little rough around the edges in the graphics and code departments. Whilst trying to figure out the contorls - I encountered this error. Not sure exactly what triggered it, but here it is:

############################################################################################​
ERROR in​
action number 1​
of Draw Event​
for object oGame:​
collision_rectangle_list argument 3 incorrect type (undefined) expecting a Number (YYGF)​
at gml_Object_oGame_Draw_0​
############################################################################################​
gml_Object_oGame_Draw_0 (line -1)​

Also, when I got to (maybe the 5th or 6th level) the game started to repeat itself. 10 partiers made it to the portal and then it reset back to 0 infinitely. I'm not sure if that's a bug or if I had just reached the last level, and there's no win screen in place. Good job with this. If you do a little more work on it, I think that you could have a really fun game here.


GMC Fruit Salad Surfer by Yal

All in all, this is a very solid game. The graphics were kind of psychedelic, and the music was nice. I adore the fact that when you go underwater the music actually sounds like you're underwater. I don't think that I've seen that in anything, ever. Very nice touch. The gameplay was frustrating as can be. Reminds of Flappy Bird in a way. Fair amount of unlockables. The characters, etc. give you a reason to keep playing. I'm not good at it, but this is a pretty good game. Nicely done. One thing that I couldn't quite get used to was the diving mechanic. It feels like sometimes I got "stuck" at the surface of the water and the character didn't dive when it was supposed to. Maybe I just suck? I don't know.


GMC Party Adventure by Imagine Galaxy

Interesting concept. I think that the controls feel a little buggy, although, I did start to get used to them the longer that I played. Very un-conventional style of platform game - I really dig the concept of it a lot. The graphics were just okay, but the music was wonderful. The level design was solid, and honestly, I wish that this was a bit longer. Just as soon as I got used to it, it was over. All in all, good work here. I especially liked the voice acting. That's always a nice touch!


Goin' All Nite by Dadio

...I have no idea what to say about this one. I'm not even exactly sure that is a "game" persay. Whatever it was, it was mesmerizing... albiet confusing. Very nice music, and interesting visuals. Was that an original track? If so, I love it. Great job with the music. It appears that you block the pills being thrown at the lemon by clicking on them - but that doesn't seem to serve any purpose whatsoever.


GreymoorHall by Ninety

Wow. I like this a lot. It's unlike anything I've ever played before... and I love the fact that it changes every time giving it a good bit of replayability. The graphics and music were nice. I really don't have anything to nit-pick on this one. One thing I feel I should note, though... Once you have played the game once, the difficulty seems to go down rather drastically. The first time I played through I didn't realize there was a hidden item, the second time I knew that so I made it a point to find it. Then after talking to everyone, it was pretty easy to choose someone to blame. I was expecting a more thorough investigation to be done by the police. Perhaps additional levels / difficulty settings could be added if you decide to expand on this after the jam. But it's a fun, solid game as is. Great job with this!


happy birthday by Yal

I like the concept of this game, and the style that you were going for... but I had a lot of issues actually playing it. First off, I found the controls difficult to use. Perhaps the option to re-map them, gamepad support and/or fix the camera would have helped some. I also kept getting stuck inside platforms, swimming under pyramids, and tried to swim out into the ocean for a few minutes before I realized that there was nothing to be found. The also game crashed on me once. I did manage to find one of the balloons, but mostly I felt like I was fighting to control the character and the camera - which isn't exactly fun. Not trying to be harsh here, most would never even attempt a 3D game for a jam... I just feel like it's too rough around the edges for me to enjoy playing. I did notice when I was in task manager that the .exe's name is "Modern and Depressing." I don't know if that was an easter egg or an over-sight... but it sure fits the aesthetic of the game.

PS: I can't make heads or tails of this... but the fog was impossibly dense on my laptop. I could barely see anything. Made it nearly un-playable. When I watched the VOD of my stream on my phone, it was aesthetically dense. It was still very foggy, but I could actually see. I don't know why that is. Maybe my laptop doesn't have deep blacks? Or it could be my chip-set failing to render things properly? I have no idea.


HealthBar by Fanatrick

I love the concept behind this. I really do. But I think that the difficulty is way too high. Perhaps implementing an Easy, Normal, and Hard mode would go a long way here. After the basic solid colored RBG brews the game gets hard FAST. I like that there is a little bit of margin for error, but there's really no way to improve at the game once it starts giving you nothing but orange, pink, and yellow blends. The graphics and music were nice. It just... it's too hard. That's really my only problem with it. I imagine that this would be a lot of fun if I was more of a RBG color expert.


Hero Horde by PinesOfChaos

Nice game! I found the whole experience to be nice and relaxing. Once I got into the swing of things, it was fun to run around and rack up coin. The graphics were okay, but not great. The color contrast could have been a bit better, and the trees had a funny "pixelated" effect when the camera moved around. I liked the different character options. All in all, this is a very solid game. Good job with it.


Hero Huddle by ThinGinger

I like it. At first it seemed like an impossible game, but each run I seemed to get a little better at it - and was able to take down the boss (which at first glance, also seemed to be an impossible task.) Basically what I'm trying to say is that you absolutely nailed the learning/difficulty curve. Great job with that. The graphics were nice. It reminds me of, uh. I want to say PICO8 for some reason but I'm not exactly sure what that is - or why it just popped into my head. ANYWAY! A little music would have gone a long way here. Great use of theme. This was fun!


Jaguar Pogo Party by TotallyAverageGamez

Nice. This a refreshingly different twist on a platform game. The pogo stick was (for the most part) well programmed and easy to control... although, I did manage to get stuck on two different ocassions. That would have frustrated me greatly, if it weren't for the fact that you can quit the level, and return without losing your collectibles. That definitely took the sting out of it haha. I really liked the graphics, and loved the music. All in all, this is a pretty good game. Great job with it!


