A Trip To The Grocery Store by PizWiz
- Gameplay: 44/61
- Graphics: 13/20
- Audio: 7/10
- Bonus: 5/9
- Total: 69/100
Some comments:
> Oh my god, what did I just play?
> It was a neat touch that you changed the name every time but after a few attempts I wish I could have skiped the sequens altogether.
> That road trip text could give some epilepsy.
> It would seem that vegetables truly are alien monsters.
All Aboard The Spudship by dadio
- Gameplay: 13/61
- Graphics: 7/20
- Audio: 3/10
- Bonus: 1/9
- Total: 24/100
Some comments:
> Man, I had to go back and re-read theonewhoisodd's post where they said it was a real game. I was so set on it not being a joke game this time that I was taken completely by surprise.
> Turns out they said it wasn't a joke 'game', suddenly it all makes sense.
Badass Voyage by Joh
- Gameplay: 55/61
- Graphics: 17/20
- Audio: 9/10
- Bonus: 8/9
- Total: 89/100
Some comments:
> There is so much to love about this game. It's super addictive!
> I had a bit of trouble getting into the game at first as I pressed the wrong buttons but quickly understood how it worked.
> The UI elements are great. I do think the special weapons could have something more interesting than a gray box though.
> Speaking of the specials, they seem very unbalanced. Assasinate appears to be extremely powerful while the laser at the next level is mediocre at best. Even the air strike isn't all that impressive in power.
> The story is awesome but I wish it was reflected a bit more in the stages. For example when the plane's going down, why don't you fight atop it while it's on fire? That'd be epic. Same with the cruiser ship that hits an iceberg.
> I'm glad you had a stage select because as great as the story is, I wouldn't want to play through all of it every time I fail. This way is much better.
> The performance rating was a neat touch.
> I'm fairly sure that the last stage is impossible to beat. Not that it stopped me from trying again and again.
Ballooning Over The Ocean by GameDevDan
- Gameplay: 45/61
- Graphics: 17/20
- Audio: 0/10
- Bonus: 5/9
- Total: 67/100
Some comments:
> I was surprised by how much work you put into the small details and effects given your limited time. It made the game feel really well made despite it's simplicity.
> Gameplay is fun but gets somewhat repetitive after a few levels. The difficulty level scaled nicely.
> I really miss sound effects and music here given how polished everything else is.
> I wish there was a way to turn mirrors clockwise as well.
Beyonder by Posho
- Gameplay: 37/61
- Graphics: 18/20
- Audio: 9/10
- Bonus: 4/9
- Total: 68/100
Some comments:
> The game has a really weird vibe but it seems like a solid entry. Graphics, sound and gameplay all feels good and work well together.
> It would really have helped to know the controls of this game. I could figure a lot out through mashing buttons but I managed to quit the game before I understood how to exit baloon face.
> I went off the edge and fell beyonder. Apart from how to play, it'd be nice to know what the goal of the game is. Right now there doesn't appear to be one as once you've built the magnet shovel there's nothing to use the shard resources for. It's a shame and the game would probably score a lot higher if it just had a purpose.
> The limited inventory size is a real game breaker. Because there are more item types than you have room for you can end up being unable to build anything. This is made worse as the same item can take up multiple slots if you have a lot of it. Also, it's a bit hard to see how many resources of each type I carry when the text is clipping off screen. On the other hand, the outline on it makes it much more readable than it otherwise would have been.
> It's awesome how the music changes dynamically when enemies are nearby. I love it!
Brick Ocean by The Little Game Dev
- Gameplay: 34/61
- Graphics: 13/20
- Audio: 4/10
- Bonus: 3/9
- Total: 54/100
Some comments:
> The title screen was nice. I think the water would have looked even better with two layers of waves that moved with different timings (perhaps even along a sine wave?)
> When the game started it was incredibly confusing as to what was what and what you were supposed to do. I eventually learned the controls through trial and error but my first instinct was to click on things because that's what I was supposed to do in the menu.
> The gameplay was interesting and I don't think I've seen it before.
> Shooting the balls and waiting for them to bounce was a bit tedious when there wasn't much you could do (for example if you had to hit a block several times and it was positioned so that you couldn't get any combos from it) and the balls were a little buggy and didn't always register a hit or bounced in weird angles.
> On the other hand, it was really satisfying when you did manage to get the ball into the midst of it and rack up big combos. Too bad it didn't happen more often.
> The power-up was neat but only appeared once, why not more?
Caravan by sylvain_l
- Gameplay: 10/61
- Graphics: 12/20
- Audio: 5/10
- Bonus: 1/9
- Total: 28/100
Some comments:
> Yup, it's prett much just a fancy menu.
> Things are pretty abrupt. The planet clearly needs some extra frame to loop back to its initial state as you can tell it animates and then resets when the animation ends.