Jam Defenders by Kepons

As a disclaimer, I don't play a lot of RTS games... but I found the controls a bit confusing and clunky. In my opinion, you should stick to either keyboard controls or on-screen buttons. I kept trying to click things that I couldn't. An easy fix might be making the 1, 2, and 3 buttons on the keyboard work to create new units. I found the tutorial experience was a bit over-whelming. It was a lot of information all at once, and I didn't process everything necessary to play. Some of the text over-lapped other text. All of that aside, good job with this. Your core gameplay loop is solid, and the difficulty curve seems about right to me. I was bad at it, but I imagine for someone who is good at RTS games, and can get past the 7th wave, this would be fun. The graphics and sound were pretty good. Maybe a background track would have gone a long way. One last thing, I love that you made a JAM GAME for a GAME JAM. That's really funny.


Jenka Dungeon by dosto, Reaktori, Riuku

I really like the retro looking graphics... Although the shader made it a bit difficult to see what was going on. The concept was cool, but I feel like the learning curve is a bit steep here. Maybe I'm just not understanding the combat system... but it appeared to me that if you don't have a net - you're basically just screwed. The only way to damage monsters seems to be running into them - but that's also how they damage you. I know that each creature has it's own attacks, but it's a lot going on at the same time - and with the enemies zipping around so fast it's hard to process what is going on, and to execute a plan of attack. I definitely suck at this... but I feel like it could have started off easier - or just been a bit slower in general.


Keyboard Hero by tadashibashi

The game did not start or appear in task manager. I tried opening the entries folder and it didn't work there either. Which is a shame, it looks like it would have been a fun one to play (based on what I've seen in other people's streams.)


Life Party by Cat

Not bad. The neon graphics were cool, and the electronic music fit nicely. The gameplay was simple and (in my opinion) doesn't have much re-play value. It might help if the game saved scores so that the player has something to work towards. I had difficulty remembering what my previous scores were.


matoset by Poizen

I got this error when I ran your game.

############################################################################################​
FATAL ERROR in​
action number 1​
of Other Event: Room Start​
for object obj_menu:​
string_copy argument 1 incorrect type (undefined) expecting a String (YYGS)​
at gml_Object_obj_menu_Other_4​
############################################################################################​
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------​
stack frame is​
gml_Object_obj_menu_Other_4 (line -1)​

Alas, I was unable to play.


Me pARRty by ghandpivot

Nice little prototype! While there wasn't very much to do, it was fun exploring and seeing what all there was to interact with. Not gonna lie, the first time resorted to cannibalism REALLY quickly. Like, we didn't explore our other options at all. It made me feel like a bad person. The islands weren't all solid, and the camera controls were a bit odd. I think that I would have just fixed the camera to the ship's direction, personally. But all in all, it's not a bad effort for a game jam. I applaud you for even trying to make a 3D game in GMS2.


Need For Beats by Matharoo, BlaineTanuki, _aeternumgames

This is one of the most original takes on the guitar hero / DDR formula that I've ever seen. Very original. Also, very difficult. After the tutorial I experienced something of a "rude awakening" on the first level. I didn't expect this to be so brutally difficult right from the get-go. With that being said, I think that it's the good kind of difficult... in the sense that I felt the need to keep playing (because I know that I can do better.) If you come back to this and expand on it, maybe a practice mode or something to that effect would help. The graphics were nice. All in all, I really like this.


One Big Party by Gizmo199, shortbread

Wow. I'm blown away by the graphics in this one. Near Mario Party quality. The gameplay was fun, and the controls felt good. If there was more content and multiplayer I would totally buy this for my Switch. Hard to believe that it was made in GameMaker honestly LOL. The music was nice, and so were the sound effects. Nothing to nit-pick really, I just wish that there was more. Keep up the great work. Looking forward to the post-jam version.


One Big Political Party by Terminator_Pony

Fun little game. Turns out, I'm awesome at it! I won the election in only 15 days. Turns out the winning strategy is just to focus on swing states and ignore the bulk of the country... and get increasingly radical with your views as time goes on. The graphics were simple but effective. I think that some music would have gone a long way here. All in all, not bad. Not bad at all.


Party Animal by TehPilot, TheFugue

Wow. That was pretty great, honestly. I especially loved the aesthetic. It felt like I was in an old silent film. The score was fantastic. Great job with that. The core gameplay loop was unique and fun - just the right amount of frustrating. No bugs to be found. All in all, this is a solid game.


Party Animals by ScaryPotato, Kalzme

All in all, I like what you have created here. It looks like it would be a fun game to play with friends. Although, I feel that it's a bit limited by fact that players would have to huddle around a single laptop to play it. The easiest fix in my opinion would be controller support, if you're planning to work on this after the jam. With that being said, I found the graphics and music very charming! I also like the selection of mini-games that you have created (some button mashers, some reflex games, some luck/card games, etc.) This would probably be a hoot to play with friends. It also fits the theme well. Good work!


Party Detective by Mercyssh

Interesting concept. I had fun playing this game, although I wasn't able to win it... more often than not the killer turned out to me. Dun dun dun. One over-sight I did find is that it's possible to mop, sweep, serve drinks, etc. by jumping to the ceiling and clicking the icon. The font was also a bit disorted and hard to read. Other than that, I didn't have any problems.


Party Guardians by StarDreamIX

Interesting concept. I think that there is a bug with the Voidwalker class. After level 2 the "Enter" button is not clickable. The enter key doesn't work either. I was able to make it to level 4 on the Star Falcon. And for some reason I kept hearing windows make that annoying sound which indicates you're clicking something that you should not be clicking. No idea if that's a personal problem or something to do with teh game. The graphics were a little inconsistent, but the music was nice. The sound effects were nice, too. All in all, good effort.


Party Mountain by AJTheApple

All-around nice game! The graphics were beautiful. If they're not 8-bit they're a convincing imitation. I loved the limited color palette and the chip-tune soundtrack. The level design was pretty good. It got a little tricky in the middle, and then a little easier towards the end. I think that you have a solid prototype here, and if you work on the levels some more after the jam... you've got something pretty great here. Like Celeste mixed with the impossible game.


Party Paddles by Fusai

Not bad. I like the concept (in theory) but as far as I can tell, there's really no way to... strategize or get gud at this. It seems to be a game of random chance more than anything else. All in all, not a bad idea... I hope it's not just me, but I feel like it isn't. Correct me if I'm wrong. I might have to give this another go with a friend and see if it makes a difference, but I'm not sure that it will. There's just so much going on, and the game is over before you know it. The graphics and music were okay.


Party Parade by Tristan

Interesting. I liked the concept a lot. It's probably one of the most accurate parade sim's that I've ever played. The gameplay was hypnotic. I didn't realize quite how much time was passing while I was playing. However, it was too easy in my opinion. At some point or another, I think that I would have added additional keys. Maybe use the whole home-row? The graphics were... consistent. They reminded me of old flash games from long, long ago. And the music was nice.


Party Pooper by Lukan

Not a bad little game. Kind of like Where's Waldo. My only problem with it is that when I lose I'm not sure exactly why it is that I have lost. The first time, I thought "I must have eliminated someone of the right color with the wrong facial expression." The second time, I thought maybe there was a very subtle color difference. The third time, I thought maybe it's due to over-lapping collision masks. At first I was rushing because I thought that there was a time limit... but once I realized that I slowed my roll a little bit and still have no idea why I was losing. The graphics are simple but effective. Maybe some background music would have helped a tad.


Party Puker by Ben Stitt

LOL this is the story of my life. Go to parties, avoid talking to anyone, and leave... I've been training for this my whole life, and was a natural at it. Jokes aside, good job with this! It's very simple, but there's nothing wrong with it persay. I would have added some music, and maybe some graphics from opengameart.org (etc.) to improve the visuals... but this is a good little prototype.


Plague Rats by Nocturne

Wow, that was pretty awesome. I loved the graphics and the music so much. I'm a sucker for good pixel-art and the music was nostalgic of a GameBoy Color game. The menu was nice and animated. My only nit is that the blood puddles clipped the walls in places. Otherwise 10/10 good job in the aesthetics department. The gameplay loop was unique... albiet horrifying. My only gripe there is that I wish there was more content. With that being said, I recognize that this was developed in 96 hours and can't really expect much more than what's here. And for what it's worth, you tied things up nicely and there was an actual ending. So bonus points for that. The text passages were a bit long IMO. And I wish that there were keyboard controls. The view kept moving while I was trying to select the on-screen buttons.


Queen by Toque

Not bad. The graphics were charming, although a bit inconsistant in style. The music and sound effects were pretty good. The gameplay was simple and sorta fun but it's not something I think that I'd want to play for long periods of time. The story was alright, but to be honest I had no idea what they were saying some of the time due to the thick accents lol. All around, not a bad game. Good work on it.


Quickly! Dispensegifts by Allison James

Interesting. I really dig the concept of this! The core gameplay loop was fun and unique. This is definitely something that I want to play again. The graphics and music selection were OUTSTANDING. The dialouge was snappy and absolutely hilariously. I like when games swear at me LOL. My only nit-pick with this game is the control scheme that you chose. I kept getting confused about what buttons to hit, which made it un-necessarily difficult IMHO. If it were me, I think I would have made a button (spacebar, shift, etc.) change directions, and then just used left and right to move across the spinning bar. Also, the controls weren't explained very well on the title screen. I didn't quite understand what I was doing when I first started playing. Besides that, this is nearly perfect. Great work!


Roborazzi by Kultisti, Sulo

I liked the concept of this game a lot. It was like a action-"Where's Waldo?" game. I also like the fact that you took the time to add controller support. Personally, I didn't care for the fact that once you started moving, you couldn't stop moving. I think that just made things un-necessarily chaotic... but to each their own. The graphics and sounds were really nice. This was really hard, too. Especially in level 3. I didn't manage to beat the game, but I came close a few times. It was fun, though. Nice job with it.


Robot Surprise Party by samspade

I like the concept behind this game... but I had some trouble understanding it at first. I think that it could be more clear when you get caught. Perhaps draw a laser to show the player where they stepped into the purple robot's line of sight. Sometimes it was hard to tell why I lost. Also, the first time I did lose, I thought that I had won (for some reason.) The prompt "umm... surprise" is a bit vague. Also, the robots are too good at hiding behind trees. I completely lost one and was unable to find him. I thought that the game had bugged for a moment. To be fair, I am really stupid... but I feel like certain things could have been made more obvious to player. The graphics were wonderful. The music was nice. The gameplay itself was fun (but frustrating.) Overall, nice job with this!


R-pg-ING by Micah_DS

Interesting concept. Interesting in a good way. I've never played anything like that before. Sorry it didn't work out the way you envisioned - but that's what game jams are all about! Trying new things. For what it's worth, I did have fun playing it. Props for doing something in 3D. As you mentioned, music is always a good thing. But the graphics were nice.


Snake Dance by Greenblizzard

Wow. I absolutely love this concept. It's like puzzle mode Snake. I've never seen anything like this before. This is very fun to play, and the difficulty curve is just right. I figured out the controls but somewhere on the start screen (or in a read me) it should tell you to use WASD to play. Took just a bit of trial and error to figure that out. The graphics were awesome. I love the minimalistic style. Really goes to show that you don't need fancy graphics to make an attractive game. The music fit well, too. The only problem I had was when I backed myself into a corner - which made it completely impossible to move. I was stuck and lost all my lives in a row. I don't know if that's a bug or a feature... but it was frustrating lol. Great work with this. I legitimately had fun playing it.