> The scrolling text was a good way to set the story but it's a bit wobbly when it resizes and I'm not sure how to fix that. You could also make it fade out in the end instead of just poping away.
> Lastly, the music is great but the transition between them when you click in the menu is a bit abrupt.
> Oh, and you've a really high version number for a game that's just a menu.
Cat Power by FunkyB
- Gameplay: 36/61
- Graphics: 12/20
- Audio: 4/10
- Bonus: 2/9
- Total: 54/100
Some comments:
> The music was rather intense on the title screen and honestly wasn't ejoyable.
> If I put a hand on WASD and one on the arrow keys I can't reach Enter!
Nice tutorial though.
> The boss was a nice way to change things up. It appeared just as I thought there was nothing more to the game which was a nice surprise but on the other hand, had I quit just a moment earlier I wouldn't have seen it.
> Kicking has a reeeally slow animation which leaves you unable to do anything once it's begun and it's not an option unless there are very few enemies around.
> On the other hand, the fireball move is absolutely bonkers. It by far outreaches anything, can be spammed endlessly and can quickly be aborted if I need to turn around. In fact, there is no reason to ever use any other move, including the ulti (except for when fighting the boss). Because it's such a powerful move, it should come with some kind of drawback. For example, it could have a cooldown or maybe it had a long animation while punching/kicking was near instant. It's easy to get into the trap to make your favorite move overpowered but one move shouldn't make others obsolete.
> Here's a tip: when you test a game, think about how you played it and what did you do? What felt good, what felt wrong? You'll play your game multiple times when creating it so you'll notice if something annoys you or if you fall into a pattern when playing. Ask yourself those questions and try to modify things until everything feels satisfying.
CHZ by johnwo
- Gameplay: 46/61
- Graphics: 18/20
- Audio: 5/10
- Bonus: 5/9
- Total: 74/100
Some comments:
> Those dialogue boxes are really fancy. The whole intro was great, though it's a little ironic that in order to see the message that tells you to press space to advance dialogue you have to advance the dialogue first.
> At first I was afraid it'd be hard to remember all the controls after the first information dump but the game does a fantastic job telling me what I can do when I can do it. A small issue I had was the build menu; first of all, I think it's a bit too high up so it covers an active part of the screen (I'm talking about the "press B..." label). There's a lot of space below it where it would fit perfectly. More importantly, it took me a long time before I realised I didn't have to hold B and 1 at the same time to build a solar station which led to some awkward situations.
> I accidentally pressed escape to exit the build menu and got a thirty second slap in the face... An extra warning when you press escape once would have been good.
> The 3D is great and very impressive. I can't tell if you use "fake" 3D or actual models; I'd guess the former because of the pixel art but there doesn't seem to be any graphical issues that usually come with that kind of effects.
> From what I can tell the planet's surface is randomly generated. It's cool but there seem to be a limit to the populated area and if you walk away from it you'll get lost in a green wasteland.
> The game is really slowly paced and there isn't really much you can do once you've put miners on all the ore other than waiting until you can finally afford the beacon.
> I didn't see many of those bugs you warned me about which is good I suppose.
Defector by Oyakiiv
- Gameplay: 25/61
- Graphics: 11/20
- Audio: 0/10
- Bonus: 3/9
- Total: 39/100
Some comments:
> The menu doesn't give a very good first impression. The title's OK but the rest of the text looks like you drew it in ten seconds with a pen tool. Functionally it works just fine though and I like how it's clear which alternative you've selected.
> The graphics looks like pixel art that was scaled up by something other than a power of two which makes it look blurry. This is especially bad for text but you should generally avoid this.
> I can see the voyage theme in the gameplay but is there a goal? There doesn't seem to be any form of progression from what I can tell.
Finding Her by chance
- Gameplay: 41/61
- Graphics: 14/20
- Audio: 3/10
- Bonus: 4/9
- Total: 62/100
Some comments:
> The platforming was impressive at times and not so impressive at others. There was a lot of moving parts and uneven geometry which is cool because that is usually quite tricky and you made it work well. That said, there were some issues when a moving platform moved into you.
> The game felt a bit short. There was a good sense of progression but it felt rushed. I also don't get the ending; given how quickly you made it to their planet, getting home shouldn't be much harder. Why not just say you made it back and have a happy/proper ending?
> My biggest problem with the game was the camera. I think it could do a better job following the player so that you can actually see what's ahead of you.
> That newspaper was great. I was surprised by the sound effect as by that point I thought there were none in the game.
Forbidden Frontier by Wraithious
- Gameplay: 19/61
- Graphics: 8/20
- Audio: 3/10
- Bonus: 3/9
- Total: 33/100
Some comments:
> Why does the game start muted? You have great music in the menu so use it to set the mood. Also, you probably don't want the players to accidentally start the game thinking there are no sounds.
> The info screen is nice but I can barely read the text. Rather than blue text on a purple background, why not go with black or white text on a background of the oposite to get proper contrast. You could also try to add an outline on the text to make it stand out more on any background. The easiest way to do this is by drawing the text with a slight offset in four directions before drawing it in the main color.
> It's impossible to tell where you're going if the screen only shows where you've been. Center the view on the player or show the whole room at the same time.
> From what I can tell you can't hurt enemies and since you can't dig for items when they are around it looks like you're screwed.
> I can't tell one area apart from another when inside the caves which is very confusing and makes it impossible to tell where to go. I just stumbled around for a while until I eventually died.
Galactic Conqueror by Bingdom, Roa, beli_mawrr
- Gameplay: 34/61
- Graphics: 14/20
- Audio: 5/10
- Bonus: 4/9
- Total: 57/100
Some comments:
> It's a bit surprising that you spend so much time on the map before getting into the actual game.
> The battles were impressive and felt well made. I have some issues with the enemy mother ship as I think it has too much health given that you have to fight so many battles. I just stood and pounded on it for minutes before finally taking it down on the first stage.
> It's cool that there are different ships to choose from but how they differ is hard to tell.
> I think most ships are pretty hard to control because of their large turn radius. It made it difficult to counter enemies that fired at you from behind and made me feel limited.
Gatika by Buff
- Gameplay: 32/61
- Graphics: 16/20
- Audio: 4/10
- Bonus: 6/9
- Total: 58/100
Some comments:
> I really like the starry background. It's beutiful.
> The gravity mechanic is cool but it's way to hard to land on other planets and it feels unfair. I tried at least ten times before succeeding once and I did all I could to slow down.
> While I like that the goals are randomly placed, it also feels a bit unfair when you have to loop around the starting planet to get to your destination as that costs a lot more fuel.
> The trick scores were satisfying when they appeared.
> I like the small touch where the space ship's legs react to impact.
Infinity infection by lolslayer
- Gameplay: 43/61
- Graphics: 14/20
- Audio: 5/10
- Bonus: 7/9
- Total: 69/100
Some comments:
> There are some inconsistencies with the controls; most of the game is played with the mouse to interact with things and WASD to move the camera but then you use the arrow keys to rotate the world and space to continue when you win/lose. I think remapping the keys so that they are centered would streamline things and make it easier for the player. For example, if you move rotation to Q and E you don't have to let go of the controls to reach for the arrow keys.
> At first the game looked confusing and visually boring. Then I realised that the nodes where planets and tried to rotate the camera which was really cool! It still took me a while before I realized that the purple ring was how far I could travel and that the infection wasn't the red planets but rather it spawned later at the same place I did.
> I liked the balancing, it felt luck based but you could control it enough that it didn't feel unfair. Your decisions had impact and you had to balance greed with keeping options available.
> The resuource and upgrade interface was clean and easy to understand. It got a little annoying to have to click on each individual planet to see what resources they contained, perhapse you could make it so that it showed the planet on hover and stayed locked on if you clicked?
> It would have been nice if you could get some more feedback on what resouerces you get when you decide to do research.
Into the Earth by The M
Now available in version 1.1!
Journevazure by Yal
- Gameplay: 46/61
- Graphics: 15/20
- Audio: 5/10
- Bonus: 6/9
- Total: 72/100
Some comments:
> It's cool to see an open 3D game. The violent waves looked great. The poor sailor pretty much drowned every time a wave came though. Also, good luck finding a new continent when someone has been there and placed buoys everywhere.
> I liked that there were so many things to look out for; gold, sharks and that ufo. It gave a good amount of variety and made late game entertaining.
> The game was a little sluggish. There was a good amount of progression but it came slowly and without a fast pace I didn't feel like playing the game again for a better score.
> I had some issues with the turtles as their collision boxes felt unfair. Often I thought I jumped over them but took damage anyways.
> The sail was a bit problematic because it limited the view. Perhaps making it slightly tramsparent would have worked better?
Mutiny by Siolfor the Jackal
- Gameplay: 43/61
- Graphics: 18/20
- Audio: 0/10
- Bonus: 7/9
- Total: 68/100
Some comments:
> Cute gameplay, hugs ftw!
> Whether or not you won seemed very luck dependant. If your crew stayed close together it was fairly easy to keep them happy but otherwise it quickly got ugly.
> It took me a few tries to realise how you were supposed to balance working with not working and a few more before I found that there was a delay between when you released space and when you stopped hugging. This lead to a lot of confusion as to why my crew's happiness went down when I hugged them and not up.
> The game looked great and I liked the flavor texts that appeared in the log.
> Unfortunately I rarely had time to read said texts because I had to focus my attention on the ship deck.
> The menu was impressive, especially that you could change resolutions like that. It felt polished.