Survival Party by HayManMarc

Not bad at all. I really like this concept... although it took a bit of trial-and-error to figure out how to play. I read the readme (and should have known) that space bar ends the level, but I didn't realize that you had to do that. I thought just standing on the house when you ran out of time would work. Alas, it did not. Once I understood that, I had fun playing this. That's really my only nit-pick. As far as I could tell, there are no game-breaking bugs or anything of that nature. You said it became a beast to manage, and while I understand that feeling, I couldn't tell it by playing. So if you hadn't said anything I would be none the wiser. The graphics were simple but effective. The music was nice. Good job!


Survive the Party by Nejc Podlipnik

Pretty good. The controls were nice, and easy to understand. The graphics were alright. The sound effects were alright. A little music would have gone a long way here. There wasn't much content (just 3 waves, I think) but what little bit there was - was fun to play. I wish that there was more. The "Press E to Interact" with the wizard led me to believe that there would be more - but I'm pretty sure that there isn't. Also, the controls weren't made apparant until I pressed ESC. I would have put them somewhere a bit more obvious than that. Maybe the main menu or in a splash right when you start playing. Also, that was a really scary setting for a party. If I was invited to a party in a room like that - I would get out of there fast.


The Annual GMC Party by O_stogden

Interesting... The story was pretty great. I like how you worked in (exaggerated versions of) GMC Members and this made me laugh on more than one ocassion. The whole time-loop thing was absolutely hilarious. I love it when people become aware of those. I never fail to get a kick out of that. The graphics were alright, and the music was perfect. I really liked the sound effects. The murders themselves were fairly simple to figure out IF you talked to everybody. I got impatient on the level where there were two, and failed because I didn't take the time to read everything. All in all, this was a pretty good game... or meme... or whatever you want to call this LOL.


The Golden Balloon by Little Penguin Studios

That was one of the more fun games that I've played so far. I absolutely adore the platform mechanics. I've never played a game quite like that (where you press on landing for a bigger jump) but it was smooth, easy to control/learn, and fun to play. The music and graphics were soothing and relaxing. Usually these kinds of games frustrate me quite a bit, but even when I was repeating the same level 20+ times I caught myself smiling. Maybe the popping sound reminds me bubble wrap, lol. Very, very, nice use of minimal graphics. Great job with this! I wish that there was more content, honestly. I'll have to keep an eye out for the post-jam version. Few small bugs here and there, but nothing game-breaking, and that's to be expected in a game jam anyhow.


The Matchmaker (HTML5 ONLY, OPEN FOLDER) by eimie

I liked this game a lot. It's really great honestly. It reminds me of Cadence of Hyrule mixed with Sokoban... which is something really unique IMHO. It took me a while to understand that the people had to be standing beside each other (left and right) versus (up and down.) At first, I thought "oh, okay, well, these two must not be a match." Once I got past that, the game got a little bit easier. The difficulty curve feels just right. The game gets really tough after a while, when there are a lot of party-goers. The best strategy seems to be pushing them to the walls, but even if you're doing that, it still gets really tough. The graphics were pretty great. I do have a question, though. Are the strobe-lights supposed to match the beat? I don't think that they do... which threw me off a little bit. You just have to kind of go off of the sound, and ignore that. If they don't, the DJ should invest in some better equipment. It's not that hard to get them on a timer that matches the BPM. Anyway. Great job with this! I really had fun playing it.


The Party Must Go On by GVmG

Interesting concept. There wasn't much to do. It seemed like I was just collecting hammers, metal straws, and things for Nathaniel over and over and over again. What kind of party goes through 4 hammers and 2 sets of metal straws in 5 minutes? The kind of party that I want to be at. That's what kind. Seriously, invite me to your next party. I need to be there. The graphics were alright. Simple but effective. It felt a little bit like bumper cars sometimes. The best strategy seemed to be bounce off of the walls at random until you a bleep and then rush to the register. It was fun for a few minutes, but I'm not sure that there's enough content to make me want to come back. Not bad for a jam game. Not bad at all.


The Retrieval by Dr Wolf

When I hit NEW GAME I received the following error message:

############################################################################################​
FATAL ERROR in Vertex Shader compilation​
ShaderName: shd_clip​
D3DXCompile failed - result​
############################################################################################​
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------​
called from - gml_Script_guilib_draw_text_clipped (line 11)​
called from - gml_Object_par2_guilib_label_Collision_1 (line 18)​
called from - gml_Object_obj_guilib_labelflex_Collision_1 (line 3)​
called from - gml_Object_obj_guilib_manager_scrolllist_Draw_64 (line 124)​

Also, the manual was just a duplicate of the first splash screen - and is un-readable when opened in Notepad.


The Scattered Army by Sirham

I loved the fact that this reminds of me an old flash game... I feel like I used to play a lot of things like this on Newgrounds and Addicting Games (RIP.) Impressive effort for a jam game. There seemed to be a lot to do: Side-quests, upgrades, several bosses and zones... My only complaint with the game design is that it seems to be a matter of trial and error. There wasn't a way (that I found) to heal, so if you went about it in the wrong order you're basically screwed. Also, I couldn't tell if the upgrades at the blacksmith were actually WORKING or not. I grabbed what I believed to be ore from the mines, and the blacksmith allowed me to choose an item... but after doing so my Attack/Defense did not change, and there was no noticable difference in power. At one point, I got "stuck" moving up... Pressed WASD a few times and managed to clear it.


The Way Back To The Party by Noodlehead

Not bad. I had a lot of trouble getting oriented in the game world, and confused by the various directions (NESW vs Left/Right/Forward/Back) and seemed to have the best luck just moving around at random until I found a point of interest. I did also get confused by the "go back" thing at first, even though you warned me about it... but at times I was glad that it was there. The story was okay. The music was subtle but nice. The graphics were alright, too. In the end, I did manage to get my stuff back. PS: Being directionally challenged may be a personal issue so take that with a grain of salt.