> It's too bad that there was no sound or music.
Perilous Pilgrimage by kepons, aamatniekss
- Gameplay: 49/61
- Graphics: 19/20
- Audio: 8/10
- Bonus: 9/9
- Total: 85/100
Some comments:
> There's a lack of instructions when the game start. If the menu screen had told me that the goal was to make a 15 day journey I would have enjoyed it more. I thought the game was endless and only tried again because I died right in front of the signpost.
> Also, I was really confused when I came to a mini game screen and the controls suddenly changed to WASD. The menu should probably say that you play with the mouse and WASD.
> There was a lot of variety and the mini games was a nice change of pace.
> The game is really beutiful.
> I feel the game is pretty luck based. I was constantly low on water and couldn't do much about it.
> While I think it was an interesting idea to make energy loss cost you the next event it felt wrong to get to chose an alternative only to see it ignored, especially if that alternative was to go to sleep.
> It's interesting that you can chose some alternatives even if you don't have the resources.
Project_Dahlia by Freedom2Fight
- Gameplay: 42/61
- Graphics: 14/20
- Audio: 0/10
- Bonus: 5/9
- Total: 61/100
Some comments:
> I can't decide what to think about the graphics as they seem to be of varying styles and qualitiy. For example, the captain's face looks great but his uniform has a different, less apepaling style. The color palette also makes things blend together. The main character turns half invisible when crouching.
> I feel the controls are way more complicated then they need to be. I'd suggest remapping the controls so that you use less buttons (for example, move dialogue to space and ditch shift entirely).
> You had a lot of cool moves. It felt good climbing edges and pushing boxes. Those boxes really felt heavy.
> It was nice that the camera tried to show you were you were going. I think it could be slowed down a little to make it feel smoother.
> The plot twist was interesting and I didn't see it coming. I was surprised that I didn't get to choose what to do.
R.I.D.E. Something Something by Mocgames998
- Gameplay: 38/61
- Graphics: 13/20
- Audio: 4/10
- Bonus: 4/9
- Total: 59/100
Some comments:
> The controls felt overly complicated. Jumping with up would in my opinion have been more logical and because you never really had a reason to shoot behind you so locking the shooting direction could have freed up another key that I just had to hold pressed anyways.
> The desert was cool and I liked the paralax scrolling in the background.
> Riding up and down hills worked well. It would have been cool if the bikes were angled so that they were on the ground with both wheels.
> Sometimes it was really hard to avoid taking damage and I beat the game with one health point left. Because I was spamming the shoot key I missed any credits or whatever was on the screen after the game ended.
> The menu has a lot of room for improvement. Just adding the desert backdrop would have gone a long way to give a better first impression.
Raftraftraft by Nallebeorn
- Gameplay: 40/61
- Graphics: 18/20
- Audio: 7/10
- Bonus: 6/9
- Total: 71/100
Some comments:
> That whale is a bastard and is probably way too dangerous. Every time it has appeared I'm always left with at most one or two raft blocks.
> It was a nice tutorial that fit in well and taught me what I needed to know.
> Except for how to manouvre the raft, which was really really hard to do. I think that the slow pace at which you did things was this game's biggest issue becuase the whale adn the rocks don't really wait for you to steer the raft. As a result, the best thing to do was usually to keep the raft at its near smallest state and slowly drift forward which wasn't very fun.
> The crafting system was also pretty slow and felt clumsy given that there were only two things to make (one once you had a paddle). I'd have liked a key to quickly move something into the crafting table so that I didn't have to stop everything else and hope the wale wouldn't come while I was busy crafting reparations. Generally, I think the game would have been a lot more fun if it had been more fast paced, where you could craft several blocks in a second and the game was about frantically managing speed, size and resources and making split second decisions. At least it feels like that was the vision.
> The game looks great! I would recommend adding an outline to the text though, because it doesn't stand out very much against that background.
Sea Voyage by BionicFrog
- Gameplay: 31/61
- Graphics: 14/20
- Audio: 0/10
- Bonus: 5/9
- Total: 50/100
Some comments:
> There doesn't seem to be a goal to the game. I sailed around until I'd explored the entire area and my crew was starved and miserable. It doesn't seem like you can lose either so once you've visited both islands there isn't really any reason to keep playing. (Ok, so you apparently can lose if the ship runs out of health.)
> It was interesting to have to balance ship health with crew health but using the menus was a bit fidgety and it was really hard to keep the crew healthy.
> It was cool that each island had its own grid that you could explore. It'd be nice if there had been a lot of stuff to find on them; just finding the navigator was exciting and fun and made me want to keep finding things.
> I liked how the UI elements were displayed on the border around the gameplay area. It fit the theme of the game well.