Wastoid Rodney by Cloaked Games, JosephEllis, BlakeNorth

Wow. This was the first GMC Jam 40 game that I played, and it set teh bar pretty high for the rest. I'm a sucker for twin-stick shooters, and was thrilled that I had the option to use my controller. The game itself was fun, and addicting. I literally didn't want to stop until I threw the most radical party of all space and time. I had a hard time with level 2, and just as I was about to quit - I discovered "easy mode" in teh settings... as well as teh option to remove teh flashing effects. Bonus points for thinking about people with epilepsy. The only nit-pick that I have is with the camera controls. I don't know exactly what it is about them, but I felt like I kept leaving teh view-port. I changed the setting and then I couldn't see what I was shooting. It wasn't quite right either way.


Wham Bam Dan Jam Slam by GameDevDan

I enjoyed this. I would love to have had the option to use WASD or Gamepad support, because my laptop has tiny keys... but aside from that - there's not much to complain about with this one. I'm bad at it, but I don't think that's the game's fault. It seemed well balanced, and would be a very fun multiplayer. Great job with the artwork. I loved the style of this. The music was reminescent of something that I heard long ago (but I can't put my finger on it.) Basically, good job all around. :)


Your Brain On Party by thijsmie

I hate to give this game a poor rating, because I really dig the concept... and it seems like it would be fun... the part where you're running around the room to keep your resources up was fun... but I couldn't seem to get the towers to work. I read the tutorial several times to make sure that I wasn't just missing something... but the instructions say "click and drag" and I don't see how I could possibly be doing that wrong. I tried dragging the icons, and the tubes... but neither seemed to do anything (in or between waves.) So even if I was doing a good job of running around - I would eventually lose to the bad thoughts... making the game basically un-playable. What am I missing here? Either I'm really stoopid or something is broken.
 

Nocturne

Friendly Tyrant
Forum Staff
Admin
Reviews

Top 3:

Gangs Bash by D'Andrew Box
Another mini-game collection! This one is excellent, with a great variety of games, each one with very different mechanic and way of playing. Graphically it was all very coherent and looked great, and the sound and music were well up to par for the gameplay. An impressive entry and one that deserves to do really well!

Wham Bam Dan Jam Slam by GameDevDan
Brilliant game! Really liked the graphics and the gameplay was fun and made me want to keep playing when I lost (until I worked out the trick, then it was a bit of a breeze... ;) ). Nice sounds, nice music and a top notch presentation. Definitely one of the best in the Jam, especially as everything was made from scratch for this game.

One Big Party by Gizmo199, shortbread
Okay, the quality here is excellent. Honestly, really good, and incredibly polished... The games were fairly original too, although the fruit thing was just a pain to play, but the other three were great. I have to give it a little less credit than it maybe deserves though for the quantity of pre-made assets that were used, which is why it's not quite my number 1 game. Still, incredibly well done!!!


Full ranking:

  1. Gangs Bash by D'Andrew Box
  2. Wham Bam Dan Jam Slam by GameDevDan
  3. One Big Party by Gizmo199, shortbread
  4. Forty or the Modern Big Brother by SoapSud39
  5. Jenka Dungeon by dosto, Reaktori, Riuku
  6. Robot Surprise Party by samspade
  7. Adventures Of Robot X by Pixel-Team
  8. Candle Wars by Yozoraki
  9. Emmy And Sal by Mercerenies
  10. Party Mountain by AJTheApple
  11. The Party Must Go On by GVmG
  12. Demon Dance by Mightyjor, Twintertainment, Brett-Bit
  13. The Scattered Army by Sirham
  14. Party Animal by TehPilot, TheFugue
  15. Candles Have Feelings by JordanOttesen
  16. The Golden Balloon by Little Penguin Studios
  17. GMC Fruit Salad Surfer by Yal
  18. Castle Meta by The M
  19. Party Detective by Mercyssh
  20. Hero Huddle by ThinGinger
  21. 3 Mice In A Trenchcoat by Bart, TheSnidr, Xor, Naterboy
  22. Quickly! Dispensegifts by Allison James
  23. Christmas with Uncle Tom by BluishGreenPro
  24. Survive the Party by Nejc Podlipnik
  25. Blackout by Siolfor the Jackal
  26. Jaguar Pogo Party by TotallyAverageGamez
  27. Queen by Toque
  28. Extinction Tea Party by Moon Goat
  29. HealthBar by Fanatrick
  30. Party Paddles by Fusai
  31. Roborazzi by Kultisti, Sulo
  32. Escape of the Clowns by kburkhart84
  33. R-pg-ING by Micah_DS
  34. Crazy Waiter by Gatefiz, JP, Claire Dujardin, Benfik
  35. Dr Smiley's Brain Jam Party by Yal
  36. Florida Man by BreakfastBoy
  37. Me pARRty by ghandpivot
  38. happy birthday by Yal
  39. Candle by Steelegms2
  40. Party Parade by Tristan
  41. Life Party by Cat
  42. dumburk 9000 by Bret Hudson, Allen Webster, Jared Cohen
  43. Color Splash by EvanSki
  44. Party Pooper by Lukan
  45. Keyboard Hero by tadashibashi

Comments:

3 Mice In A Trenchcoat by Bart, TheSnidr, Xor, Naterboy

This was a great "tech demo" but not such a great game I'm afraid! I LOVE the idea of having these mice running around and disguising themselves, and the game was visually impressive. SOund and music were perfect too, but the gameplay really let it down in my mind... The fact that dying restarts the whole game with no checkpoints was a REAL pain, and I felt that the levels themselves were just a little too big and sparse... especially without a map. That and the fixed camera angle made the game rather frustrating to play, which is why I say it felt more like a tech demo. I would love to see this game worked on some more and polished as I think there is the potential for an incedibly fun and unique experience, but as it stands, I just didn't enjoy it too much.

Adventures Of Robot X by Pixel-Team

What a great wee game! The presentation, praphics and sound were all outstanding and the gameplay itself was excellent. I'd definitely play a full game of this. Everything about it was really slick, from the sloping collisions, to the character interactions and text boxes... Really well done!