Self-Sacrifice by JacobV
- Gameplay: 49/61
- Graphics: 18/20
- Audio: 6/10
- Bonus: 6/9
- Total: 79/100
Some comments:
> I love the tranquility of the game. The environments are beutiful and the music fits well.
> The platforming could use a lot of polish. It's not bad but some areas are frustrating and visual glitches take from the experience.
> Blind jums where you don't see where you're supposed to land are frustrating for the player because it's not their fault if they miss and die. They're the bane of all platformers so try to avoid those. The quick respawns mitigated this somewhat as you could try again almost immediately. However, in the last area failing a jump would send you down to the floor below. If you were lucky you landed on spikes and respawned up above but otherwise your respawn was reset and you had to climb all the way up just to try again.
> Hitting a ceiling sends you downwards which messes with jumps.
>The spikes were gruesome, and though the blood splatter shocked me at first I thought it looked good. There was no death animation though so you could see yourself moving while the screen faded. This looked especially odd if you dashed through them.
> It was a good idea and a nice touch to let the player jump in mid air if they walked off an edge.
> Why is he fishing in the top of a tree? Can't be catching much fish there.
> That sea serpent was really cool and I love its animations! It's a bit hard to talk to because you can't tell where to stand to start the dialogue.
> The sounds and music arent bad but I think you could add a lot more sound effects to make it feel more lively. This could make parts where not much happenes a bit more interesting.
Seven Sands by nvrogers
- Gameplay: 43/61
- Graphics: 16/20
- Audio: 5/10
- Bonus: 7/9
- Total: 71/100
Some comments:
> I was confused at first as to why I could move in some directions but stopped when I turned until I realised it's because I'm a ship and I have to sail with the wind. Then it all made sense.
> I sailed around for a while without knowing where to go. After a while I saw that the arrow was not pointing out the wind direction any more and decided to follow it. Turns out that was a good decision.
> The sand sea was cool and I especially liked the ships and sail animations. There was a sense of mystery about it with the statues, rock formations and ghost like ships that I felt could have been emphasised on a bit more with some story elements. I think that a short intro and a short ending would have anchored the fiction and made it more believable.
> Following the compass worked well when the wind was willing but a bit annoying when you had to sail in head wind.
> The combat was fun and satisfying, if a bit simple. It didn't feel like a part of the main gameplay as you only fought when other ships appeared every once in a while and the battles rarely lasted for long. It was more like shooting down annoying enemies than fending of dangerous terrors wanting you dead.
> I also had a lot of problem shooting in the right direction when the ship was turned. That was probably because it was hard to tell which way you were facing in a stressed situation and I instinctively pressed the key representing the direction I wanted to shoot rather than the relative direction.
Ship Ahoy by Alexx
- Gameplay: 38/61
- Graphics: 13/20
- Audio: 5/10
- Bonus: 5/9
- Total: 61/100
Some comments:
> There's a surprisingly high amount of content. I never got past the first level but it alone was huge.
> The controls are really hard. Your ability to turn increases so much when you move at high speed that the ships becomes near impossible to handle.
> I liked how much variety there was to the obstacles. Each new encounter felt like a new challenge. The wall blocks that you can break have way too much health though and having to break wall upon wall of them became a chore.
> It was hard to tell what was dangerous and what was just scenery. For example, I constantly avoided all animals until I accidentally hit one and didn't die.
> It was nice that you could choose how you wanted the camera to work. I never once used the rotating camera because it made me motion sick with its quick spins but I found the rotating map useful when lining up shots at a distance. In general, the mini map was a big help.
> That diagonal hole you had to squeeze through was hellish. It felt unfair that the sail counted as hitting the wall.
> Once I realised that there were starfish inside the crates I gave up on collecting them all because I knew I had missed so many. As a result I got to the end of the level and was still missing ten starfish and couldn't get any further. I tried going back but without any checkpoints along the way, that wasn't feasible. Of course, I then realised that I didn't have to break the crates because they just spawned new starfish but at that point it was too late. I'd suggest letting the player win the stage by just reaching the end (a difficult enough task) and just have starfish as an additional challenge. Had the level been much, much smaller (like one or two obstacles long) then collecting them all could work as a condition for passing.
Skyland Voyager by K-BitCRUSH
- Gameplay: 23/61
- Graphics: 15/20
- Audio: 0/10
- Bonus: 5/9
- Total: 43/100
Some comments:
> I feel like this is very close to being a game. If you could just defeat the enemies then there'd have been something to it. As it is, it's just a a testiment to something that could have been. It's still pretty cool though.
> I enjoyed cruising the clouds, though I think it would look better if the cloud spray came from the entire ship and not just the bow (though I can see the logic in having it like this).
> The island poping in and out were cool. It'd have been nice with some permanence to them if you managed to clear one. Oh, and it would have been awesome if you got to find them yourself instead of them just appearing randomly. They could appear in their veiled form and appear fully when you came near them.
> For some reason, the lack of music was very prominent here. It might be because the rest is so polished.
Space Taxi by Cat, var
- Gameplay: 43/61
- Graphics: 18/20
- Audio: 5/10
- Bonus: 8/9
- Total: 74/100
Some comments:
> I think you've probably made the jam's best star background. Great parallaxing and in my opinion background stars should be small, numerous and not overly bright so that they don't clash with the foreground (nubulaes help too of course).
> The tutorial was really helpful but the text was hard to read sometimes. That was also an issue in the menu though the shadowing helped somewhat.
> I really enjoyed the different events that appeared and it was cool to see some rare variants when you thought you got just another repeat.
> I wish I could scroll across the map to see other stars and set a faraway destination. You could turn while moving once stars got into view so it wasn't like you had to move to adjacent stars only. For the same reason, fuel was never an issue because you refueled constantly.
> The profession assignment system was interesting and worked rather well but it was hard to know what effect anything had other than the speed boost and health regen you got. Combat and weapons didn't feel very useful and I mostly assigned passengers to those when they sucked at everything else.
> There wasn't really any challenge to the game and though I enjoyed it for longer than I thought I would, I eventually grew bored and quit.
> I loved some of the references you had. The whole game feels like an ambitious mini version of FTL.
SSJGV3K by Snail Man
- Gameplay: 46/61
- Graphics: 13/20
- Audio: 5/10
- Bonus: 4/9
- Total: 68/100
Some comments:
> There was a lot of variety. I liked how things progressed, it felt balanced and didn't get repetitive. There's some quality behind this mix of joke games.
> The intro was cool but the graphics didn't sync very well with the song.
> It was hard to say what was bad on purpose and what was just bad, this goes for both graphics and controls. For example, most text clashed with the art style of the rest of the game.
> It was fun to recognize some games.
> When gameplay was mixed I lost pretty much every time. I think it's too hard to register what you need to do for two seperate tasks, especially with such a limited time frame. This was especially prominent when tasks had to be performed quickly with little error margin (a.k. when the platforming game was involved).
> Was there an end?
Tapsailing by Vonnbit
- Gameplay: 46/61
- Graphics: 18/20
- Audio: 4/10
- Bonus: 6/9
- Total: 74/100
Some comments:
> The graphics are really cool and expressive.
> I liked the detailed instructions menu, though while it told me what to do it didn't say how to. Saying "use the mouse" would have made things clearer I think. Also, the font is really tiny and is hard to read. I'd have preferred if you used the larger font that's used in the menu instead.
> Gameplay works well and is easy to get into. There didn't seem to be all that much progression though and it felt somewhat luckl based. I realised I would lose sometime when emergencies appeared and the "good" part of the bar moved to a bad place at the same time.
> I liked that there were so many little details, like how the sided of the scoreboard animates when you gain score.
> Ironically, I think the small size of everything made it a bit hard to overview things. I had trouble checking the ship's condition while focusing on keeping the steering within the good area.
> Instead of just fading out to the menu, it'd be nice if the end of the game was acknowledge a bit. Just playing a sound effect would have been enough.
TGWATT by Dalesome
- Gameplay: 39/61
- Graphics: 17/20
- Audio: 0/10
- Bonus: 3/9
- Total: 59/100
Some comments:
> Surfaces break when you enter fullscreen and because you don't check if they exist before you use them, that makes the game crash. Just put a check in your draw script and just recreate the surfaces if it returns false.
> The game has great atmosphere, both with the lighting and rumbling effects. It feels like I'm in a damaged space ship.
> The graphics are neat with a few outliers, some of the texts in the game have fonts that don't really fit with the rest of the game.
> It's a real shame there's no music or sound effects. Some distant creaking and rumbling would have increased the tension and really set the atmosphere.
> The ending was anticlimactic. I know time limits what you can do in a jam but it felt like the game hadn't even started when it ended. That left a feeling of disappointment and that's not how you want your players to leave the game.
The world is flat and so are you by ghandpivot
- Gameplay: 52/61
- Graphics: 16/20
- Audio: 10/10
- Bonus: 9/9
- Total: 87/100
Some comments:
> I think the game's graphics have very varying quality. The characters look great, as do the font work and most of the hand drawn stuff like the trees and boats. Then there's the water. I really don't like the blockiness of that shore and I think it'd have looked much better if you'd have a slope tile leading into it or had a clear water line where everything at a certain level was submerged. Most of all it's probably that there's a grass tile that is beneath a water tile but isn't covered with water that looks off to me.
> The end really caught me by surprise! The game is a bit too short though, especially the first part which should probably be extended just a little bit to make it feel like more of a journey to reach the edge.
> The sound effects in this game truly are amazing! They give so much more emphasis on every scene.