Blackout by Siolfor the Jackal

I liked this game a lot and was VERY disappointed when it ended so quickly! I'd have happily played a lot more of this, as I like this kind of adventure game. Graphics were great for the characters, but a bit sparse for the backgrounds, music was great, sound practically nonexistent (although the rat did go SPLAT!), and the presentation was a bit basic. Overall, a solid entry and one I'd play again if it was made into a longer game... :)

Candle by Steelegms2

Does this game have an end? I must have passed through about 10 mazes before finally dying and it seemed to just keep going after that... I liked the simple graphics, controls were good, but the gameplay was repetitive and it just felt unfinshed. Still, a good base to build something more substancial from I think.

Candle Wars by Yozoraki

This was a fun and lovely game to play. Not at ALL what I expected form the opening scene, and it was surprisingly deep for a game that was made in such a short timeframe! Great presentation, cool story, nice graphics, and adequate sound... Well done!

Candles Have Feelings by JordanOttesen

Ha! That was cute but annoying! :p I really liked the graphics in this and the sound and music were perfect for the game. The gameplay itself is excellent and for such a simple concept it plays really nicel... wlthough I do think it's let down by ONE flaw... too slow! The screen scrolls way too slowly so it meant that y the 5th or 6th death I was getting a bit fed-up having to wait for the screen to reach the previous point where I'd died.

Castle Meta by The M

This was a nicely made platform adventure. I did find it a little tough to play as I couldn't figure out some of the obvious mechanics in the game (like the ring things in the cielings... no idea how to use them to traverse rooms). Nice presentation, nice use of sound, and nice enough grapbics. A solid entry!

Christmas with Uncle Tom by BluishGreenPro

Well THAT was a cute and wholesome experience! I really enjoyed it! Graphics weren't great but certainly fullfilled their purpose, and the sound music and general presentation were pretty good too. I WOULD have liked a little more "drama" in the game, as it's really more like a "slice of life" than a visual novel or an adventure game, but I still enjoyed the experience.

Color Splash by EvanSki

No idea if there is actually a game here or not as I couldn't get past the splash screen. Tried following the instructions in the pop-up but nothing seemed to happen, just an infinite loop of getting the popup. :( Shame, as the initial presentation left a good taste n my mouth and I've have liked to have seen the game.

Crazy Waiter by Gatefiz, JP, Claire Dujardin, Benfik

I'm afraid I rage quit this with something like $50,000 in dept. The controls were just too fiddly for the amount of people that were in the game and had to be avoided. If there had been less people and if the people themselves couldnt overlap, then I'd have enjoyed this a lot more. Especially as visually it was quite nice and I liked the concept a lot.

Demon Dance by Mightyjor, Twintertainment, Brett-Bit

NIce game that's pretty fun and the inclusion of a high score table is an excellent touch! Graphically, nothing special, but technically great, and the presentation was good enough for the type... However I have to mark it down a little on originality as we've all seen rythym games like this before. Still, great effort and it felt good to play.

Dr Smiley's Brain Jam Party by Yal

What can I say... It's tetris with drinks! Nice enough presentation, average graphics and sound, and really not bad as a tetris clone, but doesn't offer much original to the mix, nor is it really on-point for the theme.

dumburk 9000 by Bret Hudson, Allen Webster, Jared Cohen

I have NO idea what I'm supposed to do here... just press space a lot and see things appear on the screen? I feel that I missed something, but maybe not given the message at the start... shame though as I'm kinda intreguided as to what this could have been!

Emmy And Sal by Mercerenies

This was a lovely puzzle game. The graphics weren't the best, but they were more than adequate for the puzzles presented, and the music and sound effects were perfectly good too - nice and subtle, and never annoying. The puzzles had a nice mix of elements and increased in complexity in a decent curve. I also really liked the concpet of the game in general and while I've seen plenty of games with a similar mechanic, this one still felt pretty fresh and original. Nicely done.

Escape of the Clowns by kburkhart84

Apart from being about creepy clowns (*shiver*) this was pretty good. I liked the general mechanic and the level progression was nice and scaled well over the levels. Graphics and sound were adequate, presentation was good, and I liked it quite a lot.

Extinction Tea Party by Moon Goat

This is one of those games that absolutely 100% needs a banging soundtrack and explosive sound effects... and it doesn't have them! :( The graphics were clean and simple, with some really nice touches (loved the way the cake splits open), and the gameplay was surprisingly addictive! If it would have had some sound then this would have ranked way higher in my listing... but without sound the game just felt "wrong" somehow... not as exciting as I think it could have been.

Florida Man by BreakfastBoy

This was a fun little platformer with some cute graphics. Sound was adequate, as was the presentation. I found the gameplay a little frustrating at times, but still a solid entry in the jam!

Forty or the Modern Big Brother by SoapSud39

LOL! I felt rather implicated in this game... And I definitely DO exist and I can assure all memebers of the GMC that I would do my damndest to overthow Garnd Daddy. :) Now, to the game... I loved it! Really nice narritive adventure, and wlthough it was "on rails" as it were, it wasn't boring and was very entertaining and fun to play. Graphics, sound and music were all excellent and the use of meta-game stuff like the Jam theme and putting "THE MANUAL" on the hard-drive was really cool. I also liked this interpretation of "one big party" a lot... nice to see a different spin on the concept. Very very good stuff!

Gangs Bash by D'Andrew Box

Another mini-game collection! This one is excellent, with a great variety of games, each one with very different mechanic and way of playing. Graphically it was all very coherent and looked great, and the sound and music were well up to par for the gameplay. An impressive entry and one that deserves to do really well!

GMC Fruit Salad Surfer by Yal

Another game by Yal????? Wow... Okay, and this is the best of the 3 in my opinion. A little bit too heavy on the shader effects, but I really enjoyed the simply but fun gameplay, and the music and sound were spot on, as was the humour. Special mention to the way the music changed when you went underwater... that was an excellent touch!

happy birthday by Yal

Quite a nice esthetic going on with this game, but I'm afraid I couldn't play for very long as the extreme depth of field effect was starting to affect me physically. I have pretty bad eyesight at the best of times so all that murky fuzziness just made things worse!

HealthBar by Fanatrick

This was a really interesting game! Took a bit to work out how the colours mixed in the "glasses" but that I think was half the fun... Really cool idea, and nicely done, although very basic in all aspects (sound, graphivs and presentation). But with a bit of polish and some extra ideas, I could see this being a really cool game for mbile devices!

Hero Huddle by ThinGinger

Liked the idea behind this, and really liked the "angband" style graphics (at, least that's what I thought of while playing!). The sound was minimal but okay, too. The gameplay however really lacked any kind of skill whatsoever and I felt that it really was all a bit mindless, which is a shame as conceptually this was really interesting.

Jaguar Pogo Party by TotallyAverageGamez

Fun little game, although I missed having more of a challenge... bouncing around is fun, but I expected more obstacles when I was playing. Still, cool concpet, nice graphics and sound, and decent presentation. Well done!


Jenka Dungeon by dosto, Reaktori, Riuku

Loved this game! The graphics were excellent, and the concept was fantastic as was the sound and music - both really fit the gameplay really well! My one complaint is that it's pretty tough! Some of the enemies seem to be a little too random... but other than that, I had great fun playing this. :)

Keyboard Hero by tadashibashi

Cant rate this as it wouldn't run for me. Sorry!

Life Party by Cat

This is a very basic game but still not bad at all. Needs sound effects and a little bit of polish in the presentation, but the concept is sound and I did play it a couple of times to see if I could beat my highscore!

Me pARRty by ghandpivot

This was quite a pretty game although the GFX were very basic... Sailing around the oceans was fun and I liked the whole esthetic, but it really was lacking in any decent content and felt more like a tech-demo than a full game.

One Big Party by Gizmo199, shortbread

Okay, the quality here is excellent. Honestly, really good, and incredibly polished... The games were fairly original too, although the fruit thing was just a pain to play, but the other three were great. I have to give it a little less credit than it maybe deserves though for the quantity of pre-made assets that were used, which is why it's not quite my number 1 game. Still, incredibly well done!!!

Party Animal by TehPilot, TheFugue

ARGGH! That's what I found myself shouting more often than not when I started playing this! It was SO frustrating at times to get the damned cat to not see you... But still, the game itself is so well presented and nicely made that I didn't find myself rage-quitting, and once I realised how the core mechanic actually works and got past that initial frustatration I really enjoyed it!

Party Detective by Mercyssh

Really interesting game... I liked the concept a lot and the mix of rushing around to clean things up while trying to read the text for clues was actually pretty fun. I managed to solve it on the third attempt, and actually felt quite pleased with myself! I liked the graphics, sound was okay, but it needed some party music to set the mood. :) Good stuff!


Party Mountain by AJTheApple

Okay, up front I can say that I HATE precision platformers, so this is an unusual thing for me to say... I loved this game! I thought the graphics were really cute and gave me a nice feeling of nostalgia, and the sound was well used too. Gameplay was fun, and the simple mechanics were well used to give variety to the short levels. I also appreciated the generous number of checkpoints, as they stopped me getting too frustrated with certain parts I had touble with. Really well done!

Party Paddles by Fusai

This was a fairly interesting game, although I think having so many moving players and balls made it a little confusing. With 4 I think it would have been much more fun! Sound, graphics, presentation, all adequate for a jam game.

Party Parade by Tristan

I liked the stick men in this game and thought the whole presentation was pretty good, but the gameplay itself...? I just spammed the A and L keys and there was no need for timing or precision! So, yeah, not the best playing experience I've had, but congrats on turning in a playable game!!!

Party Pooper by Lukan

It's catch the clown updated for the 90's!!!! :)

Plague Rats by Nocturne

My Game, so no vote!

Queen by Toque

That was funny! I actually think I enjoyed the build-up story more than the game itself! I mean, yeah, the game was fine, a typical "get the high score shooting things" type game, but the lead-in story was funny and really nicely done. Tbh, as a Brit myself, there is always something really funnny about imagining the queen doing these kinds of things... So, yeah, fun game, nicely done!

Quickly! Dispensegifts by Allison James

This is a sort-of-sequal to another game by Allie, and I didn't like the other game and I don't like this... :( SORRY! Presentation is excellent, as always, and I suppose the gameplay is fun if you can stand it! I mean, this game just makes me feel physically sick after playing a few minutes... So, yeah, the quality is fantastic, but I just can't play it.

Roborazzi by Kultisti, Sulo

Fun game, functional graphics, nice sound. :) A solid entry!

Robot Surprise Party by samspade

This was SO cute! Really nicely done... I loved the graphics and sound, and the actual game concept was very simply but well executed and fairly challenging as the levels progressed. Really enjoyed my time playing this!

R-pg-ING by Micah_DS

Another 3D game! Good heavens, looks like GameMaker CAN do 3D after all... :) So, I liked this game's concept and the gameplay itself was pretty good. The controls and camera let me play easily, and the level design was adequate for jam game. It was let down a bit in the presentation and by the lack of sound, but still a solid entry!

Survive the Party by Nejc Podlipnik

I nice enough slash-em-up! visually pretty and the controls worked well, sound was good but I did miss having music, which would have enhanced the gameplay. Not sure I finished the game or got very far though as after I opened the chest nothing else happened and I couldn't interact with the wee wizard guy again even though it said I could...

The Golden Balloon by Little Penguin Studios

What a lovely game! Really liked the simply and clean look of this, and the moving colour spots were a great esthetic choice. Gameplay was good, sound and music was good, presentation was good! Oh, and the length of the game was just right given how simple the gameplay was... Well done!