This is NOT Windwaker by Misu, Alice
- Gameplay: 26/61
- Graphics: 13/20
- Audio: 4/10
- Bonus: 4/9
- Total: 47/100
Some comments:
> The island was cool, though the impression was slightly dampened by the fact that you could walk through everything on it.
> Movement was interesting. I'd suggest hiding the mouse cursor and adding strafing with A and D so that you're not as limited with your movement.
> It was difficult to navigate the ocean to find the baloons. At one point there was nothing but sea in any direction adn I had to guess where to go. A map would have helped here.
> It'd also be neat to have some waves or something to break it up a little.
> You're not really selling the game in the readme. Reading it made me NOT want to play the game. I think it's because you seem so dejected.
Town to Town by nix0nax
- Gameplay: 40/61
- Graphics: 15/20
- Audio: 7/10
- Bonus: 7/9
- Total: 69/100
Some comments:
> The game was incredibly fast paced and I kind of wish it was over when you reached the first town because it felt like such a challenge getting there. By the time I'd thought out who to assign where one of my crewmembers would have already died. Hireing anyone with an endurance below 130 was a waste of fish.
> Once I'd gotten the hang of it I kind of enjoyed the game. Heading for a city is really challenging and you can feel that you barely make it. It's really satisfying when you do though.
> The text could sometimes be hard to read against the background. I'd suggest giving it an outline, for example by just drawing it four times in black at a slight offset before drawing it in white.
> It took me a while to understand what to do when the game started because there were no instructions other than to use the mouse. A tutorial would really be helpful here.
> I wish there was an overarching goal to the game (like get to a certain point or pay off a loan of fish or something) because without one, there wassn't much reason to keep playing after a while.
Until Night Falls by Thaniel
- Gameplay: 50/61
- Graphics: 18/20
- Audio: 8/10
- Bonus: 5/9
- Total: 81/100
Some comments:
> The black screen in the beginning was very confusing and made me think the game didn't work.
> I feel a tutorial would have been nice. The controls were in the readme but I have no idea what the UI showed. I guess one of the bars was a limit to how much you could slow down time but what about the other?
> The gameplay felt really polished and I'm glad I had infinite (or many enough) lives that I managed to beat it because it was tough.
> The visuals are great and everything work together. I would have liked to see some kind of impact effect on the opponents when you shoot them.
Untitled Islands by BitZero
- Gameplay: 17/61
- Graphics: 16/20
- Audio: 0/10
- Bonus: 3/9
- Total: 36/100
Some comments:
> It was a little disappointing that there was no game because the islands looks so good.
> Having created a simple island generator myself I found it interesting to compare it to yours and try to guess how it worked.
> The biomes with beaches and denser, forest areas gave some neat variation.
Unwelcome Passenger by TehPilot, TheFugue
- Gameplay: 41/61
- Graphics: 19/20
- Audio: 8/10
- Bonus: 8/9
- Total: 76/100
Some comments:
> Wow, the game's theme realy hits home! The raging sea, storming rain and awesome music works together perfectly.
> I had a hard time figuring out the goal and the controls because the towers that explained it were often out of view until after I had managed to performe whatever they explained.
> The user interface was great. Not least the red ring that showed how far you could actually jump.
> I love the transitions between stages and the small details when you're flying and landing. You can tell a lot of work has been put into it.
> The gameplay is rather annoying because you basically have to memorize the timing and positions of all the ships so you'll end up dying a lot. I accidentally rage quit when I was hammering for a restart button when I missed a jump.
> I kind of feel bad for all the poor sailors who died...
What Am I by theonewhoisodd
- Gameplay: 41/61
- Graphics: 13/20
- Audio: 4/10
- Bonus: 6/9
- Total: 64/100
Some comments:
> Mouse controls are fine and all, but it's not easy to navigate the menu when the cursor is invisible. I managed to click on credits and when I finally, by spamming, clicked on back the exit button was right behind. I will give the game another try.
> The graphics are pretty lackluster but you've really used them to their fullest potential. There's a lot of veriety and you don't knwo what you'll find next which is really neat. The game is much longer than I had first expected too.
> ...Which leads me to how slowly paced the game is. I think you could have doubled the movement speed (or at least increased it by half) and it wouldn't have been too fast. Same goes for the dialogue; it's nice that it can be fast forwarded but given how much there is you should have made this the default speed and let the player speed it up to near instant. In fact, the dialogue alone was why I wouldn't replay the game to see what the other branches resulted in even though I was curious to do so.
> But the dialogue is good. I think it hits the mark, manages to be funny at times and is only a little too overbearing when you reach the trinity heavy parts. I think the best moment was when you could walk back out on the collapsed bridge and it fell when you stepped off it.
> The ending made the lack of a cursor in the menu hillarious in a metaphorical way.