The Party Must Go On by GVmG

This was pretty fun once it got going! Graphics were functional, sound was good, presentation adequate, and the actual gameplay, whiel repetitive, was still enjoyable! Loved the little details like the sparks on the wheels when you moved fast and turned around.

The Scattered Army by Sirham

Not bad... Reminded me of games from the spectrum era when people would make things using BASIC and hen put it on a tape to share! Don't ask me why, though! I like it a lot though, even though everything about it was very simple.

Wham Bam Dan Jam Slam by GameDevDan

Brilliant game! Really liked the graphics and the gameplay was fun and made me want to keep playing when I lost (until I worked out the trick, then it was a bit of a breeze... ;) ). Nice sounds, nice music and a top notch presentation. Definitely one of the best in the Jam, especially as everything was made from scratch for this game.
 

TheSnidr

Heavy metal viking dentist
GMC Elder
Reviews

Top 3:

Forty or the Modern Big Brother by SoapSud39
Absolutely loved it

Fiesta Down by VinylFly
Very cute little game! Thoroughly enjoyed it.

One Big Party by Gizmo199, shortbread
Beautiful graphics! Some real Mario Party vibes here! Would've loved if your score carried over to subsequent minigames so that you could kinda see a leaderboard. The CPU were better than me at everything xD
Loved it.

Best ofs:

Best use of : ...
Best Concept: ...
Best Presentation: ...
Best Story: ...
Best Devlog: ...

Full ranking:

  1. Forty or the Modern Big Brother by SoapSud39
  2. Fiesta Down by VinylFly
  3. One Big Party by Gizmo199, shortbread
  4. GreymoorHall by Ninety
  5. Jenka Dungeon by dosto, Reaktori, Riuku
  6. Party Mountain by AJTheApple
  7. Wastoid Rodney by Cloaked Games, JosephEllis, BlakeNorth
  8. Hero Horde by PinesOfChaos
  9. Robot Surprise Party by samspade
  10. The Matchmaker (HTML5 ONLY, OPEN FOLDER) by eimie
  11. Your Brain On Party by thijsmie
  12. Candles Have Feelings by JordanOttesen
  13. GMC Fruit Salad Surfer by Yal
  14. Adventures Of Robot X by Pixel-Team
  15. Snake Dance by Greenblizzard
  16. Survival Party by HayManMarc
  17. Queen by Toque
  18. The Golden Balloon by Little Penguin Studios
  19. Demon Dance by Mightyjor, Twintertainment, Brett-Bit
  20. Apocalypse party by aspiringgamemaker
  21. Survive the Party by Nejc Podlipnik
  22. HealthBar by Fanatrick
  23. Jaguar Pogo Party by TotallyAverageGamez
  24. Escape of the Clowns by kburkhart84
  25. Fiesta Fist by Cristobal, MatthewPattel
  26. One Big Political Party by Terminator_Pony
  27. The Party Must Go On by GVmG
  28. GMC Party Adventure by Imagine Galaxy
  29. Goin' All Nite by Dadio
  30. Party Parade by Tristan
  31. dumburk 9000 by Bret Hudson, Allen Webster, Jared Cohen
  32. matoset by Poizen

Comments:

Apocalypse party by aspiringgamemaker

Cool concept, nice story. Controls were janky, kept getting stuck randomly in the walls.

Candles Have Feelings by JordanOttesen

Funny concept! Liked it.

dumburk 9000 by Bret Hudson, Allen Webster, Jared Cohen

Not sure what was happening?

Fiesta Down by VinylFly

Very cute little game! Thoroughly enjoyed it.

Forty or the Modern Big Brother by SoapSud39

Absolutely loved it

Goin' All Nite by Dadio

Lol!

GreymoorHall by Ninety

Love me a good mystery!

HealthBar by Fanatrick

Beautiful background, a bit boring gameplay

Hero Horde by PinesOfChaos

Loved it! The only game I've played so far that goes for this interpretation of the theme. Absolutely loved it. Didn't manage to beat the Demon Lord, my party was wayy too expensive

matoset by Poizen

Couldn't play, instant error

One Big Party by Gizmo199, shortbread

Beautiful graphics! Some real Mario Party vibes here! Would've loved if your score carried over to subsequent minigames so that you could kinda see a leaderboard. The CPU were better than me at everything xD
Loved it.

Party Mountain by AJTheApple

Loved it! Responsive controls and crips visuals. Missed the party though!

Queen by Toque

Silly story :D

Robot Surprise Party by samspade

Beautiful little game, interesting concept. Wish I had more control over the movement of the robots, maybe they could draw the path they had planned?

Snake Dance by Greenblizzard

Simple and enjoyable little game

Survival Party by HayManMarc

Cool concept!

The Golden Balloon by Little Penguin Studios

Beautiful artwork and music

The Matchmaker (HTML5 ONLY, OPEN FOLDER) by eimie

A fun little game, enjoyed it!

Wastoid Rodney by Cloaked Games, JosephEllis, BlakeNorth

Sooo many bullets! Really excellent premise and beautiful graphics.

Your Brain On Party by thijsmie

I absolutely love the concept, but it was difficult to understand what I was doing wrong! My towers randomly disappeared sometimes, and no matter how many towers I built, in an intricate maze-like pattern, the mobs kept getting through. After a while I couldn't leave the music, since my vibes meter would near instantly sink to 0.
Great idea for a jam game, enjoyed it a lot.
Got the following error in one of my playthroughs:
___________________________________________
############################################################################################
ERROR in
action number 1
of Mouse Event for Glob Left Released
for object oTowerBuyController:

Unable to find instance for object index 100111
at gml_Script_anon_gml_Object_oTowerBuyController_Create_0_881_gml_Object_oTowerBuyController_Create_0
############################################################################################
gml_Script_anon_gml_Object_oTowerBuyController_Create_0_881_gml_Object_oTowerBuyController_Create_0 (line -1)
gml_Object_oTowerBuyController_Mouse_56
 
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