Voyage Back by matharoo
- Gameplay: 50/61
- Graphics: 14/20
- Audio: 5/10
- Bonus: 5/9
- Total: 74/100
Some comments:
> The menu is cool with the parallax scrolling but it feels a bit cluttered, perhaps dampen the stars a bit to make the foreground stand out more and maybe add a fancy border to the start button?
> A trick to make the intro text look more professional is to manually insert newlines before words that would jump down a line when they grow. That way it looks like you wanted the line to wrap, rather than being forced to wrap it.
> It was satisfying to shoot your massive laser at foes but combat still felt a bit limited. I think a dodge move (like a short speed burst) would have made it more interesting. It would also have helped against the slow movement speed. Also, they yellow lasers are really hard to see against that background.
> I enjoyed to stealthily sneak around the ships and there was a good amount of varied content within them. I do think there could have been more to do outside them as right now there really isn't any use for the rocket and that's a shame because iI thought it was cool to switch between them.
> The controls screen was really nice although I didn't really understand what they were for until the game started. Then it became clear to me.
Voyage for the Lost Aegis by ChessMasterRiley
- Gameplay: 52/61
- Graphics: 18/20
- Audio: 5/10
- Bonus: 8/9
- Total: 83/100
Some comments:
> I love the small animations on everything, like the ship or the game's title but would have liked some real animations too. Those crabs are just waiting to use their pincers!
> There's a good deal of variety and the game feels like it has a lot of complexity for a jam game which is impressive.
> Again, I have to praise the level of polish here, the game feels complete and is really solid.
> Gameplay is a bit slow though, and it often felt luck based as enemy movements were such a big part of what you could do. Cannonballs were for example only really viable at point blank range where you could hit the enemy before it moved away.
> It also felt like I won some stages because the pathfinding wasn't smart enough. This was most apparent on the boss stage which felt anticlimactic because I didn't have to achieve anything in order to win.
> The sound effects could use some more work and especially some volume balancing compared to the music.
> I was confused as to why a kracken was a boss in a game that otherwise felt greek but I guess I shouldn't mind such details. I loved the text boxes by the way, they gave everything personality and made me want to meet new enemies and items.
Voyage to Alpha Centuri by theonewhoisodd
- Gameplay: 36/61
- Graphics: 12/20
- Audio: 0/10
- Bonus: 5/9
- Total: 53/100
Some comments:
> I think the game's premise is fine but there is a lack of progression that makes the game rather dull. I think it would have been much more interesting if you had a visible progression bar that could be filled in a reasonable time frame, faster gameplay and faster increase in difficulty. As it is right now you have seen the entire game in a minute and while it's not a bad game, there's nothing keeping you hooked because it's not very challenging.
> The game's visuals are fine but also bland. I liked the warnings that appeared but I think you could have done more with the background and other visuals. One easy thing would be to add small rotations to the asteroids with different speed and directions so that they wouldn't all look the same. Another thing could be speed lines, stars streaking by on different layers in the background or just an animated jet on the ship.
> Music and sound. You often think it's okay without but when you add them it makes a ton of difference! There are a lot of free stuff available online and can be fun to mix and tweak, though you don't necessarily have to go that far.
Voyage to the Earth Core by NazGhuL
- Gameplay: 37/61
- Graphics: 15/20
- Audio: 6/10
- Bonus: 5/9
- Total: 63/100
Some comments:
> The game is an impressive achievement given how little time you had. I can't help but compare it with my own earth digging game which took considerably longer to make.
> There didn't seem to be much reason to dig deeper as gold and such didn't get any more common further down which was a bit disappointing.
> I felt a bit limited sometimes. If I ended up digging in a single lane the game played itself until I hit a TNT and got some options again. Sure, it added some tactical depth (pun not intended, promise!) but without options it was a bit dull, even when it was "best" move.
> The graphics were really good though the tiling could be improved. It's not that the textures don't tile, it's just that you can easily see the seams. This was most apparent for the background which felt blocky.
> It's a shame there was no highscore table. I think than an online highscore especially could help with replayability.
Voyage to the Final Lands by Cloaked Games, HayManMarc, Joeseph Benedetti
- Gameplay: 49/61
- Graphics: 19/20
- Audio: 7/10
- Bonus: 8/9
- Total: 83/100
Some comments:
> The game started off really good and stayed interesting throughout the entire journey.
> There was a lot of content and it felt polished and well made. Small touches like the sudden ambushes made the world feel alive.
> The camera was somewhat annoying because it wouldn't follow me properly and mostly showed the area behind me. I think it'd been better to have it centered on the player rather than making the player "push" it forward.
> The end was anticlimactic and would have been much better if you had acknowledged it as the end (a text banner had been enough). Besides, white text on yellow background is impossible to read.
> I think the grandness of the adventure could have been more prominent if you had some kind of map or display of how far you had come along the way.